Blaze (Dark in You 2)

“You can’t go out there, Knox. He’ll conjure a weapon and start shooting at you – people could get caught in the crossfire. That’s if he doesn’t just conjure balls of hellfire and hurl them at you. I don’t have to tell you that would be bad on a number of levels.”

Grinding his teeth, Knox nodded. He wanted Crow badly, but exposing the existence of their kind to humans wasn’t on Knox’s agenda. Even his demon, eager to get a grip on Crow, understood the importance of discretion.

Knox did a U-turn and prowled to the security office. “When did he get here?”

“No more than a minute ago,” said Levi, keeping pace with him. “He got out of a cab and walked right through the front door, bold as you please. The doormen recognized him, but they didn’t stop him; they contacted me.” Just as Knox had instructed them to do in the event that Crow ever showed up.

Inside the security office, Knox scanned the monitors as he asked the guard, “Where is Crow now?”

Matt, a demon from their lair, pointed at one of the monitors. “The lobby. Looks like he wants to use the private elevator.”

Knox moved closer, watching as Crow – hair disheveled, clothes wrinkled, face set into a hard mask, and skin sweaty from the heatwave that had come out of nowhere – repeatedly jabbed the button for the elevator that headed to the penthouse. It was where Knox stayed whenever he spent the night at the hotel. “It’s impossible to use that elevator without a keycard.”

“Members of the Force are on standby. Want them to apprehend him?” asked Levi.

Knox nodded. “Tell them to take him down and to do it fast. Then they need to drag him out of sight of humans so he can be teleported away.” As the sentinel telepathically repeated his orders, Knox frowned as Crow started punching the elevator doors in sheer frustration.

“His eyes aren’t pure black,” said Matt. “He’s not rogue.”

“But he’s not entirely rational either,” Levi pointed out. “Look at him. It’s not even occurring to him that his actions could attract attention.”

“That’s because he’s too focused on getting to me,” said Knox. Crow had walked right into the hotel like he belonged here, a man on a mission. And that mission was clearly more important to him than being caught.

“Oh shit,” muttered Matt as a female member of the human hotel staff tentatively approached Crow. Whatever she said made him whirl on her, every line of his body tense. Then he made a mad dash for the exit.

Knox swore. “She spooked him.”

Before Crow could reach the door, a demon barreled into him from either side. They struggled to keep hold of Crow – he was manic and thrashing wildly, shouting obscenities. The humans recoiled from him, huddling against the walls and the reception desk. Then Crow stilled and inhaled deeply, and the demon holding him suddenly wilted.

“He’s draining him,” said Knox, jaw tight. Feeding on the psi-energy was not only weakening the demon; it was strengthening Crow. The moment the demon’s grip loosened, Crow freed himself and pointed a hand at the other demon – a hand that was suddenly holding a revolver. And then he fired. The guard dived aside, dodging the bullet, and the humans all screamed and squatted on the ground. Crow raced out of the hotel.

“Someone needs to stop him now.” Knox shifted his vision to the camera that monitored the entrance… just in time to see Crow point the gun at a cab driver, yelling at him to get out the car. Four members of the Force appeared, but they instantly froze as they saw him aiming at a human. The cab driver obeyed, but Crow still shot him in the leg before leaping into the vehicle and disappearing with a screech of tires.

Shit. “Call an ambulance.” Knox barely resisted slamming his hand on the desk. Clenching his fists, he took a deep breath. Control. He needed to maintain control. But it wasn’t easy when his demon was growling and pressuring him to give into the urge to personally hunt the bastard down.

“Members of the Force are in pursuit of Crow,” said Levi. “He made a mistake coming here today. He’ll be caught.”

Matt shook his head in disbelief as he slumped in his chair. “The Crow I know would never shoot an innocent bystander like that.”

“He’s not the Crow you know anymore.” So close. They’d been so fucking close to detaining him.

“If he can shoot a human for no good reason,” began Matt, “I don’t think there’s much hope for Carla Hayden.”

Knox wished he could deny that, but she served no purpose for Crow. He had no reason to keep her alive and no issue at all with shooting people without cause. As such, it was entirely possible that Carla was already dead. If not, she probably would be soon enough.

“I was hoping I could speak with Harper.”

She had to be hearing things. Or maybe the buzzing of the tattoo gun was affecting her hearing, because there was surely no way that bitch was here, at her place of work. But as Harper turned it was to find that, yep, the freaking dolphin was standing at the reception desk. Her demon curled her lip in distaste.

“She’s busy right now,” Khloë told her.

Alethea smiled pleasantly. “It’ll just take a minute.”

Turning, Khloë raised a questioning brow at Harper.

With an exasperated sigh, Harper turned to her client – a demon who was also Khloë’s twin. “I’ll be right back.”

“I’m totally fine with having a break,” said Ciaran, who was no doubt stiff after leaning forward for so long while she worked on the tattoo on his back. “Besides, this looks like it will be fun to watch.”