Heart of the Demon (19 page)

At first Finn had followed the two because he’d been jealous. He was certain Liuz had been about to take Keira home with him.
He wasn’t sure what he would have done if that had been the case. He really hadn’t thought it through. But when the vampire
had turned the car off the freeway and headed up into the mountains, curiosity had overtaken jealousy. When Keira changed
her shoes it became apparent to him there was going to be walking involved. He knew he’d have an easier time of it going four-footed,
so he’d shifted. That had been two hours ago, and he was having a hard time maintaining this form.

He’d slipped down to the mouth of the cave in time to see the rock face slide away to reveal the rest of the tunnel. He knew
he couldn’t move fast enough to get there before it closed, so he’d decided to reconnoiter the area. Liuz was a lot of things,
but he wasn’t stupid. There would be guards posted. Finn needed to see how many, and where.

It felt odd, seeing the world through the eyes of a large cat. While colors didn’t seem as bright, things were much more defined,
and he could see farther and over a wider field of view than he could even with the sharp vision of a demon.

Things smelled differently, too. To take advantage of the superior smell of the cat, he dropped his jaw and wrinkled his muzzle,
opening the passage to the sensitive Jacobson’s organ at the roof of his mouth. He smelled mesquite, a jackrabbit not that
far away, a few deer closer to the foot of the mountain, and there, finally, a waft of preternatural. There seemed to be three
distinct types—a werewolf, a vampire, and something else, some sort of shapeshifter he’d never smelled before.

He sidled around a few barrel cacti, made his way past a small group of scrub trees and stopped, straining to see in the darkness
to find what his nose told him was just up ahead.

After a few minutes he saw him. The guard, cradling a high-powered rifle complete with scope, was high above the mine, at
least two hundred feet up on a rocky ledge. Finn stared at him, trying to figure out how in the hell the guy had gotten up
there. He must have rappelled down, he finally decided, because even in his cat form Finn would have a hard time with that
terrain. That guard wouldn’t be easy to take out, and he had a bird’s-eye view of everyone who approached the mine.

Which meant Finn had been spotted, but he didn’t sense any alarm on the parts of the guards, so mountain lion sightings around
here must be common. He circled around and found the other two prets he’d smelled earlier, one on either side of the cave.
Both of them held the same type of weapon as the first man. Their preternatural abilities wouldn’t help them take out threats
from a distance, but these rifles surely could.

With Keira inside, he didn’t want to kill the guards and alert Liuz there was trouble. The vampire would most likely assume
Keira had something to do with it and immediately strike out at her. Finn would have to wait and remove the threat when he
came back to destroy the machine.

The next time he was here, he’d have reinforcements, and they’d make sure Liuz never completed his plans.

“My comrades in arms in the other dimension have been using the Detention Center to hide criminals who are sympathetic to
our cause.” Stefan stooped to avoid a low-hanging protrusion. “I set things up with a couple of friends before I used the
rift to escape the law all those years ago. I didn’t know technology in this dimension would be so primitive. Our people are
long lived in the other dimension, but not immortal. So I am now working with the next generation. The sons and daughters
of my original friends. Children who were raised to believe in the cause.”

Keira didn’t respond, willing to let him continue his delusional ranting so she could gather the information she needed.

He seemed happy she was hanging on to his every word. The more he talked, the more full of himself he grew. On her part, she
became more and more alarmed at how insane he was.

As they reached a widening of the tunnel, Stefan swept out his arms and said, “Here it is.”

Keira stepped around him and stopped to stare at the machine in front of her. It was larger than she’d expected, nearly van
size, gunmetal in color with something that looked like an antenna array on one end. Lots of knobs and dials took up the side
she could see. Lights blinked, yellow and green, and one button gleamed red.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Admiration colored Stefan’s tones in broad strokes.

“I’ve never really thought of machines as being beautiful,” Keira replied. “Though I do think my car is pretty,” she allowed.

He laughed. “See? You
do
think they can be beautiful.” He crossed his arms and stared at the rift machine like a proud papa. “This thing is the key
to my plan. It will keep the rift open for as long as it’s running. My comrades on the other side have assured me that there
is quadruple the number of prets ready to come through the rift.” He glanced at her. “Right now preternaturals are only about
three percent of the population in the U.S. According to my comrades’ records, every seventy-three years approximately twenty
thousand people are stripped of their bodies and sent through the rift.”

Those were not exactly staggering numbers. “Three percent of the population is something like…” She did a rough calculation
in her head. “A little over nine million?”

“Right.” He looked impressed with her mathematical skills. “Imagine with this Influx that we can multiply that number by four.
That puts us up to ten percent.” He stepped closer to the machine and ran his hand over the metal. “As soon as my friends
have more preternaturals ready, we can activate this machine and open the rift on our own, any time we need to. Any time we
want
to.”

Keira walked a little closer, too. “Does the rift work both ways?”

Puzzlement dropped his brows low over his eyes.

“I mean, can you fix it so entities can be sent from this dimension to the other one?” Maybe one way to help save humanity
would be to send the entities from the other dimension right back to where they’d come from. Perhaps the souls could be salvaged
without lasting damage, letting humans continue to live out their lives as they were meant to.

He cocked his head. “I suppose it could be done to make the rift available to either side. But we don’t have the technology
available for the body-stripping process,” he said. “And, besides, why would any of us want to go back? There we would grow
old and die. Here, once our essence combines with our human hosts, we can live forever.” He stroked his hand across the machine
again. “It won’t be long before we outnumber humans, or at least aren’t as much of a minority. Then we’ll see who has the
power.”

Keira turned around and made a pretense out of studying the rest of the roomlike structure they were in. As soon as she was
able to get out of here, she had to contact Caladh and let him know the location of this mine. She also had to make it clear
to him that, whatever happened, Finn was not to be hurt. As long as she stuck close to him she might be able to keep him out
of harm’s way. With everything they’d been through, it had to count for something.

One thing was certain. Stefan must not be allowed to succeed.

J
ust after sunrise the next morning, Finn put in a call to Nix’s cell phone. He figured if anyone from the rogue group was
still watching, he was safe to call the daughter of his father’s girlfriend. Thus far, no one had suspected him in Tobias’s
murder. When she answered and realized it was him, she put him on speakerphone. Finn let her and Tobias know what had been
happening, and gave them directions to the mine. “I’ll meet you there around noon,” he said. “I have a little business to
take care of first.”

“Business such as?” Tobias asked.

“Liuz has sentries posted. I have to take them out before we can even hope to get into the mine.”

“We can help you with that, you know.”

Finn snorted. “They’d smell the two of you coming a mile away. It’s better for me to do this on my own.”

“All right.” Tobias shushed Nix when she started to object. “Trust me, honey, Finn will be all right. They won’t know what
hit them.”

Finn felt burgeoning pleasure at the unexpected praise. “You know, for a vampire, Caine, you aren’t half bad.” He laughed
at Caine’s pithy response and rang off.

While mentally preparing himself, he physically geared up for battle. He attached his holstered Glock to his belt, shrugged
into the scabbard sheath that held a short sword between his shoulder blades, then finished dressing. Before heading out the
door he grabbed a plastic bag—he’d need that for his clothes later on. He hadn’t thought about it last night, and had to shake
a lot of dirt out of his clothing before he could redress.

Two hours later he paused about half a mile away from the mine. Stooping behind a large boulder, he got undressed, putting
both his clothing and his weapons into the bag and stashing it between a big boulder and a smaller one.

With a slight grunt he focused his energy inward and reached for his chameleon ability. In a few seconds he was a mountain
lion again, panting through the pain of the metamorphosis. His eagerness to take care of business helped mitigate the discomfort,
though, and he was soon on his way.

The sentry who’d been on the ledge above the mine was higher up, in a spot that would be easier for Finn to reach. He ran
his wide tongue over his whiskers and padded forward. He stalked toward the guard, sometimes moving only a millimeter at a
time. The sun was nearly overhead when he was finally able to pounce on the man from behind. Finn quickly chomped down on
the sentry’s throat, ripping away his ability to scream and ending his life.

As he padded off, he knew it had taken him longer than he’d anticipated to reach the sentry. He had to take out the other
two quickly, before Tobias and Nix started up the trail, or this fight would be over before it got started. Liuz would realize
that Tobias wasn’t dead, which would lead him to the realization that Finn had not carried out his orders. That would make
him realize Finn wasn’t on his side after all, and things would go seriously downhill from there.

The other two guards were easier to take out than the first one had been. It was over before either of them could get off
a shot. Finn clamped his powerful jaws in the vampire guard’s shoulder and dragged him into the brush to hide him, then did
the same to the other pret. Once finished, he loped back to where he’d left his clothing and weapons.

He pushed his chameleon demon back and shifted to his humanoid form. He closed his eyes and leaned against the side of a large
boulder, panting through the last of the transformation, and tried to ignore the fatigue tugging at his muscles. He got dressed
and rearmed, then made his way back to the mine, this time on two feet. As he approached the entrance, he smelled the sweet
grass scent of heather and stopped moving. He looked around but didn’t see anyone. Yet, as soon as he took a step toward the
mine Keira stepped out into the direct sunlight.

She wore black pants that hugged her shapely legs, a knit top, and thick-soled boots. When she shot a quick glance around,
he saw that her gorgeous hair was in a tight braid wound around the back of her head. She turned toward him and stared. “That’s
far enough, Finn,” she said. “Did you do something to the guards?”

What the hell was she doing here? She was going to ruin everything. “Yes, I did. Now, Keira, get out of my way.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You need to go. I can’t let you ruin everything I’ve worked for.”

“Don’t you mean we?” he muttered.

She scowled. “What nonsense are you spouting now?”

“We as in you and your toothy lover boy.”

“Stefan?” Her scowl darkened and a look of distaste flickered in her eyes. “I’ve told you. He’s not my lover.”

Finn shoved back the elation that tried to surface at her disavowal of the rogue leader. He walked a few feet forward and
scowled when she moved to block him. “Keira, get out of the way.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” she said.

“Me?” He glared at her. “What about you?”

“I—” Her fists clenched at her sides. “What does it matter to you?”

“It matters because I care about you. I want you to be safe.” He took a deep breath and held it a moment before exhaling.
He had to get through to her. “Look, I know you want Stefan’s plan to succeed, but I can’t let that happen.”

She gasped. “Finn, I don’t want him to succeed.” Guilt passed through her eyes. “I’m here to take care of that bloody machine
once and for all.”

 Finn felt like he’d come into a conversation midway and didn’t have a clue what was going on. “What exactly do you mean by,
‘take care of the machine’?”

“I mean to destroy it,” she said.

Now it was his turn to be stunned. And disbelieving.

Her gaze turned pleading. “Finn, don’t you see? What he wants to do is wrong, on so many levels. Not least of which is the
fact that bringing such a high number of new prets through the rift will only further enflame relations between preternaturals
and humans. He’s putting all of us in danger.”

Finn moved closer to Keira and studied her, trying to gauge her sincerity. “You’ve been acting as a spy all this time?”

She nodded. “For Caladh. He came to me months ago and asked for my help.” She paused and her lips tightened. “No, that’s not
quite accurate. He basically blackmailed me into helping him.”

Finn’s gut tightened. He knew Keira had history. Hell, she was three thousand years old, so of course she’d done things she
might not be proud of, above and beyond grifting. But something she could be blackmailed over?

“It’s true,” she whispered. “Many years ago I fell in love with a man who I thought loved me, who I thought I was helping
by agreeing to run a job on a wealthy mark. Even though I’d stopped grifting several centuries before, I came out of retirement.
And just like now, on the jobs I pulled with you, there was no getting back into the groove, no trying to remember how to
do something. It was as easy and natural to me as breathing.” Her blue eyes took on a slight sheen of tears. “He was only
using me, but that’s not the worst of it. Due to our actions, the mark died. Not by our hands, but because of the circumstances
we manipulated.” A tear slid from the corner of her eye and she quickly wiped it away. “It’s something I’m deeply ashamed
of and an action which I’ve been trying to atone for ever since. I thought if I could do this, if I could stop Stefan from
ruining countless lives, it might make up in some small way for my lack of judgment before.”

Finn had to accept Keira was telling the truth. His initial instinct about her had been right—she was trying to be better.
She studied him as closely as he had her. “You believe me then?”

He gave a nod. “I believe you. That’s why I’m here, too. To stop Liuz.”

“You…” Her eyes widened. “You killed Tobias!”

“No, I didn’t.” When she looked doubtful, he said, “You’ll see soon enough. Let’s go.”

The thought crossed Keira’s mind that Finn might be lying, trying to fake her out. However, if that was the case, why hadn’t
he killed her while he’d had the chance?

Either way she’d get close to the machine. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do once she did, she was making this
up as she went. She’d been a warrior queen once upon a time, but that had been fighting other tribes with spears and arrows,
not trying to take out a great metal beast.

Finn checked his watch. “The next rift is due to open in two hours. We’re cutting it close.” He frowned. “I’ve already contacted
Tobias and Nix. They should be here pretty soon.”

She gave a nod, then what he’d said really filtered in. “Wait.” She watched a slow grin curl his sensual lips. “You really
didn’t kill him?”

“I told you I didn’t.”

Keira allowed herself to feel hope for the first time in a long time. Something else fought its way up from the depths of
her soul, too: a sense that, working with Finn at her side, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do.

She was relieved that Finn wasn’t the bad boy she’d thought he was. There was good in him, even though he did his best to
downplay it. She’d known that; it was one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him. She should have had more faith in
her own judgment.

Finn cast another glance at his wristwatch then looked at the trail. “Damn it. Where are they?” His gaze snagged hers. “I
don’t think we can wait. Liuz is probably in there right now firing up that machine.”

“What’s your plan?” she asked.

“We go in there, fight the bad guys, and disable the machine.”

She blinked. “That’s it?” She couldn’t keep the shrill incredulity from her voice.

“I never said it was a good plan,” he defended.

“How about we go in, you take care of the bad guys, and I’ll sweet talk Stefan until I can get close enough to the machine?”

“I’m not sure that plan’s any better than mine,” he muttered. “But I like it. Let’s go.”

She shook her head at his grin and followed him into the mine. They reached the juncture right before the shaft seemed to
dead end. Two burly vampires stood on either side of the shaft, leaning broad shoulders against the wall of the mine. Upon
seeing the intruders, they straightened from their relaxed posture.

“You’re not authorized to be here,” the one on the left said.

Keira took a step forward and pushed out with her empathy. “Oh, Stefan asked us to come,” she said. She tried to wrap both
vamps in a comfy cloak of camaraderie, but they weren’t having any part of it.

“Oh, the hell with it,” Finn muttered and launched himself at both vamps. “Get out of here,” he told Keira as he dodged their
fists. “I’ve got these two.”

One of the vampires struck him in the jaw, sending him staggering back several feet.

“Oh, you do, do you?” Keira drew her dagger and stepped into the fray. She was smaller and lighter than her opponent, who
looked like he’d been a boxer back in the day. She couldn’t tell how old he was, though she sensed he had been turned rather
than coming through the rift. He was probably one of Stefan’s converts after he’d arrived on Earth.

She figured as long as she stayed out of reach she’d do okay. So she took a page out of Muhammad Ali’s playbook and danced
around, jabbing out with her dagger every time she saw an opening.

Soon the vamp was bleeding from several cuts, some of them deep, and he was getting madder by the minute. Which suited her
just fine, because the more he let his emotions control him, the bigger her advantage.

“I am gonna gut you with your own knife,” he promised her, his pupils so dilated she couldn’t see any hint of iris. Crimson
filled the whites of his eyes, unspoken testament to how she’d riled him. Vamps were fast, but she was pretty quick, too.
He charged her, a move she easily sidestepped. She hadn’t counted on how quickly he’d recover his momentum, though, and he
grabbed her arm as he turned around. “You’re mine now, you little fey bitch.”

“I don’t think so,” she muttered. Reaching forward and down, she grabbed his balls and squeezed as hard as she could. His
free hand came up and wrapped around her throat. Okay, maybe not the smartest move she could have made, but it would be interesting
to see who passed out first: Her or Mr. Numbnuts. If she could only get her bare skin on the Earth beneath her feet, she might
be able to get a boost of energy.

She sagged in his grasp, pulling him off balance. They went down in a tangle of limbs. She still had her hand wrapped around
his testicles, and he continued to choke her. As soon as her head hit the dirt, she focused on drawing more energy from the
Earth. There wasn’t much to draw on, and she realized it was because nothing was alive here. It was all soil and rock. There
was some energy because of the surrounding area that had plant life, but directly beneath her…she might as well be in a barren
desert.

She was able to draw enough to give herself a tiny boost of strength. He must have realized what she was doing, but it was
too late. His eyes widened just as she broke his hold on her arm and brought her dagger to his throat. A couple of quick slashes
ended him, and she pushed his corpse off her. She grimaced at the warm blood she could feel sliding down her face. She swiped
at it with her sleeve, wiping it off as best as she could, then turned to see how Finn was faring.

He slammed his vamp up against the wall of the mine with enough force to split his skull. He let the vampire fall to the ground
and looked around, his gaze a little wild. When he saw her, his eyes widened and he hurried over to her. “Keira,” he said,
his hands coming up to cup her face. “You’re bleeding.”

“It’s not mine,” she whispered. He didn’t seem to hear her, and now his gaze was fixed on her throat where she imagined the
imprint of the vamp’s hand still showed. She rested her palm on his lean cheek and said, “Finn, I’m all right.”

He looked into her eyes and some of the worry left him at her words. “Good,” he muttered. “That’s good.”

She dropped her hand and took a step back. She cleared her throat. “What do you say we go take care of that machine?”