Page 70 of Protector Unmatched

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Just like a few nights earlier, Pearce entered the private property in the fancy Baltimore neighborhood invisibly and by walking through the fence. Only this time, he wasn’t alone. Hamish and Aiden were with him. Pearce could see them thanks to the various levels of cloaking Stealth Guardians could apply. It meant they could see each other, but nobody else could, which made it easier when working invisibly as a team.

Pearce had explained the layout of the exterior and interior of the house and laid out the plan before their departure, eliminating the need to talk. They would be in and out in no time. This time, Pearce didn’t bother entering the house via the living room, which was accessible via the deck, and chose to walk directly from the garden into the study. He passed through the wall without any trouble and stepped farther into the room, before looking over his shoulder to make sure that Hamish and Aiden had followed him. They had.

Everything was dark and quiet.

Pearce pulled the sheet with possible combinations for the safe out of his inside pocket and walked farther into the room, then he suddenly stubbed his foot and stumbled. He almost fell over an obstacle on the floor, but caught himself on the backrest of a chair. It took his eyes a second or two to adjust before he recognized what he had stumbled over.

“Shit,” he said, looking over his shoulder to his brethren. “A woman. Stabbed.” He bent down and pressed his fingers to her neck, feeling for a pulse. “Dead. Still warm.”

“Fuck!” Hamish cursed, while Aiden was hurrying toward the area where the safe was hidden.

Aiden’s warning came a split second later: “Take cover! Fire in the hole!”

Pearce dove behind the leather couch. He heard Hamish scramble for a hiding place, too, and saw a movement to his left. Before he could figure out in which direction Aiden had run, a loud explosion rocked the room. Debris and dust went flying, and pieces of metal crashed to the wooden floor. Pearce inhaled fine dust particles and coughed. Dust settled on his clothes. He started to rise.

“Aiden? Hamish?”

“I’m good,” Aiden reported.

“Me too,” Hamish said.

The door suddenly flung open, diverting Pearce’s attention away from his brethren. Several men stormed in, their green eyes instantly identifying them as demons.

“Demons!” Pearce yelled, and reached for his dagger, then ducked to his right to attack from the flank.

When two of the creatures stormed directly toward him, he knew that the dust on his clothes was giving away his position, rendering him visible.

“They can see us!” Pearce called out to his friends, and barreled toward the bigger of the two demons, but the bastard sidestepped him and instead charged in the direction of the safe.

Hearing the battle cries of the others, Pearce knew that he had to defeat this demon first, before he could prevent the other from reaching the safe and taking its contents.

Pearce kicked his opponent’s stomach and hurled him against the stone fireplace. Then he spun on his heel and raced into the opposite direction. Aiden and Hamish were each fighting a demon, trading blows and kicks, alternately getting catapulted into the air, then flinging their opponents against pieces of furniture, the floor, or the wall. The largest demon, the one who’d first charged toward Pearce—and by the looks of it, their leader—was dodging an attempt by Hamish to cut off his path. It failed when Hamish’s opponent got back on his feet and tried to stab Hamish.

Pearce charged toward the safe, hoping the demon he’d tossed against the fireplace was out for a few seconds. He dove forward, jumped over the desk, and managed to grip the demon by his shoulders before the bastard could reach into the safe. Together they stumbled backward, but the demon was strong. He kicked his elbow back, hitting Pearce in his solar plexus, temporarily knocking the wind out of him. It gave the evil creature enough time to reach into the safe to get what they both wanted: the dagger.

“No!” Pearce screamed, and lunged forward again, only to see the demon’s hand emerge from the safe. Empty.

Their eyes met. Demon-green eyes glared at Pearce, making him realize that the demon was as surprised as Pearce to find the safe empty.

In the split-second pause that followed, police sirens suddenly sounded. Either the demons had somehow tripped the silent alarm, or the dead resident had managed to call the police or sound the alarm before her death. In either case, in a few moments, the game would be up.

“Retreat!” the demon yelled.

Then he punched Pearce so hard that his head snapped back, tossing him on his ass before he could even comprehend what was happening. Despite being dazed from the powerful blow to his head, Pearce picked himself up to chase his attacker. It was too late. The demon had already conjured a portal.

“Aiden! Dagger!” Pearce cried out, and pointed toward the vortex. All four demons were rushing toward it, abandoning the fight.

Being a master with the dagger, Aiden understood and flicked his wrist toward the demon who was only a foot from the portal, about to step inside. When the dagger whizzed through the air, the demon’s leader—and by now, Pearce suspected that it was Zoltan himself—snatched one of his underlings and used him as a shield.

Aiden’s dagger hit the demon in the chest, and Zoltan pulled his dying underling with him as he disappeared in the vortex, the other two demons jumping after him.

Seeing that the demons couldn’t be stopped from leaving, Pearce had one more thing he had to confirm before he could leave this house. He spun back to the safe and reached inside, but all he felt were charred papers, no weapon, no dagger. Just like the demon’s hand, Pearce’s emerged empty. “Fuck! We’ve gotta find the dagger.”

“No time for that now!” Aiden said.

“At least we know the demons didn’t get it either,” Hamish added.