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“Come again?” Deputy Morgan Savani said.
Hondo sighed, as if he was about to explain something to toddlers. “When a soul is sucked out, the person can still live. They can still function, but they have no moral compass. They no longer have a conscience. They become a danger to themselves and those around them because they don’t care about right or wrong.”
That was bad.
“Imagine you’re driving down the street and a jaywalker crosses in front of you. You’d stop so you wouldn’t hit them. She wouldn’t. She’d hit them, and it wouldn’t even register to her that she’d done anything wrong.”
“Damn,” Deputy Cannon Lowrey said. “That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me about it,” Hondo replied. “That was just a mild example of what she could do.”
“Then let’s get this demon out of here and get the woman to you,” Harper said.
That was if she was still at home. Denali prayed she was, instead of driving around town using people as target practice with her bumper. Right now all of the cops in Midnight Falls were at this scene, so if a crime was being committed at this moment, no law enforcement would be there to stop it.
“How do you want to handle this?” Deputy Wyatt Birch asked.
“Let me go in,” Hondo said. “You guys stay out here in case, by some miracle, he gets past me and comes outside.”
Then what? All demons possessed some kind of power. Denali just hoped the one inside had a power like stopping rain or making flowers grow. Anything stronger than that and they were fucked.
They watched as Hondo simply waltzed inside, as if he didn’t fear anything the soul-sucking demon could do to him. Moments later, Denali watched flames erupt inside. It also sounded like a warzone in there. Things crashed, someone shouted, and a few of the windows blew out.
The front door crashed open, and the soul-sucker raced outside. Without thought, Denali charged forward and stuck his arm out, clotheslining the bastard. Only, the demon jumped to his feet and drove his fist so hard into Denali’s ribs that Denali felt more than one break. Then he thrust both his hands against Denali’s chest, sending Denali flying backward.
He hit a tree, and it felt as if his back had just broken.
Lifting his head and fighting hard to breathe, Denali watched as Hondo came outside, engulfed in flames, and threw fireballs at the demon. The demon went down, screaming as Hondo closed the distance.
Denali’s lion forced its way out, making Denali shift to heal. He saw Hondo grab the demon by the throat right before he passed out.
* * * *
Zayde was beyond disappointed. Not only had Denali not shown up to check on Chloe but he hadn’t called or texted, and it was well past dinnertime. It seemed the deputy was just the latest jerk in a long line of jerks that Zayde had dated.
He really thought Denali would be different considering their date had gone so well and the deputy had agreed to dinner at Zayde’s house. They’d connected on a level that had shocked Zayde and he’d looked forward to seeing Denali again.
Giving up, he grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone and headed out the door. It was seven-thirty, and he was starving. The least Denali could have done was call to cancel. That would have been the right thing to do. One would think that, being a cop, Denali would have better manners and consideration.
“That’s it, I’m done,” Zayde muttered to himself as he approached his car.
Then he stopped when a red Dodge Challenger Hellcat pulled into his driveway. Denali’s car. Zayde crossed his arms, scowling as Denali got out.
“I can explain,” Denali said.
“Or you could have called or texted to tell me you were going to be late,” Zayde argued. He’d been through this before with past dates. Let them show up late once and they made a habit of it. No doubt Denali would have a doozy of an excuse. They always did.
One date had told Zayde that he’d been late because he’d been saving a drowning puppy. Later, Zayde had found out that the puppy had two legs and nicely shaped ass. He couldn’t wait to see what Denali came up with.
“I was fighting a demon.”
Zayde frowned. Did Denali have demons? Was this a legit excuse? Alcohol, drugs, or something else? “What kind of a demon?”
“Soul sucking,” Denali said.
Weren’t they all soul sucking? Zayde had had a friend who’d battled drug addiction and, unfortunately, lost. He’d watched Taylor dwindle away right before his eyes, and nothing Zayde did had helped.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to go through that again. Not with Denali. Not with anyone. When he’d heard that Taylor had been found dead in his apartment from an overdose, that had crushed him. It had taken a while to get past the loss, and to this day, the memories still haunted him.
