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As he crept up the porch steps, the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end. His senses heightened, he listened for the sound of screams or yelling from behind the door. Nothing.
He breathed deep, preparing himself, then froze. The smell of rotten eggs hit his nose, and he swore under his breath. David knew that smell.
Sulfur.
Without hesitation, he slammed into the front door with his full weight. It caved in after two hits from his two-hundred-plus-pound frame. Thank God for flimsy locks and no dead bolts. When his leg still functioned well, one kick would’ve done the trick. He frowned at that thought. As he stepped through the broken doorway, he pulled his gun and cocked the hammer, preparing to shoot. He was so ready to try out those new bullets. Holy-water-filled bullets wouldn’t kill a demon, but they would definitely slow it down for a few moments, and that was all he needed.
He listened intently, trying to get a sense of where the demon was.
After a quick scan of the ground floor, he called out, “Is anyone home?”
An eerie silence answered. The quiet was too absolute. No sounds of talking or movement. His stomach dropped, and something inside told him he wasn’t searching for a demon anymore. He was searching for its victims. Its dead victims.
He charged up the stairs. Agony seared through his leg as he climbed the steps faster than his pain-in-the-ass physical therapist would have approved of, but he wouldn’t allow that to hold him back. Not again. Three bedrooms to scan. Slowly he pushed open the door to the first and stepped inside. From the size and décor, definitely the master bedroom, probably where the wife, who’d called Father O’Reilly, and her husband slept. Unlike the rest of the pristinely organized room, the comforter and bedsheets lay in a twisted bundle, as if someone had shoved them off in a rush to jump out of bed. Otherwise, no signs of anything out of the ordinary. But there was no way he had the wrong house, not with the sulfur he smelled. Even old rotting Easter eggs that the kids hadn’t found for months didn’t smell that potent.
He moved to the next bedroom, gun still drawn. He peeked inside: the room of a teenage boy. Sports memorabilia and a game system, but nothing unusual, just another messy bed. Turning toward the last room at the end of the hall, David stared at the open doorway. A shiver ran down his spine. Most people would have run in the other direction. It didn’t matter what dumbasses movies made the average citizen look like; in the real world, when people felt threatened, they ran, which honestly was the smartest thing to do. Instincts served a good purpose. But it was David’s job not to run.
With a deep breath, he stepped inside. Immediately he lowered his gun. He was standing inside a baby’s nursery. He turned on the light and blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. From the pale pink molding on the white-painted walls and the small onesies lying in a neatly folded pile on a changing table near the crib, he could tell the room was meant for a baby girl. His stomach twisted into knots.
Not again. Dear God, not another baby.
Adrenaline coursed through him, and he fought back panic. He needed to find her, find the whole family, but to do so he needed to stay calm, collected, no matter how much the situation primed him to leap into action.
Where was this family? No signs of a struggle, yet they weren’t here, and the disarray of their beds in comparison to the rest of the immaculately clean house suggested they hadn’t planned on leaving. No, David could tell something had woken them and forced them out of their beds.
Tucking his gun back into its holster at his hip, he limped over to the baby’s crib and peered inside. A single bloodied thumbprint dirtied the white-painted wood. Shit.
As quickly as he could manage, he jogged down the stairs. There had to be something he’d missed. He stopped as he reached the bottom of the staircase. Light shone faintly underneath the door of what he’d initially thought was a closet. He wrenched the door open.
Carpeted stairs descended down into a basement. Several drops of blood stained the tan carpeting. One painful step at a time, David negotiated the stairway. His heart thumped against his chest. The sound rang in his ears in the silence.
Though he’d known as soon as he reached the porch steps that something was wrong, nothing could have prepared him for the sight before him. A large lump crawled into his throat as he surveyed the gore-covered scene. The basement looked as if someone had taken the contents of an entire blood bank and used them to set off an explosion with a messy homemade bomb. Blood soaked the walls, ceiling and floor, seeping into the carpeting.
The whole family...slaughtered.
David stood for several long moments, surveying the scene. There was something not right about this on so many levels. Demons were assholes, and they loved to use humans and leave them for dead, but this? The carnage in front of him made the victims Robert had left in his wake look as if they’d died in their sleep. But the lingering smell of sulfur mixed with the overpowering odor of freshly spilled blood told David he wasn’t imagining things. This was demons’ work.
If someone had told him that a demon had murdered an entire family in cold blood, he wouldn’t have believed it. He scanned each of the family members. The mother lay slumped against the corner of the far wall, her throat slit. Blood covered the front of her nightgown. Her mouth remained open, and her lifeless eyes stared upward to where her attacker would have stood. The cell phone she must have used to call Father O’Reilly sat a foot away from her outreached hand, the screen covered in cracks like spiderwebs.
Across from the wife, her husband lay facedown on the floor, the murder weapon still clutched in his hand after he’d slit his own throat. The wife had been right. From the looks of the scene, the demon had possessed her husband, who’d murdered her and their children before he’d turned the knife on himself.
A sharp pang of sadness hit David in the heart at the sight of the couple’s teenage son. A gaping hole in the middle of his chest showed the brutality of what the demon had done to him. The sulfur-sucking monster had slung the kid’s intestines around his corpse as if they were nothing more than sausage links. This had to be the most sickening scene he had ever laid eyes on, and he had seen some seriously messed-up shit during the year he’d served in the Brooklyn division.
The next thought that came to his mind made him cringe. Where was the baby?
Cautiously, David rounded the staircase to another section of the basement. His stomach flipped. Bile rose in his throat and burned his esophagus. He ran to the nearest trash bin and hurled the contents of his stomach into the small plastic bag. He didn’t have a weak stomach by any stretch of the imagination, but even he couldn’t handle the sight of what had been done to the once beautiful infant girl. He blinked back tears on the family’s behalf.
A dangerous mixture of sadness and pure unadulterated rage rushed through him. He would find the demonic piece of shit that did this. He would find the bastard and painfully torture it for days, weeks, until it was begging to be put out of its misery. Then he would do more than send it back to hell, where it had the potential to crawl its way out again decades later. He would find some sort of spell, some ritual, something to ensure it was tortured in the most painful way possible for the rest of eternity.
David stood in the middle of the basement amidst the dead bodies and the lingering smell of sulfur mixed with the metallic scent of the family’s blood. With robotic movements, he removed his phone and snapped photos of the crime scene for HQ to process and analyze. One step at a time.
He would get the job done, just like he always did, and each time he emerged as a stronger, better hunter...and less of a human being. A normal person wouldn’t have been able to handle seeing something like this and still function. And that was exactly the problem: he could.
* * *
EVERY FAE SENSE Allsún possessed blazed to life when the cabbie finally turned the corner on to the correct street. Immediately she knew they were in the right place, the exact house. Her Fae senses rang like a sounding school bell, alerting her that she had reached her destination. Peering out the front window of the cab, she eyed the broken-in front door. She leaned forward from the backseat. “Stop here,” she said to the driver.
The cabbie had barely braked to a smooth stop before Allsún darted from the car, practically leaping from the vehicle. She burst into a full-on sprint toward the house as the cabbie drove away.
Shite. Was she too late?
As she neared the threshold, the rotten scent of sulfur assaulted her nose. She ran inside, hands up and prepared to blast any demons she encountered with a burst of faerie dust. The place reeked of demonic activity, and she could practically feel the power seeping out from the basement. Were the demons still down there?
She padded lightly down the steps, careful not to make noise. Her stomach flipped as she reached the bottom of the stairs and took in the sight before her. She couldn’t even gasp, couldn’t yell, couldn’t scream, couldn’t cry. Her heart thumped against her ribs, and a wave of anxiety washed over her. She was in way over her head.
She had seen demons do some horrific things in the years she had spent freelance hunting alongside David before he joined the Execution Underground, but nothing she had ever seen then remotely compared to the carnage that lay before her now.
A shiver rushed down her spine at the thought of what kind of creature could have done this, and then she froze as a small click sounded from behind her. The click of a handgun’s hammer.
CHAPTER FOUR
DAVID HAD BEEN waiting all night to test these new bullets, and finally he was being given a chance. He held the Beretta steady, pointing it at the base of the woman’s skull. His voice came out in a low, aggressive rumble. “Don’t move.”
She froze.
He gave one slow deliberate nod as he told her, “Good. Now—slowly—raise your arms.”
Moving carefully, she did as she was told and lifted her hands from her sides, fingers spread so he could see she had no weapons. Holding the Beretta in his right hand, he quickly used his left hand and frisked her, patting down the thin material covering her.
“What’s your name?” He eyed her up and down.
From behind, all he could see was her long curled brown hair. She wore a hospital johnny coat that opened in the back, exposing just the thinnest peek of a round, firm ass. Wait a second. He knew that gorgeous hair and that sweet behind all too well. What the—
Her voice shook as she spoke. “David?”
His heart came to a screeching halt before starting to thump double-time in his chest. The blood pounded in his head. He knew that voice, but...no. It couldn’t be.
She shifted, and the robe moved ever so slightly to reveal a small orange freckle right above the curve of her butt. He knew that freckle. He had run his fingers over it so many times as they made love. Incredibly sexy and perfectly adorable all at the same time.
It couldn’t be...but she was in a hospital gown.
After a long moment, he finally managed to choke out her name. “Allsún?”
She lowered her hands to her sides again and turned around.
David’s eyes widened, and for a moment he forgot to breathe. He took in the familiar contours of her beautiful face. Large green eyes the color of the Irish countryside, full pink lips, high cheekbones and a small button nose that made him want to kiss every inch of her. Man, seeing her alive and well was a relief beyond anything he’d known before. She had lost weight in her already slender face and body during her time in the hospital, but aside from the minor detail, she was as perfect and divine in her beauty as she had always been when they were together. The kind of beauty most women envied. Allsún didn’t need makeup to enhance her looks. She had a natural aura about her, the kind that couldn’t be replicated.
A wide grin spread across his face, and at the sight of her, all the horrors surrounding him melted away. His heart continued to pound. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There she was, alive and healthy. Weeks had passed since he’d last seen her that way, and even then it had only been for a handful of minutes. It was hard to believe that five years had passed since they’d broken off their engagement. There were times when the wounds of her leaving still felt fresh. Hell, he would be lying to himself if he said he was anything but lonely without her around.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said.
Allsún opened her mouth as if she wanted to speak, only to close it seconds later. She didn’t say a word. Instead, she ran.
Shit.
She bolted up the stairs faster than David would have thought possible. Throwing aside any concern for his injured leg, he raced up the steps after her. How the hell could she move so fast? She’d just come out of a trauma-induced coma, and she’d been drugged on top of it, for Pete’s sake. Then again, when didn’t Allsún surprise him? Hell, he sure as shit hadn’t expected her to show up in the middle of the crime scene, still in full patient garb. Only two hours ago he’d been sitting at her bedside while she rested peacefully.
Though Allsún was fast and he was hurt, his legs were still significantly longer than hers. He reached her just as she was about to rush straight out the front door. Grabbing her from behind, he circled his arms around her waist, lifting her clean off the ground.
She struggled against him, feet kicking wildly and hands shoving against his hold. “Let me go!” she shrieked.
David hauled her back into the house, closing the broken door behind him.
Allsún beat her fists against his grip, her words in rhythm with each blow. “Let. Me. Go.”
David fought back a laugh. She was so tiny compared to him and always had been. Did she really think that would work? “Are you kidding me? You wake up from a coma after being tortured, then you show up at a crime scene littered with bodies, and you expect me to just let you run off?”
She tried elbowing him in the shoulder. “Yes.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Allie. You’re not going anywhere. How the hell do I know if your sanity is even intact?”
“I’m perfectly fine.” She pushed against him, grunting as she fought to break his hold.
But no matter how powerful her Fae powers were, she would never match him in the strength department. Their difference in size alone was enough to give him an unfailing advantage.
Loosening his hold, he quickly rotated her to face him. She weighed so little, even less than she used to.
“Let me go.” She kicked hard and caught him straight in the shin. Holy shit, that stung. He bit his lower lip and fought back a curse. Allsún had never had much in upper body strength, but, man, did she have loads of power in her legs. Holding her out in front of him, he walked over to the wall, then pinned his body against hers, holding her in place with his weight so she couldn’t kick him.
But now he had other problems. Shit, if the feel of her body against his wasn’t enough to undo him completely. His cock stiffened as her hips pressed against him. He wanted to kiss her hard and deep, slide his hands down to truly remember the feeling of her body.
No. He couldn’t do that. She didn’t want him like that, not anymore.
“Let me go,” she said again.
He held on to her tight. It didn’t take much for him to subdue her, and frankly, he wanted to keep her pressed against him forever. “I’m not letting you go until you agree not to run off.”
She continued to shove against him. “I won’t make any promises.”
When he didn’t release her, her sweet face twisted into a scowl, and he knew what she was gearing up to do—what she always did when she was beyond pissed at him. Use his full name.
She inhaled a sharp breath, and as she spoke she punctuated each of her words with pure irritation. “David Jonathan Matthew Aronowitz, you let me down this instant or I swear I’ll—”
“Allsún, you need to listen to me. This is really important,” he interrupted her.
Refusing to listen, she continued to scowl at him, and he knew her stubborn side had set in. If he didn’t cave, at least a little, she would keep going for hours, and if he got her pissed off enough, boy, would he regret it. Allsún might be only half-Fae, but that half was of pixie heritage, and while pixies were sweet little things most of the time, you really didn’t want to piss them off. Allsún held true to that rule.
Slowly he loosened his hold, allowing her body to slide down the wall until her feet touched the floor. But he didn’t release her completely, just enough to placate her temper.
The scowl faded slightly. “I can’t stay here, David. I came to help that family, and you know I’m all for saving live victims, but the dead ones are your thing, so since you have this covered, I really need to go and get out of this hospital gown.”
No way was he letting her go when there were demons out there who knew what she really was. “Allie, listen to me. We need to talk.”
Turning her head away, she refused to look at him. “There’s nothing for us to talk about.”
He scoffed. “Really? Nothing? How about the fact that you’ve been in a coma the last month, and now you’re suddenly awake and at a crime scene? How the hell did you get here? How did you get out of the hospital? Jace was heading to the hospital to watch over you as soon as I left.”
Finally she met his gaze again. “No one was there but me when I woke up, so I just left, okay? All of a sudden I woke up. I was lying in a hospital bed, connected to an IV, and when I woke up I didn’t want to be there anymore, so I took the IV out and I left.”
David stared at her for a long moment. She wasn’t serious, was she? “So you woke up, pulled out your IV, decided ‘I don’t really need to be here,’ and then walked out in a hospital gown into the freezing cold Rochester night and decided to follow me to a crime scene? Why wouldn’t you wait for clearance from a doctor to make sure you were okay?”
She ignored his last question. “Followed you? I didn’t have any idea you would be here, okay? I woke up, and I had one of my feelings. I knew that somebody in the area was in trouble, that they were having problems with demons. I listened to my senses. I flagged down a cab, and I got a ride here. I didn’t expect you to be here, that’s for certain. If I had, I wouldn’t have come.”
“I’m the only demon hunter in the city, and you didn’t expect me to be here?”
She flashed him a look that said don’t-be-an-asshole.
David’s eyes widened, and he stared at her in disbelief. Clearly she hadn’t thought a single bit of this through. All the more reason she needed to stay with him. She needed time for her head to clear. “Last I knew, you weren’t hunting demons. What happened to that?”
She frowned. “I haven’t been hunting demons, okay? I haven’t been hunting anything in the past five years, but when I woke up, this feeling of someone being in danger overcame me and I couldn’t ignore it. I’ve never felt a pull so strong. I knew I had to track it to the source, and my senses led me here.”
“What exactly were you expecting to do when you got here? Single-handedly take down a demon with no weapons and protected by nothing but a hospital gown?” he asked.
He loosened his hold enough for her to wiggle free. As soon as she left his arms, he missed the feel of her body pressed against him. He grabbed her hand to keep her from leaving, but she wrenched away from him.
“I hadn’t thought that far through it, okay? Get off my case. What does it matter to you, anyway?”
David’s jaw dropped. “What does it matter to me? I’m the one who’s been stationed at your bedside nearly 24/7 since you were hospitalized. I’m the one who carried you out of that awful warehouse where Robert tortured you. You do remember that, right?”
She met his stare. “There’s no way I could forget that, even though I want to.”
A lull fell between them. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he wasn’t even certain where to begin.
Allsún broke the silence first. “Once the drugs wore off, it all came back to me pretty fast.”
David couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She’d simply snapped out of her coma? That was it? On the very night he’d found out that her life was in danger?
No. It was too coincidental. Her senses were clearly trying to tell her something.
Allsún dropped her hands to her sides in exasperation. “Look, I get that it was dumb, okay? And I can clearly see that I’m not needed here. The carnage that’s down there—” her eyes flicked to the staircase leading down to the basement “—well, you can take care of that. Now that you have the Execution Underground on your side with all their fancy equipment, I’m sure that sort of thing is no problem for you.”
He could hear the slight contempt in her voice at the mention of the Execution Underground. Did it really still piss her off after all these years? She’d left him after he joined the Execution Underground. She hadn’t approved of him signing on. Not that he could really blame her. Hell, he should’ve considered her feelings more back then. He knew that now. He’d been young, naïve and so ready to save the world that he’d failed her in the process. For the first year, every day without her had been worse than the last. He tried to tell himself that things had improved since then, that he wasn’t constantly longing for her to be by his side, and that he was really okay, but who was he kidding? Even being with her like this now was killing him. He shoved the feelings inside, boxing them away where they wouldn’t be so painful. He couldn’t allow himself to go down that road.
She wrenched her eyes away from the stairs and spoke again. “Anyway, I’m out of here,” she said. She moved toward the door.
David stepped in front of her. “I can’t let you do that.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why not?”
