HunterUndone Page 5
“Dance with me.”
Shay turned her head back toward Brian, sure she’d heard him wrong. “I’m sorry?”
He smiled. “Dance with me.”
He stood up. Before Shay could protest, he grabbed her hand and tried to pull her to her feet.
Aware resisting would cause a scene, she stood. She forced a smile. “Brian, there isn’t any music playing.”
He lifted her hand and made the motion for her to twirl. She did, her body stiffening when he murmured something against her ear, so quietly she barely heard him above the noise. “We’re not going to make him jealous by sitting here, so let’s go show him what he’s missing.”
She jerked back suddenly, her eyes wide as she studied him, reevaluating. Then she laughed and, grabbing his hand, led him out to the dance floor.
***
Tyler had no idea what was wrong with him, but damn if he wasn’t pissed off.
“Don’t do it.” Deacon said from behind him.
Tyler lifted his beer to his lips before Deacon could see his sneer. He took a sip and forced his attention to focus on the police chief who settled on a stool next to him. “Don’t do what? And when the hell did you get here?”
“Been waiting for you to notice me for five minutes now.” Deacon slapped his shoulder and grinned, before going serious and frowning. “Don’t make me regret not bringing my handcuffs.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Deacon laughed. “You look a half second away from pounding the snot out of someone. Not that I mind a good fight every once in a while, but I’d hate to have to arrest you on your first night back in town.” He braced his elbows against the bar behind him and sipped at his water. “Besides, they’re not doing anything wrong.”
Tyler ignored him, his attention already back to Shay and the douchebag she was dancing with. He scowled. Her dress was entirely too short, too tight, and showed way too much of her ripe curves. And that asshole’s dickhead’s hand was entirely too damn close to her ass.
“Do women really find that shit romantic?”
“The fuck do I know?” Deacon snorted. “I don’t do relationships.”
Because he didn’t like the feeling crawling in his gut, Tyler deliberately turned away from the happy couple to face his friend. “What are you doing here?”
“Security.” When Tyler just stared at him, Deacon shrugged. “I have a little sister in dance class. That shit’s expensive.” He took a sip of his water and jerked his chin toward Shay. “What’s going on with you and the Evernight chick?”
Tyler turned and ordered another beer.
“Nothing.” He dropped a few bills on the bar for a tip then went back to watching Shay. “Who is that douchebag with her?”
“No idea. Why don’t you go find out?”
That sounded like the best idea he’d heard all night. He handed Deacon his beer and started the grueling process of winding his way through the standing room-only crowd. He’d only made it halfway when the lights flickered, and then dimmed. An ear-shattering cheer went through the crowd.
Growling in frustration, he gave up saying, “Excuse me” and just started muscling his way through.
By the time he’d reached Shay, a tall, slender redhead had taken the stage. She settled herself on a stool, her guitar in her lap. While she strummed a few chords, the douche with Shay shot Tyler a disgusted look before wrapping his arm around her waist and turning her to face the stage.
Tyler wasn’t deterred. He crossed the last few feet, stood directly behind her, leaned over and growled low. “Shay.”
She jumped. Spinning around, she glared up at him.
“What?” she hissed. “I’m on a date.”
“Do you mind?” The douche asked, giving Tyler a dark look.
Shit. Now that he had her attention, he had no idea what the hell he was doing, or what he wanted to say. Somehow, he doubted telling her he wanted to pound her date’s face in for touching her would go over well. Not to mention make him sound like the biggest dirt bag on the planet.
One of her dainty feet tapped impatiently against the scarred wood floor. “Well?”
Nothing. He had nothing.
Shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he grinned. “Nothing. Just saw you watching me, so I thought I’d come say ‘hi.’ Save you the trouble of walking over to me.”
Her foot stilled as she blinked up at him for a long moment, before she laughed and shook her head. “It must be difficult carrying that ego around. Maybe you should go sit before the weight of your head topples you over.”
Douchebag wrapped his arm tighter around her waist and shot him a disdainful look. “Do you mind? We’re on a date, and you’re bothering her.”
Aware he was acting like a jealous ass, he schooled his features and tucked his hands into his pockets as he focused on the stage. The first strains of a vaguely popular song poured out of the woman’s guitar.
“Ignore me,” he said. “I’m just here to watch the show.”
Shay narrowed her eyes at him. With what could have been a growl, she murmured something to her date then stalked toward Tyler, grabbing his hand on her way past. She didn’t stop until she had him in the cramped hallway between the bathrooms and the kitchen.
She rounded on him with a fierce glare. “What the hell are you doing?”
“We’re friends.” He shrugged and, noticing the way her gaze dropped to his chest and tracked the motion of his shoulders, he grinned and leaned back against the wall. Interesting. She was as attracted to him as he was to her. “Right?”
“No.” She shook her head and moved into him, jabbing him in the abdomen with her finger. “We are not friends, Tyler. We don’t even know each other, let alone like each other.”
Christ, she was small. Even in her heels she was a foot shorter than him, though her personality more than made up for her lack of height.
He was so lost in thought, it took him a second to realize the hairs on the back of his neck were standing at attention.
Something on his face must have worried her because her perfect brow creased slightly, her gypsy eyes darkening. “Ty?”
Goddamn it. Not here.
This feeling wasn’t supposed to follow him here. Without a word, he unfolded himself from against the wall and grabbed her hand, pulling her behind him as he threaded his way toward the bar and Deacon.
She tried to pull him to a stop. “Tyler. Again, what the hell?”
He turned and wrapped his hands around her waist, lifting her up and setting her on a stool next to Deacon. He growled at her in warning when she glared at him and immediately tried to hop back down. The redhead was still singing, the crowd was still cheering, and there was a demon somewhere in the fucking bar.
He pointed at the detective watching him with a mixture of amusement and concern.
“Keep an eye on her,” he snapped. “I mean it. Don’t let her out of your fucking sight.”
Tyler didn’t wait for either of them to protest. There was only one thing on Earth that could make his hair stand on end, and since he’d found no sign of demon activity in the town before his arrival, that meant it had followed him.
Great. It could follow him outside and away from the crowded bar. That would be easier than trying to explain to Deacon why he needed the place evacuated, while also convincing his old friend not to lock him in a psych ward at the word ‘demon.’
He’d almost reached the back door when an anguished scream pierced the noise of the crowded pub. He spun around, and didn’t have time to brace for the hit. Something slammed into him. He went flying backwards into the crowd surrounding the stage. Hitting the floor hard on his back, he rolled, snarling. He pulled the spell knife from the holster at his lower back, fury and tension skating up his spine. The demon stalking through the panicked crowd was large. At least seven-feet-tall. It was also ugly as shit, thousands of scars marring its red skin.
Chapter 6
Tyler barely registered the flash of pain that slashed across his bicep before the bullet hit the beast. It stopped the demon long enough for Tyler to dive forward and catch it around the waist.
Razor-sharp, poisoned teeth raked across his shoulder, ripping through the fabric of his shirt and straight into skin and muscle. Tyler lifted his witch-spelled knife to plunge it into the thing’s chest, but the demon’s eyes glazed over, then rolled into the back of its head. The ugly slash of mouth went slack, and like a light switch being flipped, the beast went limp.
Despite the obvious signs of death, Tyler gripped it by a horn and sliced the creature’s head off anyway.
“Tyler?”
Shay. Rage boiled up his spine and threatened to explode his brain as he lifted his gaze and locked eyes on hers.
“What the hell are you still doing in here?” He gained his feet and in one swift move, had Shay by her upper arm. He dragged her across the now nearly-empty bar. Sirens were screaming in the distance and Deacon was nowhere to be found. “Where the fuck is Stone?”
She tried to yank her arm free as she glared up at him.
“He went after Hayden,” she said. When he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her onto the bar without a word, he didn’t miss the bright terror hiding behind her temper. “Stop doing that! I’m not a ragdoll!” She closed her eyes, drew in a breath. Let it out slowly, then looked at him again. ”You’re hurt. How did you know how to kill a demon?”
He didn’t want to know how she knew what a demon was. He pointed at her, his jaw clenched tight enough to crack a tooth.
“Stay there. Don’t move, Shay, I goddamn mean it.” He turned to stalk away, but only made it two steps before he swung back around. He walked behind the bar to find a butcher knife, then held it out to her, handle first. “Anything gets near you, stab it and scream bloody murder.”
“Wait!” When he lifted a brow at her, she glared at him. “Where are you going?”
“To make sure there’s nothing else waiting in the shadows.”
Without waiting for her to say anything else, he turned to do a sweep of the bar. He didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone, but his instincts said the threat was over. It didn’t make him feel better. Instead, it made him itchy as hell.
He’d been fighting demons for twenty years. They were nasty sons of bitches. While they could possess a human, their true form was something out of a nightmare. Black and twisted and pure, unadulterated evil. And never—not one fucking time—had one given up the fight as easily as this one had.
Less than a minute later, Tyler was back in front of Shay. The singer, Hayden, was next to her while Deacon took care of cordoning off the crime scene and getting rid of the few people left in the bar. Knowing his friend was going to ask questions, and would have more in about two minutes when the body disintegrated, Tyler shot one last look at Shay to assure himself she was okay before he moved over to stand next to the police chief.
Deacon didn’t look at him. “You’re hurt.”
His arm was hurting like a motherfucker.
He shrugged. “I’ll live. Listen, Deke, we need to talk.”
The chief shook his head. “No, we don’t. Because if you explain, I have to write what you say in my report and how the fuck am I going to explain this?” A muscle in his jaw ticked. “If they don’t take my badge and stick me in the closest padded cell, they’re still going to think I’m insane.”
“You want the good news or the bad news?”
“Neither.” He jerked his chin toward the door. “Go. We’ll talk later. And by talk later, I mean come up with something I can write up without us both getting locked up.”
Tyler rolled his eyes and shifted his body, meeting Deacon’s gaze head on. “You’re going to want to listen to me, Deke.”
“Shit.” He pointed to a uniformed officer and growled. “Watch the body. Do not touch, and no one gets near it, you hear me?”
When the officer nodded, Deacon pushed a hand through his hair again and led Tyler toward the back of the bar. “I’m listening. And if you’re going to talk, I suggest starting with how the hell you knew how that thing was here promptly followed up by how the hell you knew how to kill it.”
Angling his body so he could keep an eye on Shay, Tyler leaned back against the wall and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Killing demons is what I do. That was a demon.”
“Bullshit.” Deacon dragged his gaze away from Hayden and got in Tyler’s face, his brawler’s body strung tight and ready for war. “Bull. Fucking. Shit.”
Sluggish from the pain and exhaustion, Tyler managed a single nod. “We can go at it, you and I, but it won’t change what I’m saying. And I need to know if it’s ever happened here before.”
“Sure, yeah.” Deacon barked out a laugh and started a slow prowl along the cramped corridor. “I killed one just last week, actually. Right before I went for a ride on my unicorn.”
“It gets worse. In about thirty seconds, that demon is going to go up in—“
His words were cut off by a shouted curse from the uniform they’d left guarding the body. Deacon closed his eyes for the briefest moment, before he snapped them open again with a snarl and pointed at Tyler.
“Don’t go far. Once I wrap my brain around this, I’m going to have questions.” He shook his head and started back toward the body. “A lot of fucking questions.”
“You know where to find me.”
Tyler had only taken one step toward Shay when Deacon grabbed him by the arm, his eyes dark and intense. “Get Hayden the hell out of here for me, will you? Make sure she gets home safe.”
“Yeah. You got it.”
***
Shit.
Shay really, really hated when her visions came true. By the time Tyler turned to make his way over to her, Shay was about to crawl out of her skin. Or throw up. Maybe both.
Her mind was mush and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get past the terror eating at her gut. Tyler had killed a demon.
Tyler.
Demon.
She was going to be sick.
Unable to stand it any longer and knowing Tyler would be right behind her, she grabbed Hayden’s hand and hopped off the bar, tugging her friend toward the bar entrance.
“Shay, damn it, wait the hell up.”
She shook her head and kept walking. She was not the delicate flower type, but this was so far outside of her realm of comprehension it was laughable. He was… Tyler. Asshole.
Hot asshole.
She’d only made it to the bench on the sidewalk outside before he wrapped his hand around her upper arm and pulled her to a gentle stop. “Shay.”
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Clenching her jaw to keep the nightmare out of her eyes, she finally turned to look up at him. His already hulking figure was made even more intense by the blood splatter and claw marks that shredded his bicep. The savage blue of his eyes glinted with a dark energy she wasn’t sure she wanted to understand.
It was only years of dealing with her grandmother that kept her face from showing her fear. Not of him, not exactly, but what he was capable of. What he’d just done, how he’d known how to do it…and what it meant for her.
Unsteady, she focused on the one thing she could control at the moment. “You’re hurt.”
His gaze was busy tracking over every inch of her face. Without warning, his hand flashed out and gripped her chin, tilting her face toward his. “Are you okay?”
She would have nodded if he’d relaxed his grip a little. Instead she let out a shaky snort.
“No. No, Tyler, I am so not okay.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, her gut tightening even more at the tension in his arm. “You need a hospital.”
Hayden spo
ke up, her green eyes wide and afraid. “I agree with Shay. You need a hospital.” She wrapped her arms around herself and gripped her elbows. Every few seconds, her eyes flicked back to the bar door. “Where’s Deacon?”
Tyler glanced at her before turning his attention back to Shay.
“He’s dealing with having his entire belief system uprooted.” He lowered his head toward Shay, his intense gaze scorching her from the inside out until the cool breeze on her skin felt like sandpaper. “Where do you live? I need to get you both home.”
A small sound escaped Hayden’s throat. “Ah, it’s not a good idea for me to leave without Deacon.”
Tyler finally released Shay and stepped back, though he grabbed her hand before she could process the fact her skin felt like it had been branded by his touch. “He asked me to get you home. He’ll be here awhile.”
Her frightened eyes narrowed on his face, as if debating whether or not this stranger could be trusted, before she turned to look at Shay. She nodded once. Deacon and Hayden had a complicated, messy relationship and he was overprotective of her at the best of times.
“I trust him,” Shay murmured.
Haden blew out a breath before she nodded. “I actually live in Shay’s garage.”
“Good.” He said. “Then let’s go.”
While Shay wasn’t sure she wanted him in her personal space—she was still pissed at him for interrupting her date, and he was just too big not to suck up all the space in her tiny house—he needed to get that arm looked at. If he wasn’t going to a hospital, the least she could do was stitch it up for him.
Tyler nudged them forward, his massive size warming her back and pissing her off as they started toward her shop.
Next to her, Hayden swallowed hard and glanced at Tyler over her shoulder, coming to a stop on the opposite sidewalk. “What was that in there?”
He laid his hand on the small of her back and nudged her forward again. The fire in his eyes had banked into a low simmer, but his gorgeous face was still unreadable. “A demon. Move.”