“Gee, thanks for the news flash.”
E scrubbed a hand over his face, and then froze. “Wait. If her charm isn’t working…”
“Then maybe it won’t work for Wraith, either,” Shade finished.
“It’s working,” Wraith said. “None of the other demons on the island could touch her.”
“So why the one guy?”
Wraith shrugged. “Sounds like a visit to our resident angel is in order. Can one of you take care of it?” Wraith stalked into Serena’s room. Gently, he removed the tape holding the IV catheter in Serena’s hand. “I’m taking her to her hotel room.”
“I think you should wait,” E said. “I’d like to run tests. Maybe there’s a medical answer to why this one demon can get past the charm.”
“Is she healthy enough to go?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then I’m taking her.”
“Wraith—”
“Don’t fuck with me on this.” He pulled the catheter free of her vein, stopped the bleeding with a gauze pad and direct pressure. “She needs to be topside. She needs sunlight. Air. I don’t want her waking up and seeing even more of the hospital. There’s no way I can explain, and I’m not messing with her memories again.”
He could practically feel his brothers’ stunned gazes, but they said nothing as E touched Serena’s hand and healed the tiny spot where the IV had been, erasing all evidence of having been in a hospital.
Gently, Wraith gathered her in his arms, her weight so pitifully light. “Let me know what you find out. I’m outta here.”
“Wraith.” E’s stern voice brought him to a halt. “You need to close the deal. Now.”
“Yeah, about that? I don’t give a shit anymore. I’m not going to kill her.” He spun around and met their surprised gazes head on. “Sucks to lose the hospital, but you two will survive. So stop with the urgency bullshit. It’s getting old.”
Shade grabbed Wraith’s biceps in a bruising hold. “That’s the thing… this isn’t about just you or the hospital anymore, bro. Seems that all of our life forces are tied to the hospital. As you die, UG dies. And when the hospital goes…”
A chill sliced through Wraith, leaving behind raw grief and incapaciting pain. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, and when he finally could, all he could do was finish Shade’s sentence.
“So do you and E.”
Fourteen
Eidolon and Shade swept through the hospital, both seeking out the one being who might possibly know something about what was going on with Serena.
Reaver.
Since the intercom was down, Shade checked out the dining hall and gym while E hit the patient’s rooms. He found the fallen angel finishing up with a hyena shifter in the next room.
“I need to speak with you.”
Reaver nodded, his mane of golden hair swishing around his shoulders. He patted the teenaged hyena on the shoulder. “Good as new. But stay away from lions from now on.”
The boy rolled his eyes. Like their counterparts in the animal world, hyena and lion shapeshifters hated each other with deadly ferocity. But the kid didn’t argue, merely thanked Reaver and beat feet out of the room.
Reaver started cleaning up the area, dumping bloody bandages and wrappers in the biohazard bins. “What’s up?”
Eidolon cut right to the chase. “We need more information about Serena Kelley.”
Reaver fumbled the shears in his hand, but recovered quickly. “I’ve said more than enough.”
“Bullshit.”
For a moment, Reaver continued his clean-up, almost frantically, as though finishing would get him out of the conversation. Eidolon settled in for the long haul, braced one shoulder against the doorjamb and crossed his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankles, a silent message that said he wasn’t going anywhere until he got what he’d come for.
“You’re going to talk.”
Reaver snarled, his beautiful face twisted into as deadly an expression as Eidolon had ever seen from him. He hadn’t known much about fallen angels until Reaver came to him, wanting a job and a place to stay, and though Reaver had been at UG for sixteen years, Eidolon still knew very little.
“Serena is not something I can discuss with demons.”
“You’ve already discussed her, and in case you hadn’t noticed, you aren’t exactly bound by heavenly law anymore.”
Pain flashed in Reaver’s blue eyes. “I am bound by no law, heavenly or otherwise, since I’ve not entered Sheoul. But that doesn’t mean I don’t follow any rules.”
Eidolon’s Justice demon background gave him a sense of fair play, of law and order, and an appreciation for rules. But a lot of lives were at stake and his head fucking hurt and rules could take a flying fuck out the window.
“Here’s the deal,” he said, pushing himself off the doorjamb. “Wraith brought her in a little while ago. They were attacked by demons, and she was injured.”
Reaver looked so stricken Eidolon would have thought someone had died. “He already has the charm.”
“No.”
“Then she gave it to someone else.” Reaver sank down on a rolling stool and buried his face in his hands.
“We confirmed her virginity,” Shade said from the doorway. “It’s not possible that she gave it to someone.”
“Neither is her getting hurt.” The fallen angel’s voice was muffled by his palms.
Eidolon closed his eyes, thinking. “So there is nothing, nothing at all, that can harm her?”
“What part of divine charm are you not under-standing?”
“Okay, then what about someone else who is charmed? Could they hurt her?”
Reaver’s head snapped up. “I wouldn’t think so, but…”
“But what?” Shade asked. “Looks like maybe you heavenly geniuses didn’t think of everything, huh?”
“I just don’t know why another Sentinel would try to harm her. It makes no sense.”
Eidolon pondered that for a second. “Could they turn evil?”
“Unlikely.”
Eidolon cocked an eyebrow. “But you don’t know for sure.” Reaver didn’t reply, which was answer enough. “Can you contact your angel buddies and see—”
“No!” Reaver came to his feet. “I am not allowed contact with those who still serve.”
Eidolon got in the fallen angel’s face. “What are you allowed to do? You aren’t allowed to talk. You aren’t allowed to help. Seems like you are pretty damned useless to everyone.” E poked Reaver in the chest. “I get that you aren’t willing to help Wraith, but dammit, Reaver, don’t you feel the unrest in the underworld? Serena is a part of it, and we’ve got to find out why. You need to open the fuck up.”
Reaver’s lips peeled back to reveal two sharp canines Eidolon had never seen before. “Never. You. Are. Demons.”
“Hate to break it to you, buddy, but so are you.”
Reaver’s head rocked back with such force Eidolon expected to hear the crack of spine. And then Reaver’s fist was in Eidolon’s face, and Eidolon hit the wall so hard the plaster came down around him as he hit the floor.
“What the fuck?” Stunned, Shade looked between Reaver and E. “The Haven spell—”
He was cut off by the blare of sirens and the sound of battle. Running footsteps turned into a skid, and Gem popped her head through the doorway. “Haven spell has gone down. Hospital’s in chaos. This isn’t good, E. This isn’t good.”
Lore stepped out of the Harrowgate into Underworld General’s emergency room and came to an abrupt halt. What. The. Hell
Sure, fighting, fucking, and general chaos were staples anywhere you went in the demon world, but he’d figured a hospital would at least have a few rules. A demon of unknown species came at him, but he sidestepped the snakelike creature, wheeled around as it skidded past, and shoved its head into the wall. It fell to the obsidian floor with a soft thump.
He eyed the thing, hoping he hadn’t killed it. Not that he minded killing—it’s
just that he preferred to get paid for it.
And speaking of getting paid…
He made his way to the triage desk, where a vampire nurse was futilely yelling at the patients and staff to stop fighting.
“Yo.”
She turned to him with a sigh. “Do you require medical assistance?”
“And if I did?” he asked as he eyed the insanity around him. She gave him an apologetic shrug, and he shook his head. “I need to see Shade or Eidolon.”
“I’m sorry, but we’re a little busy.” She ducked to avoid being brained by a pipe someone had thrown. “I suggest you come back later—” She broke off as some long-clawed thing as large as Lore hit her across the face.
Lore leaped over the desk and wrenched the demon’s head around. There was a satisfying crack, a twitch, and the thing slumped, dead, to the floor.
Satisfaction had been his payment for that one. He glanced at the nurse, who was holding her bleeding cheek. “You okay?”
“I’ll live. Thank you.” She looked down at the dead demon. “I quit.” She stalked off in a huff.
Well, hell. He stood there, wondering if he should search for the two brothers or not. He’d heard that Wraith was off trying to save his life, but Lore knew damned good and well there was no cure for the poison his partner had dosed Wraith with. The guy was as good as dead.
But the other two… he needed to find them. The way Roag had set up the payment schedule had specified that all three must be dead in order for the money to be released.
And that burned-up Roag guy had been specific. He’d had one hell of a bug up his ass about these brothers. He’d never said why he wanted them dead, but then, Lore hadn’t asked. Didn’t care. He had a job to do. But really, in his thirty years of killing for money, he hadn’t come across anyone so desperate to see someone dead that they’d make arrangements for it to happen even after they themselves died.
Lore and his partner, Zaw, had received a third of the money up front, but the rest wouldn’t come until the brothers were verifiably deceased.
Zaw’s death had thrown a kink in that plan. Lore had been helping out the Byzamoth loon while Zaw was taking out the brothers. They’d been in contact via radio earpieces, and Lore had known exactly when Zaw had been taken out.
It had sounded pretty gruesome. As far as Lore could tell, Zaw had been eaten by a werewolf.
Nasty.
Lore much preferred a clean, bloodless kill. He might be an assassin, but only because he was good at it. And because he couldn’t do anything else. The demon world didn’t want him, and neither did the human one. As a half-breed, he was trash in either place.
Oh, and because he was owned by a demon who pimped Lore’s services out and demanded a cut of the money. Or else.
He looked down at his hand, covered by a leather glove to protect people from an accidental touch. He could kill even through the leather if he tried, but he didn’t have his kill skill turned on right now, so no one here was in danger. No one but the brothers he was after.
Something screamed, and simultaneously, blood sprayed in a fine mist, catching him in the face. He wiped his eyes with the back of his gloved hand and turned to the Harrowgate.
“Lore!” Gem’s voice rang out over the chaos. The smoking fine Goth chick jogged toward him, her stethoscope bouncing against her ample breasts.
What a stroke of luck it had been to run into her in the parking lot the other night. He’d stopped her to ask a few questions, but there’d been a spark there, a tangible one he hadn’t felt with a female in a long time.
Mainly, because he avoided them. Accidentally killing a partner he liked during sex wasn’t something he cared to repeat. Killing one during sex that he’d been paid to eliminate… that was a little different.
But Gem had fascinated him, and besides, she knew a lot about the hospital—and about his targets. He’d had a prime opportunity to kill two demons with one stone; he’d gotten to hang out with the sexiest female he’d been around in a long time, and he’d gotten good intel.
Last night he’d gone to her apartment, but she’d been upset, obviously by the aggressive human at the elevator, and she hadn’t wanted to talk.
Apparently, she hadn’t done much talking with the human male, either, because they’d both smelled of sex, which had gotten Lore worked up and, at the same time, pissed off. He wanted Gem for himself, no matter how bad an idea that might be.
Hey, baby, yeah, that’s right… we can get down to it, but never mind that I have to stay covered up and keep my glove on. Oh, and I can’t touch you at all with my right hand because when I come, I kill whoever I’m touching even through the glove. But yeah, just keep doing that thing with your mouth and I’ll try not to put you in your grave…
“Gem,” he said, pulling her out of the way of a thrown chair. “You didn’t mention your hospital is a war zone.”
She blew out an exasperated breath. “It normally isn’t. This is—” She broke off to yell at a horned demon in scrubs who was trading blows with a vampire in a hospital gown. “This is insane.”
“Good to know this isn’t the normal state of operations.”
“Not at all.” She frowned. “I need to go, see if I can help get the Haven spell back up.”
“I’ll see you later, then.”
She didn’t answer, was distracted by a leopard shifter who was stalking an imp near a bathroom. This was one of the strangest scenes he’d ever witnessed, and he’d been around for over a hundred years, so he knew strange.
Speaking of which… the human from last night was standing near the ambulance bay doors, his gaze full of murder. So it was with great pleasure that Lore grasped Gem by her upper arm, pulled her around, and kissed her.
With tongue.
He kept his gaze locked on the human, and as he stepped back from Gem, he flipped the guy off. Cold rage burned in the male’s eyes, as well as an unspoken threat that promised pain.
Too bad he couldn’t compete with what Lore promised.
Death. And the human male’s was going to be on the house.
Gem stood, stunned, as Lore wheeled around and disappeared into the Harrowgate. Her lips tingled from his kiss, and her mind reeled. He was fiendishly handsome, and had she met him even a few days earlier, she might have taken that kiss and run with it all the way to bed
But no, Kynan had to show up and stir the pot.
“Gem.”
Speak of the human. Heart pounding, because it seemed to think she’d just been caught doing something wrong, she turned to him. And drew a surprised breath. His expression was dark, his gaze seething as he stared at the Harrowgate Lore had disappeared into.
“Okay, stop the jealousy horseshit,” she snapped, even though a part of her was secretly pleased. “You should be sucking up, not acting like a cave devil in a mating rut. And right now, there’s more to worry about than my love life.”
A viper ghoul, a nasty, man-sized cobra-ish thing that looked like it had been dead for a month, slid from behind the triage desk, and before Gem could shout a warning it had wrapped itself around Kynan. Its fangs dripped venom from its open mouth, and its eyes focused on his throat.
Gem punched the thing as Ky struggled in its grip. His face turned red and his breath grew labored as the snake squeezed.
Helplessly she pounded the snake’s face, but the viper barely flinched. It was going to make a meal of Kynan.
Tears of frustration burned her eyes. She had no choice. Like it or not, she shifted into her hybrid Soulshredder form. Her bones popped and contorted, her skin stretched and split, and in seconds she was twice as large, winged, and had nasty, serrated claws. The snake hissed.
She raked her claws down its side, and it struck at her, its fangs scraping her cheek. She swiped at it again, catching it in the eye. It screamed a god-awful noise and uncoiled its body from around Kynan. Ky leaped away from it… and from her.
Instantly, she shifted back, but the wariness still lingered in Kynan?
??s eyes. It hurt more than she’d care to admit.
“What the hell is that thing doing in the hospital?” He panted, trying to catch the breath that had been squeezed from his lungs. “Shouldn’t it be at a vet’s?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice gravelly from the shift. At least her scrubs were intact. “Must be someone’s pet. E really needs to get this fixed.” She waved her hand at the battling demons, but before Kynan could reply, shrieks of agony replaced the sounds of fighting. Several patients and staff members grabbed their heads, and others fell to the floor, writhing in pain. The Haven spell had kicked back in.
“It’s about time.” Kynan rubbed his sternum. “And thanks for saving me.”
“Big demon hunter like you? You’d have gotten out of it.”
He looked a little skeptical, but he didn’t argue. He helped patch people up, along with all available medical personnel. When they were done, he took her hand, and though she knew she should resist, she didn’t. She was too curious about what he was doing, leading her to one of the patient rooms.
Kynan opened the door. Inside, candles burned, and on the floor was a blanket laden with food, wine glasses, and a bucket of ice containing a bottle of what looked like sparkling grape juice. Around the blanket were IV poles, and from them hung saline bags full of something that glowed with green fluorescence.
“What… what is this?”
He smiled, that killer one that always made her heart do somersaults. “It was partly Tayla’s idea. I wanted to do something romantic, but she said your idea of romance was stitching up wounds…”
“Clever how you combined the two,” Gem murmured.
“Sometimes a guy has to play dirty.” He gestured to the blanket. “Sit.”
This was stupid, and she knew it. She didn’t have the willpower to resist him, and she had no doubt this picnic would end up on the bed he’d rolled to the back wall. Not that getting naked with him would be a bad thing, but her battered heart was tapping out warnings in Morse code against her rib cage.
“I’m not sure,” she said, still unable to erase from her memory the look of disgust on Kynan’s face when he’d seen her in demon form. “This is nice, but…”