Chapter 1

Zander…

I was making my rounds, checking on customers, making small business talk, and checking in with the employees when the warning went off. I was hit with a gut feeling, a psychic warning that a Demon had crossed the threshold. I glanced at the others who were tied to the alarm as I made my way to the door without drawing attention; they, too, had felt the alarm. Ash stood at the door with a curvy brunette in a green sweater and jeans. Standing next to Ash’s bald, six-foot, broad-built frame, the Demon looked almost childlike, coming only to his shoulder.

“Mr. Stone, this is Angelica Steel, she said she’s here to discuss a job,” Ash said in a stiff voice, having felt the alarm as well as picking up on the slight smell of campfire mixed with cobbler.

“We spoke on the phone, I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said nervously. 

I smiled and inhaled her scent, the scent of blueberry cobbler, of Valkyrie, was almost strong enough to cover the smell of smoke. “Not at all, why don’t we go downstairs into the club, where it’s quieter?” And soundproof.

“That’s right, you don’t open the club for an hour or more still,” she said with a smile. 

“I trust you can take care of things up here,” I said to Ash as I opened the door leading down the steps to the basement nightclub.

“I was looking at the hours online, and I was just wondering how you do it. How do you keep your restaurant open until nine and open your club at eight? I would think the noise would chase your diners away,” she chattered as we walked through a second door that fell shut behind us. 

“The entire basement is soundproofed; you can’t hear a thing upstairs,” I told her confidently. I’d tested it many times. 

“I’m so glad you could meet with me; I really need a job. I just moved to town and I’d like to find a job before my funds run out. I’m a really hard worker, I promise.”

“Certainly," I said as we walked across the open club floor toward the back rooms.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she slowed down.

“My office is in the back. I thought we could sit and talk.” Talk about there being a Demon in my club, one who smelled like a Valkyrie.

“Of course. That would be more professional," she said nervously.

“Here we go." I opened a door for her to walk through. She stepped into the room and hesitated. Shutting the door behind us, I caught her as she spun around and slammed her back against the wall. “What kind of game is Alatap playing?” I demanded. 

“Let me go,” she said in a terrified voice, her eyes large and green. “Please let me go.” 

“Enough games,” I snapped. “Tell me what Alatap is planning.”

She began struggling. “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” she said in a panicked voice.

“What happened to the Valkyrie?” She had to have done something to a Valkyrie to get the scent. “Tell me,” I snapped.

“Help!” she screamed. 

I shook her. “Completely soundproof, no one can hear you. Now talk!”

“No, no, no!” she muttered, tears beginning to spill down her face.

“I don’t have time for games,” I warned, holding her tighter to the wall.

“Not again,” she said in a horrified whisper just before flames burst from her. I dropped her, not expecting the flames. She let out a half-sob half-scream as she looked at her hands. My face changed; the Gargoyle surfacing in the face of the Demon. The smell of burnt cobbler was overwhelming.

“Enough,” I growled at her. She looked up at me, flames licking over her entire body, her piercing green eyes wide with horror. Then suddenly her flames died, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell to the floor, smoking and limp. 

Angelica…

I slowly came to, my head throbbing, my body hot, and my clothes itchy. My eyes snapped open and I shot up only to find that I was on a couch, the man who’d assaulted me staring at me intensely. I glanced around frantically, then back at him. “What do you want from me?”

He raised a brow in question. “You came into my territory and tried catching me on fire. I believe I’m the one who should be asking that question.”

I looked down at myself quickly, remembering that I’d caught fire again. My clothes were full of burn holes, but luckily still covered most of my body. I looked back at my massive assailant. “Please tell me this is a dream and that I’ll wake up soon.” I’d only caught fire one other time, and I’d run after that. I’d been frightened, was still frightened, and didn’t know what to do. 

“Let’s start with you telling me what you are,” he said coolly.

I felt myself go cold, a sick feeling filling my stomach. “Oh God, you think I’m some sort of alien and now you’re going to experiment on me!” I looked around the room as panic began to set in; I had to escape before they did terrible things to me. I was in a concrete room with a black and gray rug on the floor, a black leather couch, all set on concrete floors. He was sitting in a black leather chair, the only door in the room to his right. His desk was behind him, and the only thing between us was a cold stone coffee table.

“Alien,” he scoffed. “You can stop playing your games. I’ll have a man here within the hour to tell me all about you. Now spill.”

I nibbled my lip as I looked at him, and then slowly, I remembered why I’d passed out. It hadn’t been because I’d caught fire; it had been because a monster had flashed over his face. As I looked at him and his jaw tightened, I could almost see the monster there, just beneath the surface. Shooting to my feet, I ran for the door in a desperate attempt to get away. I didn’t know who, or more accurately, what he was.

He grabbed me just before my hand reached the handle. “Not so fast.” He had my back against the wall next to the door, the concrete cold through the holes in my shirt, his hands like stone against my arms. “And if you’re thinking of catching fire again, I’m not letting go this time.” His face, handsome and chiseled with a nearly unnoticeable dimple in his chin, flashed, gray and snarling, full of teeth.

I let out a small scream and squeezed my eyes shut. “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” I chanted low and frantic.

He shook me. “Stop that,” he ordered. I kept my eyes shut, afraid of seeing his face. “Look at me, Demon.”

“I don’t want to,” I said and tried to shrink away from him, but he was holding me too tightly.

“Why not?” he asked. As I shook my head no, he demanded, “Tell me.”

 “You have your nasty face out,” I said without thinking, and immediately wished I’d said anything else.

“Nasty face,” he repeated in a tone like I’d said something in another language.

I peeked one eye open, then both, and swallowed hard. “I think I’m hallucinating.”

His piercing gray eyes scanned my face, searching for something. “I’m going to let go of you now, and you’re going to sit back down on the couch, and we’re going to talk. If you try to run, I’ll pull out my ‘nasty face’.” The way he said “nasty face” was like an amusing label.

“If I’m hallucinating, you need to take me to the hospital or something, not make fun of me,” I said, not looking away from his face. I kept looking at his dark reddish-brown hair, his matching eyebrows, his stone-gray eyes, making sure I didn’t see that other face. But it was too easy to see it over top of this face, or even underneath.

“You really have no idea what I am, do you?” he asked in a confused tone.

“God help me, I think you might be a hallucination or a dream,” I said, still trying to shrink away from him, afraid of the thing beneath his handsome face.

He loosened his grip and pulled me forward, toward the couch. “Sit and stop trying to run from me. I won’t hurt you if you don’t give me a reason to,” he narrowed his eyes and added, “Demon.”

“I’m not a demon,” I said, my eyes beginning to tear up. I’d cracked. He was a hallucination, this whole thing was a hallucination, and I was talking to it. I could feel it, just like it was real. Was this what happened? When you went crazy, did you know you were going crazy while not being able to do anything about it?

He frowned. “Why are you crying? Demons aren’t supposed to cry. Are you a succubus? I’ve never encountered a succubus before.”

I shook my head. “Oh God, I’ve cracked, I’ve really cracked! This is because I caught that guy on fire. I didn’t mean to! He attacked me, and it just happened!” The tears were rolling freely down my cheeks now.

“What guy?” he asked, crouching down in front of me, his hands sliding down from my arms to my wrists.

I half laughed. “Now I’m explaining things to my hallucination,” I said as I looked at the ceiling. I swallowed and looked back at the man my mind had created, his shoulders as broad as a linebacker, his dark blue button-down shirt stretched over his massive torso, his massive hands making mine look almost childlike; they were so much bigger. “How did I dream someone like you up?”