Knees going weak, Jesse collapsed. It was all she could do not to scream or break into hysterical sobs. She hadn’t imagined anything like this would happen when she’d climbed over the fence surrounding the cemetery. A stake to the heart and the vamp would turn into a neat pile of ashes—game over.
Only this was no game.
Gun in hand, her rescuer sauntered over like a soldier armored in the pride of an enemy’s defeat. He stopped within a foot of Jesse, overwhelming her with his presence. His lanky body filled her vision. The power he radiated enveloped her, kept her sitting.
“First time you see a demon face-to-face is a shock.”
Struggling to calm her erratic heartbeat, she barely managed a nod. “No shit.”
He raked a hand through his dark hair. The tangled mess looked as if it hadn’t seen a comb in a decade. He examined her, grunting with satisfaction. “You look all right to me.”
Heart slowing to a normal rhythm, Jesse resisted the urge to flip back something inane. Now wasn’t the time to be a smart-ass. “Thanks for your concern.” Her lungs were burning with the need to drag in a breath of air, and her voice sounded strained, unnaturally high.
The assassin prodded the useless stake with a booted foot. He flashed a lazy yet intimate grin. “You actually thought this would do the job?”
Jesse swallowed, unexpectedly tongue-tied. Very aware that he was armed and dangerous, she squinted hard to get a closer look at the stranger. He was impossibly tall, broad shouldered, yet with a wiry leanness that suggested he could move as fast as a puma on the prowl.
“I—I thought it was supposed to work.” Brushing away a few pieces of clinging gore, she grimaced. “All I know about vampires—”
The stranger cut her off with a dismissive gesture. “Yeah, I know. You got out of books and movies.” He hunkered down to her level, pinning her under a laser-beam stare. “Just in case you didn’t know, we’re not fighting Hollywood’s version of vampires.”
Jesse gulped. His very masculine presence sent a thrill of sexual awareness straight down her spine. That alone made him ten times more lethal than the gun he carried. “We’re not?”
Her savior shook his head. “We’re fighting demons, and they have a whole different set of rules to play by.” His accent piqued her interest, bringing to mind the taste of sweet red wine and erotic whispers while sitting on the banks of the Seine River on a warm summer night.
Jesse’s gaze zeroed in on the sticky burned mass. She winced. Candace Ackerman’s former grave looked as if a bomb had gone off on top of it. “So what do we do now?”
“We get the hell out of here.” A rueful smile curled the corners of his mouth. “Before somebody calls the cops.”
Goose bumps rippled across Jesse’s skin. Going back to jail was something she’d like to avoid. She wasn’t stupid enough to think she could explain her way out of this mess.
Reaching for the stake she’d lost, she clambered to her feet. It wasn’t much, but at least she had something. It was also best not to leave any evidence behind. “Thanks for the help, man,” she mumbled.
The stranger also rose, straightening to his full height. A smile tugged at his lips. “If it helps, my name is Maddox,” he offered as an introduction. “Maddox deValois.” His accent thickened a little on the foreign surname.
Jesse shrugged. His name meant nothing. “I’m Jesse.” Most people didn’t care who the hell she was.
Maddox kicked a little dirt over the residue with one booted foot. “You should come with me.” He glanced around. “It’ll be safer if we stay together.”
Jesse doubted he needed anyone to watch his back.
“Thanks, but no, thanks.” She shook her head. “I travel alone.” She had a goal to accomplish and couldn’t let anything get in her way. Besides, it was better if she kept to herself—definitely safer.
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, his palm rasping against the stubble on his face. Their gazes met across the expanse of darkness separating them. “She isn’t the only one out here,” he advised in a low voice. “Where there’s one, there’re more. Going it alone isn’t wise.”
Jesse’s muscles tensed in subtle preparation. Her fingers tightened around her own ineffective weapon as her eyes swept the cemetery. “I’ve been making bad decisions all night. One more won’t matter.” Bluster masked her fear. She wondered how much longer she could tempt fate and still walk away unscathed. The next time she screwed up might be her last. The odds were against her.
Careful to make no sudden moves, she took one step back, and then another. Putting some distance between them was probably advisable. After all, he’d come prepared to do the job right, and she’d . . . Well, she’d just learned you didn’t bring a wooden stake to a gunfight. The urge to simply run like hell hovered in the back of her mind.
Maddox inclined his head. “Do whatever you want, then.” Hitching his shotgun over one shoulder, he turned and started to walk away. “Just remember, guessing isn’t good enough,” he tossed back at her. “If you want to know how to do this job right, you’d better stick with me.”
Chapter 2
B
arely managing to suppress a shiver, Jesse tugged her well-worn jacket a little tighter around her body. She squinted and peered through dry eyes out into the fog that wrapped the city like a wet cloak. The air carried a scent that was familiar, a putrid rot that crawled up the nostrils and burned itself onto her brain.
The neighborhood wasn’t the best in New Orleans. In fact, it was the worst, a part of the city declared a dead zone by anyone who called himself a decent human being. Before Hurricane Katrina, the Northside Ward had merely been abandoned; a prime example of the sprawl of urban decay. Hundreds, if not thousands, of the buildings were vacant and gutted. Many more buildings were still little touched since the waters drained away, with ruined possessions still inside. It was an eight-mile-long scar on the face of a city fighting to recover its dignity.
In the aftermath of devastation, looting, violence, and other criminal activity had become a serious problem, especially in such a poverty-ridden area. The worst of the worst had claimed the old business district, turning it into an area even the police wouldn’t dare venture into after sundown. Having lost complete control over the devastated ruins, local officials had given up trying to save it.
Gritting her teeth, Jesse tried to tamp down the fear gnawing at her gut. She didn’t like this side of the city, not one bit. There were no lamplights anymore, or even decent streets. People lived among the wreckage like rats, burrowing in anywhere they could to put a roof over their heads and a wall behind their backs. Despite the demon living inside her, she still had sense enough to be afraid. Anyone who walked these streets walked alone
.
She still didn’t know why she’d agreed to accompany him.
She glanced up at the stranger who’d introduced himself as Maddox deValois. He didn’t seem to be one bit ruffled as they wove their way around the debris left littering the area. No one came near them. In fact, everyone seemed intent on keeping a respectful distance. It could be that the shotgun Maddox carried jacked his street cred up considerably. Laying hands on a real weapon was damn near impossible.
“We have a reason to be here?” she asked, tossing a wary look toward a circle of grubby men warming their hands over a barrel. They stared through suspicious eyes, the burden of their disapproval palpable from a distance. Even these derelict souls seemed to know she didn’t belong among them.
She was one of the diseased.
Her taciturn companion nodded and half grunted an answer. “There.” He motioned toward the crumbling remains of what had once been a hotel. In its day, the place had been a local landmark, servicing travelers from the nearby railroad station. But that had been more than eighty years ago, in an entirely different century. As it stood, the building was a remnant of a far-gone past.
Jesse tensed. Every window in the nine-story behemoth was smashed out. It didn’t look safe. “What’s there?”
Maddox didn’t look her way. “Home.” His single-word reply was precise and direct.
She blinked hard to clear her vision and swung her gaze back up to look at him. “Kidding, right?” It struck her how tall and solid he looked. How handsome. Though she wouldn’t admit it, she was kind of glad she’d tagged along. He seemed to know where he was going. She could certainly use a few answers.
“Nope.” Her taciturn companion kept on walking, cutting a sharp corner around the side of the building. A few steps later, he vanished down a long dark alley. The shadows lurking in its depths swallowed him up.
Heart missing a beat, Jesse skidded to a halt. She didn’t trust dark constricted spaces—not at all. The stranger might have saved her life, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about doing something worse to her once he got her out of sight. She doubted a scream would bring anyone to her aid, either.
She took a step back, and then another. “No way,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
A sharp beam of light hit her square in the face. “Stay there and you’re on your own. I have no time to fuck around with the likes of you.”
Jesse lowered the hand she’d thrown up to shield her face. Earlier in the evening, that Maglite had belonged to her. Now it was his, and she probably didn’t have a chance of getting it back. She hesitated. “The likes of me ain’t sure about the likes of you.”
His shoulders flexed with his annoyance. “Suit yourself.”
Turning the beam away, he knelt and pointed his light at a section of wall near the ground. Sticking his fingers through the hole of an iron grate, he tugged the heavy thing out of its place and revealed an opening barely large enough for a body to squeeze through.
He turned the precious light back on her. “Dawn’s coming. We need to get out of sight as soon as possible. If you won’t come with me, then I suggest you get the hell out of here before those street rats figure out you’re a woman,” he said, eyeing her boyishly slim body and the dirty strands of white-blond hair that masked her face. If he had any feelings about her staying out alone, he was revealing nothing.
Desperate to escape his blunt indifference, Jesse flinched when remembering the sinister vermin-ridden streets. A feeling of nausea churned in her stomach. She didn’t like the idea of going back through those streets alone. At this point she didn’t have any choice.
I should get the hell out of here
.
She’d been on her own a long time. She had no reason to depend on a stranger when she had two good legs and was ready to run. He might have saved her life, but that didn’t mean she owed him jack shit.
Preparing to split, she turned, ready to make a quick dash. She’d barely taken two steps before stumbling, twisting her ankle violently as her foot sank into a crevice in the concrete. She pitched forward, her palms and knees smacking the ground. Pain as sharp and sudden as a blade penetrating flesh speared her ankle.
Blinking back a sudden wave of frustrated tears, Jesse rolled onto her rear.
Shit.
That was the second time tonight she’d fallen flat on her ass. Her score as a slayer of vampires and defender of innocent souls now stood at zero for two.
Head falling, she pressed her dirty, scraped palms to her face. She was pathetic.
Fucking pathetic
.
Maddox’s chuckle broke through her disordered thoughts. “Grace, you are not.”
Jesse’s hands dropped. A hot rush of resentment took the place of self-pity.
Straining to see beyond the haze floating in front of her eyes, she channeled a stabbing glare toward the man who made no attempt to come to her aid. He merely watched her with infuriating impassivity, as if he were observing an untalented stage performer acting out her role.
The brief admiration she’d felt for him fizzled away. Her middle finger automatically stabbed the air, proudly erect. “Screw you!”
A ridge of muscle tightened in his jaw as a hint of irritation drew down the corners of his mouth. Despite his outer composure, he was vexed. “Got another?”
Jesse showed him another middle finger. “Yeah.”
Maddox shot her a look of impatience. “Now stick both of them in your ears and see if your fingers make contact with the nothing in between.” His accented tone smacked of sarcasm.
Bravado instantly vanishing, Jesse blinked. He’d flicked the insult back at her without turning a hair. Smooth. “That’s freaking rude.”
Maddox simply shrugged and turned his back to the opening in the ground. “You can come or be left behind. Period.” Going in legs first, he shimmied through the gap. A moment later he disappeared—completely.
Jesse shivered. So hot a moment ago, she now felt stone cold. Perspiration soaking her skin, her clothing clung uncomfortably. Swelling rapidly under the tight laces of her boot, her ankle felt hot.
At this point she was tired, hungry, and definitely in no mood to continue the long walk from nowhere back to nowhere. Truth be told, she had no place to go.
She blew her bangs out of her eyes with an angry puff. “Shit.”
Giving the alley a wary look, she assessed the depth of the darkness. Slowly, on hands and knees, she inched her way through the darkness. The soft luminance of the flashlight Maddox had confiscated outlined the entrance to the narrow passage.
Refusing to think about what she was doing, Jesse slipped in feetfirst. For an interminable moment there was nothing below her feet. Then her boots made contact with a flat surface. A soft hiss slipped through her lips as her injured ankle gave way. She collapsed, sinking against the cold concrete wall.
Her gaze swept the chamber. The hotel basement was massive. In the past it had served as an underground speakeasy.
Jesse coughed in the damp atmosphere, then muttered, “I don’t believe you live in this.” The chamber was stuffy and humid, the air stagnant. The place had clearly been flooded more than once by vicious storms lashing the state.