Demon Huntress

"I'm going to kill her." Clearly, irritability won out.

"Not if I get to her first."

"She's off-limits to you."

"You never said I can't kill her," Ming jie pointed out. "Just that I can't sleep with her."

"True." Chen shrugged. "You kill her, then. My mom would never forgive me."

Chen had that right. Though Ming jie, yuan, and Chen were purebred balberith demons with the same long-dead sire, their mothers were all of different species, and of them, Chen's was the most maternal and protective.

Red halogen beacons rotated in their ceiling mountings, signaling the ambulance's approach. The light splashed crimson around the room, bringing out the writing on the gray walls. The drab shade hadn't been Ming jie's first choice, but it held spells better than any other color, and in a hospital where everyone was someone's mortal enemy, every advantage was critical. Because of that, the symbols and incantations had been modified to increase their protective powers.

Instead of paint, they'd been written in blood.

The ambulance pulled into the subterranean facility's bay, and Ming jie's adrenaline shot hotly into his veins. He loved this job. Loved managing his own little piece of hell that was as close to heaven as he'd ever get.

The hospital, located beneath linzhou City's bustling streets and hidden by sorcery right under the clueless humans' noses, was his baby. More than that, it was his promise to demonkind—whether they lived in the bowels of the earth or above ground with the humans—that they would be treated without discrimination, that their race was not forsaken by all.

The sliding ER doors whooshed open, and Li jin's paramedic partner, a werewolf who hated everyone and everything, wheeled in a bloodied Anzu demon that had been securely strapped to the stretcher. Ming jie and chen fell into step with Hao, and though they both topped six feet three, the were's extra three inches and thick build dwarfed them.

"Anzu," Hao growled, because he never made any other noises even while in human form, as he was now. "Found unconscious. Open tib-fib fracture to the right leg. Crush wound to the back of the skull. Both injuries are sealing. Nonsealing deep lacerations to the abdomen and throat."

Ming jie raised an eyebrow at that last. Only gold or magically enhanced weapons could have caused nonsealing wounds. All other injuries closed up on their own as the Cruentus regenerated.

"Who summoned help?"

"Some vamp found them. The Anzu and—" he c.o.c.ked one long-nailed thumb back toward the ambulance, where Li jin had rolled out the secondary stretcher "—that."

Ming jie halted in his tracks, chen with him. For a moment, they both stared at the unconscious humanoid female. One of the medics had cut away her red leather clothes that lay like flayed flesh beneath her. She now wore only restraints, matching black p.a.n.t.i.e.s and bra, and a variety of weapons sheaths around her ankles and forearms.

A chill went up his double-jointed spine, and f**k no, this would not happen. "You brought a Berus hunter into my ER? What in all that's unholy were you thinking?"

Li jin huffed, looked up at him with flashing gunmetal eyes that matched her ashen skin and hair. "What else was I supposed to do with her? Her partner is rat chow."

"The Anzu took out a berus hunter?" chen asked, and when his sister nodded, he raked his gaze over the injured human. Average humans posed little threat to demons, but those who belonged to The Berus, a warrior guild sworn to slay them, weren't average. "Never thought I'd thank a Anzu. You should have turned this one into rat chow too."

"Her injuries might do the job for us." Li jin rattled off the list of wounds, all of which were serious, but the worst, the punctured lung, had the potential to kill the fastest. Li jin had performed a needle decompression, and for now, the slayer was stable, her color good. "And," she added, "her aura is weak, thin. She hasn't been well for a long time."

Li Li drifted toward them, her hazel eyes gleaming with something close to awe. "Never seen a Buffy before. Not a live one, anyway."

"I have. Several." yaun's gravelly voice came from somewhere behind Ming jie. "But they didn't stay alive for long." yaun, nearly identical to his brothers except for his blue eyes and shoulder-length, bleached blond hair, took control of the stretcher. "I'll take her outside and dispose of her."