Hot Demon Nights (9 page)

I tore at the cold, waxy fingers until they broke free of
Blaise’s throat.

The headless body seemed to turn to rubber and dropped to the
ground.

Blaise’s hand circled my waist and he dragged me against him.
“Thanks, Danske. You saved my life.”

I leaned into him, not caring that our partnership would soon
end, just wanting to feel his warmth against my skin. “I thought demons were
immortal.”

“We are, unless someone does to us what you did to that
zombie.” He grinned and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “I’m glad you didn’t
miss.”

I leaned up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. “Me too. I’d
hate to have to train a new partner. You were hard enough.”

“Honey, I’m getting harder by the minute. Something about an
adrenaline rush gets me hot.”

My pulse ricocheted off the insides of my veins, my own desires
spiking with our close connection. “Our backup should be arriving soon.”

“Later then.” He kissed me hard, his tongue delving between my
teeth, sliding along mine, warm, wet and teasing.

My core tightened, growing slick with juices even as I pushed
away from him and straightened my shirt.

I glanced around to find Ivana limping toward the door, the bag
with the remaining cash clutched to her chest.

By the time she reached for the doorknob, the police backup
burst through, knocking her back on her ass.

I laughed out loud as I nodded toward Ivana. “Arrest her. If
I’m not mistaken, she killed Dr. Henke.”

“I can explain,” she cried.

“Talk to someone who gives a damn,” I said, stepping over
Gordon’s head to get to the door. My eyes itched and my nose tickled. “And buy a
different perfume, for Pete’s sake.”

An hour and a million questions later, the story unraveled.

Rico Mendez had given Gordon Felding a million dollars cash for
one round of the reanimation drug. The gangster had wanted to use it to revive
his dead brother long enough to convince his opposing cartel that all was well
in his
familia
. When Gordon died of natural causes,
an honest to goodness heart attack, the drug hadn’t been delivered—and all
development on it halted before it could be made ready for consumption.

Ivana Felding had also overheard her husband’s conversation
with Rico discussing the million dollars in cash that the man was to deliver to
their apartment. Only Gordon had hidden it somewhere Ivana couldn’t find. When
he died suddenly, Ivana realized the terms of her husband’s will would leave her
destitute. She spent days searching her apartment without finding the cash Rico
had given her husband.

She’d turned to Dr. Henke, promising to split the bankroll if
he helped her reanimate her husband long enough to get him to show her where it
was.

The hitch was getting the reanimation formula to a point where
it worked well enough to reanimate the brain function to full potential with
sufficient lucidity to follow orders.

The first few attempts only created monsters so high on
adrenaline and hormonal injections, they wanted to kill anything in their paths.
Henke had directed the attack on the secretary as a show of his commitment to
Ivana—a kind of revenge for the woman’s affair with Mr. Felding. The attack on
Mrs. Felding had been Henke’s attempt to reassure her that his experiments were
getting closer. Henke had been able to direct the reanimate to Ivana. Only it
had backfired and the dead man had almost killed Ivana and had been caught on
video, thus requiring a visit by the police.

Once Ivana started talking, she wouldn’t shut up. Even when her
lawyer arrived and told her not to say another word, her sense of injustice
wouldn’t let her put a lid on it. She felt as if Gordon Felding owed her for all
the years she’d put up with him.

When Henke had demanded more than half the money for his work
with the reanimation, Ivana had killed him in a fit of pique, unwilling to share
another dime with anyone. Then she’d taken off with her reanimated husband to
find the money stashed in her apartment.

Gordon had gone right to the hidden location, but when Ivana
had her hands on the cash, she no longer had a use for a zombie husband and
attempted to pull the plug on him. Coherent enough to realize what she was
doing, Gordon fought back…that’s where I’d come in.

After hours of documentation, I headed to my apartment. Blaise
had disappeared before I’d finished up at the station. I didn’t like that I had
no idea where he’d gone and whether I’d see him again.

“Detective Danske, are you still interested in returning to the
Fifth Precinct as a street cop?” Detective Thomas cornered me in the corridor on
my way out the door.

“Why?” I asked.

The older man sighed. “I threw you into a case without giving
you sufficient training. I realize it wasn’t fair. Maybe I want to make it up to
you by letting you have your choice.”

“How generous.” I chewed on my bottom lip.

“Would you like to let the situation ride as it is and see if
you like it any better in a week?” Detective Thomas face remained poker
straight, no emotion giving me a clue as to whether he really wanted me to stay
or go.

“It hasn’t been so bad,” I admitted reluctantly. “I’ll give it
another week.”

Thomas nodded. “I have a different partner in mind for your
next assignment.”

My hand rose in protest. “No. If I stay, I don’t want to break
in a new partner. Blaise Michaels was hard enough on me, I don’t relish training
another.”

The detective’s lips twitched, but to his credit, he didn’t
laugh out loud. And a good thing. I might have had to punch my new boss, and
that wouldn’t have looked good on my record, should I ask to return to the Fifth
Precinct.

“Okay, then, get some rest and report in early tomorrow
morning. I have another mission for you two.”

I left the station and headed back to my apartment, still too
hyped up on adrenaline to even think of sleep. And where the hell was
Blaise?

As I stepped through my apartment door, I sensed another
presence.

The demon who’d been on my mind since I’d left Detective
Thomas. I flung my jacket on the couch and called out, “I don’t know what you
did to piss off Detective Thomas, but he’s given us another assignment and I’m
stuck with you as my partner, again.”

“I’ve ordered out Chinese,” he said from inside my bedroom.

I leaned against the doorway, my heart skipping several beats
as I stared at his naked body sprawled out on my comforter, a carton of Kung Pao
chicken open beside him.

“Sure of yourself much?” I queried, my hands drifting to the
buttons on my shirt, flicking them open one at a time.

“Figured you’d have to come home sometime.”

“As long as you understand.” The last button flicked open.

“What’s that?”

Holding the edges of my shirt closed, I gave Blaise a narrow
stare. “I don’t do commitment well.”

Blaise shrugged. “You didn’t kill zombies well, either—before
this week. You’ll learn. Besides, we were meant to be together.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“You and I both feel it every time we touch.” He skimmed a
finger along my arm, sending a frenzy of shocks across my nerve endings. “And we
haven’t resolved the issue of your father.” Blaise pressed a kiss to my
forehead, the touch burning all the way to my core.

I fought off the buzz-kill of the mention of the man who’d
deserted my family. “Leave him out of this,” I warned.

Blaise nodded. “For now…but we will talk, eventually.” His
fingers found their way beneath my shirt to curl around my waist.

I wanted to argue the point—but I had to admit, I wanted
everything in that bed a whole lot more.

I slid the shirt over my shoulders, unhooked my bra and dropped
it to the floor. The boots and jeans were next. When I climbed onto the bed,
naked, I knew I’d gone a step farther than I’d made it before. But I didn’t stop
to analyze feelings or try to figure out why I was attracted to a demon, I just
accepted a bite of the chicken. Then I slid my body over his, mounting him with
every intention of riding off the passion that had built throughout the case. I
figured it might take all night, the way he made me feel.

I could work with that. In fa
ct, there was
nowhere I’d rather be.

* * * * *

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ISBN: 978-14592-2276-2

Hot Demon Nights

Copyright © 2012 by Elle James

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