Surviving Demon Island Part 30

Oh, she could so kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d right now. How dare he make something so intimate between her and Derek sound sodisgusting and depraved.

'You make me sick,' Derek growled.

Ben laughed. 'You'll soon see what I'm talking about. Even now the l.u.s.t for her burns inside you. You think I can't sense how you feel? The change is happening, Derek. You can't avoid it forever.'

Derek had a feeling this whole demon thing his father talked about was more real than he wanted it to be. At least as far as his ability to sense things, the surging power he felt within himself, the weird sensations he'd been trying so hard to control, especially around Gina.

And he had felt the surge, the strange sensations growing within him since he'd been down here. They'd led him right to Gina.

Could those feelings be the demon blood inside him trying to burst free?

Then again, maybe none of it had anything to do with him being part demon, and everything to do with his connection to Gina. Had he even seen any proof about this demon stuff from Ben yet? 'I don't believe you,' he said to his father.

Ben arched a brow. 'Don't you feel it?'

He so wasn't going to play this game. 'I don't feel a G.o.dd.a.m.ned thing.'

'It's the truth.'

'Prove it.'

With a sigh, Ben said, 'If you insist. But I'm not big on show-and-tell.'

Derek stared at him, waiting for his father to turn into one of the hulking demons he fought on the surface. Instead, nothing happened. For a second, anyway. Then his father's eyes changed, swirling colors that went from the darkest of browns to a pale amber and then to an eerie red. Ben grinned, his straight, even teeth turning into long fangs, dripping with that same sticky substance Derek was all too familiar with.

It was more than the physical appearance though. It was the sensation of evil surrounding them. Gina must have felt it, too. She grasped his hand and inched closer to him.

'That's enough,' Derek said, his stomach churning.

In an instant, his father was wholly human again, but Derek had seen the darkness and wondered how much of it he carried. Would he become like his father? Is that what burned inside him, desperate to break free? Is that what he felt every time he made love to Gina? Those animalistic, dark urges, voices telling him to let go with her, to set his hungers free? The thought of what he might have done to her if he'd let the beast loose made him sick to his stomach.

'Don't be afraid of it,' Ben soothed, reaching for him.

Derek flinched and moved away. 'I'm not afraid. I just don't want any part of it. I've spent my entire life killing your kind.'

Ben's lips curled in a wry smile. 'Kind of ironic, now that you know you've essentially been eliminating your your own people, isn't it?' own people, isn't it?'

'You're not my kind. They're not my people.' Derek was human, at least for now, and he intended to remain that way.

'You'll learn to embrace what you are. It will make you more powerful. You are one of very few half human, half demons able to live among the humans without recognition. They will never know what you are. You are the beginning of a new species. Do you know how long I have been searching for you, how long it has taken me to find you?'

'How did did you find me?' you find me?'

'Pure dumb luck. You killed one of ours and I happened to be there and recognized you. Your face, so much like your mother's. If you hadn't become a demon hunter I might never have found you again. Your mother did a good job hiding you.'

'You mean with all your skills, bothotherworldly and technologically, you couldn't manage to locate one little kid?' Granted, it wasn't much, but it was the only dig he had right now.

Ben's brows knit in a tight frown. 'There were reasons you could not be located.'

'No sixth sense or magical mumbo jumbo you could use to find me? No psychic connection between us? You can conjure up beer and cigars out of thin air but you can't locate one single offspring?'

Ben laughed. 'You carry much of your mother's blood in you, Derek. And much of her brand of righteous anger. It's a very potent force. Yes, I do have a connection to you, but your denial of who and what you are blocked my efforts. You have much power in your own right, especially the strength to resist me.'

So, maybe demons weren't as powerful as he'd thought. Derek filed that information away for later. Lou would want to know this.

'But I found you,' Ben added. 'Consider it destiny.'

Great. Because of Derek's zeal, his burning need to hunt and kill demons, he'd led his father right to him. Not that it really mattered, anyway. Now that he'd been told what he was, whose blood he carried, he knew what he had to do. Destroy the portal and everything underground, kill his father and all the other demons, and make sure he was down here when it all happened.

It was the only way to a.s.sure no demons would escape the island and wreak more havoc on humans.

His father was a key player in all this, had been for a very long time. Eliminating him would remove a major component to the Sons of Darkness.

His thoughts strayed to Gina, to what they'd shared, to what he felt for her and what could have been. Anguish burned in his chest, an unfamiliar tightening inside him. He had to protect her, not only from the evil inside him that would surely escape one day, but also from what he had to do down here.

He loved her. He had to get her out of here.

'Let Gina go,' Derek said.

'Oh, I don't think we can do that. She is your mate.'

'She's not my mate. Let her go and I'll stay.'

'Derek!' Gina protested. 'I'm not going anywhere without you!'

He turned to Gina. 'Quit arguing with me. You're going.'

'So touching, this little lover's spat. Sadly, you're both staying.'

'Look, a.s.shole,' Gina said, standing and pointing her weapon at him. 'I don't care who the h.e.l.l you think you are, but with one pull of this trigger you're dead.'

In a flash Ben moved, his hand striking the end of the rifle, sending the gun flying out of Gina's arms. She scrambled to grab it, but two demons appeared out of nowhere and subdued her. Derek lunged for them, but more demons surrounded her, caging her.

'Let her go, Ben,' Derek warned, pivoting toward his father. 'Let her go and I'll do anything you ask.'

'Love. Such a misguided and disgusting emotion. It can be so easily used to manipulate humans. It really is your downfall,' Ben said with a shake of his head. 'Of course you will do anything I ask. Because if you don't, the woman you love is going to begin suffering.'

To prove his point, Ben nodded to the demons surrounding Gina. They opened their mouths and began closing in on her, their outstretched claws going for her skin. Gina backed away and began turning in circles, but there was no escape. Soon they would reach her, touch her, puncture her.

'Stop,' Derek said, knowing exactly what would happen if that toxin entered her bloodstream. 'What do you want?'

'Your full cooperation and acquiescence, of course.'

'You have it.'

'Excellent.' Ben nodded to the demons, who halted and spread out again, leaving Gina caged within their circle.

'But only if Gina stays unharmed.'

Ben smiled. 'The only harm that will come to Gina is from you. And you would never do that, would you, Derek?'

Chapter Twenty-Two.

W e can't just stay up here and do nothing,' Ryder said, pacing the beach and glaring at Lou. e can't just stay up here and do nothing,' Ryder said, pacing the beach and glaring at Lou.

'I agree,' Dalton added. 'I can't believe you let him go down there without us.'

'We're a team of hunters,' Punk complained. 'Not singular. A team. G.o.ddammit, I'm itching to get down there and kick their a.s.ses.'

Lou crossed his arms and sighed; he'd known this was coming. He should have alerted them right away, but he wanted time to communicate with the Realm first. The other Keepers were outraged that he had allowed Derek to attempt to breach the surface and head underground in search of Gina.

Gina's life was undoubtedly forfeit, the Realm had surmised.

A hunter could kill thousands of demons, save thousands of lives.

A valuable hunter should never compromise his own life in search of one lost soul.

Sometimes the Keepers didn't have a grasp on reality, either.

And the Keepers didn't understand how much Derek loved Gina.

Lou did, though. So he listened to them argue, accepting their recriminations for what they considered his bad decision, and in the end nothing had changed. Derek had done the right thing. Maybe not what he should have done for the good of the Realm, but he'd done what was right.

And dammit, if Lou had done that years ago, his beloved Anna and their children might still be alive today. If he had put his wife and children ahead of his duties as Keeper, if he had walked away from all this and hidden them, they would be alive now. But he had put his duties as Keeper first. He had put the Realm first, and his wife and children had died because of it.

The painful memories twisted his gut. Burying them deep, he focused on the hunters.

'You realize you could all die down there,' he stated.

Mutinous expressions greeted him. Even those of the newest hunters.

'We could all die up here,' Trace argued.

'If it were one of us down there, and there was a chance we were still alive, he'd have sent the whole team down after us,' Shay argued. 'And you know d.a.m.n well Gina would be the first one in line to go.'

'We succeed or fail as a team,' Olivia added. 'If Gina is down there and alive, and Derek is obviously convinced she is, then we all need to help.'

They had all bonded. He couldn't be prouder of them.

'Pack as much ammo and weaponry as possible.'

'Now you're talkin',' Punk said, grabbing his gear and loading up his weapons.

'Just one thing before you go,' Lou said, stepping up to the table where the weaponry was stored.

Dalton paused and raised a brow. 'What?'

'I'm a little rusty on the weaponry, so while we're traipsing through the jungle, give me a refresher course. I've a mind to kick a little demon a.s.s myself.'

'Oh, h.e.l.l yeah!' Linc said, clapping Lou on the back.

It was time to reenter the world of demon hunting.

Lou wanted Derek back, and he was d.a.m.n well going to face the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds himself.

Okay, this whole captured, damsel-in-distress bit was wearing thin. Gina had grown tired of being tied up and used as a p.a.w.n in whatever sick, twisted game Ben was playing with Derek.

She'd rather be dead than used this way.

'Derek, just let them kill me,' she pleaded as they bound her once again to an icy cold dirt table.

Derek stood next to Ben, his gaze unfocused as he shook his head. 'I can't let them hurt you, babe. Sorry.'

Well, this just sucked. Ben was going to have to die, and soon.

As soon as she figured out how. Maybe pleading with Derek, convincing him they weren't going to let her off unscathed, would do the trick.

'They're going to use me to make more of those half demons. Use my body to make more of them.'

Derek looked to Ben, who shook his head. 'You have my word she will not be used that way. She is your mate, and you are a child of the Sons of Darkness.' His lips curled. 'We do hold some things sacred, you know. We would never use the mate of one of the Sons that way.'

She didn't believe a word he said. Surely Derek wasn't buying into his bulls.h.i.+t. The Sons of Darkness thought very little of females. 'What about my mother, Ben? Where's my mother? You turned her into a baby-making machine for your twisted creatures.'

Ben moved to her side, running his cold fingers along the inside of her arm. Refusing to curl away in revulsion, she kept her gaze focused on his.

'Ah yes. The lovely Rebecca. She turned out quite a few half-breeds for us before she had to be destroyed.'

It couldn't have hurt more had he plunged a knife in her heart. A part of her had always held out hope that her mother was still alive somewhere. Foolish, but childish dreams faded slowly.

Ben's words shattered that dream.

Her mother was dead.

This pain was unbearable, a hollow ache so deep she really did want to die. But she refused to let him see it, unwilling to shed a tear in front of this monster. Instead, she let the hatred inside her flow, so that was the only thing he saw.

He arched a brow and inhaled. 'The sweet scent of anger. It fills my soul, lovely woman. You will be an a.s.set to the Sons of Darkness.'

Gritting her teeth to fight back the tears, she said, 'I will kill you.'

He looked down on her and smiled, patting her arm in a patronizing manner, treating her as if she were nothing more than a tiny bug. 'If you say so.'