Playing with Fire. Michele Hauf

gorgeous pursuer at the top of the stairs that opened onto a cobbled avenue. How had he—?

      Lowering his head, his dark eyes smiled in triumph, though his perfect lips did not move. Kiss me with those thick bowed lips, Mr. Sexy Demon.

      Nix that. He wanted something I couldn’t—wouldn’t—give him.

      And yet, when the going got tough, I could slip into sneaky sensual mode with an ease that made others in my tribe beg to take lessons. All men could be controlled with a wink and a flirtatious touch, if not a little magic.

      I took the last two steps slowly, walking right toward the alluring hunk of oh-so-fine. My apartment was close but I guessed he’d trail me, so I had to make sure he didn’t have the capacity to do so. What I knew about demons is they liked to sin and they never refused the carnal pleasures (or so I hoped).

      He was well over a head taller than me—easy for any man since I barely toed five feet tall—and his shoulders were twice as wide as mine. Strong, powerful and able to eat little girls for lunch. The notion of this man eating me…

      Parish, your mind is in the wrong place!

      But not wrong for my impromptu plan to work. I’d been practicing a submission spell, but it did require blood. Guess I was going to have to take one for the team.

      Tilting up on tiptoes, I landed the demon’s mouth with mine. Clinging to his shoulders I delivered my seductive wiles with a firm, explorative kiss. I licked his lips and tugged out the bottom one with my teeth. Man, he tasted like dessert. Yeah, run your hands down my hips and derriere, you horny demon. That’ll make the spell sink in deeper—and my teeth.

      I snagged his lip with a fang and blood spilled across my tongue. Hot, thick and probably black, but it didn’t taste bad, rather caramel salty and dark. Before he could exclaim, I swiped my finger through the blood and then pressed it against his throat above the choker and smeared it in a black circle. “Cedo!”

      The demon soared through the air, away from me. He transformed to green smoke midflight, which hadn’t been part of the spell. If the spell was successful, he’d only want to please the one who had just kissed him. And a submissive man would never take what didn’t belong to him, especially from the girl he adored.

      Not about to stick around to see what came next, I dashed down the narrow cobbled alleyway, congratulating myself on a successful nab tonight. If all went well, tomorrow I’d be back in Venice at my father’s bedside. And his soul would be saved.

      I raced through the apartment building lobby, decorated in the old art nouveau style with acanthus leaves and half-naked women climbing along the walls, and up the stairs to the second floor where I’d borrowed an apartment from Zara Destry, the Lilith tribe leader. I love that vampiress. A fine replacement for my long-dead mortal mother, she took care of me as if I was one of her own. I had only my father left, but that wouldn’t be for long. I needed family to help navigate the paranormal world I’d been thrust into against my will.

      Punching in the digital code, I swung the apartment door inside, and let out a chirp at the sight of the smirking demon whose hair smoked and whose palms were filled with flames.

      Chapter Two

      The vixen had the audacity to run her tongue along those bright white fangs. Add that to the lifted brow and her rose-kissed cheeks and I instantly lost the anger that blazed in my hands. Rubbing my palms along my thighs sifted off the after-smoke in emerald wisps.

      This little thief would undo me. I had sensed her attempt to bespell me at the top of the Metro stairs, to somehow make me want to submit to her. Hadn’t worked. I am impervious to witchcraft. Though the kiss had been worthy of another go at it. And very well, the spell had sent me flying. How had she been able to do that? Vampires could not maintain such powerful magic, could they?

      She boldly approached me, the tip of her finger stroking the corner of her bow lips, eyeing me up and down with pale gray eyes that held a diamond twinkle.

      Straightening, I set back my shoulders, because she walked behind me now—was she checking out my ass?

      “This apartment is warded,” she said. “How’d you get in?”

      For the same reason witchcraft had no effect on me: I could cross any and all wards thanks to the devil’s mark carved into my back. But she didn’t need to know that. “Just lucky. Now hand over what you took or—”

      “Or?”

      She swung around in front of me, a teasing glitter sparkling her eyes. Everything about her was pale yet bright, and energized with a heightened sexuality that I could feel enter my pores as if an enemy invader I’d like to embrace. I rarely turned down opportunity to dally with a gorgeous woman. The sensual pleasures were meant to be indulged.

      Impervious, Cinder, remember that. You do not want to submit to her.

      “Just what did you have in mind, handsome?”

      If she thought flirting would distract me— Was she wearing pink lipstick, or were her lips that lush and petal soft? Kissable. The compulsion to kiss her arose and—

      I grabbed her wrist and slid my hand along the waistline of her tight black pants. Her small frame was lost against my greater bulk, but I distinctly noticed the hard press of her nipples below mine and the heat of her breath that landed on the base of my throat.

      What had I come here for? And why was my hand now sliding with sensual ease along her back and around front where I felt no bra beneath the body-hugging black shirt?

      “Find something you want to play with?” she cooed. “I know I have.”

      Her tongue touched the skin at my throat where the white business shirt gaped open, and I sucked in a gasp. Delicate fingers tickled along my pectorals. The feel of this tiny thief seeking to overpower me did not surprise so much as make me want her to succeed.

      “What’s your name, sexy?” she asked.

      “Cinder,” came out on a throaty hush that startled me.

      What the hell, Cinder? You’re being played by a sneaky vampiress.

      I gripped her wrists, abruptly stopping the futile seduction. “What’s the name of the thief I caught red-handed?”

      “Parish,” she said, her kissable lips curling to an even more irresistible pink bow. “What makes you think I stole anything?”

      My hand dropped to her derriere where the pocket wasn’t formed like a soft womanly curve. Still holding her wrist securely, I slipped the heavy piece out from the pocket and held it before her. “What’s this?”

      She narrowed her gaze, but gave no indication she was at all flustered. “What does it look like to you?”

      I inspected the heavy disk, about half an inch thick and three inches in diameter and etched with indiscernible runes on what looked like black carbon fiber. I had no clue what it was, but if the Council had chosen to store it in a high-security facility, then it must do something bad. I was familiar with the measurement scale of all things from bad to really bad to oh fuck this is going to leave a permanent mark. I’d guess this thing landed somewhere between bad and the permanent mark range.

      “You have no idea,” she said on a ticklish peal. Snagging the disk, she danced away from me and around behind the black velvet couch. “Who are you, Cinder?”

      “I am the Council’s security advisor.”

      Chagrin heated my neck when she gave me the “seriously” look.

      “The security wards were down for two hours,” I explained, “so I could set up the system. How could you have possibly known the window in which the system would be shut off?”

      “I didn’t. Guess I got lucky.” She strolled down a hallway, and I knew she was going to hide the evidence.

      I smoked ahead of her and landed beside a dresser, but too close to the