Midnight's Master

by Cynthia Eden

  Because lately, he didn’t feel Holly was safe enough, not unless he had her in his sight.

  Zachariah rose slowly after Lapen left. He knew his hands were shaking, but couldn’t seem to stop the tremble.

  “Zack?” Denise’s worried voice squeaked from his right.

  Denise. Hell. The girl had been giving him come-and-get-me signals for the last two months. She just wasn’t getting that he wasn’t interested. Not anymore. “Leave,” he snarled. He couldn’t deal with her now. Too many girls like her—he’d screwed up his life with them.

  One mistake after the other.

  He’d been so busy with them, he hadn’t seen what was right in front of him. What was in his hands.

  Until too late.

  Now everything in his life seemed to be falling apart.

  Falling apart.

  “But I saw him—you need—”

  “Leave!”

  Her plump lips tightened, but after a moment, she turned and fled. Shit, but she was becoming a problem.

  He’d have to deal with her soon.

  Her…and Niol.

  Zachariah closed his eyes, but he could still see Niol’s eyes, those black pools of nothingness staring at him. Boring into him.

  Holly had chosen that freak over me?

  No, no, that wasn’t even possible. Sure, she had a right to be angry with him, but—that freak?

  A criminal, a thug—and she’d let him touch her.

  Zachariah pressed a hand to his side. The edge of the table had stabbed into him and he knew the ache would stay with him for days.

  Holly had sicced her new lover on him. Let the guy come and threaten him.

  Fine. If that was the way she wanted it—

  He’d tried to save her, but it looked like Holly wasn’t interested in a savior.

  No, she just wanted her asshole lover.

  Fuck her. And fuck Lapen, too.

  Those black eyes…

  A shiver slid over him. He’d never seen eyes quite like that before. So empty one moment. So cold and dark, then burning with fury in the next second. No, he’d never seen eyes quite like that and he hoped he never did again.

  Killer.

  Kim was gone. Holly stared at the empty hospital bed, her stomach tightening. Not good.

  Holly stepped back and eyed the uniformed cop who was stationed right in front of room four-oh-two at Reed Infirmary.

  “Uh, where is Kim?”

  He blinked, that caught-in-the-headlights, surprised-as-hell blink folks get when they don’t know what’s going on. Then he swore and dashed inside the room.

  “I went to the john for two damn minutes…”

  Shaking her head, she eased back. Two minutes. More than enough time for Kim to get out of there.

  But why would Kim run?

  Two reasons: Because she was scared. Or because she was hiding something. Holly just didn’t know what reason motivated Kim.

  The cop was on his radio now, talking fast, and she knew the real shit was about to hit the fan. A patient under police protection wasn’t supposed to be able to just walk away.

  But it sure looked like Kim had done exactly that.

  Holly’s eyes scanned the hospital corridor as she marched down the hallway. It was just past lunchtime, and the place swarmed with activity. Patients walked up and down the hall in their gowns, pulling IVs behind them. Busy nurses bustled into the rooms. A tired blonde answered phones at the nurses’ station.

  Too much activity. Made for the perfect cover. Easy to leave.

  Or…easy to take someone? Holly couldn’t ignore the dry fear in the back of her throat. Because there was a chance that Kim hadn’t left on her own. And Holly hoped she was wrong about that.

  After punching the button for the elevator, she glanced back over her shoulder. The cop stood outside Kim’s room, eyes locked on her as he talked. She knew that look of suspicion pretty well. Shaking her head, she turned away just as the soft ding of the elevator sounded. The doors slid open with a quiet hiss and she came face-to-face with—

  Niol.

  “What are you—”

  His gaze raked her and he stepped forward, throwing up a strong hand to hold the elevator door open. “Where’s the girl?”

  “Gone.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “The cop never saw her leave. I don’t know if she left on her own or if she was—”

  Niol caught her left hand and pulled her into the elevator. The doors closed behind her, blocking out the bustle of the nurses’ station. “Taken?”

  A grim nod.

  The elevator began its slow descent. Three floors to go. Two. Then—

  The elevator lurched to a stop.

  Oh, no. She wasn’t a good enclosed-spaces person. Hadn’t been since she was six and she’d accidentally gotten locked in her mom’s armoire during a game of hide-and-seek. By the time Peter found her, she’d been a shaking mess of tears and hoarse screams.

  “Niol…” She inched closer to him. He could use his powers to—

  He kissed her. Caught her chin in his palm, tipped her head back and kissed her with a deep, drugging hunger.

  Well, damn.

  Her fingers rose and curled around his shoulders.

  His tongue pushed into her mouth, a warm, wet slide that had her nipples hardening. What the man could do with that mouth.

  What I want him to do.

  His head rose, slowly, and his eyes burned with heat. “I needed to taste you.” Almost guttural.

  Not words that a woman heard every day. Talk about making her feel sexy.

  And making her forget the fear that had kept her up the few hours before dawn.

  Holly licked her lips, tasted him, and managed, “Can you get the elevator moving again?”

  A slight narrowing of those black eyes and the elevator kicked to life once more. “Sorry, love, I’m not good at waiting for what I want.”

  So he’d just stopped an elevator for her. She took a second, then managed to uncurl her fingers from those glorious shoulders of his. “I’m not so good…with tight spaces.”

  A smile that could only be termed wicked lifted his lips. “I am.”

  Oh, damn.

  “Relax, Holly. You don’t have to fear anything when you’re with me.”

  Tempting words, but she couldn’t let go of her control with him. Not yet. Her shoulders straightened. “I wasn’t afraid.” When he’d kissed her, she’d gotten too turned on, too fast, for fear.

  A ding, then the doors slid open, revealing the bright walls of the hospital lobby. She hurried out of the elevator and into the area that was a good ten times busier than the fourth floor. So easy to disappear.

  Niol followed right on her heels. A dark shadow following her and clearing her path.

  “We’ve got to find Kim. Get her to talk to us about the attack.”

  Niol paused in front of the sliding glass entrance/exit doors. “Innocent people don’t run.” He slid his sunglasses onto his nose.

  “They do if they’re scared,” she shot back and tried not to notice just how good the man looked. Pitch-black hair shoved back, chiseled jaw. Shoulders so wide they stretched the fabric of his shirt.

  Down, girl.

  Now wasn’t the time for a sex overload.

  “We need to find her,” she continued doggedly. “She might’ve seen her attacker. She might know—”

  “She ran from the cops.” Niol shook his head. “That means she has something to hide.” He stepped forward and the doors swished open.

  I know.

  “This Kim—maybe we’re looking at her situation all wrong.”

  “What—what do you mean?”

  “She might not just be an accidental victim in this mess.” He glanced over his shoulder at her as she marched after him. “Maybe she was the target.”

  Holly hadn’t thought so. At least, not until she’d seen that rumpled and very empty hospital bed. Because at that moment, she’d had the same suspicion. If the woman had
stumbled onto a crime, wouldn’t she want a cop’s protection? “What would make her run?”

  “I think she’s going to have to tell us.”

  The sunlight was too bright. Too harsh. Holly squinted against the light, lifting her hands. “The cops will head straight for her place. If she’s there, they’ll find her and take her in for questioning.”

  “She won’t go home.” He stopped, hands lightly curled near his sides.

  “Out of town?” On the first bus? In the first car she could find? Because she was scared? Or hiding something?

  Maybe both?

  “Come back to Paradise.” His face was blank and those dark lenses only threw her reflection back at her. “I’ll use my contacts and see what I can find out about her.”

  Demon contacts. It was why she’d sought him out in the beginning. Those contacts—Holly knew she’d never have as much pull in the Other world as he did. But…“Niol, do you think Kim’s a demon?” Her voice was hushed now, because there were ambulance attendants close by and a bleeding teen who was being ushered inside by his frantic-looking mother. His shoulders rolled. “Never met her. Hard to say.”

  Never met her. “It’s true, then? Demons can recognize others on sight?”

  He caught her hand and Holly really tried to ignore the hard skitter of her pulse. “Didn’t recognize you.”

  As far as she knew, no one had. Mom, call me, dammit. “Carl said he could see through the glamour other demons used.”

  An inclination of his head that could have been a nod. “Works like that for most.” A pause. “Not for you.” There was something in his voice that gave her pause. A curiosity. Puzzlement.

  What am I to him? The stark thought had her freezing. In the beginning, the sexual attraction between them had been undeniable. But now…

  Now, what was happening? What did Niol want from her?

  “You’re different. Your power doesn’t reveal you to others. It works to conceal you. Perfect camouflage.” Okay, now the guy was sounding—what, impressed? “Low-level power, but still one that would let you slip by the strongest of our kind.”

  Her nails dug into her palms. She was still not quite jumping on the I’m-a-demon bandwagon, but the low-level reference grated. Like she could help her power scale. “We’re not all level-ten badasses.”

  Silence.

  The light stroke of the wind against her cheek.

  “You’re right, and I’m very glad for that fact. Trust me on this, you don’t ever want to know what it’s like to have level-ten power.”

  The stench of ashes filled her nose. Not just ashes. Flesh. “No, no, I don’t.” That much power would push a person to the edge.

  And the line between good and evil was, she knew, all too thin already for most.

  Having the kind of power that would let you kill and control others at will—too darkly tempting and terrifying.

  “How do you do it?” The words came out, tumbling from the reporter’s curiosity and the woman’s helpless fascination. And from her concern.

  Living every day with his powers—that was a dangerous weight that she knew not many could handle.

  A weight that would make some break and slide headlong into the waiting darkness.

  His mouth tightened. “You don’t want to fucking know.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I do.”

  The hands that had rested so easily at his sides fisted. “My mother ran out on me when she learned just how strong I was. Her latest dumb-ass boyfriend made the mistake of trying to hit her when I was in the room.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “I looked at the bastard, just looked, and threw him though the window of our house. We were on the second floor.”

  Oh, God.

  “I’d never done anything like that before, didn’t know I could. Demon power kicks in with puberty, and it kicks in hard. Don’t know what the hell you’ll get until then. My mother stared at me like I was a fucking monster, and she was a demon, too.”

  Holly didn’t speak. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t sure what to say.

  “The bastard was okay. Lucky for me, he’d landed on the neighbor’s bushes. Broken arm. Bruised ribs. Scared to death. He ran, never looked back.” A rough sigh. Almost, broken. “Then she did, too. Dropped me off at my grandmother’s and never fucking looked back.” He took a step closer to her. “Because she couldn’t handle me. She saw into my soul that day. She saw what I could do, and I terrified her.” His voice shook with fury.

  And pain. Pain that cut deep.

  When had she ever thought the guy was cold? Emotionless? He burned with feeling. So much feeling.

  She wanted to touch him. To soothe him. Stupid, but—hell. Her hand lifted and brushed against his cheek.

  “If you knew all I’d done, you wouldn’t touch me.” A growl of rage but one that held a ring of truth. A tone that told her Niol believed exactly what he was saying. “Wouldn’t let me touch you.”

  She swallowed. Where they were, who was around them didn’t matter anymore. This, this mattered. She was seeing the man now, hearing him. “I know some of the things—”

  A laugh, bitter and cold. “If you knew everything, you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.”

  Maybe she should turn away. Maybe she should run from him as fast as she could.

  The sun seemed to burn her skin. The wind tousled her hair. No sweet touch anymore. A painful brush of air.

  Maybe she should run.

  And then maybe, maybe she should stay. Because when she looked at Niol, she didn’t see evil.

  She saw only him. “You’ve killed.” Holly knew that. “More than—than once.” She only had proof of the one killing, but her gut told her there were more deaths.

  “Yes.” A hiss like a snake from the mouth of a man.

  So much power. What would it do? To know that you could kill with a thought. Control with a whisper.

  She’d gone to church every Sunday when she’d been a kid. Sat in the pews and listened to the priest talk about temptation and walking the devil’s road.

  “It’s so easy to walk that road.” She could still hear his voice, the tang of a southern accent rolling the vowels and softening the consonants. “The darkness is strong and strength—it is temptin’…”

  How tempting?

  “You don’t want to know.” His voice, gravel rough.

  Her lips parted. He hadn’t—

  “You don’t want to know the things I’ve seen, the things I’ve done,” he said. “Not really. Deep down, you want to pretend that I’m not bad. That I’m good.” A grim shake of his head. “Love, I’ll never be good.”

  But he wasn’t evil, either. Her instincts screamed this to her. Niol, though, he was trying to make her afraid.

  Of him.

  Now why the hell would he be doing that?

  “I never said you were a white knight, Niol.” She would have been blind to have made that mistake. “I know what you are. I knew exactly what, who, I was taking into my bed.” His past, no, she didn’t know all of his secrets, but one day, she would.

  “You didn’t—”

  “I wanted you.” Her chin rose. “Still do. Sins of your past and all.”

  His nostrils flared and he turned his head to the left, then the right, searching the parking lot. “Too many humans here.”

  Yeah, this was the last place they should be talking about secrets.

  “Come with me to Paradise,” he said again and the words were low, whispered.

  And Holly really, really felt like a tempted Eve right then.

  Strength—it is temptin’…

  Screw it. She’d always loved taking a bite of forbidden fruit. Her head moved in quick agreement.

  Finally. Kim Went exhaled and unclenched her fists. Holly and her demon lover were finally heading toward their cars. Talk about having a lovers’ quarrel at the worst place and time.

  She hunched her shoulders, feeling the harsh rub of the scrubs she’d snatched chafe against her skin. But her
only choice of clothing had been the garish green scrubs or her paper-thin hospital gown, complete with ass-exposing window. So she’d chosen the scrubs. She’d grabbed them, then hightailed it out of the hospital while the oversexed cop had stopped to flirt with the nurses.

  Her gaze shot across the lot. A busy intersection waited on the other side of the street. A few taxis idled near the far corner. She could get over there, jump in one and figure out how to pay the cabbie later.

  Priority one—get the hell out of this town.

  Her head pounded like a bitch, but Kim knew she’d been lucky. That crazy-ass woman who’d attacked her had meant to kill, not just bruise.

  Talk about one lucky break.

  But if she didn’t get out of there, right then, she might not be so lucky again.

  The nutjob’s voice screeched in her mind. “I’ll fucking kill you, demon! Fucking kill you!”

  How the woman knew Kim’s secrets, damn, she didn’t know. She’d always been so careful about using her glamour. Her powers were practically nonexistent, so she’d been blending in with humans, knowing they fit her more than demons, since she’d been thirteen.

  But that screaming bitch had known.

  How?

  Many of the other demons she met didn’t even know what she was. Something she’d learned early on—the weaker demons were sometimes able to slip right past the radar of those on the more powerful end of the spectrum. Maybe that was just old Mother Nature’s way of balancing the system. You couldn’t hurt what you couldn’t see.

  There were days when she thought her ability to blend in was her power.

  And she’d be using that talent real soon. As soon as she got out of this city, she’d blend in and disappear.

  I’ll be safe. Soon.

  The minute Holly’s taillights left the lot, Kim ran, fast and hard, for the cabs.

  Talking to Holly wasn’t an option. The chick would be pissed because Kim had broken into her office. Not like she’d go out of her way to help her, now.

  And Niol—that demon wasn’t exactly known to be the helping sort.

  Two cabs pulled away from the curb.

  No.

  One left. So close. Shiny yellow coat of paint. So damn close.