by DB Reynolds
“Is this unusual?”
“Yeah. Damn it,” she swore as yet another side street was cut off, but this time it was a police barrier that stopped her. “That doesn’t look good,” she said, growing more concerned. The streets in this area were fairly twisty. Most regular commuters didn’t know how to navigate them, and so stuck to other routes, which was why this morning’s traffic was so unusual.
“Those are more of your police authorities?” Kato asked, twisting to study them as she tried a different approach to her block.
“Yes.” Grace was trying to decide which street offered her the best chance of getting close to her building.
“Ask them what happened,” he said so intently that it made her turn to study him.
“What do you mean? Are you getting a vibe of something bad?”
He was staring so hard at the officers manning the barricade that she’d have sworn he was trying to read their lips. He shot her a quick glance. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘a vibe of something bad.’ What I do know is that this is very coincidental, and there are no coincidences in magic.”
Grace got a sick feeling in her stomach as she thought back to every street she’d had to maneuver around, every detour she’d had to take. “My condo building is at the center of it,” she whispered, and gave him a worried look.
“Ask them, Grace.”
She swallowed her fear and pulled up to the barricade, rather than going around. Taking out her driver’s license, which had her condo address on it, she flashed it at the first officer and said, “I live here. Can I get through?”
He took her ID and studied it, then leaned down and took a hard look at Kato. Shit. It was just as she’d feared, and there was no way in hell that Kato could look harmless. Her instinct was to offer an explanation, an excuse, but reason kept her mouth shut. Anything she said would only heighten the cop’s suspicion.
“What about him?” he asked.
“My boyfriend,” she said, blushing convincingly at the sort of lie. She wanted him to be her boyfriend. Or at least her lover. That thought only made her blush harder. Kato chose that moment to stretch a long arm across the seat, giving her shoulder a comforting rub. The sort of thing a boyfriend would do.
“ID?” the cop asked, his eyes following the shoulder rub.
Grace opened her mouth to offer an excuse, but Kato beat her to it. “I left my bag in my car at the restaurant last night,” he said lazily, while giving her a look so hot that she fully expected there to be a brand on her cheek when she looked back at the officer. Instead, the cop was giving one of those smug, masculine grins that matched the one on Kato’s face. Just two guys conquering the world of women one pussy at a time. Assholes.
But it worked. The cop gave Grace a sober look and said, “There’s been an incident. Drive slowly, and follow directions when you get there.”
Her heart was pounding a shallow, rapid beat that was taking her breath away. Kato was right. This was too much of a coincidence. “Thank you,” she managed to say. The cop signaled his buddies, and she maneuvered carefully through the small space that had opened up between the barricades.
She drove slowly, leaning over the steering wheel to peer up through the windshield, her dread growing as she passed block after block, one tall building after another. “I think it’s my building,” she breathed, when they’d finally gone as far as they could. She pulled down a side street and parked, grateful for the size of her small car, and the resident sticker that let her park there legally.
When they walked back to her street, she could only stare. Her entire complex—consisting of two identical towers connected by an underground garage and a single lobby on the ground floor—was surrounded by both marked and unmarked police and emergency vehicles.
She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. “They’ll never let us in there.”
“Yes, they will,” he said with such irritating confidence that she wanted to slug him.
She clenched her jaw. He was so damn sure of himself. But then she remembered how easily he’d concealed them from the police that first night, when they’d broken into the crime scene condo just below hers. And just now, when he’d gotten through the police checkpoint with no ID. Maybe he had a reason to be confident.
But that wasn’t what struck her. “All of this,” she said, gesturing. “It can’t still be from the first murder. It’s too much.”
“I agree.”
She glanced up at him, at his clenched jaw and focused stare. He might not know how things worked in this world, but he clearly knew something more had happened here. Something really bad.
“What’s the easiest way into your building?” he asked, his voice so deep with anger that it was more like a growl.
“On foot like this . . .” She had to think about it a minute, because she’d never actually walked up to her building before, not even when she’d first bought the condo. She’d always driven in through the garage. “The only way is through the front doors of the lobby,” she said finally. “There are fire doors on the side, but they only open from the inside, unless . . .” She shot a quick glance in both directions, then hurried across the street, which gave her a better angle on the garage entrances. “They have all of the garage gates open. We can walk in and take the elevator from there.”
He nodded. “We’ll do that.”
“They’ll try to stop us.”
He turned from his perusal of the activity around the complex and met her gaze directly. “They’ll let us pass, Grace. Trust me.”
She stared up at him. She did trust him. “All right. Let’s go, big guy.”
KATO TOOK GRACE’S hand as they headed off toward her building. The gesture made their relationship more convincing to anyone watching, but that wasn’t the only reason he’d done it. Something terrible had happened in her home . . . again. Maybe not her condo directly, but this entire complex, with its two huge towers, was her home, and she was shaken by the violence that had visited it.
She’d helped him with his spell work last night, and had insisted on going along with him on this hunt, but he knew that in her heart she hadn’t yet embraced the idea that the previous murder was related to the scrolls or anything magic. Now there’d been a second murder right here in her home complex, but she still wanted to believe it had nothing to do with demons. You’d think the attack in her museum would have convinced her. She’d had no choice but to believe when it came to the demon he’d killed right in front of her. But she didn’t want to acknowledge the spread of that violence to the rest of her life. He almost envied her innocence, the ability to believe that death and violence couldn’t reach out and touch her life. He’d known from his first breath that it wasn’t true.
Her fingers shook within the clasp of his hand, her grip desperately tight. He tugged her close and dropped his arm over her shoulders instead. She responded by sliding her arm around his waist, tangling her fingers in his shirt as she held on.
“This way?” he asked quietly, leaning down to murmur the words.
She nodded. “Past the lobby, the second garage gate. That’s where I normally drive in. I have my key card for the elevator . . .” She paused. “But look at all those cops, Kato. They’ll never—” Her words cut off as his arm tightened around her shoulders.
“Shhh. Believe, Grace. That’s half the battle.”
BELIEVE? HE WANTED her to believe? What was this, Neverland? She was terrified they were going to get arrested, and then what? That had been her worst-possible scenario when they’d been planning this little jaunt, and that had been before she’d known about whatever awful thing had happened here. She didn’t want to think too hard about that, about the details. She was still clinging to the hope that it wasn’t connected to the previous murder or the fucking demons that she’d somehow invited into the world.
Kato loosened his hold on her shoulders with a final hug, and then shifted his grip to her hand, walking them both right down the driveway into the underground ga
rage. The place was teeming with cops, although the activity seemed to be centered around the other building. Whatever had happened was over there. It gave her hope that the two events weren’t connected, but she could tell that Kato didn’t think that. And he was the demon expert.
They approached the first set of police officers, two men standing with feet spread, hands resting on their belts, eyes sharp. She wanted to say something to them, offer an excuse. Every instinct in her well brought-up, Westside little body wanted to stop and talk to the nice policemen. But she bit her tongue and did as Kato asked . . . and they walked right past the two officers without exchanging a single word. It was as if they were invisible. No one so much as twitched in their direction.
She squeezed Kato’s hand hard, her logical, academician’s brain trying to reason out what had just happened. She’d been forced to buy into the existence of demons when they’d wrecked her office, but she would not accept the shifting of physical matter in such a way as to make solid objects invisible. The laws of the universe were absolute. They could not be bent that far.
She waited until they were in the elevator on their way up. “What did you do?” she asked quietly.
“They saw what they wanted to see.”
“You messed with their minds?”
His sexy mouth pursed into a doubtful moue. “Not as such. It’s a minor spell. Humans prefer the ordinary. The spell gives them what they want.”
“So you messed with their minds.”
He shrugged. “If you prefer.”
She snorted. “It has nothing to do with preference, and I’m not complaining. Just trying to understand.” She took a deep breath. “So, what do you think happened here?” Her gut clenched when she asked the question.
“I think I’ll know more once we reach your condo.”
“No guesses?”
“I don’t guess. It serves no purpose.”
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t pursue it any further. She’d hoped he’d have some theories, or at least something to distract her from thoughts that were running wild with speculation. She was feeling guilty enough that her nameless neighbor was dead, but now . . . had someone else died because the demon was looking for her?
She wondered if there was some way to find out what the police had discovered about the two crimes. Her parents probably knew someone who could get that kind of information; they knew everyone. But they were on the other side of the world, and, besides, that sort of inquiry might draw attention to her and Kato, which was right where she didn’t want it. She was in the clear, no problem there. Her alibi for the time of the murder was airtight. But Kato was the modern equivalent of a drifter. He was a homeless person who looked like a professional fighter, and who, no doubt, possessed all of the skills necessary to commit murder.
She could tell them he hadn’t done it. But since his real alibi was that he’d been a statue at the time, she didn’t think that was going to fly.
So, talking to the cops was out, which meant she’d have to trust Kato and his hunt. And she did. What she didn’t trust was how much help she was going to be now that she’d insisted on being included. Too late for that, she told herself dryly.
“Remember what we discussed.” Kato’s serious voice broke into her thoughts. “Once we begin tracking this demon, you do what I say, when I say it.”
“Within reason.”
“No,” he said implacably. “No questions, no second-guessing. Or you stay behind.”
“As if you could make me,” she muttered.
He gave her a grin, but not the friendly kind. This was a predator’s grin, a baring of teeth meant to establish his position at the very top of the food chain. “Don’t try me, Grace. I was taking down men twice your size when I was half your age.”
She gave him a dirty look, but didn’t say anything, because he was right. She didn’t know about the twice your size/half your age thing, but he sure as hell could take her right now. A slight tap on her temple and she’d be history. He wouldn’t even need magic.
“Fine. What you say, when you say it,” she droned dutifully.
He laughed and crooked an elbow around her neck, pulling her into his big, warm body. “Look at it this way, there’s a fifty percent chance it’ll keep you alive.”
She frowned as the elevator doors opened. Only fifty percent? Fuck.
“YOU THINK IT’S here somewhere?”
Grace’s voice wobbled slightly as she stared around her sunny condo with its clear view of the vast city beyond. It was impressive, but Kato preferred the solitude of the beach house.
He shook his head. “There’s no reason for the demon to have lingered in your personal residence, and every reason for it not to. You summoned the creature, which means you are the one who can most easily banish it. It knows this and will kill you if the opportunity presents. But it’s more likely to avoid you altogether.”
“Well, that’s reassuring. Not,” she muttered. Crossing to her refrigerator, she took out two bottles of water and threw him one. He caught it easily, but set it aside. He wasn’t thirsty, and his mouth wasn’t dry, because he wasn’t afraid. These demons of Grace’s were nothing he hadn’t dealt with before. They were dangerous and deceitful, but he understood this prey, and had the skills to hunt and kill them. Grace, on the other hand, was gulping down the cold water like she’d been lost in the desert. He understood that, too. It wasn’t that he didn’t know fear. Fear and desperation had been his close companions when he’d been trapped under Sotiris’s spell.
Compared to that, this situation was child’s play. Quite literally, since he’d hunted and killed his first demon when he was only six years old.
He ran a hand down Grace’s back, sliding his fingers over the braid that captured most of her hair. “Don’t worry. I’ve done this before.”
She nodded silently, and poured the rest of the water down her throat, then tossed the empty container into a blue bin. “Where do we go from here?”
“The first murder—”
“First. So you do think there’s been another.”
He gave her an apologetic look. “It would seem likely. This is a large complex, with hundreds of people, and the city would be a foreign place to the demon. Why go out there, when everything it needs is in here?”
“Oh, my God,” she breathed.
“You don’t have to go with me, amata. The demon will have retreated to its resting place to conceal itself from the police. You’ll be safe if you remain here.”
“Resting place?”
He nodded. “It requires time to metabolize the blood it ingests from its victims. Eventually, it will move out into the city, but for now, it’s nourishing itself, gaining the kind of strength that it simply cannot acquire in its home dimension.”
“Nourishing itself. You mean food.”
Despite the seriousness of their situation, he had to fight back a smile. He liked Grace. Maybe a little too much. But when this was over, when he’d killed all three of the demons conjured by the three scrolls, and made Grace and her world safe again, he’d have to leave her. His priority had to be finding Nico and the others, and they weren’t in this city. He’d have sensed them if they were. Hell, he wouldn’t even have had to look for them. With all the magic being flung about, Nico would have detected both him and the demons by now. That he hadn’t yet shown up told Kato that he lived far away from here, and that was where Kato would go to find him. He didn’t know how he’d do it, or where he’d have to travel, but he knew he’d eventually have to leave this city, and Grace, behind.
That thought destroyed any pleasure he might have taken from watching the way her mind worked itself around their current conversation. “Most demons feed on the blood of other sentient creatures,” he explained to her. “Which is why this dimension, with its abundant life, is so attractive to them.”
“Sentient life. So humans, but not other animals.”
“They can and will eat other animals, but the act of killing and dr
aining a human being involves more than blood. They devour the soul, the spark of intellect that makes us human.”
“You said ‘most’ demons feed that way. What about the others?”
“The most powerful among them could pass you on the street, and you wouldn’t register its presence. With your gift of magic, you might experience some discomfort, a stinging as when a sudden gust of wind turns sand into a small storm. But most humans would never recognize the danger.”
“And you? Would you notice?”
He did smile then, because her words had been belligerent, more of a challenge than a question. She seemed to have forgotten how they met. “Have I been shirking my duty, Grace? After countless millennia as Sotiris’s captive, is it now my lot to spend every hour hunting and slaying the demons that walk among you?”
She glared at him a heartbeat longer, but then the import of his words hit her, and she looked almost stricken with guilt. “No, of course not,” she said, but her expression told him that was exactly what she’d been thinking. He didn’t mind her forgetting how he’d come to be in her world, or even where he’d been before she’d freed him. He’d have liked to forget it, too. But he also didn’t want her thinking of him as someone who needed to be watched over like a child in this new world.
If anyone was a child in this scenario, it was Grace, and the new world was the one of magic. He’d fought and killed more demons in his years with the Dark Witch and, later on, with Nico, than Grace was likely to see in all the rest of her life.
“I need to acquire the scent of the thing,” he said, changing the subject to the only one that mattered, which was finding the demon. “The faster we can begin, the better, since it’s already killed at least twice—”
“At least? You mean there might be more that we don’t know about?”
“No,” he said gently. “I mean we don’t know how many people it killed in this most recent attack.”
