Midnight's Master (Midnight 3)

"Gone." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "The cop never saw her leave. I don't know if she left on her own or if she was-"

Niol caught her left hand and pulled her into the elevator. The doors closed behind her, blocking out the bustle of the nurses' station. "Taken?"

A grim nod.

The elevator began its slow descent. Three floors to go. Two. Then-

The elevator lurched to a stop.

Oh, no. She wasn't a good enclosed-spaces person. Hadn't been since she was six and she'd accidentally gotten locked in her mom's armoire during a game of hide-and-seek. By the time Peter found her, she'd been a shaking mess of tears and hoarse screams.

"Niol…" She inched closer to him. He could use his powers to-

He kissed her. Caught her chin in his palm, tipped her head back and kissed her with a deep, drugging hunger.

Well, damn.

Her fingers rose and curled around his shoulders.

His tongue pushed into her mouth, a warm, wet slide that had her ni**les hardening. What the man could do with that mouth.

What I want him to do.

His head rose, slowly, and his eyes burned with heat. "I needed to taste you." Almost guttural.

Not words that a woman heard every day. Talk about making her feel sexy.

And making her forget the fear that had kept her up the few hours before dawn.

Holly licked her lips, tasted him, and managed, "Can you get the elevator moving again?"

A slight narrowing of those black eyes and the elevator kicked to life once more. "Sorry, love, I'm not good at waiting for what I want."

So he'd just stopped an elevator for her. She took a second, then managed to uncurl her fingers from those glorious shoulders of his. "I'm not so good…with tight spaces."

A smile that could only be termed wicked lifted his lips. "I am."

Oh, damn.

"Relax, Holly. You don't have to fear anything when you're with me."

Tempting words, but she couldn't let go of her control with him. Not yet. Her shoulders straightened. "I wasn't afraid." When he'd kissed her, she'd gotten too turned on, too fast, for fear.

A ding, then the doors slid open, revealing the bright walls of the hospital lobby. She hurried out of the elevator and into the area that was a good ten times busier than the fourth floor. So easy to disappear.

Niol followed right on her heels. A dark shadow following her and clearing her path.

"We've got to find Kim. Get her to talk to us about the attack."

Niol paused in front of the sliding glass entrance/exit doors. "Innocent people don't run." He slid his sunglasses onto his nose.

"They do if they're scared," she shot back and tried not to notice just how good the man looked.

Pitch-black hair shoved back, chiseled jaw. Shoulders so wide they stretched the fabric of his shirt.

Down, girl.

Now wasn't the time for a sex overload.

"We need to find her," she continued doggedly. "She might've seen her attacker. She might know-"

"She ran from the cops." Niol shook his head. "That means she has something to hide." He stepped forward and the doors swished open.

I know.

"This Kim-maybe we're looking at her situation all wrong."

"What-what do you mean?"

"She might not just be an accidental victim in this mess." He glanced over his shoulder at her as she marched after him. "Maybe she was the target."

Holly hadn't thought so. At least, not until she'd seen that rumpled and very empty hospital bed.

Because at that moment, she'd had the same suspicion. If the woman had stumbled onto a crime, wouldn't she want a cop's protection? "What would make her run?"

"I think she's going to have to tell us."

The sunlight was too bright. Too harsh. Holly squinted against the light, lifting her hands. "The cops will head straight for her place. If she's there, they'll find her and take her in for questioning."

"She won't go home." He stopped, hands lightly curled near his sides.

"Out of town?" On the first bus? In the first car she could find? Because she was scared? Or hiding something?

Maybe both?

"Come back to Paradise." His face was blank and those dark lenses only threw her reflection back at her. "I'll use my contacts and see what I can find out about her."

Demon contacts. It was why she'd sought him out in the beginning. Those contacts-Holly knew she'd never have as much pull in the Other world as he did. But…"Niol, do you think Kim's a demon?" Her voice was hushed now, because there were ambulance attendants close by and a bleeding teen who was being ushered inside by his frantic-looking mother. His shoulders rolled.

"Never met her. Hard to say."

Never met her. "It's true, then? Demons can recognize others on sight?"

He caught her hand and Holly really tried to ignore the hard skitter of her pulse. "Didn't recognize you."

As far as she knew, no one had. Mom, call me, dammit. "Carl said he could see through the glamour other demons used."

An inclination of his head that could have been a nod. "Works like that for most." A pause. "Not for you." There was something in his voice that gave her pause. A curiosity. Puzzlement.

What am I to him? The stark thought had her freezing. In the beginning, the sexual attraction between them had been undeniable. But now…

Now, what was happening? What did Niol want from her?

"You're different. Your power doesn't reveal you to others. It works to conceal you. Perfect camouflage." Okay, now the guy was sounding-what, impressed? "Low-level power, but still one that would let you slip by the strongest of our kind."

Her nails dug into her palms. She was still not quite jumping on the I'm-a-demon bandwagon, but the low-level reference grated. Like she could help her power scale. "We're not all level-ten badasses."

Silence.

The light stroke of the wind against her cheek.

"You're right, and I'm very glad for that fact. Trust me on this, you don't ever want to know what it's like to have level-ten power."

The stench of ashes filled her nose. Not just ashes. Flesh. "No, no, I don't." That much power would push a person to the edge.

And the line between good and evil was, she knew, all too thin already for most.

Having the kind of power that would let you kill and control others at will-too darkly tempting and terrifying.

"How do you do it?" The words came out, tumbling from the reporter's curiosity and the woman's helpless fascination. And from her concern.