But Cara didn’t just take from him. She gave—passion, trust, strength, power. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” And it wasn’t the demon’s business, anyway. “Forget about Cara. She’s not yours to worry about.”
Niol’s face hardened, his lips firming. “Cara is the only thing resembling a family that I have left in this world. Believe me, human, she most definitely is mine to worry about.”
Okay, now he was about to have to get real physical, real fast with the jerk. And to think, he’d promised himself he’d try to be the good cop tonight.
“I don’t know why she chose you,” Niol said, and his brow furrowed. “She could have anyone.”
Yeah, like he didn’t know that fact. But his goddess had chosen him, and he’d thank his lucky stars every day for the rest of his life.
A life he wanted to spend with her.
The realization was as shocking as it was sudden.
“I’ve got word of a few strays in the area.” Niol shrugged. “Nothing too dangerous from the accounts, but—”
Strays? Niol had used that word earlier and—Jesus, what were the demons, some kind of unwanted cats?
“My men will be bringing them soon.” Said with supreme confidence. “Then you can play your cop games with them, or you can just stand back, and I’ll get all the information you need.”
“I’ll question them.”
“If that’s what you want.” One shoulder lifted. “We’ll play it your way.”
Todd’s gaze returned to the empty bar. Cameron’s disappearance bothered him. So he had alibis and he didn’t have wounds, that should have put him in the clear but—
But Todd didn’t like the guy and he’d always felt that cold shiver of awareness when he was near the demon.
“How long have you known Cameron?” Todd asked as he paced toward the bar.
“Almost as long as I’ve known Cara.”
And that told him jackshit. “How long?”
“Why?”
Still no answer. Niol just couldn’t ever make things easy.
“Cara trusts him.” But she also trusted the demon beside him—not exactly a ringing endorsement. “I want to know why.”
Niol pulled up a bar stool. “Cameron’s still pretty young—particularly so for a sex demon.” His eyes swept the bar, lingered a moment on a couple swaying on the dance floor, then he glanced back at Todd. “Cameron’s mother left his father for a human, and, well, his father—Dominic—he wasn’t exactly the nurturing type.”
Well, well. McNeal had told him that during the interrogation, Cameron had been all too vocal about his disgust for humans.
Now he knew why.
“His mother raised him some, when Cameron wasn’t on the streets, but she had a new family to look out for.”
A family that didn’t include an angry young incubus.
“Cara found him one night. Brought him to me. We taught him the things he should have learned years before.”
He could see Cara doing that. Helping the other man. “Was this before or after her sister died?”
“Before. Cameron helped Cara after…” Niol clenched his right hand into a fist. “I wasn’t much good to her then. Cameron made sure she was all right.”
So he should be grateful to the demon, but he wasn’t.
Because his alarms were still shrieking in his ears.
“Damn it, when are your men gonna be here?” He wanted to get back to Cara. Needed to get back to her.
“Soon.” Niol’s black gaze flickered over him. “Relax, human. We’ll have your killer before the night’s over.”
Cara cut through the water, her eyes wide open, her arms moving in fast glides as her feet kicked in quick arches.
She broke the surface, drawing in a deep breath and gazing straight up at the starry night. She’d needed this, needed to wash away the horrors of the day and—
“I thought you liked to swim in the mornings.”
The voice had her spinning around, one hand lifting to her chest. Awareness came too late as the man stepped from the shadows.
Cameron stared down at her, the dim lighting from the patio lights flickering over his face. “You like the dawn, don’t you? You don’t usually swim at night.”
Her heart thumped against her chest. Hard. She ignored his question, saying, “Cameron? How did you get back here?” The patrol officers were right in front of her house, and no way would they have just let him stroll around and—
A brief bark of laughter. “Come on, Cara!” He shook his head, a smile flirting around the edges of his mouth. “I’m a demon. It’s not that hard for our kind to scale a fence.” His gaze flickered to the nine-foot privacy fence that walled in her property. “Even one like yours.”
Cara swam toward the ladder.
“The police picked me up today,” Cameron growled, smile vanishing as he watched her with eyes that didn’t blink. “Hauled me down to the station and that animal shifter questioned me.”
Her fingers closed over the ladder. The metal felt cool to the touch. She climbed up quickly and reached for her robe, not bothering with a towel as the chill in the night air swept over her skin.
“You don’t seem surprised.”
She belted the robe in a quick move. “I’m not.”
Anger swept over his face. “You’re the one who told them about me, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “Cameron, I had to! I had to tell Todd about any incubus I knew in the area. Someone’s out there killing humans, leaving them with the death brand on their chests.”
“And you think I’m that someone?” He shook his head. “Cara—I thought you knew me. Inside and out.”
Hurt was in his voice. “Cameron…” She stepped toward him.
He immediately moved back. “Do you think I’m that someone?”
His voice blasted her. Well, damn, shouldn’t the cops hear that? Her chin shot up. “It doesn’t matter what I think, don’t you see that? I knew of three incubi in the city—I had to tell Todd about them all! And if I hadn’t, someone else would have. The killings have to stop! I couldn’t just let—”
“I never told about you.” Almost whisper soft.
“Wh-what?” Her arms wrapped around her stomach as the wind seemed to chill even more. She’d been so warm in the water. But the night had taken a turn on her.
“Not a soul.” He raised a hand. Pointed his index finger at her. “I knew what you did to him, but I never told.”
Maybe it wasn’t the wind that was cold. Maybe the icy tendrils were coming from within her. “Told what, Cameron?”
“That you killed him.” Said so quietly, so sadly.
Cara tried taking another step toward him.
Cameron stiffened.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” she told him, and ignored the pang in her heart. She hadn’t, but it had been a damn near thing. “If you’re talking about Lance, he killed himself.”She didn’t see him move—the guy was on her in less than a second. His hands wrapped around her arms, fingers digging deep.
“Don’t lie to me! ” A snarl of rage. “You killed him. You seduced him, slipped into his mind, and then you killed him!”
“No, I didn’t—”
“He went to you that night. When his body was found, your scent was all over him.” He shook her once, hard. “I know what you did!” A vein bulged near his temple. His eyes blazed black.
Not so handsome right then.
“Let go of me.” Said calmly, but she wasn’t feeling calm. And if he didn’t get his hands off her—right fucking immediately—she was going to forget their friendship and show him just how dirty a succubus could fight.
His mouth snapped closed and he blinked. “Cara?”
“Let. Go.”
His hands dropped immediately. “I-I’m s-sorry—”
“How do you know?”
But Cameron just shook his dark head. The black began to fade from his eyes.
“How do you know,” she repeated again, swallowing and clenching her hands into fists, “that my scent was on him?”
“I went looking for him, after Nina died.” Grudging. His eyes were now as blank as glass. “I knew what you’d want to do to him—
”
“And how would you know that?” She demanded.
“Because I know you! You’ve been in my head, I’ve been in yours. I. Know. You.” A ragged exhalation of air. “And if she’d been my sister, I would have wanted to do the same thing.”
To make the killer pay. To scream. To beg.
To die.
“I was the one who found Lance’s body.” He backed away from her, began to pace along the edge of the pool. “I got there and caught the stench of death through the door.”
“If you were there, then you saw that it was suicide and—”
“People who kill themselves don’t have terror frozen on their faces, Cara! They don’t die with their eyes wide open and their mouths twisted into a scream!”
Her nails bit into her palms. She felt the wet trickle of blood easing over her flesh. “You’re saying—”
“Cut the crap! We both know Lance didn’t kill himself, and damn it, I never told what I knew! I never said a word to anyone about you killing him, and you turned and ratted me out to your lover the first chance you got.”
“I didn’t.” Said as softly as his words earlier had been. The wind caught her voice, carried it to him.
Cameron frowned. “You—you said you told him, that—”
“I did tell Todd.” And she would make that choice again. “But I swear to you on my sister’s grave that I did not kill Lance.” Truth time. The air she sucked in tasted bitter. “I was going to, but he got away from me. I wanted him dead, so badly—but I did not kill him.” If he hadn’t pulled that knife, she would have.
And she wouldn’t have regretted the action for a moment.
He stopped, stared at her. “No, no, you killed him because of what he did to—”
“I didn’t.” She held his stare, eyes direct.
His hand trembled as he rubbed his eyes. “But if you didn’t, who did?”
Niol watched the crowd as the humans and demons and God knew what else began to flow faster into Paradise Found.
There was a tension about him—a tightness around his mouth, a narrowing at his eyes—that worried Todd.
“Shouldn’t your men have been here by now?” Over an hour had passed since he’d arrived at the club.
Niol lifted a brow. “Strays probably didn’t want to come willingly.”
Yeah, he imagined they didn’t. “That won’t really matter to your men, will it?” Of course, they weren’t really men.
“It might slow ’em down a bit. Nothing too severe.” Niol’s shoulders stiffened then, and his head turned quickly toward the entrance. “Shit.”
A redhead stood just inside the door, her purse clutched tightly in her hand, and a very determined expression on her pretty face.
Wait a minute, that woman was—
The reporter. Holly Storm.
“Told ’em not to let her kind in.”
“Her kind?” Was the lady Other, too?
“Reporters.” Niol spat the word. “As if they ever know what the hell they’re reporting.”
Holly’s gaze swept across the room. Locked on the bar. On them. Then she started marching forward.
The tension rolling off Niol seemed to double.
No way. The demon couldn’t be scared of Holly Storm.
She stopped in front of them. Kept her eyes on Niol. “I want to talk to you.”
He smiled at her then, more a baring of his teeth. “Looks like that’s what you’re doing.”
Her cheeks flushed a bit, and her eyes darted to Todd. “Detective, what are you doing here?”
He tapped his fingers on the bar. “My favorite singer performs here.”
“Bull.” Her small nostrils flared. “You’re just like he is, aren’t you? Well, fair warning, I’m going live with this story. It’s time the world finds out the truth about—”
Niol laughed. Hard.
Holly Storm glared even harder.
“I’ve got proof, you know. I’ve been following this Bondage case every minute. I know the killer isn’t human. He’s some kind of demon—like you—and he’s sucking the life right out of his victims. He used that woman, Susan Dobbs, that he met here to trap them and—”
Todd jumped to his feet. “What the hell did you just say?”
Holly’s mouth hung wide open. She clamped it closed and tossed him a hard stare.
“What did you just say?” He demanded, patience gone—well, it had never really been there.
“You already know this—”
He sure as hell hadn’t known that Susan and the incubus had met at Paradise. Todd growled.
Holly started talking again, fast. “I got sources— Other sources—that place Susan here as a regular about four or five months back. She was coming in here plenty, until he”—she glowered at Niol—“gave a standing order that she wasn’t allowed on the premises.”
What would it feel like to break a demon’s neck? Todd wondered as he eyed Niol and clenched his teeth. “You didn’t mention that Susan was a visitor here.” And the detective who’d been assigned the task of tracking Susan’s connections to the case—Flint, a guy who’d been transferred up from Narcotics less than a year ago—was going straight to the top of his shit list.