Passion Unleashed

Chapter 26

Serena was in the bathroom when she heard the bedroom door open. Her heart gave a great thump at the whisper of feet on the floor. Maybe it was Eidolon or Shade coming to do whatever they were doing to make her feel better when they touched her. It was about that time. She was growing weak again, and the pounding in her head was making her vision blur.

“Serena?”

Oh, God. Josh. Maybe if she didn’t say anything, he’d go away.

“Serena. Come out.” There was a long pause. “Please.”

She couldn’t face him. She was still too angry, too hurt, too damned conflicted. She stood there at the sink, quietly studying her face, the dark circles under her glassy, red-rimmed eyes, her strawlike, mussed hair, her sallow complexion. God, she really was dying.

What an unbelievably stupid thing she’d done.

Closing her eyes, she bowed her head. No, not stupid—if Josh could retrieve the amulet and save the world. Except… he was a demon. Why would he want to save the world? And if he did want to get the amulet, would he keep it for himself?

She banged her head on the mirror. Stupid. Bang. Stupid. Bang. Stupid!

She’d fallen hard for him. An incubus who had probably used his sex demon tricks on her. Thing was, he hadn’t even seduced her with smooth lines and pretty talk. No, he’d done it by protecting her from danger, being nice to cats, and giving her out-of-this-world orgasms. He’d done it by being rough and tough, with a touch of sweet. But how much had been an act?

She heard a sigh, a shuffling of feet, and a door closing. She waited another minute. Cautiously opened the bathroom door.

Only to see Josh sitting on the floor, back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. He was wearing jeans but nothing else. Even his feet were bare. His broad, thickly muscled chest heaved with the force of his breaths, and lower, his chiseled abs bore no signs of injury.

“You look pretty good for a guy who got run through with a magical sword and almost died.” The words were casual, but what she felt for him was not, and she prayed he didn’t hear the emotion in her voice.

“You saved me.” He didn’t look at her. “I can still… taste you.”

“Because you’re a vampire.” She snorted. “And a demon. Let’s not forget that minor detail.”

A shudder shook his body, and he closed his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Yeah? That’s all you have to say?” She cursed, a nasty, base word she’d never used. “Was anything you told me about your life true?”

He finally looked at her. “Too much of it, actually.”

“Tell me more.” She crossed her arms across her chest, wondering why the hell she was bothering, why she had this crazy need to understand him.

“Serena, you don’t want to hear.”

Anger lit her like a match. “I gave you my life, Wraith, so you can damned well tell me about yours.” He flinched, and she almost felt sorry for him. Almost. “Give me all of it. Starting from the beginning.”

He rubbed his eyes, and when he was done, he looked at his lap, shoulders hunched. And there she went feeling sorry for him again.

“You’re right. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He ran his hand up and down his chest, as though it hurt. It was a long time before he said, “My dad had the same gift Shade has—he can manipulate bodily functions. He found a woman who was on the verge of being turned into a vampire… she’d done the blood exchange and was just about to die when he raped her. Used his gift to keep her in that in-between human and vamp state for nine months, raping her over and over while I grew inside her. He left when she gave birth to me and by then she’d gone insane.”

Wraith spoke rapidly, the words coming so fast Serena barely had time to be shocked. And still, he kept his head bowed, his hair falling forward so she couldn’t see his expression.

“She gave me to a wet nurse until I was five, and then she put me in a cage and turned my nurse into a vampire while I watched. She spent the next fifteen years torturing me. Torturing humans and demons in front of me. When I turned twenty, I went through the first of two maturation cycles. I needed sex or I’d die. My mother shoved a prostitute into the cage… I was crazed with need…” His voice cracked, but his head came up to fix her with a penetrating stare. “I took her, and I didn’t wait for her consent.”

“Oh, my God.”

“I warned you.”

He had. But she needed to hear more. “Go on.” When he hesitated, she put her hand on his knee out of some crazy need to comfort him. “What happened?”

“The prostitute was just doing her job, right?” His voice was hollow. Dead. “That’s how I’ve always justified what I did. Sometimes, the lie even works.” A flicker of emotion passed over his face, disgust, she thought, but then he looked down and she couldn’t read him anymore. “The next time my mother put a female in with me, I refused her, even though I knew it meant I could die. My mother tortured the girl in front of me for hours, until she finally bled out. The next time a woman was put in the cage, I did what I needed to do, but by then I had learned to use my gift. She thought she was doing her boyfriend on the beach.”

“What gift?”

“I can get inside the mind, read thoughts, trick people into thinking things that didn’t happen. I can give them nightmares.” His head came up. There was a challenge in his eyes, as though he expected her to get violent with him. And wanted it. “Or dreams.”

She inhaled sharply. “The dreams I had. Of you… it was you.”

“The first one. Any others were all yours.”

The urge to slap him made her hand tingle, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Instead, she said quietly, “You’re a bastard.”

He shoved both hands through his hair and left them there, bracing his elbows on his knees. “I’m a demon, Serena. It’s what I do.”

She supposed that was true enough. Didn’t make her feel much better, though. Especially because it was also true that he was much more than just a demon to her, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise.

“So what happened? After you learned to use your gift?”

“My mother lost interest in me. One day she came into my cage to kill me. I killed her instead. Escaped. Ran until her clan caught up with me in Chicago. They strung me up in a warehouse and tortured the fuck out of me for two days. Maybe more. I don’t know. After the first day, they gouged out my eyes.”

Oh… Jesus. Sweet Jesus God Almighty. Black spots swam before Serena’s eyes and she felt herself start to go over. Wraith caught her, and she was too weak to fight him. Plus, it felt good to be in his arms again. Her body was a traitor. So much so that when he lay her on the bed, she clung to him, pulled him down beside her.

“I don’t think I want to hear any more,” she said in a voice so shaky she barely understood herself. “But how… how did you survive?”

“My brothers found me.” He petted her hair with loving, comforting strokes. “They killed the vamps. Kept one alive to give me back my sight.”

She almost asked why they hadn’t used a dead vamp as an eye donor, but duh, they had a tendency to flame to ash when they were killed.

“And then?”

“I went with them to New York, where I spent the next few decades wasting my life. I was worthless. Lived like a rat in sewers, eating junkies and drunks, losing myself in any way I could. Then E and Shade started the hospital. I didn’t want to learn how to save lives, but they didn’t give me a choice. Taught me to read and write. Got me straightened out. Mostly.”

“Dear… God.” His life had been a waking nightmare.

He snorted. “God abandoned me a long time ago.” Gripping her hand, he squeezed gently. “Look, Serena, by human standards, I’m a bastard. Hell, even by some demon standards I’m that. I’ve always been selfish, not giving a shit about anyone or anything but myself. I knew what losing the charm would do to you, and if I could give it back, I would. I know you don’t believe this, but… I love you.”

Her eyes stung, and her stupid heart responded with several stuttered beats, because it believed him. “You don’t need to lie to me anymore.”

“I’m not. Never again.”

“Easy to say when I’ve only got hours left to live.”

He made a sound low in his throat. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s time to stop denying it.” Strangely, it felt liberating to say it.

His hard swallow was audible, his voice strained. “I know.”

She propped herself up on her elbow so she could see directly into his eyes. “I hate you.”

“I know,” he whispered.

“Kiss me.”

He didn’t hesitate. His mouth met hers in a bruising kiss. For the first time, he opened up and let her explore with her tongue, let her feel the sharp points of his teeth. Now she knew why he’d always led the way with his kisses, why he’d pulled away when she’d made aggressive moves. Even now, he reared back a little, but she grabbed the back of his head and forced him to stay still. This was for her, not him. He owed her, and she was going to take what she wanted.

His groan rolled through her, caressing all her erogenous zones and waking up nerve endings. Her lungs hurt and her gut cramped, but pleasure began to override the discomfort and pain.

Greedily, she reached between them and palmed his erection. She squeezed him through his pants, and he made a raw, male noise. “Were you lying when you said you couldn’t come like this?”

“No.” His tongue swept over her bottom lip. “My kind can only achieve release inside a female.”

“Then get inside me.” God, she couldn’t believe she wanted him this badly, but with such little time left, the insanity of all of this seemed so distant and unimportant.

His eyes shot open, and she drew in a startled breath at the beautiful gold color they’d gone. “Are you sure?”

His concern pissed her off. He had no right to worry about her after what he’d done. “Just do it,” she snapped. “Now.”

Hurt flashed in his eyes, but then he was tearing open his jeans, shoving her shirt up, and ripping off her shorts, and in an instant, he was inside her. She cried out at the invasion, the incredible sensations that shot up her spine.

“Gods,” he growled into her ear, “I can smell your need. It’s taking me over the edge.” His tongue dragged over her throat, and for a moment she thought he was going to bite her. Some dark, wicked part of her wanted him to bite her. “Mmm. You taste oddly… salty.”

“Its the disease,” she whispered. “It causes salty skin.”

He stiffened, and a small sound of pain broke from his lips. “I—”

“Stop.” She grasped his face, used her thumb to trace the markings on the right side of his face. “Don’t ruin this for me.” She was being selfish, but she shoved aside the tiny bit of guilt she felt.

A shudder wracked his body, but he closed his eyes and nodded. He began a slow, grinding pump with his hips, and little sparks popped all over her skin. She raked her nails across his back, and though he hissed, he hissed, “Harder.”

Pleasure cascaded across her mind as he grew more aggressive, until he was hammering her into the mattress while whispering sexy, raw things into her ear. The things he wanted to do to her flipped like erotic pictures through her head, propelling her to a white-hot climax that wouldn’t end.

She cried out, calling his name. His real name.

“No.” He nipped at her lobe. “Call me Josh.”

“Yes… Josh!”

He roared in his own release, filling her with a hot splash that triggered another orgasm, and another. Her body felt out of control, a lightning strike of sensual energy that wrapped around them both and locked them into an electrifying series of climaxes.

Gradually, the storm of pleasure dissipated, and she’d never been so exhausted.

It was a long time before she had the strength to speak. When she did, her voice was raspy, her breathing wheezy. “On the train…” She had to pause, swallow, work some moisture into her mouth. “You said someone slipped an aphrodisiac into my drink. It wasn’t a stranger, was it?”

“No.” He rolled off her but kept his strong arms around her, gathering her close. His biceps bunched up hard, his skin was coated with a fine sheen of sweat. “It was my semen. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

She wracked her brain to bring that night back to the surface of her hazy mind. She’d been crazed with lust, begging him to have sex with her. “You could have taken my virginity then, but you didn’t. Why not?”

“I couldn’t.” He buried his face in her neck and breathed deeply, and a soft purring noise rumbled up from deep in his chest. “That’s why I was leaving. I changed my mind about everything, Serena. Even though my decision would have killed my brothers, too… I couldn’t betray you like that.”

“Your… brothers?”

“They were dying too. My illness and theirs were connected.”

Time slowed as she digested what he’d just said. She knew how much he loved his brothers, and yet, when it came down to a choice between their lives and hers, he’d chosen hers.

He’d just turned everything she’d ever learned about demons—from the nuns she’d grown up with and from Val and his monstrous library of books—upside down and inside out.

He checked his watch. “I wish I could stay, but I don’t have much time. Byzamoth plans to start the war of wars in a few hours.” He smoothed her hair away from her face, his touch light and tender. “I’m going to get your necklace back. I’ll stop him, Serena. If it’s the last thing I do, I will stop him.”

“But… you’re a demon.”

“So why would I want to stop him?” At her nod, he lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Most demons living among humans like things the way they are. Imagine your worst apocalyptic scenario, multiply it by a hundred, add a lot of chaos, gore, disease, and demons, and you’ve got Sheoul. The idea that everything could become like that? Freaks a lot of us out. There are going to be a lot of demons fighting on the side of good in this battle.”

“And you’re fighting on the side of good.”

He flicked his tongue over a fang, one corner of his mouth turned up in just a hint of a cocky grin. “Well, historically, good can’t fight for shit. Really, they need me.”

Damn him for charming her and turning her on at the same time—while she was on her deathbed.

A commotion outside the door had Josh leaping out of the bed and yanking the covers up around her. The sounds of angry shouts, running footsteps, and flesh striking flesh came through the thin walls as if they were made of paper.

“Serena!”

“Val?”

Josh cursed as Val threw open the door, flanked by Eidolon. Shade was struggling with David and another man in the hallway, and if the more distant sounds were any indication, there was a battle going on elsewhere in the house.

“What the hell is going on?” Val looked between Serena and Josh, who was buttoning his pants. “Jesus effing Christ, Serena! He’s a demon!” He stalked into the room, glaring pure murder at Josh.

Serena sat up in bed, tugging the sheet up even though her top covered her. “Calm down, Val. I know he’s a demon—”

His hand clenched reflexively at his hip, and she wondered if he had a weapon concealed beneath his bulky shirt. “Do not tell me this is the bastard you gave your charm to.”

“Then don’t ask.”

He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Oh, Serena. How could you have been so stu—”

“Finish that sentence,” Josh said flatly, “and it’ll be your last.”

Val turned purple with rage. For a moment, she thought he’d blow, but David laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Let it go, Dad.”

Shade moved fully inside to stand near Josh, and suddenly the room filled with people. Total strangers. And here she was, wearing nothing but a tank top and in a bed where it was pretty obvious she’d just had sex. With a demon.

“Everyone needs to just calm down.” Eidolon crossed to Josh and Shade.

“Fuck you,” David said. “We don’t take orders from demons.”

Josh bared his fangs. “Yeah, you do. Because right now, I’m your best hope to defeat Byzamoth. So if you don’t want to spend eternity bent over and holding your ankles for him, you’ll back the fuck off.”

Ky, Gem, Tay, Shade, and E all crammed into the bedroom, followed by six local Aegis Guardians and six members of the Sigil. Luc, Reaver, and several local Aegi made for a tense party in the other rooms of the house, and there were more agents patrolling outside

And that asshole Lore was tied up in the hall. What the hell was up with that? Ky had no idea.

Kynan’s hand hovered over his stang, fingers itching to draw down. The house was filled to the gills with mortal enemies, and the Guardians were loaded for werebear.

Powder. Keg. One spark and the place would blow.

Val reached for Serena, his Sigil ring glinting in the light from the overhead. “I’m taking you home.”

And… that was the spark.

A god-awful roar vibrated the house. Wraith moved so fast Ky didn’t track him until he followed the nasty growl to the bed, where Wraith was on all fours, crouched protectively over Serena.

Christ, his eyes burned the orange-gold of a jet’s afterburners and his fangs had elongated into daggers. With his blond mane falling around his face, he looked like a fucking lion guarding his pride.

The familiar, ominous sound of weapons clearing their housings cut through the tension. The Guardians and Elders closed ranks at the same moment that E, Shade, and Gem stepped in front of the bed to stand with Wraith.

In a coordinated move that reminded Ky of how well he and Tay had fought together in the past, they placed themselves between the demons and the Guardians.

“I am taking Serena home, where she belongs,” Val repeated, his Romanian accent so thick Kynan barely understood him.

Wraith’s voice scraped gravel. “If you touch her, I’ll drop all your buddies, and then I’ll take you apart, piece by piece.”

“You,” Val bellowed, “have no say in this. She’s dying because of you!”

The Guardians shifted, bracing for battle, and Wraith’s eyes went crimson. This was going to end very, very badly.

“Shade,” Ky said quietly, “bring Wraith down.” He turned to Val, whose dark gaze promised as much blood as Wraith’s. “You’d best back off. We need him to get the amulet from Byzamoth. And you know you can’t hurt him. Trying would be suicide.” Suicide, even if Wraith wasn’t in possession of the charm.

Serena placed a restraining hand on Wraith’s, and though he still looked like he was mentally fitting Val for a coffin, he’d stopped growling.

“Val, please,” she said calmly, as if she didn’t have over two hundred pounds of enraged demon vampire crouched over her. “The most important thing here is to stop Byzamoth. We all need to work together.”

“We agreed to work with the charmed one,” David said, “but we didn’t know he was a demon. We’re not working with them. No way.”

“Then lube up and prepare to call Byzamoth daddy,” Wraith said, not helping the situation at all.

One of the Elders, Juan, cleared his throat. “Kynan. Tayla. As Regent and former Regent, surely you recognize the problems inherent in Guardians working with demons?”

“I know firsthand.” Tayla morphed into her hybrid Soulshredder form, her veiny wings scraping the wall. Gasps filled the air. “Because I’m half demon.” She shifted back, rolled her shoulders. “Don’t make me do that again. It stings and makes me very cranky.”

David turned on her, his glower twisting his handsome face into something hideous. “You traitorous—”

“Be very careful what you say, human.” Eidolon’s eyes had gone as red as Wraith’s, and he now looked every inch the demon he was.

A long, tense silence had Kynan twitching. Finally, Val turned to him, though he shot wary glances at Tayla. “Did you know about her? Did you know she was a demon when you recommended her for the Regent position?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus, Kynan. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking,” Kynan said, “that she’s a warrior with damned good instincts. She can think on her feet. She knows the difference between good demons and bad ones—”

“There are no good demons,” Val bit out.

“Right now none of that matters,” Kynan said, because they didn’t have time to argue. “What matters is stopping Byzamoth. And trust me, you need Wraith to do that.”

Muffled grumbles rose up in the Aegis ranks. Val held up his hand; everyone went silent. “He’s right. We need to concentrate on the situation at hand.”

Kynan swore the house breathed a sigh of relief. Still, the room was way too crowded with mortal enemies. And Serena didn’t look comfortable in bed, where the state of the sheets and the discarded clothes on the floor told an X-rated story.

“Let’s clear out,” Kynan said. “We only need a few players in here.”

There was some discussion between the Elders and Guardians, and then most of them filed out, leaving only Val and his son, David. Gem and Tayla left to keep an eye on things outside. Reaver had come in, stood at the end of the bed, watching Serena with sad eyes.

Calmer now, Wraith sat on the edge of the bed, holding Serena’s hand. Still, he locked gazes with Val, who cleared his throat imperiously.

“The city of Jerusalem is being evacuated. Hundreds of Aegis and military teams will be in place at the Temple Mount in a matter of hours,” Val said to Wraith. “I assume you’ll use a Harrowgate to make it on time?”

“Duh.”

Shade sighed, and Eidolon rubbed his temples.

“You will distract Byzamoth so The Aegis can retrieve the amulet. Should you gain possession of it, you will immediately hand it over to a Guardian.”

Kynan winced as Wraith came to his feet. “Blow me. This isn’t your show, and I don’t take orders from slayers.”

“Josh. Val.” Serena’s thin voice drew everyone’s attention. The dark circles beneath her eyes seemed to have grown ten times worse in the last few minutes. “Just… get the necklace. Don’t fight.”

Wraith nodded and took her hand, and was it Ky’s imagination, or did her arm look thinner, more fragile? “Sorry.” He slid Val a covert glare, as if upsetting Serena had been entirely the human’s fault.

The room fell silent except for the sound of her raspy breaths, until Reaver spoke up. “I’m going with you.”

E cocked an eyebrow. “I thought you couldn’t help.”

“Fuck that.”

“How can you help, angel?” Wraith asked, and both Val and David gaped.

“Angel?” David echoed.

“Fallen. Don’t get excited.” Reaver shook his head. “I can fight him, but I can’t do it alone. He’s stronger than I am. He’s drawing on the power of evil. I, on the other hand, can’t claim the power of the Heavens or Hell.”

Wraith tucked Serena against him and ran his palm up and down her arm. “So we tag team him.”

“We tag team him,” Reaver agreed.

E clapped Wraith on the back. “I’m going with you. Tay, Luc, and Ky are coming with us. There’ll be a lot of casualties.”

They’d decided not to send Shade, because his medical gift would be needed here to care for Serena, and Gem was staying behind to help. All of the Guardians would remain in what was now Central Command. They would be responsible for calling in reinforcements, providing situation reports to Aegis cells worldwide, and basically, acting as the second line of defense should Wraith fail.

Of course, should Wraith fail, a second line wouldn’t make a drop of difference.

“Game on, then,” Wraith said. “We leave together. But Shade? No one takes Serena anywhere.” Wraith glared at Val, his voice dripping with warning. “No one.”

Shade crossed his arms over his broad chest, moved to the head of the bed, and nodded. “No one.”

Wraith kissed Serena so tenderly that something lurched in Kynan’s chest. He’d never in a million years have believed that Wraith could feel so strongly about anyone, especially a human. That the woman was dying only made the situation more unbelievable—and tragic.

Kynan thought of Gem and wondered what he’d do if he found out she was dying. God, he’d probably wither up and die with her.

Screw that. He wasn’t going to lose her to death or to anything else. Not now, and since things here seemed to be under control, he slipped out of the room.

In the living room, he walked into a tension soup. Four Guardians stood on one side of the room, Luc on the other, and all were glaring. The Guardians couldn’t know Luc was a werewolf, but they knew he was there with the Sem brothers, so they’d naturally assume he was some sort of baddie.

Ky pulled Luc aside. “Have you seen Gem?”

“Not my day to watch her.” Luc growled when one of the Guardians not-so-casually drew his stang and tested the edge. “But I saw her go into the kitchen a minute ago.”

Luc’s gaze went right back to a female Guardian standing near a window, and strangely enough, her gaze was fixed just as intently on him.

“What’s going on?” Kynan asked.

Luc smiled, which was little more than a baring of his teeth. “She’s a warg. She knows I know, but I’m guessing her human buddies don’t know. She’s afraid I’ll tell.”

“Are you going to?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

Luc’s voice dropped an octave. “Whether or not she gives me what I want.”

“And that is?”

“Fifteen minutes. Naked.”

“That’s blackmail.”

Luc snorted. “Wargs call it negotiation.”

“So you want fifteen minutes… what will she want?”

“With me?” Luc winked. “Two hours.”

Kynan shook his head. Wargs.

He found Gem in the kitchen, staring into the fridge. He didn’t bother asking her to come with him. He seized her hand and dragged her to the only room that was empty.

The bathroom. He shot Lore the bird on the way past.

“Kynan! What are you doing?”

He shut the door, spun, and kissed her. She made a small sound of outrage, but he pushed her up against the door, kept kissing her, and after a moment she relaxed against him.

“I don’t care what you are, Gem. I want you. I love you. And if our kids are a quarter demon, I can live with that. If you can’t, we’ll adopt. Or we’ll get a surrogate. It doesn’t matter.”

Gem’s mouth fell open. Closed. Fell open again. “What… what brought this on?”

“The woman Wraith loves is dying. They might only have hours left together. I know you have hundreds of years to live, and I can only give you a fraction of that with me, but watching Wraith and Serena made me realize that I can’t waste our time. Marry me, Gem. Be with me for as long as I have left.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and fear cut him wide open. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.

“I’m sorry, Ky… I can’t. Maybe after the battle and things settle down, we can see, but right now, I think you’re looking at the end and grasping at what you can.”

“Damn you,” he gritted out. “Why do you keep telling me what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling?”

“Because someone has to.” She tore out of the bathroom, leaving him staring at the wall. Outside, he heard a commotion, the sound of weapons being prepared, of battle looming.

Good. He was going to take out his frustrations on a lot of demons, because the one he wanted… didn’t want him.