InsistentHunger (34 page)

“Son of a bitch.” Hunter arched his back and as near as
Paige could tell, he tried to flip Brady over his head. That move might work on
wrestling shows, but it wasn’t working here.

“Don’t kill him,” Paige said the second it looked like Brady
had actually won the fight. If Brady had to kill Hunter to protect himself,
that was one thing, but to kill him in cold blood….

“Yeah, tell the demon to not kill,” Hunter said from between
clenched teeth.

“Be nice. She’s the only reason I haven’t killed you yet,”
Brady said. With a graceful rolling motion, he stood and pulled Hunter up with
him. Brady was a tall man, but Hunter had two inches and sixty pounds on him,
so it looked strange to see Brady pin Hunter to the wall. He held both Hunter’s
wrists and pinned them against Hunter’s chest in order to press him back into
the wall, trapping him.

“Who’s coming in and what weapons will they have?” Brady
demanded. His eyes were red and Paige moved close enough to rest a hand against
his shoulder.

“Hunter, the goal here is to avoid conflict,” Paige said in
her most reasonable tone of voice. The boys weren’t being reasonable, so
someone had to be.

“You think you have control of this situation, but he’ll
turn on you, Silver. You can’t trust demons,” Hunter said in a grim tone before
he pressed his lips together. Paige guessed that he had about a dozen
contingency plans for getting captured. He was too good of a soldier to give up
this easily. He was also avoiding giving them answers.

“He’s stonewalling. His backup’s coming,” Paige said. “We
have to get you out of here.” She pulled at Brady’s arm, but moving him was
like trying to move stone.

“It’s too dangerous. The vamps will go for you,” Brady said.

“I didn’t say I was going. I know I can’t get through them.
I’m not fast enough. But these vampire hunters are looking for demons. They
aren’t going to kill me.”

“Is that right?” Brady demanded. He pulled Hunter away from
the wall and then slammed him back against it again. Hunter didn’t answer.

“I’m not leaving you,” Brady said when Hunter refused to
give them an answer.

“Brady, he’s just trying to keep you here. He wants you in
this house when his vampire hunter buddies show up. You’re the one who has to
get out of here.” Paige was so busy making her argument that she didn’t see
what Hunter did, but suddenly the two men were on the ground again. Now Brady
was on the bottom, his hands still holding Hunter’s wrists, only there was
blood seeping out from a long gash in his leg. Hunter had a knee in Brady’s
stomach and he had one hand braced against Brady’s bare chest while he tried to
pull his other hand free of Brady’s grasp.

Paige pulled her weapon. “Freeze!” she yelled. She almost
added “Oxbow Police Department” but this wasn’t exactly official business.

“Knock it off, Silver,” Hunter snapped without letting go of
Brady.

“Hunter,” Paige said in her most dangerous voice, “I have
never killed in the line of duty, but someone attacking my partner…that is
justification for deadly force, so do not underestimate me.”

Hunter finally looked over and something in Paige’s
expression made him freeze. He still crouched over Brady, but he didn’t fight
when Brady shoved him to one side. Instead, he sat against the wall, his hands
held up in surrender. Paige didn’t have any illusions. He was still going to try
to take Brady out, maybe he’d even try to kill her, but she wouldn’t make it
easy.

“It’s hard to fight humans without breaking all their
bones,” Brady said as he stood up.

“True,” a new voice said. Paige flinched to the side, but
when Hunter reached for his gun, she steadied her weapon and let Brady deal
with the new threat. He had leaped up to stand between her and the newcomer.
“Humans are so ridiculously breakable, even the strongest of them.”

“Fuck you too,” Hunter told the new guy. “And it’s the human
who has a gun pointed at my head, so don’t go crowing about the greatness of
your sorry species.”

“Your species?” Paige risked a glance. The new man wore a
jean-jacket coat that went out of style in the eighties and long hair pulled
back into a ponytail, but something in the way he moved made her think of age
and strength. It took her a second to realize that he was the man who had been
standing outside her house the night she’d chased Hunter’s partner out into the
dark. Hunter had insisted he wasn’t a demon, and clearly, Hunter lied. She
focused on Hunter. “You fucking hypocrite.”

“Welcome to the Grand Poobah of the vampire hunter secrets.”
Hunter gave an exaggerated shrug.

“You work for demons.” Paige felt like she’d been hit in the
stomach and Brady was back to growling as he faced this new man.

“Hey, I consider it a pest problem. If you leave one really
big cockroach running around where you can see it, it stops all the little
cockroaches from breeding in the shadows,” Hunter said with a nasty smile toward
their new guest.

“This coming from a creature with the lifespan of a
cockroach,” the new man offered coldly.

Brady took a step forward, his body arched and tense. “Who
are you?”

“Ah, Dorothy’s young one. She thought to finally get what
she wanted in you.” He sounded curious rather than hostile, but the hairs on
Paige’s arms still stood up.

“Answer his question or I’ll shoot your pet human,” Paige
threatened. She could never kill in cold blood, but this guy didn’t know that.

“Fine,” he said amiably. “Hunters are easy to come by and
that one is more annoying than most.” The man strode through the open door into
the parlor, leaving the rest of them to follow or not.

“Asshole,” Hunter muttered, his hands still raised.

“And you lectured me about not trusting a demon?” Paige
demanded.

“Hey, I don’t trust the bastards,” Hunter snapped. “Using an
enemy is not the same thing as expecting them to be your friend.” With a glare
toward Brady, he made it pretty damn clear who he considered enemy. “Can I put
my hands down now or do you actually plan to shoot me, Silver? I mean, that’s
pretty much my last secret that just walked through, so it’s not like I have
anything else to try to protect from you.”

Paige didn’t know what to do, but Brady rested a hand on top
of her forearm. “He’s not the real power here.”

“That guy is?” Paige guessed.

Brady nodded. Paige let him push her weapon down and then
she holstered it, still watching Hunter carefully.

Hunter put his hands down and then got up from the ground,
brushing dirt off his pants. “That guy is an arrogant asshole,” Hunter said,
and he sure didn’t try to keep his voice down, “but he keeps his court nice and
small and avoids murdering civilians, so he’s the best of a very bad lot. It’s
like making a deal with a drug smuggler to get a pedophile ring. It’s an ugly
deal all around, but it’s sanctioned because it’s the best deal to be had.”

“Keep making excuses,” Paige said nastily.

Hunter stopped and pinned her with a dark look. “Look,
small-town girlie, maybe you don’t know how wars are fought, but you use the
weapons you have, so don’t lecture me on how to fight this war. I’ve been in
this game for a long time.”

“And I’ll take you out of it if you talk to her like that
again,” Brady warned.

Hunter gave him a nasty smile. “How’s the leg?” he asked
with exaggerated sweetness. Paige could see blood staining Brady’s pants and
dripping off the hem. Hunter turned to her. “How many people will he kill to
heal that? If you hurt these guys, they turn around and kill. Are you okay with
that? A couple of bullets to the head and you’ll save someone from being your
buddy’s dinner.”

“I won’t kill anyone,” Brady said. “Except possibly for you
if you don’t get out of my sight.” Brady gave Hunter a nasty look, but most of
his attention was focused on the door to the parlor.

“You can feel him, can’t you?” Hunter glanced toward the
parlor. “Vamps aren’t human,” he said, aiming his words toward Paige, “they
have rules we can’t even understand. So when you figure out that your partner
is well and truly gone, you come find me in the kitchen. You’d be a damn good
hunter, and since you know the big-ass secret, we can probably skip a couple of
the nastier tests.” Hunter strode toward the kitchen, leaving Brady and Paige
alone in the hall.

Paige put up a hand to lean on the wobbly railing. She
needed to hang on to something. “Well, shit. I so did not see that coming.”
Brady didn’t answer her. “That would explain how he knows so much about
demons,” she mused. Brady stared at the parlor door and Paige’s guts clenched
as she realized they were going to have to face the man in there. This was the
man who had sent Hunter after the bitch woman. Dorothy. Every Dorothy she’d
ever known was someone’s grandmother.

She reached out and rested a hand against Brady’s arm. “Brady?”
she asked softly.

“He’s dangerous.”

“So are we,” Paige pointed out. Brady turned to look at her,
his red eyes studying her while his hand came up to cup her cheek.

Paige smiled at him and leaned closer, her fingers tracing
over the frown lines on his face. “We could run for it.”

He shook his head. “Don’t leave a perp at your back—someone
taught me that once.” A boyish smile erased his frown.

“I did, huh? I must be a good teacher.” Paige fell silent.
Brady’s hand was fever-warm against her cheek and she could feel shivers run
through him. After several minutes, he pulled away from her. “Ready?” she
asked.

He nodded. Pulling his hand back, he turned and walked into
the parlor, his body arching into inhuman curves.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Paige followed and stood at the door, strangely hesitant to
intrude. Brady stood in the middle of the room, looking at this new demon. Most
of the time, Paige looked at Brady and saw a man. Sometimes he developed this
alien body language that made her want to pull back. However, most of the time,
he was Brady. This new demon—there was nothing human about him even if he was
in a human body. He stood ramrod straight, his neck stretched up and the black
ponytail hanging down his back. He’d thrown one arm out to the side and the
hand was bent strangely so that it faced the ground. His other hand drifted
across the back of an old chair as if reading Braille in the velvet. He had a
sharp face with a long nose and amber eyes. Even if Paige didn’t know about
demons, she would’ve guessed there was something different about him. Hell, she
had guessed there was something wrong with him when she’d seen him outside her
house and Hunter had fucking lied to her face.

“Who are you?” Brady asked. He tucked his hands close to his
body as though ready to spring into action. His nervousness was making Paige
nervous.

“Gavril.” His hand stilled and his gaze traveled over
Brady’s body before he turned to study Paige. Brady side-stepped to block
Gavril’s line of sight and the man jerked his head back and showed teeth.
However, the snarl smoothed into a smile. “So very young, you are.”

“Such a strange name you have,” Brady countered.

He angled his body toward Brady. “Not particularly. In my
day and my age it was common enough. Were you to live as long as I, you would
find people looking at you quite strangely if they were to hear your name.
Brady. It sounds foreign to my ear.”

“You’re old,” Paige said, more to hurry the conversation
along than anything else.

“Very,” he agreed. He peered at her, his eyes narrowing.
“Had I known Dorothy was likely to find
strigoi
here, I would have
stepped in far earlier.” Gavril moved so that once again he could look at
Paige.

“Leave her alone.” Brady snapped out the words.

“Shall you tell me what to do, young one?” Gavril’s voice
was soft, but Paige could hear the danger in it.

“We just want to be left alone,” she said. She wanted to get
the opening bid in their negotiations out on the floor. Only then could they
figure out what this man wanted. Paige sucked in a breath when Gavril moved so
fast that he was standing beside her before she or Brady could even twitch. He
raised his hand to touch her cheek and Brady threw himself forward.
Unfortunately, he managed to somehow miss Gavril altogether and slam himself
into the far wall.

Gavril looked at him with an amusement that made Paige want
to shoot the older demon in the kneecaps. That would hurt him. “Calm yourself.
I will not take your human. I have trouble enough with the ones I have now,”
Gavril offered, turning his back to both Paige and Brady. “While useful, they
can be most troublesome. For example, Dorothy was once a young woman who came
to me, begging for help.”

“And you killed her,” Paige said. She backed away, eager to
get closer to Brady, even though her gut was starting to warn her that neither
of them had much chance against this demon.

“I saved her,” he corrected her. He gave her a superior
smile before his gaze slid over to Brady. “And she chose to become something
more powerful, she wanted the authority. So many humans do.”

“That didn’t work out so well for you, did it?” Paige asked
with a nasty tone in her voice. She mentally kicked herself for aggravating the
psychopath, but Gavril chuckled.

“It worked out quite well for a few decades, but you’re
right. It did not work out well in the end. The power is rarely enough and she
wanted more. She thought I would not follow her to a place with so many police
officers and that the investigation would keep me away until she had grown a
court of her own, until she could defend herself from my wrath. She was wrong.”
His smile grew cold. “I don’t take challenges to my authority well.”

Paige wasn’t sure how true that was. He put up with Hunter
and Hunter didn’t seem to respect this man’s authority.

“We aren’t challenging anything,” Brady said. “We just want
to be left alone.” With Hunter, Brady had been aggressive, his fists curled and
his body angled for attack. Now his shoulders had dropped and he seemed to be
shrinking in on himself. It didn’t make her feel better about their situation.