Lore swung around to him. “Why’s that?”
“He made me swear to kill him when he lost his humanity. Which pretty much happened when Aegi scum killed his would-be mate.”
“Hey,” Tayla huffed. “Aegi scum present, you know.”
Wraith grinned, and Sin got the impression that those two took a lot of pleasure in needling each other. “So let’s say we get our volunteer,” she said, “cure the disease, and a truce is called in the civil war. Will the Warg Council still want my head?”
Con reached for a glass of water sitting on the bedside table, and handed it to her. “I’ll talk to them.”
“And the chances of them backing off?” Shade asked.
Con’s expression was grim. “Not good.” He stroked the back of her hand absently, but Sin noticed that her brothers’ eyes zeroed in on the action. Impossible to tell what they were thinking. Well, Wraith was clearly amused, but the others… not so much. “As soon as you find a volunteer and we confirm a cure, I’ll go to them. I have a little clout and some of the members owe me.”
Sin’s eyes stung. He was willing to use up some favors for her? All of these guys were willing to help her? Once again, emotion overwhelmed her, and she vaulted out of bed. “I need a glass of water.”
Never mind that she had one in her hand. She needed to get out of there. She was on emotional overload and short-circuiting was a danger.
She took the stairs down two at a time and darted into the kitchen, where she backed into a corner and stood there, panting, wondering what in the hell was going on with her. She didn’t know how long she’d been there when she heard someone coming down the steps. Too light for any of the guys.
Tayla.
“I’m surprised they sent you,” Sin said when Tay entered the kitchen. “I was betting on Lore or Shade.”
“I had to convince those two to stay.” Tay rolled her eyes. “Which was easier than convincing Con not to chase you.”
For some reason, that made Sin all warm and fuzzy.
“Eidolon, of course, wanted to come check your vitals. I think Wraith just wanted to make fun of you.”
Sin snorted. “And you?”
Tayla’s hand dropped to her thigh holster, where the hilt of a dagger protruded from its leather housing, and Sin instinctively tensed. But the slayer’s fingers only played with the sleek wooden handle. Still, her gaze was steady, fearless, focused like green laser beams, and the way she was studying Sin was almost adversarial.
“Wraith and I don’t agree on much,” she said slowly, “but we do have a meeting of the minds—feeble as his is—when it comes to protecting the family.”
Okay, Sin knew where this was going. “And you’re afraid I’m going to hurt my brothers. Yeah, yeah, Wraith already gave me the hurt-them-and-you’ll-be-sorry speech, so save your breath.”
Tayla’s fingers continued to caress the weapon. “Look, I know you don’t want to talk—”
“You don’t know anything,” Sin snapped.
One eyebrow arched up. “I think you’d be surprised.”
“Really? Why don’t you share.”
Tayla hopped up on the table and folded her hands in her lap as though settling in for a nice, long lecture. Great. “Okay, here’s the deal. My mom was a junkie. I was born on the floor of an abandoned warehouse, addicted to heroin. I grew up in foster homes and on the streets. I was abused. I did drugs. I stole. I was always in a lot of trouble. When I was a teenager, I watched my mom be torn apart by a demon. A Soulshredder. After that, I was even angrier. I joined The Aegis and killed every demon, vampire, and shapeshifter I could get my hands on. Eventually, I met Eidolon, discovered I had a twin sister, and learned the demon who tortured my mom was also my father. How’s that for a start?”
Christ. No wonder Tayla’s emerald eyes were those of a warrior. She might not be as old as Sin, but she’d fought just as hard to survive. Grudging respect for her sister-in-law softened Sin’s demeanor. “You have my attention.”
“Good. Because I was royally pissed off for a long time. At the world, at humans, at demons. I hated everyone and everything.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the difference between you and me,” Sin said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t hate the world.”
“No, you just hate yourself.” Before Sin could even attempt to deny that, Tay asked, “What do you think of Lore?”
Sin blinked at the rapid change of subject. “What?”
“Lore. Do you respect his feelings? Do you think he’s a bad judge of character?”
“I’ve always trusted his judgment. Why?”
“Because he loves you. So if he’s a good judge of character…”
Sin rolled her eyes. “Please. Spare me the psychobabble and pep talk. I’m not going to off myself or anything. I’m free now, and life is good.”
“Is Con part of it? Your good life?”
Butterflies flitted in Sin’s stomach. The sensation was weird, almost panic-inducing, but at the same time, it was strangely… pleasant.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tayla leveled a flat stare at Sin. “I’m neither blind nor stupid. I saw the way you freaked when he offered to do something nice for you.”
“Doesn’t matter. He doesn’t want me. Not like that.”
“How many bullshit flags do I have to throw down? You didn’t see him when he got to our apartment. He was terrified for you. I thought he was going to explode out of his skin while the boys were working on you. And just a minute ago, I saw how he looked at you. He might not want to admit it, even to himself, but there’s something there. Let him in, Sin. I know it’s hard. Giving myself to Eidolon was the toughest thing I’ve ever done. But I haven’t regretted it. Not once. Con’s a good guy, and you can also trust your brothers.”
God, this was getting so old. “I don’t need—”
“I know. You don’t need them.” Sarcasm laced Tayla’s words. “You don’t need anyone. But you know what? They need you.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Sin slammed her glass of water on the counter, sloshing liquid everywhere. “They’ve done fine without me.”
There was a long silence, and then Tayla smiled, but it was a sad upturn of her lips. “No, they haven’t. Their sick, twisted brother, your brother, Roag, nearly destroyed their lives. And he tortured and killed Shade’s sister. But in a way, he brought Lore and you to them. If they can turn Roag’s deeds into something positive… Let’s just say they need that.” She closed her eyes and took a ragged breath. “My father was a monster. I can still taste my mom’s blood on my tongue because it was so thick in the air. But because of him, I have a sister. The fact that some tiny bit of good came out of the horrors he inflicted on me and my mother has kept me sane and kept me from wasting my life on bitterness.”
Sin turned away, unable to think too hard about what Tayla had said. Because for as much as Tayla and Sin had in common, they couldn’t be more opposite. Sin had wasted her life on bitterness.
Maybe Tayla was right. Maybe it was time to accept the good things that had come into her life instead of shoving them away. Her brothers were tight, and though things had been rough for a while, the way they’d ultimately accepted Lore into the fold was absolute, like he’d never been missing. Maybe they’d accept her like that.
A strange frisson of longing shot through her. She hadn’t had a family, a real family, in more than a hundred years. Then again, the very idea made her break out into a cold sweat.
And then there was Con. She’d told him things she’d never told anyone. She’d done things with him she’d never done, and her body heated at the memories. He’d protected her when he could have killed her. He forced her to confront things she didn’t want to… and even though it totally wasn’t cool, no one else had ever bothered to go that far with her. Not even Lore, who wanted to be close but was too afraid of pushing her away.
Con pushed, and instead of running, she’d pushed
right back.
“Sin?” Tayla’s hand came down on Sin’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Instead of replying, Sin asked a question of her own. “How did you let Eidolon in?”
A blast of affection flowed over Sin like a blanket, and that weird, warm longing came back. “I realized I was a better person when I was with him. So I told him my darkest secrets. I let him see the worst sides of me. And he wanted me more than ever.”
Sin had already told Con her secrets. He’d seen her at her worst.
And he’d said he wouldn’t leave her.
She turned around, looked at Tayla. Looked at the stairs that led to the room where her brothers and Con were gathered. Where they’d taken care of her. Saved her life.
She was in a house full of people who were there for her. The knowledge leveled her. Laid her out like she’d been kicked in the head.
She really did have a family, and the emotional tether between her and them was getting stronger. Tightening. But would it become an embrace, or a noose?
Con paced in the bedroom, weaving between the Sem brothers as he waited for either Tayla or Sin to return. Relief that she’d survived the assassin attack was tempered by the fact that she seemed to have reverted to her distant self, the Sin that no one could get through to.
Maybe Tayla was having some luck. He didn’t know the Guardian well, but he did know she was tough, and she hadn’t had an easy life. It was possible that she could relate to Sin on a female level no one else could.
The brothers were all watching him speculatively, but he ignored them. “Those bastards we killed outside the house, they were all assassins?”
Lore nodded. “I checked their bonds. The ones who hadn’t disintegrated before I got to them, anyway. Three worked for two different masters, but the other four belonged to Sin.”
“Son of a bitch.” He paused. “Did you see a dude on a stallion?”
The brothers all shook their heads. “Why?” Lore asked.
“I saw what looked like a knight on a horse when my house was firebombed. He barely missed Sin with an arrow, and then when we were under attack at the warg settlement, he saved us. I’m confused as hell. Do you know of any assassins who work from horseback?”
Lore folded his arms over his chest, which was criss-crossed by a loaded weapons harness. Not even Wraith was that well armed. Of course, Wraith didn’t need to be. “No, and that would be a stupid way to do business for an assassin. Not very subtle.”
“We need to get Sin out of here,” Con said. “It’s only a matter of time until assassins get past Rivesta’s barrier.”
Eidolon nodded. “We’ll get her to the hospital. She’ll be safe there.” He turned to Wraith. “See if you can find Luc. If he’s cool with it, we can run the infection experiment on him.”
“He’s not going to be cool with it,” Wraith said. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
No, Con did not see Luc volunteering. The guy was truly an all-for-one-and-one-for-me type, and risking his life for complete strangers wasn’t in him. And though Con might not say it to Luc’s face, he really didn’t want the warg to volunteer. Luc had grown on him. Like a fungus, maybe, but still… he’d grown.
“How’s the virus?” Eidolon asked Con. “In you. Is it under control?”
Jesus, how could he have forgotten to mention that earlier? “It’s gone. Since last night.”
“Then you won’t feed on Sin anymore, right?” Shade’s dark eyes fixed on Con, and somehow… Shade knew. He was well aware of the addiction issues. But how?
Con glanced between the other brothers, but as far as he could tell, they didn’t know, nor had they picked up on Shade’s underlying concern. “I don’t need her blood anymore,” he assured the demon. “Now, we’d better go.”
Shade blocked the door. “Hold on, dhampire.” The shadows in the male’s eyes writhed madly, and Con knew what was up before Shade said it. “So you’re done with the feedings. But what else is going on with you and her?”
A knowing smile curved Wraith’s mouth. “Duh. He’s boning her.”
“How serious is it?” Lore asked, and no, this wasn’t embarrassing at all.
“There’s nothing going on.” He hoped he sounded more convincing to them than he sounded to himself, because there was something going on between them, no matter how much he tried to keep it from happening.
“Good,” Shade said. “You know I like you, man. But you have… issues. If you hurt her…”
Shade didn’t need to finish his sentence, because the warning in the brothers’ eyes said it all. Con would die. Painfully.
Lore moved forward, and Con stiffened. “You’ve been taking care of her. Thank you. But you should know that if you’re looking for anything other than sex from her, you’re not going to get it.”
For some bizarre reason, that struck a nerve. Sin was more than a hole to drill, and though Con got what Lore was trying to say, it still shifted his temper into overdrive as his own shame over how he’d once treated her heated his cheeks.
“Yeah?” he spat. “And why is that? Maybe it’s because you abandoned her when she needed you the most, and now she thinks everyone will do the same?”
The temperature in the room dropped to subarctic levels, and a range of emotions, from guilt to fury, crossed Lore’s face. “You don’t know what the fuck happened.”
Con got right up in Lore’s grille, his anger mounting as everything Sin had told him roared back. Instinct made him want to defend her, avenge her, and prove that Lore was wrong about getting nothing but sex from her.
Even though Lore had to be right.
“I know that people owned her, tortured her. I know she cradles her dagger like a stuffed animal when she sleeps because she doesn’t feel safe. I know you left her like a coward and then sat on your ass feeling sorry for yourself while she was fighting just to survive—”
Lore’s gloved fist slammed into Con’s jaw. Con lurched backward, caught himself, and returned fire with a jab to the gut and an uppercut to the chin. He ducked another of Lore’s punches, but took a boot in the chest hard enough to make him suck air.
“Stop it!” Sin rammed Lore into the wall and turned on Con, shoving him against the opposite wall. “What’s this about?”
“Just a little alpha posturing.” Lore shot Con a glare, and Con nearly went at him again.
Sin narrowed her eyes at both of them, then settled on Con. “Just keep in mind that Lore is not a warg. Winning a fight does not give you special privileges.”
Con blinked and then grinned as the impish twitch of Sin’s mouth brought dawning realization—she remembered the battles followed by sex in the warg village.
Lore dabbed blood from his mouth with the back of his bare hand. “What the hell are you smiling about?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Then, in front of everyone, he grabbed Sin and kissed her, not caring—actually, taking a perverse pleasure in the fact—that her brothers were tense as nocked arrows. “You,” he said against her lips, “are wicked.”
And he was so screwed.
Seventeen
“Go to hell, Valeriu. And take the Sigil with you.” Kynan slammed the satellite phone down so hard that a piece of plastic snapped off it and pinged off the stone wall of Shade’s Central American cave. Cursing, he checked to make sure the phone still worked. It did, but damn, he was pissed. Beyond pissed. And he hoped to hell Serena hadn’t heard him telling her father to bend over for Satan’s big stiffie.
But fuck if he was going to take orders from the R-XR again.
Picking up the phone, he sank down on the leather couch that ran the length of the cave’s living room wall. He started to dial Tay’s cell phone number… and froze at the hair-raising rumble of a growl.
The women had heard the intruder before Kynan did. It wasn’t that he wasn’t alert; it was just that Serena was a vampire with uber-sharp senses, and Runa was a werewolf with ultra-sensitive hearing even when she was in hum
an form.
Which she wasn’t right now.
Runa, thanks to military experimentation immediately after she was bitten by a warg—Luc—had been altered. She still shifted into a raging beast on the three nights of the full moon, but she could also shift at will. The way she just had.
Her snarls echoed off the smooth rock walls of the cave. Kynan, drawing his Sig, darted to the kitchen, where Runa was standing on two strong, toffee-furred legs, teeth bared. Behind her, Serena, fangs bared, blocked the doorway to the bedroom, where Runa and Shade’s triplets, and Serena and Wraith’s son, were sleeping.
The narrow entryway filled as someone stepped inside. Kynan held his breath, letting his finger ease from the trigger guard to the trigger.
He damn near sighed with relief when Runa’s brother and Kynan’s old Army buddy Arik stepped out of the shadows. Arik wore a standard-issue beige T-shirt with his cammie BDU pants, an M-9 Beretta at his hip, but his hands were empty, and when he held them up, Ky lowered the weapon.
“Take it easy.” Arik’s voice was the calm, soothing drawl of a police negotiator talking someone off a ledge. But Ky knew Arik well enough to recognize a rare note of stress. “I’m not here to take you in, Runa.”
Kynan angled his body so he could cover the cave entrance. “Are you alone?”
“Of course I am,” Arik snapped. His muscled arms bunched up hard, as though he was prepared to end any further doubt with his fists. Because of the charm, Kynan couldn’t be injured—unless he wanted to be injured. He hadn’t had a decent challenge in months, and he almost hoped Arik would throw a punch just so Ky could work off some aggression.
For a long moment tension circulated in the cool air, and then Runa shifted back into her petite human form. Ky and Arik averted their gazes as Serena handed her a robe to replace the clothes that had been shredded by her shift. One of the babies started crying, and Serena disappeared back into the bedroom.
“I’m sorry, Arik,” Runa said, the rustle of cloth on skin mingling with her voice as she shrugged into the robe. “You startled us. And the R-XR does want me as a lab rat.”