Along Came a Demon (Shadow Demons 1): A Bones MC Romance

The thing about homeless shelters was they were exactly what the name described and nothing more. Shelter. For the homeless. There was nothing remotely safe about them. Merrily Dane couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a decent night’s sleep. Between the creepy pervert who was supposed to be on the other side of the room away from the young mothers and children, and the drug addicts — who weren’t supposed to be there in the first place — making deals at all hours of the night, she was turning into a paranoid insomniac.

She tightened her hold around her daughter, Bellarose, and whispered next to her ear, “I love you, pumpkin.” Merrily hated being in this situation, but until she could get on her feet again, she didn’t have much choice. Getting back on her feet wasn’t going to be easy without an identity.

“I love you back, Mommy.” Somehow, the child seemed to know she needed to keep her voice down. She’d learned quickly in the time they’d been on the run. It broke Merrily’s heart nearly as much as it made her angry.

“Hey, Mommy?” Rose continued to whisper.

“Yeah, baby.”

“When we get to our forever home, can I have a black cat, and a white cat, too?”

“Sure, baby. I’ll do my best.” Merrily’s heart was breaking. Rose asked for the same thing every night. They’d left her black-and-white tuxedo cat when they’d been forced to leave and the girl had been heartbroken. Hell, Merrily had been heartbroken. Fortunately, the lady next door had agreed to look after the animal while Rose and Merrily were on “vacation.” Mrs. Burton had offered to take the cat several times in the past so Merrily didn’t feel like she’d imposed too much on the older woman. Instead of a fun-loving outing, however, she and Rose were stuck in a homeless shelter trying to make their way out of the reach of whatever gangster her father had crossed.

The barracks layout of this shelter wasn’t exactly conducive to privacy or quiet, but it was all she’d been able to find with an available bed in this city. This time of year, the shelters were maxed out. Luckily, she’d found a spot in the corner so she could put her daughter on the inside of the bed and herself between Rose and everyone else. It was a small, bunk-style bed barely big enough for one person, but Merrily was small and her daughter was only four. She figured she needed to find something better in the morning because this place was seriously creeping her out. Then again, it was probably the only shelter that didn’t require an ID and she couldn’t afford to be on the grid.

Which brought Merrily to her greatest worry. Despite the shady characters surrounding her, despite not knowing where their next meal was coming from, despite the shelter being one step away from being out on the streets alone with a four-year-old, Merrily was terrified her father’s “employers” were finally on her trail. It was nothing overt, just a feeling of being watched.

Bellarose shivered and Merrily brought the threadbare blanket higher to make sure the child was covered completely. She hated turning her back to the room — especially since she knew she needed to keep an eye on everyone and everything — but she knew she was too slight of build to be much good in a fight and the only protection her daughter had was Merrily’s own body. She tried to shift the arm pillowing Rose’s head to get circulation going again.

Life sucked sometimes. She and her beloved daughter were cold. In a homeless shelter full of shady people. Terrified out of their minds. Being hunted. She could practically feel the hunters breathing down her neck. She had to get out of this city. The only reason she’d stopped here was because it was as far as her money would take her and the only city with a bus station in the area.

After a couple of hours worrying about what her next move needed to be, she finally drifted off, wondering how the hell she was going to get herself out of this mess.

* * *

“If you keep Hell Bitch waiting, it will just be that much worse.” Azriel wasn’t actually referring to a person. He referred to the white cat that had adopted the Shadow Demons as her humans. She completely ignored the black cat currently dozing in Azriel’s lap. The white cat’s gaze focused completely on Alexei Petrov, and Hell Bitch’s ears were laid back in that way cats have of showing their complete displeasure with someone.

Alexei Petrov glanced down at the feline warily. The beast might look innocent sitting there all prim and proper-like with her tail curled around her paws, but she was even more of a demon than any man in their organization. Alexei and his crew were justice when justice was overlooked or beaten down. Called vigilantes by some. Heroes by others. Personally, Alex thought all of them fought their individual demons so the name Shadow Demons fit in more ways than one.

“Don’t let the pussy make you a pussy, boss.” Giovanni Romano was the tech guy in a group of tech guys. If there was a gadget he didn’t have or know how to get, no one had ever been able to name it. Not only could he obtain anything they wanted or needed, he made himself an expert with it in a few hours, thanks to his photographic memory and genius IQ. If he still didn’t have what he needed — or wanted — the bastard simply made it. He was invaluable in their endeavors, but he was a bit of a smart ass.

Alexei flipped him off as he bent down to scoop up Hell Bitch, as they affectionately called the demon cat. She abruptly flattened her ears, bared her teeth, and scratched the shit out of him. When he dropped her, she turned and sauntered over to her food bowl and sat down, again looking straight at Alex.

“Bitch,” he muttered under his breath. The cat growled softly, her dual-colored eyes narrowing. “Just for that you get the dry food.” He poured a scoopful into her bowl. Hell Bitch reached over and upended the bowl as if to say get me the fucking Royal Canin, bitch boy.

Alex raised an eyebrow, glancing at Gio, who was studiously looking everywhere but at him. Then Alex stomped to the cabinet and grabbed Hell Bitch’s favorite flavor from a stockpile of canned cat food. He opened it and the cat’s whole face relaxed as if in bliss. Again, she sat all prim and proper with her tail wrapped around her feet until Alex had gotten every morsel out of the can.

“Have at it,” he grumbled. When Azriel snickered, Alexei smacked the back of his head as he walked by. “Next time,” he told Azriel, “feed her before six. I’m not the only one with access to the fucking cat food.”

“She thinks it’s your job to feed her in the evening,” Azriel commented, raising a hand in surrender. “You know she won’t eat unless you put her food out.”

“Fucker,” he muttered as he stalked through the room to the shower. It had been a long fucking day and he just wanted to scrub himself from head to toe.

Before he could, however, Giovanni stiffened and sat up straight in his chair. Alex paused. “We got bad guys afoot?”

Giovanni’s workstation consisted of a wall of monitors showing every corner of the problem sections of the city of Rockwell. The wealthy, more affluent sections monitored themselves, but the people in the sectors the Demons monitored were at the mercy of the city’s underground crime bosses. This was where men like the Demons were needed. Places the police were afraid to go. As time-consuming as it was setting up tech to monitor these places, as well as the endless testing of gadgets and physical training, this was something Alex knew he had to do. It was what he had been born to do.

“Hell’s Playground.” Azriel sighed as he glanced over Gio’s shoulder. “It’s every fucking week with that place. If there’s trouble, you can bet it will be there.”

Alexei rubbed the back of his neck. Something felt… off. He knew it the second Giovanni moved. No alarm pinged. Nothing even looked amiss, but Alex had a sixth sense when it came to trouble, and trouble was definitely brewing tonight and he just knew it was in Hell’s Playground. “Drug deal?”

“No…” Giovanni leaned forward, bringing in a couple of camera angles up close. Still, nothing looked out of place. Hell’s Playground was the nickname of a homeless shelter in the very center of their problem area. People there preyed on the innocent simply looking for a place to spend the night out of the elements. It was a known drug house and prostitution ring, as well as a place to make connections in the underworld of Rockwell. The only reason the Shadow Demons hadn’t shut the place down completely was because they were still forming their organization and connections. All of the locals knew to avoid the place, but occasionally, some unsuspecting out of towner wandered in and there was always trouble. Alex had the feeling tonight was one of those nights.

“I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary,” Azriel said, squinting at the monitor, Satan cradled snugly in his arms. He petted the cat absently. The animal closed his eyes, limp as a dishrag.

“Well, look harder,” Gio said, slowly getting to his feet, leaning in toward the monitor. With a click and drag of the mouse, he sectioned off a small square and blew it up. In the corner of a room filled with drug dealers, drug addicts, prostitutes, pimps, rapists, and mob men… were two young girls curled on their sides in a tiny bunk. One looked to be about three or four while the other one looked to be in her late teens.

Alone. No protection.

“What the ever-loving fuck are those two kids doing in Hell’s Playground?” Giovanni scratched Satan’s head as he gently deposited the cat in a nearby chair.

Alex had been stripping off his body armor. Now, he shrugged back into it as quickly as he could. “Don’t give a fuck. They can’t stay there.”

As Alex and Giovanni prepared to leave, four men entered the room on the monitor. They quartered off the room, starting at the far end away from the two girls, but they were definitely pros looking for something in a methodical pattern.

“Boys,” Azriel muttered. “I got a real bad feeling about this.”

“Yeah,” Alex answered, filling his belt with as many knives and as much ammunition as he could carry. Two guns sat on each hip. He checked the clips then the chambers before holstering them again and heading back to the garage. “It will take us six minutes to get there.”

“You have less than three before this place goes all to hell. Those fuckers have Snake patches. Someone has ordered a hit and those kids are going to be right in the middle.”

“Fuck! Take the bike, Az,” he ordered as he snagged his own helmet. The headgear was wired with audio as well as computerized tactical layouts judging distance, lighting, wind shear, thermodynamics, targeting, and any number of other useful things.

“On your six.” Azriel straddled the bike, strapping on his helmet.

“Not this time. I’m counting on you to get there as quickly as you can.” Alex looked at Giovanni. “I think now is as good a time as any to test the portal.”

“I’d argue with you, but I’m not stupid.” Gio crossed the room to an eight-foot-tall circular mass of steel framework, wires, and duct tape. Because, you know, all high-tech gadgets used rolls and rolls of duct tape.

“You’re not really going to go through that thing, are you?” Azriel asked, a horrified look on his face. “The last time we sent something through, it melted to a smoking pile of goo.”

“Giovanni’s made some tweaks, haven’t you, Gio?”

“Lots of tweaks.” Gio didn’t bother looking up from a laptop he had attached to the contraption. When he finally met the gazes of the other two men, he added solemnly, “and miles of duct tape.”

“Well, I’m not going through it.” Azriel pulled on his helmet. “I’ll meet you there. Gio gets to tell your mother he melted you into a pile of goo.” He started up his bike, revving the engine twice before giving them a two-fingered salute and peeling out of the room, down the tunnel that would emerge in a back alley six blocks from Hell’s Playground.

Alexei admitted it was all very Caped Crusaderesque, but, really. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Besides, Gio could make way cooler toys. Not to mention there was more than one man’s obscene wealth funding this outfit.

He pulled up the hood on his suit. The thing was tight and designed to protect his neck from whiplash as well as penetrative injuries. The full-face helmet went over the hood, the visor as much a computer monitor as a shield — another invention of Giovanni’s. The armor — including the helmet — became stronger with excessive force. Unfortunately, that also meant the material became more rigid for a split second while the energy bled away, or something. Alex had no idea how it worked and didn’t really care. As long as it worked. In most cases the changes in how the suit moved weren’t noticeable and sometimes prevented serious neck injuries. When it stopped a bullet, the result could be near-total rigidity. If you weren’t careful, it could seriously screw with balance, or cause you to twist a knee. It never lasted long, though. And as long as the suit covered him from head to toe, he was damned near invincible. Though lightweight, it was bulkier than he’d like. Something for Azriel to work on. In the meantime, he and his team would take what they could get.

There were still kinks to be worked out, but with practice and an acute awareness of his surroundings, any disadvantage could be mitigated. Alex was hoping it would hold true when he entered that fucking portal.

* * *

That feeling of being watched intensified. Merrily didn’t want to frighten Bellarose, but she knew with every fiber of her being she had to get them to safety. She’d intentionally chosen the back corner because there were fewer people, but it now felt like she was trapped, miles away from the only exit.

Careful to wake Rose gently so she didn’t startle the little girl, Merrily scooted off the bed and pulled her daughter into her arms. Together, they rolled under the bed, taking the skimpy blanket with them. For once, Merrily was glad they didn’t have much more than the clothes on their backs. She knew whoever had been hunting them had finally found them. She needed to disappear in the dark. She could feel it in her very bones. Was she paranoid? Maybe. But if being paranoid and spending the rest of the night under the bed saved Rose’s life, she’d take it.

“Get as close to the wall as you can, pumpkin,” she whispered to Rose. Ever the little soldier, Rose did as she was told. “Keep hold of my shirt so I know where you are, okay?”

“I won’t let go, Mommy.” Her little voice was a mere whisper. Together, they huddled under the bed as deep into the corner as they could get. Merrily tried to conceal Rose with her body, acting as a shield between her daughter and whatever danger was hunting them. She could feel the danger like cold fingers tickling the back of her neck.

There had been a hum of quiet noise all night while deals went down from drugs to sex to God-only-knew-what, but now everything was eerily silent. Occasionally, they heard a frightened whimper or quiet moan of pain, but the hum of normal activity had completely ceased, and not for sleep.

Then she saw people moving. Four or five. All she could see from her position was feet, but they stepped quietly, slowly. As if searching every inch of their surroundings. They’d spread out, covering the width of the room, steadily moving over the whole place. She and Rose were small and huddled into the corner tightly, but Merrily knew there was no hope they’d be overlooked. No. This group was professional. Over the last three weeks she’d learned enough to know these guys weren’t ham-handed thugs. They meant business.

A roar of wind blasted through the big room, sending trash, leaves, and dust flying all around. Bellarose gave a startled yelp but only tightened her hold on Merrily’s shirt. Merrily felt her breath through the thin cotton, indicating her face was buried there. Bright light flooded the area on the opposite corner at the back of the room, putting Merrily and Rose on one point of a triangle with the men on the hunt inside the shelter and this new threat.

“Mommy?” Rose was quiet, but Merrily could hear the fear in her daughter’s voice.

“I don’t know, pumpkin. Just hang on to me, but no matter what happens, don’t make a sound and don’t come out from under this bed. Cover up with the blanket and be as still as a church mouse.”

One little whimper escaped Rose before she subsided. Merrily could feel her trembling, but the child was silent.

Heavy footfalls came straight toward them. Fast. A figure in some kind of black uniform dropped down. He wore a black helmet with a dark visor that he’d flipped up revealing the bluest eyes Merrily had ever seen.

“Stay put until my partner gets here,” the man said, his voice distorted as if filtered through a telephone he’d amplified. “Don’t move or make a sound. I’ll keep the danger focused on me. When my partner gets here, you go with him, no questions asked.” It was an order, pure and simple. An order given by a man no one disobeyed. Then he was gone.

Fighting broke out across the room. A high-pitched whine and a mechanical whirring built steadily until Merrily had to cover her ears. Not knowing what else to do, she turned over to cover Rose’s head in her hands, trying to buffer the awful noise.

The sharp scent of ozone filled the air. Then there was a loud snap and the wind ceased, as did the whining. The fighting continued, men grunting and yelling. People screamed all around her, running toward the other end of the hall. Merrily just held Rose, not daring to move or make a run for it. Staying put when there were multiple unknown threats seemed the wisest thing to do. They might assume she’d fled with everyone else and she could escape.

“That’s right, you fucks!” that distorted male voice taunted. “Be afraid.” He sounded furious, but it was definitely the same man who’d come to them.

Merrily shivered and wrapped her arms around Rose even tighter. If they made it out of this one, she promised herself she’d seek help. It might have to be from a church or some other place who didn’t care to aid two souls needing to remain off the grid, but she couldn’t risk Rose like this ever again. If they made it.

Rose whimpered so softly Merrily wanted to weep. No four-year-old should be able to control herself this way. Sounds of the fight carried from across the room but Merrily didn’t dare move from their hiding spot under the bed.

“Hey!” There was a whispered voice just in front of them.

Merrily jumped, barely stifling a cry as she jerked her head up from where she’d buried it in Rose’s hair only to bang it on the bed above her. She looked back over her shoulder and whimpered. Another figure in a dark helmet beckoned her, one gloved hand outstretched, reaching for her. “Come with me if you want to live.” Probably because she was so terrified her brain was on full meltdown, but Merrily suddenly felt like she was in a scene from a Terminator movie.

His voice might have been soft, but it held an unmistakable note of authority. It was also just as distorted as the other man’s, the one currently fighting against God only knew how many men.

“Mommy.” Rose squirmed to get loose. Merrily had to loosen her hold for fear she’d hurt the child.

“We have to go now,” he said, reaching for Merrily. She didn’t make a move, but he managed to snag her clothes and pull.

“No!” Merrily let go of Rose to fight the man. She rolled, kicking out with her feet, but Rose was already scampering out from under the bed.

“Come on, Mommy,” she urged, though Merrily made a grab for her. As usual, when Rose didn’t want to be caught, she evaded Merrily easily. “Don’t you recognize him?”

The guy whipped his head around to look at Rose, and Merrily’s gut clenched. Though he didn’t remove his helmet, Merrily had no doubt his gaze bore down on the little girl. She looked up at him, wonder and excitement on her face. “You know who I am?”

She nodded her head vigorously. “You’re a Shadow Angel.” She whispered the name reverently, like she might have said “Santa Claus.” Rose hadn’t been able to see the first man, but unfortunately this one gave her no fear.

Merrily whimpered, reaching for her daughter. Rose had it wrong. They weren’t angels. At least, if the stories could be believed. They did horrible things to people. They’d only been in the city a couple of days, but she’d already been warned about vigilantes combing this city and the surrounding ones, not caring how much collateral damage they did, according to the tales. Even at home she’d heard about the Shadow Demons, though they had yet to make an appearance there. Apparently, by avoiding one danger, she’d brought Rose into the middle of another.

“Angels?” The guy sat back on his heels, letting Merrily go. “Who said we were angels?” The voice was still distorted and creepy, but Merrily thought he was more than a little taken aback. Like Rose had insulted his manhood or something.

“Yeah,” she continued, undeterred, nodding her head vigorously. “You know. Like guardian angels.”

The man just cocked his head as if he had no idea what to do with the child. Then an explosion had Merrily screaming and Rose leaping into her arms.

The man stood, motioning for them to stay behind him. “Follow me exactly,” he said. He didn’t wait to see if they obeyed him but trotted toward the exit. Merrily had no idea what the right move was, but the guy could have killed them and hadn’t. So she followed him, her arms tight around Rose as she ran after their savior. In the other corner of the room, the fight raged on. What had started out as five against one had dwindled to two against one. As she ran, Merrily saw those last two try to run away, heading toward the same exit she and Rose were.

“Wait!” she called to the man Rose had named an angel. Instead of heeding her warning, the man darted into the fight, fists slamming into faces. Bone crunched loudly and screams sounded as the last two men fell. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when four more men jumped into the fray. Merrily had no idea if they were with the first group or were drug dealers or pimps defending their territory, but they would have done well to have simply ducked and run like everyone else.

The “Angels” continued the fight, easily dispatching all of them with incredible speed and viciousness. When one of the men — she had no idea which one — pulled a gun and began shooting their downed victims, however, Merrily ran for the door, covering Rose’s head as best she could so the little girl didn’t see anything she shouldn’t. She didn’t stop once outside, either. She darted down the street into the cold night, darkness and fog swallowing them.

* * *

“I thought you said you had them.” Alexei was frustrated and more than a little pissed Azriel hadn’t stayed with the two females. He absently pressed his hand to the center of his chest, an unexpected ache building there.

“I did. They ran when you started shooting people. Imagine that!”

“Are you telling me I should have let them go? That was a hit team! A damned good one, too.”

“Do you know who they were after?”

“No. I’d hoped to question one of them but the last one popped a suicide capsule. And you shot them too!” Alex had never been so frustrated in his life. With a brutal yell, he punched the wall. Plaster crumbled around his fist. “Now those girls are running scared with nowhere to go, no appropriate clothing, and probably very little money.” Alexei wanted to punch something of substance. Preferably one of those hit men. The girls weren’t his problem, but he couldn’t shake the feeling they needed help.

“You said they had been hiding under the bed?” Azriel questioned.

“Yeah. They knew how to hide and that says they’re on the run. Hell, even the little one didn’t make a sound. As to the shooting, I had to shoot once you started.”

“Then we better find them. Being out on the street isn’t going to help matters for them.”

“Well, if you’d stayed with them, we wouldn’t have to look for them.” Alex knew he was being a bastard, but these girls were the whole reason he’d jumped through that fucking portal. To say the ride was bumpy would be a vast understatement. Despite the special suit, he had been certain his body was, indeed, going to be reduced to a puddle of goo.

“Pardon the fuck outta me for giving a shit that you didn’t see the four reinforcements sneaking up on you,” Azriel snapped. “I didn’t figure on the girls bolting.”

“Relax, guys.” Giovanni’s voice came to them through their earpieces. “I’ve got them on camera and am turning out lights in their area. As I predicted to Satan, the older one is following the lighted areas. I’m guiding her down the tunnel. She just entered with the little one squirming to get down.”

Alex sighed, much more relieved than he should be. “Fucking runaways, I’m betting.” He knew he sounded snippy but he was trying to cover his relief. Why he’d fixated on the two girls, he had no idea. But he’d be damned if he let anyone figure out he’d had a “feeling.” Feelings were a liability in their world and he’d happily existed without them for many years. Besides, it fucked with his reputation. “What happened to the fucking portal? Sounded like it shorted out.”

“Told you it was still a work in progress. Besides, it worked when you needed it to.”

“I don’t think they’re runaways,” Azriel commented as he put in a call for the cops. The team didn’t bother cleaning up the mess and there was no need to police their ammo. The bullets dissolved thirty seconds after impact and wouldn’t be around to be traced after the fact. “They’re definitely on the run, but I don’t think it’s by choice.”

They headed out the door to Azriel’s waiting bike. With all the guns and rocket launchers, it was more like a tactical unit than a motorcycle, but it was way cooler. And it had camouflaging cameras mounted all around it, giving it the illusion of invisibility. Azriel hadn’t bothered to use that option because they hadn’t anticipated being there that long. Besides, anyone trying to jack their ride would be tazed by the bike itself.

“What makes you think that?”

“The little one called the other one ‘Mommy.’”

“So, on the run from the father? Custody battle gone wrong?” Alex didn’t like that thought one bit.

Azriel shrugged. “Maybe. We’ll just have to ask her.”

Giovanni spoke again. “Whatever you do, just remember to change your clothes before you get to the project room. They’ll be waiting for you there. They can’t make the connection between the two of you and the Shadow Demons.”