Demon's Caress

Chapter Four

They dissolved into nothingness, speeding through the black until they appeared in an alleyway. Half of Kobal’s body was in a dumpster, which was why they always arrived wherever they went as insubstantial shadows. It wasn’t just because they didn’t want humans to see them arrive—the mortals wouldn’t remember it anyway—it was because untangling themselves from the middle of a brick wall or garbage can could take a while. Demons couldn’t die, but that kind of mess would suck. And it might let a target slip from their fingers, which no self-respecting hunter would allow.

“Okay, which way?” Kobal stepped out of the metal bin and materialized.

She drew in a deep breath, widening her senses to let Bruno’s essence come to her. There. He was near. She could sense him. That familiar instinct to hunt her prey flooded her being, a relief after a day of feeling shaken up and tossed around.

Opening the slender bonds that sex had given her with her partners, she sent the information thrumming along those tethers. It felt good to have those ties. She’d sever them the moment they got back to the silo. She quelled any inner protest that might have risen at the thought.

This bond with them was no deeper than her bond with Lilim or any of the other partners that came before her. If the excuse rang hollowly in her mind, she ignored it. It didn’t matter how good the sex had been. That meant nothing. She’d had amazing sex before. Maybe not quite that amazing, true, but she’d never had any more trouble walking away from a lover before. At least not since her last male partner. A shudder of self-loathing ran through her.

Striding down the alley, she let her senses carry her in the direction of Bruno. The closer she got, the riper the stench of his darkness became. She swallowed the bile that stung the back of her throat. Even after all these years, that scent reviled her. She’d never gotten used to it, but she’d learned to suppress her reaction. Bruno’s stink was far worse than Norris’s had been, and there was no way she’d entrap something that ugly on her own, even for a few minutes.

She nodded toward a rundown, two-story warehouse, just as Raum and Kobal said, “There.”

“Yep.” The street was largely empty. Only the unsavory elements would stick around this kind of warehouse and factory area after quitting time. Everyone else had already gone home for the day. Which meant the humans that she sensed nearby could become a problem. She noted where those signatures emanated from, hoping none of them got in her way. There was a comfort she didn’t want to acknowledge in having two large, experienced hunters at her back.

Kobal sucked in a deep breath as they slipped behind the warehouse. “There are a lot of them in there. Bodyguards?” He lifted his hands and shrugged. “Crime boss is a job that comes with enemies.”

Raum dropped to his haunches and laid his fingertips against the building, closing his eyes, and she felt a pulse of his power dance over her skin. What he was sensing, she didn’t know. His forehead creased, then relaxed. “It’s not paranoia if they really are after you.”

He smiled a little when Maron and Kobal snorted. Then he nodded and rose to his feet.

“A little ghostly recon, just to be sure we have correct numbers and placement?” Kobal cracked his knuckles, a gleeful grin on his face.

She could feel the adrenaline buzzing through him. The need to take action thrummed along the thin link between them, filling her too. Her muscles tightened and she forced them to relax when she went incorporeal, blending into the night. “I’ll take the second floor, just to make sure nothing’s going to come down on our heads. Raum, you take the bottom floor. Kobal, make sure there’s no one outside to give us any nasty surprises. Be back here in five minutes.”

The two demons nodded silently, taking her orders without protest. They slipped into the shadows and were gone. She flowed through the wall of the warehouse, noting the humans she passed as she moved toward the staircase. Eight men, and she could feel more nearby. She shuddered when one of them walked right through her while he came down the narrow staircase. The building had an air of neglect and ill repute. The perfect place for a man like Bruno to conduct his business.

A quick tour of the upper floor revealed a few more men, all armed. Whatever was going down tonight required a lot of guards. Or maybe this was Bruno’s standard operating procedure. A man like him had to have a lot of enemies. There was a hum of anticipation, though, as if they were waiting for something. Or someone.

Keening sobs stopped her in her tracks. She turned toward the noise, which came from behind a closed door on the far side of the building. Unease twisted through her as the helpless, hopeless crying grew louder. It sounded like more than one voice making that sound. She slipped through the door and would have needed to resist the urge to gag if she’d been in human form.

There were almost a dozen girls trapped in the windowless little room. Not one of them looked over seventeen or eighteen. Babies. They were emaciated, half-naked, huddled shivering and sobbing in one corner as far from the door as possible. It was pretty obvious from the bruises, bleeding and torn clothing that more than one had been raped. Recently.

Maron backed out of the room, rage pumping through her. She wanted to put a fist through something…preferably Bruno’s face. It took everything she had not to burst into a wall of unholy flame and burn her way through this building in retribution. She shuddered and stepped aside as a couple of his thugs passed through her insubstantial body to check the locked door that caged the teen girls.

“Wish this guy was waiting an extra day to get the girls,” one of the men grunted. “I wanna take that redheaded one for another ride. I like a little Russian every now and then.”

The other goon chuckled, and it was an ugly sound that sent chills skating down Maron's spine. “Good of the boss to let us check out the merchandise first.”

“Yeah.” The first man winked at the second, and Maron resisted the urge to solidify and put a boot in their balls.

Assholes. Her nostrils flared in disgust. Well, she knew what they were waiting for…selling girls imported illegally from Russia. They may have come to the U.S. willingly, but she doubted they’d had any idea what was in store for them. Her heart wrenched. She hated shit like this. Hated. She wasn’t law enforcement, and it wasn’t her job to save these girls. Her aim was to drag Bruno kicking and screaming into hell.

That part would be a pleasure, considering how nice he’d been to let his men test the merchandise. Her hands balled into fists, but she spun for the stairs and went back the way she’d come.

Her men were waiting for her, just as she’d instructed them. Kobal paced, as was his way. The man had more energy than any two demons she’d ever met. She’d bet he was invaluable on a long hunt, with enough tenacity and vigor to never give up. Raum would be a good voice of reason and balance for that. Too bad they wanted a full bond…and that they were men. Otherwise they would have been great partners to work with.

Kobal paused when he saw her, a smile flicking on and off his face. “There are a couple of cars outside with armed men.”

“Nine on the bottom floor, including Bruno. They’re waiting to move some kind of merchandise.” Raum straightened to attention as he reported in.

“Another four up top. All heavily armed.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead as she materialized. “They have a bunch of Russian girls locked up there, and they’re waiting for someone to come get them. Selling them off.”

“Human trafficking.” Kobal looked angry, sickened, and a muscle in Raum’s jaw began to tick.

“Can’t wait to bring this motherfucker down.” She rolled her shoulders, easing the tension in her muscles. “Here’s the problem… It’s unlikely he’s going to be alone tonight. As soon as whoever is coming to get these girls shows up, the place will be crawling with even more people. The three of us can’t suck his soul and fight off his men, plus whoever is handling this shipment of Russians.” She ran a hand through her hair. “We have a couple of options. First, we could wait until tomorrow.”

They didn’t like that idea, she could tell. None of them said it, but they didn’t want to abandon the girls to their fate, even if it wasn’t their job to help. Maron flatly refused to—she didn’t give a damn what the job called for. She was supposed to scrub evil off this planet, and the one rule was that she couldn’t trap a soul that hadn’t been marked for it. Leaving those girls with Bruno’s thugs or letting them get sold into sex slavery…that was evil. She wouldn’t do it.

“I’m not leaving little girls to be forced into prostitution.” Raum’s eyes flashed with the same rage that poured through Maron’s veins.

Kobal folded his arms. “What are the other options?”

She pulled in a breath, bracing herself for their reaction. “Let me go in first.”

“You want to go in human form? Alone?” Raum’s expression darkened to a scowl.

Notching her chin up, she dared them to contradict her. “Do you think two big, scary-looking men popping out of thin air in front of those girls is going to keep them calm?”

“What’s keeping them calm going to do?” Kobal sliced his hand through the air. “There’s no way to get them out of there. And what will you do if Bruno discovers you?”

“He likes pretty women, and he won’t remember me from the last time. I can handle him.” But she remembered him and the lewd way he’d looked her over, the way he’d groped Lilim before she’d booted him in the gonads and then knocked him out so they could extract his boss.

Kobal’s scowl was even deeper than his partner’s. “I don’t like it. I don’t want you going in there without back-up.”

Their bond told her that everything in him rejected the idea of putting her in harm’s way without one of them at her back. She could feel the emotions rolling through him, and disappointment flooded her that it was more of the same. Another man doubting she could do her job as a hunter. Some time in the last twenty-four hours, some slender piece of her soul had begun to hope that Samael was right about them. She was such a fool.

“I’m going in and protecting the girls while you guys call the cops and keep an eye on Bruno until they get here. I won’t go solid unless it’s necessary.” Like if one of those assholes decided to take another test drive. She jutted her jaw stubbornly. “We can snatch him out of the chaos and finish the job. It’ll work.”

Raum’s nostril’s flared in annoyance. “Fine. But you ghost out of there the second things go south.”

“Damn it,” Kobal snapped. He thrust his hand through his hair, sending the pale strands flying. “I don’t want to leave the girls, I really don’t, but the fact that you can’t die doesn’t mean a bunch of guys couldn’t hurt you too. If anything happened to you…”

“It won’t. Trust me to do my job.” The way Shax never had. She squashed the thought. That was the past, and it was time to move beyond it. Shax couldn’t do anything to her anymore. She was a hunter, and a good one. She’d won. He’d lost. The end.

Now she had to be a good hunter and vanquish a little more of the darkness in the world.

The silence lengthened as neither man uttered a word. Right. They couldn’t even say they trusted her—couldn’t say they believed in her to come through when the chips were down. There was something new from a man. Not. She clenched her jaw and turned away from them. “Just call the cops. I’ll do my part, you do yours.”

She flashed to invisibility and returned to the room with the girls. They were still cowering and clumped into the corner, a tangle of shivering limbs. She breathed a sigh of relief that nothing more had happened to them in the handful of minutes she’d been gone. Now she had to wait, hope their buyer didn’t show up before the cops did, and make sure nothing happened to them in the meantime.

Then she was going to fry Bruno’s ass. And enjoy every minute of it. She normally didn’t relish her work quite this much, but she’d make an exception for him.

She clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides, trying not to let the waiting drive her insane. How long would it take for the cops to get here? Had Raum and Kobal even done what she wanted? Her thoughts darted in crazy circles, fears, doubts, anger and far too many emotions ricocheting around her. She tried to reel herself back in, tried to focus. The last thing she needed to do in a tense situation was unravel. The men needed her to help them reap a soul like Bruno’s, and they were good at their work or Samael wouldn’t keep them in his silo. Everything she knew about them said they’d come through, so she waited with the girls, peeking out through door every few minutes to check on the guards.

Nothing so far. Her tension ratcheted up by the moment. Where were they? What was going on out there? Damn. Damn. Damn.

Bruno was still nearby, she could feel him, though his goons emanated enough evil that she wouldn’t be surprised if she was sent after them in the future. But she could sense no more than that. More people were moving around outside, but who? The police? The girls’ new pimp? The sniveling, pitiable sobbing from the teens only made Maron more determined to help. Woe to anyone who tried to touch them. She had no idea what the authorities would do with them—probably deport them, but a lifetime of sex slavery couldn’t be a better choice than that.

She bent her torso through the door again for another look and came face to face with Bruno himself. He pushed the door inward, and it swished through her body. A growl erupted from her throat, and the girls went into immediate hysterics, trying to crawl over each other to get farther away from the beefy man.

He waded through the screaming girls and grabbed one by the hair, wrenching her to her feet. She cowered, squealing and trying to wriggle free of him. “My buyer’s gonna want to see proof of merchandise. Behave for him.”

Meaning what? The girl should let another man grope her, rape her? Bullshit.

Tightening his fingers in her long hair, he shook her, though Maron doubted the teen understood a word of English. Raum and Kobal were supposed to be tracking Bruno, but she didn’t see them, couldn’t sense them close by. Well, she was going to have to deal with this herself. She solidified and kicked the door shut. With any luck, his men would think he’d closed it to keep the panicking girls in.

“Hey!” He spun, the teen still trapped in his grip, and she howled in pain. He blinked in the sudden murky light. “What the fuck?”

Demon senses allowing her to see in the dark, she stepped up and jabbed the tips of her fingers into his throat so he couldn’t call for help. He let go of the girl, choking, gagging and grabbing his neck.

“What’s the matter, Bruno? Never had a girl slap you around like the little bitch you are?” Balling her fist, she slammed it into his balls. Now that she was corporeal, the reek of blood, urine and fear flooded her nose, and it was nothing compared to putrescent rot of Bruno’s soul. Her muscles heaved in sickened reaction.

He wheezed, lurching to the side and swinging wildly. One fist struck, catching her off-guard and sending her reeling back. She tasted the copper of blood in her mouth. She shook her head, trying to clear the sudden ringing, trying to focus through the bombardment to her senses. It only made her angrier that he’d managed to make her bleed. He tried to hit her again, but she ducked and backhanded him across the face, using a lot more power than a human woman would have. His lip split, blood and snot dribbling down his face. He reached into his jacket for his gun, and she twisted it from his grip, snapping a couple of his fingers in the process. His mouth moved as if he wanted to speak, but only a loud grunting gurgle came out. The scent of his putrid soul singed her nostrils once more.

A piercing wail filled the air, the sound of sirens blaring from outside. A man’s voice over a bullhorn announced that the police had arrived and everyone should come out with their hands up. She heard windows shatter in the hallway as men came swarming in, and she could feel her lungs and eyes beginning to burn from the tear gas. Gunfire rang out, the boom of it enough to freeze the blood in a person’s veins.

The Russian girls went absolutely batshit crazy, pelting toward the door, screaming and battering at the heavy metal surface. Maron groaned. “Shit.”

If the teens got out, they were likely to get caught in the crossfire. Their combined weight pushing forward kept the girls in front from opening the door inward. For the moment, they’d trapped themselves.

“Maron!” Raum roared from a distance, his voice almost drowned out by the crack of bullets flying. He was echoed by Kobal. “Maron, where are you?”

“Here!” She dissolved, sweeping through the girls and out the door. The demons materialized before her. “Bruno and the girls are in there.”

Kobal swore in about six different languages, then ducked as a canister of tear gas came whizzing by. The men choked on the fumes and evaporated into the safer spirit form. “Can we reap him in there with the girls?”

She shook her head. “Too small. We’d pull the girls’ souls into the vortex as well. We need to get him out, and keep them in and away from the bullets.”

“This might scare them back from the door.” Kobal shook his head and let his entire body burst into a ball of flames, gliding forward so he was half in and half out. The hysterical screams rose higher, but seemed to move farther away. “Raum, open it up, would you?”

Raum solidified, hacked and wheezed on the gas. More gunfire popped from the first floor as he put his shoulder against the door and shoved with his superhuman strength. A few more shrieks sounded, but when the door swung wide, there were no girls hanging around the flaming demon. They were back to cowering in the corner, crying, sneezing, coughing and breathing hard from gas inhalation. A few of them lay unconscious on the floor. From the shock of Kobal’s fire show or being trampled, Maron wasn’t sure.

The dark-haired demon charged in and grabbed Bruno, twisting his arm behind his back. He whispered something in the human’s ear that made horror and terror flash in his beady eyes. Forcing Bruno forward, Raum duck-walked him out of the room. Both of them choked on the gas, tears rolling down their faces. The demon slammed and locked the door behind them, sealing the girls in for the cops to find when they searched the building. That was the best they could do for them. Now they had to do their real job…divesting Bruno of his blackened soul.

Kobal shut off the flames, and Maron solidified, taking over Bruno from Raum. “We’ll take turns until we’re out of the gas. Ghost ahead and check for roadblocks.”

Nodding, Raum did as he was bid without further comment. The moment the fumes hit Maron’s system, she felt her lungs lock up. Every membrane in her eyes, nose and mouth began to burn. It took everything in her to stay in human form. Her heart hammered, adrenaline flooding her veins as sweat poured down her face. Pushing past the pain seizing her body, she clamped her hand on Bruno’s arm, twisting it higher so he didn’t try anything stupid because she was a woman and shoved him toward the stairs. Kobal swept the hall behind her to watch her back.

“No good.” Raum sped up the steps. “Push him out the window and I’ll catch him at the bottom.”

“If he dies, we can’t harvest his soul.” He might end up in hell eventually, but he might turn into a poltergeist that continued to visit his evil on innocent people. He’d be beyond their reach—not dead, but not alive. And Samael would ship them downstairs for eternal guard duty.

Bruno hacked, spittle dripping from his mouth. “Who the fuck are you talking to, bitch? What the hell are you?”

“I’m your worst nightmare. I’m the bitch who’s going to make you pay for everything you’ve ever done.” She croaked it as matter-of-factly as possible, knowing the human wouldn’t truly believe her anyway. None of them did. She swiped her free hand across her face, wiping away sweat and tears. “Both of you go. I’ll launch him. Don’t miss.”

Kobal didn’t bother protesting about leaving her alone. They just did as they were told, floating out the filth-crusted, broken window at the top of the stairs and down to the ground. She leaned out to gauge where they landed as they flashed to physical form.

Stepping back, she dragged Bruno along with her, both of them coughing and choking on the tear gas. She wiped her eyes again, flexed her knees, lifted Bruno, and launched him through the shattered panes. He screamed the whole way, and when it cut off suddenly, she winced and glanced out to see he’d been caught by her partners.

There was no time to breathe a sigh of relief—not that her lungs would have managed relief at that moment—because shouting and pounding feet rang on the stairs. She ducked as more bullets went flying, dispersing her body into the shadows. A shudder went through her as the pain ceased as swiftly as it had begun. The coughing cut off, no more fumes burning her eyes.

Leaping forward, she sped through the window and dropped straight to the ground, where she solidified. Her demons were already heaving their target into the next building—a darkened warehouse with hundreds of pallets stacked to the ceiling, packing material scattered across the floor. It would do. A few minutes of cover with no fumes or bullets or cops or mobsters was all they needed to get this done. Finally.

Redness flushed Bruno’s flesh when they were inside, and he cursed and wrestled with the male demons. “I’ll have you all gutted. Slow and bloody. Better yet, I’ll do it myself, motherfuckers. I’ve done it before…my blade’s gonna mess up your pretty faces, and I’ll make you watch while I fuck your bitch.”

He kicked out and managed to catch Kobal in the knee. His leg buckled, and Bruno broke for a door that exited on a wall away from the cops. Raum went after him, and the human swung an elbow back to slam the dark-haired demon in the nose. Blood gushed down his face, and he staggered back.

“Shit,” Maron spat. She and Kobal both groaned. This was such a clusterfuck of a case.

The conduit between her and Kobal opened, and he fed his power through her. Fire whipped out of her, a wave of red and blue flames dancing through the air. He let her take the lead and direct its flow. Lightning strikes hit the ground, driving Bruno back toward them. Then he was inside the ring of fire, and Raum threw his power toward her as well. The vortex of light snapped into place, multicolored flames flashing with forks of brilliant, blinding lightning.

Darkness bled into the fiery funnel, and her ears buzzed from the amount of energy coursing through her body. She focused it, latching on to Bruno’s evil essence and wrenching it outward. It had never been so easy with someone so dark. It took seconds, mere heartbeats with their three combined powers. The vortex burst into a million shards of dancing, skipping light. She shuddered, blinking away the spots in her eyes. The putrid stench of his festering soul cleared from the air, and her belly unknotted for the first time in hours.

Bruno was dead.

Kobal bent forward and braced his hands on his knees. He angled a glance up at Maron and Raum. “Everyone okay?”

“Yeah,” Raum replied, wiping his bloodied nose. Maron just nodded as everything that had happened tonight slammed into her at once.

They had done it. Given her control, listened to her, obeyed her even when it went against their instincts. Something Shax would never, could never have done. She had doubted them, doubted they could follow her lead, and guilt washed through her. She had done to them what she feared they’d do to her—pushed them away, never trusting, never allowing them near. Just as Shax had done to her. She had been so unfair to them, too afraid of how good connecting to them felt—better than anything with Shax had ever felt—to believe that they would be any different that him. But as that realization hit her, she also had to ask herself what she was going to do about it. A century of terror closed her throat, her breath hitching hard against her ribs.

She swallowed hard. “Call it in, would you, Kobal? Let’s get out of here before the cops come sniffing around.”

“Of course.” He fished his cell phone out of his pocket.

Within moments, they were dragged into the nothingness between time and space. They appeared in Samael’s office, but he wasn’t there. She could feel him in the room beyond. The hellmouth. Sending Bruno to his final destination.

She staggered a little, the sizzle of all the energy still firing in hot pulses. Raum reached out and caught her, drawing her into his arms.

“Just relax for a moment.” His voice was rough with concern, not an ounce of patronization in his tone. “That’s a lot of power to funnel, especially with our bond so small. You did damn good.”

Warmth flooded her at his words, his actions, his tenderness. Shax had rarely touched her outside of sex, and she hadn’t realized until right now how much that simple act had denied her. She let herself lean against Raum’s broad chest, relaxing as his hand rose to bracket her neck and massage her tense muscles. Just for a moment, and then she stepped away.

Kobal came up behind her, rubbing her shoulders and slipping his hands up and down her arms. “You were amazing. I was worried we might fry your nerves, but we had to trust you.”

They had to trust her. When had Shax ever trusted her? Never. He’d always doubted her, and made her doubt herself. Their bond had made her depend on his opinion of her. She’d floundered under his lack of faith, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They’d been together for years, and every assignment had made it worse for her, cutting any self-assurance she had out from under her. In one day, Kobal and Raum had shown more confidence in her than Shax had in years. Their actions tonight spoke far louder than words ever could.

Samael was right. They were right. They were the perfect for her.