Chapter Twenty-seven 12 страница

Nausea swirled in her stomach. “How did the little one get hurt? ”

“Stepped on by an adult. If it weren’t for the hospital, she would have died. Fractured bones are a death sentence for that species. ”

Tay seriously wanted to throw up. Things had gone wrong, so wrong. In a matter of days, her world had been flipped upside down. Everything she thought she’d known about demons was wrong. Vegetarian demons? Demons who cured instead of killed? Her simple black-and-white world had gone about a million shades of gray.

“Tayla? Are you okay? ”

She blinked out of her gray world and back to the strange, dark one that was Underworld General. A hospital whose very existence should be impossible. A hospital The Aegis wanted to bring down. She couldn’t do it. Right now she was too vulnerable, too unsure of her feelings to commit to the destruction of UG.

“Can I have my phone, please? ”

“If you’re thinking of calling for help, you might as well know that you can’t get a signal here. ”

“No extended network, huh? ” She stood there as he closed the distance between them, his tall, solid body drawing her as if it had its own gravitational pull, and without thinking, she took a step to meet him. He held out the phone, but when she reached for it, his hand captured her wrist.

“Why do you want the phone? ”

She swallowed dryly, unsure what to say, not because she couldn’t lie, but because suddenly, she didn’t want to. Not when the gold flecks in his eyes had begun to glitter again. She licked her lips, and his gaze dropped to her mouth.

He pulled her close, suspicion and something darker swirling in his eyes. “What’s wrong? ”

“Nothing. ”

“You keep licking your lips. Are you nervous? ”

“They’re just dry. ”

The darkness in his gaze intensified as he watched her, and then he dipped his head until their lips nearly touched and she could feel the softest draft of air in the span of distance between them. “I can help with that. ”

She moaned and wished he’d just kiss her already. He seemed to be waiting for permission, which was ridiculous. Before, he’d taken what he wanted. Why did he want her assent now?

“Do you want me to help? ”

“No, ” she said, but she tipped her face up so their lips touched.

His tongue flicked over her lips in a kiss that wasn’t quite a kiss, but was enough to heat her blood. “Are you sure? ”

“No. ” She opened her lips, nearly panting.

“I don’t know how you do this to me, Tayla, ” he whispered. “But I can’t help myself. ” His hand grasped the back of her head and held her for his possession.

Instantly, fire zipped through her veins, lit her up from the inside. She opened to the penetration of his tongue, to the sweep against her teeth, the roof of her mouth. Closing her eyes, she let her body react, to coil tight with desire that was growing addictive. She’d felt nothing for so long, had been in an emotional void, a cold, deep sleep, but with every touch Eidolon changed that. It was as though she were waking up for the first time in a place where everything was new.

Stepping into him, she gripped his shoulders and pulled him closer. A groan rattled his chest, the sound of a male in need making her pulse spike. Shifting, she rocked her aching mound against his thigh, and he hissed, backed up.

“Fuck, ” he muttered. “I can smell you. My brothers will, too. ” He shoved the phone into her hand and turned away. “You are dangerous, slayer. ”

She gaped, because she wasn’t the dangerous one in this situation. He could seduce her with a look, a touch, and she was growing weaker by the minute.

She started to close the phone, but a flashing number caught her eye. Looking more closely at the screen, she saw numbers filtering down. Thirty. . . twenty-nine. . . twenty-eight. . .

“Tayla? What is it? ”

-Twenty-two. . .

Jagger had mentioned a countdown, but there was no way she was activating the spell. She closed the phone. Opened it again. The screen continued to flash numbers.

Eighteen.

I’m testing a new explosive that’s odorless, invisible, and can be hidden inside electronic devices like MP3 players.

Cole’s words careened through her brain, and her heart skidded to a halt. “The exit, ” she gasped. “Exit. Now! ”

She shoved past Eidolon, bile rising in her throat as she frantically searched for the doors Shade had brought her in through.

There. She darted toward them, and when a nurse shifted into a panther and pounced, she swung, sent the panther skidding across the floor. Pain exploded in her head, but it didn’t matter. The door. She had to get to the door.

“Tayla! ” Eidolon’s shout chased her.

“Stay back! ” She burst through the doors the second they slid open. Outside, she recognized the parking lot, and Eidolon’s BMW.

Searing heat burned her fingers. The phone glowed orange, pulsing like a stove element with its own heartbeat. As hard as she could, she threw it toward the far wall.

A hand closed on her shoulder. Wheeling around, she tackled Eidolon and took him to the ground, her body covering his as the explosion rocked the underground facility and jarred her teeth.

A tire flew past them, blasted through the space where Eidolon had been standing. Fire, stone, and metal rained down, pelting her as she lay on top of him. He hooked his leg over her back and flipped her, shielding her instead. Then, as the storm of debris eased up and the rumble died away, a louder noise rattled her from above, and she looked up into extremely pissed-off golden eyes.

Fourteen

Eidolon paced outside his office, and if Shade said one more time, I told you we should have wasted her, he was going to rip his brother’s head off.

Problem was, Shade was right. If they’d given Tayla to Yuri, the parking lot wouldn’t be demolished. But Tayla would be dead.

Clenching his fists so hard his knuckles cracked, he wondered why that thought bothered him so much. He’d been ready to kill her himself after the explosion. He and Shade had dragged her to Eidolon’s office, shoved her inside, and then left her there while they cooled off.

“You ready to deal with her? ” Shade asked. “Can you deal with her? ”

“Don’t start. ” Eidolon threw open the office door, more to get away from Shade’s accusations than to finally deal with Tayla.

She looked up from where she sat on his desk, shoulders hunched, feet swinging like a punished child. Her eyes were reddened as though she’d been crying, but he knew she hadn’t. The effort she’d expended to not cry, however, was obvious in the tight set of her mouth and the way she swallowed repeatedly.

He halted just out of arm’s reach and held his fists at his sides to keep from touching her out of anger—or something worse, like comfort. When he spoke, he dug deep to find the impartial, cold Justice Dealer voice he’d used for decades.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you for what you’ve done. ”

She looked him straight in the eye, every ounce the warrior he knew she was. “I can’t. ”

“That was easy, ” Shade said, as he moved to the opposite end of the desk, caging her in. “Let’s take her outside—”

“No. ” She pushed her tangled mop of hair back from her face. “Not yet. There’s something you need to know. One of your staff, I think. . . Yuri? ”

Eidolon’s heart missed a beat. “What about Yuri? ”

“He’s dead. ” Tayla closed her eyes and took a deep, rattling breath. “I tagged your pager with sort of a psychic GPS. ” She looked at him, the dark circles under her eyes blending with the soot smears on her cheeks. “You must have given the pager to Yuri—”

“Hell’s blades, ” Shade breathed. “The Aegis got him. What did they do to him? ”

When she didn’t answer, Eidolon’s Justice Dealer cool disintegrated, and he grasped her by her collar and yanked her to her feet. His right temple throbbed, letting him know just how close to violence he was. He knew, though, that any roughness he aimed at Tayla wouldn’t be to kill her. No, he’d shred her clothes with his bare hands and take her hard, show her what he was, what she was, and that she was his.

Dammit. Grinding his molars, he brought the conversation back to less pleasant violence.

“You tortured him, didn’t you? ” Gods, he could hear her heartbeat pounding, fragmenting the silence in the room, shattering his thoughts.

“Not me. He was already dead when I. . . he didn’t give anything up. He didn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know about the hospital. I’m sorry. I’m sorry about everything. ”

To Tayla’s credit, she’d seemed genuinely upset that she’d brought an explosive device into the hospital, upset that her colleagues had tortured Yuri to death. It should have been Eidolon they’d captured. If the s’genesis hadn’t been acting up when it had, he’d never have given the on-call pager to Yuri after Luc’s surgery. And, oh, shit.

Eidolon released Tayla and turned to his brother. “Yuri gave Gem a ride home. See if you can locate her. ”

If glares were death rays, Tayla would have been seared to ash by the look Shade gave her as he stalked toward the door. He reached for the handle and paused. “What are we going to do with her now? Hand her over to the Male-concieo or do her ourselves? ”

Eidolon moved to his brother and lowered his voice. “I still need to talk to her. ” When Shade would have protested, Eidolon cut him off. “She saved my life. ”

“And you saved hers. You’re even. Kill her. ”

Planting his open palm against the door jamb hard enough to make Shade jump, Eidolon leaned in so close he heard his brother’s heartbeat. “Do not argue with me about this. ”

“I don’t like what’s happening to you, E. A year ago you’d have done the right thing. ”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’m finally turning into a Seminus demon and doing the selfish thing. Seems to be working for you and Wraith. ”

Shade snarled a vile curse and charged out the door, slamming it loudly behind him. Eidolon let out his own snarl of frustration. Low blows weren’t his style, but lately they were falling out of his mouth when the last thing he needed right now was to be fighting with his brothers. Shade, especially.

Eidolon’s own anger flared bright and hot as he rounded on the cause of the tension between them. “You came here to lead your Aegis colleagues to my hospital. ”

“Yes. ”

The betrayal streaked through him, and he had no idea why. They were enemies. He’d expected something like this. But for some reason, the knowledge that she’d wanted to destroy what he’d worked so hard for tore at him.

“I don’t need to ask why. That you hate us is obvious—”

“I don’t hate you, ” she said hoarsely. Her gaze cut to him, full of misery, slicing him like a scalpel. “God help me, I don’t hate you. ”

Shock made him take a step back. “You’re lying. ”

“No. If I hated you, I’d have let that bomb go off in the hospital instead of the parking lot. ”

He laughed, a hollow, bitter sound. “You were saving your own skin. ”

“I suppose I’d think the same thing. ” She studied the floor. “Was anyone hurt? ”

“Yes, ” he said, angry again. “The Aegis didn’t destroy my hospital, but it did take out a few staff members. Do you realize, little killer, that your own colleagues set you up to die as well? ”

A ragged sob shook her. The tears she’d been holding back fell. “I was a sacrifice. For the greater good—”

“For the greater good? ” Eidolon saw red. Blood red. He closed the distance between them in a single stride and seized her shoulders, fought the urge to shake her until her teeth rattled. “Do you honestly believe that? ”

She looked up at him, the pain in her gaze turning her eyes into a murky mire. “I have to. ”

“Why? ”

“Because if I wasn’t a great sacrifice, then I was nothing to them. ” She blinked, and a tear ran down her blotchy cheek. “They’re all I have. If I’m disposable. . . ”

Ah, damn. The anger leaked out of him as if he’d been shot full of holes. He was a freaking emotional sieve. Before he could think better of it, he pulled her against him, held her while she sobbed into his chest.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to snarl and strike and draw blood for what she’d done. Cuddling her, pressing his lips to the top of her head, rubbing her finely muscled back. . . yeah, bad fucking idea.

It certainly wasn’t supposed to feel this good. Nothing felt this good, not anything that happened while fully clothed, anyway.

Her hard body, soft in the right places, tucked against his in a perfect fit, and the way he stood between her legs as she sat on the edge of the desk made him remember that they could fit together even better. His cock stirred at the thought, and gods, he needed to get his head on straight.

“Yuri, ” she said, her voice trembling as violently as her hands on his shoulders, “was he a doctor? ”

“Yeah. A good one. ” A shudder wracked her body, and even though he shouldn’t, he felt the need to alleviate her guilt a little. “He was also a hyena shapeshifter and a cruel asshole. ”

“Still, what they did to him. . . ”

He’d probably deserved. Eidolon didn’t voice that, though. He’d lost a talented surgeon, and replacing him wouldn’t be easy.

A noise outside his office drew his attention away from Tayla, and what he saw through the window made him curse.

“I really hope that guy isn’t a doctor, ” she said, drawing back to watch Wraith, swaying like a sapling in the wind, in the outer office. He stumbled forward a few steps, and then fell back against the wall.

“Fucking perfect, ” Eidolon muttered. “Stay here. ”

He threw open the door and crossed to Wraith in four strides.

“Hey, bro. ”

Eidolon seized his brother by the throat and lifted him off the ground. “You idiot. Secor des unez! ”

Wraith laughed, flashing fangs. “Oooh, the language of Justice. Big E is pissed. ”

“I told you to lay off the humans. ”

“Yeah, and I’m pretty fucking sick of the reruns, man. ”

With a roar, Eidolon heaved Wraith across the room. His brother hit the floor and rolled into the wall. Before he could sit up, Eidolon was on top of him, slamming his head into the carpet.

“E! ” Shade’s hands closed on his shoulders. “Eidolon. Let him up. ”

“He’s high. ”

“Yeah, I know. I brought Narcan. ”

“Screw that, ” Wraith slurred. “I ate that junkie fair and square. ”

Still straddling his brother, Eidolon ground his molars until they hurt. “Did you kill him? Is the junkie dead? ”

“Dunno. ”

Shade knelt, scrubbed a hand over his face. “Any witnesses? ”

“Don’t give a shit. ”

“Wraith—”

“Give it a rest already. ” Wraith used his tongue to caress one of his fangs as though tasting the blood that had flowed over it when he ate the human junkie. “The Vamp Council won’t touch me, and you know it. ”

No, they wouldn’t. As a Seminus demon with vampiric tendencies, he fell into a gray area between both species, and the Councils had nearly gone to war over the laws he should be required to obey. Punishment for various offenses was an especially sticky and sensitive matter, and both Councils had finally, with Shade and Eidolon’s help, agreed to a compromise. Wraith didn’t know about the agreement, and if Eidolon had his way, he never would.

“Arrogant asshole, ” Shade muttered, as he pinned one of Wraith’s arms and then tugged the cap off the syringe with his teeth.

Wraith hissed and struggled. Eidolon roughly slammed his knees onto his brother’s shoulders to hold him in place while Shade shot him up with the Narcan, one of the few human medications that worked as intended in demons.

“I’m so sick of babysitting you, ” Eidolon said, knowing he should be more understanding.

Eating a drugged-up human—always male, since Wraith wouldn’t touch a human female for sex or blood—usually meant something had set him off, made him remember the trauma of either his childhood or his torture. It was something he didn’t talk about, other than to say that he’d been forced to watch human females suffer and would not be responsible for doing the same. As a result, he fed only from other demons and human males. The occasional junkies were an escape for him, but Eidolon was the one who would pay for his transgressions.

Wraith snarled, his eyes already losing the glassy sheen of his drug high. “You should be babysitting your whore. ”

“You should have been eaten at birth. ” Consumed by rage, Eidolon stood before he killed his brother. “Shade, did you get hold of Gem? ”

“Ah, yeah. And brother, she had a message for you. Said to tell you the twenty-four hours is up. What’s she talking about? She was riled. Definitely channeling her inner demon. ”

“It’s nothing, ” Eidolon lied. “Did either of our ambulances survive the explosion? ”

Shaking his head, Shade came to his feet. “Nope. And the parking entrance collapsed. ”

“Shit. Has the glamour spell been repaired? ”

“Yeah. The entrance is hidden from human eyes. ”

The entrance was generally hidden anyway, since it sat on the basement level of a condemned parking garage Eidolon had purchased, but still, what a fucking mess. He glanced at Tayla, who stood in the doorway, her expression haunted in a way that seemed to go deeper than the immediate situation.

“What the hell are you staring at? ” Wraith snapped, the downslide from his high doing nothing to improve his mood. He levered into a sit and leaned back against the wall, head back, glaring at Tayla with hooded eyes.

“I didn’t know demons did drugs, ” she said, and Wraith grinned coldly.

“I don’t. I do blood. ” He ran his tongue over the points of his fangs. “Come here, and I’ll do you. ”

She snorted. “Dream on. ”

“Ah, so you’re selective about the demons you do? ”

“Wraith, ” Eidolon said, his voice low, edged with warning that his brother ignored.

“What? Seems a little hypocritical. Anyone with as much demon in her as she’s going to have—”

“Shut it. ”

This time Wraith listened, but Tayla had moved closer. “What do you mean, I’m going to have? ” She turned to Eidolon. “I’m already half-demon. How much worse can it get? ”

“You haven’t told her? ” Wraith laughed and leaped nimbly to his feet, the effects of all drugs completely worn off. “Allow me. ”

“Told me what? ”

“Nothing, ” Eidolon said, but Wraith was moving toward her, blue eyes as bright as a cat’s before it pounced.

Eidolon stepped between them, but Tayla grabbed his arm, swung him around. “Please. . . tell me. ”

He’d wanted to wait until her body had taken her as far as it could go so she’d realize she needed his help, but Wraith was forcing his hand. And maybe now was the right time after all. The Aegis had betrayed her—her own kind had cast her out and tried to kill her when they should have protected and cherished her. Learning she belonged to another world might open her mind up to new possibilities.

“Tayla, let’s go into my office—”

“Don’t jerk me around, ” she said, planting her feet and crossing her arms over her chest. “Whatever it is, I can handle it. ”

Eidolon ran his fingers through his hair. “Fine. I told you that you were half-demon. What I didn’t tell you is that the reason you’re having the problems is that when the Alu bit you, it activated dormant DNA. ”

“Dormant DNA? ” She swallowed and licked her lips. “What are you saying? ”

“Geez, humans are stupid, ” Wraith said, propping a shoulder against the wall. “He’s saying it’s taking over. It’s either going to kill you or rob you of everything that makes you human. ”

She glanced at Shade, who nodded, and then at Eidolon. “I don’t. . . that can’t be right. ”

The sound of Wraith’s cold laughter dropped the temperature in the room. “Welcome, slayer, ” he said. “Welcome to hell. ”

Fifteen

Tayla didn’t speak a word as Eidolon, freshly changed into jeans and a charcoal sweater, guided her through the hospital’s dark halls. Her thoughts were still frozen at the place where Wraith had said she was going to lose everything that made her human, and it was all she could do to stay conscious, let alone talk.

She certainly couldn’t think.

Ahead, a sleek, black arch framed a glowing gate like the one she’d seen in the tunnel at Nancy’s apartment.

Eidolon uttered something in a language she didn’t know and ushered her through it. They came out on the other side in what looked like a cave of black marble, with maps carved into the polished stone wall. Eidolon touched one that appeared to be a crude representation of the United States, and then an even cruder carving of New York state glowed red next to it. After a few taps, another arch appeared.

In two steps, she found herself emerging from the side of a building in the South Bronx. When she turned around, there was no evidence of any sort of gateway or opening in the brick. Eidolon hailed a cab, and within fifteen minutes they were at her apartment.

She still hadn’t said a word, and her mind still wasn’t working.

“You’re coming home with me, ” he said. “We’re here to grab your weasel and some belongings. ”

“I can’t. ” Her voice sounded rusty and unused and on the verge of breaking. She was on the verge of breaking, trapped inside a nightmare that wouldn’t end.

The demon in you is going to rob you of everything that makes you human.

“You don’t have a choice, Tayla. You gave up that right when you blew up my hospital. ” He paid the cabbie and walked with her into her building’s musty lobby, shaking his head in disgust when a hypodermic needle crunched under his boot. “You’re going to need help as your body changes. We have a lot to talk about. ”

“There’s nothing to talk about, ” she said, as they mounted the stairs, because denial went a long way when it came to keeping her marbles together. “I don’t know if I believe—”

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Instinct kicked in, along with a burst of adrenaline, and she crouched. Her eyesight grew sharper as she took in the entire area. . . below, above, even the ceiling. Demons had a nasty habit of dropping from rafters and ceiling pipes.

Her hand went reflexively to where she’d normally keep her stang, and she cursed when she felt nothing but cool skin beneath the scrub top Eidolon had given her to replace her bloody one.

He eased up behind her, lowered his mouth to her ear. “What is it? ”

“Something’s not right, ” she whispered. She crept up another step to peer over the top of the next landing. “My door is open. ”

Menace rolled off Eidolon in a wave that was almost palpable. He started up the stairs, but she threw out an arm to block him.

“I can handle this. ” Heck, she needed this. She needed to beat the hell out of someone or something, if only to get rid of the numbness that gripped her.

Through the opening in the door, she caught a glimpse of movement. Humans. Guardians.

Two, from what she could see. Cole and Bleak. . . the two who had been involved in the werewolf battle that had killed Michelle and Trey. They were sitting on her couch eating McDonald’s.

Territorial rage spun up. . . humans, in her lair, uninvited. . . Closing her eyes, she tried to get it together. She was behaving as if she’d truly accepted her demon fate, that the Guardians were the enemy. These two hadn’t been the ones who’d sent her into a demon hospital with a bomb, and rushing in like a rabid hellhound wasn’t going to help anything. Besides, their version of what had happened the night Michelle and Trey died was different from Luc’s, and she wanted to believe them. Guardians were the good guys. Saviors of humanity. They did not betray each other. They didn’t lie. They didn’t try to kill their teammates.

But her internal alarm wouldn’t stop clanging.

“Don’t let them see you, ” she said to Eidolon. “I don’t know why they’re here, but they’re more likely to talk if I’m alone. ”

“Slayers? ” he asked. At her nod, he inhaled sharply. “If they so much as touch you—”

“They won’t. ” Before he could argue or she could analyze the possessiveness in his voice, she stepped inside.

Cole leaped to his feet. “Tayla. Jesus Christ, what are you doing here? ”

“I live here. ” She moved fully inside, her heart growing cold at the panic on their faces telling her these two had to have known about her being sent to the hospital as an exploding chump. How many other Guardians had been involved? A chosen few? The entire cell?

No. She refused to believe everyone had turned against her.

“We were told you were dead. ”

“Obviously, I’m not. ”

Cole and Bleak exchanged glances, and yeah, apparently the fact that she was breathing wasn’t great news. “That’s awesome, ” Bleak said.

“So if you thought I was dead, why are you here? ”

“To clean out your apartment. ” Cole shrugged into his jacket, and she didn’t miss how he’d loosened the snap closure on his stang holster. “Let’s take you back to HQ. ”

Bleak moved behind her. “Yeah. Everyone’ll be stoked to see you. ”

The unmistakable whisper of a blade slicing the air broke the oh-so-fake happy reunion. She struck hard and fast, knocked Bleak’s dagger out of his hand. Cole’s roundhouse kick to the hip spun her into the wall, and then Eidolon was there, tearing Bleak away and leaving her to concentrate on Cole.

Bleak’s scream pierced her eardrum as she nailed Cole in the face with her fist. “Don’t kill him, ” she shouted.

“Fuck that, ” Eidolon snarled.

“No! ”

The dull thud of flesh striking flesh told her he wasn’t listening.

Cole swung, an uppercut she blocked, and she could no longer pay attention to what Hellboy was doing. Cole was hammering her with blows, and it was time to return fire. Spinning low, she swept her legs in an arc and knocked him on his ass. She leaped on him, straddling his waist as she slammed her fist into his cheek. His legs swung up, catching her around the throat, and suddenly she was struggling to stay on top. They were closely matched in skill, having trained together for nearly the same amount of time, but with the loss of her strength and her injury, what should have been an easy take-down now became a fight for her life.

Gasping, she reached for a candle jar that had fallen from the coffee table during the struggle. Her fingers closed on the rim. His fist drove into her belly.

Pain slashed at her, but she ground her teeth and brought the candle down on his temple. Cole groaned and went boneless.

Holding back her own groan, she rolled off him. Eidolon’s low snarl vibrated the room. He lunged away from Bleak, landing on top of Cole, one knee in the Guardian’s gut, one hand wrapped around his throat.

“Okay, asshole, ” Eidolon growled. “Time for you to sing. ”

She glanced at Bleak’s crumpled, bloodied form. He wasn’t moving, but his chest rose and fell with regular breaths. Thank God.

“You bastard, ” she said to Cole. “What the hell was that all about? ”

He glared up at her, and Eidolon must have squeezed, because Cole clawed at his hand. “Demon bitch, ” he gasped. “You’re a spy. You murdered Janet. ”

Oh, Jesus. They knew. “I-I’m not a spy. I didn’t kill Janet. ” Her denial came out in a rush she didn’t even believe because in a way, she had killed the other Guardian.

Her gaze locked with Eidolon’s.

“Yuri must have talked, ” he muttered.

Did everyone know? She still hadn’t come to grips with the fact that demon blood ran through her veins, but her own people had obviously tried to kill her for it.

She tucked her leg beneath her and got comfortable, because she had a lot of questions for Cole. Starting with, “What were your orders? ”

Cole’s split, bloodied lips made for a grotesque smile. “Go to hell. ”

Eidolon dropped one finger to a cut on Cole’s face. He stroked the skin next to it, gently, slowly.