Taken by Sin

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Mandy looked through the glass at James-the demon. He-it-looked so human, so normal, lying on the table like that. Who knew that inside lurked a demon? No one would know if they hadn’t seen what Mandy and Michael had seen.

“Why wouldn’t freezing have worked to save Lou?” she asked, turning to Michael who had walked up beside her.

“Huh?”

“That demon can’t do a thing in the cold room. Couldn’t we have done the same thing to Lou? And to Isabelle? Frozen them until we figured out what to do to … fix them?”

Michael shook his head. “This demon is a unique species, Mandy. It would be like trying to treat a human and a shark the same way. Even demons can be biologically distinct from one another. This demon is nothing like the demon that was inside Lou, or Isabelle. Just like half demons and hybrid demons are different from one another. And like the Sons of Darkness are different from every other demon.”

She scratched her nose and frowned. “Genetics and evolution?”

“Yes. They’re constantly changing the demons, mixing up genetics and producing something new. And we have to keep up with them so we know how to fight them. Because every demon species is unique. How we treat them, how we fight them, is unique.”

“So freezing Lou like we freeze this demon would have done no good.”

She saw the sadness in his eyes. “No. It wouldn’t. I’m sorry.”

She had to ask. She had to know if there was some way that Lou could have been saved. She should have known there wasn’t.

She followed Michael into the weapons room. “So do we really get to battle it?”

The Realm scientists had run tests on the demon for two days now, while Mandy had paced and waited, biding her time, keeping watch over James to see how it reacted, what it did. It did nothing but stare at the walls, at the glass, as if it knew she was on the other side, watching.

Maybe it was waiting for its opportunity to do battle with her. She hoped so.

“We’re going to test it, see what it reacts to,” Michael said. “We know from Ryder battling the disappearing-in-the-mist type of demon that anything silver makes it dematerialize. Assuming that this is the same type of demon, we don’t want it heading back to the Sons of Darkness to report on where it’s been. And we don’t know if the silver just weakens it enough to make it disappear with its tail between its legs, or if the silver can kill it.”

“Which means what exactly?”

“Which means we’re going to have to try out different methods under a more controlled atmosphere. We’ll test several silver weapons.”

Ugh. That meant the cold room again. “It’s going to be really hard to wield weapons in that arctic chamber.”

“I’m not going to chance it getting away. That’s a risk I’m unwilling to take. But we do have new weaponry. It would give us a chance to try it out on this demon.”

“And I’ll be the one to do that, right?”

He stopped, looked at her. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She cocked her head to the side and grinned. “Aww, Mike. You care about me. You really do.”

“Of course I do. You’re a valuable demon hunter. Losing you would put a huge hole in our team. Do you know how long it takes to find and train new hunters?”

She laughed. “I’m touched. Really. I’m near tears at the depth of your caring.”

He rolled his eyes. “What I’m trying to tell you is that I’ll be going in with you.”

She frowned. “That takes all the fun out of it.”

“I’m sorry you won’t be able to fight the demon on your own, but you need backup. And we’ll have our tech team on alert in case we need to take it down in any other way.”

“Meaning?”

“Knock it out if it gets out of control, or to a point where we both can’t handle the situation. The last thing I want is that demon getting past us, escaping and killing our techs and scientists, then dematerializing. Or worse, taking you with it to wherever the hell it goes.”

There was no point in objecting. Michael was right. They had to have fail-safes in place to protect everyone in the center. “Okay. But I still want to be the one to battle it.”

Michael’s lips curled in a wry smile. “I’ll do my best to stay out of your way.”

“So what do we have in the way of weapons?” she asked, turning to the toys laid out on the tables.

The weapons room was her favorite place. It was like the mall of her dreams. Racks of lasers, guns, swords, and all the high-tech weaponry and accessories she could ever want. Lots of new things, too, all spread out on a few tables in front of them.

“We’ve converted a few of the standard ultraviolet lasers that we’ve used in the past on the other demons.” He picked up one of the rifles that looked like the ones they used to fill with the blue liquid that shot out UV light and melted demons down to nothing but gelatinous matter. “Now, instead of UV light, this will inject bullets of liquid nitrogen.”

Mandy picked up the rifle, examining the cartridges filled with silver liquid instead of blue. “Wicked. So the bullet will explode inside the demon-and then what happens?”

“Freezes it from the inside out. Putting the ice in its bloodstream and attacking its internal organs with a shot of liquid nitrogen should stop it dead in its tracks.”

“But will that kill it?”

Michael shrugged. “Don’t know. That’s what we’ll have to find out.”

“Cool.”

“We also have coated swords with pure silver. We know stabbing demons makes them dematerialize, but we don’t know if that means they’re dead, or if they just disappear to go lick their wounds. However, we do know that beheading the Sons of Darkness is pretty effective.”

Mandy lifted the lightweight sword, standing back from Michael to swing it in a few wide arcs. “I like this. If you lop its head off, surely it won’t grow another one.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking that would probably do the job, too. But not handy on the street, so I’d like to keep that option as a last resort.”

“Good point. We can’t really walk around beheading people in the downtown business district, can we?”

“Uh, no.” He led her over to another table. “Similar to the rifles, these are more compact guns with the same kind of liquid nitrogen bullets. Easier to conceal inside a coat or jacket. You can choose any size and weight and we can manufacture bullets sized to accommodate the weapon, plus add a silencer.”

Mandy nodded. “This is really impressive.” She chose a forty-five caliber. “Got bullets made up for this one?”

“Already loaded up with an extra clip to the side. There’s a holster next to it if you need it.”

“I won’t.”

She was admiring the weaponry when lights flashed and alarms sounded. She jerked, instantly on alert, and started grabbing weapons.

Michael picked up his comm, listened, then frowned.

“Drop the temp in the entire compound. Secure the area. Now!”

He turned to her. “Demon has escaped the cold room. Killed a tech and two guards.”

Mandy didn’t say a word, just tucked extra clips into the side pocket of her camos, then shouldered the rifle by the strap and ran like hell out of the room and down the hallway Michael right on her heels.

“You take the north. I’ll come around on the south side,” Michael said.

Mandy nodded, not even stopping in her dead run down the hall toward the room where the demon had been held.

When she got there, she grimaced at the bodies on the floor, the blood, the guards standing over them holding their weapons, then she was off around the corner, shivering at the rapid drop in temperature as the compound went to subzero in an effort to keep the demon from dematerializing.

That bastard was not going to get away.

She tried doors along her way. They were all secure, the compound having gone into lockdown as soon as the alarm was set off.

By the time she made a complete circle and ran into Michael, she was utterly out of breath, sucking in frozen oxygen and confused as hell. Where was the demon?

“Emergency exit door,” Michael said, turning on his heel. She followed right behind him, hitting the stairs two at a time as they punched through the exit door and up the stairs to the second level.

“What’s up here?” she whispered over Michael’s shoulder.

“Nothing. Storage. All the rooms should be secure.”

“I’ll take the south end.”

He nodded and she pivoted, lifting her weapon and moving as fast as she could despite the extreme chill making her shiver all over. But if the subzero temp slowed her down, it would slow the demon down, too.

As she rounded the corner, she saw a flash of … something. She sucked in a breath and ran, hard, sliding around the corner.

The demon crashed into her and slammed her against the wall, knocking the breath from her. She lost the gun, watching it slide down the hall and just out of her reach.

Shit.

But she still had her rifle. Unfortunately she couldn’t pull it over her shoulder because the demon had her pinned to the wall.

Fury thawed her frozen body out, gave her some strength. And James was weakened by the cold that affected the demon more than her, allowing her to give it a good, hard thrust and make some space between them. When she did, she lifted her foot and planted a boot in its midsection, shoving it away.

James landed on the floor and she went for her rifle.

Stunned or winded, she didn’t know which, the demon lay there, unmoving, staring at her.

She aimed, her finger on the trigger.

The demon scrambled to get up, then froze as she got it in her sights.

“You’re dead,” she said, her finger hovering on the trigger.

But as soon as she started to pull, the demon’s face disappeared. She was transported back to that awful night in Italy, when they’d stood in front of Lou and were forced to fire on him, kill him.

She blinked, trying to obliterate the vision from her mind. She lifted her head for a second, clearing the sight, then refocused, but all she could see was Lou, fighting the demon inside him, begging them to destroy him.

She wasn’t going to let this happen. She wasn’t weak. She’d recovered from Lou’s death. It was in the past.

Michael pulled up behind her. “Pull the damn trigger, Mandy”

She blinked and leveled the laser, but the demon leaped and came at her, knocking both her and Michael to the ground. Too late to fire, she swung the butt at the demon’s head, knocking it off balance. Her rifle went flying.

Shit. She scrambled for her gun, grabbed it with her fingertips, and turned around, aiming for the demon as it grabbed her feet. She aimed, and there it was again.

Lou’s face. Not the demon’s.

What the hell was wrong with her?

“No,” she whispered, pulling back from the sight.

It was Lou. Not the demon. She held her hand out in front of her, trying to banish the visual. “No, I can’t.”

“Mandy!”

She heard Michael’s voice, but it was as if it came from a tunnel, far away. All she could see was Lou in front of her, coming toward her, his hands outstretched, reaching for her.

God, she missed him. Tears filled her eyes. She leaned up toward him. “Lou.”

Her world tipped when Michael shoved her out of the way. Shocked back into reality, her vision cleared just in time to see the demon leap over her and lunge at Michael.

Oh, God, what had she done? She’d utterly lost it. It hadn’t been Lou reaching for her, it had been the demon. And now Michael was being attacked by the demon, who’d landed on top of him. She tried to get up, but her legs felt like rubber, unable to support her. All she could do was stare in horror as the demon wrapped its fingers around Michael’s throat.

Mandy held her breath, feeling what Michael felt as the demon squeezed.

But Michael wedged his gun between his body and the demon’s and fired, slamming the demon off him.

James looked down at its chest and then back up at them, smiling.

“You can’t stop me with bullets.”

But then its smile died, its eyes widening as the liquid nitrogen began to work. The demon started to jerk wildly, falling to the ground like it was having some kind of neurological attack, then stilled completely. After waiting a minute, Michael leaned over the demon, still holding the pistol trained on its chest.

Michael punched his comm. “Security and tech, we’re on second level and demon is contained. Get up here.”

Within a minute a security team and three technicians showed up. The security team inspected the demon first, then pronounced it dead so tech could remove it.

“Restrain it and keep watch. I want to see if it comes to.”

They nodded and removed the demon. Michael holstered his pistol and went to Mandy bending down to help her up.

She pulled away from him and pushed herself to a standing position, hating the weakness that still made her legs feel wobbly. “I’m fine.”

Michael took a step back and nodded. “Let’s go to debriefing.”

Mandy followed Michael silently, not understanding what had happened.

For someone so grounded in the here and now, what had gone down had been really fucked up. She’d always been able to do her job.

So what the hell had happened to her?

Michael led her into the office and waited while she stepped in, then closed the door behind him. Mandy laid her weapons on the table, took a seat and stared down at the floor.

She knew what was coming. This wasn’t going to be fun.

Michael pulled a chair across from her.

“Want to tell me what happened in there?”

No. “I froze.”

“So I noticed. Literally or figuratively?”

“Both, I guess.” She leaned forward and laid her head in her hands. “I don’t know what the hell happened to me. I was ready to kill that thing. I really was.”

“Maybe this is too much for you too soon.”

She snapped her gaze to his. “No, it isn’t.”

“You couldn’t pull the trigger, Mandy You had the demon in your sights, your finger on the trigger, and you couldn’t get it done. That demon could have killed you.”

Or it could have killed Michael. And that would have been her fault. Just like Lou was her fault. Perfect. Another death of one of the Realm’s Keepers on her head.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Michael said.

She shrugged, leaned back. “I’m not thinking anything.”

“Bullshit. You either come clean with me or I’m pulling you off active duty.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you serious? I had one second of hesitation and now you think I can’t do my job?”

“It wasn’t one second. Something happened up there. Something that wasn’t normal for you. You could have died. I could have died. We need to talk about it.”

She hated that he presumed to know all about her. He knew nothing about what was “normal” for her. “We don’t need to talk about anything.”

He cocked his head in disbelief, then pushed the chair back. “We’re done here.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means until you’re ready to talk to me, or to someone else, about what really happened up there, you’re no longer a hunter.”

She shot out of the chair. “What? You can’t do that.”

“Yeah, I can.” He started to walk away but she grabbed his arm and forced him to turn to her.

“Who made you judge and jury over me? Who put you in charge?”

His gaze never wavered as he said, “Lou did. The Realm did. You report to me now, Mandy Lou is gone.”

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” All too well, unfortunately. She couldn’t begin to explain to Michael what had happened. Not when she didn’t understand it herself. And no way would she reveal anything that could be considered a weakness. Especially not to her Keeper. He’d ground her for sure. Permanently. “Look, there was just something not right about the situation. It just didn’t feel right.”

Michael shook his head. “That’s not it and you know it. And if you can’t be straight with me, then this isn’t going to work. I said you’re off duty and I meant it.”

Fury filled her. She fisted her hands at her sides, but knew striking out at Michael would seal her fate. He looked down at her hands as if he knew what she felt. She saw only compassion in his eyes.

Goddammit. She didn’t want his compassion. She didn’t want anything from him, especially not the caring she saw reflected in his gorgeous baby blues.

He turned and left the room.

This time, Mandy didn’t try to stop him.

She had nothing left to say. Nothing at all.