Heat

скачать книгу бесплатно

Within moments, the same thing happened but this time in reverse. Misery’s back arched and her eyes turned blood red as the snaky darkness squirmed its way up her body then sank into her aura. The other side would wait until Misery gave them a sign… then they would have their strongest attack from the other side.

Misery’s expression turned mischievous. She’d been careful up till now… feeling the pure blood fallen tracking her movements. Now was not the time to become careless but she needed the power it would take to break through the portal. Misery’s expression slowly changed into one of anger as she felt a presence behind her.

Exploding into a cloud of darkness, she reformed as she attached her corpse’s form around the demon that had been spying on her. “Misery will give you a closer look.”

Zeb didn’t flinch as the rotting arm tightened around his neck and he was suddenly staring down into the rift. “Would you banish Zeb for offering his help?” His plump lips twisted in a sneer, “Such lust I feel from you. What is it Misery is hungry for?”

“I can get what I need from the humans… why would I need your help with this?” Misery ran a hand over the short fat man’s balding head then she released him only to circle his bloated body.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” Zeb had barely finished the invitation when Misery’s bony fingers punched their way through the flesh he used to hide in.

Misery could feel the demon within and smiled sadistically as she read its soul. This demon had been in the city for a very long time and had been wise enough to keep a low profile. She could sense its fear of the fallen that lived here along with fear of other creatures she knew nothing about.

Zeb was a weak demon and useless in a fight. He would be easy to kill, but Misery could sense his other powers… powers she could exploit to suit her purposes.

This demon could detect the lust within a human and magnify that to deliciously evil measures. She saw some of the things Zeb had done recently as she tapped into his memories. Like the jealous husband losing his cool and killing his wife… an angry employee taking a gun to work for revenge… the desperate man robbing a bank and getting shot as he walked out the door.

Zeb could make a hungry human eat until their guts split open, or make someone depressed become suicidal. He could even go as far as to make a druggie or alcoholic overdose on their poison of choice… all pushed beyond their control. Zeb made people hungry for whatever they craved, their darkest of secrets and Misery could feed off the evil spawned from them.

“Misery will use you,” she hissed as she pulled her hand from his flesh.

“I know,” Zeb smiled as the blood spilling from him reentered his body in a backwards waterfall… sealing the wound.

If he were human, then he would have been labeled a business man of sorts. Making deals with other demons was how he’d survived this long. If he teamed up with Misery and fed her the power she wanted to bring more demons into the city, then he would not be so noticeable to the fallen.

*****

Chad stared at the crime scene in horror as he kept his gun trained on the man who was already cuffed and being dragged out of the operating room. The police department had called him in because this was the third time today they had found something this disturbing. What in the hell would make a man do something like that? He was a doctor for crying out loud… supposed to be saving lives, not take them.

“I just wanted to see what it would look like,” the doctor yelled as he struggled to get one more look before he was taken away. “She’s perfect now.”

Chad felt the nausea rise and had to look away. Right there on the operating table lay the man’s masterpiece. He’d taken a elderly bedridden lady whose body was shutting down and replaced her insides… including brain, with parts from a young woman who had come into the emergency room with an ear ache only a couple hours ago.

Hearing a female gasp behind him Chad turned his head seeing Angelica, Zachary and Trevor coming into the room and frowned. “I was going to call you.”

Trevor shook his head, “Angelica has been tracking our demon all day and we’ve already been to your other crime scenes.”

Angelica gazed down at the young woman who had been tossed on the floor like an empty rag doll. They’d been one step behind Misery and she could feel the demon’s power growing but what disturbed her the most was the fact that even though Misery could feed off this… she couldn’t cause it to happen.

“It’s hard to believe one demon can cause this much chaos,” Trevor kept his back to the carnage. He’d never been one to mess with the demon cases and he wished now was no different. He kind of felt bad for the loss of a good doctor who had probably just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“It’s not just one demon,” Angelica tried to ignore the cold chills crawling up her spine. “And I’m afraid this is only the beginning.”

Zachary pulled out his cell phone and walked out of the room. Dialing Storm’s number, he waited until the call was directed into the PIT message system. This wasn’t the first time he’d left a message for Storm today. What was bothering him the most was that their fearless leader usually knew what he wanted before he called and often showed up before he finished even dialing the number.

*****

Micah had spent the last couple hours in Warren's office being brought up to speed on everything he’d missed. It was a lot to take in, but the fact that their families were once again united was something to be thankful for. His gaze strayed to Quinn and Kat knowing they were the ties that bind.

“It’s good to have everyone back together,” Quinn offered in Micah’s silence.

Micah rubbed his temple wondering if everyone had completely forgotten that Alicia existed. To his surprise, it was the newest family member that mentioned her.

“Where’s Alicia?” Jewel asked Steven wondering why she wasn’t here.

“Spending a couple days with a friend from boarding school,” Quinn answered then added, “It might be best if we find a college to send her to for a while.”

Michael noticed Micah’s knuckles turn white where he was gripping the arm of the chair where he was sitting. Honestly, he agreed with Micah’s anger. If they hadn’t spent all this time keeping Alicia at arm's length, then maybe she wouldn’t get in so much trouble trying to do things by herself.

“I’ve already talked to Alicia,” Micah glared at his brother. “She’s spent years waiting to come home and the last thing she wants is to be told she’s not welcome here. She got enough of that when Nathaniel was alive.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Quinn growled in self-defense. “She’s barely eighteen. Do you really think Night Light is the safest place for her right now knowing the mess we are in?”

“No, that’s why I’ve already sent her to live with Michael.” Micah smiled knowing no one would argue with his logic, “That way she’s still here and a part of the family, but hopefully out of the direct line of fire.”

Envy’s cell phone chose that moment to go off much to the relief of most of the people in the crowded room. She quickly grabbed it trying to silence the song she’d picked to let her know it was Chad calling. She elbowed Devon in the ribs when he started singing, “I fought the law and the law won.”

“Chad,” she smirked, “perfect timing as usual.”

“You might not say that when I tell you why I called.” Chad ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s been one hell of a day.”

Envy held her hand up to silence Devon’s horrible karaoke stunt. “What’s wrong?”

“I hear Devon in the background. Put the phone on speaker,” Chad sighed.

Envy clicked it on speaker phone, “Okay, but it’s not just Devon, the whole gang’s here.”

“Good,” Chad said then proceeded to give them a run-down of today’s events. Once he was done he added, “Trevor's brought in a demon expert and she wants to talk to Dean about the demon if you can get a message to him. I also thought that maybe you could get a hold of Kriss and see what you could find out.”

“I’m on it,” Envy nodded, “and Chad… be careful.”

Chad’s tone of voice changed as that reminded him of something, “Hey Devon.”

“Yeah?” Devon frowned.

“If you ever let my sister get shot at again, I swear I’ll…” Envy’s eyes widened and she snapped the phone closed, cutting her brothers voice off.

“O…Kay,” Devon gave a halfhearted smile hearing a couple chuckles from the group.

“Not to change the topic from Devon having his ass kicked but,” Warren shook his head, “I’m hiring more shifters here at Moon Dance and Quinn has agreed to do the same for Night Light. Now that we’ve cut off the head of the alpha werewolf… and the mafia…”

“We need to be ready for two to grow back in its place,” Nick finished for him.

Quinn’s cell phone went off and he smirked at Devon, “Well at least all of Kat’s relatives are within seeing distance.” Looking at the caller ID, he noticed it was from the cougar he’d left in charge. Harley could take care of about anything in his absence so he knew it was important.

Holding up his hand to hush the crowd he answered, “Yeah Harley, what is it?”

“Quinn, unless you ordered a dead cougar instead of the normal drinks we serve, then we’ve got a problem.”

*****

Boris had spent the morning with Anthony’s lawyer finishing off the paperwork that made him the new manager of one of the biggest bars in the city… Love Bites. As for whom the new owner would be… they’d both decided Anthony’s nearest of kin was the smartest way to go, legally and logically. Titus Valachi was one of the strongest and most fair-minded wolves Boris had ever met. He’d hated his uncle and refused to do anything mob related.

Boris smiled knowing he’d just helped the lawyer put over half the wolf pack holdings into Titus’s name without Titus being aware of it. Now all they had to do was convince Titus to become the new alpha before Lucca had a chance to claim it.

As for Love Bites, the previous owner had lost the club to Anthony only a couple weeks ago, and since Anthony’s lawyer was one of their pack wolves, he was taking care of as much paperwork as fast as he could in case the feds froze all of Anthony’s holdings.

Most of the clan had worked for Anthony in some way or another, but since the alpha no longer existed, it left a lot of wolves without a job. Wolves with too much time on their hands were never a good thing and Boris was already hearing talk about retaliating against the cougars for killing Anthony.

The majority of those wolves were hanging out with Lucca Romano who was Anthony’s protégé in many ways. Those were the wolves he did not want to be around.

Lucca was strong. Anthony had felt that and used Lucca for most of the mob work. That, and Anthony didn’t completely trust Lucca, so he figured keeping Lucca close and in control of a section of the mob ties would keep him busy enough not to try overthrowing him. Problem was… if Titus didn’t step up to the plate soon, then Lucca would.

With that in mind, Boris had been choosy while hiring pack members to help run Love Bites. It was a step up from spending most of his time dealing out punishment to whoever had pissed Anthony off for the day. But that was what he was… the punisher. And you had to be the alpha’s right hand man to become the punisher, so most of the wolves would obey him without much thought. Now he was Titus’s right hand man and that’s where he wanted to stay.

Looking around the bar, he listened as some of the wolves made fun of the gothic decorations, but Boris pointed out that the Goth crowd within the city was full of rich college kids with a movie-style vampire fetish who were loaded with money. That seemed to get their attention. Yeah, it was always the same with the wolves… money was the bottom line.

Feeling the power of a true alpha enter the bar, Boris looked toward the doors from his view through the office window. He smiled seeing Titus stop just inside the doors to look around. He had to admit this place was a little startling to anyone who had never been here. He was surprised Titus had made it here this quickly. He’d still been in Malta when he’d called him during the predawn hours.

Reaching over, Boris pressed the button on the intercom system, “Titus, there’s a flight of stairs on your far left. Come up to the office.” He closed his eyes knowing he had the equivalent of two minutes to decide how to tell Titus he had just inherited most of Anthony’s holdings.

*****

Alicia was tired of sulking about it. If she had to stay here, then she might as well make the best of it. Plus, she was hungry and everyone was gone. The house was so huge that it took her a few minutes to even locate the kitchen… that and the fact that the door to it was closed. Most people didn’t have a door on their kitchen, but then again… it wasn’t people living in this house.

Shifters don’t eat as much as humans because they didn’t age at the same rate. They could even go months without it affecting them, though most shifters liked food enough to partake in it every day. Living around humans had a way of rubbing off on the paranormal. However, there were a couple things that would make a shifter hungry… injury, fighting, sex… or the need for sex… AKA heat. And at the moment she was starving.

Opening the fridge she frowned… lots to drink but no food. Checking the cabinets was equally as depressing. All empty, unless you counted the spider webs in the corners and the five cans of coffee. Now she understood why the door had been closed.

Hearing something behind her, Alicia spun around to find Damon coming into the kitchen with his arms full of grocery bags.

Damon withheld the smirk and kept his expression relaxed, “Figured you’d be hungry.” Setting the bags down on the bar, he made his way back outside to get the rest.

Alicia was stunned. Damon had gone shopping… for her? Looking in the bags, her eyes widened at all the food… good food too. She pulled out a bag of seedless white grapes and started munching while putting the food up.

She rolled her eyes realizing Damon had done it again… made her so speechless that she’d forgotten to thank him. He must think she was the most ungrateful girl in the world. Alicia blew her bangs out of her eyes wondering how to pay him back for everything he’d done. She needed to find a way to pay them all back.

Damon walked back into the kitchen setting the rest of the groceries on the bar. He grabbed a couple of can items and he slowly walked toward her.

Alicia turned and watched him come closer but for the life of her she couldn’t move. Oh he was a very bad boy when he leaned against her and placed the cans in the cabinet above her. It was a good feeling… his body pressed against hers making her thighs go up in flames. Maybe it wasn’t food she was starving for.

“You don’t get to do that,” Alicia’s voice was small. She tried to push him away but either he was like a wall or she wasn’t really trying. She gazed at her traitorous hands when they stayed pressed against his chest.

“Admit it,” Damon was suddenly in the mood to push buttons.

“Admit what?” Alicia felt fear slide through her like a wicked intimate caress.

“What you feel when you're alone with me… what we both feel,” Damon pushed.

“It doesn’t matter what I… what we...” Alicia raised her gaze to meet his realizing in a roundabout way she had just admitted it.

“What we want,” Damon finished for her, his voice growing a little darker. Someone knocked on the front door. He didn’t move a muscle as she slipped under his arm and headed for the front door. Hearing a male voice, Damon turned his head toward the sound and narrowed his eyes. That brother of hers was starting to get on his nerves.

Damon leaned in the doorway of the living room, watching as Micah lowered the suitcase to the floor then pulled her in for another hug.

The first thing Micah noticed was that Alicia was on fire… then the scent of her arousal hit him hard. Tightening his hold, his eyes slowly lifted to the vampire on the other side of the room.

Alicia quickly pulled away from Micah when she heard him inhale her scent. ‘Oh god, please don’t let him know.’ She silently prayed.

Glancing up at him, she could tell by the golden color that was bleeding into his beautiful blue eyes. He did know… all male shifters would know unless they already had a mate. Panicking, she started talking animatedly about putting the suitcase in her room and nearly ran up the stairs with it.

Micah closed the door behind him a little too hard. He knew she wasn’t a little girl any more… but that was taking it a bit too far for his liking. The emotion running through him was much like a father would feel when he realized his daughter had just figured out what sex was and had decided to start dating the thug from down the street.

“Alicia!” Micah yelled and took off up the stairs after her.

Damon was speechless as he stared at the empty spot Micah had just been standing in. What the hell was that all about? He ran the scene through his mind again trying to figure it out. Micah hugs Alicia and she pushed him away then runs upstairs… that must have pissed Micah off because now he was mad and chasing her. Something about that was just a little too Jerry Springer to be right.