Demon's Kiss by MAGGIE SHAYNE Read Free Book Online

still worse, the emotions. Nearly crippling in their intensity. Hurt, grief, joy, fear, love.
    She wasn’t new at this. For ten years she’d been honing her skills, and now she put them to use. She filtered through the myriad signals her mind received, taking her time. She had all night, after all. She filtered out the joy, the love, the anger, until she’d eliminated everything but the fear. And then she explored still further, until eventually she felt something promising.
    Cold, stark fear. And pain with it. There, yes, she felt it, and homed in on it, focusing, shutting out everything else now.
    Not far from here. Not far at all. Topaz opened the car door, got out, clicked the lock button and turned, scenting the air now, in addition to following her sense of the woman. And then of the man causing the fear and the pain. Yes. This way.
    She moved, enjoying the click, click, click of her three-hundred-dollar Italian stilettos on the sidewalk. As she got closer and the signals came clearer, she moved faster, faster still, until she was only a blur of motion to mortal eyes. And then she stopped, standing beneath a fire escape, staring up at an open window. He was there. And he was busy.
    Topaz bent her knees and pushed off, soaring upward, landing on the fire escape right outside the window with barely a sound or an effort.
    She stared into the apartment. A woman was lying facedown on a pretty white carpet, while a man humped her from behind. He had a knife in his hand, and it was near her throat.
    Topaz climbed through the window and stood there, four feet from the couple on the floor. “Are you about done, there, pal? We have some business, you and I.”
    He stopped humping, swung his head up, met her eyes. His own registered shock. “How the hell—” And then anger. “Get the hell outta here, bitch, or you’ll be next.”
    â€œOh, do you promise?” she asked in a higher than usual voice. “Come on, baby. Do me right now. I want you bad. ”
    His eyes narrowed. The apartment was neat, and scented with vanilla. Probably a pleasant place, until this asshole had come to fill it with terror and strife. Topaz wasn’t enjoying her visit here. She didn’t intend to hang around any longer than necessary. “Put the knife down and let her go.”
    â€œI’ll cut her. I’ll cut her fucking throat if you don’t get out of here.” As he said it, he gripped a handful of the woman’s hair and lifted her head. The blade was pressed to her neck. She had a little too much makeup on, and some of the mascara was running under her pretty blue eyes. Big earrings, big hair, tiny skirt, and a top that was about the size of a Band-Aid. Probably a prostitute, a classy one, judging by her good looks and her apartment. But to jerks like this guy, a whore was a whore, and this one deserved whatever she got.
    â€œI’m out of patience.” Topaz lunged forward so fast that he could not possibly have seen her move. To him, it must have seemed that she just disappeared, then reappeared an instant later right beside him as his knife went sailing across the room and right out the window. It cleared the fire escape, and by the time it clattered to the ground below, Topaz was picking him up off the woman, one hand clasping him by a large handful of his thick head of hair.
    The woman tugged her tiny, tight skirt down as she scrambled to her feet. She ran to the door and was out of there without bothering to say thanks. But that was okay. Topaz had her prize.
    She turned the man to face her. He wasn’t struggling. He was scared. Clearly, he’d picked up on the fact that she wasn’t exactly human. Finally. It had taken him long enough. But at long last he knew something was off.
    â€œWhat the hell do you want?” he asked.
    â€œI want you to look me in the eyes and say you’ll never hurt me.”
    He frowned. “I won’t.”
    â€œ