Hotter After Midnight

by Cynthia Eden

  He wanted to take her anyplace but to that godforsaken warehouse.

  “I can’t send any other men in with you.” McNeal was watching him with eyes that saw too much. “I can’t risk the humans finding out what we’re fighting.”

  He understood that. When they got to the warehouse, the Butcher might not be in human form. And if the other cops saw him shift…

  “And I don’t want you to ‘catch’ this guy, Gyth.” McNeal stared him straight in the eye. “He can’t see the inside of a courtroom.”

  Colin nodded. He’d already figured that out.

  “Do what you have to do. Just get the women back safe.” A pause. “And make certain that bastard doesn’t have the chance to ever hurt anyone else.”

  “Don’t worry.” His voice had turned guttural. The wolf was close.

  The Night Butcher had claimed his last victim.

  Colin held his captain’s stare, let the other man see the intent in his eyes. “The bastard was a dead man the minute he asked for the trade.” No one would threaten his mate and live.

  No one.

  Time to hunt his prey…

  And protect his mate.

  Chapter 16

  The night air was cold. Emily’s breath formed a small cloud before her as she walked through the darkened warehouse district. There were rustles all around her. The scurry of rats and cockroaches. The howl of wind. The distant hum of a train.

  Building 13 stood in front of her. Windows boarded up. Completely black.

  The holster of her gun dug into Emily’s back. McNeal had given her the weapon and the bullets before she’d left the station.

  “Aim and shoot,” he’d said.

  And she would. She knew how to shoot, and she wouldn’t hesitate to fire when she saw the Butcher.

  She didn’t hear Colin behind her, but she knew he was there. Tracking her, as the wolf.

  His scent was already on her, so that had to work to their advantage. The Butcher wouldn’t be able to distinguish between them. He’d think it was just one person.

  The doors were in front of her. Emily lifted her hands and shoved against the old wood. With a loud groan, it gave way beneath her fingers.

  A dark cavern waited for her. She stared into the darkness, knowing that the killer was waiting for her.

  A faint moan reached her ears. Broken. Full of pain.

  She licked her lips. Reached for the small flashlight she’d tucked into her jacket pocket. The light flashed on, cut a thin swath of light through the blackness. She wasn’t worried about the light giving away her position. If the killer was a hybrid like she suspected, he’d be able to see just as easily in the darkness.

  The building smelled of mold and rotted wood. Cobwebs brushed her face and something ran across her left foot.

  “Smith?” Emily raised her voice, tried again. “Smith?”

  A whimper came from the darkness.

  Emily crept forward. Swung her light to the left, the right—

  There. Crumpled against the back wall. Head sagging to the side. A broken doll.

  Smith.

  Emily ran to her. The light hit Smith’s body, showing the cuts and bites that covered her skin. Blood matted her hair, trickled down her bare arms and legs.

  “I’m afraid I got a little bored while I was waiting for you.” The voice came from the darkness, echoed all around her. No longer distorted. Male. Strong. Hard.

  She stiffened. She knew that voice. Emily passed the flashlight to her left hand. Slowly inched her right toward her gun.

  It can’t be, it doesn’t make any sense. How can it be him? I’ve felt his power before. He isn’t strong enough to—

  There was a rush of wind against her body and then his hands were on her, jerking her around, spinning her to face him. “Tell me, Doctor,” Jake Donnelley murmured, his fangs bared and his eyes eerily black in the glow of her flashlight, “are you going to scream for me?”

  Then his claws raked across her stomach, and she screamed as her flesh ripped open.

  Emily! Her scream cut through him. Colin lunged through the open doors of the factory, his body springing through the air and landing in a deadly crouch. A snarl twisted the wolf’s lips as he searched for his mate.

  The scent of blood filled the air.

  Emily’s blood.

  A red haze swam before his eyes. Kill. Destroy—

  A man laughed. A sinister, cold laugh. “I thought you’d be joining us, Gyth.”

  Emily appeared before him, and Colin could easily see the blood running down the front of her shirt. Her eyes were huge. Her lips shaking.

  Behind her, Jake Donnelley stood smiling at him. He had a hand wrapped around Emily’s throat. His claws pressed against her flesh and a drop of blood trailed down her neck.

  Colin scraped his claws across the cement floor, preparing to attack.

  “Not so fast, wolf.” The claws dug deeper and a soft moan slipped past Emily’s lips. “If you move another inch, I’ll slice her open in front of you.”

  Colin snarled at him, but he didn’t move, not yet.

  “So now the question becomes, who to kill first?” Jake lowered his head to Emily’s throat, slowly licked away the drop of blood. “Oh, I do like the way you taste…”

  Emily steeled herself against the feel of his tongue on her neck. She wanted to scream, to howl in pain and fear, but she vowed not to cry out again.

  Because he wanted it too much.

  Colin snarled in front of her, snapping his teeth, his glowing eyes locked on Jake.

  Jake. God, she’d been so wrong about him. She’d thought he was weak, harmless. How the hell could she have made such a mistake?

  She’d never even sensed that he was a hybrid. Never seen the glow of the beast he carried. She’d thought he was just a low-level demon.

  Wrong. So wrong. And her mistake just might cost them all their lives.

  She’d kept her shields in place too long, Emily realized. She’d been so afraid of finding a being like the one who’d attacked her years before, and she’d guarded herself too well. Yes, she’d been safe, but she’d unknowingly let a killer run free when she could have stopped him.

  Her stomach felt as if it were on fire. She didn’t know how bad her injury was, and she was afraid to look down. So she kept her gaze on Colin, knowing that they had to find a way to defeat Jake.

  One unguarded moment. That’s all Colin would need. If he could just get one moment, she knew he’d attack.

  “You don’t understand our kind nearly as well as you thought, Doctor.” Jake whispered the words into her ear, blowing his breath lightly against her. “You thought you were so superior, so damn smart, judging us all. Reading us. But you were wrong…”

  “Y-yes…I was.” Lull him. Make him think I’m not a threat.

  “You saw what I wanted you to see,” he muttered, and his claws scraped against her throat. “You thought you were immune to a demon’s power…but I fooled you…made you see, feel, what I wanted.”

  And she’d “seen” a low-level demon. Emily swallowed, feeling the prick of his claws. She should have looked harder, searched his mind.

  Too late for regrets. Focus, dammit! I have to give Colin a chance to attack.

  Or they were dead.

  Colin’s gaze bored into her.

  Just how much power did Jake have? There was really only one way to find out.

  The last time she’d gone against a high-level demon, she’d wound up unconscious on the floor.

  But she’d almost managed to burn out the bastard’s power.

  Maybe she could do it again.

  Her jaw clenched and she lowered her shields.

  The rage hit her first. Blinding. Pulsing. Hate. Fury. The emotions seethed within the demon hybrid behind her.

  Then she felt his power. A dark, coiling black force that shot from his body, filled the very air itself and twined around her and Colin.

  Level ten. Maybe even stronger. Shit.

&nb
sp; “Doctor…” Hot breath on her cheek. “Is that you I feel, tiptoeing in my head?”

  A psychic blast of power hit her, shooting pain through every inch of her body. Emily bit her lip, swaying under the impact.

  Too strong. I’ll never be able to—

  “You have no idea what I can do,” he muttered. “But maybe I should show you.” His head lifted. “Time to play with the wolf.”

  The waves of his power shifted for a moment, pulsed darker, then swept completely around Colin.

  Shifters are immune to a demon’s power. Colin hadn’t even flinched under the whip of Niol’s dark gifts.

  He’d be able to withstand Jake’s magical assault.

  Wouldn’t he?

  There was so much power.

  The wolf inched back a step, tail lowering.

  “I can control anyone,” Jake snarled. “Anything.”

  He’d controlled the boy, Bryan Trace. Gotten him to stalk Jake’s victims.

  But not Colin, please, not Colin.

  Emily frantically tried to pull away from Jake’s mind, tried to reach Colin’s thoughts—

  But she couldn’t feel him, couldn’t touch his mind.

  “Why?” The word burst from her lips. “Why the hell are you doing this?”

  His laughter rumbled against her back. “Because I can.”

  Started with that whore Gillian. Bitch thought she could leave me for a human.

  Showed her. Showed them both.

  Emily tensed as his thoughts slipped through her mind. She couldn’t reach Colin, but she was tuned in as hell to Jake.

  Forgotten how good the blood tasted.

  Want more.

  An image of Darla’s ravaged body flashed through her mind.

  More. Tired of hiding, pretending. Fucking humans will fear me now. Show ’em. Show ’em all.

  Once the beast got a taste, he couldn’t be stopped.

  Suddenly, Jake shoved her forward, right into Colin’s path.

  “Here’s the fun part. I’m not gonna kill you, Doctor.”

  Why wasn’t Colin attacking him? His claws were down. It’d be the perfect time. Emily glanced frantically between the two of them.

  “No, I’m not gonna be the one to rip that pretty throat open. I’m gonna let your lover do it.”

  I can control anyone. Anything. Even a shifter. Blood to blood.

  Shit. Jake could control his kind—not just demons, but also shifters. The power was always in the blood.

  The wolf’s jaws were open, glistening. His eyes bright with blood hunger.

  “No.” Not Colin. She had to reach him. Had to help him. “You control the beast,” she whispered, lifting her hand slowly toward him. “He doesn’t control you…”

  “No, I control him.”

  She reached for her gun, but the holster was empty. Jake must have disarmed her when he’d first grabbed her. Dammit! Colin growled and stalked toward her.

  No. Not like this. She wasn’t going to die like this. Not in some dank building, not by her lover’s hand.

  Her shields were down, completely gone. And with all of her energy, with every bit of psychic power that she had, Emily focused on reaching Colin’s mind. On getting past the killing fury and touching the man.

  No, don’t let him do this to you. To us. Fight him, dammit! You have to be stronger, I need you—

  “Ahhh!” Blinding pain exploded in her head, and Emily fell to her knees. Jake’s dark power poured through her, ripping apart her mind, taking her memories, stealing her power—

  “Not gonna happen, bitch,” he snarled. “Tonight you die.”

  Just like before. The pain was the same. He was forcing his way into her mind, using his magic against her, hurting her.

  “Stop!” She pushed the flow of her psychic energy back on him, digging just as hard into his mind as he was hers. She’d burn the bastard out, just like before.

  Or she’d fucking die trying.

  The images began rolling in front of her mind’s eye. Faster, faster…

  “It’s over, Jake…”

  A dark alley. A woman in a red dress.

  A scream.

  The woman dropped to the ground. Throat slashed. Blood all around.

  Oh God. The pain was ripping her apart.

  A circle of men, all in black, stood glaring next to an abandoned building. “You didn’t tell us he was a shifter,” one snarled, lifting his hand and pointing his finger straight ahead. A snake tattoo bared its fangs on his wrist. “We ain’t fuckin’ with no shifter again—”

  A shot rang out. A circle of blood appeared on his chest. Three more shots.

  Down, down go the demons.

  Emily bit her lip, tasted blood as she fought to force the psychic power back on him.

  “What the fuck do you want?” Darla frowned, her brows drawn low. “You know I’m working on the story about—”

  Her blood sprayed on the wall behind her.

  So much blood.

  Emily grabbed her head, screaming. The pain was too much. She couldn’t fight him much longer.

  Break, you sonofabitch!

  Before she did…

  A young boy, with the claws of a wolf and the eyes of a demon. He walked up to an old man, shuffling through the park and pushing a buggy of cans…

  The blood sprayed onto the snow-covered ground.

  The taste…so good…more

  More…

  More…

  Emily fell onto the floor, her body shaking, twitching.

  Too much. She couldn’t fight anymore.

  Colin snarled. She forced her heavy eyelids open, saw him above her, jaws open.

  No, not Colin.

  She’d…loved him… as much as she could love anyone.

  Maybe this was the way she would die…she hoped he made it quick. She stared into his glowing eyes, her body and mind shuddering with agony and she waited.

  Her lips parted, “Love…” It was all she could manage. But she needed to say it, even though he wouldn’t understand. She had to say it once in her life, dammit, and actually mean it.

  Colin sprang forward, jaws open, claws outstretched.

  He flew right over her and barreled into Jake. The demon screamed in fury—but the sound ended in a sudden gurgle of pain.

  The agonizing torture in her mind ended. Vanished in an instant. Emily pushed up on her knees. Jake’s body was twitching. She squinted in the darkness, trying to see more.

  The wolf was over him, teeth lodged in the hybrid’s throat.

  Looked like Jake hadn’t been able to control her wolf after all.

  He shifted back into a man with the taste of Donnelley’s blood still in his mouth. The shift came easier because the beast was satiated.

  His hands clenched and the claws slowly receded. For a time there, he knew Donnelley had tried to get him to attack Emily.

  He’d seen the fear in her eyes, and there hadn’t been a damn thing he could do about it.

  Then she’d started fighting, and he’d sensed her energy in the air around them. He’d realized that Emily and Donnelley were locked in a psychic battle, and when his mate had fallen to her knees, he’d understood that she was fighting for him, struggling to give him the time he needed to attack.

  He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. Blood coated his fingers, still dripped down his chin.

  Part of him wished he’d made the bastard suffer more. You died too easily. You should have screamed for death.

  Donnelley stared sightlessly up at him, blood pooling beneath him. His throat was ripped wide open, his head barely hanging on.

  Not even a full-blooded shifter could heal from a wound like that.

  A soft footfall sounded behind him. He didn’t glance back. Emily shouldn’t see him this way. He didn’t want her to see him this way. Not with the blood of the kill on him.

  For one terrible moment, he’d wanted to feel her neck beneath his claws and teeth.

  For that, he wanted to kill the b
astard all over again.

  “Colin…” Soft, husky. “A-are you all right?”

  I nearly killed you. No, he wasn’t fucking all right. A growl rumbled in his throat.

  A quick inhalation of breath. “H-he’s dead.”

  Unless Donnelley could somehow breathe without a windpipe, yeah, he was dead.

  Colin stared down at Donnelley’s face. His eyes were wide open, his mouth twisted in a snarl. Didn’t think you’d die, did you, asshole?

  His hands clenched into fists and he forced himself to look at Emily. He could still smell her blood. The blood that had tempted him.

  “We need to get you to a hospital.”

  She was squinting down at the body, trying to see clearer with her human eyes in the darkness.

  “No, I’m okay, I just—” Her hand lifted, brushed against her stomach, and a hiss of pain slipped past her lips. “It’s bloody as hell, but I-I don’t think it’s too deep. I-I’ll be all right.”

  He reached for her, pulling her against him and cradling her carefully. He’d come too close to losing her. Too close.

  A sudden scream shattered the silence.

  Smith.

  Colin looked up, found her standing in front of him, clad in her underwear, blood smearing her body. She had a gun in her hand, Emily’s gun, and she was shaking and pointing it straight at him.

  “Monster!” The cock of the hammer was too loud. “I saw you change! You’re like him, just like—”

  The shock and the horror had gotten to her. She was going to fire, Colin realized. She was going to—

  Emily shoved him to the ground. Her soft body fell onto his, and he heard the whoosh of the bullet fly past them.

  Sonofabitch. Why did every human try to shoot him when they found out what he was?

  He carefully pushed Emily to the side. Scanned her body to make damn sure the bullet hadn’t touched her. Then, satisfied but seriously pissed, Colin sprang to his feet. “Dammit, I saved your life!” Didn’t that count for anything? Or was he just another monster to her?

  She stared up at him, mouth agape, gun still trembling in her fingers. Then her lips began to quiver. The gun fell to the floor and great, gulping sobs burst from within her.

  Smith threw herself into his arms, pressing her wet face against his neck.