Surviving Demon Island Part 32

Her heart hurt for Derek and for Lou. She didn't even think of Ben as Derek's father anymore. She knew Derek, or at least knew him better than she'd known any other person, and no part of Ben lived within him. There wasn't an ounce of evil within him.

But Ben? Ben had to go down.

Way down.

She raised her weapon and targeted an approaching demon, melting it before it could launch at her. She'd never felt so empowered before. Tie her up and make her feel like a helpless ninny, will they? Man, she hated that s.h.i.+t. Another went down. Then another. The hunters were in sync, blasting in a protective circle, eliminating row upon row of demons as they worked their way through the line toward Ben.

And Ben stood against the wall, watching with a smug smile on his face, no doubt a.s.sured of his own victory.

Ha! Ben didn't know his son at all, did he?

But Gina did.

She blasted another demon, watching it fall. She'd do this as long as it took, but the numbers of demons were dwindling, and they were drawing closer to Ben.

She knew Derek wanted to kill him, to destroy his own father. But she wanted to help him. She wanted revenge for her mother's death, for the death of Lou's wife and children.

As they fought back the demons, she noticed Ben moving along the wall toward one of the exits.

Oh, no. That was not going to happen. They had a demon Lord in their midst and they were not going to let him go. Her gaze shot to Derek, then Lou, who were busy firing off their lasers. No one else noticed Ben.

She did, though. And she was in the back of the group. Skirting behind the line of fire, she bent low and snuck around the edge of the action, intercepting Ben just as he was about to hit the doorway. Derek reached him at the same time.

'You're not leaving us, are youDad?' Derek asked with a smirk.

Gina blocked the doorway, raising her laser and pointing it directly at Ben's chest.

'He's not going anywhere,' she said.

In fact, Ben was going to die.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

B en's gaze s.h.i.+fted to Derek, then to Gina. en's gaze s.h.i.+fted to Derek, then to Gina.

Derek could swear he saw a flicker of fear in his father's eyes.

'You afraid of me?' Derek asked. 'Need your minions here to shelter you while you make your escape? I thought you were the great and powerful demon Lord, yet you were trying to sneak away. You're nothing but a p.u.s.s.y.'

'I don't need to run away. I could kill you right now.'

Derek shrugged. 'Then do it. Show me.'

Ben shook his head. 'Such a waste. You could have been so valuable to the Sons of Darkness. You and Gina both. The children you could have created together would have been so powerful, would have sat at the right hand of the great ones.'

'Uh-huh. Still waiting for you to do the killing thing.'

'Can we just shoot him now?' Gina asked.

Derek smiled. G.o.d, he loved her.

Around them, the battle continued, but Derek felt the s.h.i.+ft of power. The stench of toasted carca.s.s was strong in the room as one demon after another went down. His hunters had gained the advantage.

Ben's eyes began to change, becoming darker, his body thickening. Malevolence spread out as the force of his evil blanketed them.

Derek looked to Gina and nodded. Without even blinking, she fired her laser at Ben's chest. His eyes widened and he flinched, but his transformation continued. Derek fired, too, and kept at it, pounding Ben's flesh with wave after wave of UV light, enough blasts to take down ten demons.

But Ben was no average demon, and Derek knew he wasn't going to go down easy. His human skin began to bubble and melt, but still the evil advanced on them.

Derek and Gina backed up.

Gina kept pumping pulse after pulse into Ben, but it seemed not to faze him. She took a quick glance at Derek, his expression determined as he rapid-fired the trigger of his rifle.

This wasn't working. She slung her laser over her shoulder and grabbed for the microwave, hoping that cooking him would have an effect. She blasted him with waves and he halted, looking at her.

G.o.d, he was gruesome, half his flesh melted. Still, an evil light glowed in his eyes, and he was laughing at them.

Laughing! The b.a.s.t.a.r.d, as if he knew their weapons would have no effect.

Yet the microwave was starting to work. Not as much as it did on the other demons, but his skin, what little there was left, began to bubble, his muscles expanding and contracting as if they were breathing. Ben frowned.

'You cannot kill me. I am a Lord of the Sons of Darkness,' he said, his voice echoing deeply throughout the chamber.

Uh-huh. Everything could die. Maybe if she shot him up with enough of this stuff, he'd explode.

She pulled her guns and pumped him full of sonic bullets. His body flew backward with each shot, and yet he recovered, this time heading directly toward her.

She wasn't afraid of him. But Derek pushed her out of the way, stepping in front of her and emitting a low growl at Ben. She moved to Derek's side, intent on continuing to fire at Ben until she had nothing left to shoot him with. Her gaze shot to Derek's, and she gasped at the look on his face.

Just like that, Derek had transformed into a demon, his eyes glowing in the darkness, claws extending from his fingertips, his mouth filled with hideous fangs as he faced his father.

She shuddered and stepped away as Derek launched at Ben, the two of them flying out of the smaller room and into the one they'd occupied earlier. Furniture went cras.h.i.+ng around them as they fell to the floor, righted themselves, and dove at each other again.

Derek dug his hands into Ben's body, tearing away the flesh that had been melted by the weapons. But Ben was regenerating, muscle reappearing as quickly as it disappeared.

Gina swallowed past the revulsion. They weren't going to be able to kill him. The bullets were tearing him apart, bubbling and baking him from the inside out, and still he was fighting off their effects.

'You can join me, Derek. We will rule the world.'

'You can rule in h.e.l.l for all I care,' Derek growled, then reached into Ben's chest, grasping his ribs and crus.h.i.+ng the bones to dust. 'I won't let you hurt another person I care about.'

Ben grunted, then laughed, shoving Derek away. The bones reappeared and the wound closed up, flesh rematerializing where moments ago Gina had been able to see clear through him.

He might be regenerating, but he was tiring, his breath sawing in and out, his chest heaving with the force of his efforts.

'If you kill me, it will end nothing. The Sons of Darkness will go on,' Ben said.

'But you'll be dead!' Derek rushed his father, pus.h.i.+ng him back against the wall of the room with a grunt of effort. The ancient swords on the wall crashed down around them, clattering to the floor. Gina stared at them, remembering the movie scene she'd shot just before she left to come to the island. The sword scene.

She holstered her guns and slung her rifles over her shoulders, sidestepping the two men grappling against the wall. Picking up the broadsword, she held it over her shoulder and positioned herself behind Ben.

Derek made eye contact with her and nodded, grasping Ben's throat with both hands and squeezing hard. Ben reciprocated by doing the same to Derek.

Dammit, that wasn't going to do at all, considering what she had in mind, but she couldn't very well tell Derek to remove his hands from his father's throat without giving herself away. Right now Ben's attention was on Derek, since he no doubt didn't see Gina as any kind of threat. She stayed in position behind Ben, moving when he did. The noises the two of them made were so loud she doubted he even heard her.

But then Derek let go of Ben's throat, positioning his arms underneath his father's and trying to pry Ben's fingers from his neck.

But Derek was still too close, and Gina wouldn't take the chance on hurting Derek, too.

'Do it!' Derek croaked.

'You want me to kill you?' Ben asked. 'Is this how you want to die? By my hand?'

Gina knew Derek wasn't talking to his father, but to her. But Ben didn't know that. She raised the sword over her head, sweat pouring down her arms, her face, fear causing her limbs to shake.

'Just do it, G.o.ddammit!' Derek choked out, struggling against the tightening hold of Ben's grasp around his throat. 'Now!'

Ben shook his head, squeezing tighter. Derek's face lost the look of a demon and now turned a dark, mottled purple. He didn't have long. With all her strength, Gina swung the sword in a careful arc, realizing at the second it touched Ben's neck that this was no movie.

The sword sliced clean through the bone and muscle holding Ben's head to his neck. For a split second, nothing happened. Then Ben dropped his hands from Derek's neck. Derek coughed and fell to his knees. Ben turned around slowly, his eyes narrowed.

He said nothing, just tilted his head as if he were pondering who stood behind him and had the audacity to come at him with a sword. Gina watched in horror as the head slid from his shoulders onto the ground, followed by the rest of him a few seconds later.

Nothing happened. Gina waited for his head to pop back onto his shoulders and regenerate, just like the rest of his body had before.

It didn't.

A howling roar sailed throughout the room as a swirling black cloud rose from Ben's body. The floor rumbled underneath her like an earthquake, shaking the contents of the room. Fixtures rattled as the invisible moan whistled, grew in intensity, then dissipated. Ben's head and body burned in an acrid cloud of ash and disappeared.

'Holy s.h.i.+t,' she whispered. He was gone. Really gone. Dead. She glanced at Derek, who shook his head at her and shrugged, obviously just as shocked as she was.

She looked down at the sword she still held in a tight grip and lifted it up over her head, resisting the urge to roar in triumph.

A sudden peace settled over her, as if an evil had been lifted. She sucked in a breath of clean air, then exhaled. Dropping the sword, she ran over to Derek.

'Are you all right?'

He coughed and nodded. 'Fine,' he said, his voice hoa.r.s.e. 'Just f.u.c.king fine.'

The rest of the hunters dashed into the room.

'Demons are done for,' Dalton said, then looked around. 'Where is he?'

'Dead,' Gina said, keeping her gaze focused on Derek.

Derek stood, and Lou approached.

'You see that?' Derek asked.

Lou nodded. 'You did well. Both of you.'

Gina looked to the dark spot on the floor where Ben used to be. 'All the technology we use on these things. One ancient broadsword and a beheading did the trick.' She looked back to Lou for an answer.

'They're my swords,' Lou answered, picking up the sword that Gina had used to kill Ben. He grabbed a cloth from his pack and wiped Ben's blood from the blade.

'Yours?' Derek looked as surprised as Gina.

Lou nodded. 'Actually, they were pa.s.sed down from those who started the Realm of Light. Ben took them from my home the night he killed my family. I suppose he kept them as trophies.' Lou glanced to the dark spot on the floor. 'He never realized their power. To him, they were just keepsakes from his kill. To the Realm of Light, they are the embodiment of the power of the light.'

'They're blessed in some way, aren't they?' Gina asked.

Lou allowed the hint of a smile. 'You could say that.' His eyes danced with a light of their own. 'We didn't always have high-tech weapons.'

Lou moved to the other swords, gathered them up, and folded them in his arms. 'Now they're going home again.'

After he moved away, Gina turned to Derek. He stared at the spot on the floor where his father had fallen.

'Derek.'

He didn't answer her.

'Derek, are you all right?'

He finally looked her way and blinked. 'I'm fine. You okay?'

'I'm more than okay.' Breathing a sigh of relief, she started to reach out for him, but he turned away and headed toward the others. She dropped her chin to her chest and sighed, feeling strangely empty rather than victorious.

Something was still bothering Derek. Was it because she'd just killed his father?

No, that couldn't be it. He'd wanted Ben dead. So what was it? She had to find out.

She caught up with Derek and Lou as they were addressing the others.

'I think we're done here,' Derek said. 'We'll track the tunnels to their end, or see if they even have an end. We can set explosives, wire them to the remote, and blow them closed.'

'I'll do a little investigating and see what I can learn about Ben's operation down here,' Lou said. 'I find it fascinating he had such an elaborate setup. Not at all what I expected.'

Derek nodded and Lou walked away, the others following him.

'Are you sure you're okay?' she asked him.

Derek sighed. 'I said I'm fine, Gina. Just need to get things wrapped up. Why don't you go help Lou? Need to get all of you topside.'