Hotter After Midnight (Midnight 1)

The demon’s black eyes stared up at him. “Hello, shif…ter.” He choked a bit on the last word.

Emily had choked like that, when that bastard had wrapped his fingers around her.

With an effort, Colin loosened his hold. “You’ve been holdin’ out on me, Niol.” And he didn’t have time to pu**yfoot around with him anymore. “I want the hybrid’s name.”

The bartender was standing stock still, staring at them.

Niol lifted his hand, waved him away, but his black stare never left Colin. “Let me go.”

“Tell me the name.” He wasn’t in the mood for this shit.

A fist plowed into his back. A strong, hard punch that drove straight into his spine.

Colin snarled and spun around. A demon stood behind him, fists raised. Colin kicked out at him, catching the guy in the ribs and sending him flying into a nearby table. People moved out of the way when the table and the demon crashed to the floor. But the music and dancing never stopped.

“Enough!” Niol ordered. He pointed at the fallen demon. “Mentaur, give us a minute.”

Mentaur rose to his feet, spit at Colin, then stomped away.

Colin stepped forward, that demon ass—

“You can’t expect to attack me and not get retaliation,” Niol informed him softly. “My men, they don’t like to see me bothered.”

Bothered. “Yeah, well, if you don’t tell me what I want to know in the next ten seconds, they’re going to see you bloody.” He lifted his claws. “And we don’t want that, do we?” The band began yelling a hard, fast tune. Guitars squealed.

Niol cocked his head to the side. “You’re convinced the hybrid’s behind the killings.”

“Aren’t you?”

Niol didn’t answer.

“His name. ”

“I don’t know it.”

“Bullshit, you know—”

“I know he’s in town because I felt the rush of his power the night you and the good doctor were attacked. But then, I’m sure she felt it too. Being as how she’s the professional at sensing our kind, I’m sure she got a better lock on him than I did.”

Niol sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know who he is. I only know that he’s out there. He’s not one of mine, shifter.”

“You’d better not be lying to me.” But wasn’t that what demons did? Lie? Twist the truth?

Damn. He should have brought Emily with him. She’d be able to sense the truth or the deception.

But he hadn’t wanted to risk her.

Hadn’t wanted to put her in any more danger.

“You think I don’t want this guy stopped?” Niol sounded mildly curious as he stared back at him.

“I think you don’t give a damn what happens to the humans.”

“But I do care about what happens to my kind.”

Gillian Nemont. “Where is she?”

Niol didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “She’s already been taken care of, shifter. She was his first victim.”

Sonofa— “Taken care of? What the hell does that mean?”

Niol’s black eyes hardened and the air vibrated with the force of his rage. “It means I didn’t want her dissected by one of the human doctors. Cut open. Studied. She deserved better than that.”

“So what? You took her body? Hid her? Took her clothes to make it look like she’d skipped town? Destroyed evidence—”

“I gave her a burial in the way of our kind. I showed her the respect in death that bastard didn’t give her in life.”

A third victim. “You can’t do that, Niol. You can’t have your own laws, your own—”

“She was my sister.” His knuckles whitened as he fisted his hands. “He…broke her. Left her in an alley, with the garbage and the rats. Left terror in her eyes and left her in a bed of blood.” He shook his head. “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. She was mine to protect, and I did for her the only thing that I could.”

The band stopped playing. A swirl of voices filled the brief silence.

“If I knew who he was, he wouldn’t still be out there, hunting,” Niol muttered. “The bastard would be dead.”

Colin believed him, and he also believed that Niol would have made the killer suffer, for a very long time, before he got the release of death.

A grim, humorless smile curved Niol’s lips. “Wonder which of us will find him first?” He leaned closer. “And wonder which of us will make the bastard scream the loudest for mercy?”

The animal within howled at the challenge. The man spoke through gritted teeth, “This isn’t just an Other matter. Humans have died. The law will punish him. The law will—”

“Then the law had better get to him before I do.” Niol inclined his head. “Enjoy your beer, Detective. And good hunting.”

Colin growled a response as Niol was swallowed by the crowd.

Good hunting.

If only it were that easy. If he could just catch the bastard’s scent…

Broodingly, his gaze once again scanned the crowd. Searched the nameless faces, saw—

Emily. His heart began to race in a hard, fast rhythm. She shouldn’t be there. He’d told her to stay away from Paradise Found.

And here she was, walking beside some blond guy, her hand on his arm, stroking him.

What the f**k?

A musky, familiar scent flooded his nostrils. Colin surged to his feet.

Emily and her mystery guy walked through the back door of the bar.

Without a second thought, he followed them, claws bared.

“Thomas! No, don’t!”

Colin ran forward at Emily’s shout, took in the scene before him in one horror-filled glance.

The man was gone. In his place stood a huge, black panther. A panther with fangs open, glistening, with a body tensed to spring.

A shifter. He’d known the instant he caught the bastard’s stench in the air.

Emily stood before the beast, her right hand raised, fear on her face. She stumbled back, whispering something he couldn’t hear.

The panther growled, stepped toward her, mouth ready to rip and tear—

No! Not Emily. Not his mate.

Colin snarled, and the panther’s head whipped toward him. The animal’s back legs bunched as it prepared to leap through the air.

Shit.

There was no time to move. To draw his weapon. The panther lunged and knocked him to the ground. The animal’s hot breath blew against his throat and its saliva dripped onto him as the beast lowered its mouth for the kill.