This one was dangerous. Much, much more dangerous than the last demon.
She had to point out, “Demons lie well, you know. And they can get humans to lie for them, too. A simple suggestion, the magic of an incubi’s hypnosis—people would back up his alibi even if they didn’t know who he was.”
“Working these cases can be a bitch,” McNeal grumbled, rubbing a tired hand over his face. “And, yeah, Doc, I know, if they’re strong enough, demons can make the whole world lie for ’em.”
Colin continued to grill the ADA about the alibis, asking question after question, and Jody never even came close to breaking a sweat as he replied.
“Shit.” McNeal ground his back teeth together. “Where’s the last asshole?”
Cameron Komak sprawled back in his chair. His face was hard with anger, belying his easy pose, and the eyes that locked on Colin’s were narrowed.
“Where’s your partner?” Cameron demanded.
“Doesn’t matter.” Colin stalked across the room. “You’ll be dealing with me today.”
Cameron leaned forward, eyes assessing, and after a moment, a wide grin broke across his face. “Good. I’m tired of those fucking humans.”
Colin never changed expression. “Wanna run that by me again?”
The demon rolled his eyes. “Come on, I know you aren’t like them. I’ve known from the first night when you came in with the sexy little Monster Doctor.” He glanced knowingly toward the mirror. “She’s watching me, isn’t she? I can feel her.”
The beast Colin carried roared to life. He clenched his hands—the better to leash the urge to punch the demon.
A laugh, high and grating, burst from Cameron’s lips. “Ah, man, come on, I mean—you know what I am, right? If you didn’t, well, you wouldn’t be in here with me. One of them”—disgust laced the word—“would be.”
Okay. So the guy wanted to play it with gloves off. Fine with Colin. “You don’t like… them…too much do you?” His voice was without any inflection. Not good cop, not bad.
Not yet.
“They’re weak.” Cameron’s lips twisted with distaste. “And they don’t even know it. They go around, acting like they rule this damn world—and they don’t even have a clue what’s really happening.”
“Or who is really running the show,” Colin finished softly.
“Right! Yeah, that’s right. They don’t know.” He nodded quickly, dark hair glinting under the light. “They think they’re the smartest, the strongest things ever put on the earth.” A hard exhalation of air. “They’re dead wrong.”
“Hmm.” Colin pulled out the photos of Michael House, Travis Walters, and Simon Battle. “And sometimes they’re just dead.”
Cameron shot back in his chair. “What the hell?” His eyes almost doubled in size as he stared, almost helplessly, at the dead men.
“You hate them, don’t you?” Soft voice, no pressure. Colin just watched the demon, and waited.
“I don’t even know these guys!” Cameron shoved the photos away. “Is this why I’m here? You think I had something to do with those stiffs?”
“Humans,” Colin drawled out the word, deliberately not answering Cameron’s questions. “You hate all of them, don’t you?”
The demon blinked. “Don’t hate ’em,” he said slowly. “Just don’t really care about ’em at all—”
“So you don’t care that these men are dead?”
“I don’t know them!” His fist slammed onto the table.
Ah, so Cameron had a temper.
And an obvious dislike of humans.
But did he hate them enough to kill?
Colin shifted gears, fast, needing to keep his suspect off balance. “What about Cara Maloan? Just how do you feel about her?”
His lips parted. “Cara? What—”
“How do you feel about her?” Colin pressed.
“I’ve known her for years. She’s like—like a sister to me.” Real worry appeared on Cameron’s face. “Is she okay? Has something happened to Cara? Hell, I knew she shouldn’t be dating that cop friend of yours! I knew it would be trouble—”
“Why?” Still soft.
Cameron swallowed. “Because humans and demons don’t mix. Humans can’t know anything but fear when they’re with us. They aren’t strong enough for more.”
Colin thought of his Emily, and one word immediately sprang to mind. Bullshit.
“He’ll hurt her.” A fierce shake of his head. “I’ve seen it happen before. He’ll take everything she has to give, then he’ll destroy her.”
As Cara’s sister had been destroyed?
“Humans are weak, ” Cameron repeated. “They can’t be trusted.”
“So they just need to be killed?”
“No!” Cameron shot to his feet. “Damn it, stop putting words in my mouth! I never said—”
“Why did you think you were brought down here today?” Another rapid-fire question shift.
A blink from the demon. “I-I…don’t know. Thought that Brooks bastard was trying to start trouble for me—”
“Why?”
“Cause he’s always in Paradise, and the guy knows he’s not wanted there. Not by Niol, not by me—”
“But he is wanted by Cara.”
Cameron’s mouth snapped closed. The handsome face turned almost ugly for a moment. “He’s what she wants… now.”
“Ah, so you don’t think that…wanting will last?”
“Not for Cara.” Absolutely certain. Then his gaze sharpened. “Wait, you never said—is Cara okay? Is she? Or has that asshole cop done something to—”
“She’s fine.”
His shoulders relaxed.
Colin’s gaze raked over the demon’s body. “I need you to lift up your shirt for me, Cameron.” It was the same request he’d made to the last two demons. Right after they’d finished their explanations and alibis.
He wasn’t going to wait for the alibi spin with this guy—he was ready to cut to the chase with old Cameron. No sense listening to false stories from this guy when a simple test would tell the truth about him.
Susan Dobbs had fought like a wildcat. Her knife had found its mark over and over on her killer. And, yeah, demons healed fast, but an incubus wasn’t a level-ten, and it would take time—a hell of a lot longer than twenty-four hours–for the wounds to heal.
If Cameron had killed Susan, the marks would still be on his flesh.
Flesh that was currently hidden by a dark shirt, a shirt buttoned all the way to the demon’s neck, and with long, thick sleeves that covered his arms and fastened at his wrists.
Cameron smirked. “Sorry, man, I don’t swing that way.”
Colin stared back at him until the little bastard lost his grin. Then he said, “Two ways to do this, demon. You can willingly take off your shirt—or I can take it off for you.”
The demon’s eyes darted to the mirror. “You can’t do that! That’s not legal!”Yeah, the ADA had said pretty much the same thing, but…Colin let a smile shape his lips, one that showed the tips of his lengthening canines. “I don’t really care about legal now. I just wanna stop the killing.” Human laws weren’t going to apply to this…situation.
Cameron’s gaze darted to Colin’s teeth. “Ah, shit, shifter.”
His smile widened.
“Thought you might be a charmer, hadn’t pegged you for one of those animals.” His hands went to the bottom of the shirt, and he jerked the material up, fast.
Revealing a completely unmarred stomach and chest.
Just like the flesh of the other two demons.
Well, damn.
“Satisfied?” Cameron snapped, and Colin saw the faint tremble in his hands.
“No.” The wounds could have been to the killer’s arms. Defensive wounds that were deep, and bled like a stuck pig. “Show me your arms.”
A curse. Muttering. Todd yanked the shirt down, fumbled with the buttons at his wrists and finally managed to push up the sleeves.
Not even a scratch, on either arm.
“Now are you satisfied?”
Colin shook his head. Of the three demons, he sure as hell would have pegged this guy as the killer.
But it looked like there was another incubus out there in the city. Hiding in the dark, and killing at will.
And playing one deadly cat-and-mouse game with his partner’s lover.
“I’ll be satisfied,” Colin said clearly, “when you give me your alibis for the murders.” Then he sat down and pulled out his notebook and a pen.
“What? Shifter, damn it, I don’t even know when those humans died!” He tugged his sleeves into place.
“You will.” Colin tapped his pen against the table. “Now let’s start with the first victim, Simon Battle.”
McNeal looked like he was about to start screaming. His face had flushed beet red, and Emily could actually hear the sound of his teeth grinding together.
“Back to square one,” he gritted. “Damn, but I hope Brooks and his demon have better luck with Niol.”
Then he turned on his heel and stalked from the room.
Emily turned her gaze back to her lover, her brows pulling down into a frown.
Maybe it was just the demon’s distaste for humans that had her stomach clenching. There had been such anger in him when he raged at Colin, and she’d been around Cameron before—actually, she’d known him for years—but she’d never felt that fury from him.
He’d always been seductive. A flirt. She’d known he was an incubus, of course, it would have been impossible for her not to know, but the rage in him—
It was new.
And that scared her.
Jesus, but when had he started to hate with such a consuming fury?
That much hatred, if it wasn’t faced and fought, soon, it could destroy a man…or a demon.
Chapter 16
Time to face the devil.
When night fell, as the shadows stretched over the city and seemed to swallow the light in their hungry grasp, Todd returned to Paradise and to face his own personal demon.
The guards were at the door this time. He tensed when he saw them, more than ready to deal with their shit.
He’d been briefed by the captain. Their top three suspects appeared to be in the clear. That meant, as McNeal had told him,
“We’re back to jackshit with this case.”
He needed a break, and Niol was going to give it to him.
“Don’t mess with me tonight,” he warned, voice cold. Cara wasn’t with him. He’d dropped her off at her place, despite his lady’s vehement and loud protests. But he didn’t want her involved in the danger, superhuman powers or not.
The woman was his, and the way Todd saw it, as a cop, and as a man, he was supposed to do his damnedest to protect her.
Tall and Scary opened the door for him. “Not stopping you this time,” he told Todd. “Boss wants to see you.”
Todd grunted and shouldered past him. It was still early enough that the place wasn’t packed. A few folks had wandered in, and Todd thought he caught the glimpse of fang as one guy turned away from him, but the club appeared mostly empty.
His gaze darted toward the bar.
“He’s not here tonight.” Niol’s voice, coming from right behind him.
Christ. Todd spun around. Met those dark eyes. “Where is he?”
“I was going to ask you the same question, Detective.” Niol cocked his head. “Did your partner decide to arrest my bartender?”
“No.” No sense lying—and where was Cameron, anyway? “He’s clear.” The guy had provided Colin with alibis for the murders.
The bastard said he’d been tending bar, and at least four people had already confirmed his story. Sure, the witnesses were humans, so they could have been hypnotized by the demon, but Colin had also told him that the bartender didn’t have so much as a scratch on his body—and there was no way the guy could have covered the knife wounds.
It looked like the asshole bartender was off the hook.
“He’s clear? Hmm. Interesting.” But no interest showed in Niol’s shuttered expression. “Cameron didn’t check in for his shift.
Should have been here at least half an hour ago.”
The hair on Todd’s nape rose. “The captain told me he left the precinct just before six.” So where was he? His heart rate kicked up, but Todd drew in a deep breath in an attempt to keep his control.
Cara was okay. While she’d still refused the safe house, she’d finally agreed to accept guards. Grudgingly agreed and just to
“satisfy you,” as she’d said. A patrol car was stationed right in front of her house.
Nothing was going to happen to her.
Besides, Cameron had been cleared. He was an annoyance.
Not a killer.
But something was pushing his body into alert mode.
Was it Niol? Or someone, something else? “What did you find out?” He demanded, wanting to get his information and get the hell out of there. His skin was prickling, and he wanted to see Cara again.
God, but the woman was always in his mind. Awake. Asleep. Her smell was on his skin. Her taste in his mouth.
He swallowed.
Niol shook his head. “You’re addicted, you know.”
Not the answer he needed. “What?”
“It can happen. The lure of a succubus is strong. She won’t just take your heart. She’ll take your soul, and you’ll want her so much, you’ll stop caring about the pain when she takes and takes.”