Demon Bait: Children of the Undying, Book 1 (5 page)

The tight need splintered into pleasure, turning her legs to jelly, and Marci bit her lower lip as she shuddered and slid down the tile. Quick and easy, a release in the truest sense of the word—and it only made her hungrier.

She moaned and pushed her wet hair out of her face. As tempted as she was to find Gabe and spend the night sating that hunger, it was a bad idea. He had an agenda, one that had nothing to do with their mutual physical attraction, and Marci’s safest bet was to never forget that.

Trip pulled him into the Global so smoothly that Gabe didn’t have time to wake up first.

The dreams had been pleasant enough that not even the ADS killed his hard-on. Pain screamed through his body, banishing the image of Marci’s lips parted on a moan. The seconds after uplinking were always the worst, so Gabe gritted his teeth until agony faded to a throbbing discomfort.

Glancing down revealed stomach-twisting darkness and empty nothingness beneath his feet, so he squeezed his eyes shut until the world jerked around him again. The ache of the anti-demon signal faded, replaced with an odd tickling buzz that drove a sigh of relief from his lips.

When he opened his eyes this time, he found himself in a grungy back alley. Graffiti covered the rough walls, and a lone streetlight cast a pale circle of illumination on the door in front of him and its familiar, garish sign. Foot-tall letters spelled out DEMON BAIT in red neon. Someone had taken the time to program an intermittent flicker into the sign, an absurd detail that never failed to make him laugh.

Everything about Demon Bait was gleefully tacky, from the faux-broken sign to the dress code—black for humans, crimson for demons.

Unashamedly tacky, perhaps, but useful, if only because the creators had managed to hack the ADS.

Turning, Gabe found Trip standing on the opposite side of the narrow alley, leaning against the dingy brick.

“So you found me.”

“Wasn’t easy,” Trip said lazily. “Had to hack a few satellite feeds, but I got lucky. You square?”

“Been better.” Rochester’s head tech was a tall, lanky blond with mischief in his eyes, mischief that couldn’t hide his sharp intelligence. Right now, that intelligence was damn comforting. “Is it just you?”

“Nah, Lorenzo’s in one of the back rooms.” He nodded to his left as a door materialized in the middle of the alley. “Take the shortcut.”

Gabe reached for the door but hesitated. “You’re not coming with me?”

“I’ve got things to do.” Trip laughed and shook his head. “You’re not scared, are you?” Lorenzo wasn’t psychic, and even if he had been, powers didn’t work in the network. It didn’t stop the man from being eerily good at reading people—and Gabe had a guilty conscience.

Not guilty enough to admit it, though. “No, but I might need your help before this is over. I’m stuck in an outpost lockdown.”

“The mill, yeah. I figured you must have gotten caught up in that when you didn’t answer my pings.” Trip tapped his temple with one finger. “I’m smart like that. Not going far, either, just into the club. I’ll be on hand if you need me.”

“Thanks, man.”

The shortcut was more of a portal, a door that shimmered when Gabe touched it. He hated stepping through them, but the lurching disorientation faded quickly enough as one of the bar’s back rooms solidified around him.

A few feet away, Lorenzo sat with a redhead on his lap, and another hovering near his chair with a hopeful, hungry look on her face.

When he saw Gabe, the older halfblood waved the women away. “Hate to be a spoilsport, ladies, but duty calls.”

“Duty can wait, if you’re busy,” Gabe offered, only half joking. Sex in the network might not take the edge off a halfblood’s more supernatural needs, but it could still put one in a good mood, and he really needed Lorenzo in a good mood.

“Nonsense.” When the women had disappeared through portals at the back of the room, Lorenzo lifted a glass. “Want a drink before you break it to me?” Fucking guilty conscience. “I got caught in a lockdown.”

“We figured out that much.” Lorenzo eyed him sharply. “You’re not alone, that’s the problem, isn’t it?”

“No.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about what you have to do to keep your head on straight,” Lorenzo advised. Then he flipped open a notebook and pulled a pen from his pocket. “You have names, I assume?” Lorenzo thought he’d wound up trapped with a few humans and had charmed his way into an orgy.

The truth was far more damning. “I found a summoner.”
That
grabbed his attention. Lorenzo’s head snapped up. “At the mill?” After taking a steadying breath, Gabe related the course of events—with judicious editing. He outlined the progress he’d made with his trade contact but glossed over the insanity that had gripped him when the ADS had failed and he’d felt Marci’s magic spinning out like a beacon.

He fudged the details of how they’d ended up locked in the same room too, but fully confessed to his current state of agitation. “It’s driving me up the fucking wall. She’s got no training at all, not even enough to know when her magic’s spilling out.”

“But she knows what she is. What she can do?”

Gabe closed his eyes. “Who knows? She tried to smooth over my rough edges without knowing what she was doing. Clumsy, but it would have worked, maybe, if I’d had fewer edges.”

“So she’s strong.” Lorenzo tapped the pen against his chin. “She’s in danger if she stays, and the city heads do in-depth investigations of the mill’s occupants. Are you bringing her back here?”

“Trying to talk her into it.” Leaning back, Gabe rubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe I can work her around to wanting to come with me, but there’s still the small problem of being locked in and cut off from accessing the Global on our own.”

“Trip can work something out,” Lorenzo said distractedly.

The question hung between them, whether Lorenzo realized it or not, and Gabe answered it because it was the only reassuring truth he had left. “I haven’t flipped her.”

“Did you fuck her?”

Gabe knew he was in trouble when the words pissed him off. “No, I didn’t fuck her.” That seemed to pacify him. “Good. The last thing we need is for Zel to hear you got carried away and accidentally marked a summoner.”

No, when he marked Marci, it was going to be on purpose. “If Trip can help us override the lockdown, I can get us out. We may have to go to ground for a day or two if there’s a search, but all of my usual drops are stocked.”

“I’ll see what he can do.” Lorenzo rose. “How long do we have?”

“Forty-eight hours on the outside. I’d rather be out in twenty-four.”

“We’ll be in touch, then.” He hesitated. “If the mill went into lockdown because of a demon attack, it could be dangerous to take the summoner outside with you. She’ll be a big, bold target, and so will you.”

“I know.” The mill was a mile upstream from where he’d left his vehicle—and his weapons. “That’s why I let the warriors throw me around the practice ring three times a week.”

“Be careful.” Without waiting for a response, Lorenzo vanished.

Gabe blew out a breath at having dodged a bullet—for now—and went looking for Trip.

When Trip had dropped out, Gabe did the same. Back in the lounge’s barracks area, he found Marci stretched out on her stomach on one of the bunks, her bare shoulders and upper back peeking out from underneath a coarse blanket.

She was naked, or damn near. Her skin was smooth and pale, proving she’d lived her life underground and inside four walls. Too many people did these days. It was possible Marci had never felt the sunlight on her face.

She was peaceful as she slept, her aura quiet. He could curl up next to her and let the gentle waves lap against him, smoothing away the stress that remained.

He could, if they had time. “Marci?”

“Mmm.” She only stirred a little before her eyes fluttered open to focus on him. “What is it?”

“My people contacted me.” His voice came out raspy, so he cleared his throat. “I know you only got six hours of sleep…”

The blanket fell away as she sat up, revealing a sheet wrapped tight around her body, and she pushed her tousled hair out of her face. “Are you leaving?”

She sounded a little uneasy, and it gave him hope as he gestured to the bed. “Can I sit?”

“Yeah.” She gathered the blanket again and pulled it up to cover her chest. “Is the Global network back up, or did they contact you through your chip?”

“We’ve got a good hacker.” The thin mattress didn’t have much give, not like the comfortable bed waiting for him back in Rochester. He perched on the edge and gave Marci enough space to hopefully make her feel secure. “He thinks he can override the system in the next twelve hours, but it would be a whole lot easier if he had some inside help.”

She frowned. “I can’t unlock the building. I mean, I
could
, maybe, but if we’re under attack, it could put everyone at risk.”

“Trip can lock it again,” he assured her. “Everyone will be safe. We’ll just be gone.” She was shaking her head before he finished speaking. “We? I haven’t agreed to leave with you, Gabe. We haven’t even talked about it, not really.”

So much for sneaking it in. “So let’s talk.”

“Now?” His acquiescence obviously surprised her. “Okay. I—I’m not sure Rochester is the place for me. I’ve pretty much figured out that I can’t stay here—I mean, who knows what’s going on?—but I have money. Credits. I can go anywhere.”

His heart seized, and not at the subtle rejection. It was the thought of her climbing into one of the trucks that rolled between settlements, rigs run by hard-eyed, stone-cold crews of men no better than animals.

Haulers made halfbloods look human. “How are you going to find safe passage?”

“There are ways.” Marci hesitated and bit her lip. “Though I haven’t managed to find a foolproof one yet. I suppose it would be safer to continue that search in Rochester.”

“Probably.” And maybe he could start breathing again. “If you help me get out of here, you’ll have a safe place to stay until you find a better one.”

She studied him with wide eyes. “You have transportation? A plan?”

“The start of a plan. I have an idea. And friends.” For the first time, he found it difficult to read her.

Anything could be going on behind those big brown eyes. “Once we get out, I can get you safely back to Rochester.”

“How? It’s miles from here.”

“The same way I got here. It’s what I do, Marci.”

She fidgeted and worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. “When the ADS fritzed out, you could tell. About me, I mean. The summoner blood. What about the demons outside?” Brutal as it was, he told her the truth. “I could tell before the ADS went offline. I could tell from four hallways down. A demon could tell from a mile away.”

Marci went still. When she spoke, her voice was low. “Maybe I should just stay here.”

“I can protect you.” He started to reach out, then hesitated. “You don’t know me. You don’t have any reason to trust me, but I haven’t lied to you. Ask me anything, and I’ll tell you the truth. Even if it’s an unpleasant one.”

She didn’t move, but a hint of panic crept into her eyes. “You want to bind me.” Yes. And no—not when the words put fear in her eyes. “Mark you. But I won’t if you’re unwilling. I
can’t
if you’re unwilling, even if you tell me to. And if I can’t, then I’ll still get you to safety. It’s more dangerous, but I can fight demons. I do it damn near every trip.” Her hands curled around the blanket, so tightly her knuckles turned white. “Is it permanent?”

“No. It’ll fade if I die, or I can remove it at any time. And if I tried to keep you marked against your will…” Zel would cut him into pieces. Maybe literally. “It doesn’t happen. It’s not allowed.” Marci sat still—barely breathing, her eyes unfocused. “I don’t have a choice.”

“Of course you do.” He tried to catch her gaze. “I told you, I can’t do it if you don’t want me to.”

“No, I—” She shuddered. “I can’t stay here. The Council was already putting techs through tests and scans. After this, they’ll check
everyone
out.” As much as Gabe had tried to convince her to accept that truth, it hurt, watching her hope die.

“Maybe, but by then, you can be safely in Rochester.” She shook her head. “It’s too much, Gabe. I need a minute to think.” Words bubbled up. Dozens, hundreds. He could drown her in them, make her dizzy, use them as finely honed weapons to lure her to his side. All efficient ways to win her approval—and prove himself unworthy of her trust.

So he sat in silence, and waited.

Marci released a shaky breath. “If doing it will keep us both safer out there, I want to. As long as it’s not forever, and you’ll let me go.”

He made her say it, because he needed to hear it. “So you want to come with me to Rochester?”

“Yes, I want to come with you. And I want…” She paused. “Your mark, is that what you call it?” Maybe explaining would make it easier for her. “A mark,” he confirmed. “It’s something other demons and halfbloods can sense when they’re close to you. And it makes it harder for demons to lean on you or flip you.”

“Except for you.”

“Except for me. Summoners have…weaknesses in their auras. If I fill yours, no one else can. But if I fill them, then you’re vulnerable to me.”

Her anxiety was plain, but tinged with an unmistakable curiosity. “Does that vulnerability go both ways?”

“In some ways.” His voice was getting raspy. “You can’t make me do things, not by force. But you can make me want to give you anything you want.”

Marci frowned. “Can you tell if that’s happening? Because I—I wouldn’t do that to you, either. Not if I could help it.”

“I can tell, and so can you.” He grinned, trying to soothe without leaning on her, and told her an easy lie. “It’s okay, though. I’m tough to push around, even for pretty ladies like you.” Instead of returning his smile, she looked away. “I’ll need some time to prepare. When do you want to leave?”

“My friend is pulling me into the Global in six hours. If I tell him you’re willing, he’ll pull you in too. If we get the doors open, we’ll leave then.”

“I can be ready, but if we’re leaving so soon…” She swallowed hard. “I think we should do the—the thing right now.”