by Cynthia Eden
Growling, he lifted his head, tasting her, wanting more, and—
The lust on her face drove the breath from his lungs. The raw need.
The same need he felt.
He was up in a instant, hands flying to the buckle of his belt. Their fingers met, fought, and somehow they managed to get the top of his pants undone and his cock out.
He couldn’t wait to be balls-deep in her.
Todd grabbed Cara, spun her around, and lifted her onto the old table in the middle of the room. The table groaned beneath her, the faded wood protesting, but right then, Todd didn’t give a shit.
If they’d ended up on the ground, he wouldn’t have cared. As long as he’d was inside her ...
Her legs were open, the pink folds of her sex glistening and tempting him. He caught his cock in one hand. Lodged it against that creamy slit.
“Now, love,” she whispered.
He thrust as deep as he could go.
Their eyes met.
He withdrew.
Thrust.
Again. Again. Again.
He covered her mouth to muffle her moans.
To muffle his own.
His thrusts shoved the table across the floor. Cara held on to him, her fingers digging into his arms, her nails scoring his flesh.
He felt her come, that same, wild, mad fury of passion that was hers, his. That joining that he didn’t understand, but longed for with every breath.
Then he was coming, his semen pumping deep into her as he stiffened and fought to hold on to his sanity.
Her hand moved, drifted to his heart.
The pleasure seemed to double. Burning through him, to her, back to him.
The room swirled around him in a flash of colors. His body quivered, his breath panted out.
When the orgasm ended, he lifted his lips, pressed a kiss to her cheek. Tasted tears.
Cara stared up at him, and her skin was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her with that magic light spilling from her—from the inside, out.
Energy pumped through his veins. The power she’d given to him.
Given, not taken.
The salt of her tears seemed to burn his mouth. “Cara?” He’d known only pleasure, and he’d thought she had, too.
Her lips parted. Then the hand still over his heart pushed against him. Pushed him away.
No. He didn’t want to retreat from her. Not yet.
But she was pushing him, and time had run out. The passion had barely been sated, but he’d have her again.
Soon.
He eased away from her, hating the loss of the tight clasp of her body, but he’d already taken enough risks. Losing his control at the station—there were too many eyes in this place.
Both human, and as jerk-ass Niol had so recently pointed out, Other.
“Th-there’s something I have to tell you.” She stood, and the dress fell right back over her flesh.
Damn it.
He righted his clothes with a jerk. “I’m not apologizing for that.”
Her eyes narrowed for a second, then widened with understanding. “Good.”
He blinked.
She stepped away from him. “I-I should have told you this sooner.”
The sound of footsteps echoed in the hall.
Time was definitely almost up.
He caught sight of her panties on the floor. Scooped them up. Enjoyed the feel of the cool silk against his fingers. “We need to think of a cover story. All those cops saw what you did and—”
She waved a hand dismissively. “Most won’t remember.”
“What?”
“The human men won’t. The demons, well, they won’t care.”
“And the women?”
Frustration flashed across her face. “Tell them I hit the guy when we kissed.”
The footsteps were louder now. Closer.
“Tell them whatever you want! It doesn’t matter!” Her hands fisted. “But you have to know, there’s something I should have told you before.”
Now the woman wanted to make some kind of confession? And he’d always heard men were the ones with the piss-poor timing. “Look, we need to—”
“I-I did something once. Crossed the line—that weak line between right and wrong.”
“What?”
Her eyes shifted back to blue as she stared at him. “I—ah, damn, this is hard.” Her shoulders straightened. “But you deserve to know.”
Oh, Jesus, what was the woman about to reveal? And why were his guts twisting into knots?
Because what she’s about to say is going to be bad, real bad.
It didn’t take psychic powers to figure that one out.
“Cara . . .”
A door slammed. Sounded like it was just a few feet away. Someone had to be in the small hallway now, heading straight for them. “This can wait, when we’re someplace secure—”
“No! You have to hear this.” She grabbed his arm.
“Todd, I-I’ve used my powers before, deliberately to hurt—”
“Cara . . .”
“To try to kill.”
The door to the interrogation room flew open. Todd turned to see Gyth standing in the doorway, and one look at those glittering eyes was all it took for Todd to know that his partner had just heard his lover’s confession.
Shit.
Chapter 14
“Not another word, baby, not without a lawyer.” Todd’s face was rock hard. His voice grim.
“No, you need to hear this.” Screw his partner. Todd deserved to know about her. All about her. When he’d touched her earlier, kissed her, it had been so much more than just sex.
Perhaps it had been from the beginning.
No more secrets, no more lies.
She was telling him everything. Her eyes slit as she frowned up at the shifter. “When I’m done, if you want to lock me up, that’s fine.” She’d be out in less than ten minutes once she got a guard under her spell, but he could sure try tossing her butt in jail, if that made the big, bad cop feel better.
Gyth gave a slow nod.
She caught Todd’s hands. Because she needed to touch him again. Because holding him made talking about the past easier. “I-I had a sister once. A twin.”
A dark look passed between the cops.
“We were close. Always close. But so different.” The memory of Nina made her lips curve. “She was dark where I was light. Wild when I was careful. And she knew me. The hidden parts of me that even I didn’t fully understand.”
Not identical, but they’d been a perfect match. Nina with her long, straight dark hair and her golden skin. The smile that had always lit her face and the eyes that had shined, with and without glamour.
“It’s hard to kill my kind.” Her fingers tightened around his. “Damn hard because I’m a demon, and even harder because I’m a succubus.” Not the run-of-the-mill demon blood. So few knew that dark secret.
But he’d known.
“Nina started seeing a human. She fell for him.” A pause. “I thought he cared for her.”
Todd swore, obviously knowing where her story was headed. Hell, of course. Not to a sweet, happily-ever-after ending.
Demons didn’t usually get those.
The shifter remained silent, watching her carefully.
“I felt it when she died,” she whispered. “It was like pain stabbed straight through my soul, and in my mind, I heard her scream.” She could still hear it. Because in that last moment, her sister had cried out for her, helplessly, and Cara hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to save her.
She swallowed back the grief that wanted to choke her. Years had passed, but the wound was still fresh to her. “Her human killed her. The one she trusted, loved.”
Todd flinched.
And it was the shifter who asked, “How?”
It wasn’t a question she would normally answer, but these were far from normal circumstances. One of her kind was out there, killing, and the cops, well, they needed to know how to t
ake the demon down.
“We heal fast,” she said, nodding her head toward Gyth. “Much like you do, I imagine.”
He said nothing.
“Gunshots, knife wounds—they’ll hurt us, but those weapons alone won’t kill a succubus or an incubus.” There was really only one moment when her kind became vulnerable. Her lips twisted as her gaze darted back to Todd. “I told you before, succubi believe that true power rests in the heart, not the mind.” Her power certainly did.
He gave a grim nod of his head.
She lifted her hand, touched his chest and felt the strong beat of his heart beneath her palm. “In that one moment when we take from others,” or give to them, but she wasn’t going to mention her ability to give power, not in front of that dangerous shifter, “we are at our most vulnerable.”
“Cara . . .”
“When I touch your heart,” her voice dropped, “That is the time, the only time, when I’m vulnerable.” When the power began to stir. That first moment, as the air thickened and magic fired her blood. Her hand never moved from his chest and her eyes held his. “In that instant, a human’s weapons—guns, knives—they can kill my kind. A bullet in the heart. A knife. In that one moment, you can destroy a succubus or an incubus, forever.”
As her voice trailed away, silence filled the room. Thick, heavy. Far too tense.
Her hand dropped from his chest and Cara stepped back.
“If Susan was working with someone . . .”
Cara stilled.
Todd’s gaze met Gyth’s. “A man—an incubus ... if they were fighting and she was using her knife on him—”
Todd broke off, shaking his head. “Shit. She had to be hitting close to his upper chest. You saw the spray—”
Gyth whistled softly. “You’re right. Damn it. She attacked him, got too close, and he couldn’t risk draining her. He had to kill her fast, to save his own life.”
“Uh, th-that seems likely,” Cara agreed quietly, her mind whirling. They thought an incubus had been working with the murdered woman?
She’d been the lure.
Her lips parted. Of course! A temptation to pull in the men. It made sense. They hadn’t been bound for kinky fun, they’d been tied so they wouldn’t fight when the incubus appeared.
No wonder she hadn’t felt the draw of another succubus in the city—there wasn’t another one around!
The killer was an incubus ...
Oh, hell.
Cara took a deep breath. The men were still talking about the woman—Susan—and her death. “If she was working with an incubus, she might have known how to kill him, or maybe—maybe she just got lucky.”
Either way, she’d wound up dead and her killer had gotten away.
Todd and Gyth glanced toward her in surprise. Okay, so “lucky” hadn’t been the best word choice. She licked her lips then said, “Look, just remember what I’ve said, okay? My kind—we aren’t vulnerable often, so if you have the chance to strike at the killer, well, you’d better take it.”
There. She’d done it. Given a human and a shifter the most prized secret of her kind. A secret they’d need in order to survive.
Todd’s fingers reached out and snagged her hand. Held tight. “What happened to the man who killed your sister, Cara?”
Ah, now this was the part she’d dreaded from the beginning. Todd had just started to look at her as a woman, and now he’d see the killer lurking inside of her pretty shell.
But perhaps it was time. She’d carried this secret for too long. Seven years.
“I went to him in his dreams.”
Todd’s expression didn’t alter. Those brown eyes of his were steady on her.
“I made him weak. Made him want.” It had been so easy. And she’d been so furious. He’d never met her, didn’t know that she and Nina had a bond beyond death.
Her sister had wanted vengeance.
Cara had given it to her.
“Did you know . . .” It was hard to say the words when he was so close, touching her. “That some can become addicted to the touch of a succubus?” Like a drug addict, needing a fix. If the magic was strong enough, the human was helpless.
She’d made Lance helpless. He’d come to her, eyes desperate, hands sweating. He’d tracked her to her home, screaming at her. Wanting her.
And she’d been ready for him. “I lured him to me.” So easy. “When he found me, I touched him.” She’d nearly drained the bastard dry. His skin had paled. His body had trembled. Tears rained from his eyes.
The rush of power from his body had been so strong. And so dark. Tainted. Twisted.
Lance had been evil. A monster beneath the flesh of a man.
He’d realized what was happening to him—too late.
His heart had lurched beneath her hand. So close to death. To the hell he deserved.
She’d held him there, suspended between the world of the living and the wisps of the eternal, and asked, “Why?”
He’d known what she meant. Knowledge had been in his eyes. He’d smiled at her. “B-be . . . cause the f-fucking . . . b-bitch wouldn’t . . . give ... m-me . . . p-power . . .” Then, he’d managed to gather his strength—she still wasn’t sure how the asshole had done that—and he’d jerked a knife out of his back pocket. One of those stupid, small, Swiss Army knives that men always carried, and he’d plunged the blade right into her chest.
He’d missed her heart, but the attack had thrown her off guard and the bastard had gotten away.
For a time.
“Did you kill him?” It was Gyth who asked the question.
“Don’t—” Todd snapped, shaking his head. “You don’t have to say—”
She tugged her hand from his. “He got away from me.” True. She’d regretted that, hated her failure for years.
“So the bastard’s still out there?” Todd asked, mouth hard. “Tell me his damn name and I’ll—”
“He’s dead now.” And that should really have made things easier for her. “The next day, his body was found in his apartment. Lance killed himself.” That was the story that had been in the papers, anyway.
More silence. The thick, uncomfortable kind that made her want to squirm.
“Is that the whole story?” Gyth asked. She slanted him a look, saw the suspicion in his eyes.
No, it wasn’t the whole story, but she’d told all of her part. She’d confessed to the Monster Doctor about her attack on Lance before.
And if Lance hadn’t pulled that knife—
Well, she wouldn’t have regretted his death. Did that make her evil? She really didn’t know.
I’m a killer. Yeah, that’s what she’d told the Monster Doctor. Because even though she hadn’t been the one to take the last breath from Lance’s miserable body and soul, she’d still been responsible for his death.
“Check the Miami papers. They ran the stories on him for a few days.” She’d been living in Miami back then. The Other always liked the big cities. So easy to blend in with the throngs of people. “The article said that Lance Danvers slit his wrists and bled to death.” Too messy for her taste.
But not for the demon who’d killed Lance.
Suicide. Not damn likely. Not for a man like him.
“Why did you tell me this?” Todd asked.
“Because I wanted you to know there’s a point for humans and paranormals. We can all be pushed too far, and we can all become monsters.” Because she’d truly been a monster that long-ago night. One without pity. Remorse. She would have killed him, and she would have loved every minute of his death.
Her chin lifted as she faced them. She’d just admitted to two cops that she’d attempted murder. “What are you going to do now?” Cara asked, voice soft.
Todd brought his mouth down on hers, hungrily taking her lips. Her hands wrapped around his arms, held on with all her strength.
Behind him, Gyth coughed.
Todd’s dark head rose. “I’m going to thank God that bastard didn’t kill you.”
&n
bsp; She pressed her lips together. Caught his taste. “And what about what I did?”
Todd turned slowly to face Gyth. “She didn’t do anything.” A challenge. Cara could feel the tension pumping through his body. “Isn’t that right, Gyth?”
The shifter’s gaze met hers. Held. Finally, he said, “No crime that I see.” A pause. “And I would have done the same.”
His head inclined toward her slightly.
One predator to another.
The breath she’d been holding expelled in a sharp rush.
“You should have told me sooner,” Todd muttered, bending so that his words whispered into her ear.
Yes, she should have, but the guy had already been dealing with the fact that she was a demon. She hadn’t wanted him to completely freak on her.
But Todd wasn’t showing any signs of freaking. Or running. Or, well, hell, the guy was actually holding pretty tightly to her.
A stab of hope shot through her heart. Maybe, just maybe, Todd would be different.
More footsteps sounded in the hallway. Hard. Determined steps. The shifter tilted his head to the right, said, “McNeal,” about five seconds before the police captain shoved open the door and stalked inside.
He pointed his finger at Cara. “You.”
Her brows lifted. She’d seen the captain a few times, but never actually spoken with the guy.
“You just put on one hell of a show in my precinct, demon.”
Not human. Not completely, anyway. The understanding dawned instantly. As she’d told Todd, the human males would have all forgotten.
Hmm. So just what was the tough captain? She took a step away from Todd, more than ready to defend herself. “What I did,” she said, voice fierce, “was save lives and fix the screw-up one of your officers caused!”
A grunt. Then his hands flew up. “Don’t come any closer!” She saw his nostrils twitch. “I’m taken.”
“Since when?” The words were a bare thread of sound as they slipped past Gyth’s lips.
“So is she,” Todd said.
Gunmetal eyes widened. “Ah, you poor bastard.” McNeal sighed. “Don’t you know demons can’t be trusted?”
Now the guy was pissing her off. The air began to thicken around her.
“She can be.” Her lover’s voice sounded absolutely confident.