by Синтия Иден
The elevator chimed and the doors opened on the bottom floor. Emily stepped into the hallway, hearing the faint beat of Smith’s jazz music. Her high heels clicked on the floor as she stepped forward. She pushed open the door to the lab. "Smith, I’m here-"
Her words ended on a rush of breath as she saw the puddle of blood near Smith’s desk.
Maybe I’ll go for a woman again the next time too.
No, oh God, no.
"Smith!" Emily ran forward, screaming the ME’s name. Her shoes slipped in the blood.
Oh shit. The lab was trashed. Desks overturned. Files littering the floor. Equipment smashed.
More blood. Pooling on the floor.
But no body. No sign of Smith.
Without a hesitation, Emily lowered her mental shields. She had to know if the Butcher had been there.
The rage hit her, driving her to her knees. The same black taint of power that she’d felt before lingered in the air.
The Night Butcher. But it looked like the bastard had changed his MO. He’d struck during the day. When no one would suspect.
And he’d taken Smith.
Why? Emily stood slowly, knees shaking. Her gaze swept over the lab. He left his kills. Left them to taunt the police. There was no reason for him to take Smith.
Unless…
Emily turned on her heel and ran down the hall.
Unless the bastard had kept her alive.
Twelve hours had passed. Emily sat at Colin’s desk, a mug of coffee cradled in her hands.
McNeal paced in front of her, his face blood red. "Not one fucking cop saw him! The asshole came into my station, took Smith, and not one fucking cop saw him!"
It was the same thing he’d been saying for hours. His hands were shaking, and his eyes were wild with worry and rage.
There was something there, Emily thought. The way McNeal was acting, he and Smith were more than just-
Colin’s phone rang. They all seemed to freeze, then Colin’s hand flashed out, jerked up the black receiver.
"Gyth."
His eyes widened and he motioned to Brooks. His partner instantly turned on the small, black tracking device that was attached to the phone.
The station fell silent as Colin’s call echoed on the nearby speaker.
"Were you waiting for my call, Detective?" The voice was distorted, robotic.
"Who is this?" Colin demanded, his knuckles whitening around the phone.
"You know who I am."
"No, I don’t. So why don’t you just-"
"The press calls me the Night Butcher, but as you’ve seen, I don’t just hunt at night." He laughed, a grating sound that sent a shiver down Emily’s back.
"Ask the bastard about Smith," McNeal ordered.
"I want to talk to Smith," Colin snapped.
"Ah, yes, I figured you would. Good thing I haven’t ripped her throat out, yet. It would make talking so hard."
A woman’s scream echoed across the line.
Smith.
"M-McNeal, h-help-" A pain-filled moan broke her words.
More laughter. And dead silence from Smith.
Emily swallowed.
The officers gathered around her were pale, their faces tight with concentration.
But Colin…he had rage in his eyes. So much rage. The beast wants out.
"What the fuck do you want, Butcher?"
Silence. Too long. Too thick.
Colin gritted his teeth. "Dammit-"
"I have the wrong doctor."
Emily’s blood froze.
Colin’s gaze shot to hers.
"I want the other one."
His stare never left her. "I don’t know what you’re talking about, you crazy bastard, but-"
"She’s in front of you, isn’t she? Pretty little Doctor Drake. She’s rather extraordinary. Knows so much about…our kind."
McNeal swore.
"I’ll offer you a deal, Detective. Smith for Dr. Drake. An even trade."
And she saw Colin’s control snap. "Fuck, no, you sonofa-"
Emily shot to her feet. Punched the button for the phone’s intercom so she could speak. "Tell me where and when." No way was she going to sit back and let Smith die. Not if there was a chance they could save her.
A beat of silence, then, "Dr. Drake." He purred the words. As much as a robot could purr. "I had a feeling you were there."
So the asshole got bonus points for being right. "Don’t hurt Smith," she ordered, her voice flat and cold. "Tell me where to be, and I’ll make the trade."
Colin was shaking his head. His hand flashed out, locked around her wrist. "No damn way."
Emily lifted her chin. "Tell me where," she repeated.
"Warehouse district. Building 13. You come alone, Doctor. All alone. If I so much as smell a cop, you’ll be swimming in Smith’s blood."
She believed him.
"Midnight, Dr. Drake. I’ll see you then." The hum of a dial tone resonated from the phone.
Emily exhaled the breath she’d been holding. Colin stared down at her, his face an iron mask. "You’re not going." An order. One that he fully expected to be obeyed.
"If I don’t, she’s dead." And she couldn’t have Smith’s death on her conscience.
"In my office, now." McNeal stormed ahead of them, not glancing back to see if he was obeyed.
Colin dragged Emily with him, keeping his tight grip on her wrist. He jerked her inside, slamming the door behind them.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" he snarled. "You do not, do not, ever interfere in my investigation like that again, do you-"
"I did what I had to do." Smith’s life was on the line. There’d been no choice. "Tell me, Colin, if he’d offered to trade her for you, what would you have done?"
His clenched jaw was her answer.
"I’ve got to help her. If I don’t, he’ll kill her." Rip out her throat, just as he’d done to the others.
"When you walk into that warehouse, he’ll kill you," he gritted. He yanked her closer to him, pressing his body against hers, flesh to flesh. His heat wrapped around her, his fury hovered in the air surrounding them. "You think I’m just gonna stand by and let that happen?" He kissed her hard, his lips bruising and hot. "No fucking way. I just found you. I’m not about to lose you now."
Her breath caught. "Colin…"
"If you two are done, we need to figure out just what the hell our next move is gonna be," McNeal growled, slamming his fist against the desk.
Emily jerked. She’d almost forgotten about him.
"This guy’s a shifter, so when he said he could smell a cop, I know the bastard meant it." His lips thinned. "So how are we supposed to get backup in there without him going crazy and killing Smith?"
Emily glanced up at Colin. There might be a way…
"I’ll shift," Colin muttered. "He’ll smell animal, not man."
McNeal’s eyes narrowed. "Shift." He whistled. "So you’re one of them." A pause. "I knew you were Other, but I didn’t realize-"
McNeal broke off, shaking his head. "A shifter."
If he only knew the full story, Emily thought.
"I’ll follow Emily, track her into the warehouse." His hand tightened around her wrist. "And I’ll catch the bastard."
McNeal cast a brief glance toward Emily. "Give us a minute, would you, Emily?"
She nodded, aware of a new tension in the room. She stepped forward, but Colin’s hold didn’t budge.
"Colin…"
He swallowed. Slowly, his fingers uncurled. Lifted. His eyes were burning with emotion and the faintest hint of fang gleamed behind his lips.
Emily lifted her hand, stroked his cheek. "It’s going to be all right." She said the words, not certain if she meant them, just wanting to ease the fear she could see lurking in his gaze.
He turned his face. Pressed his lips against her palm.
The mark on her neck seemed to throb.
"I–I’ll be right outside." Getting ready to face a killer. Trying to
stop her knees from knocking together.
Pretending that she was brave when really she was so scared she thought she’d vomit.
Oh God. What if she couldn’t stop him from killing Smith?
Or from killing her?
Emily pulled away from Colin and hurried out of the office, fighting the fear that pummeled her.
He wanted to take his mate away. Wanted to toss her over his shoulder and carry her far away. To someplace safe.
A place without psychotic killers. A place quiet, peaceful. A place where he could put her in a big, nice bed and make love to her for hours.
He wanted to take her anyplace but to that godforsaken warehouse.
"I can’t send any other men in with you." McNeal was watching him with eyes that saw too much. "I can’t risk the humans finding out what we’re fighting."
He understood that. When they got to the warehouse, the Butcher might not be in human form. And if the other cops saw him shift…
"And I don’t want you to ‘catch’ this guy, Gyth." McNeal stared him straight in the eye. "He can’t see the inside of a courtroom."
Colin nodded. He’d already figured that out.
"Do what you have to do. Just get the women back safe." A pause. "And make certain that bastard doesn’t have the chance to ever hurt anyone else."
"Don’t worry." His voice had turned guttural. The wolf was close.
The Night Butcher had claimed his last victim.
Colin held his captain’s stare, let the other man see the intent in his eyes. "The bastard was a dead man the minute he asked for the trade." No one would threaten his mate and live.
No one.
Time to hunt his prey…
And protect his mate.
Chapter 16
The night air was cold. Emily’s breath formed a small cloud before her as she walked through the darkened warehouse district. There were rustles all around her. The scurry of rats and cockroaches. The howl of wind. The distant hum of a train.
Building 13 stood in front of her. Windows boarded up. Completely black.
The holster of her gun dug into Emily’s back. McNeal had given her the weapon and the bullets before she’d left the station.
"Aim and shoot," he’d said.
And she would. She knew how to shoot, and she wouldn’t hesitate to fire when she saw the Butcher.
She didn’t hear Colin behind her, but she knew he was there. Tracking her, as the wolf.
His scent was already on her, so that had to work to their advantage. The Butcher wouldn’t be able to distinguish between them. He’d think it was just one person.
The doors were in front of her. Emily lifted her hands and shoved against the old wood. With a loud groan, it gave way beneath her fingers.
A dark cavern waited for her. She stared into the darkness, knowing that the killer was waiting for her.
A faint moan reached her ears. Broken. Full of pain.
She licked her lips. Reached for the small flashlight she’d tucked into her jacket pocket. The light flashed on, cut a thin swath of light through the blackness. She wasn’t worried about the light giving away her position. If the killer was a hybrid like she suspected, he’d be able to see just as easily in the darkness.
The building smelled of mold and rotted wood. Cobwebs brushed her face and something ran across her left foot.
"Smith?" Emily raised her voice, tried again. "Smith?"
A whimper came from the darkness.
Emily crept forward. Swung her light to the left, the right-
There. Crumpled against the back wall. Head sagging to the side. A broken doll.
Smith.
Emily ran to her. The light hit Smith’s body, showing the cuts and bites that covered her skin. Blood matted her hair, trickled down her bare arms and legs.
"I’m afraid I got a little bored while I was waiting for you." The voice came from the darkness, echoed all around her. No longer distorted. Male. Strong. Hard.
She stiffened. She knew that voice. Emily passed the flashlight to her left hand. Slowly inched her right toward her gun.
It can’t be, it doesn’t make any sense. How can it be him? I’ve felt his power before. He isn’t strong enough to-
There was a rush of wind against her body and then his hands were on her, jerking her around, spinning her to face him. "Tell me, Doctor," Jake Donnelley murmured, his fangs bared and his eyes eerily black in the glow of her flashlight, "are you going to scream for me?"
Then his claws raked across her stomach, and she screamed as her flesh ripped open.
Emily! Her scream cut through him. Colin lunged through the open doors of the factory, his body springing through the air and landing in a deadly crouch. A snarl twisted the wolf’s lips as he searched for his mate.
The scent of blood filled the air.
Emily’s blood.
A red haze swam before his eyes. Kill. Destroy-
A man laughed. A sinister, cold laugh. "I thought you’d be joining us, Gyth."
Emily appeared before him, and Colin could easily see the blood running down the front of her shirt. Her eyes were huge. Her lips shaking.
Behind her, Jake Donnelley stood smiling at him. He had a hand wrapped around Emily’s throat. His claws pressed against her flesh and a drop of blood trailed down her neck.
Colin scraped his claws across the cement floor, preparing to attack.
"Not so fast, wolf." The claws dug deeper and a soft moan slipped past Emily’s lips. "If you move another inch, I’ll slice her open in front of you."
Colin snarled at him, but he didn’t move, not yet.
"So now the question becomes, who to kill first?" Jake lowered his head to Emily’s throat, slowly licked away the drop of blood. "Oh, I do like the way you taste…"
Emily steeled herself against the feel of his tongue on her neck. She wanted to scream, to howl in pain and fear, but she vowed not to cry out again.
Because he wanted it too much.
Colin snarled in front of her, snapping his teeth, his glowing eyes locked on Jake.
Jake. God, she’d been so wrong about him. She’d thought he was weak, harmless. How the hell could she have made such a mistake?
She’d never even sensed that he was a hybrid. Never seen the glow of the beast he carried. She’d thought he was just a low-level demon.
Wrong. So wrong. And her mistake just might cost them all their lives.
She’d kept her shields in place too long, Emily realized. She’d been so afraid of finding a being like the one who’d attacked her years before, and she’d guarded herself too well. Yes, she’d been safe, but she’d unknowingly let a killer run free when she could have stopped him.
Her stomach felt as if it were on fire. She didn’t know how bad her injury was, and she was afraid to look down. So she kept her gaze on Colin, knowing that they had to find a way to defeat Jake.
One unguarded moment. That’s all Colin would need. If he could just get one moment, she knew he’d attack.
"You don’t understand our kind nearly as well as you thought, Doctor." Jake whispered the words into her ear, blowing his breath lightly against her. "You thought you were so superior, so damn smart, judging us all. Reading us. But you were wrong…"
"Y-yes…I was." Lull him. Make him think I’m not a threat.
"You saw what I wanted you to see," he muttered, and his claws scraped against her throat. "You thought you were immune to a demon’s power…but I fooled you…made you see, feel, what I wanted."
And she’d "seen" a low-level demon. Emily swallowed, feeling the prick of his claws. She should have looked harder, searched his mind.
Too late for regrets. Focus, dammit! I have to give Colin a chance to attack.
Or they were dead.
Colin’s gaze bored into her.
Just how much power did Jake have? There was really only one way to find out.
The last time she’d gone against a high-level demon, she’d wound up unconscious o
n the floor.
But she’d almost managed to burn out the bastard’s power.
Maybe she could do it again.
Her jaw clenched and she lowered her shields.
The rage hit her first. Blinding. Pulsing. Hate. Fury. The emotions seethed within the demon hybrid behind her.
Then she felt his power. A dark, coiling black force that shot from his body, filled the very air itself and twined around her and Colin.
Level ten. Maybe even stronger. Shit.
"Doctor…" Hot breath on her cheek. "Is that you I feel, tiptoeing in my head?"
A psychic blast of power hit her, shooting pain through every inch of her body. Emily bit her lip, swaying under the impact.
Too strong. I’ll never be able to-
"You have no idea what I can do," he muttered. "But maybe I should show you." His head lifted. "Time to play with the wolf."
The waves of his power shifted for a moment, pulsed darker, then swept completely around Colin.
Shifters are immune to a demon’s power. Colin hadn’t even flinched under the whip of Niol’s dark gifts.
He’d be able to withstand Jake’s magical assault.
Wouldn’t he?
There was so much power.
The wolf inched back a step, tail lowering.
"I can control anyone," Jake snarled. "Anything."
He’d controlled the boy, Bryan Trace. Gotten him to stalk Jake’s victims.
But not Colin, please, not Colin.
Emily frantically tried to pull away from Jake’s mind, tried to reach Colin’s thoughts-
But she couldn’t feel him, couldn’t touch his mind.
"Why?" The word burst from her lips. "Why the hell are you doing this?"
His laughter rumbled against her back. "Because I can."
Started with that whore Gillian. Bitch thought she could leave me for a human.
Showed her. Showed them both.
Emily tensed as his thoughts slipped through her mind. She couldn’t reach Colin, but she was tuned in as hell to Jake.
Forgotten how good the blood tasted.
Want more.
An image of Darla’s ravaged body flashed through her mind.
More. Tired of hiding, pretending. Fucking humans will fear me now. Show ’em. Show ’em all.