Sin's Gift (Veiled Alliance Book 1) Read online

  A rustling of leaves sounded closer than before, and they both froze. Theo turned to her and pointed toward the ground.

  She gave her head a violent shake.

  His lips thinned, but he crouched lower, and taking slow, quiet steps, continued in the direction of the noise.

  Sin stayed right on his ass, glancing back often to make sure the transient didn’t backtrack and come up behind them.

  A breeze sifted past; moonlight brightened above them. There was a clearing just ahead. They paused at the edge, scoping out the area. It was empty.

  A figure darted from the tree line toward a grassy mound at the center of the clearing.

  Sin only caught a fleeting glimpse of his face as he passed them, but it was enough to lift the hairs on the back of her neck. His indistinct face, glowing eyes—

  Theo’s hand closed on her upper arm, squeezing hard. His dark eyes bored into hers.

  She gave him a sharp nod.

  Theo shot out from behind a tree.

  Sin took a deep breath, tightened her fingers around her pistol grip, and rushed into the clearing.

  Chapter 7

  “Dammit, Sin!” Jake gritted out as he watched the two of them take off like bats out of hell after some homeless transient.

  For all they knew, the guy was armed to the teeth. Sin could be walking smack into another gun, and who’d be there to save her butt this time? That pansy-assed detective?

  He’d watched the furtive glances Sin gave the man all through the late afternoon, while inside, his belly churned. Jake hit the remote lock on the cruiser, pocketed the keys, and headed across the grass toward the footpath.

  Just when he reached the wood line, Danny stepped from the brush.

  “God, not now, buddy,” Jake said, surprised he was really annoyed at the apparition’s timing. Sin must be rubbing off for him to take Danny’s appearance so nonchalantly.

  Danny gave him a dark, fiercely intense stare then turned and preceded him down the footpath.

  Jake hesitated to follow. “Whatcha doin’, Danny? Are you taking me to her?” he whispered, hoping no was around the hear him talking to himself.

  Danny glanced over his shoulder and waved his hand to hurry him along. The footpath was deserted, moonlight filtered through the trees, lending only a dappling of silver light.

  Because Sin and the detective had taken the same route, Jake didn’t question following in his friend’s footsteps. He hurried behind him, drawing his weapon, training his ears to catch the sound of the other two moving ahead of them.

  Danny veered off the path into the woods. He glanced back again.

  “All right, I’ll follow,” Jake said quietly, pushing past low-hanging branches and trying to keep his footsteps muffled on the woodland floor.

  Danny pushed onward, walking through underbrush that seemed to melt through him, leaving Jake to curse as he stumbled a time or two on a vine in his old buddy’s wake. At last, Danny halted, turned, and pressed a finger to his lips.

  Jake pulled up beside him. They stood at the edge of a brightly lit opening in the forest.

  Suddenly, the sounds of several individuals crashing through the underbrush erupted into the clearing.

  First, the lean, silver-haired transient Sin had spotted. He ran with surprising speed, his arms in front of him as he pushed away a branch, paused to glance into the darkness ahead of him, and lurched forward again.

  Jake’s gaze left the man to follow the sounds of two more figures speeding into the clearing—Petrakis and Sin, their weapons drawn, their faces etched with deadly intent as they stayed on the first man’s tail.

  Instinct pulling him toward the action, Jake moved to rush into the clearing, but Danny shook his head. Jake gave him a glare, but kept hidden, his weapon trained in case they needed cover.

  “Halt or I’ll shoot!” Sin shouted, then crouched and raised her weapon to fire.

  The detective cursed. “Get on the ground, you bastard!”

  The transient laughed, the sound oddly thick and growling. He halted in the center of the clearing and turned back to grin at the pair quickly gaining on him.

  Jake tensed, knowing this was going to end badly as the two hurtled toward the transient. At the last moment, light sparked behind the gloating man, exploding outward into a circular, white halo.

  The transient lifted his hand, shot them the bird, and then leapt through the hole.

  Before Jake even understood what he’d just seen, Sin grabbed the detective’s arm and the two of jumped through the narrowing hole, which blinked out instantly, leaving the clearing empty and silent.

  Jake rushed past Danny, heading toward the spot the three had disappeared. As he approached, he saw a body lying on the ground. The transient.

  He knelt, keeping his weapon trained and leaned down to feel for a pulse.

  The body was already cold.

  Jake stood and turned in a circle, searching the shadows, but found it eerily empty. He glanced back at Danny still standing in the shadows of the trees. “Buddy, where the hell did they go?”

  Sin bent double, trying to keep the contents of her stomach south. The nausea passed quickly, and she jerked upright. She mused she must be getting used to this trans-dimensional hopping.

  Beside her, Theo had already shed his holster and his shirt. “Don’t leave this spot. I’m going to try to find him in the rocks,” he said, lifting his chin to point behind her.

  Sin spun around and looked up a naked, jagged cliff face. Not something she could climb in broad daylight, much less manage in the dark. She was stuck waiting. “Will a bullet stop him?”

  “No. Might just piss him off, so make sure it’s a head shot to slow him down if he backtracks. He saw you, Sin. He knows. He can’t live.” Wings flared behind his back, and he crouched and bolted upward with a downward slice.

  With her fingers tightening around her pistol grip, she followed his ascent, craning her neck until he slipped over the cliff edge. “Wonder why he felt the need to strip bare-assed naked the last time,” she muttered.

  “Didn’t want to mess up my clothes,” his voice echoed inside the narrow box canyon.

  Sin snorted. “Excellent hearing. I’ll remember that.” She wiped sweat off her forehead with her sleeve and looked around.

  Once again, she stood in a “Shadowland”—this time with darkness creeping from the crevices of the rock face and moonlight silvering the center of a canyon in a narrow, white strip. This part of Theo’s hell world looked an awful lot like Texas Hill country. She wondered if there were other parallels between this world and hers.

  The rattle of pebbles sliding down the rock face had her stepping into the moonlight, away from the wall. She hoped Theo was kicking the demon’s ass.

  With only her imagination to follow him, she wondered at the instinct that had prompted her to grab Theo’s sleeve the moment before he’d “crossed.”

  Theo had cussed a blue streak when she’d landed in the dirt beside him. “You shouldn’t be here. Do you want every demon here to know about you?”

  She didn’t really know why she’d done it. Curiosity did burn a hole inside her gut for another glimpse into this world. However, she really wasn’t jonesing for a suicide mission. Seemed she had a lot to live for. More than she’d realized a week ago.

  She hoped Jake had stuck to the cruiser. If not, and if he’d tried to track them down, he must be scratching his head and getting madder than hell.

  His anger she could manage. She’d channel it into a mutually enjoyable revenge, but his questions were another thing. Theo didn’t think she should expand the tight circle of those who “needed to know.”

  Another rumble of shifting stones had Sin stiffening, seeking the shadows above her for the cause.

  A shape moved on a ledge not twenty feet above her.

  “Shit!” She stepped slowly backward, raising her gun to train on the long outline of a big cat. A wicked snarl ripped through the quiet, and the cat launched.
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br />   Sin stepped back again, gritted her teeth, and began to unload her clip—one shot at a time—more for the noise to alert Theo she was in trouble than in any hope she’d stop the cat before it killed her.

  The creature was enormous. It landed on the ground in front of her at the edge of the path of light. Her first good look sent a shiver shuddering down her spine.

  While his body was shaped like a cougar’s, its head and neck were frighteningly distinct. Its muzzle wasn’t sleek and curved—wasn’t even catlike. Instead, it was shaped more like a mastiff’s with long, curved fangs interlocking at the corners of the outward jut of its jaws.

  The creature locked its golden, glowing gaze with hers, and its head sank toward the ground. Fur bristled on the back of its neck above a ridge of saw-like scales as it stalked her backward steps. The cat toyed with her, seeming to enjoy her deepening fear.

  “Theo?” she said, her voice rising as she kept her gaze glued to the demon.

  The snap of wings above her gave her hope she might live a moment or two longer. But she didn’t dare look away. She held the cat’s mesmerizing, glowing gaze and slowly pulled back the trigger again.

  The shot struck the cat between the eyes, but he only shook his head, his jaws opening around a strangled snarl that sent a chill straight through her body. It leaned back, tension knotting in its powerful haunches the moment before it leapt.

  Sin hit the ground, hoping the cat would jump right over her, but she didn’t hear it land. When she rolled to her back, she saw it dangling from beneath Theo as he flew high into the air.

  He flew beyond the rim of the canyon, beyond her sight and hearing.

  Sin didn’t relax until he soared back many minutes later, empty-handed. “Bullets won’t do it, but falling from the sky will?”

  “I dropped him into a fire pit,” he said, closing his wings. The moment they folded behind him, they disappeared.

  “That word again. What is it? A barbeque?” Sin asked, walking in a circle around him to touch his smooth back.

  “A lava pit, for lack of a better word.”

  “Cool,” she said absently, feeling along his body for the place his wings were hidden.

  “Our shoulders are one of our erogenous zones,” he said, amusement in his voice.

  Sin drew her fingers back like they’d been singed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to get too personal. Just curious.”

  “Let’s get back before we’re detected by patrols,” he said, swiping his holster and crumpled shirt from the ground. “I need to close that portal.”

  Sin glanced back to the approximate place they’d crossed. “How do we find it?”

  “I have to touch it to activate it.”

  Sin held her hands in front of her, feeling for it.

  “Won’t work that way, sweetheart,” Theo said softly.

  “Why’s that?” she asked, glancing back just as he touched the air and the portal opened.

  “You don’t have what it takes to open it.”

  “You mean, because I’m not…” Her eyes widened.

  “Demon.”

  “And you are?”

  Theo shrugged.

  “Crap. Does that really mean anything in this world? You’re like a good demon, right?”

  “It’s not a term that can be painted black or white.”

  “Shades of gray? So that cat…wasn’t necessarily evil?”

  He snorted. “It murdered its host body for the convenience of walking in his skin. What do you think?”

  “Just trying to work out the rules. Body thieves—evil. Fallen angel-demons, maybe?”

  “Hurry it up. That partner of yours isn’t going to cool his heels for long,” he said, snagging her hand and ducking through the portal.

  “Hate to burst goddamn bubble, but her partner didn’t last one fucking minute.”

  Sin’s gaze widened as she spotted Jake on the other side, his jaw clenched so tightly muscles flexed along his neck and shoulders. She yelped when he yanked her through the portal and straight into his arms.

  “No time for a welcoming committee, Chappa,” Theo said, tossing something back through the portal. Then he turned back, spread his arms, and took them both to the ground.

  A blinding light flashed behind them, and the ground dipped and rolled beneath her flattened body as though she lay atop the epicenter of tiny earthquake that rippled outward.

  When the reverberations ended, Theo climbed off their backs, dusted himself off, and then calmly finished dressing.

  Jake pulled her roughly from the ground and ran his hands over her body.

  “I’m fine,” she sputtered, pushing him away. She glanced back at Theo. “That thing close the portal?”

  His sharp nod had her letting out a slow breath.

  “That the rabbit hole you fell through the other night?” Jake asked, between clenched teeth.

  “Yeah. Tried to tell you.”

  “I thought it was just…”

  “What? A metaphor?”

  “She always such a hardass?” Theo asked, his tone sliding toward humor again.

  Jake shot him a killing glare, his fists balled at his sides.

  The two men stared for a long moment, Theo holding perfectly still, his expression neutral.

  At last Jake’s shoulders slumped. “A ball-buster. It’s genetics. Her dad was a New York City cop.”

  “Ahhh…” The corners of Theo’s lips lifted.

  Sin shot them both a venomous glare and stalked back toward the footpath.

  “What about the body?” Jake asked behind her.

  “Let it rot until the smell alerts park personnel. We don’t need the attention,” Theo said.

  “Why did I think this was a police matter, anyway?” Jake muttered. “Sin was stuck right in the middle of it.”

  Sin simmered while she waited beside the car as the two men returned more slowly, their heads bent close, deep in conversation.

  After Jake unlocked the doors and they all slid into their seats, he glanced into his rear-view mirror. “Coffee? This gonna be a long night? Or was that the end of it.”

  “It’s the end of it for now,” Theo replied. “You can drop me at the station. I do have real work to do. And Sin,” he paused, waiting until she looked back, “you see any more of those guys, do not pursue without giving me a call.”

  “No worries there,” Jake answered for her. “If she so much as twitches at another transient, I’ll personally cuff her to the cage.”

  “How did I wind up being the chew toy between two goddamn pit bulls? Tell me that?” Sin grumbled.

  Soft, masculine laughter filled the squad car.

  “I mean, what just happened? All of a sudden you two are best buddies?” she said, pretending deeper disgruntlement than she truly felt. Two big, strong men wanted to keep her safe. What girl could complain about that? Still, she didn’t want them thinking she’d let them wrap her up in cotton wool.

  “We both have your best interests at heart, sweetheart,” Theo said.

  “Damn straight,” Jake seconded.

  “Fucking great.”

  Minutes later, Jake halted the car in front of the substation.

  Jake let Theo out this time. Since she was still a little torqued at their male bonding, she wasn’t budging from her seat.

  Theo leaned into the doorway and gave Sin a reproving glance. “I understand your curiosity, sweetheart, but proceed with caution. If you’re hell-bent on assuming a bigger role in the battle, you’ll get your chance. I’ll be your guide. Tell no one else what you’ve seen.”

  She stared through the windshield. “I’m good at lying.”

  Theo straightened. “Chappa, make sure she doesn’t get cocky. She has good instincts, but she tends to leap first.”

  Sin and Jake stopped for doughnuts and coffee, taking a break before calling dispatch to let them know they were back on call.

  Sin stirred her cup, staring as the creamer spiraled then blended. She’d already played with
a thread hanging from her uniform, checked and rechecked the safety on her weapon—anything not to have to meet Jake’s steady gaze.

  “Were you even going to tell me?” he asked quietly.

  Her long pause had his body tightening. She could see his hands clenching on the table from beneath the fringe of her eyelashes. Time to let him take his pound of flesh off her backside.

  She raised her face to meet his gaze. “Jake, if you hadn’t seen…that…tonight, with your own eyes, would you have believed any of it?”

  Jake didn’t even blink, but he did draw a deep breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring like a bull at the flutter of a red flag. “I don’t know. Danny’s one thing. That…back at Brackenridge…was just crazy as hell.” At last the anger seemed to dissipate, and his face reflected confusion and more than a little hurt. “Why you, Sin? What’s this gift Theo mentioned to me?”

  She shrugged and offered him a weak smile. “Apparently, I can see the demons wearing human skin.”

  Jake shuddered and put down his coffee cup. “So, why do these creatures come here?”

  “According to Theo, some come to feed. Our suspect was there to steal an artifact, a relic, to increase his master’s power.”

  “Did he find it?”

  “Yeah, but because I was on his butt, he couldn’t grab it from his host body’s clothes before crossing.” Sin grimaced. “My head’s starting to hurt. Can we stop with the twenty questions now? I don’t know everything. There hasn’t been time, and I feel like they’re testing me. I’m guessing it’ll be a long time before they trust me with everything.”

  “All right. No more about Theo and his freak show. But you didn’t answer my first question.” His hand slid across the table and covered hers. “Would you have told me?”

  Sin closed her eyes. She hadn’t realized she needed to feel his touch so badly. Uncertainty, fear, even the last remnants of her adrenaline high, all drained away.