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

  Olivia snapped her bra straps in place. “This place was a mess before you had the privilege of me coming to work as your partner.”

  “Ha.” I looked down at my breasts, which were small in comparison to Olivia’s. I hadn’t known they grew them as big as hers until I moved here from the Drow Realm. Elves and Fae—peaches in comparison. I looked back at her. “That Sprite would have had you singing Broadway show tunes if I hadn’t arrived. Before he fed you to his buddy, the Were.”

  “I’ll let you have your delusions.” Olivia twisted a wisp of dark hair that had escaped her clip. “I would have had them if you hadn’t interfered.”

  Considering Olivia had a black belt in karate, been on NYPD’s SWAT team, and was kick-ass all the way, the Sprite hadn’t had a chance with her. The Were, though—that would have been tough, but Olivia was also a dead-shot with her Sig.

  My XPhone vibrated on the top of my desk and belted out “Walk this Way,” an old classic tune by Aerosmith, my current ringtone.

  “Unknown” came up on the caller screen. “Nyx,” I answered.

  “Are you going to be at the Pit tonight, chica?” Caprice, one of my closest friends, said. “I am so hungry for one of Hector’s burgers.”

  “I could really go for a martini right now. Extra dry.” I leaned back in my chair and imagined relaxing with my favorite drink. “Yeah, after the past twenty-four hours that’s just what I need.”

  “Nadia’s going, too.” I could picture Caprice’s pretty hazel eyes and warm smile as she spoke.

  “We’ll meet up with you there.”

  I looked at Olivia, who nodded before I took my life in my own hands as I said to Caprice. “Olivia can’t stay away, so I’m sure she’ll be trying to pick up some paranorm.” Olivia grabbed a rubber band off of her desktop, made a slingshot, loaded it with an eraser, and aimed it at me. With a grin, I held up my hand to ward off Olivia’s revenge attack. “See you.”

  After I pushed the off button on my XPhone, Olivia set the eraser and rubber band on her desktop.

  She always had a weapon and ammunition on hand, no matter the circumstances.

  “Did you get a hold of Boyd?” she asked instead of pinging an eraser off my forehead. Or trying to.

  I shook my head. Too bad Adam hadn’t answered his cell phone when I’d tried to reach him. “I left a message, but haven’t heard back.”

  “I’m telling you, Nyx, the guy wants to jump your bones.” Olivia took a pencil from her holder and jotted down something on a sticky note in front of her instead of putting it in her XPhone. “Stop wasting time.”

  “We’ll see.”

  The door whooshed open and both Olivia and I looked up.

  Detective Adam Boyd.

  A combination of warmth and pleasure whirled in my belly. I smiled, trying not to let a silly grin cross my face. Adam was one of the few humans allowed to see Olivia’s and my PI office. To almost all other humans our office was invisible.

  “Hey.” Adam shoved his hands in his well-worn brown bomber jacket and looked both glad to be here and kind of shy as his eyes met mine.

  Damn, he was cute.

  “Whoo-hoo,” Olivia said waving her hand in an “earth to Adam” kind of motion. “I’m here, too.”

  I’m not sure, but I thought his cheeks might have flushed a little under his tan. “Hey, Olivia.”

  She had one of her evil-mischievous looks on her face.

  Uh-oh.

  “You got my message?” I rushed to say before Olivia could open her Big Fat Mouth.

  “Yeah.” There must have been a strong breeze outside that had tousled his sable hair adorably, and he ran his hand over the short strands. His eyes, the color of dark brown alder wood, focused on me as he moved forward and took one of the chairs in front of my desk. He was a model of masculine grace and strength. “What’s up?” For a big guy, he had the cutest little smile when our eyes met, and he had a dimple in his left cheek.

  Insert schoolgirl sigh.

  Did I mention he was gorgeous? In a typical guy way of sitting, he slouched his six-two frame in the chair, knees wide, feet planted on the floor. He was just as delicious as he was gorgeous—like a football quarterback.

  I’d developed a taste for human football and I especially liked the shape and form of quarterbacks.

  Not too muscular, but toned and fit, intelligent and with a power all their own. And great asses.

  Adam sure had a nice ass.

  “Nyx?” Olivia said in a dangerously evil tone.

  “Um, yeah.” I fidgeted with the stylus for my XPhone. “I wanted to know if you’ve seen anything strange.”

  He raised one eyebrow. “As in paranormal strange?”

  Olivia sniggered.

  Of course Adam would have contacted me if he had. What an idiot I was.

  “I meant—” What did I mean? I glanced at Olivia, who, by the look on her face, must have been cooking up something devious in her mind. “We wanted to make sure you’re aware of what’s going on.”

  “Pretty bad, huh?” He still had his hands stuffed in his bomber jacket. I liked his hands. Longfingered, a little callused, and strong.

  I wet my lips. His gaze followed my tongue.

  Dear Goddess.

  What I’d like to do to Adam using my tongue ...

  Olivia interrupted my sudden fantasies and my face grew hot again. “Miss Tongue-tied here is trying to tell you about Demons that are killing paranorms.”

  “Christ,” Adam said as his expression turned to cop-mode. “What are these Demons?”

  She gave him the short version before she added, “We’ve had a hell of a day fielding calls from paranorms needing help finding family members. We’ve never had so many missing persons calls.”

  “It’s not easy telling the families about the Demons,” I said, “and the possibility that the person they’re calling about might have encountered one. Or a few.” But we had to, and we warned them to keep the rest of their families safe.

  Adam shook his head. “I don’t handle missing persons cases, but I’ll check in the database at the precinct to see if they’ve had an increase and go from there.”

  “That would be a big help.” I tried not to be distracted by the energy I felt between myself and Adam. “Olivia and I have taken down every paranorm’s information and filed it electronically for now.” I rubbed my temples. “Goddess, there were so many calls today.”

  “Have you been able to get the word out on a broader scale?” Adam asked. “Last I remember the paranorm communications system isn’t exactly up to date.”

  “Considering most of the paranorm racial issues are even worse than norms,” Olivia said, “it’s a problem. Weres can’t stand Vamps who can’t stand Fae ...” She looked at me. “Who don’t like Dark —”

  I cut her off as fast as I could. Adam didn’t know what I was. “Rodán’s doing his best,” I hurried to say. “But some paranorms can’t come out during the day, so it’s asking a lot to tell them not to leave their homes at night, too.”

  I’m lucky because my human half allows me to be in the sunshine, unlike my Drow half. Dark Elves can’t tolerate daylight. I have the best of both worlds.

  My skin started to tingle. Speaking of my Drow half. Damn.

  “I’m sorry, Adam. I’ve got to run.” I scrambled to throw my XPhone into my purse and tug on my light Fendi jacket, to hide my holstered 9mm Kahr.

  Olivia smirked. “Time for presto chango,” she said, and I cut her a quick glare.

  Adam was already standing but looked confused, and I wanted to kill Olivia.

  The tingling grew stronger. Crap. “I’m sorry, Adam. I’ve got an appointment I forgot about and I’m so late.” Really late.

  I had to hold myself from a dead run as Adam hurried to catch up with me after he gave Olivia a quick “Bye.”

  Damn, damn, damn. Crap, crap, crap. I was going to change right in front of him. I could feel my hair prickling at the roots. Was my hair already turning
blue? What about the color of my skin?

  I charged out of the office and into the cool September evening, and the breeze lifted my hair from my shoulders. “I’ve got to run up to my apartment real quick before I go,” I said to Adam. “Bye.” I almost bolted for the stairs in my high-heeled Ferragamos.

  His “See you later,” sounded hesitant.

  No blue hair. No blue hair. No blue hair. Please.

  This was the closest I’d come to blowing everything and shifting into my Drow form in front of a human. A human I really, really liked and didn’t want to scare off.

  Although I knew Adam wasn’t like that. He’d already seen his fair share of things that went bump in the night. Still, I didn’t want him to ever look at me any differently, and if that meant not showing him my other side despite Olivia’s encouragement that’s what it would have to be for now.

  I bolted past Mrs. Taylor on the stairs. She lived in the apartment below mine, along with her yappy Chihuahua, Terror. I didn’t pause to say hi. What if she saw me with blue hair?

  I barely had time to get inside, slam my door, and strip before I started the transformation. My skin prickled even more as I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to relax and slow the pounding of my heart.

  I’d made it. But I’d had to leave a confused Adam behind.

  No, I couldn’t worry about him for now. I had other things to attend to now that darkness was almost here.

  Fully naked, I stretched up on my toes, extending to be taller than my five-eight height. Then I lowered myself and began to move like a cat in slow, sinuous movements. I loved the transformation of my body, my skin, and my hair into my Drow appearance.

  My muscles grew tighter, stronger. My straight black hair shimmered into a luxurious cobalt blue that parted at my now pointed ears. The color of my now softer and more sensitive skin eased into a shade that was like pale amethyst marble.

  I shook out my slender but strong and sculpted Drow arms. My short incisors lowered and I touched one of the sharp points and cut my finger. When I pulled back, the dark red fluid stood out against the pale amethyst of my skin.

  Every time I make the change, whether from human to Drow or Drow to human, I feel complete, as if everything is as it’s meant to be.

  But it had been too much for Stan.

  Me. The real me.

  Air brushed my bare flesh as I moved into my bedroom and then my walk-in closet, where I slipped into a form-fitting pair of Drow-made leather pants. I grabbed one of my black leather corsets off of a shelf and tugged the supple material on.

  Stan and I had gotten so close, and I’d cared for him so much that my heart still hurt to think about him. I clenched my fingers into a fist as I stared into the closet, not seeing anything but Stan in that moment. Blond, hazel eyes, a nice package all the way around, Stan had seemed like such a great guy.

  I’d almost thought I was in love with him.

  The black leather of my Night Tracker outfit was soft and sensual against my skin. I pulled some of my hair out of the corset’s straps, then pushed all of my straight hair back, letting it fall past my shoulders.

  I held several strands of my long, blue hair and stared at them. My eyes unfocused as I thought again about Stan. One night, after we’d been together for over six months, I’d finally decided he was ready for. the truth. I’d told him and showed him. Showed him all of me.

  That had been the beginning of the end. Stan had freaked out. Every word he’d said had been like a knife slicing my flesh.

  Even now I flinched as the words cut into my thoughts.

  “Lying bitch . . .

  “Blue-haired freak ...

  “Purple whore ..,”

  He’d said so many things that I’d tried for a long time to push out of my mind and never quite could.

  Immediately I’d used my air powers to try to erase thoughts of me from his mind, but we’d become too close, been together too long. I’d had to use my Drow strength to pin him down and keep him in his apartment while I called Rodán on my XPhone. It had taken Rodán’s powers to erase the human’s—Stan’s— mind so that he would forget everything about me. Everything.

  We couldn’t have Stan running around New York raving about purple women. Not that anyone would have believed him. But still, for his sanity and mine, taking his memories of me away had been our only choice. Rodán had planted another woman who looked like me in Stan’s mind, a woman who had just broken up with him and left. Then his other memories and emotions could remain intact.

  When Rodán had finished erasing and replacing Stan’s memories, Rodán had found me curled in a corner by the front entryway. I’d been shivering, wanting to let out sobs that would never come. But the pain was there. Pain so great I didn’t know if I’d ever get past it.

  But I had. Eventually. For the most part.

  A very demanding growl came from the direction of the kitchen and I blinked. I was still staring at strands of my hair that I clenched in my fingers. Amethyst-skinned fingers.

  An extremely annoying yowl this time.

  “Coming, your highness,” I said as I tugged on my feather-light black knee-high Elvin boots. “Can’t make Kali wait, now can we?” I muttered to myself.

  Because I’m Elvin, my boots didn’t make a whisper of a sound as I walked over the hardwood floor through the immaculate white and cobalt-blue designer living room. I passed through the arched entryway into the spacious kitchen, complete with stainless-steel appliances, cherrywood cabinets, and brown marble countertops.

  I’d hired an interior decorator who had made over every room in my apartment when I first came from the Drow Realm to work for Rodán. Since then I had a Shifter maid who kept my apartment spotless.

  How could I afford all of this in New York City? I’m a Drow Princess, and Dark Elves mine precious gems. I was loaded.

  My blue Persian was sitting next to her food bowl with an imperious look on her features. Kali had been a gift from Rodán when she was a kitten. I think he found it amusing, giving a blue-haired female a blue cat.

  I used my best Italian mobster accent as 1 put my hand on my hip. “So I forgot to give you your Fancy Feast before I got dressed. Sue me.”

  Kali glared and I knew my underwear drawer was in serious danger.

  She had no sense of humor.

  I grabbed a can of Kali’s favorite cat food out of the walk-in pantry and served it to her highness in her Waterford Crystal Lismore champagne saucer. “You might think you own me,” I said to the cat, “but it’s the other way around.”

  Sure it was.

  Why did I ever name her after Shiva’s fierce and destructive Hindu wife? I must have been out of my mind. Kali had no problem living up to her name.

  It was still early, and there was no hurry to get to the Pit. I took a bottle of green tea out of the fridge and used my air element to create a glamour to disguise my appearance. I headed through a set of French doors and stepped out of my living room onto my corner terrace, one of my favorite places. I lived on 104th and Central Park West, and the views of the sunrises and sunsets from my terrace were spectacular. My place was in what had become a quirky, idiosyncratic neighborhood and artists’ community.

  The tea bottle chilled my palm as I stared out into the near darkness and the glittering lights of Manhattan. What would it be like to be a norm, with no fear of Demons or other paranorms that had to be kept in fine?

  “Dull.” I tipped back the bottle of green tea and swallowed the rest of it. My fangs clinked on the glass as the cold tea hit my belly and my stomach growled. “Who’d want to be a full norm, anyway?”

  Inside my apartment, I strapped on my weapons belt and sheathed my dragon-claw daggers—

  Lightning and Thunder—and fastened my double-bladed oval buckler, Storm, like a belt buckle at the front of my weapons belt. The buckler was like a razor-edged discus.

  With my ah element, I made sure the terrace doors and all of the windows in my apartment were locked a
nd protected.

  I almost forgot my XPhone, but remembered it when I took my 9mm out of its day holster. After I set my XPhone on vibrate. I put it in its clip on my weapons belt and holstered the Kahr close to the XPhone, near my daggers.

  I left a treat for Kali in her dish in the kitchen, hoping to appease her. “Good-bye, your highness.”

  Kali, as usual, gave me “the look” that told me how much she didn’t appreciate being left alone.

  “Could you at least leave me a week’s worth of bras and thongs?” I said as I grabbed the doorknob.

  “I really don’t have time to go to Victoria’s this week.”

  She responded by tilting her chin and looking away from me.

  “I’m going to have to buy a safe just for my underwear,” I said with a grumble. Although she might find a way—I wondered sometimes if Rodán had given me a cat with magic. It would be like him to do that and not tell me.

  I plunged into the night that had the faintest lift to the darkness, a trace of twilight still in the sky.

  A horrible sensation churned in my belly and acid rose in my throat, and at the same time my heart started pounding. I clenched one arm to my abdomen and tried to shake off the feeling until I finally pulled myself together.

  In those seconds 1 knew. I knew with everything I had that something was going to happen tonight.

  Something bad.

  CHAPTER 3

  Wind blew my hair into my face and eyes as I drove my black Corvette with the top down. The power of the sensation I’d had as I left my apartment wouldn’t leave me as I drove the few minutes to the Pit.

  I’ve always been able to sense things happening in the moment, but I’d never had a precognition.

  Had I actually sensed the future, and that something really bad was going to happen tonight? Was there anything I could do about it?

  Frustration encased me, as if I was one of the Demons and I was in their armorlike skin. The answer was easy. All I could do was be extra alert tonight. How could I warn the others when it was just a feeling, and I wasn’t a Seer like the Magi?