by Elle James
“If ya know what’s good for ya, you’ll ditch the bitch.”
“Can’t. She’s my cousin. My ma’ll kill me if I leave her there.”
“When Nic finds out you took her, he’ll do the job and make it hurt as you go down. He likes to make examples of anyone else who takes what’s his.”
“He wasn’t there when I took her.”
“That demon has eyes and ears everywhere. He’ll know.”
“Look, Jimmy, I can’t leave her.”
“You’re on your own, Mario.” Jimmy emerged from the alley, leading the way. He glanced right and left before cutting across the street.
“He’s on the move,” I said into my microphone. Before Blaise could respond, a hand clamped over my mouth, another around my waist pinning one of my arms to my side. I was hauled up against a solid wall of muscle.
Chapter Two
My heartbeat stuttered then raced. Instinct kicked in and I jabbed my free elbow into my attacker’s gut.
A muffled oomph sounded behind me, but the hand over my mouth didn’t loosen. Then a voice whispered, “Katya, it’s me.”
My pulse slowed and I dragged in a deep breath.
Blaise’s hand dropped from my mouth to my shoulder.
“Damn it, Blaise. You could warn me next time.” His fingers warmed me, even through the fabric of my black leather jacket.
“I will, next time.” He nodded toward the young thugs. “I’ll take Jimmy. You go after the guy carrying the girl.”
“Why don’t I go after Jimmy and you take the others?” I pushed away from the brick wall and crept to the corner of the trash bin.
“You know I can move faster, and Jimmy’s on the run now.”
The sound of footsteps pounding through the alley reached me. “Fine. But don’t do anything until you see him make the sell.”
Blaise saluted me. “Be careful. Just because he’s carrying someone doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”
I nodded. “Same to ya. I don’t want to train a new partner.”
He chuckled softly, pressed a kiss to my lips and disappeared, moving so fast, he’d crossed the street before I could tell him how unprofessional it was to kiss your partner on duty.
Instead I shook my head. I couldn’t tell that demon anything.
Blaise did whatever the hell he wanted. Though he worked with the PIT crew, he wasn’t on the payroll and he came and went as he pleased.
I was glad he was on our side—not that I’d tell him that. The demon had a big head to begin with, thinking he was better than anybody else.
He had reason to think that. I’d seen him practically rip a man apart, limb for limb. The guy deserved it, but the incident reminded me that my partner had superhuman strength and speed.
Must be nice.
I was stuck with being a five-feet-two-inch female cop with big boobs and no respect. Well, at least no respect until I flattened a guy on the way to the locker room for pinching my ass. Since then, all of the cops of the Fifth Precinct had steered clear of me. Had I known that was all it took, I would have decked someone earlier.
I didn’t have time to put up with dumbass men who thought small meant weak. I’d been a cop a lot longer than some of them and didn’t put up with much. I could drop a perp with a bullet or tackle them and put the fear of God in them with hand-to-hand combat. Mostly because they didn’t expect a girl to be tough.
I’d learned to stick up for myself the day my dad walked off and left me, my brother and mother to fend for ourselves in the not-so-great neighborhoods of Chicago.
Manhattan was a cakewalk compared to some of the places I’d cut my teeth on. Or so I thought, until I discovered people I thought were human...well...weren’t.
Mario had turned to the right and headed the opposite direction from me, stooped under the weight of the body he carried.
I followed at a safe distance, wondering where he’d take the woman, knowing I wouldn’t let them get far. If he was involved in drug trafficking with Jimmy, I needed to question him, put the screws to him and see if he knew who was supplying his partner.
As I moved closer to Mario, my nostrils picked up a canine and cologne combination that confirmed my suspicion. Mario, like Jimmy, was a werewolf. Even the girl he carried put off the same kind of odor.
Gun drawn, I closed the distance, running lightly across the uneven sidewalk.
“Look, if you’re gonna shoot, pull the damned trigger.” Mario ground to a halt, his back to me.
“Don’t tempt me.” I trained the weapon, loaded with silver bullets, on the werewolf, having been warned of their strength when in wolf form. “I have a gun pointed at you. Turn around slowly.” For all I knew Mario could be calling on his inner beast, or whatever werewolves did to go from human to wolf.
Mario turned, his young face haggard, dark circles beneath his eyes. “I’m too tired to fight. You want my wallet. It’s in my back pocket. Although there isn’t much in it.”
“I don’t want your wallet or your money.”
His arms tightened around the woman. “If Nicolae sent you, you can’t have her. She’s family.”
“I’m not with Nicolae. I’m with the NYPD. I want some answers.”
His eyes narrowed. “Sorry. Unless you got a reason to arrest me, I have nothing to say.” Mario nodded toward the gun. “And I’m guessing you won’t shoot someone you only wanted to question.” He spun and walked away.
Damn.
I hurried to keep up, but he made it to the next corner before I did and disappeared.
I hesitated. If the man didn’t want to talk, I had nothing on him that I could hold over his head. I had to let him go. Question was, whether to follow or go back and see if Blaise needed help with our real target, Jimmy.
I’d turned back and had taken all of two steps when the blast of gunfire ricocheted off the walls of the street Mario had turned onto.
Adrenaline spiked in my system and I raced to the end of the building.
Mario lay on the ground, light glinting off the circle of blood spreading from the hole in the side of his head. Several men, make that werewolves—by the smell of them—stood in a semicircle around the downed man. One of them waved another forward. “Get the girl. Nicolae will want his property returned.”
The man’s words made my blood boil. Before I could think through the odds, I stepped forward.
One five-feet-two-inch female cop against seven burly male werewolves.
Yeah. I could be stupid when passion kicked in.
A woman in jeopardy —human or werewolf—got my ire up and I didn’t back down. I held my weapon steady, aimed at the man who’d given the orders. With my finger, I pointed at the man hefting the woman onto his shoulder like she was an insignificant bag of potatoes.”Put the girl down.”
“You gonna make me?”
“NYPD.” I dug my credentials out of my breast pocket and flipped them open with my empty hand, my gun-bearing hand steady on the leader. “You are all under arrest for the murder of this man.”
The man carrying the woman sneered. “You’re gonna arrest all of us?” He laughed out loud.
I fired at his feet.
The man jumped, a scowl bearing down on his forehead.
The leader stepped forward. “You got enough bullets to take us all out?”
“I have plenty, they’re silver, and I’m starting with you.” I held my position. “Put the woman down.”
Their lead
er jerked his head to his partner. “Put her down, like the she-cop said.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“On the contrary. I see this as an opportunity we can’t resist.” The leader’s hand went to the front of his jeans and he cupped his package. “We can all have a little fun with the little she-cop before we deliver the goods to the boss.”
“He said get the job done and get back.”
“Think, dumbass. How will he know how long it took us?” The leader’s mouth pulled up in a sneer. “In the meantime. I get her first.”
“Did you miss the fact I’m holding a gun?” I pointed the weapon at his chest.
“Nah, but I’m banking on you shooting him first.” He thrust the man standing next to him in between him and me. I shot the man in the knee, he went down. Without blinking, I took the leader out with a shot in the knee as well.
“Did I mention, I was top of my class on the firing range?” I pointed at the man carrying the woman. “Now put her down and leave before I take you out as well.”
The werewolf slid the woman to the ground and ran, taking the other four weres with him, abandoning the two with the injured knees.
As they clutched at their wounds, cursing me, I divested them of their weapons and crouched beside the woman.
She moaned and stared up at me, her eyes glazed, but open.
“Nicolae will kill you.”
“Not today, honey. Not today.” I tapped on my headset. “Blaise, you out there?”
Static rumbled in my ear. Not good. I’d have to find a phone or get back to our vehicle to call this one in.
The woman gripped my arm, her fingernails digging into my skin.
“Hey, lighten up. You’re safe.” I patted her shoulder, awkwardly. Give me a gun and I’m all over it. Nurturing wasn’t in my nature.
She shook her head, her eyes round, staring over my shoulder at whatever was standing behind me. “Nicolae.”
Too late, my sense of smell kicked in with a sickly sweet aroma, similar, but not the same as what I sensed around Blaise.
Demon.
Instinctively, I spun, swinging my leg out, while still in a crouch.
I caught the demon’s legs at the shin, knocking him off his feet.
The woman on the ground pushed to a sitting position and swayed. “Get the amulet. The necklace. It’s the key. Get it.”
I only half-heard her as the demon staggered to his feet, eyes gleaming red, his hands rising, fingers curling.
My throat tightened. No air made it through to my starving lungs. I clawed at the invisible fingers that squeezed the breath out of me.
The demon the woman had referred to as Nicolae lifted his arms into the air.
As if a noose tightened around my neck, my body rose from the crouched position, my feet left the ground.
For a moment, I dangled in the air.
In the next second, I was flung twenty feet, hitting a brick wall, my weapon knocked from my grasp, skittering across the pavement, out of reach.
My head bounced against the hard surface, and I slid to the ground, gray fog engulfing me. Not the pleasant cloud of my earlier dream, but the encroaching pall of a nightmare unfolding before me.
Nicolae gathered the woman in his arms and turned to leave.
“Help me.” Her bleating cry for help jumpstarted my lungs.
I sucked in a breath, pushing back the darkness, and lurched to my feet. The demon would not get away with the woman.
“Not on my watch, you don’t,” I muttered as my feet churned beneath me and I threw myself at the demon’s back.
Caught off guard, he dropped the woman to the ground and spun.
I clung to his back, my arm hooked around his throat, hanging on for dear life. I hadn’t gotten around to clarifying how to kill a demon with my partner, no matter how many times I’d wanted to kill him for one infraction or another.
The demon reached over his shoulder and grabbed my jacket, his fingernails lengthening, tearing into the leather, slicing through my shirt and ripping into my flesh.
Pain ricocheted throughout my body, the affected area burning as if he’d poured battery acid directly onto the wound.
I bit down hard on my lower lip to keep from crying out and tightened my hold, one finger wrapping around a leather strap hanging around his neck.
The woman on the ground reached up. “The amulet. Take it,” she cried.
Flipping my wrist, I twisted the leather around all the fingers on that hand.
Then as if shot from a cannon, my body was blasted away from the demon. The force sent me flying. Since I had the leather strap wrapped firmly around my wrist and fingers, the leather tie snapped and the necklace came with me.
Again, I hit the wall, my head slamming against brick for the second time in as many minutes. My vision blurred. I blinked to clear it, but it remained blurred. I couldn’t breathe and my insides boiled, as if each cell was on fire. Had his talons injected me with poison? Was this to be the end of my career as a cop?
As quickly as it blurred, my vision cleared and I blinked up at the oncoming demon, as he ducked low and charged toward me.
I rolled to the side and shot to my feet.
He had me by the throat before I could call out.
“Give it to me.”
“To hell with you,” I squeaked with my last breath.
“You have no idea what hell is.” The man snarled, leaning his face so close to mine I could see the blood in his eyes. “Give it to me or you’ll soon know hell, firsthand.”
I fought to inhale, my feet flailing out.
Then a surge of electricity powered through me. Lightning shot from my fingertips and bounced off the brick with a loud crack.
The demon cried out, releasing me, holding his hands out as if they’d been burned.
As I dropped to my feet, the acrid scent of burning flesh filled my nostrils. The sting in my back where the demon had pierced me with his fingernails eased up until all pain melted away.
“Give it to me.” Nicolae stepped forward, his charred hands reaching for the necklace.
“No way.” I slipped the necklace inside my shirt, tucking it into my bra. “You’re under arrest for assault.”
He turned as if to leave.
I stepped forward.
Before I could think, he backhanded me, his wrist catching me across my cheek, sending me flying backward, once again hitting a brick wall.
For precious seconds I lay dazed, the wind knocked from my lungs, my head spinning.
Nicolae loomed over me and tore at my jacket and shirt.
I fought him, my head reeling. “Isn’t this a bit...much...for a...first date?” I gasped.
Then the demon jerked away from me, and bounced against one of the walls he’d thrown me against.
My partner stood over Nicolae, his chest heaving, his pitch-black gaze boring into the demon’s. “Don’t ever touch her again.”
Nicolae snorted, dragging himself to his feet. “She stole something from me, and I want it back.”
“You’ll have to take it up with the Tribunal.” Blaise held out his hand to me. “Give me your cuffs.”
I stood, brushing the dirt off my jeans, reaching into my back pocket for the handcuffs. “I didn’t bring cuffs. Will this do?” I handed over the zip tie from my back pocket.
“It’ll work.” He grabbed Nicolae’s hand and twisted it up behind the demon’s back and yanked the other
over it, pulling the zip tie together until it was snug. “Go get the car. And hurry, before his minions come calling.” Blaise gazed at me, a smile quirking his lips. “And ignore the pounding on the trunk.”
“Jimmy?”
He nodded. “I used some of your duct tape to gag him, or he’d be howling his head off.”
Though I didn’t appreciate being ordered around by man or demon, my knowledge of what demons were capable of was minimal. Blaise knew all the tricks. I took off at a run, working my way back to where I’d stashed the car.
I could hear the noise before I reached the vehicle. Ignoring the pounding, I slid into the driver’s seat and pulled out onto the practically deserted street, while checking in with Detective Thomas. A nearby containment wagon and an ambulance were in route, and Detective Thomas would meet us to debrief on location. I hoped all the paranorms would still be there when the powers-that-be converged.
Half expecting the injured werewolves and the red-eyed demon to be gone when I returned, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Blaise had them all under control.
I went to the female first, checking her over to make sure the demon hadn’t injured her further. “Hey, can you stand?”
She clutched my hand, her grip weak, listless, like she could barely hold her arm up. “The others.”
“What others?”
“Shut up,” Nicolae snarled.
The female werewolf’s head lolled back. “He has others like me. Prisoners.”
“Where?”
The female’s eyes closed, her breathing shallow and growing more shallow by the moment, her hand rising to her throat.
My gaze captured Blaise’s. “She’s choking.”
Blaise’s eyes narrowed and he jerked Nicolae’s arms up behind his back. “Let go of her.”
The demon laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Blaise slammed the demon into the brick wall and pushed him up off his feet, until he dangled like I had.
The female gasped, dragging in a gulp of air. Then she sagged against me. “Please. Help them.”
