Haven

by Karen Lynch

  I opened the door and walked into the small room. To my left was the bathroom, and ahead of me was the bare room that had been stripped of all its furniture and drapes. A quick sweep of the room told me no one had been in here. I left, and we moved to the next one.

  It didn’t take long to work our way to the lobby. Neither of us spoke as we searched the rooms on the other side of the building and arrived back at the lobby empty-handed.

  “Empty,” Trevor scoffed, breaking his silence. “Another waste of time.”

  Instead of replying, I opened the employee door that led to the service and housekeeping area. I doubted I’d find anything, but I wanted to be able to tell Maxwell I did a thorough search of the places we’d been to.

  My nose picked up a foreign scent as soon as I walked through the door. It took me a minute to figure out where it was coming from, and then I walked quietly toward the employee lounge. The smell got strong enough for me to know it was demon in origin, but I couldn’t tell what species of demon. I definitely knew it wasn’t a vampire. I’d been around enough of them to recognize their stench anywhere.

  A muffled sound up ahead let me know I wasn’t alone. My muscles tensed for an attack, and I slowed my approach to the lounge. The only window provided enough light to make out the shapes inside: two couches and a small round table with two chairs. But no demons.

  I stood still, straining my ears, and I picked up a faint rustle from the small kitchenette at the other end of the room. Someone was in here, and they were trying very hard to stay hidden. If I was human, they might have succeeded, but my hearing and smell were even better than my eyesight.

  “I know you’re back there, so you might as well come out,” I called in my most nonthreatening voice.

  No one moved.

  “I won’t hurt you. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

  Still nothing.

  I folded my arms. “I’m blocking the only way out of this room, and I’m not leaving until we talk.”

  It was another minute before a head of brown, curly hair peeked above the counter, followed by a pale, chubby face. My brows drew together. It was a demon, all right, but definitely not the one I was after. Ranc demons were thin and dark with large horns and catlike eyes. This one was a vrell demon, one of the few who could pass for human if they hid their tiny horns and fangs. They were a timid race, and harmless.

  “Please. I know we are not supposed to be here, but we meant no harm,” he said in a pleading voice.

  We? “How many of you are back there?”

  “M-my mate…and our young,” he stammered.

  Ah hell. I’d busted a family. I sighed and let my arms fall to my sides. “It’s okay. You can come out. No one will hurt you.”

  A second demon appeared beside him, this one obviously female. She bent and came back holding a little male who couldn’t be more than three years old. The adults came out from behind the counter, followed by a young female who looked to be about ten. The girl clung to her mother’s shirt and stared at me with wide, frightened eyes.

  I smiled at the girl, but she shrank away from me. Great, now I was scaring children.

  “We will leave,” the mother said softly. “Please, don’t call the human authorities.”

  I waved a hand. “Don’t worry about them. I don’t care about you being in here. I came here looking for –”

  “What the hell are those?”

  Trevor came through the door, growling, and I put an arm up to keep him away from the demons. He tried to push past me, but I was too strong for him.

  “These are not the demons we’re looking for,” I said.

  “Who gives a shit?” he snarled, struggling against me. “They’re demons, and the only good demon is a dead demon.”

  “What’s going on?” Pete asked as he and Shawn filled the doorway.

  The little girl whimpered and the male shoved his family behind him. Seeing them so frightened after I’d promised they were safe angered me.

  “Stand down, Trevor,” I ordered.

  He ignored me and tried to duck under my arm.

  That’s it. I grabbed him and slammed him into the wall, holding him there with an arm against his throat. He made a choked sound and clawed at my arm. I applied more pressure until his eyes bulged and he stopped struggling. As soon as he did, I eased off to give him air.

  “I told you to stand down,” I ground out, staring into his furious eyes until he dropped his gaze. “Do I have to tell you again?”

  “No,” he sputtered.

  “Good.” I released him and walked to the center of the room so I was between him and the vrell family. “We have orders to find and question ranc demons. These are vrell demons.”

  “How do you know what they are?” Shawn asked. We didn’t get many demons in Maine, and I doubted he’d ever seen one in person.

  “We met one out west. Nice guy.”

  Pete nodded. “Yeah, Kelvan is cool. He’s like a super hacker or something.”

  Trevor sneered. “You two ran off last year to hang out with demons? You don’t deserve to be Betas.”

  “And you do?” I barked a laugh. “At least I can tell one demon from another.”

  I turned to the vrell family. “We’re looking for some ranc demons. You see any in town?”

  The female’s lip curled, telling me exactly what she thought of the other demons.

  Her mate shook his head. “We haven’t seen them, but we were told to stay away from the wharves to avoid them.”

  “Told by who?” I asked him.

  “Another of our kind who we met when we arrived in town,” he said.

  I rubbed my jaw. “Did your friend say anything about vampires?”

  “Vampires?” the female squeaked. She grabbed her mate’s arm. “Markas, you said this city would be safe for our young. We gave up everything to come here.”

  Markas hugged her with one arm. “We are safe here, Risa.”

  I looked from him to her. “You guys in some kind of trouble?”

  “No,” Markas replied. “We lived in Miami until I had a run-in with a vampire. We decided to move to Maine because everyone knows it’s werewolf territory and there are no vampires here.”

  “Why are you staying in this place?” Pete asked. “No money?”

  Markas shook his head. “I was supposed to have a job waiting for me, but when we got here, the job was gone. We have enough saved to get an apartment, but no one will rent to us since I am unemployed.”

  Trevor scoffed. “Nice sob story. Next thing you know, we’ll be overrun by these things.”

  “Trevor,” I snapped without looking at him. “Wait for us outside.”

  He stomped off without a word, and the demons visibly relaxed.

  “I’m sorry about that.” Looking at the little boy clinging to his mother’s neck, I knew I couldn’t leave them here like this. Demons or not, kids shouldn’t be living in an abandoned motel.

  “I need to call someone,” I told the couple. “Can you tell my friends here what you know about the ranc demons?”

  “Yes,” Markas said.

  I walked out into the hall and checked the time on my phone. It was just after 8:00 a.m. for Sara, so I figured she was awake. I texted her, and sure enough, she replied within a minute. I quickly filled her in on the vrell demons’ dilemma and asked her to contact Kelvan and give him my number. She and Kelvan had become good friends after she’d healed his dying cat, and they chatted all the time. The two of them had been working together for months, helping demons in need. If anyone could help this family, it was them.

  Sara and I were still texting when my phone rang a few minutes later. Kelvan didn’t waste time on pleasantries, asking to speak to Markas as soon as I’d explained the situation to him. I handed my phone to the vrell demon, who looked at it warily for a few seconds before accepting it.

  I walked over to Pete and Shawn while the demons were talking. Pete looked like he was holding back a grin, and Shawn was g
iving me an odd look like he was trying to figure me out.

  “What did you find out?” I asked them.

  “Not much,” Pete said. “They met another vrell demon down by the waterfront on Monday. He told them he’d run across three ranc demons down there the night before. Said they looked like trouble.”

  “Ranc demons are always trouble.” The big question was whether or not they were here on their own or following vampires. I didn’t want to think about what had happened the last time vampires had entered our territory.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Markas called.

  I turned to find him holding out my phone. “It’s Roland,” I said as I took the phone. “Was Kelvan able to help you?”

  His head bobbed. “Yes. He’s going to help us find an apartment, and he knows of a place I can get a good job.”

  “That’s great.”

  Risa’s dark eyes welled. “We can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for us. We never dreamed we’d meet friends of talael esledur.”

  I frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what that means.”

  “The kind warrior,” she explained. “The Mohiri female who comes to us in need.”

  “Ah, Sara.” I smiled. “Yeah, that’s a good name for her.”

  Markas returned my smile, showing off his tiny fangs. “We are in your debt.”

  “Glad we could help.” I pocketed my phone. “We need to get going. You guys okay here for tonight?”

  “Yes,” Risa said.

  “You might want to lock the door behind us,” Pete suggested.

  Markas followed us to the back door, thanking us again before we left. Outside, we found Trevor leaning against the front of the Jeep, his arms crossed and his face sullen. He wisely kept his mouth shut as I pulled out my phone again and called Maxwell.

  “Good job,” he praised gruffly after I’d related the story to him. “Check out the waterfront, and see what you can find.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I hid my surprise. I’d expected him to say he was sending in more experienced wolves to round up the ranc demons. That he was giving me the job spoke loudly of his confidence in my team. I wondered if he’d feel the same way if I told him about my problems with Trevor, but this wasn’t the time or place to go into that with him.

  “So, we done for the night?” Shawn asked after I hung up.

  “Not quite. Maxwell wants us to follow up on the waterfront lead.”

  He gave me a disbelieving look. “You’re serious?”

  “Yep.” I walked over and opened the front passenger door. “Let’s go find some ranc demons.”

  Shawn’s face split in a wide grin. “Lead on, boss.”

  * * *

  It was 7:00 a.m. when I walked into Pete’s kitchen where Maxwell and Brendan sat having coffee. Suppressing a yawn, I poured a coffee and added just enough cream and sugar to take the bitterness away. I wasn’t a coffee person, but I needed some caffeine or I was going to fall asleep on my feet.

  Setting my mug on the table, I rubbed my face wearily as I sat and told my Alpha what he was waiting to hear.

  “We found the ranc demons breaking into a butcher shop in South Portland around 4:00 a.m. There were three of them, and it took a while to get anything out of them.” I scowled at the memory. “They weren’t that scared of us until I shifted. That got them talking.”

  “What did they tell you?” Maxwell asked.

  “They’re bounty hunters, looking for a taag demon who used to work for a gulak named Draegan in LA. Nikolas killed Draegan in December, and the taag demon apparently made off with a ton of money. Some of Draegan’s pals hired the ranc demons to track him down. They swore the job had nothing to do with vampires.”

  Brendan tapped a finger on the table. “You believe them?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think you can ever trust those guys completely, but their story sounded real. Nikolas did kill Draegan, and we met the taag demon when we went to the gulak’s place.”

  Maxwell leaned back in his chair. “How did you track them down at the butcher shop?”

  “We drove around the waterfront for a few hours first,” I admitted. “Then I remembered that ranc demons live off animal blood. Best place to find that is a butcher shop, and they couldn’t exactly go into one during the day and buy a bucket of pig’s blood. We got lucky and found them at the third place we went to.”

  “I wouldn’t call that luck,” Brendan said.

  Maxwell nodded. “Nor would I. Your team did well.”

  “Thanks.” I covered my mouth to stifle another yawn. “I’m beat. Do you mind if I get in a few hours’ sleep before I head over to the yard?”

  “Take the day. You’ve earned it.”

  I felt my eyebrows shoot up. Maxwell had never given me a day off. Unless you were half dead, you had to be there for your shift.

  Instead of answering my unspoken question, he said, “I take it your team worked well together last night.”

  “Good enough to get the job done.”

  “And Gosse?”

  I met his stare. “We had a difference of opinion, but we worked it out.”

  He took a drink of coffee. “Tell me.”

  I knew that tone. It was the one he used when he already knew the answer to his question. But how could he possibly know about last night?

  “Trevor went after the vrell demons. I ordered him to back off, but he wouldn’t listen, so I had to use force.”

  “According to him, you strangled him and you would have killed him if Peter and Shawn hadn’t shown up.”

  I choked on my coffee and ended up wheezing for a minute before I could respond. That lying weasel. He must have called Maxwell as soon as we dropped him off this morning. I should have kicked his ass at that motel. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been spoiling for it all night.

  “I restrained him with my arm against his throat until he stopped fighting me.” I let out an angry breath. “It was either that or punch his lights out, and I’m starting to wish I’d done that instead.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Brendan asked, surprising me.

  “I didn’t have to. I’m bigger, stronger, and a better fighter. There was no reason to hit him when I could subdue him.”

  Maxwell looked thoughtful. “If I were to assign you four to the same team again with Gosse as leader, would you follow him?”

  I took a deep breath. “Honestly? I’d do it if you ordered it, but if he got out of line like he did last night, I’d have to stop him. I won’t stand back and allow him to hurt an innocent.”

  I wasn’t sure what Maxwell was looking for, but he didn’t seem displeased by my statement. Even if I’d angered him, I wouldn’t change my answer.

  He got up and went to refill his coffee cup. “That’ll be all for now. Go get some sleep.”

  “Okay.” I carried my mug to the sink and rinsed it. Then I got out of there before they changed their minds and asked me more questions.

  I tumbled into my bed when I got home, but as tired as I was, I didn’t fall asleep immediately. I lay there, staring at the ceiling and thinking about Emma. It had only been a day and a half since I saw her last, but it felt like a week. I could feel the pull of the imprint growing, but I didn’t want to come on too strong with her. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to do.

  Emma and I had chemistry, and it wasn’t just on my side. I’d felt it in the way she’d kissed me, and it was there again when we were playing around on her couch. And she liked being with me; I wasn’t imagining that. So, why had she run from me after the kiss? Why had she pulled away the other night at her apartment?

  “Argh.” I threw an arm across my eyes. A week ago, I dreaded imprinting and I’d done all I could to stay away from the females. Now, I couldn’t stop thinking about a girl who seemed determined to keep me at arm’s length. It was enough to drive a guy crazy.

  Chapter 14

  Emma

  The bell above the door chimed, and I peered over the top of the cash regi
ster as Brenda grabbed a menu and led a blonde woman to one of my booths.

  I suppressed a groan and finished ringing up the bill for my other occupied table. I was fifteen minutes away from finishing a double shift after covering for Tina, who was out with the flu. My feet hurt, and my stomach was going to cave in if I didn’t put something in it soon. Hoping the woman was a light eater, I put on a smile and went to her booth.

  “Hi. What can I get for you this evening?”

  She glanced at the menu then smiled up at me. “I’ll have a coffee and a piece of cherry pie.”

  “Sure thing.” I took her menu and went to get her food.

  “This looks delicious,” she said when I laid the pie in front of her. “I probably shouldn’t eat it, but calories don’t count when you’re on vacation, right?”

  I laughed. “Right.”

  “This is my first visit to this area. Such a pretty place and the people are so friendly.”

  “They are.”

  She poured creamer into her coffee. “Maybe you can suggest the best things to see and do in town. I’m only here for a few days, and I want to make the most of it.”

  “I’m new here, too,” I said apologetically. “But Brenda would know.”

  “Oh. Your family just moved here? Lucky girl. I love the ocean.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Where did you move from?”

  “New York.”

  “Wow. This must feel pretty different for you then. I’m from Minnesota, born and raised, but I may have to move to Maine after this vacation.” She chuckled and tucked her shoulder-length hair behind her ear. “I wonder what the job market is like here. You don’t look that old. Are you still in school?”

  “Yes,” I answered vaguely, starting to get uncomfortable. The woman was friendly enough and she looked normal – late twenties, nicely dressed – but something about her niggled at me.

  “Excuse me. I need to check on my other customers. Enjoy your pie.”

  I walked over to my only other occupied table and asked if they needed anything else. Collecting their plates, I carried them to the kitchen then went back to the counter to see if anyone there needed a refill on their drinks. Every now and then, I glanced over at the woman’s table to see if she had finished eating. I hoped she didn’t order anything else because I was so ready for this shift to be over.