Midnight's Master (Midnight 3)

Living every day with his powers-that was a dangerous weight that she knew not many could handle.

A weight that would make some break and slide headlong into the waiting darkness.

His mouth tightened. "You don't want to f**king know."

"Yeah, yeah, I do."

The hands that had rested so easily at his sides fisted. "My mother ran out on me when she learned just how strong I was. Her latest dumb-ass boyfriend made the mistake of trying to hit her when I was in the room." A muscle flexed along his jaw. "I looked at the bastard, just looked, and threw him though the window of our house. We were on the second floor."

Oh, God.

"I'd never done anything like that before, didn't know I could. Demon power kicks in with puberty, and it kicks in hard. Don't know what the hell you'll get until then. My mother stared at me like I was a f**king monster, and she was a demon, too. "

Holly didn't speak. For the first time in her life, she wasn't sure what to say.

"The bastard was okay. Lucky for me, he'd landed on the neighbor's bushes. Broken arm.

Bruised ribs. Scared to death. He ran, never looked back." A rough sigh. Almost, broken. "Then she did, too. Dropped me off at my grandmother's and never f**king looked back." He took a step closer to her. "Because she couldn't handle me. She saw into my soul that day. She saw what I could do, and I terrified her." His voice shook with fury.

And pain. Pain that cut deep.

When had she ever thought the guy was cold? Emotionless? He burned with feeling. So much feeling.

She wanted to touch him. To soothe him. Stupid, but-hell. Her hand lifted and brushed against his cheek.

"If you knew all I'd done, you wouldn't touch me." A growl of rage but one that held a ring of truth. A tone that told her Niol believed exactly what he was saying. "Wouldn't let me touch you."

She swallowed. Where they were, who was around them didn't matter anymore. This, this mattered. She was seeing the man now, hearing him. "I know some of the things-"

A laugh, bitter and cold. "If you knew everything, you wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

Maybe she should turn away. Maybe she should run from him as fast as she could.

The sun seemed to burn her skin. The wind tousled her hair. No sweet touch anymore. A painful brush of air.

Maybe she should run.

And then maybe, maybe she should stay. Because when she looked at Niol, she didn't see evil.

She saw only him. "You've killed." Holly knew that. "More than-than once." She only had proof of the one killing, but her gut told her there were more deaths.

"Yes." A hiss like a snake from the mouth of a man.

So much power. What would it do? To know that you could kill with a thought. Control with a whisper.

She'd gone to church every Sunday when she'd been a kid. Sat in the pews and listened to the priest talk about temptation and walking the devil's road.

"It's so easy to walk that road." She could still hear his voice, the tang of a southern accent rolling the vowels and softening the consonants. "The darkness is strong and strength-it is temptin'…"

How tempting?

"You don't want to know." His voice, gravel rough.

Her lips parted. He hadn't-

"You don't want to know the things I've seen, the things I've done," he said. "Not really. Deep down, you want to pretend that I'm not bad. That I'm good." A grim shake of his head. "Love, I'll never be good."

But he wasn't evil, either. Her instincts screamed this to her. Niol, though, he was trying to make her afraid.

Of him.

Now why the hell would he be doing that?

"I never said you were a white knight, Niol." She would have been blind to have made that mistake. "I know what you are. I knew exactly what, who, I was taking into my bed." His past, no, she didn't know all of his secrets, but one day, she would.

"You didn't-"

"I wanted you." Her chin rose. "Still do. Sins of your past and all."

His nostrils flared and he turned his head to the left, then the right, searching the parking lot.

"Too many humans here."

Yeah, this was the last place they should be talking about secrets.

"Come with me to Paradise," he said again and the words were low, whispered.

And Holly really, really felt like a tempted Eve right then.

Strength-it is temptin'…

Screw it. She'd always loved taking a bite of forbidden fruit. Her head moved in quick agreement.

Finally. Kim Went exhaled and unclenched her fists. Holly and her demon lover were finally heading toward their cars. Talk about having a lovers' quarrel at the worst place and time.

She hunched her shoulders, feeling the harsh rub of the scrubs she'd snatched chafe against her skin. But her only choice of clothing had been the garish green scrubs or her paper-thin hospital gown, complete with ass-exposing window. So she'd chosen the scrubs. She'd grabbed them, then hightailed it out of the hospital while the oversexed cop had stopped to flirt with the nurses.

Her gaze shot across the lot. A busy intersection waited on the other side of the street. A few taxis idled near the far corner. She could get over there, jump in one and figure out how to pay the cabbie later.

Priority one-get the hell out of this town.

Her head pounded like a bitch, but Kim knew she'd been lucky. That crazy-ass woman who'd attacked her had meant to kill, not just bruise.

Talk about one lucky break.

But if she didn't get out of there, right then, she might not be so lucky again.

The nutjob's voice screeched in her mind. "I'll f**king kill you, demon! Fucking kill you!"

How the woman knew Kim's secrets, damn, she didn't know. She'd always been so careful about using her glamour. Her powers were practically nonexistent, so she'd been blending in with humans, knowing they fit her more than demons, since she'd been thirteen.

But that screaming bitch had known.

How?

Many of the other demons she met didn't even know what she was. Something she'd learned early on-the weaker demons were sometimes able to slip right past the radar of those on the more powerful end of the spectrum. Maybe that was just old Mother Nature's way of balancing the system. You couldn't hurt what you couldn't see.

There were days when she thought her ability to blend in was her power.

And she'd be using that talent real soon. As soon as she got out of this city, she'd blend in and disappear.

I'll be safe. Soon.

The minute Holly's taillights left the lot, Kim ran, fast and hard, for the cabs.

Talking to Holly wasn't an option. The chick would be pissed because Kim had broken into her office. Not like she'd go out of her way to help her, now.