Heart of the Demon

by Cynthia Garner

  Keira glanced at Finn and could tell he was going to be stubborn enough to try to get Stefan to make the first move instead of doing what Stefan wanted him to do, which was solicit the information. She slowly moved her foot over and nudged his.

  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. With a slight huff of air, he looked at Stefan. “What job is that?” he asked.

  Stefan’s face wore a hint of satisfaction that Finn had blinked first. With an air of magnanimity, the rogue leader said, “I want you to kill Tobias Caine.”

  The words hung there, bald and desperate. Vile.

  Keira’s jaw went slack with shock. She saw the muscles of Finn’s back go taut. “You what?” He scooted forward to the edge of the sofa.

  “You heard me. Now, if you also want to take out his wife, I’m all right with that, too.” Stefan gave a careless shrug. “I don’t have anything against her personally. But if she dies first, I’ll at least have the satisfaction in knowing that Tobias suffered before he drew his last breath.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. “I realize you have something of a relationship with the wife because her mother and your…employer are lovers.”

  “That’s right.” Finn didn’t offer up anything more than that. If Stefan knew that Finn was more than Lucifer’s employee, Finn wasn’t going to confirm it.

  “And why do you want me to kill Tobias?” Finn’s voice gave away nothing of what he felt.

  “That’s my business.” He steepled his hands beneath his chin, tapping his fingers together. “Let’s just say he’s gotten in my way before and is likely to get in my way again, and I like to remove all obstacles I can anticipate.”

  “Fair enough.” Finn folded his arms across his chest. “And you prefer that I also kill Nix?”

  Keira couldn’t believe how calm he was. How calm they both were. They were sitting here talking about murdering two people with less heat than they would if they’d been talking about a ball game.

  “Like I said, I realize you and she have a relationship.”

  “Of sorts.” Finn shrugged. “It’s not like we’re close. We really don’t get along.” He paused and lifted his hands. “I actually think she doesn’t like me too much. Needless to say, we haven’t had a lot to do with each other.”

  Stefan gave a nod and looked as if he’d heard something that confirmed what he already knew. “From what I understand, every time the two of you do come into contact, you give her a hard time.”

  “That might be true,” Finn drawled.

  “Yes, I had heard of an altercation between the two of you at Devil’s Domain some months back. You and Caine got into it, too, as I recall.” Stefan’s slow smile glittered in his dark eyes. “Look, do whatever you want with Nix. Kill her or leave her be. But I want Tobias dead. Somehow I don’t think that will be too much of a hardship for you.”

  “Nope.”

  Keira looked from one man to the other, feeling like she ought to interject something, evince some protest at their machinations. Yet, she couldn’t find the words.

  Stefan leaned forward. “Bring me proof.”

  Keira stared at Finn, aghast that he seemed more than willing to take out a council member. After all his protestations that he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer…pain skittered through her chest. She really didn’t know this man at all.

  Finn’s mind raced as he tried to come up with alternative solutions to the job Liuz had assigned to him. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t, kill Tobias Caine. Not to cement his role in the group, not to save his own life, which might be in jeopardy if he failed to carry out this job. This damned test. “What kind of proof do you want?” he asked.

  “Bring me his head.”

  There was no way in hell that was going to happen. He shook his own head and folded his arms across his chest. “We’re not living in the Middle Ages. I’m not carting anybody’s head around town.” He ran his tongue across his teeth, and inspiration struck. He’d always heard desperation was the predecessor to inspiration. Or some such thing. “I’ll bring you his fangs.” When Liuz looked about to argue, Finn said, “Take it or leave it. Or get someone else to do it.” In which case he’d have to do what he could to stop the assassin.

  It all depended on how badly this loony tune wanted Caine’s head.

  Liuz stared at him for a few moments, his gaze hard, face dark with displeasure. Finally he said, “Fine.” He started to say more but stopped when his cell phone rang. He stood and walked away to stand in the corner of the room, his back to them, voice low.

  Finn leaned over the arm of the sofa, trying to put a little distance between him and Keira so she wouldn’t sense what he was doing. Then he called on his chameleon abilities and took on the hearing of a werewolf. Liuz seemed to be kowtowing quite a bit to the person on the other end of the line, even if Finn couldn’t quite pick up exactly what he was saying.

  Huh. Maybe Liuz wasn’t the one in charge after all. Finn pushed his ability, trying to hear the voice of the other person, but he couldn’t make out anything more than the cadence of speech. He couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. When he heard Keira sniff a few times, he stopped what he was doing and allowed the chameleon to settle back inside.

  She looked puzzled. While the fey didn’t have olfactory senses as good as shapeshifters, vampires, and demons, they still could pick out scent better than humans.

  Damn it, he hadn’t been able to tell who Liuz was talking to.

  The vamp finished his call and turned toward them. “Thank you both. I expect to hear results by midnight. Tonight.”

  Keira blinked, but Finn wasn’t surprised. Liuz would want to ensure they didn’t have time to cheat, so giving them a tight schedule would limit their opportunities to do anything underhanded. Well, other than the underhanded stuff they were supposed to do.

  “Tonight?” Keira started shaking her head. “I can’t possibly pull off a job with this kind of notice. I need to stake out the place, check on their security measures, figure out the personalities of the staff so I know which approach is best—”

  “Tonight.” Liuz sent her a hard stare, which he also turned on Finn.

  Finn held up his hands in a surrender mode. He wasn’t the one who had a problem with the short notice they’d been given.

  “Of course you wouldn’t care,” Keira muttered. “There’s no finesse in running off and killing someone. However, I’m supposed to swap out diamonds at a moment’s notice?”

  “Are you saying you’re not as good as I’ve been told?” Liuz asked. His voice had gone silky, dangerous like a spider waiting for unwary prey.

  “No, of course not.” Keira huffed a sigh. “I just…having only a couple of hours to do this is setting me up to fail.”

  “Or setting you up to succeed magnificently.” Liuz once again wore his jovial expression, though his beady eyes held hardness. “Call me at this number,” Liuz said and handed them both a business card. The only thing printed on it was a phone number. “Once you contact me, we’ll arrange a meeting.” He stared at both of them, his dark eyes steely. “Don’t disappoint me.”

  “I’m sure we won’t,” Finn said. He followed Keira out of the room.

  They were both silent as they left the building, but once they were outside, she rounded on him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  He frowned and put his hand up to shade his eyes. Since he was facing west, light from the setting sun was full on his face. He tried to ignore the way it seemed to set her hair on fire, reds and orange lights dancing along each strand. “What do you mean?”

  “Joining this group! Why would you do that?” Her voice rose at the end.

  This was not a conversation he wanted to have in the parking lot of a trendy, popular club, well within earshot of anyone who cared to listen. “Where’s your car?” he asked.

  She sent him a scowl. “I want to talk to you about this, boyo, so don’t be thinkin’ you can just send the little woman on her way.”

  �
��I want to talk to you about it, too, but in private.” He raised his eyebrows. “Now where’s your car?”

  “Over there,” she muttered. After they’d gotten in, her behind the wheel, him in the passenger seat, she twisted to face him. “So?”

  “Why are you part of this group?” he asked. He couldn’t tell her the true reason he was taking part in the festivities, so if he could put her on the defensive maybe she’d stop haranguing him.

  “Why do most prets join the group?” she responded. “There’s something missing from their lives that this group can fill.”

  “That’s why you joined?” He stretched his left arm out to rest his hand against the back of the driver’s seat. “You have a void in your life?”

  She stared at him. “What does it matter why I joined? Why do you care?”

  He shook his head. “Look, I ran out of give-a-fucks about a lot of stuff a long time ago.” He met her eyes. “But I do care about you.” He softened his voice. “What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to be better than all of this.” He made a circular gesture with his right hand.

  Her blue eyes widened slightly. “I did. I do. But…” She trailed off and dropped her gaze to her hands. He watched slender fingers twist together. Finally she whispered, “It’s so hard. And I’m tired.”

  Finn reached over and cupped her chin. “Get out now, Keira. While you still can.”

  For a moment he thought she might take his advice, but then she stiffened and pulled back. He let his hand drop onto his thigh. When her eyes lifted to meet his, they were hard with determination. “What about you? All I’ve been asked to do is a bit of stealing. You’ve been ordered to murder someone. And not just any someone. A member of the council.”

  “Like I said, I ran out of give-a-fucks.” He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “I think Liuz is onto something with this plan to keep the rift open longer to allow more prets to come through. Hopefully some of those prets will be demons, because we’re outnumbered as it is.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it if I were you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She grimaced. “He’s said that it’s his allies, and friends of friends, who have been greasing the palms of Detention Center employees in order to be ‘rifted’ without documentation. Do you really think his cronies, who are probably mostly from his home planet, are going to let a bunch of your people through? I reckon we’ll end up with a lot more vampires.”

  “You’re probably right.” He wasn’t overly concerned about the numbers, because Liuz’s plans weren’t going to come to fruition. Finn would see to it. In order for him to succeed, he had to kill Tobias Caine. And everyone, Keira included, needed to believe he was going to carry out his orders.

  “Speaking of vampires,” she said now, “don’t kill Tobias and Nix. Please. You don’t have to do this.”

  “Yes, I rather think I do.” He cupped her chin again and leaned down for a quick kiss. “You have your assignment, and I have mine.”

  “You’re not a cold-blooded killer no matter what you say. I know you’re better than this.”

  He wasn’t a cold-blooded killer, but Liuz didn’t know that, nor did most people, even those who knew Finn. Except for this slender fey woman. Damn it. If she figured out what was going on with him, she’d blow his cover for sure, possibly without even meaning to. “I’m the kind of killer I need to be, Keira. Whatever it takes to get the job done.”

  Her eyes searched his. “Tobias is nearly family.”

  “Just because he’s married to the daughter of the woman my…employer sleeps with doesn’t make him family.”

  She jerked her chin out of his grasp. “Would you stop with all that? I know Lucifer is your father. There’s no point in continuing to deny it.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “I just do. Your relationship is too dysfunctional for him to be anything other than your father.” Even with a scowl she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “Don’t do this.”

  He’d let her have her win on guessing his relationship with Lucifer. “If killing my almost brother-in-law is the price to pay for being accepted into this group, then I’m willing to pay it. Besides, killing a vamp won’t be all that different than killing a demon.” Before she could continue the argument, he leaned down and dropped another kiss on her mouth. “See you later.”

  He got out of the car and, as he walked toward his motorcycle, resisted the urge to turn around for one last look. Keira seemed more concerned about him than she did about herself. It was telling. Exactly what she was trying to tell him, though, he hadn’t quite wrapped his head around yet.

  Chapter Nine

  Keira watched Finn ride off on his motorcycle and muttered a few pithy words. She wasn’t naive; she knew Finn had killed before. It was part of his job as one of Lucifer’s enforcers. But she didn’t want the murder of people who were essentially his family to be on his conscience. And it would weigh on him, no matter how badass he thought he was.

  She wished she had a better handle on why he’d joined the group in the first place. He was not a team player by any stretch of the imagination. It didn’t seem feasible to her that he’d joined because he wanted to help usher in a new age. He’d just as soon go his own way as to help create more preternaturals. At least, that’s what she’d always thought.

  Maybe she’d been wrong. And if she was wrong about him with respect to this, how wrong had she gotten everything else? The sense of fondness and friendship they’d formed, was that all an act? He used his charm and vitality to bait the trap, and then when it was sprung, would he lose interest?

  She didn’t know. And right now she had other things to focus on. Namely, refreshing her skills so she could successfully complete her assignment.

  Two hours later, after having practiced her sleight of hand in front of a mirror, she left the house and headed toward Beynard Jewelers. Along the way she noticed a black sedan a few cars behind her. It turned each time she did, and when she pulled into a gas station she watched as it veered down a nearby side street. She put a few dollars of gas into the tank and then pulled back out into traffic. As she drove past the side street she noticed the black car parked at the curb a few houses down. And from her rearview mirror she saw it ease back onto the main street.

  She was being followed. Her first instinct was to lose them, and she sped up with that intention. But then the black car passed beneath a traffic light and she recognized the driver as someone she’d seen attending the meeting. So, Stefan had sent someone to keep an eye on her. He wanted to make sure she was really going to do the job. She didn’t want to make him suspicious, and if she ditched her tail she probably would. She slowed down to the speed limit and made her way to the jewelers as sedately as possible.

  Keira arrived at Beynard’s twenty minutes before closing. As soon as she walked in she could tell the employees already had one eye on the clock. No doubt anxious to get their weekends started, which worked out perfectly for her. They’d be in a hurry and not paying as close attention as they should. Nevertheless, she projected her empathic energy, filling the store with a sense of happiness and peace, in order to keep everyone slightly less focused than they might otherwise have been.

  When a well-dressed older man approached her, she smiled. “I’m designing a ring and would like to see your raw diamonds, please.”

  “Of course, madam,” he said. “Please, have a seat.” He pulled out a padded chair at the main counter, and then walked behind the counter. “What size would you like to see?”

  “I think two carats to start.”

  “Yes, madam.” With his back to her and making sure he blocked her view of his hand, he punched in a few numbers to open a small wall safe.

  While he was turned away, she unobtrusively pulled out two of the fake diamonds, being sure to keep her hands hidden from the overhead camera. She gave the stones a quick glance to view their relative size and shape. The salesman turned toward her and sh
e smiled again and palmed the diamonds. He placed a tray covered in black velvet in front of her. On it were a dozen uncut stones worth, to her practiced eye, about sixty thousand dollars or so once they were cut and polished. And there were a few that closely matched the ones she held in her hand.

  A man and woman came into the store, drawing the salesman’s attention from her for a few seconds. And that was all she needed. She swapped out the diamonds, palming the real ones for the time being. When she stood up she’d be able to slide them into the tight cuff at the wrist of her long-sleeved blouse. She made a mental promise that when this job was over she’d get the real diamonds back to the owner if she could. She felt badly for what she’d done, but in this case the end justified the means.

  When the salesman turned back toward her, Keira asked him a few questions and then said, “You know, I don’t see anything that suits my needs. Maybe I need larger stones.” She flipped her wrist and checked her watch. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time right now.”

  The man pulled the tray in closer and gave a quick perusal of the stones.

  Keira held her breath.

  He looked up with a smile. “Please come back any time,” he said.

  “Oh, I will. Thank you.”

  As soon as she was out the door she halted the flow of empathy, saying a silent apology to the workers inside the store who would now experience mild depression from no longer being surrounded by her peace-laden glamour.

  Two minutes later she backed her car out of the parking lot and headed away from the store. She blew out a breath, part of her not quite believing she’d pulled it off. Another part felt pride that she still had what it took to get the job done.

  After a couple of miles, she slowed and guided the car to the curb where she stopped and slid the gear lever into park. Drawing in a deep breath, she held it a moment before exhaling, and then dug around in her purse for a tissue. She retrieved the diamonds from the cuff of her blouse and dropped them into the tissue. She pulled out her phone and called Stefan. When he answered, she said simply, “It’s done.”