Page 18 of Helsing: Demon Slayer (The Dragon’s Paladins #1)

Before Dianne could ask any questions about this astounding bit of news, Ryan gazed over to their local rescuers.

Markos had positioned Germaine’s injured leg next to her good leg and now wrapped medical tape around both, creating an effective temporary splint from the uninjured leg.

Next to him, Barts searched through a large black bag stuffed with dangerous-looking guns.

The man felt his commander’s gaze and looked up.

“Boss, what’s the plan?” he asked.

“We leave in two mikes. The zoti brings a team to extract us, LZ forty klicks south. Make sure you secure the cargo. And get me a weapon and plenty of ammo.”

“Copy that.”

Ryan nodded at the chocolate and water still clutched in Dianne’s hands. “Looks like you can take that to go.”

Two minutes later they were back in the Range Rover and speeding northeast toward E65, the scenic two-lane highway known as the Adriatic Highway, which followed the mountainous coastline.

Dianne had pleaded to ride in the third-row seat next to Germaine’s head.

Ryan didn’t look happy about it, but he nodded and took the second-row seat opposite hers so that she remained in his line of sight.

At least he’d let Markos apply some sort of battlefield stitches to his split cheek.

It was slightly swollen but blood no longer ran into his beard.

Dianne scarcely noted how quickly they moved among the traffic, but somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered how the world outside could look so normal. Did any of the other vehicles’ passengers know what had happened at the port this morning?

It was as if she’d stepped into an alternate dimension where nothing made sense.

After they’d been driving in silence long enough that Dianne’s head began to pound, she remembered the water and chocolate still lying in her lap.

Although Ryan hadn’t yet reminded her to consume them, she’d seen the looks he’d directed at her.

They didn’t feel overbearing. She didn’t know why she thought so, but he radiated concern. It anchored her.

Uncapping the bottle, she drained half of it in one long pull.

Her headache eased. She realized that her stomach had also started to ache, from stress and hunger.

She opened the chocolate bar, this time a white chocolate scented with lavender.

As soon as she smelled the sweet chocolate and delicate floral confection, her headache lifted.

She broke off a piece and let it melt on her tongue, closing her eyes with a sigh.

“About time, Markham,” said Ryan.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that he watched her, a small smile playing around his beautiful mouth. Why did she want to nestle into his warmth like a cat rubbing against its owner?

At that thought, she said, “Why do you keep calling me Markham? My name’s Dianne.”

He blinked a few times before responding. Something changed in his posture and expression. The smile disappeared. “Finish the chocolate. We’ll be at the extraction point in half an hour.”

He leaned forward to talk to Markos and the other guy.

Well, damn. That was pretty clear.

Scowling, Dianne broke another piece of the candy off and slid it into her mouth.

“He’s not that into you, girlfriend,” said a weak voice next to her.

Startled, Dianne almost choked on the chocolate. Taking a quick sip of water, she wiped her lips and swiveled in her seat to see Germaine watching her. Her friend’s pale blue eyes were large in her wan face.

“You’re awake!”

“Morphine’s good, but I’m sure he underdosed me,” said her friend, the scientist. “He doesn’t want to overestimate my weight and cause me to stop breathing.”

Wincing, Dianne leaned forward and put her hand on Germaine’s shoulder. Markos had covered her friend with an emergency thermal blanket and only her head remained visible. “I’m sure he’ll give you more once we meet up with Olivia’s husband, Mihàil.”

A strange light brightened Germaine’s face. “He’s coming?”

Dianne nodded. “He’s apparently got a helicopter and more guys like Ryan.” Her gaze slid to the man she’d thought of as The Beast. He still conferred with the other two men. “I have a feeling my brother-in-law isn’t just an Albanian businessman.”

“That’s obvious,” said Germaine. She coughed and then grimaced. “Which is why it’s a good thing his paid bodyguard doesn’t want to hook up with you.”

Ryan glanced at them. He wore a frown, but his gaze seemed to look past them.

Dianne wondered where his mind was. She looked back through the rear window, uneasiness filling her.

Whatever had possessed those people had been directed at her .

And Olivia had sent Ryan before it had happened, almost as if she’d known.

Suddenly Dianne knew that it was only a matter of time before they were attacked again. She couldn’t worry Germaine about that.

“That’s fine. I don’t want to ‘hook up’ with him, either,” she said, breaking off another piece of the lavender-infused white chocolate.

She glanced forward at the others. Would it really hurt to let Germaine suck on a small square?

“I’m done hooking up. Nothing like staring death in the face a few times to clarify my priorities. ”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Germaine, her gaze drifting toward the rear window. “It kinda makes me want to live my life to the fullest. That is, if I make it out of this alive.”

This jolted Dianne. She leaned even closer to her friend. “You listen to me. You are going to make it out of this alive.”

As she said this, Dianne didn’t know if she wanted to convince Germaine or herself.

Germaine brought her gaze back to Dianne’s face. She studied Dianne for several long moments. “Are you sure you can trust Ryan? I mean, if you wouldn’t hook up with him …”

“I trust Olivia. She sent him. That’s good enough for me.”

“Well, in that case, can I have some of that chocolate?”

Dianne shook her head. “They said you’re in shock and can’t have food or water.”

“Please? Just a square? It smells so good. Plus, my mom always said if you want food, you’re not that sick. I promise to let it melt on my tongue.”

Dianne sighed.

“I’ll trade you,” said Germaine, her eyes suddenly bright. “Remember that charm bracelet I got in Dubrovnik? The one that the guy said would bring me good luck? I bought one for you, too. I was going to give it to you for your birthday, but I don’t want to wait.”

“What? You have it on you?” asked Dianne surprised.

Germaine nodded. “After last night, I thought I should give it to you this morning. It’s on my right wrist, next to mine. I’m feeling a little weak. Can you take it from me?”

“Sure.”

Now Dianne felt doubly guilty about the chocolate, which she knew was restorative. Reluctantly, she broke off a piece, looking over her shoulder at Ryan.

She sure hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.

Ryan braced himself against turning around and interjecting comments into the quiet conversation between Dianne and Germaine in the Range Rover behind him, He didn’t want to give Dianne any more information about how well he could hear her.

It was almost like she was in his ear, like the Elioud or anyone acting as Aerie Actual.

It was part of his personal harmonic system design, this built-in frequency that kept him in contact with the ops center.

But only the ops center and his demi-angel bosses.

He shouldn’t be able to hear Dianne’s voice so clearly.

It’d been one of Olivia’s stipulations, to which he’d agreed.

Tracking her onboard the ship had been one thing; listening in on Dianne’s conversations another.

They’d agreed that it was an unnecessary invasion of Dianne’s privacy.

Under the circumstances, he wasn’t surprised that Olivia would have enabled it somehow, either via the nanotracker or the enhanced tunic. He just wished she’d warned him.

Whatever Olivia had done, the system was buggy. Germaine’s voice had an odd buzzing to it that blurred her words so that they were almost unintelligible. It didn’t matter. Ryan still heard her pushing again at Dianne about not trusting him.

Frankly, Ryan didn’t know why Markos hadn’t knocked the tiresome woman out.

A headache began to push at him. He raised a thumb and rubbed at his temple.

He hadn’t followed his own order to eat chocolate and rehydrate.

He’d been too busy coordinating the exfil with Mihàil and the helo pilot as well as getting a sitrep from Markos and Barts about the daemonic activity in the region.

He’d eat and drink now. No telling when or where the next attack came from.

Whatever daemon had launched such a massive assault on them in Split would be rallying his forces.

They were literally endless and didn’t have to possess human vessels, though by this point in his career with the Kastriotis, Ryan understood that human vessels had tradeoffs. More controllable but less powerful.

He prayed that it would be daemoniacs and not daemons that he faced. He didn’t know if he could take the powerful spiritual beings head on.

He stole a glance at Dianne as he accepted a chocolate bar from Markos.

Despite her hair being a mess and her jeans torn and dirtied, Dianne was unscathed and still heartbreakingly beautiful.

Thank God for that tunic. His hand strayed to the St. Benedict medal he wore under his shirt, the pad of his thumb rubbing the engraved image.

He’d been one of those battlefield believers he’d told her about. Now he just believed.

If only he believed he was up to the mission.

“That is your first mistake,” said Beta in his mind.

He didn’t know if it was a memory, wishful thinking, or her actually casting the thought into his head.

All the Elioud communicated telepathically with each other.

He’d never heard that they did it with mere mortals, but if any of them could, Beta Nagy would be the one.

Okay, he’d converse, if only in make believe, with the demi-angel whose knife-fighting skills left him in awe.

It was a decent distraction from the creeping feeling of imminent attack.

But even his harmonic system had gone on the fritz.

He saw nothing outside the Range Rover’s windows to disturb the serenity of the Adriatic sky.

“What mistake?”

“Doubting” came the acerbic answer, as if the tall Czech Elioud spoke into his ear. “ Daemons use your feelings against you. You don’t have time for feelings, not for yourself and definitely not for her. Stick to the mission, soldier.”

Ryan almost laughed. Despite his imagination, or maybe because of its lack, Beta sounded like every CO he’d ever had.

Dianne gasped behind him. Retching came a moment later followed by sounds of thrashing.

And an unholy growling and hissing signifying the presence of a daemon .