Demons Are Forever
- Author: Wynne Hayworth
- Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
- Year: 2009, September 15
- Genre: Paranormal
- Setting:
- Series: None
- Amazon Listing: Demons Are Forever
- Available Formats (As of 09/22/09):
- Ebook (ISBN-13: 978-1-60504-665-5)
- Kindle (ASIN: B002NOGE1A)
Book Description
Blurb
Evolution got an astronomical kick in the pants. Now it’s kicking back…
Afterglow. Our world is changed. Mutated. Now home to humans who possess DNA belonging to creatures once thought to be only the stuff of legends. So what if the neighbor howls at the moon every month? No big deal as long as he mows his lawn.
A savage killer munching on helpless victims, however, is a big deal to Detective Buck Shand.
Buck is thinking less legend and more nightmare as he surveys the most recent in a series of brutal slayings. It’s beyond even his special talents, and he’s going to need help with this one. It arrives in the shapely form of Dr. Lian Herrick, a woman with her own form of Afterglow mutation—a demon that will shake Buck’s everyday world to its foundations and turn his brain inside out.
Will their combined skills be enough to track and stop a savage killer? Possibly. If they can keep their minds on business and their hands off each other long enough to lure a beast who feeds on sex—then kills for pleasure.
Warning: This book contains blood-spattered scenes of assorted body parts, gruesome murders, and humans who aren’t quite what they appear to be. Also included are episodes of mind-blowing sex and a good old-fashioned bit of detective work by a really cool detective. If you’ve ever dreamed of being a part-time faery, vampire, shapeshifter or paranormal psychic, and like kick-ass heroines with some interestingly unusual talents of their own, then read on.
Excerpt
“He’s escalating.”
Lian Herrick watched the effect of the captain’s words on the roomful of men. They all looked somber, a few nodded, and one—the detective she’d noticed at the crime scene—well, he was still staring at her.
She stared back, too used to men looking at her to be intimidated by it.
He broke eye contact first and went back to studying the photos on the board behind the captain.
“This is the fourth.” The captain tapped a map with red dots on it. “All in the Pleasure District. All Pleasure Pets. No pattern of houses—he’s hit a shifter place, a vamp place and two non-aligned houses.”
She made a brief note. She knew non-aligned houses would service any client, regardless of their personal orientation. Some Pleasure Pets preferred vamps, others werewolves or miscellaneous shape shifters. Some just liked sex.
And four of these Pleasure Pets would never have sex again. Lian forced away the images, the visions of blood and body parts that had crowded her brain and nearly made her sick at the crime scene. Her nostrils could still detect the scent of violent death even though she’d stayed at the doorway, fighting to hold on to her composure. And her breakfast. Something about that smell lingered.
“What’s with the lady?”
A sharp question broke the silence and she looked over to meet those oddly blue eyes, which had been fixed on her or flickering her way for most of this meeting.
The captain sighed. “The lady is on loan from County.”
“Oh goody.” Another detective grinned. “Can we keep her?”
The captain lifted his head. “Dr. Herrick, why don’t you say hello to the apes in this zoo?”
Lian put her notebook aside. “Thanks, Captain.” She stood, drawing herself up to her full five-foot-five inches. “I’m Dr. Lian Herrick. I consult for the County Medical Examiner’s office. I’m not here to interfere with your investigation, merely to help out in any way I can.”
“I can think of a few ways, honey.”
The voice from the back of the room brought guffaws and a couple of grins.
“I’ll bet you can.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Sorry. I don’t do apes. They always have limp bananas.”
General laughter greeted her response. As it usually did.
“You consult? How?”
Damn. He wasn’t going to let it go. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get your name, Detective.”
“Shand. Buck Shand.”
“Well, Detective Shand, I’ve had some experience with out of the ordinary crimes.”
“How out of the ordinary?”
She stared at him, noting the sharp cheekbones, the casually untidy hair and the shadow of a beard that would probably be black by the time the night rolled around. His gaze pierced her, shades of blue that varied like the ocean as clouds scudded across the skies above it.
“Very out of the ordinary. Serial killers, to be precise.” She met his gaze with a slight lift of her chin. “As you know, we don’t get many serial killers anymore. AGs are much too adept in sensing and solving most murders these days. It’s why crime’s down so much and why you’re all eating pizza with your families at dinnertime instead of chasing the bad guys twenty-four-seven.”
There were a few nods. One of the benefits of the new order of things was that crimes weren’t easily concealed anymore. DNA that contained a particular strain of elf, for example, led within hours to the perp.
Everyone’s DNA was on file somewhere. Lian knew it, these cops knew it—so when something like this latest monster came along and avoided detection, it was her job to go find out why.
“Really?” Detective Shand drawled the word into an insult. “Serial killers? A little thing like you?”
Her eyes narrowed as she struggled with her temper. “Yeah. Good things come in small packages, Detective.” She glanced down at his crotch. “As I’m sure your girlfriends have told you.” She looked back up at him, meeting his eyes. “Oh, by the way? They lied.”
Laughter echoed loudly through the room.
“She’s got you, Buck.” A tall man stood and crossed the room to pick up Lian’s hand. “Welcome, Dr. Herrick. You’re an asset to the team.” He kissed it and brought a chorus of smacky lip noises from his peers. “I’m Cheney Fisher. If there’s anything I can do to help…” His eyebrows waggled at her.
She grinned back. “I’ll make a note.” He was harmless. Charming, handsome, but harmless. Unlike the blue-eyed devil who still stared at her like he wanted to get inside her head. Or her pants. She couldn’t decide which.
The captain thumped on the table. “If you’ve all quite finished?”
The noise in the room dropped off as the necessary light relief concluded. Lian understood. Something like this, a horror like this—well, there had to be a release somewhere. A mechanism for dealing with death. A way of putting it aside for just a few moments and remembering that everyone was human.
In one way or another.
“We have nothing from forensics. Just like the other ones. No hairs, fibers, blood that didn’t come from the vic, nothing.” The captain frowned. “This guy either cleans up after himself with amazing precision or he doesn’t exist.”
Shand frowned. “He exists, all right.” His gaze drifted to the photographs in all their gory detail. “He feeds.”
Lian sat up. “What do you mean, he feeds?”
“Buck?” The captain looked at him. “Anything?”
Shand shook his head. “Can’t see him, Cap. Can’t get a reading, a smell on him, nothing. It’s like you said, he doesn’t exist on any plane I can reach. But he’s there. He leaves a cold chill down my back. I sense—” He paused, like he was looking to explain the inexplicable.
Which, thought Lian, he was.
“I sense a hunger. A screaming, unsatisfied hunger.” Shand sighed. “That’s all I get. And I only got that from the latest crime scene.”
“You weren’t at the previous ones?” She asked.
“Nope. Vacation.”
“And you’re a cognitive, right?” Lian made a note next to his name.
“You could say that, yeah.”
“Hell, Buck’ll say whatever gets him into bed with his current girl, Doc. Don’t let him fool ya.”
Hoots greeted the statement. Under cover of the general conversation, Shand leaned to her. “So what are you?”
“Busy.” She scribbled something else in her notes.
“C’mon. I showed you mine. You gotta show me yours. Fair’s fair.” His blue eyes were warm now, friendly.
Lian wasn’t buying it. “I’m part Fae.”
“Where’re your wings?”
“At the dry cleaners. Now shut up. I’m trying to work here.” She deliberately turned a shoulder on him.
The captain slammed his hand down. “Okay, assholes. We got ourselves a big fat nothing here. Four dead girls and not one thing to go on. Go out and get me something. Anything. Before we have to add more photos to this bleeping wall.”
It was a measure of the captain’s concern that he didn’t apologize to her for his language. She was glad he hadn’t. He’d accepted her onto the team. Which could not be said for Detective Buck Shand.
His eyes were that flat blue again as she noticed his gaze. Gathering her things, she turned to leave only to find his hand beneath her arm. “How about a cup of coffee? You’ll need to find your way around this maze if you’re going to be here for the duration.”
She eased away. “I’ll manage.”
“Aw, c’mon, Doc. We’re all friends here.”
Her skin rippled at his nearness, his scent. He was, perhaps, more than he seemed on the surface. Definitely a cognitive, possessed of a rare ability to sense that which existed on a different plane. There weren’t many cogs around. And Detective Buck Shand might well be a variety she hadn’t run across before.
She was going to have to work with the guy, personal responses notwithstanding. So she shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
Publication History
- 2009, September 15 - E-book and Kindle Release (Samhain Publishing)
