by Larissa Ione
“We’re not,” they said simultaneously.
“For now, you are,” he growled. “We have a kid to find.” He yanked Lore to him. Lore took a swing, lost his balance, and stumbled without ever striking his brother. “I’m charmed, dickhead. Just like Kynan. You can’t hurt me. And apparently you can’t kill Ky with your touch. Guess we don’t have to worry about you anymore.”
“That’s not true,” Idess said. “I believe it’s temporary. His ability to kill should return soon.”
Lore hoped that would be before the deadline. His assassin-bond throbbed, marking time that was clipping along in fast-forward.
“How did that happen?” Wraith asked.
“I drained him.”
Wraith arched an eyebrow at her. “I’ll bet you did.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not like that.” Might have been believable, too, if she hadn’t pinked up, because she had drained him like that.
Wraith gave a dubious snort, and Idess shook her head. “I still can’t believe that you saved the world.”
“I know, right?” Wraith turned back to Lore. “So where’s Rade?”
“I told you. I don’t have him. But we have a lead. Possible fallen angel named Rariel. Sin’s hunting him right now.” Lore checked his watch, and his heart tripped. She was five minutes late. Sin was never late without calling.
Lore expected Wraith to scoff, to call him a liar, to hit him. Anything but nod. “You can prove it.”
It wasn’t a question, and Lore scowled. “Not really.”
“Yes,” he said, “you can.” Suddenly, Wraith was behind him, his thick arm wrapped around Lore’s neck, and Lore was… well, he wasn’t sure where he was. His memories flipped through his mind like a shuffled deck of cards, and then he was standing in his house again, a little dizzy, and Wraith was several feet away.
“Fuck me,” Wraith muttered. “He’s telling the truth.”
“What the hell just happened?” Lore shouted.
Kynan smirked. “You just got a taste of Wraith’s mind-fuck.”
Ah. Lore hadn’t expected Wraith’s gift for getting inside heads to be so intrusive and unsettling. “You dick.”
“Seriously?” Wraith asked. “That’s all you got? Dick? Idiot? Your sister pops better insults than you do.”
“She’s your sister, too,” Lore pointed out, more to gauge Wraith’s reaction than anything.
Wraith grinned. “E says she’s like a female version of me. Cool.”
“No, not cool,” Lore growled. “So now you know I didn’t snatch the kid, you’re going to haul ass out of my face, right?”
“Slow down there, Mario,” Wraith said. “You’re still planning to kill Kynan.”
Idess crossed to Lore. “No, he’s not.”
Inside Lore’s chest, something shriveled a little at her defense of him, because he would still do what he had to in order to save his sister. Yes, Idess would lose her wings and have to stay on earth. But she wouldn’t die. And… she’d be able to stay with him.
“I was in Lore’s head, Halo. I know what he was thinking.” Wraith’s eyes went wide with sudden knowledge. “Sin will die if you don’t. Ah, fuck.”
Kynan scowled at Wraith. “Are you serious?”
Lore nodded. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to kill you for shits and grins? Not that it wouldn’t be fun,” he added.
Kynan snorted. “Do you think it’s this Rariel guy who wants me dead?”
“Him… and Roag.”
“Yeah,” Wraith said. “E mentioned that. Shade thinks you’re working together.”
“Just when I thought Shade couldn’t think any worse of me,” Lore muttered.
“We’ve got to find Rariel,” Kynan said, fucking king of State the Obvious.
A cell phone buzzed, and Wraith dug into his pocket. “’Sup, E?” Wraith listened for a second, and hung up with a strained curse. “We gotta go, Ky. It’s Gem.”
Kynan lost all the color in his face. “What’s wrong? Is it the baby?”
Baby?
“She was attacked,” Wraith said. “She was attacked inside the hospital.”
Twenty-one
Idess flashed Lore to UG’s parking lot. They ran inside, where at least two dozen spirits were in a frenzy, attacking the walls, wailing, and cowering in corners. Eidolon was standing at the triage desk, and the second he saw Lore, his eyes went crimson and he made like a charging tiger.
“No!” Idess rushed forward and slammed her palms into his chest. “Lore didn’t attack Shade’s mate, and he doesn’t have the baby. Wraith will be here in a moment. He’ll confirm it.”
Speak of the demon, the Harrowgate shimmered, and Wraith darted out of it, right behind Kynan. Kynan, as a human, shouldn’t have been able to travel through the Harrowgates unless he was unconscious, but his charmed status protected him from certain death.
“What happened? Where’s Gem?”
“Exam one,” Eidolon said. “She was found unconscious and bleeding from a head wound in the staff lounge.”
“Did the Haven spell go down?” Wraith asked.
“Nope.”
Idess sucked in a breath. “It was the ghosts.”
“Mother. Fuck.” Wraith snarled. “This is the one place that should be safe from the sonofabitch who attacked Runa, and we have fucking ghosts to worry about. Are Serena and Stewie still here?”
Eidolon nodded. “They’re with Tay in my office.”
“I’m taking them home. Not letting them out of my sight.” He jerked his thumb at Lore. “Big bro here wasn’t responsible for Runa and Rade. Some asswipe named Rariel is.”
Eidolon let out a long breath. “You’ll need to tell Shade. He won’t listen to me.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s at the cave with Runa and the boys. It’s too risky to have them here when we have diseased wargs coming in.”
Diseased wargs?
“He should be safe then. I’m outta here.” Wraith took off down the hall at a jog, running right through one of the spirits, who cried out loud enough for Idess to wince.
Eidolon scrubbed a hand over his face and turned to Lore. “Where have you been?”
“Oh, hey, don’t worry about apologizing for thinking I attacked my sister-in-law and stole my nephew or anything.”
A muscle in Eidolon’s jaw twitched, and Idess had a feeling he was trying to keep his temper in check.
“Your dagger was buried in her gut, and the message given to her was to turn over Kynan. What were we supposed to think? You are trying to kill the guy. For money.”
“For his sister,” Idess said tightly. She was tired of these guys’ blaming Lore, hating him, fighting him. “Sin will die if Lore doesn’t do it.”
“Fuck.” Eidolon’s dark eyes, so like Lore’s, cut to his brother. “How do you plan to get out of it?” The doctor’s voice was cool, professional, and just flat enough to give away how hard he was trying to hide his concern for his siblings’ situations.
“We need to find Rariel. He’s got to be behind the contract. Kill him, and the contract is void.”
“And what about the ghosts?” Eidolon asked. “This is all too much of a coincidence to think it isn’t related.”
Idess tore her attention away from two spirits near the Harrowgate who were clawing at the posts, their desperate attempts to get the gate to work heartbreaking. “It’s Roag. He’s terrifying the spirits.” She scanned the room, and sure enough, at the junction of two hallways, the dark phantom lurked, still wrapped in a cloak, menace emanating from him in a roiling cloud.
As Idess moved toward the demon, the Harrowgate flashed, and suddenly, a new sensation washed over her. Familiar. But warped, like a favorite song playing on the wrong speed. Her skin wanted to crawl right off her.
“Does the Harrowgate do that a lot? Flash, but nothing comes out?”
“Lately, yeah,” Eidolon said. “It’s weird.”
The familiarity washed over her again, and tears sp
rang to her eyes. Lore grabbed her. “Idess? Cookie? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t… I can’t explain it. It feels like Rami. And pain.”
“Oh, dear sister,” came an all-too-familiar voice behind her. “How I love causing you pain.”
Lore caught Idess as she collapsed. She’d gone as white as the ghosts she’d talked about, and though she struggled weakly to stand on her own again, she didn’t take her eyes off Rariel.
But… dear sister?
Lore kept Idess close, holding her tight against him. “Where is Rade?”
At the infant’s name, Eidolon stiffened. “This is the fuck who took my nephew?”
“No,” Idess whispered. “It can’t be. Rami… no.”
“Rami?” Lore gritted out. “As in, the brother who Ascended?”
“She told you about me?” Smiling, the male jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I’m flattered.”
In Lore’s arms, Idess trembled. “How is this possible?”
“Obviously, baby sister, I fell. Because of you.”
“How? Why?” She shrugged off Lore’s grip but remained next to him.
“Dumb bitch,” he hissed, and Lore had to hold himself back from braining the fucker, Haven spell or no. “You betrayed me. You ruined me.”
Staff members began to close in, all looking expectantly at Eidolon as though waiting for an order.
“What I did,” Idess said, “was terrible. I’ll do whatever you want to make up for it. Just don’t hurt the child.”
Both Lore and Eidolon simultaneously growled, “Where is he?”
“The whelp is… safe. Relatively.” Rami rolled his shoulders, making his muscles bunch tight beneath his black tee. “Your sister, however…”
The air exploded from Lore’s lungs in a painful rush. “What did you do to her?”
Rami bared his teeth. “Fun with razor wire. Now I have a cave to visit.” He paused, offering a fake frown at Eidolon, whose expression had iced over. “Oh, you thought I didn’t know about Shade’s cave or how to get there? Roag is a treasure chest of information.”
Lore launched at the fallen angel. Rami snapped his fingers in drama queen fashion, and Lore’s hand closed on empty air. “How can he flash out of here?”
“He can’t!” Idess raced toward the Harrowgate. “But he can go invisible—” The gate closed, and she skidded to a stop. “He’s gone. Son of a bitch, he’s gone.”
Eidolon fumbled for his cell phone. His fingers shook as he mashed the buttons. “Come on, Shade. Answer. Answer…” He waited, and then, “Shade! Get out of there. Don’t hang up… fuck!” He dialed again, pacing madly and cursing. Then, with a vicious snarl, he hurled his phone against the wall. Bits of plastic and electronic guts exploded into the air.
“We have to go to them,” Lore said.
“I know.” Eidolon ducked behind the triage desk and hit a button. “Medics to the ER, Code Green.”
Almost instantly, two male paramedics jogged through a door near the parking lot exit, bags slung over their shoulders. The blond male with silver eyes stopped in front of Eidolon, who gestured for them to follow.
Tears shimmered in Idess’s eyes. “This isn’t your fault,” Lore said as he brushed his lips over hers. He took her hand in his gloved one and entered the gate with Eidolon and the medics. The gate opened up in a steamy jungle, and Eidolon took off at a sprint down a sun-dappled trail.
They followed at a dead run. Branches slapped at their faces and roots and vines seemed to reach up out of the ground to grab them, but they didn’t slow down, kept running until they reached a waterfall set into a huge rock face. Eidolon slipped around it, reached into a hole, and a huge section of the wall rumbled and moved aside.
“Shade!” Eidolon’s panicked shout joined the blood-curdling sounds of battle coming from inside the cave.
They charged through a strangely modern kitchen to a huge bedroom, where Shade was grappling with Rami. Rami’s blows rained down hard and fast, while Shade’s powerful punches seemed to be a minor inconvenience for the fallen angel. Blood—most of it Shade’s, as far as Lore could tell—coated the floor and smeared the walls. In one corner, a huge, toffee-furred warg crouched protectively over an infant. Nearby, Sin was a motionless lump of blood and bruises.
He’d seen her like that before, and his head rocked back as the memory bitch-slapped his brain.
Lore didn’t recognize the woman he’d slammed into the wall. She lay on the floor, bleeding and curled in on herself. Bloodlust roared through his veins, inflaming his already burning skin. His arm was on fire, the strange new marks glowing.
Kill.
The woman on the floor had the same marks. She whimpered.
Kill.
Cold sweat broke out over his body, but it didn’t stop the burn. The female whimpered again.
Run.
Lore staggered backward, punch-drunk with memories. Through the fog of the fading vision, he saw Eidolon and the medics launch into battle, ripping Shade away from the fallen angel and lending some fresh muscle to the fight. Outnumbered, Rami snarled and poofed out of there. It all seemed so distant, when the memory of the day he’d gained his tats and gifts still clung to the walls of his mind.
Sin. He’d not remembered any of it. Until now. God, he’d failed her. Over and over, and he’d never be able to make it up to her. He sank to his knees next to her, taking the painful crack to his kneecaps as an inadequate penance. Idess and the blond medic joined him.
In the background, his brothers were speaking in harsh words and soft murmurs… and then Runa, now in her human form, was kneeling beside Sin.
Lore gripped his sister’s shoulder. Her arms were tucked awkwardly beneath her, and she was strangely hunched up. Moaning, she shifted. Beneath her, cradled against her stomach, was the second baby.
Tears streamed down Runa’s cheeks as she gathered the infant to her chest. “Thank you,” she sobbed. “You saved his life.”
“Yeah.” Sin’s sarcastic voice was a pained whisper. “I’m a hero.” She eased onto her side, and Lore’s gut twisted at the sight of her bloody wrists, which were bound with razor wire cutting deeply into her flesh. He resisted the urge to rub his own wrists in sympathy.
The medic cursed, and Sin’s surprised gaze flickered to him. “Con,” she murmured. “Couldn’t stay away, huh?”
Con grunted and moved his gloved hands over Sin’s body with practiced confidence. “What hurts?”
“Razor wire is not so comfortable,” she rasped.
“Just hold still. I need Doc E’s help to remove it.”
Lore cursed. “Sin, I’m sorry—”
“Shut up,” she said, but there was no anger in her voice. “I fucked up and let that angel scum catch me off-guard. He brought me here so I could watch my nephews die.” Wincing, she shifted. “Beneath me. The dagger.”
Carefully, Lore eased his hand under her, came away with his Gargantua dagger… which was covered with blood. “Is this—”
“Yeah.” She offered a shaky smile. “I stabbed the fucker. Now go get him.” Her smile faded. “Bro, you’re running out of time.”
She wasn’t talking about Rariel, and he knew it. His slave-bond throbbed with such a rapid beat that the pain was almost constant now. Either Rariel died, or Kynan would have to, and he had barely twenty-four hours to make someone’s death happen.
“I know, Sin. I’ve got it handled.” Lore locked gazes with Con. “Take care of her.”
“Don’t worry.”
Lore stood. The other medic and Eidolon were working on Shade as he leaned against a Saint Andrew’s cross—and that was when Lore noticed all the… interesting… accoutrements lining the walls. Furry cuffs, soft leather flogs and masks… and yep, this was way TMI. He couldn’t quite picture dainty Runa, who sat quietly on the bed, watching Shade with worried eyes and holding their sons tight, holding a flog.
“How’s Sin?” Eidolon didn’t look up from the massive bleeder in Shade
’s thigh.
“Vitals are good,” Con replied. “Injuries are mostly contusions and shallow lacerations, but she’s got razor wire embedded in her wrists. Capillary refill is satisfactory.”
Eidolon gave a sharp nod. “The blades probably missed the major vessels.”
Relieved that Sin wasn’t in immediate danger, Lore turned to Idess, but she’d disappeared. He found her in the living room-slash-home theater, head bowed, arms wrapped around herself.
“Hey,” he said, pulling her into his arms. God, she felt good against him. Like she belonged. Like as long as they stayed like that, everything would be okay.
“My brother.” She heaved a great, shuddering sob. “How could this have happened? How could I have let this happen?”
Lore’s heart cracked wide open. “It’s not your fault, angel. He’s not the guy you once knew. He’s enraged and insane—” He broke off as the image of Sin bleeding on the floor of their grandparents’ home came back to him. His voice became a husky rasp. “Everyone’s okay. We got here in time.”
She shook her head so hard her ponytail slapped his arm. “But, Rade. Oh, Lore… if he hurts Rade—”
“He won’t,” Lore swore. “We’ll nail his ass to the wall. My dagger tasted his blood. You can flash us to him.”
“Good,” she whispered. “That’s good.”
The crack of boots on the floor announced two arrivals. Keeping Idess tucked protectively against him, Lore turned.
Eidolon snatched a satellite phone from the end table near the couch. Shade stood a few feet from Lore, still covered in blood and his gaze dark. “So this Rariel guy took Rade.” It wasn’t a question, and when Lore nodded, Shade swallowed. “I thought you had him.”
“You were wrong.”
More swallowing. And, no apology. “But you were hired to kill Ky.”
“Hired ” wasn’t the right word. “Forced ” was closer, but right now wasn’t the time to split hellrat hairs. “Yes.”
Shade’s hands formed fists, and Lore set Idess aside and braced himself for a blow. “E said if you don’t do it, Sin will die.” He spoke in a hushed tone, for which Lore was grateful.
“Yeah.”
“We can’t let either happen.” Shade’s tone was dead. Flat. But at least he had seen the truth of the situation and wanted to help save their sister.
