Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter 11)

Her expression changed instantly to one of indignation. "I would never tell someone what you've told me here. Ever. What kind of person do you think I am?"

He didn't answer. "Perhaps we should go back to insulting each other. I think that was easier."

She shook her head at him. "Not easier. Just safer."

Damn, she was intelligent. Sometimes more so than was good for his peace of mind. "I like safety."

Kat laughed out loud. "This from a man who fights demons single-handedly? Are you really that afraid of me?"

"Unlike you, demons are easy." They didn't make him want to hold them.

"How so?"

"They only take your life."

She arched a single brow. "And me?"

You could easily take my heart. The truth of that seared him right where he stood. He hadn't felt like this in thousands of years.

Thousands.

Then again, he wasn't sure if he'd ever felt this way about a woman. He could barely remember courting his wife. If he'd ever had any feelings for her, they had been killed by her callousness.

But Kat...

She was honest and caring. Two things his wife had never been. When Kat touched him, his body reacted viciously. A single smile from her could make his entire being burn. One touch from her hand and he was undone. It was terrifying to think of how much power this one person had over him. How one single gesture from her could affect him so profoundly.

Still, she held that playful look on her beautiful face. "You didn't answer me, Sin."

He stepped away from her. "Answer you about what?"

"Why you're afraid of me?"

Could she be more relentless? Unwilling to confess his feelings, he gave her a flippant response. "You command two demons with barbecue sauce. Who in their right mind wouldn't be afraid of you?"

She tsked at him. "Why are you hiding?"

"Who says I'm hiding?"

"That nervous look you keep casting to the door like you're wanting someone to come through it and rescue you." She made bock-bock animal noises at him as she bent her arms and flapped them like wings.

Sin was aghast by her actions. "You're not seriously calling me chicken?"

The playful look on her face was extremely attractive. "If the beak fits..."

He should be angry, but a foreign part of him was amused by her audacity. "You live to taunt me, don't you?"

"We have to live for something, and I have to say it's quite amusing to watch the confusion in those gorgeous eyes of yours. They just sparkle whenever I nettle you."

He was stunned by her unexpected compliment. "My eyes are gorgeous?"

"Yes. Very striking."

That should have no effect on him whatsoever and yet her words set him on fire. He didn't know why the thought of her finding him attractive should even register. Millions of women, literally, had found him attractive all throughout history. They used to worship him by the thousands.

But her words made his heart speed up. Made his palms sweat. Made him so hard that he could barely stand being around her.

She took his hand in hers.

"C'mon." She tugged him toward the bedroom.

"What are you doing?"

"You need to rest. It's been a long day and I intend to tuck you into bed."

A smile quirked up the right side of his mouth as he hardened even more. "Really? Can I tuck myself into you?"

"If you play your cards right and stop with the cheesy lines it might be possible."

Kessar blinked twice at Nabium, who'd interrupted his feeding. He raised up from the dead showgirl on the floor and wiped the blood from his lips with a linen napkin. "What do you mean the Hayar Bedr is missing?"

The demon who was tall and dark haired gulped audibly as he noted the fury in Kessar's tone. "The god Nana went to the cavern and-"

"Ex-god," he corrected Nabium.

Nabium cleared his throat. "Ex-god, and he took him."

Kessar cursed at the timing. It pissed him off that Sin had found some way into their hole and found one of his favorite toys. Not that it mattered. They could still free the Dimme, but owning the Moon had made their succession as the dominant life force on the planet a little easier.

"Where's my brother?"

Nabium grew quiet.

Kessar let out a sound of disgust at his younger brother and his libido. He had never learned a sense of timing. "Tell him to get off whatever female he's found and come here. Now."

"I-I can't, my lord."

"Why not?"

Nabium took a step away from him before he gulped again, and then spoke. "They killed him."

Kessar couldn't breathe as that news registered. It couldn't be. "What?"

"He died fighting them, my lord. I am so sorry."

Kessar felt his fangs come out as rage filled him. He wanted blood for this.

As he walked toward the closet, Nabium practically bolted in fear. Not that Kessar would ever hurt his second in command. No, Kessar needed someone weak to torture.

Opening the closet, he pulled the college student out he'd captured earlier after they'd left Sin's casino. She was short, with long mousy brown hair and beady blue eyes that were rimmed with small, round glasses. Her mouth was taped so that she couldn't scream, and her hands and feet were tied. She was dressed in a pair of faded jeans, black boots, and a black Boondock Saints T-shirt that showed off her beefy upper arms.

But what he found fascinating, and the main reason he'd captured her, was that she had a small bow and arrow tattoo on her wrist. Before he'd taken her, she'd told him the bow and arrow was to protect her from nightmares. Strange, really, since it was also the mark of Artemis and as such made the student a prime target for them.

Using his powers, he muffled the room so that no one in the hotel could hear her scream. Then he ripped the tape from her mouth.

She cried out. He shoved her into Nabium's arms. "Hold her still."

"P-p-please," she begged as her gaze fell to the body of the other woman. "I'm pregnant."

"Like we care?" Kessar felt his face shifting over to that of his real demon form.

She screamed even louder, exciting him even more.

Kessar picked her up and latched onto her neck, tearing through the flesh so that her blood would fill his mouth. As soon as she stopped fighting, Nabium joined him by tearing into the other side.

When she was dead and drained, they threw her to the ground. Kessar frowned as he saw a small leather bracelet on her right arm. Jerking it off, he read her name.

Scoffing, he tossed it on top of her body and wiped his mouth.

His good humor restored, he pulled his shirt off over his head and tossed it over her body before he manifested another one.

Nabium duplicated the gesture before he returned to their previous topic. "At least the good news is we have negated Zakar. He will be worthless to them now."

Possibly, but Kessar wasn't the kind of demon who counted on things going as planned. "Never underestimate Nana. He travels with an Atlantean."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. How else would he be able to destroy my brother?" Kessar's grief was gone now. The kill had placated him. If his brother was stupid enough to die at the hands of them, then he deserved it.

"What do we do now?" Nabium asked.

"We have to find some way to negate Sin's powers."

"He's already stripped of them."

"Not enough. He is the only thing standing in the way of the Kerir. We must get Zakar back and get that Atlantean bitch and convert her."

"How?"

Kessar smiled. "The same way we captured Zakar. We infect her. Then we'll have both Zakar and Nana, and there will be no one to stand in our way."

Nabium laughed until he realized the humans were starting to stir. "Speaking of infection..."

Kessar looked at the women. "They're too ugly to keep, especially the short bitch. Cut their heads off and throw them in a ditch somewhere."

He watched as Nabium covered the women with a jacket to disguise the blood on their clothes before he led them out of the room and to wherever he'd finish them off.

Humans. They disgusted him.

Soon, though, they would all be under the thumb of their masters. But first, he had to get Sin and Zakar...