Heat

Within moments, the same thing happened but this time in reverse. Misery’s back arched and her eyes turned blood red as the snaky darkness squirmed its way up her body then sank into her aura. The other side would wait until Misery gave them a sign… then they would have their strongest attack from the other side.

Misery’s expression turned mischievous. She’d been careful up till now… feeling the pure blood fallen tracking her movements. Now was not the time to become careless but she needed the power it would take to break through the portal. Misery’s expression slowly changed into one of anger as she felt a presence behind her.

Exploding into a cloud of darkness, she reformed as she attached her corpse’s form around the demon that had been spying on her. “Misery will give you a closer look.”

Zeb didn’t flinch as the rotting arm tightened around his neck and he was suddenly staring down into the rift. “Would you banish Zeb for offering his help?” His plump lips twisted in a sneer, “Such lust I feel from you. What is it Misery is hungry for?”

“I can get what I need from the humans… why would I need your help with this?” Misery ran a hand over the short fat man’s balding head then she released him only to circle his bloated body.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” Zeb had barely finished the invitation when Misery’s bony fingers punched their way through the flesh he used to hide in.

Misery could feel the demon within and smiled sadistically as she read its soul. This demon had been in the city for a very long time and had been wise enough to keep a low profile. She could sense its fear of the fallen that lived here along with fear of other creatures she knew nothing about.

Zeb was a weak demon and useless in a fight. He would be easy to kill, but Misery could sense his other powers… powers she could exploit to suit her purposes.

This demon could detect the lust within a human and magnify that to deliciously evil measures. She saw some of the things Zeb had done recently as she tapped into his memories. Like the jealous husband losing his cool and killing his wife… an angry employee taking a gun to work for revenge… the desperate man robbing a bank and getting shot as he walked out the door.

Zeb could make a hungry human eat until their guts split open, or make someone depressed become suicidal. He could even go as far as to make a druggie or alcoholic overdose on their poison of choice… all pushed beyond their control. Zeb made people hungry for whatever they craved, their darkest of secrets and Misery could feed off the evil spawned from them.

“Misery will use you,” she hissed as she pulled her hand from his flesh.

“I know,” Zeb smiled as the blood spilling from him reentered his body in a backwards waterfall… sealing the wound.

If he were human, then he would have been labeled a business man of sorts. Making deals with other demons was how he’d survived this long. If he teamed up with Misery and fed her the power she wanted to bring more demons into the city, then he would not be so noticeable to the fallen.

*****

Chad stared at the crime scene in horror as he kept his gun trained on the man who was already cuffed and being dragged out of the operating room. The police department had called him in because this was the third time today they had found something this disturbing. What in the hell would make a man do something like that? He was a doctor for crying out loud… supposed to be saving lives, not take them.

“I just wanted to see what it would look like,” the doctor yelled as he struggled to get one more look before he was taken away. “She’s perfect now.”

Chad felt the nausea rise and had to look away. Right there on the operating table lay the man’s masterpiece. He’d taken a elderly bedridden lady whose body was shutting down and replaced her insides… including brain, with parts from a young woman who had come into the emergency room with an ear ache only a couple hours ago.

Hearing a female gasp behind him Chad turned his head seeing Angelica, Zachary and Trevor coming into the room and frowned. “I was going to call you.”

Trevor shook his head, “Angelica has been tracking our demon all day and we’ve already been to your other crime scenes.”

Angelica gazed down at the young woman who had been tossed on the floor like an empty rag doll. They’d been one step behind Misery and she could feel the demon’s power growing but what disturbed her the most was the fact that even though Misery could feed off this… she couldn’t cause it to happen.

“It’s hard to believe one demon can cause this much chaos,” Trevor kept his back to the carnage. He’d never been one to mess with the demon cases and he wished now was no different. He kind of felt bad for the loss of a good doctor who had probably just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“It’s not just one demon,” Angelica tried to ignore the cold chills crawling up her spine. “And I’m afraid this is only the beginning.”

Zachary pulled out his cell phone and walked out of the room. Dialing Storm’s number, he waited until the call was directed into the PIT message system. This wasn’t the first time he’d left a message for Storm today. What was bothering him the most was that their fearless leader usually knew what he wanted before he called and often showed up before he finished even dialing the number.

*****

Micah had spent the last couple hours in Warren's office being brought up to speed on everything he’d missed. It was a lot to take in, but the fact that their families were once again united was something to be thankful for. His gaze strayed to Quinn and Kat knowing they were the ties that bind.

“It’s good to have everyone back together,” Quinn offered in Micah’s silence.

Micah rubbed his temple wondering if everyone had completely forgotten that Alicia existed. To his surprise, it was the newest family member that mentioned her.

“Where’s Alicia?” Jewel asked Steven wondering why she wasn’t here.

“Spending a couple days with a friend from boarding school,” Quinn answered then added, “It might be best if we find a college to send her to for a while.”

Michael noticed Micah’s knuckles turn white where he was gripping the arm of the chair where he was sitting. Honestly, he agreed with Micah’s anger. If they hadn’t spent all this time keeping Alicia at arm's length, then maybe she wouldn’t get in so much trouble trying to do things by herself.

“I’ve already talked to Alicia,” Micah glared at his brother. “She’s spent years waiting to come home and the last thing she wants is to be told she’s not welcome here. She got enough of that when Nathaniel was alive.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Quinn growled in self-defense. “She’s barely eighteen. Do you really think Night Light is the safest place for her right now knowing the mess we are in?”

“No, that’s why I’ve already sent her to live with Michael.” Micah smiled knowing no one would argue with his logic, “That way she’s still here and a part of the family, but hopefully out of the direct line of fire.”

Envy’s cell phone chose that moment to go off much to the relief of most of the people in the crowded room. She quickly grabbed it trying to silence the song she’d picked to let her know it was Chad calling. She elbowed Devon in the ribs when he started singing, “I fought the law and the law won.”

“Chad,” she smirked, “perfect timing as usual.”

“You might not say that when I tell you why I called.” Chad ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s been one hell of a day.”

Envy held her hand up to silence Devon’s horrible karaoke stunt. “What’s wrong?”

“I hear Devon in the background. Put the phone on speaker,” Chad sighed.

Envy clicked it on speaker phone, “Okay, but it’s not just Devon, the whole gang’s here.”

“Good,” Chad said then proceeded to give them a run-down of today’s events. Once he was done he added, “Trevor's brought in a demon expert and she wants to talk to Dean about the demon if you can get a message to him. I also thought that maybe you could get a hold of Kriss and see what you could find out.”

“I’m on it,” Envy nodded, “and Chad… be careful.”

Chad’s tone of voice changed as that reminded him of something, “Hey Devon.”

“Yeah?” Devon frowned.

“If you ever let my sister get shot at again, I swear I’ll…” Envy’s eyes widened and she snapped the phone closed, cutting her brothers voice off.

“O…Kay,” Devon gave a halfhearted smile hearing a couple chuckles from the group.

“Not to change the topic from Devon having his ass kicked but,” Warren shook his head, “I’m hiring more shifters here at Moon Dance and Quinn has agreed to do the same for Night Light. Now that we’ve cut off the head of the alpha werewolf… and the mafia…”

“We need to be ready for two to grow back in its place,” Nick finished for him.

Quinn’s cell phone went off and he smirked at Devon, “Well at least all of Kat’s relatives are within seeing distance.” Looking at the caller ID, he noticed it was from the cougar he’d left in charge. Harley could take care of about anything in his absence so he knew it was important.

Holding up his hand to hush the crowd he answered, “Yeah Harley, what is it?”

“Quinn, unless you ordered a dead cougar instead of the normal drinks we serve, then we’ve got a problem.”