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  The prostitute’s arms and legs were thin and streaked with dirt. He pulled several coins from his purse and handed them to her without stopping.

  “Don’t you want nuthin’ for your coin, gov?”

  “Not tonight, my dear. Go and get yourself something to eat before you fall ill.” He spoke over his shoulder not wanting to lose Belinda’s trail.

  The prostitute said something, but he was already too far down the street to hear her.

  He crossed one alley and turned down the next where Belinda had disappeared. The street was pitch, and he had no lantern. Ahead, soft footfalls lead the way and he followed. Sporadic lamps along the way revealed drawn faces in the arched doorways.

  A bit of yellow turned the corner to the right. A cat cried then hissed in the distance. Gabriel followed her skirts, keeping far enough away so she wouldn’t see or hear him.

  Another turn and he nearly fell over a man standing in his path.

  “‘Elloo, gov. You seems in a mite of a hurry. Where’s it yur goin’ so late? Mayhap Taker can be of ’elp.”

  Gabriel took a step back from the hulking figure of Taker. The man’s breath was putrid from rotting black teeth and his clothes had not seen a washday in a month or more. “I’m not in need of assistance tonight, my good man.”

  “Oh, but I think you is,” Taker replied.

  Initially Gabriel’s reaction was to dismiss the inconvenience of street rabble delaying his pursuit. Taker was not easily dismissed. Gabriel looked the larger man in the eye.

  Taker’s pale-blue eyes stared back.

  The memory of men in war flashed in his mind. The hatred twisting this man’s face was the same. “I’m curious Mr. Taker as to why you stopped me and not the young woman who preceded me down the alley. She would have been a much easier mark. I do not care to boast, but I’m rather tall and strong, whereas the woman was small and easily detained. So why stop me and not her?” His question was more than just curiosity. The answer could help him ferret out what Belinda was up to. Maybe she had a protector in this area and Taker could identify the rogue.

  Taker’s eyes shifted down the lane where Belinda had disappeared, before turning back to Gabriel. “Simple, gov. That slip of a girl got bigger teeth then you might think and pays her way down this alley regular-like. Taker’s too smart to do no harm to a steady source of coin.”

  It took a great deal of effort not to react to the knowledge that his fiancée frequented these back streets on a regular basis. He had no idea what the “bigger teeth” remark might mean. “I see. Would it then behoove me to offer you payment and be on my way?” Gabriel kept his tone polite.

  “Naw, gov. You ain’t no regular. You strikes me as a one-shot deal.”

  “I see,” Gabriel said.

  “Taker’s a fair man. Gives you a chance to just hand over your purse and then you git to live to see the sun.” Taker smiled exposing his black teeth. “Course I’ll have to rough you up a bit just to keep up me reputation.”

  “Yes, of course,” Gabriel conceded. “I’m afraid I cannot allow you to take my entire purse, my good man. Since you have declined my offer of a reasonable payment, I conclude that you will have to beat the money out of me.”

  “Shame, that.” Taker shook his head and shrugged before he swung one meaty fist at Gabriel’s nose.

  Gabriel easily ducked away from the path of the blow. Taker lost his balance, and Gabriel used the opportunity to strike Taker in the ribs and when he bent over to clutch his gut, Gabriel threw an uppercut to the chin.

  The bigger man stumbled backward, but recovered quickly, shaking his head with unfocused eyes. Much to Gabriel’s surprise, Taker smiled at him before rushing forward, throwing several wild punches.

  Gabriel dodged each stroke, and the forward motion of his opponent, gave him the opportunity to move left and kick the giant’s legs out from under him.

  Taker’s head hit the mucky street with a sickening thud.

  A woman cried out in the darkness, and the prostitute Gabriel had encountered earlier, rushed out of a dark doorway and knelt at Taker’s side.

  “You didn’t have to kill him.” Her voice was a whining squeal.

  Gabriel crouched down and felt for a heartbeat. The telltale sign of life was strong in Taker’s chest. “He will be fine.”

  Rising from the filthy street, Gabriel dropped several coins on the thief’s shirt before moving off in the direction he’d last seen Belinda.

  He raced down the alley turning right then left in a frantic sprint to find Belinda. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach. What if Taker or someone worse hurt or killed her? What would he do if he had to face tomorrow without Belinda in the world? His chest tightened around his heart and left him near panicked as he continued his mad search.

  He ran down one narrow alley then another, before hearing voices to his right. Gabriel stopped so abruptly he had to grab the side of the building to keep from falling over in the filth-ridden street. He peered around the corner and saw a short man in a dark topcoat standing about a hundred feet down the alley. In front of him, Belinda grinned but it looked more like she was bearing her teeth. The man’s face remained shaded from Gabriel’s view, and whatever they were talking about he couldn’t ascertain from his position.

  The man grabbed her by the throat.

  Gabriel stepped from the shadows and moved forward, but neither one noticed.

  He hadn’t managed one step and his fragile flower fiancée, reached down beneath her cape, pulled out a dirk and in one smooth motion stabbed her assailant in the gut.

  The stabbed man staggered back a step and released her throat. She stood up tall and stared into the face of her victim.

  Gabriel thought he knew her but this Belinda was a stranger with a gleam of victory in her eyes. His stomach and head whirled. He might become sick.

  She pulled her weapon from the man’s stomach and grinned as she sliced his throat in a motion so smooth, a hardened soldier would have envied her technique.

  Gabriel stepped back into the shadows. He had to force himself to close his mouth as he continued to watch. His mind reeled at the idea that the sweet girl he had grown up with and loved for his entire life had just killed a man in the street without any sign of difficulty or even remorse.

  She knelt down in the street, near the body and wiped her blade clean on the dead man’s coat, before turning and walking to a basement door several feet away. She disappeared down steps and the door closed behind her.

  Gabriel leaned against the wall and for a moment, he feared he would lose his stomach upon the street. Taking deep breaths, he didn’t move while waiting for Belinda to reappear. So many thoughts ran through his mind. He couldn’t reconcile the woman who he had just seen kill so splendidly with the girl he used to play with in the country, or the young woman he’d left crying when he’d gone off to the war in France. What could have happened to send Belinda into a life where she carried a weapon and traversed the streets at night? What was she doing, and what kind of place had she entered, in a basement, in an alley, in Southwark?

  Questions flooded his mind while he minded the door where she’d disappeared. He would have his answers when she reappeared. In the meantime, his heart ached for a woman who might no longer exist, but whom he still loved.

  Nearly thirty minutes passed before the door reopened. A well-dressed gentleman appeared at the top of the stairs. He called back, “Ben, get up here and get this filth out of the street.”

  Two more men, dressed in workingmen’s clothes, topped the stairs and exited the door. They moved toward the body of Belinda’s victim. “Aye, Mr. Foxjohn, Donny and me will take care of it. You just go find the master.”

  Mr. Foxjohn nodded and stepped further into the street running his hand over his slicked back hair. He glanced at the body and pulled a face before turning back to the door. “Ladies, it is time we were getting on. Are you ready?”

  “Of course, Reece
.” A stunning red-haired woman alighted from the door. She handed a long black cloak to Foxjohn.

  He helped her wrap the concealing garment around her emerald green gown.

  The couple’s demeanor was so elegant that they might have been exiting the ball of the season. She took his arm and looked back over her shoulder.

  Belinda’s blond head rose from the concealment of the basement doorway and she closed her cloak around her yellow gown, before following the couple up the alley toward where Gabriel was concealed.

  So many thoughts ran through Gabriel’s head that he forgot to watch the two men who wrapped the body in some kind of fabric.

  Then Belinda and the other couple started down the alley directly toward him, and he instinctively pressed his body against the shadowed wall.

  Belinda stopped twenty feet past him and looked back, her expression confused.

  Gabriel held his breath and waited. She couldn’t see him in the dark shadows, and she held no lantern. The idea that she might sense his presence both intrigued and alarmed him. He wasn’t ready to reveal that he’d been following her and he knew nothing of her companions. Better to wait and gather information before making his presence known.

  She turned back toward her friends and rushed down the alley and around a corner.

  Gabriel sighed and stepped away from the wall rubbing his brow.

  “Aye, you there. What are you about?” One of the men who’d been taking charge of the dead man’s body called out to Gabriel.

  Gabriel said, “I’m a bit lost. I seem to have taken a wrong turn.”

  The working man looked Gabriel up and down. “I guess you did, gov. You better head back to the Bridge Street and find yourself a ride over the river before you end up like this bloke.” He pointed to the body now wrapped up for transport.

  “Indeed, I had the same thought.”

  When Gabriel stepped into his own carriage and told the driver to get him back over the river, there was no sign of Belinda and her new friends.

  Chapter 3

  Belinda sniffed the air and searched the dark shadows. “Gabriel?” she whispered.

  Reece turned toward her. “Is something wrong, Belinda?”

  She’d thought she caught Gabriel’s comforting scent waft past her as she and her friends made their way from the basement they used as an office.

  Turning back, she replied, “No, it is nothing.”

  “Are you certain?” he asked.

  She dismissed the notion “Of course.”

  Lillian smiled and took Belinda’s arm. “Let’s get going then, shall we?”

  Belinda nodded and they walked to the road where a carriage awaited them.

  Reece spoke as soon as they were seated and moving. “We may be too late. This news took far longer to reach us than it should have. I shall have to work on a more efficient delivery system.”

  Lillian shrugged her shoulders and her russet curls bounced. “That is a problem for tomorrow, Reece. Tonight we will try to find the master, or Dominus, as they call him. I think it is unwise to attempt to kill him with only the three of us on hand.”

  “I agree. We should have brought Jamie along.”

  Lillian shrugged. “It would have been too obvious. The three of us will look as if we are fish out of water on the docks. We could not risk Jamie’s burly form as well. We’d resemble a mob. You will have to trust that Belinda and I will have your back.”

  “It is not that I do not trust you, my dears. I just feel as if I shall not be able to protect you as I should.”

  Lillian’s laugh sounded as if it was music. “Protect us. Baah. Belinda is far better with a sword than you, and I am more clever. It is far more likely that we shall have to protect you, Reece Foxjohn.”

  “Enough.” Belinda held up her hand for peace. “Stop bickering. Jamie is not here, and we shall all have to protect one another. Besides, we have no idea what this Dominus is or how to kill him. Reece, what is the plan?”

  “Belinda, you are always the voice of reason,” Reece said. “My man at the docks shall meet us. He has been watching this cell for quite some time. They congregate in an old warehouse. They have also been seen in alcoves under the bridge. He says there is a man who has recently taken charge.”

  “A man?” Lillian asked.

  “His words, not mine. He said the leader looks almost human, but admitted he’d only caught a glimpse of him and it was dark. I’m assuming that it is not a man, but a banshee or some other type of demon we have yet to encounter.”

  Belinda shuddered at the thought of this new demon. Something worse than the abominations they already knew about was unimaginable and made her skin prickle. Were there countless species of these aberrations? God forbid. The enormous beasts that had captured her almost four years earlier had been hideous, with slimy skin so dark green that it appeared black. Their heads loomed twice the size of a man’s, but with almost no intelligence to speak of. She knew now that they were malleus. The smaller scaly demon that had taken control once they kidnapped her was a trebox. He had taken over her torture, but his intelligence had been nothing to boast about. Cruelty had been the trait that set him above the others. These creatures respected brutality above all else. Her stomach twisted at the memory of that night and the changes she’d made in her life since.

  Reece and Lillian had saved her, but in the years following, she had made sure that she would never be the victim again. She would fight and die if necessary, but no one, demon or man, would ever take control of her life again.

  “I’m sure the banshee, or whatever it is, can be killed. We shall find a way, Belinda. You must not fret over those types of details, my dear.”

  Belinda couldn’t help grinning. Reece always made everything seem so pedestrian. She wondered if he had ever had a moment’s worry in his life.

  Lillian did not share his amusement. She pursed her full lips. “More than a detail if we encounter one this evening.”

  He nodded and tapped his fingers on the window fame.

  The smell of foul water, and other things she would rather not think about, filled the air prompting her to pull the scented handkerchief from her reticule and press it to her nose. They had arrived at the docks.

  The carriage jerked to a stop, and Reece immediately jumped down.

  Belinda pulled the dark curtain aside and peered out at the warehouses and shanties lining the river. The parts of London she frequented in the last few years had only been places on a map before she became a hunter.

  Reece walked several feet away and spoke with an older man in a dark wool coat and cap. The man pointed with a cane in the direction of a large building.

  Reece opened the carriage door and the ladies stepped down with his assistance. Neither Lillian nor Belinda needed help down, but it kept up appearances to act the part. The demons would think they were nothing more than a gentleman and two ladies on some kind of strange business.

  Most of the building’s windows were broken. The empty openings gaped down like a demon’s dead eyes.

  No candles or firelight lit the interior. Pieces of the exterior were missing, leaving holes in the façade. The street stank of filth and garbage and no amount of perfume shielded her from so much neglect.

  Fear and excitement built in Belinda’s stomach and the weight of the sword lashed under her skirts gave her a certain sense of security. They made their way to the building the old man had indicated.

  Reece opened the door.

  As soon as they crossed the threshold, she pulled a hidden tie at her waist, and allowed her full skirts to fall away, leaving her in the trousers she preferred for a fight.

  Lillian adjusted a harness under her cloak to reveal a set of sai blades while Reece took his gun out of concealment in his boot.

  The must of stale water permeated the air. The metallic odor of blood assailed Belinda’s senses.

  The trio made their way down a long dark corridor leading t
o a set of steps down and then another long corridor.

  Lillian’s form a few feet in front of her faded into the darkness. They had a code for such circumstances. It was common for demons to frequent dark places. They had fought in caves, dungeons and tunnels.

  Belinda knew what to do, but that didn’t stop her heart from pounding wildly or sweat from breaking out on her brow.

  Reece made a chirping sound.

  She held her position. In total darkness, her heart pounding remained the only sound from any direction. A set of three chirps told her that they were not alone.

  A door creaked behind them.

  Fortunately, the demons couldn’t see in complete darkness either. The corridor filled with torchlight, and three malleus demons rushed them.

  Her eyes stung from the sudden brightness and no time to adjust to the light. Belinda couldn’t rely on her eyes but spun around at the sound of rushing feet.

  Two more demons attacked from behind. She would have to trust her friends to handle the other three. Her hands were full.

  Immediately gunfire and the clash of steel sounded from their direction.

  Pulling a dirk from the belt at her waist, she parried with her sword, just as one demon lunged for her. Her blade pierced his eye. His roar echoed down the corridor.

  She whirled around the flailing malleus, driving her dirk into the chest of the other. She kicked with her left foot and jerked the blade from the creature’s flesh, sending it tumbling against the wall. It crumpled to the floor, dead.

  The half-blind demon renewed his efforts, rushing forward with both arms outstretched in the direction of Belinda’s throat. Its battle cry filled the narrow hallway.

  Belinda called out her own aggression and whipped her sword through the air and the thick neck of her attacker.

  Its eyes never registered defeat when it fell to its knees and then thudded to the floor.

  Her breath came in hard warrior gasps. She turned ready to aid her friends, but both Lillian and Reece were leaning against the wall, watching her.