Bear's Baby (Bear Heat Book 4) by Natalie Kristen

remembered him and thought
of him all these years. He made her feel really good, so cherished
and loved. She felt good about him, about herself. Lindy caught her
reflection in the window and realized that there was a dreamy smile
on her face. She straightened up with a cough and turned back
determinedly to her work. No time to dream. It was time to focus on
the job and stop a sadistic, savage killer.
    She ploughed through the
information before her. None of the victims had been raped. So it
wasn't about sex. Were these people killed for revenge, power,
pleasure? She circled all these words in red on her legal pad.
    No prints had been found on
the bodies. The victims' skins had been torn, and there were
bruises, cuts and burn marks on their legs, arms and what was left of
their faces. They had been tortured before they were killed. The
killer had wanted to see their pain and suffering. Their fear, their
cries amused him, empowered him. It was horrific, harrowing and
inhumane.
    “He's not human,”
Lindy muttered. “He can't be.”
    But she knew too well that
monsters often wore human faces. Smiling, familiar human faces.
    She shook her head. What
exactly did the killer want?
    What was the motive here?
The message?
    She had written down a few
possibilities last night at the diner. But now, as she re-thought
and reworked the information at hand, those theories didn't seem to
fit.
    She tore out a page from her
legal pad and balled up the paper.
    When nothing worked, work
from nothing.
    Start from scratch, and
scratch everything that she had previously come up with.
    Flipping to a fresh, blank
page, Lindy picked up her pink fountain pen and started writing.

CHAPTER
TEN

    Baxter nodded once as Liam
finished briefing them. His smile had long vanished.
    “I thought that we
would be able to hunt the demon down swiftly and destroy him. I
thought wrong,” Liam admitted unhappily. “James advised
me to ask for help from the Black Bears,” Liam went on,
referring to his lieutenant. James Ryker was also a dragon shifter
and the Chief Security Officer at Skyflame Casino. There were very
few dragon guards left and they were only posted to areas where
breaches were known to occur. Whenever a gateway between the demon
realms and this world was breached, the dragon guards had to act
quickly to contain the damage. It was their job to hunt down any
demons who had escaped to this realm and destroy them.
    “Aw, you should have
called us sooner.” Baxter rubbed his nose. “With that
nice retainer fee you're paying us, you don't expect us to be sitting
on our pretty butts and twiddling our thumbs while you guys run
yourselves ragged. You should give us a chance to prove our worth.
And if I may say so myself, we're worth every cent.”
    “So how many made it
out this time?” Dylan asked.
    “Six demons jumped
through the gateway before James and I managed to seal it up. We've
destroyed five of them.”
    “Five down, one to go,”
Baxter said. “Easy peasy.”
    “Not easy,” Liam
cautioned. “This demon is very cunning. He is highly
elusive, and very clever at disguise and deception. Time is running
out. The longer he remains in this realm, the more powerful he
becomes.”
    “I'll sniff him out,”
Baxter declared, tapping his nose.
    “He can hide his demon
scent,” Liam said.
    “Not from me.”
Baxter folded his arms.
    “He can change his
appearance as well.”
    “Ooh, a shapeshifting
demon.” Baxter made a face. “Well, let's hope he
doesn't shift into a bear. That—would be seriously insulting.”
    The other Black Bears grunted
their agreement. Liam stood up and said, “We've received
reports that the demons are attempting another breach in a nearby
town. We have to fight them back before they open another gateway.
James and I will be leaving the city in an hour. If you need...”
    Baxter waved a hand. “We'll
manage. Go and save the town. We'll catch your runaway demon for
you.”
    Liam walked to a bookshelf
and slid