Midnight's Master (18 page)

Niol wasn’t the sharing type. Never had been. The human had better back off—or he’d get burned.

“Something I did find out though, you might find it interesting.” Giles shoved a file across the table. “Holly had an older brother.”

Didn’t know my own brother was fighting for his life, until I walked in and found him dead on the floor of his bedroom.

He flipped open the file. Saw the old clippings from a Mississippi paper. Overdose kills teen. Laurel youth loses battle with addiction. Body found by sister.

Damn.

“Looks like the kid got hooked when he was young, maybe around thirteen. By seventeen, he was dead.”

And Holly was finding his body.

“He was a year older than her. Newspapers say they were close.”

Niol could stil hear the echo of pain in her voice. Yes, they’d been close all right.

“A couple of the kid’s friends were quoted as saying he took the drugs ‘to quiet his demons.’”

Very slowly, Niol glanced up from the grainy photo of a boy with Holly’s mouth and with eyes that were darkened by pain and fear.

“Your kind…” Giles licked his thick lips, “you guys can get hooked on the drugs fast, right?”

Some demons did. Because a demon’s power, it could be a very, very dark thing.

Like Sam Miters. He’d gotten hooked fast and when he was young. Niol knew the poor bastard had heard the thoughts of killers. Slow, insidious whispers that had tried to drive him mad. For Sam, only the meth had quieted those voices.

The usual drugs wouldn’t always work on a demon. If a demon went into a clinic, looking for help to stop voices and nightmare visions, usually he just got pumped up with anti-psychotic drugs like chlorpromazine. And that didn’t do shit for a demon, except make the voices louder and the visions clearer.

So the more desperate of his ilk tried their own drug mixes—and got addicted too fast to know they were sliding straight into hell.

Drugs weren’t the way to treat demons. Mind shields, like the one he knew Emily Drake had created for herself, that was the way to keep the insanity out.

But it took years to perfect a shield like that and most demons, especially the young ones who’d just hit puberty and felt the full rush of their demon power for the first time, they didn’t have that precious time.

They needed a fucking system in place to help the young ones so they didn’t grow up to become like Sam.

And so they didn’t die like—Niol glanced down. “Peter Storm.” Had he been a demon?

Odds were high that he had. Maybe he’d been stronger than Holly, had a greater power, and been scared to death of that unknown darkness.

“Have you found a demon link in Holly’s family tree?” Had to be one. Demons didn’t just randomly pop up as some kind of mutation in the general population. Vampires did that—those weird-ass Born Masters. They were born to humans. Seemed completely normal then—wham. Woke up one day with a wild hunger for blood and enough power to generally level a city block.

Maybe they were the cursed ones.

As for demons, his kind had been around forever. Since the first gasp of man, and before.

And they’d be around long after that last desperate breath, too.

“I’m working on the rest of the family now…give me more time, Niol.” Almost pleading.

He grunted and pushed out of the vinyl chair. Great view, shitty chairs. “Cal me.” A glance at the round face of the clock on Giles’s wall showed him that it was nearing midnight. Holly should be finishing up at the station soon.

And coming to meet him.

His cock swelled at the thought.

He’d meet her at the door.

Her house was dark when Holly pulled into the driveway just before one a.m.

The porch light glowed, but the interior of the house was pitch black.

She slammed her car door shut and stared up at the house and the darkness.

Maybe she should have been a bit nervous, walking up alone toward a house cloaked in shadows. A psycho was on the loose, one she’d deliberately baited on camera.

Maybe she should have been afraid.

But she wasn’t.

Because Holly knew she wasn’t really alone. She didn’t glance over her shoulder and down the street to the left; she didn’t need to look over to see the gray SUV that had been tailing her. She’d spotted the vehicle earlier, right after lunch, and recognized the two men inside from Paradise Found.

Niol’s guards.

She’d been pissed for five minutes. Ready to call him and bawl his ass out for putting his goons on her tail.

Then reality had set in. A killer was on the loose. Holly knew that hit-and-run hadn’t been pure coincidence, and if two really big, really strong demons wanted to watch her ass, who was she to argue?

Once the killer was caught, she knew they’d vanish.

So, no, she wasn’t afraid of the darkness or of the monsters that waited under that cover—and she knew he was waiting for her.

Niol was inside her house. As promised.

Holly knew it, with every fiber of her being. She’d been thinking about Niol since she’d left him. He’d slipped into her thoughts almost constantly as she’d worked.

Not like the lovers she’d had in the past. Not even close.

Her fingers tightened around her keys.

She hurried toward the door. She wanted to get to him. To hold him. To strip and feel the hot slide of his body against hers.

For the last few hours, she’d been working on that damn demon killer story and she wanted to forget.

Niol would help her to forget.

Holly shoved the key into the lock and pushed open the door.

Silence.

Her heart slammed into her ribs. “Niol?” She crossed the threshold, kicking the door shut behind her. A quick punch of the alarm had her safe light shining steady again.

“Niol, are you here?”

He was…She could almost feel him.

So dark. She reached for the nearby light switch—and warm, strong fingers curled around her wrist.

“Don’t turn it on.” His voice seemed to be part of the darkness, a growl that sent shivers skating over her.

He pul ed her to him. His clothes rubbed against her, the hard strength of his body surrounded her.

“Niol—”

His mouth took hers, and, oh, yes, it was exactly what she’d been waiting for…

Lips. Tongue. Tasting. Taking.

Her sex clenched as a wave of lust had her shuddering.

Her hands found his shoulders in the dark. Tightened around that broad expanse. She wasn’t going to pretend, not even for a moment, that this wasn’t exactly what she wanted.

He was what she wanted.

His mouth lifted, slowly. “Come with me.” He took her hand and tugged her through the house. The guy seemed to be able to see perfectly in the dark. She’d thought only shifters could do that. But he didn’t stumble, not once. Didn’t bang into her coffee table or walk into a couch.

No, he just glided quickly through the den and pulled her into the bedroom.

Candles flickered to life the minute they crossed the threshold—the tall, thick white candles she kept on her dresser and on her cherry chest of drawers. The sweet scent of vanilla filled the air and Holly’s breath caught.

She expected him to pull her toward the bed. A soft mattress, silk sheets, and naked male flesh seemed like a perfect plan to her.

But Niol steered her toward the mirrored doors of her closet. He pushed her in front of him so that she stared into green eyes that looked smoky…and wild.

Niol stood behind her, his arms circling her body just below her breasts. His head bent toward her, his lips feathering over her neck.

His lips closed over her flesh and her own lips parted in hunger.

Then she felt the swipe of his tongue.

Her sex creamed.

She tried to turn, to catch his mouth and kiss him so that—

“Don’t move.” An order whispered in her ear. “Watch…in the mirror.”

His hands snaked down her body. He caught her skirt and shoved it to the floor. Her skin looked so pale next to his tanned hands. Darkness and light.

His hands came back up, teased her stomach with a soft caress, then his fingers began to slowly unbutton her shirt. The edge of her bra peeked through the opening and Niol’s fingertips smoothed under the light material, stroking the areola of one nipple.

Her legs stiffened. The better to keep standing.

The candlelight danced in the mirror, swelling higher, brighter.

The front of her shirt hung open now, clearly exposing her pale blue bra and the matching panties she’d chosen so carefully earlier that day.

Knowing what would come?

His thumb slid under the front clasp, popped it free and her breasts spilled forward, right into his hands.

He teased her nipples, plucking and stroking with his slightly callused fingertips. The friction was so freaking amazing and she began to twist against him as the tide of desire rose within her.

No teasing, dammit. She wanted the man.

“Watch.” A seductive demand.

The eyes she didn’t remember closing sprang open. His hands cupped her breasts. His mouth hovered over her throat.

And his heavy cock pressed into her ass.

He wanted her, just as much as she wanted him.

In this, they were even.

His right hand slid down her stomach and eased under the elastic edge of her panties.

Yes… Did she say it? Or just think it?

Either way, Niol heard.

He stroked through her curls and found the core of her body. He slid those broad fingers over the button that was the center of her need.

A moan burst from her lips.

One finger found her hot, wet opening. Pushed inside.

Not enough.

A second finger drove into her and his thumb pressed right over her clit.

Holly shot onto her toes.

Withdraw.

Thrust.

In and out his fingers moved in a maddening rhythm that didn’t give relief, only made the fierce ache inside her grow even more desperate and consuming.

Her hands fisted at her sides. The nails dug into her palms.

“Do you want me?”

Oh, what, was the guy crazy? Hell, yeah, she wanted him—she was straining and twisting and moaning like a woman gone wild against him.

“Holly, tell me.”

Withdraw.

Thrust.

She had to swallow twice before she could manage, “Yes.”

“Brace your hands on the mirror.”

Her hands slapped against the cool surface.

The hiss of a zipper.

The rustle of a wrapper—condom.

Holly kicked away the skirt. Stood in her high heels, panties, bra, and open shirt. She waited—

He tore her panties away.

Finally.

Her stance widened.

Niol positioned himself behind her, arching her hips back to him, and—

His cock brushed against the plump folds of her sex.

His fingers trailed back down over the front of her body, finding that aching, quivering spot between her legs that she needed him to touch just as—

His shaft thrust into her sex, a hard, no-holding-back, bal s-deep thrust.

“Watch.”

Her gaze jerked up to the mirror. He was behind her, face set in tight lines of lust and hunger. Driving deep, the muscles of his chest rippling. Plunging, again and again—

And stroking with those fingers. Right over her clit. So good. So. Damn. Good.

Her body coiled. Tension mounted. She gasped his name, as the pleasure spun so close

—

She saw herself in the mirror. Twisting and moaning. Body flushed. Nipples tight.

Straining toward the mirror.

A woman with wild red hair. Cheeks stained pink. Gleaming lips.

Thrust.

Green eyes so dark, so—

Too dark.

The pleasure crested, slamming into her as Holly’s climax erupted in a fury.

And her green eyes faded to black.

Shit, shit, that was—

Her sex spasmed.

Her body quivered.

So good.

“See what I see.” The words rumbled against her as he kept driving into her. Again and again. His eyes blazed at her, a perfect black to match her own.

Demon.

Woman.

Man.

His cock swelled within her, filled every inch of her core. He shuddered. Then his hands dug into her hips and he jerked her up, higher, higher—

Withdraw.

Thrust.

“Beautiful…” He gasped out the word and came within her.

They made it to the bed. Somehow, someway. Holly didn’t remember walking there, and she didn’t remember him carrying her, either.

But the mattress felt good beneath her, and Niol’s arms felt even better around her.

She inhaled the vanilla. The candles were burning down so quickly now. A wave of his hand would extinguish the light—hell, a stray thought probably would—she knew that, but Holly didn’t want darkness, not yet.

“Tell me about your brother.”

Not what she’d expected in the aftermath of that storm, and Holly stiffened. She’d blundered earlier when she’d spilled her painful secret about Peter. As a rule, she didn’t talk about her brother, ever.

Niol’s fingers trailed down the length of her arm. “Easy, love. I just want to know more about him…to understand you.”

Her head turned, just a fraction, to meet his stare. “Is understanding me so important?

I thought this—” Her hand fluttered between her sheet covered body and his naked chest. One fine chest. “I thought this was just about the pleasure.”

His expression didn’t alter. Niol, still using that mask that made her teeth grind together, even now. Surrounded by the scent of candles and sex, he hadn’t let his guard down.

But then, neither had she.

My eyes flashed black. Holy Christ, she could still hardly believe that. Being told by Niol and Dr. Drake—that was one thing. Seeing it—

No more denial.

“It is about the pleasure,” Niol told her in that voice that was seductive steel. “But I want to know you.”

“You’re already investigating me.” A hunch, that, nothing more. Because she did know him. She’d done her own research after the first night she’d seen him, and been unable to get the demon out of her head.