Demon Huntress

Ming jie couldn't decide whether Shu lan had caved in too easily to his request to take her home. He hadn't smelled deception on her, but then, his olfactory senses were designed more to pick up on the scent of l.u.s.t than anything else.

And l.u.s.t was something that rippled off her in subtle undercurrents, often when she was in the middle of hating him. Or when she was beneath him.

Welcome to my world, Hunter.

His own d.e.s.i.r.e pumped through him as he glanced sideways at her in the passenger seat of his BMW. He'd have been attracted to her anyway, but the s'genesis was jerking him around, was making the right side of his face throb, just below the surface of his skin, where the marking would appear when the change was complete. The marking that would identify him to the entire demon world as a menace to all things female, and a threat to all things male.

The Change was coming on fast, and he only hoped his experimental treatment would hold off the worst of the effects, or at least make the transition less dangerous and painful. With any luck, he'd find a mate and wouldn't have to worry about any of it. Then again, he wasn't likely to find a mate if he filled his days with hospital work instead of courting females.

Not that he hadn't tried. But few females were willing to commit to a lifetime with a balberith demon, knowing the only way out of the bond was death. The females who were willing left Ming jie thinking that whatever the s'genesis did to him would be preferable to a life sentence with them. Then again, he didn't have much choice.

He was running out of time, and he had no way of knowing if his treatment would delay the transition long enough to allow him to find a worthy female. He needed to act now. Preferably, the moment he dropped off Shu lan.

"Out of curiosity," she said, shifting her focus from the police car ahead of them to him, "why did you kill the vampire? Why not take her to your hospital?"

Fury blasted through him once more, and he had to take three long, deep breaths to keep from lashing out at Shu lan. "Most of her circulatory system had been removed. I couldn't save her." He rubbed his c.h.e.s.t as though doing so would relieve the ache there, the one that was starting to grow as his losses piled up.

She caught her lower lip between her teeth, the action tamping down the embers of his anger and sparking a different fire. "I don't get it. Vamps are dead. Undead. Whatever. Why do they need a circulatory system?"

He didn't want to talk about Hui yin, but talking kept him from thinking. Or feeling. "The transformation from human to vampire alters their internal makeup. The stomach takes over for the heart when it stops beating. New arteries and veins carry ingested blood throughout the body. Without those veins, a vampire will die as surely as it will when a Hunter jams a stake into its c.h.e.s.t. It just takes longer."

"Why would someone do that?" she asked, her curiosity genuine as far as he could tell, and damn her, he was starting to think she didn't know anything about the killings.

"Vampire circulatory systems must be worth something on the black market, for use in spells or rituals or some crap." And the person doing the cutting enjoyed misery, because he or she could have spared hui yin by killing her once her organs had been removed.

"So she fingered The Berus for what happened to her? Is that what she was saying to you before you—"

"Yes."

Shu lan shook her head. "It's not us. It's not The Berus. Our job is to protect humans, not give evil more weapons by selling potentially useful body parts." When he said nothing, she stared at him with such intensity that he damn near squirmed in his seat. And he never squirmed.

"What?" he snapped.

He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.

There was a slight pause before she said, "She was your lover?"

"Not mine. Chen's." But she'd been at UG almost since the beginning, and he'd always liked the quirky nurse. Chen's sister, Li jin, had once said that Hui yin's aura burned bright, more colorful than that of other vampires, which hadn't been a shock. He'd never seen the nurse in a bad mood.

Wrapping her arms around herself as though cold, Tayla braced her shoulder against the window. "Turn here and park anywhere."

He looked around the area in disgust. He hadn't been sure what to expect from the Hunter's neighborhood, but the ghetto wasn't it. Not even the cheery April sunlight could put a shine on the graffiti-tagged, run-down character of the neighborhood.

"You won't want to leave your car for more than thirty seconds, or it'll be stripped or ripped."

"It'll be fine." He parked between a furniture truck and a lowered pickup riddled with bullet holes, and they got out of the car.

When Shu lan glanced hesitantly at the vehicle and then back at him, he shook his head. "Trust me. People will walk by like they don't even see it." The BMW wouldn't literally be invisible, but the Deflection spell that came standard on demon-dealer autos meant his BMW didn't attract human attention. They'd see it, but it would register only in their subconscious.

"Whatever. Your loss. My keys are at HQ, so I hope the super is around."