“What did that demon try to do with you?” she asked finally. “I mean, was it really going to—”
“Kill me? Yeah.” Kat had fought with everything she had to keep his protective shield up, but despite all his warnings to Annika, Creed found it very hard to keep his mind free of thoughts of her. Right now, she was his main vulnerability. “Hey—thanks for trying to save my life.”
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or if her cheeks pinked slightly before she asked, “Are you ready to move?”
“Ready.”
“Good.” Ani took the lead up the stairs, calling, “All clear,” when she reached the top of the landing. “Well, of humans, anyway,” she said with a shrug.
“We're clear of demons on this level—Kat's worked her magic,” Creed told her and Kat crowed triumphantly in his ear. “Bender's definitely in the third floor—along with two of the stronger demons.”
“What does it feel like, when the demons are fighting with you?” she asked. “Is it like when the demon got inside me?”
“A little, I guess. Only they don’t get inside me. The only way I can really describe it is that we fight with our minds clashing together. Hurts like a mother.”
She nodded and started to walk but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Sometimes it's worse than others. Adrenaline kicks in—that helps. I'd imagine it's not much different than when you're fighting.”
She nodded. “Sounds it.”
“Ready to go up?” he asked and she hesitated. And he'd never seen her do that before. Typically, she needed to be held back, as she had a tendency to go balls to the wall, zero to one hundred, without listening to anyone. “What's got you shaken about this guy? I thought this guy was standard issue, jack of all trades, slimeball. Nothing you haven't dealt with before.”
He waited for her to turn on him, to get pissed and tell him she wasn't scared of anyone or anything in this world. But that didn't happen.
Instead, she stiffened and her eyes glittered with a harsh flash. “He traffics children.”
Creed felt his body go cold—even Kat stopped her screeching for a second to listen. “What?”
“He finds the right kid for the highest bidder—for adoption or sex or whatever the hell use someone would want a kid illegally for. Sometimes, it's just for someone who gets off on torturing and killing them.”
He nodded, waiting for her to tell him more. Because yeah, that was one sick dude, but for Ani to get this worked up, there had to be something more behind it. “You're so angry about this.”
“Damned right I'm angry. This bastard—he hurt children. No one has the right to hurt children.”
He hadn't even seen Ani...emotional. Not like this. From the little he knew of her background, her own childhood hadn't been particularly easy—or even much of a childhood at all.
No, Ani had appeared to be born a trained operative and soldier. In a way, they'd both been born into their current professions, with little choice in the matter.
But he'd had a semi-normal life growing up. Adoptive parents who loved him. Accepted him, tattoos, spirit guide and all.
Whatever Ani had lost out on, the demons were sensing. Using against her.
He couldn't let that happen, even if it meant sacrificing himself. “Ani.”
But she stood, stiff as a board, eyes screwed tightly shut, hands fisted at her sides. And then she started shaking her head back and forth, murmuring, no, no, no, over and over as if trying to block out information she was hearing.
“Bender...no...no goddamned way,” she whispered and he didn't like the shock that clouded her blue eyes.
“Annika—”
“Oh my God,” she rasped. “Bender found me. That’s how the CIA knew where to find my mother. He's the one who targeted me, sold my location to the CIA so they could kill my mother and take me from my family. I was just a toddler and this bastard is the one responsible for it.” Her body shook with rage and anger and the house—and the demons—responded to those emotions. They could bore their way into her brain easily now that her defenses were shaken.
They could possess her and then he'd have a hell of a time stopping her. But by god, he wanted to race up the stairs right now and strangle Bender with his fucking bare hands for stealing Ani from her parents—from stealing her sense of peace.
“Do something,” Kat yelled at him.
“They're talking to me,” Annika whispered, put her hands over her ears and shook her head and that wasn't going to do her any good. “God, I wish they'd shut up.”
“Stop listening.”
“I'm trying, Creed. But they're telling me things—horrible things. I can almost hear those kids screaming as they're hurt.”
He grabbed her and kissed her hard. Deep. A kiss designed to make him think of nothing but her touch and instead of giving her permission to the demons, she was offering herself to him, pressing herself to his body, drinking him in.
It locked her mind to his completely—and when she was kissing him, she was happy. She was damned happy. And even with the lightning and hail slamming the house so badly the floorboards shook under their feet, Creed wanted her.
And nothing—not even demons—would stop it.
He tried to tell himself it was for the good of the mission—and it was—but that's not why. He wanted the curve of her breast in his hand, wanted to tug her taut nipple between his teeth, to fill her with his cock until she lost complete control and let the electricity sizzle between them, bringing both of them to screaming orgasm.
Yeah, he could come just thinking about it. And judging by the way Ani wrapped herself around him, she was pretty damned happy herself.
“Not the time, Creed,” Kat admonished.
But it was exactly the right time. And he ignored Kat, who finally left them alone to deal with the hell breaking lose around them.
He would deal with Ani, who clung to him as if needing him to make everything right. He pushed her against the wall, spreading his legs to gain balance while her hands moved between them to stroke him through his leather pants.
He moved her shirt up to mouth a nipple, the electricity strumming through her and catching on his tongue piercing, creating an incredible, mind-bending buzz that had her calling out his name and wrapping her legs around him.
The house went completely dark around them as his mouth met hers again.
Chapter Four
God, this was crazy. A hot rush. Danger was definitely an aphrodisiac. And as Creed's hands roamed over all Annika's sensitive places, triggering a rush of liquid need, she barely found the presence of mind to flip the safety on her pistol.
“Creed...” His name was little more than a moan against his lips. “We can't. Not...now. We'll be vulnerable.”
“Shh.” His hands tore at her jeans. “Your mind is vulnerable already. Focus on me, Annika. Focus on me.”
“But—” She broke off as horrible images broke into her brain, scenes from the horror movie that was Michael Bender. The things he'd done, the people he'd hurt...including the grandparents she'd never known, because he'd tortured them to learn where Annika's mother had taken her. Once he discovered 2-year-old Annika's location, he'd given the CIA the information they'd paid for, and then he'd moved on to another evil deed, this one involving bombs and American lives overseas.
“Hey!” Creed's voice, urgent and demanding, pierced the veil of horror and competed with the dark whispers that were telling her awful things. “Stay with me. We're stronger together. We need to keep busy while Kat's doing her work.”
Creed kissed her fiercely, driving his tongue against hers and forcing her attention. Boy, he got it, and as he kissed his way along her jaw and neck, her thoughts began to clear and fill with only the here and now. With only Creed.
Before she knew it, her pants were down with one leg freed, Creed's fly was open, and he was filling her body as well as her mind. He cupped her butt and lifted her, and with a groan, she wrapped her legs around his waist a
nd welcomed him as he pinned her to the wall.
“You're so beautiful,” he whispered, and his voice, so raw and ragged, sent a ripple of pleasure from her heart to her core. Heat licked at her with each thrust, and tension built quickly, like the storm outside.
Amazing. Oh, damn, this was good. She'd never liked being touched, but Creed's hands and lips were magic as they caressed her skin and lips. A gasp escaped her when he changed his rhythm and ground his hips, and then another fell from her mouth when she met his gaze and saw the hunger and possession flashing there.
This would be trouble later, she knew, but right now she didn't care. Her skin sizzled and her core clenched around him, and when the storm outside reached its peak in an explosion of light and sound, she joined it. With a scream, she bucked against Creed and let loose a blast of energy that would have killed anyone else. But his big body buffered her spasms and her shock of electricity, and as if her climax was a trigger, his took him hard. He shouted her name and pumped into her mercilessly, and she loved every second of it. She especially loved how he threw his head back in pleasure, his neck muscles straining, his teeth bared in masculine ecstasy.
In the flickering light from the storm, his tattoos writhed and his piercings sparked, turning him into a wild, fierce warrior who could have stepped out of a medieval battle. God, it was sexy.
With a ragged groan, he collapsed against her. “Damn,” he whispered.
“Yeah.” She dropped her feet to the floor, and he caught her when her knees buckled. Mumbling thanks, she slipped to the side and out of his grip to pull up her pants.
She was still holding her pistol. Talk about safe sex...
“Hey.” She glanced around the room, which was actually just a huge landing that led to the attic. “The voices are gone.”
“Told you.” Creed shot her a cocky, lopsided grin as he buttoned up.
She snorted. “You really will do anything to get in my pants, won't you? 'Hey, babe, screw me or you'll be possessed by demons.' Does that really work with women?”
He winked at her. “Worked with you, didn't it?”
Annika punched him in the shoulder. Hard. Oh, she knew he was kidding, but he deserved it anyway. Mainly because what he'd done had earned her gratitude—and her respect—and dammit, she didn't need to be softening toward him at all.
Ruthlessly, she shifted into mission-mode. “So what now? Obviously, Kat handled the demons.”
“Now,” he said, sobering so fast her gut twisted, “we have to kill Bender and rescue Kat.”
“What do you mean, rescue her?”
He scowled as he stared up the dark staircase that led to the attic. “She fought the demons to get them away from us, but they have her. Up there. With Bender.”
Annika definitely did not like Creed's ghost tagalong, but she was part of him, and she'd just sacrificed herself to keep them safe.
“Okay, then,” she said, flipping the safety off her pistol, “since Bender loves those demons so much, let's send him to hell to be with them.”
* * *
Annika didn't bother with stealth as she mounted the stairs to the attic. Bender knew she and Creed were coming, so there was no point in wasting energy.
But that didn't mean she wasn't cautious. Moving carefully, crouching with her gun drawn, she eased through the doorway, Creed on her heels. He had that intense look in his eyes again, and she knew he was either communicating with Kat or doing something to handle the demons. Whatever he was doing, it kept the path clear for her to get to Bender, and that was all that mattered.
Leaving Creed at the door, Annika eased behind an antique wardrobe. A flash of movement in her peripheral vision alerted her to trouble a split second before the bullet punched into the wood. Pivoting on the balls of her feet, she returned fire, and the muffled grunt told her she'd hit her mark. Score.
“Be careful,” Creed whispered, as she started toward the corner where Bender had gone down. “I'm—shit!” His head rocked back like he'd been struck, and then he was launching himself at something she couldn't see.
“Dammit, Creed! What can I do?”
“Nothing!” he snarled. “Go!”
She hated feeling helpless, but he began to chant and hurl salt at a shimmering mass of air, and yeah, that was his battle. After casting one last, regretful glance back at him, she crept toward Bender. The guy was so going to pay for every evil thing he'd done.
She darted between two furniture boxes, feeling oddly like she was being followed. Suddenly, pain, ripped into her side. She whirled around, but nothing was there. Nothing but claw marks in her shirt and skin.
“Hurry up, Creed,” she muttered. Ignoring the stinging cuts, she cleared the boxes, dropped to one knee, and fired at the human crouching on the floor. Bender dove behind a dusty desk, and her bullet only grazed his hip. Before he could recover, she fired again, but once more, an invisible force struck at her, this time snagging her arm and sending her pistol flying.
Bender took immediate advantage and charged her. His shoulder rammed her chest with the force of a damned truck. They tumbled to the floor, and oh, this asshole was so dead. She fired up her electric talent and...nothing.
Bender's fist cracked into her cheek. “You are going to die in a storm of pain, you little bitch!” Hatred flashed in his eyes as he hit her again, harder, and agony spiderwebbed through her face. “Kill the male,” he screamed, and Annika's stomach wrenched at the sound of Creed's grunt of pain and the crash of glass and breaking wood.
The edges of Annika's vision blurred from both fear for Creed and blood from Bender's knuckles that splashed in her eyes. He was bigger and stronger, and without her killing power, she was seriously compromised.
But she wasn't at a disadvantage.
Annika had been raised to kill, had cut her teeth on knives, and was hitting bull’s-eyes with crossbows and small firearms at the age of six.
Bender was going down.
In a quick, smooth motion, she rocked her legs up and kicked the sonofabitch in the side of the head. He bit out a curse that cut off when she hit him on the other side. Off balance, he rocked backward, leaving her the opening she needed.
Three hard hits to his nose, throat, and mouth knocked him off her, and she pounced. She drove her knee into his gut, and when he gasped, she jabbed her knuckles into his windpipe again. His eyes bugged out as he clawed at his ruined throat, desperate for air.
Oh, she wanted to make him suffer, but the sounds of Creed battling creepy, screeching things prodded her into action. She flipped Bender, dropped to her knees in the small of his back, and then, with cold deliberation, twisted his head sharply to the right and broke the bastard's neck.
She didn't waste time savoring her victory. Not when Creed was still fighting. “Creed?”
“They're weakened!” he shouted. “Just another second—”
She didn't hear the rest. A massive pressure slammed down on her head, and all went black.
* * *
Creed was fighting for his life, was vaguely aware that Ani had killed Bender. Broken his neck and yeah, somewhere in the periphery of his mind, he remembered why he never wanted to piss her off.
Ani...she was down. But before he could help her, he had to help himself. Right now, he couldn't even speak, no matter how hard he tried and although he'd stopped one of the demons, the strongest was still active—controlling Kat and now controlling Creed as well, at least partially.
It wasn't the first time he'd felt Kat's fear, but it was definitely one of the strongest vibes she'd ever given off.
She'd called his name as he cleared the landing. The attic was unfurnished—old and dusty, with Bender now lying dead in the middle of what Creed thought was a reverse circle of protection, a demon version of a safety spell against humans.
Kat had broken that circle, but in the process, she'd become the demon's hostage.
Bastard. “You let her go.”
“She's ours.”
“Creed, the
y're so strong,” Kat told him.
Something clawed down his back, a ferocious headache hit him and it was like inhaling fumes of fire when he attempted to breathe. He went down on all fours, thanks to the heavy handed pressure and he began to crawl toward Ani.
But one of the demons dragged him back. It was time to end this shit.
A handful of salt thrown over his shoulder and he heard a hiss and a howl, smelled something burning and he'd singed one of the bastards. But it wasn't enough.
With his eyes screwed tightly shut, he allowed himself to go into the trance, the one where he chanted in strange tongues and he was pretty sure that more spirits than just Kat moved through him. But they'd always been benevolent and had never asked him to host them when his jobs were done.
“Kat needs all of you—please,” he heard himself say and felt the jolt as spirits traveled through him. He heard Kat's wails—first of pain and then her triumphant yell of freedom.
There was a squeal, like two cats fighting and then the demon materialized over Ani. It was looking down, rubbing it's hoofed hands together, like it had picked her for a meal. Or worse.
He was about to jump when Kat went flying at it. She was a tiny spirit, but like Ani, she was hell on wheels.
“No one fucks with me,” she told the demon. And then she proceeded to show him why, using an enchantment spell that she'd never revealed to Creed.
“Now Creed—throw the salt.”
His did, nearly gagged at the stench the burning apparition left behind on the fast track to hell. And then he ran over to Annika, who hadn't moved from where she'd been knocked down.
“Ani, please...please be okay.” He'd turned her over and checked her pulse. Fast, but that was normal for her. Her color was all right—a little pale, but her eyes weren't opening.
“Bring her downstairs. Get her out of the house,” Kat told him, and he didn't have time to wonder why the hell she was being so nice about a woman he liked. He simply followed Kat's directions, moving down two sets of stairs and kicking open the massive front doors.
The sun had burst forth over the house—the grass was still wet but Creed knelt there anyway, with Annika still in his arms. And then, without thinking, he brought his mouth down on hers and he kissed her. Gently. Then his lips moved to her neck and he held his lips there for a few minutes, until he she began to rouse.