Синтия Иден - Midnight's Master

“You knew that I had a master’s degree in pharmacology, didn’t you, Holly?” Zack took the syringe from Holly. “This is a little brew I’m pretty proud of, I’ve got to say. Sure, it doesn’t work perfectly. I haven’t quite figured out the demon system, but it can knock a demon out in five seconds.”

“But sometimes the demons wake up before they’re supposed to,” Michelle said. “Like a patient in the middle of an operation when the anesthesia wears off.”

They were both insane.

“Sure you don’t want a taste?” Zack brought the needle close to her arm. “You’ll be out so fast-”

And what? Wake up when they were cutting her open? “Keep that thing away from me!” There had to be a way for her to escape.

Why-why couldn’t she have been born with stronger demon powers? She would have loved to be able to toss the freak duo across the room with just a thought.

He leaned toward her. “Are you scared, Holly?”

Hell, yes, but she’d never admit it to him.

An expression of sadness drifted over his face. “I had plans for you, back at the beginning. I was going to spend my life with you-”

“You were screwing her !” Bad enough he was threatening to kill her, now she had to listen to this crap again.

His nostrils flared. “Michelle understood me.”

Uh, yeah, that was obvious. Who else would have joined in to help him torture and kill?

Michelle’s fingers curled over his shoulder. “Of course, I do. You just want to make the world a better place.”

His shoulders fell and blessedly, that needle dropped away from her arm. “That’s all I want. To rid the Earth of those who don’t belong, the mutations who should never have been born.”

So now she was a mutation?

“I’ve got to check outside,” Zack murmured, placing the syringe on the instrument tray. “Got to make sure I see the demon coming.”

Because if he didn’t, Niol would kill him before Zack ever had a chance to scream.

He turned away, hurrying from the room.

And leaving her with Ms. Cut Happy.

Michelle tilted her head, seeming to listen to Zack’s footsteps as they faded away.

Holly glanced around the room, trying to figure out where she was. The walls were bare, old, yellow. No furniture was in the room.

Another abandoned house? An old office building? Where?

“What can you do?” Michelle asked and Holly’s gaze turned back to her. The woman studied her with narrowed blue eyes. “Can you make fires? Move objects?”

Why did she want to know?

“I don’t think you can,” she continued. “You would have tried something by now.”

True.

“Carl tried.” She lifted her hand and brushed back the long fall of blond hair that partially hid her forehead. The move revealed a slanting red gash. Still healing. “He got me-”

Good for Carl. She was glad he’d gone out fighting. He’d always been a fighter.

“But he couldn’t stop Zack.”

Holly swallowed.

“What can you do?” Michelle asked again.

Nothing. But she’d be damned if she admitted her weakness. Instead, Holly narrowed her own eyes and growled, “You really don’t want to find out.”

Michelle jerked away, her elbow ramming into the table. “The p-power is wasted on you! You don’t deserve it, just like you didn’t deserve him.”

Now that didn’t sound like a woman who thought demons were a terrible mutation who needed to be stopped. Holly’s lips parted. “You don’t want to destroy the demons-you want to find out where their strength comes from!” Because she wanted the same power. Twisted bitch.

Michelle just smiled her cold, perfect smile.

Holly jerked against the restraints. “Get me out of here, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” A lie, but so what?

The smile dimmed a bit.

“I didn’t start out as a demon,” Holly continued, voice low. “I became one.” Ah, but she could bullshit with the best of them. “You can change, too. Let me go and I’ll tell you everything. ”

Michelle’s fingers fluttered in the air. She glanced toward the open door.

Come on. Come on…

Then she looked back at Holly. “I-”

“He’s here!” Zack’s bellow.

Holly’s heart seemed to stop.

Zack ran into the room, face flushed. “Get ready! Grab the g-”

The wall behind him exploded.

When the dust cleared, Niol was there-looking tall and dark and very pissed.

And Zack, bleeding and shaking, was at Holly’s side, the scalpel pressed to her throat. “You so much as blink, demon, and I’ll cut her from ear to ear.”

The blade already was cutting her. Digging into her skin and sending a rivulet of blood sliding over her flesh.

Niol’s black eyes were on Zack. So much fury. The air in the room boiled with his rage.

Holly wasn’t breathing anymore.

Then Niol laughed and she’d never heard a colder sound. “Dr. Hall, you don’t know who the fuck you’re dealing with-”

The floor trembled, rolled, and when Zack cried out, Niol raised his hand. The scalpel jerked free of Zack’s fingers and flew right to Niol’s waiting palm.

The restraints holding Holly broke free. Love demon power. She heaved up, twisted, and shoved both of her feet right into Zack’s chest. He stumbled back, arms waving as he tried to catch himself.

The bastard hit the floor, hard, and Holly jumped to her feet.

“My kill. ” Niol’s voice was guttural.

She hesitated and glanced up into his eyes.

Niol stalked forward. Zack flew up into the air as if jerked by a puppet string. “You took what was mine, asshole.” The puppet master. Niol threw him across the room.

Zack thudded into the far wall, landing close to a slowly rising and bleeding Michelle.

The floor rolled again.

Niol is out of control. She knew it, could feel it in the fierce rush of air all around her.

“Now I’m going to take everything that’s yours.”

Zack’s fingers shot up and he began clawing at his throat, as if fighting against unseen hands. His face mottled and his eyes bulged.

Niol was killing him, with just a thought.

“Niol-”

The roar of a gun.

No.

Holly jerked at the sound. Michelle was on her feet, a wide grin on her bloody lips, and a gun in her hand.

One that was aimed right at Niol.

One that she’d already shot.

“Again!” A scream from Zack. A Zack who was breathing again.

Holly’s gaze flew to Niol. A red circle, ever widening, bloomed in the middle of his chest. The bitch had fired straight at him, right into his heart.

Niol fell to his knees.

“No!” This time, the roar was Holly’s.

The bitch had shot him. Niol’s legs sagged beneath him and his knees hit the floor with bruising force.

Fuck. Should have made sure she was out.

His chest burned while a cold numbness eased into his finger-tips.

“Again!” Zack screamed.

Niol lifted his head and locked eyes on the woman. He’d take the hit, then take them both down because there was no damn way he’d ever let them hurt Holly.

Shaking, he tried to rise-

Holly stepped in front of him.

The heart that the first bullet had barely missed stopped.

A laugh from the crazy blonde.

“No, Holly, move!” She wasn’t like him. She couldn’t take a shot and survive.

“Not in a vital organ!” The soon-to-be dead man’s scream. “She won’t live, he will- not in a vital or-”

Niol grabbed Holly. No damn way.

He shoved her to the floor.

The second bullet tore through his shoulder.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

These humans were pissing him off.

His feet slipped on the tile as he fought to rise. Too much blood, dripping everywhere. Too much-