Hotter After Midnight (Midnight #1)(22)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“What kind of shifter are you?” There was a note of hesitation in her voice, a note of almost…fear.

Damn. That was the last thing he needed. He didn’t want the doc to fear him. Not now.

“Colin?”

He couldn’t tell her. Couldn’t risk it.

Colin spun away from her, glanced back down at the guys on the ground. “Who are you bastards and why the f**k did you attack us?” Okay, not the standard police interviewing technique, but he wasn’t exactly feeling all nice and professional.

His ribs were hurting like hell thanks to Mr. Kick Happy. Colin swiped his hand against his lip, feeling the wet warmth of blood. His lip had probably gotten busted when they tackled him to the ground.

The guys were rousing, sending narrow-eyed, glittering stares his way. What in the hell? He’d taken them down, hard. They shouldn’t be getting up this soon, no damn way, not unless—

“They’re demons,” Emily told him, confirming the suspicion that had been filling his mind.

Well, shit.

Things were suddenly much, much more dangerous. He wasn’t an Other expert like the doc, but he knew demons healed fast.

“They’re low level.” She stood beside him. Their backs were near the wall of the alley. “Maybe a one or a two.”

He didn’t really know what that meant, and he made a mental note to quiz the doc on Other lore sometime later. Once they’d gotten out of the alley and far away from the jerks who were trying to kill them.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered, now eyeing the perps with deep suspicion. They could attack again at any moment.

The guy who’d made the mistake of going after Emily climbed to his feet. A deep gash swept across his forehead, and blood trickled down his face. “Catching on now, cop?”

The others pushed to their feet. Crept up behind the one ballsy enough to talk. Colin figured him for the leader.

“He cut me, Scott.” The snarled words came from the guy bleeding out a river in the back.

Colin held up his hands, let them see the claws springing from his fingertips. “And I’ll do it again.” He’d cut the demons apart if they came at him or if they tried to attack Emily. He’d been pissed enough before when they’d first jumped him, but now that he knew they weren’t human, all bets were off. He’d use every bit of his shifter strength to make them wish they’d never stepped into the alley.

“Let’s kill ’em!” Same demon talking. The bastard who was currently bleeding out in the alley. He was a tall guy, lean but muscled.

“You can try,” Colin said. “But I don’t think you’ll succeed. Especially considering the fact that I just kicked your asses.” And he’d be more than happy to do it again.

Emily’s nails dug into his back. “Someone else is here. Someone a hell of a lot more powerful than these guys.”

The night just kept getting better. “I don’t see anyone,” he muttered, and it was true. The night was dark, but with his enhanced vision, he could see perfectly in the alley. He could even see the snake tattoo swirling around the left wrist of the bastard he’d clawed. That’ll help identify you later, ass**le.

“He’s here,” she repeated softly. “And—”

“Stay the f**k out of our business, cop!” This snarl came from the leader, the guy who’d been called Scott. “Tonight was a warning. You and the doctor won’t get another.”

Our business?

“Stick to your own kind!” Now snake tattoo was shouting his own warning. “Leave the demons alone.”

Oh yeah, like that was going to happen. If anything, these idiots had just made him all the more determined to plunge straight into their world.

“Who sent you?” Emily asked, and she sure as hell didn’t sound like she was frightened. She sounded royally pissed. “Who told you to jump us in the alley?”

Scott stiffened.

“Was it Niol?” She pushed. “Is he the reason you’re threatening us? Did he tell you—”

A siren sounded nearby.

The men cursed, then turned, fleeing down the alley just as the swirl of blue and white lights lit up the scene.

Two uniformed cops jumped out of the vehicle, guns drawn. “Hands up, now!”

“Shit.” Colin lifted his hands and watched in disgust as the demons disappeared into the shadows. He’d find those bastards again, he’d make certain of it. “Listen, I’m a cop. Detective Colin Gyth, badge number 2517.” He made no move to reach for his ID. The cops looked more than a little nervous to be confronting him in the alley, and he wasn’t about to give these green guys a reason to become trigger happy.

Emily had her hands lifted up too. One of the patrolmen approached her, pulling her away from Gyth.

“Come with me, ma’am.”

Hot rage still coursed through Colin’s body. He took a deep breath, inhaled the stench of the alley, the sweat from the cops. He needed to regain his control, needed to cage the beast.

His claws began to recede. Slowly, slowly.

“Show me your ID, Detective.” The patrolman still held his gun on Colin.

Carefully, Colin reached inside his jacket and pulled out his ID. The cop took it, stepped back. “Don’t move.” He crept toward the car, and Colin heard him radio in his information.

“We were attacked! The guys who jumped us are getting away!” Emily still sounded pissed as she raged at the cop.

He glanced toward the end of the alley. Correction: they’d already gotten away.

“Okay, Detective, you check out.”

Colin lowered his hands. “I need you to start a search in the area. Four men just attacked us.” And warned us to stay the hell out of demon business.

Not gonna happen.

“They were wearing black ski masks, shirts, pants.” Which would make identifying them damn hard. “But one guy had a snake tattoo on his left wrist. And the leader was a man named Scott.” Not much to go on, but it was all they had.

“Four men attacked you?” This from the cop who’d taken Emily away.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” she snapped.

The patrolman dutifully radioed in the information Colin had given him. “Are either of you hurt?” he asked.

Emily shook her head.

Colin remembered the icy flash of pain he’d felt in his hand when one of the bastards had cut him. The wound had already stopped bleeding, and his ribs only ached in a brief echo of pain. “No.” He’d be completely healed long before any EMT could arrive to help him.