Demon Huntress

"Ming jie?"

Clenching his teeth, he concentrated on driving and not on the erection popping at his fly.

Ren fu settled her palm on his t.h.i.g.h, and he jerked. "Ming jie, are you okay? Ming jie?"

Shu lan's voice rang through his ears. "Hellboy, are you okay? Hellboy?"

The palm on his t.h.i.g.h squeezed. He willed it to go higher. To squeeze harder. A low growl erupted in his throat as he turned to the woman in the passenger seat, her blue-streaked black hair pulled into twin ponytails, her profile so like Shu lan's . . . his head fuzzed and his vision swirled and he knew the woman wasn't Shu lan, but in his mind she looked like her, smelled like her, and he couldn't wait.

Yanking the wheel so hard that vehicles behind him honked and slammed on brakes, he whipped the BMW to the side of the road.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shu lan yelled, and he didn't bother to kill the engine before he pounced on her, his control shattered.

L.u.s.t buzzed in his head, and through it, he heard the sounds of fabric tearing, of buttons pinging off the vehicle interior, of Shu lan m.o.a.ning. He would give her a release this time. He had to. It's what he did, what he was born to do.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, taking her into his body. She smelled good. Dark, yet sweet, like cloves and citrus, the scents he'd forever associate with her. "I should hate you, Shu lan," he said as he wedged one t.h.i.g.h between her legs and used the other to brace himself against the dashboard.

She stiffened. "Ming jie." Her palms shoved hard against his c.h.e.s.t. "Ming jie! Shit."

It wasn't Shu lan's voice. It wasn't Shu lan's b.r.e.a.s.t he was c.a.r.e.s.sing. Blinking, he looked down through eyes he knew had gone gold. He frowned. Shu lan gazed up at him, concern in her expression. Her skin . . . no, not hers. Ren fu. F.u.c.k.

Didn't matter. His loins were heavy and full, his c**k so hard it could break, and his entire body was so wired for s.e.x that she could be a mannequin for all he cared.

"You're going through The Change, aren't you?" she said quietly, and that fast he snapped out of the s.e.x.u.a.l haze.

Groaning, he untangled himself from the knot of flesh he'd created with Ren fu and settled back in his seat. "I'm sorry." He scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling the fevered sheen of sweat that coated his skin. His right side throbbed, and a glance in the rearview mirror revealed a shadow on his cheek, a design pulsing just beneath the surface as though trying to get out.

"Don't be. No one's made a pass at me in so long I've forgotten how nice it can be." She fastened the few remaining buttons on her top. "But calling me Shu lan is one hell of a mood-killer."

He g.r.o.a.n.e.d again. What had made him think Ren fu was Shu lan? And why had it mattered? The Hunter was nothing to him. He shouldn't d.e.s.i.r.e her like this. The s'genesis was really f**king with him. He hadn't been this out of control since he was twenty and going through his first maturation cycle. At least then he'd had the comfort of knowing that once the days of nonstop l.u.s.t were done, he'd come out of the transition stronger, bigger, more focused. Better.

That wouldn't be the case this time.

"I have to get to the hospital. Can you drive?" His hands were too shaky to even want to try.

She nodded. "Are you okay?"

Not even close. "I'm going to transfuse myself. I've been saving up blood, hoping that if I transfuse when the s'genesis gets tough, the fresh blood will hold it off."

"Even if it works, it's just a temporary fix," she said, in that know-it-all voice every doctor inherited upon graduating from medical school.

"I'm aware of that," he snapped, unspent l.u.s.t and harsh fact mixing into one caustic brew. "Just get me to UG. And Ren fu, do me a favor and leave Shu lan alone."

"No way. She knows something about my parents. She has to."

He thrust his fingers through his hair. "Even if she does, she's not going to talk. Nothing you can do to her will break her. Trust me on that," he muttered.

"So what's your great plan, then?" She made a sound of disgust and flicked the front of his shirt where a button had torn loose. "P.l.e.a.s.u.r.e her into admitting The Berus is involved? How do I know I can even trust you? Boinking the enemy doesn't say a lot for your reliability."

That much was true. "I'm an incubus. S.e.x is a weapon for my kind." Except, even he didn't buy that, because he wasn't sure s.e.x with Shu lan had been about hurting her, about making her feel self-loathing for seeking p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e with a demon—a demon she should, by all rights, kill.

"Don't give me that load of crap. Your breed of incubus doesn't turn all evil-demonic until after s'genesis. Well, mostly. Your brothers aren't exactly stand-up little balberith demon."

"Leave her alone, Ren fu," he growled softly.

"That's not going to happen."

He could feel Ren fu's fear and anger as if it were his own. But his anger was darkly possessive and not at all welcome. "Shu lan's mine."

"Yours?"

"To deal with." He ground his molars. "Mine to deal with."

"Very reassuring. But my parents' lives are at stake. I'm not letting this go, and no offense, but your thoughts seem to be originating from below the belt when it comes to her."

"Just for a few days. She's growing weak. She might cooperate if she's sick and isolated from her human colleagues."

Ren fu's upper lip peeled back as she leveled a look of grave promise at him. Normally, she hid the demon well, but with her emotions ramped up, her human exterior had begun to unravel.