Midnight Sins

Chapter 16

Time to face the devil.

When night fell, as the shadows stretched over the city and seemed to swallow the light in their hungry grasp, Todd returned to Paradise and to face his own personal demon.

The guards were at the door this time. He tensed when he saw them, more than ready to deal with their shit.

He’d been briefed by the captain. Their top three suspects appeared to be in the clear. That meant, as McNeal had told him, “We’re back to jackshit with this case.”

He needed a break, and Niol was going to give it to him.

“Don’t mess with me tonight,” he warned, voice cold. Cara wasn’t with him. He’d dropped her off at her place, despite his lady’s vehement and loud protests. But he didn’t want her involved in the danger, superhuman powers or not.

The woman was his, and the way Todd saw it, as a cop, and as a man, he was supposed to do his damnedest to protect her.

Tall and Scary opened the door for him. “Not stopping you this time,” he told Todd. “Boss wants to see you.”

Todd grunted and shouldered past him. It was still early enough that the place wasn’t packed. A few folks had wandered in, and Todd thought he caught the glimpse of fang as one guy turned away from him, but the club appeared mostly empty.

His gaze darted toward the bar.

“He’s not here tonight.” Niol’s voice, coming from right behind him.

Christ. Todd spun around. Met those dark eyes. “Where is he?”

“I was going to ask you the same question, Detective.” Niol cocked his head. “Did your partner decide to arrest my bartender?”

“No.” No sense lying—and where was Cameron, anyway? “He’s clear.” The guy had provided Colin with alibis for the murders. The bastard said he’d been tending bar, and at least four people had already confirmed his story. Sure, the witnesses were humans, so they could have been hypnotized by the demon, but Colin had also told him that the bartender didn’t have so much as a scratch on his body—and there was no way the guy could have covered the knife wounds.

It looked like the asshole bartender was off the hook.

“He’s clear? Hmm. Interesting.” But no interest showed in Niol’s shuttered expression. “Cameron didn’t check in for his shift. Should have been here at least half an hour ago.”

The hair on Todd’s nape rose. “The captain told me he left the precinct just before six.” So where was he? His heart rate kicked up, but Todd drew in a deep breath in an attempt to keep his control.

Cara was okay. While she’d still refused the safe house, she’d finally agreed to accept guards. Grudgingly agreed and just to “satisfy you,” as she’d said. A patrol car was stationed right in front of her house.

Nothing was going to happen to her.

Besides, Cameron had been cleared. He was an annoyance.

Not a killer.

But something was pushing his body into alert mode.

Was it Niol? Or someone, something else? “What did you find out?” He demanded, wanting to get his information and get the hell out of there. His skin was prickling, and he wanted to see Cara again.

God, but the woman was always in his mind. Awake. Asleep. Her smell was on his skin. Her taste in his mouth.

He swallowed.

Niol shook his head. “You’re addicted, you know.”

Not the answer he needed. “What?”

“It can happen. The lure of a succubus is strong. She won’t just take your heart. She’ll take your soul, and you’ll want her so much, you’ll stop caring about the pain when she takes and takes.”

But Cara didn’t just take from him. She gave—passion, trust, strength, power. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” And it wasn’t the demon’s business, anyway. “Forget about Cara. She’s not yours to worry about.”

Niol’s face hardened, his lips firming. “Cara is the only thing resembling a family that I have left in this world. Believe me, human, she most definitely is mine to worry about.”

Okay, now he was about to have to get real physical, real fast with the jerk. And to think, he’d promised himself he’d try to be the good cop tonight.

“I don’t know why she chose you,” Niol said, and his brow furrowed. “She could have anyone.”

Yeah, like he didn’t know that fact. But his goddess had chosen him, and he’d thank his lucky stars every day for the rest of his life.

A life he wanted to spend with her.

The realization was as shocking as it was sudden.

“I’ve got word of a few strays in the area.” Niol shrugged. “Nothing too dangerous from the accounts, but—”

Strays? Niol had used that word earlier and—Jesus, what were the demons, some kind of unwanted cats?

“My men will be bringing them soon.” Said with supreme confidence. “Then you can play your cop games with them, or you can just stand back, and I’ll get all the information you need.”

“I’ll question them.”

“If that’s what you want.” One shoulder lifted. “We’ll play it your way.”

Todd’s gaze returned to the empty bar. Cameron’s disappearance bothered him. So he had alibis and he didn’t have wounds, that should have put him in the clear but—

But Todd didn’t like the guy and he’d always felt that cold shiver of awareness when he was near the demon.

“How long have you known Cameron?” Todd asked as he paced toward the bar.

“Almost as long as I’ve known Cara.”

And that told him jackshit. “How long?”

“Why?”

Still no answer. Niol just couldn’t ever make things easy.

“Cara trusts him.” But she also trusted the demon beside him—not exactly a ringing endorsement. “I want to know why.”

Niol pulled up a bar stool. “Cameron’s still pretty young—particularly so for a sex demon.” His eyes swept the bar, lingered a moment on a couple swaying on the dance floor, then he glanced back at Todd. “Cameron’s mother left his father for a human, and, well, his father—Dominic—he wasn’t exactly the nurturing type.”

Well, well. McNeal had told him that during the interrogation, Cameron had been all too vocal about his disgust for humans.

Now he knew why.

“His mother raised him some, when Cameron wasn’t on the streets, but she had a new family to look out for.”

A family that didn’t include an angry young incubus.

“Cara found him one night. Brought him to me. We taught him the things he should have learned years before.”

He could see Cara doing that. Helping the other man. “Was this before or after her sister died?”

“Before. Cameron helped Cara after…” Niol clenched his right hand into a fist. “I wasn’t much good to her then. Cameron made sure she was all right.”

So he should be grateful to the demon, but he wasn’t.

Because his alarms were still shrieking in his ears.

“Damn it, when are your men gonna be here?” He wanted to get back to Cara. Needed to get back to her.

“Soon.” Niol’s black gaze flickered over him. “Relax, human. We’ll have your killer before the night’s over.”

Cara cut through the water, her eyes wide open, her arms moving in fast glides as her feet kicked in quick arches.

She broke the surface, drawing in a deep breath and gazing straight up at the starry night. She’d needed this, needed to wash away the horrors of the day and—

“I thought you liked to swim in the mornings.”

The voice had her spinning around, one hand lifting to her chest. Awareness came too late as the man stepped from the shadows.

Cameron stared down at her, the dim lighting from the patio lights flickering over his face. “You like the dawn, don’t you? You don’t usually swim at night.”

Her heart thumped against her chest. Hard. She ignored his question, saying, “Cameron? How did you get back here?” The patrol officers were right in front of her house, and no way would they have just let him stroll around and—

A brief bark of laughter. “Come on, Cara!” He shook his head, a smile flirting around the edges of his mouth. “I’m a demon. It’s not that hard for our kind to scale a fence.” His gaze flickered to the nine-foot privacy fence that walled in her property. “Even one like yours.”

Cara swam toward the ladder.

“The police picked me up today,” Cameron growled, smile vanishing as he watched her with eyes that didn’t blink. “Hauled me down to the station and that animal shifter questioned me.”

Her fingers closed over the ladder. The metal felt cool to the touch. She climbed up quickly and reached for her robe, not bothering with a towel as the chill in the night air swept over her skin.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

She belted the robe in a quick move. “I’m not.”

Anger swept over his face. “You’re the one who told them about me, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “Cameron, I had to! I had to tell Todd about any incubus I knew in the area. Someone’s out there killing humans, leaving them with the death brand on their chests.”

“And you think I’m that someone?” He shook his head. “Cara—I thought you knew me. Inside and out.”

Hurt was in his voice. “Cameron…” She stepped toward him.

He immediately moved back. “Do you think I’m that someone?”

His voice blasted her. Well, damn, shouldn’t the cops hear that? Her chin shot up. “It doesn’t matter what I think, don’t you see that? I knew of three incubi in the city—I had to tell Todd about them all! And if I hadn’t, someone else would have. The killings have to stop! I couldn’t just let—”

“I never told about you.” Almost whisper soft.

“Wh-what?” Her arms wrapped around her stomach as the wind seemed to chill even more. She’d been so warm in the water. But the night had taken a turn on her.

“Not a soul.” He raised a hand. Pointed his index finger at her. “I knew what you did to him, but I never told.”

Maybe it wasn’t the wind that was cold. Maybe the icy tendrils were coming from within her. “Told what, Cameron?”

“That you killed him.” Said so quietly, so sadly.

Cara tried taking another step toward him.

Cameron stiffened.

“I didn’t kill anyone,” she told him, and ignored the pang in her heart. She hadn’t, but it had been a damn near thing. “If you’re talking about Lance, he killed himself.”

She didn’t see him move—the guy was on her in less than a second. His hands wrapped around her arms, fingers digging deep. “Don’t lie to me!” A snarl of rage. “You killed him. You seduced him, slipped into his mind, and then you killed him!”

“No, I didn’t—”

“He went to you that night. When his body was found, your scent was all over him.” He shook her once, hard. “I know what you did!” A vein bulged near his temple. His eyes blazed black.

Not so handsome right then.

“Let go of me.” Said calmly, but she wasn’t feeling calm. And if he didn’t get his hands off her—right fucking immediately—she was going to forget their friendship and show him just how dirty a succubus could fight.

His mouth snapped closed and he blinked. “Cara?”

“Let. Go.”

His hands dropped immediately. “I-I’m s-sorry—”

“How do you know?”

But Cameron just shook his dark head. The black began to fade from his eyes.

“How do you know,” she repeated again, swallowing and clenching her hands into fists, “that my scent was on him?”

“I went looking for him, after Nina died.” Grudging. His eyes were now as blank as glass. “I knew what you’d want to do to him—”

“And how would you know that?” She demanded.

“Because I know you! You’ve been in my head, I’ve been in yours. I. Know. You.” A ragged exhalation of air. “And if she’d been my sister, I would have wanted to do the same thing.”

To make the killer pay. To scream. To beg.

To die.

“I was the one who found Lance’s body.” He backed away from her, began to pace along the edge of the pool. “I got there and caught the stench of death through the door.”

“If you were there, then you saw that it was suicide and—”

“People who kill themselves don’t have terror frozen on their faces, Cara! They don’t die with their eyes wide open and their mouths twisted into a scream!”

Her nails bit into her palms. She felt the wet trickle of blood easing over her flesh. “You’re saying—”

“Cut the crap! We both know Lance didn’t kill himself, and damn it, I never told what I knew! I never said a word to anyone about you killing him, and you turned and ratted me out to your lover the first chance you got.”

“I didn’t.” Said as softly as his words earlier had been. The wind caught her voice, carried it to him.

Cameron frowned. “You—you said you told him, that—”

“I did tell Todd.” And she would make that choice again. “But I swear to you on my sister’s grave that I did not kill Lance.” Truth time. The air she sucked in tasted bitter. “I was going to, but he got away from me. I wanted him dead, so badly—but I did not kill him.” If he hadn’t pulled that knife, she would have.

And she wouldn’t have regretted the action for a moment.

He stopped, stared at her. “No, no, you killed him because of what he did to—”

“I didn’t.” She held his stare, eyes direct.

His hand trembled as he rubbed his eyes. “But if you didn’t, who did?”

Niol watched the crowd as the humans and demons and God knew what else began to flow faster into Paradise Found.

There was a tension about him—a tightness around his mouth, a narrowing at his eyes—that worried Todd.

“Shouldn’t your men have been here by now?” Over an hour had passed since he’d arrived at the club.

Niol lifted a brow. “Strays probably didn’t want to come willingly.”

Yeah, he imagined they didn’t. “That won’t really matter to your men, will it?” Of course, they weren’t really men.

“It might slow ’em down a bit. Nothing too severe.” Niol’s shoulders stiffened then, and his head turned quickly toward the entrance. “Shit.”

A redhead stood just inside the door, her purse clutched tightly in her hand, and a very determined expression on her pretty face.

Wait a minute, that woman was—

The reporter. Holly Storm.

“Told ’em not to let her kind in.”

“Her kind?” Was the lady Other, too?

“Reporters.” Niol spat the word. “As if they ever know what the hell they’re reporting.”

Holly’s gaze swept across the room. Locked on the bar. On them. Then she started marching forward.

The tension rolling off Niol seemed to double.

No way. The demon couldn’t be scared of Holly Storm.

She stopped in front of them. Kept her eyes on Niol. “I want to talk to you.”

He smiled at her then, more a baring of his teeth. “Looks like that’s what you’re doing.”

Her cheeks flushed a bit, and her eyes darted to Todd. “Detective, what are you doing here?”

He tapped his fingers on the bar. “My favorite singer performs here.”

“Bull.” Her small nostrils flared. “You’re just like he is, aren’t you? Well, fair warning, I’m going live with this story. It’s time the world finds out the truth about—”

Niol laughed. Hard.

Holly Storm glared even harder.

“I’ve got proof, you know. I’ve been following this Bondage case every minute. I know the killer isn’t human. He’s some kind of demon—like you—and he’s sucking the life right out of his victims. He used that woman, Susan Dobbs, that he met here to trap them and—”

Todd jumped to his feet. “What the hell did you just say?”

Holly’s mouth hung wide open. She clamped it closed and tossed him a hard stare.

“What did you just say?” He demanded, patience gone—well, it had never really been there.

“You already know this—”

He sure as hell hadn’t known that Susan and the incubus had met at Paradise. Todd growled.

Holly started talking again, fast. “I got sources—Other sources—that place Susan here as a regular about four or five months back. She was coming in here plenty, until he”—she glowered at Niol—“gave a standing order that she wasn’t allowed on the premises.”

What would it feel like to break a demon’s neck? Todd wondered as he eyed Niol and clenched his teeth. “You didn’t mention that Susan was a visitor here.” And the detective who’d been assigned the task of tracking Susan’s connections to the case—Flint, a guy who’d been transferred up from Narcotics less than a year ago—was going straight to the top of his shit list.

“You didn’t ask,” Niol drawled.

“Flint sure as hell did!”

Niol just stared at him then, with those fathomless eyes. Todd remembered, too late, something Niol had told him days before.

A third of the officers on your force are demons. I know what’s happening in this town every moment. Don’t think I don’t.

Hell.

The reporter watched them with green eyes that saw too much. Todd tried to rein in his temper—he sure would have liked to have rip into Niol, but now wasn’t the time.

“Seems you’ve got some pretty interesting sources, Ms. Storm.” He’d bet his next paycheck that Susan Dobbs had been one of those sources. “Do you realize that you’ve been getting information from a killer?”

She didn’t blink. “Easy to lay blame on the dead, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, real easy—when the dead was a murderer.” He paused. “Are your other sources just as reliable as she was?”

Her eyes held his. “Well, at least they’re better than the police department’s.”

Hit. He inclined his head. “Rest assured, we are doing everything possible to make certain that the Bondage Killer is stopped.”

“Well, when I go live with my story at ten tonight, and tell everyone in Atlanta the truth about what’s happening, then I think you’ll start truly doing everything that’s possible.”

The woman couldn’t be serious. “Lady, you don’t even know what you’re talking about.” He didn’t need crap from a reporter right then. The puzzle pieces were all dancing through his mind.

Susan had been in Paradise Found before Cara started singing, but she could have still been around when his succubus was performing, if she’d slipped past the guards…

Paradise Found.

Had she met the killer here? Seemed a damned good possibility.

A perfect place for humans who liked to play with the dark side.

From the reports he’d read on Susan, the woman had possessed one major dark side of her own.

“I know—I know about the demons,” Holly said. “I know they’re around us, cops, doctors, lawyers—”

“And you have proof, do you? Hard evidence?” He pinned her with his stare while Niol just well, looked bored. Nothing new there. “You think the station director is gonna just let you blast out your tale? Get real, lady. News Flash Five would be laughed out of the city.” And so would she. People weren’t ready to hear the truth yet.

He sure hadn’t been. “And you mentioned just the demons—what about the others?”

Her face seemed to pale a bit. “O-others?”

“Yeah, you know, the vampires, the witches, the shape-shifters…”

Her eyes widened a bit with each name that he rattled off. He did not have time for this. “Lady, you don’t even have a fucking clue about everything that’s lurking out there—and do you really think all the supernaturals are gonna be happy that you’re planning to blow the lid off their nice, secret world?”

He saw her throat work as she swallowed. Then her gaze shot to Niol’s. He smiled at her, a smile that displayed a whole lot of teeth. “I don’t care what you do. If exposing the Other is your plan, then do it.”

Aw, crap. Niol would encourage her.

“Every demon in the city will go after her,” Todd snapped. Maybe the woman’s sources were setting her up for just such an event.

Niol’s lips quirked. “I wouldn’t.”

And that just left what, a couple of thousand who would? Could he not just deal with one crisis at a time? “Go home,” he told the reporter, injecting as much steel as possible into his voice. “This isn’t a place for you—go back to your safe world and forget about this story.”

“And what about the killer?” She demanded, voice rising.

“I’ll handle him.” And he’d handle Niol, too. “Don’t report this story,” he told her. “Just go home for the night, and we’ll talk tomorrow—hell, I’ll answer any questions that you have, tomorrow.” In the bright, safe light of day.

She hesitated.

“I’m asking for just a little time, Ms. Storm. Just a little more time.” And if she didn’t agree, well, he’d have to toss her ass in jail—because no way was she airing her story tonight. He’d hate to lock the lady up, but he couldn’t risk her blowing his town to hell, and now that he knew she’d been poking around in his case, well, the woman could very well have stirred up a whole mess of danger for herself.

Her lips pressed together. Her gaze flew between him and the ever-watchful Niol. “You promise to answer all of my questions, on the record?”

Ah, now she was pushing too much. “I’ll give you an interview.” That was as much of a promise as she was going to get from him. And once he got her in the station, he’d work on convincing her to see things his way.

Holly exhaled. “All right. You have until tomorrow afternoon, three p.m. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll go live at five.”

And the woman would do it. He’d have to contact the captain ASAP and let him know they had another fire blazing.

She turned around, began to stride away from them.

“Oh, Holly…”

Niol’s voice was soft, silken.

The woman stumbled to a halt. She glanced back over her shoulder, lips parted.

“Don’t come to my Paradise again, unless you’re willing to play with the devil.”

Todd heard the sharp sound of her indrawn breath. Then she hurried toward the door, almost ran in her haste, and Niol watched her every move like some kind of hungry spider. Creepy as hell.

“Leave her alone,” Todd warned. “Hell, I thought you didn’t even want her ‘kind’ in here!”

Niol shrugged. “She’s human, sexy, and hungry for a walk in the dark.” A soft laugh. “Just the way I like my women.”

Christ. Todd’s stare shot across the room. Landed on the door marked PRIVATE. He pointed toward the door. “I wanna know every damn thing you’ve been holding back, and I want to know now.” Before any more unexpected visitors showed up in Paradise.