Surviving Demon Island Part 17

Whatever it was, it pa.s.sed, the chill evaporating and warmth returning.

'I'm fine. Let's get them.'

He nodded, his expression determined as he moved forward. She stayed right at his side as they approached the demons.

'Aim for a wide burst. Stall them, then keep hitting them with the light. It'll take a little more than normal to bring these down.'

'Got it.'

The demons were close enough now that the smell was even worse than before, stealing her breath. 'Oh, G.o.d, that stench is awful!' She gagged.

'Yeah. You'll get used to it.'

'Not without a gas mask or clothespin on my nose. G.o.d almighty.'

'Pick one and start hitting it. I'll get the other two.'

'I'll take the one on the right.' Without hesitating, she aimed and fired, the blue blast of light stunning the demon. It froze as if in suspended animation. Gina used the momentary pause to move to the right of the demon, then readjusted her settings to widen the UV array.

It didn't take the stun too long, advancing on her again. She clicked to fire, but her gun jammed.

s.h.i.+t. She backed up, keeping one eye on the approaching demon while simultaneously trying to jimmy the mechanism on her rifle. Derek was too busy firing at two demons to be of any help to her, and no way was she going to distract him. She'd just have to figure this out on her own.

Thank G.o.d these things weren't fast, but she didn't like the way it was moving in on her. Taking a quick glance behind her, she realized she'd soon be out of room. There was a cliff behind her with a sharp drop-off, a wall of mountain to her right, and Derek and his two demons to her left.

And the G.o.dd.a.m.n gun still wouldn't fire.

The demon crept closer, its arms outstretched. She could really smell the thing now, her stomach rolling at the putrid stench.

She was out of options.

'Derek,' she whispered.

He can't hear you if you don't open your mouth and yell, idiot.

She didn't want to bother him, but d.a.m.n, the demon was drawing closer.

A blinding flash to her left drew her attention momentarily. One demon down, but the other was advancing on Derek. His gaze shot to her.

'What?'

'Trigger mechanism is stuck.'

's.h.i.+t.' He looked at her, the mountain, the cliff, and at both the demons advancing on them. 's.h.i.+t,' he said again.

Her thoughts exactly.

'What do we do?'

He fired on his demon again, the wide array slowing it, but not doing its intended job. The demon walked right through the UV light.

'That's not good,' he said. 'We need stronger UV light.'

h.e.l.l of a time to figure that out. She felt off balance, teetering on the edge of the cliff. The mountain to their right was sheer, with no footholds. Nothing to climb.

And sure as h.e.l.l they weren't getting out straight ahead. The demons drew closer.

'We need to get out of here, Derek. Now!'

'I know! Give me a minute, G.o.ddammit. I'm thinking.'

They didn't have a minute left.

Derek turned and peered over the cliff, then looked at her, determination fixed on his face.

When she caught his thought process, her eyes widened. 'Are you serious?'

'I hear water rus.h.i.+ng. It'll be fine.'

'No.'

'Now, Gina.'

'Oh, h.e.l.l no!'

'No time to argue.'

Before she knew what was happening, he'd swept his arm around her and plunged them both over the cliff.

She left her stomach on the precipice, her high-pitched scream ringing in her ears as they plummeted over the edge into the abyss.

Chapter Fourteen.

I nstinct told Derek the water was deep, the fall not high enough to hurt them. He didn't know why his gut told him that, or why he believed it, but he did. nstinct told Derek the water was deep, the fall not high enough to hurt them. He didn't know why his gut told him that, or why he believed it, but he did.

They landed feet first in the water, which was deep enough they didn't even touch bottom. Derek fought to the surface, clinging to Gina the entire time. She sputtered as her head shot up out of the water, muttering a string of curses.

'Are you deliberately trying to kill us both?'

'I told you we'd be fine.'

'You're certifiably insane,' she shouted over the sound of the waterfall.

He grinned, just d.a.m.n happy to be alive right now.

They swam to sh.o.r.e and dragged themselves and their gear out of the water.

'It's going to take a while for all of this to dry out. Shouldn't hurt the weapons. Much,' he said. Hopefully. He'd been out in the rain with the weapons before and it hadn't affected them. Then again, he'd never submerged them.

Gina swept strands of hair away from her eyes. 'Uhhuh. And how are we going to get back up there?' She pointed. 'Or contact Lou and the others? Do you even know where we are or how to get back to base?'

'Give me a minute to wring myself out and we'll figure it out, Gina. Relax.'

'I can't relax. I just did a free fall into water whose depth you didn't know. You could have killed me.'

'But I didn't, did I? Chill.'

She shot him a look that was pure drama. He tried not to laugh, but couldn't help it.

'Don't you dare laugh at this. It's not funny.'

'You have to admit it was one h.e.l.l of a fun fall.'

She shrugged. 'Maybe.'

'Come on. You, the no-fear action movie star who does her own stunts? You can't tell me you were afraid.'

She squeezed the hem of her shorts and tilted her head to the side, a smile tickling her lips as she looked at him from the corner of her eyes. 'It made my stomach flip. Like that first steep drop on a roller coaster.'

'Mine, too. My favorite kind of ride. You gotta learn to trust me, Gina. I'd never purposely put you in harm's way.'

She studied him for a second. 'I'll work on that trust thing. You keep throwing me over cliffs, though, and it's going to be difficult.'

Their shoulder lights were still functional, though their ear coms weren't. Since their eyeshades molded to their heads, they were still attached, thankfully. After testing the UV weaponry, they discovered Derek's gun still worked. Then he fixed the jammed mechanism on Gina's rifle and test-fired it. All good there, as well as the other weapons.

'Weapons check good. Unfortunately the only thing not working is the com system.'

'Figures,' Gina said. 'Now we have no way of contacting Lou.'

'First thing we do is figure a way out of here. Then, if we can't, we'll wait for Lou to realize we're out of touch and pick us up on his image program.'

Derek studied their surroundings. They were blocked in on all sides by a steep rock face. No toe- or handholds with which to climb their way back up, and the waterfall on the north end wouldn't offer any help. Water surrounded them, as well as a short bank around the edge. That was it. They walked the perimeter of the area, but didn't see any openings.

'We're stuck,' Gina said.

'Seems that way.'

'So now what?'

'Now we wait until rescue arrives, and hope more demons don't show up in the meantime.' Derek backed them up against one of the slopes and sat, resting his rifle against his thigh. Gina sat next to him.

'Why didn't the UV weapon work on the demons?' she asked.

'Need to strengthen the output, maybe reconfigure the concentration of UV light.'

'It worked before.'

'Yeah. On the pure or half demons. Haven't battled the hybrids for a while. Those f.u.c.kers are strong. And different. It's all about evolution, Gina. The way the Sons of Darkness create these hybrids, the genetics involved' He dragged his fingers through his hair. 'I don't know. It's not like we know everything. They adapt, then we adapt. It's war, know what I mean?'

Gina drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, not at all comforted by Derek's words.

War. Evolution. Adapting and learning on the fly. 'I do know what you mean. But having to adapt in the middle of a battle when three hulking, foul creatures like that are a hairbreadth from killing you is a h.e.l.l of a way to win.'

'Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we retreat, regroup, and figure out another way.'

'Great.'

He looked at her. 'This isn't the movies. The good guys don't always win.'

'I'll keep that in mind.'

'You should.' He stared straight ahead. 'It'll keep you alive longer.'

What had she signed on for here? A chance to die young? A hopeless cause? 'How do you do this, day in and day out, knowing that as soon as you think you've developed sophisticated enough weapons to beat them, they'll evolve enough to survive destruction?'

'Because we do kill them. Because they don't always figure out our weaponry fast enough, and because we're smarter than they are. And for every one of those nasty b.a.s.t.a.r.ds that dies, there's one less demon out there to take some little boy or girl's mother. One less demon out there to steal a human male and turn it into a demon's slave. One less demon out there to throw the balance off. Because eventually, we will get them all.'

'You believe that?' She wished she could. Maybe it was because this was all new to her, but as a relative newcomer looking from the outside, she had this vision of a demon factory in h.e.l.l, churning them out faster than a small handful of human fighters could kill them.

'I do believe it. I have to. Otherwise, they'd win. Then we might as well just take our s.h.i.+t home and wait for Armageddon. And I'll be d.a.m.ned if I'll let that happen.'

Gina turned her gaze to the waterfall, trying to lose herself in the sound of rus.h.i.+ng water, to block out the sense of hopelessness enveloping her. But she couldn't leave it alone, her thoughts as restless as her body in these wet, sticking clothes.

She turned to Derek. 'That night the demon took your brother. You were ten?'

He arched a brow. 'Yeah. Why?'

'Weren't you terrified?'

He shrugged. 'I guess. Confused more than anything. It didn't make sense. It was like a dream, only more tangible. You don't expect to see monsters really show up in your bedroom.'

'Did your brother struggle?' She hated asking the questions, but they'd been plaguing her.

'No. He was asleep and didn't wake up.'

'Didn't you find that strange?'

'Baby, everything about that night was strange.'

'Of course it was. I'm sorry. I shouldn't bring it up.' She started to turn away, but he caught her wrist.

'It's okay, Gina.'