InsistentHunger

by Lyn Gala

  Faster than Paige could suck in a breath, Brady darted forward, his hands reaching for her. Both his hands closed around her neck, forcing her away from the fireplace.

  She started to fall, her legs going up in the air, but it didn’t look like a normal fall. Paige opened her mouth to shout something—she wasn’t sure what—but then her feet hit Brady. When she hit the floor, he sailed over her and crashed headfirst into the wall. A quick twist and the woman was back on her feet, her black dress covered in dirt.

  Brady was up nearly as fast and he kicked out a leg. It contacted the woman’s hip with a sickening thump that would have led to hospitalization if the woman were human. Instead, she stumbled back a step and smiled at him.

  “You think like a human. It is my fault for losing you so soon after you came into this world. The transition clouds the mind. However, perhaps now you can see that you are not my match. I have much to teach you.”

  “I’m not interested in lessons.” Brady returned to slowly circling her.

  “You are in this world because of me—”

  “And you can take me out of it,” Brady snapped. “Yeah, my mom used to joke about that when I stole the crust off her apple pies. It didn’t scare me then either. I’m Catholic, lady, and you haven’t said anything that’s scared me half as much as the parish priest when I was six and stole candy out of the food donations box.”

  Paige pressed her lips together because this woman’s attitude scared her. She was too sure. Perps were never that sure unless they held all the cards. Looking around for something she could use as a weapon, she was stopped when the flunky stepped closer to her.

  “Don’t,” he warned. Paige froze and Brady’s gaze flickered over toward them. The woman chose that moment to attack. Her attack looked a lot like Brady’s own—both hands reached out as she threw herself forward. Grabbing Brady by the neck, she drove him back into the wall.

  The plaster failed and the wood slats behind it cracked under the impact. Paige gasped out Brady’s name. He clawed at the woman, but he couldn’t seem to budge her. After a few seconds, she pulled him away from the wall and shook him like a ragdoll. His head snapped back and forth. For a second, he clung to her arms, but then he seemed to lose his grip and his hands flew out away from his body.

  Despite the fact that she was four or five inches shorter than Brady, she held him easily, and when she was through shaking him, she threw him at the far wall. Fabric ripped as her fingers tore Brady’s shirt, shredding the front so that Paige could see the damage and bruising below.

  Paige flinched as he hit a foot or two away from her. She rushed to his side, one hand resting on his back as she faced off against the woman.

  “You sick bitch,” Paige snapped. Brady shifted under her hand, but he seemed to be taking awhile to collect his scrambled thoughts. Paige expected the woman to attack immediately, but she crossed her arms and watched them curiously.

  “Were you a demon, I might care about your opinion. However, I don’t care about human opinions any more than you might ask for the opinion of a cow.”

  Paige glared at the woman. Brady rolled to his side and then got one leg under him. Paige cringed as she saw the broken bones making his skin stretch in unhealthy directions. If he were human, he’d be dead. Even as a demon, the injuries made movement slow and painful. He grimaced as he touched his mangled side.

  “What the hell do you want?” Brady asked. Nice. Now they were negotiating. They didn’t have much to offer and this bitch had too many marbles loose and rolling around in her head to trust.

  She smiled, a slow honeyed expression that turned Paige’s stomach. “You,” she said. “I want you, but not this shadowed version with humanity clinging to it.” She barely finished before she darted forward. Paige never saw her pull a knife, but three quick slashes and blood sprayed over the floor. Paige threw up a hand, but blood splattered across her face before she could protect herself. For a second, she thought the woman had killed Brady, but Brady’s hands moved up to the deep cuts on his chest, pressing his hands to them even as the blood began to slow.

  “So learn to be a demon, child. Let go of these ridiculous ties to humanity.”

  Brady made a small noise and the woman turned her back to them. “Put them both in the basement,” she ordered her flunky. The man with the gun stepped forward.

  “Help him up. Move,” he ordered Paige. Paige glared, but she really didn’t have many choices, not with the woman watching and Brady so badly injured. She got an arm around Brady and helped him to his feet. He was a lot taller and heavier than she was. It made every step slow and awkward, but she urged him toward the double doors.

  If Brady was faking some of the injury, they might be able to distract the guard and make a run for the front door. The way her luck was running, the mindless vamps waited on the other side of the front door, but she’d rather face them than the woman. That bitch had issues.

  “So, how do you get a job thugging for a vampire? Did you get fired by the local meth dealers?” Paige asked as they got to the lobby again.

  “She’s not a vampire. She’s a demon.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Look, does she drink blood or suck life or touch people and drain life?” The definition of vampire was actually a little more complicated than Paige had thought.

  There was a pause before the thug answered her and Paige stopped in front of the stairs down to the basement level, looking back at him. She supported most of Brady’s weight and she didn’t know how they were going to climb down the stairs without ending up in a broken pile at the bottom.

  “Yes. Now down.” The thug raised the gun a fraction of an inch.

  “No problem. Down it is,” Paige agreed. She glanced toward the front door, hoping Brady would take a hint. “A demon that drinks blood is pretty much a vampire,” Paige argued with the guard, giving Brady time to get the hint. He continued to lean into her.

  “Vampires are the guards. The master is stronger, but you don’t understand anything about demons. You shouldn’t talk about it.”

  “I know you’re human. You do know she considers you a cow and potential food source, right?”

  “Yes.”

  Paige stopped, temporarily unsure about how to handle this man. More than one person in this house had a trolley that didn’t go all the way to the station. “So how exactly does that work?”

  “I’m not a demon. They are.” He prodded her in the back with the gun and Paige realized she was out of time. With one hand around Brady’s waist and the other on the thick banister, she started the long descent back to the little prison room.

  “Um…yeah. I figured that out on my own. The part I need help figuring is why you would work for them. Seriously, are the health benefits that good?”

  “She protects me.”

  “From her guards that want to eat you. If you weren’t around her and her guards, you wouldn’t need protection. You know that, right?” He didn’t answer. Paige panted with the effort of trying to get Brady down the stairs without dropping him on his head. He was a big guy. “You’re an idiot for being here,” Paige pointed out. It wasn’t very tactically smart to insult the guy with the gun, but she’d had a shitty day.

  “I’m smarter than you,” he answered, and she couldn’t really argue with him on that one. Saving her breath, she focused on getting her and Brady down the stairs without any more broken bones.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Paige stood next to the bed and tried to put on a pleasant expression—something that hid her growing horror over his condition. The fight might have been short, but Brady had managed to lose rather spectacularly and his skin was starting to show the bruises.

  “Do I really look that bad or are you practicing faces to make during the next apocalypse?” Brady asked. He shifted in the bed and a pained hiss slipped out.

  “You don’t look good. Are you going to heal okay?”

  He sighed. “I have no idea. Paige, this didn’t come with a manual. If it had
, I might have known I was in for an ass-kicking.”

  “You’re healing some though. That’s good, right?” Paige let her fingers trail over his side. The ribs were a more natural shape now.

  “I hope so. It hurts like hell.” Brady sounded weary.

  “You’re remembering more now,” Paige commented. She pulled her hand back. Despite the fact that Brady didn’t look his best, she could still feel a nagging desire tugging at her. She wanted a clear head.

  “Some,” he agreed.

  “Did you eat Hunter?”

  Brady’s mouth fell open. “Did I—” His voice failed him.

  “You think more clearly after feeding and you’re thinking more clearly.”

  Brady propped himself up on one elbow. “Yes, but there’s no way I would eat Hunter. If I catch him, I’m going to hit him. Hard. I might hit him hard enough to kill him. However, I don’t plan to eat him.”

  “Didn’t you chase him here?”

  Brady blinked at her. “Yes, but I got tired. I had to slow down. He got out here before me. I never saw him.”

  “He’s still out there?” Paige felt a new spark of hope. She hated relying on someone else for rescue, but at this point, Hunter looked like their best option. Relying on Hunter worked better than dying.

  “Probably. I thought I smelled at least one boat coming through the area within the last few days.”

  “Smelled it?” Paige looked at him. “I am the first to admit that you’ve gotten some upgrade, but exactly how do you smell a boat?”

  “I smell the bilge,” Brady answered. “My dad used to take me out on his sailboat he rented. The bilge pump took water out of the bottom, but there was always this faint smell, like the stink a few days after a flood. I smelled bilge, so there are boats large enough to smell bad.”

  “Which would explain how they’re getting in and out.” Paige scratched her arm. “This place is so isolated I’m not sure anyone other than the vamps even saw my light show. But if there are boats, Hunter’s smart enough to figure out a way in and out.

  Brady didn’t look convinced. “Do you really think he’s coming back for us though? Paige, think about it. He was driving a blue sedan.” Paige knew that. It was certainly suspicious, but just because he drove a car that matched one seen at the scene of several of the crimes didn’t mean he was involved. Sure, there was a possibility that Hunter was involved with the rapes or Brady’s attack, but it was also possible that the blue sedan was a false lead. Most of the leads in any given case ended up being crap and coincidence.

  In other words, they knew exactly nothing.

  “None of this makes any sense,” she complained. “Was Hunter at the house when psycho-bitch first took you?”

  “I’m not remembering the night that clearly, but…” He shrugged. “I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t swear to that. I still don’t trust the guy. He was in a blue sedan, Paige.”

  “I know.” Paige’s gut told her Hunter kept his own secrets, but she needed to hold on to some sort of hope. Hunter was it. He was a pathetically faint hope, but she took what she could get.

  “And he drove straight here,” Brady said. “He knew about this place. So I think we’re on our own.”

  Paige made a face. On their own, neither one of them was doing all that well. “Wait. If you didn’t see Hunter at all, how did the psycho upstairs get you?”

  Brady’s cheeks colored.

  “What did you do?” She sat down on the edge of the bed.

  He didn’t answer immediately. She poked him in the side that looked less battered, and he let out a big sigh. “When I got close to the house, I could feel something.”

  “Something?” Paige prompted when he fell silent for too long.

  “I actually walked in here trying to figure out what I was sensing,” he admitted with a sheepish expression.

  Paige stared at him for a long minute and then she reached out and punched him as hard as she could in the arm.

  “Hey! What was that for?” Brady rubbed his arm and Paige felt a little guilty about hitting a man when he was down. His arm was about the only part of him that wasn’t bruised, though, so she didn’t feel too guilty.

  “Being an idiot. I thought I taught you better.”

  “Maybe you aren’t that good of a teacher,” he snapped back.

  Paige closed her eyes as she thought about all the mistakes they’d both made. “Maybe I’m not,” she said wearily. She gave Brady an apologetic smile and Brady opened his mouth like he was going to argue with that, but Paige didn’t have time for arguments.

  “What are your chances of breaking down the door?”

  He eyed the heavy wood. “Right now? Not good. Very not good.”

  She really looked at him. He was pale and his eyes were brilliant red. She was pretty sure that meant he needed blood. She sucked in a breath as she realized why the psycho had put them in the room together. Brady needed food and she was the one source around. She swallowed. “And your chances of dropping dead? Deader?”

  “You mean, am I about to head back to hell?” Brady swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t know.” His voice had a quiet tremor.

  “How serious are your injuries, Brady?” He started to answer, but he was answering too fast and his grin was too wide. “Brady, stop.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “How serious? Honestly?”

  His grin faded. “Too serious to heal, and I’m afraid…” He stopped.

  “Afraid of what?” Paige could feel her heart thumping painfully in her chest.

  He looked up at her. “If I can’t heal the body, the injuries, they could get worse, like gangrene setting in.”

  A sigh slipped out of Paige as she realized what he was saying. If he couldn’t fix the body, it might start falling apart and then he really would be heading back to hell. Or maybe it was just another dimension or another world. All she knew was that he was in danger of not being here anymore.

  Brady pressed his head back into the dirty pillow.

  Life had just handed them a big pile of steamy shit. Psycho had locked her in here to be the entree, and Monagas was out there free to rape. Given that the head demon-bitch was a woman, Paige hoped that Monagas was some sort of freelance demon because she really didn’t want to think of a woman having a rapist like him on the payroll.

  Then again, this woman didn’t seem to mind torturing humans. “Great. We’re in here and Monagas is running around out there,” Paige complained. It was an incredibly ungracious change of topic, but she really didn’t want to discuss her partner on dying on her for a second time.

  “If Monagas is our rapist,” Brady said, doubt in his voice. “It might just be his human partner doing all this,” Brady said without opening his eyes.

  “His human…what?” Paige felt like she needed a score card to keep up with this case. She was starting to think she would have a quieter life working New York City.

  Brady opened his eyes. “At the safe house. There was a human staying there.”

  Paige mentally ran through the scene at the abandoned house. She hadn’t seen anything that suggested two people had used it. “And how do you get that?”

  Brady just stared at her for a second. “From the big pile of shit, maybe.”

  Paige waited for some other explanation, but Brady kept on staring at her with this expectant expression. “And that means the human had to be there?” she asked.

  “Human shit usually equals human.” He frowned so that two wrinkles formed between his eyebrows.

  “Brady, you eat. That means you must shit. Therefore, demons shit.”

  “Well, actually….” Brady cleared his throat.

  Paige pulled back in surprise. “Really? Not even once?”

  Brady shook his head.

  Every time Paige encountered another piece of evidence that Brady wasn’t human, it left her a little off-balance. He didn’t shit. “That’s actually a little gross. No, I’m going to amend my statement. That’s actually a lot gross.
” She really didn’t want to think about how demon digestion worked.

  Brady raised an eyebrow at her. “So let me get this straight. You’re more grossed out by me not going to the bathroom than you are by a pile of human shit left behind by some homeless rapist?”

  Nodding, she answered, “Completely.”

  He sighed and gave her a sad smile. “You’re odd, Silver.”

  “No, odd is not having to shit. Do you plan on waiting a hundred years and exploding?”

  He tried to glare at her, but there was a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I haven’t really thought about it, but thank you for that cheerful thought.”

  “That’s my goal in life—to spread cheer everywhere I go.” Paige studied Brady carefully. His normally tanned complexion had turned an alarming shade of gray and he wasn’t moving around much. He hurt. If he were human, she’d know the signs when he was in real danger of dropping dead in the next five minutes, but she’d made too many mistakes and there was too much she didn’t know. She couldn’t afford to put off the inevitable, even if Brady was.

  “You know, I’m not getting out of this,” she told him.

  Brady visibly cringed. “Yes we will.”

  “You might, Brady. In case you haven’t noticed, the fruitcake up there has a thing for you.” As long as Brady played nice, he’d have a chance to look for another opportunity to escape. He just had to play it cool and not pick any more fights.

  “Trust me, I noticed.” Brady got an expression on his face like he’d bit into a lemon. “I’m guessing she has issues with whoever turned her and I’m just inheriting them.”

  “Well, you can use that to your advantage,” Paige said. “However, if you’re dead, there’s not going to be a lot of advantage to be taken.” She stopped. She wanted to give him a full-on lecture about de-escalating violence and talking to a suspect. She wanted to be the training officer because that was familiar territory, but they weren’t on familiar territory. Besides, he was smart. He’d figure out how to deal with Miss Psycho on his own. “We only have one choice.”

  Brady narrowed his eyes and glared at her. “Exactly what are you trying to say?”