Stripped Away

by Sydney Somers

  “Stop staring at my ass,” she growled. “And don’t come any farther into the room. He’ll see you.”

  The heat that infused his blood at the sight of sexy curves meeting the deep shadows cast by the terry cloth evaporated. He straightened, easing back a step from the doorway. “Who?”

  “The pervert across the street. He’s got a clean shot to this room, and given that this house is on a corner, I’m betting he gets a great view of Cass’s room too.”

  “How long has he been watching?”

  “Less than two minutes. He’s using binoculars I think. I didn’t want to chance too long of a look.”

  “Though he is getting an eyeful.”

  “As long as that’s all he gets.” The towel wrapped around her head started to slip and she straightened long enough to tighten it.

  If not for the jerk across the street he would have complained about losing his own impressive view.

  “So what’s on the perv’s mind?” she prompted. “Harmless fun or closet Scion worshiping?”

  The corner of his mouth caught on a smile. She never failed to keep things interesting, even when the unexpected arose. He glanced at the window, concentrating. The distance made things a little trickier, but with the unknown man’s focus trained on Quinn, it was easier to track the waves of psychic energy that all humans projected. Only a few were naturally inclined to keep their mental barriers intact. Tracking one individual’s thoughts could be as simple as changing the channel on the television or as complicated as following one thread in a tangled spider web.

  “Anything?”

  “Patience was never one of your strong suits.”

  Quinn snorted. “Like it’s one of yours?”

  She bent over again, likely to maintain her peeping Tom’s interest. Braxton shut his eyes, locking his focus on his target. The waves of energy opened up in his mind, a switch snapping on to thrust unknown territory into the light.

  Quinn dug through the bag on the bed, and sighed. “Hasn’t he gotten bored yet?”

  “He’s wondering if you work out.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “Sorry, that’s work out with him.” He cocked his head. “For him?”

  “Having trouble?”

  Only when he opened his eyes. “His thoughts are all over the place.”

  “Uh-huh.” A smile lingered under the innocent observation.

  Braxton tuned her out, every lurid detail of the other man’s thoughts coming in to crisp focus. He wasn’t going to pass them along to Quinn, his gut slithering into knots as he forced himself to probe deeper.

  “He thinks you’re Cass,” he said a second later, realizing this wasn’t the first time the bastard had taken a look over here. He tensed, his eyes opening to lock on Quinn. “And he’s wondering why you’re home.”

  Quinn whipped around, staring intently across the street. “Why? Does he know something, Brax?”

  The threads started to fade the harder he fought to keep the bridge between his mind and Quinn’s pervert open. “He’s backing away, isn’t he?”

  “Fucking coward,” she snapped, dropping onto the edge of the bed a moment later. She wrenched the towel from her hair, wadding it up and firing it across the room.

  It was little more than a blur to Braxton. Despite his efforts to continue to track the other man’s thoughts, he was slipping away. Braxton needed to get closer.

  He headed for the door. “I’ll be back.”

  “Wait.” Quinn’s eyes closed, her brows gathering the way they did when she was trying hard to siphon through her senses to pick up on something specific. “I think…” She darted to her feet, careful not to step fully in front of the window. “The son of a bitch is coming over.”

  “Bad time to borrow a cup of sugar.”

  Quinn rolled her eyes.

  Braxton nodded to the towel she’d chucked on the floor. “Better to keep up the pretense as long as possible.”

  She grabbed the towel and tucked the damning streaks of blue out of sight. “Depends how well he knows Cass. There are differences for people who know where to look.”

  “Talking will be a serious disadvantage then.”

  Quinn punched him on the way past, darting away with a speed that made it impossible to retaliate. Grinning, he caught up with her at the bottom of the stairs.

  Braxton glanced pointedly at the towel draping her frame. “Just a suggestion, but the better the view…”

  She shuddered but tugged down the fabric until her breasts threatened to spill over the top. He instantly regretted saying a word on the subject.

  Quinn tapped the corner of her mouth. “You’ve got a little drool there, Boy Scout.”

  Caught gawking, Braxton swiveled around to face the doorway.

  “He’s coming up the walkway,” she said, her gaze burning a hole through his back.

  Like before, Braxton opened his mind to get a fix on the approaching stranger who might know something about Cass’s disappearance.

  A moment later the man in question knocked on the door. Braxton and Quinn exchanged glances, and she waited another few seconds before she pulled it open.

  “You’re okay?” The stranger gave Quinn a quick once-over. “You had a few of us worried there.”

  Braxton gave the newcomer a similar once-over, both physically and mentally. Dressed in a plaid button-up shirt and baggy cords, long blond hair slicked back as though wax was the hottest new trend in hairstyles, the peeping Tom beamed at Quinn.

  Her brows came together and she shot a curious glance at Braxton. The man then took notice of Braxton standing off to the side. Annoyance flickered over his face before he returned his attention to Quinn.

  Anyone else might have wondered if they’d imagined the brief territorial look on the stranger’s face. Braxton could do a little better than that, and rather easily when the man’s jealous thoughts steamrolled together. The man had been hoping to find Quinn—or Cass, technically—alone.

  “After the police stopped by I was worried about you.”

  Quinn held out one arm. “I’m fine.”

  The stranger shot another curious look at Brax. “I didn’t realize you had company.”

  Meaning he hadn’t spotted Brax on his trusty little binoculars.

  He offered his hand to Braxton. “I’m Woody.”

  “Braxton.” He put just a little extra pressure on the handshake.

  Woody’s smile tightened at the corners of his mouth before they released hands. The other man regarded Quinn innocently, though his mind was fast-tracking towards anger. Woody was pissed Quinn was in front of Braxton in nothing but a skimpy towel.

  “Well I didn’t mean to…interrupt,” Woody offered, taking a step back into the doorway.

  “No problem.” Quinn absently drew a fingernail along her collarbone.

  Predictably, Woody’s gaze dropped to her cleavage.

  If Brax hadn’t been so intent on sifting through Woody’s thoughts he might have indulged in a long look himself. Feeling Quinn’s eyes on him, Braxton shot her a sidelong glance. By the twitching of her lips, she knew exactly the effect she was having on him.

  Woody jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll be home if you need anything.”

  “Thanks for checking on me.”

  The other man’s brows drew together thoughtfully. “Anytime.”

  Quinn closed the door, waiting until Woody walked away before crossing her arms. “Does he know anything about Cass?”

  “He was surprised you were here and annoyed. I think that was more to do with my presence than anything. He did know something had happened to Cass but I couldn’t get a fix on if that’s just because of what he heard from the police or if he knew something else. He’s also worried about it and I don’t think that’s because I’m here.”

  She moved to the window, gazing out through the sheer curtains. “I’ve got nothing else to go on and that makes him a suspect at best. If he was involved in this…”

 
; The venom that filled her voice made Braxton shudder. He couldn’t help but wonder how differently things might have played out recently if she’d made a habit of sounding like that when he’d been steering clear of her.

  “We’ll keep an eye on him,” he suggested, looking over her shoulder to where Woody vanished into his house.

  “Yeah.” She sighed, pulling the towel down, her long inky hair cascading over her shoulders. She tousled the damp strands with her fingers then let her hand fall back to her side.

  “We’ll find her. Even if I have to lobotomize Woody to be sure he’s not involved.”

  Quinn snorted. “Can I watch?”

  He took a step closer to her. “Better than that, I’ll let you assist.”

  As he’d hoped, an amused smile played over her lips. “That doesn’t sound like playing by the rules to me.”

  He shrugged. “Just bending them a bit.”

  Her stormy turquoise eyes bored into his. The beat of his heart counted off the seconds she stood staring at him before she finally started towards the stairs.

  “We okay?” he asked as her foot hit the bottom stair.

  Her smile was only halfway convincing. “Sure.”

  Braxton watched her go then sagged onto the couch, letting his head fall back against the cushion. Today was going to be one hell of a long day.

  * * *

  “I thought you had it?”“Busy here.” Quinn ducked a wide punch from the lust demon in front of her. The human-looking female sported pigtails, a prim white blouse and a plaid skirt right out of a private school catalogue.

  Grinning, the lust demon brought its hand down in a slicing arc. Having once been nailed by a lust demon and not in any hurry to go through that again, Quinn darted out of the way, coming up against Braxton.

  He hooked his arm around hers, and spun her to his other side. She faced off against the mirror-image of the lust demon she’d just fought. One was bad enough, let alone twins.

  Lust demon number two hissed at her, its black eyes rimmed in blood-red.

  Quinn led with her dagger, catching the creature across the thigh. “Every man’s wet dream, huh?”

  “Are you talking to me or the Shadow Demon?” Braxton used his sword to hold back the lust demon trying to rake him with its fire engine red nails.

  “You.” Quinn whipped around behind her lust demon twin and shoved it from behind. The hostile pitched forward, going down on its knees before scrambling up to make a run for it.

  She grinned, more than ready to pursue the creature.

  “Heads up.” Braxton’s warning came a half second too late. The lust demon he’d thrown over his shoulder slammed into Quinn, knocking her into the wall.

  The air whooshed from Quinn’s lungs on impact. She pivoted from the side of the building, and beheaded the fallen demon sprawled at her feet. She whispered the chant that brought forth the eerie blue flames, vanquishing the creature permanently.

  She was rubbing the shoulder that had taken the brunt of the force when Braxton turned from where he’d vanquished the second twin-from-hell, and strode towards her.

  She didn’t want to think about how many people—men most likely—they would have picked off tonight as a team. Then again… “It might have been almost fun to turn them loose on some self-absorbed jackass.”

  “You’re twisted.” He caught her hand and drew her closer.

  Heat sizzled up the inside of her arm at the contact.

  Braxton pushed her sleeve up, exposing her shoulder. He studied her with the methodical detachment of surgeon, apparently satisfied there were no open injuries from her collision with the wall. Still, his thumb lingered on her skin, rubbing gently as if to discover something beneath the surface he craved to see.

  A burst of need flared in her stomach, and she quickly shrugged him off. “No cuts.”

  “You sure?”

  She nodded the rip in his shirt. “Are you?”

  He bobbed his head, the cool aloofness he excelled at during a fight set firmly in the striking planes of his face. He took a step back, then rethinking it, circled her again to survey her from head to foot.

  “Braxton, I’m fine.”

  The frown on his face told her he wasn’t so certain.

  “Want me to strip down so you can get a better look?”

  A muscle in his jaw ticked.

  Quinn shrugged. “Worried I may come on to you again if I were to get infected?” The comment was nothing more than a half-hearted attempt to see if he’d say anything more than he ever had on the subject.

  Braxton turned away from her. “I’m sure Woody is long gone now.”

  She sighed under her breath at the way he intentionally ignored her comment. She trailed a few steps behind, catching up to him by the time he reached the sidewalk. “If Woody knew something, wouldn’t you have been able to pull it out of his mind by now?”

  “Probably.”

  Quinn wished he sounded more certain. A soft beep sounded in her ear, the communication line between her transmitter and their field office clicking on. Always set on following protocol, Braxton had insisted they wear them in case they were separated when they’d left the house tonight to tail Woody. Too bad her only suspect had vanished on them when Braxton’s tracker indicated a couple hostiles were close by and they went to investigate.

  “How are things going?” Jordan’s voice echoed in her ear.

  “Could be better.” A hell of a lot better. She’d been in town for nearly forty hours and still had no leads on Cass. The ice in her chest thickened to swallow her heart.

  “She’s just annoyed she didn’t get to finish off both lust demons.” Braxton joined the conversation.

  “A couple hostiles to play with?” Jordan sounded jealous.

  “Twins,” Braxton added.

  “Really?” Gage’s voice joined the fray.

  Quinn rolled her eyes. “Don’t you two sleep?”

  Gage laughed. “If we’re not here, she’s just keeping me up at home—Ow.” Jordan had probably hit him.

  Braxton smiled at her, the same slow curving of lips that had caught her so off guard the first day she’d strolled into the field office.

  “So still no leads on Cass?”

  “No.” And at this point Quinn was grimly operating under the assumption that no news was good news.

  “We’re signing off for the night. Don’t forget to check in tomorrow.”

  Quinn scoffed, glancing at Braxton. “As if that were possible.”

  “Night guys,” Braxton said to Gage and Jordan, the communication line going quiet a second later.

  Raking her hands through her hair, Quinn stared up at the sky, hunting within herself for anything that would soothe the razor sharp nerves that tangled together in her stomach. She had to find Cass.

  She reached for her pocket a second before her cell phone rang. She hoped it wouldn’t end up being another dropped call. Half the town seemed to be one big no-signal area.

  She flipped it open, half-wondering if Rae was calling for a progress report. She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

  “Quinn!”

  Her feet took root in the cement, her heart kicking straight through her ribs as her gaze darted to Braxton. “Cass?”

  Chapter Six

  Quinn threw her arms around Cass for the hundredth time in the last two hours.“Any tighter and a rib is going to pierce my lung,” Cass squeaked.

  Quinn dropped back into her seat in the corner of a small pub at the edge of town. It wasn’t the ideal spot for a reunion after what happened to her sister, but the police would be useless and going back to Cass’s place just yet wasn’t wise. Not until they got a better handle on what they were up against and what their next move would be.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay.” She couldn’t stop saying it. Couldn’t stop thinking it.

  Cass took a long drink from the beer Braxton had ordered for them. Her hand trembled on the glass, and she quickly placed them both in he
r lap. Dark circles lingered under her eyes, the only outward sign of her abduction.Though Cass had refused to be checked out at the hospital, Quinn knew her sister had to be shaken to the core by her experience. Her smile was a little too forced, her spine straight, her gaze darting nervously around the room when she didn’t think Quinn was looking, as if she anticipated her attacker coming back for her.

  After hearing the details of Cass’s attack it was a wonder she’d been able to escape the storm demon that had abducted her at all. Knowing the hostile had been inside Cass’s home, waiting for her, made it impossible for Quinn to touch the beer in front of her.

  Demons followed humans, preyed on them. They didn’t sit around and wait for them to come home. They were too much into instant gratification, or so she’d always believed. The longer she was a Destroyer the more she questioned just how much they thought they knew about such an ancient evil.

  Still, the scenario hinted at premeditation in ways that worried Quinn. Had the demon somehow known Cass’s DNA could be mutated, or was it just coincidence it picked her house to launch its next emotion feeding frenzy?

  Braxton had voiced similar concerns, but neither of them had shared any theories on the subject with Cass. After their parents’ deaths, keeping her true nature from Cass had sometimes been difficult, but she’d always believed it was for the best. As far as Cass knew, Quinn worked for an exclusive private security company that catered to the wealthy and eccentric. Her frequent and often unexpected business trips were blamed on appeasing the whims of the firm’s many clients.

  “So what’s the story with you two?”

  Quinn realized her attention had drifted in Braxton’s direction. He’d moved over to one of the pub’s pool tables to give her and Cass some privacy. Only a handful of people were scattered around the worn tables and chairs, one couple grinding against each other in front of an old-fashioned jukebox that looked held together by duct tape.