Ruined

Chapter Fifteen

Jax

I watched Sam leave the church. Judging by the stiff set of her shoulders and the grim expression that weighed her mouth down at the corners, she didn’t get the answers she wanted.

I followed as she made her way down Topper Avenue, staying far enough behind so I wouldn’t be spotted. Coffee. A magazine. She even stopped to look in several of the storefronts. Things I knew she had no interest in. Barbet’s Baby Emporium. Fisher’s Pet Shop. She was stalling.

Sam stopped in front of Hellman’s Fine Jewelry. It was now or fucking never. I stepped from the shadows and came up behind her, and peered into the window. “Way too high-maintenance for you.” She was looking at a pair of white diamond earrings with a weird little squiggle thing on the bottom. “Plus, they’re so bland. Diamonds? You’re more of an emerald kind of girl.”

“Stalking is a crime, you know.” She turned from the window and started walking again. There was a chill in her voice that stung. I understood, but it still hurt.

Screw it. At least she was talking to me. That had to be a good sign. No rushing off screaming at the top of her lungs. “Depends. Demons stalk. It’s generally what we do.”

Sam didn’t stop, but her entire body tensed. Okay. Might be a good idea to ease up on the jokes.

“I know you’re probably—”

That time she froze. After pulling me off the street and into a side alley, she poked me hard in the chest. “You know? Somehow I doubt you know anything going on inside my head.”

I folded my arms and leaned back against the brick building. “Then tell me.”

She backed off, then collapsed against the brick wall beside me. “I—I’m not even sure what to say. I have so many questions. Questions that I don’t think I even want answers to.”

“Then don’t ask.” I shrugged, trying to keep it casual.

“What?”

“Don’t ask the questions. Think the worst of me and leave it at that—because I promise you, most of the horrible things going through your mind right now are true. But you have to trust me so we can beat this thing. Demons don’t stop, Sammy. We need to find out why this is happening and end it, or it’s going to end you.”

Her eyes went wide. “And how do we do that?”

“I don’t have it with me, but I am a card-carrying member of the evil-infested. Like I said, the cops are out of the question. They wouldn’t have the first clue how to deal with this. I do.” The lie tasted bitter. I had no clue what to do, but it worked. A thin line of pink rose through the gray and twirled around her shoulders. Hope.

Part of me was elated at the possibility that she’d be able to see past my darkness, while another part was terrified of what that could mean for her. What I was would only drag her down. “It’s okay you hate me for leaving…for what I am…but you have to know deep down inside that if I’d known you were in danger, I would never have left you.”

“How do I know I can trust you not to feed me to your demon buddies?”

“Demons don’t have buddies. Plus, I know who really stole Officer Davies’s patrol car in ninth grade.” I leaned closer. Close enough to smell the raspberry scent of her shampoo. After all these years, she still used the same brand. It brought a rush of memories, both good and bad, that left me reeling. “I never told. I think that makes me trustworthy.”

A flush rose in her cheeks and she backed away. “Fine. Then how do we deal with this?”

“First we need to find out the identity of the demon. One of them, at least. On the inside it’s a monster, but on the outside, it looks, walks, and talks human. More than likely, it’s got a job and a home. Relationships. We need to track it down. We can’t stop it if we don’t know where to find them or why they’re even after you.”

“You said you’d been to its apartment, right? There must be something in there. Something with a name on it.”

I shook my head. “Nope. I looked. It’s full of furniture, new clothes, and corpses. Everything else is empty. It’s like the place is for show or something. I don’t believe it actually lives there.”

“Doesn’t matter. There still has to be a name on the rental agreement.”

Sam seemed to have calmed a little during the ride to the demon’s apartment complex. Her colors showed more confusion than fear, and she wasn’t avoiding my gaze anymore. Even talked a little.

She folded her arms, glaring at the door. “So how are we going to do this? The sign on the door says they’re not back until two. We just stand here and wait?”

We were outside the rental office. Inside, the demon stirred, remembering the last time I’d been there. “They’re not going to just tell us the name of the person renting that apartment. I suggest a little breaking and entering. We have less than an hour before they get back.”

She broke into a grin. “I like where this conversation is heading. May I?”

I stepped aside and gestured to the door. “Go for it.”

Sam knelt in front of the lock and pulled a small, silver pick from her pocket. It took her twelve seconds. Maybe fifteen. She had the door open and was standing in front of me wearing the same grin I saw most nights in my dreams. Mischievous and sexy as all hell. “Shall we?”

I scanned the hallway, listening carefully. Once I was sure the coast was clear, I slipped into the office, fighting back the spike of desire as I brushed against Sam on the way in. The demon felt it, too. It flashed images of the kiss outside the club, urging me to do it again. When I didn’t act, the demon rumbled, angry, and a twinge at the base of my neck trailed up toward my temple, then bloomed into pins and needles and spread throughout my body. Next came the flash.

Sam stood in front of me, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. There was fear in her eyes, but also fire. Fire that, despite the rage building inside me, spread throughout my entire body like a match set to dry leaves. I tried to shut out the scene, to force myself back to the here and now, but the demon was determined. Almost happy. I could feel the thing’s pleasure and knew it salivated at the building mix of lust and anger.

Sam took a step back as I stalked forward. A starving lion cornering prey. That’s what this was. Primal and dark and on the verge of sending me over the edge. Four steps from where I stood to the tree, I watched as vision-me in the demon’s scenario lunged for Sam.

I gripped two fistfuls of her shirt, and with a single flick of his wrists, tore the material down the center exposing a wash of cream-colored skin with just the smallest hint of a flush. The remnants of the shirt fell to the ground, and something roared inside. A feeling that tugged against the very thing that kept the demon in check. It bowed and twisted, and in the sickest parts of my soul, I wanted this to be real. To be something more than the monster’s sick way of communicating.

I shoved her hard into the tree and she gasped on impact. There might have even been the hint of a protest, but the words were stolen as I claimed her mouth with savage force.

It was nothing more than a flash.

The same kind of illusion the demon had tormented me with my entire life, but it felt different somehow. Maybe because it was playing out a scenario that I wanted more than anything else. A twisted fantasy that the darkest parts of me wanted to be real. The one thing I wanted.

Sam.

The sensation was electric. I was, in reality, nowhere near her, yet I could feel her lips on mine. Her small body beneath me. The tremble of her chest as I crushed her to the tree and the sharpness of the bark as it bit into our flesh. My body reacted, a tightening in my belly drifting lower and fanning into an all-consuming fire.

A soft noise escaped her lips, driving the demon—driving me—straight into madness. Fingers knotted through her long hair, pulling and tugging to bring her closer. When that didn’t quench the fire, I gripped her shoulders, yanking her from the tree, and forcing her hard to the floor. She laughed, throwing her head back and baring her neck to me. A tearing sound filled the clearing, and a barrage of warmth exploded beneath my fingers as the material between us was no longer a hindrance.

It broke me.

A roar tore from my throat and the flash ended, leaving me breathless and burning like a supernova.

“Jax?”

There she was. Still standing a few feet in front of me, just inside the office door. I tried to stop myself, but I was under her spell. As in the flash, it took four long steps to get from where I stood to her. I backed her against the wall, stopping just short of crushing my lips against hers.

“Jax?” she asked again, but this time the tone was different. Breathless and hopeful.

Excited.

It was enough to snap me back to reality. “We need to move quickly.” I shook my head to clear the muck and stepped away from her. Control. “Um, the filing cabinet,” I said, pointing to the large set of drawers on the other side of the office. “Start there. The apartment number is 882.”

She went right to work, while I kept to the far end of the room, doing my best to keep Azirak under control. It probably wouldn’t be helpful if I jumped her right here in the office, but I got the impression that the demon wanted it.

As badly as I did.