Desire Unchained (18 page)

she settled her palms on the warm skin of his shoulders. “When you could have died?”

“Not that bad. We barely got started just now. I’m not that worked up yet. I’d have gotten

over it eventually, but you’d have wanted to stay the hell out of my way for a couple of hours.”

Her heart did a little flip that he’d have suffered for her, and dammit, it shouldn’t be

flipping for him for any reason. It seemed to be looking for any excuse to fall for him again.

Clearly, it had a very short memory.

Shade tongued her nipple, shattering her thoughts. “Can you feel me?”

She smiled, because oh, yeah, she could feel him stretching her sensitive inner walls,

sliding across the spot inside that made her wild. “Uh-huh.”

He seized her left arm, the one he’d said should gain mate markings to match his, and her

heart sank, because she wanted to be able to touch him, just this once.

“Not that. I mean, can you
feel
me? Did you sense my shift into a warg? Did you feel my

mood this morning?”

Locking her ankles behind his back, she writhed against him, annoyed that the talk was

interfering with the lovemaking. “No. Nothing. Am I supposed to?”

“I think so.” He broke her leglock and pushed himself off up her. “Stay there.”

Her body shook with need as he stalked out of the room, but he was back within

moments.

And he was carrying a kitchen knife. “Um … Shade?”

“Shh.” He mounted her, sank into her with a hard thrust. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I know.” How she knew, she wasn’t sure, but in that moment, she just did.

For a heartbeat he froze, but then he was pounding her into the mattress with ruthless,

delicious force.

Her climax came out of nowhere. Shade slashed his wrist and brought it to her lips as she

peaked. Coppery wetness flowed over her teeth, her tongue.

“Drink.” His voice was a husky command she couldn’t resist even though every instinct

screamed against this. She remembered doing it in the strange dream-sex they’d had in the

dungeon, the sex that had been imaginary but at the same time, very real.

Unable to stop herself, she took long, greedy pulls. With every swallow, her climax

climbed higher, went on and on. His blood was like liquid sex, and as he pumped into her and

found his own release, hers wouldn’t stop. Orgasm after orgasm thundered through her, and each

time she thought she was finished, another would overtake her.

Gradually, she became vaguely aware of Shade’s weight on top of her, of his labored

breaths, and of his rumbling voice.

“Runa?” He tried to pull his arm away, but she’d latched on with her teeth and was

gripping him with her hands and no way was she letting go. As long as she drank, she came, and

… “Runa!”

Ecstasy rolled over her and kept coming. A twinge of pain streaked across her cheek, but

she didn’t care. The pleasure had consumed her, taken her higher than she’d ever been.

The pain intensified, and through her orgasmic haze she realized Shade was squeezing

her jaw, forcing her to open her mouth. Reluctantly, she released him, and he jerked away,

clutching his forearm.

She moaned, unable to move as her amazing climax melted away. “What happened?” Her

voice was a drugged, barely audible slur.

One corner of his mouth turned up in amusement, which surprised her, given the pain he

must be in. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were half vampire.”

Sensation spun up again. Lust built, exploded, and she convulsed with another release,

her body bucking wildly. Shade watched her with hooded eyes, his gaze shattering in its

intensity.

“Beautiful,” he whispered, his voice touched with awe. “You’re so beautiful when you

come.”

She felt beautiful when he looked at her like that. Beautiful and vulnerable.

Panting, she fisted the sheets. “Why? Why make me drink you again?”

On some level, she knew she should be disgusted by the fact that she’d swallowed his

blood, but after nearly a year of eating raw flesh three nights a month, she’d become a little

desensitized.

“You don’t have the mate marks yet. I’m hoping another try will make them appear.”

“Maybe not all species get them.”

Shade’s gaze skipped away. “Maybe.”

Sitting up, she grasped his forearm. “What are you not telling me?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.” He stood, pulling out of her grip. “We need to go.

We’ll hit your place first to pick up some clothes. After that, we’ll run some tests on you at UG,

and be back here by nightfall.”

Part of her mission for R-XR was to learn as much as she could about the demon hospital,

so this was a great opportunity, but following that order felt wrong now. Like a betrayal.

God, she had enough to be concerned about without dealing with whether or not she

should disobey her commander. Who also happened to be her brother. She’d have to check out

the hospital and decide what to do from there.

“Don’t tell me not to worry, Shade. Not when you are obviously concerned about

something.”

Dark shadows flickered in his eyes, turning them flat and black, making her shiver.

“You’re right, Runa. As long as Roag is still out there, we have every reason to worry.”

SPECIAL_IMAGE-image004.jpg-REPLACE_ME

No one liked a slow day in the ER, but they made Kynan climb the walls. He wasn’t a

kiss-your-boo-boo-and-make-it-better kind of guy. He wanted blood and guts, life or death. The

kind of cases that dumped a gallon of adrenaline into the system. As an Army medic, that’s what

he’d been best at handling, under fire or in the eye of the storm. He hadn’t even cared whether

his patients were human. Car-struck dogs and bullet-riddled camels had received his care right

alongside the humans.

And the demon.

Kynan exhaled slowly, the memory crushing in on his chest. He and Lori, who had also

been enlisted, had been married four years. They’d been stationed at Fort Lewis, but he’d been

deployed to Afghanistan. On the day his life had changed forever, he’d gone to the aid of a team

of Rangers who had been ambushed and pinned down. When his team arrived on site, the

Rangers were nowhere to be found, and with the amount of blood that had been splashed like paint on the mountain rocks, they couldn’t have humped it out of there on their own.

Ky’s team had conducted a search, an expanding square that turned up jack shit and

landed his team in a firefight. In a hail of bullets and never-ending, ground-rocking explosions,

Kynan had been separated from the team and pursued by Taliban fighters. He’d taken refuge in a

cave.

Nursing a leg wound, he’d radioed for help. The transmission had been spotty, and he’d

had no idea if the cavalry would be saving his ass any time soon. As he settled into a defensive

position, he stumbled upon what was left of the Rangers. Alongside them were the bodies of

enemy fighters, and scattered among the fresh carnage had been hundreds of human and animal

bones.

Ky’s mind had barely registered the horror when a two-headed monster—a demon,

Kynan knew now—emerged from deep inside the cave. He shot it and then tried to save its life,

mainly because someone somewhere would want the thing alive.

The enemy fighters had attacked while he’d been distracted, and he’d taken a shot to the

throat. His memory from that point on was hazy at best, but later he’d learned that when fellow

soldiers discovered him, they’d also found the men who’d attacked him torn limb from limb.

There was no sign of the monster, but shortly after Kynan woke in the military hospital after

life-saving surgery, the Men in Black—well, green, actually—had come for him.

With his enlistment nearly up, they couldn’t force him into the Army’s supersecret

paranormal defense division, the R-XR, but the civilian equivalent, The Aegis, had approached

him with an offer he couldn’t refuse. They’d guaranteed double what the military paid, medical

and retirement benefits, as well as his own cell, to be co-supervised with Lori. They’d also

wanted him to travel, to train other Regents in both tactical fighting techniques and emergency

medicine.

So the moment he was honorably discharged from the Army, he and Lori had signed on

to fight demons.

Funny, since here he was, working in a demon hospital and saving their lives. At the

moment, however, he was standing at the triage desk, filling out a chart for an infant Daeva

who’d been brought in for a cough.

A cough
.

Christ, demon parents could be as paranoid as human ones.

He heard footsteps, felt the warm swirl of air that accompanied Dr. Shakvhan, an ancient

succubus who practiced Druidic medicine by day and stole human souls by night. Kynan had no

problem working with her, but outside the hospital, Dr. Shakvhan would definitely meet the

sharp end of his
stang
.

“Did you discharge the Neethul this morning?” she asked in a voice dripping with sensual

promise she wasn’t faking.

“Why?”

She shrugged one shapely shoulder, making the pale blonde hair draped over it shimmer.

Little wonder that human men went willingly to their deaths with her. She was

Playboy
-centerfold gorgeous.

“Eidolon wanted me to take a blood sample for the DNA bank.”

Kynan dotted his I’s and crossed his T’s on the chart. “Did it this morning.”

Eidolon went ballistic if every patient wasn’t checked against his list of catalogued

species. Any species of demon not previously admitted to the hospital must be DNA tested and

asked to donate blood to the bank for future use in others of the same species.

Dr. Shakvhan smiled and patted him on his head. “Such a responsible human. I think I’d

leave your soul intact after I drained you of your seed.” She sauntered away, hips rolling in a

rhythm that left most males panting.

Kynan hadn’t panted for anyone since his wife died, and he wasn’t going to start now,

especially not for an evil succubus.

You almost panted for Gem
.

Fuck that, he was not going there. Except his body
was
going there. It hardened at the

thought of Gem, at the memory of how she’d stood in the locker room, her full breasts

overflowing in the cups of her black bra, the tattoo of some sort of dragon covering her flat, trim

belly, its teeth inked to appear as though they were clamping down on the piercing in her navel.

Gentle and caring, my ass
. He’d done that gentle, caring thing with Lori, and look where

it had gotten him. Maybe now that he’d made Gem intimate with the lockers, she’d get the

message. She’d realize that some scars never heal.

He shoved his patient’s chart into the filing box with more force than was necessary and

reached for another as the Harrowgate hummed.

His adrenaline kicked in, and he welcomed the rush that washed away all thoughts of

Gem. Technically, his shift had ended ten minutes ago, but he’d be willing to stay longer if

something cool came in. Severed limbs and avulsions were always favorites.

The smell of blood preceded the patient, and yeah, this would be a trauma home run.

Kynan jogged toward the gate, coming to a shocked halt as Wraith stumbled out.
Holy crap
. The demon must have gone a couple of rounds with a giant blender.

He was holding one shoulder, the arm hanging uselessly to the side, blood running in a

stream to the floor. Deep lacerations scored his entire body, exposing ribbons of tendon and

white bone, but he was grinning as if he’d just gotten his first blowjob.

“Page Gem and call Eidolon at home,” Kynan told the triage nurse. “Now.” E had gone

home an hour ago, but he needed to be here for this.

Kynan hooked an arm around Wraith’s waist to keep him upright. “Shit, you weigh a

ton.” He guided Wraith toward one of the available rooms. “What happened?”

Wraith groaned as he sank down on a table. “Shot.” He peeled his hand away from his

shoulder, where blood oozed from a sharply defined hole.

“The other wounds aren’t from guns, man,” Kynan said, as he gloved up.

“Machetes.”

Only Wraith would get himself chopped up by machetes. “Out hunting African rebels

again?”

“Maybe.”

“Keep pressure on that bullet wound.” Obviously, Wraith’s airway and breathing were

fine, so he quickly checked the demon’s pulses in all of his extremities. Everything looked good,

but emergency medicine in a demon hospital was a hell of a lot different from in a human

hospital, mainly because every demon species had different normal vital signs, constitutions,

death thresholds … for the most part, Kynan winged it.

Kynan cut through Wraith’s shirt with a pair of trauma shears and then carefully peeled

the cloth away. Dried blood stuck the fabric to his skin in places, but this was the easy part.

Those wounds were nasty.

The curtain separating the cubicles swept open, and Gem entered. “Wow. You get into a

fight with a really big cat?”

“Funny, Gem. Now why don’t you get your funny ass over here and suck my—ow!

Fuck!” Wraith glared at Kynan.

“Sorry.” Kynan tossed the bloody shirt to the floor. “The fabric is embedded in the

lacerations.”

“My ass. You did that on purpose.”

“Can’t prove it.” Kynan probed one of the deeper cuts. Seminus demons healed rapidly,

and Wraith’s bleeding had slowed, but not enough. “If it makes you feel any better, E’s on his