Heart of the Demon (13 page)

“Rest easy, little cousin,” Finn murmured.

“Don’t. Call. Me. That.”

Caine sighed. “Get out of here, Finn. Keep us posted as much as you can.”

“See ya.” Finn made his way back to his bike and drove away, confident that Nix and Caine would take care of the corpse.

As he headed out of their neighborhood, he saw headlights in his side mirror, and knew for certain this time that he’d been
followed. He realized he was enjoying himself, and looked forward to turning this stuff over to Stefan. It felt good to be
underhanded. He could see why Keira had enjoyed being a grifter so much.

He pulled over to the curb and shut off his engine, giving a slight grin when the car behind him did the same. He punched
in Liuz’s number on his cell, and when the vampire answered, Finn said, “It’s done. I have your trophies.”

“Bring them to me.” Liuz rattled off an address.

“I’ll be there in about thirty minutes,” Finn told him. He disconnected the call and started up his bike again. When he pulled
away from the curb, his shadow did, too, and another grin tugged at his mouth. Now the fun was about to start.

He pulled up outside a modest house in the central part of town. As he started up the front walk, he waggled his fingers in
a wave to the guy in the car rolling to a stop behind his motorcycle. Pressing the doorbell, Finn waited with his back resting
against the side of the house. When the door swung open, he turned to see Stefan Liuz standing there.

“Come in,” Liuz said. “You have what I sent you after?”

“I do.” Finn followed him into the house and reached into his jeans’ pocket for the teeth. As he handed over the crumpled
washcloth, he looked around the living room where he now stood. If this was Liuz’s house, and Finn didn’t know for certain
that it was, he clearly hadn’t put a lot of effort in his living quarters. All of his furniture, from the worn green sofa
to the battered end tables, appeared to be secondhand. Maybe even third.

He turned back to Liuz in time to see the smaller man lift the fangs out the washcloth. He let the cloth drop to the floor
and brought the teeth to his face. Closing his eyes, he sniffed the teeth a few times. “Ah, Tobias. To finally have defanged
you.” His eyes flew open and he stared at Finn. “There’s bleach on these.”

“Is there?” Finn brought his hands to his face and smelled his fingers. “It must have transferred from my hands.” He reached
into his jacket and lifted out the towel-wrapped stake. He pulled the cloth away and showed Liuz the bloody wood. “I reuse
this, and I don’t like the smell of blood stinking up my house. So I soak it in bleach after each use. The smell lingers.”

“Let me see that.” Liuz held out his hand.

When Finn gave it to him, he brought it up to his nose and did the sniff test again. “This is Tobias’s blood, too.”

“Well, yeah. That’s how I killed him.” He hardened his gaze. “It’s the best way to put down those damned bloodsuckers.”

Liuz’s mouth tightened. He was one of those damned bloodsuckers, too, and probably didn’t like being called that. “And Nix?”

Finn lifted one shoulder. “She wasn’t home.”

“Well, that’s all right. Like I said, I don’t have anything against her.” His eyes began to sparkle and his mouth curved into
a wide smile. “My old nemesis is destroyed. Thank you.” He looked down at the fangs. “I only wish you’d brought me his head.”
He closed his hand into a fist. As he walked Finn to the front door, he said, “Oh, and Finn?”

Finn paused at the open door and looked down at Liuz.

Crimson-rimmed eyes stared up at him. “Don’t ever go against my wishes again. The next time I tell you to bring me someone’s
head, I expect it on a silver platter.”

T
hree days later, Keira agonized over how she felt. She was falling in love with Finn and couldn’t stop her developing feelings,
especially since they had been spending more time together. The biggest reason she’d tried to slow things down after they’d
had sex that one time was because everything had moved too fast. The sex had been mind blowing. So much so that she’d been
afraid she wouldn’t ask the hard questions about him, wouldn’t look too closely at the type of man he really was.

And slowing things down had been the right thing to do. The desire was there, churning below the surface, but they’d actually
shared things about themselves. She’d thought she understood what made him tick. She’d been so sure he’d turned a corner in
his life. But it seemed like for every two steps she and Finn moved forward together, they got shoved three steps back.  Now
she found herself changing her mind about him again. Yes, she was attracted to him and believed he could be much more than
what he was if he would let himself. But now, knowing he hadn’t been bothered at all by being assigned a hit, that he seemed
ready to kill in order to prove himself worthy of being part of Stefan’s insanity, she wasn’t as certain of Finn’s capability
for goodness. For decency. To conduct himself with honor.

She also had serious doubts about her own judgment. How could she have been so taken by a man who could kill someone he knew
as part of an assignment? Regardless that he’d killed before, this was Tobias Caine they were talking about. And from the
word that had spread throughout the preternatural community over the last few days, Tobias was dead. Someone had staked him
through the heart and removed his fangs. For trophies, some said.

She knew it was for proof. And she knew who’d done it.

She needed to talk to Finn about it. To get him to help her wrap her head around how he could do such a thing.

She set her cup of tea on the table in her small breakfast nook and grabbed her cell phone from where it rested on the counter.
Without giving herself time to pause and reflect, she dialed him up. Finn answered on the first ring, his voice rough as if
she’d woken him up. She’d been awake and showered since before dawn. The sun had risen hours ago. She hadn’t even thought
he might still be sleeping. But then he did a lot of his work later at night. She didn’t want to think about what he’d been
doing last night. “It’s Keira,” she said. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but it’s okay. What’s wrong?”

She heard a slight rasping sound and pictured him rubbing his hand against his whiskered jaw. She pushed back the longing
that action brought forward. She had to get things straight between them before anything intimate happened again.

“Nothing’s wrong. I need to talk to you. About the group. Can you come over?” She held her breath.

“Sure.” There was a slight pause, and a rustle of sheets. She closed her eyes against the image of his long, lean body stretched
out on a bed, muscles taut with sexual tension, face hard and dark with passion. Had he been alone? Her eyes flew open and
she pressed her lips together. It was none of her business. They’d never claimed exclusivity. For all their flirting and petting,
they’d only had sex the one time.

“I’ll be there in about forty-five minutes.”

“Okay. See you then.” Keira hung up and cupped her hands around her mug, letting the warmth of the liquid inside seep into
her palms. She was still sitting there, sifting through her thoughts, through the argument she wanted to present him, when
the doorbell rang. She stood and smoothed her hands down the sides of her jeans, and padded barefoot to the door.

Finn sauntered in as soon as the door opened. “I hear you were successful with your assignment the other night,” he said with
a smile playing about his lips. “I guess congratulations are in order. You’re in. Part of the group. A bona fide rogue.”

She crossed her arms and stared at him. So many emotions coursed through her, she had a hard time identifying how she was
feeling. Mad, certainly. Frightened. Not of Finn, but of the situation she was in. Betrayed, definitely by Finn. Ignoring
his snark, she drew in a deep breath and said, “I heard you completed your task as well. Though I can’t offer up any congratulations.”

His lips turned down in an exaggerated frown. “Why not?”

“You. Killed. Tobias.” She stared at him, her eyes burning. This flippant attitude of his was going to get him in trouble
someday, and that day might be today. Right now, as a matter of fact. “How could you revert to your old ways like that?”

“Revert to my old…” He folded his arms across his chest and met her glare with one of his own. “I never pretended to be anything
but what I am, your feyness. I kill for a living; that’s what I do as Lucifer’s enforcer.”

“But that’s not what you want to do,” she said, also ignoring his sarcasm. “You told me yourself that you want out. Yet what
you did only dug you in deeper.” She put one hand on her hip. “What did Lucifer have to say about all this?”

He gave that one shouldered shrug that usually seemed sexy but now just made her want to smack him into tomorrow. “You know
how demons feel about vampires,” he said. “The only good vamp is a dead vamp.”

“You’re telling me he was okay with it? And you don’t think vampires will retaliate against demons?” What was wrong with him?
He didn’t seem worried at all that he might have started a blood feud. “Tobias wasn’t any vamp. He was a well-liked and well-respected
councilor.”

“We don’t concern ourselves overmuch about the council, either.” He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.
“Anyway, since when do you care about what happens between demons and vampires?”

“I care because of you, you great ignorant stump of a man.” Her voice came out more shrilly than she would have liked. In
exasperation she walked forward and poked her finger against his chest. His firm, muscular chest covered by the softest shirt
she’d ever felt. She curled her fingers into her palm and dropped her hand to her side. “I just don’t understand how you could
do this. Tobias isn’t the only victim here, you know. There’s also Nix, and by extension her mother. And your father.”

“Don’t talk to
me
about victims,” he said, his voice deep and hoarse. His eyes were as hard as she’d ever seen them. “You have victims, too.
You may not have killed them physically, but many of them, maybe most of them, were broken financially and emotionally. Their
families didn’t feel any less victimized because their loved one was left alive.” As his ire rose, yellow sparks floated in
his irises. “I at least put people out of their misery.”

“Oh, so you’re saying Tobias was miserable, then? Is that what you’re telling me?” Keira crossed her arms again and shot him
a glare. “That’s some crystal ball you must have, to be able to know when someone’s so miserable they’re pining for death.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but she forestalled him with a sharp slash of one hand through the air. “I’m not finished,”
she spat. “How dare you compare what I did to what you did? People recover financially; there’s no coming back from the dead,
boyo.”

He took a step closer, looming over her. “There’s not, I agree. But the ruin you’ve left in your wake, how can you defend
that? Despite what you say, I’m sure there are plenty of people who were never the same after you finished with them. How
many people committed suicide after you wiped them out financially?” He didn’t wait for her shocked response before he said,
“At the very least, they didn’t trust people quite like they used to.”

“And that’s a good thing,” she snarled. “Because people hurt you if you let them. They let you down, they use you—” She broke
off as tears threatened.

She’d thought she had left that old life behind her, but she’d taken to it again like a kid to candy. Maybe she hadn’t been
as adept at change as she’d thought.

She took a few breaths to regain some control, and said more quietly, “The first chance someone got, they used my past against
me. The past I’d left behind, the one I’d wanted to forget. To escape. Yet here I am. Again.” She raised her gaze to his.
“And you. You wanted a different future than what your father has mapped out for you. Yet here you are, trapped in the present,
doing what you’ve always done.” Pain tore her insides to shreds. She gave an abrupt laugh, the sound as brittle as broken
glass. “Aren’t we the pair?”

“We’re a pair of something, that’s for sure.”

They stood in silence a few minutes. Finally she sighed and raked a hand through her hair. “Look, I got you out of bed, the
least I can do is feed you.” She glanced at the digital display on the cable box. “It’s almost lunchtime. Let me fix you a
sandwich or something.”

Finn stared at her a moment, then reached out and cupped her face. “I did what needed to be done, Keira. Someday I think you’ll
understand. And I’m not particularly hungry…for food that is.” The yellow in his eyes intensified, obliterating the blue completely.
He bent his head and pressed his mouth to hers in a kiss that wasn’t nearly as gentle as his hands. “Open your mouth for me,”
he muttered, his voice harsh. Urgent. “I need to taste you.” He angled his hips against hers.

She felt his need, and her lips parted on a gasp. He took her mouth with his again, hard, his tongue stroking inside to tease
her. Tempt her.

Keira was tired of fighting her feelings for him. At this moment in time, right here, right now, it was just the two of them
and their passion. That was all that existed. She’d deal with reality and regrets later.

Finn tilted Keira’s head. God, she tasted better than anything he could remember. Sweet and spicy at the same time. He licked
across her lips and dove back in.

Her tongue twisted around his, surging into his mouth when he retreated only to tempt him back to her when she withdrew. He
forged forward. She suckled his tongue, drawing him deeper, making him groan as his cock hardened.

Her fresh heather scent made him crazy with need and her touch, soft and hungry and searching, made him ravenous. Leaving
her mouth, he worked his way down her throat, stopping at the pulse pounding beneath her silken skin. He rested his lips there
for a moment before touching the tip of his tongue to the spot.

He had to get her under him. Now. He pulled away. “Bedroom,” was all he could manage through a throat gone tight with lust.
There was something else there, too, something he didn’t want to look too closely at. Something far more tender, but tenderness
just got in the way.

“Yes.” Keira’s eyes held a gentle blue glow that threatened to enthrall him even without her using any fey glamour on him.

Finn swept her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom, where he set her on her feet next to the queen-size bed. He placed
a kiss on the corner of her lips and eased off her clothing, his eyes narrowing at the sultry picture she made. Pink-tipped
breasts billowed above a narrow waist and generous hips. He reached up and gently removed pins from her hair, letting it cascade
over her shoulders and down her back in fiery waves. A rough groan left him. With economical movements he took off his clothes
and then urged her onto the bed. He kissed her, his tongue sweeping between her lips to mate with hers.

Her hands came around him, fingers flexing into his back. She moved her legs and he slid between them, his cock stiff against
her belly. He kissed his way down her throat, closing his eyes at the silkiness of her skin. Scattering kisses across her
chest, he tongued each nipple to stiffness before kissing his way down her flat stomach.

His hands parted her thighs just a little wider, his fingers stroking a long caress in the folds between her legs. She jumped
when he touched her, jerked against his hand, a sharp cry of pleasure escaping her.

He pushed a finger slowly inside her tight, hot sheath. At once her muscles clenched around him, velvet soft yet firm and
moist. His own body throbbed and swelled in response.

Her hips pressed forward. Finn thrust another finger into her, stretching her, preparing her. More than anything, her pleasure
mattered to him. Her velvet folds pulsed for him, wanting,
demanding
, and he fed that hunger, pushing deep, retreating, thrusting again so that her hips followed his lead.

“That’s it,” he breathed against her stomach. “Just like that. I want you ready for me.”

“I am ready for you,” she panted, her slender hands grasping his hair, trying to pull his face up to hers.

“No, you’re not. Not yet.” His mouth found the triangle of damp curls at the juncture of her thighs. Her breath hissed out
as his tongue tasted her, his name a whispered plea. He lifted his head to look at her. “Open your legs wider. Let me have
you.”

To his surprise, she clamped her thighs together. Her grip on his hair tightened. “I don’t want you playing nice, Finn. I
want you inside me. Now.”

Who was he to argue? He reared up and braced himself with his palms against the mattress on either side of her arms. “Condoms?”

“It’s not like either of us can get STDs,” she murmured. “And it’s the wrong time of the month for me to get pregnant.” She
stroked one finger down the middle of his chest, circling around his navel.

His eyes widened as sensation jumped straight to his straining cock. He groaned when her hand curled around his erection.

“I want you inside me,” she said. “Now. Naked. Skin on skin with nothing between us.”

Her thumb swept over the tip of his cock, spreading the silky wetness over the fat head. With a gasp, he pulled her hand away
and knelt between her legs to guide his throbbing shaft to the entrance of her body. She was unbelievably wet. Any worry he’d
had that he would hurt her if she was unprepared went away.

He punched his hips forward, saw the ruddy tip of his cock slide past the slick folds of her sex and felt her, tight and hot,
close around him. The sensation shook his control even further.

“Keira!” Her name burst from between his clenched teeth. He grabbed her firm ass and lifted her as he slid in another inch.
“Tell me you’re all right.”