Demons Not Included: A Night Tracker Novel (Night Tracker Novels) Read online

  “We’ve got to hurry,” Adam said. “Can’t keep this thing frozen much longer.”

  Any early morning light the house had was muted by thick gray clouds. Rainwater dripped constantly through the partially destroyed roof and splattered drops on the floor.

  Adam looked at the ceiling before bringing his gaze back to mine. “If we don’t hurry, the water’s going to wash away any more clues.” A big drop landed on his head with a plop, and we both laughed as water ran down his cheeks.

  “How do you do that?” Adam said as he glanced down before looking at me again. “Not make a single print?”

  The nice thing about being one of the Elves was the ability to investigate a crime scene without disturbing anything. The plaster dust didn’t show I’d been there as we picked our way through fallen beams, destroyed furniture, and walked around other law enforcement professionals who’d been frozen as they documented everything.

  I pushed my straight black hair over my shoulders. “I promise to explain everything. Soon.”

  “How about over dinner?” Adam’s smile was almost shy, and it gave me one of those tummy tickles that felt good and warm. “I know a great little Thai restaurant in the Flatiron district.”

  I almost laughed at the thought of a blue-haired, amethyst-skinned me out to dinner at a public restaurant, but I managed to hold it in. He looked too serious.

  “Lunch would work better.” I paused. He was so handsome and genuine. “You know—the nighttime job I have.”

  “Yeah. That.” Adam paused and studied me. “You’ll fill me in on that other job, right? And whatever it is you’ve been holding back.”

  “I’m not sure you’ll be crazy about what I need to explain. What I want to tell you.” I felt a big sigh coming on and I looked away from him. “But I’m a little scared you’ll run the other direction when you find out.”

  “Hey.” Adam touched me intimately for the first time, and I felt a huge tingling in my belly as he cupped my chin and turned my head to face him. “As long as you’re not the same big ugly Demon tearing up the city, I won’t be running.”

  I laughed as he let his hand slip away. “That’s one thing I’m most definitely not. A Demon.”

  For a big guy, Adam had such a cute, boyish grin. “Didn’t think it for a minute.”

  “But I am different,” I said as I watched him for signs of—of something.

  He shrugged. “Aren’t we all?”

  “Just you wait.”

  I sobered when we again reached the image burned into the floor. The second symbol from whatever Demon we were dealing with.

  As I knelt on one knee beside the pattern, I gripped my XPhone and studied the symbol once more.

  I’d already drawn it on my pad. Also took some pictures, which no doubt was another futile exercise, like the image at the last scene.

  “A warhorse with a human torso ...” With a frown I muttered what we’d already figured out. “And a strange-looking tail... like a fishtail.”

  Adam gestured to the symbol. “How do you know that’s a warhorse?”

  “It’s big, and it carries sheathed weapons for the human riding it. Or in this case the human who’s a part of it.” I narrowed my gaze. “But how would a horse get around with two legs and half of its body as a fish tail?”

  “We’re probably looking at it too literally.” Adam crouched beside me. “Maybe we should think more about its symbolism.”

  He bent to touch the wood with his fingertips, but I pushed his hand away with mine.

  For a moment we didn’t move. My hand rested on his and the sensations traveling through me were new, strange, and welcome. I’d always been attracted to Adam, but in this one moment, some kind of connection happened between the two of us. Stronger than ever before.

  Adam didn’t stop staring into my eyes as I drew my hand away. “You smell like honeysuckle,” he said. “Always so soft and sweet.”

  He looked a little embarrassed after he said it, but I smiled. “Thank you.” So that’s what my pheromones smelled like to him.

  Adam didn’t say anything, just watched me.

  I pointed to the image on the floor. “You shouldn’t touch it because you don’t know what kind of evil energies the Demon may have left in that symbol.” I studied the design burned into the wood.

  “You’re probably right about the symbolism. We just need to figure out what it means.”

  “Here’s some of that blue crap,” Adam said, gesturing toward an overturned chair.

  “This time I’m going to see if James can analyze it.” I moved toward the still-wet Demon blood, and used a little baggie and a small tool to scoop it into the bag.

  “Let’s hope your friend can,” Adam said. I turned to face him. “I think that’s about all we’ve got—”

  “Nyx, you better check this out,” Olivia said from the dining room. I went to her and stood at her side as she pointed at a pile of furniture. “Something about that weird-ass piece of whatever on the other side of that curio, doesn’t feel right. Like it’s giving off serious vibes.”

  The strange thing caught the light and gave me a chill at the same time.

  “What is it?” Adam said.

  It wasn’t far from the dining table, past the upturned curio cabinet and under a chair. A—what?

  “Something copper-colored,” I said.

  “And it’s not a penny for my thoughts.” Olivia braced her hands on her hips. “I’m going in after it.”

  She looked at the tunnel of destroyed furniture that had to be passed to get to the thing.

  I grasped her arm. “You know I can protect myself in—in a special way so that I won’t get hurt if that whole thing crashes down.”

  Olivia gestured toward the mess. “Go for it, girl.”

  After handing her my purse, I got on my knees and crawled low under the curio cabinet, the top of the cabinet resting on a coffee table. Broken china was scattered everywhere, and bits of it pressed into my palms. The pieces didn’t cut into my flesh, thanks to the air cocoon I wrapped myself in.

  “Be careful.” So much concern was in Adam’s voice that it sent warmth through me.

  When I reached the thing that had caught Olivia’s attention, I wanted to recoil from the evil energy emanating from it. No doubt about it. This was from the Demon.

  It was a slightly curved, copper-colored, and egg-sized piece of—what? Excitement warred with fear, a bizarre combination. It surged through me like a geyser, straight toward my scalp, making me heady.

  This could be a clue that would help us figure out what this Demon was and how to destroy it.

  I balanced on one hand as I slipped the other into the front pocket of my slacks for one of the plastic evidence bags, along with a pair of tweezers, that I always kept on me as a PI. I had to balance on my elbows, but I finally got the bag and the tweezers out.

  With some maneuvering I managed to get the thing into the plastic bag. I shoved the evidence bag and tweezers into my front pocket.

  “Coming out.” I said as I backed up the way I entered.

  I wrinkled my nose as I finally drew out from beneath the curio and rested on my haunches. The stench of burned sugar was strong.

  “You okay, Nyx?” Adam knelt on one knee beside me.

  I dug into my front pocket and brought out what I’d found. The scalelike thing was sharp at the edges, and almost tore through the bag and touched my fingers. Thank the Goddess it hadn’t, because who knew if it was as poisonous as Demon claws? I pulled out another bag from my purse and double-bagged the copper-shaded thing.

  “Looks like a shell or a shingle.” Adam held the bag up to make the clue more visible in what light there was. “Never seen anything like it.”

  “1 need to take this to—” I stopped.

  Why I didn’t want to say Rodán’s name in front of Adam, I didn’t understand. I’d never had a problem saying it to him before. Maybe it was the fact that I’d just slept with Rodán last night, when he’d co
mforted me, and now I was thinking of being with Adam.

  I forced myself to continue anyway. “Rodán may know what kind of Demon this is from, or how it’s related to the Demon,” I said. “Also, my friend James can run it through some tests.”

  James might know in an instant. Maybe I should take it to him first. He had a good-sized lab in the back of his apartment. He loved to experiment and he loved a good challenge.

  “Take it.” Adam leaned close enough that his words tickled my ear. sending a swirl of excitement through me as his masculine scent of leather and coffee washed over me. “I’m off Friday. Meet at your office and I’ll take you to lunch?”

  I brushed my fingers over my collar. “I think I can fit it in my schedule,” 1 said as he drew away, and our eyes held.

  “Great.” Adam got to his feet, still smiling at me. and clasped my hand as he helped me stand. His palm felt warm, hard, callused.

  My smile faded as he swept the house with his gaze. “You need to let me go after these Demons with you,” he said, his tone hard. “I’ve got every right.”

  The way he said it made my stomach hurt. “I know.”

  “Then tell me where to meet you when you go out tonight,” he said, his expression determined.

  “I’m not ready, Adam.” I bit the inside of my lip. “You don’t know the other part of me.”

  “Nyx.” His tone was softer now. “Unless you’re some purple, green-horned Demon with teeth like a piranha and claws like a lion, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  “Amethyst,” I said automatically, even as my belly churned more.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” I took a deep breath. “Just give me until Friday when we have lunch. Then I’ll explain everything to you. Okay?”

  He gave a slow nod. “I’ll wait until then. That’s it.”

  “Uh, hello?” came Olivia’s voice. She handed my purse to me. “I think we’d better let Tinkerbell unfreeze the scene before it gets much later in the day.”

  I looked away from Adam’s intense gaze and glanced up at a hole in the ceiling that went through the roof. Rain drizzled down, splashing the floor. “At least it’s not sunny” I said, more to change the subject than anything else. “It’ll be less confusing for the crime scene investigators to. come out of a mind-swipe. It’s easier for some reason.”

  “You’d better go.” Adam grasped my hand and squeezed it before giving me one of his adorable smiles. Goddess, he had such inviting, warm, brown eyes. “Noon. Friday. Your office.”

  It felt so good having him look at me that way. “I’m really looking forward to it, Adam.”

  “Same here.” He released my hand and we held each other’s gazes for a long moment before I joined Olivia and the two of us headed out of what was left of the front door.

  CHAPTER 17

  When I returned from the crime scene, I headed up to my apartment to change my soaked clothing and dry my wet hair.

  Mostly, though, I needed some time to myself to think about what had happened to Caprice.

  Spending the night with Rodán had been a distraction, and the events this morning had forced me to keep from dwelling on her murder. The pain inside me was hollow, as if a piece of the world was missing, like a face cut out of a photograph.

  Blank. Empty.

  My heels clunked when I kicked them off beside the door, and the carpet was soft beneath my bare feet as I went into my bedroom. By the time I sat on my bed I was numb. Not from the wet clothes sticking to my skin but from my thoughts of Caprice, Jon, the two missing liaisons, and the first liaison’s murdered family.

  But mostly I thought about Caprice.

  My palms were damp when I lowered my face into my hands. Did the bed shake with the force of my shudders? The ache behind my eyes grew so much that my head hurt. As if the tears I wanted to shed were building and building, pressing against my temples.

  Dear Goddess, why Caprice? I could see her smile so clearly, as if I could reach out and touch the warmth of her friendship.

  My body shook even more. Would I fall apart? Maybe.

  A rapping sound on the front door knifed through me, each knock sounding loud and harsh even though they weren’t, really. I was so raw and vulnerable that even my damp hair felt scratchy against my neck, and I wanted to chop it off.

  I forced myself to my feet, and when I made it to the front door I peered out the peephole.

  Adam? What was he doing here?

  A mixture of emotions I couldn’t separate flowed through me with the pain. I felt off balance, as if he was catching me after my physical change. I looked down at my hands, and at the black hair hanging limply over my shoulders. Of course I didn’t look Drow. It was the middle of the day.

  The moment I opened the door, Adam stepped toward me and wrapped his arms around me. The act caught me so off guard that for a moment I stiffened, before I relaxed against his hard body and breathed in his comforting scent of coffee and leather.

  “Why didn’t you say anything about your friend?” Adam hugged me tight before raising his head and taking me by my shoulders. The intensity in his brown eyes showed his concern like nothing else could. “Olivia told me before she left the scene that one of your closest friends was murdered last night by Demons.”

  He moved us inside the apartment as he spoke, and closed the door behind us by leaning against it and bringing me closer to him.

  My voice sounded strangled from the emotions raging inside me. “I wasn’t ready to talk about it.”

  He cupped the side of my face and rubbed one thumb over my cheek. “I’m so sorry, Nyx.”

  I swallowed, feeling like an apple was lodged in my throat. “If only I had sensed it sooner—”

  Adam stole my words when he brought his mouth to mine and kissed me.

  This time I was even more startled, and I froze. He hesitated, but I didn’t give him a chance to move away I brought my mouth tight to his, and then he kissed me harder. I let myself fail into the warmth of his kiss and the wonderful way he tasted.

  When he did draw back he brushed my damp hair away from my cheek with the back of his hand and I shivered. “That was for trying to blame yourself for what happened.” He brought his mouth closer to mine again. “This is for you.”

  A soft sound of surprise, acceptance, and need slipped through my lips as he moved his mouth closer. He lightly brushed his lips over mine before slipping his tongue into my mouth. He slid his hands to my hips and held me as I wrapped my arms around his neck. This kiss was slow, our tongues meeting and tasting one another.

  My belly tingled with the thrill of finally kissing Adam. The tingles radiated through my whole body.

  warming me, chasing away the numbness I had been feeling. He made a rumbling sound and I followed with a soft moan. I couldn’t get enough of his scent and the hardness of his body fused with mine.

  Suddenly the realization that I’d been with Rodán last night slapped me. I shouldn’t be kissing Adam when I’d just been in Rodán’s bed. It didn’t matter that Rodán was my friend, mentor, and former lover, who had simply comforted me when I needed it so badly. I couldn’t do this with Adam. Not yet.

  I released him, put my hands on his chest, and stepped back. My lips felt moist, and tingled from his kiss. My entire body felt sensitized from too many emotions to define.

  “Thank you,” I said before I moved into his arms again. I pressed my cheek against the dry T-shirt beneath his open bomber jacket. He held me and stroked the tangles in my damp hair.

  “Don’t blame yourself, baby.” The way he called me “baby” made pleasure flush throughout me.

  “You know you couldn’t have done anything about it if you had been able to get there sooner.”

  I lightly picked at the soft cotton of his T-shirt with my fingers. “It sounds like Olivia told you everything.”

  “Not everything, but what she said sounded pretty devastating.” He stroked the curve of my ear, and I shivered again. “I can’t beg
in to imagine what you’re going through.”

  I clenched his T-shirt with both hands and moved so that I bowed my head against his chest. “I don’t know if I can talk about it. Everything—it’s so ... Goddess, no, I just can’t. It’s too soon.” I shuddered.

  trying my best not to picture the horror from last night. “Caprice was one of my closest friends.”

  Adam moved his hand to the middle of my back and rubbed his fingers slowly over the damp silk of my blouse. “When you’re ready, I’m here.”

  “Thank you,” I said again, only this time in a whisper as I pressed my forehead tighter to his chest.

  After a long, quiet moment, I stepped back so that he had to let his hands slide away from me. I took both of his hands in mine and squeezed as our eyes met and held. “It means a lot to me that you came.” I wanted so badly for him to stay, and to kiss him forever, but it wasn’t right. “Maybe I’ll be ready to talk about it Friday.”

  “Day after tomorrow.” He gave a little smile. “When you tell me everything else you’ve been holding back.”

  I managed a smile, just for him. “It’s going to be a long lunch.”

  Adam gave me a quick kiss. “If you need me, call. Promise.”

  I withdrew my hands from his. “Promise.”

  His gaze was long and searching before he turned and opened the door. He paused to glance back at me. We said nothing, yet it was like we’d spoken a volume in that last look.

  When he closed the door behind him, I leaned against the door and sighed. And felt a little healed inside.

  I tossed my purse on my desk while Olivia hung her wet Mets sweat jacket on a hook by the door.

  My lips still tingled from Adam’s kiss, even though it was at least half an hour since he’d left.

  But my mind still hurt from thinking about Caprice.

  I picked up a file folder with pages sticking out and tapped each side of the folder on my desk to slide the loose papers completely inside. I had no idea what was in that folder. Didn’t care, either.