Jude rose, feeling every ache and pain in his body. He met Zane’s stare, then Tony’s. Yeah, most of the demons were gone—all but one, in fact.
The ringleader. Zane had gagged the ass**le when the EMTs first went to work. A good precaution, that.
Time for some payback. Jude stalked toward him, with Zane and Tony right at his heels.
The demon’s eyes widened and a high cry broke against the gag.
A smile curved Jude’s lips. “Hey there, ass**le. What? Did you think I’d forgotten you?” No way. This one, the guy who didn’t reek of drugs and decay, was the ringleader. The one who’d set up his ambush.
The one who’d wanted him dead on the stinking floor.
Jude lifted his claws and put them right over the demon’s chest. “I’m having a really bad night, as you can see…”
“Jude.” Erin’s tense voice.
He stilled. This wasn’t going to be pretty, but then, she’d already proved she could handle the hell that came in his life. He wouldn’t tell her to leave because he knew the attack was tied to her. Had to be. He’d been hunting her stalker, only to become prey.
Prey.
Oh, yeah, the demon would pay.
He glanced back at her. “You don’t have to see this.” He’d told her about the darkness inside of him, but this could take it to a whole new level for her. Fighting to protect was one thing. Savaging a demon for information was another.
And it just might be something she couldn’t accept.
Erin’s gaze held his. “Yes, I-I think I do.” She wet her lips. Her kiss. It had been like the woman’s kiss had brought him back. “I’m not leaving you.”
He sure wasn’t leaving her. Jude managed a nod. Don’t fear me.
Her eyes narrowed.
No choice. He turned back to his prey and jerked the gag loose with his left hand. “Tell me the name of the ass**le who hired you to kill me, or I’ll cut your heart out and f**king stuff it down your throat.”
Erin sucked in a sharp breath. I warned her.
And he was really holding back with the ass**le. If he’d had his way, Jude would have already been attacking because in his mind, he could still see the demon swarm going after her.
“I-I wasn’t s-supposed to k-kill you!”
His claws dug in. “Erin, you sure you want to see—”
“I don’t want to see this,” Tony muttered. Jude glanced his way, but never lessened his hold on the prey. “And I can’t see this! I’m a cop, I can’t let you assault a—”
Zane punched Tony in the face. The cop went down, out cold. Zane shrugged. “Now he doesn’t have to get all cop-worried on us. Clear conscience. Nice sleep.”
“Fair enough,” Jude said because it was, unfortunately, a routine they’d done before with Tony. The guy would wake up soon, pissed, but in the clear.
“Uh-oh.” Dee dropped beside Tony. “I think he hit his head when he fell.”
“I think his head just hit my fist.”
She shoved Jude’s mangled clothes beneath the cop’s head. “No, that was his face. ” Her fingers skated through his hair.
“No bumps. No blood.” She rose, brushing off her hands. “Next time, watch where he falls.”
Because, unfortunately, there would be a next time. For them, there always was.
But now…Jude looked at the demon jerkoff. Now the focus was on the guy who was breathing hard and sweating and clogging Jude’s nostrils with his stench. “Ready to die?” he asked the bastard.
“No! ” The demon tried to jerk back, but his cuffs were locked tight to the chair. “H-he just wanted you hurt, w-weak—not dead.”
“You would have killed him.” Erin’s voice. Cold and absolutely certain. “You wouldn’t have just hurt him.”
The hair on Jude’s nape rose. Knowing that Erin had experienced one of those weird-ass death dreams about him made his stomach knot. That close, huh?
Killed in a demon’s den, body torn apart and left on the stained floor.
Not exactly the way he wanted to leave this world. But then, again, he didn’t exactly have plans to be dying soon—death dreams or not.
“Th-thought it would be easier,” the demon rasped.
The guy had just confessed to planning to kill him—surely that deserved a good, old-fashioned ass whooping. Jude’s lips peeled away from his teeth. One good bite and he’d be able to—
“Never saw…the guy’s face.”
“Then how the hell did he contact you? How’d he arrange the attack?” Zane demanded. Zane. Being in the den had to be torture for the guy. All those memories. Dee didn’t know about the demon’s past, but Jude did. Zane had told him one night when the tequila had been drained in an empty Delaney’s.
“He called me.” The demon’s fat tongue swiped over his bloody lip. “T-told me you’d be coming.”
So the stalker had maneuvered everything. He’d moved them around like freaking pawns.
Mickey. Some tip. He couldn’t wait to get his claws in that hyena.
“I-I was s-supposed to deliver you…to him…tonight.”
Jude’s hold eased, just a bit. “Were you now?” This was it. The chance he needed. “And he was going to pay you on delivery, right?”
A slow nod.
“How much?” What was the going rate for a shifter’s life these days?
“T-ten grand.”
Now he was just insulted. Ten grand?
“Damn, Jude, vamps are worth more than that,” Dee said, and she would know. Vamps were her specialty, after all.
“These demons are addicts,” Zane grated. “They’d kill their own mothers for ten grand. Hell, they probably have.”
Jude didn’t look away from his prey. “This one’s not on drugs.”
The demon spit out a tooth. “Just…wanted the money. Knew the others…would do anything…for some cash.”
“Same as you.” Not an addict, but a killer straight to the bone. “And you will do anything…”
“Uh-oh.” Dee let out a loud sigh. “I think I know where the tiger’s going with this.”
“No, he’s not that crazy.” A pause from Zane. “Unless maybe the demons hit him too hard in the head. Could be he’s not thinking straight, could be—”
Tony let out a long, loud groan. Then, “Fuckin’ bastard. Knew what you were gonna do. Couldn’t you have pulled it some?”