Heart of the Demon (25 page)

She pushed aside the feelings Tobias’s reappearance in her life engendered and focused on the job. She could get through anything
if she just kept things on an impersonal level.
Just forget you know what he tastes like, how his skin feels against yours, how full you feel when he’s deep inside you
. She tried to ignore the eager thump her clit gave and drew in a steadying breath. “Can you smell anything?”

He closed his eyes and inhaled. After a few seconds he grimaced and opened his eyes. “There’s a little bit of shape-shifter
and some vamp other than Rinda’s scent. That could be odors here at the scene and not necessarily on her body. And then, there’s
you.” The look he gave her suggested he could sense her physical reaction to his presence, probably even smell the involuntary
stirring of arousal within her. “But there’s something more, something beyond this overpowering odor of all these humans.”
He glanced at Dante with a mumbled, “No offense.”

Dante scowled. “Offense taken.”

Nix pressed her lips together while the two men sized each other up. Even as alpha as he could be, Dante was one of the most
easygoing guys she knew, yet she wouldn’t be surprised if Tobias managed to rub him the wrong way. When he wanted to be, Tobias
could be a real charmer. Most of the time he didn’t bother to put forth the effort.

Tobias cocked an eyebrow but didn’t respond. With slow deliberateness, almost as if he were taking the time to say good-bye,
he drew the tarp back over Amarinda’s face and stood. He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, drawing Nix’s
gaze there. The material pulled taut across his groin, showing the outline of his cock. She jerked her gaze away and glanced
at his face. Thankfully he hadn’t seemed to notice where she’d just been looking.

“There is something… It’s familiar, yet not. I don’t know what it is.” Frustration colored his voice, made the low tones tight
and even raspier. “Who the hell did this?” His gaze caught Nix’s. “Humans? Or someone trying to make it look like humans?”

She didn’t have an answer. Not yet. “Since she wasn’t killed here, it’s hard to say. But the strongest scent is human, not
pret.”

“That might be technically accurate,” Tobias murmured. He pressed his lips together and drew in another slow, deep breath.
“That other smell. It smells like…demon.” All demons had an underlying scent of burned wood or paper that was undetectable
to humans. From the scent you couldn’t tell one demon from another, but you could separate demons from other prets. Vamps
and shape-shifters had no trouble picking it up. He looked at her, a hint of accusation in his eyes that immediately made
her mad.

Not back in her life five minutes and already he was pointing fingers. She couldn’t help being part demon, damn it. “Not every
unexplained murder has a demon behind it, you know.” She darted a glance around, making sure the police officers and assorted
crime scene specialists weren’t within earshot, then looked back at Tobias in silent warning. He should know better than to
bait her about her lineage in front of the cops.

Of course, he probably figured there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot she could, or would, do about it. And he’d be right. If
he really did want to “out” her, he could. But she didn’t think that was what he was after.

“It’s not demons,” Nix muttered, glaring at him. So, yeah, she’d caught a whiff of the same scent, but it was too faint to
mean anything. She was about to say more when activity from beyond the yellow crime scene tape caught her attention. Two tall,
slender men in dark blue one-piece uniforms stood on either side of a gurney upon which lay a folded crimson body bag. Council-appointed
corpse retrievers, though they generally called themselves body snatchers, were there to collect Amarinda’s body.

Tobias waved his hand at the cop at the perimeter. “Let them in.” Since the victim was a vampire, authority in this case fell
to Tobias. He took a few steps back from the body, making room for the two men.

Nix stepped back, too, and watched in silence as they unfolded the body bag and stretched it on the ground next to Amarinda.
They picked her up and placed her with great care in the open bag, then pulled the top portion over her, zipping it until
she was completely covered.

It wasn’t until the men had wheeled the laden gurney to the other side of the yellow tape that Tobias, his gaze on the departing
body of his friend, said, “There’s really not much else you can do, Nix. The crime scene techs will gather enough evidence
so that equal measure can be tested by human forensics as well as turned over to the council for testing by our lab. You don’t
need to stay.”

S
irina lan Maro set a small plate in front of her cousin and smiled to see him start in on the slice of chawberry pie. He ate
with the same gusto as when he was a youngster. She took a seat in the dining alcove and cut into her own piece of pie.

Her living quad consisted of sleeping quarters, a central living area that could double as a guest room, a small scullery,
and a dining alcove. She’d been allotted this quad once her conscription with the Talisian global security forces had been
fulfilled. Ten years she’d been out, ten years of making a living by doing some of the same kind of work she’d done in the
service. Only now she did it as a private citizen, providing security consultation to local enforcement officers.

Sirina looked at her cousin. His normally verdant skin seemed pale, a sure sign he was agitated about something. His eyes
kept straying to the row of still images she had on her small workstation in the main living area.

She leaned over and put her hand on his, halting the motion of him scraping the last swirls of pie filling onto his utensil.
“Natchook, what is it? What’s wrong?”

He pushed away from the table and walked to where the pictures were. He gazed at an image of their squad in their tan desert
uniforms. The four members of the elite team stood straight, arms around each other, wide smiles curving their mouths. With
his index finger he traced the features of the other woman in the group of four, and sadness pierced Sirina like the bite
of a giant pincer. Yura lan Xarchai, her best friend and Natchook’s wife.

She and Yura had grown up together here on Avasa, a colony of the much larger planet Talis. As such, they had been second-class
citizens, conscripted into service in defense of their ruling planet. Natchook, who was part Talisian, had already served
for five years by the time she and Yura joined.

Shortly after their arrival in the service, Yura and Natchook had fallen in love. They’d been allowed to marry and serve in
the same unit. Three years later, when Sirina’s brother, Kester, was drafted, he, too, became part of their squad.

Kester at first balked at the idea of serving as a combatant. The last place a pacifist like her brother wanted to be was
in the armed services. But the longer he served, the more he came to appreciate the discipline he learned. It helped him control
his compulsive behaviors. That there had been peace between the planets also helped, so his anxiety-induced disorder was easier
to handle. His constant access to a behavior modification expert hadn’t hurt, either.

After Sirina and Yura had satisfied their requisite eight years, they’d been released from service. Natchook had taken his
retirement soon after. Kester, enjoying the regimentation the security force provided, had decided to make a career of it.

They should have all lived out their lives happy and healthy. Only it hadn’t gone that way for Yura. Three years ago, after
a lingering illness, she had died. Sirina still missed her, though time had softened the pain, and she knew Natchook missed
her, too.

“Kai Vardan is responsible for Yura’s death, you know.” Natchook picked up the still image and stared down at it. Sirina knew
he had eyes only for his deceased wife. “Someone should make him pay. Someone…” He trailed off, his jaw flexing as he tried
to control his emotions. “Someone needs to kill the bastard.”

“Are you crazy? No, someone does
not
need to assassinate Kai Vardan.” Sirina stared in shocked horror at her cousin. She knew he blamed the Talisian leader for
what happened to Yura, but this… this was insane. “What would make you say that? Have you heard something?”

His gaze darted to her before he again looked down at the image. “I haven’t heard anything. I just think it would do everybody
a big favor if someone did.”

Even talking about the assassination of a world leader was treasonous. “Look, I realize you’re upset, but this isn’t the way
to resolve your grief. Visit with the priests at—”

“Don’t you think I’ve gone through all the grief rituals and sought counseling? I have. Several times.” Natchook surged to
his feet. “Vardan killed Yura. Someone needs to make him pay.”

“He did not kill her. She died because of a regulation that’s been in place for centuries.” Sirina put one hand on his shoulder.
“Yura was Avasan. Talisians get service at hospitals before Avasans, you know that.”

“I’m a citizen of Talis. She was my wife, and she was sick. She should have gotten tests. A diagnosis. Treatment!” He shrugged
off her hand. “Our Most Benevolent Leader,” he said with a sneer, “could have taken action when this regulation went to referendum
fifteen years ago during his tenure as a member of parliament. Once he became world leader, he could have pushed to change
the legislation. He
should
have…” He turned away, one hand going to his face.

She knew he fought back tears. He’d loved Yura with a fierceness Sirina had never known. And he still did, all these years
later.

Natchook turned again to face her. His eyes were wet, his face hard. “It’s not just the health-care edicts. There are many
laws that disadvantage Avasans. Laws that are equally unjust. They’ve been unjust for centuries. Yet no one seems bothered
by it. They just accept it.
You
just accept it.” His lips curled with disdain. “She was your best friend, Sirina. Surely that meant something to you once.”

“Of course it meant…
means
something.” She scowled. “And don’t you try to make me out to be the villain in this. I’m Avasan. I have no vote. No voice.
What could I have done to change anything?”

“Maybe you couldn’t have done something then. But now…”

“No.” She slashed one hand through the air. “Killing the Talisian leader isn’t going to solve anything. It will just make
things worse.”

“Wait, just listen to me.” His voice lowered and took on a pleading tone, but she heard the dark intensity that rode beneath
the surface. He went back to the dining alcove and sat down, waiting until she retook her seat before going on. “This one
thought has been rolling around in my mind for years now: Righteous men live in peace and think they’re free; only the enlightened
can know true peace through anarchy and chaos.” His eyes glittered with fanatic fervor. He tapped one finger on the table.
“That’s the key, Sirina. Overthrow the government by ushering in anarchy and chaos.”

“Natchook, no!” She grabbed his hand. Ice crawled from her belly up her throat. This idea of his was deranged, and he scared
her with his sincerity. “You listen to
me
. Kai Vardan didn’t pass the laws that keep Avasa under Talis’s rule. He wasn’t the one who kept moving Yura’s name to the
bottom of the list for medical treatment—”

“She never got the chance for
treatment
!” He jerked his hand away and sat back in his chair. “Because of these archaic, discriminatory edicts, a Talisian with a
hangnail gets to see a physician before any Avasan, no matter how sick they are.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Right. The next time you get sick and can’t get in to see a doctor and just keep getting sicker and sicker, you tell me you
still think that way.” He leaned forward, his expression set. “If there is no rule of law, everyone’s on the same footing.
Chaos makes us all equal.” He spread his hands. “Avasans will finally be the same as Talisians, free to do what they want,
be
what they want. Tell me that’s not tempting.”

Oh, it was tempting all right. Not that she would admit it to him. But she’d lived her entire life being told what to do,
when to do it, how to do it. She had enjoyed her time in the service, but she hadn’t had a choice about serving. Now that
she was her own person again, she’d managed to eke out a living as a consultant for the local security forces. But she’d often
wondered what her life would have been like if she’d been born on Talis, if she’d been able to actively make choices instead
of having them foisted on her.

No matter her upbringing, what Natchook thought needed to happen was ill-advised. Insane. “What you propose isn’t the way
to bring about change. There has to be another tactic, something we haven’t thought of yet.”

“Since my wife’s death all I’ve done is think, trying to find other ways. But I keep coming to the same conclusion. They don’t
care about what happened to her. She isn’t even a footnote on any legislator’s agenda.” He stood and began to pace the small
room. His voice low, he said, “I made sure to become friends with Jarrad T’heone, the captain of Vardan’s personal security
cadre. Through him I’ve met Vardan. He’s not as good a man as you think he is. He’s Talisian, with Talisian interests first.
Always.”

While a member of their squad, Natchook had a knack for infiltrating enemy ranks. He still exuded charm and confidence, qualities
of a natural-born leader. But Sirina couldn’t let him get involved in something like this. “And if someone does assassinate
Vardan? Then what?” She stood and grabbed his arm. “If you get mixed up in this, they will
execute
you. You won’t live to see what, if any, changes are made.”

He gave a bark of laughter. “They can’t execute me if they can’t catch me.” His grin and quick wink were sly with self-confidence.
“Hypothetically speaking, of course.”

“Right.” She stared into his eyes. “And are you sure your hypothetical escape plan is good enough to evade every security
force in the system?” Trying to get through to him, she tightened her fingers. “Natchook, the assassination of a world leader
is a huge thing. They’ll put a price on your head. Anyone who is remotely involved will be hunted down like rabid beasts.
You won’t find a hole to hide in on any planet.”

He shook his head. “I’ve thought about that, too. If someone wanted a handy escape route, all they’d have to do is lay some
credits on a couple of technicians at Rift Central,” he said, giving the detention center the nickname most Avasans used.

It was the place where society’s undesirables—political dissidents, religious heretics, and criminals—were taken after trial
and sentencing. Once there, their souls were stripped from their bodies, and the incorporeal energies that made up the essence
of what was left were placed in specially designed holding tanks.

A rift between their dimension and another occurred every seventy-three rotations of Talis around their sun star. Because
the rift opened from the other dimension, all the authorities could do was wait for it. But when it happened, the holding
cells were opened, and the gravitational forces of the rift sucked the entities into it. No one knew what happened on the
other side after that point.

Not very many people cared to know, either. This solution had been practiced for millennia, and most system inhabitants were
just glad to be rid of the troublemakers.

Her cousin looked confident in his plan. “The timing is perfect. The rift is due in just over a week. Once someone is placed
in a holding cell and the rift opens, they’ll make their way through. The authorities could never touch them.”

She was through talking about all this hypothetical nonsense. “You think bribing a technician or two at the detention center
will get your soul removed from your body so it can be sent through the rift when it opens?” Sirina couldn’t believe she was
having this conversation with her cousin. He’d always been so levelheaded. So strong-minded. Yura’s death had affected him
much more deeply than she’d thought. She had to convince him not to go through with this. “Let’s say you go through the rift.
What then? Nobody knows what happens once you’re in the other dimension. You could simply cease to exist.”

“So I die either way.” He shrugged. “I’ll be with Yura again.” His voice dropped to a soft pitch as if his last words were
murmured in prayer.

She gave his arm a little shake. “I can’t believe you. There’s no evidence at all that anyone survives being sucked into the
other dimension. You’re going to die. How does your death honor Yura’s memory? The only thing you’ll accomplish is to remove
a moderate leader from power. The vice chancellor is much more hard-line in his beliefs about Avasa. You could make things
worse for us.”

He stared down at her. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Right.” Sirina let go of him and moved away. “Please let this go. Don’t get involved. This won’t fix anything.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Her cousin didn’t seem as sure of himself as he had moments ago.

She pressed her advantage. “You know I am. And this isn’t something Yura would have wanted. You know that, too.”

Some of the hardness left his expression, to be replaced with the softness of sorrow. “I do know that.” He heaved a sigh and
sat back down. “I guess you’re right. Maybe…” His head bowed. “Yura’s love made me whole. With her gone, I lost what was best
about me.” He looked up at Sirina, his eyes dark with grief. “I miss her so much.”

She went down on her haunches beside him and placed one hand on his knee. “I miss her, too.” She held his gaze. “Promise me
you won’t do anything stupid.”

He dipped his head. “I promise.”

She wasn’t sure he was serious. “I mean it. I don’t want to lose you, too.”

He looked at her again. “I won’t do anything stupid. You have my word.”

She searched his eyes. Satisfied she’d dissuaded him from his vengeful, ill-advised plan, she got to her feet. “Great. That’s
great. Thank you.”

He stood as well. “I need to get going.”

“Listen, why don’t you come over for dinner tomorrow night? I’ll fix a salad and broiled marbox,” she promised, tempting him
with his favorite meal.

He gave a groan. “Oh, gods. You know I can’t resist.”

She grinned. “Yes, I know. And I’ll top it off with more chawberry pie.”

“It’s a deal.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “See you tomorrow.”