Devil May Care (28 page)

It swung its elongated head and tried to get a fix on the girl behind me. Skittering to one side, it flapped its wings and snapped its jaws, unconcerned by my threat. Another of its companions slammed against the lounge window, jarring the glass. The hunter jerked its head, acknowledging its companion’s idiocy. I used its distraction and bolted around behind it. Attacking it head on would get me a face full of sharp teeth. Snatching its left wing, I used my own momentum to swing around behind it. Its beak swung around after me, the two of us pirouetting before I plunged the kitchen knife into its leathery hide. I still had hold of its wing and yanked as it bucked away. The knife slid out with a
sloosh.
Blood spurted. Its beak snapped at me, close enough to taste the fish-oil stench of its breath. I recoiled, ducked, and as it snapped over my head, I thrust the knife into its neck and tugged its throat out with a grunt of exertion. The hunter whipped around, wings flailing and claws tearing at the gaping wound. It stumbled and staggered about the lounge, rearranging my furniture, and collapsed across my coffee table.

I dashed for the bedroom and slammed the window closed. Outside, the dark sky writhed with hunters. Any witnesses would see a cloud of black smoke against the night sky. Nothing too alarming.

I stepped back from the window and became acutely aware of the cooling demon blood plastering my top against my skin. I grimaced and walked gingerly back into the lounge, clothes chaffing. The hunter still lay sprawled across my coffee table, its blood dripping off the edges and pooling on my floor. How to dispose of a demon in Boston? Call the Institute, but that would mean answering a lot of questions about who my little guest was.

She’d gone. The corner she’d been cowering in was empty, and my apartment door hung ajar. I lunged for the door and remembered I was covered in blood. Quickly, I tossed the knife into the kitchen sink and tore off my clothes while retrieving some jeans and a tank top from my bedroom. I was still tugging on my boots and doing up my fly as I stumbled from my apartment and hurried down the stairs.

Akil had left her with me, and within the space of five minutes, I’d lost her. If she got outside, the hunters would tear into her. I staggered down the last few steps and brushed by Lacy, another of my neighbors.

“Hey, Charlie, are yah okay?” her Boston accent chimed.

“Yeah, all good...” I tossed a wave over my shoulder, heading for the main door and then stopped and turned. “Did you see a little girl come by here?”

Lacy gaped at me. She was dressed for a night out in matching tartans and lace up Doc Martin boots. Her faux fur jacket was so white it would have glowed under UV. Not much shocked Lacy, but she’d lost her voice now. I’d forgotten to wash the blood off my face. She gestured at me, mouth open. “Is that...?”

“Oh, it’s not real.” I grinned brightly. “I was playing dead with my... erm niece. Y’know. Ketchup.” Family members played dead with ketchup and kids, didn’t they? I was sure I’d seen it on TV.

She screwed up her face, not believing me for a second. “Yeah, she went outside. Do you need some help?”

“Nope. I’m fine. We’re fine. Which way did she go?”

“Toward Sidewalk Cafe.”

“Thanks.” I didn’t wait around for more questions and just hoped I’d remembered to shut my apartment door. If anyone saw the demon draped over my coffee table, I’d have a whole lot of explaining to do, not to mention losing my deposit. I’d only been in the apartment a month and was technically meant to be making a good impression.

Early Friday evenings in Boston were as busy as weekday rush hours. I lived in the heart of South Boston, a rejuvenated district currently undergoing something of a popularity revival. Southies liked the friendly neighborhood atmosphere of the place and feared the desirable ambiance had attracted too many well-to-dos who would spoil what made the place special. I couldn’t comment, being a newbie myself, but I did like the close-knit community. It felt like home, and for me, that was a damn miracle.

The many cafes and bars of East Broadway were opening for the evening, but the sidewalk was still clear enough for me to spot the little girl weaving her way through the tourists and after-work crowds. I glanced up at the sky and immediately saw the flock of hunters passing overhead. They had all the finesse of the black smoke from
Lost
, and I winced. If this went public, my boss at the Institute, Adam Harper, would lock me down and take away my freelance status. I had to control this. Dealing with Demons was, after all, my day job.

I didn’t have my Beretta Pico sidearm or my Enforcer ID. I just looked like a crazy half-dressed woman with blood on her face chasing down a little girl. Could the situation get any worse? Breaking into a run, I raced through the crowd, muttering apologies as I brushed a few arms and bumped a few shoulders. I caught glimpses of the girl’s ringlets and shiny black shoes, but she was quickly pulling away, able to thread herself through the crowd unnoticed.

A hunter’s clattering battle cry trilled above, right before it dove toward the sidewalk. Someone screamed, also noticing what they’d see as a peculiar cloud rushing downward. I saw the hunter, its wings tucked in, beak open. It would slam into the little girl and make short work of her fragile human flesh. I couldn’t let that happen. I summoned my demon’s strength, releasing my mental hold and allowing her influence to flood through my body. She broke over me, pooled fire in my heart, and flushed my veins with ethereal energy. Still running, I lifted a hand and called to the heat slumbering in the buildings on either side of the street. Boston, like all cities, was a reservoir of heat. Human activity generated more than enough heat for me to play with. Answering the call, my element sloughed off the buildings and flooded the earth at my feet. Spooling it around my arm, I cast it outward, sending a whip-like tendril of fire over the heads of the crowd. Flames licked over the hunter and washed over the body of the beast, embracing every inch of it. It screamed an air-shattering cry and then tumbled out of the sky and thumped against the sidewalk, narrowly missing the unsuspecting crowd.

I didn’t have time to explain to the gawping people what was happening. They would already know it was demon related. The news and events of late had prepped them, but that probably didn’t make it any easier to witness.

I dropped off the sidewalk and ran along the road, casting another bolt of fire into the sky where a second writhing mass of darkness dive-bombed the fleeing girl. “Hey!” If I could get her to stop, I could turn and deal with the hunters in one go.

She veered left down a narrow, one-way street. The malicious black smoke funneled after her. A quick glance behind told me we were virtually alone. I called all of my demon and let her ride over my flesh, consuming every part of me. My one ruined wing burst from my back. My element draped me in flame. I stopped, planted my feet firmly on the cobbles, and thrust my hands skyward, launching with them a storm of orange and blue flames. The hunters scattered, but chaos fire has an intent all of its own, and they soon found tendrils of flame licking up their limbs. Jagged fragments of pain thumped me in the chest. I grunted. My power stalled.
Damn parasite
. With a snarl, I doubled my efforts. The black cloud burst apart from within and lit up the sky in a mass of fire strikes. Burned hunters slapped against the road. Some bounced off cars, setting off half a dozen alarms. I’d never been very good at subtle.

I finished off a few stragglers with some well-aimed fireballs and then jogged down the street, shaking off my demon with each step, returning to my normal, if slightly disheveled state. When I finally found the girl curled tightly into the crook of an old tree, I was myself again, complete with blood splatters.

I saw the whites of her eyes and tried to offer her my best, most friendly smile. In the distance, sirens announced the arrival of the authorities, and no doubt the Institute would be included in that response. I crouched down and offered her my hand.

“It’s okay. The man who brought you to me, Akil—he was right. I’ll keep you safe, but you gotta stay close to me.”

She blinked and hugged her bunny.

I needed to get back to my apartment where the symbols would hide us both from demons. If I could get home and clean up the mess waiting for me, then maybe the girl might open up and explain just what the freakin’ hell was going on. I’d call Akil too. I had no idea what he expected me to do that he couldn’t, and his ‘do the right thing’ explanation wouldn’t cut it.

“What’s your name?”

She blinked again, and her lips tightened. She didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t blame her. I had no idea what she’d witnessed with Akil, but given the fifteen minutes we’d spent together, I’d have a hard time trusting anyone if I was her.

“Shall we do this properly?” I shuffled a bit closer. “My human name is Charlie, but my real name is Muse.” I held out my hand, inviting her to shake it.

“That’s a funny name.” A slight netherworldly accent slurred her words.

“Yeah, a not-so-funny guy gave it to me.”

“I have a funny name too.”

“Oh, and what’s your name?”

“Dawn.” She held out her rabbit. “This is Missus Floppy.”

“Dawn is a lovely name.” I shook Floppy’s paw and then Dawn’s tiny, cold hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you both. Would you like to meet my cat, Jonesy? He loves tickles behind his ears.”

Dawn clutched her bunny against her chest once more and smiled. “Okay, Miss Muse.”

A
dam only left
the safety of the Institute complex when the world was about to end or I was involved. I wasn’t surprised when he filed in behind the clean up crew. I leaned against the kitchen cabinets, arms crossed, watching the blue-overall-clad Institute employees surround the dead demon in the middle of my lounge and set about removing its carcass and copious amounts of drying blood from my apartment.

Adam gave the room a visual assessment, his gaze lingering on the framed symbols as though inspecting them for any errors. He took his time, observing his crew doing what they did best. He would look at me when necessary, not before. While I waited, I watched him, knowing he could feel my gaze crawl over him. A substantial man, both in demeanor and presence, he dressed casually in blue jeans and a blue-striped shirt. Suits weren’t him, despite spending the majority of his days behind a desk. His graying hair should have been too long for a man of his middle-years, but he somehow made it look distinguished. His fawn colored eyes instantly disarmed anyone who didn’t know him. He’d smile and ask you how your day was, right before he went for the jugular. He and I didn’t get along.

Finally, after five minutes of rising tension, Adam turned those deceptively warm eyes on me. “I assume you’re the fire demon who ran down the street in plain sight of half a dozen CCTV cameras and upward of fifty witnesses?”

Usually, he’d wait until he had me in his office before laying down the Institute law. Tonight, I was getting the no-holds-barred treatment.

Jonesy sat next to me on the kitchen counter, twitching tail dangling over the edge. My cat was an excellent judge of character.

“Would you prefer I let the flock of hunter demons eat the unsuspecting commuters?”

“I’d prefer discretion, Muse.”

One of the blue-suit guys moved toward my bedroom. I tensed. “Nothing in there. It’s all out here.” The guy glanced at Adam, who nodded, and returned to the tacky pool of dark blood spreading across my floor.

Adam arched an eyebrow and crossed the room to my kitchenette. “I’m loath to think you’re hiding something from us.”

“There’s nothing left to hide, Adam.” I made a point of meeting his stare. He wouldn’t think I was laying it on thick. This was how we always danced.

“Have you heard from Stefan?”

Now, I did flick my gaze away. “No.”

“David Ryder?”

“No.”

Stefan and Ryder had vanished after the event at Boston Gardens, and it remained an open wound between myself and the Institute. In fact, I believed Adam only kept me on to see if either Stefan or Ryder resurfaced around me. They hadn’t. The last time I’d seen Stefan, he’d accused me of killing his sister. He thought I’d deliberately drugged him to subdue his demon and believed I’d sided with his nemesis, Akil. I’d left Stefan with Ryder as he struggled to contain his demon half, and I’d helped Akil drive the Larkwrari demon back through the tear in the veil. Ryder would keep Stefan safe. Either that, or Stefan would lash out and kill him. Given the madness that had come over Stefan since his lengthy stay in the netherworld, I hadn’t ruled it out. That thought—among many others —kept me awake at night.

“Need I remind you, we have authority over your living arrangements and career?”

I ground my teeth. Hate is such a strong word. I liked to think myself incapable of true hate, but I was only half-human, and my demon hated Adam Harper with every netherworldy cell in her body. It was only because I’d made a deal with Ryder not to torch the Institute or spontaneously ignite Adam that I’d refrained from doing both.

“Why were the hunter demons here?” he asked.

I shrugged. That was a good question, and the sudden change of direction caught me off guard. “They must have been sent by someone who knew where I lived.”

“Wouldn’t your protection symbols hide you from any such threat?” He nodded toward my framed prints with the swirling interwoven markings.

He was right. Those symbols kept me off the demon radar. “What can I say? They found me. I dealt with it.”

Any number of demons could have sent the hunters after me. Demons despised my half-blood nature, detested Enforcers, and had all taken my general lack of willingness to die as an affront to their demon egos. Hell, even Akil had sent demon-nasties after me in the past, although he appeared to have resolved his homicidal tendencies since I’d literally sucked the life out of him. My immortal brother could have sent them, but I’d learned assassins weren’t his style. Valenti was more likely to run me through with a sword. He liked his sibling-rivalry up close and personal.

I shuddered and shoved thoughts of my half-brother to the back of my mind. Of all the crap I had to deal with, I really didn’t need the specter of Val occupying my thoughts.

Besides, the hunters hadn’t been after me. They’d wanted the girl, and Akil had led them straight here. Adam wasn’t to know that, so I played dumb and shouldered the blame.

He waited for me to offer up some sort of explanation that he was happy with, but when it became clear after several minutes of silence, that I had no intention of elaborating, he made his excuses to leave. “Next time, Muse, dial down the fires from hell. I have enough trouble trying to manage demon sightings all over the city. I don’t need one of my Enforcers in the headlines, especially a hybrid.”

“Yes boss,” I grumbled with zero conviction.

It took the Institute team an hour to wipe my lounge clean. Glad to see the back of them, I hurried them out the door with the disinfectant still drying and immediately checked on Dawn. She sat perched on the end of my bed, legs dangling over the edge and didn’t look as though she’d moved since I’d told her to stay-put and stay quiet.

“Who was that?” She followed close behind me as I returned to my now-spotless lounge.

“They’re not the type of people you want to be getting involved with, given their history with half bloods.” I glanced down at Dawn. She stood inside my personal space, peering up at me, Missus Floppy loose in her hand. “That is what you are, right?”

“What’s a half blood?”

Okay, we really needed to talk. “Are you hungry?” I asked with a smile.

She nodded.

“Chill out on the couch, and I’ll make us some food.” She skewed her wary gaze to the couch, regarding it suspiciously. “Sit. It won’t bite.”

She crossed the lounge with tight steps and hitched herself onto the couch. Curling herself into a tight ball, she sunk into the cushions as though hoping they’d swallow her up.

I flicked on the TV and channel surfed to something non-offensive, watching Dawn’s eyes widen to absorb the images.

I checked my fridge for food and found it distinctly lacking. I couldn’t cook. I’d tried it once. Or rather, Akil had attempted to teach me, but I’d struggled with the whole idea of heating up a stove when I could use my element. Needless to say, toast is flammable, and eggs explode when heated using chaos energy. Who knew? Akil had found it highly amusing while I’d considered myself a failure. Things had changed since then, but I still shied away from cooking.

Two microwave meals it was then.

“You’re safe here, Dawn.” I prepared the frozen meals. “As long as you stay inside these markings, the demons can’t find you.”

“They did before.”

I glanced back at her. She was watching a wildlife program about chipmunks, overlaid with dramatic music. “The symbols only work on higher demons, the big guys with conscious thoughts. Some of the lesser ones can still get through, if they know what they’re looking for. Plus, I left the window open. Don’t do that. It gives them an in. Same with the front door. So we just have to stay here until we figure out what’s going on.”

The microwave pinged. I managed to turn the desiccated peas, carrots and shoe-leather meat onto plates so they looked partially edible and carried them over to Dawn.

She didn’t bother with cutlery and dove right in with her fingers.

“Careful, it’s hot.” She didn’t seem to care. Eyes darting between chipmunks and her plate of food, she tucked in as though I’d served her a gourmet meal. I watched her closely, finding myself transfixed by this quiet little girl. Why did Akil have her? What had happened to him? Why leave her with me? Why were the hunters after her? I wanted to demand answers from her, but I wasn’t that heartless. The interrogation could wait.

I reached out and swept a lock of her curly hair behind her ear. A trickle of my element seeped outward, as it sometimes did around demons. It happened often enough that I barely noticed it. It wasn’t invasive, just a curious touch, but Dawn jerked back and glared at me as though I’d slapped her.

I snatched my hand back. “It’s okay.” I’d felt a little stirring of the energy slumbering inside her. She was a half blood. Had she been full-demon, my skin would have crawled by now, plus she wouldn’t have been able to enter my apartment. Now that I’d sensed the power in her, I knew for certain she was like me. “We’re the same, you and me.”

“The man who saved me, he says you’re strong.”

He would,
I thought. Demons only care for power, and considering Akil was the Prince of Greed, he liked nothing better than overflowing chaotic energies. “He
saved
you?”

She blinked. “He told me not to tell you.”

That sounded more like Akil. I smiled. “It’s okay. You can trust me.”

She shook her head, ringlets bobbing. I wasn’t going to push it. Not yet. But I needed answers. If Akil was using this little girl to get to me, I’d take my overflowing chaotic energies and use them to go nuclear on his ass.

“Do you think you can trust Akil?”

She shook her head. Good girl. “He’s strong too.” Her eyes unfocused, and what little color she had drained from her face. “I don’t want to go back,” she whispered.

“You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to. I promise you that.” I took her dainty hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back, eyes glistening. There were memories in my head just like hers. I knew what it meant to be a half blood abomination among demons. If Dawn had endured half of what I’d been subjected to, she was lucky to be alive, never mind coherent.

The parasitic demon knotted around my heart tightened. I sucked in a sharp breath, tugging my hand from Dawn’s to clench it against my chest. It never let me forget its existence.

My cell phone rang, providing a welcome distraction from the hideous creature hitching a ride inside me. I left Dawn watching the chipmunks and answered the call.

“Charlie, it’s Detective Coleman.” His fast footfalls punctuated the background drone of traffic. A car door slammed. “Dead demon call just came in. I’m about to head down to a penthouse in Battery Wharf to seal it off—the usual—and thought you’d want to know.”

“Hey,” I drawled. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Coleman worked homicide at Boston PD, but he also got burdened with cases of suspected demon involvement. I was on his speed dial as the phone-a-friend for anything suspiciously inhuman. “Why would I want to know?” Battery Wharf was an exclusive luxury apartment complex. Not somewhere you’d expect a demon to turn up dead, but things were changing. Demons were everywhere, so the press said.

“Well, for one, you’re the Institute, and I’m obliged to tell the Institute when one of your ki— when a demon turns up dead.”

I caught that little slip of the tongue but let it go. “Noted. And?”

“You’re acquainted with the apartment owner. Akil Vitalis.”

D
arkest Before Dawn
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out now
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