by Lyn Gala
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Paige said as she shoved the last of the chocolate and granola bar in her mouth. She was starving.
“Not to suggest you can’t clear a scene, but I’m just going to check it out.” Hunter eased past her carefully, bracing his hand on his weapon, although Paige wasn’t sure if he wanted to avoid hitting her in the head with it or if he had some residual mistrust going. As long as he was investigating upstairs and not endangering Brady, she was perfectly happy to have him indulge his paranoia.
Clomping up the steps, he made a show out of cursing when he checked the west bedroom. Once Hunter was safely out of sight, Paige leaned forward until she could see Brady through the half-open parlor door. He still didn’t look happy.
“Having fun up there?” Paige called out to Hunter. He didn’t answer and Paige’s gut sent up the first warning flares about the same time that Brady darted out of the parlor. Reaching out, he caught her by the wrist and yanked her off the stairs so fast that she didn’t have time to say anything. Hunter stormed down the steps and Paige found herself shoved behind Brady as the two men faced off.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Brady!” Paige yelped. Hunter’s hand went for his gun and Paige pulled Brady toward the parlor.
“Stop it!” Forcing Brady to move to the side, she planted herself in front of him. Then she held her hand out toward Hunter in a placating gesture. Brady yielded enough to let her get in front, but he continued to hold her hand, pulling at her. He couldn’t be using his full strength, but he was using enough of it that she had to hold the edge of the doorway to prevent him from pulling her into the parlor.
“Just stop!” she told both men. She pressed her back into Brady’s chest and held her hand out toward Hunter. “Now let’s just calm down.”
Hunter looked furious, but his weapon was only partially raised. “Silver, what the fuck—he’s a vampire.”
“Demon,” Brady snapped. “Paige, move.” His voice was low and dangerous.
“Not a chance,” Paige said. “You’d try to kill Hunter and Hunter would try to kill you and I am not a fan of anyone killing anyone else.”
“You’re not a fan?” Hunter’s weapon rose an inch. That left it pointed at Paige’s stomach. Not ideal, but she figured Hunter wouldn’t pull the trigger until he had targeted Brady’s head. Behind her, Brady was growling like a feral animal.
“He called someone,” Brady snarled. “He told them to come in and finish things.”
“And they told me there was another vamp in the house,” Hunter snapped. Paige could feel the situation sliding out of control.
“Hunter, this is Brady, and you are not doing anything to hurt him,” Paige warned. She’d pull her weapon, only she knew for a fact that would escalate things far out of control. “Brady, this is Hunter. He taught me how to not get my ass kicked when going up against demons. No killing him.” Despite Paige’s words, Brady was so angry he was physically trembling.
“Shit, Silver. Do you just go out of your way to break every rule you can find?”
“Funny enough, no. Up until this week I would’ve said that I was a pretty rule-following sort of person. However, you’re not killing my partner. Period. Now who the hell did you call and how big of a mess have you made?”
“Keep in mind that if I don’t like your answer, I’m putting you on the menu,” Brady warned. Paige turned her head enough to really glare at Brady. Up until this point, he’d definitely been anti-eating humans, so she was pretty sure he was only making an empty threat. Hopefully. However, this situation did not need any more threats. Particularly since she was the one standing in the middle.
“You two have no idea what you landed in the middle of. Hell, Kent doesn’t know what’s really going on and he’s my fucking partner.”
“Sucks for Kent,” Paige said without much sympathy. As far as she was concerned, partners who kept secrets from each other had a special place in hell. But if Mr. Fancy Pants profiler couldn’t look out for himself, Paige wasn’t going to bother.
“Who were you talking to and what do they plan to do?” If some vampire hunters were planning a full-on assault of the house, Paige had to find a way to get Brady out, even if he had to run on his own. She wouldn’t make it through the line of vamps waiting outside, but he would.
“They want Dorothy dead. You two seem to have done that.”
“Dorothy?” Paige stared at Hunter in horror. He knew the bitch. He knew the bitch that had killed Brady. He knew the bitch that had stood watching as Monagas had raped women.
Hunter seemed to sag and his weapon dropped a couple of inches. Now it was Paige’s kneecaps that seemed in danger. “Yeah, I knew her. She was a bitch, a monster, and her attempt to set up some sort of court here was costing people’s lives. I came here to kill her, her and all the vamps she was gathering around her. But here’s a reality check for you, Silver. If you kill all the low-level vamps before you take out the head of the clan, they make more. Instead of saving lives, you end up giving them an excuse to kill more people. So yes, I said it was time to finish things. With Dorothy dead, I can send all her little lapdogs back to hell without wondering if she’s going to go out and replace them by kidnapping some bus full of nuns. The goal is to get rid of as many demons as I can.” Hunter glared at Brady. Honestly though, he was showing more manners than Paige had expected.
“If you even try to touch Brady—”
“He won’t have a chance,” Brady interrupted.
“Try me,” Hunter shifted, widening his stance.
Paige put out an arm to hold Brady back. “Hunter, he’s my fucking partner and I’ll shoot you myself if you even think of it.”
“Partner? A demon? All demons want are pets and whores,” Hunter snapped. Paige didn’t even have time to blink before she was sailing at the wall. Both her hands slapped against the old plaster so hard that dust rose. Before she could even turn, something hit her lower back, pushing her into the wall again. Then two bodies crashed down next to her and Paige scrambled back out of the way as Hunter and Brady grappled with each other.
Hunter’s shirt had ripped and now she could see just how heavily muscled he was. Biceps bulged as he tried to hold Brady off. However, human muscles were no match for Brady. She watched as Brady steadily forced Hunter’s gun hand to the floor. Paige sucked in a breath to shout a warning a half second before Hunter brought his knee up and slammed it into Brady’s crotch. Brady gave a God-awful yell, but he didn’t let go. From the grimace on Hunter’s face, Brady just tightened his grip on Hunter’s wrists.
“Son of a bitch.” Hunter arched his back and as near as Paige could tell, he tried to flip Brady over his head. That move might work on wrestling shows, but it wasn’t working here.
“Don’t kill him,” Paige said the second it looked like Brady had actually won the fight. If Brady had to kill Hunter to protect himself, that was one thing, but to kill him in cold blood….
“Yeah, tell the demon to not kill,” Hunter said from between clenched teeth.
“Be nice. She’s the only reason I haven’t killed you yet,” Brady said. With a graceful rolling motion, he stood and pulled Hunter up with him. Brady was a tall man, but Hunter had two inches and sixty pounds on him, so it looked strange to see Brady pin Hunter to the wall. He held both Hunter’s wrists and pinned them against Hunter’s chest in order to press him back into the wall, trapping him.
“Who’s coming in and what weapons will they have?” Brady demanded. His eyes were red and Paige moved close enough to rest a hand against his shoulder.
“Hunter, the goal here is to avoid conflict,” Paige said in her most reasonable tone of voice. The boys weren’t being reasonable, so someone had to be.
“You think you have control of this situation, but he’ll turn on you, Silver. You can’t trust demons,” Hunter said in a grim tone before he pressed his lips together. Paige guessed that he had about a dozen contingency plans for getting captured. He was too good of a soldi
er to give up this easily. He was also avoiding giving them answers.
“He’s stonewalling. His backup’s coming,” Paige said. “We have to get you out of here.” She pulled at Brady’s arm, but moving him was like trying to move stone.
“It’s too dangerous. The vamps will go for you,” Brady said.
“I didn’t say I was going. I know I can’t get through them. I’m not fast enough. But these vampire hunters are looking for demons. They aren’t going to kill me.”
“Is that right?” Brady demanded. He pulled Hunter away from the wall and then slammed him back against it again. Hunter didn’t answer.
“I’m not leaving you,” Brady said when Hunter refused to give them an answer.
“Brady, he’s just trying to keep you here. He wants you in this house when his vampire hunter buddies show up. You’re the one who has to get out of here.” Paige was so busy making her argument that she didn’t see what Hunter did, but suddenly the two men were on the ground again. Now Brady was on the bottom, his hands still holding Hunter’s wrists, only there was blood seeping out from a long gash in his leg. Hunter had a knee in Brady’s stomach and he had one hand braced against Brady’s bare chest while he tried to pull his other hand free of Brady’s grasp.
Paige pulled her weapon. “Freeze!” she yelled. She almost added “Oxbow Police Department” but this wasn’t exactly official business.
“Knock it off, Silver,” Hunter snapped without letting go of Brady.
“Hunter,” Paige said in her most dangerous voice, “I have never killed in the line of duty, but someone attacking my partner…that is justification for deadly force, so do not underestimate me.”
Hunter finally looked over and something in Paige’s expression made him freeze. He still crouched over Brady, but he didn’t fight when Brady shoved him to one side. Instead, he sat against the wall, his hands held up in surrender. Paige didn’t have any illusions. He was still going to try to take Brady out, maybe he’d even try to kill her, but she wouldn’t make it easy.
“It’s hard to fight humans without breaking all their bones,” Brady said as he stood up.
“True,” a new voice said. Paige flinched to the side, but when Hunter reached for his gun, she steadied her weapon and let Brady deal with the new threat. He had leaped up to stand between her and the newcomer. “Humans are so ridiculously breakable, even the strongest of them.”
“Fuck you too,” Hunter told the new guy. “And it’s the human who has a gun pointed at my head, so don’t go crowing about the greatness of your sorry species.”
“Your species?” Paige risked a glance. The new man wore a jean-jacket coat that went out of style in the eighties and long hair pulled back into a ponytail, but something in the way he moved made her think of age and strength. It took her a second to realize that he was the man who had been standing outside her house the night she’d chased Hunter’s partner out into the dark. Hunter had insisted he wasn’t a demon, and clearly, Hunter lied. She focused on Hunter. “You fucking hypocrite.”
“Welcome to the Grand Poobah of the vampire hunter secrets.” Hunter gave an exaggerated shrug.
“You work for demons.” Paige felt like she’d been hit in the stomach and Brady was back to growling as he faced this new man.
“Hey, I consider it a pest problem. If you leave one really big cockroach running around where you can see it, it stops all the little cockroaches from breeding in the shadows,” Hunter said with a nasty smile toward their new guest.
“This coming from a creature with the lifespan of a cockroach,” the new man offered coldly.
Brady took a step forward, his body arched and tense. “Who are you?”
“Ah, Dorothy’s young one. She thought to finally get what she wanted in you.” He sounded curious rather than hostile, but the hairs on Paige’s arms still stood up.
“Answer his question or I’ll shoot your pet human,” Paige threatened. She could never kill in cold blood, but this guy didn’t know that.
“Fine,” he said amiably. “Hunters are easy to come by and that one is more annoying than most.” The man strode through the open door into the parlor, leaving the rest of them to follow or not.
“Asshole,” Hunter muttered, his hands still raised.
“And you lectured me about not trusting a demon?” Paige demanded.
“Hey, I don’t trust the bastards,” Hunter snapped. “Using an enemy is not the same thing as expecting them to be your friend.” With a glare toward Brady, he made it pretty damn clear who he considered enemy. “Can I put my hands down now or do you actually plan to shoot me, Silver? I mean, that’s pretty much my last secret that just walked through, so it’s not like I have anything else to try to protect from you.”
Paige didn’t know what to do, but Brady rested a hand on top of her forearm. “He’s not the real power here.”
“That guy is?” Paige guessed.
Brady nodded. Paige let him push her weapon down and then she holstered it, still watching Hunter carefully.
Hunter put his hands down and then got up from the ground, brushing dirt off his pants. “That guy is an arrogant asshole,” Hunter said, and he sure didn’t try to keep his voice down, “but he keeps his court nice and small and avoids murdering civilians, so he’s the best of a very bad lot. It’s like making a deal with a drug smuggler to get a pedophile ring. It’s an ugly deal all around, but it’s sanctioned because it’s the best deal to be had.”
“Keep making excuses,” Paige said nastily.
Hunter stopped and pinned her with a dark look. “Look, small-town girlie, maybe you don’t know how wars are fought, but you use the weapons you have, so don’t lecture me on how to fight this war. I’ve been in this game for a long time.”
“And I’ll take you out of it if you talk to her like that again,” Brady warned.
Hunter gave him a nasty smile. “How’s the leg?” he asked with exaggerated sweetness. Paige could see blood staining Brady’s pants and dripping off the hem. Hunter turned to her. “How many people will he kill to heal that? If you hurt these guys, they turn around and kill. Are you okay with that? A couple of bullets to the head and you’ll save someone from being your buddy’s dinner.”
“I won’t kill anyone,” Brady said. “Except possibly for you if you don’t get out of my sight.” Brady gave Hunter a nasty look, but most of his attention was focused on the door to the parlor.
“You can feel him, can’t you?” Hunter glanced toward the parlor. “Vamps aren’t human,” he said, aiming his words toward Paige, “they have rules we can’t even understand. So when you figure out that your partner is well and truly gone, you come find me in the kitchen. You’d be a damn good hunter, and since you know the big-ass secret, we can probably skip a couple of the nastier tests.” Hunter strode toward the kitchen, leaving Brady and Paige alone in the hall.
Paige put up a hand to lean on the wobbly railing. She needed to hang on to something. “Well, shit. I so did not see that coming.” Brady didn’t answer her. “That would explain how he knows so much about demons,” she mused. Brady stared at the parlor door and Paige’s guts clenched as she realized they were going to have to face the man in there. This was the man who had sent Hunter after the bitch woman. Dorothy. Every Dorothy she’d ever known was someone’s grandmother.
She reached out and rested a hand against Brady’s arm. “Brady?” she asked softly.
“He’s dangerous.”
“So are we,” Paige pointed out. Brady turned to look at her, his red eyes studying her while his hand came up to cup her cheek.
Paige smiled at him and leaned closer, her fingers tracing over the frown lines on his face. “We could run for it.”
He shook his head. “Don’t leave a perp at your back—someone taught me that once.” A boyish smile erased his frown.
“I did, huh? I must be a good teacher.” Paige fell silent. Brady’s hand was fever-warm against her cheek and she could feel shivers run through him.
After several minutes, he pulled away from her. “Ready?” she asked.
He nodded. Pulling his hand back, he turned and walked into the parlor, his body arching into inhuman curves.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Paige followed and stood at the door, strangely hesitant to intrude. Brady stood in the middle of the room, looking at this new demon. Most of the time, Paige looked at Brady and saw a man. Sometimes he developed this alien body language that made her want to pull back. However, most of the time, he was Brady. This new demon—there was nothing human about him even if he was in a human body. He stood ramrod straight, his neck stretched up and the black ponytail hanging down his back. He’d thrown one arm out to the side and the hand was bent strangely so that it faced the ground. His other hand drifted across the back of an old chair as if reading Braille in the velvet. He had a sharp face with a long nose and amber eyes. Even if Paige didn’t know about demons, she would’ve guessed there was something different about him. Hell, she had guessed there was something wrong with him when she’d seen him outside her house and Hunter had fucking lied to her face.
“Who are you?” Brady asked. He tucked his hands close to his body as though ready to spring into action. His nervousness was making Paige nervous.
“Gavril.” His hand stilled and his gaze traveled over Brady’s body before he turned to study Paige. Brady sidestepped to block Gavril’s line of sight and the man jerked his head back and showed teeth. However, the snarl smoothed into a smile. “So very young, you are.”
“Such a strange name you have,” Brady countered.
He angled his body toward Brady. “Not particularly. In my day and my age it was common enough. Were you to live as long as I, you would find people looking at you quite strangely if they were to hear your name. Brady. It sounds foreign to my ear.”
“You’re old,” Paige said, more to hurry the conversation along than anything else.
“Very,” he agreed. He peered at her, his eyes narrowing. “Had I known Dorothy was likely to find strigoi here, I would have stepped in far earlier.” Gavril moved so that once again he could look at Paige.