"I thought he might be useful," I said, looking back at the demon.

"What ... are...you?" the creature croaked out, the words foreign in his mouth.

I showed him my teeth in a feral smile. I really wanted to use him as a punching bag. All the frustration, the guilt and the desperation of the past couple of days had made me furious, and now that fury found an aim.

"Good call," Charles looked around, then pulled out a phone from his pocket, "where the hell is back up?"

"I called them before I jumped out of the car," Irene replied, her eyes narrowed on the demon on the ground, "they should've been here by now."

The windows and glass doors of the shops and houses around all had humans plastered against them with curious and fearful faces. Fortunately, the demons hadn't decided to take one of them and went after me. Now that I knew how they chose their victims, it made perfect sense.

I just had to find a way to make the others come to the same conclusion. If I told them, it would give away the fact that I could sense other people's magical auras, which was not something a human could do. To sense magic, you need to have a considerable amount of it.

Before I could come up with a solution, a black van turned the corner and drove up the street, screeching to a stop right next to us.

The doors of the car opened letting out six men. All of them dressed in black t-shirts, cargo pants and combat boots. All of them well built, walking with assured steps. Only one of the men was wearing a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. But even without the cap, I could tell it was him.

I didn't know who he was trying to fool in his silly attempt to blend in, but I could never mistake that presence for anyone else's even if his magic was still cloaked.

"What is he doing here?" Irene asked, speaking more to herself than to me, her eyes wide open in wonder trained on Arthur.

Charles met Arthur halfway, the two of them speaking in low voices. Even from a distance, Arthur's eyes were as intense as I recalled them to be. His face still sported a five oclock shadow and his skin, under the sunlight, looked even more golden.

His eyes suddenly shifted to meet mine. He said something to Charles then the two men walked toward us. The five others following close behind.

As soon as the demon caught a glimpse of Arthur, he choked on his own breath and tried getting away even with the threat of my knife on his heart. In a heartbeat, Arthur was crouching next to me, his hand on the demon's chest making him stay in place. I could tell Arthur wasn't even putting pressure with his hand, but the demon stayed put, his body trembling and silver eyes wide open.

"Keep still," The timber of Arthur's voice made my body tense involuntarily. His voice was calm and almost soothing, but no one with a sane mind would mistake the danger he presented.

I straightened and put my blade back in its sheath. Apparently, my death threat was no longer needed.

Arthur straightened up, gesturing for two of the men who came with him. They pulled the demon to his feet and dragged him to the van.

"He can make himself invisible," I said, worried he would slip out.

"He won't."

Arthur's eyes fell on me. I resisted the urge to take a step back just in time.

His lips twitched up, as if he knew what I was thinking. I remembered what he did the night before and immediately checked my mental shields for any intruder. Nothing. Then I remembered what he said about me being easy to read and I scowled at him. There, if kept scowling he wouldn't be able to tell what I was thinking.

His smile broadened. Damn him.

"The Order's back up was held up a few streets over," he said, shifting his gaze to Irene who was practically drooling over him. She was beyond help. "Another horde of lesser demons. Call for a clean up crew."

"Yes, sir!" She said in a high voice, coming to life. She all but sprinted to the SUV, jumping over red skinned bodies strewn on the ground.

Charles scowled at Irene's back, then at Arthur, then at Irene again and followed after her.

"You made an impression on Charles."

I crossed my arms, "I live to impress."

"Mhm. You can stop scowling, it's not working."

I scowled harder. He chuckled. I had to change the subject or I would strangle him, and that wouldn't exactly work out in my favor.

"Why was Charles affected by the demon's magic? Since you turned him into a vamp, isn't he supposed to be really powerful?"

"How did you know I made Charles?"

Crap. "Well, didn't you?" Awesome recovery, Elle. Really nice.

"I did," he said, eyes still amused, then answered my question, "the demon you caught is a mid tier demon, Charles should've been invulnerable to that level of magic. But the demon was channeling his master's: a high level demon. That is not easy to counter. Which brings up the question of how you were not affected."

I arched a brow, "I thought we got that figured out yesterday."

He chuckled again, "Indeed." his eyes flickered to my side, nose flaring, "you should get that checked out."

"It's fine, just a surface wound." I could already feel the tissue repairing itself.

"Hmm, with the wounds you sported yesterday, I would think a human like you would be unable to move, let alone fight the way you did, it's quite impressive."

Damn him. "Thank you," I dropped the scowl for a smile, "your compliments are improving. Keep up the good work."

I heard a gasp over my shoulder and looked back. One of the men who came with Arthur was staring at me through rounded eyes. He glanced at Arthur then made a hasty retreat to where his friends were waiting by the van.

When I turned back to Arthur, it was to find him looking at my hair with an interested expression. I remembered the way he touched the strands yesterday and pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head.

"Let's go," he said, lips twitched up slightly.

"Where to?"

He was already heading to the SUV where Irene and Charles were arguing in hushed tones. I followed, limping slightly. I must have twisted my ankle at some point. Irene and Charles stood stiffly and quietly when we reached them.

"Clean up crew is here," Arthur said as four black vans with the Order's emblem on them turned down our street, "let's leave. You don't mind giving us a ride, Kim, do you?"

"Yes, sir," Irene replied, "I mean, no, sir! I don't mind!"

"Very well, let's go then." Arthur opened the back door and looked at me expectantly. There was no way I was spending more time with him if I could help it.

"I think I'll stay here. I'll grab a ride with one of the clean up crew."

"That wasn't a request, Miss Sanders," Arthur said in a tone that made Irene and Charles pause. My temper flared.

"I don't take orders from you."

Yep, I just said that to the man who could probably make me crawl my way into that car. Why did I have a big mouth, couldn't I have come up with something more diplomatic.

Arthur didn't take his eyes away from me, but spoke to Irene and Charles. "Get in the car."

Two doors closed, Arthur walked until we were toe to toe. I really had to strain to keep myself from stepping back.

"Actually, Elle, you do take orders from me," he said in a low voice, his eyes colder than I'd ever seen them. Who ever said brown eyes were warm never saw Arthur's eyes. "I may let you get away with a little bantering because you amuse me, but when I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed. Now get in the damn car."

His arrogant words made any spark of fear in me die down. I raised my chin, looked him straight in the eyes, and said two very idiotic words considering the situation I was in, "Make me."

He actually had the gall to laugh, his cheeks creasing with a wide grin as he looked back down at me. "What makes you so confident, I wonder?"

"how did it feel to be shoved out of my head yesterday?"

Arthur cocked his head, "I must say, it had been a long time since someone was able to do that. Why don't you want to get in the car with me?"

I blinked, not ready for the question. "It has nothing to do with you."

He looked at me for a long time, then sighed, "either get in the car or you're off the case."

My eyes widened, "you can't do that."

"Sure I can."

"That's not fair."

He stepped back, held the door open for me again and waited. I really did not want to be taken off the case. It had nothing to do with Martin Malone, though that was an incentive, too. The case was getting personal. I needed to find the bastard who mutilated those women, I needed to find the last victim who was kidnapped right before my eyes.

And Arthur had seen right through me. Damn him. Arrogant, manipulative ass.

He was still holding the door open for me. Gritting my teeth, I walked around the car to get in through the other door. I heard his laughter again, and soon we were in the SUV with the messed up roof. Arthur and I in the backseat, Irene driving and Charles in the passenger seat looking as unimpressed as ever.

"Just follow the van, agent Kim," Arthur said.

"Yes, sir."

I sat stiffly, my hands itching to bury a knife in his throat. The arrogant, bossy, smug asshole. I really wanted to punch him on that damn straight nose of his.

One of the men who came with with Arthur spoke a few words to the cleaning crew of the Order then jumped into the black van before it drove off.

Irene followed it, driving through the streets of Portland, only a few streets away we found another massacre, about twenty or so lesser demons scattered motionless on the road, the Order's people surrounding the scene.

Humans looked from afar with apparent fear. It was not usual to have this many demons in one location. This was bad.

"Too many..."

I hadn't realized I spoke out loud until the vampire next to me answered. "About one hundred, including the demons you slayed. Three different locations."

I turned my head towards him, "Is this why you're suddenly interested in the case? The uprising in demonic presence?"

He turned his upper body slightly my way, his arm resting on the seat behind us, fingers almost touching my hair. I leaned away. His lips twitched. Damn him and his amusement.

"Why? You think I don't care about human lives enough to get involved?" he asked.

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Hmm," he kept quiet for a moment, his gaze impossibly difficult to hold in the confinement of the car, "the lives of a few humans are not even a snippet of the time most of us will live."

"So you really don't care? Even if the Order's director was doing whatever he pleased."

A low chuckle that sent shivers of fear over my body, his smile a cold blooded-creature, "yes, the director seemed to have been taking liberties in the city over the last few decades."

I frowned at him, "I thought you're supposed to be, like, his boss or something. Yet you didn't know what he was doing?"

His smile this time was genuine, "ah, Elle, you seem to have an unusual interest in our workings for a human."

I shrugged, "just curious."

"Hmm," he nodded, took off his cap and put it on his lap, "so, did you get anything new this morning?"

The revelation I had before the fight flashed in my mind. I had to find a way to get Irene alone as soon as possible. Charles briefly informed his boss that we basically got nothing.

"Well, then, it's a good thing you kept that gray one alive. We may be able to get something out of him."

Irene drove right past the turn leading to the Order's building.

"Where are we going?"

"Mackworth Island, as the humans call it," Arthur said. A few choices of very colorful curses flashed through my head, but at this point, my plans to avoid immortals were hopeless. I was sitting next to the most dangerous of them for crying out loud.

Mackworth Island was a small island of about one hundred acres, connected to mainland Portland through a causeway. The road is closed to the public, even immortals aren't always welcome there.

The island was actually much bigger than the humans thought it was, uncle Robert had once told me. The waters around it were forbidden for humans and always patrolled. Keeping its true size a secret wasn't a challenge at all. Magic was very tricky if you knew how to use it.

The van in front of us stopped at a checkpoint. It was the beginning of the causeway. The road was blocked by barricades and a group of five people.

One of them had a few words with the van driver, and waved his hand to the man inside the little cabin on the side of the road. The man behind the window waved back and the barricade was lifted. The five immortals stood at military attention as our vehicles rolled by.

The water on either side of the two-lane road looked calm and inviting under the morning sun. At one point of the causeway, my magic stirred, my ears popped, and I had to blink repeatedly to clear my vision. A magic boundary. Old and strong.

When I looked in front of us again, I saw that the small island was no longer small, but a sprawling land of greenery and small buildings scattered all about. It stretched much, much wider than expected.

I felt Arthur's gaze on me again. He was watching me with an intrigued face. I looked ahead. The magic surrounding the island was quite strong, as to be expected. Was he looking for some hint that I could detect its periphery? Well, too late now. Hopefully, I'd kept my expression blank.

Yeah, right.

The road slowly widened until we reached the island where the concrete ended in an unpaved road.

The trees were thick on either side as we went deeper, but once in a while the main road would branch off into bare paths leading up to log cabins. It was such a peaceful place to live in, away from the rush and noise of the city. I missed this feeling.

The main road widened and trees became sparse, until we reached a wide clearing that had me gaping through the window. Judging by the time the drive took, I would say we were on the other side of the island. When we opened the doors and exited the car, my suspicions were confirmed by the close sound of waves hitting the shore. I couldn't see anything beyond the sprawling structure in front of us, though.

The log cabin- more of a mansion, really- was the most beautiful house I'd ever seen. It was large, a proud chimney stood on its gable roof, and the glass windows glinted under the sun, reflecting the woods around us.

I wondered what the inside looked like. Unfortunately, my curiosity wouldn't be appeased anytime soon. Charles led Irene and I to another log house right next to the main one. In my brief moment of fascination with the house, I hadn't even noticed Arthur disappear with the others from the van.

"Where is Arthur?" I asked the walking block of granite in front of me. He opened the door to the house and led us inside, I couldn't even take in my surroundings properly. A cozy living room with neutral colored furniture and a fireplace was all I got before we were out through a back door and into the backyard. What a backyard it was.

Green, healthy grass covered every inch of it, a granite pathway cut through it from the backdoor of the house to the slight cliff looking over the ocean. The pathway branched off here and there to seating arrangements under gazebos and to a medium sized pond.

Charles walked us over to a gazebo, then made a polite gesture with his hands to the chairs.

"Have a seat, please." Charles said, not answering my question.

"Where's Arthur?" I repeated.

His jaw ticked. "The sire will take care of the demon."

I plopped on one chair with a grunt, "good, then. We'll be waiting for the results."

Irene and Charles both looked surprised. Then Charles gave a confused nod and walked away.

Irene arched a brow, "you know, he thought you'd insist on being present during the interrogation."

I waved a hand, sinking deeper into the plush chair, "as long as they get us something useful, I don't care."

Irene sat across from me, "aren't you curious?"

"I am, but I don't want to watch anyone being tortured, it's not my style."

"Right," she snorted, "Of course, your style is to slit their throats and stab their hearts."

I pointed a finger at her, "exactly."

"You know, I kind of understand now why Kit finds you disturbing."

"Kit finds me disturbing? He must've never looked in the mirror."

She rolled her eyes, "how in the world did you shake off the demon's magic that easily? I couldn't even move my eyeballs. Hell, even Charles couldn't move, all he could manage was one tiny step and then he froze again."

I shifted uncomfortably, "you knew I could do that, Kit told you."

"Talking about it and seeing it first hand are two totally different things. I mean, I felt that demon's power locking onto me, it was..." she shook her head, then fell quiet.

I looked around, on either side of the backyard was thick foliage and trees separating it from the other house. No one was around, as far as I could tell. I couldn't wait any longer.

I leaned forward and gestured for Irene to do the same.

"Can you keep a secret?"

I was taking a chance by telling her. The expression on her face earlier when I had beat the demon was one of fear. Oh well. "Qui ne tente rien n'a rien" uncle Robert always said.

Her smooth forehead wrinkled, "why? What is it?"

"Just promise you will keep it a secret."

"Alright," she nodded after a long pause.

"I know how the killer chooses his victims."

She all but jumped on a chair next to me, her eyes as round as I'd ever seen them. "Tell me!"

"Can you feel the magic in humans?"

Irene frowned, "sometimes, if they have more magic than what is average for humans, I can tell. Wait, how do you know this?"

"I just do. Listen, I think that the girls the demon took were all humans with very little to no magic at all in them."

She leaned back and blinked. "That's very rare."

"But it's possible. I just realized this after our meeting with the Pure Human Community director this morning, but all the families of the victims we visited? They all had extremely negligible amounts of magic, some none at all."

I could see Irene's mind working behind her eyes. "Oh God. You're right."

"Probably."

"I can't believe we missed this, now that I think about it, they were all like that. My senses couldn't pick up on anything at all." Her eyes shot to me, "you can also sense it. How?"

I leaned back, "you should let the other agents on the case know. You promised you wouldn't tell anyone it was me who figured it out."

With no further delay, Irene pulled out her phone and made several calls. Notifying the team working on the case.

"That's why the demon wanted you," she said after finally putting the phone away, "you're the most ... plain human I've ever met, magic wise."

"I guess." Maybe we could use that to our advantage.

"But you're not really human, are you?"

I looked at Irene, "you don't want to know. Drop it. Please."

Her lips thinned, but she nodded anyway.

"Now it all makes sense. That was why he was hell bent on getting that woman from the car yesterday, even though there were countless others running free in the street."

"Yep, it makes sense now."

The sound of the water and the fresh air were so cleansing after the long morning we had. My stomach rumbled in hunger.

Irene snorted, opened her mouth no doubt to tease me about it when her own stomach growled out loud.

We ended up laughing again. Hearts heavy but blooming with hope. We finally had something that could help. Please, let it help.

A few minutes later, a man dressed in an impeccable butler suit came through the backdoor, balancing a tray heaping with food on one gloved hand, the other behind his straight back.

When he got closer, I had to do a double take. Slicked black hair, haughty blue eyes and a sharp, clean shaven jaw, his face belonged on a model magazine cover.

"Damn," Irene whistled lowly, her eyes raking over the lean figure walking with food toward us.

"Down, girl," I whispered, jabbing her with my elbow. "You wanna bet he's gonna speak with a British accent."

"No way," Irene said, a hint of a suppressed smile on her lips, "that would be way too cliché."

The butler reached us, bowed his head slightly before depositing the plate on the wooden table. A witch. Interesting.

The men who had come with Arthur in the van earlier were all shapeshifters, a couple were predatory felines, a tiger and a jaguar, and the others were bear shifters. Charles was a vampire. This one was a wizard. Arthur seemed to be employing people from different immortal races.

"Mesdames. I've prepared lunch under the Sire's orders."

Irene coughed suspiciously next to me. His accent was perfectly British. I beamed at him, trying to keep my own laughter inside. He seemed nice and I didn't want to be rude.

"Thank you..." I trailed off.

"Thomas, at your service."

Irene's coughing increased in volume with the way he said Thomas, like the french would say it.

"Thank you, Thomas," I repeated, saying his name like he had.

He gave a nod, then looked at Irene. "Madam, if you could please come with me for a moment."

Irene swallowed her smile and arched a brow at him, "I'd love to, but why?"

"I believe the Sire needs some information about the case."

"Should I come with you?" I asked.

She shook her head, waving to the food, "eat, you lost some blood. I'll be quick."

They left. I rubbed my hands together while taking in the food. Sandwiches, finger foods, salads and fruit. My stomach was growling.

I dug in. The proper thing to do would be to wait for Irene, but I couldn't do that. By the time she got back nothing would be left. I was starving.

The food tasted as good as it looked, even better. But ten minutes later, unease finally got the best of me and I stopped stuffing my mouth. Why wasn't Irene here? Ten minutes wasn't a long time, but my instincts were on edge.

I shook my head. I was just being paranoid. But when Irene didn't show up five minutes later, I decided to go look.

The moment I stepped through the backdoor into the log cabin, I knew something was wrong. Knives in hand, I walked slowly to the front door. The curtains on the windows were all shut.

I eased the front door open slightly, peeked outside and cursed. I did not deal well with being cornered.

All kinds of scenarios were running across my mind. Where was Irene? Did she break her promise? Did they suspect who and what I was? Was she hurt?

I pushed the door fully open, stepped outside and faced the group of six immortals guarding the door. They formed a semicircle around me.

Three females, three males. Four predatory shapeshifters and two vampires. Young, but strong, and well trained judging by the way they held themselves. They watched me closely, not missing any small movement.

"Where's Agent Kim?"

No one answered. Their eyes looked straight through me. I advanced, when I reached a certain point they all moved as one and took a step toward me. Alrighty, then.

"I'm going to leave," I said.

They took another step toward me. "I'm afraid we can't let you do that, Miss Sanders," a man with coffee colored skin, broad shoulders and biceps the size of tree trunks replied.

I smiled sweetly, "oh really? And why is that?"

"We have our orders."

I could just guess who gave those orders. That arrogant asswipe.

I took a step back and stood on the balls of my feet in an offensive crouch. No one moved again. Apparently, they weren't attacking unless I tried to leave.

So I did just that.

Vampires are fast. Uncle Robert was a vampire, he trained me ever since I could crawl. By the time I was ten, I outsped him every time we raced.

For these immortals, I was human. So they did not expect me to run through them with the speed that I had. It bought me a few precious moments.

I ran towards the trees. I could swim out of here, but I was slower in the water and they would definitely have patrol boats running circles around the island. The only way out was by the passway. But it was heavily guarded and bare with no spots to hide.

I was getting ahead of myself, though. I had to lose my tail first. Because the immortals had quickly recovered from their shock and were now chasing me through the woods.

The only downside to my speed was that I couldn't keep the same pace as long as a vampire or even a shapeshifter. Even worse, they had the advantage of knowing the grounds we were on. I was going along with my instincts.

The grass under my feet was slippery in some spots where the sun hadn't yet reached the morning dew, the tree canopy was so thick in some places that it was dark.

I chanced a glance back. Through the heavy foliage, I could make out vague shapes of people closing in on me. Wind whistled in my ears as I took a sharp turn, then another, hoping to throw them off my trail. But they had shapeshifters with them, they could easily track my scent.

I didn't need to worry about that, though. Out of nowhere, a man popped up in front of me. I crashed into him. He took the opportunity to close his arms around my shoulders to keep me in place.

I still had my knives in hand so I hit the back of his head with the handle. He grunted, his hold loosening for a fraction before tightening again. I struggled in vain.

When I heard the others close by, I put the silver blade on the skin of his nape.

"Let go."

The man froze. I wouldn't kill him. I wouldn't kill anyone without a really good reason, and these people were just following orders. But he didn't know that. So under the threat of silver, he let go of me.

I jumped out of his reach. But I was now surrounded again, the immortals chasing me having caught up. There were more of them.

"Ten people," I said, whirling around when I heard one sneaking up behind me. He stepped back cautiously when I sliced my knife his way. "He assigned ten trained immortals to keep me here. I should be flattered."

"There's no need for this, Miss," One woman said, a vampire, her golden skin catching a stray sun beam filtering through the canopy, "Just come with us."

"I'm leaving."

"The sire will be here after taking care of some business, you can discuss things with him."

I whirled around again, this one managed to get closer. I had no chance. Even if I beat these people, I was sure more would be waiting for me. I was in their territory after all.

Damn it. I shouldn't have gotten into that car with him. Why, oh why couldn't I, for once, do as uncle Robert told me: Stay out of immortal business. Should be easy to do. Right.

I was beat. I knew it. But I couldn't possibly go back without a good fight, that would be too anticlimactic.

I should at least have a little fun. I cracked my neck, "let's do this. It's been a while since I had a good training session."

Two charged at me as one, one from the back and another from the front. I jabbed my elbow back at one and kicked the other, they both dodged and stepped back. Someone said a low word, and suddenly, all ten of them were on me.

No matter how good I was, I couldn't win against ten of them when I was making sure not to kill or cause a lethal wound.

I kicked, punched and made a few careful wounds with my knives. At one point, one of them, a shapeshifter, managed to wrap his arms around me tightly from behind. I kicked his shin with my steel heeled boots twice, before his hold loosened, I crouched forward and threw him over my head with a grunt, only to be surrounded by more.

They were trained, but they were also young. Not seasoned fighters. This was probably their first assignment from what I could see. They made some mistakes that would have gotten them dead, had I had no problem in killing them.

In my haste to keep the silver blade from one's carotid, I miscalculated, and somehow the blade ended up slicing over my own cheek. The silver burned like hell.

As I fought, I became aware of more eyes watching us. More immortals were surrounding the fight, standing watch to intervene. Great, just great.

The wound wouldn't close until after it was cleaned. I was losing blood, I struggled not to kill any idiot, and more fighters were waiting for their turn. So for once, I did the sane thing and gave up.

But not before kicking a vampire in the balls so hard that he curled on the ground.