wasn’t really all that interested in the answer. “That seems rather … human to me.”
“Not food, you moron.”
“Then what?” Michael asked.
“Life force. Energy.”
“And how do you do that?” Michael asked.
“It’s so damn easy you wouldn’t believe it. Just press your fingers against a human’s neck, embed, and suck the life right out of them.”
Mandy’s gaze snapped to the demon’s. “How the hell does that work?”
The demon laughed. “Hell if I know. It just does. And oh, man, there’s nothing like the feeling of your victim wrestling for freedom underneath you. The power just pouring into you. It’s like you can feel their soul seeping out of them as they die. That’s some heady shit.”
She’d show it heady. How would it like to have its life force sucked right out of it? Mandy would bet she could figure a way to make that happen.
“That’s all you need to sustain your existence?” Michael asked.
The demon gave a short nod. “That’s it. We have no weaknesses.”
Everything had weaknesses. Everything could die.
“We will rule. You’ll find out soon enough.” The demon looked them over as if they were nothing but insects. “We are superior over humans and growing stronger every day. There are more and more of us coming on board, and the Masters are turning us at a rapid rate. Soon, we’ll take over and you’ll bow to us.”
“That’s pretty big talk coming from someone strapped in and held prisoner,” Mandy said.
The demon grinned. “Only a matter of time before I’m out of here.”
Mandy snorted.
“Don’t turn your back on me, bitch. You’ll be dead.”
“Knock the thing out,” Michael ordered the tech. An injection into its IV and the demon’s eyelids closed, but not before it sent Mandy a pale, blue-eyed look of utter hatred.
These demons had emotion. And egos. Too bad it was out cold. Mandy enjoyed the banter. And she really wanted to kill it, but not while it was strapped down like that. She wanted it free and going one-on-one with her.
She’d show it who was superior then. That demon had
Shivering from the subzero temperatures, Mandy stepped outside the room with Michael, peeling off the layers as she did. She rubbed her arms to get the circulation going again.
“Thinks a lot of itself, doesn’t it?” she remarked.
“You could say that. Obviously they assume they’re indestructible,” Michael said as they strolled down the sterile white hallway and into an office. “That could be a critical mistake.”
Mandy slid onto a well-worn leather sofa. “I can’t believe it gave us so much information.”
Michael pulled up a chair in front of the metal desk, turning the chair to face Mandy. “It doesn’t see us as a threat. So it felt safe in boasting about its talents. Obviously the Sons of Darkness haven’t taught their new recruits the better part of discretion.”
“So what do we do with all that information now?”
“Since we know it feeds on humans, the first thing I want to know is if there are victims, and if so, how spread out are they? I’m going to have the Realm run a search of hospital emergency rooms and morgues, also police records, see if there have been any suspicious attacks, injuries, or deaths in recent weeks. That should tell us how widespread these demons are.”
“I hope they’re contained.”
“I would bet they’re not. The Sons of Darkness want to wage their war worldwide. I imagine we’re going to see these types of injuries crop up internationally.”
Mandy grimaced. “That’s a nightmare in the making.”
“Yes and no. The fact that these creatures have to feed is a good thing. It means we can spot where they’ve been.”
“After the fact.”
“True enough,” Michael said. “Not ideal, but it gives us a way of identifying their locations.”
“And if they
His gaze was direct, and she already knew she wasn’t going to like his answer. “Then we take them out one at a time, one location at a time. We’ll alert all the other Realm cells to know what to look for. We’ll figure out how to spot them.”
New demons to hunt. Great. But at least having them on human turf made them easier to battle. Sort of.
“How do we kill them? Have we actually been able to kill one yet?”
Michael smiled. “Not that I’m aware of. Ryder and Angelique battled one similar to this one, but it disappeared. We don’t know if it was destroyed or not.”
“So how are we going to figure out what kills them?”
Michael arched a brow. “We have a nice test subject in the lab.”
She smiled back. “We get to do battle with it?”
He leaned back in the chair, stretching out his long legs. “We’re not going to keep it around as a pet, Mandy”
She laughed. “I might have underestimated you in the beginning, Michael.”
He laced his fingers behind his head, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “Does that mean you’re starting to like me?”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t like anybody.”
He cocked a brow. “I’ll get to you yet, Mandy. Just wait.”
“Famous last words. Many have tried. Most fail.”
“I’m not most.”
She snorted. “Speaking of boasting …”
“Just stating facts.”
“Maybe we should pit you against the demon. You could have an ego match, see who comes out the winner.”
“Still a smart-ass, I see.” He stood, went around to the desk, and picked up the phone, a smile still lifting the corners of his lips.
Not only did he have a wit equal to hers, he also had a really nice mouth. Full lower lip, the kind a woman could grab on to with her teeth.
Not that she would know anything about that kind of thing. Or even care. Especially about Michael. Where had that come from anyway? She didn’t think about him that way at all.
Though she just had, hadn’t she?
Gah. Where had her head gone? She shoved her hands in her lap and laced her fingers together, trying to look anywhere but at Michael, think about anything but his mouth. Her gaze ended up drifting back toward him. He was on the phone with someone about their demon, telling whoever it was everything they’d discovered.
He had full, midnight black brows that matched his hair. He needed a haircut, though she kind of liked it long and shaggy like he wore it. Lots of hair there for a woman to sift her fingers through during-
And there her mind wandered into very unfamiliar territory, setting off mental visuals that warmed her up considerably. Someone needed to turn the heat down. She shifted, turned on her side so she leaned against her hip, and laid her head against her hand, studying Michael as he turned his back to her.
He had a great ass. Narrow waist, muscular thighs, but not overly big like a lot of the guys she was used to. He was all lean muscle, really well built but not like a bodybuilder. She’d bet if she touched his body, he’d be solid.
Her gaze drifted up, and she realized he’d turned back around, was off the phone and staring at her, his expression that of bemused interest. Like he’d been checking her out the same way she’d been checking him out.
Oh, God. This was so embarrassing. Men as fellow demon hunters, fine. As her pseudo brothers, check. She
