Kane growled as he stuck his knife into the demon's black heart. He pulled it out then used the iced tip of his blade to shatter the heart as it tuned to ice. Kane moved out of the way quickly as the demon's body fell to the ground. The head rolled past him. Demons could live without a heart for a couple of hours but not their heads.
Kane turned to check on Devlin and Griffen's progress. He nodded to Rane to help, knowing he needed to get to Faith and Jamie. As he ran in the direction of his princess, he yelled, "I need to get to Faith and Jamie. Rane, you stay and find the girls Faith was talking about, and call for a cleanup crew. Tell Devlin and Griffen to join me."
Rane nodded and Kane changed into wolf form as it was faster to get to Faith. He prayed to all the gods that he would get there in time.
Chapter 4
Thank God she had been brought up with wolves, because she'd had it drilled into her since she started training with the boys to never leave home without one of your ice knives or blades. Faith reached down to her boot and pulled out her ice knife just as the first minion attacked, biting her arm, its thorny wings cutting her up. She cut the ugly creature's bat-like wings off and kicked another that was coming at her. She cut heads off and wings. Each time more came at her they bit and scratched her with their wings.
Jamie was surrounded by the rest of them. She screamed as a zombie came out of nowhere and grabbed her hair. She cut off its hand as another grabbed her around the waist. She hated zombies, because they used to be humans, but a demon had sucked the life and soul out of them. She kicked and stabbed its arms. Using its chest, she flipped out of its arms and landed not so well in front of it. Faith cut off its head. Shit, she was out of practice.
Grabbing a minion by the wings, she sliced them off as another bit her legs. Then she smelled sulphur smoke, and she turned in the smell's direction. Jamie had just killed the last minion and zombie, and his face paled at the sight of the thirteen foot hulking demon charging toward them. Faith felt Kane and knew he wasn't far.
"I feel Kane, he's not far, so we have to distract him. Come on, Jamie, snap out of it."
He growled and nodded, changing to his half-change form that made all werewolves an extra three feet taller. The demon reached them and Jamie pushed her behind him as the horn went through his chest. She heard the rib bones cracking, and without thinking, she ran around and climbed up the demon's back. She chopped the arrowhead tail off as it embedded in her arm. She screamed when more minions attacked her, trying to pull her off the demon's back.
Faith climbed further up the demon's back, using the thorns. She had to concentrate on holding on because her blood was everywhere, making it slippery. She heard the growl just as she reached the thick neck. The demon was bucking, and one of his clawed hands came around to help the minions pull her off. Faith slashed and kicked while trying to hold on for dear life.
She saw Kane pull up to a stop, change to half-change, do a quick assessment of the situation, and go to the front to help Jamie.
The demon yelled, "You will never be safe. I will not die, we want her. She will be ours."
He tried to fall to the ground to squash Jamie and Kane. She knew Devlin had joined the fight, helping Jamie cut chunks in the demon's side and killing the minions, which helped Faith concentrate on cutting the head off, but her knife wasn't big enough. Devlin passed up his long blades. She reached, grabbing them and slicing her hands as she moved them up. The knives weighed a lot more than hers, so she focused all her strength on cutting the demon's head off. She knew his heart had been ice and it shattered when, using the last of her strength, she hugged his neck, pushing the blade toward herself. The demon tried bucking her off one last time, but it was too late. His head fell to the concrete. As she backflipped to the ground, the demon's body fell next to her landing spot.
She turned as strong, familiar arms picked her up. Boy, did he look pissed.
"What the fuck were you thinking, Faith, jumping up on a demon's back? You're covered in burns from his acid blood, and you're losing a lot of blood from the deep gashes you have. You're human."
She turned her face away from him as tears ran down her cheeks. God, how she hated that word.
"You will heal quickly, but not as fast as us. Shit, the only reason that you survived at all was because when you mated with me you gained healing and strength. I could have lost you. You stupid girl, I can't ever lose you again."
She cried, her shoulders shaking as he started to walk with her.
"I love you, princess, and you said you wouldn't play hero."
Faith froze in his arms, looked into his eyes. "What did you just say? Do you really mean it? I know you said it earlier but..."
Kane stopped walking and looked at her face. He frowned. "I'm sorry, princess, I'm an arse, but you scared me to death when I saw you on the back of that demon." He shook his head. "Let's just say if werewolves could have a heart attack I would have had one. I can't live without you anymore, I love you."
Faith didn't care about the cuts, blood, and bruises. She reached up and pulled his mouth down to hers and kissed him. "I love you too. I will move in and give you a chance."
He smiled. "Let's get you cleaned up so I can see if we'll need to stitch you. The cleanup crew should be at the warehouse." He took off her bloody and holey singlet top. "Your jeans probably saved your legs from a lot of the burns."
Faith shut her eyes and leaned into him, breathing in his familiar sent. She snapped her eyes open and yelled, "The little girls!" She looked at Kane. "Who's looking for the girls?"
"Rane is looking for them."
She punched him, grimacing as the cuts bled again. "You idiot. I love Rane, but he's huge and scary as hell."
Faith jumped out of his arms, wincing as every bruise and cut made themself known, and started jogging in the direction of the warehouse she knew the girls were in. Once there she began to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star out loud, and repeated it.
After the second time Kane asked, "Why are you singing that song?"
"Their dad used to sing it to them. To tell them everything was going to be all right he told them whoever knew the song was good and would help them if they ever got in trouble." She stopped and turned to Kane. "I have an idea. Change into your wolf form before we round the corner."
He nodded. Faith started singing again. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but in between she would say, "Aren't you a good doggie? You're my protector. Good doggie." She leaned down and whispered, "Bark like a dog."
His wolf huffed. Wolves did not like to be compared to dogs, they thought they were superior. He barked and Faith praised him.
"You are such a good doggie. You and my other doggies saved me from the monsters."
After about ten minutes of this, a scraggly little redhead popped out from behind some crates, next came a smaller, brown topped head. They slowly came out from hiding, walking toward Faith and Kane cautiously.
Faith smiled. "Hi. Do you like dogs? I have lots of doggies. This one is called Kane. There's another around here you might have seen, and his name is Rane."
Rane came in wolf form around the corner. Faith collapsed on the floor, wincing as the bruises and cuts made themselves known again. The wolves came to help her sit up, and she gripped Kane's fur as she put her arms around their necks.
"See, my doggies are protectors. They look after me and only hurt the monsters. They're really big, soft teddy bears." She buried her face in their necks.
Muffled laughter could be heard now from outside, damn wolf hearing.
The two frightened girls slowly moved forward until they were just out of arm's reach. Faith smiled. "Hi, my name's Faith. Let me introduce you to Kane and Rane."
The youngest little brown headed girl giggled. The redhead said, "They're funny names, they sound the same. They look the same too, how do you tell the difference?"
Faith laughed and kissed Kane's head. "You're absolutely right there … argh, I don't know your name. As I said, my name's Faith. What's yours?"
The redhead looked down at her feet and mumbled, "Grace."
"Well, Grace, they have lots of differences, you just have to come a little closer to see them. For example, Rane is just a smidgen smaller than Kane."
The girls took two tiny steps closer.