Hotter After Midnight (21 page)

Definitely a mistake bringing Brooks. He would never be able to handle a war with Niol. He didn’t know who he was
messing with.

Colin followed Brooks to the exit, trying to keep his body between Niol and his partner, just in case Niol was in the mood for any more of his little magical routines.

“Gyth…”

Niol’s call stopped him just feet from the door. Colin glanced back.

“A word if you will.” A pause. “Alone.”

“Oh, hell, no, that’s not gonna—”

“It’s all right, Brooks. You can wait outside. We’ve got some…
Other
business to discuss.” That would be the only reason Niol would ask him to stay.

“Fine.” Brooks looked seriously pissed. “But if you need me, all you have to do is call out, and I’ll be at your side.”

He didn’t doubt it for a minute. “Thanks, man.” He waited until Brooks pushed open the door and stepped out into the light.

Then he crossed the room in two seconds. “What didn’t you tell me, Niol?”

“You know the boys were demons.”

No news there.

“When you and the doctor were attacked, I felt the stir of power in the air.”

So he’d known about the attack. Renewed suspicion filled him.

“It wasn’t me. You have my word on that.”

But how much was the word of a demon worth? “You felt the attack, but you didn’t try to stop it? I thought you said you wouldn’t hurt Emily.”

Niol stroked the top of his glass. Looked vaguely amused. “Who do you think called the cops? I mean, your brothers in blue have to be good for something, right?”

Colin wasn’t amused. “If it wasn’t you, then who the fuck was it?”

“Another level ten.” He took a long swallow of the blood red drink. “And believe me, Gyth, we’re pretty damn rare.” He sat the glass down with a soft thud. “Just ask the pretty little monster doctor about that.”

Another level ten.
Shit. The day had not been good for him. And it had started so well, with Emily naked in bed with him.

“What do you know about hybrids?”

What?
He’d heard the term
hybrid
before, but usually it’d been when he was watching TV and he’d flipped past the Discovery Channel. Hybrids were blends, mixes, like a flower produced from combining two different—

“Hmmm. Guess Emily didn’t mention hybrids to you.” Niol’s lips curved. “Now I wonder why she wouldn’t tell you about them.”

Colin had the feeling he was missing a significant point in the conversation, and he didn’t like that feeling. Not one damn bit.

He was around the table in a flash. He jerked the demon to his feet. “I’m not one of the humans you can screw around with.” And he let the beast show in his eyes. His nails lengthened, his teeth sharpened.

“Shifter.” Niol smiled. “Figured that’s what you were.”

“Tell me about the hybrids.” Before he gave into the urges of the beast and threw the bastard across the room. It’s what the demon had done to Brooks. It was what he deserved.

“Some
Other
don’t mate with their own kind.” He laughed, a grating, harsh sound. “But you’ve already figured that out, haven’t you?”

His claws dug into Niol’s shoulders. Not enough to tear, not yet. “Spit it out, demon.”

“Rarely, very, very rarely, a child is born from those matings. A special child.”

Colin lifted his claws. “And?”

“And he’s a hybrid. A being of two magical lines, with the powers of both.”

Why the hell were they even having this conversation? “I should care about these fucking hybrids, why?”

Niol laughed again. A long, dry laugh. “Oh, you should definitely care, shifter. You
and
Emily should care.”

Ten more seconds. If the demon taunted him just a little longer, Niol would be flying across the room.

It’d be payback for his little trick on Brooks, and it’d make Colin feel damn good.

“My patience is running thin.” His claws dug deeper. Niol flinched and finally stopped laughing.

“I’ve heard rumors…”

Now
they were getting somewhere. Colin eased his grip. “What kind of rumors?”

“There’s talk of a hybrid demon in town. A strong demon, a nine or ten.”

Strong enough to cause the surge of power Emily had felt in the alley. “Half demon, huh? What else is the bastard?”

Niol pursed his lips. Glanced down at Colin’s claws. “Shifter.”

Oh, fuck.

“You gonna tell me what was going on back there?” Brooks demanded as they marched back to Colin’s Jeep.

“We were interrogating a suspect.” Colin glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting, throwing blood red streaks across the sky.

He needed to find Emily. Needed to ask her about hybrids. Damn. Could the guy they were looking for be some uber-combination of demon and shifter? If so, then the case had just taken a very dangerous turn.

Fighting and tracking another shifter was hard enough. But with a demon’s magical powers…

The city could be screwed.

“Dammit, Colin! You know what I’m talking about!” Brooks grabbed him, shoved him against the back of the Jeep.

The beast howled, but Colin hung on to his control.

“You’re holding out on me.” Brooks glared at him. “You know more about the case than you’ve said.”

Yeah, he did. And he’d have to keep holding out on his partner. Because Brooks wasn’t ready for the truth.

“You didn’t even have my back in there when that bastard threw me across the room!”

“He didn’t throw you.” Colin pushed away from the Jeep, crossed his arms over his chest, and met Brooks’s angry stare.

“The hell he didn’t, I—”

“I watched his hands. He never touched you.” True. The demon had used his powers to push Brooks. But how did he explain that?

“I should have arrested him.” Brooks rolled his left shoulder. “A night in the pen would have made him talk.”

Doubtful. A night in the pen more likely would have resulted in Niol driving the guards insane. Literally.

“And what the hell was up with his eyes?” He shuddered. “Who’d want to wear contacts like that?
Everything
was pitch black.”

He wanted to tell Brooks the truth.

But the last time he’d told his partner the truth about the
Other,
Colin had wound up with a bullet in him.

“I expect more from you, man.” Brooks shook his head. “We’ve been teamed up for two years now.
I expect more.”

He wanted to give more. Wished that he could tell Brooks everything.

But he couldn’t guarantee his partner’s reaction. And he didn’t want to have to fight off another friend.

And the captain had said the case data he and the doc had collected was confidential. Too confidential for even Brooks.

At least for now.

Colin sighed. He had to offer Brooks something. The guy deserved that much. “You’re right, there is more going on than I’ve told you.”

A muscle flexed along his partner’s jaw. “Why the hell are you keeping me out of the loop?
We’re partners.
”

“I have to. What’s going on has been deemed classified.”

“What?”

Damn. This wasn’t going well. “There’s stuff going on here—it’s too dangerous for you to know.”

“Too dangerous for me?” His eyes narrowed to slits. “But let me guess. Dr. Drake knows, doesn’t she? Why isn’t it too dangerous for her?”

It was. But the doc was already in too deep to pull out.

“Shit! I don’t like this.” Brooks jabbed a finger in the air near Colin’s chest. “Not a fucking bit.”

Neither did he.

Brooks stalked around the Jeep. Jumped inside.

Colin sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He’d have to tell the captain that Brooks was getting suspicious.

Maybe McNeal would say he should confide in him.

Or maybe not.

Colin climbed inside. Started the engine.

“I know he didn’t touch me.” Brooks wasn’t looking at him. He was gazing straight through the windshield. “I saw his hands too. I
know
Niol didn’t touch me.”

“Brooks—”

“But I felt his hands on me, I
felt
him throw me across the room.” He clenched his fingers into fists. “How is that possible?”

“Look, man, I—”

“Hell.” Brooks sighed. “Maybe I’m the one who needs to be seeing the doctor. If I’m starting to imagine—”

“You didn’t imagine it.” He spun out of the lot. He couldn’t risk telling Brooks much, but he’d be damned if he’d let his friend think he was going crazy. “I can’t tell you what’s happening, but believe me, you didn’t imagine a damn thing.”

No, his partner had just stepped into the world where monsters were real, and he didn’t even realize it.

“We can’t tell him the truth, Gyth. It’s too risky.”

“Yeah, I know that.” But it didn’t mean he had to like it. Colin paced around McNeal’s office, tension tight in his body.

“The case is too big. I can’t risk having one of my detectives losing his cool because he’s suddenly aware that monsters are all around him.”

“He might not,” Colin muttered, gazing out the window into the darkness. Night had fallen over the city. It was a cloudy, starless night. The kind of night that hid secrets.

He had a bad feeling about the night. Niol’s words about a hybrid had thrown him.

He wanted to talk to Emily. He’d tried to call her several times since he’d left Paradise Found, but he just kept getting her voice mail.

“Look at what happened the last time you told your partner the truth.” McNeal was behind his desk. Hands resting easily on the scarred surface.

The last time you told your partner the truth.
Colin stiffened. “What do you know about my old partner?”

“I know everything.” McNeal arched a brow. “You think I didn’t do a full check on you before I brought you on down here? I know all about Mike Phillips.”

Well, shit. “And you didn’t say anything?”

McNeal shrugged. “What’s to say? Your ex-partner found out that you aren’t human. He tried to kill you, burn down your house.”

Yeah, that about summed it up.

The captain leaned forward. “From what I learned, Phillips was unstable to begin with.”

“He was a good man.” He’d been a good friend, until that night. “He just couldn’t handle what I—”

“Bullshit. The guy had a history of being on the edge. He’d attacked suspects, been warned by his superiors, and he’d been stalking his ex-wife.”

Colin didn’t speak. Mike Phillips had been his best friend for ten years. Until that one night.

“He was fleeing the scene of the fire when he hit that truck, wasn’t he?” McNeal whistled softly. “Driving ninety in a twenty-five, running through the red light, driving straight into the side of that big rig.”

Colin clenched his back teeth.

“He was running, wasn’t he? He’d shot you, set the house on fire, then he left you to bleed out.”

“Ancient history.” History he sure as hell didn’t feel like rehashing right then.

“But it showed you how some humans can react.” His fingers drummed against the desk. “They’re not all like that, but the fanatics, the ones who think monsters should be destroyed, they’re the reason we still live in secret.”

“You ever wonder what it would be like, Captain, if all the
Other
did reveal themselves? If we stopped pretending? Stopped hiding?” If they all came out of the shadows, what would the world be like then?

“Yeah, I wonder…and I think half of ’em probably wouldn’t give a damn about us being different.”

“And the other half?”

“They’d get the torches and try to burn us all out.”

Colin nodded. “That’s what I figured.” And the world wasn’t ready for a war between the humans and the
Other.
“So I tell Brooks nothing.”

McNeal nodded. “If he gives you trouble, send him to me.”

No, he could handle Brooks. But, “You know, there are only so many times a man can see magic and deny it.” And if Brooks got tossed across a room by a demon a few more times, odds were good his partner would start to put the facts together.

“If he figures out what’s going on, we’ll deal with it. With him.”

Easy words to say, but he knew Brooks wouldn’t be that easy to handle. His gaze drifted to McNeal’s desk. To the thin picture frame on the side.

A pretty, gray-haired lady smiled cheerfully. His eyes narrowed.

“Keep any information you find on the
Other
strictly confidential. Brief me, no one else.”

“Right.” He heard the captain’s words, but his attention was caught by the woman in the photo. He inched closer to the frame. The woman was holding something—a basket!

He realized he was looking at a picture of the lady he’d seen in Emily’s office. Margie something. The woman with the hissing wicker basket.

“My mother.” McNeal tapped the picture. “Raised me by herself after my dad died in the war.”

“Umm…” He had to ask. “What’s in the basket?”

A half smile curved McNeal’s lips. “Don’t you know?”

“I—”

The phone beside McNeal rang. A loud, shrill cry. He picked it up, barking, “McNeal.”

His eyes widened as he listened to the voice on the other end. “What? When?”

Colin tensed.

“Shit. My men are on their way.” He slammed down the phone. Shot to his feet. “Get Brooks and get down to the News Flash Five station. I’ll call Emily, tell her to meet you there.”

The News Flash Five station.
“What’s happened?”

“Some intern just found Darla Mitchell’s body. Her throat’s been ripped out.”

H
e smelled the blood the minute he climbed out of his Jeep. Caught the coppery scent on the wind.

A line of reporters from other stations had already gathered. Lights were flashing. Cameras rolling. “Shit. Guess who’s gonna be on every station at six o’clock in the morning?”

He didn’t have to guess. Dammit. The attention was just what the asshole wanted.

“Colin!” He turned at the feminine cry, found Emily hurrying toward him. Her hair was loose, her glasses slightly askew.

His insides seemed to tighten as he stared at her. He didn’t want her going inside. Didn’t want her seeing the carnage that waited.

But he needed her. And the needs of the cop had to outweigh the man’s.