Kiss of Darkness

by Loribelle Hunt

  “We have to find him.”

  There was a long deep silence.

  “I’ll find him,” Dupree said.

  “You aren’t surprised,” Winter answered, tilting her head to one side as if waiting for an answer to a question.

  “No.” He shook his head. “All the scenes smelled…off. You would have realized it if you weren’t so distracted.” He jerked a nod toward Marcus but she ignored the implication. He added softly, “I know you don’t want to accept it. To believe it. I don’t either, but it could happen to any of us.”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense,” she whispered.

  “How did she die?” he asked Dupree, whose face grew harsh, cold and brutal.

  “Something ripped her throat out.”

  He was shocked not so much at the cause of death but the delivery. “That was the killing blow?”

  Dupree ground his back teeth together before answering. “There were other signs of injury on her. Demon claws.”

  No chance of it being an out-of-control lupine then and that wasn’t how nightwalkers killed. Mitchell was no doubt grateful for that. He certainly was. The room was quiet, everyone deep in thought. Winter had withdrawn to a place in her mind he couldn’t follow. When she spoke he had the overwhelming urge to grab her up and run, hide her and contain her somewhere in the world she’d never escape and never be in danger.

  “We can find him.” She spoke to Dupree. “Gia will stay here.”

  Dupree shook his head. “No point in both of us going.”

  She huffed. “Bullshit. Both of us or no one. This is not a suicide run, Dupree.”

  They exchanged a long look Marcus couldn’t even begin to unravel and finally the hybrid nodded. “Okay,” he said.

  “Good.” She took a deep breath and turned to him. “I’m hunting with Dupree tonight. We can move fast and efficiently together. You can reach me if I send a location, right? If you stay connected to me?”

  There was no way he was letting her go alone. “I could. But I’m going with you.”

  “Me too,” Gia said.

  “No,” Winter answered her friend. “I need you here. I need to know what’s in those histories, what we’re facing. Even if Ben’s gone rogue, this new incursion started long before that. His turning just escalated something that was already happening.”

  Gia opened her mouth to argue but Winter interrupted her. “No. You’re better at this stuff than the rest of us.” She cast an apologetic glance at the hybrid historian. “Sorry, Nadia.”

  She shrugged. “It’s true. Gia’s been at it longer.”

  “There ya go,” Winter said then turned to Dupree. “How long until nightfall?”

  “About twenty minutes.”

  “Okay. What’s your plan?”

  Dupree studied her as if trying to decide how serious she was, if he could talk her out of it. Marcus was joined to her. He could have advised the man to not waste his breath, but he held his counsel, hoping maybe her friends could convince her to stay in safety when he couldn’t. No such luck.

  “They won’t go back to the safe houses.”

  “No,” she agreed.

  “But maybe they’ll keep a watch on Ben’s place.”

  “Maybe.”

  “If they do and we show up, if you show up, they’ll come in.”

  “Maybe. But how many do they have? And even if we call in everyone we can are we leaving ourselves open somewhere else?”

  Dupree shook his head. “I don’t think this is that complicated. Not yet.”

  “Maybe.” She stood facing Dupree, hands on her hips, and Marcus sensed him accepting Winter’s lead, backing down. “We need intel more than anything right now.”

  “I have the patrol reports from last night, and the quad ran patrols all day today, too,” Gia said, frowning. “Those just include ours and neutral territory. I wonder if Mitchell will give us access to his stuff?”

  He straightened. He didn’t want the lupine alpha anywhere near Winter. He’d backed off, but he still wanted her, still felt like he had a prior claim on her friendship if nothing else. He stared down at her, struggling with his own nature. Her pale blond hair hung loose, framing her face and giving it a softer look but it couldn’t disguise the determination in her eyes.

  Winter couldn’t say why she shifted closer to Marcus, why she didn’t resist the instinct to assure him Mitchell wasn’t a threat. He should be a threat, damn it. Her hand rested against Marcus’s thigh, rigidly muscled, tense.

  “Task force, remember? We’re all supposed to be sharing information.”

  She watched his internal struggle flash across his face, watched him fight his dominant instincts, and was pleased when logic seemed to win.

  “Call him,” he said.

  She smiled then felt a blush spread up her neck at the sudden flash of memory, of him moving in her, loving her slowly and completely. He arched an eyebrow, crowded closer to her, and she groaned mentally.

  Later, baby. I promise.

  She couldn’t even blame him for putting the image in her mind or the way her body revved up at his proximity. That was all the product of her memory, her imagination. God, she had to get a grip on her libido. With any luck and a lot of skill, she’d be able to indulge it later.

  While she’d been lost in her thoughts, Gia had been on the phone. Now she flipped it closed.

  “Mitchell and Baron are on the way. Plus the quad.”

  “Good,” she answered and resigned herself to waiting.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Benjamin hid in the trees careful to match his scent and smell to the animals lurking nearby. It wasn’t difficult, just required concentration, a skill he’d developed and nurtured over the years. He didn’t know any who could match him. He hated hiding, wanted to barge in, search and destroy and gorge on living blood. But he waited instead, forcing patience on a creature who was unaccustomed to it.

  A lupine passed nearby, pausing as if he realized something was not quite right in this section of patrolled land near their lair. Slowly, carefully, Benjamin let his power swell a little but continued to force it inward instead of out. He laid a cloak of invisibility over himself, all the while keeping his scent that of the boar a few feet away. The lupine passed by.

  He kept a dam on the satisfaction that surged through him, not willing to give himself away when he was so close. He’d discovered something fascinating a few days ago and now proved his theory was correct. When he’d consumed the first hybrid’s heart and brain, he’d felt his power grow, felt it expand. By the end of the evening he’d suspected he’d not only taken the hybrid’s soul, but his skills.

  When a human merged his soul with a demon’s, he never knew what powers he’d receive. Strength and long life, of course. Some immunity against the demon poison. Everyone seemed to get teleporting too. But everything else was a crap shoot. Invisibility had never been a skill of his, but he knew who it had belonged to and he’d taken it for his own.

  Mitchell and Baron stepped out of the front door of the house that fronted the pack’s lair and walked to a waiting car. Carefully, he eased out of the foliage he’d been hiding in and hurried to the car he’d hidden near the road. He should have thought of this plan earlier. The hybrids had gone underground, weren’t likely to return to anyplace he knew, but eventually Winter would either go to Mitchell or he’d come to her. He sneered. Look what friendship got you. Caught in a trap that was inescapable. And the bitch kept escaping his traps. It was infuriating, the rage now honed to a razor-sharp edge. He needed her. Her heart. Her brain. Her strength.

  He reached the hidden automobile and waited for the lupines to pass him on the road. When they did, he waited, gave them time to get far enough ahead so he could still follow but without being seen. They stayed on the country road until it bisected a four-lane highway where they turned left, headed north. He followed, banged his fist against the steering wheel thirty minutes later when they turned into the lane that led to the night
walker Lord’s house.

  The demons who’d survived last night had claimed the man fighting alongside her was a nightwalker, but he’d discounted it. Nightwalkers didn’t work with anyone, didn’t know the first thing about cooperation. It was clear something had changed and that didn’t bode well for him.

  He found a place to turn the car around and headed back into Camden to plan, not fully trusting his abilities, especially the new ones, to conceal him on walker land. How to deal with this new development? He growled, low and menacing and unheard in the confines of the car. He’d screwed himself and he knew it.

  Months ago when he’d been preparing to retire, a long-earned retirement with his wife to the beach, he’d recommended Winter to the council as his replacement believing she was the only one of the quad leaders strong enough to lead the whole region. Unless he missed his guess, the council had taken that suggestion to heart.

  But not only was Winter strong, she was smart and she surrounded herself with people just as smart and strong. They would have figured out by now he wasn’t dead, would have figured out that Janet had been killed by a demon early one morning walking through their woods. And it wouldn’t take Winter long to discover the demons’ lair especially if the nightwalkers and lupines worked with her. It had been remarkably easy once he set out to find it. He’d actually been embarrassed he hadn’t figured it out before.

  Of course, he’d still had part of his human soul then. He should have turned himself in then and there, let the non-compromised hybrids handle it. But he couldn’t. He’d avenge his wife’s murder and embrace the demon if he had to in order to get it done. He’d had to.

  It hadn’t taken him long to sniff out the monster. It had infuriated him that he couldn’t get close to the demon warlord. The warlord who it turned out wanted Winter. Why Ben was unable to determine, but he’d realized damned quick he could use her to get close to the warlord, close enough he might be able to kill the warlord, might get his vengeance.

  He gave himself completely over to his demon and joined the real monsters. It was a calculated risk. The lesser demons couldn’t touch him, but the higher-ranking ones would have killed him if not for the fact he was the warlord’s new pet. Still, he never let his guard down. Never slept in their lair despite spending most of his nights there hoping the warlord would let his guard down.

  And now a mistake he’d made months ago compromised his plan. Unless…it was possible Winter could help him. Without realizing it of course. She’d know by now he’d gone rogue. She’d know to stop the attacks she’d have to kill him and she would guess the best way to do that would be to find the lair. But she wouldn’t go in alone. She’d seen some of their numbers the previous night. She’d invade the lair in force. She might even be able to get close enough to the warlord to injure him. She wouldn’t be able to defeat him, but that wouldn’t stop her from trying. He would wait. Bide his time until they were both weak enough to kill.

  She wouldn’t lead the raid at night. She’d wait until day. The daylight was different in the underworld where the demons came from and, though the earth’s light wouldn’t kill them, it slowed them down. Some became so lethargic it was almost like a coma. Some it seemed to barely affect, like the warlord and some of the senior soldiers. They were the danger, the reason he’d never taken the risk himself. He wanted his vengeance too much to do something stupid. And he wanted control.

  He wanted the warlord’s power.

  He didn’t care who had to die to get it.

  He reached the parking garage he kept the car in and contemplated going down into the lair. Would he be able to keep his glee to himself? His anticipation of the attack he knew was coming? He turned the car off, took a deep breath and felt the blood rushing through his veins, turning his vision red. No. Couldn’t hide it, couldn’t go down yet.

  He stepped out of the car and walked in the opposite direction. He’d hunt instead. Maybe he’d find a hybrid or lupine or nightwalker for dinner. He wondered if he could take a nightwalker’s power or a lupine’s physical strength the same way he could a hybrid’s. His step lightened. It was worth a try.

  Chapter Thirty

  Winter sniffed the air. Kara was cooking. Probably a good idea since so many people were due to show up at any minute, but Winter knew the other woman did it more for cheap therapy than anything else. She’d heard Dupree arguing with her again.

  Just as she’d argued with Marcus when he told her he was leaving to check up on some of his people. Without her. She should have been glad for the space. Instead she was irritated. It was okay for him to take risks but not her? It hadn’t done her any good to protest, however. At least he’d taken Luke with him for backup.

  Sighing, she went into the dining room to help Gia and Nadia. She’d have to deal with Kara’s petition soon, but it was on the list for later. That later list was getting insanely long.

  The room was chaos. They’d brought in a medium-sized table to set up the computers and phones. It was a cluttered mess, but not nearly as bad as the long dining-room table which was covered with stacks of old books and scrolls. Winter didn’t know how the hell Gia found anything in the disorder, but as usual she seemed in total control of the chaos.

  She was setting up a big easel when Winter walked in then lifted a large white board onto it. Winter stepped closer and saw it was the Commander’s map from Ben’s office. The large four-by-four foot board was printed with a map of the city, divided into quadrants and then sections. Gia started coloring some in with multicolored erasable markers. Winter studied it as Gia worked.

  “These are the areas that have checked in today?”

  “And yesterday. Blue for in the last hour. Yellow the last twelve hours. And red for not for twenty-four hours.”

  There was a lot of red.

  “Those need to be redone ASAP.”

  “Dupree’s organizing it.” She paused, looking at the board. “We need more people.”

  “We always need more people. We’ll make do.”

  Gia met her gaze and Winter saw her concern and weariness and anger reflected in the other woman’s gaze. Gia spoke softly enough so Nadia, the only other person in the room, couldn’t overhear. “I don’t think that’s going to cut it this time.”

  “I know,” she answered just as softly then continued in a normal tone. “We need to find their lair. Attack them at the heart.”

  “Yes.” She sighed. “But I’m out of ideas.”

  Tilting her head to one side, Winter studied the map. Could it be that simple? If it was, she was an idiot. They all were. She picked up two more markers, one purple and the other green, tapped them against each other while she considered her words.

  “The patrols Dupree’s been running with the lupines. Are they in our territory or Mitchell’s?”

  Gia blinked, understanding coloring her cheeks. “Shit,” she muttered. “Theirs I think.”

  The front door opened and shut with a thudding sound and after a few seconds Mitchell came into the room. She was glad Marcus had disappeared and Mitchell returned her embrace with hard squeeze before releasing her. He stepped back and grinned at her, but his attention was soon caught and held by the map board. He approached and studied it.

  “Your patrols?”

  “Yeah.” She handed him the green marker. “Why don’t you fill yours in?”

  “You’re thinking there’s a hole in our patrols somewhere. A dead zone that no one goes in.”

  “Yeah. I am.”

  The more she thought about it the more certain she was that was the case. And wherever that hole was, wherever that unpatrolled section was, was where the demon lair was hidden.

  Marcus and Luke entered as Mitchell was finishing. She explained what they were doing and Luke took the purple marker from her. When he was finished they stood back and looked.

  “Fuck me. Don’t tell me that’s what I think it is.” She turned at the voice, saw the quad had entered and nodded at Lance.

  “That, ladie
s and gentlemen, is the location of the demon lair,” she responded with a smile full of anticipation.

  Lance walked forward, frowning. “It’s downtown. There haven’t been any reports of demon activity or sightings down there.”

  She shook her head. No, there hadn’t been. The better to hide their lair. She was positive that’s where they were.

  “They’ll be underground,” Gia offered, walking to her computer.

  “What are you doing?” Luke asked, having followed her and now looking over her shoulder.

  “Checking out the city’s zoning and planning database.”

  He arched an eyebrow and Winter bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing at his disbelieving expression. There went Gia’s innocent reputation. “You’re hacking it?”

  Gia shrugged. “Not really. I have a password.”

  “Whose?” he demanded.

  Winter rolled her eyes. “It’s not important right now. Can we focus? Or let her focus?”

  Luke met her gaze and she knew he was furious at what he believed to be her interference. She stared him down, but it was Marcus who moved up behind her and set a hand on her hip that seemed to dissuade Luke from giving vent to his temper. The room fell silent, the only sound the clicking of keys on the keyboard until Gia began to laugh. She looked up and met Winter’s eyes.

  “God, we’re idiots. Come look.” She stood and stepped away so Winter could sit and look at the schematic on the screen.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “The old city, which in the way of old cities…”

  “Is underground.”

  “Yep. The whole area is condemned and blocked off. It’s unlikely someone would stumble on to it by accident. We’re all idiots. This should have occurred to us long ago.”