Dark Obsession

by Sydney Somers

  Scorching desire…fatal consequences.

  Shadow Destroyers, Book 4

  Demon slayer Rae McAvoy refuses to let anything stand between her and getting the job done. Especially her ex. Loving Parker nearly destroyed her, and if partnering with him one last time means he’ll be reassigned and out of her life for good, bring it on.

  If Parker was the only threat to her heart, tracking down one rogue scientist would be a snap. Except the scientist in question is Rae’s father, and his experiments are hitting much too close to home.

  Parker Walsh hasn’t forgotten the passion that once burned between them, and he’s determined to remind Rae every chance he gets. But giving in to more than just lust could mean surrendering to the darkness inside him—the same darkness that once drove her away.

  Riding the edge of their rising desire pushes them to the breaking point, until an explosion of passion raises the stakes even higher. Especially when long-buried secrets force them to break the last links to their past—or else be consumed by an obsession so dark it could tear them apart for good.

  Warning: Contains a fierce battle of wills between reunited lovers, explosive sexual tension, sarcasm, gritty demon-slaying violence, scorching sex and a love worth fighting for.

  eBooks are not transferable.

  They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

  Macon GA 31201

  Dark Obsession

  Copyright © 2010 by Sydney Somers

  ISBN: 978-1-60504-978-6

  Edited by Lindsey Faber

  Cover by Natalie Winters

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2010

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  Dark Obsession

  Shadow Destroyers Book Four

  Sydney Somers

  Dedication

  To Jay. I couldn’t have written this book without your unwavering support. I cannot imagine my life without you.To Jaycee Clark. I wouldn’t have reached the end of this one without you in my corner. I’m pretty sure we were twins separated at birth. There really isn’t another explanation for how alike we think, except you’re way more twisted than I am.

  Chapter One

  It all came down to a towel.Hundreds of hours logged in the training room until her muscles ached from exhaustion, dozens of injuries—some that had come close to killing her—countless demons tracked and slayed, and Rae McAvoy was about to be done-in by a white terry cloth towel.

  More precisely, the white terry cloth draped precariously around her ex’s waist.

  The second she stepped off the elevator and spotted Parker Walsh leaning against the wall next to her office, in nothing but a towel, she gave serious thought to turning around and hitting the close button on the elevator panel.

  Need—hot and sharp and all kinds of trouble—buzzed through her veins. For about ten seconds, anyway, then she was back in control, striding down the hall toward him as though she couldn’t care less what he wore. Or didn’t wear, for that matter, even if she had to fight to keep her gaze locked on his face.

  Telling herself not to look was a lot like not reaching for a weapon when she crossed paths with a Shadow Demon—it just wasn’t in her, not where Parker was concerned. She might be determined to keep things professional between them, but that didn’t make her blind.

  Parker had a good five inches on her in height, not to mention the solid wall of muscle that was just inches away. Smooth, hot muscle she’d been thinking about running her fingers down for weeks. Years, if she counted the time between their rough breakup and his reassignment to her field office seven weeks ago.

  Unfortunately, he hadn’t changed nearly enough over the years. He wore his dark brown hair in the same careless style—just long enough to run his fingers through when he was frustrated and still hide the scar on his forehead she’d given him when they’d met.

  His smile still carried that playful, I-could-eat-you-up edge she’d found increasingly difficult to ignore lately. And those deep, earthy green eyes that promised night after night of long, hot—

  No. No way was she going there today.

  Parker’s size, his overwhelming nearness, ultimately meant nothing to her. She’d worked too hard to let anything like personal history get in the way of taking down the enemy. He might not be an emotion-hungry demon, but that didn’t make Parker her ally either.

  Not when he’d broken her heart.

  Parker’s grin widened as she approached, and after seven weeks of him shadowing her every step, tracking her every move, watching her every breath, both her patience and her willpower were wearing thin. That arrogant I-know-I’m-getting-to-you smile of his really had to go.

  Today worked for her.

  Giving him her best bored look, she opened her office door. “Funny, I don’t remember any memos about a change in acceptable dress code. Do you?”

  She directed the last part to Drew Reid as he stepped into the hall at that exact moment.

  Knowing Drew, his timing likely hadn’t been a coincidence. He carried the same gene she and Parker did, one that allowed a demon’s dakorum, its essence, to mutate their DNA, giving them the same abilities as the demon that attacked them. With his acutely heightened senses, thanks to the stealth demon that initiated him, he’d probably heard her the second she’d stepped off the elevator and wanted to watch the show.

  She might have been annoyed at the reminder that the friction between her and Parker was the hottest gossip to hit the Shadow Destroyer water cooler scene, if she wasn’t so relieved she had an excuse to avoid looking at Parker’s solid chest.

  Any excuse would do, even if it meant that whatever Drew witnessed would inevitably be passed along to the rest of her team. Seemed like the only thing Rae could count on these days were demons running loose on her home turf and her agents wasting time speculating on her sex life.

  Hopefully the former would keep the other Destroyers—trained demon slayers whose DNA had also been mutated during a demon encounter—from dwelling on any new tidbit for long.

  Drew rocked back on his heels, shooting a knowing look between her and Parker. Probably the same look she’d been firing his way a month ago when he’d gotten involved with another agent’s sister.

  “Awkward,” Drew finally mumbled, then turned and strolled down the hall as though he wasn’t chomping at the bit to report the latest to the rest of the team the first chance he got.

  As much as she wanted to glare after Drew and order him into her office—surely he’d screwed up something lately—she squared her shoulders and sailed straight past Parker.

  Her fleeting hope that he’d go back to his office—or better yet, to the personal quarters down the hall that he’d made his temporary home—fizzled and died when he trailed after her. At least he left the door open. Knowing him, he did it to prove he didn’t need to box her in to intimidate her.

  She slid behind the desk and accessed her e-mail to mask just how much he did. She’d long ago given up on figuring out why being outnumbered by demons with only chopsticks to defend herself didn’t feel half as threatening as being in the same room as Parker.

  She slan
ted him a quick look, noticing his bare feet. God, even the man’s toes were sexy.

  “There’s no hot water in my quarters, Rae.”

  “So you didn’t get my e-mail about the scheduled maintenance work for the next week or two?” Longer if she could swing it.

  “There’s hot water in the locker room.”

  “Weird how all that plumbing stuff works.”

  He flattened his palms on her desk. “Playing games won’t get you what you want.”

  A rush of heat worked up from her toes, warming her stomach before she forced herself to ignore the distracting sensation. He’d need to do more than flex a few pheromones to get her to back off.

  Since Parker had been initiated by a lust demon, his mutated DNA left him with a particular skill set that took “weak in the knees” to a whole new level. But today her intimate knowledge of how easily he attracted other people, even when he wasn’t trying—unlike now—left her with the advantage.

  Expose someone to something long enough and they learned to build up a tolerance to it.

  But since he deserved a little credit for the effort, she only arched a brow instead of rolling her eyes. “And what is it that you think I want?”

  A seductive smile caught his mouth, reminding her of how she’d ended up in his bed to begin with. Judging by the flare of heat in his eyes, he knew exactly what she was thinking about. Hard not to when the man oozed raw, earthy sex from top to bottom and everywhere in between.

  “If you’re not comfortable here, there’s always a hotel.” She refused to consider his relocation permanent. She’d been hanging on by a thread for the last few days. One tiny, stretched-taut thread. She needed him out from under her feet and wasn’t above cheating to do it.

  “If you want to get rid of me you’re going to have to get a lot more creative.”

  Rae shrugged. “Seeing as you’re due for reassignment any day now, what would be the point?” Aside from her personal satisfaction, of course.

  His cocky grin widened, a sliver of menace creeping in. Without a word he turned and left the room, the flimsy towel doing nothing to detract from the rugged determination in each stride.

  Damn it, he knew something.

  Still, she forced herself to stay where she was and do something productive—like skim her e-mail. When she had to reread the same subject line three times to process it, she gave up on pretending she didn’t need to know whatever had put that knowing gleam in his eye.

  She caught up with him at the end of the hall, probably because he’d taken his time, knowing he’d bated her. Once she knew whatever he did, she’d decide whether or not to be annoyed with herself for giving in.

  “What do you know, Parker?”

  “Not sure I know what you mean.” He strode into the break room, nodding to Drew and Darcy.

  Darcy, one of the two telepath Destroyers on Rae’s team and who was generally wielding a weapon or a sketchbook, only lifted a brow at Parker’s attire, or more specifically, lack thereof.

  “Why that look?”

  He poured himself a coffee. “What look would that be?” He gestured to the mugs on the counter. “Coffee?” he inquired innocently.

  Rae struggled to keep her frustration from showing, something that hadn’t been a problem until Parker had been assigned as their temporary profiler. A couple months ago their field office had been primarily freelance, her agents dispatched to track and eliminate demons that escaped their prison realm and crossed the barrier between worlds, wreaking havoc across the globe.

  Since their home turf had become a hotbed of demon activity in recent weeks, Parker had been assigned to debrief and monitor the victims who survived a demon encounter on the off chance they carried the same Destroyer gene. It took more than someone with telepathic abilities to be able to profile those who were initiated and predict how they would handle any gene mutation.

  Parker was damn good at his job and it was the only reason she had managed to deal with him underfoot for this long. Since other field offices saw even more activity than hers, their boss had recently hinted at transferring him.

  He took a sip from his mug, and cringed. “Who let Drew make the coffee this morning?”

  Drew only shrugged, probably too preoccupied with absorbing all the details for later discussion to come up with one of his customary snappy comebacks.

  Parker emptied his cup in the sink and reached for the instant stuff instead. He dumped a couple of teaspoons into his mug and filled it, ignoring Rae altogether.

  “Parker,” she prompted, her cool tone reserved for those an inch shy of seriously pissing her off. She really hated how often she’d resorted to it lately.

  “You sure you don’t want to take this conversation back to your office?” His playful gaze said he’d like nothing more.

  Part of her wanted to do exactly that, if only because he expected her not to. The other part was too smart to deliberately put herself in close quarters with him a second time in five minutes. No reason to push her luck.

  “Here is just fine.”

  The look he gave her over the rim of his mug set off all kinds of alarm bells in her head. The kind that all but screeched, Big, big mistake.

  Parker snagged a doughnut from the carton someone had brought in. Darcy, maybe.

  It wasn’t the powdered sweet that currently held Darcy’s attention, though. The telepath might be pretending she and Drew had something important to discuss in hushed voices, but her mind was definitely fixed on interpreting all the things Rae and Parker weren’t saying.

  It took Rae a minute to realize she’d been distracted by the sugar glaze left on Parker’s bottom lip and missed what he’d said. Damn it.

  “Come again?” She grabbed a mug to cover the slip and poured herself a coffee. She even took a sip—

  Holy mother of God.

  Swallowing the almost-sour brew without choking took all of her concentration. She glanced in the cup, half expecting to see something dead floating in it that would explain the horrific taste.

  “I said the timing is actually pretty good with the water situation.”

  “Water situation?” Darcy frowned.

  Dismissing the agent with a scowl, Rae looked at Parker. “Good timing for what?”

  “To go apartment hunting.”

  If she hadn’t already swallowed her mouthful of coffee it would have ended up all down the front of Parker’s chest. “Why?”

  “So you didn’t get Adrian’s e-mail?”

  Their boss’s e-mails were rarely good news. No news was always good news where Adrian was concerned.

  “He’s extending my assignment here,” Parker added.

  He was screwing with her. He had to be.

  Winking, he strolled out of the room.

  Rae stared after him, her locked knees preventing her from following him and demanding an explanation. She might have been tempted to hobble after him if Drew and Darcy weren’t already watching her like she was this close to sprouting wings and flying around the room cackling.

  Drew sipped his coffee without gagging. “Brought this with me,” he offered as an explanation for how he managed to drink the stuff without screwing up his face.

  An order for the pair to find something to do perched on her tongue, but she held back. She’d given everyone enough to talk about this morning without so blatantly taking her frustration with Parker out on her team.

  Damn him.

  By the time Rae returned to her office, shutting the door so she didn’t have to watch Parker button up his shirt in the office across the hall, she dreaded checking her e-mail. She wasn’t looking forward to reading anything that would confirm she’d be dealing with Parker on a long-term basis.

  Parker tipped back his bottle of beer, finishing it off and seriously considering having another. Seven weeks of lonely restless nights. Seven weeks of Rae riding his ass for everything from grammatical errors in his paperwork to his sloppiness in the training room.

  Seven we
eks of waiting for her to acknowledge there was still something between them.

  He waved to Kane, the bartender he’d gotten to know pretty well in the last month, for a refill and turned on his stool to scan the half-empty bar. Across the room Drew, and Rae’s second-in-command, Braxton, played pool.

  Parker had already passed on the chance to take on the winner, choosing to keep to himself. Something he wouldn’t have to endure for much longer if he’d acknowledge the cute brunette selecting her third song of the night on the old jukebox.

  Dressed in tight black pants and an even tighter pink shirt, the brunette turned from the jukebox and closed her mouth over the straw in her fruity drink, the flick of her tongue around the tip doing surprisingly little to entice him.

  Because she wasn’t Rae.

  It was Rae’s dark red hair he wanted spread across his pillow, her wicked blue eyes staring up at him, her nails raking his back.

  Parker took another drink of his beer. A long, hard chug that he wished would quench his thirst for Rae. She’d made it clear there wouldn’t be anything between them, and while he knew he was to blame for that, knew how damaging they could be to each other, he still craved her. Still sought to find a way to make her admit she hadn’t forgotten how good they were together.

  He’d gotten to her this morning, though. All the determination and the skill in the world did nothing to hide that she wanted him too. At least on a physical level. Emotionally…well they’d done that once and it nearly killed him.

  That hadn’t stopped him from wanting Rae back in his bed the moment they’d ended up working together again.

  “Does it hurt?” Drew leaned against the bar, holding up his empty bottle to signal Kane for another.

  Confused, Parker frowned.

  “Banging your head against a brick wall where Rae is concerned? Besides, it’s not like you need to be waiting around for her.” He nodded in the direction of the brunette.