Vivi Anna: Releasing the Hunter

Daeva chuckled, then offered her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ivy Strom. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Ivy looked at the offered hand, then to Ronan. He shrugged. He had no clue what Daeva was up to. He’d never seen her behave this way.

“From who?”

“The word gets around. Hell’s not that big, you know. When one of us comes back, sent back by you, you can bet he’s right pissed about it.”

Ivy took a step forward so the edge of her boot touched the line of the pentagram. She reached through the binding and grasped Daeva’s hand.

From the look of rapt fascination on the demon’s face, Ronan almost expected her to pull Ivy into the pentagram. He reached over and grabbed Ivy around the waist.

The two women shook hands, and then Ivy pulled back and whipped around to glare at him. “What the hell are you doing?”

He released his hold on her, then sheepishly took a distancing step away. “Nothing.” He looked at Daeva; she was giving him a similar look.

He found the whole thing strange. It was like some weird female bonding thing that he just didn’t get. Next thing he knew, they would be going out shoe shopping or something.

He cleared his throat of the awkwardness he felt. “Okay, now that that’s done, tell us where Sallos is located.”

Daeva cocked her hip and wrapped a finger in her hair, playing with it both innocently and seductively. “Give me a piece of paper and I can give you an address.”

Ronan opened his duffel bag and came away with a notebook. He tore off a piece of paper and handed it to her. The demon took it, then ran her index finger over it. “There.” She handed it back to Ronan.

He looked down at it. There was an address scrolled on the paper in bright red. He didn’t even want to consider what she’d used for ink.

Ivy took it from him. She glanced at it, then at Daeva. “This better be right.”

“Oh, it is, honey. Don’t you worry your pretty little head.”

By the look of fury on Ivy’s face, Ronan decided it would probably be best if he ended the “call” and sent Daeva back to wherever she came from. “Thank you, Daeva, for the information.”

“My pleasure, Ronan, darling. I always love it when you come a-knocking at my door.” Then she put her gaze on Ivy. “It was a pure pleasure meeting you, Ivy Strom. Say hi to your brother for me, will you?” She smiled, blew her a kiss and then snapped her fingers. She was gone in a flash and a puff of spices.

“What was that about?” Ronan asked.

Ivy shrugged. “I have no idea. Quinn’s exorcised a lot of demons, so maybe she’s got a bone to pick with him.” Ivy folded the piece of paper and shoved it into her pants pocket. “Nice choice of contact, by the way.”

He gathered his gear back up and put it in his bag. “She’s always reliable.”

“What does she usually ask for, for payment?”

He picked up the bag and swung it over his shoulder. He grinned. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” With a bit of a swagger in his step, Ronan walked past Ivy to return to the hotel.

He felt her piercing gaze on his back all the way to their hotel room. It made him grin like a fool who’d just won a bet. He was getting to her, just like he’d planned.

When they got back to the room, Ivy sat down on the edge of the bed and unfolded the paper that the demon had given them. Her hands shook a little, and she put them down at her sides so Ronan wouldn’t see them. She was a bit unnerved by the exchange between her and Daeva. When she’d shaken her hand, she got the overwhelming sense that the demoness didn’t mean her any harm and, in fact, had been pleased to meet her. It had been strange, to say the least.

“Fifty-five Fourth Street.”

“That’s what it says.”

“That’s downtown. Do you have a map?”

“Better.” Ronan reached into his pack and pulled out his iPhone.

She shook her head in disbelief.

“What? Don’t you have one? I can get all kinds of info on here. Maps and internet, voice dialing, even Facebook.” He grinned at that last one.

“Just look up the address, please.”

He tapped the screen what seemed like a hundred times. His face paled after a few minutes. He looked up at Ivy. “We might have a problem.”

“What?”

He handed her the phone. She looked down at the information displayed on the screen. She sighed. “You have got to be kidding. Is she serious with this info?”

Ronan leaned back in the worn chair at the table. “She’s never given me bad information before. I trust it.”

“It’s the Marriott Marquis, Ronan. How are we supposed to get in there and trap a demon without injuring thousands of people?”

“Carefully?”

“Not to mention having the cops involved. If we start a scene, and you know there will be one, they’ll be called in for sure.”

“I don’t know, but this is good intel. We can’t let it go to waste. We might not get another chance at this one.”

She sighed, then ran a hand over her face. He was right. They may never get another chance to find Sallos. She’d worked months to get the one tip on him for the club. The odds were if they didn’t act now, Sallos would kill again, maybe more than once, before she could catch him.

“Do you have a plan?” she asked Ronan between clenched teeth. She hated deferring to someone else for answers. She was used to relying on herself to have a good plan of action.

“The most logical thing to do is to check in and snoop around.”

“There are over a thousand rooms in the hotel. Even if we both dressed up as cleaning staff we’d never be able to search all those rooms.”

“We won’t have to. Sallos is all about the chase. He’ll be out and about on the prowl. There are a few bars in the hotel. He’ll be staking out one, if not more, for his next victim.”

She nodded, then handed the phone back to him. “You’re right.” She ran her hands over her pants, then stood. She glanced at her watch. “It’s four a.m. We can’t check in until what? Three in the afternoon?”

“Four.”

“That gives us some time to prepare.”

Ronan nodded. “Yeah, and find something else to wear. We can’t go into a posh hotel like the Marriott wearing stained denim and leather.”

“My place is likely destroyed, plus I imagine it’ll still be swarming with police.”

“Then I suggest shopping.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out four credit cards. He tossed them onto the bed.

Ivy reached down and plucked one. She read it. “Alex Irvine?”

He nodded. “Yup. I’m also Peter Jacobs, Brian Frost and my personal favorite, Harry Ennis.”

She groaned, but couldn’t stop her lips from twitching upwards. “If you tell me that the middle initial is P, I’m going to smack you really hard.”

“Nah, I didn’t go that far.” He laughed. “But they each have about a five grand limit, so I’m sure we can buy you something hot to wear.”

She glared at him. “I will not be wearing something hot, thank you very much.”

“Why not? You could definitely pull it off.”

She didn’t like that gleam in his eye again. It was the second time she’d seen it in the past few hours. The first time had been in the bathroom when he came across her showering. The cambion had another think coming if he thought there was going to be anything sexual between them.

They were working together. Work and sex didn’t mix.

And why was she even thinking about that anyway? It was more than just a work thing. It was a demon blood thing. Just because the man was devastatingly good-looking with wide, powerful shoulders and a smile that could disarm a nuclear weapon didn’t mean she was in any way thinking about having sex with him.