Chapter Four
Thankfully, Mara snapped out of her hunger-fueled lust just as I drop-kicked Murkowski to the ground. I grabbed my knife and straddled him, landing on my knees in some foul-smelling liquid that would ruin yet another pair of camo pants. Then I jerked his head back with my free hand and held the blade against his neck. Damn, I hope I didn’t injure Murkowski too badly, but I had to subdue the demon controlling him.
We barely escaped the attention of two lost tourists. The pair sported new cowboy hats and wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Welcome to Nashvegas.” They turned away at the last minute, trading the dark and foreboding alley for neon and noise along the main drag.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Murkowski reached up, growling as he tried to wrap his thick hands around my throat. Mara took him by the wrists and held tight, channeling her inhuman strength as she crouched low and bent to place her mouth over his.
“Wait.” I shoved her hard and earned a snarl for my trouble. I’d never seen a succubus in the throes of such hunger. She was scary.
Still hot as all get-out, but scary.
I bent down, my nose barely an inch from Murkowski’s. “Tell me who sent you.”
I couldn’t allow Mara to consume Murkowski’s soul, nor could I let her drain the demon within Murkowski, at least not until I interrogated him. Murkowski would die, and even powerful demons took a long time to recover from a succubus attack. Getting him out of Murkowski’s corpse would also be difficult and messy. Better if Hannah extracted the demon and held on to him.
Murkowski grinned. “That was quite a show, demon hunter. Clever. No wonder the general wants you,” he said, voice hoarse and wheezy.
Oops. I might have broken a few of Murkowski’s ribs. God, what if I’d punctured his lung?
Wait, a general wanted me?
That was weird. I mean, I did love military guys. I’d worked my way through more than a few privates, lance corporals, the odd airman, and even a petty officer or two—I was a true patriot, after all. But a general seemed a bit out of my league.
And based on the messenger, the general had to be from the hell realm. A demon general wanted me. That couldn’t be good.
The demon lunged, breaking Mara’s hold and probably Murkowski’s arms in the process. It didn’t stop the demon from wrapping Murkowski’s meaty fingers around my throat to choke off the air my human side needed. I lifted the knife, trying to figure out how to disable the demon while doing as little damage as possible to the host. I slashed his chest through the Hawaiian shirt, and he howled in agony, loosening his grip just enough to for me jerk out of his hold.
He grinned again, his expression triumphant. “The armies of darkness are at the ready. All they need is you.”
Time seemed to slow around us. He opened his mouth and inhaled. My body went rigid. I was paralyzed.
And not just me. Hannah was paralyzed too.
Murkowski’s demon tugged at my demon, trying to rip her from my body and consciousness.
Besides Hannah herself and my boss, I’d never met a demon who could do that—summon a possessed human’s inner demon or tear it away from body and soul. It was what made us such a great team for demon hunting. I had no idea what kind of demon Hannah was, only that she was formidable, dangerous, and impossible to defeat.
Until now.
Adrenaline spiked and fear gripped me as I struggled to hold on to Hannah. Part of me had always wanted to separate from her. Honestly, what human wanted to share a body, mind, and soul with a demon? I hadn’t asked for her and all the trouble that came along with demonic possession.
All I’d ever wanted was normal.
But separating from Hannah was dangerous, possibly fatal. The boss had been searching for the means to free me from Hannah since I joined his demon-hunting operation. That was our bargain—he would help me find and summon D and find a way to rid me of my demon. In exchange, I would work for him as a hunter, tracking and capturing rogue tempter demons who roamed the earth.
If Murkowski’s demon took Hannah, she might die. I would most definitely die.
Murkowski’s bearded face split into a triumphant grin. “Don’t worry, pet. We won’t leave you behind.”
I assumed he was talking to me and not Hannah. Apparently, he thought I would survive his extraction of Hannah. While I was naturally curious about the hell realm, I wasn’t up for a spur-of-the-moment visit, especially without the strength and extra abilities my demon gave me.
My head ached and my limbs weighed heavy with fatigue as Hannah slipped away from me inch by inch. Did she want to leave? Had she realized this demon was her ticket to freedom?
“Please,” I pleaded with Hannah, begging her. I would’ve fallen to my knees if I wasn’t already on them. “We have to save Mr. Murkowski and Mara. Please don’t leave me.”
Mara hadn’t fled, which meant she was too weakened, too scared, or possibly too hungry to take the opportunity to hightail it out of the alley. If she did, Murkowski’s demon might go after her once he finished with me. Demons didn’t like loose ends, and the lesser demons and humans they used as pawns in their power plays normally didn’t outlive their usefulness in those games. I couldn’t protect her if she ran, not without Hannah.
I couldn’t protect myself without Hannah.
“You can’t have my demon,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Demon?” Murkowski’s face split into a sinister grin that looked all kinds of wrong on a Santa-looking man. “Oh, dear, you have no idea what you’re carrying within you, do you?”
Without warning, something broke inside me. It bubbled up from deep within the core of my being and strengthened my resolve. Curling through me in tendrils of a newly ignited fire, it latched on to Hannah like a grappling hook. I couldn’t pull her away from Murkowski’s demon with the leash tied to my black mirror, but this new power matched him in terms of force, a veritable well of strange, untapped potential.
Hannah’s essence stretched between us in a metaphysical tug of war as the knife in my hand shot out bursts of purple sparks.
I had no idea what this new force was or how it matched the strength of a powerful demon, nor did I care. I lurched forward and pressed the blade of my knife against Murkowski’s neck, marveling as it flashed from red to blue and back again.
“Hannah, fight back. We’ve got this. Come on.”
Something happened. A sense of awe, wonder, and understanding coursed through me. It had to be coming from Hannah. My own consciousness was too worried about survival to be awed by anything. What had she realized? Why was she calm?
And what did that have to do with the strange surge of power that had allowed me to maintain a grip on my demon?
Hannah finally responded, wrenching free of Murkowski’s demon, and slamming back into me. The force of it lifted my body into the air and banged me against the alley wall.
She’d snapped back like a rubber band. And bonus, she’d ripped the demon right out of Mr. Murkowski. It appeared as an amorphous cloud of black smoke and howled with a mixture of fury and pain.
Relief coursed through me, as did the horrid aftertaste. Yuck. Hannah had taken a big bite out of this one to weaken it, and I’d yet to find an after-demon dinner mint that could wash that nastiness out of my mouth.
I managed to land on my feet—barely. The immaterial demon morphed into the shape of an oversize gargoyle, complete with phantom teeth, and bit me. I sliced it with my knife, and its piercing shriek nearly burst my eardrums.
“Damn it, Hannah, swallow him!”
Waiting for Hannah to do her freakin’ job, I kept stabbing at the immaterial demon, who’d now taken the form of an ugly, horrifying giant spider that spat mini-spiders out of its maw and covered me with eight-legged terrors that also bit. Resisting the urge to scream bloody murder and flee the alley, I gritted my teeth and put my years of training to use by holding my knife out and spinning with demon-fueled speed, hacking at the connections betw
een the spider’s body and the tiny spiders crawling all over me.
I used the last connection to pull what was left of the demon’s misty form to me. Apparently, the demon had only been playing with me before, since he released some magic that sent electrical shocks through my body. I screamed in agony but held on. The bastard had claimed he wanted me and Hannah. Presumably, he wasn’t trying to kill us—but that might change if he got desperate enough about escaping.
“Hannah! Please,” I called to my demon out loud.
She flung my body into the air, dislodging the demon from my grip in the process. Instead of landing gracefully on my feet, she let me fall into what I could only assume was the city’s most disgusting cesspool of a dumpster.
And I’d thought the alley smelled bad. Ugh.
I struggled to stand up, stumbling on the unstable heap of revolting waste. Hannah didn’t help me. I yelled at her in my head, Hellooooo! It’s your job to keep me alive and catch the demons, remember?
I found my footing and peered out of the dumpster, scanning the area for the immaterial demon. It had floated away from Murkowski’s body and now hovered near the entrance to the alley. I tried to climb out of the dumpster so I could apprehend it, but something held me back.
Hannah. She was working against me. What the hell?
Hovering in place, the shimmering patch of darkness that was the demon opened its maw and grinned, eyes glowing. When he spoke, his voice was high and piercing, like the shriek of a banshee.
“Remember.”
The demon flickered briefly and then vanished, leaving a whiff of brimstone in its wake.
Chapter Five
Damn. Damn. Damn. The demon got away. Hannah had let it get away.
I hated it when they got away. Double the paperwork, not to mention the strong possibility it would latch on to another host and come back for round two of Let’s Stalk Jinx McGee. Hannah had to know that. She’d nearly been captured by the demon in Murkowski, but she’d stopped me from going after it.
She’d friggin’ let him go.
And she’d dropped me into a dumpster. Not cool. I gagged as I tried to wrap my mind around this clusterfuck of a case.
Had she failed to capture the demon due to distraction or injury? She’d gone strangely quiet. Not at all like her. Instead of insulting me or screaming like an angry lioness after an unsuccessful hunt, she’d faded into the depths of my consciousness. Normally, I had to summon her back with my black mirror. Why had she let Murkowski’s demon go? And what exactly did the demon want us to remember?
Add that to the tally of inexplicable screw-ups associated with this case. Then there was the weird power surge that helped me keep my demon, and my misbehaving demon going AWOL somewhere in my subconscious.
Mara groaned, pulling my attention to the other, more urgent task at hand. Holy guacamole, she was still hungry, and what was left of Mr. Murkowski lay on the ground, injured, unconscious, and ripe for the picking. I hoisted my aching body out of the dumpster. After pausing to pick bits of gooey noodles out of my hair, along with what I hoped was a napkin and not part of a stinky diaper, I limped over to get between the predatory demon and her prey. Good thing I hadn’t eaten before going on the hunt. The dry heaves were bad enough.
Upchucking on poor Mr. Murkowski would add insult to injury.
Mara was trying to control herself—she really wasn’t a bad demon. Most tempter demons weren’t bad, or all bad. They were just different. Religion and myth focused on the worst of them, scratching the surface instead of digging deeper for the big picture. Whether they’d been created by demon lords or evolved to feed on the essences of their fellow demons and humans, they couldn’t help their natures.
“Mara.” I filled my voice with a warning I couldn’t back up without Hannah. Nice of her to leave me in a jam. “Get it together. This one’s not for you.”
“I know,” she whined, scooting away from the juicy, defenseless human despite her obvious longing. Her pupils had dilated until her eyes appeared black, and she’d transformed back into her normal sex kitten form. Buxom, curvaceous, long-legged, and dripping sensuality.
Too bad. I’d enjoyed making out with the librarian almost as much as making out with the form of D, but I’d have to deal with that later. Compartmentalization and prioritizing were crucial life skills I was working hard to master.
Mara groaned and doubled over, somehow making agony look sexier than the entire cast of one of those top model reality television shows—or so I’d heard, since I didn’t watch that sort of thing—and filling me with alarm. I had to feed her, but I didn’t exactly have any vetted candidates on hand. She was only allowed to drain her fellow demons or nibble on approved souls from humans. Humans approved by the boss, not by me. I’d have let her devour half my exes had Triple B not nixed the idea. He was such a stickler.
“Hold on, Mara. Let’s stabilize Bad Santa and call 9-1-1. After that, I’ll find you the best meal this side of the earth realm, okay?” I only hoped I could deliver.
I ran my hands over Mr. Murkowski’s limbs and torso to check for injuries. The good news? No broken bones. His cuts, scrapes, and bruises were superficial. Shouldn’t take him too long to recover from those. That dislocated shoulder might sting a bit more, but I’d make certain he had state-of-the-art orthopedic care my commission from this botched job could buy.
The bad news? His breathing was shallow, and he looked like the kind of guy who was about two steak dinners away from a heart attack. I wasn’t a doctor, but I played one in the field and figured it was time to get some professional help involved.
I dug my phone out of my pants pocket and called for an ambulance. Fortunately, my tech demons made it impossible to trace me via mobile. I could stay on the line long enough to give the dispatcher a general idea of Mr. Murkowski’s injuries and potential cardiac arrest on the horizon without any follow-up from law enforcement. After hanging up, I dragged a very agitated succubus behind the dumpster to hide with me while we waited for a pickup.
No way was I going to ruin my own ride. I smelled like a sewer. Time to call for my delinquent backup. Again. I swear HQ left me hanging on purpose.
A chipper voice shot out of the phone, down my spine, and directly to my ass, making it twitch in irritation. “Demon Hunters, Incorporated. You find ’em, we bind ’em. How may I serve you?”
“I don’t have time for this, Lacey. I need a ride.” I propped the phone between my shoulder and gave Mara a shove. The succubus had started eyeing me like a slab of prime rib. “Where’ve you been? You were supposed to be here ages ago.”
“Hi, Jinx!” My partner, trainee, and sometimes best frenemy ignored my question. I hated it when she did that.
“Do we have to do this every time I call you? It’s getting old, and I need a pickup pronto.” I didn’t have time for her Gen Z nonsense. This was an emergency.
Infusing her voice with all the snark she could muster, she asked, “Is that what you’ve been into tonight? Hijinks? Get it?”
I groaned. “Yeah, I got it the first time. And the million and one times after that. You need some new material.”
Lacey Green was another member of the very exclusive demon-possessed-since-childhood club. We were a rarity since most humans didn’t survive demonic possession very long. She’d named her demon Simon. Funny name for a mammon, otherwise known as a greed demon, but she rolled her eyes whenever I suggested she change the greed demon’s name to Gordon Gekko. She also noted I was older than dirt and the reference proved it.
While incorporeal and reliant on possession, Simon wasn’t as powerful—or volatile—as Hannah, and Lacey didn’t need to summon him with a black mirror. Her little immaterial tempter spent most of its time in her mobile phone, surfing the Internet. Her data storage fees were probably astronomical, but it made her and Simon hella good trackers. That demon could find anyone, anywhere, anytime.
He could also find the best bars, dance clubs, and parking. Handy demon, that one,
especially for his twenty-three-year-old mistress. Like her own personal Yelp.
“You need to be nice to me if you want pickup service,” Lacey said. The singsong in her voice made my ass twitch harder. “What happened to your car?”
“Nothing happened to my car. Jeez, forget where you park one time and people never let you live it down.” I peeled something green and gooey off my left boot. I could replace the pants and shirt, but these were my favorite pair of boots. Hopefully someone at HQ could magic the dumpster crud off them. “I’m just a little messy. Fought with a dumpster and lost.”
Lacey laughed. “You do get yourself into the most interesting situations. Did you catch the demon? While you’ve been rolling around in trash, I’ve bagged three. Nasty little gremlins.”
Seriously? That’s what she’d been doing? “Let me get this straight. You were supposedly stuck in traffic, but somewhere along the way, you decided catching vermin was more important than joining me for our stakeout and coming when I called you?”
“I had to,” she said indignantly. “They were chasing drunk tourists down Printer’s Alley. I think they may have some form of hell realm rabies.”
Fair point. A chorus of low growls rumbled in the background as if to confirm Lacey’s diagnosis. Then again, she’d probably poked at them with a stick. She laughed when I said as much.
“They need to be put down. I should really off-load them before they start foaming at the mouth. At least, I think they have mouths. Hard to tell one end from the other, really. Did I mention I caught three?”
I rolled my eyes. Lacey’s competitive nature surpassed even her penchant for the five-finger discount. The boss had recruited her much as he’d recruited me, minus the death threats. The threat of prison sealed the deal for her since Lacey had a thing for shoplifting. More of a compulsion, which was why her greed demon had latched on to her in the first place.
“Yeah, yeah, three points for you. As far as interesting situations, you don’t know the half of it,” I said. “You won’t believe the night I’ve had. I tracked a succubus who I thought had targeted my mark, but it was a setup that put me in the cross hairs of another demon. I had to make out with the succubus to distract the other sneaky demon, who the boss didn’t mention, by the way. Then Hannah yanked the sneaky demon out of the host before it could kill the poor guy.”
Catching Hell Page 3