“Good.” She nodded, holding her breath as she looked over the bloody scene. Her stomach rolled, imagining how she’d once reveled in being on the other side.
Lana called in the local coroner’s team to take care of the bodies and coordinate clean-up as they sped away from the scene. Sunrise threatened on the horizon, the gray glow of morning teasing at the corners of the sky.
Bennett’s hands glided smoothly over the wheel, taking every turn with a confident leisure as he drove them back to his apartment. He reached across and rested his hand on her thigh, a smug grin as he rode on cloud nine, pleased with the success of his first big mission. Adair shook her head and grinned, utterly and completely charmed.
Quinn, Lana, and Logan crashed in sleeping bags on the apartment floor, wiped out from the long night.
Adair tugged Bennett by the belt and shut the bedroom door behind them and had him undressed before they reached the bed. The adrenaline from the night pumped through her, the urgent need for him thundering in her veins.
Fingertips trailing along the angle of her jaw, Bennett slowed them down. With a savoring leisure, his pace, his attention to detail was intoxicating. Patient, attentive, he made love with her all day… like they had all the time in the world.
She did.
He didn’t.
As the last scrap of daylight faded around the edge of his window blinds, she laid her head on his shoulder. A fat tear beaded at the corner of her eye. She eased up and took one last look.
The front door slammed open and shattered her silent escape. A furious roar shook the walls. Thundering closer, the demon threw open the bedroom door, and the growl threatened the structural integrity of the building.
Chapter1
Industrial District, Seattle, Now
Breath fast and unsteady, Bennett jerked up and scanned the room. Safe. Home. Alone. He flicked off the smooth white sheet and buried his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes until the dream faded.
Damn, when had his beard gotten so ragged? Since Typha and his disembowelment, he hadn’t bothered with niceties like haircuts. Quinn had always cut it for him. And asking her now? No fucking way. Beyond her normal snarky, she’d gone from months of cranky pregnant woman to sleep-deprived new mom.
Not his problem anymore.
As he rose to his feet, he guarded the nagging pull in his abdomen. Although physically healed months ago, the blistering sensation of his gut healing itself from the inside out had yet to fade. Rapid healing was great, as the injury should have taken his life, but the close call still haunted him. That was the life of a demon hunter. Potentially centuries long, but it could be ended damn fast in combat.
Each strike of his bare feet over the cool concrete ricocheted off the high ceilings of the empty building. He’d considered renovating the rest of the warehouse. He could make a killing, cashing out on the trend of urban lofts in the area, but he preferred the privacy and anonymity of the discrete structure. The ground floor had evolved into an elaborate training room for the team, so the investment had at least paid off in that respect.
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the gray of the Seattle sun wasn’t telling if it was sunrise or sunset. Not that it made a difference normally, but today… today he had to travel.
He clicked the coffee pot to brew on his way past the kitchen and lumbered into the bathroom. The slope of the brick tile floor declined as he crossed into the walk-in shower and flipped the knob to steaming. Palms pressed flat against the wall, he bent forward and let the heat pool above his broad shoulders before washing away the useless memories that were nearly fifteen years expired. Those pouty lips still haunted him.
After a brilliantly long shower, almost enough to make him feel as half-human as he was, Bennett snagged a towel from the heated rack. Sparing half a glance at the mess he’d become, he shook his head and stalked out. Over these last few months he hadn’t been idle, despite minimal demon inactivity and the team hunkering down for some well-deserved quiet.
Any given day, and he could take a few vampires without a fuss. But with the gift of enhanced strength and endurance from his demon-mother ancestor last year, he could sit on his ass for a month straight, then walk out and knock a werewolf on its ass without breaking a sweat. Still, not his style. He’d always been the first one to hit the training room floor. But after last year? When he wasn’t hitting the streets, he was in his gym from sunrise to sunrise to ensure no demon would bring him so close to the brink again.
Not bothering with a towel or bathrobe, he trudged into the kitchen. His phone blinked with an alarming blue light to let him know he had a message. Not that he needed to check it to know exactly what it said.
He poured a cup of black coffee and took a long, mind-melting pull. Without a second glance at his phone on the counter, Bennett strolled across the open floor plan to his dresser and tossed on a pair of distressed jeans and a black t-shirt that clung to his tight abs, then added tan leather chukkas and a matching belt. When he could stall no longer, he skimmed the barrage of messages and sent a quick thumbs-up to the group and let them know he’d be there in ten.
Not bothering with the little-used freight elevator, he steadied his coffee and dashed down the steel staircase to the main floor. He dropped into his McLaren, the cargo bay door rising as he fired up the engine. He turned onto 4th, crossed the wide spread of railroad tracks, and slid in front of an exhaust-puffing semi onto Marginal Way. A few safety checkpoints at the airfield, and he slipped into his hangar.
Lana was waiting for him, eyes rolling and hands on her hips. Dark hair flipped to the side, miniskirt and spike-heeled boots not giving the slightest nod to the brisk morning, she shook her head with an ornery smirk. “Sleep in a bit this morning?”
“Sorry,” he muttered, continuing his clipped pace toward the private jet.
Arms folded over his chest, Vann’s expression remained stern. “Ready?”
Bennett nodded. “Let’s go.”
Astrid was already in the cockpit, pouring through her latest training manual with her typical intensity. Blond hair smoothed out of her face, she offered him a brilliant smile. “Hey.” She nodded, then back to her book. “Thought you were at your place in BC?”
Shit. He’d been a total ass and dodged a dinner hangout a few nights back, claiming he would be off the grid for a few days. Usually when things got tough, or even blissfully quiet, he retreated to his parents’ home north of Victoria. Well, his home now. They’d built the seaside structure shortly after he was born, and after thirty-five years, they decided the home they had built to raise him in was truly his, and they were ready to turn over a new leaf. “I was going to, but, I didn’t go.”
