The Darkest Touch

“Stay close to me.” He dragged her around the corner and into the dark alley.

It was even blacker in here than on the shadowed street, not helped by the sunglasses she wore. Why did he make her wear these?

The man was probably long gone by now, figuring she must have changed her mind about going with him.

No, wait. There he was, at the end of the alley. And Angelique was nowhere in sight. There was no exit down this alley, either. Was Dalton right? Had the man lied?

“Get behind me,” Dalton instructed.

She did, then realized there were two men in the alley. The one who’d approached her earlier had sunglasses on, but the other didn’t. His eyes were such a pale blue they glowed. Okay, that was weird.

“Demon hunter,” the one said, his voice a low growl.

Dalton raised his weapon, said nothing and fired.

Isabelle smothered a gasp as a blue light emitted from the gun. The man on the left began to melt where he stood, but the other seemed to disappear with lightning quickness.

She had no more than blinked and the other man had moved in front of Dalton, jerking the weapon out of his hand. Dalton shoved Isabelle out of the way and she landed on her butt on the ground.

This couldn’t be happening. The two men struggled, fighting in hand-to-hand-combat style. But the other man was changing. His fingernails were elongating into claws and his face had turned into a gruesome shape. As he raised his top lip, she could see fangs.

Recoiling in horror, she pushed off the ground with her heels, trying to get away.

It was a demon. Good God, Dalton hadn’t been lying to her. Could he kill it? Where was his gun? She tore her gaze away from the two of them to scan the alley. His gun was only a few feet from her.

Dalton was strong. But was the demon stronger?

What if the demon killed Dalton? She couldn’t allow that to happen. She had to do something. Scrambling onto her hands and knees, she hurried over to the gun and picked it up, hoping like hell she wouldn’t somehow manage to shoot herself in the process. She launched herself onto her feet and positioned the gun. It was similar to any other type of gun. It had a trigger. If she just aimed and fired. .

No, too close. She might hit Dalton. Oh, God, what was she going to do?

Just then, Dalton and the demon pivoted, and Dalton caught sight of her. He nodded, pushing the demon toward her position.

What was he doing?

Oh, she understood now. She backed against the wall, ready for his signal.

Dalton was amazingly strong, his muscles bulging with effort as he held tight to the demon, keeping hold of its wrists to prevent the demon from embedding its claws in Dalton’s skin. He grimaced, then took a deep breath, pushing at the demon. It released, then Dalton slammed it against the opposite wall.

“Now!” he yelled.

Isabelle tossed the gun at him. Dalton pivoted and fired, and the demon began to melt into a hideous, gelatinous mass.

Dalton bent forward, panting heavily. Isabelle moved to his side. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. He didn’t claw or bite me. They secrete lethal, paralyzing toxins, so I was lucky.”

She shuddered, her stomach doing flip-flops as she fought back nausea.

He straightened and looked at her. “You did good. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. It was self-preservation. I didn’t want you to die and I’d be left alone with that thing.”

He grinned. “Whatever the reason, you saved my life and I appreciate it.”

Her legs were shaking as she continued to stare at the blob on the ground. “So that was really a demon.”

“Yes.”

She had no choice but to believe him now. But what did that make her? Not one of those things.

He stood and came over to her, resting his palm against her cheek. She searched his face, waiting for him to turn the weapon on her.

“I know what you’re thinking. You’re not like that. Come on, let’s get out of here before more of them show up.”

“How did they find me?”

“I don’t know. But I need to get you someplace safe.”

This time, she wasn’t going to argue with him. Dalton retrieved their bags and grabbed his phone, made a quick call, and they headed out of the alley. Fortunately, there were very few passersby and she and Dalton and the demons had been deep in the dark alley, so no one had seen what happened in there. How would they explain it anyway?

Within moments a black SUV with darkened windows arrived and Dalton opened the back door for her. She slid in, feeling safer already.

“These are our people,” he said, nodding to the driver as he climbed in after her and closed the door.