Surviving Demon Island Part 26

'Yes. You can kill them all.'

Gina picked at her food, staring out over the ocean and watching the sun slip down behind the trees on the west side of the island. Almost dusk, which meant dark would come soon.

Sunset meant preparation time. Arming the mental stamina for what was to come tonight.

More battles. And then what? How long would they be at this? Night after night after night. How long would they stay here and fight these things? How many of these d.a.m.n creatures were on this G.o.dforsaken island, anyway?

Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?

She wanted to go home.

No breeze lifted the heat that had settled over them. Suffocating humidity, bugs everywhere, souring her mood even further. She couldn't breathe.

'You look tired,' Olivia said after dumping her trash and grabbing the seat next to hers.

'I am.'

'Maybe you should stay behind tonight and do guard duty with Lou.'

'That bad, huh?' She probably looked as awful as she felt. And she was d.a.m.n tired of feeling this way.

'I think we're all worn out,' Trace said.

'I know I am,' Shay chimed in from across the table. 'How much longer are we going to be doing this?'

Derek looked up from his plate, finished chewing, and took a long swig from his bottle of water. 'Until they're all dead.'

'And how will we know when they're all dead?' Gina asked.

'When no more of them come out at night.'

Ryder s.h.i.+fted, pus.h.i.+ng his chair back. 'So we could be stuck here indefinitely?'

Derek stood, plate in hand. 'You all agreed to be hunters. This is what we do. Hunt demons.'

He left the tent without another word.

'Great,' Trace said. 'We could be here for months.'

'I don't think it'll be months,' Lou said.

The veteran hunters had all departed, leaving only the new ones alone with Lou. 'How do you know?' Gina asked.

'The Sons of Darkness have a plan, and I'm sure we're going to find out very shortly what it is.'

'Is this one of those Realm psychic things? You know they have a plan because you can feel it or something?' Trace asked.

'I can sense it. The other members of the Realm also know this to be true. There's something big going on with the Sons of Darkness.'

'Like a disturbance in the Force kind of thing?' Gina quipped.

'Something like that,' Lou replied with the hint of a smile.

'So how many others are there like you?' she asked. 'And where are they?'

'There are two dozen of us left. Spread around the world.'

'That's it? And how many of the Sons of Darkness?' Ryder asked.

'There are twelve Lords of the Sons of Darkness. As far as their minions!we don't know. Thousands, perhaps. Maybe more.'

'How many hunters?' Gina asked.

'Several hundred.'

'We're outnumbered.' She shouldn't have asked.

'How can we be expected to win when we're so outnumbered?' Shay asked. 'It's impossible.'

'Because you're better and smarter,' Lou replied. 'Because no matter how many of those things the Sons of Darkness manufacture, our weaponry!the skills, heart, and tenacity of our hunters!has always and will always win out.' He stood and scanned all of them, his eyes lighting up with a look of fierce determination. 'Don't give up hope. You all have an inner strength, a light that gives you special power over these evil beings. You are more than mere humans, capable of amazing feats. You simply haven't realized your potential yet.'

'C'mon, Lou. We're just people,' Trace said, jamming his fingers through his hair. 'We're not special.'

Lou's lips turned upward, as if he held a secret. 'You have no idea what you're capable of. Time will tell.'

Gina barely felt capable of making it through tonight's battle, let alone feeling special in any way. Lou had given them a pep talk. Total bulls.h.i.+t manufactured to pump them up, nothing more.

They weren't special. They were human. And they could die.

She'd seen how easily they could die at the hands of the Sons of Darkness.

But she kept her thoughts to herself, because maybe what Lou said would empower the others, keep them going for a while longer.

It hadn't helped her a bit.

And Derek had avoided her since they returned to base camp last night. Was it because he didn't want to deal with her angst over having killed demon Jake, or was it because of the way he'd been acting when he led them so far into the jungle before that?

She didn't know, and he still wasn't talking. To anyone.

Well, fine. If he could withdraw, so could she. She didn't need a confidant, a lover, a friend.

She'd spent years without someone to rely on.

She could easily do it again.

In fact, she preferred it. She liked isolation.

Liar. She hurt inside. Missed his touch, missed talking to him. She'd just opened her heart and he'd withdrawn, and G.o.ddammit, she missed him. She hurt inside. Missed his touch, missed talking to him. She'd just opened her heart and he'd withdrawn, and G.o.ddammit, she missed him.

So what prevented her from going to him, asking him what was wrong?

Because something sure as h.e.l.l was bugging him. She started over to him, wanting to figure this out before they went out hunting tonight.

'Hey,' she said, watching him inventorying the gear.

'Hey,' he replied without looking up.

'Got a second?'

He looked at her then, but he scowled. 'Kinda busy here. Need something?'

This was a big step for her. She wasn't used to rejection, so she wouldn't normally put herself out there like this. 'Uh, yeah, I do. Can you come over here?'

She motioned him toward the supply hut and inside. Once there, she dragged him in and shut the door.

'Gina, what are you!'

She silenced his protests with her mouth, fisting her hands in his s.h.i.+rt and drawing her body up against him. Would he understand how much she needed him, how much she'd missed his touch? Would he know that if he pushed her away right now, she'd never survive the rejection?

She shouldn't have worried. He growled into her mouth, wrapped his arms around her, and slammed her against the wall, devouring her lips in his hungry response.

Whoa. Okay, maybe he had missed her, too. This kiss was not a brush-off by any stretch of the imagination, his hard c.o.c.k pressing insistently between her legs and telling her exactly what she needed to know.

He wanted her, he needed her. Right here, right now. Something was bothering him, but he didn't want to talk about it. Instead, he wanted to forget.

She knew all about 'forget.' They could talk later.

No time to shed clothing. Instead, she slid down the wall and reached for his zipper.

Derek sucked in a breath. 'Christ, Gina.' The room was pitch-dark and he wanted to see her. But he couldn't find words as she unzipped his pants and slid her hand inside, fondling him in her warm palm, encircling him, stroking him until he bit back another oath and palmed the wall, letting her do what she wanted.

Words? What words? Stark need for her was all he could manage. He was speechless.

Her hands were a soft balm against the gritty reality of what was happening around him, the fear that what had happened last night would reoccur tonight. He shut it all out for the moment, needing this brief respite, this sweet interlude of Gina's soft hands caressing him, her breath against his thigh as she drew closer.

Acceptance. No matter what was going on inside him, she still wanted him.

'Gina.' He sighed as her lips covered his c.o.c.k and she took him into her mouth. Her tongue was a salve against the wounds within him, bathing him in tender, velvet strokes that made his b.a.l.l.s quiver with impending release. If anyone could heal his pain, it was Gina. He moved his hips, feeding her, his need so deep it was almost too much to bear.

But he didn't want to end it this way. He wanted to be buried inside her, bringing her the same pleasure she brought him. He bent down and reached for her, lifting her, fumbling around in the dark until he found a table and bent her forward. He jerked her shorts down until they were pooled around her ankles, then wedged his knee between her legs, parting them.

Reaching around to search her soft center, he found her wet and caressed her, rewarded by moans of acceptance.

Thank G.o.d she was ready, because he was in agony and couldn't wait. He drove inside her, pinning her to the table with his body, reaching for her wrists to hold her steady as he banged against her.

He was rough and didn't care. She didn't either, slamming back against his thrusts, which only served to heighten the wildness building inside him.

'Gina,' he warned.

'f.u.c.k me,' she growled, her harsh words arousing the h.e.l.l out of him.

Oh, man, did he love her wild streak.

He gave her exactly what she wanted. She cried out, her body pulsing around him. He couldn't hold back and let go, climaxing with her and leaning around to ravage her mouth, sucking at her tongue as the last of his control left him.

Spent, he tried to make up for the way he had behaved by gentling his kiss. When he stood and pulled her up, they fumbled in the dark to clean up and right their clothing, the only sound their panting breaths.

'I'm sorry,' he finally said. 'I'm sure that's not what you wanted when you came in here.'

'Um, I think I started it,' she teased, but then grasped his hand and squeezed. 'I was worried about you. You've been distant since last night.'

His chest tightened. 'I'm okay.'

'No, you're not,' she whispered, wrapping her arms around his middle and laying her head against his chest. He held tight, absorbing her warmth, her comfort.

G.o.d, he could stay in here all night. Just hidden away, holding Gina like this. 'I'm fine, babe. Really. Just a little weirded out by last night. I didn't feel like I had control over myself.'

'In what way?'

Being in the dark helped. He wouldn't be able to see her reaction when he told her. 'It was like I wasn't the one guiding us to that spot last night. Like something was making me take us there.'

'Maybe something did. You said we don't know every thing about the Sons of Darkness. Maybe they can do some sort of mind control thing.'

'Could be.' And wouldn't that be just f.u.c.king great? As if odd s.h.i.+t wasn't already happening to him, now he had this to worry about?

'You're strong, Derek. Now that you know it happened, you'll be on your guard against allowing them to do it to you again.'

She'd responded so matter-of-fact. Not with shock or with blame. It seemed so clear when she said it. 'You're right. It won't happen again. I'll make certain it doesn't.'

'See?' She clasped her arms tighter around him and sighed. 'I guess we should get out there before someone comes looking for us and gets suspicious.'

He smiled in the darkness. 'Gina, I don't think our relations.h.i.+p is a very big secret.'

He heard her soft laugh. 'Oh, who cares.'

[image]

Tonight, Derek handled things differently. He waited at camp until Lou found the hot spots.

Gina thought that was a really wise choice.

'No f.u.c.king way are we walking into an ambush like we did last night.'

And like last night, the demons all came out in one centralized location.