Burning Midnight

by Rose Wulf

  Chapter Three

  Knox swallowed a string of curses that wouldn’t do him any good. Moments ago, he’d completely forgotten what he was there for, having been struck with a powerful wave of lust for the very woman he’d come to keep an eye on. And while he could certainly do both, he was surprised by the actual desire. Kissing her had been a game when he’d decided on it. A fun impulse which he’d known would rattle her. Until he’d gotten that first taste. The concept of kissing her as a joke went out the window in an instant. When she’d responded positively, he’d barely remembered to pull back.

  He’d certainly rather be struggling with whether or not to indulge his carnal urges, despite this particular woman’s connection with angels, than be face-to-face with the reason he was there. Which was exactly why he was staring down a demoness he didn’t recognize instead of peeling Gwen’s clothes from her body. Just my luck.

  “Cut the bullshit,” Knox said with a growl in his voice. “Who are you?”

  The female demon, dressed in stereotypical black leather, gave him a dry look. “What’s the point in telling you when I’m going to kill you?”

  Knox offered her a confident smirk. “It’s easier to say things like ‘hey, asshole, So-And-So missed,’ than ‘hey, asshole, I don’t appreciate you sending your bitches after me’.”

  She smiled, but something deadly was all that reflected out of her dark brown eyes. “Is that your game, traitor? You hope I’ll tell you my name, and then the identity of whomever I may be working with?” Her gaze flicked to Gwen, whose hand twisted tighter in his shirt immediately after. “Cute.”

  “Yeah, well,” Gwen said, her voice more confident than the trembling hand at his back. “I don’t give a damn who you are. Just get the hell out of my apartment.”

  “Frankly,” the demoness said, “this assignment is a waste of my talents.” She cut a sharp glare to Knox, adding, “But someone went and made a mess.”

  “You shouldn’t trust your secrets to morons,” Knox replied. “Now do like the lady said and get lost. I don’t ask so nice.”

  “Good,” she said. “Nice is boring.”

  Knox braced himself, unsurprised by her refusal to run away. She didn’t give off the ‘easily intimidated’ vibe. Sure enough, she flexed her fingers and shrouded the entire space in pitch black. Not a speck of light pierced through. Bad for Gwen, workable for him. He could see, he just didn’t know his enemy’s fighting style. So instead, he caught hold of Gwen’s outer hip and tugged her properly behind him, minimizing her physical exposure. “Scare tactics? What, did you never pass middle school?”

  Of course, he knew how well scare tactics actually worked most of the time, but the more he could undermine her confidence, the better.

  “Knox,” Gwen whispered. “It’s really dark…”

  “That’s the point, human,” the other demon said, her voice echoing around them as her body melted again into the shadows. “The darkness is my home. And it’s everywhere. You can’t outrun me.”

  There. The energy shifted behind Gwen. This demoness had balls if she really thought she could literally just steal her target from his grasp.

  Knox spun, pulling Gwen around with him simultaneously, and shot a blast of energy at the forming mass. Gwen’s startled cry filled the void, almost masking the resulting sizzle of his impact. He’d hit something, but probably not anything useful. The sizzle was followed by a waft of burnt sulfur.

  “You do have good reflexes,” the demoness said from somewhere overhead.

  “What do you even want from me?” Gwen suddenly demanded, exasperation coloring her tone. “I’m not cursed anymore! I don’t ‘belong’ to you!”

  “Oh,” their foe replied, her voice still sliding around. She kept herself hidden within the barrier of darkness she’d created, making it impossible for Knox to pinpoint her location. “You never belonged to me.”

  So you do have a master. But he kept silent, waiting. Watching. Hoping she’d try another direct attack. If he attempted one on a blind guess, he’d be leaving himself wide open.

  “Whatever,” Gwen snapped. The agitation seemed to be taking over her earlier fear. “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  All at once, the demoness shot up from beneath Gwen’s feet, wrapping Gwen in her dark embrace. By the time Knox had turned enough to get his eyes on the situation, it was too late. His new enemy had rematerialized with Gwen bound tight in her arms. A dark energy blade pressed against her throat, forcing Gwen’s head at an awkward angle. There wasn’t a single move he could do that would get her away from the bitch in time.

  “There now,” the other demon said, locking gazes with him. “I have what I’ve come for. But I’d prefer to leave also with my prize.”

  “And I’d prefer to be selling out corrupt politicians,” Knox returned. “We don’t all get what we want.” Still, he had to stall her. If she took off too soon, before he could get Gwen away from her, this would get a million times more complicated. Tracing another demon’s shadow trail was damned hard—hard enough that not all demons even could.

  “Y-you’re … so dead,” Gwen choked, drawing Knox’s attention.

  She seemed to have caught her captor’s attention, too. “You aren’t really counting on this traitor to save you, are you?” The incredulity in her tone was starting to piss him off.

  Gwen managed a grin despite the blade at her throat and a strange sense of pride stirred inside him. “Nope. But you’re … out of time. Bitch.”

  He saw the moment the other possibility dawned on the demoness, her eyes widening a bit. Her stance shifted, almost imperceptibly. “You didn’t—”

  Knox made his move, mostly in an effort to keep her from fleeing, and rushed in with his own energy blade at the ready. As soon as he was close enough, he shifted his into a spear, throwing off the counterattack she would have anticipated needing, and just as he’d hoped, she pulled the blade from Gwen’s throat. It didn’t by any means free her, but at least she could talk without further damaging herself. Already he could see a fine red line forming from the pressure.

  “Don’t think I won’t kill her,” the demoness warned as she parried his second jab. “Delivering her corpse is better than nothing, after all.”

  Knox barely had time to narrow his eyes, let alone retort, before a brilliant flash of green shattered the dome of darkness and nearly blinded him. Green? He’d honestly been expecting Kai. Wasn’t green—

  “Stay your ground, angel!” the demoness cried. “I’ll slit her throat if you so much as lift a finger.”

  The light faded to a soft but impenetrable glow and Knox slid a glance in the angel’s direction to confirm what he thought he remembered. Green was the light of Jaelyn, one of the angels who’d helped protect Gwen before. He could’ve sworn he’d heard rumor that Jaelyn was armada-bound, but then again, it wasn’t like he gossiped with the angels.

  Jaelyn frowned but held still. “Very well. My fingers shall remain pointed downward.”

  The demoness smirked, her victory obviously presumed. “I don’t know why everyone thinks you’re all so hard to beat.” She flicked a satisfied smirk in Knox’s direction before adding, “I’ll let you keep the traitor for now. After all, you may need him.” She took a step backward at the same moment that the ground sparked, and Knox figured out the angel’s plan. Her foot landed on the green spark and she shrieked in pain, the pain and surprise causing her to loosen her grip of Gwen.

  Knox sprinted forward and pulled Gwen the rest of the way free, easily able to pry off the remaining dark energy tendrils binding her. He risked a foot to the ground in order to shove them bodily away from their foe in case she recovered with a surge of violent energy. To his relief, no angelic shock awaited him and they rolled safely away.

  “Clever … little … pixie,” the demoness said with a growl as she pushed to her knees, wiping a small trail of blood from her lips. “I wonder if your color lingers … after your wings have been … clipped.�
�

  “You’re not as smart as you act,” Knox called, one knee still on the ground and Gwen still held against his chest, “if you haven’t run away yet.”

  “I’m not some bastard coward,” she spat out, shoving to her feet. Energy began coalescing around her with an intensity that matched the ire in her eyes. “And one way or another, I’ll have that woman.”

  “None of us will allow that,” Jaelyn stated firmly. Before, her voice had been calm, almost neutral, even. Now she spoke with the passion of personal investment and Knox realized even her verbal response had been part of her game before. The angel had a hell of a poker face.

  “Then we’ll cut you all down until you give up,” the demoness replied. A moment later, the energy she’d gathered burst forth, channeled through one raised arm, aimed straight for Jaelyn. Knox had to admit it was an impressive blast, even though he had no way of knowing whether or not it would accomplish the demon’s goal. Jaelyn wasn’t Kai, after all. And Kai was the only one Knox knew with any level of confidence.

  “Jae,” Gwen murmured, concern in her voice.

  Jaelyn’s eyes narrowed and Knox’s vision once again filled with brilliant, blinding green. This time accompanied by the highly uncomfortable, dizzying sensation of rapid transport that had nothing to do with shadows.

  ****

  The green energy of Jaelyn’s unique angelic signature had barely faded before Knox released Gwen and tumbled awkwardly to his ass, gasping. It took her a moment to properly process his odd behavior, though, because selfishly her first thought had been how much easier it was to travel that way without a fatal heart condition. But she shook the reflection away and scooted over to him. “Knox! Are you okay?”

  His brown eyes rolled up until he’d met her gaze, but he didn’t seem to have the breath yet for speech.

  “Apologies, demon,” Jaelyn said as she stepped closer, her glow now entirely absent. “I know our kinds aren’t meant to mix in that way.”

  Gwen looked up at Jae, confused, before Knox finally managed a strained response.

  “’S all right…”

  Glancing between the two for a moment, Gwen finally frowned. “I don’t understand. One of you clue me in.”

  “Angels are beings of purity, demons creatures of sin,” Jaelyn explained patiently. “Our abilities—including our instant transportation techniques—reflect this. So a demon being teleported by an angel, even consensually, is bound to cause him physical damage. That’s why I made the trip as short as safely possible.”

  Gwen felt her eyes bulge. “What? Jae! Why didn’t you just blast that bitch to oblivion or something? Knox is the only reason I even had time to pray!”

  “I realize that,” Jaelyn said, her smile fading. “But to have reflected the attack would have caused massive property damage and possibly injured any passerby outside. To have nullified it with a stronger counterattack would have caused them both damage. In his case, likely worse than this. This will heal.”

  Attempting to process Jae’s answer, Gwen finally asked, “It will?”

  She flicked a glance to Knox and he nodded. “Yeah.” His voice was tired but already steadier. He grinned, shifted his weight, and dropped a hand to her shoulder. “I appreciate your concern, though.”

  Something about the softness of his voice, or the touch of his thumb on her skin, had her heating up all over again. So she swatted his hand off and stood. “Well, you did go out of your way to try and save me. Again.” Wait a sec… She looked back at him, her posturing forgotten. “Why? I mean, that was pretty much the antithesis of ‘laying low’.”

  Knox heaved a sigh and shoved to his feet as well, brushing the dirt from his pants. And for the first time drawing Gwen’s attention to the fact that she had no damn clue where they were. She turned her head to get a handle on their surroundings, which looked to be rather woodsy, barely a moment before Knox spoke. “What do you mean ‘why’? Do you have any idea how fast and how painfully I’d die if I just sat back and watched Belle’s best friend get kidnapped? I still work with Kai, you know.”

  That got through to her and Gwen snapped her attention back to him. “You do? I thought that was, like, a special circumstances thing?” She glanced over to Jae curiously and Jaelyn inclined her head. Meaning Knox was telling the truth.

  “Yeah, well, it was supposed to be,” Knox agreed. “But it turns out aligning oneself with an angel, even if it’s purely to save their own ass, puts you permanently on the Most Wanted list in Hell. I think my name’s been unofficially changed to Traitor downstairs.”

  Gwen winced, a twinge of guilt flickering in her heart. It wasn’t her fault, really, but she’d been a big piece of the pie. The demon Creed had wanted her bad and somehow coerced Knox into working for him as muscle. When Knox decided he didn’t want to cross blades with Kai, Creed forced him to make a choice—suicide via angel or switch sides. Even Gwen knew Knox was a survivalist. She just didn’t know if he’d really been prepared for losing everything else. Seemed pretty harsh to her. Then again, they’re demons…

  “For what it’s worth,” Jaelyn said, interrupting Gwen’s thoughts. Jae was looking at Knox from a respectful distance. “Your tips have been very helpful. You have our gratitude.”

  “Look,” Knox replied, “don’t get this wrong, but I’m not helping you to help you. I’m helping you to keep my head on my shoulders.”

  Jaelyn inclined her head. “I understand.” She took a breath before asking, “Speaking of your skills, what can you tell me about that demon?”

  Gwen watched as Knox’s jaw tightened. “Not much,” he said. “I didn’t recognize her. She never gave a name. But she’s no grunt. She’s got power.”

  “And she wanted me,” Gwen offered, noticing Knox was giving statistical facts, not situational details. “She came for me, not him. At least, that’s what she said. She was talking like killing him was just a perk.”

  Having shifted her focus to Gwen as Gwen spoke, Jaelyn frowned. “She was targeting you? What for?”

  Gwen shrugged. “I dunno, because apparently I’m a demon-magnet?”

  “She was on orders,” Knox declared.

  Gwen looked back at him in surprise. How could he know that? It didn’t match with … anything. Unless he wasn’t being straight with her.

  Knox kept his stare on Jaelyn. “She didn’t come out and say it,” he continued. “But she made a couple of interesting comments. Like how Gwen never belonged to her specifically. And she was doing her damnedest to take Gwen alive.”

  “So someone is hunting her again,” Jaelyn surmised.

  “No,” Gwen said quickly even as Knox nodded his head. “No, no, no. No one’s hunting me, it was just a random thing. Some friend of Creed’s or whatever, trying to freak us all out. You’re all so hyper-paranoid. I’m not important anymore, okay? I’m just a human now. An ordinary, un-cursed, mortal chick. Not demon-chase-worthy at all.”

  Knox groaned, pinched the bridge of his nose, and finally dropped one more bomb. “Look, could you tell everything I just said to Kai? I think this is connected to the info he wanted me digging into. Directly connected. But I don’t know nearly enough to offer anything solid. If Gwen’s the one they want, I should stick close. So I’ll look after her for now.”

  “Say what? Excuse me?”

  “Thank you,” Jaelyn replied with a small smile. “Are you recovered enough now for me to leave? I don’t have permission to linger today.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the heck is going on here? Don’t just ignore me!” Gwen cried, practically shouting as she physically stepped between them. She turned her stubborn glare on Jaelyn, betting on the angel’s guilt complex.

  “I’m sorry, Gwen,” Jae said, taking a step backward. “I know you probably find it inconvenient. Especially after last time. But if your safety’s on the line, there’s really no choice, and we both know I won’t be able to do it myself. But I’ll keep a closer watch.” Without waiting for Gwen’s dissatisfied argument, Jae
lyn spread her magnificent wings and shot into the sky. Returning to home base—or wherever.

  Chapter Four

  Gwen stared at the spot in the sky where she’d lost track of her angel friend for several seconds, her mind reeling. The idea of being targeted by demons for a second time was both terrifying and infuriating. Speaking of infuriating. She spun on her heel and planted her hands on her hips, squaring her glare on Knox. “You have some explaining to do, pal. What happened to laying low? Was that just a bunch of crap? If you knew I had another target on my head, you should’ve said something! What the hell’s going on?”

  Knox tucked his hands into his pockets as a slow grin tipped the corners of his lips. “Ah, there’s the girl I remember. Asks a million questions a minute and never seems to process the danger she’s actually in.”

  Gwen stomped up to him until she was as in his face as she could be, what with her five-foot-six stature not quite matching his six-something. “I can’t process anything without all the answers, jerk. So talk.”

  Not only did he not back away, but the grin on his lips reflected in his eyes as Knox leaned in until their noses were a hair’s breadth apart. “Oh, I’m a jerk again, huh?” He lifted one hand and trailed his knuckles oh-so-lightly along the curve of her cheek in a lingering caress. “For what, not taking the risk of needlessly worrying you?” He leaned closer, his lips brushing her ear now. “Or for waking up your desires?”

  She bit back an instinctive moan. Damn him and his tempting touch and toe-curling kisses. Damn her for letting those things get to her. “Neither,” she finally managed, keeping her hands locked at her sides. “For lying to me.”

  Knox sighed and straightened, his raised hand falling to his side as he searched her eyes. “It was only a partial lie,” he said. “I pretty much always have to lay low these days. I just exaggerated the urgency. And I picked you specifically because I had a strong suspicion that someone from down below was coming after you. A suspicion, nothing concrete.”