by Sharon Kay
When she was done they dressed in black T-shirts, black jeans, and Doc Martens with knives concealed, in case things got ugly. They headed to the parking garage to retrieve their plain gray Honda sedan. Brooke slid behind the wheel and they pulled out, turning south on Damen Avenue. “I got an email from Ray yesterday,” she drawled. “He wonders where we’ve been. He misses you.”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. He’s such a flirt.”
Over the summer, they had spent a lot of time at the local shooting club Ray managed, making sure their firearm skills were top-notch. The guys they encountered on their searches weren’t always the best combatants, but they had a never-ending supply of guns. Nicole and Brooke needed to be prepared for anything. The best part of their routine was the element of surprise. No one expected two young white women to deliberately get involved in a street fight.
While Nicole refined her talent, Brooke worked just as hard on her affinity with water. The two of them regularly drove to rural areas, intent on exploring their abilities where they had space and privacy. If the weather forecast ever called for rain, Nicole knew what they’d be doing. More than once, she watched her sister derive a huge sense of satisfaction from seeing a gang member distracted by a puddle of dirty, oil-slicked rainwater strategically directed into his eyes. Their method was vigilante justice, but they both felt a gratifying sense of purpose in it.
This night would be no different. They parked on a side street near the expressway and exited the car, slipping down the cracked sidewalks with all senses on high alert. It didn’t take long to find trouble. As they rounded a corner, they heard the unmistakable sounds of a struggle drifting from an old brick building. There in the doorway was a young woman, looking like she was still in her teens, trying to fight off a barrel-chested man twice her size.
“Hey, why don’t you leave her alone?” Nicole shot a chilled breeze past the man’s head.
“What the–” He turned and saw Nicole and Brooke. Then his grimy face broke into a lewd grin that revealed a couple of missing teeth. “Hey, double the fun. This is my lucky day!”
“Actually, I’d say it’s her lucky day,” Brooke said. ”Step away from her.”
“You bitches be next, when I’m done with her,” he grunted, and started to turn back to the frightened teen.
“Wrong answer,” Nicole called out in a sweetly sarcastic voice, as she directed a breeze to swoop upward from the dirty street and into his face.
Brooke, already at a dead run, yanked his shoulder to pull him off the girl. He managed to stay on his feet as she delivered a kick right below his ribs, and when he swayed slightly, Brooke bent at the knees to shift her center of gravity. She side-stepped his punch, and then struck a hard punch to his solar plexus. Nicole heard him exhale sharply and double over as he reached for the gun that was in his waistband, but Brooke kicked him in the back of his head with her boot and he slumped on the ground.
“Wh-who are you?” the young woman asked, gaping, as Brooke straightened and dusted off her hands.
“No one. Just helping out a sister in trouble,” Nicole said. “Do you have somewhere you can go? Parents?”
“I live with friends.” She kicked a pebble and shifted her weight from one stiletto-heeled foot to the other.
“We should call the police,” Brooke said.
“No! No police. I’m fine.”
“At least take this. I know some of the people there. They’re cool.” Nicole handed her the business card for an organization that helped disadvantaged women and children.
The teenager eyed it skeptically but took it, and managed a small smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And it would be a good idea to go to your friend’s house now, before more assholes like him show up.”
Nicole and Brooke watched her walk up the block and start talking to another young woman, then the sisters walked in the opposite direction. Keeping to the shadows, they made their way to their little Honda. They were almost there when two men stumbled out of a rundown building and right into their path. “Hey baby, let’s party,” one of them drawled, strung out of his mind on whatever hit he had just taken. The other was in the same sad shape. Nicole shoved them against the building. As she turned, her skin tingled with awareness. Someone’s watching.
She looked farther down the length of the building, and spotted the figure of a man. He loomed large, well over six feet tall, and wide as a door. His body was draped in shadows except for a sliver of light from the streetlamp. The pale beam illuminated his right side, revealing a chiseled jaw and shoulder. His eyes glinted and locked on her.
She turned and jumped into the car that Brooke had already started. “Go,” she directed. “There’s someone watching us.”
As Brooke peeled out, tires screeching, Nicole looked back. A rat scurried along the base of the building. No one else was there.
She shook her head to clear it. “I really thought I saw someone.”
“Well, if anyone was hanging around, all he saw was those crack-heads falling down in front of us. That’s not much to talk about,” Brooke said. “Let’s find another loser to take down.”
They drove west to another dilapidated neighborhood. Stealing along the side streets next to Brooke, Nicole scrutinized every dark shape and whisper of noise. They passed a drunk sitting next to a dumpster. Empty cardboard fast food containers spilled over the edge, the scents of old food and dirty diapers thickening the warm air. An addict sat in a doorway, hugging her knees to her chest, staring blankly into the night. Angry words from a male voice carried on the breeze, growing louder as the sisters neared.
“Here we go,” Brooke murmured. They slowly rounded a corner and found a pissed-off drug dealer arguing with his client.
“You didn’t pay up for last week’s prime merchandise,” growled the thin, shaggy-haired dealer. He gripped the T-shirt of a young woman in one hand, and a gun in the other. “What makes you think you’re gonna get any more today?”
“Please, just a little more,” the woman begged. “I can get you the money tomorrow. I just need a little bit right now.”
“What are you gonna do to get it?” He tightened his hold, grabbing more thin fabric in his grimy fist.
“You don’t need anything he’s got.” Nicole crossed her arms over her chest.
“Who the fuck are you?” the dealer spat out. He turned toward the sisters but didn’t relinquish his hold on the woman.
“Doesn’t matter who we are. You just need to let her go.”
“Yeah, bitch? How ’bout you suck my dick?” he snarled.
“Save it for your boyfriend,” Nicole snorted as she blew a gust of icy wind into his eyes. She spotted an empty plastic bag blowing down the street, grabbed it with an air current, and pushed it around his face. It distracted him long enough for her to kick the gun from his hand. He cursed and let go of the frightened woman, who took off running down the street.
“Wait, we can help you!” Nicole chased after her, but stopped when the woman reached an intersection and darted into oncoming traffic. Tires screeched and horns blared, but the woman charged forward, emerging unharmed on the opposite sidewalk. She kept running without looking back.
“Damn,” Nicole muttered, and turned around and jogged to her sister.
Brooke stood behind the dealer, his neck snared in a choke hold. She leaned back, one arm around his throat, her gray eyes flashing as the blood flow to his head ceased. “Time to find another line of work, mister,” she gritted. He groaned something unintelligible as his eyes slid shut and he went limp.
“Let’s go.” Brooke stepped away from his prone form. “He won’t be out for very long.”
“Yeah,” Nicole agreed as they started back to the car. When they reached it and climbed inside, she remembered Julie’s club invitation and groaned. “Ah shoot, I told Julie I’d meet her and Bryce tonight.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and switched the ringtone back on.
Brooke grinned
at her. “You have fun with that, chica. All I’ve got left on my agenda is a long soak in the tub.”
Nicole sighed. She’d rather soak in a bubble bath herself, but she had begged off several outings with friends lately, and couldn’t do it again tonight. As they parked in the garage of their building, her cell trilled with Julie’s number on the caller ID. “Hey,” she answered. “I’ll be there, I promise. Give me thirty minutes.”
CHAPTER 2
GUNNAR BLEW OUT a breath. It seemed that tonight’s search would come up empty. Skell demons had been seen around humans, mostly junkies, but hell if he and his comrades knew why. No citizens had turned up dead, just wounded. And the wounds were made to bleed but not necessarily kill. It looked sloppy—well, Skells were sloppy by nature—but there were too many to brush it off as a coincidence.
No Skells had shown their ugly faces tonight, but his curiosity meter jumped all over the evening’s events. Looking for trouble in run-down neighborhoods, he’d found the unexpected. Astounding and impressive. And not much surprised him anymore.
As a Lash demon, he spent his life causing trouble, fighting trouble, or trying to get out of trouble. Tonight he had been prowling the city for the blasted Skells. The gray-skinned creatures usually tried to ally themselves with stronger demons in their quest for power. Happy to do someone else’s dirty work in exchange for protection, an uptick in their numbers was a cause for concern.
Gunnar had gotten word of an increase in the Skells’ activity in the run-down parts of the city. It was his responsibility to investigate the maggots. As he slipped like a ghost through alleys and past broken shells of buildings, he came upon a sight that stopped him in his tracks.
Two women interceded in a fight between a beefy man and a diminutive young woman. It didn’t appear that they stumbled upon the scene unprepared; rather, it seemed that they were looking for it. Their speed and efficient grace were a marvel to watch; their martial skills unquestionable. But the jolt of power from the blond woman floored him. The lingering trace of it piqued his curiosity because he didn’t recognize it. She wasn’t a demon, vampire, or shifter.
But hell, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Tall for a woman, all lean curves and willowy limbs. He gazed in appreciation as she moved, dark jeans hugging her hips like a second skin, T-shirt clinging to her high, rounded breasts. She and her companion worked with confidence and accuracy. He could tell her senses detected him as he watched her dispatch the junkies that stumbled into their path a few minutes later. He’d allowed her to register his presence, even as he remained mostly hidden.
He tracked the women, too curious to let them disappear into the night. He travelled along the rooftops, a silent stealthy shadow. His suspicion that they actively sought out trouble had been confirmed by their second encounter with street scum. They’d efficiently nullified the drug dealer even as he felt another burst of power from the blonde. Their practiced ease told him they’d done this before, and not just the fighting. This wasn’t the first time the blonde had used her energy to get what she wanted.
He followed them to their next stop, a four-story Lincoln Park condo building. Her home? He now stood in the shadows across the street, watching the front entrance, completely intrigued. Unfortunately, staking out a leggy blonde who may or may not be a supernatural creature was not on his agenda. She obviously wasn’t a Skell demon.
And he hadn’t caught any. Kai, his brother-in-arms, would give him hell for that, and for chasing a woman around. They had serious work to do, like keeping tabs on control-hungry demons and taking them down when necessary. Many creatures from their realm craved ruthless, dominating power. Some would kill for it.
For the last several months, Gunnar, Kai, and a few others had been staying at the group’s headquarters north of the city. The demons were able to move to different cities if they wanted, but Gunnar liked the fluid energy of Chicago’s neighborhoods. He glanced down to check the time on his phone and realized he had spent a half-hour lost in his thoughts in the nice, leafy north-side neighborhood. He was about to leave and head to the tough, west-side Austin area when the door across the street opened.
Good Gods.
Gunnar felt his jaw slacken at the sight that emerged from the condo building. Blond hair loose around her face and shoulders, the female was no longer dressed for kicking drug dealers’ asses, but for a night out on the town. Her perky backside and mile-long legs were poured into a pair of jeans even tighter than the previous ones. She wore knee-high black heeled boots and a clingy red top with a low V neck. She talked on her phone as she got into a waiting cab, pausing to give an address to the driver. An address Gunnar had no trouble overhearing, due to his heightened demon senses.
There was no way he was letting her out of his sight until he did a little more investigating into her identity. Was she going to meet up with friends, or a man? He had the sudden, irrational thought that he would rather see her meet friends. A woman as hot as she was wouldn’t lack for male attention, though. Gunnar wondered why he even cared. Spending time with females, supernatural or human, wasn’t a problem, and he’d never pursued a serious relationship. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of anything long-term, not when his daily activities took him from one kind of danger right into another.
He followed her cab to a night club. Muffled music behind an unmarked gray metal door exploded into pounding sound as the entrance burst open to admit several chattering young women. The blond female was still on her phone as she exited the cab and walked inside, all sweet curves in those snug jeans.
From his position near the door, a muscular bouncer folded his arms across his chest. Gunnar approached with a fifty folded between two fingers, meeting the man’s wary stare. The bouncer took it, his face breaking into a brief smile, and nodded at the door.
Inside, a deafening beat poured from huge speakers set up around a packed dance floor. Smoke hung in the air, illuminated by brightly colored flashing lights. Crowds surrounded the massive bar, and tables were scattered around the perimeter of the room. Gunnar scanned these first, noting a few supernatural creatures present but none that normally caused trouble. Two female fairies kissed each other, holding their human male companions enthralled. And one male Trant demon held court with a bevy of females in a corner. Since the Trant’s purpose in life was seducing others, Gunnar dismissed him. Unless he tried to seduce the blond woman, Gunnar couldn’t care less how many women went home with the Trant.
Looking across the crowd, he spotted her heading toward a table along the far wall. She greeted two brunette women and a man who had an arm wrapped around one of the women. Her friends had an amber-colored drink waiting for her, which she tossed back and grinned. Gods, she had a mega-watt smile. The unattached brunette took her hand and tugged her toward the dance floor. They wound their way into the sea of writhing bodies, stopping near the center to dance together.
Gunnar couldn’t take his eyes off her, and neither could several human men. And no wonder. With her arms raised languidly above her head, her hips swaying to the pulsing beat, she was mesmerizing. She and her friend grinned at each other, letting their arms slide and tangle together as they moved. In just a few short minutes they were joined by two males in black leather pants and black T-shirts. They partnered off, and the man she was dancing with moved nearer to her. Gunnar narrowed his eyes as he watched them get as close as two people could get without touching, and when the man placed his hand on the small of her back to tug her against him, Gunnar’s patience snapped.
Nicole’s body hummed with energy. Fluid and free, her second wind coursed along her skin. She grinned to herself at the joke that only her sisters would get. She felt good about her accomplishments today, and being out with Julie, Bryce, and their other friend Alicia was a perfect way to top things off. The two guys dancing with her and Alicia were cute, although not tall enough for her taste, but it was only a dance. It wasn’t as if she was looking for Mr. Right. She’d been in lots of short relationships,
but nothing serious. It was kind of hard to explain her ability. “Oh by the way, I can manipulate air currents and temperature, but otherwise I’m just the girl next door” didn’t tend to go over well. Not that she ever tried. She hadn’t found a reason to.
She let her head tilt slightly to one side as she danced, just as her partner put his arm around her waist to pull her right up against him. Nicole took it in stride. This was a hot, just-opened club, advertised by word of mouth only. The wild energy in the room stoked the patrons to a kinetic level. All forms of dress paraded here tonight, including downright skimpy and dominatrix wanna-be. She wasn’t about to sweat it if her cute-but-bland dance partner put his hand on her waist. And if he did try anything she didn’t like, she could knock him on his ass in two seconds. She smiled at him as they moved to the pounding music.
Glancing to the side, her body ground to a screeching halt. Words fled her mind as her eyes locked onto a mountain of a man.
Dark strength radiated from his frame. He was tall, so tall that even in her boots she knew she’d have to look up at him. Built like the biggest linebacker in any football league, he parted the crowd as he stalked toward her. His eyes only left hers when he got up close, in order to glare at the man she’d been dancing with. He jerked his head to the side. Her partner gave her one last glance before melting away into the crowd. She raised an eyebrow at his boldness, but when he turned to her with a playful grin, any shred of resistance slipped away.
Nicole gazed up into hypnotic eyes that radiated Caribbean blue. She blinked. It might have been the funky lighting in the club, but she could have sworn his eyes actually glowed. His black hair hung sexy and disheveled—in a good way, with the longest layers just touching the neckline of his shirt. Her eyes drifted down to his sensual mouth and square jaw, then lower to the rippling muscles clearly visible beneath his black T-shirt. Mercy, he was fine. Mouth-watering. She swallowed, aware that she was staring. She started swaying to the music slowly, her eyes back on his. Her lips tugged into a small smile.
