As part of the NYPD’s special taskforce, Agent Katya Danske cleans up the mess when creatures of the night run amok. But lately she’s been distracted by one paranorm in particular: her wickedly sexy partner, Blaise Michaels. For the sake of her professional reputation, Katya should end the affair with the demon co-worker—if only her body didn’t crave his touch so deeply….

Then a mysterious amulet falls into her hands, and Katya becomes the target of a vengeful demon who will stop at nothing to get it back. When she begins to exhibit unexplained powers, Katya needs Blaise more than ever to help her control the energy—and to face up to a truth she never could have imagined.

Demon’s Embrace

Elle James

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Copyright

Chapter One

I struggled through a haze of cool fog, pushing my way out to emerge naked on an empty city street where a solitary streetlamp lit the corner of the next block. Drawn to its unearthly glow, I floated along on silent feet, my focus forward, the warmth it promised tugging at me like an invisible string, guiding me, beckoning, pulling me.

As I neared, a shadow broke away from the lamp pole.

A flash of fear brought me to a momentary halt, my pulse leaping, flight instinct warring against the lure that urged me forward.

The shadow’s soft chuckle heated the night air. Warm hands reached out to grab me, wrapping me in a cocoon of naked, muscular male.

My fear evaporated and I sighed, burying my face against his chest. “Blaise.”

“Yes, sweet Katya, it’s me.”

My fingers curled into the hair at the nape of his neck, tilting his head toward mine, my lips longing for the caress of his. I hated that I needed him, like a body needs liquid to quench its thirst. “Where have you been?”

“Out.” He brushed his mouth across mine with the lightness of butterfly wings.

I wanted more, pressing into him, lifting my head, impatient, my nerves tingling in anticipation.

His lips met mine, crushing, invading, his tongue edging past my teeth. He pushed me backward until my shoulders connected with the solid brick wall of a building. Then he pressed a knee between my thighs to part them and lifted my legs to wrap around his waist.

The brick fell away, replaced by the soft, billowy bed of cottony clouds. I sank into the comfort, taking him with me, my ankles locking behind his back.

His cock pressed into me, thrusting into the slickness of my channel, stretching me with his thick, hard girth.

I moaned, my tongue twisting around his, thrusting in rhythm with his hips, his cock, the way he moved over my body.

Ripples of release pulsed across my nerves, building in cascading explosions until my back arched off the clouds.

His cock thrust one last time and we ignited in a simultaneous release of the purest sunburst of energy.

My breath held as I rode the waves of ecstasy to shore, the ebb and flow of sensation drawing me back in and out until I fell back to earth, my descent cushioned by the grasp of his hands on my hips.

When at last I could breathe on my own, I lay limp, my muscles and bones liquefied under Blaise’s intense assault.

“Open your eyes,” he whispered, pressing his lips to each eyelid, coaxing me to comply.

“Not yet,” I mumbled, my legs tightening around him, refusing to let go, refusing to awaken from whatever dream I was in.

An annoying buzzing blasted through my refuge of half-sleep, half-dream, shooting through my ear, straight into my head. “What the hell?” My eyes popped open, my ankles released, my heels falling to the mattress of my bed. The incessant buzzing continued, complete with a clatter of plastic on the wooden surface of my nightstand, effectively ending my sensual dream.

Blaise rolled off me, collapsing against the pillows.

I snatched my cell phone up, punching the talk button. “Danske.”

“Meeting at the precinct in fifteen.”

My boss’s words cut through the remaining haze of sleep, chasing back the lingering fluffs of fog, returning me to earth with a resounding thud.

“Fifteen?” I glanced at the clock and groaned. I wasn’t due on duty for another hour and a half. “I need a shower.”

“I don’t care what you smell like. Be here in fifteen.” Lieutenant Thomas, the detective assigned the illustrious duty of managing Manhattan’s Paranormal Investigative Team, had spoken. “And bring Blaise with you.”

“What if I don’t know where he is?”

“Cut the crap, Agent Danske. Where you are, he is. Both of you, in the War Room in fifteen.” The line cut off.

I glanced at my partner, Blaise Michaels, the demon who’d taken up residence in my life. “You hear that?”

He nodded.

“Does he think you live here?” I tossed back the blankets, strode naked to the scuffed dresser I’d purchased from a secondhand store and yanked open the top drawer, digging around for a bra and panties.

“How will anyone take me seriously, if they think you’re living with me?” I flung a narrow-eyed glare at him. “And how the hell did you get in? I locked the double bolts and windows before I hit the sack.”

He shrugged. “I have ways.”

“Don’t tell me another one of your talents is to walk through walls.” I shoved a foot into the leg of my panties and then another, drawing them up my thighs, completely aware of the demon eyeing my every move.

And damned if my body didn’t play traitor on me and burst into red-hot flaming desire. “You—” With my underwear firmly in place around my hips, I poked a finger at him. “—are not invited into my apartment without my explicit consent. Do you hear me?”

His grin infuriated me, at the same time it flicked all my damned “on” switches, sending a wash of purely decadent juices to my pussy.

“I mean it.” Ah hell, who was I kidding? “No one will take a female on the force seriously if she’s sleeping with a team member. We can’t see each other anymore.”

His smile broadened. “Okay.”

I turned my back so that I wouldn’t have to look at his mocking face and slipped into a pair of black jeans, yanking the zipper up before I could get further sidetracked. The patronizing look he’d given me only made my gut tighten along with my resolve. As I clipped on my bra and twisted it around my ribs, I prepared a scathing retort.

Before I could slip the straps up my arm and deliver a suitable comeback, warm hands reached around from behind me to cup my breasts.

“Tell me you want me to stop, and I will.” He kissed the sensitive area below the back of my right ear, his breath stirring tendrils of hair, tickling my skin and sending shivers down the length of my spine.

Oh, sweet Jesus. How was I supposed to resist him when he was a damned demon with the ability to throw my hormones into hyper-drive with a single touch?

I dragged in a shaky breath, reveling in the heat he generated, his naked body aligned with my backside, his cock nudging at my bottom. With the strength of a saint, I shoved his hands from my breasts and leaped out of reach before I faced him.

“We can’t do this anymore,” I said. “I want my employer to respect me for my skills as an officer of the law, not for my skills at pleasing our token demon.”

He nodded, the smile disappearing from his too-handsome face, his ice-blue eyes boring into mine. “As you wish.”

In the time it took me to complete dressing and brush my hair into a ponytail, he was dressed and waiting by the door to my apartment.

Together, we walked the couple blocks to the station. When we were within a stone’s throw of our destination, I paused at a newsstand. “You go ahead. I want to get a pack of gum.”

Blaise stopped. “I’ll wait.”

“Not only are you arrogant, you’re thickheaded. I don’t want to arrive at the same time as you. Now, go.” I shoved him toward the station and turned my back on him. When I’d paid for the pack of gum, I resumed my trek, a good fifty yards behind the demon.

Take that, Lieutenant Thomas. We’re not together.

Yeah, yeah. The only person I was fooling was myself.

In the War Room, Lieutenant Thomas paced the floor in front of the huge whiteboard, deep lines furrowing his brow. “About time you got here, Agent Danske. Now we can begin.”

I glanced around at the empty chairs. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

The lieutenant’s lips thinned. “Out patrolling the streets where you and Michaels should be.”

“I wasn’t due on duty for another hour. If you’d wanted me earlier, you could have called earlier.”

“I did. No answer.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket and scanned the recent calls. Just as the detective stated, there were three unanswered calls from Lieutenant Thomas. “I don’t understand. I didn’t hear it ring.” I glanced across at Blaise.

His gaze didn’t meet mine.

Irritation flared, pushing heat into my cheeks. “Perhaps my phone was mysteriously off at that time.”

“I suggest you talk to the technical personnel and get that fixed. I have to be able to contact you at a moment’s notice. Paranorms can’t be trusted to stay on a set schedule.”

“You were right when you said paranorms can’t be trusted.” I glared at my partner, the only paranorm in the room.

Lieutenant Thomas calmed. “You’re assigned to follow Jimmy Raggio tonight. He’s a small-time werewolf druggie. I have it from a good source that he’ll be making a purchase to stock up on drugs to push to the local lupine teens. I want his contact. Teens and drugs are a bad combination to begin with. Werewolf teens and drugs can get downright dangerous.”

“Got it.” I gathered the street address of one Jimmy Raggio and the keys to one of the unmarked vehicles at our disposal. Without waiting for my partner, I headed for the door.

Blaise caught up with me as I reached the elevator. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have set your phone to silent, while we were...”

I jabbed the down arrow. “Damn right you shouldn’t have.”

“I promise I won’t do it again.” He gave me that dark-eyed, heart-stopping, sad-demon look that always made my knees go weak.

Not this time.

The door dinged and slid open. “Damn right you won’t.” I stepped in and hit the button for the garage level and the button to close the elevator door. “You’re not ever going to come into my apartment again.”

Blaise jumped in before the doors closed. “You don’t mean that.”

“The hell I don’t.” I faced him, all the anger I’d contained while in the same room with my boss bubbling up. “You have no right to interfere with me or my job, and today you crossed the line.” I turned away. “Don’t show up at my apartment, uninvited.”

“What if I need to get a hold of you?”

“You can call my cell phone. I’ll leave it on, unlike you.”

Blaise stood beside me, his height and broad shoulders filling the tight confines of the elevator car.

Before he or I could utter another word, the bell dinged and the doors slid open into the garage. I found the car and slid behind the wheel, turning the key in the ignition as Blaise dropped into the passenger seat. With more force than necessary, I whipped the shift into reverse and backed out of the parking space, laying a strip of rubber on the pavement when I gave it more gas than necessary.

We drove to an area in Brooklyn that had seen better days and bordered on a warehouse district. Some of the buildings were being renovated, others stood dull and poorly maintained, dusk adding to the air of gloom. Warehouses built in the 1940s stood empty, broken windows like so many sad eyes staring down at them as they passed.

I parked in an alley a couple blocks away from our designated pick up point, picking a spot behind a stack of broken pallets and trash. Jimmy was due to leave his apartment building around nine o’clock. I sat for a few minutes, taking the time to check my Glock and flipped the safety switch on.

Blaise and I hadn’t spoken two words since we’d gotten into the car. It suited me just fine. And the demon hadn’t pushed any words into my thoughts. Even better.

Beside me, his lips twitched. I was afraid you’d shoot me.

I’d spoken too soon. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stay the hell out of my head.” Infuriating demon.

With more force than accuracy, I jammed my radio headset into my ear and handed one to Blaise.

He shook his head. “We’re going together on this.”

“I want you a block over. We don’t want him to catch our scents and make a run for it.”

With a heavy frown, Blaise plugged the miniature radio into his ear and tested it. “I don’t know why I can’t just push thoughts.”

“I like having a back up.” I got out and stretched, checked my watch and nodded. “It’s time.”

Before we reached Jimmy’s apartment, I spotted a man fitting his description on the other side of the street, heading away from where we were standing. He disappeared around a corner.

“You take the next street over. Don’t lose him.” I took off at a controlled jog, eager to close the distance before I lost the werewolf.

I slipped through the streets, dodging yellowed streetlights and hugging the shadows of buildings as I ran a parallel course from my target, one street over. “You have Jimmy?” I whispered into my headset.

Yeah. Blaise’s warm tones invaded my head sans the headset, sending shivers of awareness across my skin. Twenty yards ahead, moving slowly.

Pushing aside the toe-curling lust his voice induced, I focused on the task at hand. “Stay far enough back he doesn’t get wind of you.”

One of Manhattan’s young werewolves, Jimmy Raggio, had better olfactory nerves than I did and could smell a demon within a fifty-foot radius. Farther, if the wind was blowing his way. Although, this kid’s senses might be dulled by the amount of drugs he’d been snorting or shooting. His habit had pushed him over the line into selling to support his drug needs.

That’s where Blaise and I came in. When otherkin ran amuck, we were called in to clean up the mess. Tracking Jimmy to his source should be a slam dunk. Nab Jimmy, nab his contact and we’d have two less scumbags trashing the New York City underworld.

A month ago, I’d have laughed in anyone’s face who tried to tell me creatures that weren’t human roamed our city streets.

All that had changed in a matter of days, when NYPD recruited me to their special taskforce—the Paranormal Investigative Team—lovingly referred to as the PIT crew.

He just turned into an alley, headed back your way. Blaise’s thoughts cut through my musings.

The alley I assumed he was referring to loomed half a block ahead of me like a dark maw, the streetlights barely penetrating the entrance. I held back, ducked behind a huge trash bin and waited, giving the young werewolf time to emerge. As I crouched there, the stench from the trash overpowered my senses.

A really long minute went by.

“See him?” Blaise asked.

“No.” I gave it another half of a minute and left my hiding place and the smell, moving toward the alley entrance. I eased the night vision goggles over my eyes, careful not to look back and be blinded by the streetlight a block behind me. Werewolves and some demons, like my partner, could see at night. Humans, not so much.

I paused at the corner of the building, my Glock drawn, thumbing off the safety switch.

Voices echoed off the brick walls, the actual words garbled by distance.

Squatting low, I peeked around the corner. Through my night vision goggles, three figures appeared in the alley, two standing, one carrying a limp form, glowing just as green as the others. A warm body, possibly alive for now.

Damn. A simple drug run was turning into more.

The green glowing figures stepped toward her, their voices low, intense, as if they were arguing in whispers.

Don’t move on them until I get around to where you are, Blaise warned me.

I slipped back around the side of the building, pushing the goggles to the top of my head. “They’re heading my way. Don’t try to come up behind them. The wind’s coming from that direction.”

“Hide and wait.”

As quickly as I could, I moved half a block back to the trash bin, sliding between it and the building.

As footsteps clumped toward the alley entrance, I could make out their words.

“If ya know what’s good for ya, you’ll ditch the bitch.”

“Can’t. She’s my cousin. My ma’ll kill me if I leave her there.”

“When Nic finds out you took her, he’ll do the job and make it hurt as you go down. He likes to make examples of anyone else who takes what’s his.”

“He wasn’t there when I took her.”

“That demon has eyes and ears everywhere. He’ll know.”

“Look, Jimmy, I can’t leave her.”

“You’re on your own, Mario.” Jimmy emerged from the alley, leading the way. He glanced right and left before cutting across the street.

“He’s on the move,” I said into my microphone. Before Blaise could respond, a hand clamped over my mouth, another around my waist pinning one of my arms to my side. I was hauled up against a solid wall of muscle.

Chapter Two

My heartbeat stuttered then raced. Instinct kicked in and I jabbed my free elbow into my attacker’s gut.

A muffled oomph sounded behind me, but the hand over my mouth didn’t loosen. Then a voice whispered, “Katya, it’s me.”

My pulse slowed and I dragged in a deep breath.

Blaise’s hand dropped from my mouth to my shoulder.

“Damn it, Blaise. You could warn me next time.” His fingers warmed me, even through the fabric of my black leather jacket.

“I will, next time.” He nodded toward the young thugs. “I’ll take Jimmy. You go after the guy carrying the girl.”

“Why don’t I go after Jimmy and you take the others?” I pushed away from the brick wall and crept to the corner of the trash bin.

“You know I can move faster, and Jimmy’s on the run now.”

The sound of footsteps pounding through the alley reached me. “Fine. But don’t do anything until you see him make the sell.”

Blaise saluted me. “Be careful. Just because he’s carrying someone doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”

I nodded. “Same to ya. I don’t want to train a new partner.”

He chuckled softly, pressed a kiss to my lips and disappeared, moving so fast, he’d crossed the street before I could tell him how unprofessional it was to kiss your partner on duty.

Instead I shook my head. I couldn’t tell that demon anything.

Blaise did whatever the hell he wanted. Though he worked with the PIT crew, he wasn’t on the payroll and he came and went as he pleased.

I was glad he was on our side—not that I’d tell him that. The demon had a big head to begin with, thinking he was better than anybody else.

He had reason to think that. I’d seen him practically rip a man apart, limb for limb. The guy deserved it, but the incident reminded me that my partner had superhuman strength and speed.

Must be nice.

I was stuck with being a five-feet-two-inch female cop with big boobs and no respect. Well, at least no respect until I flattened a guy on the way to the locker room for pinching my ass. Since then, all of the cops of the Fifth Precinct had steered clear of me. Had I known that was all it took, I would have decked someone earlier.

I didn’t have time to put up with dumbass men who thought small meant weak. I’d been a cop a lot longer than some of them and didn’t put up with much. I could drop a perp with a bullet or tackle them and put the fear of God in them with hand-to-hand combat. Mostly because they didn’t expect a girl to be tough.

I’d learned to stick up for myself the day my dad walked off and left me, my brother and mother to fend for ourselves in the not-so-great neighborhoods of Chicago.

Manhattan was a cakewalk compared to some of the places I’d cut my teeth on. Or so I thought, until I discovered people I thought were human...well...weren’t.

Mario had turned to the right and headed the opposite direction from me, stooped under the weight of the body he carried.

I followed at a safe distance, wondering where he’d take the woman, knowing I wouldn’t let them get far. If he was involved in drug trafficking with Jimmy, I needed to question him, put the screws to him and see if he knew who was supplying his partner.

As I moved closer to Mario, my nostrils picked up a canine and cologne combination that confirmed my suspicion. Mario, like Jimmy, was a werewolf. Even the girl he carried put off the same kind of odor.

Gun drawn, I closed the distance, running lightly across the uneven sidewalk.

“Look, if you’re gonna shoot, pull the damned trigger.” Mario ground to a halt, his back to me.

“Don’t tempt me.” I trained the weapon, loaded with silver bullets, on the werewolf, having been warned of their strength when in wolf form. “I have a gun pointed at you. Turn around slowly.” For all I knew Mario could be calling on his inner beast, or whatever werewolves did to go from human to wolf.

Mario turned, his young face haggard, dark circles beneath his eyes. “I’m too tired to fight. You want my wallet. It’s in my back pocket. Although there isn’t much in it.”

“I don’t want your wallet or your money.”

His arms tightened around the woman. “If Nicolae sent you, you can’t have her. She’s family.”

“I’m not with Nicolae. I’m with the NYPD. I want some answers.”

His eyes narrowed. “Sorry. Unless you got a reason to arrest me, I have nothing to say.” Mario nodded toward the gun. “And I’m guessing you won’t shoot someone you only wanted to question.” He spun and walked away.

Damn.

I hurried to keep up, but he made it to the next corner before I did and disappeared.

I hesitated. If the man didn’t want to talk, I had nothing on him that I could hold over his head. I had to let him go. Question was, whether to follow or go back and see if Blaise needed help with our real target, Jimmy.

I’d turned back and had taken all of two steps when the blast of gunfire ricocheted off the walls of the street Mario had turned onto.

Adrenaline spiked in my system and I raced to the end of the building.

Mario lay on the ground, light glinting off the circle of blood spreading from the hole in the side of his head. Several men, make that werewolves—by the smell of them—stood in a semicircle around the downed man. One of them waved another forward. “Get the girl. Nicolae will want his property returned.”

The man’s words made my blood boil. Before I could think through the odds, I stepped forward.

One five-feet-two-inch female cop against seven burly male werewolves.

Yeah. I could be stupid when passion kicked in.

A woman in jeopardy —human or werewolf—got my ire up and I didn’t back down. I held my weapon steady, aimed at the man who’d given the orders. With my finger, I pointed at the man hefting the woman onto his shoulder like she was an insignificant bag of potatoes.”Put the girl down.”

“You gonna make me?”

“NYPD.” I dug my credentials out of my breast pocket and flipped them open with my empty hand, my gun-bearing hand steady on the leader. “You are all under arrest for the murder of this man.”

The man carrying the woman sneered. “You’re gonna arrest all of us?” He laughed out loud.

I fired at his feet.

The man jumped, a scowl bearing down on his forehead.

The leader stepped forward. “You got enough bullets to take us all out?”

“I have plenty, they’re silver, and I’m starting with you.” I held my position. “Put the woman down.”

Their leader jerked his head to his partner. “Put her down, like the she-cop said.”

“You’re kidding right?”

“On the contrary. I see this as an opportunity we can’t resist.” The leader’s hand went to the front of his jeans and he cupped his package. “We can all have a little fun with the little she-cop before we deliver the goods to the boss.”

“He said get the job done and get back.”

“Think, dumbass. How will he know how long it took us?” The leader’s mouth pulled up in a sneer. “In the meantime. I get her first.”

“Did you miss the fact I’m holding a gun?” I pointed the weapon at his chest.

“Nah, but I’m banking on you shooting him first.” He thrust the man standing next to him in between him and me. I shot the man in the knee, he went down. Without blinking, I took the leader out with a shot in the knee as well.

“Did I mention, I was top of my class on the firing range?” I pointed at the man carrying the woman. “Now put her down and leave before I take you out as well.”

The werewolf slid the woman to the ground and ran, taking the other four weres with him, abandoning the two with the injured knees.

As they clutched at their wounds, cursing me, I divested them of their weapons and crouched beside the woman.

She moaned and stared up at me, her eyes glazed, but open.

“Nicolae will kill you.”

“Not today, honey. Not today.” I tapped on my headset. “Blaise, you out there?”

Static rumbled in my ear. Not good. I’d have to find a phone or get back to our vehicle to call this one in.

The woman gripped my arm, her fingernails digging into my skin.

“Hey, lighten up. You’re safe.” I patted her shoulder, awkwardly. Give me a gun and I’m all over it. Nurturing wasn’t in my nature.

She shook her head, her eyes round, staring over my shoulder at whatever was standing behind me. “Nicolae.”

Too late, my sense of smell kicked in with a sickly sweet aroma, similar, but not the same as what I sensed around Blaise.

Demon.

Instinctively, I spun, swinging my leg out, while still in a crouch.

I caught the demon’s legs at the shin, knocking him off his feet.

The woman on the ground pushed to a sitting position and swayed. “Get the amulet. The necklace. It’s the key. Get it.”

I only half-heard her as the demon staggered to his feet, eyes gleaming red, his hands rising, fingers curling.

My throat tightened. No air made it through to my starving lungs. I clawed at the invisible fingers that squeezed the breath out of me.

The demon the woman had referred to as Nicolae lifted his arms into the air.

As if a noose tightened around my neck, my body rose from the crouched position, my feet left the ground.

For a moment, I dangled in the air.

In the next second, I was flung twenty feet, hitting a brick wall, my weapon knocked from my grasp, skittering across the pavement, out of reach.

My head bounced against the hard surface, and I slid to the ground, gray fog engulfing me. Not the pleasant cloud of my earlier dream, but the encroaching pall of a nightmare unfolding before me.

Nicolae gathered the woman in his arms and turned to leave.

“Help me.” Her bleating cry for help jumpstarted my lungs.

I sucked in a breath, pushing back the darkness, and lurched to my feet. The demon would not get away with the woman.

“Not on my watch, you don’t,” I muttered as my feet churned beneath me and I threw myself at the demon’s back.

Caught off guard, he dropped the woman to the ground and spun.

I clung to his back, my arm hooked around his throat, hanging on for dear life. I hadn’t gotten around to clarifying how to kill a demon with my partner, no matter how many times I’d wanted to kill him for one infraction or another.

The demon reached over his shoulder and grabbed my jacket, his fingernails lengthening, tearing into the leather, slicing through my shirt and ripping into my flesh.

Pain ricocheted throughout my body, the affected area burning as if he’d poured battery acid directly onto the wound.

I bit down hard on my lower lip to keep from crying out and tightened my hold, one finger wrapping around a leather strap hanging around his neck.

The woman on the ground reached up. “The amulet. Take it,” she cried.

Flipping my wrist, I twisted the leather around all the fingers on that hand.

Then as if shot from a cannon, my body was blasted away from the demon. The force sent me flying. Since I had the leather strap wrapped firmly around my wrist and fingers, the leather tie snapped and the necklace came with me.

Again, I hit the wall, my head slamming against brick for the second time in as many minutes. My vision blurred. I blinked to clear it, but it remained blurred. I couldn’t breathe and my insides boiled, as if each cell was on fire. Had his talons injected me with poison? Was this to be the end of my career as a cop?

As quickly as it blurred, my vision cleared and I blinked up at the oncoming demon, as he ducked low and charged toward me.

I rolled to the side and shot to my feet.

He had me by the throat before I could call out.

“Give it to me.”

“To hell with you,” I squeaked with my last breath.

“You have no idea what hell is.” The man snarled, leaning his face so close to mine I could see the blood in his eyes. “Give it to me or you’ll soon know hell, firsthand.”

I fought to inhale, my feet flailing out.

Then a surge of electricity powered through me. Lightning shot from my fingertips and bounced off the brick with a loud crack.

The demon cried out, releasing me, holding his hands out as if they’d been burned.

As I dropped to my feet, the acrid scent of burning flesh filled my nostrils. The sting in my back where the demon had pierced me with his fingernails eased up until all pain melted away.

“Give it to me.” Nicolae stepped forward, his charred hands reaching for the necklace.

“No way.” I slipped the necklace inside my shirt, tucking it into my bra. “You’re under arrest for assault.”

He turned as if to leave.

I stepped forward.

Before I could think, he backhanded me, his wrist catching me across my cheek, sending me flying backward, once again hitting a brick wall.

For precious seconds I lay dazed, the wind knocked from my lungs, my head spinning.

Nicolae loomed over me and tore at my jacket and shirt.

I fought him, my head reeling. “Isn’t this a bit...much...for a...first date?” I gasped.

Then the demon jerked away from me, and bounced against one of the walls he’d thrown me against.

My partner stood over Nicolae, his chest heaving, his pitch-black gaze boring into the demon’s. “Don’t ever touch her again.”

Nicolae snorted, dragging himself to his feet. “She stole something from me, and I want it back.”

“You’ll have to take it up with the Tribunal.” Blaise held out his hand to me. “Give me your cuffs.”

I stood, brushing the dirt off my jeans, reaching into my back pocket for the handcuffs. “I didn’t bring cuffs. Will this do?” I handed over the zip tie from my back pocket.

“It’ll work.” He grabbed Nicolae’s hand and twisted it up behind the demon’s back and yanked the other over it, pulling the zip tie together until it was snug. “Go get the car. And hurry, before his minions come calling.” Blaise gazed at me, a smile quirking his lips. “And ignore the pounding on the trunk.”

“Jimmy?”

He nodded. “I used some of your duct tape to gag him, or he’d be howling his head off.”

Though I didn’t appreciate being ordered around by man or demon, my knowledge of what demons were capable of was minimal. Blaise knew all the tricks. I took off at a run, working my way back to where I’d stashed the car.

I could hear the noise before I reached the vehicle. Ignoring the pounding, I slid into the driver’s seat and pulled out onto the practically deserted street, while checking in with Detective Thomas. A nearby containment wagon and an ambulance were in route, and Detective Thomas would meet us to debrief on location. I hoped all the paranorms would still be there when the powers-that-be converged.

Half expecting the injured werewolves and the red-eyed demon to be gone when I returned, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Blaise had them all under control.

I went to the female first, checking her over to make sure the demon hadn’t injured her further. “Hey, can you stand?”

She clutched my hand, her grip weak, listless, like she could barely hold her arm up. “The others.”

“What others?”

“Shut up,” Nicolae snarled.

The female werewolf’s head lolled back. “He has others like me. Prisoners.”

“Where?”

The female’s eyes closed, her breathing shallow and growing more shallow by the moment, her hand rising to her throat.

My gaze captured Blaise’s. “She’s choking.”

Blaise’s eyes narrowed and he jerked Nicolae’s arms up behind his back. “Let go of her.”

The demon laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Blaise slammed the demon into the brick wall and pushed him up off his feet, until he dangled like I had.

The female gasped, dragging in a gulp of air. Then she sagged against me. “Please. Help them.”

Sirens wailed, echoing in the night, growing closer.

“What do you mean?” I hesitated, then brushed the hair for her face. “What others?”

“Women. Help them.” Her eyes closed and she passed out.

I stood and walked over to where Blaise held the demon pinned to the wall. “What women?” I demanded.

The creep laughed.

My fists clenched. “If you’re holding women captive, we’ll find them.”

He laughed again.

A surge of anger roared through me. I counted ten in my head, only it made me even angrier that this demon had information I needed and he refused to give it to me. The anger intensified, building. A gust of heated air lifted the stray tendrils of hair from my neck and wafted across my face.

“Tell me where you keep the women.” My voice boomed, echoing off the brick walls.

The demon’s eyes narrowed.

I touched a hand to my chest where the amulet nestled inside my bra. For a second, I could see a large room divided by curtains. Inside each room a woman lay on a pallet on the floor. The image appeared so vivid I could feel the pain, sadness and hopelessness of each woman’s thoughts. “You’ve got those women drugged.” I grabbed the front of his shirt and planted my nose to his. Where are they, damn it?”

“You have no idea what you have or how to use it.” He spoke in a low, steely tone that sent shivers coursing down my spine.

“You’re stalling.” I shoved him away. “We’ll see what the Tribunal has to say when we find them. Trafficking people for sex is illegal, immoral and just wrong now matter what kind of creature they are. I wish I’d killed you while I had the chance.”

“Killing him out of anger would only make you as bad as he is.” Blaise shook his head. “The Tribunal will punish him.”

Nicolae growled like a cornered dog. “You have something that belongs to me. I will get it back. When I do, I’ll kill you.”

Chapter Three

A chill slithered across my skin, raising gooseflesh. I forced a laugh. “Seems you’re not in a position to do much of anything.”

He didn’t respond, just stared at me, his gaze like daggers.

I turned away. I didn’t want him to know that his threat had made me more afraid than even the zombie attack during my first case.

Before long, the deserted street filled with ambulances, police cars and the transport vehicles specially designed to haul paranorms to the containment cell in the basement of the warehouse where the Paranormal Tribunal held council to decide the fate of rogue paranorms.

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