“What is it?”
“The pillar. It’s been destroyed. It either fell over or was pushed.”
He crouched beside her. The broken edges were sharp. This was fresh. “Serena? What is this tablet you’re looking for? Straight up. What’s it do?”
She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. “Val—and the Elders—believe there’s some sort of demon invasion coming. The Tablet of Mons Silpius is supposed to work with the coin to provide some sort of protection. I think… I think it’s supposed to render the Harrowgates useless.”
That was some damned powerful magic. And any demon in his right mind would do whatever it took to prevent The Aegis from carrying out their plan. Maybe that was why he was sensing the evil presences—demons had taken the tablet already, and they were either on their way off the island with their treasure… or they were waiting around for the person who carried the other half of the equation.
He grabbed her wrist. “We’re out of here.”
“Absolutely not.” She tried to jerk free, but when that didn’t work, she started peeling his fingers off her arm. “I can search the broken stone and see if the tablet is still there. And intact.”
A tingle shot up his spine and spiked through his brain. This was bad. Very bad. Inside he was chafing, all his instincts spinning like blades in his chest, telling him to grab Serena and run.
And goddammit… his stomach had chosen now to act up with poison reflux. “No—”
A foul wind spun up, swirled around them like a dust devil. Still crouching, he whirled around with a hiss.
“Josh?”
“We gotta go, Serena.” He leaped to his feet, but it was too late.
They came at them from all sides. Silas demons, the mercenaries of the underworld. Wraith had always hated the fishbelly white, eyeless bastards, sellouts who could be bought for any job for the right pay.
“Oh, boy,” she breathed. “Queue the Raiders of the Lost Ark music.”
“These aren’t Nazis, babe.”
Wraith shoved Serena to the ground. Silas demons were tall, and while their long limbs and extended reach gave them fighting advantages, they couldn’t bend easily, and if Serena remained flat—
She came to her feet and threw a punch at the Silas nearest her, knocking him to the ground. Blood flowed from his broken nose. Smoothly, she moved on to the next one, each action elegant and efficient, and damn, the woman could handle herself. He was relieved to see that her charm was in effect. It prevented her from taking blows, but she delivered them with brutal efficiency, dancing on the balls of her feet like a beautiful, untouchable Valkyrie. He’d like to get her in a gym, where they could spar until he took her down to the mat and—
A kick to the kidney leveled Wraith. He rolled and came to his feet. He’d been caught off guard, had been so busy admiring Serena that he’d let himself get taken. That wouldn’t happen again.
He leaped into the air, spun, took out two Silases with combination kicks to their heads. Still, they swarmed like ants. In the distance, he heard screams and the gruesome sound of tearing flesh. The human tourists were being slaughtered.
There were high prices to be paid for human massacres, so whoever had hired these scum must either be extremely powerful or this was a precursor to something worse, like the demon invasion Serena had talked about.
Wraith took a crippling blow to the gut. His muscles turned watery, and oh, fuck, the damned poison was attacking him from the inside as the demons were attacking from the outside.
A Silas kicked him in the head as Wraith doubled over. Stars swam in his vision. He went to his knees, wobbled, and caught himself with his hand.
Suddenly, the Silas went flying backward and landed at an awkward angle, its head wrenched a hundred and eighty degrees. Serena stood there like a guardian angel, looking pretty damned proud of herself.
Wraith would be proud of her too, except he was smarting from the beating and by the fact that he’d been rescued by a human. A human female. He was the one who was supposed to do the hero shit.
She leaped into action to take out another one, giving him the break he needed to get back on his feet. Another Silas came at him, and somehow he managed to pummel it, until an agonized cry brought him around. Serena had been captured by a black-robed figure. A flash of the face beneath its hood told Wraith all he needed to know about the bastard’s identity.
Byzamoth.
His arm was hooked around her neck as he dragged her backward. She clawed at the male’s arm, her legs flailing wildly.
“Serena!” Wraith sprinted toward her, silently willing the demon to let her go. He didn’t think about the fact that her charm wasn’t working against the demon. Again. He didn’t think about the fact that by turning his back on the Silas horde he was opening himself up to attack. He had to save Serena.
He weaved through the masses, blocking strikes and dodging blows. He closed in on the demon, who had taken Serena to the ground, forced her to her hands and knees. Still, she fought, swiping at him with her nails, kicking out at his groin. Byzamoth snarled and punched her in the back of her head.
Serena sagged bonelessly to the ground.
Rage twisted into a vicious, gnarled knot in Wraith’s chest. He dove for the other being, struck him in the back and knocked him into a boulder. “You are so dead,” he snarled, slamming two rapid-fire kicks into the demon’s face. Blood sprayed from his mashed nose, and then Byzamoth was on his feet, and Silas demons were swarming the Temple of Hathor.
“You are the one who is about to die,” Byzamoth said, and Wraith wanted to knock that sneer right off his too pretty face.
But now wasn’t the time. Wraith might be the best fighter in the upper- and underworld, but he wasn’t invincible, and he was beyond outnumbered.
In a quick series of moves, he lashed out with one foot, catching Byzamoth in the chest, at the same time twisting to chop a Silas in the jaw. As the two careened into other demons, Wraith swept up Serena without breaking stride. Their only hope was to reach the Harrowgate, and even that depended on Serena remaining unconscious.
Conscious humans died in Harrowgates.
He ran hard, leaping ancient stone carvings and dodging spears and knives thrown by Silas warriors. Serena’s charm now seemed to keep her safe; twice, demons tripped and fell on their own weapons as they tried to impale her with blades, and once, two spears collided in mid-air and clattered harmlessly to the ground.
Ahead, the Harrowgate shimmered between two stone pillars of the Temple of Isis. Three demons, one Silas and two Cruenti, guarded the entrance. Behind Wraith, Byzamoth’s shouts and threats grew louder. Shit.
He was going to have to plow straight through the sentries.
This was going to hurt.
Sucking in a deep breath, he held Serena tight to his chest and shot across the expanse of land. Head down, he rammed the Silas with his shoulder, knocking the male into a huge figure of Horus carved deep into a column. Wraith threw out one arm and jammed the heel of his hand into a Cruentus’s nose. The thing howled in pain. The other one slashed at Wraith with his long claws, catching him across the back of the neck. Wraith stumbled and nearly fell.
The Harrowgate flashed, the shimmering curtain peeling back as another Silas emerged. Wraith punched it in the gut and dove into the Harrowgate. He tapped the map of the United States, which activated the gate and wouldn’t allow anything else inside. For now, they were safe.
But as the blood trickled down his neck and back, he knew that their safety was only as good as the moment, because whatever Byzamoth was, he was powerful enough to not only negate the power of Serena’s charm and command an army of demons, but to risk the wrath of both Heaven and Hell.
Wraith stepped through UG’s Harrowgate with Serena still unconscious in his arms. Relief that she had remained out for the journey was tempered by worry that she was, in fact, still out
“Get E and Shade,” he snapped to the nurse at the triage desk, and without
slowing, he strode to the nearest exam room. Gently, he lay Serena on the bed. She didn’t even stir. For a moment he stood there, petting her hair, wincing when his hand came away bloody. Dammit, where were his brothers?
The curtain swept open and Dr. Shakvhan entered. “She’s human?”
“Last time I checked. Where’s E?”
“I’m on duty today.”
“I didn’t ask if you were on duty,” Wraith said. “I want my brothers.”
The curvy succubus sniffed haughtily, ignoring him as she began a vitals check. Even if it wasn’t physically impossible for succubi and incubi to screw, he wouldn’t touch her. In the dictionary, the word “bitch” ran and hid from her.
“How long has she been unconscious?”
“Five minutes, maybe.”
“Her name?”
“Serena.”
Shakvhan peered into Serena’s face. “Serena? Can you hear me?”
Serena’s lids fluttered, and she moaned. Not the greatest sign, but better than nothing.
“Wraith.” E moved inside, dressed in khakis and a black button-down shirt, which meant he’d been working in his office today. “What happened?” He frowned and reached for Wraith’s neck. “You’re bleeding.”
Wraith pushed E’s hand away. “We’ll deal with me later. Serena needs help.”
“You know I don’t like having humans here,” E said, moving to her.
“I don’t give a fuck. Where’s Shade?”
“On his way. The ambulance was just pulling into the parking garage when I got the triage nurse’s page.”
The succubus rattled off vitals, ending with “GCS of eight.”
Eight. Wraith had been on enough ambulance runs to know that eight and below on the Glasgow Coma Scale indicated a severe brain injury. His gut knotted with helplessness.
Eidolon started an IV. “Thanks, I got it.”
Shakvhan shrugged and sauntered away, and Wraith yanked the curtain closed. “We were attacked by demons on Philae. While I was fighting, she took a hit.”
E looked up from inspecting Serena’s head wound, his expression one of relief. “You slept with her.”
“No. That’s the thing. Nothing should have been able to touch her, right?”
“Dammit,” E breathed. “Someone else got to her.”
“That’s impossible.”
“There’s no other explanation, Wraith.”
The heavy strike of boots on the stone floor announced Shade’s arrival, and the curtain swished open. “What’s going on?”
E’s dark brows drew together. “Head injury. I need you to do a system check and see how bad.”
“This is Wraith’s charmed human?”
“Except for the charmed part.”
Wraith snarled. “She’s still charmed.”
E gave him a look edged with doubt and called out to the triage nurse to find Gem. He turned back to Shade, who had palmed Serena’s forehead and closed his eyes. His dermoire glowed as his gift flowed from him to Serena, and it took every ounce of patience Wraith had to keep from interrupting with questions.
Finally, Shade opened his eyes. “No skull fracture, but she’s got a substantial subdural hematoma. I’m slowing the bleeding, but E, you’re going to have to fix it.”
“It won’t require surgery, will it?” Wraith asked. E could repair injuries, but only if he could touch them. If Serena had to go under the knife, she’d be in the hospital for an extended period of time, and explaining the situation would require some creative lies.
“Hope not. We keep losing power, and I’d hate to be in the middle of brain surgery and have it happen again. Not to mention the fact that brain surgery isn’t my specialty.” E blew out a breath. “I can summon a general healing wave, see if that works.”
“I’ll monitor the injury and blood flow while you do it.” Shade closed his eyes again.
Wraith watched as E grasped Serena’s arm, his dermoire glowing as bright as Shade’s. He heard someone approach, sensed Gem before he saw her. She stood quietly next to him.
Gradually, both Shade’s and Eidolon’s dermoires stopped glowing.
“Well?”
Shade exchanged glances with Eidolon. “I think you got it. We should get a CT scan though, just to make sure.”
“Josh?”
Everyone’s heads whipped around to Serena, who watched Wraith through half-lidded, cloudy eyes.
Shit. Wraith clamped his hand down on her wrist and slammed his gift into her head, taking her consciousness to a beach. A skimpy swimsuit, clear ocean waters, and she was set. He didn’t insert himself into the fantasy--dream—doing so would require too much concentration, and he needed to focus on what was going on around them in the hospital.
“Someone sedate her,” he said, his voice rough and low with the effort he was expending to talk while keeping the fantasy going. “We can’t let her see too much. And I need to get her back through the Harrowgate.”
Eidolon was already on it, was preparing to inject meds into her IV line. “So… Josh?”
Heat scorched Wraith’s cheeks. “Long story.”
Once the sedative had been injected, Shade palmed her forehead again. “She’s out.”
Gratefully, Wraith pulled out of her mind. “She’s okay?”
“She’s going to wake up with one hell of a headache, but she should be fine,” E said.
Gem gestured to Serena. “So why am I here?”
E kept his gaze on Wraith as he talked to Gem. “You’re here to confirm Serena’s virginity.”
“Or lack of,” Shade muttered.
“I told you…” Wraith growled.
“Yeah, I know. But can you say with one hundred percent certainty that she didn’t give it up to someone else? Or maybe some sort of incubus put a spell on her and took her while she was sleeping. We can’t be sure. She got hurt, and that shouldn’t have happened. Which probably means she’s no longer a virgin. And if that’s the case, you’re wasting valuable time with her.”
“It hasn’t been—” Wraith snapped his mouth shut before he said something stupid.
Fuck.
“Hasn’t been what?” Shade’s smirk said he knew exactly what Wraith had been about to say.
“Nothing.” Wraith’s heart kicked in his chest as he looked at Serena, lying so still in the bed. “I just don’t want Gem poking around.”
“Would you rather I did it?” E asked.
“Hell no!” Wraith drew in a deep breath, which didn’t do nearly enough to calm him. He seriously needed to get a grip. Maybe her virginity had been taken, but the charm only partially transferred. Clearly, Byzamoth had done something to Serena. “Fine. But make it fast. And you two?” He gestured to his brothers. “You wait outside.”
Shade strode past, and E clapped Wraith on the shoulder. “Come with us. We need to talk.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Outside the room, Wraith paced, unsure what he was more nervous about—Serena’s possible lack of virginity, her health, or the fact that some mad demon was after her. Had hurt her. Man, he really wanted to cause Byzamoth a whole lot of hurt, because some weird possessive instinct had come over him, and fighting it was starting to feel like a waste of time and energy.
Both of which he was short on.
Eidolon crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “Tell us exactly what happened.”
“We were on the Island of Philae. Looking for some tablet that can be used to shut down the Harrowgates.”
“Ah, not cool,” Shade said.
“Duh.” Wraith reached up to rub the back of his neck, wincing when he discovered the gash there. Immediately, E replaced Wraith’s hand with his own and channeled a healing wave into the wound.
Pain shot straight up Wraith’s vertebrae and into his skull. E’s healing gift often caused extreme discomfort, even as it healed. When it was done Eidolon backed off.
“Better?” When Wraith nodded, E propped himself against the wall
again. “Back to Philae,” he prompted.
“Right.” Wraith resumed pacing. “I sensed demonic presences the moment we stepped onto the island. The Harrowgate had been used. A lot.”
“Philae is a place of worship for several species, right?”
“Yep, so I wasn’t too concerned at first. Which should have been a fucking clue, because I’m always concerned.”
Shade looked up from checking his cell phone, probably making sure Runa hadn’t tried to contact him. Those two were connected at the hip. If she didn’t force him to go to work, he’d never leave their home. “So was the attack directed at you?”
“Why would it be directed at me?”
Shade rolled his eyes. “Like it’s so out of the realm of possibility that someone would attack you. You know how you’re always making friends.”
“You’re a riot,” Wraith said. “But the guy who hurt her was the same dude who was talking to Serena when I arrived in Alexandria the first night, and who later showed up at the Hall of Caracalla. This is definitely about her.” He shook his head. “I thought it might be about the artifacts she was after, but it’s too coincidental that she’s being stalked by a guy who can hurt her.”
“If he’d already gotten her charm, then why would he want to hurt her?”
“I’m telling you, he didn’t get it. No one did.”
Gem swept open the curtain. “Wraith’s right. This human is untouched.”
Wraith bit back an I-told-you-so. “So how the hell could anything hurt her if she’s still a virgin?”
“We’ll work on that,” E said. “In the meantime, you need to work on getting the charm. I’m surprised you aren’t taking the opportunity while she’s sedated to get her ready and willing…”
Wraith found himself in his brother’s face, nose to nose. “You think I’m so demented that I’d take her in her sleep?”
Eidolon’s dark gaze narrowed on him, but he said nothing. Wraith ground his teeth, just waiting for his brother to say something stupid. Shade’s hand came down on both Wraith’s and Eidolon’s shoulders.
“Now’s not the time for this,” Shade said. “But Wraith, you’ve got to do something. You’re running out of time.”