gulped and couldn’t believe what she was seeing: a stag’s lower body and a human torso from the waist up. The creature was running upright across the road, its spindly buck legs defying physics.
It paused and gazed directly at her. Glowing red eyes pierced through the gleam of the headlights and drove straight into her face.
The force of those red eyes hit her like an avalanche. Like a high-pitched freight train tearing through her mind, deafening her, ripping at the confines of her skull. The creature’s occult power electrified her whole body, and her back stiffened. Her hands were glued to the wheel and her foot was pressed to the accelerator. If the creature continued to control her mind she knew she would die. She was losing her grip on the wheel, those red eyes steering her toward death. As she veered off the road, she saw the creature’s pursuer plunge a blade into the stag-man’s chest, using her unexpected arrival to his advantage.
Hannah screamed and barreled into a tree. Glass shattered as her seat belt wrenched the breath from her lungs. A massive limb pushed its way through the driver’s-side window, smashing into her head. Pain tore through her cheek and temple. The air bag exploded, but then let out a loud sigh as the tree bough stabbed it to death. She felt it deflating and thought what a fitting end to a horrible week. Then she let the darkness take her away.
Chapter 2
Aden Running Wolf cursed the unfortunate timing of the car’s driver as he jerked the blade from the eportachi’s chest.
The demon snorted in disbelief at its own impending death. Then it threw back its head and howled up at the sky, the bawl echoing through the air like the bay of a hellhound.
Aden couldn’t actually see the demon, but after being sightless for the past two years, he had mastered a sixth sense that he called sightless radar. He could detect and mentally map out the qi meridians of animate and inanimate objects. Living objects gave off more energy and were easier to follow, and this demon’s evil vibrated all over. So he knew exactly where to plunge the blade in again. The stench of rancid demon blood hit him and he leaped back, gasping.
“I curse you, blind hunter,” the eportachi growled in pain and lunged at Aden again.
“You’re a little late.” A sardonic grin twisted up one side of Aden’s mouth. He anticipated the demon’s every move and before the creature’s fists connected with his face, he lunged left and kicked the beast in the gut.
The demon staggered, hooves hitting the road so hard the ground trembled. “You took unfair advantage,” the demon ground out, the loathing in his voice masked by guttural gasps of pain.
“I’m the blind one here.” Aden knew that his physical flaw was the only reason he was still alive. The power to mesmerize and kill was in an eportachi’s eyes. Up until this moment Aden had resented his fate. But now, when hunting sight-infesting demons, he realized there was a positive side to it.
“You can’t kill me. Only the Guardian is powerful enough to destroy me.” The last word was laced with a gasp of incredulity, as if the eportachi couldn’t acknowledge any type of vulnerability. Then the creature summoned the last of its fading energy and charged Aden.
“Rules change in warfare,” Aden said as he easily sidestepped the stumbling demon.
The eportachi staggered, righted itself, then wheeled around. It growled in pain and grabbed at the gaping holes in its chest. “I’ll find you again, blind hunter, and next time you’ll be the one to die.” A death rattle shook the creature’s chest.
“I look forward to it.” Aden grinned as he heard the familiar fizz of dark magic breaking through the confines of earthbound flesh. Another loud pop and the eportachi’s body exploded. Demon spirit whipped past Aden as it whirled upward.
Aden heard what he knew was a portal to hell open with a huge sucking pop, the heat of it singing the very air. He covered his face with both arms and braced himself, feeling his body being pulled into the scalding vortex. He felt the hairs on his head stand straight up, the air around him charged by the evil. The roar of it singed his face like bee stings, then a funnel of wind sucked what was left of the eportachi’s swirling spirit into the gateway. It slammed shut with a sonic-boom blast.
Aden let out a contented grunt. He knew the eportachi’s spirit would regroup in hell and the same demon would reappear on earth. And it would seek him out. But not tonight. Tonight he’d won this battle. He could still feel the adrenaline rush. He needed that rush to make him feel again, if only for a few minutes. Yes, he was an adrenaline junkie. It kept him sane.
The smell of gasoline fumes and crushed metal drew his attention. He followed the scent to the wreck. The car didn’t belong to a fellow tribal member—he’d detected that before he’d stabbed the eportachi. With his highly discerning hearing, he had cataloged the sounds of all his neighbor’s vehicles, and this one didn’t register among them. This driver was a stranger.
He walked to the mangled car, knife still in hand. He cut away the underbrush that hadn’t been crushed by the accident and reached the car’s smashed left side—what was left of it.
It had wrapped around a huge magnolia, the tree’s massive bough spearing the front seat, its thick waxy pointed leaves giving off a distinctive odor. He hacked away enough small branches, foliage and twigs to locate the driver.
The metallic stench of blood, herbal shampoo, vanilla body splash and hairspray, a female’s scent, guided him. His hands moved over her crumpled body, pinned between the limb and the seat. When he reached for her, a nimbus of energy knocked into him and felt like concrete wall.
He drew back, the fine hairs on the back of his hand standing straight up. Definitely not the garden-variety human female. After he’d lost his vision, he’d mentally cataloged the vibrations of good and evil apparitions. Not one of them had felt like this woman’s, as if he’d just walked into an electrical wire. He picked up a hint of white magic. So what was she?
Determined to free her now, he heaved the bough aside, clasped her around her back with his arm and pulled her from the seat. Her limp body landed with a plop into his arms.
For a moment he couldn’t move, because the same supernatural energy that sizzled the very air around her also coursed through him. Deep in his veins, down in the very marrow of his bones. The feeling was so new, so alive to him. He hadn’t felt this sentient since he’d lost his vision. Her web of energy held him prisoner. And he was a welcome captive, for he could forget Linda’s death, forget the tragedies of his past, forget everything while touching this woman.
The need to help her threw him into action. He found her neck and eased down the collar of her coat and shirt so he could check her pulse.
Erratic but still palpable.
He grew aware of many things at once, the charged humming coursing through her body and up his arms, the creamy feel of her skin against his rough fingertips, her long soft hair that curled stubbornly around his wrist and arm, and her feminine curves nestled against him.
He bent and whispered, “You’re okay. I’ll take care of you.”
As he lifted her out of the car, he felt her slight weight in his arms and guilt began to gnaw at him. He shouldn’t have spoken those words. Why had he said he’d take care of her? It had just slipped out, a moment of weakness. He couldn’t keep that kind of promise. In fact, she was in more danger than ever being near him.
