His ears ringing, Fang pushed himself up to glower at her for that. He wanted to rip her head off over the agony pounding in his skull.

Zeke snatched his helmet off and had a look on his face as if he felt about the same way. His dark brown hair was spiked up in front from the helmet and sweat, but the rest fell to his shoulders. With two days’ growth of beard on his face, he looked lethal in spite of the almost angelic beauty of his features. Pressing one hand to his ears, he glared at Ravenna. “How many times have I told you not to do that shit?”

“They were reinforcing. You want me to let them have you next time?”

“Depends on how long this migraine lasts. Damn it, woman, just stab me through the skull next time.” Zeke flexed his jaw as if trying to clear his head.

“Don’t tempt me.”

Shaking his head to ease his own pain, Fang stood up and surveyed the black birdlike bodies around them. Blood ran thick on the sidewalk as a few of them twitched from death. He dissolved his sword and caught his breath.

Zeke and Ravenna turned to face him. “Nice work,” Zeke offered.

Fang nodded in appreciation as he continued to survey the bodies. “What caused this?”

Ravenna patted him on the chest, right over his heart. “You have Phrixis inside you, buddy.” She gestured to the demon remains. “They want his powers, which means if they kill you, they get your powers and his. You’re the Star of India, baby.”

Fang couldn’t accept that. It didn’t make sense. “How can they be here?”

Zeke held his hand out and shot out a stream of fire to consume the bodies. “They’ve always been here. You just never saw them until your unfortunate journey into their domain and you had your eyes opened. The doorway between this world and theirs is barely guarded, so coming and going really isn’t all that hard for certain species such as these.”

Fang narrowed his gaze as he finally understood. “So you’re Hellchasers too?”

Zeke snorted as if Fang had just insulted him. “No. We work for the right side of this equation.” He all but spat those words.

And Fang didn’t? What exactly was Zeke implying? “People, speak a language I can understand because right now, I’m lost. Last time I checked, I was one of the good guys.”

Zeke shook his head. “You might be one, but the asshole you work for certainly isn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I answer to the archangels Samael and Gabriel. While Thorn is supposedly on our side, he is the blood son of our bitterest enemy and therefore we don’t know where his real loyalties lie. He says he’s with us, but I don’t trust him at all. Given his father and his past, it’s just a matter of time before he switches sides and leaves us with our pants down.”

“Bitterest enemy?”

Zeke’s features turned to stone. “Lucifer.”

Fang gaped in disbelief as that reality smacked him hard in his gut. Thorn was Lucifer’s son? Why hadn’t he seen that?

Because you were desperate. Aimee’s life had been threatened and nothing else had mattered to him. No wonder Thorn had been so secretive.

“What have I done?”

Ravenna clapped him hard on the shoulder. “You sold your soul to the wrong side, bud. Congrats.”

Fang still refused to believe that. “But he fights the demons.”

Zeke let out a long breath. “He has so far. Who knows what tomorrow brings. One thing I’ve learned while doing this is that people change, people betray, and the only one you can truly trust is yourself.”

Ravenna gave him a harsh stare.

Zeke snorted. “Like you wouldn’t cut my throat if someone gave you the chance.”

She nodded and laughed. “Oh, well that’s true. I really do hate you most days.”

Fang ignored them as he tried to understand what was going on. “Wait. Could you explain all this to me? Thorn hasn’t been forthcoming with information. What exactly do we do and how do you fit into this equation?”

“C’mon, Fang,” Ravenna said as if talking to a toddler who had no higher cognitive functioning. “You didn’t really think the Greek and Atlantean pantheons were the only ones still fighting the good fight, did you? Or that the Daimons were the only demons. You know about the Charonte, the gallu, the Dimme, Harvesters, and Reapers. Slug demons like Misery… There are thousands of classes and all of us, regardless of pantheon or power source, have soldiers to fight them.”

Fang looked at her suspiciously. “What are you?”

“Half human, half Kalios demon.”

Kalios were benevolent demons. He’d learned that in the Nether Realm. The only one of their kind he’d met had been torn apart by a Harvester while trying to help him.

He narrowed his gaze on Zeke. “You?”

“Born human. Classified now as a Necrodemian, which loosely translates as death to demons or demon executioner. Unlike a Hellchaser, I have the ability to kill demons without consequence as long as I follow certain protocols which really, really blow most days.”

“While we just send them back.”

Zeke gave him a sarcastic salute. “You’re getting it.”

Fang put his hands on his hips. “I still don’t understand how I got dragged into all this.”

Ravenna patted him on the shoulder in sympathy. “The last Malachai has been tapped and with it, the oldest dark powers are uniting again to take over the earth. Our soldiers are being rallied and you, my friend, have stepped straight into this battle.”

“I was only trying to protect Aimee.”

“And that emotion is what has damned many a good soul.”

Fang supposed so. But it still didn’t lessen the fact that he’d seriously fubarred his life. And all this because he’d wanted a beer…

And ended up wanting a bear.

“So is Thorn evil?” he asked Zeke.

“He’s the son of one of the darkest powers ever known. And his father was a trusted soldier for good until he turned. Unlike his father, Thorn has resisted that temptation most of the time.” Zeke let out a tired sigh. “In the end, we really don’t know. Many members of his army have been known to turn and had to be put down… usually after making the same mistake you did when you killed Phrixis. When the demons kill the Hellchaser, they’re made more powerful and harder for us to kill. Which begs the question, does Thorn fail to warn his Hellchasers about the demons on purpose, wanting the demons to get more powerful for his father? Or is he just that forgetful?”

Ravenna let out a derisive snort. “Or as I suspect, he’s just a mentally twisted fuck who likes head games.”

Fang would like an answer to that himself. “Bet if I asked-”

“You’d get the same answer we get. He’d either put you through a wall or set you on fire.” Zeke smirked. “The fire part really hurts, by the way. I don’t know what that bastard has in his fist, but it burns like nothing you’ve ever felt. For the record, stay on his good side.”

Great. Just great. Stay on the good side of a man sired by pure evil. “So I’m no better off here than I was in the Nether Realm.”

Ravenna laughed. “Are you insane? Of course you’re better off. You can actually sleep here without fear of being brutalized, and there is real food that is worth eating. But… you have a crosshair on your back that looks like the mighty Target sign off I-10. Because the demons are all about gathering more power, you’re extra-appealing to them. A possessed Were-Hunter… you’re lucky I’m not trying to kill you.”

Fang ignored that last bit. “So how do I get it off?”

Zeke scratched his chin. “Well, my bosses aren’t much more forthcoming with information than yours is. We can try to resurrect Phrixis out of you, which could really suck and not work. It could also kill you. Or we could find the one who summoned him and break the chain she used. That should eradicate the little bugger.”

“Why didn’t Thorn tell me that?”

“I told you, we don’t really know what side he’s on. You’ve got to figure either he wants a demon to eat you and get more powerful to fight us. Or he wants you to be more powerful to fight them. Since we don’t know if Good Fang or Bad Fang will win, it’s a dangerous game he’s playing.”