"I’m afraid I got a little bored while I was waiting for you." The voice came from the darkness, echoed all around her. No longer distorted. Male. Strong. Hard.
She stiffened. She knew that voice. Emily passed the flashlight to her left hand. Slowly inched her right toward her gun.
It can’t be, it doesn’t make any sense. How can it be him? I’ve felt his power before. He isn’t strong enough to-
There was a rush of wind against her body and then his hands were on her, jerking her around, spinning her to face him. "Tell me, Doctor," Jake Donnelley murmured, his fangs bared and his eyes eerily black in the glow of her flashlight, "are you going to scream for me?"
Then his claws raked across her stomach, and she screamed as her flesh ripped open.
Emily! Her scream cut through him. Colin lunged through the open doors of the factory, his body springing through the air and landing in a deadly crouch. A snarl twisted the wolf’s lips as he searched for his mate.
The scent of blood filled the air.
Emily’s blood.
A red haze swam before his eyes. Kill. Destroy-
A man laughed. A sinister, cold laugh. "I thought you’d be joining us, Gyth."
Emily appeared before him, and Colin could easily see the blood running down the front of her shirt. Her eyes were huge. Her lips shaking.
Behind her, Jake Donnelley stood smiling at him. He had a hand wrapped around Emily’s throat. His claws pressed against her flesh and a drop of blood trailed down her neck.
Colin scraped his claws across the cement floor, preparing to attack.
"Not so fast, wolf." The claws dug deeper and a soft moan slipped past Emily’s lips. "If you move another inch, I’ll slice her open in front of you."
Colin snarled at him, but he didn’t move, not yet.
"So now the question becomes, who to kill first?" Jake lowered his head to Emily’s throat, slowly licked away the drop of blood. "Oh, I do like the way you taste…"
Emily steeled herself against the feel of his tongue on her neck. She wanted to scream, to howl in pain and fear, but she vowed not to cry out again.
Because he wanted it too much.
Colin snarled in front of her, snapping his teeth, his glowing eyes locked on Jake.
Jake. God, she’d been so wrong about him. She’d thought he was weak, harmless. How the hell could she have made such a mistake?
She’d never even sensed that he was a hybrid. Never seen the glow of the beast he carried. She’d thought he was just a low-level demon.
Wrong. So wrong. And her mistake just might cost them all their lives.
She’d kept her shields in place too long, Emily realized. She’d been so afraid of finding a being like the one who’d attacked her years before, and she’d guarded herself too well. Yes, she’d been safe, but she’d unknowingly let a killer run free when she could have stopped him.
Her stomach felt as if it were on fire. She didn’t know how bad her injury was, and she was afraid to look down. So she kept her gaze on Colin, knowing that they had to find a way to defeat Jake.
One unguarded moment. That’s all Colin would need. If he could just get one moment, she knew he’d attack.
"You don’t understand our kind nearly as well as you thought, Doctor." Jake whispered the words into her ear, blowing his breath lightly against her. "You thought you were so superior, so damn smart, judging us all. Reading us. But you were wrong…"
"Y-yes…I was." Lull him. Make him think I’m not a threat.
"You saw what I wanted you to see," he muttered, and his claws scraped against her throat. "You thought you were immune to a demon’s power…but I fooled you…made you see, feel, what I wanted."
And she’d "seen" a low-level demon. Emily swallowed, feeling the prick of his claws. She should have looked harder, searched his mind.
Too late for regrets. Focus, dammit! I have to give Colin a chance to attack.
Or they were dead.
Colin’s gaze bored into her.
Just how much power did Jake have? There was really only one way to find out.
The last time she’d gone against a high-level demon, she’d wound up unconscious on the floor.
But she’d almost managed to burn out the bastard’s power.
Maybe she could do it again.
Her jaw clenched and she lowered her shields.
The rage hit her first. Blinding. Pulsing. Hate. Fury. The emotions seethed within the demon hybrid behind her.
Then she felt his power. A dark, coiling black force that shot from his body, filled the very air itself and twined around her and Colin.
Level ten. Maybe even stronger. Shit.
"Doctor…" Hot breath on her cheek. "Is that you I feel, tiptoeing in my head?"
A psychic blast of power hit her, shooting pain through every inch of her body. Emily bit her lip, swaying under the impact.
Too strong. I’ll never be able to-
"You have no idea what I can do," he muttered. "But maybe I should show you." His head lifted. "Time to play with the wolf."
The waves of his power shifted for a moment, pulsed darker, then swept completely around Colin.
Shifters are immune to a demon’s power. Colin hadn’t even flinched under the whip of Niol’s dark gifts.
He’d be able to withstand Jake’s magical assault.
Wouldn’t he?
There was so much power.
The wolf inched back a step, tail lowering.
"I can control anyone," Jake snarled. "Anything."
He’d controlled the boy, Bryan Trace. Gotten him to stalk Jake’s victims.
But not Colin, please, not Colin.
Emily frantically tried to pull away from Jake’s mind, tried to reach Colin’s thoughts-
But she couldn’t feel him, couldn’t touch his mind.
"Why?" The word burst from her lips. "Why the hell are you doing this?"
His laughter rumbled against her back. "Because I can."
Started with that whore Gillian. Bitch thought she could leave me for a human.
Showed her. Showed them both.
Emily tensed as his thoughts slipped through her mind. She couldn’t reach Colin, but she was tuned in as hell to Jake.
Forgotten how good the blood tasted.
Want more.
An image of Darla’s ravaged body flashed through her mind.
More. Tired of hiding, pretending. Fucking humans will fear me now. Show ’em. Show ’em all.
Once the beast got a taste, he couldn’t be stopped.
Suddenly, Jake shoved her forward, right into Colin’s path.
"Here’s the fun part. I’m not gonna kill you, Doctor."
Why wasn’t Colin attacking him? His claws were down. It’d be the perfect time. Emily glanced frantically between the two of them.
"No, I’m not gonna be the one to rip that pretty throat open. I’m gonna let your lover do it."
I can control anyone. Anything. Even a shifter. Blood to blood.
Shit. Jake could control his kind-not just demons, but also shifters. The power was always in the blood.
The wolf’s jaws were open, glistening. His eyes bright with blood hunger.
"No." Not Colin. She had to reach him. Had to help him. "You control the beast," she whispered, lifting her hand slowly toward him. "He doesn’t control you…"
"No, I control him."
She reached for her gun, but the holster was empty. Jake must have disarmed her when he’d first grabbed her. Dammit! Colin growled and stalked toward her.
No. Not like this. She wasn’t going to die like this. Not in some dank building, not by her lover’s hand.
Her shields were down, completely gone. And with all of her energy, with every bit of psychic power that she had, Emily focused on reaching Colin’s mind. On getting past the killing fury and touching the man.
No, don’t let him do this to you. To us. Fight him, dammit! You have to be stronger, I need you-