Desire Unchained (14 page)

worried, but the puffy shadows beneath his brother’s bloodshot eyes said otherwise. “Everyone

here was worried about you and Skulk.” His voice lowered. “She
is
okay, right?”

“No.” Shade’s chest tightened around the empty hole Skulk’s death had left. “The

ambulance run we went on was a trap. Skulk and I were taken by Ghouls.”

The temperature in the room plummeted as his brothers went dead still.

“Skulk?” E’s voice was barely a whisper.

Shade couldn’t say it. Not with the way his throat had closed up.

“Ah, fuck,” Wraith rasped.

Eidolon said nothing, merely closed his eyes and hung his head. He’d be offering up a

prayer in the tradition of his Justice demon upbringing, a prayer asking for fair judgment of her

soul and a satisfactory return to a new physical body.

Shade, whose religious upbringing had been less fundamentalist than Eidolon’s, wasn’t

sure what to believe about the state of Skulk’s soul, but like many demons, humans, and vamps,

Wraith didn’t pray to anyone or anything, and curses began to fall from his mouth, nasty

invective in several different human and demon languages.

“I’ll kill the bastard who did it, Shade. I swear to you, I will mount his head in the

specimen room.”

More curses spilled from him as his rage gathered. Wraith had two

switches—I-don’t-give-a-fuck and I’m-going-to-kill-something—and any intense emotion threw

one of them.

A voice screamed inside Shade’s head—Roag’s crackling, hoarse words saying that

Wraith had been his target, not Skulk. “We’ve got to find him first.” He patted his shirt out of

habit, seeking a pack of gum.

“Tell us everything,” Eidolon said, and Shade braced himself for their reactions.

“I woke up in a dungeon. Runa was with me.”

Wraith scowled. “Runa? That human you were boning last year?”

“Yeah. She’s not so human anymore. And now I’m bonded to her.”

“Why? How?”

This was so humiliating. “We were forced into it. By someone who knew about my curse.

Someone who wants us all to suffer.” He patted his shirt again. First chance he got, he was

putting in an order for a damned vending machine in this place.

“It was a vampire, wasn’t it?” Wraith asked.

It was a logical conclusion, given what had gone down between vamps and Seminus

demons thanks to their father’s insane indiscretion. The vampires considered what he’d done to

be the worst kind of offense, and Shade had to agree. What kind of sick bastard raped a woman

during the transition between human and vampire, impregnated her, and then used his gift—the

same gift Shade had—to keep her body alive so the fetus would grow, until she gave birth? He’d

violated her repeatedly during her pregnancy and kept her in what had to have been a hellish

stasis, not quite human, not yet vampire.

Not surprisingly, the female had gone mad, and Wraith had paid the price. Eventually, so

had their father, once the vamps caught up to him.

“I wish the fiend responsible was a vampire.” He realized his hand was still at his chest,

but he was rubbing it instead of patting for gum. The hole Skulk had left hurt, and talking about

it only made it ache more. “It was Roag.”

Wraith’s eyes narrowed, and he waved a hand in front of Shade’s face. “E? Did you order

a CT scan? Did he hit his head?”

Shade swatted his brother’s hand away. “Roag lives. And he’s more twisted than ever.

He’s been behind the black market operation for the last couple of years.”

Eidolon went taut, his expression haunted. Wraith took a second longer to absorb the

announcement, but when he did … shit. Shade had never seen his brother go so deathly white.

“Not funny, Shade.” Wraith’s voice was a harsh growl. “Not. Fucking. Funny.”

“Do you see me laughing?” Shade exhaled slowly, needing a moment to make sure he

could keep his shit together, mainly because as unstable as Wraith was on a good day, this could

get real ugly, real fast. “Roag survived the fire. I don’t know how. He’s damaged—skin like beef

jerky, no nose, missing half his fingers.”

Eidolon, ever the logical one, shook his head. “We felt him die. We’d feel him if he was

alive.”

“His death severed the connection,” Shade said, “but when he was resuscitated, the

connection wasn’t.”

“How was he resuscitated? By whom?” Wraith dug one hand into his jeans’ pocket, and

Shade knew he was comforting himself by feeling up one of his weapons. His brother was never

unarmed, not when he was sleeping, fucking, not even in the safety of the hospital. No doubt

there were a half-dozen more blades concealed on his body.

“Solice. She was there, with Roag. No doubt she’s been spying for him.” Shade clenched

his fists at the memory of how she’d gone down on her knees and tortured the hell out of him in

the dungeon.

“
Solice?
” Wraith’s lip curled into a nasty snarl. “She’s so fired. Like, with real fire.”

Eidolon was totally revved, grinding his teeth, tugging on his stethoscope. “This doesn’t

add up. He was massively touched in the head, but why would he want to hurt you? And Skulk?”

“He killed Skulk to torture me. The rest … he thinks we’re responsible for the fire at

Brimstone. He wants revenge.”

Wraith’s eyes shot wide open, and E shook his head. “The Aegis did it.”

“I know, but he’s convinced we wanted him dead.”

“I sure as hell want him dead,” Wraith ground out.

“You won’t get an argument from me.” Shade pegged E with a look, daring him to

disagree, but his brother only nodded.

Wraith paced in a circle, his boots striking the obsidian floor so hard Shade expected to

see sparks. “You say Roag forced you and Runa to bond?”

“He made us think we were dreaming.”

E cursed. “He really is sick. He knows that if you have a female tethered to you, you’ll

fall for her.”

“And activate the curse.” Wraith wheeled around. “It’s an easy fix. We just kill Runa—”

A low growl erupted in the room. The writing on the walls began to pulse, and Shade

realized the noise and aggression was coming from him.

“Easy, Shade,” E said. “You know Wraith is right.”

Yeah, he knew that. But the fierce, possessive instinct to protect his mate was burning

inside him.

“I’ll do it.” Wraith’s voice was hard, decisive. “Where is she?”

Shade was in his brother’s face so fast he didn’t remember getting there. “Touch her, and

I’ll lay you out like roadkill.”

Wraith held up his hands, smiled with a flash of fangs. “See? This is why I’m never, ever

bonding with a female. Makes you stupid.” He shot a meaningful glance at Eidolon. “Or

pussywhipped.”

Pissed as Shade was, he had to give Wraith that one. Not that Eidolon being whipped was

a bad thing. His mate, Tayla, had kept him from going insane, but she also had him wrapped

around her slender little slayer finger. When she crooked it, he came.

Pun intended.

“Shade,” Eidolon said softly, “would it be easier if Tayla did it? Tonight, after Runa

changes?”

“No!” Shade backed away from Wraith, ran his hands through his hair, and left them

clutching his skull as if doing so would help him keep his head on straight. “Nothing will make it easier. You think I want to know that Wraith is getting off on killing my mate or that your slayer

is beating the hell out of her?”

E nodded as if he got that. “I can do it. I’ll sedate her first. She won’t feel a thing.”

Anguish twisted Shade’s gut, and he dropped his hands. His body and emotions were so

tweaked out. “That’s not like you, offering to kill someone.” Then again, it was the logical thing

to do, and E was all about logic.

“Better her than you.” Eidolon’s dark gaze sharpened. “I won’t risk losing you, Shade.

Not to that curse. We’ve already got the werewolf thing to deal with, on top of your impending

s’genesis.
”

The
s’genesis
that was clawing at him even now. He could feel the throbbing in his

throat, right above where his mated mark had set into his skin. His groin throbbed in time with

his neck, and he knew he’d need to be with Runa, and soon.

“No one touches her until I’ve gone through it,” he growled. “Having a mate will make it

easier, and with the lycanthropy complications …” What a nightmare. If
s’genesis
struck during a full moon, he could only imagine the horrors he’d inflict on the females he’d attack for sex.

Eidolon blew out a breath. “I agree that it makes sense to wait, but you’re taking a

chance.”

“I’m not going to fall in love with her anytime soon, bro. She’s annoying as hell. I have

time.”

“I don’t like it,” Wraith said.

Shade snorted. “You just want an excuse to kill her.”

Wraith didn’t deny it. “How did she infect you, anyway?”

His body cramped, as though it remembered the agony he’d been in when he’d begged

Runa to hurt him.

“She shifted to bite me.” He frowned. “She can shift at will. She doesn’t need the full

moon.”

Eidolon started. “How is that possible?”

“She doesn’t know.”

“This isn’t good, Shade. Were-beast infections are human diseases. We’re not meant to

catch them. Who knows what the lycanthropy is doing to your body. And what happens during a

full moon when you need sex? You could rip your partner apart.”

“I’ll have Runa.”

“For now.”

Shade clenched his fists and changed the subject. “Maybe you should run some tests on

her.” The tests might reveal why she didn’t sport the mating markings, too. Though that was

something he’d keep to himself for now.

“Good idea.”

Wraith picked up a scalpel from a nearby tray and tested the edge with his thumb. “You

two are acting like she’ll be alive long enough to find out what’s wrong with her. Are you

forgetting that she needs to die, and the sooner the better?”

Shade’s hackles raised. “You’re a little too eager to put her in the ground, brother.”

Eidolon stepped between them. “I need to see Runa. If she can shift at will, she might

have some unique antibodies to the lycanthropic infection. If I could isolate what makes her

different—”

“You might be able to develop a cure for me,” Shade murmured.

“Exactly.”

Shade tried to ignore the sense of relief that took pressure off his chest, tried to pretend

the relief was due to the fact that he might be cured of his lycanthropy and not that Runa had

been given a temporary reprieve.

The relief didn’t last long though. A wrenching, agonizing sensation slammed into his

midsection, and his skin screamed as though he were being pricked by a million needles.

“Shade?” Wraith’s voice vibrated with alarm. “What is it?”

He heard the scalpel clatter to the floor and felt two sets of hands on his arms, felt his

body being braced between his brothers’ large, sturdy frames.

“I’m okay,” he breathed. “It’s Runa. I felt her shift back. Burn of re-entry, I guess.” He

shuddered as the sensations eased away, was suddenly very glad he’d been drugged for his

transformation. “She’s hungry.” A stirring in his groin told him food wasn’t all she craved.

Hell’s teeth.

“Go to her,” E said, in a tone that said he knew exactly what was going on. “Bring her in

later.”

Shade pulled in a ragged breath. “We need to deal with Roag. He’s after us, and he might

have more spies in the hospital. And Runa killed his female. He’ll be after her, too.”

“I still can’t believe he’s alive.” Eidolon picked up Shade’s chart and tucked it under his

arm. “Do you know where you were being held?”

“It was a castle. Ireland, I think.”

Wraith bared his fangs. “I’ll find it. I swear to you, I’ll nail his ass to the wall.”

Shade nodded. If anyone could find Roag, Wraith could. His job at UG was to research,

locate, and retrieve rare artifacts, spells … anything that might come in handy during the course

of treating demons. He had experience, instinct, and single-minded focus that couldn’t be easily

broken. When he wanted something, he got it.

“Be careful, bro. Roag has always had a real hard-on when it comes to you.” And

speaking of hard-ons, Shade’s punched painfully against his scrub bottoms. He needed to get to

Runa.

“That’s flattering,” Wraith said wryly, “but he’s still going to die.”

The door whispered open, and Ciska entered. “Doc E? We have a new trauma patient in

the ER. Gem is asking for your assistance.”

“Got it.” Eidolon slapped a hand on Shade’s back as he passed. “Go to Runa. When you

bring her in, we’ll get this figured out.” He disappeared down the hall, but before Ciska could

follow, Shade stopped her.

“Got a second?”

“For you?” she purred, sliding seductive glances between him and Wraith. “Always. Are

we going to party?”

Wraith shrugged, the motion casual, but he still looked a little wigged about everything.

“I’m game.”

Wraith was always game if the female wasn’t human or vampire, and since the nurse was

a pretty little Sora demon both Shade and Wraith had tapped, Wraith’s enthusiasm was a

no-brainer.

“Come here.” Shade pointed at his brother. “You. Stay.”

Ciska sauntered up to him, pressed her ample chest to his, and began to rub in a way that

should have triggered an electric tingle. But it didn’t. “Is he just going to watch?”

“Touch me,” Shade commanded.

Smiling, she reached down, grasped his cock. For a moment, he stayed hard. Hope