Hearts in Darkness (Nikki & Michael 2)

There was a thump, then silence. Nikki waited, fists clenched, kinetic energy dancing like fireflies across the tips of her fingers.

The sense of evil slowly dissipated, and the darkness became benign once more. Nikki pulled the cell phone from her jeans’ pocket and called 911. Then she rose and walked to the crates where she'd last heard Matthew.

He was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Four

Nikki winced as the paramedic pulled the bandage tight. He glanced up. “Too tight?"

"Depends,” she muttered. “Are my fingertips supposed to be blue?" A smile crinkled the corners of the medic's kind blue eyes. “No, but you have to admit, it is a pretty shade."

"Yeah, but it's not a good look on fingers."

She glanced past the doctor and watched Detective Col MacEwan approach. They'd obviously dragged him out of bed. His normally neat brown hair was everywhere, and he wore a striped pajama top half-tucked into his jeans. “Any news on Jake?” she asked.

"Yeah. He's in surgery now, with wounds to his stomach and chest. The doctors are hopeful.” MacEwan planted his feet behind the doctor and crossed his arms. “Now, you want to tell me about your little fight here?"

Nikki scrubbed her good hand across her eyes. She was hot and tired, and her head still pounded something fierce. All she could smell was sweat and blood and fear. She just wanted to go home and stand under a hot shower to wash it all away. The last thing she needed was MacEwan and his questions.

"It didn't start out as a fight, you know."

MacEwan snorted. “Never does with you. But it always ends the same, doesn't it?" With people dead or missing, Jake in the hospital and her getting patched up. The unspoken words hung like a sword in the air. She glanced down at her newly bandaged hand and muttered a thank-you to the medic.

"Don't use that hand too much, or the clips won't hold,” he warned. “And if you start getting a headache, I want you to come straight to the hospital."

She snorted softly. She already had a headache, and its source certainly wasn't the knock on the head. But she nodded and waited until he'd gathered his bags and left before she looked back to MacEwan.

“The woman wasn't human. Neither were the men who'd accompanied her.” He studied her for a minute, then dug a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. He lit one and took several long drags, blowing the smoke toward the starlit sky. “I suppose you expect me to believe that."

"You're the only one who will—and the only one I'll say it to. My official statement is that we were attacked by five unknown assailants—one woman and four men." MacEwan's brown-eyed gaze was shrewd. “That doesn't jell with the number of corpses I have in that warehouse.">Fear squeezed Nikki's heart, and for a moment she found it difficult to breathe. Jake was in trouble. Every instinct she had said she should go help him. Yet if she did, she'd face his wrath. The client is all that matters. How often had he told her that? Her priority had to be Matthew, no matter how much the decision tore at her.

The air stirred then fell still again. Someone was standing in front her, someone whose very presence made her skin crawl.

It was a taste of evil that reminded her of Jasper.

She shivered and backed away, her fingers aching from the fierceness of her grip on the knife. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed movement to her left. Something snarled, and canines gleamed briefly against the cloak of night. It wasn't a dog but a vampire, moving in fast. She flung out her free hand, thrusting him away kinetically. He hit the back wall with enough force to shatter a nearby window and fell heavily to the concrete floor.

Moonlight filtered into the warehouse, filling the night with yellow softness. The vampire didn't move, his head bent at an odd angle to his body. Broken neck , Nikki thought with a chill. She'd killed him without really meaning to.

She spun and ran towards Matthew. The teenager was wrestling with two smaller men. Blood glistened on his skin, mingling with sweat as it ran down his arms and face. She raised her hand, lashing energy at one of the vampires. He yelped and disappeared through the darkness. The second vampire launched himself at her. She slid to a stop and thrust the knife at him. The blade punched into the his stomach a second before his weight hit her. She was slammed backwards, hitting the concrete hard, the vampire pinning her down.

Gasping for breath and blinking back the sting of tears, she heard the vampire snarl. His wild blue eyes were inches from hers, his canines extending and dripping blood onto her cheeks. Getting ready to feed, she thought. Bile rose swiftly. Swallowing heavily and fighting memories of Jasper, she thrust a hand into his face. The teeth aimed at her neck sank into her palm instead. Agony ran like fire down her arm. She yelled, thrusting him away kinetically, and scrambled up. The vampire was on his feet, a feral look on his face. Silver gleamed in the middle of his stomach—her knife, still lodged in his flesh. Sound whispered behind her. A chill chased its way across her skin, and the hairs at the back of her neck rose. Evil was on the move.

She reached again for energy. Pain slivered though her mind, a warning that she was beginning to push her psychic strength too far. Ignoring it, she focused on the blade, ripping it from the vampire's body and aiming it at the darkness to her right.

It sliced through the air and thudded hilt-deep into the side of a packing crate. Silence washed across the warehouse, chilling in its intensity.

Matthew no longer screamed. Was no longer anywhere to be seen. The vampire watched her, blood oozing from the wound in his stomach, his expression furious and fists clenched. But he didn't move. She wondered why.

Laughter flowed across the silence. Laughter that was throaty, rich and very feminine. Nikki shivered. The underlying edge of depravity in the sound chilled her soul.

"You are very good."

The whisper flowed from the darkness to her left. Nikki clenched her fists. Blood oozed between her fingers, splattering against the concrete. Though there was no one to be seen beyond the bleeding vampire, the air stirred.

Evil, slowly circling.

She licked her lips. “What have you done with Matthew?"