Demon's Bounty (The Complex Book 0) Read online

  “Nothing.” Shit. I need to come up with some explanation for whatever he’s noticed.

  I let my voice go thready and I slow my step. “I mean, those people back there. They were just so awful.”

  “How did they capture you?” His voice isn’t overly sympathetic, but not accusatory, either.

  I realize he thinks they brought me down from the surface. No wonder he hasn’t asked any questions.

  I’m still framing an answer when Shaitan’s people attack.

  They’re not all Metas—although there are several shapeshifters and what I’m pretty sure is an elemental, there are also three or four Humans. Plus Shaitan, who enters the room behind them, like a general watching his troops on the battlefield.

  His soldiers don’t fare as well as we both expect them to.

  I’ve never actually seen a dervish. But I’m pretty sure they must look kind of like Jaecar does in that moment—spinning and twirling so quickly that if I weren’t absolutely certain he’s Human, I would doubt it in this moment.

  And for a few seconds, all I can do is watch, both terrified and admiring, as he manages to slash the throat of another Human and cut the tendons in a bear-shifter’s hind legs before leaping out of the way, leaving the bear bellowing and writhing on the floor.

  I hadn’t even realized Jaecar was holding a knife until he used it.

  It’s been a long time since I’ve had that bulk and speed turned against me, but I remember it.

  Then Shaitan calls me.

  “Drina!”

  His voice is pitched to cut across the bear’s roars of pain, but just as Shaitan calls out, the bear dissolves into his Human form and his screams disappear in that instant.

  My name echoes through the underground warren, bouncing off walls and coming back to me.

  As if in slow motion, Jaecar turns to stare at me. I take a step away from him, but I know he sees the truth in my eyes.

  He doesn’t need any other confirmation of my identity.

  I look past him to Shaitan, my gaze pleading for help, but he’s melting back into the maze of the Complex’s underground. Two of his people take the opportunity of Jaecar’s distraction to grab the bear-shifter and drag him away with them.

  They leave their fallen Human companion dead on the floor behind them.

  Again I hear Shaitan’s whisper.

  “I will come for you.”

  The bounty hunter pushes me back against the wall, grabbing both my wrists in one hand and holding them above my head. The angles of his face are splattered with the arterial spray of the dead Human. I can smell the copper in it.

  I’d never been close enough to realize that his eyes are an ice-blue, and every bit as cold.

  Jaecar’s harsh breath fans against me.

  I’m panting, too, but it’s not for the same reason. He’s one of those men who gets off on violence.

  His heavy breathing is lust. I can smell it in the waves of pheromones rolling off him.

  Mine’s terror.

  But he doesn’t make a move, doesn’t touch me in any other way, and the longer that goes on, the more aware I become of his body—strong and masculine, and the closest I’ve been to another person since Shaitan made me seal our deal with that kiss.

  My body responds to his, even as my mind screams that my body’s an idiot.

  “So you’re Drina Movo?” he asks.

  I don’t answer, choosing to meet his gaze evenly.

  “I didn’t know shifters could change animal forms. I like this shape.” He finally runs one large hand down my side and across my hip, and I can’t tell if the shiver that shakes me is fear or some warped desire.

  Maybe a little of both.

  His breathing finally slows. I’m glad he’s not going to try anything more. I might be able to eviscerate him with my claws.

  But I might not. And if I tried and failed, I might end up like the Human I can still see on the floor behind me.

  Jaecar’s gaze rakes down me again.

  “Stay with me,” he says, the sudden change of topic mystifying.

  I stare at him, my eyes wide and uncomprehending.

  His mouth twists. “We have eighteen months before we can get the fuck out of this place. It’s stupid for me to chase you around in circles in here, stupider for you to run that way.”

  I don’t answer, but I’m listening. Waiting for the part of the offer where I have sex with him on a regular basis.

  He doesn’t say it aloud but it underscores all his words, the way he looks at me, the desire I still smell boiling off him.

  “You stay with me, let me keep track of you, and when we finally leave this hellhole, I’ll make a case for counting your confinement here as part of your sentence. Like time served.”

  Time served?

  I can’t help but frown as I glance around at the dead bodies on the floor. Despite the problems between the Humans and the Metas—and gods know, there have been some—I can’t think of the Complex as a prison. Not really.

  Not for Lexi, a quiet voice inside my head whispers.

  Not for Drina, either. Not compared to the max-security places the hunter’s mer boss is likely to want to send me to.

  By all accounts, those places make the Complex look like paradise.

  I don’t think I’d survive a stint in a real prison.

  In that sense, the hunter’s offer holds some appeal. If I can’t get out of it, having someone to speak up for me at a trial—

  No.

  I can’t do it.

  But there’s no need to let him know that yet.

  Especially not when I catch a glimpse of Shaitan himself moving up behind him.

  “Tell me more,” I say, keeping my eyes glued to Jaecar’s and tilting my pelvis forward just enough to graze against his leg, determined to distract him.

  It works, too. I don’t know if Jaecar is so convinced of his own superiority that he doesn’t believe Shaitan and his people will come back or if he’s too overcome by the combination of bloodlust and his plans to keep me as a personal sex-toy for the next eighteen months, but somehow, Shaitan gets the drop on him.

  He doesn’t waste it, either. Instead of going for any full-on attack, the demon lord sneaks up on Jaecar and with an almost delicate flick of his hand, he uses a sharp knife of his own to slice Jaecar’s wrist—the one attached to the hand still resting on my hip.

  I can imagine the sting of pain as confusion flashes across Jaecar’s face. In the instant it takes him to realize what has happened, Shaitan has slipped out of his reach again.

  The demon moves like a dancer, tall and slim and lithe, his dark eyes flashing.

  The exact opposite of Jaecar.

  Except they’re both fast.

  But Jaecar seems to have forgotten that I’m fast, too.

  As he loosens his hand from around my wrist so he can spin to meet this new threat, I pop out all my claws and dig in.

  I’m aiming for the wrist, too.

  His spin helps me more than it helps him. As he turns, it drags my claws through his flesh.

  I swear I can feel the moment it snags on the vein, too. I let it pop, then turn my hand so as I pull away from him, the claws run up his arm. Up the veins, if I’m lucky.

  Now I’m covered in blood spatter, too.

  It’ll ruin my sense of smell for a long while, but I don’t care.

  Ducking around him as he uses both hands to grab his wrists, I speed to Shaitan, who’s holding his hand out to me.

  I glance back over my shoulder, just once, and see Jaecar glaring after us as he clutches his arms to his stomach.

  “His name is Jaecar,” Shaitan says. “I got the information after you boarded the jetter on entrance day.”

  “He told me.” I glance around Shaitan’s new underground lair. It’s smaller, but otherwise remarkably like his old one, though the people who come to see him don’t have to stand in a pit. The chair he’s turned into a throne is raised on a dais, however.

 
; And when he told them to leave us, all the people with him filed out without a word of complaint.

  It’s good to see some things don’t really change.

  My head’s still spinning from the events of the last few hours.

  “How did you find me?” I ask.

  “I’ve had my people watching you for some time.”

  What?

  I thump at his chest with the flat of my hand. “So what took so long? Why didn’t you send someone to save me when the Humans First creeps had me?”

  He grins. “I figured you could take them down yourself.” A beat passes, and he adds, “Not really. My guys lost you for a bit when you hit the underground. Took a while to pick up your scent again—and to get a message back to me.”

  Something about this isn’t making any sense.

  “Why are you here?” I demand.

  He glances around with a wry expression, waving one hand. “In all this splendor? I haven’t been issued an official apartment.”

  “Not down here. I mean in the Complex. What are you doing in here at all?” I don’t know until I ask the question that I hadn’t actually expected to find him in the Complex—even though that’s what I supposedly set out to do.

  He tilts his head and narrows his eyes. “I gave my only actual pass to you, remember?”

  I swipe at my hands with the damp cloth Shaitan hands me. Some of the blood is crusted onto me, but I manage to clean the worst of it. In my leopard form, I’d just lick it off.

  For now, I hand the cloth back to Shaitan. “I don’t get that. Why give me the pass in trade for a promise to tell you all about it when you could’ve used the pass and seen it all for yourself?”

  That’s why I never set out to find him, I realize. I didn’t want to confront that question.

  Oh, the secrets I can keep—even from myself.

  His gaze is rueful. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. I thought you knew that.”

  Wait. What?

  Did the demon lord of Pinao’s underworld just tell me he’d signed on to a two-year stint in the craziest social experiment in all of history because he was afraid someone might hurt me?

  I stare at him open-mouthed for a long, silent moment. His dark eyes flash with something—maybe regret?—before I manage to brush off my shock and steer the conversation back to the issue at hand: the enormous Human bounty hunter who’s after me.

  Still after me.

  Actually, probably even more after me than before.

  “Can you get us out of here? I want to leave the Complex.”

  Shaitan shakes his head sadly. “Afraid not. I discovered about three months ago that the exits are more secure than even I planned for.”

  “Then what can you do?”

  He stares deeply into my eyes in that disconcerting way of his. “What do you really want?”

  And again, the answer pops out of me, almost without my consent. “I want to be Lexi. I want to stay here and never worry about Jaecar again.”

  Shaitan nods. “Okay. I can do that. I want only one thing in exchange.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You.”

  Chapter 7

  “What do you mean, you want me?”

  “I want your body.”

  Shaitan’s words bring all my nerve endings to attention.

  I’ve heard that sex with a demon is amazing—that it’s like they can read your mind to give you exactly what you want. I suspect the power is more in their ability to get people to say precisely what they really want.

  Whatever the reason, I discover that I’m more than willing to let this demon use any power he might have on me.

  Maybe more than once.

  I’m about to say yes when I really remember that I’m dealing with a demon. It always pays to double-check with them. They’re legalistic as hell—so to speak—and I need to be extra-careful because I’m desperate.

  I don’t know what Shaitan slipped into my curse, but it’s clearly got me ready to hop into bed with whatever hot body happens to be around. First the bounty hunter, now the demon.

  Not that I was ever actually going to be bedding the bounty hunter. I’d just had that flash of attraction to his hard-muscled body in the hallway.

  I said I wasn’t turned on by violence. But I was willing to use that as an excuse if I could dismiss that moment of weakness.

  Instead, I would simply ignore it.

  “When you say you want my body, what do you mean?” I ask.

  “What do you think I mean?” Shaitan’s smoky-dark eyes glint with amusement, but something darker lurks in their depths.

  Fine. I can be blunt. “Do you want to have sex with me?”

  “Oh, gods below, yes,” Shaitan breathes, stepping closer to me.

  I sway toward him, too, but stop short of actually touching him as I try to find my voice. “And is that what you want in exchange for freeing me from the bounty hunter? Sex?”

  He goes utterly motionless and I know I’ve caught him. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  I remember the verbal sparring matches he used to have with my father. There’s no way he would have been tripped up by something so simple.

  Something’s wrong with Shaitan. For a minute, I wonder if the Complex has made him ill—but I don’t think that’s it.

  No. Whatever is going on with Shaitan, it was happening before he gave me his ticket to get in here.

  In a flash of intuition, I realize that he was hoping that coming to the Complex would save him.

  But I don’t think it worked out that way.

  And now he’s hoping I can save him in some way.

  “What do you need my body for?” I ask.

  He blows out a breath. “I swear I will never hurt you. And I won’t do anything without your permission. But can we at least get cleaned up before I head into the explanations?”

  I glance down at myself, then at him. We’re both blood-splattered and I, at least, am grimy.

  “Where?” His lair doesn’t seem to have even the basic amenities.

  He grimaces. “I’m afraid you wouldn’t like our facilities. Can we go back to your place?”

  “But what about Jaecar?”

  “It should take him a while to trace you to your apartment here. From what we can tell, he hasn’t been as effective making connections here as he was outside the Complex.”

  “So you think we’ll have time for a shower?”

  There’s that glint again. “At least.”

  “Okay.” I nod and am about to turn away from him when he grabs my arm, pulling me back around to face him.

  “What would you trade to be free of Jaecar forever?” It’s that damn voice of his, so compelling.

  “Anything,” I rasp. “I would give anything to not have him hunt me down any more.”

  “Let me help. I swear to you I won’t ask for anything in return that will hurt you. Just allow me to do what’s necessary to make sure he’s never able to touch you again.”

  I never thought I’d hear the demon Shaitan beg.

  I stare at him for a long time.

  How can I possibly read intentions in his gaze, in those eyes that are always filled with smoke and shadows and an occasional spark?

  Finally I nod. “Okay. Yes.”

  “You know the rules. All deals must be sealed with a kiss.”

  God, yes. I want to kiss him again.

  He releases my arm, moves closer, and bends down, wrapping one hand around the back of my head, his long, elegant fingers sliding into the hair at the nape of my neck.

  His eyes spark and I can feel the magic rising in him. He’s used a binding like this before to begin the process of casting a curse.

  But this time, there’s something else, too.

  Something … other. Something hovering on the edge of this moment, of our incomplete kiss.

  Something that could change this from a strange business deal to something potentially much deeper.

  We sta
y like that for several seconds, holding ourselves—and each other—a fraction of an inch from closing that last space.

  Finally, as if inhaling each other's breath has synchronized our movements, we close the distance in a heated rush that leaves me dizzy with desire.

  From the moment his lips touch mine, I know that kissing Shaitan is a mistake.

  Perhaps the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.

  By all rights, I should be demanding to know what, exactly, he meant when he said he wanted my body.

  I should be asking what kind of idiot he is to sneak into the Complex without any clear plan to get out again.

  Instead, I’m so damn glad to see him here and apparently willing to help me yet again, that I can’t stop myself from reaching out to him.

  I should be running now, trying to stay one step ahead of the bounty hunter.

  I need to keep moving.

  But as my heated mouth tilts back to open under the onslaught of his kiss, I find that I can’t do any of that. I don’t want to forget myself, my goals because of one hot demon—but every time I come into contact with him, that’s what happens.

  This time is worst of all. Before, I lost sight of my objectives. This time, I’m afraid I might lose myself.

  With a dark sound in the back of his throat, Shaitan hauls me up against him, and I mold myself to the hard length of his body. Every inch of me presses against him, and I whimper into his mouth, all of my fear coming out in the intensity of this kiss. He fists his hand in my hair and pulls me even closer, as if he could draw me into himself, maybe protect me there.

  Oddly, despite how exposed we are down here, that’s how I feel—shielded. Safe.

  His tongue tangles with mine, dancing through our mouths and brushing against the roof of my mouth.

  I wrap both arms around his neck and he tightens his grip on me, as if he wants to get as close to me as I want to get to him.

  Then he lifts me and leans me gently against the wall, pressing into me as he deepened the kiss even further.

  I should slow this down.

  That would be the careful thing to do. The prudent action. The behavior most likely to keep us both alive while on the run from the bounty hunter.

  I didn’t want to slow down.