by Larissa Ione
“Hey, Gem.” Kynan Morgan walked into the ER like he owned it, halting mere feet away, so close she could smell the leather of his jacket and the natural male spice that made her world tilt, and she had to catch herself on a crash cart.
With spiky dark hair that begged her to run her fingers through it, eyes the color of new denim, and tan skin stretched over perfect, angular features, Kynan was as handsome as ever. Beneath his jeans, black henley, and bomber jacket, he had a lean, powerful athlete’s body to freaking die for. She’d seen it back when he used to come into the human hospital where she’d worked, way back when she thought he was nothing more than a married man who took in street kids and put them on the path to a good life.
The truth, that he and his wife had headed a local Aegis cell, hadn’t changed her feelings for him. Sure, he’d killed demons for a living, but her heart hadn’t cared about that. Especially after his wife died and he quit The Aegis to work at UG. She’d actually believed she had a shot at him.
Fool.
“What are you doing here? When did you get back?” And why did her heart have to jump around like it was excited to see him even after he’d broken it?
She could still remember the day that Runa, whose brother also worked for the R-XR, had invited her to the house she shared with Shade, handed her a margarita, and then said, “Kynan gave me a message for you. I’m sorry… but he said to tell you not to wait for him.”
God, Gem had been devastated. She’d waited anyway, until last night, when Lore had caught her on a particularly bad day. She’d been exhausted, worried about Wraith. To top it off, that morning Runa had brought the babies by the hospital.
Gem was thrilled for Shade and Runa, but their happiness had been like a blow. Kynan was gone, probably for good, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever have children. She wanted them, but she was half demon, stuck between two worlds, and she refused to subject any child to what she’d gone through.
“I got back last night,” he said in his gravelly voice, a result of a battlefield injury he’d suffered years ago while serving as an Army medic in Afghanistan.
“So why are you here?” She tried to keep her hopes in check because while she wanted to hear that he’d come back for her, she’d been stomped on hard enough to know she needed to be realistic. Not that realistic was a possibility when his masculine scent swirled around her, embracing her like a lover.
“I can’t get into that right now, but we need to talk.”
“I think you said it all with the message you gave to Runa.” She spun on her heel, intending to leave him high and dry like he’d left her.
Which might have been a good plan had he not grabbed her arm and hauled her around.
“Why are you being like this?”
“Why?” she asked, incredulous. “Why? Because you broke my heart. A dozen times. And I finally decided I’m tired of being stomped on.”
“I’m just asking for a talk, Gem.”
Of course, a talk. He couldn’t ask for more than that, could he? No, not Kynan Good Guy Morgan. Mr. Honorable. Though, if she could calm down for a second and be honest with herself, she could admit that much of his honor and purity and just plain goodness had been scoured away by the betrayals he’d faced nearly two years ago. He’d gone through a period of darkness, had taken wounds and let them fester.
She knew, because her Soulshredder self had seen them. She’d helped to heal them, though she’d had to be careful, because when she was angry, hurt, or jealous, the wicked desire to exploit weakness and pain grabbed hold of her like a powerfully seductive drug.
And right now, her inner demon wanted out something fierce.
“Sorry, Kynan,” Gem said, “but you can’t just pop back into my life after so much time and expect me to fall at your feet.” She brushed past him and headed for the staff break room, mainly to get away from him. “I’m over you. Leave me alone.”
The next thing she knew, she was against a wall and he was covering her, his big body pinning her so she could hardly move. He moved between her legs as his mouth came down on hers. She was furious, spitting mad, so why had she grabbed his jacket and tugged him as close as he could get while still being clothed?
He kissed the hell out of her, and when he was finished, they were both panting. “That,” he said, “doesn’t feel like you’re over me.”
“Fuck you,” she breathed.
“Maybe,” came a low, controlled voice that had them both whipping their heads around to Eidolon, “you could find a private room before the fucking starts?”
Groaning, Gem let her head fall back against the wall. There would be no fucking, but she certainly was fucked.
Busted.
Kynan pushed away from Gem and faced Eidolon. The guy looked like he’d been dragged through a knothole backward, and Kynan wondered what the hell was going on. The hospital appeared to be seriously understaffed, and were those cracks in the walls?
“Hey, E. I need to talk you. Your brothers around? And Tayla?” He glanced at Gem, who was glaring at him. “You too.”
“Oh, so the fact that you need to talk to me didn’t really mean you needed to talk to me.”
“We’ll talk,” he swore. “In private. But business first.”
Eidolon gestured for Kynan and Gem to follow him into the break room. Inside, Eidolon and Kynan sank onto the couch, while Gem staked a claim near the coffeepot, which was usually Wraith’s territory. “Where’s everyone else?” Ky asked.
E studied the ceiling fan. “Shade is with Runa. Tay’s at work.”
“And Wraith? He out getting into trouble?”
“He’s already done that,” E said quietly, and Ky listened in shock as the demon filled him in on the shit that had gone down with Wraith and the hospital.
“Damn.” Ky’s voice was strangely raw. There had been a time—right after Ky had witnessed Wraith feeding on Lori—that he’d wanted to kill the demon. Ky had loved his wife, and Lori’s betrayal had stung to the bone. But Ky had learned to like Wraith, liked all the brothers in fact, and this had to be hitting them hard.
“Yeah. Then there’s always the fun uncertainty of another assassin being after me and Shade. Haven’t seen any evidence of it so far, but we’re keeping our backs to the wall.” E shoved his hand through his hair. “So now you’re caught up on the latest episode of Underworld General Hospital. What’s your deal? Why are you here?”
Gem crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot. Her green eyes sparked, but her twin black-and-pink pigtails softened her furious expression.
“You’re probably aware that something is happening in the demon world.”
“Aren’t you a rocket scientist,” Gem muttered.
Eidolon gave her an exasperated look and turned back to Ky. “Its come to our attention, yes.”
“Do you know what’s going on?”
“Why?”
“The Aegis sent me to find out what I can. Besides Tayla, I’m pretty much the only Aegi with contacts in the demon realm, and Tay can’t tell them anything without giving herself away.”
Gem snorted. “So they expect you to gather intel from demons… so they can fight demons?”
Kynan bit back a sigh. “Come on, Gem. Whatever this is… it’s going to be bad. We’d rather stop it than fight it.”
“Agreed.” Eidolon kicked his feet up on the coffee table. “But right now, we don’t have much information. Mostly rumors. Some are saying that the Reclamation is starting. Some are saying it’s not the Reclamation, but more of a takeover—demons swarming out of Sheoul. Still others think humans are leading the charge to break into Sheoul. The ones who aren’t excited by the prospect of war are going into hiding. We’re losing staff members every day.” The demon’s eyes blazed—the hospital was his baby, and the fact that it was falling apart and staff were deserting must sit on his broad shoulders like an elephant. “What do humans think is going on? I don’t get much from Tayla but rumors.”
He wouldn’t. On
ly the Sigil would be privy to the true goings-on, and even then, their info would be sketchy if demons couldn’t get all the facts.
“Worst-case scenario? Armageddon. What you call the Reclamation. Best case? Some kind of attack. Religious leaders and world governments are going nuts behind the scenes, spinning damage control, because no one wants the truth about demons to get out. Talk about mass chaos scenarios.”
Gem snagged a soft drink from the fridge. “You said The Aegis sent you. Why aren’t you still with the military?”
“Got tired of doing nothing. They were fine with me leaving as long as I went back to The Aegis.”
“Don’t suppose you can use your contacts at R-XR to find out everything you can about Marked Sentinels,” she said.
“I thought Wraith was already after one.”
E nodded. “Yes, but we’re pretty sure there’s a link between her and what’s going on in the underworld. Reaver is holding something back, but we do know that at the same time we felt the first stirrings of unrest, her cloak was blown.”
Interesting. “I’ll see what I can find.”
Eidolon’s beeper went off. He checked it and shoved to his feet. “I have an incoming trauma. Slayers have been busy.” He moved toward the door, his gait curiously devoid of the usual snap. He was dragging ass. “Good to see you. If you get bored, we could use a hand around here.” He took off, leaving Kynan alone with Gem.
“I should go, too.” She pushed away from the counter.
Kynan blocked the door. “Not so fast.”
“I said no.”
“Give me an hour, Gem. That’s all I’m asking.”
“Are you going to tell me why you left? All of it?”
“All of it.”
She gave him a single nod. “Be at my place tonight at six.” She shoved him out of the way. “And do not be late.”
Nine
Serena had just thrown her backpack over her shoulder when someone pounded on her hotel room door.
“Serena! Open up!”
Josh. Unsure whether she was excited or not, she opened up, a sensation of déjà vu washing over her at the sight of him standing in the doorway. Like last night, he wore jeans, but over his Hard Rock T-shirt he wore a well-worn leather duster that suited his rugged masculinity and made her breath come a little faster.
The dream she’d had last night was still so vivid, so real, that her face heated with a morning-after awkwardness. At least, what she imagined morning-after awkwardness must feel like for someone who had indulged in a one-night stand with a stranger.
“You’d better have the artifact,” she said, but he ignored her, grabbed her hand, and tugged her through the doorway.
“We’re leaving. Now.”
“What the—”
“There’s a demon in the hotel.”
“Damn,” she breathed.
“Damned, anyway,” he muttered. “Come on. We’re taking the stairs.”
A low rumble started up, sounding distant, as if it were coming from outside, but then the floor at the end of the hall began to ripple… toward them.
Josh swung around in a sinuous, effortless movement. The carpet snapped upward with such force it sliced a twenty-foot gash in the wall. “Shit.” Josh stepped back as though reconsidering his stance. “Yeah… run.”
They sprinted to the stairwell. Josh tore open the door and shoved her inside. She took the stairs two at a time. The building shuddered, and she lost her balance, coming down awkwardly at the second-floor landing—the charm protected her from injury, but it didn’t make her graceful. Above her, Josh held the steel door against something that was bashing into it, leaving massive dents.
“Go!”
She couldn’t. This was wrong. Whatever was chasing them was after her, not Josh, and she was protected by the charm. He was the one in danger, not her.
“I’m not going without you,” she shouted. “Don’t argue or I’m coming back up there.”
His curse echoed through the stairwell. He hesitated, and then he leaped down the flight of stairs and landed lightly in front of her in the most amazing feat of athleticism she’d ever seen.
Not to be outdone, she launched herself to the next landing and grinned up at him.
“Show-off,” he grunted, joining her.
They exploded out of the door at the bottom of the stairwell and into the lobby. People milled in alarm, disturbed by the shaking building, but she and Josh cut swiftly through them, out the front entrance, and into the blinding sunlight. At the curb, a man was just opening a cab door.
“Sorry, dude,” Josh said, slipping in front of the guy and pushing her into the back seat. “Medical emergency. My wife here is having a baby.”
The guy blinked, mouth dropped open, no doubt because Serena looked about as pregnant as a Popsicle stick, but he backed away as the cab pulled out into traffic, nearly side-swiping a bus. Though her heart raced and she was more than a little rattled, she gave instructions to the cabbie and tried to ignore the blaring horns outside and Josh’s heat as he settled next to her on the seat.
“I really, really want to know why you’re a demon magnet,” Josh said.
“I want to know what that thing was.”
“No idea.” He swiveled around to watch out the rear window, menace rolling off him in dangerous waves. He was still poised to fight, and she got the feeling he’d go right through the window if he had to.
“How did you know it was in the hotel?”
“Smelled it when I stepped into the hall.”
She watched him, slightly distracted by the way the hourglass tattoo on his neck seemed to be draining sand. “Your sense of smell is pretty amazing.”
“Leftover from Aegis training.” He shifted to face forward, sitting back and spreading his legs wide so his knee touched hers. “Looks like we’re clear. Were you okay last night?”
Very. “What do you mean?”
“Any visits by demons?”
“Oh. No. Everything was fine.”
“Did you sleep well?”
Her heart shot into her throat, which was insane, because he couldn’t know what they’d done in her dreams. “Why?”
His eyes took a bold, leisurely ride down her body and back up. “Just wondering if you dreamed about me.”
“Why in the world would I dream about you? Just because you kissed me? It wasn’t even that great of a kiss.” Liar. He’d kissed her into an aching frenzy.
“You’ve had better kisses?”
No. “Yes.”
“In that dream you’re denying you had about me?”
She huffed. “You’re really full of yourself, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “Hey, every guy wants a gorgeous woman to dream about him.”
Gorgeous? He was buttering her up, and even though she recognized the flattery for what it was—an effort to get her to do those other things he wanted to do with her—she still got warm and fuzzy. But two could play at that game.
“Fine,” she said, with a saucy bat of her eyelashes, “I confess… I did dream about you.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Was it good?” He leaned in and whispered against her ear, “Tell me.”
Desire shivered over her skin. “It was crazy,” she whispered back. “I dreamed you were a vampire. A very sexy vampire.”
“Huh.” His teeth latched on to her earlobe, nipped tenderly. “You have a thing for vamps?”
More than a thing. She’d indulged her curiosity even before she’d learned vamps were real, reading everything—fiction and non-fiction—she could get her hands on. She’d even spent months in several European countries, including Hungary, Germany, and Romania, researching Dracula and the Vlad Tepes origins.
“They fascinate me,” she admitted.
Josh withdrew. “They’re monsters. There’s nothing fascinating about them at all.”
She glanced out as they passed Pompey’s Pillar, the tallest ancient monument in Alexandria, but today the impressive granite s
tructure failed to move her. “You sound like Val.”
“Val’s right.” He shifted his gaze out the window at the palms lining the street. Beyond the trees, new, modern buildings contrasted with older, pockmarked structures, between which she caught glimpses of the Mediterranean. “Tell me you aren’t one of those nut jobs who dresses up like an Anne Rice character and hangs out in vampire bars.”
She tried not to squirm, because she had done that. Only once, and it had been in the name of research. Really.
“You are, aren’t you?” Josh grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. His bright gaze drilled into her. “Stay away from those places, Serena. There are people there who aren’t… right. They’re dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt. Or worse. Because there is worse.” His expression went as dark and haunted as his voice, sending a shiver up her spine.
“I know,” she said. “And I’m careful.”
Out of the blue, he kissed her hard. “That is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard,” he said against her lips.
His kiss gentled, his lips becoming soft velvet as he delivered an unspoken apology before settling back in the seat. And yes, she should be irked by his arrogant insistence that she heed his warning, was still a little annoyed by the fact that he’d basically blackmailed her into joining her treasure hunt. But God, she’d been alone for so long, had been so lonely she sometimes ached.
No matter how attentive Val was, how many people she surrounded herself with, she still felt that yearning she couldn’t banish no matter how busy she kept herself. Now she understood the shadows in her mother’s eyes. At the time, Serena had been too young to know what made her mother cry when she thought she was alone, but the closer Serena got to Josh, the more clearly she understood.
The only person who had ever made her mother’s shadows recede was Val. Serena’s heart thudded against her rib cage at the sudden suspicion that threaded its way into her mind. Her mother… had she been in love with him?
Val had been married, living only a few miles away. Serena didn’t remember any inappropriate contact, but her mom definitely lit up when her Guardian had come to visit.
