Toxic

“You don’t need them,” I stated baldly.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“What? Aren’t you going to deny it?” I taunted.

“No, you’re right. I don’t.”

I couldn’t believe he so readily admitted the ruse. “So, why the disguise?”

“Would you believe people tend to take me more seriously with them?” He gazed at me, and, without the barrier of his lenses, I got the full impact of his eyes. It took my breath away and I found myself unable to look away. Sure, I’d found him handsome before, but now, with his jaw hard and his eyes glinting, he was beyond delicious. He looked dangerous, and not at all the shy and awkward doctor I’d taken him for. How could I have been so blind?

I didn’t fall for his obvious lie. “Whatever you say, Clark Kent,” I quipped. “Care to tell me what else you’re hiding?”

He turned from me, but I wasn’t letting him escape that easily.

“I’m onto you,” I warned as I pressed myself up against his back. I craned on tiptoe to lick his neck. I enjoyed his shudder and felt an answering warmth flood through me.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, his voice low and thick.

I ran my hands around his waist and up the hard planes of the stomach he hid. His body tensed and I placed a soft kiss on his nape. “Whatever,” I murmured. What started out as a teasing game for me to get him to talk or let something slip rapidly devolved into desire.

My hands brushed up over the fabric of his shirt and rubbed across the hard nubs of his nipples. His breath caught and quicker than a human could move, he’d turned and pinned me against the wall. I had a moment to see his eyes blazing with light before his lips came down hard on mine.

Unlike his previous gentle kiss, this one screamed possession, and strength. I squirmed as he ground his body against mine, liquid heat pooling in my sex. I moaned as his tongue slickly stroked mine. Never before had a man kissed me so passionately. Nor had I ever responded so wildly. I clutched at his broad shoulders through the fabric hiding them and moaned into his mouth.

I almost cried when he moved away.

“The creature wakes,” he announced. He’d slipped his usual placid face back on, but he couldn’t hide the glitter in his eyes or the gruffness of his voice. The insane attraction I had for him reciprocated.

I raised trembling fingers to my lips. Human my ass. What on earth is he? And an even better question, am I toxic to his kind?

I planned on finding out soon. Right now, though, I had an ugly snarling daemon to deal with.

“Hi handsome,” I drawled moving to stand protectively in front of Rafe. Call it instinct in case my doctor- contrary to my belief-ended up being breakable.

The daemon snarled at me, its fangs dripping and its eyes glowing red.

I rolled mine in reply. “Oh, drop the theatrics, big boy. I’m not a gullible human. Who are you and why are you here?”

The daemon snapped its teeth. I bared mine right back. The creature’s wet, throaty chuckle, I’m ashamed to say, made shivers dance up my spine, and not the good kind. “What are you?” he asked in a scratchy voice pleasant like nails on a chalkboard.

I winced. “Ooh, I’d hate to hear you singing Christmas carols. As for what I am, I am a vampire and unlike the humans, I won’t be pushed around. So start talking.”

The beast leered at me. “Are the men in your clan so weak they rely on a female to protect them? Never fear, when my brothers arrive they will teach you a female’s place.”

I dropped my eyes to the daemon’s groin and noticed his shriveled sack and rod. “Gee, I hope all your kind aren’t so poorly endowed. I prefer something I can actually feel.”

The daemon roared and lunged forward only to snap short as the chains held him.

“Should you be antagonizing him?” Rafe asked, coming to stand beside me.

His words drew the baleful glare of the creature. It sniffed and then stretched its mouth into a grin. “A shining one. What a treat. It would appear reports of your extinction were false.”

“What’s he talking about?” I asked turning to Rafe.

“Not now,” he murmured.

I glared at him. I didn’t like secrets I wasn’t privy to. The good doctor and I would need to have a talk later on.

The daemon laughed. “Does the bitch not know what you are? Not that it matters. Your kind never did have the nerve to stop us before.”

I waited for Rafe to defend himself, but he remained silent. I drew the beast’s attention back to me. “I don’t give a shit what he is. I asked you a question. Who are you?”

“Death.”

I kicked the daemon in its tiny balls. It bellowed and thrashed.

I tsked him. “Next time I ask you a question, answer it. While my friend here might be the nonviolent type, I promise you, I am anything but.”

The daemon wheezed. “I shall delight in hearing your screams when I free myself and take you as your cowardly lover looks on.”

“First off, he’s not my lover,” I said stiffly. “And secondly, I asked you a fucking question, now answer it!” I punctuated my demand with a hard shot to the creature’s ribs.

After the creature’s bellowed died down, I asked again nicely. “What’s your name?”

With a glare I found entertaining, the daemon spoke. “I am known as Akrza. And by capturing me, you have signed your death warrant.”

“I’m so scared,” I said theatrically as I pretended to shake. I leaned in closer to the daemon and said in a low voice. “Now Akrza, you’re going to tell me what you’re doing here.”

“Or else what?” the creature said with a smirk. “My ribs have already healed. So do your worst.”

I slid my dagger from its sheath and stroked its sharp edge, the skin of my finger slicing open. “Oh, I know how quickly you heal which is why I’m going to enjoy fucking you with this,” I said with a nasty smile. “And if you still don’t answer, I start cutting pieces off, starting with your puny dick.”

A tug on my arm sent me stumbling after Rafe, who with the gig almost up, was no longer even attempting to hide the fact he wasn’t human. He towed me along with more strength than I liked.

“What are you doing?” he hissed when he finally stopped and faced me.

I met his agitated gaze with my calm one. “Getting answers. If you can’t handle it, then leave. Don’t worry, I don’t intend to kill it. Well, at least not until after you’ve run some tests on it.”

“But threatening him with-.” He couldn’t say it and I smiled coldly.

“Fucking him with a dagger? Listen here, I don’t know what you are, but from the clues Akrza has dropped, I’d say your kind are the nonviolent type. That’s fine. You want to lie down and die for your morals, go ahead. The daemon isn’t going to spill his secrets because we smother him in kindness.” Rafe’s lips tightened but I forged ahead. “So yes, I’m going to threaten and even follow through with something it will understand. Extreme pain. I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty, not when it means possibly saving millions of lives.”

Rafe’s face creased in puzzlement. “What are you talking about? It’s just one daemon. And a contained one at that.”

I snorted. “If only. I don’t have time to get into it right now, but let me inform you that war is coming, and unless we do something, the prognosis for life isn’t looking too good. Now stay or go, I don’t care, but I will do what’s necessary to protect my kind and those that feed us.”

I pulled out of his grasp and stalked back to the daemon, my mood black. I brandished my knife and with a smile to make a human wet his pants, slid the sharp point down the center of the daemons’ chest right down to the shriveled root of its cock.

It swallowed. I grinned. “Where were we? Oh, yes, you were going to tell me why you were here? And while you’re at it, I want to know when the invasion is coming.”

The beast chuckled, a rattily and rusty sound. “Much as I’d like to watch the shining one squirm as you torture me, I have nothing to hide. You might kill me, but I am just the advance scout, paving the way for the army that comes.”