She sniffed the air, trying to tease out the slightest scent of her prey. She’d always had exceptional senses, but they’d been considerably enhanced since she’d signed on to do the job. On nights like this, it wasn’t pleasurable. The smell of garbage, the hint of water in the air, and the stench of humans combined to make a particularly nasty soup. Her nostrils burned.
Deodorant shouldn’t be considered optional.
The tiniest hint of sulfur mixed with the rest. The demon was trying to hide amongst the humans. A good ploy, but she was better.
The path was easy enough to follow and led her to a dilapidated building. Most of the paint had long ago faded, leaving it mostly gray with sad patches of white, all of it covered with graffiti.
Music and rowdy laughter spilled out from a broken window on the second floor. Some of the windows on the first floor had been boarded up with plywood, stained from the weather. The rest were smashed.
Her stomach clenched, and she squared her shoulders. Catching a demon alone made things easier. Having humans involved was messy. Even Hell’s bounty hunters had rules. Killing humans was frowned upon by management, since it tended to piss off the angels. No one wanted that kind of attention.
But demons always sought out humans, for entertainment and to help mask their scent, making her job more difficult.
In her experience, humans scattered at the first sign of the supernatural, unwilling or unable to believe their own eyes.
They were nothing more than pawns for angels and the demons.
She no longer considered herself one of them—human. Not quite demon, either. Something in between the two. She neither belonged in Hell nor here on Earth. And Heaven was out of the question.
“Get it done,” she muttered. The pep talk didn’t help much. She drew her gun. The silver bullets she carried were etched with arcane symbols. They wouldn’t kill the demon but would slow him down. And bullets were bullets, silver or otherwise. If hit in the right spot, a human would die.
She tugged the front door open, not surprised to find it unlocked. These were the kind of men who didn’t care if anyone found them.
Keeping her back to the wall, she quietly climbed the stairs, being careful not to step on any debris that might alert them to her presence. Not that they’d notice. They were laughing and talking, not quite as drunk or high as she’d hoped they’d be. The heavy thumping bass notes from the music beat in time with her heart.
When she reached the landing, she peeked through an open door on her right. Drugs—pills and powder—were strewn over a large coffee table. Alcohol flowed freely, and men sprawled on large sofas that had seen better days twenty years ago. There were women there, too. One of them—a busty blonde—was busy giving one guy a blowjob. Not pretty.
Still, she’d seen a hell of a lot worse.
And there was her bounty. He called himself Clem, and his persona appeared Caucasian, with blond hair and blue eyes. Good looking. In reality, his skin was reddish-brown and thick like leather. Lucky her, she saw past the glamour to the demon beneath.
Just another perk of the job.
He was a low-level demon, basically harmless in his world. But up here, he would be powerful.
When she stepped into the room, one of the men jumped to his feet when he saw her weapon. “What the hell, bitch?” He reached for the gun tucked into the back of his jeans, but she raised hers first.
“Don’t. I have no quarrel with you. Just him.” She pointed at Clem. The demon had lost every ounce of color in his face. “You should have gone home when your time was up.” Now it would be worse for him. Lucifer had to make an example of every demon who dared to defy orders. Otherwise, demons would run rampant up here. For such a wicked creature, the devil did have his uses.
“You can’t have Clem. He’s one of us.” The man who’d stood was tall and strong. His skin was as dark as mahogany, and his shaved