Angelic Surrender
The smell of brimstone singed Anjali’s nostrils, and she quickened her pace. Heavy breathing and pounding footsteps echoed down the nearly deserted street behind her. Logan had better kick it up a notch if he wanted to keep up with her.
The scent seemed to call to her like a child’s taunt on the playground. I dare you to catch me if you can.
She grinned. Catching demons was what she did best. She raced forward and focused her second sight when the smell became overwhelming.
“Anjali, are you sure you know where you’re going?” Logan called out after her.
She jerked to a stop and scanned her surroundings. The dim lights from the lanterns illuminated the red and gold adornments on the buildings. They’d chased the demon from Little Italy into Chinatown. Just what she needed—a confusing maze of twisting alleys. But on the upside, it might be easier to trap it now.
Logan stopped next to her and leaned over, his lungs working like a blacksmith’s bellows. For all his surfer-boy good looks, he had lead feet. “Thanks for letting me catch up.”
“You’re the one who wanted to come hunting with me.” She moved forward, scanning each alley. A flicker of movement caught her eye when she passed the third one on the right.
Bingo!
A shadowy figure with clawed fingers nearly a foot long crouched behind a dumpster. She took a step closer, and it tightened into a smaller ball around its bloated belly, revealing the line of spines that decorated its back. A Gaki. Thankfully, this seemed to be a small one, only the size of a grown man.
“You’ve found it?”
“It’s behind the dumpster.” She inched closer to have a direct shot at it. “Stay behind me, Logan.”
That’s when the Gaki charged.
Anjali barely had time to cast a quick spell before it collided with her stunned friend. His clothes ignited from the brief contact, and Logan reflexively responded with the whole Stop, Drop, and Roll routine.
Fury burned at her like the flames on his clothes. I may not be much of a witch, but I know how to handle you. She channeled her anger into the pit of her stomach, allowing it to gather until she had enough to unleash her spell. To the normal human eye, nothing happened, but with her second sight, she watched the magic coil around the demon like a golden rope.
A shrill cry from the demon’s mouth sent a shiver down her spine. It fell to the ground. The more it struggled, the tighter the bonds became. A hiss rose from the asphalt where it lay.
Logan stood and examined the burn marks on his clothes. “A little warning would have been nice.”
“That’s why I told you to stand behind me.” A grin touched her lips, masking her relief that her best friend hadn’t been injured. “Demons aren’t like vampires.”
“Tell me about it.” He squinted in the direction where her hands pointed. “Do you have it?”
“Yep.” She added a new surge of magic to the bonds, and another screech echoed off the buildings of Chinatown.
He shook his head. No one saw what she saw, but then, that’s why she was the only demon hunter in the Kavanaugh Foundation. They had hundreds of employees who could spot a vampire on a crowded street, but she could sense demons in a way none of them could. How was that for a psychic gift? Being the only freak in the Foundation led to dozens of requests to accompany her on hunts. She’d declined all but a few. If Logan hadn’t been her closest friend for the last ten years, he’d be patrolling the streets of Manhattan alone, looking for vampires instead of chasing after her tonight.
“So, what do you do now?”
Good question. She never quite understood the “what happens after I catch the demon part”. Up until now, she’d just been happy to cleanse the air of the sulfuric stench of brimstone. “I wait until it gets swallowed up by the earth.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Nope. I catch them, and something else deals with them.”
“And that doesn’t weird you out or anything?”
She bit her bottom lip. How could she explain to him when she couldn’t quite explain it to herself? When the earth opened to swallow the demons she’d captured, a shield of magic seemed to wrap around her. It wasn’t a spine crawling experience. More like a warm blanket protecting her from whatever lay on the other side of the rift. Whatever the other part of the equation was, she didn’t fear it.
The air around the demon wavered, and for the first time, she noticed the distortion took the distinct shape of a man. No distinct features, nothing else to give a clue to her counterpart other than his height and the way his arms grabbed the demon by the magical bindings. She felt the tug and released her bonds.
Curiosity heightened her senses. She wanted to know more about this invisible man other than the way his hair seemed to sway around his jaw and the rippling lines of his biceps. She reached forward.
Firm, warm flesh grazed her fingertips.
The brief touch sent a jolt through her entire body, and she jerked back in surprise. He was more than just ethereal matter. He was real, solid like her.
A hiss zipped through the space between them, and the distortion flinched.
Was I not supposed to touch him? Did I cause him pain? She scurried back to Logan, not wanting to cause her counterpart any more distress.
The ground opened, and the red glow of the underworld illuminated the invisible man’s features— straight nose, pronounced cheekbones, sensual lips. Enough to make a girl feel hot and bothered just from his silhouette. As soon as the demon fell through the rift, the man disappeared.
She frowned and searched the area for the telltale distortions, but saw nothing. A headache formed in her temples, announcing it was time to stop using her second sight. She sighed and relaxed, letting the world appear normal in front of her once again.
“So, are you going to tell me what freaked you out?”
She turned and realized she’d been holding on to Logan during the entire time. She released him and frowned at the soot stains on her hands and clothes. “You’re filthy.”
“Yeah, and I know how you feel about dirt.” He rubbed his hand on his charred clothes and then on her face. “You’d make a pretty chimney sweep.”
She wrinkled her nose and swatted at him. The first thing she wanted to do when she got home was scrub her skin clean.
“Spill it, or I’ll keep covering your face with smudges.”
“Fine.” She wiped her hands on her jeans, hoping to erase some of the dirt from her palms. She mentally replayed the vision of the man she’d seen in the fiery light and forgot about the soot. “I think I saw someone else.”
Logan crossed his arms and raised a brow. “Oh?”
“It looked like a man.” She stepped forward and knelt by the scorch marks on the road where the demon had lain. “He took the demon from me and disappeared, but not before I touched him.”
“And what did he feel like?”
“Like you or me, but different. It was like getting hit with magic at the same time.”
“A warlock?”
“Maybe. It didn’t burn, so I don’t think he was a demon.”
He crouched beside her and stared at the black smudge in front of them. “Are you sure you’re not hallucinating?”
“No, I touched him, whatever he was.” She turned to Logan and cocked her head to the side. “You believe me, right?”
“Of course, Anjali. With the exception of your OCD tendencies, I’d say you’re mostly sane.”
Her lips twitched in a grin. “Mostly sane?”
“Well, you have to be a little bit insane to work for the Foundation.” He helped her to her feet and threw his arm around her shoulders. “Ready to head home?”
“Sure. Are you?”
“I’ll have to change my clothes, but other than that, I need to get back to my job. Unlike demons, the undead tend to prowl the streets on a daily basis.”
“Poor vampire hunter,” she teased.
***
Vassago hid in the alley and watched the petite Indian woman walk down the street with her companion. In all the millennia of finding and returning escaped demons to Hell, only a few humans had noticed him unless he’d wanted to be seen.
None had dared to touch him without permission.
Until now.
He glanced down at his wrist and remembered how odd an uninvited human touch felt. Her warmth had shot straight up his arm and exploded in his chest. It exhilarated him the same way killing an enemy or flying above the clouds did. He wanted to experience it again and took a step after her, only to retreat back into the shadows. He needed to know more about her before he approached her again. For now, he’d watch and learn what made her so different from the rest of the humans.