InsistentHunger (25 page)

At the top of the stairs, Paige saw that someone had cleaned
up the Carter place’s foyer. A curving stair led up to a second-story balcony
and there was a definite lack of dirt, cobwebs and raccoons. These abandoned
houses usually had all three in abundance. A huge cherry wood table stood in
the middle of the cracked marble floor.

She must have stopped too long because she got poked in the
back by the gun.

“To the left, the archway,” her escort ordered her. Paige
followed his directions and headed to the left. Her guts were really knotting
now. She’d seen a number of demons, but none of them were the sort to set up in
a mansion. Well, they might set up in one, but they didn’t seem the type to
clean one. Truth be told, vampires were a little less impressive than she’d
expected.

The guard shoved Paige into a room with a piano listing
badly to the right and heavy, stained drapes over the boarded-up windows. Now
this room had a demonic vibe going. It even had a demon. The woman stood near a
fireplace in a black dress that clung to her curves and black heels. With her
blonde hair swept up, from the back she looked like she was ready to go to a
cocktail party. Next to her foot sat a box with what looked like ash and
garbage in it. Someone had been cleaning the fireplace, but Paige was guessing
it wasn’t this lady.

She stood with her hand on the heavy mantle and there was
something in the curve of her spine that just didn’t look human.

“So, you’re the master? Your flunky needs a gender lesson.”

“What have you done with him?” Her voice was low and a
shiver went through Paige. This woman was thoroughly and completely pissed.

“Who?” Paige asked as casually as she could.

The woman spun around and pinned Paige with a cold glare.
Her pale blue eyes were so light that, for a half second, they gave the
illusion of being pure white. It ruined the perfect image the woman was clearly
trying to project.

“Oh, Brady,” Paige said casually. Maybe she felt a little
suicidal, but verbally poking this woman felt good. She’d stalked Brady, so she
had a vulnerable spot there. It was the only advantage Paige had.

The woman was vibrating with rage now. “What have you done
to my demon?”

Paige tried to smother any signs of hope. If Brady could
still confuse and aggravate the bitch, maybe that meant he had gotten away.

“Your demon? Lady, I have no idea what you’re talking
about.”

The woman’s fists clenched and Paige braced for a physical
assault. It never came. Instead, the woman took an exaggerated breath. “I chose
the body. I cast the spell that opened the portal. He is mine.”

“Not even a chance,” slipped out before Paige could edit
herself. The woman’s body language mutated, her body curved and arched in ways
that made Paige suspect death might be a blessing. Well, if she’d lost the
fight, she might as well go down fighting. “He’s a free man, free to tell you
to fuck yourself because you had no right to ruin his life. So no, Brady is not
yours.”

“How dare you!” The woman’s face twisted into something dark
and deadly. “He is not human. Do not abuse his greatness by calling him a human
name.”

Okay, this woman’s trolley had left the tracks. She was
crazy. “That’s just what he calls himself and I came here looking for him. I
didn’t do anything to him.” Paige crossed her arms and gave the woman a
saccharine smile.

The bitch’s eyes narrowed. “You lie. I will force him to see
the lies that fall from your mouth.” She strode over with long steps and
Paige’s short legs couldn’t retreat quite fast enough. The woman slapped her so
hard that Paige’s ear rang and she fell to the floor. Scrambling to her feet,
Paige fisted her hands and prepared to go down fighting, but the woman had
already moved to the double doors on the far side of the room. The armed flunky
still waited next to the doors Paige had come in. No escape there.

The woman pushed the pocket doors back and Paige sucked in a
breath. Brady stood there, his hands in old-fashioned shackles. The thick iron
half circles with one straight side looked a lot stronger than standard
handcuffs. As his eyes scanned the room, he saw her. Brady’s arms bulged as he
fought against the chains, but the woman grabbed his arm and pulled him into
the room.

“This is what you claim loyalty to. A human. An animal. She
would turn on you in an instant.”

“Then why’s she here if she wanted to turn on me? Why didn’t
she burn the house down?” Brady asked. The question was logical, but the tone
was more than a little snotty. He certainly wasn’t following the rules about
de-escalating a conflict. Then again, neither had Paige.

“She would control you.” The woman’s voice turned silky and
she raised a hand, but Brady shied back, the chains rattling at the sudden
movement.

Brady gave a dark laugh. “And you aren’t?” He tugged at the
chains.

“I’m your creator! I brought you into this world.”

“You opened the door,” Brady snapped. “I fought for this
body. I earned the right to come into this dimension.”

“Because I called you. Me. I’m the one who lit your way into
this world.”

Brady looked at her coldly. “Lady, I don’t owe you anything,
no more than you owe whoever brought you into this world.” That hit a nerve.
“You haven’t been here for all that long, have you?” He studied her up and
down. Normally when a man gave a woman that much attention, the gesture
bordered on sexual harassment. Somehow Brady managed to make it look
dismissive.

The woman bridled, her hands fisting at her sides. “You will
learn manners.”

“I doubt that. Paige was trying to teach me table manners
and it just never took. But hey, you’re welcome to try.” This was a darker side
of Brady than Paige was used to seeing. Now she could see how his own body
language had turned alien. His shoulders were back a little too far—his neck
stretched a little too much. He looked awkward in his own skin. He also looked
furious.

Instead of blowing up the way Paige expected, the woman got
a calculating look on her face. “You’re a fool if you think to judge me by how
I look.”

“I’m judging you on how you act, lady. You wanted a toy to
control and I will not be a toy.”

“I am stronger than you and you will yield.” She reached out
and caught Brady’s chin. Brady raised his hands to push her away and she caught
the chain connecting the shackles and threw him toward the center of the empty
room. “Time for a lesson. Keep an eye on her.” The woman gave a wave in Paige’s
direction, and the flunky raised his gun a little higher. Paige held a palm up
toward the guy to show that she didn’t plan to make any trouble. Not unless she
had a reasonable chance that it would work, anyway. Dying was not on her
agenda.

“Leave her alone,” Brady warned.

“She’s human. And you will learn the human’s proper role in
this world.”

Paige wanted to point out that the flunky was human. If she
had worked for this woman and heard that little speech, she’d be filling out
applications elsewhere, but the flunky with the gun didn’t seem to react.

“What do you mean?” Brady looked over toward Paige and she
could see his alien body language fade until she could see the old Brady. Worry
carved a deep wrinkle through his forehead.

“If you want your little human, then you’ll have to fight
for her. Demons fight for their status, and as of right now, you have none. So
earn some.” The woman turned her back on Brady and walked toward the fireplace.
Brady clenched his hands. He wanted to attack. Thank God he had the common
sense to pick a better time because they were definitely at a disadvantage
here.

“Is that what happened to you?” Brady pushed himself back up
to his feet. “Did someone make you fight for your power? Take your power? Make
you feel helpless enough that now you want to control someone else?” Brady’s
words sank deep into the bitch, making her twitch as each barb hit home.

She took a large, heavy key from the mantle and threw it at
Brady. He caught it awkwardly and then just stared at her.

“What’s the game?” he asked.

“Earn some respect or start showing it to your betters.” The
woman crossed her arms and leaned her weight on one leg. It was a pose out of a
magazine, but the hairs on Paige’s arms stood up.

“Brady, if you underestimate her because she’s a woman, I
will kick your ass,” Paige warned him darkly. He flashed her a half grin.
Message received.

“I’m okay killing a woman,” Brady said as he got the key in
the lock and then seemed to turn it for a really long time before the mechanism
unlatched and he could shake the shackles off. They fell to the wood floor with
a clatter and Brady’s body moved with inhuman graced as he circled the woman.
She watched with one eyebrow up, and Paige really hoped that Brady would kick
her ass.

Faster than Paige could suck in a breath, Brady darted
forward, his hands reaching for her. Both his hands closed around her neck,
forcing her away from the fireplace.

She started to fall, her legs going up in the air, but it
didn’t look like a normal fall. Paige opened her mouth to shout something—she
wasn’t sure what—but then her feet hit Brady. When she hit the floor, he sailed
over her and crashed headfirst into the wall. A quick twist and the woman was
back on her feet, her black dress covered in dirt.

Brady was up nearly as fast and he kicked out a leg. It
contacted the woman’s hip with a sickening thump that would have led to
hospitalization if the woman were human. Instead, she stumbled back a step and
smiled at him.

“You think like a human. It is my fault for losing you so
soon after you came into this world. The transition clouds the mind. However,
perhaps now you can see that you are not my match. I have much to teach you.”

“I’m not interested in lessons.” Brady returned to slowly
circling her.

“You are in this world because of me—”

“And you can take me out of it,” Brady snapped. “Yeah, my
mom used to joke about that when I stole the crust off her apple pies. It
didn’t scare me then either. I’m Catholic, lady, and you haven’t said anything
that’s scared me half as much as the parish priest when I was six and stole
candy out of the food donations box.”

Paige pressed her lips together because this woman’s
attitude scared her. She was too sure. Perps were never that sure unless they
held all the cards. Looking around for something she could use as a weapon, she
was stopped when the flunky stepped closer to her.

“Don’t,” he warned. Paige froze and Brady’s gaze flickered
over toward them. The woman chose that moment to attack. Her attack looked a
lot like Brady’s own—both hands reached out as she threw herself forward.
Grabbing Brady by the neck, she drove him back into the wall.

The plaster failed and the wood slats behind it cracked
under the impact. Paige gasped out Brady’s name. He clawed at the woman, but he
couldn’t seem to budge her. After a few seconds, she pulled him away from the
wall and shook him like a ragdoll. His head snapped back and forth. For a
second, he clung to her arms, but then he seemed to lose his grip and his hands
flew out away from his body.

Despite the fact that she was four or five inches shorter
than Brady, she held him easily, and when she was through shaking him, she
threw him at the far wall. Fabric ripped as her fingers tore Brady’s shirt,
shredding the front so that Paige could see the damage and bruising below.

Paige flinched as he hit a foot or two away from her. She
rushed to his side, one hand resting on his back as she faced off against the
woman.

“You sick bitch,” Paige snapped. Brady shifted under her
hand, but he seemed to be taking awhile to collect his scrambled thoughts.
Paige expected the woman to attack immediately, but she crossed her arms and
watched them curiously.

“Were you a demon, I might care about your opinion. However,
I don’t care about human opinions any more than you might ask for the opinion
of a cow.”

Paige glared at the woman. Brady rolled to his side and then
got one leg under him. Paige cringed as she saw the broken bones making his
skin stretch in unhealthy directions. If he were human, he’d be dead. Even as a
demon, the injuries made movement slow and painful. He grimaced as he touched
his mangled side.

“What the hell do you want?” Brady asked. Nice. Now they
were negotiating. They didn’t have much to offer and this bitch had too many
marbles loose and rolling around in her head to trust.

She smiled, a slow honeyed expression that turned Paige’s
stomach. “You,” she said. “I want you, but not this shadowed version with
humanity clinging to it.” She barely finished before she darted forward. Paige
never saw her pull a knife, but three quick slashes and blood sprayed over the
floor. Paige threw up a hand, but blood splattered across her face before she
could protect herself. For a second, she thought the woman had killed Brady,
but Brady’s hands moved up to the deep cuts on his chest, pressing his hands to
them even as the blood began to slow.

“So learn to be a demon, child. Let go of these ridiculous
ties to humanity.”

Brady made a small noise and the woman turned her back to
them. “Put them both in the basement,” she ordered her flunky. The man with the
gun stepped forward.

“Help him up. Move,” he ordered Paige. Paige glared, but she
really didn’t have many choices, not with the woman watching and Brady so badly
injured. She got an arm around Brady and helped him to his feet. He was a lot
taller and heavier than she was. It made every step slow and awkward, but she
urged him toward the double doors.

If Brady was faking some of the injury, they might be able
to distract the guard and make a run for the front door. The way her luck was
running, the mindless vamps waited on the other side of the front door, but
she’d rather face them than the woman. That bitch had issues.