Well, there was one other matter, but she wouldn't think about that either.
Focus. But it was hard. No matter how much she tried to keep the past buried, things like this threat unearthed her worst fears and made the old wounds burn anew.
Which was why she'd much rather battle the demons without. Once she killed them, they stayed dead. Too bad the ones inside her weren't so cooperative. Even when she did manage to kill one, a dozen more cropped up to attack her.
As Quinn would say, bloody inconsiderate wankers.
But that was neither here nor there. She'd made the ten-minute ride to her secure apartment beneath a downtown parking deck only to pick up a weapon--the special dagger she carried, which had a bone handle carved with Celtic designs. The blade shimmered with a death spell. Badass to the extreme, it could be used to kill most demons if she stuck the blade into the creature's forehead between where horns grew above each eye. The dagger had been a gift from Tzader after he and Quinn had saved her life in Utah.
Just one of several treasured gifts from Tzader and Quinn, with friendship and trust being the most cherished of all.
But she was on her own right now.
The demon paused in the middle of the next block at the newspaper-wrapped feet of a sleeping vagrant, a poor wadded-up piece of humanity not bothering anybody.
Was it sizing up the guy as a meal?
Evalle paused, perfectly still. Sweat trickled beneath her top to streak down the naked skin on her back and soak the top of her jeans. The back of her vintage BDU shirt stuck to her back. She wore the cotton military shirt for comfort, but nothing felt good in this heat. Her steel-toe boots were hot, but much handier and safer than sandals if someone or something wanted a throw down. She fingered the dagger in the sheath at her hip and wrinkled her nose at the sulfuric odor trailing off the demon. The odor was too faint for a demon who had eaten a human heart.
Although one of them might have discovered the magic of deodorant or perfume.
Then again, perfumed crap still stank no matter what you did.
Maybe this thing hadn't attacked the human. She didn't like the idea of hurting anything on purpose, but that young woman had died a hideous death, and the quickest way to find this thing's mate would be to make him call for help.
Besides, as a VIPER agent, she was expected to do whatever it took to protect the humans from predators.
And she would.
A car turned onto the street half a mile down and headed toward her, the burned-out muffler rumbling loud in the still night. She kept her eye on the demon. The last thing she wanted to do was attack one in front of a civilian who would see the demon clearly if it solidified to do battle, but she wouldn't let him kill the vagrant.
The demon shook his head and mumbled under his breath, then continued on as though reluctant to pass up the human.
She let out a breath of relief, but why had he passed up this chance?
When the approaching car's headlights flashed on the demon, the creature sprinted ahead then disappeared to the left down a side street.
Evalle sucked into a recessed doorway until the car passed her then rushed forward, holding her breath as she leaped over the vagrant, who reeked of body odor and urine. Man, that stench gave the demon a run for his money in the stink department. Maybe the demon had paused to wonder if the guy was kinfolk.
At the corner, the side street turned left and shot through a dark shadow cast by buildings on each side.
The street stopped at a railway embankment.
Empty. No demon.
Damn. She couldn't have lost him.
Evalle moved ahead carefully, sniffing for any wisp of sulfur in the air. Luckily, she caught the scent by the time she reached a weed-infested concrete pad twenty feet square at the end of the street.
The demon, now in solid form and hunched over, sat on a stack of tires, patting his scaly head above the horns. He mumbled incoherently. The scent of rotten eggs stank up the air, but the smell would be even more overwhelming at this distance if he'd fed on a human recently.
"What're you doing here?" She spoke with authority even though she doubted he'd just blurt out the truth. Had to open the conversation with the Cresyl somehow.
He slowly lifted his head. Drool slid off one side of his wide mouth. His dull yellow eyes were unfocused. He started muttering again, a low guttural sound. "You."
Huh? What was wrong with him? She took another step but kept a ten-foot separation. "You working with anyone?"
"You."
For a Cresyl, this one didn't act dangerous. He acted demented ... or drugged.
Or maybe sad. Could he be sad about something? And why had she sensed it? She'd have thought her emerging empathic side was more discerning. "Who killed the human?"
His eyes moved around in strange circles, then focused on her. "You."
"Guess I should make it multiple choice. Got any more words, or do I have to buy a vowel?"
Where are you, Evalle? Tzader called to her telepathically.
Off Peters on the south side of Atlanta. Not far from where we busted that Midnight Moon Fae ring last year. Why? Where are you?
In Atlanta. What are you doing?
Thank the goddess Macha that Tzader was back. Evalle wouldn't turn down his help. I've cornered a--
The demon snarled and jumped to his feet, shoulders hunched in an aggressive stance. His eyes glowed white hot. "You killed her."
"Killed who?" She pulled out the dagger and spun it once, preparing for him to attack.
"You killed her." He started howling, and his body shook as if reacting to a drug, but drugs didn't work on demons, did they?
He took a step and stumbled.
Had someone cast a spell over this thing to accuse Evalle of killing the woman? "Who's your master? Who sent you here?"
Evalle?
Get back to you in a minute, Tzader. Busy right now.
"She died. You. Die." The demon launched himself at her.
He had to be talking about someone else. A Cresyl would never avenge a human.
She dodged to the right and swung around when he missed her. "Who killed the woman?"
"You." He stumbled around and snarled.
"Could we fast-forward to a new answer?" She needed a question he couldn't answer with "you." "Where's your mate?"
That had been the wrong question.
He lifted the stack of tires and threw them at her, but she was too quick and spun away.
Or he was too slow for a demon. When she stopped spinning, she faced him. He curled over his chest, moaning so pitifully she almost felt sympathy for him.
Why wasn't his mate coming to him?
If he stopped making that horrid sound long enough to talk, she might get some answers out of him. She'd planned on his fighting her so she could catch his tail. Cresyls were like opossums. If you could wrap one's tail around your forearm, he was under your control.
Something had screwed up his mind.
Maybe he had some kind of weird sickness. Did demons get sick? Like demon Parvo or something?
She couldn't hurt something that wouldn't fight her.
Evalle softened her voice and eased toward his tail as she spoke. "Look, buddy. Just tell me who sent you here and I'll find someone to help you feel better. Or tell me where your mate is and I'll go get her for you."
The demon howled a screeching sound so high-pitched no human could hear it. His tail lengthened, whipping around to slap her legs out from under her. She slammed backward, her skull bouncing on the concrete.
Dazed, she blinked and touched her sunglasses, which were cockeyed on her face. No one had told her Cresyls could do that with their tails.
He dropped down over her, landing his knees on each side of her legs, arms arched above his head with claws extended to attack and a mouth full of teeth open to rip a chunk off her body.
Survival instincts shoved her mind past the pain in her head. Someone called her name from far away ... or had it
been Tzader in her mind?
The demon swung downward in slow motion.
She kept her eyes locked on the crazed look in his gaze. Blood rushed through her ears. Her heart pounded like war drums in her chest the closer his sharp fangs came to her face.
At the last minute, she whipped the dagger up in both hands and stabbed him in the forehead.
Putrid yellow dust swirled, then disintegrated, confirmation he hadn't killed a human. If he had, she'd have been able to capture his essence in her fist before it disappeared.
Crud. No evidence. She had to get the other demon.
"Couldn't you wait until I got here?" an angry male voice yelled from the alley.
She rolled over and pushed up to her knees to find Tzader running toward her. He had on a T-shirt, jeans and boots that were all so dark she'd never have seen him with normal vision.
Dusting off her jeans, she stood. "No, I couldn't wait."
"What's the point of saving your butt in Utah if you're going to put it at risk every time we turn our backs?"
"Can we not have this argument again?" She would forever be appreciative to Tzader and Quinn for saving her life and guarding her secret, but they were like two overprotective brothers at times.
Most of the time.
"This was just a Cresyl, and a whacked one at that."
One of Tzader's eyebrows rose in question. He crossed his arms. "So you fell down on the ground to even the odds?"
Rather than admit she'd made a tactical error no trained warrior should by underestimating her opponent, she shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."
"What was the rush?"
She told him about the body at the morgue. "I didn't find out who sent the demon and I can't prove that any Alterant--including me--is innocent of killing that human until I get that second Cresyl."
Another Alterant surfacing wouldn't draw the attention away from her either. In fact, it created more problems. Things had been quiet for a long time, but two months ago a new Alterant had shifted and attacked humans. Evalle had been brought into VIPER once again and questioned extensively about her ability to prevent involuntary shifting. In reality, Sen--the top dog at VIPER--had been trying to catch her in a lie so that he could put her in protective custody.
Protective? Yeah, right.
Tzader sent his gaze up at the sky that was lightening by the minute. "You're running out of time."
"I realize that. Now that you're back, we can split up and search." She started walking toward Peters.
He fell into step beside her. "I can't go hunting yet. I came back to meet someone who has a lead on the Belador traitor." They had yet to identify the bastard who'd betrayed them.
Two years ... Two friggin' years and they weren't a bit closer than they'd been while shackled in the cave. Meanwhile a traitor was moving undetected in their ranks, and who knew who else he'd killed and betrayed.
"That's great." She'd wondered many a night if they'd ever find out who'd betrayed them in Utah. Whoever it was, they were resourceful and smart.
"It would be great if I didn't have to worry about you out here on your own chasing demons. Give me an hour to make this meeting and we'll go together."
Was he nuts? She looked up at the pale night sky again. "Don't have an hour. Clock's ticking and I can handle a Cresyl demon. If VIPER gets word of this first, you know what they'll do to me. Sen has zero tolerance for anything with my name on it." She stopped at the corner, her hand automatically at rest on the dagger handle.
"I doubt he'll hear about the killing before Monday. We'll find the other demon first."
"What if we don't, Z? What if he does find out before Monday?"
Tzader looked away, bitter worry clouding his gaze. "Then I'll make sure Brina knows. She'll be there for you."
Yeah, right. She'd sooner trust a cottonmouth not to bite her in the woods.
Evalle didn't consider Brina as supportive and benevolent as Tzader did, not when it came to Alterants. Brina was the counterpart to Sen, since they were both in liaison positions, but with one difference. Whereas Brina was an advocate when acting as liaison between Beladors and their goddess Macha, Sen was strictly a conduit between VIPER agents and the Tribunal.
Sen enforced Tribunal decisions. No advocacy.
Especially not where Evalle was concerned.
Macha and her Beladors had to abide by Tribunal decree. To go against it would turn all Beladors into enemies of the VIPER coalition. They would all be marked as outlaws and ordered for execution. If that happened, Evalle's tribe would battle on all fronts, not just with predatory nonhumans and other powerful beings.
She shuddered at that thought. "Brina would never speak up for me."
"Have a little faith in her. She will intervene if I tell her you didn't shift and kill a human."
And Evalle was supposed to trust in that? She could feel the prison door already closing on her.
She clenched the handle of her dagger. "I might show faith in Brina if she'd ever shown some in me without you asking for it first. Regardless, she can't stop the suspension. If I don't find proof of what really did the killing, I am screwed. You know what VIPER will do if I don't find the flaming demon to prove otherwise." She held up her hand when Tzader's eyes thinned to his look of lecture mode. "Neither of us has time for this argument, and I'm not walking into VIPER without something in hand to prove my innocence. Call me after your meeting and we'll team up."
"I can hunt after daylight, so don't take any chances. Do you even know where the other Cresyl is?"
"Not yet, but I will soon even if I have to rattle every Nightstalker in the city." But hopefully it wouldn't come to that. She'd try Grady first.
Even though he was a pain in the butt and made her work for every piece of intel she squeezed out of the old ghoul, he was one of the best informants when it came to anything supernatural.
Tzader looked around the street, taking stock of everything seen and unseen. "Your bike in the area?"
"Parked on the next block." Her cell phone buzzed with a text message. She reached to pull the phone from the back pocket of her jeans.
He checked his watch. "I gotta go or I'll be late. I'll call you soon as I'm free, but worst case I'll swing by your place after daylight."
"Okay." She lifted the phone into view as Tzader's swiftly moving form disappeared in seconds. The text was from Kellman, one of two teenage male witches who lived on the streets because they had no family and no coven.
The message was simple: SOS ... demon.
She took off running and punched up the GPS program Quinn had installed in her phone that would trace back a cell call to a location.
Please, please let the demon threat be the Cresyl's mate. For once in her life, let her be lucky ...
With fewer than ten demons seen in this region in a year, that was a good bet.
At the next intersection, she hung a left and pulled out her remote key, pressing it when she got within fifty feet of her motorcycle, a metallic gold Suzuki GSX-R. She adored her gixxer, which bolted down the highway like a bullet. The headlight flashed once, scaring away the vagrants huddled around the bike. She kinetically freed her full-face helmet from where it was hooked over the mirror on the handlebar and strapped it on as she straddled the bike, then fired up the engine.
Pulling away from the curb, she rolled on the throttle sharply. The front tire lifted off the ground for fifty feet.
In twelve minutes, she was cruising along Metropolitan Parkway. She turned onto the cross street indicated on her cell phone, drove a quarter mile and stopped in front of a brick building for a trucking firm that was closed on Sundays according to the schedule on the door. She listened for the boys above the low buzz of her engine.
Nothing.
But that being said, the air reeked of a distinct sulfur stench.
Strong. Vibrant. Deadly.
The smell of well-fed demons.
And inside were two scared kids....
TWO
Now that Evalle knew where the demon was hiding, she quickly parked. This wasn't the best place to leave a GSX-R after dark, but no one could steal the bike. Someone from Quinn's extensive network of contacts had warded the bike to prevent the engine from firing unless Evalle was sitting on the seat. It really paid to have friends with mad psychic skills.
The bike had to be within her energy field for the wheels to even turn. Go team.
She traded her helmet for the dark sunglasses and left on foot to hunt, picking her way toward the building. Silence followed in the wake of her soft steps, as if no threat lurked nearby.
She knew better.
The air stank of evil.
Her demon was here, and the dead quiet meant the Cresyl knew Evalle was here, too. Come get some ... Shadows whispered, stirring the hairs on her arms as she sensed a presence she couldn't find.
She stomped her boots, and blades shot out around the soles.
No underestimating her opponent this time.
The nasty sulfur stench grew stronger the closer she edged. A solid sign that she was on the right trail, but she hadn't heard a sound from the boys.
Please don't be demon Kibbles 'n Bits ...
Surely she'd gotten here in time. She couldn't stand the thought of something happening to the twins. The boys annoyed her at times, but they were like family to her.
No wonder they annoy me ...
She paused at an electric gate, which ran between the brick building and a long warehouse and closed off a wide driveway to the rear loading dock area.
She sized up the ambush potential.
Definitely a trap.
But who or what was the demon trying to catch? Kardos and Kellman were homeless teens no one cared about. No one but her and the Nightstalker Grady, who helped her keep tabs on the pair.
Using her telekinetics, she unlocked and lifted the gate so she could enter. She simultaneously sent out pulses that would interfere with any and all electronic surveillance or alarms the company had. As the gate moved, metal gears squeaked in protest, making her cringe, as it not only alerted the demons about her presence but also telegraphed her location.
Damn, why couldn't her telekinesis come with WD-40?
She froze for a second, waiting for them to pounce. After a few mad heartbeats, she started forward again.
When she reached the back lot, one security light above her head shed enough light for a human to easily navigate the enclosed area. Thirty-foot-long metal shipping containers were stacked along the far side.