Part 16 (1/2)

'How long have you been doing this?'

Mandy pursed her lips. 'I came on board when I was fifteen. Lou wouldn't let me start fighting until I was eighteen. Which really p.i.s.sed me off, but he was right, of course,' she replied with a sideways grin.

'You were a huge pain in the a.s.s, too,' Linc said, taking a rag out of his back pocket to wipe the beads of sweat away from his bald ebony head. 'Always in the way, asking questions, begging to go out and fight. It was like having a puppy winding in and out around our feet.'

'You love me and you know it. I'm like the sister you never had.'

'You're like the sister I never wanted,' he teased, then winked and grabbed her in a huge bear hug. Of course, Mandy was almost six feet tall, and Linc about six foot six, so he still overshadowed her. She laughed and pushed him away.

The camaraderie among the hunters was strong. As was the bond. It was like being around a close-knit family who loved one another, who had each other's backs. It made her stomach hurt, made her want to get away from the familiarity, the feelings of love and togetherness.

She liked all these people. And she didn't want to like these people. Irritation sprang up. She had started to care about all of them, had so easily fallen into a comfort zone with them, both the experienced hunters and the new ones like herself.

What was going to happen when one of them died? There was a reason she hadn't allowed people to get close to her, had never established bonds or friends.h.i.+ps or relations.h.i.+ps over the years. There was a reason she hadn't allowed men to linger after s.e.x. h.e.l.l, there was a reason she didn't have a lot of s.e.xual experience for her age.

s.e.x meant getting close.

Gina didn't get close.

She got close with Derek, though.

And look what happened.

Big mistake.

Derek had read her right, and she hated that he knew so much about her. Things she didn't want him or anyone else knowing. She hadn't done a very good job of masking the real Gina with him, had she? Was she that transparent around him? So unguarded that he could see who she really was? People who'd known her for years didn't see that.

How could he?

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By the time they'd packed their gear and the sun had be gun its lazy fall over the tops of the trees, Lou shouted out he had detected a hot spot on the west side of the island.

'Demon activity. Portal location, about two kilometers west. Wait,' he added, raising his hand. 'There's also activity on the northeastern slope at the edge of the mountains, as well as several spots east.'

'Busy f.u.c.kers tonight, aren't they?' Derek said.

'Very. We've got no fewer than six active portal spots. They're popping up everywhere. And each has a mini mum of three demons.'

s.h.i.+t. Derek sighed. This wasn't going to be good. They needed to attack aggressively, which meant really whittling down the teams. He turned to his hunters, doing a quick calculation of how to divide them. Juggling them around and switching from last night wasn't a good idea. Symbiotic relations.h.i.+ps formed quickly within hunting ranks. But he also wasn't going to send any of the new hunters out alone. Not yet, anyway. And he wasn't leaving any of them to guard Lou. They needed field experience right now.

'Ryder with Linc, Dalton with Jake, Mandy with Shay,' he said, doing quick a.s.sessments. 'I want you all on the east side. 'Olivia with Nance, Trace with Rico to the west. Punk and Rafe, you stay here with Lou. Gina and I will handle the northeastern slope.'

He walked away to grab his gear, pa.s.sing by Gina, who stood expressionless. Yet he saw the fire in her eyes, the anger she couldn't quite mask.

'You have something to say?' he asked.

'No.'

'Did you think because you're angry with me about last night that I'd pair you with someone else?'

She shrugged and buckled her ammo belt. 'Did I say that?'

'You didn't have to. It's written all over your face.'

'There you go presuming again,' she quipped. 'I'm here, aren't I?'

'Look. Leave the personal s.h.i.+t in the bungalow, Gina. I need a fighting partner in the jungle tonight, not a p.i.s.sed-off lover. Got it?'

If he could read her mindwell, it was probably a good thing he couldn't. Her firmly sealed lips and mutinous stare told him everything.

'Got it,' she finally said. 'We gonna stand around all night talking, or are we going to go kill some demons?'

p.i.s.sed-off lover. Whatever. Gina stalked through the jungle behind him, mentally drawing a big red target on Derek's back.

Okay, maybe she didn't mean that. But G.o.ddammit, he made her mad. Did he think she couldn't put aside her personal feelings while on a hunt for demons? Did he think she was so petty, so, so!juvenile, that in the middle of fighting she'd refuse to back him up because she was annoyed at him?

Dumba.s.s. Men were stupid. No wonder she avoided them.

She should have continued to avoid them. Now she remembered why she didn't get involved with anyone. Emotions and entanglements led to arguments and hurt feelings and anger, muddying the waters with confusing emotion.

Vibrators and her own hand didn't talk back or cause emotional distress.

Then again they didn't provide the stellar eye candy Derek did. And he did have a mighty nice a.s.s, which she could see just fine in the dark. And his back was broad, muscular, his waist devoid of any love handles as it tapered down into slim hips which led to very powerful thighs on long, strong legs.

She sighed, fully appreciating his fine form, then remembered his naked body pressed against hers last night as he took her up against the wall. The night heat was nothing compared to the quick flush of her body, the moistening between her legs as she recalled the pleasure he'd given her.

Like Jekyll and Hyde. Men should be s.e.x slaves, there to give a woman pleasure, but never allowed to speak.

If only, she thought with a snort.

'You say something?' Derek asked, craning his neck around.

'No.'

He frowned and continued fighting through the dense underbrush.

They had one h.e.l.l of a long walk as they headed north toward the mountains, the trees and bushes thickening as they moved further inland. The gra.s.s grew more lush under their feet, the air more dense the higher they climbed.

Loaded down with weapons and ammo, she was sweating and her thighs were killing her. h.e.l.l, by the time they found the demons she'd be too d.a.m.n tired to fight them.

'Where are they?' she asked.

'No idea. Lou?' he commed. 'Where the h.e.l.l are the ones on the northeast slope?'

'They've disappeared, Derek,' he replied. 'I was just about to com you. They lingered for a while, not really going anywhere, then vanished.'

Derek stopped. 's.h.i.+t.'