Demon's Fever (Hell Unleashed Book 1) Read online

She smirked in his direction, quickening her steps, and sat across from him. Her cheeks were glowing as if she’d been running. “Hope I’m not late.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Anyway, I’m Cary.” She stuck out her hand, and he reached over, accepting her hold and noting the small calluses on her palm. Maybe he’d been wrong. Smaller size meant agility.

  He held onto her hand, not quite ready to release her. “Levi.” He studied her steadfast expression, how she didn’t drop his gaze, and how she showed no sign of backing away. Oh yeah, she was a fighter.

  She withdrew her hand, and silence permeated the air between them. Levi shifted in his seat, the sudden awkwardness closing in around him.

  “What drink can I get you?” He broke the stillness, hoping a few drinks might loosen them both.

  “Vodka with lemonade.”

  He waved over a bartender and placed their orders, noting from his peripheral vision that Cary studied him. When he glanced her way, she jerked her attention to the pub surrounding them. Something he always did when he entered a new location, or when he was busted checking someone out.

  “Sorry for bowling you over today. I try not to make it a habit of colliding into people.”

  “Where were you going so fast, anyway?”

  “This damn speck, who—”

  The way Cary creased her brow stole his words. Of course, she’d have no clue what a speck was, or maybe she did. What if he was wrong about her being a hunter, and she was a family friend of Brent’s or a new accountant?

  “Do you know what Argos does?”

  She brushed firetruck strands of hair behind an ear. Longer curls draped over her shoulders and dipped past her curvy chest. Overhead light glinted against her green eyes. They looked too brilliant to be real, and a faint scattering of freckles dotted her nose and cheeks.

  “Well, funny story.” Her honeyed voice sliced his thoughts. “Brent found me this morning with a demon.”

  She hadn’t lowered her voice and spoke casually about the creatures invading the world. But there was nothing casual when it came to the demonic kind. The only barrier between evil ruling the world were hunters like Levi.

  “So, Brent saved you?” Levi couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Brent roll up his sleeves on a job. Probably mess his manicure.

  Cary’s posture flinched as if his words annoyed her. “No. I was fighting it.”

  “Ah, you’re a hunter. Who do you work for?”

  “No one. My dad trained me, and his dad him.”

  An independent hunting family. The only people he’d known to work freelance were ex-Argos employees. Perhaps the world of demon hunting was wider spread than he’d originally thought.

  Their drinks arrived, and Levi reached for his scotch on the rocks. The malty and oaky flavor dominated his mouth.

  Cary sipped her vodka, her eyes scanning him as if he were prey and he’d be hers anytime she asked.

  “You going to work as a hunter for Argos then?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  Knew it! Levi welcomed the idea of a female hunter as she might bring new ideas to the fight. Obviously, she didn’t just rely on strength, so he was curious.

  “You’re looking at me strangely.” Her lips pinched to the side as she slouched in her seat.

  “How?”

  “You think a girl can’t cut it.”

  Levi didn’t know why he found himself laughing, but her spunk intrigued him. “The opposite actually. You’ll be a good fit, just not sure Argos are the right guys, that’s all.”

  She leaned forward, the bridge of her petit nose creased. “Why’s that?”

  Taking a deep inhale, he dragged a hand through his hair. He could rant for a week on the shit Argos caused. “Management isn’t trustworthy, and they always put business before people. But I won’t influence your decision. A bunch of great people work there and what they do is essential to keeping innocents safe.”

  “Fair enough.” Her voice and attention dipped.

  Okay, he’d said the wrong thing. But he didn’t fluff his words with sparkles and candy. She had to know what she walked into when it came to Argos. She seemed to light up when they spoke of demons, so he moved back the conversation going that way. “What weapons do you use, if you’re willing to share?”

  She lifted her head with a smile and broke into her explanation of her handmade weapons. How she collected the materials from junkyards and churches. The passion from her voice and animated hands made him smirk. Anyone who went to that much effort was 100 percent invested. Most of the staff at Argos could learn from Cary since they’d become complacent in their jobs. If a tracker missed a possessed, they shrugged it away. If a hunter didn’t capture his hit, they didn’t seem to give a crap.

  He refocused on Cary and shook away the tension clinging to his muscles. “My first weapon was a knife I fashioned out of a razor blade and a stick. I was twelve and prepared to go deer hunting with my dad.” At sixteen, Levi had zero idea that demons existed, let alone that one had infiltrated his best buddy, Marcos. In hindsight, the signs were there—his friend’s insistent swearing, threatening to burn the neighbors for playing music too loud. Levi should have done something earlier. But those mistakes would stay with him for life, along with Marcos’s death. One day, he’d capture the demon responsible and make it suffer.

  “Love it. Mine was a stupid sling-shot, though I only managed to whack myself in the face each time I used it. Gave up on that idea fast.” Her eyes lit up and the dimples in her cheeks deepened. “So, how many have you vanquished?”

  “Demons? Geez, no idea. I don’t keep score. You?” No way would she have been doing this as long as him. He wiped his mouth and squared his shoulders. “Argos keeps track.”

  “And? How many?” She stared at Levi from narrow eyes as if the moment he told her, she’d judge him.

  “Four-hundred and fifteen.” But the number was actually higher, because Argos only accepted hits they issued. Levi didn’t walk away from an innocent in trouble.

  “Shit!” Cary had a sparkle in her eyes, or was that the chandelier overhead?

  Either way, he’d take her newfound appreciation. More than he got from Argos. “Well, I don’t want to brag.”

  Her sweet, joyful laughter rippled across the pub. “Sure you don’t. I bet you gloat to your friends all the time.”

  “Most of them are from the same field. I’d never share my accolades or what I did with anyone outside.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.” Her shoulders curled forward. “I mean, I don’t know anyone in Detroit for that exact reason. I keep to myself so no one around me gets hurt. Not like I could tell them I spend my nights in back alleys.” Her words rolled without a pause.

  “Yeah, meeting people in our field of work should come with a warning sign: You might die.” If a demon possessed a hunter, their friends and family were targeted, so Levi made it a habit not to get too close to anyone.

  A pregnant pause filled the space between Cary and him. He should have kept his trap shut. Now he’d gone and invited back the awkwardness. “Let’s forget about work. I sure want to. So, where’d you grow up?” he asked.

  The next two hours and flowing drinks passed in a blink. Levi slouched in his seat feeling as if he’d known Cary his whole life.

  She finished her fourth vodka and hadn’t slurred a single word. She must be a seasoned drinker. “Well, I better get going,” she said. “Don’t want to hold you up any longer. I appreciate your time.”

  He climbed to his feet, his ankle still smarting from the mobility scooter running over it earlier. “No probs. Come, I’ll walk you home.” He marched to the bar and paid the bill.

  “Thanks for the drinks. I owe you one.”

  “I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I didn’t. Let’s head off.” He wasn’t ready to part ways with Cary and headed to the door, opening it for her.

  Outside, the warm summer air bathed him in heat. Cary’s hair waved behind
her in the breeze. Everything else faded away—cars screaming down the road, a club’s bass music vibrating beneath his feet, and hordes of party goers shoving past him.

  Especially when the beauty beside him kept stealing glances his direction. He bet his right leg she wanted him. Or perhaps it was the three glasses of scotch he finished off in the pub. He pictured her with legs wrapped around his hips, bouncing up and down on his cock. A rush of blood dove south in an instant, and he was curious about so many things. The color of her nipples, whether she shaved down there, how she tasted. He was getting a hard-on standing on the side of the road—came from not having sex for a month straight. Not out of choice, but a lack of time.

  “I’m in town for another week,” he offered. “So if you want to catch up or anything…” By anything, he meant it. Demon fighting, skydiving, or a wild night of sex. He was her man.

  She paused at first, the hesitation clear as the stars dotting the night sky. “That’d be nice.”

  His response vanished when a familiar roaring engine hooked his attention. He jerked around and with his eye surgery from Argos, the car’s demonic aura stood out like a silvery flame in the night. The Corvette was amid the light traffic at least two blocks away. His stomach hardened. Worst timing, ever. But after today’s stunt, he wasn’t letting the speck escape.

  “Listen, Cary. I got to go. But I’ll be back. Head into the pub, okay?” He spun and bolted after the sports car. He wove around people and leapt off the sidewalk. Long strides. Deep breaths. That fucker was his tonight. He’d present the black stone all vanquished specks left behind as proof to Brent. Then boss man would have to drop the charges.

  He angled right into a lengthy road shrouded in night with no people around. Oh, he’d give the speck the attention it desired. All the bloody way back into last week.

  It had parked itself within a line of cars along the curb.

  Slowing his pace, he grabbed Noose from his belt. With one click, his weapon extended four-feet, the loop springing free at the end. Despite the déjà vu sensation crawling through him, he pushed on.

  Footfalls resonated behind him. He snapped around, his muscles taut.

  A figure sprinted down the street, long hair flowing in the breeze.

  “Cary?”

  “Expecting someone else?” Her voice challenged him as if she waited for him to force her away. No way. He’d take help anywhere.

  “Take this.” He pressed Noose into her hand. The moment she touched the rod-like weapon, she flinched as if jolted with electricity. She made a faint whining sound, and he studied Noose. Was the handle broken and sharp? Looked clean. What was wrong?

  He put Noose into her hands again. “Take it and click the base button.”

  Without another thought, he bolted toward the car, extending his backup lasso.

  Footsteps tapped asphalt behind him. He’d teach Cary a thing or two on hunting. She stepped alongside him and angled herself toward the speck.

  The engine roared, and the sports car swung out in their path, completely repaired. Either the speck had mechanic friends or mojo was at play.

  Levi shoved Cary out of the way of the oncoming car. He threw himself onto the hood, his stomach smacking the metal hard. His hands grasped the wipers. “Time to die.”

  The Corvette came to a sudden halt, and he skated off the hood, the wiper blades snapping free in his hands. Dread gripped his thoughts as he smacked the ground with a shoulder. A biting ache rode through him.

  Tires skidding, the speck gunned after Cary.

  Levi scrambled to his feet, his heart encased in ice. He chased after them. “Run!” She’d die because of him. Just like Marcos and as much he drove the thoughts aside, his mind filled with images from his past. Marcos lying in a pool of blood, his eyes open but vacant.

  Cary bolted up the road, not moving fast enough. No cars were parked there. She swung left and scaled a wooden fence into someone’s yard.

  The possessed car pursued, smashing through the barrier, its radiator grille seeming to snarl at them.

  Cary screamed and vanished into the night.

  The tires spun against turf, engulfing Levi in a cloud of rubber and chunks of lawn.

  He choked on his breath. Every nerve prepared to detonate. “Cary, are you all right?”

  When the car’s reverse lights shone through the curtain of smoke, his heart stopped. He jolted sideways and clambered onto the sidewalk. Using the white smoke for concealment, he slinked right past the demon car. Where was Cary? He couldn’t stop picturing her lying dead.

  Behind him, a snarl erupted, and the scratch of metal scraping wood told him the car wasn’t giving up. Lights hit his back, and he spotted Cary near a shed, holding an axe with two hands. His lasso was strewn on the lawn a few feet away.

  “Let’s chop it up,” she shouted.

  He seized Noose and darted toward her as the motor closed in behind him. “Drop it. Go!”

  She dumped the axe and darted in front of the shed toward the side the house, Levi on her tail.

  A huge crash belched behind them. He glanced back. The speck had driven into the shed, which now lay crumbled and on its side. Already, the vermin reversed out of the yard, dragging half the fence with it, and then vanished down the street.

  Windows in the house lit up like a Christmas tree. Voices escalated.

  “Run!” he called out.

  Sure, he hated the idea of running away, but right now he had nothing in his favor. Taking on the speck face to face wasn’t going to work, and he couldn’t do it with Cary around. Worrying about her distracted him. But fucking losing against the speck chewed a hole through his chest.

  Levi reached Cary at the front of the house and took her hand, drawing her down the road. He didn’t need the incident to go to the cops.

  They didn’t stop running, despite the sirens wailing in the distance. When they reached the main road, several blocks away from where they started, he pulled Cary to a stop near a corner.

  His breaths were stuck in a never-ending cyclone. “Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head as her chest lifted and fell with speed. “You’re bleeding.” With both hands pressed to her knees, she let out long exhalations. “Shit. That car was going to run me over.”

  When he touched the torn fabric on his arm, wet blood coated his fingers. “Thank god it didn’t. But why did you reject the weapon I gave you? And twice. It could have helped.”

  “I prefer to do things my way. Besides, I didn’t know what it was.” She looked away as if studying a couple walking past hand in hand.

  “My place is closer than the hospital,” she said. “We’ll go there and I’ll patch you up.”

  Cary never gave him the chance to explain that by taxi, they’d be at his hotel room in fifteen minutes. And right then he realized three things. One: The speck demon targeted him. It must have sensed Cary was with him and that was why it wanted her. Meant the speck was targeting him. Catching it wouldn’t be as easy as he expected. Two: Cary’s reaction to Noose was suspicious. Third: She’d invited him to her place.

  He smirked to himself.

  Blood trickled through his fingers from the deep graze. With his weapons tucked into his belt, he followed Cary through the city at blinding speed. She led him to the residential parts of town. Fewer people, cars, and even streetlights. The whole time, his senses were locked on listening for the speck demon. But nothing showed up. “How far’s your place?”

  “Few more blocks. You going to pass out?” She cut him a glance with a cocked eyebrow.

  “I could go another three rounds with that speck.”

  “You’re looking green around the gills.” Her mouth curled upward, but she tripped over a discarded soda can. That earned him a frown.

  “Maybe focus on walking.”

  “Anyway, with that Corvette, you should trap it somewhere. Corner it so it can’t escape.”

  “My thoughts exactly. I’ll hurl that piece of junk into the pits of Hell. S
ad part is I used to own a similar car.”

  She jammed her hands into the pockets of her skirt. “I don’t own a car.”

  “Makes sense in the city. That’s why I got a motorcycle,” he said.

  Apartment buildings flanked the street. Cars parked in every available spot, a few even on the sidewalk.

  “This way.” She slid into a dark alley with several dumpsters. The perfect hiding spot for jumpers, but Cary wasn’t slowing. She carried herself with an air of confidence. Yeah, she was Levi’s kind of girl. But he’d sworn off relationships because in his line of work, he’d get innocents hurt. And after tonight, he would never hunt with new hunters again.

  At the end of the alley, Cary unlatched an iron gate, and they emerged into a yard with a large pool. It backed onto a three-story apartment. Yep, the hotel where all those seedy movies with the redneck killers had to have been filmed.

  Perhaps the back entrance was the quickest way to reach her apartment. Cary must be worried for his bleeding shoulder. Despite the tough guise she attempted to convey, she cared for him in that kind and sweet way he’d expect from a family member. Most of his friends would make him walk home on his own.

  Three floors later, they rushed along an open balcony that overlooked the jellybean shaped pool. When Cary gasped and dashed ahead, he darted after her, dread squeezing his lungs. He scanned the verandah and other apartment doors. No jumper. Then his sights landed on a large duffle bag outside a door farther ahead.

  Cary was attempting to shove her key into the lock with no luck. She rattled the handle. “Shithead bastard.”

  “What’s going on?”

  She twisted toward Levi, her cheeks red, eyes glistening, and rubbed a hand across her mouth. “I’m a few weeks behind on rent, and the dickhead landlord evicted me.” After trying the key again with no success, she thumped her fist on the door. Dropping to her knees, she unzipped the duffle bag and rummaged through the contents. Mainly clothes from what Levi could see.

  “Is everything there? I’ll break the door for you.”

  She shrugged. “I’ll get billed for that. But thanks.” Her attention lifted and swept to his shoulder. “Oh damn, I’m sorry. We need to get you patched up, and,”—her gaze danced between the door and Levi—“I’ve made you come all this way.” She closed her bag. “There’s a hospital nearby. I’ll take you there. Okay?”