Eternal Flame (Night Watch #3)(28)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Then he let her into the demons’ den.

“Damn.” Zane reached for door handle. Jude grabbed his arm. “Easy, man. Easy. She just walked inside. No way has she made contact with anyone yet.” “This is the place where those demons jumped me!” “Demons are always jumping you.”

Zane didn’t take his gaze off the door. “This was different. It was a trap. They’d been waiting for me. If I’d gone into that place …”

How many would have come at him?

“You would have ass-kicked your way out?” Jude asked dryly.

His lips thinned. “Yeah.” He would have. “So why didn’t you go in?”

“She stopped me.” You shouldn’t go in there. Yet she’d just strolled in, rolling those sexy hips. “She said that there was a hit on me, that the vamps and demons had been wanting her to take me out.” Only she hadn’t taken the hit on him. She’d never come at him with fire in her eyes. Not once. Not even when he’d cuffed her.

For a supposedly cold-blooded killer, that didn’t make a lick of sense.

“So there was a hit, she didn’t take it, and the woman tried to protect you?” Jude’s fingers drummed on the wheel. “Interesting.”

Zane rolled his shoulders.

“So in return for her bit of community service, what did you do?” Jude asked. “I cuffed her.”

The bark of laughter came fast and hard from the shifter. Zane didn’t glance his way. His eyes were on the club. “She shouldn’t be in there alone.” “Relax. Nothing’s happened yet.”

His back teeth clenched. “How the hell do you know that from out here?”

“Because I don’t smell any smoke. Your lady hasn’t started having her fun.”

Jana stood in the middle of the den, her gaze darting to the dark corners and closed doors. The demons were so strung out here. Her nose ached from all the bitter scents. Demons and drugs … sometimes, there wasn’t any other way for them to shut out the darkness.

She knew a lot about darkness.

There wasn’t a bar in the place. No band, either. Why pretend? The people there wanted only one thing.

Pleasure. The sweet release the drugs would give them.

Her gaze tracked to the right. She needed to find a familiar face … ah.

Demon number one on her list. The demon with the scar sliding down his right cheek, one of the demons who’d come charging at her and Zane. Also one of the demons who’d been so quick to flee when he realized Zane wasn’t going down.

She stalked toward him. The guy blinked at her, and narrowed his eyes. “I … I know you.”

Jana took a breath and let the fire heat her blood. She knew her eyes would redden. “Yes, you do.”

His jaw dropped, and he tried to scramble back. A low-level demon, he wouldn’t be any match for her flames. Her power would easily subdue his.

“Not so fast.” She gave him a slow smile. “I just want to talk.” She reached for him, and he swore at the heat in her touch.

“I-I didn’t… I didn’t know they were tryin’ to kill you!” The words burst from him and spittle flew from his mouth. “I heard-heard there was money if an Ig-Ignitor was spotted…. Just wa-wanted some cash!”

Now, really, that had been sickeningly easy. “What’s your name?”

He shook his head.

“Asshole, what’s your name?” She knew he’d see the flames in her eyes.

“M-Morns …”

“Who’d you call, Morris?”

He stared up at her, his black eyes bulging. “They’ll … kill me.” Whispered.

She laughed. “And what? You think I won’t?” She leaned in close. His back was slammed against the wall. No place for him to go. “I can burn this whole place down before you can blink.”

Morris started to shake. “H-had a cell number …”

“What is it?”

Another owlish stare.

She sighed. Great. “Do you still have your cell phone?” A few jerky nods.

“Then get the damn phone out and call the bastards again.” The number would still be on his phone. She jabbed her index finger into his chest. “Tell ‘em that you found their Ignitor, that she’s pissed, and that she’s burning a den.”

“B-burning?”

“You and your boys made a few mistakes the other night. You ratted me out, and I really don’t like it when folks betray me.”

“Y-you said you wouldn’t t-take the j-job.”

Ah, so he’d heard that part somewhere, too. Wasn’t he the informed demon flunky?

“The second mistake”-she waited a beat and let the charge grow—“You came after my demon.”

His bushy brows bobbed. “Your—”

“Make your call.” Jana felt the heat begin to rise. “Then you’d better get the hell out of here.”

Because it looked like the only way to stop those ass**les on her tail was to show them that they did not want her. They needed to see that they couldn’t control her, and if they came too close, she’d exterminate them.

Demons began to run out of the den. “Oh, hell,” Jude muttered. Zane’s eyes narrowed. “What’s—”

“Smoke,” Jude said, and an instant later, Zane caught the scent.

Fire. Zane shoved open the door and rushed out of the truck.

“Wait! Zane, dammit, wait!”

But he wasn’t waiting. Jana was in there, the fire was raging, and he wasn’t just going to sit outside and watch everything burn.

A demon slammed into him. A guy with pale cheeks and a long, twisting scar on the right side of his face. When his gaze met Zane’s, the demon began to scream.

A hard hand grabbed Zane’s shoulder and spun him around. The demon ran away, still screaming.

“The woman controls fire. She can handle this,” Jude snapped at him, not releasing his hold. “It’s not like she’s some delicate flower. She’s—”

“Bait?” he bit out as the smoke drifted from the open door of the den. “She’s just bait so it doesn’t matter what happens to her?” “She’s not—”

“You don’t know what the f**k she is.” And, friend or not, he let his fist swing out. Jude stumbled back, probably more in surprise than anything else because it was hard to knock a shifter on his ass. Zane whirled and ran for the den.