Jaci Burton - Taken by Sin

The fear left the demon’s face and it smirked. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

Mandy snorted. She couldn’t wait for the chance to go one-on-one with this piece of shit. Her silver-tipped dagger was nice and cold strapped to her thigh. She’d love to plunge it in this bastard’s excuse for a heart. But with it tied down like that there’d be no fun in stabbing it. She wanted it free and coming at her so the fight would be fair.

“Why don’t you tell us what we’re dealing with,” Michael said, his voice calm. He was even smiling.

“You think your cold room and these bindings can hold me?”

Michael crossed his arms. “Are you saying they can’t?”

James lifted its chin. “Of course not.”

“Then go ahead, dematerialize into mist or break the restraints.”

The demon shot Michael a look of pure malice. “You’re testing me, have me hooked up to wires or something. I’m not giving away my secrets.”

“You can’t get out of the freakin’ chair. Do you think we’re stupid?” Mandy smirked at the demon’s attempt at superiority.

“Yes, I think you’re stupid. All humans are.”

Mandy cupped the knife at her thigh. Michael’s hand covered hers and patted it gently.

She so couldn’t wait for this fight.

Michael cocked his head to the side. “You look human to me.”

“That’s the idea.”

“What’s the idea?”

James opened its mouth to speak, then shook its head. “I’ve got nothing to say.”

It wanted to brag. Mandy knew it. It wanted to show them how “advanced” it was to the rest of them.

Michael backed away, leaned against the frozen wall, looked bored, as if he didn’t care. “We can just leave you here until you rot.”

The demon said nothing.

“They won’t care whether you die or not. You’re only one of many to them. If they lose you, they’ll just make another.”

Mandy noticed Michael didn’t say who “they” were. But James knew. The Sons of Darkness.

“What did they offer you to give up your humanity?” Michael asked. “To give up your life?”

“Immortality, asshole. They want smart, good-looking humans. In return, we get to live forever, and we get all these cool skills.”

“Like shifting into mist, for example,” Michael offered.

The demon nodded. “Exactly.”

“Is that it?” Mandy asked, already picking up from Michael that they were playing the Good Cop, Bad Cop game. “That’s the best you’ve got? Shifting into mist? Because I’ve gotta tell you, that’s not much.”

“Better than what you’ve got, bitch.”

She didn’t rise to the bait this time. Oh, but it took a lot of effort. She’d really like to wipe that smart-ass smirk off the demon’s face.

“She has a point,” Michael said, keeping his voice low and even. “Disappearing is a nice act, but surely there has to be more benefit for what you’re asked to do.”

“Superhuman strength, immunity to all disease. No need to eat, or sleep, though we do need to feed.”

This guy was a wealth of information. The Sons of Darkness were going to have to work on the discretion thing. This demon was so full of itself it just had to brag.

“You said you didn’t need to eat, but you need to feed.” Michael made a show of studying his nails, as if he wasn’t really all that interested in the answer. “That seems rather … human to me.”

“Not food, you moron.”

“Then what?” Michael asked.

“Life force. Energy.”

“And how do you do that?” Michael asked.

“It’s so damn easy you wouldn’t believe it. Just press your fingers against a human’s neck, embed, and suck the life right out of them.”

Mandy’s gaze snapped to the demon’s. “How the hell does that work?”

The demon laughed. “Hell if I know. It just does. And oh, man, there’s nothing like the feeling of your victim wrestling for freedom underneath you. The power just pouring into you. It’s like you can feel their soul seeping out of them as they die. That’s some heady shit.”

She’d show it heady. How would it like to have its life force sucked right out of it? Mandy would bet she could figure a way to make that happen.

“That’s all you need to sustain your existence?” Michael asked.

The demon gave a short nod. “That’s it. We have no weaknesses.”

Everything had weaknesses. Everything could die.

“We will rule. You’ll find out soon enough.” The demon looked them over as if they were nothing but insects. “We are superior over humans and growing stronger every day. There are more and more of us coming on board, and the Masters are turning us at a rapid rate. Soon, we’ll take over and you’ll bow to us.”

“That’s pretty big talk coming from someone strapped in and held prisoner,” Mandy said.

The demon grinned. “Only a matter of time before I’m out of here.”

Mandy snorted.

“Don’t turn your back on me, bitch. You’ll be dead.”

“Knock the thing out,” Michael ordered the tech. An injection into its IV and the demon’s eyelids closed, but not before it sent Mandy a pale, blue-eyed look of utter hatred.

These demons had emotion. And egos. Too bad it was out cold. Mandy enjoyed the banter. And she really wanted to kill it, but not while it was strapped down like that. She wanted it free and going one-on-one with her.

She’d show it who was superior then. That demon had overconfidence written all over it. Which meant it was doomed.

Shivering from the subzero temperatures, Mandy stepped outside the room with Michael, peeling off the layers as she did. She rubbed her arms to get the circulation going again.

“Thinks a lot of itself, doesn’t it?” she remarked.

“You could say that. Obviously they assume they’re indestructible,” Michael said as they strolled down the sterile white hallway and into an office. “That could be a critical mistake.”

Mandy slid onto a well-worn leather sofa. “I can’t believe it gave us so much information.”

Michael pulled up a chair in front of the metal desk, turning the chair to face Mandy. “It doesn’t see us as a threat. So it felt safe in boasting about its talents. Obviously the Sons of Darkness haven’t taught their new recruits the better part of discretion.”

“So what do we do with all that information now?”

“Since we know it feeds on humans, the first thing I want to know is if there are victims, and if so, how spread out are they? I’m going to have the Realm run a search of hospital emergency rooms and morgues, also police records, see if there have been any suspicious attacks, injuries, or deaths in recent weeks. That should tell us how widespread these demons are.”

“I hope they’re contained.”

“I would bet they’re not. The Sons of Darkness want to wage their war worldwide. I imagine we’re going to see these types of injuries crop up internationally.”

Mandy grimaced. “That’s a nightmare in the making.”

“Yes and no. The fact that these creatures have to feed is a good thing. It means we can spot where they’ve been.”

“After the fact.”

“True enough,” Michael said. “Not ideal, but it gives us a way of identifying their locations.”

“And if they are everywhere?” she asked.

His gaze was direct, and she already knew she wasn’t going to like his answer. “Then we take them out one at a time, one location at a time. We’ll alert all the other Realm cells to know what to look for. We’ll figure out how to spot them.”

New demons to hunt. Great. But at least having them on human turf made them easier to battle. Sort of.

“How do we kill them? Have we actually been able to kill one yet?”