Carnal (Her Dark Desires #1) (22 page)

People
jostled us in their frenzy to get out. I warred with myself, wanting to help
even though I knew Hector was right. I wasn’t strong enough to take on a demon.
What little I knew about them was that they were Class A paranormals, at the
top of the pyramid.

Hector
must have taken my silence for an answer, as he began dragging me toward the
exit. I looked over my shoulder, afraid Damien would come for me, but he wasn’t
looking at me.

He
was looking at Prescott as he slowly descended the stage while the dean
scrambled to get away.

“Wait!”
I yanked on Hector’s arm.

He
swore. “Dammit, love, if I have to pick you up and carry you-”

“No,
look!” I pointed at the stage.

Hector
squinted, then his eyes went wide.

Damien
had Prescott by the shirt and had lifted him clear into the air so high his
feet dangled.

Hector
and I glanced at each other. “If you’re one of those people who’s always wanted
to kill his boss…” I muttered flippantly.

His
mouth twitched with a smile. “Maybe so, but I couldn’t live with his death on
my conscience. Wait here.”

“Like
hell I am!” I yelled, running after him.

Blasts
of flame roared through the air as Hector ignited any shadow monsters that
dared try attack us. They swirled in a vortex of shadow and fire around us,
screaming as Hector’s flame evaporated them.

Bits
of fiery debris fell around us, and I coughed as smoke filled my lungs.

When
the mist cleared, Damien stood before us, Prescott yanked against him with a
knife at his throat.

Hector
held a hand out to hold me back. He stood in front of me, separating me from
Damien. “That man has done nothing to you,” he said.

Damien
laughed as if this was the most hilarious thing in the world. “Oh, he’s got a
lifetime of penance to pay, which I plan to collect on shortly.”

I
frowned. What was he talking about?

The
mirth in Damien’s obsidian eyes died away. “But that’s not why I’m here. I came
for you.”

He
looked right at me. Fire lit up Hector’s arm as he raised it, preparing to strike,
but I grasped his shoulder. “What do you want from me?” I shouted at Damien.

He
smiled. “Your heart. Your body, your soul. I want all of you, sweet Sally.”

The
thought of belonging to Damien that way disgusted me.

“You’ll
never have her!” Hector snarled.

Damien
raised a brow, looking as unconcerned as ever. “And you think you can, incubus?
You’re forbidden to love, remember? To do so would break your laws, and you
would both be exiled.”

“I’d
rather live an eternity as an outcast than a lifetime without her,” Hector
said. “Sally is my other half. She’s meant for me, completes me. But a demon
wouldn’t understand that. You’re incapable of emotion because you’ve never been
human.”

In
an uncharacteristic turn of expression, Damien actually looked haunted for a
moment. “You think I don’t know pain? That I suffer no loss? Oh, I’ve seen
loss. I’ve known regret. I’m a slave to my desire, and I curse the day I was
born every morning when I wake.”

I
stared at him. His brand of crazy had just gone off the deep end.

“You
can’t have me,” I said firmly, gripping Hector’s free hand. “Because I’ve
already chosen him.”

Damien’s
gaze turned dangerous. “They always choose someone else. But you’ll be begging
for me to take you before this is all said and done.” He raked the knife along
Prescott’s trembling throat, cutting a thin red line.

I
started forward, but Hector held me back.

“Look
around you, Sally, at the pain and destruction you’ve caused.”

“You
mean that
you’ve
caused!” I yelled back.

He
tsked
his knife at me. “I wouldn’t have had to resort to such extreme
measures had you come with me the way you were supposed to, had you died back
at the bunker.”

My
blood ran cold. “So that thing… it was you.” Was that what demons truly looked
like?

He
smiled. “My better half. Not very photogenic, though. I’ll tell you what. I’ll
give you your pathetic excuse for a dean here if you agree to come with me.
What do you say?”

“I
say it’s non-negotiable,” Hector growled.

“I
didn’t ask you,” Damien said, voice like steel.

I
hesitated, eyes bouncing back and forth from Damien to Hector to a pale
Prescott.

“Honestly,
Sally,” Damien murmured darkly, “can you stand to have any more blood on your
hands?”

For
a moment, I felt sick at my stomach as the guilt of knowing all those people
died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. All because I was
here, and some demon was obsessed with claiming me, whatever that meant. I
shook my head. “It’s not my fault you’re a sociopath. I mean, really, who has
to resort to kidnapping to get a girl to go out with him?”

Damien
growled.

I
pressed my advantage, egging him on to distract him. Hector caught on, because
he slowly let go of my hand. “What’s wrong, Damien?” I said. “Afraid of a
little rejection? Is that why you’re so desperate?”

“Shut
up!” he roared, pointing the knife at me.

Hector
and I edged closer, but Damien didn’t back away. I knew his pride wouldn’t let
him. “You can’t get anyone to love you, so you try to force them. But it
doesn’t work that way.”

“Bitch!”
he screamed, throwing Prescott to the side as he lunged.

It
all happened so fast. Hector threw me to the side, and the next thing I knew,
Damien was engulfed in a tunnel of fire that went clear to the ceiling. His
back arched, and his mouth opened up in a distorted scream as he fought to keep
his shape.

“Grab
him and get out of here!” Hector yelled, but I was way ahead of him. I had my
arm slung under Prescott’s shoulders and had dragged him to his feet.

“Not
without you!” I shouted back.

Hector’s
face was desperate. “Please, Sally. I don’t know how long I can hold him.”

Right
about that time, the column of flame began laughing.

A
face appeared in the fire, smiling. “You may have destroyed my human form, but
I’ll return with another body. There’s always another empty vessel to inhabit.”

With
that, he disappeared and the fire swelled.

Hector’s
face went white and he dove for me. “Get down!” he yelled, about the time the
column literally exploded.

We
hit the ground in a pile, with Prescott on bottom, me on top of him, and Hector
covering us. He sent up a shield of fire that absorbed the flame raining down
on the place.

Curtains
and other flammable objects caught fire, and sirens wailed in the distance.
Smoke was rapidly filling the place, making it harder to breathe as Hector
hauled us up, and we ran for the exit.

Paramedics
snatched us up soon as we cleared the exit, and Blue and Red Witches and
Warlocks contained the fire before it got too out of control.

D.P.I.
swarmed the place, and the clubgoers were gathered outside like a frightened
herd.

Hector
refused to leave my side. Hand clutching mine, he walked with me over to an
ambulance to be examined. “I thought you had killed Damien,” I rasped, still
trying to clear the smoke from my lungs. “Until he started talking trash
again.”

Hector’s
expression was troubled. “I knew it wouldn’t kill him, because fire cannot
destroy a demon. They were born from it. But I knew it would destroy his
shell.”

“Shell?”

“The
human body he’d possessed. They’re also known as ‘vessels.’”

I
shivered. “Is that what he wants to do with me? Possess me?”

Hector
put an arm around me shoulder, holding me tight. “Don’t worry. He’ll never have
you.”

I
swallowed hard. “I hope you’re right.”

Chapter 17

THE
D.P.I. QUESTIONED US for hours at the sup hospital. The fact it was Detective
Asshole didn’t help.

We
stood in a hospital room. They wanted to keep me overnight for monitoring, but
they believed I could go in the morning.

After
going over what happened again to the last detail, along with my activities
since the bunker incident, I felt drained. I could tell Hector had had about
enough too. From the way he was glaring at Agent Rhodes, I wouldn’t be
surprised if he spontaneously combusted.

At
my wit’s end, I finally decided to turn the tables on Rhodes. “What about you?”
I demanded, crossing my arms. “Now that we somewhat know what we’re dealing
with, what are you going to do to apprehend him?”

Rhodes
stared at me, caught off guard, then cleared his throat. “I assure you, Ms.
Sanders, we’re doing everything we can to-”

Pulling
a Delilah, I morphed into a tiger and pounced on Rhodes, pinning him to the
floor. He yelped, startled as I loomed over him, snarling. “Bullshit!” I said,
my voice sounding odd since it was coming from an animal. “Don’t toy with me, suit.
As you can see, I’m not the same succubus.”

A
gun cocked from beside me. “Release him right now, Sanders, or I’ll be forced
to shoot,” his partner, Harris, said.

I
had no problem with her. She wasn’t the one driving me crazy. Not wanting to end
up with a bullet in my head, I transformed back into my clothed human body and
fixed my glare on Rhodes. Thank God I was a succubus and not a regular
shape-shifter, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to shift back to a fully
clothed human form.

He
sputtered, getting to his feet and whirling on me, red-faced. “I should throw
your ass in jail for assaulting an officer!”

“You
wouldn’t have the balls!” I shot back.

“Sally,”
Hector ground out.

Composing
myself, I opted to glare at Rhodes, teeth gritted. “So how do you catch and
destroy a demon?”

“You
can’t destroy them,” Harris piped up. She lowered her gun but didn’t put it
away. “You can only contain them.”

Well,
that was a problem. “How?”

“You
need a White Witch or an angel, preferably both. Oh, and a holy object. Good
luck finding those.”

One
person came to mind. “Angela,” I said. “She’s a Nephilim. Would part angel
work?”

Harris
shrugged. “Don’t know. A halfling’s never tried. Demons are immensely powerful,
which is why a full-blooded Witch and angel are needed. It usually takes two to
contain a demon.”

“But
Damien isn’t a full demon,” Hector interjected.

Harris
looked thoughtful. “Actually, he is.”

“What?”
I snapped. “How? His signature keeps shifting!”

“A
demon’s usually does,” Rhodes cut in dryly, as if I was stupid for not
realizing this myself. “Since they have to inhabit a vessel to stay on this
plane, their signatures shift because they technically have more than one
signature. If they inhabit a were, you’ll pick up on both a demon and a were
signature. Or if they inhabit a hybrid, they’ll have three signatures.”

I
wanted to stomp my foot, angry at myself for my lack of knowledge about demons.
They were somewhat of an urban legend around us lesser paranormals, as were
angels. They rarely came to our plane, the mortal realm.

“How
do you know Damien is a full demon?” I insisted, hoping they were wrong.

“Because
his daddy told me as much,” Rhodes said.

Hector
and I exchanged glances. “Daddy?” I asked.

“Yeah.
Prescott.”

My
jaw dropped and Hector swore. “That son of a bitch,” he said under his breath,
starting for the door. “I’m going to pound his face-”

“Actually,
he’s on his way to the prison as we speak. Turned himself in.”

“What?”
Hector and I both spat at once.

“As
I said, he’s claiming to be the perpetrator’s father. He also said his son made
a threat against his life, and he figured he’d be safer in a jail cell than
anywhere else. It’s all the same to me. He would have ended up there
eventually, having raised a demon. Plus, there’s the murder charge, considering
he sacrificed his wife to do it.”

I
gaped at them in outrage. “That’s sick! Why on earth would he do something like
that?”

“We
intend to find that out,” Rhodes said gravely. “But like I said, demons need a
vessel to inhabit in order to exist on this plane. Newborn demons are
especially susceptible, needing a host immediately upon being summoned.”

“No
wonder it’s against the law,” I muttered.

“It’s
not just that,” Harris said. “Demons are unnatural. They can’t be born the way
humans or other sups can; rather, they have to be summoned and inserted into a
host. That’s where Prescott’s wife came in. A sacrifice can double as a vessel,
remaining alive only as long as the demon is possessing it.” He sighed. “Aside
from all that, summoning a demon is a federal offense in the Underworld.”