KnockingonDemon'sDoor (3 page)

“Yeah, I’ve been,” was all he offered.

After a moment of silence she asked, “So what do you do when you’re not bartending?”

Hunt for my sister, avoid the cops and kill as many heartless, full-blooded demons who find their way to earth as I can.
Demons that want me to be their fucking mule
.

Just then Blake glanced up to see Tony, his replacement,
move
toward the bar. Knowing he had to ditch Sunny before she got in the way of his investigation, and his upcoming meeting with Trevor, Blake offered her a smile full of sensual promise and gave her the answers any bunny would want to hear. “I play.”

Except it wasn’t playtime. It was time to meet with Trevor and find out what the scary bastard was up to.

Michelle watched him close out his cash and switch shifts with the next bartender. As the two men exchanged a few words, Michelle studied the easy way Ash moved and the way his hard muscles rippled beneath his snug work shirt. Everything about him wreaked havoc on her senses and toyed with her suddenly overactive libido. Her tongue darted out to wet her dry lips as his body tortured hers in the most delicious ways. She clenched her fingers—as well as her legs—and sucked in air, cursing her all-too-human response to him. He was throwing her off her game, and in a resort where women were going missing, she needed all her wits about her.

She marshaled her thoughts and went back to observing him. She put him to be around six foot four, which was much taller than her five-foot eight frame. Even though she was thoroughly trained in the field of martial arts, she knew it would take more than her skill and strength to take down this demon. She made a mental note to re-dip her dagger in holy water, her weapon of choice when going up against monsters.

Then let him see how well balanced that god tattoo left him.

Mac, who’d seemed to take up permanent residence at the bar, sidled up to her. Despite the fact that she clutched an icy strawberry drink, still full, he asked, “Can I get you a refill?” and then proceeded to rattle the melting ice in his empty glass. The sour smell of stale whiskey on his breath nearly knocked her over.

“No, I’m good, thanks.” For a quick moment she risked her undercover role by stepping out of character and conjuring a polite smile, her heart and sympathy reaching out to him. Since he wasn’t a ski jock, or a hot bartender, she suspected any other bunny would have immediately dismissed him by offering their back. But she recognized this guy from her preliminary research. He’d lost his girlfriend a few months ago on the slopes, and guessed he was looking for answers in the bottom of a bottle. But his girlfriend wasn’t the only one to mysteriously die and be whisked off for cremation, and Michelle didn’t believe for one minute that all their deaths were from accidents, which was why she insisted on being involved in the investigation. Hopefully by the end of the week she’d have some answers, and get to the bottom of their disappearances.

When she twisted sideways she noted the way Ash’s eyes narrowed as he watched her private exchange with Mac. The odd way he was looking at Mac—sympathetic and sincere—made her feel a little vulnerable, a little disconcerted.

“Well, I need another,” Mac said, wobbling. Michelle reached out to help him right himself, thankful that Ash had switched him to soda pop earlier. Which begged the question, why would a pleasure-seeking, soulless monster care if Mac drank himself to death?

“I got you covered,” the new bartender said, grabbing the bottle of Jack Daniels. Before he could pour, Ash came around the counter and nudged the guy.

“I thought you were going to show me your new snowboard.”

“I was?” Mac asked. His brow furrowed as though working hard to find an answer through the fog.

“Yeah, come on, you said it was back at your room.” Giving him little choice in the matter, Ash hooked an arm under Mac’s and hauled him to his feet. Michelle stared on in mute fascination.

Ash’s hand brushed against Michelle’s as he maneuvered around her and her body instantly reacted to his touch. Lust sang through her veins, reminding her how long it had been since she’d felt a man between her legs. But this was no ordinary man and his pull was strong—stronger than any demon’s she’d ever felt before. She knew if she wanted to walk away from the resort alive, she needed to be extra careful around him and gain some control over her more basic instincts. And she wasn’t talking about the ones that nagged her to kill him.

Bleary eyed, Mac tried to find his balance. If it wasn’t for Ash holding him, he would have folded facedown on the floor.

After they rounded the corner and disappeared from her line of sight, Michelle stood, waved to the bunnies—who all undoubtedly thought she was following Ash back to his room—and slipped out the side door. In a sense, she was following Ash, and would continue to do so until he led her to his room. She needed to keep a close eye on him and to get into his room. Trailing him was purely for research purposes—to determine the depth of his involvement into her investigation into the missing girls, naturally—and had nothing to do with the heat he roused in her or the shivers of warm need rushing through her body and encouraging her to go against her own best interests and give into her womanly desires.

Damn him…

Too bad she couldn’t share her information about Blake Ashen with Detective Dan Shay, her partner on the case. No one at the precinct knew she
was a
“seer”, nor did they believe in such a thing. If she told her Captain, or Dan, that there was a demon on the loose at the resort, her next assignment would be with the department psychologist.

As she moved through the main lobby she spotted Dan coming in from the slopes, surrounded by a group of bunnies. All dressed in the latest fashion, he was masquerading as a ski jock—not too far of a stretch for him either. She tried to get his attention, but he wouldn’t even spare her a glance. Instead he indulged in the bunnies as they lavished him with attention. Not that she cared if he was purposely avoiding her. She wasn’t a big Dan fan. Michelle was the one who’d pushed for a full investigation into the missing girls. Dan, on the other hand, thought the assignment was a waste of his precious time and had tried to discourage the captain from any further involvement. Since they’d arrived that morning, he spent his time skiing and playing, and subscribed to the theory that women died on the slopes all the time simply because they couldn’t conquer the hills quite like a man.

Which led to her main reason for disliking him.
He hadn’t wanted a female partner, or to go undercover with her, the sexist pig. She’d taken down countless demons all by her little old feminine self, so coming up against a man who felt women belonged at home, barefoot and pregnant, irritated the hell out of her. When it came to Dan, she had better places to plant her bare foot.

She turned her thoughts back to Ash, watching him guide Mac to the elevator. Other than Ash being a demon she had no proof that he was responsible for the missing girls. Sine she couldn’t come out and tell Dan that Blake Ashen was her main suspect she knew she was on her own. Soliciting help from anyone else was out of the question, too. After all, to ninety-nine percent of humans, monsters of the nonhuman variety didn’t exist. The other one percent knew better.

Since she was lucky enough—or unlucky, depending on which way you looked at it—to be amongst the minority, by the time this assignment was over she planned to make sure there was one less monster for humanity to contend with.

Chapter Three

Blake nodded to the two guards standing outside Trevor’s office. “The boss is expecting me,” he said, inwardly sizing up the men. Yeah, he could take them down, limb by limb if need be. It might be a tough fight, but certainly doable.

Blake was sure Trevor’s need for bodyguards had something to do with the goings-on in the underground caverns. Otherwise, why would a hotel owner need this kind of protection?

From what Blake could tell Trevor had inherited the resort from his deceased brother a few years ago, right around the time the girls started going missing, or started dying on the slopes as most believed. At least that was how the dates on the coroner’s reports read. Blake suspected that something entirely different was going on and concluded that whatever underhanded dealings Trevor had been involved in before, he must have brought them with him.
That,
and his connections ran deep.

One of the guards opened the door, turned sideways and cleared a path. Blake stepped through the threshold and glanced around, his gaze coming to rest on the burly man sitting behind a massive mahogany desk.

Trevor smiled and motioned him forward. “Ash,” he said.
“Right on time.”

As Blake met the man’s steely eyes, he put on his best “loyal employee” face. “Five o’clock means five o’clock, sir. Anything else is unacceptable.”

That seemed to please him. “So it is, so it is. Please have a seat.”

Blake lowered himself into the plush chair across from Trevor and noted the rather large file with his name on it.

Trevor tapped a thick finger on the manila file and got right to the point. “So it seems you’ve had a run in with the law a time or two. Probably have a real hate for cops.”

“Yes, sir.
I hope that doesn’t affect my position—”

Trevor leaned forward, his pale, cold eyes cutting him off. “Oh but it does.”

“Sir, it—“

Trevor held his hand up. “Relax, Ash. What it gets you is a promotion.”

Blake didn’t have to fake relief as his mind raced, pleased at the prospect of being brought into Trevor’s organization. It was his ticket to uncovering the truth, finding his sister and exposing this place for whatever it really was.

“A promotion?”

“You see, Ash.” Trevor paused to push back in his chair. The leather squeaked under his weight. “I’ve been watching you.
Carefully.”
With a nod, Trevor glanced at the door where his guards stood waiting. “Had
Lex
and Neal watching you too, and you’re just the man I’ve been looking for.”

Blake offered him his best
hardass
face. “No matter what it is, I’m your man.”

Trevor flashed a grin and said, “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.” He stood. “Come with me.”

Blake, along with the two guards, followed Trevor to the bowels of the hotel where they met with two other guards. Blake had seen the guards traveling to and from the basement numerous times before, but had never gone beyond the hotel boundaries himself. After all, very little got past
him
and he’d been kicking around long enough to know that Trevor and his goons had been watching him, which was why he’d never attempted to explore the underground himself. He was trying to prove his loyalties, and if he got caught snooping, it would surely blow his chance of being brought into the organization.

A long cold cinder-block corridor led them to a back room. Trevor nodded to the guard to open the door. Once inside it took two locked knees to keep Blake upright, and an iron-clad stomach to keep his lunch down. Fuck, no… In less than a heartbeat, Blake had figured out what the sick bastard was up to.

Shivers moved down his spine and he felt like he’d been sucker-punched as he surveyed his surrounding and took in the bed, props and camera equipment. As emotions rose sure and swift, they clogged his throat and caused his insides to shake. He worked to tamp down his emotions. Jesus
Christ,
now was certainly not the time to let his demon loose. He needed all his human wits about him and couldn’t afford to let his defenses down if he was going to protect the innocents and save them from Trevor’s monstrous hands.

As his blood curdled and everything inside him dictated that he rip these three to shreds here and now, he worked to school his features. Fuck, there was a special place in hell for guys like Trevor. Blake vowed then and there to make sure no woman ever set foot in the place again. His new mission was to expose the bastard and make sure Lucifer lavished him with the kind of attention a bastard like Trevor truly deserved.

His nostrils flared, his body tightened, and with effort, he resisted the urge to blink his eyes in distress as he thought about the suffering Trevor was inflicting upon all these innocent girls. And so help him, if he’d touched a hair on his sister’s head, he’d personally torture the monster until he prayed for death.

Trevor turned to speak to one of the guards and Blake took that opportunity to pull himself together. Trying for casual, yet feeling anything but under the circumstances, Blake drew deep breaths, straightened his shoulders and tried to keep the disdain from his voice when he turned back to face his boss. “Nice place you got here.”

Trevor
laughed,
the sound menacing. “I thought you might like it.” He shot
Lex
a glance and ordered, “Roll the reel.”

Oh, sweet fuck, no…

Lex
dimmed the lights, pulled down a projection screen and flicked on the projector.

Blake’s nostrils flared. Knowing Trevor was carefully gauging his
reactions,
he folded his hands under his arms and widened his stance to keep himself from wavering. It took all his effort to keep himself together and fight the urge to look away. For one agonizing minute he listened to screams wailing from a nearby speaker and it took every ounce of human willpower he possessed not to let the rage unfurling inside him take over. The sound boiled his blood and raised his anger to near uncontrollable proportions. But soon those screams turned into tiny sobs and those tiny sobs ended on a gasp. Instantly, his vision went fuzzy around the edges. As his entire world tilted on its axis equal mixtures of sadness and shock moved through him. Fuck, it was worse than he thought. The bastard wasn’t just filming x-rated flicks, he was making snuff movies.

Fierce rage came on the heels of his realization. It prowled through his bloodstream and elicited a tremor from deep within. As chaos erupted inside him it became harder and harder to think. Jesus H. Christ, he’d seen a lot of shit in his day, but never had he witnessed anything so inhumane and barbaric. Like he’d always known, sometimes it was hard to distinguish who really was the monster.