Kat and Mouse by Lexxie Couper

“Touch her again and—”
    “Get me the Daemon Moon and I guarantee you, my hands shall never touch her again.”
    Blood roaring in his ears, Flynn stared at the man beside him. “What is the Daemon Moon Why do you want it so badly?”
    Abaddon’s grin returned, dark and demonic. “Most of the…staff…in Los Magia are here by choice. I, on the other hand, lost a bet. The Daemon Moon will rectify that loss. And return to me what is mine.”
    Flynn narrowed his eyes, his gut a knot of suspicion. “Lost a bet? To whom?”
    “Let’s just call him The Big Man. He has something of mine and I want back. You can get it for me.”
    “Why me?” Flynn asked, his gut knotting more. “Surely in this place you can find someone capable of walking through walls?”
    Abaddon’s lips twisted. “True. But a human will not trip the unique… security surrounding the Moon. Someone of my, how shall I put this…origins will. I need the skill of the world famous Mouse.”
    “I’m not getting anything unless I know what it is. Why do you want the Daemon Moon so desperately?”
    Abaddon’s eyes flared. “It is beyond your human comprehension.”
    Flynn gave the man an indifferent shrug. “Well, it’s beyond my human skill to obtain it then.”
    Pure rage—Abaddon’s rage—hit him. A wave of solid heat. A wall of molten fury that enveloped him. The very air in his lungs felt like sulphur, his bones on fire.
    The air around the man seemed to shimmer. His flesh, his muscles, his form shifted--a man yet not a man. As if two beings existed in the same space, one human, one a creature of demonic proportions. “ The stone contains me , human.” The words were low, a growling rumble that made Flynn’s eardrums feel like they were being crushed. “When I have possession on the stone, I will be free. Of contract. Of control. When I have the stone, I will walk this realm and no one will tell me what to do. No one .”
    Flynn’s breath suddenly turned to ice, the blistering heat that only seconds earlier filled his lungs sucked from his body. And then it was just Abaddon standing before him again, eyes blue and intense, but human none-the-less. “Do you comprehend now, Marsters?”
    Flynn cocked an eyebrow, forcing his face to remain impassive. Almost bored. “That was very impressive.” He paused. “If a touch showy.”
    Abaddon’s nostrils flared. “Showy? Hmm. Let me put it this way. I have marked Katrina O’Lauchlan as my own. Which means one of two things: you can return to that dried-up speak of insignificant land you call Australia with her, or without her. But I should point out before you make up your mind… the ‘show’ you just witnessed? That is the form I would fuck the delectable police officer in every time and any time I wanted to, if you choose not to procure the Daemon Moon .” A wide, cold grin stretched his mouth and he stared at Flynn with smug intensity. “You decide.”
     
    ***
     
    Katrina killed the shower and stepped, dripping, from the cubicle, grabbing a thick, fluffy towel and shaking the excess water from her hair.
    The tension roaring into life in her stomach at the blackjack table fifteen minutes ago, coiled tighter--low in the pit of her gut, the place she associated with her cop instincts. A cliché, she knew, but undeniable all the same. She’d survived more than one raid, more than one dangerous situation listening to that coiling sensation. Right at that very second however, that infallible tension that she’d come to rely on since she first holstered her glock was telling her jack-shit.
    Yes, it was coiled tighter than ever.
    Yes, it was making every nerve in her being tingle.
    But that was it. And she honestly didn’t know if it had anything to do with her official purpose for being in Los Magia or the deep, dark desires she’d spent years repressing now threatening to control her actions.
    Are you going to Room 42, O’Lauchlan ?
    Wrapping herself in the towel, she moved into