KnockingonDemon'sDoor (5 page)

Michelle thought for a moment he was dead. That blow certainly should have killed him.

The demon turned on her.

“Give me the knife,” it said, holding out its hand. Then it smiled at her.

She’d never get used to how impossibly handsome demons were or how magnetic their appeal. Something about them literally pulled at a woman. She’d once read an article about men with an extra Y chromosome. Supermen, they were called. She wondered how many extra chromosomes a demon must have to make a woman feel like this. One long lingering look from this monster made her feel warm, but one quick glance from Ash could give her an orgasm on the spot, he made her that hot.

“Sunny, snap out of it,” Ash choked out as he climbed to his feet.
“Your dagger.
Use it.”

The sound of his voice pulled her back. She blinked her mind back into focus. This was no superman. This was a demon and it didn’t belong in this world.

It was also coming for her.

She swung her dagger, connecting with solid flesh. The demon doubled over from a combination of the blow and the holy water, sank to the ground and rolled to its side. Then
came
the telltale sucking sound of lungs drawing in air through a hole in the chest. It was a sound she would never get used to—not as long as she lived and no matter how many demons she killed. She tried not to gag. They looked too much like humans for her to totally detach.

The demon slipped back to its own world much the same way it had slipped into this one, fading into a shadow, disappearing before her eyes.

She looked up into another pair of yellow, glowing eyes. The yellow slowly faded and Ash’s calculating gaze dropped to the dagger in her hand. He shifted his body sideways and widened his stance.

“Impressive. But if you’re waiting for a thank you, you’re going to be waiting a long time. I have no reason to be grateful to cops.”

So, it appeared they both knew what they were dealing with.

His combative stance felt threatening, provoking her into action. She raised the dagger again, holding it defensively in front of her, praying enough of the holy water remained on its blade to protect her. Demons normally traveled alone. She’d never had to fight more than one at a time before and always in the past she’d had surprise on her side. None of them had expected her to fight back, especially after they turned on the charm.

“It’s not a thank you I want, Ash.
It’s
answers, and I want them now. Why are you here?”

He lifted one brow and began to circle slowly, forcing her to shift her footing on the slippery, salt-
slushed
asphalt to keep him in her sights. He put his hands palms out where she could see them in a gesture meant to show he was harmless. Michelle didn’t buy that for a second. “I could ask the same thing of you. Personally, I was just out for some fresh air.”

“How can you walk during the day?” she challenged him.

“Just like I walk at night.
On two legs.
Same as you.”

“Are there more like you?”

“I’d like to think I’m one of a kind.” His eyes narrowed as he tossed out a few questions of his own. “Why are you following me? What do you want?”

She wanted to catch him off guard. “What do you know about the missing girls?”

His eyes flared at that and he stopped his circling. Okay, that question shook him. So he was involved.
Goddammit
, how could she have allowed herself to think for one minute that he wasn’t?

He stood to his full six foot four, sexuality oozing off him in waves of heat that banished the chill of the night. “What?”

“The missing girls.
What do you know about them?” Michelle couldn’t think clearly when he looked at her that way. She tried hard to fight off this second, more subtle line of attack.

His nostrils flared. “What do you know about them?” he demanded in return.

“Only that you’re somehow involved.” Lessons learned long ago had taught her that demons and trouble naturally gravitated toward each other.

He shook his head. The yellow was back in his eyes, deepening to a rich amber color. “Assumptions can be dangerous, sweetheart.”

“Stop it, Ash.”

“Stop what?”

She blinked her eyes, trying to clear her head. “Stop wasting your charm on me. It didn’t work for him,” she pointed the tip of her dagger to where the dead demon had fallen, “and it’s not going to work for you.”

Ash had the nerve to look insulted. “I’m not doing a damn thing to you.”

She hoped he was lying because if he could do this to her without any effort, she hated to think what he could do if he tried.

A fine shiver moved through her as she brought the conversation back around to the missing girls. “Are you telling me you’re not involved?”

“Hell yeah, I’m involved. I’m involved because my sister went missing a few months ago. And if you don’t get that dagger out of my face I’m going to take it from you and you’re probably not going to like it.”

Michelle took a step back and immediately remembered the picture in his room, recalling the similarities between the two.
“Your sister?
Is she demon too?”

Looking suddenly weary, she felt something inside him give as he pitched his voice low, so low she had to strain to hear.
“Half.”

Half?

As she studied him a moment longer she spotted something in his eyes, something beneath the amber glow that looked suspiciously like sadness, and it slammed into her heart.

Half-demon?

She’d never heard of such a creature. As she took a moment to process that new piece of information, there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to separate herself from her emotions. Jesus, how awful must that have been on a kid? Not much wonder he’d been in trouble with the law.

More than a little unnerved by the unexpected sympathy, she processed what he’d said. Half-demon meant half-human. Understanding dawned in small increments. “So that’s how you can walk during the day. You’re half-human.”

He nodded, a wash of conflicting emotions passing over his face. “Just so you know
,
I hate cops as much as you seem to hate demons. But it appears that we’re here for a similar reason and I think we’re both intelligent enough to know we’re better off working together than against each other if we want to get to the bottom of things. So, as the old saying goes, if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

That would be great, except it wasn’t her back she wanted him to scratch.

Damn Ash and his demon charm.

“I have new information,” he said, showing good faith by making the first move.

“What is it?”

“First, put down your dagger.”

It seemed she was supposed to show good faith as well. Not bloody likely. She didn’t lower her blade. “So you’re saying you want to work together then?”

A slight, reluctant smile softened his features. “Yeah, imagine that? We worked together a few seconds ago and look what that got us.
One less full-blooded demon in the world.”

Michelle still wasn’t convinced. “I didn’t think demons killed their own kind.”

The smile left Ash’s face. “He’s not my kind,” he said evenly. “He wanted drugs and I don’t deal drugs.” He dipped his head to look into her eyes and it was all she could do not to melt to the ground. His tone softened, sounding surprised. “Besides, he was going to kill you. I couldn’t let him do that.”

Rattled by the unexpected tenderness in his voice, she shot back the first thing that popped into her head. “I thought you hated cops.”

He raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Yeah, I do. Look, let’s just forget I said anything about working together, all right?”

Her mind raced. Was it possible that he really wasn’t a cold-blooded monster? That he was simply looking for his sister? She replayed the events of the night, recalling the way he’d declined Barbie doll’s invitation and the way he’d helped kill the demon. But even though Michelle had seen fleeting traces of humanity in him, he was still half-demon—and that demon half could be pretty potent. His sexual energy alone was enough to make her head spin. Could she trust him?

Did she have a choice?

With Dan’s belief that women were dying because they didn’t have the proper skills to combat such a huge hill, combined with the way he purposely avoided eye contact with her as he indulged in the bunnies, it was apparent that he wasn’t going to be much help.

“What would be the rules of this partnership?” she asked.

Ash’s eyes flared again, anger and frustration apparent. “Anything goes. I need to find my sister and then we have to shut these bastards down.”

The little hairs on the back of her neck began to tingle and her head cleared as her police training took over. “Shut them down? Tell me everything you know.”

He glanced over her shoulder. “Not here. It’s not safe.” He made a move to go around her.

She paused. Despite her brain—as well as years of training, both on and off the streets—telling her to
proceed
with caution, oddly enough her instincts told her he was safe. There was something about him that put her at ease and she didn’t think it was all demon charm. But since she never let her heart rule, she said, “And if I don’t agree to go with you?
If I blow your cover?”

“Then I’ll feed you to the wolves.”

Michelle shivered at the coldness in his words, but in a way they reassured her. This was the honest reaction of a man out to find a loved one and it was a reaction she could deal with.

She slipped her dagger back into the sheath hidden in her ski pants. “Just so we’re clear, Ash,” she warned as she accepted their uneasy alliance. “If you blow my cover, you’ll wish I’d been decent enough to feed you to the wolves.”

Chapter Four

Blake turned up his collar against the cold night wind and sized up the unexpected turn of events. He’d been summoned to the parking lot by a drug-crazed demon he’d intended to kill. He hadn’t expected help from a cop.

The sudden crawling of his skin had nothing to do with the subzero temperatures. He sniffed at the air, knowing more demons would be on the move soon when the one he and Sunny had killed didn’t show. He grabbed her arm. “Come on, we really need to move.” He hauled her against his body and shuttled her back inside the resort, trying to decide on the best place to take her so they could talk without being overheard. He opted for the nightclub, maneuvering them both through the throngs of people on the dance floor, all scantily dressed and gyrating shamelessly to the music. Sure the resort was a classy place—exclusive really—but once the sun went down, the rich and bored suddenly morphed into the rich and horny.

He grabbed an empty table directly in front of one of the speakers, then leaned in and spoke into her ear, careful to make it look like he was trying nothing more than to get her naked.

He watched her eyes grow wide and felt her body shiver as he shared what he knew of the underground caverns. He paused for a long moment, working to control his emotions. He couldn’t lose Cass. A wave of guilt swamped him. Damn it all, he should have taken better care of his sister. He never should have let her go out in the world without his protection. His hands fisted and a growl crawled out of the depths of his throat.

Sunny’s
hand closed over his and squeezed, taking him by surprise. Her comforting touch went right through him. Something about her stirred warm feelings deep in his soul, feelings that were best left buried unless he wanted to give his demon room to play. And if his demon got out, God only knows what it’d do to her.
A cop.

“I’m sorry your sister is missing.” His gaze flew to her face to see the sincerity in her eyes. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help shut this place down and find her.” His gut clenched as if he’d taken a physical blow. Other than his mother or sister, no woman had shown compassion toward him before and it was all he could do to fight down the need clawing its way to the surface. She might be a cop, but she was still a beautiful woman and the man in him wanted her—in ways that were dangerous to both of them.

He’d just finished telling her about his task of “auditioning” women when Neal stepped into the club and glanced around. Their eyes collided and Neal nodded his appreciation. With the way they Blake and Sunny were sitting so close, touching rather intimately, and speaking into one another’s ear, Neal clearly assumed Blake had made his selection.

“Shit,” Blake whispered, the bass from the speaker beating backup to the panic unfurling in his chest. He’d been going out of his way to avoid women, not wanting anyone to get the idea he’d found a candidate. But now he’d been spotted getting up close and personal with Sunny…

And Sunny was a cop.
A cop who could handle demons.
Common sense told him that of all the women at the resort, she was the one most likely to be able to take care of herself—as long as she knew what he’d gotten her into.

But common sense wasn’t going to help him look himself in the mirror if he was wrong about that and the last thing he wanted was to put her in danger.

“What is it?” she asked.

Neal cut a path across the floor.

Blake held her face between his palms and let loose a little of that demon magnetism. “No questions, Sunny. I just really need you to trust me right now.”

She nodded. “What do you need me to do?” Her voice thinned to a whisper.

“I need you to step into your ski-bunny role, okay?”

Before Neal could reach them, Blake leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers. The second their lips touched, explosive heat arced between them and his body buzzed to life. Sexual tension hung heavy in the air and undoubtedly could be felt by anyone in the room.

Sunny’s
hands circled his neck, her fingers playing in his hair with aroused awareness as she pulled him in tighter. Her warm sweet tongue moved into his mouth and tangled with his. He indulged in the taste of her, eager to brush his tongue over her entire body and bury his face between her legs. Unrelenting pressure brewed in his groin, and even though they were playing a role, he couldn’t help his body’s physical responses. As his cock thickened and everything in her touch generated desire and need in him, a surge of warmth flooded his veins. He trembled.
Almost violently.
Her boldness surprised him and made him hunger for her in ways he’d never hungered before. Ways that frightened the hell out of him.