

Darkened

An Avery Tywella Novel

S. L. Gavyn

Copyright 2013 S. L. Gavyn

Discover more about S. L. Gavyn's books at http://www.slgavyn.com or "like" her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/slgavyn or follow her on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/SLGavyn.

This free ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person (living or dead), business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Darkened

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2013 S. L. Gavyn

Cover Design © 2018 S. L. Gavyn

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

First edition: November 2013

## Available Books by S. L. Gavyn

The Forged by Magic Series

Brimstone

Iron Made

Dragon's Flame

Ange Noir: A Forged by Magic Prequel Novella

The Avery Tywella Series

Darkened

Deadened

Deceived

Craven: An Avery Tywella Companion Novel

Damned

Devoted

The Fabled Series

The Fabled

Fable City

Fabled Lost

The Fallen–Fey Chronicles

The Darkness

The Cursed

The Light

The Broken

The Driven

## Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Preview of Deadened

1

## One

"Gallion. From the info I have, he's one of Rallizon's horde," I said.

"Do you have a description or anything, angel?" Craven asked.

"Yeah." I pulled out the picture I carried in my back pocket and looked at it. "He's got dark hair and eyes. Looks to be about six one with a lean build. I know that's not a lot, but the only pic I have of him is a surveillance photo, and it's kind of grainy."

He sighed. "I will keep my ears open, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any results with the minimal information you've provided."

"That's about what I expected but figured I'd give you the specs just in case."

"In case what? He walks into my shop wanting a tattoo?"

"Or one of your other services."

"I see. I will let you know if that happens."

"I appreciate it, Craven."

"Anything for you, angel."

I hung up and continued down Peachtree. As I passed the various clubs, bars, and restaurants, I couldn't help but wonder how I was ever going to find this guy. It was like a needle in a haystack and all I had was a crappy surveillance photo. This Demon had killed a Human and had eaten her soul. If I know anything about Demon, it's that if they kill once and get away with it, they will continue to kill until they are caught. Oh, and the plural of Demon is Demon. Whether it's a horde or one, they're still Demon. I guess they don't deserve the _s_ the other species get.

I had just turned onto Paces Ferry when I passed what looked like a drug deal in progress. Not my division. If Humans want to kill themselves, that's their business. I have enough to take care of by chasing the Others who were killing them. Drugs were not my prob.

I had just walked pass them when I realized that one guy matched the description of my perp. No, surely it couldn't be that easy. I turned around and took a better look at him. Same dark features and about the right height. I walked up to them like I was interested in what they had to offer. I looked typical enough—a twenty-something chick with auburn hair wearing a dark shirt, a hoodie, blue jeans, and black boots. It was too dark for him to get a good look at my eyes.

"Ya got anything good, brotha?" I asked the possible Demon while looking around like I was watching for the cops.

"Whatcha looking for, baby? I might be willin' ta work out a deal wit'cha," he said.

I smiled at him, reached out, and ran my hand down his arm like I was interested, but in actuality I was feeling him. One touch and I could usually tell what species an Other was, especially a common one like Demon. I smiled again, only this time because I had found my perp. This night had just started to look up.

"Gallion of Rallizon. You have been found guilty of killing a Human—"

That's all I got out before he was gone and the chase began. He ran back up Paces Ferry and took a left onto Roswell. I pulled out my cell and hit one on my speed dial.

"Yo, señorita, what're you up to tonight?" Kansas asked.

"I'm chasing Gallion down Roswell. Per protocol, I need backup."

"'Kay. I'm in the alley running behind Dallas right now. I'll cut up to Roswell."

"Then we're heading your way."

The Demon took a sharp left and managed to slide past the bouncer outside of a club who was arguing with some obviously underage chick. I tried to follow the Demon inside, but of course, the bouncer saw and stopped me.

"Kansas, stay in the alley and head for Halo. My perp just entered the club. I'm following."

Dallas was the bar two businesses down from Halo. Kansas could cover the back door while I entered from the front.

"Ten four, Ave."

I hung up the phone and pulled out my badge for the bouncer. "Avery Tywella. Humans' Rights Task Force. I'm chasing a suspect into the club. Stand aside."

The bouncer eyed my badge for a moment, then looked at me, then back to my badge.

"Come the fuck on. Do you need a blood sample to verify DNA? Get out of the damn way."

He raised a brow and then stepped aside. Good idea. I'd hate to hurt him in order to catch my perp. I entered the club and found that I couldn't see any one particular person other than the band that played on the stage. Everyone else was so packed together I couldn't pick out one over all the others. To the right of the main dance floor was a raised area with the bar. Beyond that, tables ran along the entire side of the interior until you get to the back where the VIP section is located. I headed for the raised section so I would be able to see over the entire dance floor. My cell rang.

"Avery," I said as a greeting.

"Ave, you find your perp yet?" Davis asked.

"Not yet. I chased him into Halo but got hung up by the bouncer. I'm casing the joint now."

"I'm out front. I'll hang here in case he tries to double back on ya."

"Roger that. Ave out."

I hung up. Kansas and Davis were partners that worked for the task force. Actually, everyone on the task force had a partner except me. I don't work well with others so my boss agreed to make an exception as long as I called for backup if I was actively in pursuit of a perp.

I started through the table area while scanning the dance floor and the darker areas along the back wall where the booths were. If I didn't find him on my initial walk through, I'd go have a seat at the bar and wait him out. My best friend happened to be one of the bartenders on duty tonight, so I knew she'd help me keep an eye out.

Suddenly, it felt like I was being watched. I stopped and looked behind me first, but there was no one, so I scanned the dance floor. When I didn't see anyone looking my way I scanned the stage since it was directly across the club from me.

The lead singer was belting out some hard rock song I had never heard before, and he was looking directly at me. I looked behind me again to see if he could have been looking at someone else, but again, there was no one. I shrugged it off. Since I was still directly across from the stage, I assumed he regularly looks there so he didn't have to watch the people on the dance floor bumping and grinding to his song. It wasn't really the type of song I would think people would dance like that to, but apparently some people will bump and grind to anything.

I continued with my sweep of the club and didn't see him anywhere. The most likely place would be that he'd hide out in the men's room, but I'd be damned if I go that route unless I absolutely had to. I decided to take a comfy seat at the bar, which just happened to be across from the restrooms. That way I could keep an eye on them and the front entrance at the same time. If he tried to pull a fast one, he would have another thing coming.

As I sat on the bar stool, I saw Temmy serving a drink to a guy at the other end of the bar. I waited until she turned around and spotted me.

"Oh my gods, Avy. I've been trying to get you to come to this club for the last six months and you pick a night that I'm working to decide to come?"

"I'm working too, Temmy. A Demon ran in and I'm in pursuit."

"Well, let me fix you a drink while you pursue."

She went about mixing me a drink while I continued watching everyone. Temmy's real name is Temperance Desire Lovely and she absolutely hates it, hence the nickname. She and I have been friends since we were twelve. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and she raised herself, at least until we met. Then my grandmother raised her too. See, Temmy is one of probably a thousand demigod children Bacchus, the god of grapes and spirit, has fathered. Needless to say, she has never met her dad and her mom was just as absent. Cinnamon Lovely, or Cindy to her friends, was a showgirl in Vegas when she met Temmy's dad. The last we heard from her, she was married to some rich guy in south Florida. Good riddance. She should have given Temmy up for adoption as soon as she was born, but I think Cindy hoped Bacchus would return, and she wanted to hold on to her meal ticket.

"There you go, Avy. I call it a Temmy special."

I raised a brow. "I did say that I was working, didn't I? This isn't going to knock me on my ass with one drink?"

"Lord no. I like my drinks fru-fru. Taste it. You'll like it."

I took an experimental sip. It did taste good, but I would take it easy. Just because it tasted good didn't mean it wouldn't get me shitfaced. I needed to stay on top of my game for when I found my Demon.

I felt eyes on me again, so I scanned the crowd. I looked at the stage, and found the lead singer was looking at me again. That was strange. I wondered what his deal is. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

"He is totally hot. I have been trying to get in his pants since I started working here. Mmm-mm, the fun I could have with him," Temmy said when she saw where I was looking.

"I thought you were dating Mr. Self-Absorbed. What happened to that?"

"Oh, I'm still dating him, but a girl can dream can't she. And, if he decided to make those dreams a reality, I wouldn't say no." She waggled her brows.

When it came to men, Temmy was like her dad was with women. She never kept one man for more than a couple of months and always had a wandering eye whether she was in a relationship or not.

"Tell me you don't think he is fine," she said, challenging me.

I looked back at him and saw he was still watching me. Then he smiled and I quickly turned back to Temmy. "He's not too bad looking."

"Not too bad? Are you crazy? That right there is one fine ass mofo. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'."

"Didn't that saying go out in the eighties?"

"Some things live on forever. Kind of like you and me." She winked.

As a demigoddess, she was most likely immortal, and with my half-Demon ancestry, it was likely that I was too.

I continued scanning for my perp. If he didn't show himself soon, I would to have to invade the men's room, and I really didn't want to have to do that. Walking into a bathroom with a dozen or so drunk men was not something I wanted to do.

"You know, it looks like he's watching us."

"Who?" I looked around.

"Mr. Sexy on the stage. That's who."

"Oh. I don't have time to play groupie. I've got to find this Demon." I sighed. "I guess I'm going to go check out the restrooms. See ya, Temmy."

"Wait. That's it? You just waltz in here and hang out for five minutes then leave? That's wrong."

"We're both working, and I've gotta find this guy. I promise I will go out with you soon. Okay?"

"Next weekend. I'm off Saturday, and you should be off too. Right? Your one weekend a month that you're not on-call."

"Uh, yeah. I'm supposed to be off. Okay, next Saturday. We can hang out at my place. I'll buy the pizza."

"Oh, no you don't. We will come to this club, get drunk, and flirt with guys."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Call me tomorrow."

"All right, Avy. Have fun killing your Demon."

I used the stool to push myself up so I could lean over the bar and give her a brief hug before I left. I walked toward the hall where the restrooms were, and had no longer entered the corridor when the men's room door opened and my friend, the Demon, poked his head out. He saw me and immediately went back into the restroom, and tried to shut the door. I stuck my boot in the way and pried the door open. As I entered the room, he tried to stab me with a short knife. Well, two could play at that. I pulled my katana from the back sheath my hoodie mostly covered and stabbed him through the shoulder.

The wound wouldn't kill him, but my blade went all the way through and into the door behind him. That would keep him in place while I pulled the stiletto from my hip sheath. The weapon was made from the same thing the Hell dimension was made of. My maternal grandmother had given it to me on my sixteenth birthday and had said that my mother had wanted me to have it. There was also an ancient ritual written on a piece of paper that came with it. I don't know what my mom, a White Witch, would be doing with a knife that killed Demon and bound them to their native dimension, but I took it, memorized the ritual, and have been killing Demon with it ever since.

"Gallion, Demon of Rallizon, you have been found guilty of killing a Human woman by siphoning her soul. The sentence is death."

"Please, have mercy. I only did what my master commanded."

"It doesn't matter. Justice will be served."

I stabbed the Demon in the chest where the heart should be, said the ritual, and he disappeared. Even though Demon don't actually have hearts; the center of the sternum is where the magic that is holding them to this dimension congregates. So stabbing them with a piece of their homeland and saying the ritual binds them to that dimension for the rest of eternity.

I pulled my katana out of the door and grabbed a napkin to wipe the Demon blood off it before returning it to its sheath. I was about to slide it back in when a guy walked through the door. He stopped in his tracks and eyed my sword. I slid it into the sheath, fixed my hoodie so that it hid it again, then started toward the door.

"I like your sword. You wanna see mine?" the drunk guy asked.

"If that is a euphemism for your dick, I would have to reply with 'Mine's bigger.' So don't bother because if you whip it out, I will cut it off."

He smiled. Great, a drunk guy that was too stupid to take my warning.

"Aw, come on baby. You'll like it once you see it."

I pushed him out of my way and left the restroom. There was no point arguing with the guy. He just didn't care.

I notified Davis and Kansas that I had dispatched the perp and left the club. As I started toward the front entrance, I felt the lead singer watching me again. Whatever. I was done for the day. Time to head home and have some Ben and Jerry's as my reward for getting that guy off the streets.

## Two

I was woken at four a.m. by the sound of my phone. Some days I hate my job.

"Avery Tywella," I said as I answered it.

"Tywella, we gotta dump. Fifth and Broad," my boss said.

Well, hell. "'Kay, Cop. I'll be right there."

He hung up. Sergeant Copula never minced words. He said what he needed to, made sure you understood, and was done.

I threw the covers off and stumbled to my bathroom.

After I had showered and dressed, I pressed start on the coffeemaker while I toasted a bagel. Carbohydrates and caffeine—the breakfast of champions. I poured my coffee in a to-go cup, grabbed the bagel, and headed out the door.

The corner of Fifth and Broad was on the wrong side of town. It wasn't news to find a body dumped there, and it must have involved an Other or else I wouldn't have been called in.

I pulled up and found a half-dozen cop cars at the end of an alley. It didn't look like many of the businesses that backed up to this alley were still actually in business. I walked down to the Dumpster a Wizard was currently looking in.

"Hey, Al. What have we got?" I asked.

He looked up for a moment. "Hello, Avery. A Human male. Looks to be in his early twenties. I'm looking for cause of death right now."

I nodded. Albert Johnson is our Gray Wizard. His specialty is locating magic of any kind and tracing it back to the person who used it. If a Human is killed by supernatural means, Albert can tell you who did it and how. Because of him we were able to catch the bad guys like the Demon last night. Without him, and Others like him, we would have no proof that an Other—let alone which Other—had actually done the killing.

"That is weird," Al said.

"What would that be?" I looked into the Dumpster. There was a guy in torn-up jeans and a rock band T-shirt with spiked hair lying inside. I saw no blood, but he was definitely dead.

"There is magic surrounding him, but he wasn't killed by magic. From what I can see, it's probable he died from strangulation."

"Does that mean that the killer had magic but just didn't use it to kill this guy? Or that the dead guy has magic but was killed by regular means?"

"I seems likely the first would be correct. This fellow was definitely mundane Human."

Huh. That was strange. Most Others, which included all beings other than mundane Humans, would use their magic if they were going to kill a Human. They figure why get their hands dirty. Why would the killer strangle the guy if he could have used magic to kill him? I mean, not all Others could work spells and potions. Take Vamps and Weres, for example. They have magic, and when they kill a Human by either draining them of blood or shredding them with their claws, it still shows up that the Human was killed by magical means because a Were's transformation and a Vamp's fangs are their magical weapons, so to speak. Al was saying that whoever killed this guy had magic available but just chose not to use it to kill him. Why?

"You are sure the killer was an Other, right?"

Al gave me a nasty look. "Of course I'm sure."

I held my hands out in front of me. "Okay. Sorry. I was just making sure. Sheesh. Did you find an ID on him?"

"There wasn't anything in his front pockets. I was waiting until someone arrived to help me remove him from this Dumpster before I could reach his back pockets."

He gave me a pointed look. Uh, no. Dumpster diving is not in my job description. Not that I haven't had to dive in a Dumpster before while working a job, but that was a save-my-ass moment, and this is definitely not.

I walked over to the men in blue hovering in the perimeter. "Al needs a big, strong man to help him remove the body."

Nobody moved.

"I was referring to one of you. I can see how you would misunderstand me," I said sternly, looking at their oversized bellies.

Even though they were regular beat cops, they were to work in conjunction with our task force and assist us in any way we need, but usually they tried to stay out of it.

"I hear you're half-Demon. Why don't you use your demonic powers to remove the body," one of the wiseasses said.

"I have a better idea. Why don't I use my demonic powers to suck your soul out and send it south where it's going to end up in a few years anyway?"

Surprisingly enough, he didn't think that was funny. His friends started looking around nervously. I wouldn't know how to suck someone's soul out if my own depended on it, but they didn't know that.

"I'll be sure to tell my captain about your threat," he said.

"And I'll be sure to tell mine how uncooperative you were," I replied.

That seemed to change their attitude. No one wanted to be on Sergeant Copula's bad side. All three walked over to the Dumpster and soon had the guy laid out on the body bag Al provided. Al checked the other pockets and found a wallet.

"Stephen Wilkins. Four-oh-three Fifth Street, apartment three C. There are no credit cards or bank receipts. No keys. Nothing else that would help find next of kin," Al said as he handed me the ID.

"All right. Thanks." I turned to the assholes. "I need the entire Dumpster went through. Anything that you think might be evidence needs to be bagged up and sent to HQ."

I didn't wait to hear their replies. I just walked back to my car and headed for Fifth Street. I'm sure they were pissed to be given such a menial task, but I really didn't care. That's what they get for being assholes. As homicide agent of the Humans' Rights Task Force, I outrank them even though they are from another division.

When I arrived at 403 Fifth, I parallel parked, then headed up to the third floor. I knocked on the door before entering the apartment. When no one answered, I picked the lock and went inside. It looked like a typical bachelor pad. The TV and Xbox were the most expensive things in the entire place. I spent the next hour going through what little paperwork I could find and managed to locate the telephone number of his mother. It looked like he worked at a local coffee shop, and went to college at Georgia Tech. That's what I had figured. Most people living in the apartments around the colleges are students. I pulled out my phone and called HQ.

"Cop."

"Hey, I'm at our dead guy's apartment. I found the number to his mom. You want to have someone with some compassion call her? Or would you prefer I do it?"

"Give me the number."

I gave it to him. "He works at Leon's Coffee off Techwood Avenue. I'm going to head over there to see what else I can find out. I'll come to the office when I'm finished."

"'Kay."

He hung up. I put my cell away, then decided to check with the neighbors just in case they knew anything. Man was that a waste of time. The first door I knocked on belonged to the local weed man if the pungent smoke billowing out of the door was any indication. It was like eight o'clock in the morning. Who gets up and smokes weed with their morning cereal? He said he didn't know Stephen well. I took that to mean Stephen wasn't a regular customer. The guy was so high it was like pulling teeth to get him to answer a question. After waiting for five minutes for him to finish one sentence only to have him stop halfway and zone out or say "Uh, uh, uh, what was I saying?" I just interrupted his mid-sentence daydream and thanked him for his time. Before I left, I couldn't help but tell him that Cheech called and wants his bong back. Of course his response was "Huh?" so I told him never mind and left for the next neighbor, who was an old cat lady. I'll spare you the details. Let's just say she was harder to get away from than Stoner was.

I walked into Leon's Coffee and the smell of roasted beans had me practically floating to the counter. As the barista, a young woman with electric blue hair, was fixing my latte, I asked her about her coworker.

"Yeah, I know Steph. He usually works evenings three nights a week," she said.

"When was the last time he worked?"

"He was here on Thursday night. We closed together."

"What time was that?"

"Uh, I left about ten o'clock. He was just about finished closing up when I left."

I nodded my understanding then moved on to my next question. "Do you know what he does on his nights off?"

She shrugged. "I think he was in college. I remember him talking about Georgia Tech. I don't really remember anything else."

"You don't know where he hangs out or with who?"

She started slowly shaking her head. "He did mention that band Darkened. You know the one that plays at Halo, the club over on Roswell?" I nodded and she continued. "We are both fans. But I never actually saw him there or anything, and me and my friends hang out there on Friday and Saturday nights all the time if I have off. They are sooo hot."

Well that was helpful—not. "All right. Could you give me your supervisor's name and number? I'd like to talk to them."

"Uh, okay. Is Steph in trouble or something?"

"He's dead. He was murdered, and I'm trying to find out who did it."

She put her hand to her mouth. "Oh my goodness." Then she went about shakily writing her boss's name and number for me.

I thanked her and took my coffee to go. I had just gotten back to my car when my cell rang. "Hello."

"Avy, you will not believe what happened to me last night," Temmy said.

I said the first thing that popped in my head. "You hooked up with Sexy Singer and he was impotent."

"Ha-ha. You're so funny. Did you catch the sarcasm? It actually is funny you said that because he did come over and talk to me after their set, and he invited me and you to a party at their house tonight. Isn't that awesome?"

"Yeah, that's great, Temmy. I hope you have lots of fun and I really hope he isn't impotent."

"There is no way a man that sexy could be limp. They have drugs for that you know.

"The gods praise Viagra."

"Okay, no more joking around. You have to come with me. You were personally invited after all."

"No can do. I'm in the middle of a case. Plus, I don't see how I was personally invited when I haven't even met the guy."

"He asked about you when he came to talk to me last night, then invited me to the party and told me to bring you. You can take the night off. I mean, the person is obviously dead or you wouldn't be assigned to the case. He's going to be just as dead if you take the night off."

"That's nice, Temmy. I'll be sure to use that next time I'm talking to the next of kin."

"Your boss isn't stupid enough to have you talking to the next of kin after that last time. Please, Avy, he specifically said for me to bring my friend. That would be you. I've been trying to get in this guy's pants for months."

"You have more friends than just me. Invite Saundra, she'd love it. Groupie is right up her alley."

"Then I'll have to fight her for Sexy Singer's attentions. At least if you come, I won't have any competition."

I wasn't sure, but I thought I should be offended by that statement. "I am truly sorry that I can't accompany you as your ugly friend nobody wants, but I really do have work to do."

"You know you are anything but ugly. I only meant that you wouldn't want the guy; therefore, I wouldn't have any competition. Are you sure you can't come?"

"Sorry. We found a body dump this morning, and I've got to figure out who did him in and why."

"I guess I'll call Saundra then. You owe me for this. Next Saturday. Don't even think about canceling."

"Yes, Mother. I'll be there with bells on."

"You better be."

I hung up. That guy obviously didn't know me or he would have never bothered to invite me to a party. Groupie was definitely not my thing. Temmy would have a lot more fun with Saundra, even with the competition. Saundra was a typical party girl, which is why she and Temmy were friends to begin with. I would be spending the evening back at HQ seeing if I can find out any more info on Stephen Wilkins.

## Three

I walked into the task force precinct to find Davis and Kansas betting on who could ring the trashcan from across the room first. Those two will bet on anything. Davis, a Werecougar, and Kansas, a magic-wielding Human, have been partners since Kansas came to work here.

"Interference. That hot mama can't walk into the room while I'm shooting. It totally throws off my game," Davis said.

"What game? You know you white boys ain't got no game," Kansas replied.

He always janked on Davis for being a white boy. And, I do mean white. Any whiter and he'd glow. When I first found out that he was a Werecougar, my response was "Aren't cougars typically black?" He explained that his cougar was black, but unfortunately, he got his dad's coloring, and so he would always be a pale little white boy. He was about my height, and the only coloring on his face was the gazillion freckles.

"I thought I heard something about Latinos not having any game either. Maybe that was just you," I said to Kansas.

His real name is Gorge Rodriguez, but ever since he transferred here from Kansas City, he's been known as Kansas. He isn't very strong magically—definitely not Wizard status—but he is a really good detective. He could spot things and understand their meanings, things veteran detectives who've been doing this their whole lives would miss.

"I know you didn't just go there. You're on now. Show us what you got," Kansas said.

I looked at him like he had lost his mind. We were talking about throwing a wadded up piece of paper at a trashcan after all. He just looked at me as if saying, "A bet is a bet." So I took the paper ball he handed me and tossed it into the trashcan.

"Oh no. Girl's got game. Kansas, you just got shown," Davis said.

I decided it was time to move on. I had better things to do than the trashcan Olympics.

"She just got in a lucky shot," Kansas said as I walked away.

I went to Cop's door and knocked since it was closed.

"Come."

I walked in. "Did you call the mom?"

"Davis did. She's heading to the morgue."

I nodded. "You want me to interview her or are you going to have Davis do it?"

He looked at me with one brow raised. It's not that I can't show compassion. If it was someone I knew, I could totally be compassionate, but when it came to perfect strangers, it was hard for me to console them while trying to get the information I needed. It was usually easier once they had time to come to terms with their loss. The only problem was that most people took weeks, months, or even years to come to terms.

"You think you could talk to this one without yelling at her?" Cop asked.

"Mrs. Barnes was crazy. She was a twenty-three-year-old married to a ninety-year-old man and couldn't stop howling at the top of her lungs for five damned minutes so that I could ask her a question. I would like to point out that the investigation showed she had convinced her Wizard lover to murder her husband for her."

"She hasn't been proved guilty yet."

"Yet. If she gets off, then the jury is a bunch of idiots. Look up the word _gold-digger_ in the dictionary. I promise you there's a picture of Angela Barnes next to it."

Cop huffed so I got to the point.

"As long as this mother has some control and is willing to try to answer my questions, I will do my best not to tell her to shut up. See, I can be sympathetic."

He looked at me with his brow raised again.

"Is she supposed to stop by after the morgue?" Please say yes. I hate the morgue. Unfortunately, I had to visit it pretty regularly.

Cop nodded.

"'Kay. I'm going to see what info I can dig up on our victim until she gets here. I interviewed the neighbors. Total waste of time. Same with the coffee shop. Well, other than the latte I picked up. I'm going to call the boss to see if he can tell me anything more than the coworker did."

Cop nodded and I left the room. I went to my office. I was supposed to share it with my partner, but as I said, I don't work well with others. Mostly they just piss me off and slow me down. I'd much rather do the work myself—unless it involves going through a Dumpster, that is.

Three hours later I knew no more about my vic than I did before. The boss knew even less about his employee than the coworker did. There were no police records on him. I called the college and got his schedule, then systematically called all the teachers whose classes he had. Half of them had to look up his records just to know who I was talking about, and none of them could tell me who his friends were. I told all of them to notify the class of his passing and to ask his classmates to call me if any of them knew anything about his whereabouts since Thursday night. Then I called the coroner to find out if he had a time of death.

"Avery, my luscious beauty," Chris Smith, the medical examiner, said.

"Hey, Chris, I need to get a TOD on Stephen Wilkins. He was brought in this morning."

"And you couldn't take the time out of your busy schedule to come visit me? I'm offended. You know it makes my day to see your gorgeous body."

Yeah, I knew. Chris was one of the reasons I didn't like the morgue. He hit on me nonstop while I was there, and no matter how much I rebuked his advances, was somehow convinced that we had a thing going. "I'm sure you'll get over it. What about the vic?"

"I love it when you play hard to get. I should make you come down here in person to get the information, but I know you are busy so the time of death was between midnight and three a.m."

Damn, that wasn't long before I was called in. I had to find out how he was found. "All right Chris. Thanks."

I didn't wait for his perverted response and just hung up on him. Then I pulled up the police report on the incident. Anonymous caller. Huh. Probably the killer. I pulled up the call and listened to it. It was a man, but it sounded muffled like maybe he had something over the receiver to distort his voice.

"Nine one one, what's your emergency?"

"There is a dead Human in a Dumpster at the corner of Fifth and Broad."

End of call. Well, that didn't give me much to go on. He does kind of give himself away as an Other by calling the dead guy a Human, but I already knew he was an Other, so that didn't do me any favors. I guessed I'd have to talk to the mom and hope she gave me some good information. At this point, all I knew was that he was last seen on Thursday at ten when he left his job and had been killed early this morning. Today was Saturday, so where was he all of yesterday?

The mom arrived and I had her brought into the interview room by the secretary who offered her coffee. I walked in and tried to look as stoic as possible, which wasn't really hard. That was my fallback face.

"I would like to start by saying that I am sorry for your loss Mrs. Wilkins," I told her.

"It's Johnson. I remarried several years ago," she replied.

"I'm sorry. Mrs. Johnson, could you tell me who your son's friends were?"

She shrugged. "His friend, Jeremy, got married and moved to Tennessee a year ago. He was the only friend of Stephens that I knew. He didn't really speak about friends when we talked. Mostly the conversation was about school or his work. He did mention a band he liked. I can't remember the name, though. I think he went to their shows a few times, but he didn't mention who he went with."

"All right. He didn't mention a girlfriend or a woman he was dating?"

She shook her head. "No. My son was gay, which I was completely fine with, but he hadn't mentioned anyone"—she almost laughed—"except for the lead singer of that band he liked. I think he had a crush. I actually teased him about buying him a poster to put on his wall for Christmas, like he was a teenage girl." She was smiling as she said it; then, she started to cry. I suppose the realization that she wouldn't need to buy him anything for Christmas again just hit.

"I am sorry, Mrs. Johnson. We are doing everything we can to find your son's killer. That is all the questions I have for now." I handed her my card. "If you think of anything else that might be useful, please, give me a call."

She took my card and nodded, then got up and left the room. I saw a man outside the door wrap his arm around her and walk her down the hall. Okay, so Stephen was a fan of the band at Halo. Him and about every other twenty-something in the greater Atlanta area. They were the hottest sensation this town has had in a long time. I would have thought that they would have signed a record deal and gone on tour by now. But they are still singing at Halo just like they'd been doing for the last several years.

I had moved to Atlanta from Savannah about six months ago, and last night was the first time I had actually gone to the club and heard them. I had to admit they were pretty good. Between that and the fact that all five band members were smoking hot, especially the lead, it was no wonder everybody loved them. Unfortunately, that didn't help me find Stephen's killer. The barista had already said she had never seen him at the club. You would think that if he hung out there regularly, she would have seen him at least once. I decided to show his photo to Temmy and see if she recognized him. If he was a regular there, she would definitely know him.

## Four

Sunday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch at Temmy's. She had called me as I was on my way over, so I told her to save it until I got there.

"It was all your fault, Avy. You ruined my chances with Jared."

"Who?"

"Sexy Singer. His name is Jared, and you ruined it."

"How did I ruin your chances with Jared? I've never even met the guy."

"Exactly. He wanted me to bring you to the party," she said. "Instead, you refused, and he wanted nothing to do with me."

"How did my refusing to come have anything to do with him wanting to have nothing to do with you? I'm completely confused here, Temmy. If the man wanted you, he would have flirted with you or at least shown some interest. He wouldn't have given two squats as to whether or not I was there."

She just looked at me for a moment. "You know, you're right. He wasn't interested in me. Hell, he wasn't even interested in Saundra. It was weird actually."

"What, that a heterosexual male could not be interested in you or your hoochie friend?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "No, I was referring to the situation. Right after we got there last night he came up to me. Saundra was getting us a drink, and he said 'Hey, where's your friend?' I told him that she was getting us a drink and he started scanning the crowd. He totally ignored me until Saundra came back and I introduced them. He looked pissed and said, 'I thought I told you to bring your friend from the other night.'"

"Did you tell him that I had to work?"

"Yes, and do you know what he did? He turned around and walked off without as much as a good-bye. Oh my gods, Avy. It was so pathetic. Saundra actually ran after him and offered to...you know."

I looked at her, clueless. How was I supposed to know what that slut...oh. "You mean she offered to have sex with him?"

"Well, that or oral. And, he told her no thank you. She said he actually said that—'No thank you.' What guy says that when a woman offers to suck his...uh...well, anyway, we didn't see him again for the rest of the night."

What a skank. I knew Saundra was easy, but I couldn't believe she would just walk up to some guy she doesn't even know and offer oral sex. Call me a prude but, ewww!

In an attempt to cheer Temmy up and get her to not be mad at me I said, "Weren't any of the other band members there? They're pretty hot too."

"The lead guitarist was there, but he had a couple of women already. There was also the one that looks like a psycho and even he had a woman. The other two weren't around. At least not that I saw."

"Well, I'm sorry I caused your night to be so sucky."

She waved it off. "It wasn't your faulty really. I was just trying to blame someone else for him not being interested in me. My dreams are dead. Guess I'll just have to have makeup sex with Kevin while picturing Jared."

"TMI. Temmy, you've got to learn how to keep that stuff to yourself. I didn't realize you two had broken up."

She ignored me as usual. "I broke up with him before going to the party. I think you should get with him."

"Who? Kevin? No thank you. I don't do sloppy seconds."

"Not Kevin, you nitwit. Jared."

"Oh, so you don't want me to get with the guy you're doing just the guy your fantasizing about doing."

"Yes, that way I can live my dreams through you."

"You are a sad, sick woman."

"We are going to the club Saturday. His band will be playing, so you never know."

"Gods no! He is totally not my type. I don't like the rock band, bad boys."

"You don't like any type. If I hadn't known you as long as I have, I would think you were a closet gay."

"Just because I don't screw everything with a dick doesn't mean I'm gay."

"I know, Avy. I also know why you don't date much. It's hard to get into a relationship with a guy when you have a messed-up heritage like us. But, you have to date eventually, and this guy seems genuinely interested in you."

"He's only interested in me because he's never actually met me. Give me a half hour, and I'll have all of his fantasies crushed."

"Oh, you aren't that bad."

I just raised a brow.

"Okay, sometimes you are but you really should give a guy a chance. If not the singer, then someone else. I'll see what I can come up with," she said.

"Oh no. Do not try to set me up with your therapist or stylist or some other guy who I will totally hate."

"Anyway, why were you on your way over when I called?"

She always ignored me when she didn't care what I said. Mark my words, I would be set up with some loser in a month or so.

"I was coming by to see if you recognized this guy from the club." I pulled out a picture of Stephen Wilkins that I stole from his apartment. She looked at it for a couple minutes before handing it back.

"No. He looks like a lot of college kids that hang out there. There are a few regulars that show up every weekend, but he doesn't look like any of them."

I sighed. Another dead end. I hate when I can't find the bad guy. Unless someone comes forward with more information, I can't think of anywhere else to look. I guess it's a good thing we're going to the club Saturday. Maybe I'll ask around to see if anyone recognizes him.

After leaving Temmy's, I went to visit my grandmother. Elinor Tywella is a sixty-five-year-old White Witch. She lives in a suburb of Atlanta called Decatur, which is where she raised me, in the same house my mother had been raised in. Because she never answers her home phone, I am forced to drive out once a week to check on her. I don't mind really. She is the only family I have after all, and it was nice to come home every once in a while.

I pulled into the drive, and knocked on the door before going in. "Grandmother. It's Avery."

"In the kitchen, Avy."

She and Temmy are the only two people I let get away with calling me Avy. Everyone else was restricted to Ave, if they were my friend, or Avery if they weren't. That didn't include the names I was called behind my back.

I walked into the kitchen and found my grandmother bent over a large cauldron mixing a potion. I'm not sure what it was for, but as a White Witch, she would not permit any spell she created to harm others either directly or indirectly.

"What are you making, Grandmother?"

"Oh, this is a blessing for the goddess Selene. She has brought those of the moon dance much happiness in recent months."

"Ah."

Most people's grandmothers spend their time in the kitchen baking cookies. Mine spends her time thanking the gods and goddesses by creating tributes. As a matter of fact, other than making healing potions, that is what my grandmother regularly does. Well, that and dance in the moonlight with her geriatric friends. She has invited me several times to join them, but I have gracefully declined.

"What brings you home this evening, Avy?"

"I was just checking on you. I wish you would carry a cell phone; then, I could actually call you every once in a while."

"I do not need such distractions when I am communing with the other plane."

"Okay, you could at least call me every so often to let me know you are all right."

"And then you would have no reason to come for a visit."

I smiled. "I would visit even if I knew you were still kicking it."

"You will know when I pass. For I will give you all of my earthly gifts."

What gifts? Her cookbook for creating cauldrons full of tribute potions for gods and goddesses who never bother to show up and actually accept them? I thought, I'm good.

"Do you have any tributes for your only grandchild? I'm thinking of the food variety."

"Have a seat and I will fix you a sandwich." She went to the fridge and pulled out the ingredients she would need. "And how is Temmy doing? Is she still tending bar?"

"Yep. I think she found her calling. She can flirt with men all night long and get paid for it. It's perfect for her."

"How about you? Do you still feel you have found your calling?"

"Yes, Grandmother. Being a humans' rights detective is the only thing I have wanted to do since I was twelve years old. That is not going to change."

"I just thought I would ask."

Grandmother didn't want me to join the task force. She would have preferred I become a tree hugger like her. But I was never very good at white magic and never really wanted to do it. When I was twelve, my grandmother told me the truth about how I came to be, and how my mother died. My mother was also a White Witch, one who was raped by a Demon. Her refusal to cast any magic that would harm another, regardless of the fact that the bastard deserved it, allowed him to get away with what he had done. She became pregnant with me and died in childbirth. So my grandmother was left raising a half-Demon child. She never treated me like I was an abomination, though. She only showed me love, and for that, I will always cherish her.

"Here you are, Avy. Just the way you like it."

She set the sandwich in front of me. Ham with plenty of lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. She was never much of a cook. I pretty much lived off sandwiches and TV dinners. But, at least she always made sure there was food to be made, even if she didn't cook it.

"Thanks, Grandmother. So how are Estelle and the gang doing?" I asked before taking a big bite of the sandwich.

"They are doing very good. We are going to Tallahassee next week for a convention of the White Witches. It should be lots of fun. The gods have been watching over us. We have made many tributes during the past moon week in an attempt to stay in their favor."

"I hope that works out for ya."

"You could always join us. It is never too late to start gaining the gods' favor."

"No thank you. I appreciate the offer but will continue to pass."

"And I will continue to offer."

I finished my sandwich, and we caught up on all the current events. Hers mostly consisted of the planets' alignments, how that affected the tributes they were making, and how moon week was. I caught her up on my recent events, which consisted of work and Temmy. A couple of hours later I kissed her good-bye, wished her much favor with her gods and goddesses, and started back to Atlanta. Tomorrow started a new week. Hopefully something would break with my current case.

## Five

I arrived at Temmy's house at seven thirty the following Saturday evening. We were supposed to get ready at her house before going to the club, which basically translated into her wanting to make sure I dressed to her standards. I could have wrapped duct tape around my private areas and she would have thoroughly approved. Jeans and a T-shirt, however, did not foot the bill.

"I picked out the perfect outfit for you," she said once I was inside.

"I brought my own, thank you." I held up the bag I was carrying.

She eyed me speculatively. "Show me."

I had actually went shopping and bought this outfit myself. Of course, I know Temmy well enough to know what she would approve of and what she wouldn't. So I kept that in mind when I picked these clothes out, but I also bought something that I would approve of.

I pulled out the black tank top that would cover everything, but its sides were actually lace. I figured it would be comfortable, cool, and sexy all at the same time. Temmy was obviously impressed because her brows were raised. Then I pulled the black leather skirt out and her eyes got wide. Yep, she was definitely impressed. The difference between my leather skirt and one she would have picked out for me is that I can actually bend over in mine without mooning everybody behind me. Paired with the knee-high black leather boots with three-inch heels, and I would be looking like your typical club girl, which was a good look if you were actually going to a club.

"I don't know what to say, Avy, other than"—she pretended to wipe her eyes—"my little girl is growing up. I was totally expecting jeans to come out of that bag."

"I know you better than to think I could get away with that."

She smiled at me, then looked back at the outfit. "Wow, Ray is going be totally after you in that."

"Who?"

Guilt spread across her face and she bit her lip.

"Spill," I said.

"Well, you know me and Kevin got back together. We were talking the other day, and I mentioned needing to set you up with someone so he offered to introduce you to his friend Ray. They are supposed to meet us at nine, and we're going to the club together. You'll like him, Avy. He's a cop too."

My anger management instructor has suggested counting backward from ten in situations like this. When I got to zero I was still pissed. "You told me we were going to the club together. You guilt tripped me into this outing, and now I find you're setting me up on a blind date? That's it. I'm not going." I turned toward the door.

"Avery Gwyn Tywella. You will get your ass back here. We are going to this club, and two good-looking guys are going with us and you will enjoy yourself, gods damn it!"

"Don't you go pulling the three-names card on me. You should have told me about this ahead of time."

"I didn't tell you ahead of time because I knew you would make up some excuse to cancel."

She knew me too well. "Then you should have kept it just the two of us. We would have more fun without them. I don't even like Kevin. He thinks he's the gods' gift to womankind. And, if I know anything about men, it's that most assholes tend to stick together, which means his friend has an eighty-five percent chance of being just as much of an asshole as he is."

"Then you will ignore him and flirt with every other man at the club. I don't see what the big deal is. You owe me. How many times have you canceled on me at the last minute for work? Do you ever stop to consider what I have to do then?"

"I know what you do. You call up one of your numerous other friends and go out with them."

"Not always. There have been times that I have stayed home alone because you canceled on me. You promised me you would go out with me tonight. I will not try to force you to get with Ray, but you will at least put forth an effort to have fun."

I sighed. I really didn't want to have to deal with some jerk all night long, but I knew she would hold it over me for a really long time if I bailed. "All right. Let's do this. But don't hold it against me if I tell your boyfriend's friend to fuck off."

"I wouldn't expect anything else. You never know, though; he might be one of the fifteen percent that aren't assholes."

I just looked at her deadpanned.

"Okay. I'm going to take a quick shower. You had better be here when I get out."

I nodded and she headed off for the bathroom.

I really had been looking forward to going out tonight. My case had come to a standstill, and I was hoping I might find out something at the club. Plus, it had been a really long time since I had gone out, and I was ready to blow off some steam. I just wished I wouldn't have some loser thinking I was fair game to hit on because I was supposed to be his date for the evening.

Then, as if in answer to my problem, Temmy's phone rang. Since she was in the shower, I answered it. "Hello, Temmy's house. This is Avery."

"Avery, how have you been? It's been so long since I saw you last," Saundra said.

"Hey, Saundra. I've been good. How about you?"

"I was doing great until tonight. The bastard I was supposed to go out with went and caught the flu and canceled on me. Can you believe that? Anyway, I was hoping you had room for one more at the club tonight."

Cha-ching! It really was the answer to my problem. I mean, as a good, caring person, I couldn't turn her down in her time of need. The fact that I knew Saundra would take the asshole off my shoulders had nothing to do with it.

"Sure, Saundra. Come on over. Temmy's in the shower right now. We're not supposed to leave until nine."

"Great. I'm just about ready, so I should be over there in a half hour."

"Sounds good. I'll see you then."

As I hung up, I couldn't help congratulating myself. Who needs to give tributes to gain the gods' favor? They were definitely on my side tonight. At the very least, Saundra would not be interested in Ray, and then I would have another woman to talk to while I ignored him. At best, she would throw herself at him, he would act like a typical man, and they would be making out by the time we reached the club. Unfortunately, that would mean I'll be stuck in the backseat with them, but it only takes ten minutes to drive to the club from here. I'll just have to take one for the team—my team.

When Temmy got out of the bathroom, I was dressed and applying my makeup in the spare bedroom. I tried to use the most solemn face I could manage. "Saundra called. She was stood up by her date so she's going out with us."

"What? You didn't tell her it was a double date?" She said with her hands on her hips.

"I didn't know it was a double date. You said we were going to the club and the guys just happened to be accompanying us," I replied innocently.

"You know that's bullshit. I can't believe you invited that hussy to come with us. She'll be all over Ray by the time he crosses the threshold."

"If that's the case, then he just isn't the man for me." Again I tried for solemn.

Temmy saw right through it and narrowed her eyes. "You set this up, didn't you? What did you do, call her as soon as I got in the shower and beg her to come?"

I put my hand to my chest and opened my mouth and eyes wide. "Why Temmy, I am appalled that you would think so little of me. She called in her time of need, and as her friend I could—"

"Cut the bullshit. I know you don't give a damn about Saundra's needs. You saw an opportunity and you took it. Well, there is nothing I can do about it now, but you mark my words, Avy, if a good-looking man starts flirting with you at the club, you _better_ flirt back. Understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

"And, you better dance with him. And, would it be asking too much for you to kiss the guy?"

"I think you're taking this a little far. I'll agree to so much as dancing, but that's where I draw the line."

"I guess I'll take it then."

"Good. Now go finish getting ready. I'll not be seen in the company of some raggedy ho."

"Too late. You already invited Saundra."

I laughed so hard I had to reapply my liner.

Half an hour or so later we were fully ready. Saundra had already gotten here, and she looked exactly like I expected. Remember the duct tape outfit I mentioned? Hers was fishnet. She was wearing a black pushup bra and a black lace thong. How did I know this? Fishnet is see-through. In her defense, there was a two-inch strip of leather running vertically down the middle of the front and back of the six-inch-long skirt. I guess it would be considered indecent if it didn't cover her hoo-ha. I couldn't see how she was standing in the six-inch heels she was wearing. My feet were already starting to hurt in the three-inch ones I wore. She had blonde hair with bright red streaks in it this month and had more makeup on than any one woman should wear. Altogether, she looked more like she should be walking the streets than heading to a club, but, hey, to each her own.

Just as I expected, the moment the men arrived and Ray was introduced, she was rubbing up against him and he was all for it. Plan accomplished. Now, if I can make it to the club without throwing up, I would be all right. I decided to fix myself a drink for the road. Alcohol tends to make things more tolerable, and I had a feeling I was going to need it. After I downed my shot of tequila, we loaded up in Temmy's Honda Accord and headed for the club. I tried to keep my eyes out the window, so I didn't see what was going on beside me in the backseat. The noises were enough to let me know I didn't want to see the rest.

When we parked ten minutes later, I practically jumped out. That car just wasn't big enough to have those two going at it next to me. Hell, a bus wouldn't be big enough. We walked up to the line and waited our turn to pay the fee and get in. Of course, Temmy knew everybody who worked here and had to take the time to shoot the breeze with them. Finally, we were inside.

I made a beeline to the bar and ordered two more shots and a margarita. The first one hadn't done anything for me, and I felt like I needed to take a shower after the ride here. I did the shots at the bar and took my margarita to a table. For me to get drunk, I had to drink about three times as much alcohol as a typical Human, so I had a long way to go if I wanted to get the images from the car out of my head. I did not want to have to deal with them on the ride home. I figure that if I start now, by the time we go home, I'll be fine with them having sex next to me in the car. On second thought, maybe I should not get shitfaced and just take a cab home. Soon after I sat down, Temmy and Kevin joined me with their drinks. Well, there goes my designated driver. Guess I'll be taking that cab after all.

"Aren't they great?" Temmy asked.

I had been so hung up on the awful ride here that I hadn't even noticed that the same band was playing. The lead singer belted out some words that I really couldn't make out over the guitars playing, but his voice sounded nice just the same. It was deep and sultry. Then he looked up from the crowd straight at me. He had spiked black hair. I don't know if it was a dye job or his natural color because his brows were the same shade. I couldn't really tell what color eyes he had because the lights shining on him were multiple colors and he was all the way across the club from me, but it was obvious that he had black liner on. Normally I would find it totally not appealing, but on him, it seemed to work. Of course, he wore the typical black attire of all hard rockers. It was relatively simple, though—black T-shirt, black leather pants, black boots, a black belt that had metal studs, and a chain that ran around to what I would assume is his wallet.

He continued to look at me as I analyzed his wardrobe. When the song finished, he said into the microphone, "This is a new song I wrote the other night for you."

He pointed, and I almost looked behind me to see if someone was there because it looked like he was pointing straight at me. The song was a little slower than the previous one, but it was by no means a slow song. Instead, it started slow; then the pace picked up until you could practically head-bang to it; then, it slowed back down as he sang the lyrics. It was really good, and I couldn't help but smile. I knew he hadn't actually pointed at me, but the song was good just the same. The band played a few more songs before Saundra and Ray finally returned. They were probably in the bathroom if their car session was any indication of what was to come.

We watched the show for a bit while I finished my second margarita. I was about to ask Temmy if she wanted to come with me to get a new one when a server arrived with a fresh one and set it down in front of me. Confused, I looked up at her.

"This is from the guy over there," she said as she pointed behind her.

He was about four tables away, sitting with two other guys. I raised the glass in thanks and he raised his back before I took a small sip. As I placed it in front of me, I saw that Jared wasn't looking this way anymore. Thank the gods. He had been watching me pretty much nonstop since I'd gotten here. Now, it looked like he was watching the guy who had bought me a drink.

Then, he looked my way again. As he stared at me, I started to feel a pressure in my head. I'm not sure if it was the drinks or what. I looked away to find a guy standing next to me. Apparently while I was having a staring contest with the singer, the guy who bought me a drink had decided to come over.

"Hello," I said.

"Hey, I'm Allen," he said as he held out his hand.

"Hey, Allen. Avery."

"Another _A_ name, cool."

Yeah, whatever. Luckily I hadn't drunk enough to start saying everything that popped into my head.

"Do you come here often," Allen asked.

"Uh, no. You?"

He shook his head. "I just moved here from Montgomery. My friend lives here so I came to check it out."

"I see. I moved here from Savannah about six months ago." I really didn't feel like talking to this guy, and if it wasn't for the fact that Temmy was watching me like a hawk, I would have totally blown him off.

"Savannah. That's cool. I want to go there one weekend and check out the shops."

"Yeah, they're good."

What was I supposed to say to that? Yeah, well have fun with that. Please move on. The music stopped so I looked at the band. They were having a powwow off to the side with some other guy. Then the guy took off and headed toward the DJ station as Jared came back to the microphone.

"We're done for tonight. Thanks for coming out."

The DJ started playing something with a techno beat, and everyone started dancing. Jared looked at me again as he walked to the edge of the stage and hopped off.

## Six

"Oh my gods, he's going to get mauled down there," Temmy said.

But, although everyone watched him, they all moved out of his way as he walked through the crowd. He continued to watch me while everyone was watching him. A few women started to approach him, and he ignored them.

"Wow, it looks like he's heading this way, Temmy. Maybe we'll get a second chance," Saundra said.

Temmy didn't have a chance to respond because he was at the table. He cut in front of Allen and stood next to me.

"Did you like your song?" he asked me.

I looked around him at Allen and saw him walking away. "That was rude."

He looked at Allen, then back to me, then back to Allen. "I'm sorry, man. You can join us if you like."

"I have to get back to my friends," Allen replied.

Something about that exchange didn't sound right. Allen sounded kind of like he was reading a script or something. Oh well, I didn't really want to hang out with him anyway.

"You didn't answer my question. Did you like your song?" Jared said to me again.

"Uh..."

Temmy finished my sentence for me. "Of course she loved it. It was great."

"Is that the name of it? 'Your Song' sounds kinda lame," I said. Total Elton John rip-off.

"Avery!" Temmy reprimanded.

"Well it does," I said in my defense.

"Actually it didn't have a name until now that I know yours. It will now be named 'Avery,'" Jared said.

"Oh, that is so sweet," Temmy said at the same time I said, "Is that the line you use on all the women?"

Temmy elbowed me in the ribs.

"Ow."

"I assure you I have never named a song after a woman before," Jared replied.

Sure. I believed that. Then again he probably didn't need to use lines to pick up women. I finished off my drink. That way I could use getting a new one as an excuse to get away from him if I need to.

"Hey, Jared. Do you remember me?" Saundra said.

He looked at her for the first time. "Uh, yeah. You were at the party last weekend," he said uncertainly.

She leaned forward to show as much cleavage as possible, which was quite a bit. "Yeah, we talked in the hallway and I—"

"Offered to suck his dick." Oh my gods! Had I just said that aloud? I threw my hand over my mouth before something else popped out. Saundra was looking at me like she was going to kill me. Jared was looking at me with amusement.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud," I said between my fingers.

"So you were talking about me?" Jared said.

I lowered my hand and hoped nothing too crude came out. "Yeah, Temmy was impressed with your manners."

"My manners?" He looked confused.

"You know, how you said 'No thank you,' to Saundra's offer of oral sex."

Temmy stepped on the toe of my boot with her heel. He had a brow raised, but my mouth just wouldn't stay closed.

"Usually men only say thank you afterward—that is, _if_ they have manners anyway."

Why wouldn't my mouth stop? I had definitely drunk too much. That was it. I decided I was cut off.

"Come on, Avy. I need to use the restroom. You'll come with me," Temmy said as she practically dragged me off the stool.

"Okay."

I followed her to the restroom, and once we finally made it through the line and inside, she turned to me with her hands on her hips.

"The hottest guy in the place is paying you total attention, and you can talk about nothing other than some other chick offering him oral sex and his manners?"

"I know. I can't help it, though. She was practically offering everything to him again, and it was just the first thing that popped into my mouth. Then, when he thought we had been having this whole conversation about him, I felt the need to explain that the talk was more about his manners than him. You know how my mouth gets when I drink."

She rolled her eyes. Then she looked at me like she had just had a great idea. "You need more drink. That's what the problem is."

"If that is my problem, why do I need more?"

"The problem is that you have drunk enough to have a big mouth but not enough to not care about what you are saying. You're overthinking everything and only more drink will cure that."

"Uh, that kind of makes sense, but I think not drinking anymore is the best route. After a little while, the booze will wear off, then I won't have an overactive jaw anymore."

"Pfft. I'll hear no more of that crazy talk. We are here to have a good time, and that means drinking and flirting. Remember, I'm living my fantasies through you. So you better be making out with that guy by the end of the night. He named a song after you for Pete's sake."

"That was a total line and you know it."

"Well, at least he's interested enough to throw a line."

True. I was sure he didn't often need to use lines to get laid. "All right, Temmy. We do it your way. But I expect you to make sure I don't go home with the guy. Okay? It's one thing to have a drunken good time at the club. Another to take it home."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure you go to your place tonight."

Somehow I didn't think she meant the same thing I did.

We checked our makeup before heading back to the table. As we got closer, I saw there were a couple of women at the table with the guys and Saundra. One of them was rubbing up against Jared while talking to him. We walked up, and I went to walk around the table to get to my seat since the two of them were blocking the way, but he reached out, wrapped an arm around my waist, and pulled me toward him.

"I'm so glad you are back," he whispered in my ear. "This woman will not leave me alone."

I looked behind me at the chick staring at us. "Why didn't you just tell her to leave?"

"I didn't want to be accused of being rude again."

I rolled my eyes at him, then walked past both of them to my stool and had a seat. He wrapped his other arm around me, and I looked at him like he was one step away from losing it.

"If I appear to be with you, then the others will leave me alone," he whispered again.

Right. Whatever. I saw that the women had gotten the message and moved on. I looked down, and there was a full margarita on the table in front of me.

"Your other was empty," Jared said.

"Thank you."

"You are most welcome."

I took an experimental sip. I'm good at detecting hidden drugs so I always take a sip first to make sure it hasn't been roofied.

"Would you like to dance?" Jared asked.

"Uh..." I saw Temmy was looking at me. "Sure."

I took a full drink out of my glass before he took my hand and led me to the dance floor. As soon as his bare skin touched mine, I knew he wasn't mundane Human. It was actually kind of weird. I didn't know exactly what he is. I could feel his magic rubbing against mine, and it actually felt good, but I couldn't figure out what kind of magic it was. It definitely wasn't Demon or Vamp or Were. It was something I had never felt before. It could have been that he is a magic-wielding Human and that his particular gift made his magic feel weird, but I wasn't sure. I decided it wasn't that important. Others made up about 60 percent of the planet's population, so you were just as likely to meet an Other as you were a mundane Human. Hell, I was an Other, so maybe that was why he was interested in me.

A slow song was playing, so I put my arms around his neck, and he pulled me close. As we moved together, I couldn't help noticing he had really good rhythm.

"You're a good dancer," he said.

"Thanks," I replied.

The slow song ended, and a fast one took its place. I released his neck and started to dance to it too. He danced with me without releasing my hips. I turned as I danced, and he released me long enough for me to turn around then pulled me up against his front, and we continued to dance together until the song was over.

He led me from the dance floor to the VIP section. A bouncer opened the rope for us without hesitation. He looked like a typical bouncer, but something about him said Other. I guessed him to be a Were given how scruffy he looked. I nodded to him as we passed, and he nodded back.

Once in the VIP section, Jared led me to the back table. I could still hear the music here, but it wasn't deafening like it was in the rest of the club.

"We can talk here without having to scream in each other's ear," he said as he sat next to me in the booth.

He scooted right up next to me and I moved over a bit to give myself some room. "It must be nice to be VIP," I said as I looked around.

He shrugged. "I don't come here much. Would you like a drink?"

"Um, sure."

He motioned for a server then placed our drink orders.

"What is ambrosia?" I asked.

It was what he had ordered for himself.

"You don't know the drink of the gods?"

"I've heard of ambrosia before, but what is the drink you ordered?"

He shrugged again. "Ambrosia. I'll let you taste it. If you like it, I'll order you one."

"All right."

The server came back with our drinks, and Jared slid his over to me. I smelled it. The smell was similar to honeysuckle, so I took a tentative sip. It was good. It was sweet but not too sweet, and the taste was almost like sugar cane with a little bit of another flavor I couldn't identify.

"It's good," I said, then slid it back to him.

He looked at me and smiled. Then he called the server back over and ordered me my own. When mine arrived, he cautioned me. "Don't drink it too fast. It doesn't taste like it, but it is very potent."

I nodded, then took a small drink. "It has an unusual flavor, but I like it."

"Most of our kind do."

I took that to mean Others. It was probably extra strong so that our kind could actually get drunk without having to drink a gallon of tequila.

"So, where are you from, Avery?"

"Marietta, I just spent the last eight-and-a-half years in prison for killing my boyfriend." I flashed my crazy smile at him.

He started laughing.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Okay. How about I'm originally from the Atlanta area but have lived in Savannah for the last several years until I moved back six months ago. It's a lot closer to visit my grandmother."

"Your grandmother?"

"Yeah. She lives in Decatur."

"And she is Human?"

He looked confused. I'm sure I did too. What did it matter that my grandmother was Human? "Yes, she's a White Witch."

"Ah, I knew you seem to have some Human in you. What about your father?"

What did he mean I seem to have Human in me? Did he think I was a full-blooded Demon?

"I'd rather not talk about him," I said with venom.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad. I just want to know more about you, and I thought I might know him."

"I'm sure you don't. So can we stop the twenty questions about my parentage?"

Unless he hung out with Demon on a regular basis he wouldn't know my father. I have personally never met him or else he would be locked in Hell for all eternity courtesy of my stiletto.

"Fair enough. Would you like another?" He pointed toward my drink.

I hadn't even realized I had finished the first one. "Yes, please."

One thing my grandmother always made sure of was that I used my manners. He ordered me another ambrosia and himself a glass of water, then looked back at me.

"I like your eyes. That was the first thing I noticed about you."

"Uh, thanks. Most people think they're freaky."

They were mostly amber with a little green. It was the fact that the colors were almost constantly swirling that most people found weird.

"I think they are beautiful. I could look into them for days."

He was moving closer to me, and I couldn't think of what I should do so I allowed him to kiss me. He tasted like the ambrosia, and gods, he was a great kisser. After a few moments, he pulled back and licked his lips.

"I could do that for days too," he said, then leaned forward and kissed me again.

When he pulled back this time, I looked away from him. My brain was feeling fuzzy. I didn't know if it was because of the alcohol or his kisses, but I knew I needed a break. I saw that sometime while we were making out the server had brought our drinks, so I picked mine up and took a drink.

"I should probably get back to Temmy. She's already mad at me. I don't want her to think I abandoned her." I didn't think she would care if I abandoned her, but she was supposed to be making sure I didn't get so drunk that I go home with this guy. That would be disastrous.

"Why is she mad at you?"

Huh? Oh yeah, he's talking about Temmy. "Oh, she decided to set me up with her boyfriend's loser friend tonight. I instead invited Saundra knowing she would do anything with male parts, and Temmy is mad. I don't see what her problem is. I'm the one who has to ride home in the backseat with them while they play tonsil hockey."

"I could take you home," he offered.

Yeah, no. "That's all right. I'll be fine."

"I really don't mind. Actually, I would feel better knowing you made it home safely without being molested by some guy in the backseat."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. I'll remove any part of his body that touches me. Plus, I already told Temmy I would ride home with them."

"If you're sure."

I nodded.

"Well, let us join your friends then."

I finished my drink and we left the VIP section. I felt a little wobbly, which is unusual. I haven't actually been drunk in an extremely long time. Jared seemed fine with me hanging on to him. He wrapped his arm around me and allowed me to lean against him on our trip to the table Temmy had been at. They were just walking up to the table at the same time.

"Hey, there you two are. You were dancing for a long time," Temmy said with a wink for me.

"We were talking," I said.

"Uh-huh. Where were you talking at? Did he take you back stage?" She waggled her brows.

"The VIP section actually."

"You bitch. I hate you."

I shrugged. "Hey, I'm living so your dreams can come true vicariously."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Then what are you doing back here?"

"Actually I was going to see if you wanted me to drive you home tonight since you've been drinking. You could leave your car in the employee lot," Jared said.

"That sounds good. I could get someone to bring me back to get it tomorrow. Do you have a car big enough for all of us?" she asked him.

Saundra and Ray were too busy making out to care about the conversation.

"Yes, I'll borrow Luke's SUV."

"That sounds great. Thanks, Jared," Temmy said.

Jared turned to look at me. "Will you come with me to talk to Luke?"

"Sure."

Okay. I definitely wasn't drinking anymore. If I couldn't put together more than one word sentences, then I was too drunk.

We went into the hallway that led behind the stage. Luke was hanging out in a large room playing Xbox on a big-screen TV. We stopped several feet away.

"Hey, Luke, this is Avery. Avery, this is my friend Luke."

He paused the game to look at me. "Hey, Avery."

"Hey," I wittily replied.

"Can we borrow your truck?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

Luke eyed me. I tried to pull away from Jared some so Luke wouldn't be envisioning us using his SUV for a bedroom, but Jared didn't loosen his grip on my side.

"I'm going to give Avery and her friends a ride home, and my car's not big enough."

"Okay," Luke said as he dug in his pocket for the keys before tossing them at Jared.

"Thanks, man." Jared caught the keys and turned to leave.

"It was nice to meet you, Avery. I look forward to seeing you again," Luke said.

"Thanks, Luke. You too," I replied.

Once we left the room, Jared said, "He likes you."

"He seems nice enough."

"Yeah, he is."

We were almost to the door that led to the hall and the main club when Jared stopped and backed me up to the wall. His gaze went from my lips to my eyes and back.

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I have wanted you since the first time I saw you standing in the club. That reminds me, who were you looking for?"

I didn't want to get into my profession. Most thought the Humans' Rights Task Force were a bunch of freaks with issues that led them to hunt their own kind.

"I was looking for a friend," was all I said.

"I wish you had stayed. I tried to ask Temmy about you, but she was more interested in talking about herself."

He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear, then pushed the rest of the hair behind my shoulder. He brought his lips to mine, and my brain completely stopped working. After a few minutes, he left my lips for my neck and shoulder, then moved up to my ear.

"We should go before I take you to the office and make love to you for the rest of the night."

"Good idea," I said.

His eyebrows rose and he began to smile.

"I meant the going part."

He was still smiling when he leaned forward and kissed me again. It didn't last long this time. He pulled away from the wall, taking me with him, and we made our way back into the club. We stopped to dance again because it wasn't that late and I really did want to have fun tonight. After a few songs, I realized I was having a hard time staying upright without Jared's assistance. He was totally fine with me being pressed against him as we danced, but I thought it was time to go. I needed to go home and sleep it off.

"Let's roll, Temmy," I told her as we reached the table. She and Kevin looked about as toasted as I was.

We all piled into Luke's Denali and left Halo. He dropped Ray and Saundra off at Ray's place just a little ways from the club; then, he took us to Temmy's. I was originally going to just stay the night at her house, but I really didn't feel like lying on the bed in the spare room listening to her and Kevin bumping uglies in the next room. So I asked Jared to drop me off at my apartment.

When we were close, I told him he could just stop out front, and I would go in through the main doors.

"What kind of man would I be if I didn't walk the lady to her door?"

The typical kind? "They won't let you into the garage without a parking pass," I said.

"Don't worry. I've got it."

We pulled up to the guard shack outside the garage, and Jared told the attendant that he was dropping me off and he would only be a few minutes. I was shaking my head because I knew they wouldn't let him in regardless of how long he was staying. But to my utter amazement, the attendant opened the gate and let him through.

"See. I told you I got it."

My brows rose. He seemed to get his way an awful lot.

We took the elevator to my floor, and I pulled my key out of my pocket in anticipation of opening the door. "Thanks, Jared. I had a good time tonight. A lot better than I thought I would have."

"You are quite welcome, Avery."

He leaned forward slightly and kissed me. One thing I noticed was that he was about two inches taller than me, at least when I was in three-inch heels. The kiss deepened, and before I knew it, I was pressed against my door while pulling him closer. He slowly ground himself against me and I moaned. He moved his lips from my mouth to my neck. Then he pulled back enough to take the key from my hand.

"How about we move this inside your apartment before the neighbors call the cops," he said as he unlocked my door.

Oh my gods! What was I doing? I was acting like a total slut. He probably thought I was just like Saundra. I reached out and put my hand on his as he started to open the door.

"Jared, I'm sorry. I can't do this. I really did have a good time, but I don't sleep with guys I just met."

Wow! I actually sounded rational. Maybe I'm sobering up.

He smiled at me. "It's okay, Avery. I had a good time too. I'll tell you what. Do you have a pen?"

I nodded, then reached inside my apartment to the table by the door and grabbed him a pen. He took the pen and my hand before writing on it. I looked at it after he finished. It had his name and number.

"Call me, Avery, and we'll go out on a real date."

He kissed me again, and just when I felt like I was about to lose all willpower and throw caution to the wind, he pulled back and left. I watched him walk away. Temmy was right. That is one fine-ass mofo. I walked into my apartment, went straight into my room, and proceeded to pass out on the bed.

## Seven

I woke up the next morning with my shirt twisted under my arms and my bra twisted around toward my back. I readjusted myself, then climbed out of bed and fell right back into it. Damn, my head hurt. Hangovers. I remembered now why I didn't like to drink. I slowly made my way to the bathroom and turned on the water to heat while I disrobed. I always feel better after a long hot shower.

I took my time, washing my hair and scrubbing myself down. I needed it after bumping into so many people last night, not to mention rubbing all over Jared. Oh crap! I had forgotten about his writing his number on my hand. I looked at it, and the only number I could still make out was a two and the only letter was the _J_. Oh well, I wouldn't have called him anyway.

After my shower, I dressed in some comfy clothes and went in search of pain relievers and coffee; then, I took up residence on my couch. This was the one day of the week that I tried to do as little as possible. Visiting Grandmother was the only thing I usually did on Sunday, and she supposedly had gone to Tallahassee for a White Witches of the Southeast convention. So my plan for the day is to veg out and not think about a certain singer who kisses like a madman.

I had been alternating between catching up on the shows I had recorded and napping on the couch for several hours when Temmy called. I didn't have a chance to even say hello.

"Please tell me you slept with him."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Oh my gods, Avy. The man was practically begging you to do him, and you turned him down? I have never been more disappointed in you."

"I don't even know him, Temmy. You know I don't do casual sex."

I have only slept with one man I wasn't in a relationship with, and I had known him for several months before hand. He had offered no strings attached, but even then, I haven't slept with him again since.

"Well then, did you at least give him your number so that you can get to know him?"

"Uh, no. I didn't think about it. He did give me his number though."

"Well, at least he was thinking. You will call him as soon as we get off the phone and arrange a date."

"You sure are demanding. Did you get your car from the club?" I tried to change the subject because I didn't want to have to tell her that I washed his number off. She would just go into a tirade, and then give him my number the first time she sees him.

"Kevin took me to get it before he left."

"That's good." There was a knock at my door. "Hey, hang on a second. Someone's at the door."

I opened the door to find a deliveryman standing there. That was weird. The reason I chose this apartment building was for the security. Their rule is that no one who didn't live here was to be allowed past the front desk without being accompanied by a tenant. Deliveries like this were to be brought up by a security guard.

"Hello, can I help you?" I said.

"Are you Avery Tywella?"

"Yes."

He handed me a vase with a large bouquet of flowers.

"I need you to sign for them," he said.

"Who sent them?"

He shrugged.

I noticed he had a scar running from above his left brow to his chin. It actually bisected his lips at the corner making him appear to be constantly grimacing on that side.

"I didn't take the order. I'm just the delivery guy. There is a card. Maybe it says who they're from."

"All right."

I sat them on the side table and then took the clipboard from him. Tonight must be a slow night because my name was the only on the list.

"I'm sorry. I don't think I've ever gotten flowers before. Do you usually get a tip?" I wasn't sure what etiquette dictated.

He smiled at me. "No, that's all right. It's been taken care of."

"Oh, okay then. Have a good night."

"You as well."

As he turned to leave, I noticed there was a nick missing out of his ear, and he walked with a limp. Maybe he was in a car wreck or something. I shut the door and locked it.

"You still there?" I asked Temmy.

I had held onto the phone the whole time I was receiving the flowers so I wasn't surprised when she said, "Hurry, check and see who they're from, as if I don't know."

I pulled the card out of the small envelope.

Can't wait to see you again. —J

I told Temmy what it said.

"You have to be the luckiest bitch I know."

"Yeah, that's me. The lucky one."

"In this instance, I would have to say that you are. You have to call him and thank him, and tell him how much you want his body, and how you were a fool last night, and ask if he can come over now for some good lovin'."

"That's a lot of _ands_."

"I'm hanging up now, Avy, so you can call him. Bye."

I hung up the phone and looked at the flowers. It really was a beautiful bouquet. I threw the note in the garbage. Sorry, but I really didn't want to be a one-night stand to a rock star. I don't think I could play the role of groupie very well. The vindictive part of me pointed out that I played the role pretty well last night. I told it to stuff it and went back to my TV shows.

## Eight

I was sitting in my office on Thursday morning going over all the information I had on Stephen Wilkins, hoping a lead would appear out of thin air. Cop came in.

"We gotta DB in a motel room on Seventh," he said.

That was only two blocks over from my body dump. I hope we didn't have a serial on our hands. Then again, that is the wrong side of town. It wasn't unusual to find murder victims there, but it was odd to find Human/Other murder victims so close together.

"All right, boss. Is Al there yet?"

"He's on his way."

"I'll meet him there."

Cop walked out, and I grabbed my keys and followed.

The Lonely One was a cheap motel in one of the bad parts of Atlanta. When I arrived at room fourteen, I put on my gloves since Al wasn't there yet. Even though he didn't dust for fingerprints, he did look for residual magic, and I didn't want mine mixing with the killer's. The woman was laid out on the bed like she had been posed. There was a butcher knife sticking out of her chest and blood covering the bed. The killer had used what I presumed was her blood to write in Angelic script on the wall. I took out my notebook and began translating the message:

And, the First Lord looked at his images and said, "From this day forth, none shall harm nor cause harm toward my beloved children. For the punishment will be banishment from the Kingdom."

There was another symbol that I didn't recognize so I pulled out my cell phone and took a picture of it. It was most likely a proper noun. All the Angels had a specific symbol that was theirs alone. No two Angels had the same name therefore they didn't have the same symbol. A lot of the more well-known Angels' symbols were in our database so I'd check it when I got back to HQ.

Her purse was leaning against the lamp on the side table so I opened it and found her wallet. Her ID was inside. Amber Lambert. I'd have to hunt down her next of kin.

"Angels. Just what I don't want to deal with," Al said as he walked in.

"Hey, Al. It's most likely a Fallen. Statistically, ninety percent of the Fallen on Earth are here because they killed a Human."

"Hence the scripture on the wall."

"Yeah, he's probably pissed about his banishment so he decided to kill another Human as a result. The First Lord won't be too happy about this."

"I read once that he has a group of assassins whose sole purpose is to eliminate Fallen that kill any more of his children."

"Well, I hope I find this bastard before they do. What info can you get for me?"

Al felt around the body. "The killer was definitely an Angel. I think he might have had intercourse with her prior to her death. His magic is very strong around that section of her body. Although, he didn't actually kill her with his magic. The butcher knife is what killed her, and there was no magic involved. Now that I can feel his magic fully, I'm sure he is the same one that killed our Dumpster drop."

"Can you tell me who he is?" Usually, he could tell me some information on the person.

"Sorry. I'm not seeing him. It's probably because he didn't use magic to actually kill her. My gift associates the death to the magic that was used to produce the death. Since magic wasn't used, I'm getting nothing. But, this is definitely Angel magic. If the writing on the wall didn't give it away," he said.

"Can you give me a close proximity of TOD?"

"Yeah, I'd say she's been dead maybe twelve hours or better, so that puts her death sometime last night. You'll have to wait for Chris to get a more specific time."

"'Kay. Thanks, Al. Let me know if you find out anything more once you've tried your spells."

"I will, Avery, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any more results."

"Gotcha."

With that I left. I knew Al would take samples back to his magic room and try different spells in an attempt to find the killer, but usually he knew who did it right off the bat. This was really starting to piss me off.

I checked Amber's apartment but didn't find anything of use other than her parents' number so I called and gave it to Cop. The neighbors weren't any help, and neither were her coworkers at Sassy Scissors, the salon she worked at. The only thing I could find out was that she was single and liked to hang out at Halo on her days off. That seemed to be the hot place for everyone to hang out. They said she was supposed to go there Sunday night because it was ladies night and she hadn't shown up to work on Monday. They said it was weird for her to just not show up without calling.

I had snatched a pic from her apartment. She was pretty. She had auburn hair about the color of mine, and from what I saw of her she was probably about my height, five six or so, and about my weight. I'd put her at about 120 pounds because she didn't look as muscular as me. The pic showed that her eyes were hazel, different but still similar to mine.

I wish I could find something to go on. I don't even know if she went to the club with anyone or not. A call to the club put me in touch with Greg Castellan, the manager. He agreed to e-mail me the security files for Sunday night, but their data were automatically deleted after ten days so I wouldn't be able to see if Stephan Wilkins was at the club the night he disappeared.

After several hours of video footage, all I could determine was that Amber Lambert did arrive at the club on Sunday, but I wasn't able to find her leaving. That meant she most likely left through an exit other than the front entrance.

The guy at the front desk of the motel said the room had been rented late Sunday night by a woman meeting the vic's description, but he couldn't remember anyone being with her. Had she checked into the room to get away for a few days and someone broke in and killed her? Or had the killer coerced her to into renting the room, then kept her there for three days before killing her? More questions without answers. So far the only lead I have is that the killer is an Angel.

The task force has a database that has samples from all Others residing in the greater Atlanta area, but in an attempt to protect their privacy it doesn't list what species they actually are. But if you have a name or a magical sample, you could compare it to the samples given. I knew Al had compared the sample he took from the crime scene to those in the database as soon as he got back, and since he hadn't called me, there obviously wasn't a match. I thought I needed to go see my friendly neighborhood fence/tattoo artist. He knows everything about the goings-on in Atlanta, especially if it involves Others. I was sure he'd be able to tell me if there were any Fallen in town and where I can find them if there were.

I walked into Bloody Ink just after sunset. The ditsy receptionist was behind the front desk.

"I need to see Craven."

"He's with someone right now. I'll let him know you're here," she said as she picked up the phone.

That was a lot better than she used to be. She used to look at me like I was taking time out of her busy schedule by trying to see her boss.

A few minutes later, a blonde chick walked out from the back and exited the building. Craven was right behind her. I would have guessed she was his meal for the night. From what I knew he mostly drank bagged blood like the majority of the Vamps, but I knew he liked to take it from the vein every once in a while too. I was sure he didn't have a problem finding donors either. He was very attractive with dark hair and hazel eyes. He wasn't a very large man, but by the way he carried himself you could tell he would be someone to have on your side in a fight.

"Hello, angel. What a pleasant surprise. Come on back and we'll talk," he said as he looked me up and down.

I have read that feeding directly from the vein tends to raise a Vamp's sex drive for a short period during and after the feeding. I didn't know if he had sex with the blonde, but he was definitely still in the mood. He didn't stop looking at me the whole way through the tattoo shop and into the storage room behind it. Once in the storage room, he hit a button on his key fob, and a section of the wall opened up revealing his office. He motioned for me to enter and placed his hand on the small of my back as he followed right behind me.

"Please tell me you are here because you have missed having me as a lover and wish to try again," he said once he was seated behind his desk.

We had sex several months ago. I hadn't been with anyone for a long time, and he was the one who offered without strings attached so I gave it a try. He wasn't a bad lover by any means, but like I told Temmy, I don't really feel comfortable with casual sex. Unless I got hard up, I wouldn't be trying it again with him. I knew there could never be a real relationship and that's what I really want.

"Sorry, Craven. I'm actually here on business."

He looked disappointed. "What business would this be? I have yet to find your Demon."

Oops, I forgot to tell him never mind on that one.

"I've already killed the Demon. What I need to know about is Fallen."

"What about them?"

"I need to know if there are any in town, what their names are, and where I can find them."

He started to laugh. "Surely you're joking."

I just looked at him with one brow raised.

He stopped laughing. "Obviously you're not. Have you heard of the club named Halo?"

"Of course I've heard of it. Who hasn't?"

"Then I would suppose you have heard of the band Darkened?"

"Yeah."

"Then you need no more information on the Fallen in Atlanta."

"Wait. Are you saying one of the band members is a Fallen?"

How could I not have heard of that?

Craven laughed again. "Not just one, angel. They all are Fallen. I would have thought you of all people would know that."

"What is that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to know every Other in the greater Atlanta area? Do you know them?"

"I have met them once or twice, but we don't run in the same circles. Why are you now interested in these Fallen?"

"A woman was murdered by an Angel last night. I figure it was a Fallen. The locals would be my first guess." Damn. I was kissing on a possible murderer a few nights ago. I thought I might be sick.

"As I said, I do not know these Fallen very well, but I would be willing to bet none of them is your killer. They have lived in this town for the last decade and have made themselves well known. They would not jeopardize that for the murder of a Human."

"You never know. It could have been a crime of passion. You said they have lived here a decade?" Make that two murders of passion. It could still happen.

"At least."

Then they probably gave a magic sample when they first got here. I'd have to check with Al to make sure he cross-referenced it to confirm or eliminate them as suspects. "Thanks, Craven. As always you've been a big help," I told him as I got up to leave.

"Won't you stay and visit with me for a little while, angel. I find I am desperately in the mood for your company tonight."

A part of me really wanted to say to hell with it and just stay. "Sorry, I've got some Fallen to talk to." The reminder was as much for myself as for him.

"Very well, come back when you can stay longer," he said as he looked me over again.

I left the shop as quick as I could. Like I said, he was a very attractive man and my libido seemed to be reacting to his.

As soon as I was back in my car, I called Al and asked him to check if there were samples and cross-reference them with the killer then call me back ASAP. He told me he had already finished a reference of all the samples in the system, but he would look them up by name, and if there were samples, he would test them individually. I started making my way to Halo while I waited for him to call back. If I was lucky, one of the band members was the killer, and I could take him out and be home for dinner. Of course, things are never that easy.

## Nine

Just as I pulled into Halo's parking lot, Al called me back.

"I looked up the names of the band members, and there were samples on file from each of them. I checked, and none of them are our killer," he said.

I sighed. Of course it couldn't be simple. "All right. You have their names on you?"

He told me the names and I added them to my notebook. I told Al thanks and hung up. Before heading for the front entrance of the club, I removed my hoodie. I wore my usual jeans with a black T-shirt. Removing the hoodie allowed my back sheath and katana to be more noticeable. I find less people try things when they know you're carrying a sword capable of lopping their head off.

There was already a line formed along the front of the club, and it was only nine thirty on a weeknight. I skipped the line and went straight to the bouncer. It was the same one who stopped me the other night.

"Avery Tywella, Humans' Rights Task Force," I said as I started to open my badge.

He didn't even bother to look at it. Before I was even finished talking, he was opening the door for me. I must have made an impression the last time.

I went to the hallway leading backstage and, again, told the guard on duty my name. Again, before I could open my badge he, too, was opening the door. That was weird. Security usually gave me the hardest time. Well, I certainly wasn't going to complain about things going my way. I walked into the corridor that lead to various rooms. I had only been in one before so that's the one I went to first. I really didn't look forward to talking to Jared, and I was hoping I could talk to at least one of the others before I was forced to confront him.

As luck would have it, Luke was in the room playing video games again. He glanced over as I walked in, then took a double take. He was extremely good-looking with blond hair and blue eyes, but something about him screamed "geek" to me. Maybe it was the video games.

"Hello, Luke. My name is Avery Tywella. I'm with the Humans' Rights Task Force, and I would like to ask you a few questions," I said in my professional voice as I opened my badge and showed it to him.

If I was lucky, he wouldn't remember me from the other night. I'm sure Jared has a different woman each night so it would stand to reason their names would be quickly forgotten.

"Avery. Yeah, sure, you can ask me questions. I didn't know you were with the HR Task Force. Does Jared know you're here?"

"I haven't had a chance to talk with Jared yet. I would prefer to start with you since we're here."

We were the only people in the room so it was as good a place to conduct the interview as any. I took a seat on the couch next to him, and he immediately moved farther away. I resisted the urge to smell myself. I didn't see why he would move over. It wasn't like I sat that close to him.

"Uh, okay. What do you need to know?" he asked.

I started by showing him a picture of Amber Lambert. "Do you recognize this woman? Her name is Amber Lambert."

He reached out, grabbed the very corner of the picture and pulled it to him to look at it. "No. She doesn't look familiar, and the name doesn't ring a bell." He looked at the picture, then back to me. "You know, she kind of looks like you. Not as pretty, though. Is she missing or something?"

"She was found murdered in a motel room this morning." I showed him the picture of Stephen Wilkins. "What about him?"

I could tell he recognized him immediately.

He nodded. "Yeah, that's Stephen. He handles the lighting and soundboard for the band. Is he dead too?"

"Yes, he was found in a Dumpster over a week ago. When did you see him last?"

"Uh, I think he stopped by almost two weeks ago with a friend of his. They talked to Jared about something. I'm not sure why, but his friend filled in for him the last couple of weekends."

"How well did you know him? Did he hang out with the band after the shows?"

"Not too much. He was at a couple of parties thrown at the house, but we usually go our separate ways after a set. He seemed like a pretty decent kid. I think he had a crush on Jared but never did anything about it to my knowledge."

That was what his mom pretty much said. I took notes on what he said, then pulled my cell phone out and recalled the picture I took of the symbol on the wall. I had tried to look it up but couldn't find any known symbol in our data base. I showed him the phone.

"Do you recognize this symbol?"

"Uh, yeah. It's a person's name."

Was he purposely trying to be evasive? "Whose name is it?"

He looked at me for a moment and was about to answer when I saw a shadow form in the light coming from the doorway behind me.

Luke said, "Jared," as I heard the man himself start to talk.

"Hey, Luke, I heard Avery was here."

I turned to look at him.

"Oh, there you are. What are you doing in here?" he said while standing in the doorway.

Gods he was just as good-looking when I was sober as he was when I was drunk. He wasn't wearing any liner tonight and his hair wasn't as spiked up. It actually fell partly in his eyes. He, also, wasn't wearing solid black. He instead had jeans and a T-shirt on, and gods did they look good on him.

I could tell by Luke's response that the symbol was Jared's name so I looked back at Luke. "Thank you for your time, Luke." I pulled out one of my personal cards and laid it on the couch between us, then picked up the picture of Amber he had put down. "If you can think of anything else, give me a call."

I held out my hand to shake his, but he didn't take it, so I shrugged, got up, and walked over to Jared. "Jared, I would like to ask you some questions regarding an investigation I'm currently working on for the Humans' Rights Task Force." I showed him my badge.

He just looked at me for a moment before saying, "Sure, Avery, come back to my office." Then he motioned for me to go first out of the room.

Once in the hall, I let him guide me to a door farther down the corridor. He opened the door, and I walked into an office. I had a seat in front of the desk while he sat behind it.

"Would you like something to drink?" he asked.

"No, thank you. Would you prefer me to call you Jared or"—I looked at my notes, then back at him—"Mr. Damascus during this interview?"

"Oh, I think we know each other well enough to be on a first-name basis. Don't you?"

I ignored his innuendo. "All right." I pulled out the picture of Amber and showed it to him. "Do you recognize this woman?"

He looked at the picture for a moment before answering. "She doesn't look familiar."

"Are you sure? Maybe a groupie or a one-night stand?"

He looked me in the eyes. "I don't do one-night stands."

I raised a brow. "Surely, you don't expect me to believe that."

"It is the truth."

"You're saying that if I wouldn't have stopped things the other night, you would not have had a one-night stand with me?" I didn't really want to bring the other night into this, but he was blatantly lying to me.

"Oh, it would have lasted longer than a single night," he said as he looked me up and down.

"Okay, maybe she was a two- or three-night stand?" I was purposely not picturing him hot and sweaty for three nights straight.

"I remember every woman I have been with, Avery, and I'm telling you that I was not with her."

"Very well." I showed him Stephen's photo. "Do you recognize him?" So help me gods if he told me no, I was going to punch him.

"That's our soundboard guy, Stephen. Did something happen to him?"

"He's dead, as is the woman. Both were last seen here at Halo. Why did Stephen's friend cover for him last weekend?"

"He went on vacation. His friend lives in Tennessee, and he was supposed to leave to go see him almost two weeks ago. He brought Kyle in to sub for him until he got back. When was he killed?"

"The same night he was last seen here. Why is it that his boss at Leon's Coffee knew nothing about this vacation?"

"I had gotten him a job as DJ before and after the show on the nights we performed. He said he was going to quit the coffee shop since he wouldn't need the money anymore."

I nodded. "Were you romantically involved with Stephen?" It made sense. Stephen was gay and had a thing for Jared. Jared turns around and arranges for him to get a better-paying job.

"You sure are concerned about my love life. Perhaps there is an ulterior motive," he said with small grin.

"I notice you didn't answer the question."

"No, Avery. I am not romantically attracted to men. I knew Stephen was interested, but he knew I was not."

I nodded and looked at my notes. "Do you know why anyone would want to kill him?"

"No clue. He was a good guy."

I pulled up the picture of his symbol on my phone and showed it to him. "Do you recognize this symbol?"

He looked at it then back at me. "Why do you have my name on your phone?"

"It was written in Amber Lambert's blood on the wall of her crime scene."

"Was anything else written?"

"That is classified information. Do you know why anyone would kill a woman who was last seen at a club you work at and then write your name in blood on the wall next to her?"

"I have no idea, but I would very much like to know."

"So would I. Is there any other information you can think of regarding these murders?"

"No, I don't know anything else."

"Are there many people who are familiar with your Angelic symbol?

"Yes. In the Kingdom I was very well known, and we place our symbol on almost everything we own."

He reached inside the neck of his shirt and pulled out a necklace with a pendant of the same symbol. The necklace looked similar to one my mother had left me. I kept mine in a jewelry box at home, though. Maybe my mom knew an Angel once upon a time.

"Other than the members of your band, are there anymore Fallen in the area that you know of?"

"Not that I have heard. Perhaps the person who killed these people was just trying to blame it on a Fallen."

"Or perhaps another Fallen has a problem with you and is killing people and trying to place the blame on you."

"I assume you have already checked my magic sample and verified that I am not the killer."

"As well as the other four band members."

He nodded.

"All right." I pulled out one of the generic cards that has the number to the station on it. "If you think of anything else, call this number."

"And you can call me if you need to talk to me. I must say that I have wondered why you haven't called me already."

Okay, I needed to nip this in the bud. "I am sorry, Jared. You seem like a nice enough person, but I am not interested in you in an intimate way."

"You seemed to be pretty interested in me Saturday night."

"I also seemed to be pretty drunk Saturday night, and now that I'm not, I am also not interested."

"I see."

"I do thank you for the flowers though. They were lovely."

I got up to leave. I would find one of the other band members and interview them.

"What flowers?" he asked.

Was he kidding? I turned back to look at him. "The flowers you sent me." Did he send flowers to so many girls that he couldn't remember who he sent them to?

"I didn't send you flowers. Maybe it was one of your other admirers."

I gave him a look like he was mental. "You didn't send me flowers that had a card that said 'Can't wait to see you again. J'? That seems like quite a coincidence since you are the only man I've made out with recently whose name starts with J."

"I assure you I did not send you these flowers, although I will send you flowers if it would make you interested," he said with his brows raised.

"Ha-ha. I suppose the delivery guy gave them to the wrong girl, although he did ask for me by name."

Jared was looking at the picture of Amber on his desk then he looked at me. "When did you say this girl went missing?"

"Sunday. But, she wasn't killed until last night. Do you remember her?"

He shook his head. "When did you get flowers?"

I sighed. Like he didn't know. "Sunday."

"Is it a usual occurrence for a delivery guy to show up at your door?"

"It isn't a usual occurrence that I get a delivery. But no, all deliveries are supposed to be checked in at the main desk and a security personnel delivers them to the tenant."

"What did this delivery guy look like?"

"I don't know. Dark hair and eyes. He had a scar running down the left side of his face and a piece missing out of his right ear. When he left, he walked with a limp. I didn't catch his name or anything. Why?"

I knew that sounded like a lot but part of my job is to be observant, so I never forget a face or any other pertinent information.

Jared seemed lost in thought.

"Earth to Jared. Why did you want to know about the delivery guy?"

"I was just wondering how you could get flowers from me when I didn't send them. Perhaps one of my friends was trying to help me out with you and sent them for me."

I raised a brow. That sounded like total BS.

"Anyway, I'll let you get on with your investigation. I believe Zach is here. I'll give him a call and have him meet you in the same room you talked with Luke."

He grabbed his phone and dialed a number, then told the person who answered to meet me in the game room. He hung up and walked around the desk toward the door. I took the photos I had handed him earlier then followed him, but he didn't open it. Instead, he looked at me for a moment.

"The reason you're not interested doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm Fallen, does it?"

"No, Jared. I washed your phone number off my hand the morning after we met. I didn't know you were Fallen until today." That was the truth, just not the whole truth.

"I see. Well, good luck with your investigation, Avery."

He held out his hand and I put mine in it to shake. Instead, he pulled my hand to his mouth and kissed it. I quickly pulled it back and all but ran out the door.

## Ten

I got back to HQ about an hour later. My interview with Zach Taylor was a total waste. He didn't have any more information than Luke did, and trying to get him to answer the questions instead of him trying to get me naked was like pulling teeth. He had barely glanced at Amber's picture when he responded with "You're prettier. Do you want to try out this couch?" Then he waggled his brows.

Of course, my response was to tell him that I would gut him like a fish if he tried anything. My threat didn't faze him. He just continued to hit on me nonstop until I finally gave up and left. I didn't even bother giving him a generic business card. Knowing my luck, he would start calling me at work just to flirt. Given how he was, he could have slept with Amber Lambert and not remember it in the long line of one-night stands. Neither of the other two band members were at the club tonight so I left word with Luke to have them call me to setup an interview. I also showed her pic to the bouncers as I was leaving, but neither of them remembered her.

I walked into Cop's office to give him an update on the case.

"Shut the door," he said.

I shut it behind me. "Here's the info I've gathered on Amber Lambert and Stephen Wilkins." I handed him my notes. "I still haven't found anyone who actually saw Amber Sunday night. But I know that Stephen stopped by the club Friday evening to introduce his replacement for the weekend, Kyle Wallace, to Jared and show Kyle the equipment he'd be using. That was the last time anyone saw him. I called Kyle a few minutes ago. He said that he stayed at the club to get familiar with everything before the show and Stephen left, presumably to depart on his trip. He wasn't seen alive again."

He nodded and looked over my notes. "Just talked to the mayor. He heard the killer might be after you next and has ordered you be guarded until he's caught. One of your guards is on the way over now."

Huh? "What? How did the mayor even hear about this case, let alone hear that I was in danger of becoming the next victim?"

"He thinks the killer is after this lead singer and, through him, you. You're dating this guy?"

"Hell no. I don't even know him."

"You didn't go out with him Saturday night?

"No. I went to the club with some friends, saw him there, and talked with him. He gave us a ride home since we were going to have to call a cab. That's it. I don't see why anyone would be after me in an attempt to get to him."

Cop shrugged. "That's what the mayor heard. He said something about the killer bringing you flowers. You know anything about that?"

My eyes got wide. The killer brought me flowers? How would the mayor know that? I didn't even know it.

"I got flowers Sunday. I thought they were from someone I know," I said as vaguely as possible.

"From the singer?"

"Yes. The note was from him."

"Mayor said it wasn't."

How would he know the flowers weren't from Jared? Unless he...

"There's your guard now," Cop said.

I turned and looked through the window that overlooked the rest of the precinct. Jared had just walked in. I turned back to Cop. "You have to be fucking kidding me. There is no way I am letting a Fallen act as my protection."

"It's that or you take a vacation until this is over."

This isn't happening. There is no way. "There has to be some other option. Let me partner with someone temporarily. I can take care of myself. I don't need some Fallen babysitting me."

"Killer knows where you live, Tywella. He's already made contact once. Mayor gave the order. It's either protection or vacation. Your call."

This is completely fucked up. It's all Jared's fault. Somehow he had convinced the mayor to allow him onboard in this investigation. Fallen became Fallen because they got kicked out of the Kingdom. The reason for banishment was almost always because they killed a Human. The last thing I want was a known Human killer to protect me. Hello! Half-Human here. I looked at Cop and knew I wasn't going to be able to talk my way out of this one. "Fuck. I guess I'll let the Fallen play guard. But if he kills me, I'm going to haunt you."

"I would never allow anything to happen to you, Avery," Jared said beside me.

How the fuck did he manage to open the door and walk in here without me even hearing him. I know Fallen are supposed to be able to move around quickly and quietly but that was crazy.

"This was an A-to-B conversation, Jared." I said his name like it was a curse word. Childish? Yes, it was.

Cop looked at me and raised his brows before saying, "Play nice."

He could shove his nice. I really don't like being pushed around. Usually I push back. Harder.

I walked out of Cop's office and went back to my own without saying another word to Jared. I grabbed my purse and keys, then went back out to the lobby area. Jared was waiting for me.

"You won't need your car. We'll ride in mine," he said.

"I'll follow you."

"I am to guard you at all times until the Fallen who's killing these people is caught. I can't do that when you are driving one vehicle while I drive another. Plus, the killer has already been to your home he could have spelled your car."

I just raised my brow. This is getting a little extreme. "If I leave my car here, I will be stranded without a vehicle in the event the killer comes after me."

"You won't have to worry because I will be there to protect you."

"And you alone are supposed to protect me. What about when you are performing?"

"I have a trained security guard who will protect you while you watch the show."

"Oh joy. I can hardly wait." Sarcasm is my fall back every time.

I walked past him toward the front entrance. My car was parked out back in the employee parking lot, but I was sure Jared had parked in the visitors' parking.

I couldn't help wondering why he would go to so much trouble. I stopped and turned on him once we were on the sidewalk. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing this? I just can't understand. I know you have no problem getting laid, so why would you create such an elaborate scheme just to get me to bed you?"

"Why do you think this is an elaborate scheme to bed you?"

"Oh come on. The whole 'I didn't send you flowers. It must have been the killer.' Pa-lease. It's obvious that you sent the flowers and are lying so that you can come in and play rescuer. The only question is why."

"I assure you, Avery, I am not lying about sending the flowers. Your description of the deliveryman had me curious, so I went to your apartment and spoke to the guard on duty, and of course, he doesn't remember any delivery for you Sunday night. I checked to see if his brain had been manipulated recently, and what do you know, it had. To my knowledge there are only two races that reside on this plane that can manipulate a Human's brain without a spell or a potion. One is Vampire. Can you guess the other?"

So that's how he managed to park in the garage the night he brought me home. He had manipulated the guard into letting him in. Did it work on me?

"Did you manipulate me into kissing you the other night? Is that what happened?"

"What? No! I can't use manipulation on you, and even if I could, I would never do that."

Sure he wouldn't, just like he wasn't manipulating the whole situation right now. "Is that how you got placed as my bodyguard? You mind-whammied the mayor into appointing you guard?"

"The mayor is a Werelynx so I couldn't manipulate his brain if I wanted to."

"Then how did you manage to convince him that I was in danger and you needed to guard me?"

"You are in danger. I just told you that the same Fallen who abducted a woman Sunday night and killed her less than twenty-four hours ago had come to your apartment Sunday and gave you flowers."

"It sounds more like he wants to be my boyfriend than kill me."

He just looked at me like I was mental. "My car is right here."

He walked over to the passenger door and opened it. I really didn't want to get in, but I climbed in anyway. What choice did I have? Jared apparently had friends in high places, so if I didn't cooperate I would be kicked off the case and I really wanted to find this guy.

Once I was seated, Jared closed the door then walked around to the driver's side while I looked around the inside of his car. It was a Porsche Carrera. Of course he drove a Porsche. What arrogant rock star Angel didn't? Maybe he was trying to compensate for something else. The thought made me laugh.

"Care to share," Jared asked.

"You wouldn't want me to."

"Try me."

"I was thinking about how elaborate your car is." I paused for a beat. "And how you were probably trying to compensate for something else being less than proportionate." I started laughing again.

"I can prove to you that I'm not," he said with a half-smile.

"You can prove it to someone else. I'm not interested."

"So you keep saying. Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

"Luckily, I don't care what you think," I said with a smile.

He started the car. "We will stop by your apartment so you can pack a bag." He started pulling out.

"Wait. No one said anything about me staying at your place. I assumed you would be protecting me at my apartment."

"Well you know what they say happens when people assume. I will be able to better protect you at my home. There are wards in place, and my roommates will be there to protect you as well."

"Tough. I am not staying at bachelor central with a bunch of Fallen."

"I thought you said you didn't have a problem with Fallen."

"No, I said the reason I was uninterested in you was not because you were Fallen."

"So you do have a problem with Fallen. Do you think you are better than us?"

"I have a problem with people who kill Humans and over ninety percent of all Fallen were banished because they killed a Human. So, yeah, I have a problem with Fallen."

"You had to have known I was Fallen the other night, yet you still made out with me."

"I already told you that I didn't know you were Fallen until today."

"So you thought I was just a visiting Angel? You had not heard of our band before?"

"I didn't know you were Angel at all. I knew you were some kind of Other, but you didn't feel like anything I had felt before so I wasn't sure what kind you were."

"What do you mean you had never felt anything like me before?"

"I've never met an Angel before so I wasn't familiar with your magic."

"But..." He looked over at me for a moment confused.

"Look, just take me to my apartment. If you don't want to stay there, that's fine with me. But I'm not staying at your place."

He didn't say anything more as he drove to my apartment building. This time he didn't even bother pretending to talk the guard into letting him in. He just stopped the car, and as the guard approached he stopped mid-stride and returned to the guard shack. A moment later the gate lifted.

"I would appreciate it if you would not do that in my presence."

"Do what?"

"Mess with people's brains."

"It's not like I hurt him. It will be easier for me to protect you in the garage than it would be if I parked on the street."

"I don't care. It's their brain, and you have no right to mess with it."

"If that will make you happy, I will gladly avoid manipulating anyone while we are together."

"I wouldn't go as far as to say I'll be happy, but I probably won't kill you at least."

He didn't say anything as he got out and started to walk to my side of the car. I went to get out myself instead of waiting for him when he was opening the door. Damn, he was fast.

We rode the elevator, then walked to my apartment. I unlocked the door and walked in without waiting for Jared. I went to my bedroom and shut the door. If I couldn't get rid of him, I would just pretend he isn't here. I grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to take a shower, making sure to lock the door behind me. When I came out half an hour later, Jared was lying across my bed.

"Get your crazy ass out of my bed."

"It's a little small, but I'm sure we'll fit if we get close enough."

I just looked at him like he had lost his mind. "What makes you think we will be sharing the bed?"

"I don't see another one. Since I will be staying here with you, I will need a comfortable place to sleep. I'm sure I will be comfortable enough spooning with you."

"You're too funny. You will be sleeping on the couch."

"Sorry, can't do. Bad back and all that."

"Sure. Well then, I suppose I could make you a pallet on the floor."

"That is supposed to be better on my back?"

"I'm sure you will sleep a lot better in your own bed at your house. I'll see you in the morning."

"Come on Avery. You know I can't do that. The choices are we either sleep here in your bed together, which I am totally fine with; we go back to my house where there is a perfectly good guest room for you; or I can call Mayor Goodwyn and tell him how uncooperative you are being and that you need to be removed from the case for your own protection. I will still protect you though regardless of which choice you make. If I have to sleep outside your door, then I will." He rose from the bed and faced me.

"I'm sure that will feel great on your back," I said.

"Look, I don't want you off this case. I actually would like to help you in any way I can. But I won't jeopardize your safety."

"This might have escaped your attention, but I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. I'm a trained police officer, not to mention an Other. I don't need you."

"I understand you are trained, but this is a full-blooded Angel we are talking about, not some half-breed. You would not stand a chance against him."

"You know nothing about my heritage or my power level so you have no way of knowing how much of a chance I would stand against an Angel."

It took less than a second and I was lying on the bed with Jared on top of me. He raised a brow at me. "I knew I would like having you in the bed with me," he said with a smirk.

"Get off me now."

He waited a beat, then slowly started to get up. I was really starting to hate this guy. Before he could get off me completely, I kneed him in the groin and threw him off the bed. He hit the wall then fell to the floor.

"If you ever attack me again, I will kill you," I said as he was holding himself on the floor. It didn't matter what species you were, for a male, getting kneed in the nuts hurts.

I started packing my bag. I really didn't want to be trapped at his house, but if he had a guest room then I could get away from him. Plus, I didn't doubt he would tell on me to the mayor if I didn't do what he wanted, especially now that I hurt his manhood.

By the time I had my bag packed and some tennies on, he had picked himself up from the floor.

"Ready?" I asked him sweetly.

"That was a cheap shot."

"A, you shouldn't have forced me onto the bed. That alone earned you the nut shot. B, you should always expect a woman to fight dirty. I know I always do." I blinked innocently several times.

"I'll make sure to keep that in mind the next time I'm in bed with you."

"There will be no next time. I will agree to stay at your place if you will promise to stop hitting on me and respect my privacy."

"I will promise to respect your privacy if possible, but I will not promise to stop hitting on you. I like it too much, and I think deep down you do to."

"Well, you can think again. Let's go. I'm tired, and I need to get up and get started early in the morning."

I was sure that with his schedule he normally slept in, but if he was going to play guard, then he'd adhere to my schedule.

"Then let us be gone from this place. Are you sure you have everything?"

I chose to ignore him again and started out of the apartment. I locked the door behind me, and we rode the elevator back to the garage. Then we got in his car and headed back to his bachelor pad. I really hoped I wasn't making a mistake.

## Eleven

The next morning I took my time getting out of bed when my alarm went off. I went into the attached bathroom, did my business, and brushed my hair and teeth. I left the bedroom and found Jared in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

"Hungry, caru?" he asked.

"It's Avery in case you forgot."

He gave me a flat look. "I know your name."

Guess he wasn't too happy with me. Last night when he showed me the guest room I had promptly shut the door in his face and locked it.

"What are you cooking?" I asked him. It smelled amazing.

"Blueberry pancakes. Would you like some?"

"Absolutely."

He handed me a plate then slid two pancakes out of the pan onto it. There was syrup on the bar across from the stove. I slid into a barstool and a cup appeared in front of me with coffee. He really could move fast.

"Would you like creamer or milk?"

"Creamer."

He sat it in front of me.

"Thanks."

I prepared my coffee and took a sip. It was good coffee. I covered my pancakes and dug in. "These are good."

"What's that? A compliment? Be still my heart."

"Sarcasm is so unbecoming."

"Ha! Says the woman whose very essence screams sarcasm."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say it's part of my very essence."

"No. Not your very essence but close."

"If you say so."

"So, what's on our agenda today?"

That reminded me. I jumped off the bar stool and went back into the room I was staying in. A moment later I returned with my sketch pad.

"You recognize him?"

I showed him the sketch I had drawn of the delivery guy. Jared looked at it for a couple of moments.

"You are a very good artist. This picture looks just like him. His name is Jael, and he isn't technically a Fallen."

"He's not? So you're saying he's probably back in the Kingdom by now? Doesn't the First Lord know when one of his kills a Human?"

"He is not in the Kingdom and hasn't been for a very long time. He left by choice."

"Why would he want to do that? I thought all of you Angels thought the Kingdom was paradise compared to the Human realm."

"All of us Angels do. It is paradise compared to here. Jael left because I killed his only son."

"What? Why did you kill his son?"

"He was killing Humans. He had been banished to the Human realm, and still he continued to brutally murder the Humans. I was sent to extinguish him. His father didn't take his death very well. Instead of blaming the son for his actions, he blamed the First Lord and, more directly, me."

"That explains why he's killing people you know. Stephen anyway. Are you sure you didn't know Amber Lambert?"

"We've been over this, caru. I did not sleep with that woman. He must have killed her for her resemblance to you."

"She didn't really look like me though. Other than the same hair and eye color and being around the same size, there weren't any other similarities."

"He shows up at your door with flowers, then turns around and abducts a woman a few hours later that happens to resemble you. You think that's a coincidence?"

"We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this. I don't know why he brought me flowers, but I don't see why he would be after me in order to get to you."

He just looked at me like I was dense, then changed the subject. "Would you like more pancakes, caru?"

"The name's Avery. Yes, please."

I was just finishing my breakfast when Zach walked in wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. "Lovely to see you again, Avery," he said with a leer.

Jared cleared his throat.

"Zach," I said as a reply.

"I apologize for coming on to you yesterday. I have seen the error of my ways and will keep our relationship completely platonic, unless you wish otherwise, of course," Zach said the first while glancing at Jared and the last while looking at me from head to toe.

"She won't be so you have nothing to worry about," Jared said.

"Just figured I would offer," Zach told him.

"She doesn't like Fallen. Apparently, we're all psychotic murderers," Jared said.

"I didn't say you were psychotic," I said defensively.

"I'm sorry. Just murderers," Jared replied.

I shrugged. Hey, if the shoe fit. To my surprise Zach shrugged too. I guess he doesn't really care what I think. Luke came down the stairs and headed for the fridge.

"Hey, Luke. How's it going?" I asked him. I thought I liked him the best out of the three.

"Good, Avery. How're you? Did you sleep well?"

"I did thanks. Are you guys usually up this early?"

"Yeah, we don't sleep very long," he said with a shrug.

"Too busy playing video games?"

"Hey, don't jank on the gaming."

"I wouldn't dream of it. What're you playing today?"

"COD Ghosts. It's righteous."

"Cool. I liked playing Nazi zombies in the old one, but I'm more of a Mario fan."

He shook his head. "You're such a girl."

"Guilty."

He laughed. "Well, I'm back to the game. If you feel like playing later, we can play zombies. I'm not even going to think about Mario though."

"Fair enough."

He walked back up the stairs.

"Guess I'll go back to my room too. All alone," Zach said while eyeballing me.

Jared narrowed his eyes at him. He didn't need to worry about me freaking out because Zach was coming on to me. I figured that was just the way he was. Some people are natural-born flirts.

"I'm going to get ready. I've got to go to the office and see if Al found out anything else," I told Jared.

"Just remember, I've got a show tonight."

"I'd like to show Amber's picture around and see if anybody remembers seeing her Sunday."

"We can make copies and post them around the club, but you're going to be in VIP while I'm performing."

"Why do I need to be stuck in VIP? It's not like I'm going to go outside to ask people. I'll stay where your security guard can babysit me."

"You will remain in VIP. The Humans in the club can be controlled by Jael. If he wants to, he could control several Humans at once. Would you kill them if they were trying to abduct you?"

"Not if I could help it. I'm sure I could just knock them out without permanently damaging them."

"You won't have to worry about that because you will be in the VIP section guarded."

"You're an ass. You know that?"

He shrugged. "I will do what I must, caru."

"Would you stop calling me that? I don't even know what it means."

"It just means love. Kind of like how the British call everyone 'love.'"

He doesn't sound British. "I would still prefer my name. I'm sure it's hard to remember with so many other women's floating around, but try."

I didn't wait for his response. I just walked back into my room and closed the door.

## Twelve

I walked into HQ an hour later, went straight to Cop's office, and shut the door. Then I locked it just to make sure Jared didn't make a guest appearance.

"You've got to help me out, Cop. This guy does nothing but hit on me nonstop. He is unprofessional at best, a complete loser at worst. Please, Cop, I can't take it anymore." The fact that I found Jared extremely attractive only worked to make me madder.

"Jared Damascus is a respected person in this city. He would not jeopardize his reputation by bringing unwanted attentions to an officer of the law."

WTF? In all the time I'd known Cop, I had never heard him use that many words in a single sentence.

"Are you all right? I don't see what kind of reputation Jared has to jeopardize. He's a local rock star. Aren't they known for being players?"

"Not this rock star."

"He's delusional. He thinks this killer is after me just because I know him. If that is the case, then he should be after the other million-and-a-half women Jared's bedded."

"I think you have grossly overestimated the amount of his bed partners."

Something was wrong with the way Cop was talking. It didn't sound like him at all. He would have just told me tough shit and to get out of his office. He would never defend someone he didn't actually know like that. Wait a minute. Cop is Human. He has some abilities, though I'm not sure exactly what they are. But he's still Human. And wasn't Jared just telling me earlier how easy it was for Angels to manipulate Humans' brains. That bastard was fucking with my boss. I was going to kick his—hold on. This could be fun. He was messing with me. It was time to mess back. I plopped down in a seat and put my head in my hands for a moment then I looked up at him.

"Cop, I don't know what to do. I'm so scared. I know Jared's right. This Fallen is coming after me just because I was making out with him at the club the other night, and I have no way of defending myself against him. I mean, I've never even been around Angels before, let alone fought one. What am I supposed to do?"

Cop got up, walked around the desk, and put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, Avery. Jared will take care of you. The best advice I can give you is to tell Jared how you feel. He'll understand and be able to help you."

"The only problem with that is this overpowering urge I have. It's practically debilitating." I got up and looked Cop in the eyes. "I mean, every time I get close to the guy I have this overwhelming desire to..." I looked away as if I was embarrassed.

"What is it, Avery?"

I bit my lip like I really didn't want to say anything. I looked him in the eyes and just came out with it. "I have this overwhelming desire to...to...stick my katana up his ass, and if you don't stop controlling my boss, I'm going to do just that in about two seconds."

Cop smiled for a moment; then, his expression went blank for a second before it was his usual grimace. "What do ya need, Tywella?" he asked me like I had just walked in.

"Just letting you know that I have no new info on our case, but I did draw a composite of the killer. I'll make copies and spread it around."

He grunted acknowledgment. "Then get back to work."

I nodded and left the room. I walked back to my office to find Jared sitting in my chair with his feet propped up on my desk.

"So you know I'm right, huh," he said.

"I knew you were messing with me, so I messed back. None of that was true. Well, other than an overwhelming desire. That desire is especially strong right now."

"Really? Well, we are alone."

"That's right, we are. The only problem is where do I put your dead body when I'm done?"

"Ha-ha. I was thinking of fulfilling another desire of yours."

I pretended to be thinking. "Nope, can't think of any other desire _you_ could help me with. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have some work to do. Make yourself scarce."

"Very well. But just for the record. Did it ever occur to you that I possibly don't have a long line of exs, and maybe it's that lack of attention to those of the opposite sex that made you stand out, and that is why Jael is after you?"

"I highly doubt that. I think it is more of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong guy."

"Oh, I am definitely the right guy."

"Like I said, I'm busy so please leave."

He walked out and I started going over the information I had gathered on Amber Lambert. I still haven't talked to the other two band members, but this seems more like the killer had an issue with Jared than the other members of the band. I tried to find out any information on Jael himself and couldn't find anything. It doesn't surprise me. There isn't much info on Angels unless they are Fallen. Though the Angels were created millennium ago, most of the original ones had been killed during the ongoing wars between Angels and Demon. From what I've read on the subject, the majority of the Angel race are less than a thousand years old. That excludes the First Lord, of course. I don't know how old Jael actually is but it doesn't really matter. All Angels are trained to fight from the time they're old enough to hold a sword.

Since I couldn't find anything else on Jael, I decided I would look up Jared. There wasn't much on him either, just that he had been on earth for the last seventy-five years or so. He had started in Europe, spending time in Romania and Syria before meeting up with Luke. The two of them traveled to the United States, where they met up with, first, Zach, then the other two band members, Samael and Hashiel, or Sam and Hash. Not sure why, but they kinda sound like they should be in a Dr. Seuss book.

At about noon Kansas popped his head in the door. "Your beau's bought lunch. Let's eat, chica."

"He's definitely not my beau. What'd he get?"

"Thai."

I was heading toward the door before he was finished saying the word.

"Ooh, chica likes Thai food. Goth boy did right, yeah?"

"For once."

He laughed. "He ain't been able to crack that tough exterior yet? I'd think a smooth guy like him would have had you on your back by now."

"Do you want to be on your back? Perhaps with a blade to your throat?"

"Think I'll pass this time. I'm not into all that kinky stuff you are."

He said the last as we entered the break room and Jared raised his brows.

"I didn't know you were into kink, caru."

"I didn't know my name was Caru."

He just smiled at me.

"Hey, hot mama. How's your case going? I see you picked up a straggler," Davis said as he walked in.

"Grandmother always told me not to feed stray animals."

He laughed.

"I believe it is I who is feeding you, caru."

"Don't worry, Jared. I have no problem with leaving you."

"Keep telling yourself that."

They laughed, and I couldn't help but join them.

We ate mostly in silence except the occasional odd thought. Cassidy and Levon joined us. They were another set of partners who worked for the task force. There were eleven of us all together.

"So how's your Demon hunt going?" I asked Davis and Kansas.

"He's an elusive fucker. Can't find him anywhere. I hate when they jump back to Hell," Kansas said.

"It would be nice if we had some kind of liaison there," Davis added.

I laughed. "Who would want to live in the Hell dimension just so they could help us catch Demon? Certainly not me."

"It still sucks that he can just hang out at home and we can't do anything about it," Davis replied.

"I'm sure I could get a spell that would portal you to Hell. You could have a little vacation and catch your Demon while there," I said.

He started to shake his head, and Kansas said, "You'll be going alone. This partner doesn't want anything to do with Hell."

"Yeah, he figures he'll be spending enough time there once he's dead," I added.

"Ha-ha. You speak for yourself Demon girl. I'm a born-again Christian," Kansas said.

"A drunken pervert on Saturday night and a Christian Sunday morning. That's gotta get you into the Kingdom."

"Well, at least I know I won't be alone in Hell."

"That's right. You'll have your best girlfriend with ya," I said with a wink.

"Why would you think Avery would ever end up in Hell? If anyone is worthy of the Kingdom, it would be her," Jared said.

"He obviously doesn't know you very well, chica," Kansas said.

"I'm going to try to keep it that way," I said.

"Well, I guess we should get back to our hunt. What do you two have planned for the afternoon," Davis asked.

"I'm going to go see if Chris can tell me anything new, then talk to Amber's friend, Sarah, and Jared's going to check her for mind manipulation," I replied.

"I am?" Jared asked.

I ignored the question and asked my own. "Can you remove the manipulation so we can find out what she really saw?"

"How do you know she saw anything?"

"I called her yesterday, and she told me they were supposed to go to the club together Sunday but she couldn't make it. I asked her why and she couldn't remember. That sounds like manipulation to me."

"I see. I'm not sure if I will be able to remove the manipulation, but I might be able to manipulate her into telling me what really happened. Unfortunately, you have a problem with me messing with people's minds."

"I think I can make an exception. Let's go find out what she knows."

"As you wish, caru."

First we headed over to the medical examiners' in my car. I'm somewhat of a control freak; therefore, I like to drive when possible. Plus, I love my car. I saved up for quite a while before buying my Camaro ZL1, and I like to drive it whenever possible. Jared didn't seem to mind riding shotgun, not that I cared either way.

When we walked in I asked to see Chris and was sent on back. I was here often enough that everyone knew who I was without my having to flash my badge. We walked in on him preforming an autopsy on Amber Lambert.

"I would have thought you'd have finished yesterday," I said.

He looked up and smiled. "Hey there, peach. I knew you missed me."

Chris was overweight, balding, and middle-aged. I was sure that when he was home he spent most of his time online in chat rooms or watching porn—or thinking of new ways to turn every conversation into something about sex. Ever noticed how it's the guys who never get any that are always talking about anything to do with getting some?

"Yes, I love the morgue. It's just so peaceful. Anyway, enough about me. What can you tell me about my vic, and why are you just now doing the autopsy?"

"Pile-up on the interstate during rush hour yesterday. She got pushed aside. TOD was between ten p.m. and midnight. She was stabbed multiple times with what appears to be a six-inch blade. The knife that was brought in with her matches the size of the wounds, so it's probable it was the murder weapon. She had had intercourse within an hour of death and from the tearing present it was pretty rough. Do you need any more information, peach?"

"No other injuries? Defensive wounds? Restraint marks?"

"No, apparently she liked the rough sex. What about you, my peach? You like it rough?" It seemed like he was in pain for a second before his face blanked; then, he looked at me apologetically. "I'm sorry. That was unprofessional and rude. I will not speak to you in such a manner again."

"Jared, release him." I knew he had taken control of Chris's mind.

"If you ever speak to her that way again, you will answer to me. Understand?" Jared said to Chris.

Chris looked both scared and confused. "I, uh, I understand."

"Good. Let's go, caru, before you are down one medical examiner."

We walked out and Chris didn't say a word. When we reached the parking lot I turned and faced Jared. "What is your problem? He was just messing around. That's just the way he is."

"You did not see what was going on in his head. I will have you know that he was picturing you naked on that table."

Okay, that's seriously gross. Gods, I hoped I don't die for a long time because the thought of Chris Smith performing my autopsy was truly sickening. "You didn't have the right to invade his thoughts to begin with. If you wouldn't have, you wouldn't know what he was thinking."

"Oh, I didn't have to invade his thoughts to know what he was thinking. I just didn't realize he was as sick as he is. I will be speaking with the mayor about removing him from his position."

"And what makes you have so much pull with the mayor?"

Jared just smiled. "You ready, caru?"

I rolled my eyes, then headed for my car.

Sarah Thompson lived in Brookhaven just north of Atlanta. She met us at the door and invited us inside. It was apparent she had been crying. I hope she didn't start any of that while I was talking with her.

"Can I get you anything," she asked after I had introduced us and we were seated in her living room.

"No thank you, Mrs. Thompson. I'm here to ask you a few questions about Amber. You told me you were unable to go with her Sunday. Is that correct?" I asked.

"Yes. I feel horrible about it. I can't help but think that if I went she would still be alive," she answered.

"And, why couldn't you meet with her Sunday?"

"I was busy...with...stuff."

"Stuff? What stuff would that be?"

"Um...uh..."

I shot Jared a look and he took over her brain. The response was instantaneous. One minute she was stammering while trying to find a response, the next she was sitting there slack-jawed with a blank expression.

"You went to the club with Amber and met someone there. What did he look like?" Jared asked.

"He had a scar on his face. He was still good-looking, even with the damage. He said he was new to town and that Amber reminded him of someone he knew."

"Did you leave the club with him?"

"No, he told me that I couldn't make it to the club because I was busy. Then him and Amber left together."

"What vehicle did they leave in?" I asked.

"Her car."

I nodded to Jared, and he released his hold on her. "Well thank you for your time, Mrs. Thompson. I am sorry for the loss of your friend."

"Thank you," she said then showed us to the door.

We left and went back to HQ.

Amber's car wasn't found at the hotel or her house, so I put an APB out on it. If I'm really lucky, the killer will be found driving it. By the time I finished, it was late afternoon. I was just dialing the phone when Jared walked in.

"We need to leave soon to get ready for the show," he said.

"I'm just about ready," I told him.

"Hello, angel," Craven said.

"Hey, Craven. I just faxed you a picture. Would you pass it around to your associates for me? It's the Fallen I'm looking for."

"Of course, angel. I am disappointed that you didn't bring the picture by the shop yourself. It's not nearly as much fun this way."

"I'm sure I'll come by soon. But I really need to find this guy. He is seriously bad news. Not only that, but he seems to have a particular interest in me too. He brought me flowers the same day he abducted Amber Lambert."

"What is it about you that attracts the bad boys? I know I have been asking myself that question for the last six months."

"Maybe it's my stunning personality."

"Mmm. I do like your utter discord with everyone. But I do not think that is why I want you so badly."

Jared's eyes narrowed; then he pointed to his watch.

"All right, Craven. I've got to run. Please hit up your guys and pass on the picture."

"Did you draw this picture, angel? It's quite good. Perhaps you could draw me sometime."

"You help me catch his guy and you have a deal."

"Well then, I will do my absolute best."

"That's all I can ask."

After I hung up, I turned to Jared to let him know I was ready. His eyes were narrowed and his nostrils were flared. It seems he didn't like my and Craven's conversation. Oh well.

## Thirteen

We stopped at my apartment on the way to Jared's so I could grab some more clothes for my trip to the club. I had seriously thought of just wearing my jeans and T-shirt but decided I would try to fit in, and most women don't wear jeans and T-shirts when clubbing.

I unlocked the door, walked in, and went into my bedroom, once again ignoring Jared. I started for my closet, then stopped when I noticed something on my dresser. I walked over and saw that the necklace my mother had left for me was laid out. It looked very similar to Jared's, only the symbol was different. Had someone been in my apartment going through my stuff? I never bring that necklace out, but here it was just sitting there. Jael must have been here. I opened my jewelry box and started to look through it when I heard the door open to my room. I turned to find Jared walking in. I quickly placed the necklace in my pocket and continued going through my jewelry. I'm not sure why, but I don't want Jared knowing about the necklace. It was none of his business if my mother knew an Angel. Nothing else seemed missing or out of place so I started going through my drawers.

"Looking for something?" Jared asked.

"Making sure nothing is missing. Apparently, I had an unexpected visit while I was gone."

He quickly came to my side and started looking around. "How do you know?"

"My jewelry has been gone through. Some of it was laid out on the dresser. I don't see anything missing though."

He opened the top of my jewelry box and started to look inside when I shut it.

"I said nothing was missing. There's no need for you to go through it."

"What was laid out?"

"I told you a piece of jewelry. Nothing of significance."

"Are you sure? It could mean nothing to you and something to him. Why else would he lay it out? Show me the piece."

"No. I'm going to get some clothes then we can leave." I started to walk toward the closet and he grabbed my arm.

"Show me the piece of jewelry."

I looked at his hand on my arm then looked him in the eyes. "Remove your hand from my arm before I remove it for you."

"Why won't you show it to me?"

"Because it is none of your business. Now let go."

He released me and I continued to the closet. I pulled out the first outfit that would be appropriate for a night at the club, then looked for another one. After all, I would be stuck there tomorrow night too if I don't find this guy and kill him before then, and I didn't want to have to return to my apartment until I did. I grabbed my black boots and was ready to go. "Let's roll."

He just looked at me for a moment. I was sure he was deciding on whether to press the issue of the jewelry. I really hoped he just let it go. I didn't feel like explaining things to him, especially when I don't know enough to explain them.

After a moment he turned toward the door and we left. I locked the door and started down the corridor, but Jared stayed. He pulled a pocketknife out and stabbed it into his forefinger until it bled. Then he put his finger to the top of the door frame and made a symbol with his blood. It glowed for a moment before it was absorbed into the wooden frame. I could still see the symbol, but it looked like it was a part of the wood grain instead of something written on it.

"That will keep out anyone you do not want in your apartment."

"How long will it last?"

"It will always be there, unless I remove it."

"Would it keep you out if I didn't want you in?"

He just smiled and started for the elevator. I took that as a no.

Two hours later, we arrived at the club. Jared parked his Porsche in the employee parking lot, and we went in through the back door. The security guard inside the door nodded to Jared as we passed, then winked at me. It was the same guard who had let us into VIP last Saturday, and he was guarding the door leading behind the stage the last time I was here. I nodded back to him. He hadn't pissed me off yet, so I had no beef with him.

"Jared. I need to talk with you before the show," a guy in a business suit said as he approached.

"Not now, Greg. I've got to get Avery in VIP," Jared said, then turned to the guard we just passed. "Ryan, I need you to guard her this evening. She's not to leave VIP until I specify."

Ryan looked from Jared to me. I rolled my eyes and he smiled. "Sure thing, boss. Would you like me to keep her company too?"

"Not if you like your teeth in your mouth."

I was standing slightly behind Jared so he didn't see me roll my eyes again. Ryan smiled again.

"No problem. She's not really my type anyways," Ryan said.

I put my hand to my chest and opened my mouth in mock insult. He winked at me again. Jared had turned to the suit.

"Avery, this is Greg, the club's manager, and Ryan, head of security for the club. Greg, I'll talk to you as soon as I'm done. Give me fifteen? Ryan, with me."

"All right," Greg said.

We continued to the door leading into the club with Ryan in tow. Only once we got into the main club area, I headed for the bar. Temmy was supposed to work tonight, but she didn't start until nine when the club actually started getting busy. Jared followed me to the bar. I showed the bartender a poster I had printed up of both Amber and the sketch of her killer and asked if he recognized either of them. He said no, so I told him to keep a copy out so that everyone could see it. I walked from there to the front entrance, but before I could reach it Jared intervened and took the posters from my hand.

"I'll have an employee put them up throughout the club."

"I can do it now."

"No, I've got to talk to Greg before the show, and I want to make sure you're in VIP before I go."

"What does it matter, Jared. Ryan will be with me."

I winked at Ryan as he smiled.

"Ryan, have someone tape these up then meet us in VIP," Jared said, then held them out.

"'Kay."

He took the pictures and headed toward a woman standing by the front door. Jared grabbed my hand and started for the VIP section. I pulled my hand out of his but kept walking.

Once I was seated, I looked around. "What am I supposed to do for the next three hours?"

He smiled. "Fantasize about me?"

"Trust me. Any fantasies about you always end the same way—with me standing over your dead body."

He put his hand to his heart. "You wound me, caru."

"You piss me off, Jared."

He scooted in the booth next to me. "I've heard that hate is just love in disguise."

"Whoever said that is an imbecile."

"Really?" He leaned closer. "I think you are angrier with yourself for having feelings for a Fallen than you are with me."

"I've already told you. Being Fallen has nothing to do with why I don't want you."

"Then why. What did I do?"

"Where to start?" I pretended to think about it. "You're an arrogant ass who thinks because he's a rock star he can do anything he wants or have anyone he wants. I admit I led you on the first night and I apologize for that, but you should just let it go because once this case is over I would be fine with never seeing you again."

He just stared at me for a moment and I thought he was going to back off. Any normal person would have taken that as a "fuck off" and left, but Jared Damascus was not a normal person. Instead, he leaned in and kissed me lightly on the mouth. When I didn't push him away he must have taken that as a sign because he came back for more. I was going to tell him to stop, I swear I was, but when I opened my mouth he delved his tongue inside, and there was no stopping for a minute. Then my brain kicked in again and I pulled back. He kept his eyes closed for a moment before he smiled and opened them.

"Leave me. I don't want to see your face right now," I said with venom.

"Whatever you wish, caru." He quickly leaned forward and gave me a peck before getting up from the table. "I'll come back when we take a break. Don't try to leave while I'm on stage. Ryan is a formidable fighter."

I looked straight ahead and ignored him. He looked at me for a beat, then turned and left. I lowered my forehead to the table. What was I doing? I couldn't even stand him, yet he kissed me and I was ready to find an empty room. I would never call Saundra a slut again. No, I take that back. I'd still call her a slut, but I'd consider feeling bad about it now.

"You look like you could use it," Ryan said as he set a drink in front of me.

I looked up at the drink. It looked like ambrosia. I looked at him. "Do I look so bad that you thought I needed to get drunk?"

He smiled. "Actually Jared ordered it for you. I just decided to deliver it."

"Well thanks," I said before taking a swig.

He just stood there staring at me as I drank it all. I knew getting drunk was the last thing I needed to do right now, but I really needed that drink. After a minute of Ryan just staring at me, I shot him a nasty look. "I'm pretty sure Jared didn't mean that you had to literally watch me nonstop."

"I'm just trying to figure it out," he said as he sat across from me.

Figure what out? "These aren't the droids you're looking for," I said while waving my hand mystically.

He smiled. "A _Star Wars_ fan. Didn't expect that."

"Why not? I was born within the last century, after all."

He shrugged. "Maybe that's why Jared's so obsessed."

I rolled my eyes. "I doubt my stunning _Star Wars_ repertoire would cause Jared to become obsessed."

"Well, something sure has."

I looked around, then leaned in toward him. "You know what I think. I think it's because I don't want him that's caused him to take interest. I mean, here he is this big rock star used to having every woman he wants then I go and get drunk and start flirting with him just to sober up and realize what a mistake I had made. I tell him I don't want him, and actually mean it, and that makes me interesting. You always want what you can't have. For example, if the doc tells me I can never eat chocolate again or I will die. The next day I'm going to be sweating balls over a Hershey's bar."

He laughed. "The only problem with your theory is that he had me gathering information on you last Sunday. That was the day after you were drunkenly making out with him and before you started claiming to not want him."

"Maybe he wanted information for the cops if I became a stalker."

"Then why would he add you to the VIP list the same day?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Did you tell him I was a HR detective? Maybe he thought it would be in his band's best interest to cooperate with the cops."

"Now you're just grasping at straws. Here's a few of the holes in your theories. First, Jared doesn't give a fuck about the cops. Second, he never adds anyone to VIP, especially not some cop and not someone he just met. Third, I have been working security for this club since it opened. Never has he had me looking for a woman who walked into the club for fifteen minutes, then left. Never has he had me dig for information on someone to find out, not who they're in business with, but what their likes and interests are, and never has he followed a woman around like a dog in heat. On the rare occasion he has been with a woman, and I do mean rare, he leaves the club with her and I never hear from her again."

"Are you saying he kills them?"

He laughed. "You really are a cop, aren't you? No, I mean he never continues any kind of relationship with them."

"Then he's a liar. He told me he didn't do one-night stands."

Ryan shrugged again. "Maybe he just talks to them. That is none of my business."

"Yeah, that's it. I'm sure he takes his groupies off to talk to them."

"Like I said, not my business. But I will say this. That man has more pussy thrown at him than the luckiest tomcat on the streets, and only once has he shown any interest at all—and that would be you."

"Funny, I don't remember throwing pussy at him."

"You probably just don't remember because you were too drunk."

"Ha-ha. I'm pretty sure I'd remember that."

"Do you remember sticking your tongue down his throat?"

"Don't you have something else to do? Like, I don't know, guard the VIP section from invasion or something."

"I'll take that as a yes. If you need anything, let me know," he said as he got up from the booth.

I sat at the table for a couple of minutes before the band started. The two band members I hadn't already met were the center of my attention. One played bass and the other was the drummer. I have to admit that the drummer was scary as hell. Don't get me wrong. He was just as fine as the others, but there was something about the way he looked at people. Emotionless, kind of like you would think a sociopath would look. Only, most sociopaths were better at pretending to care in order to fit in. This guy looked like he just didn't give a fuck. It might have been my imagination, but the bassist looked an awful lot like the drummer, but his hair is brown where the drummer's is obviously dyed a matte black, and he actually looked kind of normal versus the drummer's psycho. Maybe they were brothers.

I was still analyzing the members of the band when Temmy came and sat with me.

"I am seriously considering not being your friend anymore," she said.

"I'm actually surprised it's taken you this long. I would have stopped being my friend years ago."

"Ha-ha. You start dating the hottest guy in Atlanta and can't pick up the phone to call your supposed best friend."

"I'm not dating anyone. I'm working a case, and the hottest guy in Atlanta manipulated his way into being my bodyguard."

"Oh, he wants to guard your body all right, but why would you need a bodyguard?"

"Apparently, the flowers I got the other day were from a serial killer, and he was the delivery guy. Isn't that sweet? A psycho killer has a crush on me. The flowers were actually quite pretty."

She managed to pick her jaw up off the table. "You mean Jared didn't send you those flowers? A crazed killer did?"

"Ooh, I can top it. The crazed killer is a Fallen. Ta-da. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week." I mock-bowed, then showed her one of the posters.

"This is the killer? Huh. Never seen him." She put the paper down, then looked at me. "I can't believe a Fallen has a thing for you."

"Apparently more than one. You didn't know Darkened was a band of Fallen? That includes 'the hottest guy in Atlanta.'"

She looked at the band then back to me. "That's what they are? I was wondering. I knew they were some kind of Other but...wait. Jared has the hots for you, and he's an Angel?" She started laughing. "He really is a bad boy, isn't he? An Angel with a thing for a Demon."

"I am not a Demon. And he is a Fallen. Get it right. Uh, and he might not know about me being half-Demon."

"How would he not know? I thought Angels could track Demon and other evil creatures."

I shot her a nasty look. "Perhaps it's because I'm not an evil creature."

"Sure, honey, whatever helps you sleep at night. Demon aside, he has got it bad for you. He actually asked me to come over here and keep you company for a while so that you're not bored. He's such a nice guy."

I rolled my eyes again. I've got to stop doing that before they get stuck in the back of my head.

"Temmy, he's a Fallen Angel. Need I remind you why almost all Fallen become Fallen? That's probably why he can't tell that I'm part Demon because he, himself, is an evil creature."

"Avy, I can't believe you. You of all people should know better than to judge someone by their history instead of their actions."

"The difference is that I didn't make the decisions that affected my history, and he did. You know as well as I do that Angels are not wrongly banished from the Kingdom."

"But you don't know that he killed a Human to be banished. He could have done something else to piss the big guy off."

"Whatever. I don't care the reason because as soon as this case is over, I have plans to never see Jared Damascus again."

She laughed again. "Well, good luck with that. I have a feeling he's not going to give up that easily."

"He'll get it eventually."

"Oh, I'm sure he will," she said with a lascivious smirk.

"I wouldn't hold my breath."

She just smiled. "Well, I guess I better get back to work. If I get a chance, I'll come back to visit you."

"Thanks. I don't think the warden's going to let me out any time soon."

"Like I said. You are the luckiest woman I know."

"Yes, I feel sooo lucky."

She hugged me, then left.

## Fourteen

I watched Darkened for the next hour. There were a few other people in the section with me, but I didn't recognize any of them, and they seemed to be more concerned with themselves and watching the band than me. Before the band took a break Jared addressed the crowd.

"The name of this song is 'Avery.'"

They played the song from the other night. Oh my gods, he really did name a song after me. Once the song finished, Jared disappeared behind the stage only to walk up to my table two seconds later.

"You sure are fast. Tell me, do you actually fly?"

He smiled as he sat next to me. "Would you like to find out, caru?"

"Not if it means I have to fly with you."

"Are you afraid?"

I just raised a brow. Then I remembered how he had asked me the last time if I liked the song and I had never answered. Instead, I had poked fun at the name. "I do like the song by the way. I like how it changes from slow to fast. Probably pretty hard to dance to, but I like it."

"Be still my heart. You actually gave me a compliment without me having to pull it out of you. This makes the second time today. I guess my charm is starting to wear on you."

"Don't push it. I just think it is a good song. I'm sure plenty of others think the same thing."

He leaned closer to me. "But I didn't write the song for them."

"I find it hard to believe you wrote it for me either. You didn't even meet me until after you had already played the song."

"Ah, but I saw you the weekend before. You came into the club and killed a Demon in the bathroom. I tried to get Temmy to bring you to my house the next night, but you refused to come."

"What would I have done at that party? I'm not really the groupie type, if you haven't noticed."

"You could have spent time with me in my room. Then you wouldn't have had to deal with any of the others."

"How good of you to offer. But I think I made the right choice."

"How could it be the right choice when you didn't end up with me?"

I laughed. The sad thing is that he actually acted serious. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

He scooted right up next to me. "No, caru. That could never happen. I could pick you out of the middle of this entire crowd of people in less than a minute."

I rolled my eyes once more. "Right."

"You don't believe me?"

I just raised a brow.

"Very well. Then I will prove myself to you." He slid out of the booth, then held his hand out for me.

Once I was out of the booth he walked me over to Ryan, who was standing at the entrance. He nodded and Ryan pulled the rope back; then, he led me to the bottom of the steps. He pulled me close and spoke into my ear so that I could hear over the song the DJ played.

"Are you ready, caru? I'll give you a thirty-second head start."

I smiled and looked at the time on my cell. "I'm not as fast as you. Make it a minute and I'll give you five to find me."

Now he rolled his eyes. "Fine, sixty seconds starting—now."

I took off. Where to go, where to go? The dance floor would be too easy because that was the most obvious place. So was the bar because Temmy was there, and she would rat me out in a second. Front entrance? No, then I'd have to listen to him bitch about me trying to escape. The women's bathroom was a no-go because there was always a line to get in, and I'm not going in the men's bathroom again. I headed to the hallway leading behind the stage. The guard on duty nodded to me and opened the door.

"If Jared asks, you haven't seen me," I said as I ran past.

Now where to? I could go to Jared's office. No, that's a bad idea. I ran to the only other room I've been in back here. Just like the previous times, Luke was in there playing Xbox.

"Quick, you gotta hide me," I said as I ran in the room.

He looked alarmed. "Is someone after you?"

"Yeah. Jared. Come on, help me out?"

"Uh, you could hide in the closet, I guess." He pointed to a door on the other side of the room. "Why's he after you? Well, other than the obvious."

"It's a game. He has five minutes."

"Ah. Good luck."

I looked into the closet. The obvious place would be to huddle in the back. But on the odd chance that Jared did look in the closet I wanted to be as indistinguishable as possible, so I backed up a couple of steps, ran forward, and pushed myself up on the bar; then, I swung one leg over to the shelf on top. It was dusty, but I would be unseen to the average observer. I reached out and grabbed the hook conveniently placed on the inside of the door and pulled it shut.

"You haven't seen me," I said to Luke before I closed it all the way.

I huddled into the back of the shelf and pulled out my cell phone. He had three minutes left. Now, all I had to do is wait and hope no one ratted me out. I could hear Luke playing his game and nothing else. I watched my cell and counted down the minutes. Finally I had thirty seconds left. I was going to rub it in his face when I saw—

"Hello, caru. Having fun?"

Well, crap. Jared had opened the door and was standing there looking straight at me with a huge smile on his face. I couldn't help thinking he had been fucking with me.

"Would you like me to join you in there?"

"It would be easier for me to leave if you would move out of the way."

He moved over, and I jumped down from the shelf. I looked around and Luke was gone. "He ratted me out, didn't he?"

"No, caru. He didn't have to tell me where you were. I knew the moment you left the main club, and I just followed you. I had hoped you would decide to hide in my office, but then I would have had to call off the rest of the show."

"I'm smarter than that. Talking about shows, don't you have one to get back to?"

He moved closer to me. "I have a few minutes. My boss is very lenient."

"I'm sure he is. After all, your band is the reason the club's so successful."

He just smiled, then leaned closer and kissed me. I couldn't help but kiss him back, and then he was rubbing my back with one hand and fisting my hair in the other. I could only think about being naked with him like this. Oh dear merciful gods. He was killing me slowly. One minute he was making me so mad I could barely stand it, and the next he was making me so hot I could barely stand it. Hot and cold, hot and cold. I felt like I was going through menopause. I pulled back and broke off the kiss. I couldn't take anymore. I was ready to go to his office and let him call off the show, but I knew I would be regretting it tomorrow.

He was smiling at me. "Ah, my caru. You're driving me mad. Are you sure we can't continue this in my office?"

"Absolutely not."

He sighed. "That's what I thought. Let me get you back before I finish the show."

We went back to VIP, and Jared joined his band for the rest of the show. I alternately watched them and scanned the club just in case our killer tried to pick up another victim. When the show was over Jared came to collect me and we left for his place. I didn't waste any time when we got there. I went straight to my room and locked the door behind me. After the couple of kisses he gave me at the club and my body's reaction to them, being alone with him at his house is the last thing I needed.

## Fifteen

"Get the mushroom, Luke, before it falls into the lava. Now you missed it and Bowser's going to kill you."

We were in the rec room playing Wii. I had managed to convince Luke to play Mario and he actually seemed to enjoy it. The only problem was that he insisted on maintaining at least six feet between us. I was wondering if Jared warned him to keep his distance or if he just didn't want to be near me for some other reason.

"I would be big if you hadn't thrown me into that hole."

"Stop using my head for a trampoline and you won't bounce into holes."

"This game is stupid. What is the point anyway? You do the same stuff over and over."

"No you don't. Each world has its own theme that's different. You're just mad because you don't have the highest score."

"No, I'm mad because I'm being killed by turtles and little mushroom-shaped guys that are less than half my size. If this were real life, I could kick those things into next week."

"If this became your real life, you would need antipsychotic medication."

He looked at me and smiled. "What makes you think I'm not already on some?"

"I've taken it. They make you drowsy. You don't look drowsy to me."

He laughed. "You on antipsychotic meds. I can see that."

"Hey, no cracking jokes at my expense. I'm the joke cracker around here."

"Sorry, Ave. How dare I?"

"I'll forgive you this time, but future indiscretions will be severely punished."

"A woman after my own heart. I always like women who can dole out a good punishment," the Goth-looking band member said as he entered the room followed by who I assumed was his brother. They look too much alike not to be.

"Well, sorry. Because dominatrix is not in my job description," I replied.

"Oh, and what would be your job? Groupie?"

"Only if Hell freezes over. Which one are you? Sam or Hash?"

He smiled at me, and it only made him look scarier. He had more metal in his face than most skyscrapers. "I'm Hash. That's my brother Sam." He pointed to the other guy, who did a little wave.

"Avery Tywella," I replied.

"Oh, we know who you are, Avery. We know quite a bit about you actually. Don't we, Luke?"

I looked over at Luke who was staring at the TV even though we had paused the game.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

Luke ignored me and Hash just shrugged.

"Tywella. Doesn't that mean _witch_ in Welsh?" Hash asked.

"Yep. It's my mother's family name."

He nodded. "And what about dear old Dad? Didn't take his name?"

"I have never met my father, so I wouldn't know what name to take."

"I see. Couldn't you just ask mom who she was knocking boots with?"

"My mother was raped. She died in childbirth. So, if I ever do find my dad, I have a blade with his name on it."

"That's understandable. Our father was a real piece of work too."

Sam didn't say anything. He just watched us as we talked.

"Ugh, how did the conversation get on fathers? I'm sure I can think of a more pleasurable topic to speak with our houseguest about," Zach said as he walked in and took a seat on the couch next to me.

"Like what? You?" Hash replied.

"I happen to like that topic. Don't you, Avery?" Zach said.

"I don't really know anything about you other than the fact that you're Fallen, so I don't know if you're worth talking about or not."

He looked me in the eye. "Oh trust me. I'm worth talking about. Best week of your life is what I could be."

He reached his hand out toward my face, and then he was gone. I mean, one moment he was mere inches away from me. The next he was nowhere to be seen. The only indication that he hadn't just disappeared was the slight breeze that had passed through. I looked toward Hash and he shrugged.

"He was warned."

"Warned about what? By who?"

They ignored me.

"Come on, Ave. I want to kick Bowser's ass. That guy's got it coming," Luke said.

I took that to mean I wouldn't get any answers so I un-paused the game and we started again. There were extra controllers, so I asked Hash and Sam if they wanted to play.

Luke, Hash, and I were getting killed by a giant Bowser when Jared sat beside me on the couch. A few minutes later Zach joined us and took a seat by Luke on the other couch.

"How the hell did a witch make him as big as the Empire State Building? I think whoever created this game was tripping on 'shrooms," Hash said.

"That would explain a few things," I told him, and we laughed at the idea of a group of software designers sitting around drinking 'shroom tea and creating one of the best video games for kids ever invented.

"I thought that was a Native American thing?" Luke said.

"It's called export. Look it up. They get magic mushrooms, and we get a hundred flat-screen TVs to watch the video game on," I told him, and Hash and I laughed again.

"I highly doubt they went to so much trouble just to get some mushrooms that grow in cow dung," Jared said.

"You never know. Snails are a delicacy. Why not cow-dung-grown mushrooms," I replied.

"Maybe I should go into business," Hash said.

"Sure. Why don't you run out and buy you some cows. I can totally see you as a farmer," I told him.

"Yeah, maybe not," he replied.

Everyone laughed at that one.

Then there was an unknown Angel standing in the middle of the room and everyone stopped laughing.

"Hello, brothers." He said _brothers_ like it was a curse word.

"Bart, what brings _you_ here," Jared said as he slid forward slightly.

His movement blocked my view of the Angel.

"'Tis Bartholomew to you, sinner. I am here on my Lord's work. I shall bring justice to the Fallen Jael," Bart said.

"Good. Now, what are you doing in our living room?"

"I have come to warn you from interfering Jared. I know you would like to redeem yourself, and I do not want you trying to capture Jael to prove yourself. You are no longer one of us."

"I have no intention of capturing him," Jared said.

"Good. Then you will stay out of my way," Bart replied, then bent at the knees like he was about to jump.

I pushed back against the couch so that I could watch the Angel from behind Jared. When Bart saw me he straightened back up and walked closer. Jared stood up and moved between us.

"What is she doing here?" Bart asked.

Jared looked back at me, then at Bart. "It looks like she's sitting on the couch."

"She will come with me."

"That is not going to happen, Bart. You best be on your way. Don't want to keep your Lord waiting."

"She does not belong with Fallen. Come, female," he said to me.

This guy really doesn't know me. "Like Jared said, that isn't going to happen," I replied.

"You will come with me now, or I will notify my Lord of your presence here. The one he sends to retrieve you will not be as compassionate as I."

"Wow, that's hard to believe. But I think I'll take my chances. Once Jael is killed, I will leave these Fallen."

"You will return to your homeland?"

"Uh, sure. I'll go home for a visit." It sure wasn't going to be Hell though, if that's where he's thinking my homeland is.

"I am most positive it will be longer than a visit."

I shrugged.

"Very well. Fallen"—he turned to face the men in the room—"stay out of my way, or I will be forced to smite thee."

Then he was gone.

"Well, he was a bundle of joy. Are all Angels as fun to be around as him?" I asked.

"No, some are worse," Jared replied.

"What are you going to do about her?" Hash asked.

"What can I do?" Jared said.

"If she is truly Caryad, then you need to finish it or get her out of here," Zach said.

What the hell does _Caryad_ mean? Finish what? It is apparent that the Angel knew I was part Demon. He wouldn't have cared if a Human was here as long as none of the men were hurting them.

"Bart said he would allow her to stay until Jael is killed. He's not going to go back on his word," Jared said.

"No, that would be a sin," Luke added.

Jared huffed. "God forbid."

## Sixteen

Several hours later I found myself once again sitting in the VIP section at Halo. Jared had dropped me off before the show and then once again went to talk to Greg. What did the manager of the club need to talk to the lead singer of the band about? Other than him telling him to keep up the good work and bring in more money, I couldn't think of anything they would have to talk about.

"Here you go. I can't believe you can drink that stuff," Ryan said as he set a glass of ambrosia in front of me.

"This?" I took a sip. "It's good. Almost fruity but closer to what you would think flowers taste like."

He shivered. "If you say so. Jared offered me a taste once, and it tasted more like jet fuel to me. Burned all the way down and didn't stop once it hit my stomach. I tried taking Tums and it did nothing. It's a good thing I was off that night because I was out like a light about thirty minutes later."

He was messing with me. Had to be. I could barely taste the alcohol in this drink, and afterward I usually feel giddier than anything.

"I guess you're just a lightweight. I could probably drink half a dozen of these and just be tipsy."

He looked like he might gag. "So how did the game of hide-and-seek play out last night?"

"He found me."

"Where'd you hide?"

"The game room with Luke."

His eyes got wide. "Luke let you stay in the same room as him?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"He has this total no-woman-in-the-same-vicinity thing."

"Why?"

Ryan shrugged. "I don't know. I just know he doesn't get near women. I've had to guard him before so that he wasn't touched by any females after a show."

"That's weird. Now that you mention it he does like to keep his distance."

"Maybe he's cool with you because he knows your Jared's woman."

"I am most certainly not Jared's."

"If you say so. I say if you're kissing on him, sitting in VIP watching his show, and going home with him after the show, you are his woman."

"Whatever. I don't need to prove myself to you."

The band started and Ryan went back to guarding the entrance. I had to find this Fallen so I could get away from here. I had touched base with Cop earlier in the day, and he didn't have any new information. No one had called the precinct about Amber or Jael, even though there were over a dozen posters up in the club. I really didn't want to wait for him to take another victim, but I didn't have any way to find this guy with the information I have.

Temmy came and talked with me on her break then Jared visited during the band's break. He offered another game of chase and I told him to stuff it. The last thing I needed was him cornering me somewhere and not being able to control myself. I was pretty sure I would regret sleeping with him—eventually.

When the band had started up again, I walked over to the VIP bar and ordered another ambrosia. I was bored out of my mind, so I decided I would drink to pass the time. Not the best idea, but not the worst either. After I had my drink, I walked over to the barrier between VIP and the rest of the club. There were so many people moving on the dance floor you couldn't tell one from the other. I looked over at the bar and saw Temmy flirting with a customer. She never stopped and probably never would. I started to look back toward the band when I saw Saundra kissing some guy by the front entrance. I knew it was her by the bright red streaks in her hair and the slutty outfit. They broke apart and she immediately started rubbing herself against the guy she was with. What a hoochie. I looked at the guy—OMG! It was Jael. He looked at me and winked then started walking with Saundra toward the entrance.

"Oh my gods. It's Jael!" I told Ryan as I jumped the barrier.

"Avery, stop!"

I heard Ryan yelling at me. But it was too late I was already halfway through the table area. I pulled out my cell and called Kansas.

"My perp is leaving Halo right now. I'm in pursuit."

"We're close by. Meet you there," Kansas said before hanging up.

I heard the music stop, and then I ran into Jared as I neared the front entrance. I mean, literally, I bounced off his chest and almost fell on my ass.

"Get out of the way. Jael just left the bar with Saundra."

"You will not go out there. He's using her to get to you."

"Jared, I will have you arrested for interfering in a police investigation if you do not get out of my way now."

"Sorry, caru. That's not going to work."

"What are you going to let him do? Just get away with killing my friend? We have to go after him now."

He sighed. "We go after him together, but you do not leave my side. Understand?"

"Yeah, let's go."

We went out through the front and Hash and Zach followed us. There were several people out on the sidewalk either trying to get in or just hanging around waiting for rides and such. I didn't see Jael anywhere. Then I saw Saundra staggering down the road to the right, but she looked to be alone. I ran up to her.

"Saundra, which way did he go?"

She turned around and had a smile on her face; then, when she saw me she looked angry. "He is so amazing. Why do they always want you? You're pretty I guess but not a pretty as me. Yet, they all want you. He wants you." She pointed to Jared. "And Jael wants you too. Why? What do you have that I don't?"

Uh, let's see. Self-esteem would have been my first guess. "Where did he go?"

"Why? You and your boyfriend gonna have a threesome with him?"

"I will be forced to hurt you if you don't tell me where he went."

"He went down that alley over there. He said to tell you he just wants to talk. Yeah, right. He sure didn't look like he wanted to just talk."

I left her standing in the road. I heard Jared tell Zach to get her a cab. We reached the alley, and I could see blue lights toward the other end.

"I'll meet you down there," Hash said and took off.

I was running as fast as I could when I felt Jared wrap his arm around me. In a blink we were at the other end of the alley. I saw Kansas and Davis, but Jael was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd he go?" I asked Kansas.

He turned toward me and smiled. Then he looked at Jared beside me and shot him in the chest.

"What the—"

He turned to Davis and shot him too. As he turned back to me, I punched him in the head as hard as I could. He was down for the count. Jared was already starting to get up, so I ran to Davis and saw that he was hit on the right side of his chest. I pulled out my cell and called for an ambulance as I put my hand over his wound.

"Here, use this," Jared said and handed me his shirt.

"Check the perimeter for Jael."

"I won't leave you alone."

And, just when I thought I couldn't be more pissed at him he went and raised the bar. After a few minutes, Hash ran into the alley. "I saw Jael take off from the building next door. I followed but lost him."

Jared nodded. "An ambulance is on the way. Will you guide them in?"

"Yeah, I got it," Hash said before leaving.

A couple of minutes later, the ambulance pulled into the alley. I moved out of the way as they did their work. Cassidy and Levon showed up right after the ambulance. They checked out Kansas and helped him into the ambulance. He looked shell-shocked. I walked up to him once he was sitting in the ambulance.

"It wasn't you. Jael made you do it."

"How could he control me? I have magic. I didn't think anyone could do that."

I shrugged. "Go get checked out. I'll get this guy."

He nodded. They loaded Davis in the back and the ambulance took off. They had no more pulled away when Jared wrapped his arm around me and we were moving at warp speed again. Two seconds later we were in Jared's office. When he released me, I punched him in the face.

"It's your fault. If you hadn't stopped me, I would have been there. He made Kansas shoot Davis because you had to be an overprotective ass."

"Ow. I was shot too, in case you forgot. Damn, and it hurts too. I don't see how this was my fault. If I hadn't stopped you, you could have been shot too or captured. It didn't slip my attention that he shot everyone except you. Why do you think that is?" He opened a closet, grabbed another shirt, and pulled it on.

"Maybe he was saving me for last."

"I highly doubt it. Look, stay here while I go talk to Luke then we'll go home."

"Whatever."

He left the room and I heard a lock click. Great, locked in. Right now I would rather have taken my chances with Jael than deal with any more of Jared's bullshit. I couldn't believe he would try to prevent me from catching this guy. The whole point was that he was supposed to be protecting me during the investigation. If I'd have known he wasn't going to let me do my job, I would have just taken a vacation like Cop told me to do.

I had to get away from him. That was the only way I'd catch Jael. There was only one window in the office, and it was kind of high on the wall and small. But it was big enough for me to slip through. I slid a chair over and put my hand to the glass. It was warded. Good. Maybe he would think I slipped out the door instead of the window. That would give me a few minutes head start, and as fast as he is, I'd need it.

I focused my concentration, gathered my energy, then pulled some outward and used it to coat myself with a shield. The barrier not only protected me and made me invisible to the average observer. It also allowed me to pass through magic undetected. I'm not sure if it is one of my gifts or if it is a thing all half-Demon can do, but I haven't tried it on a ward that I haven't been able to pass through. I pulled the lock and was about to open the window when I heard the click of a key unlocking the door. I jumped off the chair and let my shield drop as the door opened.

Jared looked at me standing in front of the chair, then to where the chair was supposed to be and finally the window above the chair.

"Were you trying to go somewhere, caru? I would advise against it. That ward is a pretty nasty one, and I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Just checking it out, Jared," I replied innocently.

"Come on. Let's go home."

"I want to go to the hospital first. I need to see how Davis is doing."

"We will call once we get to my house. I can't properly protect you in a hospital."

"I don't think I will be needing your protection any more. I will take my chances with Jael."

"This can happen two ways, caru. You can choose to walk out that door and to my car, in which case, I will take you to my house in companionable silence. Or you can protest and I can duct tape your mouth, then carry you to my car. Either way works for me, but you are accompanying me to my home, and I will continue as your guard until Jael is killed."

And just when I thought I couldn't be madder at this asshole. He went and opened his mouth. I'd bide my time. He couldn't watch me all the time. I walked past him toward the door, and he was there opening it before I reached it. I didn't say another word to him all the way to his house. When we got there I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. As I drank it, I watched Jared to see what he would do. He stood at the doorway for a moment then walked into the open area between the living room, kitchen, and short hallway leading to his room.

"I'm going to take a shower since I have dried blood all over me. Don't try to leave. There are wards on every entryway, and they will harm you if you attempt it. Plus, I will be notified immediately and would just drag you back," he advised.

"You know it isn't right to hold me against my will."

"You agreed to have me as protector and I am protecting you."

"I no longer want your services."

"It's too late for that, caru. You're in it for the long haul. This will not end until Jael is dead."

"How can I kill him when you won't even let me get close?"

"Bart will finish him. All we need to do is stay out of the way."

"It's my job to get this guy before he kills another Human."

"You will just have to sit this one out. He's too dangerous."

"News flash, Jared. I'm a trained detective. I deal with danger every day."

"Not like Jael. I have given my word that I will protect you and that is what I will do."

"Oh goody," I said sarcastically as I went into my room and shut my door. Time to initiate plan Sneak Out.

## Seventeen

I waited several minutes to give Jared enough time to get in the shower; then, I went to the window in my room and felt the ward. It was just like the one in his office. I pulled my shield over me and flipped the latch. Nothing happened, so I pulled the window up slightly. I would have thought his ward was set to do something like electrocute me or cast a spell that would make me lose my mind or some other kind of bad thing, and since it didn't, I figured I was free to go.

I slid through the window making sure not to catch the handle of my katana, which was in the sheath strapped to my back and landed in a rosebush outside. Now that hurt. I reached up and pulled the window closed. I hoped the ward wouldn't start going off as soon as I was away from the house. In case it did, I kept my hand on the window while I took a look around. The house was in an upper-class suburb. It looked like most of the houses were in the million-dollar range, and most had huge yards. Jared's was no exception.

A few trees dotted across the front yard, so I made a break for them. Once I reached them I ran for the gate that surrounded the property. I hadn't let my shield drop, so it was no problem when I went to climb the fence and found there was a ward on it as well. After I made it over the fence, I took off running. I went through people's yards and jumped their fences, avoided their dogs and kept running until I had finally made it out of the neighborhood. There was more housing outside of the subdivision, so I continued at a jog until I finally hit some commercial property. One of the first things I came to that was open was an all-night diner. I went inside and ordered a coffee; then, I called a local cab company and sat down to wait.

A few minutes after, the bell over the door rang and I turned expecting to see Jared. Instead, Jael walked in and sat next to me.

"Long time no see. You stalking me?" I said.

"Would you like it if I were?"

"Uh, not so much. No."

"Then I was absolutely not stalking you."

I couldn't help but laugh. Maybe it was nerves since I know he's a serial killer, or maybe it was just funny. "So what brings you to a diner at three in the morning?" I asked.

"Why you, of course."

"I thought you weren't following me?"

He just looked at me.

"Of course you were following me. What, were you standing outside Jared's house hoping I would sneak out?"

He just smiled.

"I guess you got lucky tonight," I said.

"I have not gotten lucky yet. But I plan to."

"Are you going to kill her like you did the last one?"

"That Human should have considered herself lucky I shared my seed with her. I would not have had the want had she not looked so much like you."

Okay, that was creepy. "So I take it you hope to get lucky with me? 'Cause I gotta say I'm not really feeling it, especially given that you killed your last lover. And since your mind control won't work on me, I don't see that happening."

He smiled at me. "I do not have to use mind control to get you to leave with me."

"Well, I don't see any other way. Unless you are ready to confess to your sins in which case I will be putting you to death for the murder of Stephen Wilkins and Amber Lambert."

He laughed. "Those Humans are not worth any punishment. They barely took any effort to kill at all. I even gave them a fighting chance by killing them without magic, and still they were useless."

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but I'm still going to kill you for murdering them whether you confess or not."

"Avery, my sweetness. Why do you waste your time with these creatures? They are not worthy of wiping off your shoes, let alone protecting."

"Someone needs to protect them from psychos like you."

"Is that why you teamed up with Jared and his band of fools? So that together you can protect the Humans?"

I shrugged. "Jared offered protection. I took it."

"And he couldn't even do that right. It is no matter. You are with me now. I will kill Jared and have you as my lover. Then I will be able to heal from the wound that Fallen caused."

"Jared managed to wound you? Is that what happened to you?" I pointed to my face and made a circle incorporating it all. Jared didn't mention being the one to do that.

"It is the wound of my only child's death. This"—he pointed to his face—"was caused by the Angel Bartholomew many years ago. But do not worry yourself. I have returned that favor."

"You killed Bart?"

"No, he will heal from his wounds once he has spent enough time in the Kingdom. I will not allow Jared to be so lucky. He will not continue to get away with murdering my child."

"From what I heard he had it coming. I was told he was a nutjob who was going around killing Humans. I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree."

"He was a beautiful Angel, and Jared murdered him at the command of our Lord. Jared did not care that he was innocent. He killed him in cold blood. The First Lord's enforcer. Look where it got him. Now, he has fallen too."

Jared had been one of the First Lord's enforcers like Bart? I wondered what he had done to get kicked out. Okay, I had to get the conversation off Jared. I needed to get Jael out of here and kill him before anyone else gets hurt. The only problem was that I didn't know if I actually can kill him. I mean, he's a full-blooded Angel. I'm good with a sword and all, but he's probably got at least five hundred years on me and he's probably as fast as Jared.

"Well, I don't see what any of this has to do with me. I have a cab coming, so if you could get to the point I'd appreciate it."

He ignored me. "I saw the signet at your apartment. Why do you have an Angel's insignia stored away in your jewelry box?"

"That would be my business, wouldn't it. I don't recall inviting you into my apartment, let alone allowing you to go through my stuff."

"You had no wards on your apartment. I assumed that meant you wished me to enter."

I rolled my eyes. "Didn't you notice the door was locked? Why do you think that was?"

He waved his hand like it meant nothing. "Those were merely for the Humans. Those plagues would just as soon kill their neighbors as call them brother. I had hoped they would have all killed each other centuries ago, yet they reproduce. The only thing they like to do more than kill is fuck. I cannot see how you can stand them."

"You know I'm half-Human. I would think you would hate me too."

"You are too much like your father for that."

A cab pulled into the parking lot. "Well, there's my ride. It was good talking with you. We'll have to do it again sometime."

The cab pulled away, and I couldn't do anything because Jael was on the outside of the booth.

"I am afraid you will be accompanying me home tonight."

"And what makes you think I'm going to go with you?"

He smiled and it made him look even crazier. "If you do not leave with me, I will take over the minds of the five Humans in this diner, and you can watch as they kill each other."

Holy shit. He meant it too. "Very well, Jael."

"I'm glad you see things my way."

He slid out of the booth, then held his hand out for me. I slid out without taking it. If he got a hold on me, he could go into hyperspeed, and I could find myself five miles away before I knew it. He shrugged it off, walked to the door, and opened it for me. I walked outside and turned to watch him as he walked through the door and toward a sedan. Really? He drove a car here? I knew that didn't sound too weird, but I just figured he would have flown or something—not driven a Lincoln.

He walked to the passenger side and opened the door. Nuh-uh, there was no way I was getting in that car. Instead, I attacked while his back was turned. I pulled my katana from my back and came at him low. Most would expect an over handed attack or even a lunge, but most wouldn't expect an upward sweep. He saw it coming though and moved at the last moment. I followed with a lunge and he dodged it too. He was just too fast.

"Silly child. You have yet to come into yourself and you still try to attack me. I am over two thousand years old," he said with indignation.

Damn, that was old even in Angel years. "Older means slower."

"You have been around Humans too long."

He pulled his own sword. From where I didn't know because I sure didn't see one moments ago. Then he was attacking, and I could barely move fast enough to block.

"You need some work on your sword fighting, child. I will add that to the list of things I will teach you."

He swung at me and I caught his blade on mine. We were locked in that position for a moment, and I saw Jael studying my katana. It was rather beautiful, with engravings all the way down the blade. I didn't know if they actually had any meaning, but they were pretty to look at and the blade was the sharpest weapon I have ever used. The first time I cleaned it, I cut my thumb and the engravings actually lit up for a moment. I took that to mean that it liked blood, and I was going to give it more. I pushed against his sword and broke away. He smiled at me.

"Would you mind telling me how you obtained Lucifer's sword?" Jael asked.

"This isn't Lucifer's. It's mine."

"Oh, it is most definitely Lucifer's. I would know that blade anywhere. He never fought without it. Did he give it to you?"

"I bought it."

He looked surprised. Well, I was sure he wasn't nearly as surprised as I was. How did Lucifer's personal blade get at the flea market? I had found it almost ten years ago when I first started working on the Humans' Rights Task Force. The guy had a whole display of swords but this one was by far the most beautiful.

"Lucifer sold you his weapon?" Jael asked incredulously.

"I didn't buy if from Lucifer."

He looked confused. I bet he's wondering how someone managed to get Lucifer's sword from him, then sell it to me because that's exactly what I'm wondering. Oh well, I could think about that later. I attacked Jael again, this time coming in from the left, and again, he blocked me, then pulled his blade back toward the left, swiping it across my stomach as he did. Damn, that hurt. Blood immediately started to flood out. It wasn't deep enough to allow my innards to fall out, but it was going to cause me to lose a lot of blood. I needed to end this as quickly as possible so I played the pity card. After all, he thought I was so much weaker than him. I slumped forward holding my stomach.

"I warned you that I was stronger. Now, we will stop this and you will accompany me. I will tend to your wound at my home."

He came to me and tried to wrap his arm around me. I stabbed him with my stiletto. I wasn't sure if it would actually hurt him, but it's made from part of the Hell dimension, and I would think Hell wouldn't feel too good being inside an Angel. He looked down at the knife and looked more disappointed than anything. Then his eyes widened and he took a step back. I held onto the stiletto, and as it came out of him, I heard it sizzle. Looking at the blade, I saw Jael's blood had turned black and smoldered. The blood pooling on Jael's side was also black. Jared's blood earlier looked a normal red color, so I was pretty sure Jael's shouldn't be black.

He started to stagger away. "W-what have you done to me? How..."

He backed up to the sedan and looked at his hand that he had been holding to the wound. He looked at me, his eyes narrowed, and then he was gone. I searched the parking lot, but he was nowhere to be seen. He probably had gone home to lick his wound. Talking about wounds, I looked at my own and saw there was blood covering the lower half of my shirt. I need to get somewhere quick. Where could I go that I knew Jael wouldn't come and kidnap me while I healed? Well damn.

I walked into Jared's house. The door hadn't been unlocked so I didn't bother knocking. I started toward the bathroom to clean my wound when Jared came out of the game room with the phone pressed to his ear.

"She's back. Yeah, she just walked through the front door." He paused. "Not if I do first. I'll see you in a few." Then he hung up the phone and shot me a dirty look. "Did you have fun on your little trip? Everyone has been going crazy looking for you. You could have been captured by Jael."

I was going to tell him to go fuck himself, but my body chose that moment to shut down from blood loss.

## Eighteen

I woke up in bed. I looked around but didn't recognize anything other than Jared sitting in a chair close by.

"Where am I?"

"You're in my room. I wanted to make sure you were all right."

I waved my hand. "I'm fine. I just needed to take a break and let the wound heal. It was the lack of blood that had me passing out."

Jared looked like he was praying for patience. "You were injured by an Angelic weapon. There would be no healing without intervention."

"Oh, well then I guess it's a good thing I came here instead of that bar I was thinking about hanging out in."

"Jael stabbed you with his weapon, and you thought about going to a bar?"

"He didn't stab me. He just sliced open my stomach. It was all done in the name of love. If I would have just gone with him, it never would have happened. You know me though. Always gotta do things the hard way."

"That is true. The question is. Why didn't he take you with him once you were injured?"

"Oh, he tried. I stabbed him with this." I pulled my stiletto out.

Jared moved closer to look at it and started to reach for it then his eyes widened and he jumped back into the chair. "What are you doing with that?"

"This? It's a little trinket my mom left me. Guess she didn't want any Demon harming me. Apparently, it works well on Angels too."

"You stabbed Jael with that?"

"Yep. He didn't seem to like it too much."

He barked out a laugh. "I'm sure he didn't. Did you see what happened afterward?"

"He didn't seem to be bothered by it at first. More pissed off than hurt, but then it started to sizzle, and he pulled back to find his blood was black, and he kinda had a freak-out. Then he was gone. Do you think I killed him?"

"Where did you stab him?"

"In his side."

"Probably not. It would take being stabbed in the heart or perhaps the brain to kill him quickly. But it's likely the wound will never fully heal. It will instead fester until it eventually does kill him. But that could take centuries."

"That doesn't sound very good. But given what he did to Amber, he deserves it."

I realized Luke was standing in the doorway.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Like a million bucks."

He smiled. "Did he happen to give you any information?"

"You mean like 'I'm going to take you back to my place at two fifteen Apple Street. You'll like it there it's a redbrick house with a black roof and we'll be arriving there in my Lincoln Continental, tag number UF five six two four three.' Whoa, wait a minute. That last part wasn't made up. He really was driving a Lincoln, and that was the tag number. But he left it at the diner when I stabbed him."

"I'll have Zach pick it up on their way back," Luke said as he pulled his cell out and walked away.

"I'll call Cop and have him run the tag. I need to check on Davis anyway," I said as I started to push up from the bed.

"Oh, no you won't. You'll lie right there and rest. Luke can look up the information on the car, and I've already called the hospital. Davis has been moved to stable condition," Jared said as he pushed me back down.

It didn't take much effort on his part. I just didn't have the energy to fight him. "How is Luke going to find the information? You would need access to the DMV's records," I said.

"He can find it. Just rest. I could join you if it would help you sleep better."

"Actually, you not being in here would help me sleep."

"Having trouble resisting my boyish charms?"

"It's more like, you watching me sleep creeps me out."

He smiled. "You'll get used to it."

"Ha. That's not going to happen."

"We'll see. I'll let you be alone for now though."

He leaned over and kissed my forehead, then straightened and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

## Nineteen

I awoke alone in Jared's bedroom. I took the opportunity to look around. It was surprisingly tasteful for a bachelor's room. The walls were an ivory color with black trim. All the wood of the furniture was painted black. The bed was covered with a black-and-ivory damask duvet with matching throw pillows. The chairs in the alcove matched and had throw pillows in them. Who said men didn't like extra comfort? The only decorations on the wall were two black electric guitars hanging over the bed. I was actually pretty impressed with his decorating skills.

I slowly got up and sat on the edge of the bed so I could survey the damage to myself. The wound was completely healed. That was cool. By the way Jared talked, I thought I would be out of commission for a few days. I looked out the window and saw it was bright outside. Probably close to midday. I got out of the bed and made a dash for my own room and the attached bathroom. I showered and dressed, then went in search of the guys. There was no one in the game room or kitchen, so I went up the stairs to see if anyone was up there. There was one door open at the end of the hall, so I headed for it. I'm not sure what I expected to find, maybe another bedroom, but it certainly wasn't what I saw inside that room.

It looked like command central. Hell, the task force's command central wasn't as well equipped. There were three computers set up on a huge computer desk with a smart screen on one wall. Another had a huge corkboard with newspaper clippings, police reports and other informative paperwork while another had two huge maps of the greater Atlanta area.

"Hello, caru. Like what you see?"

I turned to see that Jared had just stepped out of a doorway behind me.

"What is this?" I asked while pointing toward the room.

He walked into the room and turned to look at me. "This is where we track the evil plaguing our city."

"You...track evil? Why?"

He laughed. "We are Angels, caru. We can do nothing but."

"But you're Fallen. I thought you _were_ evil. That's why you got the boot."

He looked at me for a moment before his expression turned sad. "You really believe that, don't you? I would have hoped after spending time with us you would have realized we don't fit the image you had concocted in your head."

"What am I supposed to believe, Jared? Why were you kicked out then, huh? If you did nothing wrong, then tell me."

He just looked at me again. Then he turned and left the room. Well, I guess I was right. No Angels get kicked out of the Kingdom unless they did something to warrant it.

"He didn't kill a Human. He's never killed anyone who didn't deserve it," Luke said from the doorway.

"Then why wouldn't he just tell me?"

"He has his reasons."

Yeah, that's not evasive. I was tired of his shit. One minute he acted like the perfect man, and the next he was a total dick. I walked over to the wall of maps to get a closer look. I needed to put Jared out of my mind. I had a psycho to kill, and I would never be able to find him if I spent all of my time thinking about Jared.

"What do you really do here, Luke?"

"Exactly what Jared said—we look for evil and extinguish it. We have taken out twenty-seven Demon in the last six months, plus, a rogue Vamp, two homicidal Shifters, and a Dark Wizard."

I looked at him. "How?"

He walked over to the computers and typed something on one. The smart board came on and showed a map of Atlanta with green dots covering most of it. There were also some yellow, orange, and red dots.

"What you're seeing is a map of Others using Angel vision. I created the software that would allow a three-dimensional image similar to what we see when we look at people. The green represents good souls. Orange represents your average criminal. Red is evil. Demon always read red. Anyone who is a capable of cold-blooded murder also show as red. Now, that doesn't mean they have actually committed a crime. Just that they are capable and have darkness in their soul. The reds almost always commit a crime eventually, and we try to keep tabs on them when possible."

"You keep tabs on potential murderers?"

"Yes, it helps us if there is a murder by an Other to figure out who did it and where the guilty currently is."

"What happened with Jael?"

"Jael is different. As an Angel, he is invisible to us. He could be standing outside and I wouldn't know it unless I looked out the window."

"You know that reminds me. He pretty much told me he had been watching the house. That's how he knew I left."

Luke nodded and pulled up surveillance footage. "I figured that was how he found you so fast. I've upped the surveillance, and the guys have been taking turns searching the grounds."

"The guys? You all work as a team?"

"Oh, yes. We are quite effective."

"I guess I know now why crimes are so low here. When I transferred from Savannah I expected the crime rate to be high in such a populated area but was surprised to find it was actually lower than Savannah. There are only eleven agents working all of Atlanta. Well, I guess there are five more."

He smiled at me.

"Wait. Do you let the HR Task Force know when you make a kill?"

"Uh..." He looked guilty.

"Damn it, Luke. We are wasting man-hours hunting for criminals you have already killed. How do you kill them anyway? You know Demon can return if you kill them with a regular blade."

He smiled. "We are Angels, Avery. They are our inverse enemies. The polar opposite of what we represent. We have but to share our essence with a Demon and they cease to exist."

"You mean they are sent back to the Hell dimension."

"No, I mean they are no more. They are wiped off all planes of existence."

"Wow."

He smiled.

"And I take it you are the technical guy?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's what I do best. I can't really get out there with the others."

"Why not?"

He ignored me and changed the subject. "I traced the Lincoln back to an elderly man by the name of Joseph Jones. He reported it stolen two days ago."

"Where does he live?"

"Silver Hills. Hash and Sam have been canvassing the neighborhood."

I nodded. "So you have access to DMV. Do you have access to all of the government databases?"

"For the most part, the ones we would need in apprehending a killer anyway."

I thought about that for a minute. That would mostly be all of our files at HQ and a few of the feds. They would need to know if there were any similar crimes in other areas to gather information on the perp. Gathering information reminds me.

"Did you do a background check on me? Is that what Hash meant when he said that about knowing a lot about me?"

Luke looked guilty. "We were trying to find out who your father was. Jared said you didn't know him, so I thought I would give it a try."

"What did you find out?"

"Nothing really. Just that your mother gave birth to you twenty-eight years ago. It was an at-home birth, your mother disappeared shortly afterward, and you were raised by your maternal grandmother."

"I believe that's the same information I gave Jared."

"We just wanted to be sure."

"Why did you need to know about my parents?"

"Jared wanted to know where you came from."

I walked up to the other side of the computers. "And you just invaded my privacy because he asked you to?"

He held his hands up in surrender. "We were all curious. You are an anomaly."

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm surprised you couldn't figure it out."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, I'm going to check in with my boss. Let me know if Hash and Sam find anything."

"All right."

I started toward the door, then thought about him invading my privacy, so as I passed his work station, I reached over and hit him on the arm.

"Don't!" Jared screamed as I made contact with Luke's arm.

Luke jumped back as I touched him. You would have thought I'd hit him as hard as I could instead of a giving him a friendly punch. Jared pushed me out of the way and ran to Luke's side.

"Are you all right? What did you see?"

"I barely touched him," I said.

"N-nothing," Luke said as he stared at me.

"What do you mean 'nothing'?" Jared asked.

"I saw nothing when she touched me."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"How?" Jared asked.

Luke shrugged. "Perhaps she has no fate."

Jared was looking at me too. "Everyone has a fate. How could you not see hers?"

"All right. It's time you tell me what you are talking about," I said.

Instead of answering, Luke grabbed my arm, then looked at Jared. "Nothing," he said, then gave me a hug. When he pulled back, he was smiling from ear to ear.

Jared looked confused.

"Now would be a good time to explain what is going on," I said.

"I am cursed. When I was banished from the Kingdom, a curse was placed on me. Any contact with a female will result in my experiencing their death. As if that wasn't bad enough, I am also forced to tell the woman how she will die. I have not been able to touch a woman in an extremely long time," Luke said.

"Wow, that's gotta suck. So that's why you keep your distance."

He nodded. "It's horrible. I've been able to prevent touching women for the most part. There have only been a couple of instances over the last few years, and I needed Jared to wipe their memory since I can't."

"Why can't you?"

"Part of the curse. I have to tell them how they die, and I can't erase it once it's told."

"Damn, you got screwed."

He smiled.

I smiled back. "Well, I guess I'm your new BGF."

"What?"

"Best girlfriend."

He laughed. "More like only girlfriend."

I shrugged. "Best, only, I'll take what I can get."

"As will I. I suppose you should pull up a chair. You can help me go through the traffic camera footage for the ten miles surrounding where Mr. Jones lives."

"You know. I'm not loving this friendship so far."

"You'll get used to it."

"Ha-ha."

"Well, I guess I'll let you two do your work then," Jared said as he started for the door.

"What are you going to go do?"

He shrugged and I smiled. "I guess it's a good thing there are three computers. You better find us a couple of chairs."

He smiled. "I'm not very good with computer work. I like to go where the action is."

"Oh, is there any action going on right now?"

"Uh, not currently, but I'm sure I will find something if I look hard enough."

"Well, then look no further. I'm sure there is plenty of action captured by these traffic cams."

He looked like he was going to argue then closed his mouth and walked to the other side of the room to grab some chairs. I looked at Luke and held out my fist. He bumped it and smiled.

A couple hours later we were still watching videos and my eyes were starting to blur. Hash walked into the room then stopped dead in his tracks.

"Whoa, this scene is so fucked up I don't know where to begin. I mean, I don't know which one is more surprising that Avery is sitting next to Luke or that Jared is doing computer work. How the hell did this happen?"

"How did what happen? Holy shit! I wouldn't be more shocked if I walked in on you in the middle of a threesome," Zach said as he walked up behind Hash.

Luke looked at them and smiled. "I'm immune to Avery, and apparently Jared's not."

"Everyone's a comedian," Jared said.

They both laughed, then walked in and patted Luke on the back.

"That's great, man. Now Jared has one more to worry about," Zach said, then turned to Jared. "Bet you're loving this."

"I have nothing to worry about," Jared said.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you'll believe it," Zach replied.

"Okay, you can stop picking on Jared now. You know, there is plenty more footage to go through. Would you like a turn?" I asked as I stood up from the computer.

"Uh, no thanks. I don't do geek work. That's Luke's job and apparently Jared's," Hash said with a snicker.

"Come on, caru. I'll get you something to eat," Jared said as he stood up next to me.

We walked into the kitchen.

"Do you call all women caru? I noticed you don't call any of the guys that."

"I have never called another woman caru."

"Why not? You said it was an expression, like calling someone man or dude."

"It is not quite the same."

"How is it different?"

"That name is reserved for only you."

"Why?"

Before he could answer my cell started ringing.

"Avery," I said.

"Hello, my lovely angel," Craven said. "I just received a call from a colleague of mine. It seems a man matching your Fallen's description just placed an order with him."

"What kind of order? When is he supposed to be back to pick it up?"

"My friend owns a shop for the more adventurous sexual partners. He said the man paid extra for overnight shipping and that he is supposed to return for his items tomorrow after eleven a.m."

"What? You're saying Jael went into a fetish shop and bought some sex toys?"

"I'm not sure what he actually bought but, yes, that sounds correct."

"Holy shit. All right. He didn't pay by credit card by chance, did he?"

"I'm afraid it was a cash purchase. I have the address for the shop if you would like it."

"Yeah, give it to me."

Jared stuck a pen and notepad in my face. I wrote down the address, and he nodded like he knew the place. That is definitely more information than I need to know.

"All right. Thanks, Craven."

"Angel, I would like you to visit me once this Fallen is taken care of. It worries me to know you are hunting him alone. Will you do this for me?"

"Absolutely. If this tip pans out, I'll see you tomorrow night."

"I will count the minutes."

"Bye, Craven."

"Good-bye, angel."

I hung up the phone and saw that Jared was pissed again. "What?"

"Why do you let him talk to you like that?"

"Like what? Craven talks to all women like that, and he has given me a lot of information on perps in the last six months."

"Is that the only thing he's given you?"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that because what I do is none of your business."

"It is my business, caru. You just haven't realized it yet."

"No, Jared, it isn't. _You_ just haven't realized it yet."

"You will know the truth soon enough."

I ignored him and headed back upstairs to have Luke look up the address.

Turned out the fetish shop was only six blocks away from where Mr. Jones's car had been stolen. The entire area was mostly middle-class suburbs with a few strip malls mixed in. Hash offered that he and Sam go check out the location, and Zach told them there was no way they were going to a sex shop without him.

Soon after they left, Jared offered to spar with me in an attempt to teach me some of the moves Angels are capable of. I accepted his offer. It would give me a chance to find out what they could really do. Everyone had a weakness, and I intended to find out what an Angel's was. I wasn't arrogant enough to think I could best Jael again. I had gotten a lucky shot with my stiletto, and it was only because he had already injured me that I managed that.

"Okay, amaze me with your mad skills," I told him. We were in a room next to the four-car garage that had been turned into a basic gym. There were all kinds of weights and other workout paraphernalia.

"We would need to retire to my room for me to be able to provide you with the full assortment of my skills," Jared said with bedroom eyes.

"You can save that for another woman. I'm more interested in your fighting skills."

"That's only because I haven't had you in my bed before."

"I was just there earlier today. I didn't see any particular skills."

"Only because you were injured. After we finish here, I will take you there and show what skills I'm talking about. Unless, you would prefer to go now."

"I think I'll pass. If you could get on with the fighting though, that would be great."

"If that is your wish, caru."

Then he attacked. He moved in somewhat slow motion, at least slow for him. I was still hard-pressed to try to block the attack, and he had me lying on the mat in less than ten seconds.

"All Angels are taught Silat-fighting style as children. Most later study other styles, but usually they incorporate those styles into their original studies."

"Silat is ancient Islamic. Why that fighting style?"

He shrugged. "It works well with our speed and is what our race originally practiced. We later passed it to the Humans of this plane."

"All right. Since it's obvious I won't be able to keep up, could you run through some of the motions while I watch. At a speed I can actually see, I mean."

"You like to watch. I guess you are into kink."

"Ha-ha."

I walked over to the side and had a seat on the floor. He pulled a dummy out of the corner and latched it to a hook hanging from the ceiling. And then he proceeded to beat the crap out of it. I'm really glad I decided to just watch. Even with him slowing down so that I could see, the moves were so fast that they actually blurred. He never attacked with just one limb. He would kick with one leg while hitting with one fist. Or he would do a combination of hits or a combination of kicks. It was awe-inspiring and at the same time scary. I imagined Jael was close to as skilled as Jared, and if he was, I didn't stand a chance.

After a while, he stopped and looked at me. "I would offer to teach you, but we would need more than one day, and I don't want to hurt you before we go after Jael tomorrow. I can start training you in the arts of Silat once this is over if you'd like."

"Oh, you mean you're actually going to let me go with you?" I figured I would have to threaten castration in order to go.

"You have fought him once and managed to inflict a major wound. I am hoping it will slow him down." He looked away for a moment before looking back at me. "You were right. I shouldn't have tried to stop you last night. I apologize."

"Wow, the mighty Jared actually admitted he was wrong. I don't know what to say."

"That you forgive me and will offer your body as reward for my honesty?"

"Not going to happen. You were a total jerk. You are a total jerk."

"I know. I'm trying to be better, though."

"Well, you have a long way to go." I decided it would be a good time for a subject change. "Jael said you were once like Bart. Is that true?"

He took a deep breath. "Yes, I was once one of the First Lord's retrievers."

"What did you do exactly?"

"When Angels were first banished to the Human realm it was in an attempt to teach the Angel the error of their way. The hope was that once an Angel has lived among the Humans, they would learn to love them as our First Lord does. Unfortunately, several of those banished used the opportunity to go on killing sprees, so the First Lord chose a few of his elite to find those offenders, retrieve their essence, and return it to our Lord."

"And you were one of those chosen. Why?"

"I was raised as a warrior in the First Lord's army and I was good at it. It was considered a great honor to be chosen by our Lord for retrieving."

"What did the First Lord need an army for in the first place?"

"To battle Lucifer's Demon. Angels and Demon are almost always at war."

"Where do you usually battle? It's not this plane, is it?"

"No, caru. Usually the Angelic army stays in the Kingdom and only battle the Demon stupid enough to attack. It is rare that the Angels have to travel to Hell for a battle. The Human plane is off-limits for fighting."

I nodded. "You're still not going to tell me why you were kicked out?"

He shook his head. "I will tell you that I have only killed one Human in my entire existence, and it was after I was already banished, it was unavoidable, and he deserved far worse than the quick death I gave him."

"All right. I can accept that. If you didn't kill a Human to get kicked out, what did you do that was worthy of not only losing your home but losing your title as retriever?"

He looked away again, and I knew he wouldn't tell me. "Fine, whatever. I'm going back to bed. I need to get a good night's sleep so I can be at the top of my game tomorrow. That reminds me. You said a wound created by an Angelic weapon wouldn't heal unless treated. What did you have to do because it feels like I was never injured? There's not even a red area where the wound was."

"I made sure it was completely healed. You should not feel any pain from the wound."

"But what did you do?"

He smiled. "It's an Angel thing. You wouldn't understand." Then he chuckled a little.

I rolled my eyes. "Again, whatever."

I turned and went back into the house. Jared caught up to me as I was passing through the living area, heading for my room.

"You could change your mind about coming to my room. I liked having you lay in my bed, and I doubt I will sleep a wink tonight with your smell all over my sheets."

"No thanks."

He moved right up behind me and whispered in my ear. "If you change your mind, you know where to find me." Then he lightly kissed my ear.

By the time I turned around in outrage, he was across the room opening his own bedroom door. He winked at me then entered the room and shut the door. Gods, I needed to get out of here because even though he pissed me off most of the time, I really wanted to follow him into that room.

## Twenty

"Wow, I have got to visit that place more often. You should see some of the stuff I bought," Zach said.

We were in the ops room and Luke had pulled a surveillance feed of the fetish shop up on the smart board.

"No one is interested in your sex toys, Zach," Jared told him.

"Speak for yourself. I'm sure Avery would be," Zach replied.

Jared shot him an evil look.

"Actually, I have no interest in your sex toys either. Sorry to disappoint. Luke, have you seen anything of our perp?"

"Not yet. The owner said he could pick up after eleven right?"

"Yeah, me and Jared are about to head that way. I'd like to be there by ten thirty just in case." I directed that last part to Jared.

"Very well, caru. We can take my car. That will get us there with plenty of time to spare."

"I think it would be a better idea to borrow Luke's. It will fit in better than your hussy-getter."

Zach and Hash laughed.

"I assure you I have never picked up a hussy in my car. Unless, of course, you refer to yourself, in which case I would have to disagree with you."

I rolled my eyes. "Luke, can we borrow your SUV?"

"Sure thing, BGF."

I smiled. "Great. Let's go, Jared."

I took the keys from Luke and gave him a peck on the cheek. When I turned, Jared was giving Luke a dirty look. He can just get over it. Luke was my friend, and given his curse I was sure he appreciated all the contact he could get.

Jared followed me out the door and to the garage.

"Are you sure you can drive this? It's a little bigger than your average car," Jared said.

"I think I can handle it. Just buckle up."

"Worried about my well-being? That's touching."

I ignored him, and we headed out toward Silver Hills. The fetish shop was in a large strip mall. It was surrounded by subdivisions, any number of which Jael could be staying in. We parked in front of a small restaurant that was two stores down from the Lucky Lady adult store.

"What do you suggest we do to pass the time, caru?" Jared asked.

"I'm fine just watching for Jael, but if you want to do something to occupy yourself, go for it."

He smiled and I knew I had screwed up.

"As long as it doesn't involve me," I clarified.

"You are no fun. You know, there is plenty of room for us in the backseat." He waggled his brows.

"Ewww. First of all, this is your friend's truck. You don't have sex in the backseat of your friend's vehicle. Second, we are sitting outside of a fetish shop waiting on a serial killer to pick up his sex toys. It doesn't exactly put me in the mood, and the fact that it does put you in the mood is, quite frankly, disturbing."

"Caru, with you I am always in the mood. We could be trekking through the sewers and I would still be in the mood. A fetish shop and serial killer aren't nearly enough to keep my libido down, not with you sitting next to me."

"Uh...okay. Well it's still a no."

"I am eagerly waiting for the day it becomes a yes."

"I honestly don't think that day is going to come, Jared. I'm attracted to you, but just when I think I might give in, you go and open your mouth and I remember why it is I don't want to be involved with you."

"I promise you, caru. Once I make love to you, you will no longer care what I say."

"Ha. What, you think I'll be so enamored that I won't care that you're a dickhead."

"That was rather cold. I think you will be able to overlook my faults."

"You call them faults. I call them being a dickhead."

"I have apologized for the other night. When else have I wronged you?"

"This whole situation was wrong from the beginning. If you hadn't intervened, I would have gotten this guy days ago."

"No, caru. It is more likely that he would have gotten you days ago, and I could not have that. I'm sorry you are unhappy with me about forcing my protection, but I am not sorry I am protecting you. I can't allow you to be in danger."

"I'm a detective with the Humans' Rights Task Force. It's a dangerous job, Jared. You can't force protection on me all the time."

"That is true. But you will not usually be going after an Angel. I know you can handle Demon and your other run-of-the-mill evil. Just know that I will always be willing to help you or offer protection if you need it."

He was looking at me seriously, so I nodded. "Thanks, Jared."

"You're welcome, caru."

He started to lean forward, so I turned to look out the front window in an attempt to avoid him.

A Cadillac parked in front of the Lucky Lady and Jael stepped out.

"There's our boy," I said.

"Let's wait here and follow him back to his place. It will be safer for the Humans that way."

"Sounds good."

It only took a few minutes for Jael to return with a sack in hand. He got in the car and pulled out. I waited until he reached the highway to pull out behind him. We followed several cars back. He pulled into one of the neighboring subdivisions, and we drove past the entrance.

"What are you doing? We're going to lose him."

I made a U-turn and followed him into the neighborhood just as Jael took a right two streets up. I slowly drove past the road and saw he took a left at the first intersecting street. I continued straight and turned right at the next street. One thing about subdivisions, most of the streets intersect, and if they don't, there's a sign letting you know there's no outlet. Jared watched for Jael through the backyards and as we came to the intersection of the road Jael had turned left on, we watched him pull into a driveway three houses down. We continued straight then turned right on the next street over.

"Pull into that house that's for sale," Jared said.

I did as directed.

"Give me a moment," he told me.

He got out and walked up to the front door. A moment later, he walked inside then stepped back out and motioned for me to follow. I got out and walked into the house. It was obviously vacant, if the lack of furniture was any indication. I followed Jared up the stairs to the back of the house. He was standing at a balcony door looking at Jael's house. I called Luke on my cell.

"Hello," he said.

"Hey, I need you to look up an address for me."

"Shoot."

I gave him Jael's address.

"Says it belongs to Tammy and Richard Douglas. Do you need more specifics?"

"Has anyone seen Mr. and Mrs. Douglas recently?"

I could hear him typing.

"No missing persons filed. I'm sending the other guys for backup if you want to wait."

"All right. Thanks, Luke."

"You're welcome, Ave."

I hung up.

"That was a waste of time," Jared said with attitude.

Was he bipolar? "I wanted to know if he was possibly holding them hostage. With the home owners possibly in there we need to do this as quickly and quietly as possible."

"No, I thought we would just call in an airstrike."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Once again dickhead Jared had arrived. "If you have a problem with the way I work, I can always do this without you."

"No chance. Although, if you don't want to work with me, you can stay here and I will take care of Jael. Actually, I like that option best."

I smiled at him. "Are we doing this now or waiting for the others?"

He smiled back. "No time like the present."

I started for the door, but he grabbed me and pulled me to him. Then he was kissing me long and hard. When he finished, we were both breathing heavy. I raised a brow in question.

"I'd like to say it was for luck, but really it was just because I wanted to."

I smiled. Hey, at least he was honest.

"Let's just go."

We decided to go at the house from the side, enter through the garage, and work our way in from there. Jared picked the lock on the garage's side door, and we entered quickly. The smell almost knocked me back out. Now I know why he didn't park the car in the garage. What I assumed to be Mr. and Mrs. Douglas were lying in a heap in the corner. Based on the smell they had been dead for at least a few days, maybe a week. I hurried past and went to the door entering the house. I stopped and listened for a moment. Before continuing, I pulled out my katana, then opened the door and entered the house.

In the kitchen I still heard no one. Maybe he needed a nap after his trip to the sex shop or, given what he just bought, he's in the bathroom. I wouldn't have minded catching him with his pants down. Hey, it was hard to fight someone with your pants around your ankles. I could tell Jared was listening too because he closed his eyes and his head tilted; then, he looked at me and pointed down.

Down? Did this house have a basement? I looked around for a door and found it behind the stairs in the hallway. I slowly opened the door, and Jared slipped past me and entered the stairway leading down. I grabbed his shoulder. I'd been thinking about how to gain the advantage with Jael, and the way I first managed to hurt him seemed like the best route. His underestimating us would be the only way. I mean, Jared could go in there and possible take him out, but they would fight, and there was a good chance Jael could gain the upper hand. But if I went in first, he would think he has the advantage. Then Jared could take him out when he least expects it.

I pointed to myself, then to the bottom of the stairs. Then I pointed at Jared and the floor at my feet. He shook his head. I pleaded with my eyes and held up five fingers. He shook his head and held up two fingers. I nodded and started down the stairs. When I reached the bottom, I had to stop. There was a bed with black bedding in the middle of the room with all kinds of torture devices on the walls surrounding it.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Jael walked out from under the stairs.

"I...how did you do all this so fast?"

He laughed. "Oh, this was Mr. Douglas's play room. I just took it over and added some of my own embellishments. I'm sure you will like them. I have envisioned you on that bed ever since I first saw it."

He moved closer to me, and I pointed my sword to stop him. "Jael, the Fallen, you have been found guilty of the murders of four Humans, and it is my duty to pass sentencing."

He smiled at me. "You really are beautiful. I have wondered about you. How could such a beautiful child be abandoned here? Where did you come from? Where are your parents? Then it hit me. How could I have missed it? It was so obvious. I can understand you not claiming him as father. He is the enemy after all. The ultimate evil. And you, you beautiful creature, you are his only child."

"Shut the fuck up. You don't know anything about me. You think you are righteous because you're an Angel. You're nothing but a murdering psycho that needs to be put down."

I went on the offensive. This asshole wanted to throw my heritage in my face like he was better than me. Fuck him. I lunged for him and he parried. I immediately came back at him from the right, slicing at a diagonal. When he parried I used my left hand to punch him in the face. In a blink, he had me pushed against the wall and then Jared was pulling him off. He threw him across the room, and faster than I could see, Jael was back. The sound was deafening as their swords clashed. I couldn't really keep up with the strikes because they were moving too fast. After a few minutes Jared had Jael against the wall on the other side of the room. Jael had blood dripping from his mouth, yet he laughed.

"You killed my only child. He was troubled, and instead of offering him help, you took his life. You think she is your _Caryad_. She will become stronger than us both. Do you really think she will want you then? You, who went against your Lord's command because you could not control your urges. I will take her and she will bare me another son. She will beg me for more."

Yeah, I don't know exactly what _Caryad_ means, but I'm guessing it's the Angels' version of wife. If these two are my choices, I'll just stay single.

Jared punched Jael in the face. "She is mine. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on her, and you will not touch her. Your son was an insane killer and deserved to die. Just like you."

Jael looked utterly deranged for a moment; then, he pushed against Jared and they began battling again. I tried to back into the corner under the stairs, but I felt a hand wrap around my throat as I was pushed back against a body. I knew it was Jael even before I saw Jared stop in front of us.

"Do not think I won't kill her. You will back away and drop your weapon, or she will never know what she could be."

Jared took a step back. Then he bent down and sat his sword on the floor.

"Okay, now what. You kill me and make a run for it? You know that isn't going to work," I told him.

He smelled my neck. "Mmm. You smell so good for being the creation of evil."

This fucker was really starting to piss me off. "I am not evil."

"I am sure you could be."

"You want to see evil? How about this."

I held my hands out in front of me and concentrated all of my hatred for this Angel who killed innocent people for no other reason than he wanted to get back at someone else. Yet he considered me evil simply because of my father.

My hands caught flame and I smiled. I wondered if he could move fast enough to avoid this. I turned toward him and the blade sliced my throat, but I didn't care. I put both of my hands on his chest and let the hatred flow from me. With it came the flames and almost instantly he was engulfed. I took a step back and watched him burn to ash. It took mere moments, and there was maybe enough left to fill a broom pan. I looked at my hands and they were no longer burning. I wanted to cry. My hands hadn't caught fire since the night my grandmother told me the story of how my mother had been raped by a Demon and that my birth had killed her.

I turned to see that Jared was staring at me wide eyed. "H-how did you do that?"

"I'm evil. Didn't you hear him? My father was a Demon who raped my mother."

"What? No. You can't be..."

He left off the rest. Instead, he began adamantly shaking his head.

"It's the truth. My mother was a White Witch. She was an innocent, and she couldn't bear the thought of killing a child, even one who was born of evil. She died in childbirth."

He looked at me like I had grown another couple of heads. "Why would you..." Again he shook his head as though he couldn't believe what I was telling him. "I-I have to go. I need to..."

Instead of finishing his thoughts, he picked up his sword and ran up the stairs. In less than two seconds, I was alone. I picked up my katana from where I had dropped it and slowly made my way up the stairs. At the top, I ran into Zach and Hash as they ran into the house.

"Are you all right?" Hash asked.

That was a good question. I felt my neck where the blade had sliced it and it wasn't bleeding. I wasn't sure how it healed, but I really didn't care right now. I just looked at them and nodded. "Jael's dead. Will you take Luke's truck back?"

I reached into my pocket, pulled the keys out, and, without waiting for an answer, dropped them in front of Hash. Of course, he caught them.

"Where's Jared? You need a ride home?" Zach asked.

I shook my head and ignored the first question since I didn't know the answer. "I got it."

Then I left the house. I walked out of the subdivision and had a seat on a nearby bus bench. I don't know when the next one comes by and really don't care. I pulled out my cell. My self-pity would have to wait a minute. I called Cop, informed him Jael was dead, and asked him to send a crew to retrieve the bodies of the home owners. He told me that he would handle it and that Davis was being released from the hospital later that day. That was some good news at least. Shifters healed about four times as fast as Humans.

After I hung up, I just stared into space for a while. I don't even know why I'm so upset over Jared's disgust. I could barely stand the guy yet when he runs away I feel like I was just kicked in the chest. A bus stopping interrupted my staring, so I boarded it. I walked to the back and returned to staring, only it was out the window this time. My mind kept running around in circles. How could he treat me that way? Didn't he understand that it wasn't my fault who my father was?

The look on his face would forever be etched in my psyche. Sure he looked confused, probably because he was wondering how he could have ever wanted to be with a woman who was part Demon. But it was the look of disgust that made me want to curl up and disappear from the world forever. He had just earlier looked at me like he couldn't get enough, and now I was a freaking abomination. You would think I'd be used to being shunned because of what I was by now. The rational part of my brain tried to explain that it wasn't _him_ rejecting me that I was having a problem with, but the fact that I was rejected. Rejection was rejection after all, even if you didn't care what the person rejecting you thought. Unfortunately in this case, I do care what this person thought of me.

Several hours later I had rode the bus to the end of its route, so I got off and looked around. I was on Roswell not too far from Craven's shop. I had promised I would come by for a visit and he should be at the shop by now, so I started walking in that direction. Even though Craven hits on me nonstop, he knew we would never work out. We are on the wrong sides, and he liked dealing with less-than-legal clientele. It wasn't that he didn't have morals, because I knew when it came down to right or wrong he would pick right. But he liked to walk on the dark side, which I guess worked for him because he is a Vamp.

I walked into his shop and his receptionist rolled her eyes, then picked up the phone.

"He'll be just a moment," she told me as she hung up the phone.

I had a seat and just waited.

"Hello, angel. Can I take this as you got your man?"

I nodded.

"Wonderful. Come back with me and we'll celebrate."

I walked back to his office with him. Once we were seated, he took a good look at me. "You don't look too happy to have this killer off the streets."

I shrugged. "Oh, I'm extremely glad he's gone. He was one fucked up individual."

"Then what is wrong?"

"It's nothing, Craven."

"Tell me. Is it these other Fallen who you have been hanging around? Have they done something to hurt you?"

"No, they didn't intentionally...it's my father."

"Your father? He has returned?"

"No, it's that one of the Fallen found out about my father and—"

"Did he hurt you?"

"No, he was just disgusted and ran out. And the bad thing is that I don't know why I'm so upset about it. He's a jerk, and now he's an even bigger jerk for blaming me for what my father did. How is it in any way my fault who my father is?"

Craven got up and came around the desk then knelt in front of me. "It is in no way your fault. You are a good person. Too good if you ask me." He smiled and I gave him a small smile in return. "If he can't see what an amazing person you are, then that is his loss. You deserve better. Quite frankly, I can't understand why you even associate with someone like me."

I smiled at him for real this time. He always managed to make me feel better about myself. Perhaps it was the way he always looks at me like he's hungry just for me, or maybe it was all the nice things he said that made me feel like I was something more than I am. I leaned forward and kissed him. He didn't hesitate to kiss me back. After the last time we were intimate, I had no intention of a repeat performance. It wasn't that it wasn't good—quite the opposite; it was just we were both aware that our relationship would never be anything more than what it currently is. But at that moment, I felt so bad and Craven was making me feel so good that I just gave up thinking and reacted. Anything to take the pain away.

He tilted his head and deepened the kiss, and I opened fully to him. After a moment, he moved to my neck then began undressing me while I did the same for him. Once he had removed all my clothes, he pulled me to the floor and leaned over me.

He slowly moved down until his mouth was on me, and I lost all thought processes for a while until my orgasm exploded. I couldn't help but scream out, and he caught my scream with his mouth before I finished. He pulled back to look at me.

"Mmm. You are the closest I will ever get to ambrosia. You are so beautiful, angel. Never forget that."

Then he was in me and we rode together. We rolled around the floor taking turns being on top until he finally turned me over and took me from behind. He nuzzled my neck, so I moved my hair to the side and tilted my head to give him better access. When he bit me, I orgasmed again instantly. I felt everything—him, me, us. It was too much. I came again and he found his release with me. He licked the wounds before pulling away and turning me back around. He looked into my eyes before kissing me.

"Gods, I wish I could keep you," he said when he pulled back again.

I smiled at him and his expression turned sad for a moment before he smiled back. We dressed, and I started to leave.

"Thank you, Craven."

"Do not thank me, angel. It should be I who thank you. I am undeserving."

"Says who?"

I turned and walked out the door. I didn't love Craven. Or I guess I should say I wasn't in love with Craven and never would be. But because of him I felt much better about myself, and it wasn't _just_ the sex that made me feel that way.

## Twenty-One

I took the Marta back to the station close to my apartment, then walked the rest of the way. I was exhausted. The day had been an emotional roller coaster, and I was ready for it to be over. Unfortunately, the gods just wanted to give me a good kick in the teeth. As I walked up to my apartment, I saw Jared standing outside my door knocking.

"I'm not there," I said.

He turned around and looked relieved. "Caru, I'm glad I found you. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have acted that way. It wasn't that I was upset about what you said. It's just—"

"It's okay, Jared. I understand and it's all right. I'm fine with who I am."

"I'm just confused. Why do you say your father was a Demon?"

"Because it's the truth. Look, can we not have this conversation right now. I'm tired."

"Fine, just one thing. Do you believe I won't want you if I think you're half-Demon?"

"Judging by your reaction earlier, I was leaning in that direction."

He took a step farther, and I leaned back a little. I had just been with another man. I wasn't going to go kissing him or anything.

"Nothing can make me stop wanting you, caru. There is nothing you can say or do."

Okay, that wasn't what I had been expecting. Why the hell did I feel guilty all of a sudden? "Look, Jared. I don't think we should..."

He leaned forward to kiss me, and I turned my head. He stopped and used his hand to push my hair back. Apparently, he saw the bite marks.

"You let that Vampire feed from you?"

"What Craven and I do is none of your business."

I turned toward my door and started to unlock it. He turned me around to face him. "Why would you let a Vampire feed from you? Are you his regular donor?"

"What? No."

"Then why did you allow it this time?"

He searched my face, and I guess my guilt was obvious because he released my arm.

"You slept with him? You fucked that Vampire and let him feed from you? How could you? How could you do that to me?"

"I did nothing to you, Jared. You left me at a killer's house alone with nothing but his ashes and a couple of dead bodies in the garage because you couldn't deal with the truth about me. How do you think I felt?"

He just looked at me for a moment more, and there was pure anguish on his face. Then he turned and left without another word.

I let myself into my apartment before the tears started falling.

###

Thank you for reading Darkened: An Avery Tywella Novel. Read on for a preview of Deadened: Book Two of the Avery Tywella Series.

Deadened

Book Two of the Avery Tywella Series

S. L. Gavyn

## One

I hate Demon blood. It stank like something awful, and it was the color of dung. And unfortunately, I was covered in it. The last Demon I killed decided he would rather be ripped to shreds by my katana than allow me to trap him in Hell for all eternity with my stiletto. I still managed to stab him, but that was after he flung his nasty blood all over me.

I had just made it into my apartment and stripped my clothes off when my cell rang.

"Avery," I said.

"Ave, we gotta call about multiple Demon attacking a woman on Northside. The caller said they're squatting in a warehouse nearby," Kansas said.

"I'm throwing on some clothes, then I'll meet you there."

"We're at Dallas. A Demon attacked a woman in the club and all other agents are busy as well. Is it a full moon? 'Cause I swear the Demon have gone crazy, chica. Maybe Atlanta's their new hangout."

"Yeah, but the question is. Why? I'll check out this warehouse. If I need backup, I'll call you."

"Ten-four."

I dressed in record time, hopped in my car, and was on Northside in under ten minutes which is pretty good given it typically takes twenty just to drive there from my place.

I slowly cruised through the warehouse district. A lot of these warehouses have been converted into apartments over the last few years, but there were still quite a few that were either in regular use or abandoned. I passed a fairly new Charger parked in an abandoned lot and had to wonder who it could belong to. Most wouldn't leave their ride just sitting there in a neighborhood like this. I didn't see a home close enough to make sense for it being there. I decided it was a mystery I wasn't going to solve when I passed an obviously abandoned warehouse that had several makeshift lights on inside. I would bet that is my Demon nest.

I went past and parked in front of a building a few lots down. I pulled my hoodie and sheath on and made sure my other blades were in place before getting out and jogging back to the warehouse. Even though it was already early November the temps were still in the nineties during the day and were only dropping to low eighties at night. It was as though the Demon brought Hell with them because it usually isn't this hot this late into the year.

I stopped next to the side door, wiped my hands on my jeans to get the sweat off of them, and pulled out my katana and stiletto. I checked the knob and found it locked. I had taken a few steps back in preparation of kicking it in when the door opened and a Demon started to run out. I stabbed him in the chest with my stiletto before reciting the ritual that would bind him to Hell. He disappeared and three more made it past before I grabbed the next one and trapped him in Hell too.

Another one ran past. What the hell are they running from? I entered the door and another Demon ran toward me. I took him out and turned to see at least a dozen more fighting in the middle of the room. Jogging into the horde I stopped in my tracks as I watched Zach put his hand to a Demon's chest and his entire hand lit up bright white. Then the Demon was gone, and he was moving on to the next one. It was like nothing I've even seen before. One second the Demon was standing there, and the next, poof, the light explodes and it looks like star bits falling to earth. When I stab Demon with my stiletto and say the ritual, they just disappear, but according to Luke, the Demon they kill aren't just sent back to Hell. They are actually obliterated. Gone. Wiped off the plane of existence.

I stabbed the Demon in front of me in the back with my stiletto and he disappeared, then I turned to see Hash finish another Demon. I continued stabbing any I could get my hands on until there were no more.

I put my knife away and turned to look at the Fallen who had killed most of the Demon nesting here. I hadn't seen any of them in over four months. After the night I killed Jael, no one had contacted me. Since things didn't end too well with Jared, I really didn't mind not seeing him. I thought at least Luke would have made some contact, but it was as if they fell off the radar. They were still playing at Halo on the weekends, but Temmy said no one had spoken to her and she never saw any of them before or after a show.

"Well, hello there, Avery. Fancy meeting you here," Zach said as he looked me up and down.

"Zach. Hash." I nodded to each in turn. "What brought you here?"

Hash shrugged but didn't say anything.

"Luke said a Demon attacked someone and showed us where he went. We were surprised to find so many and pleasantly surprised to see you," Zach said while continuing to look me over.

"You don't want to mess with her, Zach. She'll probably rip your heart out and eat it," Hash said.

He looked the same as the last time I saw him. Same black hair, same piercings, same makeup, even the same eat-shit-and-die look on his face. But the last I'd talked to him, we were cool. What was his problem?

"I don't have a heart, Hash. You know that," Zach told him before looking back at me. "I have another part that wouldn't mind being inside you though." He raised his brows once.

"No thanks, Zach." I turned to Hash since he was more likely to give me a straight answer. "Does Luke know anything about the influx of Demon activity?"

Hash shrugged again. "Why do you care what a Fallen knows?"

"I care because it's my job to find out why the hell there are so many Demon in town."

"Well, you can take your job and shove it."

"What the fuck is your problem, Hash?"

He moved closer until he was just inside my personal bubble.

"My problem is that you fucked over my friend. That fucker has done more for me than anyone else on this entire fucked up plane, and you have him completely screwed up." He pointed toward his head with his forefinger and thumb extended and pretended to blow his brains out. "The best thing you can do is just stay away from us Fallen. We obviously aren't good enough for you anyway."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. If this is about Jared, we were never together, and I told him on numerous occasions that I didn't want to be with him. When I told him about my father. _He_ left _me_ —not the other way around."

Hash looked like he wanted to punch me.

"You lied to him, then when he takes a moment to try to figure out why, you go and fuck someone else. And you're blaming him? Like I said, just stay away from us. We were doing just fine until you came along."

"Fine. Whatever. Stay out of my way."

I turned around and left the warehouse. Apparently, Jared had told them about my sleeping with Craven. When did my love life become public knowledge? To hell with it.

I called my boss when I got back to my car.

"Yeah," he answered.

"Cop. It's Avery. Has Al found out anything about the women who have been attacked?"

"Women said they were injected with something and the docs at the hospital took blood samples. No word back yet on what was in it. Al checked them but got nothing since they didn't die."

"Did they say anything about the Demon's intentions? I mean, what happened? Did the Demon just happen to be walking by and decided to inject them with something? That just doesn't make sense. Maybe it was a roofie or something."

"That's close to what's in the reports. Demon attacked unprovoked and just stabbed them with a syringe. The vics didn't report feeling drugged. They were all violently sick, but then said they felt good. Not drugged, just good."

"That's crazy. Not that Demon activity isn't usually crazy, but that's out there, even for them."

Cop grunted in agreement.

"All right. I'm going to patrol a bit since the others are busy. I'll check in when I'm finished."

"Call for backup if you need it, Tywella."

"Will do, boss."

I hung up and headed for Buckhead. That is the main entertainment area of Atlanta and that also happens to be where most of the Demon activity has been.

A few hours later, I had managed to kill three Demon that I spotted trying to drag a woman into an alley. I was just starting my car to see what else I could find when my phone started ringing. I didn't recognize the number.

"Hello," I said.

"Avery, its Luke."

What the hell? Was I going to talk to all the Fallen in Atlanta tonight? Gods, I hope not. I really don't want to talk to Jared. Sam's the one I'm least likely to talk to though since he's never spoken in my presence. I didn't know if he couldn't or if he just didn't want to. It really wasn't my business.

"What's up, Luke?" As if I didn't already have my suspicions.

"I want to see if you could come by? I'm sure you've seen there has been an influx of Demon activity recently."

"Yeah, I've noticed. I think you should just tell me what you know over the phone. I ran into Hash earlier and he seems to think it would be better if I keep my distance from the Fallen of Atlanta."

"He's just trying to protect Jared."

"I think he's right. After the way things ended, I don't think it would be a good idea to start hanging around."

"You could just come by the house for a few after the show. I could show you what I've found out, and you and Jared could try to work things out."

"Yeah, that sounds like a really bad idea."

"Well, could you at least come by the club? I really do need to talk to you about the Demon."

I sighed and looked at the time. It was already midnight on Friday night. The band must be on their break. I really don't want to hang out after the show.

"I'll come by tomorrow night before the show. Okay?"

"You can't come by tonight? We'll be finished in another hour."

"Sorry, I have things to do."

"All right. I'll talk to Hash before you come tomorrow, so he doesn't give you any grief."

"'Kay. I'll see you Luke."

I really didn't want to have to talk with Jared, but I knew Luke had been keeping up with the Demon activity. Maybe he could help me figure out what they were after. I'd keep hunting for Demon tonight, then talk to him tomorrow, and maybe we'll be able to come up with a game plan for taking out these insane Demon. If I was lucky, I could avoid Jared while I'm at the club. Unfortunately, I was seldom lucky.

## Available Books by S. L. Gavyn

The Forged by Magic Series

Brimstone

Iron Made

Dragon's Flame

Ange Noir: A Forged by Magic Prequel Novella

The Avery Tywella Series

Darkened

Deadened

Deceived

Craven: An Avery Tywella Companion Novel

Damned

Devoted

The Fabled Series

The Fabled

Fable City

Fabled Lost

The Fallen–Fey Chronicles

The Darkness

The Cursed

The Light

The Broken

The Driven
