Heat

Alicia’s eyes snapped open when she suddenly recognized the symptoms of what she was going through. She’d read about it and seen one of her friends at school go through it.

“No…” she whispered feeling fear slice through her at the mere thought. “Please don’t let me be going into heat.”

*****

Damon raced through the shadows across the city, heading toward the darkest slums in the search for something or someone that needed killing. He tried to block Alicia from his mind but it seemed every minute he spent close to her, the deeper she crawled under his skin. The strangest part was… he liked her there.

He’d built his life around not caring about anything… or anyone. He’d also prided himself for making it a rule to take what he wanted. He wanted her and she needed to stop tempting the devil. When he’d fallen from the balcony, he’d prayed she was smart enough not to follow him. Luckily, the girl knew a little about self-preservation.

He finally reached his goal: a rundown area of Los Angeles. Damon kept to the dark edge of the sidewalk, smirking when the police cars drove by and everyone would vanish. As soon as the cops were out of sight, the scum of the earth would come back out of hiding and it was back to business as usual.

Damon sneered at two scantily-clad women and kept walking when they tried to entice him with their bodies. Perhaps a few weeks ago he might have vaguely considered it, but now… he wanted nothing to do with the opposite sex. The thought of drinking from either of them left him feeling slightly sick.

Rounding a corner, Damon noticed two thugs up ahead and that they both looked his way as he approached. Now this was more what he was in the mood for.

“How’s it going,” one of them asked in a deep voice. He had his hands deep in his coat pockets expecting a sale of drugs. When he caught a glimpse of the man’s wild eyes, he decided to drop it figuring this guy had already gotten his drugs elsewhere.

Damon didn’t answer and kept walking. He knew what was coming and was looking forward to it. These two guys were probably kings on this street with their bulging muscles and dark flat eyes. He could smell the old blood on their clothing and see the scarred knuckles bullies always carried. Yep, they were probably legends within their own minds.

“Hey,” the second one yelled, “my friend asked you a question.”

“And my silence should have warned him I wasn’t in the mood.” Damon warned then turned his head to look at them. He gave an evil smirk, his fangs gleaming in the dim glow of the street lamp when they saw the red irises of his eyes. “However, a dinner date with both of you sounds good.”

Damon moved fast, grabbing the first one and draining him dry in less than a minute. He broke out in a sweat from the pain when more bullets started pushing out faster and landed on the ground with audible metallic clinks. Tilting his head back, he laughed breathlessly before dropping the dead man at his feet.

The echo of the second man running away drew his attention and Damon ran after him, once more pulling the shadows close to disguise his pursuit. Pain and adrenalin held its own high.

He caught up with the oversized punk and stalked him for a few moments, enjoying the smell of fear. When the man started to slow down, Damon merely chuckled in the darkness making the human start running faster again. Yes, this is what he needed… to rid the world of a couple low-life human scum while taking the blood he needed to heal.

Quickly growing bored with the chase, Damon closed in on the man and jerked him into an alley. The human’s struggles were valiant to say the least, but when matched against Damon’s superior strength… the outcome was inevitable.

Finally, the man’s struggles ceased and Damon dropped him to the dirty concrete. During the struggle, small packets of white powder had fallen from the man’s pockets along with a good-sized wad of money and a hand gun. Damon knelt down next to the corpse and, using a corner of its shirt, wiped his face clean of any evidence before taking up the money and tucking it into his back pocket then walking away.

Reaching the mouth of the alley, Damon shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking down the sidewalk like he didn’t have a care in the world. Now that his need to kill and feed had been partially satisfied, he could pick his next victim with a choosier taste.

Misery watched the entire exchange between the vampire and the two humans he’d chosen as his victims. She wanted to approach him but was too weak to do so. Instead, she satisfied herself by feeding off the fear the two humans exhibited as the vampire bled them dry. Their death thralls had been delicious.

Her encounter with Kane earlier that evening had forced her to use up all the power she’d had stored away since escaping the cave. When she’d combined her power with Kane’s blood, it had used up almost everything she had. Creating cracks in the dimensional walls of this world was a tedious process and would take a lot more power than she had at the moment. She could feel the evil heartbeat of this area and knew she’d awakened some of the weaker demons that slept here.

She would need to be stronger to thin the walls enough for the demons on the other side to sense it and take advantage. If the demons were powerful enough… they could finish the rip from the other side and join her in this world.

While her demonstration hadn’t been enough to do what she wanted, the evil in this city was breeding and it wouldn’t take long for her to build her power up to the necessary level. Once that level was reached… she would try to breach the walls of this dimension again. This vampire’s aura wasn’t as tasty as Kane's but the similarity and potential of the blood ritual was definitely there.

This vampire... though he did show a sadistic side that appealed to Misery… his power was completely different from Kane's. She already knew how to tap into Kane's real power but the more she stared into this one’s soul, the more she saw the dangerous truth. The power this one possessed could only be released while protecting something he loved. It was a worthless power since the creature suppressed such emotion.

After studying the vampire for a few more moments, Misery decided it was best if this one remained loveless because if he ever tapped into such emotion… his power would be limitless.

Damon could smell soulless vampires flitting all around him and down the darker alleyways. He thought briefly about ridding the city of a few of them but decided he’d already done his good deed for the day. If they wanted to feed off the low-lives in this area, then who was he to stop them? It wasn’t like he hadn’t just done the same thing. As he continued to walk, more bullets fell out of his shirt and hit the ground, tinkling on the sidewalk like forgotten memories.

The small hairs on the back of Damon’s neck stood up and he stopped walking, turning his head from one side to the other… he was being watched. Finally jerking his head back, his eyes narrowed when he saw a shapeless silhouette lurking on the roof of the building beside him.

Stepping back into the shadows, Damon wrapped the darkness around him hating how this city had no privacy with all the fucking paranormal breeds running around. Before coming here, he’d never been around shifters or the fallen. In his country, shifters had been purged back in the dark ages and been smart enough not to return. He’d never realized just how territorial he was while in a land he’d kept clean.

He’d never been one for traveling around the world like Kane and Michael… not when he’d been having so much fun where he was. But that wasn’t a shifter on the roof… it was a fallen, and it wasn’t either of the men he’d seen at the church. This must have been the one that got away.

*****

Zachary breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the news reporters finally got bored and left his quote-unquote crime scene. He turned his attention back to the soot-covered firemen and winced apathetically. Poor guys, they hadn’t stood a chance in getting that fire under control, although they seemed thankful it had not spread beyond the boundaries of Anthony Valachi’s land. Zachary smiled when he saw what he’d been waiting on.

He’d made the fire so hot that he knew it wouldn’t be long before it ran out of stuff to burn. He’d done it for two reasons. One was to give pity to the humans who were sacrificing their lives on a daily basis playing with fire, and the other was to destroy any evidence the humans didn’t need to see… including bodies to autopsy or bones to study.

“Looks like its dying down,” Chad said as he approached Zachary. “I’m surprised Trevor isn’t here.”

“Oh he was,” Zachary smirked. “Last time I saw him, he was dragging your sister out of here so I could blow the place up.”

“What!” Chad yelled then stepped closer so no one could hear him. “I’ve been here for a fucking hour and you’re just now getting around to telling me that my sister was almost killed tonight?”

“The bullet only grazed her,” Zachary just loved hazing the new guy. He felt a little guilty when all the color drained from Chad’s face. “Relax, she’s fine.”

“You’re an asshole,” Chad informed him without remorse.

“I’ve been called worse,” Zachary shrugged. “But for now, you can call me boss. I fast tracked your paperwork so it’s already a done deal. You no longer work for the police department. They work for you and you work for the CIA as far as they are concerned. And this falls under the CIA’s jurisdiction since it was a mob hit.”

“So what am I supposed to do now?” Chad asked feeling a little lost and secretly wondering how he could beat up a jaguar for putting his sister in danger yet again.

“Enjoy the promotion because I’m leaving you to handle this for the night.” Zachary patted him on the shoulder before opening the car door and sliding inside. He counted to three before Chad rapped on his window. Rolling it down, he arched an eyebrow.

“What do I tell them?” Chad asked.

“That’s the brilliance of it all. You’re not at liberty to give out any information at this time.” Zachary laughed and rolled the window back up then laughed again when Chad kicked his tire as he pulled past him.

His humor faded once he was alone with his own thoughts. He knew most of the wolf pack was harmless and had only been under the influence of their alpha’s orders, but the rest of them would want revenge for the death of Anthony Valachi. Some would be pointing at Micah’s rescuers, but some would point the finger at Steven and the cheating fiancé. Either way, that would put Night Light on what’s left of the city’s mob hit list.

Pulling out his cell phone, Zachary put a call in to the member of PIT he had deep undercover within the most dangerous part of the wolf pack. If what he thought was brewing then it might be wise to go ahead and send a couple death threats to Night Light just to keep the cougars on high alert, or better yet… get them to shut the club down for a while.

*****

Angelica gazed out the window at the city below thinking about the nightmare that had awoken her. Seeing all the lights and life within the city even in the middle of the night gave her comfort and it was hard to look away.

She’d never had a nightmare before… she’d never had a single dream and that was what disturbed her the most. She rubbed her fingers across the mark on her palm blaming it for the nightmare. She’d been so lost in morbid thoughts that when the door behind her slammed, she almost jumped out of her skin.

Zachary had opened the door quietly just in case Angelica was still asleep. When he saw her standing there in a daze, he couldn’t resist the temptation and slammed the door. Her reaction was even better then he’d hoped.

“Had I been a demon, you’d been bitten,” he smirked then lowered his gaze to the dagger clenched in her fist so tight that her knuckles were white. “Maybe not,” he corrected with a frown. “What’s rattled your cage?”

“Nightmares,” Angelica said truthfully as she relaxed her grip. No use lying about it… not to him anyway. She inhaled deeply trying to release the tension in her shoulders then wrinkled her nose, “you smell like burnt toast.”

“Wanna scrub my back?” Zachary wiggled his eyebrows as he headed toward the bathroom.

Angelica spared one more glance out the window before moving away from it. Hearing the shower turn on, she sat down on the loveseat and grabbed her notebook from beside the laptop and started to draw the man she’d seen in the cave. Since he was the one that had marked her, then the nightmare had to be his doing. She started with his eyes and softened the strokes of the pencil as the face came to life on paper.

Zachary came out of the steaming bathroom still towel drying his hair. Walking up behind Angelica, he looked down at the portrait of the man he’d seen her in the cave with. He watched the delicate way she arranged the man’s long dark hair… as if the wind was still blowing around it. For a demon, he sure was a hansom devil in her eyes.

“You smell better,” Angelica commented as she looked up at him. Tapping the drawing, she asked, “Can we get in touch with Dean so I can show him this picture?”

“I caught a glimpse of him tonight at the alpha werewolf’s mansion. But he seems to come and go so quickly around here that it would be easier to just show it to Kane.” Zachary suggested as he vaulted over the back of the love seat and sat down beside her taking the picture in his hand and studying it. “Kane said Misery is female.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Angelica sighed. “If that’s not the same demon that they released from the cave… then I’m afraid Misery isn’t the only demon in the city.”

“What makes you say that?” Zachary asked.

Instead of answering him, Angelica did the one thing she had thought she’d never do. Turning sideways on the cushion, she reached for Zachary and leaned toward him. When Zachary instantly tried to kiss her, she tilted her head so he wound up kissing her forehead instead. Then she let the dream play through her memories.

Zachary flinched as the scenery changed and he was surrounded by her nightmare. When the flickering images finally faded and Angelica slowly leaned away from him, Zachary opened his eyes and whispered, “Wow… that was a wiggly-boo dream.”

Angelica nodded, “Yeah, especially for someone who has never had a dream, not even once in their entire life.”

*****

Kriss had searched the places he thought a frightened fallen that had been imprisoned for longer than he cared to think about would hide. It wasn’t really the fallen he was searching for… it was Dean. After exhausting himself with all the churches and small areas of the city that evil avoided, it dawned on him that he might be searching the wrong type of places. It wasn’t as if he knew his prey intimately.

Going from one extreme to the other, Kriss started toward the heart of the city. Within hours, he was rewarded when he caught a flash of the creature running across the roof tops and leaping from one building to the next.

Following at a distance, Kriss took in the light coloring of the fallen along with the snow white wings that were now hidden from human sight but not his. He tilted his head to the side when the fallen chanced a look over his shoulder as if sensing he was being followed.

When the fallen turned his attention back to the streets below, Kriss had a feeling he wasn’t the only one on the hunt tonight.

“Just who are you looking for?” Kriss whispered under his breath stalking him for several more blocks. Following him around a corner, Kriss skidded to a stop when the other man was suddenly standing on the ledge of the building… facing him. It was the aggressive stance and fierce look in his silver eyes that gave Kriss pause.

For a moment, neither of them moved. Kriss used the time to focus his powers and peer into the other man’s soul. As the image of his soul sharpened, Kriss was expecting to see the glittering silver shimmer of a full blood, but to his surprise this fallen’s soul was tainted. His eyes widened realizing this man was a hybrid.

So, that’s what he’d sensed when the creature had exploded from the church. Kriss tried to determine if this hybrid was as bad as the full blown demon it had been imprisoned with. He felt a shove as his vision was pushed back and Kriss blinked. The only other person he’d ever run across that could block him from seeing his soul was Dean.

Inhaling deeply then slowly releasing it, Kriss decided there was only one other way to find out. Just as he started forward, the fallen gave him a smile that was nowhere near friendly and took a step back, disappearing as he dropped off the edge of the roof and out of sight.

Knowing an invitation when he got one, Kriss growled and with a running leap, he did a swan dive off the edge of the building in pursuit. Before he made it to the concrete four stories below, something slammed into his side and he felt arms tighten around him.

“No,” Dean hissed as he tackled Kriss in midair.

“I thought you wanted to find and catch him,” Kriss yelled suddenly angry. He’d been looking for Dean for days now and it pissed him off that Dean had obviously been close enough to know that he was there but wouldn’t come out of hiding.

“He’s not a rabbit,” Dean snapped as they switched direction and ascended back to the roof of the building. “Besides, I’ve been watching him for a while and would you like to know what he’s been doing?”

“What?” Kriss frowned.

Dean immediately stepped away to put distance between them. “He’s stalking Misery, the demon that trapped him in the cave.”

At that moment, the thin clouds above them parted allowing the moonlight to beam down on them and create the shadows on the roof that gave away their true identity. Dean had to look away from Kriss’s perfection… he always had to look away.

“Well, maybe he’ll let us help him get a little payback,” Kriss suggested. “It’s been a while, but together we could probably put her down.”

“I doubt it,” Dean gazed in the direction the fallen had gone. “Every time I get close to him, I can feel his anger and fear.”

Kriss stared off in the same direction knowing the truth. “Maybe he has a good reason to fear us.” He started to mention the fact that it was a hybrid… not a true blood fallen, but Dean cut him off.

“Doesn’t matter because he doesn’t trust us,” Dean stepped back to the edge of the building and looked out over the city.

He knew Kriss thought he had it all figured out. So this fallen wasn’t a full blood… he was close enough and that counted. Dean had seen into his soul several times in the last couple days and the evil that labeled most hybrids as demons was missing. In Dean’s eye, that made him one of them. On second thought… maybe it was time to let Kriss in on that little fact.

“He’s more true-blood than hybrid you know. His soul is different from ours, but evil does not live there… right now it’s full of fear, mistrust, and longing. I hope you haven’t changed so much that you can’t see the good within him.”

He knew Kriss had never maliciously hunted hybrids down and destroyed them without a very good reason. Kriss had been one of the last fallen to be sent here, long after the demon wars had ended… banished to this world just to get rid of some of the male population. Kriss didn’t know it, but Dean was so much older than that.

Dean had been one of the leaders of the rebellion that ended the demon war… even sending some of the pure bloods into the underworld for their senseless massacre of hybrids that were not demonic. Some things were a sin… no matter how you looked at it.

Kriss had a flashback of wanting to kill Kane only to find a tattered but strangely pure soul staring back at him. He’d never encountered such an oddity. If Kane had been human or demon with that much damage done to his soul… he would have been pure evil. He should have been pure evil. It made him wonder if Dean was right… that maybe he’d lost his ability to play judge and jury.

Living among the humans for so long had taught him that even the best intentions always had a shady side of gray. He’d decided a long time ago that death was only for the truest form of evil and to let the rest work itself out.

“How long do you intend to stalk him?” Kriss asked curiously.

“Until he sees that I’m not a threat,” Dean answered cryptically.

Kriss tilted his head and looked at Dean, noticing several bullet holes in his clothing. “What in the hell have you been doing? You smell like smoke and those aren’t moth holes in your clothes.”

“Let me ask you something,” Dean didn’t look at Kriss, “Are you really here for me? Or do you just need a distraction because you’re avoiding your feelings for Tabatha?”

Kriss reached out, snagging Dean’s arm and spinning him around so that they were facing each other. “Why is it always a fight with you?” he demanded.

Dean jerked his arm out of Kriss’s grip, “Maybe it’s because I can see into your soul where you are blind.”

Kriss looked away and when he glanced back Dean was gone.

*****

Kane quietly opened Tabatha’s bedroom window and ducked inside. He’d been watching her through the windows but feeling her unrest hadn’t set well with him and the fact that he couldn’t read her thoughts was driving him crazy. All he could hear were almost silent whispers coming from her mind.

He glanced up at the ceiling wondering whose bright idea it was to make her the only one he couldn’t eavesdrop on when she was the only one he really wanted to hear. Kane kept the darkness pulled around him as he leaned against the frame of the open bedroom door and watched her move from the sofa to the entertainment center.

Tabatha turned the radio down. She’d thought the background noise would help to make the apartment not feel so empty but it was only annoying her. She missed her roommate.

Kriss had disappeared for weeks at a time in the past and she knew he could take care of himself, but it had never stopped her from worrying. That demon, her skin crawled at the memory, she’d been able to trap Dean even if it had only been for a couple hours. It was hard to wrap her mind around the fact that there were things out there that could hurt Kriss.

She again ran her fingers over her shoulder and down her chest where she’d been wounded, feeling nothing but soft unblemished skin. She thought she’d been so slick making Kane think she was under his thrall… the joke had been on her. Still, he’d told her not to remember seeing Misery… yet she did remember. Slowly raising the same fingers, she touched her lips wishing she could remember exactly what Kane had done to her.

Maybe she’d been under his thrall the whole time but for some reason only remembered part of it. He’d said that he’d been watching over her… following her. Tabatha felt the small hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and the room seemed to shrink.

Removing her fingers from her lips she whispered, “Kane, are you here?”

Kane gripped the door frame to keep from moving toward her but no power on earth could keep him from answering, “Yes.”

His voice was haunted, making Tabatha spin around searching for him. She was caught between disappointment and fear when she didn’t see him standing right behind her. “Am I so wicked that you have to hide from me?” her breathing was coming a little faster and she silently wondered if this was the equivalent of playing with fire.

Kane let the darkness disperse from around him and watched as her gaze landed on him. “Maybe I am the wicked one.”

Tabatha swallowed. He did look slightly wicked silhouetted in her bedroom doorway… she’d admit that. “Maybe you wouldn’t feel so wicked if you had knocked on the front door,” she offered, wondering just how long he’d been inside her apartment. Feeling a slight weakness in her knees, she turned and forced herself to calmly walk to the sofa and sit down.

“Would you have invited me in?” Kane asked curiously as he moved into the room. He noticed the way she turned around and pulled her feet up onto the sofa, tucking them close to her as she leaned back against the pillowed armrest.

“I’m not sure,” Tabatha answered. “Is this the first time you’ve been here?”

“No,” Kane didn’t bother lying to her. Why lie when he could just make her forget he’d even been here?

“Then I am inviting you in. Have a seat,” she pointed toward the other in of the sofa. If he was here to hurt her, then he’d already have done it… right? She watched the way he kept his movements slow as he did as she asked. It was a lie… she’d seen the speed at which he moved when he wanted to. He was being careful not to frighten her and that made her even more nervous.

Kane cocked an eyebrow, “Is this how you treat all of your stalkers?” he asked in all seriousness. “Invite them in for tea and crumpets?”

Tabatha shook her head, “I don’t drink tea and I hate crumpets. A cup of coffee and a bagel will do just fine.”

Kane smiled wanly at her. “How do you know I won’t hurt you?”

“If you were going to hurt me, you would have by now,” Tabatha answered, voicing the thought she’d had just moments before. On second thought she quickly added, “Despite the fact that I tend to get injured whenever you’re in the same vicinity.”

Kane inwardly winced at that and finally took the place she’d indicated at the other end of the sofa, turning to face her and leaning against the opposite armrest. He brought his right leg up, bending it at the knee and sat in a half Indian style with one arm folded over his stomach.

“So tell me love, why did you invite me in?” Kane asked.

“Why are you here?” Tabatha sidestepped the question.

Kane smirked, “You do know that it’s bad manners to answer a question with a question.”

Tabatha was momentarily taken aback by the way the smirk changed the contours of his face slightly, making him appear just as dangerous and seductive as she believed him to be.

“That may be true,” Tabatha said thoughtfully. “But I’m the one you’ve been following and I want to know why.”

Kane shrugged, “Because I want to.”

Tabatha glared at him, “Because you want to?”

Kane tilted his head to the side. “Why does a vampire do anything?”

Tabatha opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again not able to articulate an answer.

“Because they want to,” Kane answered for her.

Tabatha sighed, “Look, if you don’t want to tell me the truth then I can’t make you. But, if we’re going to be friends, we need to exchange at least one truth about each other.”

Kane’s eyebrows rose and he actually smiled, “Ah, so we’re going to play truth or dare now?”

Tabatha blushed remembering the few times she’d played the game while in high school… talk about embarrassing situations. “Without the dare and you will answer first.” she whispered.

Kane nodded, “All right. Since I’m the stalker, we will play by your rules.”

Tabatha felt a thrill run through her at his easy admittance that he was indeed stalking her. “Why does Kriss not like you? He won’t give me a reason why.”

“Because you don’t belong to him,” Kane answered a little too quickly.

“What kind of answer is that?” Tabatha demanded.

“Your turn,” Kane pointed out.

Tabatha grumbled, “Fine,” then she tensed not knowing what to expect.

“Do you like dogs?”

Tabatha blinked. That question was about the furthest thing from what she’d been expected. She relaxed then smiled fondly, “I love them. When I was little we had a little Yorkie puppy but he ran away. I never really got over it… I still miss him sometimes.”

Kane returned her smile with a slow smile of his own as their eyes locked, “You must meet my Yorkie sometime then… his name is Scrappy.”

Tabatha got cold chills through her body and literally jumped out of her seat when the phone rang. Getting up, she rushed to the phone to pick it up hoping it was Kriss calling in. Picking it up, she turned around to look at Kane but he was gone without a trace of him ever being there.

She did a quick search of her bedroom, only to find nothing. With a sigh, Tabatha pressed the phone against her ear, “hello?” she cringed when she heard Jason’s voice.

“What happened to you? You just disappear and don’t call me to let me know why?” Jason paced back and forth. “Damn it Tabby, You had me worried sick.”

Tabatha smiled into the receiver. Somehow being yelled at by Jason made her feel a little more normal. She quickly did the math in her head as she started explaining what happened without giving him a single detail about anything that had to do with the paranormal.

Kane moved the limbs of the bush over a fraction as he watched Tabatha relax for the first time since Trevor had dropped her off. His lips hinted at a smile as he listened to her tell the truth to whoever was on the phone and lie like crazy at the same time. His smile faded and his expression turned longing. What he would give to have her smile at him with such ease. Backing away from the window, he knew it was time to go… he could feel Kriss closing in on him.

“Hold on a minute Jason,” Tabatha frowned as she got the odd feeling of being watched. Turning her head toward the window, she froze seeing Kriss standing there watching her. “Jason, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?” she turned and hung up the phone but when she looked back Kriss was gone.

Chapter 3

Mrs. Tully shook her head as she came out of Micah’s room and closed the door behind her before turning toward the crowd gathered in the hall. “He’s fine… still sleeping, but he is fine.”