palm up. She glanced down at his offered hand for a moment, her brows wrinkling. Then slowly, very slowly, she placed her palm against his.
His fingers instantly curled around hers. “You ready for everything that’s going to happen?” And he wasn’t just talking about the case. About the danger. He was talking about them. About the hot tension he felt every second he was with her.
Emily gave a brief nod. “You’re going to need me, every step of the way.”
Oh, he didn’t doubt that. His body was already hard with need for her. The leftover battle-ready tension still coursed through him.
But she was right about the case too. Whether he liked it or not—and he most definitely did not —he needed her special gift to unmask the killer.
Together, they’d keep hunting the Night Butcher. Be partners, of a sort.
He’d make absolutely certain he watched her back. At all times.
The uniforms were talking quietly behind them. The siren no longer blared into the night, but the blue and white lights still lit the alley with a swirl of color.
He wanted to get the doc alone. Wanted to get her out of that damn smelly alley. Wanted to get her home, where she’d be safe.
Where he could hold her, strip her. Take her.
He’d leashed the beast when the uniforms arrived. Managed to stop the shift. But the adrenaline in his body was running thick and hard through his veins, and it was feeding the monster. Making it stronger. Making it want, making it need…
Emily.
His fingers tightened around hers. It was definitely time to call it a night. While he still could. “Come on,” he muttered, “let’s get the hell out of here.” They could talk to the cops more later.
Emily glanced back along the alley. A small shiver worked its way over her body. Colin fought the urge to pull her against him, to warm her, to hold her.
Don’t want the uniforms to see me do that. Gossip spreads in the PD like wildfire.
“The other person I sensed—” Emily bit her lip for a moment. “He was strong, Colin. Very strong.”
“Was he a demon?” She’d mentioned Niol before. Had it been him? Had he been angry that they’d invaded his precious club? Had he sent his errand boys to try and give them a scare?
“Yes. A level ten, at least.”
Again with the levels. He still wasn’t sure what that meant, but he figured there was no way being a level-ten demon could be a good thing.
He needed to learn more about the demon world, and he needed to learn fast.
Colin started walking toward his Jeep, pulling Emily along with him. He couldn’t see his vehicle, and he sure hoped the demons hadn’t trashed his ride.
“Hey, Detective Gyth, wait, we need to—”
Colin threw a hard look over his shoulder. “I’ll call the station,” he snapped, cutting across the uniform’s words. They’d been out in the open long enough. He wanted to get the doc to safety, and he wanted to get some answers from her.
“We need your statements, you just can’t—”
“Yeah, I can.” He kept walking. Giving a statement wasn’t exactly his top priority right then. He needed to be careful what he revealed to the other cops. It wasn’t like he could just say that a couple of demons had roughed him up.
The last time he’d tried talking about the Other , his partner hadn’t taken it well.
No, Mike hadn’t taken the situation at all well.
And when Colin had shifted, hoping to prove to his partner that his words were true, well, then things had truly gone to hell.
Because Mike, the guy who’d watched his back on the street, the guy who’d graduated by his side at the academy, had pulled his gun and tried to kill him.
Sometimes folks just didn’t take well to the truth.
So lying was the only option.
It was a pity that a cop had to lie. But, well, lying was better than dying.
It was a philosophy that worked for him.
They rounded the street corner. The Jeep was waiting, not a scratch on it.
Colin exhaled a rough sigh of relief. He opened
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