“You’re not coming with us? You need a doctor more than we do.”

“Don’t worry about me. My ride will be here soon.”

“Here.” One of the women held out a blanket that had been in the back of the truck. “Wrap him in this.”

The kindness of these people after their terrifying ordeal warmed me. I took the blanket and wrapped it around the mox demon before the man laid him on the ground. There were a lot of tears and cries of thank you before the truck finally pulled away, leaving me alone with the two mox demons.

“Perfection.” Eldeorin appeared before us, startling the already frightened demons. “You were amazing, Cousin.”

“Not exactly perfect.” I grimaced. “I should kick your ass for this one.”

“As if you could.” He laughed and touched my hand, making the pain in my wrist and ankle disappear. “Admit it, you enjoyed that.”

“Yeah, I always like getting tackled by demons ten times my size.” I shook out my newly healed wrist. “Do you have the phone?”

He waved and a cell phone appeared in his hand.

“Show-off.” I took it and called David, who let Kelvan know about the mox demons so he could send someone for them. I refused to leave them until help arrived, for fear some more of the gulak’s henchmen were nearby. Ten minutes later, I saw three mox demons walking up the street toward us, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Will you be okay?” I asked the female demon and she nodded timidly.

“Good.” I turned to Eldeorin. “Can we go home now?”

Mischief sparkled in his dark blue eyes. “Already? The day is still young.”

I waved a finger in his face. “No way, Eldeorin. That was enough training for one day.”

He took my hand and laid it in the crook of his arm. “This one will be fun; trust me.”

“That’s what you always say,” I complained before Minneapolis faded around us.

Chapter 15

“Do we have any intel on who might be doing this?”

Nikolas’s voice drew my attention away from my laptop where I was chatting with David and Kelvan. Almost two months had passed since I’d gotten sick and we’d lost Madeline’s trail. Now I was determined to pick it up again with the help of my two talented hacker friends, and for the last three days we’d been working together to try to figure out where Madeline was. The difference this time was that I was sharing anything we learned with Nikolas. The Mohiri had wanted to work directly with my friends, but David and Kelvan didn’t trust anyone but me. Nikolas wasn’t happy about the arrangement until I reminded him that David, Kelvan, and I had gotten closer to finding Madeline than the Mohiri ever had.

Nikolas walked into the command center with Chris and another warrior named Raoul whom I’d seen here a lot. Nikolas’s eyes scanned the room until they met mine, and we exchanged smiles. I liked being able to spend my evenings here working alongside him, and the looks he gave me told me he felt the same way.

Raoul shook his head. “Whoever they are, they are deadly and fast. I hate to admit it, but their kill rate is better than ours right now with zero human casualties. They move around a lot too, which makes it impossible to get a lead on them. We have reports coming in from all over the country.”

Instead of sitting at one of the tables, the three of them walked toward me. Chris and Raoul each took a chair and Nikolas sat on the couch with me. I pulled my legs up to make room for him, and he rested a warm hand on my foot. He was so caught up in his conversation I didn’t think he was even aware he’d done it. When his thumb began to absently stroke my bare ankle, a tingle spread up my leg and I found it hard to concentrate on my computer or their conversation.

“Are you sure it’s the same people?” Chris asked.

“No, but my gut tells me it is. All the strikes have the same feel to them, and the hostiles were killed by some kind of weapon we haven’t seen before. The warehouse in Minneapolis, the vampire in Seattle, the nest at the old amusement park in New Jersey.”

My head jerked up at the mention of New Jersey. Two days ago, I’d wiped out a nest of seven vampires and rescued a family of four from an abandoned amusement park in that state. It had been my most difficult kill yet, and at one point I’d thought I was done for. I was glad I saved that family, but I’d been in over my head on that one. It was only my vampire radar that had kept me alive, and I’d sworn to Eldeorin that if he ever pulled another stunt like that I was never speaking to him again.

“…and each time the victims recovered had no clear memory of their rescuer or what happened to them. It’s like someone messed with their memories. Twenty-two people were rescued from the gulak in Minneapolis, and every one of them gave a different description of the person who helped them.”

“One person?” Nikolas’s thumb stopped moving. “Didn’t you say we found a dead gulak master in the warehouse? It would take an experienced warrior to kill a demon that powerful.”

Raj, the transmitter guy, chuckled. “Maybe we have a rogue warrior taking it on the road.”

“Or it could be a human hunter with a new kind of weapon,” someone else suggested. “Whoever he is, he has a pair to go into that nest on his own.”

Chris laughed. “Maybe we should try to recruit him.”

Jordan snorted and looked up from the workstation she was monitoring. “You guys automatically assume it’s a male.”