The Audacity of Demons

by Trina M. Lee

  She flipped me a middle finger and went to rummage in the fridge for leftovers.

  Suppressing a snicker, I asked Rayne, “Are you sure you’re all good?”

  He gathered the rags used to clean his injury. The scent of his blood permeated the air, drawing my gaze to the pulse in his neck. “All good, Blaze. Promise. It’s stopped bleeding. I think I’m going to hit the pool actually. Care to join? It’s Skinny Dipping Saturday.”

  “It’s Thursday.” A laugh bubbled up despite the tightness in my chest. How could I resist the goofball hottie? “And no thanks. I think I’m going to go beat the hell out of the punching bag in the basement. Need to work out some frustration.”

  Corr glanced up at that, brow crinkling in a soft frown. “Are you ok, Blaze?”

  The tightness in my chest turned into a downright ache. When was the last time someone had said those words to me?

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just need to unwind after all the craziness, you know?” I forced a smile that I didn’t feel.

  Corr saw right through it but he didn’t say a word.

  I sought a way to exit without looking like I was running from the ghosts of my past. I needed a moment alone. Before anyone could stop me, I slipped from the room and headed to the basement. Anticipating that it would be empty, I planned to unleash the fire of my temper any way I could. I’d punch the stuffing out of that punching bag. Just for starters. Although I’d much rather have been in a shady strip club taking it out on some deserving piece of crap.

  As I passed through the dimly lit hall to the gym, I fought back the rise of tears that stung the back of my eyes. I didn’t let myself cry often. Tonight would be no different.

  Emotion never overwhelmed me anymore. Probably because I’d closed myself off over the years. No close ties. No friends. Just me. It had seemed so much easier that way.

  Then Rayne’s flirty smile and friendly manner had won me over, speaking to a part of me that had been long starved for attention, affection, and a bond with another person. Even Dalyn with her bright-eyed wonder and Tavi with her bitchy attitude made life feel a lot less lonely. I hadn’t been here long, but I already realized how badly I’d missed simple camaraderie. Such fondness brought repercussions. Friendships, even those based solely on the fact that we were all forced to be here together, posed a threat. But for the first time I wondered if it was more dangerous to have nobody to care about.

  That was a real ‘fuck you’ of a catch twenty-two.

  Fluorescent lights bathed the gym in a ghastly white glow that spilled into the dimly lit hall. It seared my retinas as I went from the softer light to the screamingly bright gym. But it was empty, as I’d hoped. I started in on the punching bag right away, hitting it until my knuckles ached. Too bad it didn’t do shit to ease the tension inside me. Hitting an inanimate object didn’t satisfy the need to hurt something.

  Abandoning the swinging bag, I eyed the throwing knives at the end of the large space. Couldn’t hurt to practice. Next time I faced off with Rayne, I planned to win fair and square. Not because he threw the game.

  Next time. Planning for next time was so fucking dangerous. So fucking stupid.

  “What’s got you so worked up, baby girl?” Ghost’s sexy rasp had me whirling to find him standing in the doorway. Hands shoved in the pockets of a black hoodie, he ambled toward me. “You’re beautiful when you’re angry.”

  “That’s not the compliment you think it is,” I said, lacking venom. “And stop sneaking up on me like that. It’s creepy.”

  A faint smattering of stubble adorned Ghost’s strong jaw, increasing his already razor-sharp edge. His dark allure still drew me the way it had the night we were together. Lethal and mysterious. A hell of a combination.

  “It’s not supposed to be a compliment. Just an observation.”

  A malevolent light glinted in Ghost’s eyes as he looked me over. Though that stare held a sexual charge, it also felt predatory as hell. Kind of like he wanted to bleed me. Vampire blood held no sustenance. However, there was no harm in bleeding another vamp. On the contrary, the bite of another could be downright erotic and even euphoric, more intimate than even sex for our kind.

  Ghost had never bitten me. Was he thinking about it now? A shiver skipped through me as I wondered what his bite would feel like. Gentle and practiced? Rough and carnal? A little of both?

  Hoping to steer my brain in another direction, I asked, “Where were you when everything went down?”

  “Nova told me to get out so I did. Thought about dropping by Wicked, but the humans there are afraid of me. Can’t imagine why.” Ghost drifted over to the weapons wall and plucked a few throwing knives. “I had no idea what went down until I got back. Sorry I missed the fun.”

  “Next time I guess,” I heard myself say. There was that whole next time thing again.

  “Count on it.” In a swift motion Ghost flung the knife. It whipped through the air in a blur before nailing the target dead center. Then he turned to me with a shadow of a smile. “What do you say, Blaze? Up for a little one on one?”

  Without giving me a chance to answer, he grabbed two wooden practice swords from the wall and threw one to me. I caught it and shook my head. Was he kidding?

  No, he was not. Ghost wasted no time lunging at me, forcing me into a defensive posture. His easy grip on the weapon suggested that he’d had some experience with sword fighting. More than me most likely. But I’d always been a fast learner.

  “No fair,” I gasped when his sword clattered against mine as I struggled to block his hit. “I’m not ready.”

  “Nothing ever happens when you expect it to. You have to always be ready.” Ghost allowed me a reprieve while he stripped off his hoodie and threw it aside. The black t-shirt he wore showed off the toned muscles of his forearms rippling beneath his golden-brown skin.

  I managed to drag my gaze away and lunge toward him first this time. “Keep taking your clothes off, and you’ll have no problem kicking my ass.” The flirtatious banter spilled out. I couldn’t help it. I knew what lay under those clothes.

  Our wooden blades crashed together, and as the impact rang through my hand into my arm, I was glad we weren’t using steel. Jerking my blade from his, I whipped it the opposite way and swiped at Ghost, forcing him to take several steps back while parrying the blow. Once I got him moving backward, I came at him faster, taking advantage of being the aggressor for the brief moment I had it. As the blows kept coming, Ghost had no option but to block.

  Focused on his movements, his energy, I sensed his offensive attack coming. I whipped my blade up over my head to deflect his downward swing. Our blades met with a loud smack.

  Ghost leaned in close so that, though we strained against each other, our faces almost touched. Like fighters before the big match. “Nice moves, doll. Still not quite as nice as mine.” His breath was warm against my face and then he jerked away. He spun in a full circle, swinging his weapon in a wide arc.

  I had to scramble back, out of reach, to avoid getting nailed with a chunk of wood whistling through the air at bone-breaking speed. But I managed to bring my weapon up, keeping it between us. When I saw an opening, I swung my sword.

  It should have connected with Ghost’s blade. He should have raised it to block. Instead he sidestepped me completely, sending me stumbling awkwardly forward into the space where he’d just been. I turned to find him wearing a devilish smirk.

  “Just keeping you on your toes.” He twirled his sword in one hand.

  With a smirk of my own, I formed a spinning red psi ball in my palm and flung it at his feet, forcing him to jump back. “Better worry about your own toes.”

  Shaking a finger at me, he gave a slow shake of his head. “I bet you’re a devious thing in a real fight. Really wish I didn’t miss watching you kill a Fed tonight.”

  He came at me hard then. Ghost’s weapon crashed down against mine as I just barely blocked in time. My feet backstepped before I could tell them to, moving fast as he pro
wled toward me.

  The passion of Ghost’s focus grabbed the part of me that was all woman and squeezed. It was tough to remember that this was a sparring match and he was my opponent. He brought that intensity to everything he did, I couldn’t help but remember.

  The rapid clatter of wood on wood rang loud in the otherwise quiet gym. Against his speed I could barely block and dodge as he drove me back. I swung wildly, doing all I could to keep my sword moving between us. Ghost used the tip of his blade to hook mine, parrying it in an arc so that it spun out of my grasp.

  My weapon hit the floor with a clatter that echoed around us.

  I hadn’t expected that, and the loss left me flatfooted. Eager to press his advantage, Ghost caught my arm with his free hand and spun me into his grasp. With my back against his hard chest, he lay the wooden blade across my throat from behind.

  My lungs heaved as I held myself frozen against him. His breath tickled the back of my neck seconds before I felt the sharp press of fangs. Just a gentle scratch, a tease. No breaking of the skin. My knees weakened, threatening to drop me.

  “I guess you win,” I breathed, my voice barely a whisper.

  Ghost dropped his weapon to the floor, holding me with an arm across my chest instead. “I hoped I would see you again. You and me will make the world tremble, baby girl.” The gritty rasp of his voice in my ear flooded my panties. His hard-on pressed against my lower back, a reminder of a crazy good time.

  Then he released me, turned around, and left.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “You killed somebody?” Dalyn gaped at me like she struggled to envision it. Absently she rubbed a finger over the blue amulet that hung from her neck tonight. “Wow. Kind of glad I wasn’t there to see it. I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.”

  Rayne did a double take. “Are you kidding me? You cursed your fiancé so his guts exploded in a room filled with colleagues. And you’re playing the shy good witch now?”

  “That was a vengeance curse created in a moment of extreme emotional weakness. A crime of passion. I’m not a cold-blooded killer.” Shaking her blonde waves Dalyn raised both hands in protest. She slid me a guilty side glance. “No offense, Blaze.”

  We sat in the large TV room, discussing our first task for The Circle of the Veil. After shaking off the chills that Ghost had left me with, I’d ventured upstairs to see who remained on the main floor. In the living room I found Tavi taking practice shots on the pool table by herself while Dalyn and Rayne told Ira about the incident behind the sports bar. I didn’t know why Ira had been picked up by The Circle, and I had no plan to ask, but his expressionless reaction to the killing of the Feds made me look harder in his direction.

  Remorseless killer. Sure, it was pretty much the definition of a vampire. Or any other predator. I’d been called worse. This wasn’t my first FPA kill. However, while I might kill without sentiment, I didn’t kill on command, and I definitely didn’t do it for someone else. That part left a bad taste in my mouth.

  Tavi couldn’t let Dalyn’s remark slide. She whirled around to nail the blonde witch with a piercing stare. “Cold blooded? Who the hell do you think the Feds are, Dalyn? The good guys? Protecting society from us big bad monsters, catching us, killing us, using us as lab rats? Is that not cold blooded to you?”

  “That is if we don’t join them, of course,” Rayne added gently. “They have a few supes on staff. We can’t keep track of just how many.”

  Dalyn shrank back against the couch beneath the weight of the angry wolf’s stare. “Alright, I get it. Don’t bite my head off. I wasn’t there. I don’t get an opinion.” Despite her meek surrender, the blue stone hanging from Dalyn’s neck glowed with a soft light. She wasn’t as defenseless as she made herself appear.

  “Of course you get an opinion,” I cut in, shooting a warning glare at Tavi. We might not like each other—we didn’t have to—but we could remain civilized. “We can all discuss this without tempers flaring. If not, let’s just drop it altogether.”

  With a huff Tavi slapped the pool cue on the table and stormed from the room without another word. We all watched her go, some of us exchanging raised brows with matching shrugs.

  “That girl has a serious chip on her shoulder.” Ira’s lips pressed into a hard line. He stretched wide and stood up from the recliner. “She’ll either learn or she’ll die.” He gave a flippant wave of his hand, like we didn’t need Tavi anyway.

  The coldness of some of my housemates astounded me. Maybe we were exactly what they all thought we were. Monsters. Killing machines.

  Not all of us fit that description though. Rayne hadn’t killed to get here; he’d shown his wolf in defense of the weak. The jury was still out on Dalyn. I suspected that, beneath her bubble-gum pop princess act, she had the potential to be as deadly as any of us.

  Ira left the room with a grumble that sounded like, “Goodnight,” even though it was almost sunrise. Human habits died hard.

  “I don’t think I like him,” Dalyn muttered when Ira was out of earshot. “We’re the only two witches here, other than Retta, so I’m forced to work with him, but his spell work gives me the creeps. It feels dark. Like… demon dark.”

  Rayne readjusted himself in the middle of the couch between Dalyn and me. Rolling his head her way, he glanced toward the door before saying, “You don’t have to keep working with him. You have a right to feel safe here. Tell Nova you want to work with Retta alone.”

  Tugging at the sleeves of her sweater, Dalyn squinted at a tiny mark on one cuff. “I don’t know. I haven’t been here long. It feels too soon to ask for anything.”

  “Then don’t ask,” I suggested. “If you don’t want to work with Ira, don’t. Straight up refuse. I’ll have your back.”

  Dalyn’s smile unfurled, then turned into a yawn. She pushed to her feet. “Thanks, Blaze. I didn’t mean to call you a cold-blooded killer. I know you’re not like that. I can tell already that you’re good people. Goodnight, guys. Or day. Whatever.”

  When Rayne and I were alone, he turned to me with a teasing grin. “Want to try for a quickie before someone walks in? You’ll have to go on top though. Due to the knife wound.” With dramatic exaggeration he held a hand over his side, reminding me that shifters healed more slowly than vamps.

  I laughed him off with a playful shove, careful not to actually shove him over with his fresh wound. “How long until it’s healed enough that it won’t bother you?” I asked, reaching to lift the hem of his shirt. The bandage on his side was still clean. No further bleeding. It could have been so much worse.

  “By sundown it will be nothing more than a bad scratch. It’s no big deal, really. I could go on top; I’m just being a lazy asshole.” The edge of Rayne’s lip lifted in a soft grin, and he lightly chucked me under the chin. “You almost look worried about me. I’m touched.”

  Against my better judgment, I leaned into his gentle contact. “Worried? No way. That would involve getting attached. None of that, remember?”

  He met my wan smile with a chuckle. “Right. No getting attached. So how many times could we fuck before that happens, do you think?” He wiggled dark brows and tickled my side until I laughed and jerked away.

  “I’m not sure. Finding out could be pretty risky.”

  Rayne caught my hand for a warm squeeze, and my laughter died away. “I know we’re not supposed to feel anything, but I can’t help the way my entire world lights up whenever I’m around you. I know we should back off before we get too involved, but I don’t want to.”

  We faced so many dangers for pursuing a romance of any kind in this environment. Not to mention my ongoing attraction to Ghost and Nova’s strange draw. After spending so many years unable to get close to anyone, it all felt so daunting.

  “I don’t want to either,” I admitted, forcing myself to say the words aloud. They didn’t come easy. “I like being with you, Rayne. And watching that knife nail you tonight, it hit me harder than it should have. But I don’t know if I’m read
y for anything serious. It’s been a long time since I’ve been with anyone.”

  “And I’m not the only one,” Rayne filled in with a knowing nod. “There’s something between you and Ghost, isn’t there? And I see the way Nova looks at you.”

  I shook my head in protest, red locks flying about my face. “There’s nothing going on with Nova. He’s just, well, he’s an incubus. Ghost and me, we had a fling, just once. But I haven’t seen him since. Not until we both got here.”

  “Hey, it’s cool. Don’t feel like you need to explain yourself to me.” Entwining our fingers tighter together, Rayne pulled me closer, pressing his lips to mine. “I’m just happy to be included.”

  This was not the turn I’d expected this conversation to take. Somehow I doubted my attraction to all of them would be as well received by the others, although it was a moot point. I wasn’t involved with any of them. Not really.

  Despite the little voice in my head that freaked out and shouted at me to pull away, I kissed Rayne back. Why was it so wrong to enjoy whatever perks came with being in this place?

  You know why, that voice said.

  It had been too long since I’d let myself feel the flutter of wings in my belly or the pull toward someone who left a lingering sweetness in my mouth. Because every motherfucking time I let myself feel, it always went wrong.

  “If love is what you’re looking for, then I’m not your girl,” I heard myself say, horrified as the words left my mouth, driven by the raw truth inside. “I don’t think I even know what love is. But if a friend who shares your bed on occasion is fine with you, then maybe we’ve got something here.”

  Shame filled me. Fear had spoken those words. Being in this house with these people forced me to reacquaint myself with the emotions I’d spent decades trying to bury. If I felt nothing, nobody could hurt me. Since coming into this house, I was feeling a lot of shit. I fucking hated it.

  “I’m not looking for anything. I never was.” A gentle nibble on my lip followed Rayne’s response. He kissed my jaw, my cheek, then my lips again. “I’ve found life tends to give you the best things when you aren’t looking for them.”