by Elisa Adams
That kind of behavior seemed pretty common lately. “What are you going to do about it?”
Amara shrugged. “Nothing, right now. But I might need your help later if I change my mind.”
Ellie smiled, knowing Amara wouldn’t wait long before she decided to crack some heads. If Marco was indeed hiding something from her, she pitied him. Despite her small stature, Amara was ruthless. “If you need me, let me know. I think I’d enjoy watching the two of them squirm.”
Chapter 11
“You’re late,” Royce said as Eric approached.
Eric narrowed his eyes at the other man. “Something came up. It couldn’t be avoided. What have you learned?”
Royce nodded to a dilapidated three-story apartment house on the corner of the quiet street. “Watch. I think you’ll enjoy this.”
Eric took a seat on the stone wall next to Royce and settled his gaze on the building. A few minutes later, a man walked out the door and jogged down the road in the opposite direction. Eric’s senses prickled. He’d caught a glimpse of the man’s face before he’d turned his back to them, and he didn’t like what he’d seen. “That can’t be Antonio.”
Royce scoffed. “That’s what I thought at first, but it is.”
“Shit.” Eric let out a sigh as he watched Antonio’s form fade into the darkness of the night. “We’re in a lot of trouble here.”
“Gee, really?” Royce lowered himself off the stone wall and walked a few feet down the road, but he didn’t follow Antonio. “If we go after him now, Aiala will kill us. Or he will.”
Eric couldn’t agree more. “That’s exactly what she wants us to do. She expects us to tail him so he can lead us right to her.”
“Yeah, but it gets worse,” Royce confirmed, pointing toward the house Antonio had just exited. “Do you know who lives with him?”
“No.”
“Ellie’s sister, Becca.”
Eric’s mouth went dry and his heart rate tripled. If anything ever happened to Ellie’s sister, she’d never forgive him. Hell, he’d never forgive himself. “What do we do now? We can’t touch him, or Becca might end up dead.”
“Yeah. I know. I wish I had the answers, but I’m at a total loss.” Royce raked his hand through his long blond hair and turned back to Eric. “We’ve got to get her away from him. I hate to admit this, but I think we’re going to need Sam’s help with this one.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Eric pulled out his cell phone and started to dial Sam’s number, but changed his mind and dialed another one instead. After three rings, he heard the sound of Liam’s deep, raspy voice on the other end.
“Yeah?”
“Liam, it’s Eric.”
“Hey, Eric. Hold on.” Eric heard faint rustling in the background, accompanied by a woman’s muffled complaints.
“Sorry about that. What’s up?” Liam asked when he came back on the phone.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No. Debbie was just leaving,” Liam confirmed. “Ouch! Sorry. I meant Maggie. Relax. Okay, Eric, what do you need?”
Eric resisted the urge to laugh. Liam was young—very young as far as cats went—but completely capable of what Eric needed him to do. “Can you get away for a couple of days? I need you to watch someone for me.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Eric gave him the particulars and hung up the phone, satisfied that he’d gotten at least one task accomplished. Now he had to tackle the rest of them. “All set,” he confirmed to Royce. “I’ve got someone coming to watch over Becca until we can get Antonio straightened out.”
“What about Ellie?”
A spike of white-hot anger tore through Eric as Royce mentioned her name. “Don’t worry about her. I’ll take care of her.”
Royce held his hands on front of him in mock-surrender. “Okay. Fine. You do that.” He turned away, shaking his head. When he looked back, Eric thought he caught a glimpse of sadness in the man’s eyes. He brushed it away, not sure Royce was capable of such emotions.
“How’s that sister of yours?” Royce asked, taking Eric by surprise. “I haven’t seen her in a few hundred years. Is she still as cute now as she was then?”
Again, Eric had to fight the urge to tear Royce apart. White-hot anger swelled in him until he felt like he might burst. “You leave my sister alone.”
Royce stared at him for a long time, his gaze boring into Eric’s. “Now you know how I feel about Ellie. I think of her as family, and I just don’t want to see her hurt.”
Eric glared at Royce. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
* * * * *
A draft blew across Ellie’s face, waking her from a deep sleep. She sat up in bed and looked around the room, searching for the source of the disturbance. The French doors leading to her small balcony were wide open, the sheer white curtains billowing in the breeze. Fear knifed through her. She reached for the phone on the bedside table, but a cold hand clamped over hers before she could lift the receiver. She looked up into the inhuman glowing eyes of a gigantic man dressed in black.
She opened her mouth to scream, but his free hand covered her mouth. “Shut up. You. Come with me.” His voice sounded oddly stilted, like he didn’t speak English well—but he had no discernible accent.
She grabbed his wrist and jerked his hand off her mouth and pushed at the man’s chest, but he didn’t budge. He encircled her wrists in his hands, and without any effort, lifted her from the bed. She didn’t even bother to fight yet, it would be useless. A man this big could overpower her easily.
Unless she caught him off-guard.
He was strong, but he didn’t appear to be an astrophysicist. If she could distract him and gain the upper hand, which shouldn’t be too hard considering his apparent lack of usable brain matter, she might be okay.
Her gaze fell on a vase on her dresser that her mother had given her for a birthday present last year. She’d always hated the thing anyway, so it would make the perfect distraction. She kicked it over, sending it to the floor with a crash. When he turned to investigate the noise, she ducked out from under his grasp. He was quicker than she’d first assumed, grabbing her around the waist before she could get very far. She picked up a chair from near the closet and swung it at his head. It connected with a smack and she heard the sound of snapping bones.
“Bitch!” He charged at her, but she ducked again. Another blow with the chair momentarily stunned him. He stood a few feet away from her, close to the open French doors, his breath heaving in and out of his lungs as if he’d just run a marathon. Before she could decide on her next move, the bedroom door burst open and Charlotte ran in, a cast iron frying pan in her hand. “What’s going on in here? I heard a crash.”
Ellie gestured to the advancing thug. “He got in through the balcony.”
Charlotte snorted. “Oh, easy.” Without giving Ellie a chance to speak, she flung the frying pan at the man. It hit him in the shoulder, and while he stumbled from the blow Charlotte took care of him with a quick side-kick to the chest. He staggered backwards and flipped over the balcony railing. They listened as his scream ended abruptly in a thud.
“Oh, shit,” Charlotte said, blinking hard. “Do you think I killed him?”
Ellie ran to the balcony and peered over the edge. The man lay motionless on the grass two stories below, his head bent at an odd angle. “Um, yeah. I’m pretty sure he’s dead.”
She pulled on a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants over her nightshirt and slipped a pair of canvas sneakers on her feet. She ran through the house with Charlotte right behind her, throwing open the front door and sprinting into the yard. The moonlit night made it easy to find the body on the ground. A quick check of his wrist confirmed that he had no pulse. “Charlotte, you’d better hope we can find some way to fix this.”
Charlotte shrugged, but Ellie saw the nervousness in her sister’s stance. “What do you want me to do? I can’t bring him back to life. Hey, it was self-defense, right?”
&nbs
p; Ellie shook her head and started walking back toward the house. “I’m going to call Amara. Maybe she’ll know what to do. You stay here and watch him.”
Charlotte’s comment reached her as she got to the front door. “Why? He’s not going anywhere.”
A few minutes later Ellie heard a car pull into the driveway. She said a quick prayer that it would be Amara—and that she’d come alone.
“Ellie? What’s going on? I’ll have you know that Marco isn’t too happy about you dragging me away for some emergency.” Amara walked around the corner of the house, her hair a mess and her shirt buttoned wrong. “Why are the two of you out here in the middle of the night, whispering like a couple of teenagers? I’m sure there are better places to hold a conversation than— Oh, my God. There’s a body in your yard!”
“Well, now that we’re all clear on that, would you both mind giving me a hand?” Ellie gave his arms a hard yank, but only succeeded in tearing his jacket. “This isn’t going to work if you don’t help me.”
Amara recovered quickly, dismissing her shock with a quick nod. “I had a feeling that something was going to happen. I guess I was right.” She bent down to lift the man’s ankles. Ellie and Charlotte each took an arm, and they were finally able to lift him off the ground.
“Geez. This guy must be three hundred pounds. I’m going to get a hernia,” Charlotte complained.
“Shut up. The last thing we need is for Nana to wake up,” Ellie scolded her as they half-dragged half-carried the body across the yard.
“Ellie? Charlotte?”
All three of them dropped the body when they heard Carol’s whispered voice.
“What are you doing here?” Ellie asked, standing up and wiping her hands on her sweats. Could this night possibly get any worse? “Go back to bed.”
Carol shook her head. “Not until you explain to me what you’re doing trying to drag an unconscious man around the yard.”
“He’s not unconscious. He’s dead,” Charlotte chimed in, sounding a little too proud of herself.
“Dead?” Even in the moonlight, Ellie could see Carol’s face pale. “Dead?”
“Yes, dead,” Charlotte confirmed, looking annoyed. “I hate to sound like a cliché here, but it was either him, or Ellie and me. Will somebody grab his legs so we can get this guy out of here?”
Carol shook her head. “He can’t be dead.”
“Well, he is.” Charlotte leaned down and grabbed his arms again, tugging hard enough to rip the sleeve of his shirt. “Do you see the way his head is crooked on his shoulders? That’s not supposed to happen. The feet, Ellie.”
Someone coughed in the background. All four women turned toward the corner of the house, where Royce was standing. “Girl talk over a dead body? That’s a new one.”
None of them spoke a word, so he continued. “Which one of you lovely ladies is responsible for his current condition? Or was it a group effort?”
“That would be me,” Charlotte admitted. “He attacked Ellie, and he would have attacked me. It was self-defense.”
Royce crossed his arms over his chest. “And exactly what were you planning to do with the body?”
“Dump it in the ocean,” Charlotte answered as if it should have been obvious.
“Wouldn’t have done you any good. He’d just have come back to life as soon as his neck healed.” A new voice came from the shadows.
Ellie’s jaw dropped when she heard Eric speak. He walked around the side of the house and came to stand next to the body.
“Worthless piece of demon garbage.” He kicked the man with the toe of his shoe. “He deserved to die anyway. You have to watch out for those demon slaves. They have nasty tempers to make up for their stupidity.”
“Demon?” Carol asked, looking ready to faint.
Eric nodded to her before focusing all his attention on Ellie. “Why didn’t you call me? Weren’t you going to tell me what was going on?”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly. Calling Amara was the first thing that came into my head.” She reached down to try to move the body again, but Eric nudged her out of the way.
“Stand away from this jerk for a second, will you?”
“What are you going to do?”
He stared down at her, his eyes hard and cold. “I’ll take care of the body in a way that’s not going to leave any evidence or allow him to reanimate. And then the two of us are going to have a nice, long talk.”
Ellie moved away from the body, going to stand by the house where everyone else had migrated. She watched Eric curiously, wondering just how he planned to get rid of it all by himself.
He raised one hand in the air, pointing it in the direction of the body. It exploded in a puff of smoke and light, leaving no trace on the lawn where it had been. Eric turned, his mouth set in a grim line, and faced the group of them. “Everybody, go home.”
Amara, Charlotte, and Carol started to protest, but Eric stopped them with a wave of his hand. “Goodnight, ladies.” They scattered, going their separate ways without another word.
“Eric, I—” Ellie started, but he didn’t let her finish.
“You, get your cute little ass inside. I have to talk to Royce for a minute, and then I’ll be right in.”
“You know Royce?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. I used to work with him.”
He walked away from her, not giving her a chance to respond to his revelation. In a huff, she went into the house and flopped into a chair at the kitchen table. That was when it hit. The adrenaline rush had subsided, and she realized the gravity of what had happened. A—what had he called it?—demon slave had come after her tonight, no doubt to kill her. He might have succeeded if Charlotte hadn’t come in and helped her.
She rested her arms on the table, burying her face in them, and drew deep, shuddering breaths. Her life was so out of control that she didn’t know if anything would ever be back to normal. Amara might have been right, after all. She was no longer even safe in her own home. Something had to be done, before she or one of her family got hurt.
Five minutes later, Eric walked in through the back door and held his arms out to her. She stood up and ran to him, letting the warmth of his embrace comfort her. Small sobs shook her body as he patted her hair and kissed the top of her head. “Are you going to be okay?”
She looked up at him through the tears shining in her eyes and answered as honestly as she could. “I don’t know.”
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere now. I promise.”
She let him hold her for what seemed like an eternity before she broke away from his embrace. Grabbing a cup from the sink, she filled it with water from the tap and took a gulp, her shaky hands barely able to hold onto it.
“How did you do make him disappear like that?” she asked.
“It’s just something I do. All part of my job.”
Ellie swallowed hard. She didn’t need to hear that. He made it sound so easy, so cold. “Well, thanks. I think I’m going to be okay now. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Damn right you will,” Eric answered, his voice hard. “Because I’m not leaving tonight.”
“I just want to be alone right now. You can’t stay,” she said, her mind stuck on the idea that a demon had tried to kill her. A demon, like Eric? She knew Eric wasn’t the same as the demon slave who’d attacked her, but her mind wouldn’t let her forget that the man she cared about so much was, technically, a monster.
“The hell I can’t! Next time you have a problem, I want you to call me right away. Don’t chance getting hurt.” He shook his head, his gaze angry and hurt. “Better yet, you won’t need to call. I’m moving in.”
“Oh, I don’t think so. You can go right back to your hotel room. I don’t need you here.”
“You want to bet on that?” He stalked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
Ellie followed, still hoping to kick him out before he got too comfortable. Confusion and distress filled her, and she needed time to think thin
gs through. Having Eric hanging around wasn’t exactly conducive to clear thinking. It would be nice to have someone here to watch over her, but she didn’t want it to be Eric. “I don’t want to bet on anything. I just want you to go back to the Middle Ages where you came from. Women don’t get treated like possessions anymore, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“I don’t believe this. I’m trying to keep you from getting killed. Is this all a big joke to you?”
She sighed, tears threatening again. She fought to hold them back, knowing they’d only push him to stay. “No, it’s not a joke. But I don’t think it’s as serious as you’re making it, either.”
“That’s a lie, and we both know it.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down on the couch beside him. “You could have been hurt.”
“I wasn’t.” She yanked her hand away and shifted her body as far away from him as she could get, hoping he didn’t know how much of a mess she was on the inside.
“You could have been killed.” He brushed a stray lock of hair off her face, tucking it behind her ear.
She knocked his hand away even as she wanted to lean into him. “But. I. Wasn’t. What do you care, anyway?”
“I care. Believe me, Ellie, I care.” She saw the intent in his eyes and tried to duck away, but he was too quick. He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her close, brushing his lips over hers.
It took her two seconds to come to her senses and move away from the kiss. She saw the hurt in his eyes from her actions, but she couldn’t do anything to make it better. She hurt, too, but she couldn’t let herself cling to him for support.
“I’m sorry, Eric. I just need some time.”
She just hoped time and space would be enough. She didn’t want to lose him, but she didn’t know what to do to hang on to him, either. Instead of deciding, she stood up and beckoned to him. “I have a small guest room upstairs. You can stay there tonight, since you insist on hanging around.”