“Y-you …” The word seemed to break from Jana’s mouth then. “Not B-Beth, was it? You were Perseus.”
What? This damn kid? No fucking way.
Davey’s smile flashed again. “I was wondering if you knew. Beth liked to take credit for every damn thing, but Perseus-that was my baby.”
“What the hell?” Jude shook his head. “You’re Other. Why would you hunt your own?”
Davey’s gaze again tracked to Zane. “Why would he? Why would you?” He licked away some of the blood on his lips.
Zane saw Jude’s hands clench into fists. “We go after the bastards who have crossed the line. We don’t hurt innocents. We stop the Other who can’t stop themselves.”
“So do I.” Davey blinked a bit, as if surprised they’d even doubt him. “Perseus goes after those who hurt humans, we- they—”
“That’s a damn lie!” Jana’s eyes were bright. “Marcus didn’t hurt any humans. He—”
Davey’s left hand wrapped in her hair, and he yanked her head back. “He sliced open the throat of Clayton Ridge-way.”
“Because Ridgeway killed Marcus’s girlfriend! And a dozen other women!” Jana didn’t sound scared. Didn’t look it either. Her eyes were so bright … and starting to become streaked with the faintest of red lines.
Zane sucked in a sharp breath. Charging up. Could Davey tell?
“Doesn’t matter what Ridgeway did.” No smile lifted Davey’s lips now. “Paranormals can’t kill humans. The two worlds aren’t meant to cross. When they do, hell comes.”
Hell comes. “The two worlds cross all the time.” Zane risked a few steps closer. The claws didn’t dig any deeper into Jana’s throat. “That crossing … that’s how you and I got to be here, right? Hybrids, both of us. For me, because my mother loved a demon, and for you, because your dad—”
“Don’t talk about him!” The scream echoed through the night.
Yeah, okay, obviously he’d just found Davey’s weakness.
“My dad did the damn best he could. He couldn’t help that a demon tricked him, got into his mind and—”
“Is that what he told you?” Zane asked quietly, keeping the emotion out of his voice. Her throat was still bleeding. If those claws dug in a bit more … “That your mother used her power to work into his mind and steal his will?”
“She was a demon. She tricked him. Made him think she was human.” Sweat slid down Davey’s temples. “He didn’t even know, not until she had me, not until he saw her eyes change.”
Well, shit. “The delivery, right?” Because when you were having a baby, you probably weren’t real focused on holding the glamour.
“He saw her for what she was then.”
Jana slammed her elbow into his stomach. “Demons are fucking people, too!”
“Jana!”
Davey snarled and held her tighter, harder. “The bitch deserved what she got!”
“What?” Jana taunted him. Always taunting, always pushing … and giving Zane the chance to slip ever closer. “What did she deserve? You for a son? The woman must have really screwed some people over to get—”
He whirled her around and drove his fist into her jaw. Jana went down, and Zane lunged forward as the fury burned through him. Davey was reaching for her again, death in his eyes, when Zane slammed into the bastard. ”Don’t fucking touch her!”
They crashed into the ground. The air thickened around them. So hot. Heavy with power and rage.
But Davey wasn’t attacking. He just stared up at Zane. “You understand. I know you do. You killed your father. You know what a sick bastard he was.”
And I’m not like him. He’d been afraid, for so long, but…
Demons are fucking people, too. Jana’s words rang in his ears. His strong, fierce Jana. “He was a bastard all right, but not because he was a demon. Just because he was one twisted addict who got off on his drugs and on giving pain to others.”
Davey blinked. “No, no, you understand—” “What do I understand?” He kept his arms loose at his sides. The attack would come again. He knew it. Jude circled behind the other demon. Jana rose slowly to her feet. He caught sight of blood dripping from her lips. Fuck. “I’m a demon, Davey. You are, too. And you’re a twisted asshole, that I know.”
“But you’re not, Zane.” Jana’s voice. Still strong. “You’re not like your father or like Davey.”
He stared into Davey’s black eyes. Demon eyes, but eyes filled with hate and fury. “No, but I think our Davey might be one hell of a lot like his old man. He taught you to hate, didn’t he, Davey? Taught you to destroy the things that were different in this world. To destroy the things he didn’t understand.”
Davey charged him with his claws out. “The bitch deserved to die! She would have made me evil, made me—”
Zane sidestepped the attack and drove a fist into Davey’s back. “You are evil. You don’t even realize it.”
Davey hit the ground.
“You killed a human, Davey. That girl at the college- Lindsey was human.”
Davey jumped back to his feet. The wind began to roar around them. “The bitch would have told what she knew about Laura and Perseus. I wasn’t gonna let that happen.”
“Why? Because then the big lie about Perseus defending the humans would fall apart? Because the truth is that you were just using the psychic to steal power, power that you took, that Beth took, hell, that others at Perseus probably took, too? Because deep down, you all just wanted to be the badasses that people feared in the night?” Zane shook his head. “Give me a break—”
The wind slammed into him with the force of a bus. Zane flew back and rammed into the brick wall. He heard Jude’s hard grunt and turned just in time to see the shifter slam face first into the side of a garbage dumpster. The shifter’s body slid to the ground, and a large dent hollowed the side of the dumpster.
Zane pushed to his feet. “That the best you’ve got?” His shoulder had been dislocated. No big deal. He was also pretty sure that the back of his head was bleeding. Still, he was walking, and he was ready for his turn to attack.
Davey stared back at him. “You can’t beat me.”
He was pretty sure he could. “I’d say I have a fifty-fifty shot.” More, because Jude was starting to push to his knees. Can’t keep a good shifter down.
“Marcus wasn’t the first.” Davey spit on the ground. “And Laura wasn’t the first transference psychic we found, either. Our first psychic didn’t last as long, though, but Donna did manage to steal a Born Master’s youth for me.”
Zane kept his face blank. Born Masters were the vampires who were born with the immortal power already locked within them. Then they hit their late teens or early twenties and stopped aging. If that little bastard had really managed to steal a Born Master’s youth … “How the hell old are you really, Davey?”
“Forty-eight.” Davey licked his lips. “I look real good, don’t I? ‘Course, Donna didn’t look as good. The psychics can be weak sometimes, you know. They take the full hit of the power-that blast can be hell on a human.”
Jana stood behind Davey. Zane saw that the red in her eyes had darkened even more. Charging. Beth hadn’t permanently stolen her power. Those odds of kicking Davey’s ass were looking better and better.
“What happened to Donna?” Zane asked, trying to keep Davey focused on him.
A little shrug. “Let’s just say she got a little too young. Her body couldn’t handle things. I stole what I could from her before she … well … before the end came for her.”
Shit. “So after Donna, you lucked out and found Laura.”
“Luck had nothing do with it.” His gaze darted to Jude. The shifter was still on his knees, with his head down. “It took us months to find her and—”