Demon Huntress

"You gotta admit, it's making you twitchy and unpredictable, and you've never been either. You're acting like yuan. Well, Chen, anyway."

Ming jie removed the catheter from his arm and stanched the blood with a cotton ball. "This isn't about my duty schedule, and you aren't concerned about my performance. It's about Shu lan."

"Shu lan? You two so buddy-buddy that she's not just the Berus whore anymore?"

"Let it go, cang jie. Now."

Cang jie barked out a laugh, a high-pitched hyena yip. "See what the s'genesis is doing to you, It's turning you into a p.u.s.s.y."

"Excuse me?" Growling, Ming jie came to his feet.

"You didn't want to turn her over to me. I get that." cang jie moved forward, right up in Ming jie's face. "But she wasn't yours to turn loose. This was a matter for the Maleconcieo, and you should have taken her before it."

The Maleconcieo, the demon U.N., a council formed of members of the most powerful of all demon species, would have salivated over the opportunity to question Shu lan. cang jie was right, but that fact only angered Ming jie more. He'd told himself that he had let Shu lan go so she could be watched, so she would come to them for help, but was it the truth? Had he been lying to himself and following his d.i.c.k instead of his brain?

"Back off, shapeshifter. I know what I'm doing."

cang jie grinned, his sharp teeth gleaming wickedly, but before he could say anything, the door to the lab burst open. Dr. Quinn, an ancient s.u.c.c.u.b.u.s who practiced Druidic medicine, gestured to Ming jie.

"It's Hao."

cang jie and Ming jie raced to the ER, where Hao was writhing on an exam table, blood flowing from various wounds as Ren fu and half a dozen nurses attempted to strap him down. His form kept changing from beast to human, flickering like a dying fluorescent bulb.

"What happened?" Ming jie nudged a nurse aside while cang jie ordered a vitals check and gloved up.

The nurse next to him cursed when Hao jerked his arm out of the restraints. "He came in like this. Stumbled through the ER doors and hasn't said anything."

Ming jie grasped Hao's furry face, narrowly avoiding his snapping jaws. "Someone get a muzzle!" He tapped Hao's cheek with his fingers. "Hao. Hao! Focus. Look at me, man."

Slowly, awareness peeked through the pain in his dark eyes, and he turned human. "Berus," he rasped.

"Killed . . . her. My mate."

Mate? He hadn't known Hao was mated, but then, he didn't know much about the reclusive warg. Ming jie used the pads of his fingers to make long, soothing strokes along the skin of Hao's neck, which seemed to calm him. "You're safe now. But I need you to hold human form so we can talk. Can you do that?"

Hao roared, his wail rattling the equipment. "They killed her! F.u.c.k.i.n.g animals . . . they smelled like animals . . . apes. Bastards!"

Ming jie nodded at cang jie, giving the unspoken go-ahead for sedation. "Hao, I need you to tell me what they did to you."

Hao's body thrashed, but his eyes caught and held his. "They weren't going to kill me," he said, and a tremor of dread shot up Ming jie's spine. "They wanted me alive, doc. They wanted me alive."

*********

Shu lan didn't bother going in to Berus HQ the next morning. Unable to sleep in the bed that still smelled like Ming jie, she'd curled up on the couch with Mickey. As the first gloomy rays of cloudy daylight peeked through her kitchen window, the phone had started ringing.

She'd ignored it. But she couldn't ignore the pounding on her door hours later. Daquan's knocking had been soft at first, but had grown rapidly more violent, until he was threatening to break down the door.

She'd opened it, and immediately wished she hadn't.

"We lost ping and ning last night."

Oh, God. Numb, she backed away from the door and collapsed onto the couch. "How?"

"They were tracking a pack of werewolves with Ru and Tai. Got ambushed inside a house. They took out a female, but lost the others."

Despair settled over her like a chilled blanket. With Ya qin's death, that made three Hunters lost in the span of a week when they hadn't lost even one in over a year. And Shu lan . . . she'd been compromised.

"We're losing, aren't we? The battle. We're losing."

Daquan dropped to one knee and clamped a hand on her wrist. "Do not say that. Don't even think it. The fight against evil has always been a marathon, not a sprint." She tried to jerk away from him, but he held her in place, his grip firm but gentle. "Everyone is feeling the same way, Shu lan. But you're a veteran fighter. You can lead the others and help our cell through this. Come stay at HQ, just for a few nights. It'll be good for you. For everyone."

For a moment she was tempted. Though she'd never been a social creature, right now, she felt more alone and out of place than ever. Still, she had a feeling that being among the other Hunter would only emphasize her loneliness. When she was by herself, no one looked at her as if she were a black sheep. No one talked through her instead of to her. Certainly, no one would look at her as if they knew what Ming jie had said and were trying to figure out for themselves if he had been telling the truth.