Read Hired Gun #4 for Free Online

damn well please.” He turned and bowed his head slightly. “Nike, you look lovely as always, but I think you should tone it down a notch. You almost gave my poor butler a heart attack.” 
    Nike moved closer toward Thanatos, who was still standing just inside the doorway. Her hand splayed out on Thanatos’s chest, causing him to visible still.  Even the daemon was affected by the goddess. “Thanatos we used to have so much fun the two of us. Do you really want our worlds to end?” 
    His face actually softened for a split second when he gazed down upon Nike. The look was quickly replaced with a hardened glare. “Apollo has to pay. And for that there will be mass casualties. It’s unavoidable.” 
    Nike laughed bitterly. “You call destroying a planet along with our realm unavoidable? I think that’s a little more than mass casualties. All because of some petty revenge scheme? I had you pegged wrongly. You’re pathetic.”
    Thanatos’s eyes flashed red and Nike was thrown across the room. She crashed into the wall, causing the paintings to fall down around her. 
    After that all hell broke loose. 
    In an instant, daemon’s emerged before their eyes and it was an all-out war. Nike materialized swords in their hands and there was loud clashing of steel on steel that rung throughout the house. 
    Thorne raised the sword high above his head and swung with all his might, lopping the head off of one of the daemons. It dropped to the floor with a thud and the body quickly followed. 
    Three more daemons came at him. They were pretty horrific-looking; black singed bodies and red eyes filled with hatred. One was standing like a man, and the other two were on all fours. 
    Just as Thorne pivoted to attack, one of the ones on all fours launched himself at Thorne. Thorne’s sword sliced through the daemon, but not before the bastard’s claws raked the side of his face. Which stung like a mother fucker. 
    Unrestrained power coursed through him. 
    There was a strange calmness in the fog of war, a flow in battle, a dance it could be called. Even though there was complete chaos going on around him, it was as if he had tunnel vision. The noise was background noise; his focus was on his next kill. And the three kills after that. 
    Thorne lashed out with an explosive movement and decapitated one of the daemons before he drove his sword through the other’s chest and twisted. The daemon cried out in pain and shook before crumbling to the floor. 
    They kept coming. No matter how many Thorne took out, there were more. It was as if the floodgates from Hell had been opened … and perhaps they had. 
     A cry of fury rang out from Benny, and as Thorne turned to see if he was in need of help, a sword entered his flesh, barely missing his ribcage. The sudden, sharp pain as the blade was removed caused him to gasp out. 
    Before turning, he instinctively knew it was Thanatos. Just the man Thorne wanted to see. His eyes were glowing red in his true form. He was massive, his chest heaved up and down, and blood coated his chest. 
    Swiftly raising his sword, Thorne let out a battle cry as his sword swept like the crack of a whip toward Thanatos’s neck, but the daemon ducked just in time. 
    He stood half crouched with his gaze on Thanatos, whose face was twisted in hate and rage. This man was all that stood between him and Kataya. He pressed forward, their swords clang loudly throughout the room. Back and forth with lightning strikes they went, each meeting the other with every move. It would seem they were evenly matched. Each move was fluid and full of malice. 
    They fought fiercely—a few times the blade hit its mark, slashing muscle and bone—but neither was willing to give any ground. Thorne wasn’t sure how long this went on; it seemed like hours. His arms were heavy and his body exhausted, but it would be over his dead body that he would give up. 
    “Enough!” Nike yelled. 
    Suddenly it was quiet except for their