Demon Huntress

Her cell phone rang with a jaunty jingle. "One second." She flipped it open, hoping Ming jie had finally gotten off his a.s.s and called back. She'd left him several messages, though most had been with Yuan, who was about as reliable as a witch doctor's miracle cure. "Doctor Ming j."

"Hello, Ren fu."

The voice froze the fluid in her spine. With forced casualness, she turned away from the others and lowered her voice. "I told you, no. I'll never help you."

"Your parents would like you to reconsider. They're begging, in fact."

The air exploded from Ren fu's lungs in a painful burst. The ability to speak went with her breath, and for a moment it was all she could do to stand upright.

Shock made her fingers clumsy, and she fumbled the phone, nearly dropping it.

"You bastard," she whispered. "What did you do to them? Where are they?"

The line went dead, and she sagged against the ambulance, cold sweat beading on her skin. What now?

God, what now?

"You okay, Ren?" Daquan was watching her, concern darkening his eyes to nearly black. "Anything I can do?"

She pasted on a fragile smile. "I'm fine. Thank you." She turned to chin, whose expression of worry matched Daquan's. "Can you take me to the hospital so I can pick up my car? I have a family matter to attend to."

************

Shu lan and Ming jie had ridden through the city in silence for half an hour, since she'd grown tired of arguing. Eventually, he made her hold the gemstone artifact again until they arrived at a run-down apartment complex, that, as scroungy as it was, didn't compare to the slum where she lived.

He parked around back, between a rusted-out Gremlin and a lowered El Camino, and gestured for her to get out. She did, her b.a.r.e feet barely registering the flattened cigarette butts and cracked asphalt as they crossed the parking lot. They entered the building, taking steps down to an area she wouldn't have thought housed apartments. He made her go first, a smart move. It had occurred to her that she could take him from behind and escape, except that if she killed him she'd never learn the location of the hospital.

As they entered the dank bowels of the building, the gurgle of boilers and the smell of mold brought back memories of being homeless and alone, when survival had depended on sleeping in places fit only for rats. She scowled into the darkness lit by a lone, caged bulb at the end of the hall.

"This is the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"Vampires and apartments with windows don't mix," he said, stopping at one of three steel doors. A sensation like ants crawling up her spine made her shiver. She'd always trusted her gut, and her gut told her that something wasn't right. When Ming jie rapped on the door, she instinctively reached for her stang, too late remembering she was unarmed.

"Do a lot of vampires live here?" she asked.

"Do I look like the landlord to the undead?" He knocked again and cursed before testing the knob and finding it locked.

He stepped back, and then, in one smooth, powerful move, he kicked in the door. Metal twisted as though a bomb had gone off, and the door jamb splintered. The strength he must possess to do that . . . it was definitely for the best that she hadn't taken him on without a weapon. She'd put her fighting skills up against his any day, but with the strange losses of muscle control that always struck at the most inconvenient times, she wouldn't want to risk an attack on him unless she was sure she had the advantage.

"She'll be pissed if she was just napping."

Ming jie snorted at that. They entered the apartment, which, though small, proved that vampires weren't all grim and Goth. No, this was worse. The stuff of nightmares.

Shades of purple and yellow assaulted her vision, from the lavender carpet to the baby-duck-colored, fuzzy lampshade. Even the walls had been slathered with lemon paint. Christ, the place looked like a Muppet slaughterhouse. The nurse who lived here was truly not right in the head. She deserved to die for her horrible taste in décor alone.

Shu lan sidestepped to avoid a particularly vile throw rug. "What did she do? Skin Barney?"

Ming jie's s.e.xy mouth twitched in a relaxed half-smile, though his movements were nothing but lethal grace as he moved swiftly down the hall. She watched him go, disgusted at herself for admiring how nicely his a.s.s fit in his cargos, but unable to look away until a soft thump drew her attention to the kitchen. Once again, she reached for her stang, clenching her fist in annoyance at its loss. Whatever. She was dangerous without it, and after being held prisoner by demons, she was ready to kick some a.s.s.

A scratching noise got her blood pumping a little faster. She followed the sound to a door just off the lilac-accented cubicle of a kitchen. A muffled m.o.a.n drifted through the door. Bracing herself for battle, she turned the knob.

The door opened into some sort of dark corridor, a tunnel allowing passage for nightwalkers during the day. Blood smears left a trail from as far as she could see to the door, where a n.a.k.e.d, mutilated woman lay at her feet.

The vampire nurse. The bubble-headed one who'd worn the fuchsia scrubs.

The nurse—hui yin—tried to speak, her lips forming words that never made it past the blood gurgling out of her swollen mouth. Her abdomen lay wide open, a gaping hole from her hipbones to her sternum. Dear God.