"Do you think we have enough weapons?" Lane asked as he looked at Jake, Hunter, Damien, Evan, Kent and Joey all loaded up with guns and knives.

"There are many sub demons at the castle, but what you really have to worry about are my fathers' personal collection of sub demons." Damien said as Lane laid his tommy gun over his shoulder.

"Personal collection?" Kent asked.

"Yes." Damien nodded. "He breeds the biggest subs together to come up with bigger subs. They are close to seven feet tall and heavily muscled."

"He breeds them like horses or something?" Kent asked, curling his nose.

"This isn't important. I will kill any fucking sub, or demon, or vampire or mortal that comes in between me and Angela at that damn castle. Now let's go."

"You want a few more weapons?" Damien turned to see Angelo standing in the door with a bag in his hands. Jake growled and Damien stepped between the angry wolf and the angel before Jake could attack the newest nuisance.

"Who the hell are you?" Lane asked.

"His name is Angelo." Damien answered. "He is an angel."

"Angel?" Bethany asked as she curled her nose at the dirty man. "I thought angels were pretty?"

"Maybe I am. Maybe you're the one that is ugly." Angelo replied with a shrug. Bethany shook her head, tossing her blond hair around her face.

"No. I may be vain and selfish but I am definitely not ugly." she replied.

"That's enough!" Damien exclaimed, as his temper snapped and everyone looked at him with surprise. He himself was surprised as well, he had never before lost his temper. "We don't have the time to be arguing over something so stupid. What did you come here for, Angelo?"

"I already told you. I have weapons." Angelo replied. He reached into the bag and pulled out several vials of holy water. Kent, Lane, Evan, Joey and Jake quickly grabbed one apiece but Hunter and Damien shook their heads.

"Right, I figured the vamp and the demon wouldn't want holy water so I also brought some of these." Angelo reached back in the bag and pulled out what looked like a throwing star only it was shaped more like a crucifix.

"These are safe for you both. I promise." Angelo said to Damien and Hunter.

"I do not want one." Damien said as he laid his hands on the hilts of the two Katana swords strapped to his sides. "I have all I need."

"What will they do that's so special?" Lane asked Angelo.

"If you throw one and it sticks in a sub demon, even Victors largest ones, the sub will instantly burst into flames."

"Hell yeah, give me some!" Lane said and he, Kent, Evan and Hunter grabbed a handful a piece and stuck them in their pockets.

"What about Rotan? What will it do to him?" Jake growled, his mind focused on only one thing and that was freeing his mate. Angelo smiled.

"I thought you might ask that. Rotan won't burst into flames but he or Victor will definitely not like the feeling they give them... It will be a thousand times worse than any knife or bullet they've ever felt before." Jake grabbed the bag out of Angelo's hands, the bag was filled with more of the stars and he tied the string around his waist.

"I'll take these." he said.

"I'll wait here, Damien. Just to make sure you all make it home okay." Angelo said as he sat down on an empty kitchen chair beside Angelica, who scooted away from him and eyed him warily. "The boss doesn't want me involved in anything physical." he added. The seven family members that were armed and ready to go clasped hands and Damien dashed them all to the castle.

"Holy shit balls, you could have told me it was in fricking Antarctica! I would have worn a coat!" Lane said as he shivered in his t-shirt on the hillside looking down at the castle.

"He did tell us." Kent replied as he bounced from foot to foot for warmth. "You were busy downing a bottle of Jack Daniels." Lane grinned sheepishly.

"Oh yeah. Well in the words of a very smart country star from years ago.... I gotta get to feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof."

"How are we getting in?" Joey asked looking down at the fortress-like castle. Damien looked at Jake.

"Front door?" Damien asked and Jake nodded.

"Front door." he said and then he started down the snow covered hill, with everyone else scrambling to catch up.

Damien stood beside Jake at the door with everyone else standing behind them with their weapons ready. Damien could tell by the look on Jakes' face and the tension in his body that Rotan was going to die tonight, just the same as Victor. Damien had never felt a rage like he was feeling right now.

The thought of his wolf in his fathers hands made his blood boil and his temper flare. The thought of his cold, heartless father touching Kaylee was like Damien's worst nightmare come to life.

"There will be more subs here than we encountered at Vincent's." Damien warned and Lane shrugged.

"I got plenty of whiskey in me. I'm good to go. Besides we got the midget with us today. Those sub's ankles won't stand a chance." Lane said patting Kent on the head. Damien did not understand why Lane was making jokes at a time like this but Jake just shook his head. He knew that humor was how his brother handled stressful situations.

Jake counted to three and then he and Damien threw open the giant wooden door and were greeted by hundreds of snarling sub demons.

"Let's have some fun." Jake said and he lunged into the group. Lane shook his head as he shouldered his Tommy gun.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. My brother needs help."

888

Back at the house the women were all waiting on pins and needles around the kitchen table. Darkness was falling outside while nerves and tempers rose inside. Kaitlyn had all the kids up in the playroom. Charles had locked himself down in the basement and Greg had gone out to the garage. A sure sign that he was worried out of his mind, because as Bethany had pointed out, he didn't know a socket from a screwdriver.

"I need Jake to teach me how to fight so I don't have to stay behind like a helpless little woman." Jordan said as she tapped her fingernails on the table. Bethany blew on her perfectly manicured nails and wiped them on her soft cotton tank top.

"Jordan, you are a helpless little woman. Nothing is ever going to change that. If you ran after a bunch of big bad sub demons they would swear they were being attacked by the queen of the fairies."

"Yes and the reason you stayed behind is because, God forbid, you fight to save your niece or your brothers mate and break a nail." Anger flashed in Bethany's eyes and Raquel slammed her hand down on the table.

"Can you two knock it off?" she demanded. "You fighting isn't going to help anything." Vanessa was sitting in a chair at the other end of the table chewing on her fingernails while Rebecca watched Angelica rocking back and forth in her chair with her thin arms wrapped tight around her body.

"Victor is bad but Rotan is evil. Victor is bad but Rotan is evil..." Angelica chanted over and over again. Rebecca heard Bethany say something else that earned an angry snort from Jordan and she stood up.

"Where are you going?" Bethany asked.

"To get us all something to drink." Rebecca replied. Raquel made a face.

"Please mom, no tea. None of us want to drink it, it tastes like dung."

"No, not tea." Rebecca agreed as she walked over to Lane's liquor cabinet and looked at the lock. She couldn't remember the combination and so she simply grabbed it and broke it off the handles. She opened the door as her daughters watched her with shock.

"What'll it be girls? Your brother has a good selection. We have Jack, Jim, Jose.... All the great men."

"Mom, I'm shocked right now. Since when do you know a thing about liquor?" Bethany asked.

"I don't always drink tea dear." Rebecca replied.

"So your solution to all of us being scared to death about the fate of our family is to get shit faced drunk?" Raquel asked with disbelief. Rebecca nodded as she grabbed up several bottles from the cabinet.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." she said as she opened up a bottle and poured some in a cup. She sat it in front of Angelica, who quickly grabbed it and took a big swig.

"Well, bottoms up then girls." Jordan said as she grabbed a bottle just for herself and put it against her lips.

888

Angelo sat out on the porch swing looking out at the darkening night and listened to the conversations he heard going on inside. He knew they were all scared and worried about their loved ones and he knew he could easily ease all of their minds and let them know things would be fine but what fun was there in being a 'higher being' if you ran around telling the 'lower beings' everything you knew.

He pulled a toothpick from his pocket and stuck it between his dirty teeth as he rocked back and forth and whistled a tune.

888

These subs were much tougher than any subs the family had ever fought before. The guns were empty but that didn't seem to bother Jake or Damien. Jake was cutting through the subs; coldy, methodically, and Lane was reminded of the old Jake. The hunter Jake. The Jake that could, and would, kill anyone that got in his way.

Damien was cutting through the ocean of subs with his swords, leaving severed head and limbs in his wake.

"Damien, where's the dungeon?" Jake yelled over the noise. Damien nodded down at the stone floor at their feet. Jake breathed deep and he smelled her. His Angela. She was below him, just through the floor and she was scared and in pain.

"I'll save Angela, the rest of you take care of these subs and find Kaylee." Jake said and then he grabbed a seven foot tall sub that was coming for him, by the neck and slammed his body hard into the stone floor, shaking the stones and sending up dust.

"I'm sure there are stairs somewhere." Lane said and then he laughed when he threw a throwing crucifix at a sub and the sub erupted in flames, catching several subs near him on fire as well. "Hell yeah, these things are badass!" he exclaimed.