Personal Demon (Otherworld 8)

I did.

"Now, empty your pockets."

As he stepped toward me, my fists flew up, but he caught my arm and yanked me into the shadows.

"Let's back up," he said. "You saw Sonny out there, right? He's not sleeping. He knows exactly where your friend is, courtesy of my play-by-play into his earpiece. Last time I spoke to him, he set his watch for three minutes. If he doesn't hear back from me by then, he's putting a bullet through the werewolf. It's not silver, but I've heard that doesn't matter."

There was no animosity in his voice. No threat. Just Jaz, chattering away as always. Bile filled my mouth. I forced myself to swallow it.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Let me empty your pockets. Don't attack me or run. Then we'll walk that way." He jerked his chin toward the rear of the gardens.

"And then?"

"You're coming with me."

He sounded surprised that I'd needed to ask. As I lifted my hands, he stepped so close I could smell the citrus notes of his aftershave, and feel that low-level thrum of chaos, that aura that always surrounded him, that had drawn me in.

I took a deep breath and let him empty my pockets. When he finished, he paused a mere inch away, and I looked up to see his face over mine. His lips curved in that same almost shy smile that had set my pulse racing. I wanted to spit on him. But if I opened my mouth, I'd probably throw up instead.

I lowered my gaze. "Please, you don't need to do this, Jaz. Or whatever your name is."

"Jaz." His fingers slid under my chin, tilting my face up to his. "It's Jaz."

I looked into his eyes and, for just a second, that chaos sucked me back in. So pure. So absolute. How had I overlooked that? No, not overlooked. Dismissed. Seen what I'd wanted to see.

"Kidnapping me isn't--"

"I'm not kidnapping you." That easy smile. "I'm just taking you along. We have a lot to talk about and this isn't the place to do it."

"They won't care, Jaz. As hostages go, I'm useless. An employee, and an expendable one--"

He tapped his watch. I stopped.

"Sorry," he said. "I probably should have told him longer, but we're on a schedule. If I don't meet it..."

An apologetic shrug, as if the consequences of failing to make that call would be nothing more than mildly inconvenient. I glanced over my shoulder. Karl couldn't be more than a few yards from Sonny. Maybe he'd spring in time. Even if he didn't, could Sonny catch him off-guard? Karl already suspected Sonny was no innocent victim. If I--

"Hope." Jaz's fingers closed on my arm. "Fifteen seconds."

I couldn't risk it. I followed Jaz to the mouth of the alley. He took out a radio and told Sonny to hold off.

"Hold off?" I said. "You promised--"

He lifted his hand. "Sonny's going to walk away now and head for the street. We have one minute to meet him at the car. If we don't, he goes back and kills the werewolf."

Not "takes care of him" or "finishes things." Kills him. Blunt and unapologetic.

I let him lead me to the car.

LUCAS

19

PAIGE HAD JUST STARTED HER CALL when my cousin Javier, VP of technology, came to tell me the Nasts were getting impatient...and the St. Clouds had joined them. I checked my watch. I'd said thirty minutes, and it was going on thirty-five.

I caught enough to know Paige was asking Elena about the time she and other supernaturals had been kidnapped and studied by humans. While the Cabals had claimed no knowledge of the project, the Nasts had business ties with the financier--the late software tycoon Tyrone Winsloe--and none of the captives had been Cabal employees. Suspicious, but unrelated to the concern at hand which, from Paige's conversation, seemed to involve another captive, a man named Armen Haig who'd died before the escape.