Sophea slid him a little smile and took his hand, her fingers tight around his giving him a surprising sense of comfort. “Now, now, they haven’t done anything to be so testy about. Although I admit I feel a bit like the dragons are keeping tabs on us, which is annoying at best. But I suppose Gabriel and May have helped a bit with watching Mrs. P.”

“Let us see if they have any insight as to why those dragons are here.” He turned to call Gabriel over, but froze, staring in mingled surprise and anger at the sight of several men climbing over the railing, water pouring off them. Each was armed with at least two swords, and a couple had knives strapped to their legs.

Rowan roared a Portuguese oath and leaped forward, pulling out his gun before he realized that it would do not good—even if it was a real gun, bullets did nothing but enrage demons.

And demons these were. He didn’t have to catch the stink of their origins to know—the way they poured over the rail of the ship and pinpointed Mrs. P and her ladies told him everything he needed to know. He threw away the gun and jerked his whip out of the holder just as the passengers realized that they were under attack.

Screams filled the night air, drowning out the music until someone, in their desperation to get away, knocked the CD player over the edge into the water.

The captain took one look at the invasion and shoved Mrs. P at the nearest crew member, pulling from the belt of his Captain Nemo outfit a very real looking scimitar.

“Get her to safety,” Rowan yelled at the crewman as he hustled Mrs. P past him. “Sophea! Guard her!”

The whip cracked without him even realizing he’d swung it, and the first of the demons rushing toward him slammed into the railing with a sick snapping sound. He shook the whip free, not in the least surprised to see Gabriel leap past him in a flying tackle, taking down the next demon, wrapping his costume’s tie around the demon’s neck and tightening it mercilessly.

People stampeded past Rowan to get to safety, but he didn’t risk a glance behind him to see if Sophea was taking Mrs. P away to their cabin. He yelled a native insult he’d learned from a shaman and swung the whip at two demons who rushed toward the entrance to the lower levels of the ship. One of them he caught by the leg and pulled back to where the captain was, his scimitar stained black. But the second one was too fast, and just as Rowan started after him, something whistled past his ear. He paused, staring in surprise at the arrow that projected from the back of the demon’s neck as it fell to the floor.

He turned to look behind him. Sophea had already nocked another arrow and adopted an archer’s stance, her eyes narrowed as she sighted another demon who was about to run him through.

The bow sang, and the demon went down with a squawk. Rowan stormed over to her, not seeing Mrs. P with her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“Shooting demons.” She quickly pulled out another arrow and fired it off. Behind him, Rowan heard a demon scream. “I have to say, this is the best outfit ever. I mean, I thought the Xena one was good, and it did a whole lot for my boobs, but this bow and arrow is just pure awesome. Duck!”

He opened his mouth to protest, but instead moved to the side just as she shot down another demon. This one did a perfect swan dive over the deck into the water, the arrow projecting from the side of its head.

“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked, shoving her to the side and snapping the whip at the demon who was charging them with a sword held high. He caught the man around the neck, and with a jerk, slammed him into the navigation room wall. The demon fell back and feebly staggered toward them.

“College. Had to take athletics to graduate. I hate sports, so picked archery as the least obnoxious.”

“Where’s Mrs. P?” He leaped on the back of a demon that had the poor judgment to run too close, sending them both crashing to the ground, whereupon he pounded the man’s head into the floor until he went limp.

The bow sang twice in quick succession. “May is protecting her. Damn. I’m out of arrows.”

Rowan picked up a chair and walloped a demon with it, sending him tumbling over the rail. “Go help her. This is no place for you.”

“Ha! I’ve killed more demons that you. I just need more arrows…”

“Go away,” Rowan roared, hefting the table, and using it to bash two more demons against the wall.

“Why? I’m holding my own.” She pulled out a tactical combat knife, and with a yell, stabbed it into the ankles of the two demons he’d just downed, severing their Achilles tendons. One of the demons slashed out with a sword, just catching the outer edge of her arm.

Blood rolled down her arm, causing her to gasp in pain. Rowan screamed an oath and lunged at the demon, twisting its head until the neck snapped. “Get below!” he ordered, his voice an unrecognizable snarl. “You’re not safe here.”

“I’m fine. I just didn’t realize he wasn’t as hurt as I thought he was.” She glanced behind him, looked around, and plucked her bow from her back, swinging it like a club. It connected with the head of a demon with an ugly noise. The demon dropped.

“Just do what I say!”

“Look, I’m helping,” she argued. “Give me one good reason why I should leave when I’m taking down demons.”

“Because I love you, damn you!” he bellowed, slamming together two demons with a force he had no idea he possessed. Both fell to the floor with a whump, black demon blood making the deck slippery. “I couldn’t live if you were killed, all right? Take yourself off now so that later I can peel those shorts off you and caress the glorious globes of your ass, and your breasts, and lick every inch of—”

A demon threw itself on his back, sending him careening forward. He twisted in an attempt to get the demon off, feeling the sting of metal against his flesh as the demon tried to cut his throat, but before he could break the man’s arm, Sophea stabbed her blade into the man’s wrist, causing the demon to howl and drop his sword.

Rowan flipped him to the deck, stood with his foot on the demon’s hand, and said, “Tell your master that his tricks are useless,” before snatching the knife from the wrist and jamming it into the demon’s heart.

Sophea stood next to him, panting. Rowan turned to locate the next demon, and beheld a deck scattered with black blood and bodies. At the far end, the captain was wiping his scimitar on the shirt of one of the dead demons. Two more, their bodies broken, tried to crawl to their weapons, but Gabriel kicked them overboard, and then tossed the demons after them.