Demon Hunter (The Collegium Book 1)

by Jenny Schwartz

  A hand like a fielder’s mitt lunged for the rear bumper of the SUV, skimmed and missed as Steve floored the accelerator.

  “It was waiting for you,” he said. “I sensed something unnatural, but I couldn’t tell what the hell it was and I couldn’t contact you. You’d thrown your friggin’ cellphone in the friggin’ trash.”

  “I cut ties with the Collegium.”

  “Idiot,” he snarled as the SUV cornered tightly.

  The golem should have been slow, but the power of its massive legs was relentless. It churned the road behind it, part of its clay.

  Fay gathered power and as the golem rounded the corner, blasted it. She ducked, anticipating the explosion.

  Instead, the golem absorbed the power. It grew. A split opened in the monstrous head. A mouth gaped open. Red light spilled out and a bellow rumbled down the sleeping streets. The damned thing gained speed, too, lunging again for the car.

  Steve swerved, more than half his attention on the rearview mirror. He hit a curb and jerked the steering wheel, bringing them back onto the street. A low growl deep in his chest answered the golem’s challenge.

  “It shouldn’t be able to do that.” Fay knelt up on the seat, fully facing the creature.

  Golems were powered by magic, but only by as much as their creators commanded. They could not absorb more. And they were voiceless.

  It bellowed again. A minotaur in a maze. A golem in the city. They were running in its home, in its powerbase. Somehow, its creator had tapped that power.

  Time enough to work out how later. For a start she wrenched back the power she’d thrown at it. There was a moment of resistance, then the magic surged around Fay. She batted it away, turning it with a thought into the anti-mosquito spell she’d used at the boardinghouse.

  Her eyes narrowed as she studied the golem. The power that had come back to her had been tinged with darkness.

  “New York is my city, too.” This monstrosity was its shadow side. But she remembered the friendly neighborhoods, the excited tourists, and the committed workers. Compassion, laughter and tolerance.

  It was too easy to forget the good people did. The media sold horror stories and she dealt with even worse. But the city didn’t just destroy, it nurtured. She would not allow the golem to live off a perversion of the city’s energy.

  She levitated one ton of golem into the air, breaking its connection to the earth. Her muscles trembled at the flow of power required. She rummaged through the lines of magic animating the golem and holding its body together.

  Here and here and running back, centering at the solar plexus.

  She gasped at the pain, closed a mental hand around the object buried deep in the golem and twisted it.

  The golem exploded.

  “Stop.” Fay fumbled with the door handle, pushed it open and fell out. She rose from her knees immediately, all her attention on finding the object.

  Concrete dust rose in a miasma of city decay.

  “They must have built it of the demolition site down the road,” Steve said.

  Fay found the object and shuddered. “God, I wished I was wrong.”

  “What is it? An amulet?” His eyes flared yellow in the night. “A blasted demon?”

  “Yes.” She wrapped her own warding around the amulet, binding the demon again. “Not one I bound, but…”

  “It looks like the amulet you brought to the Congo,” he said flatly.

  “Collegium issue.” She straightened. “Powering a golem.”

  “A golem chasing you.”

  She climbed back into the SUV. Her knees hurt, but the jeans weren’t torn. Bruising. Her soul hurt and that was from betrayal, both personal and of ideals she’d bled for.

  “So where are we going?” Steve asked. He put the SUV in gear.

  “Where else? The Collegium.”

  It was at least a thirty minute drive to the Collegium, even in the empty streets of 3 a.m.

  Fay picked up her bag from where it had fallen in the foot space and dropped it onto the back seat. The movement brushed her right arm against Steve’s shoulder. “I didn’t think you’d wait for me.” She retreated to her own space, unnerved by her sensory hyper-awareness. He felt warm, strokable, as if touching him stroked her. In the silence, the click of her seatbelt sounded loud.

  Her breath came a fraction fast. The golem was scary, the implications of the amulet that had powered it were ominous, but what terrified her sat inches away driving with relaxed precision. The angular, arrogant lines of his face were part lit, part shadowed by the dim dashboard lighting.

  “I said I would wait for you.”

  He’d promised on the steps of the Collegium, after she’d accepted him as a lover, then changed her mind.

  She’d been crazy that morning, tearing apart with need and fear and so many conflicting emotions. The scars the demon had left on her soul ate like acid. But her desire for him had been real. It was with her still, heating her skin and tensing her muscles. Her denial came automatically, drilled into her. “I can look after myself.”

  “I know.” He stared straight ahead. “But I couldn’t forget the fear in your eyes. Do you have any idea what it did to my self-control?”

  He stopped for a red light and looked at her. His eyes were leopard yellow. “My cat wanted out to protect you. God, I stood on those steps fighting for control. I didn’t think you’d appreciate a were guard in the Collegium and my only other option was to snatch you away. The last three days, I wished I’d done so. Hell, when I heard you’d broken with the Collegium, I knew your fear had been real.”

  The lights changed and he accelerated.

  “I’m not scared of the Collegium.”

  “So why did you resign? No one’s ever done that before, broken ties. Everyone else negotiated a release by the Collegium.”

  “Did they?” She wasn’t interested. “Probably the Collegium kept silent about other renegades. They’re good at keeping secrets.” She stretched, but tension remained locked in her muscles. “The Collegium was using me. I always knew they used my talents. I vowed to serve. I believed—believe—that power brings responsibility. But Dad didn’t want me as me. He wanted a weapon. That’s what he was turning me into. He admitted it. He wanted the emotion burnt out of me.” She tipped her head back against the seat. “He almost succeeded.”

  A growl rumbled from Steve. “You are the most passionate woman I know.”

  “Me?” She hooked a knee up, turning in the seat to study him.

  “I’m a were, Fay. Discipline can hide passion from human senses, but not from mine. I smell your emotions. I feel the intensity of your emotion. Compassion, anger, sensual indulgence.”

  “I don’t indulge…in anything.”

  A smile tipped the corner of his mouth. “Do you remember the beach in Sierra Leone, after the first demon banishment? We were all hot, sweaty and sticky with dirt. The sun was setting, great golden lines of light across the sea, as if we could walk on them. You kicked off your boots, unbraided your hair and walked into the ocean. When you walked out, your shirt and trousers were plastered to you. You were fully covered and the most erotic sight I’d ever seen. You laughed at the ridiculousness of what you’d done, and I wanted to tear your clothes off with my teeth and bury myself in you while you surrendered to me the way you’d given yourself to the sea. Your sensuality is disciplined, Fay, but it’s there. I want to let it out to play.”

  He flexed his fingers, loosening his too tight grip on the steering wheel. “Four days ago I spent the flight back from the Congo fantasizing about joining the mile high club. It was pure torment sitting next to you, wanting you, believing you were indifferent. And then, in the cab…”

  “You nuzzled my throat.”

  He shot her a swift glance. “Did you like that?”

  She swallowed, forced the word out. “Yes.”

  “Be sure, sweetheart. I’m raw, tonight. It wouldn’t take much encouragement for me to take what I want.”

  H
er body pulsed with desire, and his were senses had to be telling him that. He knew she wanted him, but he needed the words. She pressed her hands down her thighs. “What do you want?”

  “You.” Stark, definite.

  She’d had three days in Australia, resting, thinking, discovering something of her own dreams. Perhaps envying what Yolanthe had found with Jim: peace as well as passion, the confidence to trust. There was no point in resigning from the Collegium if she lacked the courage to reach out. Steve wasn’t promising forever, but maybe she couldn’t handle forever. She had to take what she could. “I want you, Steve.”

  The car swerved to the side and stopped. He unbuckled his seatbelt, leaned over Fay and smiled.

  He was hunger and passion and total male beauty.

  Excitement beat a tightening rhythm low in her stomach. She put a hand to his chest, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, waiting for his kiss.

  He pushed aside her collar, bent and bit the soft curve of throat and shoulder. Teeth, tongue and hot breath combined to create a shivering inferno. He pulled back long enough to study the faint mark and his smile held a feral edge. “Mine.”

  It wasn’t foreplay along the lines she’d expected, but she lived for challenges. Her mouth curved. She pulled at his shirt, exposing tanned smooth skin, and bit him as he’d marked her.

  The flavor exploded against her tongue: salt, musk and addiction.

  His heart thundered under her hand. He was hot, so hot, and so was she. The seatbelt cut maddeningly across her chest, restricting her instinctive move closer.

  “Old fashioned bench seats,” he muttered. “That’s what we need.”

  He captured her mouth, kissing her as she’d dreamed. All hard demand and assured seduction. But his hand, gentle against her face, had the faintest tremble. He pressed his cheek against hers and she felt the scratch of stubble.

  “The front seat of a borrowed car. I had plans, Fay.” It was a half-desperate, half-humorous plaint.

  “Tell me.” She smiled, breathing in the scent of him. “Show me.”

  “I intend to.” He nipped her ear before sitting back in the driver’s seat. “But I don’t want us interrupted by a golem or whoever powered it. I want your full attention.”

  “Egoist.”

  “Ah, but in return, I promise complete satisfaction.” He put his hand on her thigh and squeezed.

  Sensation pierced her.

  “Fay,” he said roughly, answering her body’s response with his own reluctance to let go. His nails scraped at the inner seam of her jeans.

  It was difficult to remember commonsense, but she’d returned to New York for a reason. “The demon came back, today.”

  “What?” His hand froze, then splayed across her thigh, protective and possessive.

  “The demon I bound in the Congo, it broke the protections the Collegium placed on the amulet. Then it tried to break my warding. It attacked me. Not as strongly as before. My binding partly held, but when the Collegium’s broke, it must have frayed mine. The demon wanted to kill me and break free.”

  Steve swore and swung the SUV back onto the road. He ran an amber light.

  She missed the feel of his hand on her thigh. Her skin tingled with the imprint. “I re-enforced the binding and I think it’ll hold now, whatever anyone else does.” She hesitated. “It’s not enough though for me to feel safe. I came back to exorcise the demon and to see what damage it caused at the Collegium when it broke their protections.”

  “I haven’t heard any rumors,” Steve said. “But then, the Collegium keeps its secrets.”

  “They won’t keep them from me,” she said grimly.

  “They might try. You’re not a member anymore.”

  “The demon is my business.”

  They drove in silence till Steve broke it. “So that’s why you came back.”

  Chapter 9

  Fay listened to what Steve hadn’t said: she had come back for the demon, not for him. Yet he’d waited for her, worried about her and just now, won her enough time to study the golem and take it down.

  He’d looked out for her and she wasn’t used to that protectiveness or loyalty.

  “How did you track me to Cynthia’s portal?”

  “Old fashioned, non-magical detective work. I found your hotel and the Italian restaurant you went to. I asked people if they’d seen you. People remember you, Fay. You’re strong and beautiful.”

  “You followed me from the restaurant…so you know who I was with?”

  “I know she was an older woman, small and worried-looking.”

  “My mom.”

  His head snapped sideways to study her, proof enough that he’d heard her parents’ story. “Your mom.”

  The slow soft drawl raised the hair on the back of her neck.

  “So when you asked me to become your lover, you already knew you were skipping out?”

  “No!”

  “Huh. No wonder you looked so scared. Planning to break ties with the Collegium would make most magic users piss their pants. But you dared to resign. What was I, another chance to stick it to your dad by taking a were lover?”

  The lovely warm feeling flowing between them cracked into dark coldness.

  “I didn’t know I’d leave the Collegium. I was upset about…everything. It was a turning point, to be alone or to risk sharing myself.”

  “You walked into the Collegium alone.”

  “I told you I was upset. I had a duty to complete and—I’m twenty four years old, Steve. The last time I trusted a man I was seventeen. I was accepted into the Collegium early and joined the guardians’ training. Ethan was five years older than me. He laughed and joked and he touched easily. Caresses that I didn’t know how to handle, that I wanted more of. He made me feel special. I thought he loved me.”

  If she thought sharing would draw the sting from Steve’s anger, she was wrong.

  “So what went wrong? Did daddy forbid the relationship?”

  “I found out why Ethan was expected to do well in the guardians. He was a natural amplifier, very little magic of his own, but the ability to concentrate and share others’. Soon after we started dating, the Collegium reassessed his power level. That’s when Dad asked me if I knew Ethan was using my power.”

  She looked down at her hands fisted on her lap. “I hadn’t known. He tapped my magic when I was distracted. When he kissed me and touched me he was doing so to grab more power. He was ambitious.”

  “Like your dad.”

  “Yes.” She swallowed the unhealthy mix of sorrow, anger and embarrassment. “Dad married Mom to have me. He used her. Ethan used me. I found I couldn’t trust people.”

  “Men, you mean.”

  “But I trust you.” She turned to him. “I respect you. It’s more than the fact you’re sexy. The thing is, I have no experience. If we were to be lovers, I wouldn’t know what to do, what you’d expect of me or what claim we’d have on one another. If it would be a casual one night stand and if I could walk away from that.”

  “It wouldn’t be casual.”

  “I’m not used to relationships, Steve. I’ve only ever had the Collegium.”

  “What about your mom?”

  “It takes more than a blood tie to build a relationship.” Then, explosively. “Dad used my power to keep her away. He bound me not to think of her, and for Yolanthe to stay away. He started it when I was a toddler. I never knew how unnatural it was never to think, to wish for, my mom. When I broke my ties to the Collegium, I broke Dad’s ties too. Mom came straight away.” A pause. “She loves me.”

  He gave a curious feline grumble, impatient, angry and dismissive.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “Do you really find it so hard to believe someone loves you?”

  “I have twenty four years’ experience.”

  “Twenty four years distorted by your dad and the Collegium. Hell, this is the wrong time for this discussion.”

  Fay glanced out the window and reco
gnized the Collegium’s neighborhood. “It’s a difficult discussion any time.”

  “It’d help if I was able to hold you.”

  She stared at him.

  “Body to body there wouldn’t be lies between us or nervousness or any other damn thing. In my arms, all you’d want is me.” He parked out front of the Collegium.

  “Will you come in with me?”

  “Yes.” He slammed the car door and looked at her over the hood. The light caught his eyes and they gleamed. “Will you be ashamed to walk in with a were?”

  She refused to answer the insulting question. Weres’ magic took the form of shape-shifting and the senses of their were creature. They didn’t wield magic: they were magic. Consequently, the Collegium looked down on them and refused to accept them as members. Fay had her suspicions as to the hidden reason for that refusal: fear. As well as being unable to wield magic, it also didn’t affect them. A magic-powered golem could crush a were, but the were would snarl through a sleep spell and rip the magician’s throat out.

  “Fay?” Steve caught her wrist and shook it.

  “You’re serious?” she asked in disbelief. “You seriously think I consider weres lesser?” Her free hand came up in a furious strike.

  He blocked it and snapped her close. “Just checking.”

  “How would you like it if I insinuated—”

  He kissed her, quick and fierce, teeth nipping at her lower lip.

  She stomped on his booted foot.

  “Temper.” He laughed and let her go.

  She stalked through the Collegium entrance and he caught her up two steps inside.

  Across the foyer, the night receptionist looked up and froze.

  “Ex-Collegium mages aren’t covered in the training manual,” Steve murmured.

  “Nor are the cast-off daughters of Collegium presidents.” She bared her teeth in a threatening smile before she turned away from the desk, heading for the bank of elevators.

  “Uh.” The receptionist stumbled on how to address Fay and the bigger problem, how to stop whatever she intended.