Her shoulders fell. That was as close to a confession as Niol was ever going to give, and she knew that he spoke the truth.
After her confrontation with Lance, she’d known that the man would come after her. As soon as he’d gotten his control back, yeah, she’d figured he would come gunning for her. There’d been so much fury in his eyes.
As much fury as she’d had.
In her heart, when she’d heard the news of his death, she’d always suspected Niol. She knew that he cared for Nina—knew that the bond he felt hadn’t disappeared when the two had parted ways.
And Niol was a man long used to the power of vengeance.
She’d suspected, but she’d never spoken of the crime to him.
Now, she knew everything. Well, almost. Niol had killed to make certain she was safe, and Cameron . . . “I-I thought—” She cleared her throat. “When Cameron said that he’d been there and caught my scent, I didn’t understand. Didn’t know what to think.” The certainty she’d felt before about Lance’s death had become a confused blur. “I never knew that Cameron was at Lance’s place that night, and if he’d been there—well, I thought maybe he’d been the one to kill Lance.”
Slowly, she uncurled her fists. “I guess—I guess Cam was there—trying to protect me, too, huh? But he just arrived too late—”
“I think he arrived too late, all right.” Niol’s eyes blazed with a dark fire.
Cara felt the power swell in the air around them. Her breath caught. “Niol?”
“Did he think it was you, Cara? Did Cameron think you killed Lance?”
She could only nod.
“Fuck.”
The chill she’d felt back at her home iced her veins again. “Niol—what is it?” What was she missing? What—
He pushed her to the side, yanked open the door. “Brooks! Brooks!”
But her cop didn’t answer.
And that numbing cold spread within her.
The alley was empty. Impossible. Todd tracked his gaze to the left, then the right.
The incubus had to be there. Cameron had exited barely ten seconds before him—and no way was he buying that the guy was powerful enough to just vanish.
A whisper of sound. Fabric. Clothes? From up ahead, near the Dumpster.
Instinct had him reaching for his gun even as he called out, “Cameron Komak, is that you?”
Silence.
The gun was heavy in his hands, a weight he’d grown used to years before. The weapon was up, pointed into the darkness. Just in case the guy hiding wasn’t the incubus he was after, he said, “Listen up! I’m an officer with the Atlanta PD. I want you to come out now, where I can see you.” Shit, but it was dark. He caught the fast scuttle of bugs as he advanced. “I said, come out.” Where were the two officers who’d been trailing Cara? He sure could have used some back up right then.
Every nerve in his body revved up, and with his instincts screaming danger, Todd was definitely on full alert.
So when Cameron stepped from the shadows, a smile on his face and his hands up, the gun never wavered.
“What do you want now, cop? Your partner’s already cleared me.”
Not really. Gyth had told him that he was suspicious as hell of the three incubi he’d interviewed, but since the guys didn’t have any wounds to match the injuries Susan had given her attacker ...
“Can’t a guy just take a piss anymore without the cops getting called in?” Cameron drawled and began to lower his hands.
“Don’t move.”
The smile widened. “I saw your lady earlier. Cara sure looks good when she’s barely dressed, doesn’t she?”
A flash of fire heated his veins. Cara had been frightened. He’d seen the fear in her eyes.
Had she been afraid of Cameron?
“What did you do to her?” he demanded.
“Not a thing.” He rocked back on his heels. Shadows fell over his body, concealing too much. “Where is Cara? Shouldn’t she be with you, right by her lover’s side?”
Todd’s hold on the gun tightened.
Cameron laughed. “Ah, I see. She didn’t run to you, did she? After our talk, she went to . . . him. I always wondered about them, you know. Was Niol really in love with Nina? Or was it Cara all the time?”
The bastard was trying to push his buttons. “I want you to step out of the shadows and come fully into the light.” The guy’s hands were clearly visible, and he wasn’t holding a weapon, but Todd knew a threat when he saw one.
“How does it feel to know that when the chips are down, Cara turns to him instead of you?”
The bastard’s shitty mind games weren’t going to work with him. “Step into the light.”
“If that’s what you want . . .”
Cameron stepped forward.
The back door of Paradise Found shot open and slammed against the side of the building.
“Todd!”
His head jerked at Cara’s cry.
“Get away from him!” Niol’s order blasted through the night.
Cameron turned to run.
What the hell? Todd’s gaze snapped back to him as he sprang forward. “Freeze! Damn it, don’t you—”
A woman stepped into the mouth of the alley. For a moment, the streetlight fell over the fire of her hair.
Todd’s lips parted to shout a warning.
Cameron barreled into her and knocked her onto the ground. Their bodies tangled, twisted.
Todd rushed toward them, Cara and Niol on his heels and—
The incubus rose with a sneer on his lips and his arms tight around Holly Storm. One hand locked around her neck, the other rose around her waist, so that his fingers pressed right against the middle of her chest. “Don’t take another step,” he snarled.
In that moment, Todd knew that things had just taken a serious shit turn. He froze, but didn’t lower his weapon so much as an inch. “Cameron, I don’t know what’s gotten you so upset, but you just need to calm down. I only want to talk to you. Let go of the woman and let’s go back inside.” He pitched his voice low, tried to sound soothing. A hard task with alarms shrieking in his head.
The incubus shook his head. Holly twisted against him, struggling, cursing, but he easily held her prisoner.
Too easily, and with that damn demon strength of his, Todd knew that Cameron could snap her neck long before he’d be able to reach the reporter.
Hell. Hadn’t he told the woman to go home? Why couldn’t anyone take a simple order anymore?
The soft tap of a footstep had his eyes widening. He saw Cameron’s gaze fly to the left.
To Cara.
Oh, no damn way was he about to risk her. “Go inside, Cara. Go inside, now.”
“Stay, Cara!” Cameron’s scream of fury. “After all, this is all about you.”
Aw, fuck.
Todd looked into Cameron’s black eyes and saw madness. Fury. Hate.
Love.
All directed at Cara.
Shit. He’d seen that same look before—in the eyes of men who’d murdered their girlfriends. Men who’d slaughtered their wives. Their whole damn families.
He was staring at a killer.
A killer too fixated on Cara.
The signs had pointed to the obsession from the beginning. He just hadn’t figured out the case fast enough.
No, the incubus wasn’t clear in the Bondage Killings—he was guilty as hell.
Todd took a step toward Cara.
“Stay away from her!” A shriek of fury.
Todd froze. This bastard’s past control. He knew he had to distract him—no way did he want Komak focusing on Cara right then. “How’d you do it?” he asked, still keeping his voice easy while rage and fear pumped through his blood in a boiling mix. “How’d you fool Gyth? You should have been covered with knife wounds and—”
Cameron laughed. Laughed. Then bent to press his nose into Holly’s hair.
Her struggles stilled, as if the woman finally understood just how much danger
she was in. About time.
“It’s them.” He inhaled slowly, as if savoring her scent. “I never knew how much power humans had.”
“Cameron, no . . .” Cara. Horrified. Disbelieving.
“When you take everything from them, the fucking rush is unbelievable.” He turned his head, smiled. Madness. “I’m stronger now. So much more damn powerful.” Another laugh, one that floated on the wind and twisted the air. “And I can heal ten times faster than before.”
So fast there hadn’t been a trace of the wounds on him. But Niol had said the guy was sick that morning. He hadn’t fully recovered by then, but—
But he had by the time Gyth found him and hauled his ass into the station.
Shit.
“Cara isn’t the one you want.” Niol’s voice and damn if the demon didn’t just saunter forward from the darkness. No weapon, well, hell, Todd guessed that wasn’t totally true. If he really was a level-ten, then Todd figured the guy’s powers were all the weapon he needed. Niol stopped just to Todd’s right, standing nearly shoulder to shoulder with him.
Just what I need, the devil for backup.
The incubus blinked. Shook his head. “Thought it was ... her.” His voice was slower now, a bit confused. “For years ... thought she’d done it.”
“Done what, Cameron?” Maybe if he lunged forward fast enough, he’d be able to break the demon’s hold and free Holly. Unlikely, considering how strong the guy was, but if he caught him off guard—
“I thought ... she killed ... my brother.”
Snap. The last puzzle piece fell into place. Much too late.
Niol had told him, but he hadn’t fully understood . . . “Cameron’s mother left his father for a human.”
“. . . she had a new family to look out for . . .”
The words played through his head, too loud.
Todd would bet that new family included a brand spanking new human brother named—
“Lance.” Cara breathed the name. “You—you’re the one who told him how to kill Nina!” The agony in her voice pierced Todd like a knife.
The incubus was going down.
But first, he had to keep Cara safe.
And save the hostage.
Hell. Talk about not having an easy job.
Cameron’s hold tightened around Holly’s neck. “The bitch deserved it! She was always shaking her ass in front of me, acting like she was too good for my touch, but she laid down fast enough for Lance—and then she tried to get him addicted—”
“She loved him!” A scream of fury. Todd flinched, unable to control his emotional response to the pain coming from Cara.
“I told him what she was. Told him just how to stick the bitch so she’d go down and not lift that demon head again—”
“You sonofabitch.” Niol’s voice was ice cold, where Cara’s words had been fired with the heat of her rage. Niol stood, hands clenched, attention fully focused on Cameron. “You sold out your own.”
“Lance was mine—my brother, human, but mine!” The blasting rage matched Cara’s.
Todd could feel the change in the wind. The slight increase in temperature, the additional pressure of the air on his skin. Power was gathering. But whether it was Cara’s, Cameron’s, or, Christ Forbid, Niol’s level-ten hell, he wasn’t sure.
And he really, really didn’t want to find out.
“I was gonna make you pay, Cara!” The fury was leashed now, but Cameron’s eyes were still pitch black. The demon was out and ready to kill. “I waited—all these years, fucking waited until I was strong and you were weak. I found the perfect way to get back at you.” He licked his lips. “I was gonna turn your world upside down and leave you with nothing!”
“You bastard—you did that already! You and your brother destroyed my world when you took my sister away from me. She was all that I had! My flesh, my—”
“He was all that I had! The only one who understood me, the only one who—”
Todd risked a small step forward.
“Don’t fucking move!” Cameron’s hand jerked around Holly’s neck and her eyes bulged as she fought for breath.
“Let her go, Cameron!” Todd fired a glance toward Niol and found the demon standing with his legs braced apart, hands loosely at his sides.
Holly’s nails scraped over Cameron’s arms. Her legs kicked out, her hips twisted—
“Stop fighting me! I don’t need this shit and—” He broke off, lips curving. “Humans are so damn easy,” he said, but his voice wasn’t the enraged killer any longer, it was the soft lover now.
“No . . .” Cara. “His scent . . .”
Oh, hell. The guy was about to make Holly a willing hostage. One that might do just about anything for her captor.
No, he wasn’t about to do it—he’d done it. As Todd watched, helpless, her struggles stopped. She blinked and stood docilely in Cameron’s grasp.
“So damn easy,” he repeated.
“Yeah, they are,” Niol agreed, voice taunting. “That’s why your bastard brother was so quick to die.”
“You were the one I should have hunted,” Cameron yelled. “You. I should have known Cara wouldn’t have the guts to kill him!”
“Oh, I’ve got the guts to kill.” A promise was in Cara’s voice. “Now let the woman go and stand on your own to face us!”
“You really think you can take me down?” A sneer twisted his mouth. “A low-level succubus and a human?”
“Hell, yeah, we can.” No doubt in Todd’s mind. His gun was still trained on his target. Ready for a head shot.
“I’m about to kill you in the next ten seconds,” Niol said, voice like a breeze. “So what they can do, it doesn’t really matter.”
For the first time, Todd saw a flicker of fear in the incubus’ eyes. “You move on me, I’ll kill the human.”
“You’re not killing her!” Todd yelled.
But Niol just said, “Either way, you’re dying tonight.”
Shit. If Niol started using his powers, he was going to have a dead reporter headlining the stories on the news for the next two weeks, and the Other world really would be out in the open for all to see.
He turned his head toward Cara. He needed her help, and they’d have to move fast, before Niol attacked.
A distraction.
Her eyes met his. Black as the other demon’s, but shining with trust. Her head moved in the slightest of inclinations.
She stared at the reporter, then dropped her voice low as she said, “Fight him. You don’t want his touch. You don’t like his smell. He’s evil, and you want to fight. Fight.”
Magic flowed in Cara’s voice. Power. Would her suggestion work on Holly? Hell, Todd didn’t know—and from the way Komak was responding, it didn’t really matter. The bastard was breaking, crumbling apart. Rage flashed in his eyes as—
“Shut up, you bitch! Just shut the hell up—”
“Now!” Todd growled. Komak’s focus was divided, just like he’d wanted.
The perfect time to strike.
“Burn, you bastard!” Cara screamed at Cameron, just as she conjured one of her sweet balls of fire and threw it at the incubus.
As the fire spun toward him, Cameron cursed and lifted one of his hands as he struggled to send his own power at the swirling light.
And Holly Storm sprang to life then. She snarled, screamed, and twisted like a hellcat.
Her body fell to the ground when she broke his hold.
Todd was ready. As the flame disappeared into a wisp of smoke, he aimed and fired.
The blast rocked the alley, making nearby car alarms scream in the night.
The bullet thudded into Cameron’s head and the demon stumbled back. But he didn’t go down. “Fucking human, you’ll have to do better than—”
Todd fired again. And again. Now aiming dead center for the guy’s chest. Would he still live? Didn’t know—Cara had said there was only one way to kill an incubus, and this wasn’t it—but he was just trying to do his level damn
best to take the bastard down.
The clip emptied and the soft snick of the pull on the empty chamber froze Todd’s fingers. He stared at the demon—the still-standing demon—heart pounding, blood churning in his body and—
Cameron fell to the ground, landing on his back as a pool of blood began to spread under his body. Todd reached for the extra magazine he made a habit of carrying. Reloaded the weapon. Cara started forward. He snagged her wrist. “Wait, baby.” Her body trembled and he didn’t know if it was fear or anger or some twisted mix of the two that caused her reaction, but he wanted to get Komak first—just in case the bastard had any more surprises waiting for them.
The reporter pushed herself up. She stared at the incubus with wide eyes.
“He’s not dead,” Cara said. “Down, but not dead.”
Good enough for the time being. “You okay?” He asked her. She was pale, and still so beautiful that she stole his breath.
Even in hell.
“I-I didn’t know it was him. I swear, Todd, I—”
“I know.” Soft. If he didn’t have a homicidal demon about ten feet away, he would have taken her into his arms and just held her until that fear and pain vanished from her face.
But holding her—that would have to wait for later.
“Niol’s the one who figured it out, he knew that Cameron had a brother, just didn’t know his name until I told him how—”
The incubus’ body moved, just a bit. Twitched.
Damn it, the bastard better not be getting ready to rise like one of those B-movie horror freaks.
And why the hell hadn’t the backup boys arrived? Two cops were somewhere in Paradise Found—hadn’t they heard the gunshots?
“It’s going to take more than you’ve got to kill him.” Niol slipped forward, moving like some kind of cat as his feet made no sound on the cement. “An incubus—”
So much for the bullets, but then, he’d known that. “Can only die in the middle of one of those weird-ass power drains, yeah, I know.”
Niol paused. “Cara just tells you everything, doesn’t she?”
No, not yet.