Eternal Flame (Night Watch 3)

Davey laughed. “Sure there were, man. They’re chameleons, though. You don’t see them unless they want to be seen. You’re gonna find lots of strange folks here.”

Chameleons. Human chameleons. He’d heard about them. They could blend in with almost any background, could lower their heartbeats and respiration so much that they were often undetected, even by nearby shifters. Unless the atmosphere got damn hot, you couldn’t make a chameleon come out and play if he didn’t want to.

Unless it got hot…

He shook off Davey and rushed for that last door. “What are you doing?” Davey yelled. “Stay here, they’re watching—”

Oh, yeah, he just bet they were. He was at the door. This time, Zane didn’t bother with the lock, he just kicked out and the wood shattered.

So much for his cover.

He burst into the cavernous room. Water poured from the ceiling, pooling on the floor and mixing with the smoke. Through the downpour, he saw them. Nurse Nancy, grinning, holding a syringe, and three, no, four ass**les in black, all standing in a circle around-around—

One of the ass**les lunged forward and grabbed something. No, someone. He hefted Jana up in front of him and put his gun to her sagging head. “Take another step, demon, just one more …” The guy’s bulging eyes locked on Zane. The right side of his face was red and blistering. Jana had let him feel her fire before the bastard took her out. “And I’ll make sure she never opens her eyes again.”

He stilled and stared at the man. Long and hard. Marking him. Because he’d already seen the blood trickling down the side of Jana’s face.

“Good.” The chameleon smiled, the grin pulling at the burnt skin of his face. “Nice to know you realize who’s in charge.”

The f**k he did.

The sprinklers turned off abruptly and only small drops of water fell onto Zane’s head.

“You need to come back with me,” said a quiet voice from behind him. Zane glanced over his shoulder. Davey was there, gazing at him with demon black eyes. “Now. “

“Don’t worry,” the chameleon with a death wish said, “we’ll be bringing the fire bitch, too.” His wet hair stuck to his head.

“We wouldn’t think of leaving dear Jana behind,” Nancy added. “Not when she went to so much trouble to come and join our little party.”

Jana. “You knew who we were. The minute we walked into the hospital, you knew.”

She just stared back at him as drops of water slid down her face.

“Why the hell did you bring me here? So you can try to kill me?” He lifted his chin. “Come try and take your best shot.” If he could distract the chameleons, maybe he would have a chance of getting Jana free.

But no one took his bait, and Nancy, well, she blinked and looked confused. “Why would we want to kill you?” She walked toward him. Her eyes were all wide and fakely earnest. “We want you to join us.”

And she was bat-shit crazy.

“If you don’t help us, then we’ll make sure that your lover”-her eyes cut to Jana—“begs for death.” Wasn’t she Miss Sweet Sunshine.

“Come with me,” Davey said again, with steel in his voice. “Come willingly or we’ll drug you, too.” He spun around at that. “The hell you will.”

“I will.” Davey lifted a gun. Now where had the kid gotten that? He’d been unarmed before.

Zane wondered if he could move fast enough. He couldn’t blast the guy. Usually a demon’s power wouldn’t work on another demon, so he wouldn’t be able to take Davey out psychically but—

“Don’t try it,” Davey advised. “This drug’s a new mix. The last demon we shot didn’t survive even an hour before the darkness took him.”

Zane weighed him. Davey didn’t look quite so clueless and young anymore.

“We want you alive, Wynter,” Davey said. “But if you fight us”-his lips pulled down—“then you’ll both die.”

Aw, the guy sounded like he’d regret that. But he’d still kill us.

Davey held out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

His phone had a tracker in it from Night Watch. They would have followed him after his last call. They’d already know about this place. Zane pulled out his phone and tossed it to the kid. Davey caught it and instantly smashed the phone in his grip. “Now head to the back. We’ll be going out the southside exit. There’s another car waiting for us.”

What?

Davey lifted one brow. “You didn’t think this was really headquarters, did you? We’re barely above sea level here. Those rooms you saw, that’s all we got here, but the loading area in the back makes for a perfect getaway so no one sees us leave.” The barrel of the gun lowered. “Guess you could say this place is our testing grounds.”

Bastard. Smart.

“Now let’s get the hell out of here.” Davey glanced at the chameleons. “And, shit, Nancy, do something about that one’s face.”

“We lost him,” Pak said, his voice carrying easily over the phone to Antonio. “His signal just went dead.”

Hell. Antonio glanced over at Jude. The tiger shifter had both hands locked on the wheel. “Give me his last location.”

“A warehouse on Bienville, number 8-1-2.” A pause. “I don’t like this, Tony.”

Join the club.

“If those ass**les who torched my building have him …”

“Then they’ve picked the wrong demon to screw with,” Jude said, his shifter hearing easily picking up Pak’s words. “Because no one messes with Zane and gets away with it. The bastard is more lethal than they can imagine.”

“Tell Jude to watch his ass,” Pak said in Antonio’s ear. “These bastards seem to have a hard-on for hunters and the last thing I want them to get is a tiger’s pelt.”

Jude’s knuckles whitened. “Not gonna happen.”

“You’re the contact man on this, Tony,” Pak told him. “They trust humans, so if anyone can get past their guards, it’ll be you.”

Great. No pressure.

“The FBI left town right after you,” Pak continued, “so watch out for them. You’ll have company soon.”

Jude’s borrowed car hurtled forward. “We’ll make sure everyone feels welcome.”

Doubt that.

“I did some research that I thought you might find interesting.”