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

  My hair rose from my shoulders as I whirled and tried to ram my dagger into a muscular, manlike Demon’s throat. I missed and my blade pinged off its neck.

  I barely avoided its claws when it swung at me and it slammed me against one of the alleyway walls. Pain reverberated from my back to my chest. For only a second stars sparked behind my eyes when my head hit the brick wall, and I felt blood well on my scalp.

  I drew Thunder, my second dragon-clawed dagger, from its sheath at the same time I twisted and ducked under the man-Demon’s claws as it lunged at me again.

  A chill trailed up my spine and I dodged the Demon. The chill was almost familiar, deadly.

  No time to think about anything but vengeance on these Demons.

  I whirled and rammed one dagger into a third Demon’s throat sac. Some of the goo splattered my pants and my bare belly, but I ignored it as the Demon, wearing a three-piece businessman’s suit, collapsed.

  I didn’t pause to pay attention. Instead, I ducked and rolled between two of the three remaining Demons. Asphalt was beneath my feet in an instant as I rose behind the Demons.

  “You sonsofbitches!” Their confusion at my move gave me just enough time to rid myself of Demon number four, a large male, with another quick movement of my dagger.

  Every kill brought home Jon’s death. Instead of feeling any satisfaction in avenging him, only more hatred surged through me.

  Splatters of blue fluid from the dead Demons reflected the light of the half-moon peeking through the clouds.

  The last two Demons charged me, shrieking and screaming so loudly that the sound felt like it was piercing my eardrums. One of them would have looked like a frail elderly woman if it didn’t have Demon claws and teeth. The other demon could have been anyone’s mom.

  The Demons were too close to fight easily.

  Right before I performed a triple backflip, I felt a brush of air as one of the Demon’s claws passed less than an inch from my face.

  My pulse rocketed.

  Damn, that was close.

  I gripped Lightning and Thunder. Blue Demon goo covered one dagger’s blade. The grips of my weapons felt worn and comfortable as I held one in each hand while crossing the blades in front of my chest.

  The Demons charged again.

  Careful to remain out of reach of their deadly claws. I spun. Again I knew I was a blur to their sight.

  I extended both of my arms while gripping my daggers and holding them straight out. The blades clinked ... — their armored-skinned bodies.

  Then, to either side of me, I drove each dagger home at the same time.

  The Demons’ throat sacs spurted blue fluid and their faces twisted into images of excruciating pain.

  More blue fluid slapped my skin right before their humanoid bodies collapsed and plopped to the asphalt.

  My muscles shook from adrenaline, tension, and anger as I came to a stop.

  I closed my eyes for a moment and sucked in a deep breath. It was over. My revenge on these Demons was complete. But I would never be satisfied until every single Demon that had come through the Ruhin Demon Gate was destroyed.

  My eyes remained closed. I couldn’t look at Jon’s destroyed body, but still the image was burned into my mind from seeing his remains earlier. Goddess, I wished I could cry, but Dark Elves don’t have tear ducts.

  After taking a deep breath, I fixed on the location of his remains with my senses, but in my mind kept a picture of him whole and handsome.

  I paused a moment to catch another breath and let everything sink in. Dear Goddess.

  Using my earth element, I drew deep from the soil beneath the asphalt. My muscles shook as I focused on my power to move earth and stone. Even though this would take a good portion of my elemental energies, this was worth it to give Jon’s remains a proper ending.

  The earth rumbled. The crack of asphalt bounced off the walls. In my mind’s eye I could see what was left of Jon swallowed by the exposed earth when the asphalt opened to either side of him.

  Then down. Down into the fissure I’d created. What was left of his body I took deep, deep into the earth. With a mental command the dirt and asphalt closed over him as if what I’d done had never happened. I elementally contained his remains in the earth to keep them safe until they could be retrieved by his family.

  “Good-bye, Jon,” I said, so quietly that even I barely heard my words.

  A sensation swarmed my body like beetles crawling over my skin.

  I jerked my head up and opened my eyes.

  A different danger.

  My grip tightened on Lightning and Thunder. Adrenaline surged through me again in a hot, hard thrust.

  An unknown danger.

  My Drow senses radiated the energy I drew from the earth and ah. The energy flowed in a radius wide enough to cover the alleyway as I crouched again. I’d weakened myself, but not too much.

  Rosewood and musk rose over the pus smell of Demon fluid and the alley’s filth.

  I crossed my daggers over my chest.

  Someone was watching me.

  Or some thing.

  CHAPTER 5

  I turned my head toward the being watching me, still holding my daggers crossed over my chest.

  My gaze met his—its—liquid silver eyes and I felt like I had been touched by a bolt of lightning An electric current shot through me and I gripped my daggers even tighter. Had he just touched me with magic? I reached out with my senses but could feel no active magic coming from or near him.

  So what the hell had just happened?

  Without fear, but with caution, I studied the alien presence.

  It wasn’t one of these underling Demons, somehow I knew that. Could it be another type of Demon?

  That smelled like rosewood and musk? I didn’t think so.

  It also wasn’t a Metamorph, because they smelled like alyssum—newly mown hay.

  The being in front of me had the appearance of a human male—

  But he definitely wasn’t human.

  He had his shoulder hitched up against a blood-free wall while observing me. A dark, sensual, gorgeous hunk of a male.

  Who was he? What was he?

  Why was he watching me, and how had he gotten past my senses so easily? Did I lose that much of my energies fighting the Demons?

  And seeing a friend’s butchered remains.

  I swallowed. My choker seemed to tighten around my throat at the movement.

  My Drow-enhanced vision made his features easy to see, but not easy to read. Those unusual silver eyes suggested perhaps a hint of amusement, yet the being didn’t smile. He wore a long black trench coat. Being half Drow, I could sense and scent the odd alloy within the weapons he carried beneath the coat.

  Strapped to his back was a pair of double-edged short swords of that same metal. Dark Elves were familiar with all metals, so why didn’t I recognize his?

  I gripped my daggers. My chest and back hurt, and pain shot through my head. But I slowly rose to my feet in a fluid movement, not letting him know I was injured in any way. One benefit of being Elvin is that I heal very quickly, and it wouldn’t be long before all of my wounds no longer existed.

  “Who are you?” My muscles relaxed as I reached my full height of five-eight. Because I sensed no immediate danger, I sheathed my daggers but never took my gaze from his. I put my right hand on my buckler at the front of my weapons belt. The buckler would separate this being’s head from his shoulders with a flick of my wrist. He’d never see it coming. “What are you?”

  “You move like a cat. Nyx.” His voice rumbled my name and a chill slid through me. How did he know who I was? “I’ve never seen such grace and power in any female. Or male.” He studied me with his intent gray eyes. “Interesting.”

  “Is it?” I let the words roll from my tongue in a casual and sensual tone meant to disarm him.

  Because I’m half Drow, sensuality is something that comes to me as naturally as every breath I take.

  Which at that
moment felt like hell.

  If he recognized the danger behind my words and my voice, the man didn’t show it, not even by a twitch of an eyelid. “Very interesting.” His arms remained crossed at his chest and I sensed no weapons in his hands.

  I moved closer to him, my steps slow and sensuous, intending to keep him off guard. Good girl. I managed to walk without looking injured, or like my heart had been torn out, as I edged in on the fifteen feet between us.

  “Dark Elves and Light Elves are known for stealth and absolute silence,” I said.

  He gave a slow and entirely sexual smile. “But not with such feline movements that you could be a panther.”

  “Flattery is a custom of your race?” Only ten feet separated us now. “How do you know my name?”

  He gave a casual shrug accompanied by an arrogant look.

  I kept my cool but made it clear in my voice that I would tolerate only so much. “What do you want, stranger?”

  He glanced at my choker, with its almost invisible runes signifying my heritage. “Princess, it’s not what I want, but it is what it is.”

  “So you can read Drow runes.” I cocked one eyebrow. “Impressive. Why are you really here?”

  “The name’s Torin.” He smirked. “And Princess, I’m your new babysitter.”

  His words hit me like a small jolt. What was he talking about?

  I kept my voice even and my fingers close to my buckler. “Maybe you should clarify that statement.”

  The being that called himself Torin pushed away from the wall and I saw him more clearly in the alleyway’s single light. Beneath his open trench coat, he wore a black T-shirt and snug blue jeans.

  His almost black hair was tied into a long tail, pulling his hair from his face. He had a rugged Highlander look to him.

  A scar zagged from the right side of his forehead through one eyebrow and to his cheek. A second scar ran along his left jaw. On his neck were odd scars, almost as if someone had tried to hang him.

  Too bad they hadn’t succeeded.

  His rosewood-and-musk scent was even stronger now. The being was perhaps eight inches taller and towered over my five-eight. His height didn’t intimidate me. Nor did the battle scars on his face and neck. I would have thought he was handsome if he hadn’t pissed me off, and if I wasn’t sick over Jon.

  “You don’t work alone anymore. Princess,” he said.

  Yeah, right. “Quit with the games.”

  He had a smug expression that immediately made me want to draw my blades, just out of sheer irritation. “Speak with Rodán,” he said.

  The Proctor’s name coming from this being’s mouth sent a combination of heat and a chill through me. “What do you know of Rodán?”

  My fingers twitched closer to my buckler as the being took a step toward me. “He asked me to retrieve you.”

  The stranger’s arrogance was definitely getting old, and my skin prickled. “You’re to take me to Rodán like a lost puppy?”

  His gaze became dark and intense. “More like a dangerous cat.”

  “He could have called me just as easily on my XPhone.” I narrowed my eyes. “Who are you? And I ask again, what are you?”

  He was only five feet from me now. “I’m the man who’s going to back up your gorgeous little ass.”

  “This ass doesn’t need backup. T.” I couldn’t have helped the dangerous glint that sparked from my eyes if I’d wanted to when he ignored the most important question. Blessed Anu. What was this male?

  “You would have been dead if I had chosen to kill you instead of watch you.” His tone and his expression bordered on condescending, and I thought his head might make a good trophy if I was into collecting them. “And the name is Torin.”

  “Whatever, T.” I delighted in the irritation that crossed his features. “I don’t have a doubt I would have been aware the instant you or your weapon came near me, and I would have deflected it. Then gutted you.”

  The arrogant male turned his gaze toward the carnage. “First we’ll take care of this . . . mess.”

  I faced the six dead Demons. All of the elemental powers I had used tonight had nearly drained me to the point of exhaustion. We always had to have the remains removed before norms stumbled over them. This time I just didn’t have the juice in me to do it myself. I’d need to call PTF, the Paranorm Task Force.

  As I reached for my XPhone, T raised his hand. I stopped and narrowed my eyes as I watched him.

  The intense way he focused on the Demon carcasses was fascinating enough to give me pause.

  A burst of black/orange fire shot from his palm straight at the Demons’ remains.

  I caught my breath, my hair rising from my scalp. I’d never seen anything like the magic in the flames. A dark, coal-black glitter winking in and out of a silent, cold fire.

  The Demons erupted into flame and a new stench filtered down the alleyway. The charred pus smell was strong enough that I almost gagged.

  What the hell? Fire had no effect on the Demons.

  But this had been no normal fire. This one had been imbued with magic. Magic that I couldn’t understand or explain.

  Within moments all of the carcasses were gone and a few silver ashes swirled into a breeze and vanished. Before I had a chance to ask how he had rid us of the Demons, T started out of the alleyway and presented his back. It was in the confident way he moved that I knew he had no fear of an attack from me.

  My Drow genes told me it wasn’t too long until sunrise. Time for most baddies to go to ground, or wherever was dark or safe from sunlight.

  “We’re going to see Rodán,” he said over his shoulder.

  Oh, you bet. Time to find out what in the name of the Goddess was going on.

  “Avanna.” My skin tingled as I spoke the Elvin word that relieved all my body parts of filth and stenches from the Dumpster, the blue Demon blood, and any other unwanted substances.

  I frowned at the broad-shouldered male ahead whose boot steps clumped against the concrete sidewalk. Why bother to try to catch up with him—it— whatever? I wasn’t about to go trotting after him like a well-trained dog.

  My XPhone was smooth in my hand as I withdrew it, then called Rodán.

  He answered with, “You’ve met Torin?”

  “I don’t appreciate you sending someone to tag along with me while I track.” I saw T’s back stiffen at my words. Heh. “Especially without giving me a heads-up.”

  “You’ve had a busy night,” Rodán said.

  “Goddess bless it, Rodán.” There were other things I wanted to scream, but Rodán was fluent in the Drow language. “Didn’t you take your medication?”

  I heard the frown in his voice when he replied, “What?”

  “Your trollshit pill.” My face burned as I spoke. “Because you need to flush it out of your system before I get there.”

  The XPhone made a rasping sound as I stuffed it in its clip on my belt.

  Laughter came from the man-thing in front of me, and he looked over his shoulder. “Rodán is very tolerant of you.”

  T turned forward again. I rested both hands on the hilts of my daggers. After just seeing a Tracker, a friend, murdered, I was so not in the mood for this.

  I stepped over a vagrant who had a newspaper over his head and his feet stuck out on the concrete.

  Of course he couldn’t see me, even without the newspaper, because I was using my air power to form a glamour and I didn’t want to be seen.

  I couldn’t help my thoughts turning back to Jon. As one of the Great Guardian’s Trackers, I’d gone from outcast in the world of the Dark Elves to being accepted and embraced as one of a group that treated me like any other paranorm. I developed friendships for the first time in my life. It had taken a while to get used to it, but it felt good. Two years later and I couldn’t imagine life any other way.

  And now I’d lost one of my fellow Trackers. One of my friends.

  My throat worked as I tried to swallow back the pain and concentrate on taking my t
ime walking behind the being that called itself/himself Torin. Then the male stopped and waited for me.

  I narrowed my brows. What did he want?

  He fell into step beside me as the rumble and growl of the city surrounded us. “Strange place,” he muttered as he looked at the skyscrapers and flashing billboards.

  An interesting tidbit. He didn’t seem to be familiar with human cities. At least, not this one.

  Cars and taxis arrowed past us in the fairly light predawn traffic. The humid late-September air weighted the night. I enjoy the change of seasons so I don’t mind the humidity. In the Drow Realm, there’s no such thing as seasons. Not even in the city of the Light Elves. In the city of the pious it’s spring year-round.

  The shriek of a Metro bus’s brakes cut through the waning night. An hour and a half at most and it would be daylight—my Drow half sensed it as the feel of the oncoming day tickled through my being.

  The bus’s exhaust poured from its tailpipe when it pulled to a stop as we passed by. Early risers and late nighters boarded and debarked, sleepy-eyed and looking as if they sure didn’t want to be where they were.

  “Explain why Rodán would want to stick me with you,” I said.

  “Like I told you. Princess.” His arrogant tone made me want to gut him. “It is what it is.”

  “Sure. Like I’ll let it happen. I have no desire to train a new Tracker.”

  Irritation swiped his features before it vanished. “I’m not a Tracker.”

  My turn for more irritation, and my skin tightened. “Then what are you?”

  He said nothing, and my dagger in his gut was sounding better all the time. I wasn’t in the mood for games.

  I forced myself to think of other things than this huge idiot beside me. But then all that stayed in my mind was what had happened to Jon.

  The, smell of pizza made me feel like throwing up as we passed a small twenty-four hour restaurant. I felt like I would never be able to eat again.

  Not after tonight.

  CHAPTER 6

  Everything that had happened tonight seemed surreal as T and I neared the Dakota Building and finally reached the Pit.

  By the time we got to the nightclub my head and back barely bothered me. It’s really convenient being Drow.