Chapter One
Andrea Cole had been hunting demons and vampires since she was eighteen, almost since the day she'd dropped out of college and returned home to witness both parents being torn apart by demons before her eyes. That was nine years, a hundred kills, and two dozen broken bones ago. Killing evil creatures had never bothered her. Not once. But tonight was different.
Tonight she might have to kill the love of her life.
She gripped her wooden stake so hard that she was surprised it didn't crack. Silently, she eased down the damp, narrow staircase that led to an underground chamber beneath the Oregon billionaire's mansion. The human scumbag was in league with demons who The Aegis, a society of human warriors who protected the world from evil, had been watching for two years. Andrea's division, a special vampire investigative unit, had concentrated all its efforts on bringing this guy down, starting with the vampires he harbored on his property.
Beneath it, anyway.
Recently, an Aegis Guardian had disappeared into the bowels of the mansion. Under the pretense of delivering a kitchen order from a local bakery, Kaden had snooped around and gotten lucky when he spotted the butler opening a secret panel in the pantry. He'd followed the butler down a staircase, speaking softly into his hidden microphone to describe everything he saw. At the bottom, he'd found himself in a giant chamber filled with torture devices, several filthy cells, dozens of tunnels and, unfortunately, more vampires than he could combat.
Andrea had listened in horror as Kaden was overwhelmed. When the sound had cut off, something inside her had died, and she'd done nothing but live and breathe revenge ever since. And now, revenge was within her grasp, because at this very moment, there were twenty Guardians swarming the mansion grounds, armed to the teeth and working on three separate missions.
One: Capture the billionaire scumbag, Blake Alden. Two: Kill as many vampires as possible. Three: Find Kaden.
Find Kaden so Andrea could kill him.
The thought rolled through her on a wave of nausea. Maybe he was okay. Maybe the vampires hadn't turned him. And maybe she was freaking delusional, because she knew damned good and well they'd done it. Vamps got off on torturing Guardians -- or worse, turning them. Nothing amused bloodsuckers more than dropping an enemy headfirst into their worst nightmare.
Cautiously, she stepped out of the stairwell and into a huge, cavernous basement. From the stone walls hung wicked-looking implements of torture. The floor was dirt, so not a basement, exactly. It was more of a cave, with cells carved into the walls. The doors were solid slabs of metal, with only a small, eye-level slotted window shot through with steel bars.
Ahead were tunnels she'd be willing to bet led to living spaces and dozens of exits that would come out all over Portland. Behind her, six Guardians filed out of the stairwell.
"This is weird," Zach, a newer recruit, whispered. "There's no one here."
"They might have been tipped off." Andrea moved toward the cells. "Or it's a trap and they're hiding. Be careful."
Zach and the others disappeared into the tunnels, leaving Andrea to clear the immediate area. The first cell was empty, the shackles on the walls hanging dejectedly from their chains. Some sort of spindly, man-sized demon occupied the second, cowering in a corner and trembling. A colleague would dispatch the pathetic creature later.
She moved on, slowing when the small hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she side-stepped a dark stain on the ground. Her gaze tracked automatically to the ceiling. Above her, dried-flesh-crusted meat hooks swayed, grotesque even in the dim light from the wall sconces. And there, in the corner, were Kaden's boots and shirt.
Andrea's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. Where was he? Forgetting caution,
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