Midnight's Master (9 page)

Sam’s?

Beside her, Niol stiffened. “We’ve got to go.” He grabbed the envelope and stuffed the note and photo back inside. Then he shoved the envelope into his coat pocket.

“What are you doing? You can’t—”

“Oh, right, cause the lady who wanted to break and enter is suddenly getting morals on me.”

Her lips parted.

“I’ve got friends at the department, okay? I’ll get a finger-print check on it—any damn thing we need, I’ll get. Now, come on.” His fingers locked around her arm and he hauled her toward the door.

Then they were outside, the air biting into her skin. Their feet thudded over the steps and—

“What the hell are you people doin’ here?” A gruff voice demanded, and an old man, shoulders hunched, stepped from the shadows near the side of the house, armed with a shotgun.

Oh, shit.

Niol pushed her behind him. “Lower the weapon.” His voice shook with fury.

The man’s mouth fel open and the barrel of the gun immediately dropped toward the ground.

Glancing over his shoulder, Niol said, “Stay behind me, for every step, got it?”

If the guy wanted to get between her and a bullet, she wasn’t gonna argue right then.

Holly nodded.

He turned back to the guy. “Don’t move.” Power vibrated in his voice.

The guy didn’t so much as blink. Distaste had Holly’s mouth drying up. Compulsion.

Control. She knew exactly what Niol was doing to the man who stared blankly forward, eyes wide and frightened, but body stil .

She’d been like him, once. Trapped by a demon’s power. Helpless. A puppet.

“Niol…”

“He can’t remember us.” Softer. “When the cops find this place, we can’t risk him tel ing them about us.”

She knew that, dammit, but it still didn’t make what he was doing right. “Don’t hurt him.”

A faint nod. “You don’t see us. You never saw us.” Dark, insidious, his voice flowed in the night.

The man didn’t move.

They started walking, moving slowly down the remaining steps and toward the car.

The old man watched them, gun still lowered.

Holly jumped in the passenger side. Niol slammed the door behind her, then turned back to face the guy once more. “Go home,” he ordered. “Sleep, and forget you even came outside tonight.”

The guy turned on his heel, marched back into the thicket of bushes, and vanished.

She exhaled.

Niol climbed in beside her. Didn’t speak.

Neither did she.

He gunned the motor and they got the hell out of there.

Fuck.

Niol braked in front of the television station. Holly sat next to him, stiff as a statue.

She hadn’t looked at him, not once, since they’d left the house on Sycamore.

“I didn’t hurt him.” Not physically. Sure, he’d slammed his power straight into the old man’s mind and stolen his will—okay, that probably counted as mental hurt, but there hadn’t been a choice.

He’d been fucking furious when he realized the shotgun was aimed at Holly. Instinct had taken over and he hadn’t hesitated to use his power.

Hel , before her, he’d never hesitated. “We couldn’t let him just leave, not after he’d seen us—” He’d heard the guy’s footfalls. A neighbor, coming to check on the house.

Probably nervous because he’d caught sight of Niol’s SUV. He’d tried to get out of there before the guy saw ’em, but…

Too late.

“I know.” Hollow. Her fingers wrapped around the door handle.

Dammit. He could practically feel the ice in the air. “There wasn’t a choice.”

“I know.”

Again with the voice that could have belonged to a ghost. Not to Holly. Not to in-your-face, tough-as-nails Holly. His knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. “I’m not like that bastard.”

The bastard who’d shoved into her mind and turned her body against her. The sick fuck who’d tried to kill her while Niol watched.

“You don’t know what it’s like.” Finally, finally, she looked at him. “When someone else takes control…”

No, because no one else was strong enough to get inside his head.

She has.

The whisper came from deep within—and Niol ignored it. He wanted to grab her and force her to—

Trust him.

Not gonna happen. “You want out?” And he wasn’t talking about the vehicle. If the lady was going to turn tail and run when things started to get a bit rough, she didn’t need to be partnering with him.

His life was generally always rough.

Maybe she wasn’t as tough as he’d thought.

Her eyes narrowed. The fear began to fade as the anger sparked.

Nice.

“You know what I want.”

Justice, for the two demons she’d known and lost.

“And you know how I have to play the game,” he said. If she wanted to play by human rules, she could go hook up with the cop, Brooks.

Her teeth snapped together. “This isn’t a game, Niol! We’re talking about lives, here, okay? Sorry that I’m not cold and unfeeling like—” She broke off, choking back her words.

But he knew what she’d been going to say.

You.

Holly shook her head. “People matter to me.” Spoken fiercely. “I’m gonna get emotional. I’m gonna get pissed. And, yeah, I’m even gonna get scared.” She unhooked her seat belt and leaned toward him. “But be clear on this. What I’m not gonna do is give up. Got me?”

Not yet. But, hopefully, very, very soon.

She was fucking beautiful with her eyes blazing, her cheeks stained crimson, and her breath heaving.

A woman of strength. Because he’d learned as a child that the ones in this world who were really strong, they knew how to fear—and how to keep going even when that fear rose like a howling beast inside.

Slowly, he unfurled his fingers from the steering wheel. She was close to him, the confines of his SUV and the darkness around them shielding the two of them in intimacy.

The back of his hand brushed over her cheek. Felt the heat beneath her skin.

She didn’t flinch, but her pupils flared, just a bit.

Not fear.

Time for the woman to know just what waited for her. “Before this is done, I will have you, love.” Wild and naked in his bed. Flesh touching. Pleasure ripping them apart.

He waited for her denial. She’d told him people didn’t always get what they wanted.

Screw that. He wasn’t most people, and he wanted her with a driving lust that he hadn’t felt before.

Not even for the succubus who’d nearly taken his heart years before.

And he’d killed for her.

There wasn’t anything easy, good, or noble about him.

Holly knew that—she’d seen the hell he could bring.

But she’d chosen to stay with him and if she kept coming so close, kept putting that sweet flesh near him and tempting him—

His control would shatter.

“Maybe.” And she crept even closer, as if not sensing the danger when he knew the air was pulsing with power barely held in check.

Her fingers moved to his thigh. Her palm pressed against his jean clad leg.

His cock surged to the ready and more-than-willing position.

She licked her lips. A quick swipe of her pink tongue. “And maybe, I’ll have you.”

Blood pounded in his ears. Too much temptation. She should know that demons—they weren’t so good on that whole temptation-resisting bit. That part of history was right.

His arms locked around her and he took her mouth. Those soft lips. That sexy tongue of hers.

He kissed her like he was desperate, like he was wild—because he was.

And she met him head-on.

Holly was the one to scramble over him, breaking her lips from his to swear softly when her leg hit the gearshift. Then she crouched over him. Legs beside his, back above the steering wheel and the crotch of her pants rubbing right over his swollen cock.

Sex in a car, not his style—but he wasn’t about to complain. With her, he’d take what he could get. His fingers pushed under the edge of her shirt, then rose to smooth over the silken flesh of her back.

He loved her skin. So silky and soft—and that light scent of lavender covered her.

He loved touching her flesh. And he wanted to feel more of it. More of her.

His tongue thrust into her mouth. Taking and seducing even as his fingers trailed around her sides and pressed against the lacy edge of her bra.

He wanted the bra off.

Wanted the shirt off.

Her hips rocked against his.

Niol shuddered. So close to paradise.

Her head lifted, mouth leaving his, dammit.

“Niol…”

When a woman said a man’s name like that, with need and hunger and lust—all coming out in a husky murmur that was more moan than anything else—she could break him.

Break him.

He cupped her breasts through the thin material of her bra. The tight nipples stabbed into his palms. He wanted her breasts in his mouth. Needed them there. Needed to taste her. To suck her and make her moan his name again.

And again.

Her head tipped back, exposing the pale line of her throat. He had to taste her there.

His tongue laved her flesh. Her pulse jerked when his mouth pressed against her. The edge of his teeth scored her, and his fingertips slipped under that scrap of lace—

A knock sounded on the driver’s window.

He kept touching her. Kept using his tongue and teeth and—

“Oh, dammit!” Holly wrenched away from him, falling back into the passenger seat.

The windows were fogged up—huh, he hadn’t done that in over seventeen years.

Another knock, harder this time.

Someone out there had just ruined the best five minutes of his week—

And they were really, really pissing him off.

He jerked the key, wrenching it forward and starting the SUV again. A rough flick of his fingers had the window rolling down. A guy in a security uniform peered into the vehicle, shining a flashlight.

“This isn’t freaking Make-out Boulevard, man! This is a private parking area for News Flash and—uh, Ms. Storm? That you?”

Holly coughed and shoved back a rather large clump of her hair. “Hi, uh, Steve.”

The flashlight shone right into her eyes.

She held up her hand, wincing.

Niol’s eyes narrowed and the flashlight fel to the ground with a clatter.

“My, um, boyfriend was just dropping me off so I could get my car.”

Boyfriend was really too tame a term. He would have much preferred lover. But they’d get to that later.

The guard’s timing sucked, but at least their cover was being firmly established. Now the guard wouldn’t question his arrival at the station.

Because the guy—Steve—he was a demon. Niol could see right past the glamour and to the real man. He wouldn’t have been able to use his compulsion power on Steve. Now, wel , it didn’t matter.

Niol smiled at the guy. “Couldn’t leave without a kiss.”

The guy grunted, then gave a low whistle. “Niol. Shit…didn’t expect to see you.”

Ah, everywhere he went in the city, folks seemed to know him. Sometimes that was good.

“Ms. Storm, you should get out, now.”

Sometimes it wasn’t.

Niol raised a brow. “Do we have a problem here?”

The guard swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “N-no.”

“Good.”

Holly shoved open her door. She stalked around the front of the SUV. The beams of the headlights bounced off her pants.

“Thanks for checking on me, Steve. I’m gonna be heading home now.”

Steve inched back.

Holly paused. “Niol, I’ll see you later.”

Oh, she definitely would.

After giving a nod, she turned away and marched toward her waiting car.

“She’s human.” A whisper from Steve as he bent to grab his flashlight.

Niol lifted his brows. “Does it matter?”

The guy’s jaw worked, then he said, “Holly Storm—she’s decent, okay? She’s not like those other pricks who just like to see themselves on TV.”

Well, wel . A warning after all.

“Don’t worry about Holly. I’ll take care of her.”

The guard shoved his flashlight back into the holder on his waist. “That’s what I’m afraid of…”

Then he was gone.

And Holly’s taillights flickered as she cranked her car.

Niol reached for his phone. Hit speed dial. His contact answered on the second ring.

“Everything in place?” He asked as Holly’s sporty little red car reversed and headed for the exit.

“Yes, sir.”

She braked for a moment, then turned left.

“Make sure she gets home, then keep a guard on her until dawn.”

No need for Holly to know about the security. She’d never realize the men were there, unless something happened and she needed them.

Niol didn’t believe in taking chances. Not anymore.

He shifted gears, shoving the SUV into reverse. It wasn’t even one a.m. yet. The night was still young.

Plenty of time for more hunting.

This time, he’d be going straight to the darkest side of town. The side where demons huddled in smoky rooms, black eyes glassy as they let the drugs run in their blood.

Sam hadn’t been the only one to seek oblivion.

Addiction—it was the true devil for demons.

He didn’t want Holly in those rooms.

Best to hunt alone.

Fucking demon.

He crouched behind the fence when the black SUV swept by him.

He knew what Holly had been doing in that SUV with that bastard demon, and Niol Lapen was most definitely a demon.

Impure.

His fingers tightened around the camera in his hand.

Who would have thought that Holly would have such a taste for evil? And he’d believed he knew her so well.

That bitch would get what she deserved in the end.

So would Niol.

Man had been created in God’s image. Demons belonged only in hell.

And that’s exactly where he’d send them. One at a time…

Piece by piece, if need be.

H olly was hot for the demon, no denying it. And she hadn’t been hot for a guy since…

Zack.

Not that she’d ever actually been hot for Dr. Zachariah Hall, but she’d been interested.