Heat

Getting up off the bed, Alicia stepped out on the balcony and slipped over to the other set of glass doors that led into Damon’s bedroom. What she saw made her heart spill out on the floor.

Damon slammed the bedroom door and ripped off his black shirt, flinging it across the room. Several bullets that had been lying loose inside the shirt hit the floor and walls as he did so. His body had been consistently pushing them out of his flesh in an effort to heal. He took a deep breath and looked down at the bloody holes in painful distaste. It was the bullets that were still being pushed that were causing the wounds not to close.

Seeing a bullet sticking halfway out of his chest, he pulled it out the rest of the way. He gripped the bed post so tight with his other hand that the wood began to splinter and crack. If not for the werewolf blood he’d drunk earlier, he would be on his knees screaming bloody murder right now. Come to think of it, he probably wouldn’t have made it out of that mansion.

The blood of a paranormal being held more of a power boost than human blood, but it was obvious if he wanted to heal faster, then he was going to have to find more blood. No one had ever accused him of being patient.

With a grunt, Damon dropped the bullet he’d just pulled out onto the floor and went to the closet to get another shirt. All he found in there were some pullover sweaters… he pulled the black one from the hanger and put it on before heading toward the balcony doors.

Alicia had cupped her hand over her mouth to avoid crying out when she saw the amount of damage done to Damon’s chest. Some of the bullet holes were still bleeding and some of them were actually pushing the bullets out of his skin. No wonder he’d cringed when she’d hit him. She felt a flash of pain clinch at her chest. How could she be so cruel?

She started to open the door but paused when Damon turned around and grabbed a sweater from the closet and jerked it on. She really wanted to cry when she saw his bloody back, which was in worse shape than his chest. How many times had she hit him on the back before they’d made it to her room? Alicia felt her knees weaken at the thought.

When he started walking toward the balcony doors, she quickly moved to the side and spun around, leaning back against the brick wall between the two glass doors. Laying her hand on her own uninjured chest, she held her breath and hoped that he didn’t come outside and catch her spying on him.

Her panic quickly gave way to hurt… then anger and confusion. Damon had lied to her back at the mansion… all that blood had been his. Why would he do that? Why would he shield her and then not tell her that he was hurt? He could have gotten himself killed… and for what? To save her?

Alicia’s eyes widened when the balcony doors suddenly flew open and Damon leaped up on the thick ledge of the terrace facing the street below. He balanced on the solid railing but, before he could push off, he felt her presence behind him. He could feel all those emotions in her aura and sighed… he was tired and hurt and didn’t feel like fighting with her anymore tonight.

“Michael erased their memory of you being there tonight. If you go running back to Micah before they call you… you’ll undo everything he’s done to help you. If you won't stay here for me… then at least do it for Michael.” With that said, Damon flipped off the balcony and down to the grass below.

Alicia gasped and ran to the stone railing, looking down as he tumbled blindly. Her eyes widened and she gripped the stone when she realized that Damon’s blind tumbling wasn’t as blind as she thought. His arms shot out and it looked like he was pulling at the shadows around him, wrapping them close… then vanishing before he hit the ground.

Alicia searched the darkness for him, ready to follow the moment she saw him, but there was nothing… not even the sound of footsteps. She felt sorry for him and the pain he’d put himself through for her tonight.

She wrapped her arms around herself suddenly feeling more alone than she’d been ready for and wishing desperately he hadn’t left. She needed to say she was sorry… she wanted to say thank you and she really wanted to hit him again for not letting her know he’d been wounded. Where was he going? What did vampires do when they were hurt?

He wanted her to stay and do what Michael had asked. With a sigh, she decided to obey for once… but she wasn’t doing it for Michael.

Turning away from the balcony ledge, Alicia went back into her room and sat down on the bed. She stared at the phone for a few moments wondering what she should do if it rang. Should she even answer it? What if it wasn’t Michael? What if it was someone like Warren or Quinn calling for Michael and she answered the phone?

Damon was right… she owed them both enough to at least wait until morning before she made any decisions or did something she wasn’t supposed to. She remembered the edge in Michael’s voice when he’d told Damon to take her home. No one had wanted her there tonight except maybe Damon… one more thing she could thank Damon for.

Wanting time to pass quicker, she got up and changed into a thin nightshirt. Pulling back the covers on the bed, she laid down and tried to go to sleep. It soon became too hot even though she’d left the balcony doors open to let in the cool breeze. For almost an hour, she tossed and turned and finally lifted a hand to wipe away the perspiration on her forehead.

Her skin felt hotter than it should have been so she threw the blankets off in an effort to cool herself down. Getting frustrated, she balled the covers up until they were like a long body pillow then rolled on her side, hugging it and throwing one leg over it. She started rocking against the blanket, liking the feel of it between her thighs and hugged it even tighter.

Alicia’s eyes snapped open when she suddenly recognized the symptoms of what she was going through. She’d read about it and seen one of her friends at school go through it.

“No…” she whispered feeling fear slice through her at the mere thought. “Please don’t let me be going into heat.”

*****

Damon raced through the shadows across the city, heading toward the darkest slums in the search for something or someone that needed killing. He tried to block Alicia from his mind but it seemed every minute he spent close to her, the deeper she crawled under his skin. The strangest part was… he liked her there.

He’d built his life around not caring about anything… or anyone. He’d also prided himself for making it a rule to take what he wanted. He wanted her and she needed to stop tempting the devil. When he’d fallen from the balcony, he’d prayed she was smart enough not to follow him. Luckily, the girl knew a little about self-preservation.

He finally reached his goal: a rundown area of Los Angeles. Damon kept to the dark edge of the sidewalk, smirking when the police cars drove by and everyone would vanish. As soon as the cops were out of sight, the scum of the earth would come back out of hiding and it was back to business as usual.

Damon sneered at two scantily-clad women and kept walking when they tried to entice him with their bodies. Perhaps a few weeks ago he might have vaguely considered it, but now… he wanted nothing to do with the opposite sex. The thought of drinking from either of them left him feeling slightly sick.

Rounding a corner, Damon noticed two thugs up ahead and that they both looked his way as he approached. Now this was more what he was in the mood for.

“How’s it going,” one of them asked in a deep voice. He had his hands deep in his coat pockets expecting a sale of drugs. When he caught a glimpse of the man’s wild eyes, he decided to drop it figuring this guy had already gotten his drugs elsewhere.

Damon didn’t answer and kept walking. He knew what was coming and was looking forward to it. These two guys were probably kings on this street with their bulging muscles and dark flat eyes. He could smell the old blood on their clothing and see the scarred knuckles bullies always carried. Yep, they were probably legends within their own minds.

“Hey,” the second one yelled, “my friend asked you a question.”

“And my silence should have warned him I wasn’t in the mood.” Damon warned then turned his head to look at them. He gave an evil smirk, his fangs gleaming in the dim glow of the street lamp when they saw the red irises of his eyes. “However, a dinner date with both of you sounds good.”

Damon moved fast, grabbing the first one and draining him dry in less than a minute. He broke out in a sweat from the pain when more bullets started pushing out faster and landed on the ground with audible metallic clinks. Tilting his head back, he laughed breathlessly before dropping the dead man at his feet.

The echo of the second man running away drew his attention and Damon ran after him, once more pulling the shadows close to disguise his pursuit. Pain and adrenalin held its own high.

He caught up with the oversized punk and stalked him for a few moments, enjoying the smell of fear. When the man started to slow down, Damon merely chuckled in the darkness making the human start running faster again. Yes, this is what he needed… to rid the world of a couple low-life human scum while taking the blood he needed to heal.

Quickly growing bored with the chase, Damon closed in on the man and jerked him into an alley. The human’s struggles were valiant to say the least, but when matched against Damon’s superior strength… the outcome was inevitable.

Finally, the man’s struggles ceased and Damon dropped him to the dirty concrete. During the struggle, small packets of white powder had fallen from the man’s pockets along with a good-sized wad of money and a hand gun. Damon knelt down next to the corpse and, using a corner of its shirt, wiped his face clean of any evidence before taking up the money and tucking it into his back pocket then walking away.

Reaching the mouth of the alley, Damon shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking down the sidewalk like he didn’t have a care in the world. Now that his need to kill and feed had been partially satisfied, he could pick his next victim with a choosier taste.

Misery watched the entire exchange between the vampire and the two humans he’d chosen as his victims. She wanted to approach him but was too weak to do so. Instead, she satisfied herself by feeding off the fear the two humans exhibited as the vampire bled them dry. Their death thralls had been delicious.

Her encounter with Kane earlier that evening had forced her to use up all the power she’d had stored away since escaping the cave. When she’d combined her power with Kane’s blood, it had used up almost everything she had. Creating cracks in the dimensional walls of this world was a tedious process and would take a lot more power than she had at the moment. She could feel the evil heartbeat of this area and knew she’d awakened some of the weaker demons that slept here.

She would need to be stronger to thin the walls enough for the demons on the other side to sense it and take advantage. If the demons were powerful enough… they could finish the rip from the other side and join her in this world.

While her demonstration hadn’t been enough to do what she wanted, the evil in this city was breeding and it wouldn’t take long for her to build her power up to the necessary level. Once that level was reached… she would try to breach the walls of this dimension again. This vampire’s aura wasn’t as tasty as Kane's but the similarity and potential of the blood ritual was definitely there.

This vampire... though he did show a sadistic side that appealed to Misery… his power was completely different from Kane's. She already knew how to tap into Kane's real power but the more she stared into this one’s soul, the more she saw the dangerous truth. The power this one possessed could only be released while protecting something he loved. It was a worthless power since the creature suppressed such emotion.

After studying the vampire for a few more moments, Misery decided it was best if this one remained loveless because if he ever tapped into such emotion… his power would be limitless.

Damon could smell soulless vampires flitting all around him and down the darker alleyways. He thought briefly about ridding the city of a few of them but decided he’d already done his good deed for the day. If they wanted to feed off the low-lives in this area, then who was he to stop them? It wasn’t like he hadn’t just done the same thing. As he continued to walk, more bullets fell out of his shirt and hit the ground, tinkling on the sidewalk like forgotten memories.

The small hairs on the back of Damon’s neck stood up and he stopped walking, turning his head from one side to the other… he was being watched. Finally jerking his head back, his eyes narrowed when he saw a shapeless silhouette lurking on the roof of the building beside him.

Stepping back into the shadows, Damon wrapped the darkness around him hating how this city had no privacy with all the fucking paranormal breeds running around. Before coming here, he’d never been around shifters or the fallen. In his country, shifters had been purged back in the dark ages and been smart enough not to return. He’d never realized just how territorial he was while in a land he’d kept clean.

He’d never been one for traveling around the world like Kane and Michael… not when he’d been having so much fun where he was. But that wasn’t a shifter on the roof… it was a fallen, and it wasn’t either of the men he’d seen at the church. This must have been the one that got away.

*****

Zachary breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the news reporters finally got bored and left his quote-unquote crime scene. He turned his attention back to the soot-covered firemen and winced apathetically. Poor guys, they hadn’t stood a chance in getting that fire under control, although they seemed thankful it had not spread beyond the boundaries of Anthony Valachi’s land. Zachary smiled when he saw what he’d been waiting on.

He’d made the fire so hot that he knew it wouldn’t be long before it ran out of stuff to burn. He’d done it for two reasons. One was to give pity to the humans who were sacrificing their lives on a daily basis playing with fire, and the other was to destroy any evidence the humans didn’t need to see… including bodies to autopsy or bones to study.

“Looks like its dying down,” Chad said as he approached Zachary. “I’m surprised Trevor isn’t here.”

“Oh he was,” Zachary smirked. “Last time I saw him, he was dragging your sister out of here so I could blow the place up.”

“What!” Chad yelled then stepped closer so no one could hear him. “I’ve been here for a fucking hour and you’re just now getting around to telling me that my sister was almost killed tonight?”

“The bullet only grazed her,” Zachary just loved hazing the new guy. He felt a little guilty when all the color drained from Chad’s face. “Relax, she’s fine.”

“You’re an asshole,” Chad informed him without remorse.

“I’ve been called worse,” Zachary shrugged. “But for now, you can call me boss. I fast tracked your paperwork so it’s already a done deal. You no longer work for the police department. They work for you and you work for the CIA as far as they are concerned. And this falls under the CIA’s jurisdiction since it was a mob hit.”

“So what am I supposed to do now?” Chad asked feeling a little lost and secretly wondering how he could beat up a jaguar for putting his sister in danger yet again.

“Enjoy the promotion because I’m leaving you to handle this for the night.” Zachary patted him on the shoulder before opening the car door and sliding inside. He counted to three before Chad rapped on his window. Rolling it down, he arched an eyebrow.

“What do I tell them?” Chad asked.

“That’s the brilliance of it all. You’re not at liberty to give out any information at this time.” Zachary laughed and rolled the window back up then laughed again when Chad kicked his tire as he pulled past him.

His humor faded once he was alone with his own thoughts. He knew most of the wolf pack was harmless and had only been under the influence of their alpha’s orders, but the rest of them would want revenge for the death of Anthony Valachi. Some would be pointing at Micah’s rescuers, but some would point the finger at Steven and the cheating fiancé. Either way, that would put Night Light on what’s left of the city’s mob hit list.

Pulling out his cell phone, Zachary put a call in to the member of PIT he had deep undercover within the most dangerous part of the wolf pack. If what he thought was brewing then it might be wise to go ahead and send a couple death threats to Night Light just to keep the cougars on high alert, or better yet… get them to shut the club down for a while.

*****

Angelica gazed out the window at the city below thinking about the nightmare that had awoken her. Seeing all the lights and life within the city even in the middle of the night gave her comfort and it was hard to look away.

She’d never had a nightmare before… she’d never had a single dream and that was what disturbed her the most. She rubbed her fingers across the mark on her palm blaming it for the nightmare. She’d been so lost in morbid thoughts that when the door behind her slammed, she almost jumped out of her skin.

Zachary had opened the door quietly just in case Angelica was still asleep. When he saw her standing there in a daze, he couldn’t resist the temptation and slammed the door. Her reaction was even better then he’d hoped.

“Had I been a demon, you’d been bitten,” he smirked then lowered his gaze to the dagger clenched in her fist so tight that her knuckles were white. “Maybe not,” he corrected with a frown. “What’s rattled your cage?”

“Nightmares,” Angelica said truthfully as she relaxed her grip. No use lying about it… not to him anyway. She inhaled deeply trying to release the tension in her shoulders then wrinkled her nose, “you smell like burnt toast.”

“Wanna scrub my back?” Zachary wiggled his eyebrows as he headed toward the bathroom.

Angelica spared one more glance out the window before moving away from it. Hearing the shower turn on, she sat down on the loveseat and grabbed her notebook from beside the laptop and started to draw the man she’d seen in the cave. Since he was the one that had marked her, then the nightmare had to be his doing. She started with his eyes and softened the strokes of the pencil as the face came to life on paper.

Zachary came out of the steaming bathroom still towel drying his hair. Walking up behind Angelica, he looked down at the portrait of the man he’d seen her in the cave with. He watched the delicate way she arranged the man’s long dark hair… as if the wind was still blowing around it. For a demon, he sure was a hansom devil in her eyes.

“You smell better,” Angelica commented as she looked up at him. Tapping the drawing, she asked, “Can we get in touch with Dean so I can show him this picture?”

“I caught a glimpse of him tonight at the alpha werewolf’s mansion. But he seems to come and go so quickly around here that it would be easier to just show it to Kane.” Zachary suggested as he vaulted over the back of the love seat and sat down beside her taking the picture in his hand and studying it. “Kane said Misery is female.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Angelica sighed. “If that’s not the same demon that they released from the cave… then I’m afraid Misery isn’t the only demon in the city.”

“What makes you say that?” Zachary asked.

Instead of answering him, Angelica did the one thing she had thought she’d never do. Turning sideways on the cushion, she reached for Zachary and leaned toward him. When Zachary instantly tried to kiss her, she tilted her head so he wound up kissing her forehead instead. Then she let the dream play through her memories.

Zachary flinched as the scenery changed and he was surrounded by her nightmare. When the flickering images finally faded and Angelica slowly leaned away from him, Zachary opened his eyes and whispered, “Wow… that was a wiggly-boo dream.”

Angelica nodded, “Yeah, especially for someone who has never had a dream, not even once in their entire life.”

*****

Kriss had searched the places he thought a frightened fallen that had been imprisoned for longer than he cared to think about would hide. It wasn’t really the fallen he was searching for… it was Dean. After exhausting himself with all the churches and small areas of the city that evil avoided, it dawned on him that he might be searching the wrong type of places. It wasn’t as if he knew his prey intimately.

Going from one extreme to the other, Kriss started toward the heart of the city. Within hours, he was rewarded when he caught a flash of the creature running across the roof tops and leaping from one building to the next.

Following at a distance, Kriss took in the light coloring of the fallen along with the snow white wings that were now hidden from human sight but not his. He tilted his head to the side when the fallen chanced a look over his shoulder as if sensing he was being followed.

When the fallen turned his attention back to the streets below, Kriss had a feeling he wasn’t the only one on the hunt tonight.

“Just who are you looking for?” Kriss whispered under his breath stalking him for several more blocks. Following him around a corner, Kriss skidded to a stop when the other man was suddenly standing on the ledge of the building… facing him. It was the aggressive stance and fierce look in his silver eyes that gave Kriss pause.

For a moment, neither of them moved. Kriss used the time to focus his powers and peer into the other man’s soul. As the image of his soul sharpened, Kriss was expecting to see the glittering silver shimmer of a full blood, but to his surprise this fallen’s soul was tainted. His eyes widened realizing this man was a hybrid.

So, that’s what he’d sensed when the creature had exploded from the church. Kriss tried to determine if this hybrid was as bad as the full blown demon it had been imprisoned with. He felt a shove as his vision was pushed back and Kriss blinked. The only other person he’d ever run across that could block him from seeing his soul was Dean.

Inhaling deeply then slowly releasing it, Kriss decided there was only one other way to find out. Just as he started forward, the fallen gave him a smile that was nowhere near friendly and took a step back, disappearing as he dropped off the edge of the roof and out of sight.

Knowing an invitation when he got one, Kriss growled and with a running leap, he did a swan dive off the edge of the building in pursuit. Before he made it to the concrete four stories below, something slammed into his side and he felt arms tighten around him.

“No,” Dean hissed as he tackled Kriss in midair.

“I thought you wanted to find and catch him,” Kriss yelled suddenly angry. He’d been looking for Dean for days now and it pissed him off that Dean had obviously been close enough to know that he was there but wouldn’t come out of hiding.

“He’s not a rabbit,” Dean snapped as they switched direction and ascended back to the roof of the building. “Besides, I’ve been watching him for a while and would you like to know what he’s been doing?”

“What?” Kriss frowned.

Dean immediately stepped away to put distance between them. “He’s stalking Misery, the demon that trapped him in the cave.”

At that moment, the thin clouds above them parted allowing the moonlight to beam down on them and create the shadows on the roof that gave away their true identity. Dean had to look away from Kriss’s perfection… he always had to look away.

“Well, maybe he’ll let us help him get a little payback,” Kriss suggested. “It’s been a while, but together we could probably put her down.”

“I doubt it,” Dean gazed in the direction the fallen had gone. “Every time I get close to him, I can feel his anger and fear.”