Синтия Иден - Midnight Sins

The bastard was trying to push his buttons. “I want you to step out of the shadows and come fully into the light.” The guy’s hands were clearly visible, and he wasn’t holding a weapon, but Todd knew a threat when he saw one.

“How does it feel to know that when the chips are down, Cara turns to him instead of you?”

The bastard’s shitty mind games weren’t going to work with him. “ Step into the light.”

“If that’s what you want…”

Cameron stepped forward.

The back door of Paradise Found shot open and slammed against the side of the building.

“Todd!”

His head jerked at Cara’s cry.

“Get away from him!” Niol’s order blasted through the night.

Cameron turned to run.

What the hell? Todd’s gaze snapped back to him as he sprang forward. “Freeze! Damn it, don’t you—”

A woman stepped into the mouth of the alley. For a moment, the streetlight fell over the fire of her hair.

Todd’s lips parted to shout a warning.

Cameron barreled into her and knocked her onto the ground. Their bodies tangled, twisted.

Todd rushed toward them, Cara and Niol on his heels and—

The incubus rose with a sneer on his lips and his arms tight around Holly Storm. One hand locked around her neck, the other rose around her waist, so that his fingers pressed right against the middle of her chest. “Don’t take another step,” he snarled.

In that moment, Todd knew that things had just taken a serious shit turn. He froze, but didn’t lower his weapon so much as an inch. “Cameron, I don’t know what’s gotten you so upset, but you just need to calm down . I only want to talk to you. Let go of the woman and let’s go back inside.” He pitched his voice low, tried to sound soothing. A hard task with alarms shrieking in his head.

The incubus shook his head. Holly twisted against him, struggling, cursing, but he easily held her prisoner.

Too easily, and with that damn demon strength of his, Todd knew that Cameron could snap her neck long before he’d be able to reach the reporter.

Hell. Hadn’t he told the woman to go home ? Why couldn’t anyone take a simple order anymore?

The soft tap of a footstep had his eyes widening. He saw Cameron’s gaze fly to the left.

To Cara.

Oh, no damn way was he about to risk her. “Go inside, Cara. Go inside, now. ”

“Stay, Cara!” Cameron’s scream of fury. “After all, this is all about you.”

Aw, fuck.

Todd looked into Cameron’s black eyes and saw madness. Fury. Hate.

Love.

All directed at Cara.

Shit . He’d seen that same look before—in the eyes of men who’d murdered their girlfriends. Men who’d slaughtered their wives. Their whole damn families.

He was staring at a killer.

A killer too fixated on Cara.

The signs had pointed to the obsession from the beginning. He just hadn’t figured out the case fast enough.

No, the incubus wasn’t clear in the Bondage Killings—he was guilty as hell.

Todd took a step toward Cara.

“Stay away from her!” A shriek of fury.

Todd froze. This bastard’s past control. He knew he had to distract him—no way did he want Komak focusing on Cara right then. “How’d you do it?” he asked, still keeping his voice easy while rage and fear pumped through his blood in a boiling mix. “How’d you fool Gyth? You should have been covered with knife wounds and—”

Cameron laughed. Laughed. Then bent to press his nose into Holly’s hair.

Her struggles stilled, as if the woman finally understood just how much danger she was in. About time.

“It’s them.” He inhaled slowly, as if savoring her scent. “I never knew how much power humans had.”

“Cameron, no…” Cara. Horrified. Disbelieving.

“When you take everything from them, the fucking rush is unbelievable.” He turned his head, smiled. Madness. “I’m stronger now. So much more damn powerful.” Another laugh, one that floated on the wind and twisted the air. “And I can heal ten times faster than before.”

So fast there hadn’t been a trace of the wounds on him. But Niol had said the guy was sick that morning. He hadn’t fully recovered by then, but—

But he had by the time Gyth found him and hauled his ass into the station.

Shit.

“Cara isn’t the one you want.” Niol’s voice and damn if the demon didn’t just saunter forward from the darkness. No weapon, well, hell, Todd guessed that wasn’t totally true. If he really was a level-ten, then Todd figured the guy’s powers were all the weapon he needed. Niol stopped just to Todd’s right, standing nearly shoulder to shoulder with him.

Just what I need, the devil for backup.

The incubus blinked. Shook his head. “Thought it was…her.” His voice was slower now, a bit confused. “For years…thought she’d done it.”

“Done what, Cameron?” Maybe if he lunged forward fast enough, he’d be able to break the demon’s hold and free Holly. Unlikely, considering how strong the guy was, but if he caught him off guard—

“I thought…she killed…my brother.”

Snap. The last puzzle piece fell into place. Much too late.

Niol had told him, but he hadn’t fully understood…“ Cameron’s mother left his father for a human.”

“…she had a new family to look out for…”

The words played through his head, too loud.

Todd would bet that new family included a brand spanking new human brother named—

“Lance.” Cara breathed the name. “You—you’re the one who told him how to kill Nina!” The agony in her voice pierced Todd like a knife.

The incubus was going down.

But first, he had to keep Cara safe.

And save the hostage.

Hell. Talk about not having an easy job.

Cameron’s hold tightened around Holly’s neck. “The bitch deserved it! She was always shaking her ass in front of me, acting like she was too good for my touch, but she laid down fast enough for Lance—and then she tried to get him addicted—”

“She loved him!” A scream of fury. Todd flinched, unable to control his emotional response to the pain coming from Cara.

“I told him what she was. Told him just how to stick the bitch so she’d go down and not lift that demon head again—”

“You sonofabitch.” Niol’s voice was ice cold, where Cara’s words had been fired with the heat of her rage. Niol stood, hands clenched, attention fully focused on Cameron. “You sold out your own.”

“Lance was mine—my brother, human, but mine !” The blasting rage matched Cara’s.

Todd could feel the change in the wind. The slight increase in temperature, the additional pressure of the air on his skin. Power was gathering. But whether it was Cara’s, Cameron’s, or, Christ Forbid , Niol’s level-ten hell, he wasn’t sure.

And he really, really didn’t want to find out.

“I was gonna make you pay, Cara!” The fury was leashed now, but Cameron’s eyes were still pitch black. The demon was out and ready to kill. “I waited—all these years, fucking waited until I was strong and you were weak. I found the perfect way to get back at you.” He licked his lips. “I was gonna turn your world upside down and leave you with nothing!”

“You bastard—you did that already! You and your brother destroyed my world when you took my sister away from me. She was all that I had! My flesh, my—”

“ He was all that I had! The only one who understood me, the only one who—”