“Josh? Josh!”
“Not. Josh. Wraith.” He spoke through clenched teeth and bubbling blood, struggling for every word. Every breath.
He was dying. All this shit he’d put her through, taking her virginity and her charm…
All for nothing.
Lore approached the hospital’s ambulance bay doors with trepidation. He’d been researching the hospital, a little Q and A with demons who had been patients, and apparently, what Gem had told him was true. The fighting inside the hospital was unusual. Still, he didn’t want to take that chance. He might be a killer, but he wasn’t stupid, and he valued his own life above all others
He’d also learned that Eidolon and Shade were something called Seminus demons. Sex demons. Cool. But Lore had no idea what made Seminus demons different from other breeds of incubi. Mainly because, although Lore was a demon himself, he’d been raised by humans and hadn’t actually stepped foot in the demon realm until about thirty years ago.
Still, he’d remained on the outskirts of demon and human society, but at least he’d learned to use the Harrowgates. Those things were seriously weird. He used them only when he had to, hating the strange twinge he experienced every time he used one, as though each trip through the portals leeched away a bit of his humanity.
He was an assassin, but he wasn’t a monster. Well, he probably was, but if he could just hold on to his human roots, maybe he could deny the truth about himself.
Ruthlessly, he growled, dropped his hands, and entered the hospital. He had a job to do, and it was going to get done. Right now.
The hospital was strangely calm and quiet. He saw only Gem, sitting at the triage desk. She acknowledged him with a sad smile.
“Hey, Gem. You seem a little down.”
“It’s nothing,” she said, and he wondered if her mood had anything to do with the total tool she called Kynan. He’d have to see if maybe she wanted the tool dead, because Lore would be happy to give her a freebie on that one.
“Can I kill someone for you? Make it better?”
“That’s the nicest offer anyone has made in a long time.” She smiled, and this one seemed genuine. His heart did a little flip. “So what can I help you with?”
“I’m looking for Eidolon and Shade.”
“They’re probably in E’s office. If you want to hit them up for a job, now’s a good time. We’re seriously hurting for staff. Just head straight down the hall. Can’t miss it.”
A little burst of guilt made him pause. He didn’t give a shit about the brothers, but Gem might not be happy when she found out what he’d done.
He shook himself out of it, because he had a much more powerful demon to answer to than Gem. She’d get over it. The bastard holding his life in his hands wouldn’t.
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
The hall was dark like everything else, with only caged red bulbs overhead giving off light. He passed cages and drains from which slithering noises drifted up, and dark liquid trickled in a gutter in the floor.
This was so f**ked up.
He found them exactly where Gem said they’d be.
The demon Lore assumed was Eidolon was yelling into his phone, calling Wraith’s name. As Lore watched from the open doorway, Shade doubled over, his curse barely a whisper.
“E…” Shade sucked in a breath. “Wraith’s hurt… f**k, it’s bad.”
Now was the time to strike. Lore rushed in as Eidolon came around the desk. He’d forgotten to unsheathe his hand, but it was too late for that. He grabbed Eidolon’s right arm just as the other demon lay his hand on Shade.
Nothing happened. What the f**k? Eidolon wheeled around, and Lore slammed his fist into the male’s face. Eidolon stumbled backward, and then Shade’s fist was in Lore’s jaw. Lore went down in a heap, his killing arm pinned beneath him. He barely had time for a muffled groan when Shade stomped him in the throat with his huge-ass boot.
“What the f**k?” Eidolon stood in the center of the office, eyes red, blood dripping down his chin.
Shade grunted and put pressure on Lore’s neck. Lore would have a footprint embedded in his skin for a week. “You are so dead, dude.”
“How the hell did this just happen?”
“Well, E,” Shade drawled, “this f**k walked in and hit you, so I hit him—”
“Not that! The Haven spell. It’s been repaired.”
Shade’s head whipped around. “Then how did he attack you?” He backed away from Lore, who sucked in a few gulps of air.
And that was when Lore saw it. Eidolon’s arm. The tats. Oh, holy f**k.
“Good question, Lore,” came the female voice in the doorway. Gem. Fab. This just kept getting better and better. She glared at him. “I’m guessing you’re the a**hole assassin? Way to use me to get inside the hospital. Boys, I say kill him.”
Wow, she was bloodthirsty. Lore liked that in a woman.
“Gladly,” Shade growled. “As much as I’d like to make it hurt, it’ll have to be quick. We don’t have time to play. Wraith needs us.” He came at Lore with murder in his eyes.
Lore rolled, whipping off his jacket as he did. “Wait!” He sat up. “My arm.” Eidolon reached for him, but Lore yanked his arm away. “Don’t. My touch kills.” Except, apparently not them.
“What the hell is going on?” Shade breathed, peeling off his own jacket.
Lore just stared. These guys sported identical markings, though theirs were darker, less diluted.
“Show me the top symbol,” Eidolon said, and Lore slowly tugged his collar down, exposing the base of his neck and the crooked arrow there.
“Hell’s rings,” Shade muttered, cocking his head to reveal the same arrow… only his sat just beneath an eye symbol. Eidolon’s was positioned beneath a set of scales.
Lore blinked. “What does this mean?”
Eidolon’s expression shuttered. “Unless this is some sort of trick, it means we’re brothers. Somehow, we’re f**king brothers.”
Gem tsked at Lore. “Lu-cy… you have some s’plainin’ to do.”
“We don’t have time,” Shade said. “We’ve got to get to Wraith. Gem, get the Bracken Cuffs. Lore here is going to learn the meaning of brotherly love.”
Twenty-five
So much had happened that Serena wasn’t sure what to do, think, or feel. All she knew was that the man she’d fallen in love with wasn’t a man at all, and that he was now bleeding to death on the floor.
She didn’t know what to do to help, but she did know that she shouldn’t remove the sword that pinned him to the floor like an insect in an entomologist’s display case. The sword protruded from his back, its hilt still glowing with a strange azure light that seemed to grow dimmer as Josh—Wraith—whatever his name was grew weaker.
Helpless, all she could do was sit there and try to not throw up.
“S-Serena…”
Her name came out in a gurgle of blood, and her gut clenched. She should hate him—she did hate him—but she couldn’t stand this, didn’t want to see him suffer.
“What can I do?” She sifted her hand through his thick hair, remembering how it had felt to do that when he’d been coming inside her. Damn him. “Your brothers… I can call them, right? Are they really doctors?”
He didn’t answer. Frantic, she felt for a pulse. It bounded weakly against her fingers, but at least he was still alive.
She had to find his cell phone. She’d call every number in his address book until she found help. Awkwardly, because her legs had gone numb, she stood, but she hadn’t taken a step when she heard a pounding on the front door.
A weapon. She needed a weapon—the crack of wood rang out. Then, a rush of footsteps. Instinctively, she kneeled, crowding protectively close to Josh, but when she saw the two huge men… or demons, she supposed… barreling through the doorway, she nearly scrambled away.
Josh had told her he had two brothers, and with the exception of their dark hair these men resembled him so closely that they had to be related.
“Oh, f**k.” The one with long black hair, wearing head-to-toe black leather, froze, his dark gaze locked on the sword skewering Josh’s body.
The other one, dressed in scrubs, charged into the room and dropped to his knees at Josh’s side. “Bro. It’s Eidolon. Just hold on.” He turned to the doorway. “Shade.”
The one called Shade shook himself out of it, strode into the room, and dropped the medic bag he was carrying. “We need to get him to the hospital.”
“He won’t make it.”
“We have to try!”
“And what do you suggest? Carrying him through the streets of Alexandria with a sword sticking out of him? A taxi? Transporting him could kill him.”
Palming the back of Josh’s neck, Shade spewed out guttural, coarse words in a language she didn’t know but understood nonetheless. “Let me check the internal damage.”
Serena held still, hoping they’d forgotten she was there. Shade closed his eyes and concentrated. The tattoos on his hand, identical to Josh’s, began to glow.
“Shit,” Shade whispered. “Kidney, liver, stomach… oh, man, he’s f**ked up. The blade severed his aorta. We move it, he bleeds out in seconds.”
Eidolon swung his fierce gaze, glinting with flares of gold and red, around to her. “What happened?”
“He… he’s a demon.” Geez, that was a stupid thing to say, given his brothers were, too. But her mind seemed mired in fog. So much had happened in the last fifteen minutes, too much to process.
“Yes, we know that.” His voice was no-nonsense. Professional. Scary. “How did he get impaled?”
Right. “Byzamoth. Fallen angel. He… he wanted Josh’s blood.”
“Wraith,” Shade growled. “His name is Wraith.”