Hamid folded his muscled arms across his chest. Any other time, I’d take a moment to appreciate the sight. Right now, I was too busy trying not to lose my cool.

  “Are you done?” he asked as if he were talking to a child.

  “No.” I gritted my teeth, wondering if the others could see steam coming out of my ears. “You called the thing that broke out of here a demon. What kind of demon is it?”

  “I will know once I find it.”

  I folded my arms, mimicking him. “You have no idea what it is or what it can do, and you’re going after it alone? What if you can’t handle it by yourself?”

  If I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn I saw the tiniest flash of amusement in his eyes.

  “Fine. You may accompany me…if you can keep up,” he said a second before he disappeared in a blur.

  “Argh!” I threw up my arms and turned furious eyes on Raoul. “Can he do that? Just come in here and take over?”

  Raoul shrugged. “He’s the lead investigator for the Council. He can do anything he wants.”

  I looked at Vivian, who was standing nearby, watching me with open curiosity. “Is that true?”

  She nodded. “Anything within reason that he deems necessary to solve a case.”

  “That’s not fair,” I burst out, wanting to stomp my foot in frustration.

  Vivian smiled. “Most Council investigators work with the local teams like we are doing. Hamid prefers to do his own thing most of the time.”

  I huffed. “How the hell do you put up with that?”

  “Hamid’s very good at his job, and he doesn’t talk much.” She chuckled. “Come to think of it, I’ve never heard him say that many words together at one time.”

  “Don’t I feel special?” A new thought occurred to me, and I turned back to Raoul. “You said he can do what he wants. Does that mean he can take over the command center and start bossing us around? Because I’m telling you right now, that’s not going to work for me.”

  Raoul sighed. “No, he won’t take over, but you need to play nice and cooperate with the investigation.”

  “I’d never jeopardize an investigation.” I was insulted he would even think that.

  He gave me a pointed look. “And you’ll play nice?”

  I stuck out my chin. “I will if he will.”

  Brock snorted, and Mason muttered, “Is it too late to get reassigned to the East coast?”

  * * *

  I was having the most delicious dream when a loud noise dragged me from my sleep. I stared blearily at the ceiling, still caught between the dream and reality, silently cursing whatever had awoken me.

  “Jordan, wake up, damn it,” Mason called as he rapped on my door. “You don’t want to miss this.”

  I glanced at the bedside clock and swore when I saw it was just after five in the morning. I’d been so wound up last night after my argument with Hamid that I’d had to run for an hour to burn off my anger when we got back. And it had still taken me forever to fall asleep.

  Kicking the tangle of sheets off me, I rolled out of bed and went to open the door. “I swear, if you woke me up at this ungodly hour to go surfing, I’m going to beat you with your board.”

  Okay, so maybe I was more of a night owl than a morning person.

  Mason, however, looked disgustingly chipper, considering how late we’d been up last night. He grinned boyishly at me. “No surfing. I figured you’d want to see the demon Hamid just brought in.”

  Suddenly, I was wide awake. “He caught it?”

  “Killed it.” Mason turned away from my door. “Come on. He took it to the lab.”

  I hurried after him, eager to get a look at the demon. It was dark out, but the house was lit up and buzzing with activity.

  In the living room, we ran into Brock, who smirked when he saw me. “Nice jammies.”

  I looked down at my matching sleep shorts and camisole. In my excitement, I hadn’t even taken a moment to slip on shoes.

  I covered a yawn with my hand. “It’s more than I normally wear to bed.”

  His eyes widened, and I hid my grin as I moved past him to the French doors that led to the backyard. Across the yard was the guesthouse, and I headed straight for it. The front door was open when I reached it, and I could hear voices coming from within.

  Entering the house, I followed the voices to the bedroom that used to belong to Mason. Now it was a small lab with cabinets along the walls and a metal worktable in the center of the room.

  People crowded around the table, blocking it from my view, and I moved around the room until I could see what they were all looking at. My jaw sagged when I saw the creature that took up half the table. Brown and covered in spiky fur, it had a rounded body and eight legs that dangled over the edge of the table. Even dead, it had a menacing appearance. That old woman must have nerves of steel to have saved her dog from this thing.

  “Do we know what it is?” Vivian asked. Like me, she looked like she’d recently woken up, but she’d managed to pull on jeans and a shirt.

  “Yes and no.” George wore a serious expression as he tapped the screen of the tablet in his hand. “It’s a demon, but preliminary tests don’t match anything in our database.”

  A collective gasp went through the room.

  Raoul studied the demon. “How accurate are the tests?”

  “Ninety-nine point nine percent,” the healer replied. “We’ll send it to Valstrom, but I doubt they’ll find anything different.”

  Eugene picked up one of the demon’s legs and examined the black claw at the end. He was wearing protective gloves, and he held the leg away from him.

  I inched closer to the table for a better look. “An undocumented demon? What does that mean?”

  “It means this demon is new to our world,” said a gruff voice that could only belong to one person.

  I lifted my gaze to Hamid, who stood just inside the doorway, towering over everyone else. His hair was wet, and he’d changed his clothes. I watched as his eyes moved up my body to meet mine, and goose bumps spread across my skin as if he’d physically touched me.

  Heat blossomed in my stomach, but it was immediately doused by a wave of irritation when I remembered the arrogant way he’d dismissed me last night.

  “Are you saying that dead warlock was able to summon a demon in solid form?” Brock asked, drawing Hamid’s attention away from me.

  “It wasn’t summoned,” Vivian said, and it was the most serious I’d seen her since we met. “They would have had to open the barrier to bring it through.”

  Everyone started talking at once, while I just stood there trying to grasp the implications of her statement. There was no one – human or otherwise – on Earth that should be able to open the barrier to the demon dimension. It was that way for a very good reason. There were supposedly billions of demons on the other side of the barrier, enough to overrun the earth if they ever found a way out of their dimension. A breach in the barrier between our worlds could end life as we knew it.

  “Does the Council know?” I asked loud enough to be heard in the noisy room.

  “Yes,” Hamid said.

  When it was apparent he wasn’t going to elaborate, I said, “What happens now?”

  Vivian answered for him. “They’ll start reaching out to the most powerful warlocks to see if anyone can shed light on this.”

  Raoul walked over to where Hamid stood. “If there’s anything you need while you’re here, let me know.”

  “Thank you.”

  I stared at the dead demon and pretended not to listen to Raoul and Hamid’s conversation. Of course, this discovery meant the Council people would be sticking around. Nothing was as important as maintaining the integrity of the barrier, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more warriors arriving today.

  “Excuse me, everyone,” George called. “I hate to kick you out, but we need to get the demon packed and shipped to Valstrom, ASAP. Council’s orders.”

  I was at the farthest point from the door, so I had to wait for the rest to file out before I could leave. When I got to the living room, there was no sign of Hamid, Vivian, or Raoul.

  Knowing it was no use trying to go back to bed after this, I returned to my room to dress before I sought out Raoul. Things were going to get crazy here, and I wanted to know where we fit into all of this.

  I was disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that Raoul was holed up in his office with Hamid and Vivian, no doubt on a call with the Council. I’d never been a patient person, but this whole situation had me more wound up than usual. I spent the time working out and sparring with anyone who was within reach. It didn’t matter that most warriors here were older and faster than I was. I liked to push myself hard in training.

  I was dripping with sweat and feeling pleasantly drained when I finally left the gym several hours later. A glance at the closed office door told me Raoul was still tied up, and I huffed out a breath as I headed to my room to shower. How long was this going to take?

  There was still no sign of Raoul when I emerged from my room thirty minutes later. Unable to sit still, I grabbed my keys and went for a ride to the gourmet coffee shop that Sara and Beth used to frequent when they lived here. I wasn’t as fond of espresso as my friends were, but I liked to indulge every now and then.

  Leaning against my bike, drinking my coffee, I had a sudden flashback to the first time I’d drunk the stuff. I’d been in my second year of training at Westhorne, and Liv had convinced me to try it at lunch. I had spent the entire afternoon session using up my excess energy on my fellow trainees. I smiled as I remembered how Liv and Mark had begged me to never drink coffee again.

  Olivia and Mark. My smile fell away, and the old pain pricked my chest. Before Sara had come along, the closest friend I’d ever had was Olivia. At first, it was because she’d been the only other female my age at the stronghold, but she’d been the kind of person who made it impossible not to like her. I’d liked Mark, too, but I’d never taken the time to really get to know him. I regretted that now.

  Three and a half years ago, vampires had done the unthinkable and attacked Westhorne, trying to get to Sara. Five people had been killed, including Olivia and Mark. I’d watched Olivia die at the hands of a vampire, and even though Sara and I had killed him, nothing would ever erase the memory of Olivia’s and Mark’s lifeless faces as they lay side by side in the snow.

  For months after, I’d dreamed about them every night. I’d see the vampire latched onto Liv’s throat, but no matter how fast I’d run, I could never reach her in time. If I’d only been a little faster, a little stronger, I might have saved her. I’d felt so helpless watching her die, and I had vowed I’d never feel like that again.

  I took a large gulp of my cooling coffee, trying to shake off the melancholy that had stolen over me. I could go days now, sometimes a week, without thinking about Olivia and Mark, and then some small thing would trigger a memory of them. Olivia used to joke about how I lacked sentimentality. She’d have a field day if she knew a cup of coffee made me miss her silly laugh.

  Tossing my now empty cup into a garbage can, I mounted my bike and drove back to the house. I found Raoul in the kitchen making a sandwich.

  “All done with your Council business?” I asked as I sat on one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

  He grimaced. “Days like this, I wish my biggest concern was where to ride on patrol.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  I was dying to ask him what had been said in the hours-long call with the Council, but I wasn’t sure how much he could tell me. This morning’s discovery was bigger than anything we’d ever dealt with, and I had no idea what would happen next.

  He piled deli meat on his bread. “The Council is putting all of their resources on this, so expect to see more of our people in Los Angeles.”

  My pulse quickened. “Does this mean we’ll be working on the investigation, too?”

  “No,” Hamid said in a clipped tone as he entered the kitchen.

  I peered at him over my shoulder, wondering why he was angry this time. Or maybe that was how he always sounded and I just hadn’t noticed it before now. Come to think of it, had I ever seen him smile?

  Hamid moved to a spot where I could see him easier, and I had to suppress a sigh. It was almost criminal for someone who looked that fine to be in a perpetual bad mood. My girly bits mourned for what might have been.

  “Okay, then.” I shot Raoul a wry smile as I stood. I couldn’t say I was surprised Hamid didn’t want me involved, but I was bummed I was going to miss out on what was shaping up to be the biggest investigation in history. “I guess I’ll go see what Mason and Brock are up to.”

  “They’re not here,” Raoul said. “They just left to take their stuff to the Glendale safe house.”

  I stopped in mid-turn and spun back to him. “Why would they do that?”

  Raoul was unconcerned by my outburst. “It makes the most sense for Hamid to stay here since he is heading up the investigation. Mason and Brock offered up their room to him.”

  I avoided looking at Hamid as I silently cursed my friends for not telling me what they were doing and for abandoning me here with Oscar the Grouch. Not to mention all the other Council warriors who were sure to be filling this place up soon. Suddenly, the command center seemed too small and crowded for my taste.

  “I should do that, too.” I pulled my phone from my back pocket. “Jon and the guys will make room for me at their safe house.”

  “That will not be necessary,” Hamid said briskly. “You will stay here.”

  I swung my gaze to him, bristling at his imperious tone. “Excuse me?”

  His expression hadn’t changed, but his eyes seemed a shade darker. “The other investigators have already filled the available spaces in the safe houses. There is no need for you to leave here.”

  “Maybe I want to,” I challenged. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to be in the way of you guys doing your job.”

  “I’m sure we’ll all be getting in each other’s way for the next few weeks,” Raoul said to me in a conciliatory tone. “But we’ll make it work. It will be business as usual for the rest of us.”

  Hamid shook his head. “Until we know what we are dealing with, it might be best if the young warriors are pulled from patrols.”

  “What?” Blood pounded in my ears. Where the hell did he get off? He might be some big shot with the Council, but no way was he coming in here and telling me I couldn’t do my job.

  “I don’t think we’ll need to take such drastic measures,” Raoul said in a rush, shooting me a I’ve got this look.

  Hamid did not look convinced. “We don’t know what kind of demons could show up next. She is weak and might not be able to defend –”

  I started around the breakfast bar toward him. “Listen here, you –”

  Raoul intercepted me, physically holding me back. “Okay. Obviously, you two don’t see eye to eye on things.”

  “You think?” I bit out. I pushed against Raoul, but he was determined and a lot stronger. I nearly growled my frustration.

  “What’s going on?” asked Vivian as she entered the living room.

  “Just a small difference of opinion,” Raoul told her.

  I scoffed.

  Vivian looked from me to Hamid, and a knowing smile curved her lips. “Making friends again, Hamid?”

  Raoul blocked my view of the big Egyptian, but I heard a soft snort. The bastard was enjoying this.

  Vivian looked like she was trying to hold back a laugh. “Well, I hate to break up your fun, but Hamid and I have a meeting with Orias in half an hour. We need to leave now if we want to make it in time.”

  Hamid grunted something that sounded like, “Let’s go,” and the two of them exited the kitchen through the door to the garage.

  Raoul waited until the door shut behind them to release me.

  “Why did you stop me?” I demanded.

  He went back to his sandwich. “You’re no match for Hamid, and you know it. And I can’t have you trying to punch the Council’s lead investigator in the face.”

  “I wouldn’t have aimed for his face,” I retorted hotly, not adding that the other parts were more within my reach.

  Raoul sighed. “Am I going to have to call a time out for you two?”

  I crossed my arms. “Only if he tries to stop me from doing my job. I’ll stay clear of their damn investigation, but I’m not going to be treated like some untrained child.”

  “I know. And I’ll talk to him.” He picked up his sandwich.

  “Good.” I sat again and let the anger drain from me. “I didn’t know Orias was in town.”

  Orias lived in the desert outside of Albuquerque. We hadn’t exactly hit it off, what with him binding me with his magic and all. He was an arrogant jerk, but he was a powerful warlock, and he’d helped out the Mohiri on more than one occasion. Last I’d heard, he had rebuilt his place that had been destroyed after a vampire attack, and he was back in New Mexico.

  “Orias likes to keep a low profile these days.” Raoul grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured some water from the fridge. “I’ll probably have to work with Hamid some of the time, so I’ll rearrange the patrol teams to make up for my absence.”

  “Does this mean I won’t be confined to the house like a bad little girl?” I asked dryly.

  He smiled. “As long as you promise not to slug Hamid.”

  I made a face. “I can’t promise you that. I swear he gets his kicks from seeing how far he can push me. A girl can only take so much before she snaps.”

  “He certainly knows how to push your buttons. I’ve never seen anyone rile you up that easily. He hasn’t been here for twenty-four hours, and you’re ready to do him bodily harm.”

  I hated to admit it, but Raoul was right. I’d dealt with arrogant males before, but none of them had aggravated me as much as Hamid did. Maybe it was because I’d built him up in my head since the first time I saw him, and the real version didn’t live up to the fantasy. Physically, he was perfect, but his personality put a damper on any physical attraction I had to him.