ravenous beasts. It took him less than thirty seconds to make six floors—and not a moment too soon.
A growl escaped unbidden as he opened his front door and rushed inside.
To darkness.
“The generator?” He dashed into the hallway and to the roof access doorway. Inside, his muscles clenched and he fought against the demon that sought to control him. Through sheets of rain, he spied the smoking generator. “What happened?”
Had it been struck by lightning? It looked okay. No burn marks on the metal cabinet. He pulled the ignition cord, and the motor sputtered. It had to work when wet. It had before.
Lightning slashed the sky and frightened the emerging demon so that Certainly felt the actual cringe within his body. From the rooftop, he scanned the streets below. A neon sign flickered three blocks away. The entire neighborhood was dark.
With renewed urgency, the demon thrummed through his veins, pulsing to the fore. Bent double, CJ fell to his knees. “Who is it this time, damn it!”
A throaty chuckle spit out raindrops. “Hungry for some pain?”
* * *
Vika dropped Libby off at the witches bazaar and told her to be careful of the weather on the way home. The worst had passed; she could feel it in her bones. But that had been some crazy lightning earlier. Must have taken out power in parts of the city, for they’d driven some streets dark for the lacking streetlights.
Since she was close to Certainly’s home, she decided to abandon caution and go for it. She’d been abandoning more than caution when around the man. This afternoon in the archives had been—scandalous. Sexually, it had rocked her world. The instant connection they had developed was downright combustible. And mercy, but she wasn’t wearing any panties now due to her quick change before heading out to the cleaning job. She wondered if the dark witch would be up for round two.
“I know he will be.”
And yet, reluctance twanged deep in her gut. It was evening. Dark and rainy. She knew she had no reason to fear. His home was well lit with the prismatic light required to keep back his demons.
That still didn’t erase the unease clinging to her skin.
She found a parking spot down the street from CJ’s building and decided a walk in the sprinkling rain wouldn’t make her hair any less appealing than it already was. Tugging off the Tyvek shoe covers and stashing them in the back of the hearse, she made a note not to forget the bag of faery dust they’d swept up. It must be returned to Faery unless she wished to risk mischief and malice. Vika didn’t like dealing with the sidhe, so she would contact a freelance liaison she regularly hired for jobs such as this.
The concierge in the lobby tipped his hat to her and informed her the electricity was out and she’d have to take the stairs. He offered her a flashlight, and she accepted it while her heart sank to her gut.
Taking the stairs, she could not anticipate what she would find on the sixth floor. No electricity meant no light. But CJ had said he had a backup generator.
“Whew.” Allowing her nerves to get the better of her was so out of character.
Quickening her steps she made the top floor, but she didn’t try CJ’s door when she saw the roof door open and swinging from the breeze blowing down from above.
She listened before taking the three steps up to the roof, clinging to the slick iron railing. The rain had picked up again and it poured over her shoulders, soaking the thin white T-shirt she wore above skinny black jeans. Shivering against the heavy droplets, she ventured across the pebbled roof, her flat heels finding slippery purchase. A few tin vents jutted up. The stairwell was bricked in so she walked around it, expecting to find the generator on the other side.
Vika walked around the brick wall and spied a dark stream of water. It trickled over her shoes, and she saw it was blood. “Certainly?”
“Heh, heh, heh.” He sat against the wall, a serrated piece of metal in hand. His arm bled from inner elbow to the wrist, and at sight of her he smiled a macabre grin before banging the back of his head hard against the brick wall behind him.
“What happened?” She lunged before him and CJ growled, setting her back and stumbling away. Red eyes. Not CJ. A demon controlled him. Had it forced him to draw