Passion Unleashed

  “Serena? What’s wrong?”

  “Headache,” she muttered. “I need to lie down. Do you mind?”

  Yes, he minded. He minded so much his heart was ripping in half. Because somehow, he knew that once she was down, she wasn’t getting back up.

  Serena had just put on a tank top and shorts and was looking at the bed like a lover when her cell phone rang. Feeling unreasonably weak, she dug it out of her backpack and flipped it open

  “Val?”

  “Where are you?” he barked.

  She sighed. “Hello to you, too.”

  “Where are you?”

  A sudden spike of dread made her legs wobble, and she sank onto the bed. “I’m at the house you sent us to. Why?”

  “Us. So you aren’t alone?”

  “Josh is with me.”

  There was a moment of tense silence, broken by the sound of someone near him whispering. David. “Serena, listen to me very carefully.”

  “You’re starting to scare me.”

  “Good. Are you somewhere private? Where you can’t be heard?”

  She glanced at the closed door. “Yes, but what is this about?”

  “In the smallest room at the back of the house, there’s a chest full of weapons. As quietly as you can, I need you to arm up, and then lock yourself in the bedroom and wait. We should be there in a matter of hours.”

  Goose bumps crawled over her skin. “Val?” Her voice was trembling as hard as she was. “What’s going on?”

  “I just spoke with Josh,” he said, the chill in his tone sending her into an emotional tailspin, “and the man you’re with isn’t him.”

  Twenty-four

  Wraith turned off the stove burner and searched the cupboards for a bowl. He’d made Serena soup, and he wanted to get it down her before she fell asleep.

  His pocket vibrated, and he checked his phone. E. “What?” he said, as he poured soup into the bowl.

  “You need to come home. Get to the nearest Harrowgate.”

  “Not happening.”

  “Wraith, listen to me. You’re in danger. Byzamoth is going to come after you.”

  Wraith went taut. “I thought you said the charm can only be transferred through sex. If he thinks he can take it from me that way… ah, well, I don’t play for that team, and even if I did, man, you should see him when he morphs—”

  “He doesn’t want to have sex with you.”

  Wraith dug a spoon out of a drawer. “I’m oddly crushed and relieved.”

  Eidolon’s voice sounded frayed with annoyance, as usual. “He needs charmed blood. Once he figures out that Serena is no longer charmed, he’ll want yours.”

  “He’s not getting that, either.”

  “Dammit, Wraith, you need to come to the hospital where he wouldn’t dare try to get to you.”

  Wraith peeked down the hall to make sure Serena was still in her room. “I’m at full strength now, bro. I can take him.”

  “He’s immortal.”

  “He can still be hurt.”

  “It’s not worth the risk. We spoke with Reaver. The charm is ineffective against fallen angels. Come to the hospital.”

  “I’m not leaving Serena.”

  “Get your ass in a Harrowgate. Now.”

  “You know what?” Wraith dropped the pan onto the stove, splashing soup all over the wall. “Fuck you, E.”

  “We’re coming to get you.”

  Wraith took a deep, soothing breath, in what was probably his first attempt to be calm. Ever. “Eidolon, this isn’t one of my rebellious, death-wish, stubborn-for-no-reason moves. For once in my life, I’m doing something for someone else. I’m going to keep Serena safe, and I’m going to find a cure for her.”

  “Really?” Serena’s cold voice came from behind him. He spun to find her standing in the hallway. Fire sparked in her eyes… and she was holding a stang. “What do you plan to do, Josh?”

  “Ah… hey. What are you—”

  She launched the S-shaped blade at him, and though he was certain she had deadly aim, the weapon veered to the left and took out the bowl of soup. “I knew it wouldn’t hit you, seeing how you’re charmed and all, but it felt good to throw it.”

  Whoa, she was lit up. Wraith threw down the phone and moved toward her. “What’s going on, Serena?”

  She took a few steps back, until she was at the bedroom doorway. “Who are you? Who are you, really?”

  Oh, shit.

  She shook with fury. “And don’t you dare tell me your name is Josh.”

  “It’s Wraith. I told you, my name is Wraith.”

  “Why should I believe that, when everything else you’ve told me was a lie?” Her voice sounded empty, as though she’d been carved out by pain.

  Guilt made his chest hurt, because for the first time in his life, he understood how it felt to inflict pain on someone who didn’t deserve it.

  “Not… everything has been a lie,” he said lamely, because the important things had been.

  “Uh-huh. Why did you do it? I mean, I can guess, but I want to hear it from your filthy, lying mouth.”

  “I was dying, Serena. I needed the charm to live.” He inched toward her. “It’s not as bad as it seems.” It was far worse than what it seemed.

  “Did you know I would die? Before I told you?”

  He averted his gaze, but dragged it back to meet hers once more. She deserved that, at least. “Yes.”

  She blanched and stumbled back. “Oh, my God. You disgusting, murdering, bastard!”

  “Serena, listen to me—”

  She slammed the door in his face. And locked it. She had to know it wouldn’t keep him out, but he gave her credit for trying. He kicked it in.

  “We aren’t through yet.”

  Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Oh, we’re through. We’re so through. I want you gone,” she screamed. “Get out! Get out and let me die in peace.”

  “That’s not going to happen. I can’t leave you unprotected.”

  “Unprotected? Are you kidding me? You killed me!”

  Agony wracked his insides, far worse than anything the poison had done to him. “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” he said hoarsely. “I couldn’t carry through with it. Not once I got to know you. That’s why I was going to get off the train in Cairo.”

  “How noble,” she spat. “How you must have suffered when I forced myself on you.”

  “That,” he said slowly, deliberately, so she would never doubt this, “was the best night of my life.”

  “I actually believe that.” She snorted. “It was the best night of your life because you weren’t dying anymore.”

  He got in her face so fast she blinked as though trying to figure out how he was suddenly inches away. “No. It was because it was the first time I made love to anyone. You can call me a liar for anything else, but do not doubt me on this. And I swear to you that you were the first, and you will be the last.”

  A cold ache drilled a hollow in his chest. He needed sex or he’d suffer, but he would never make love to a female again.

  She swallowed hard, but in an instant the fury came back and she shoved hard at his shoulders. When he didn’t budge, she scooted around him and put a good fifteen feet between them. It felt more like light years.

  Sudden evil screamed through the air, increasing the pressure in the house with the violence of a spring storm. The window blew inward, and a swirling black cloud surrounded Serena. It solidified, and Byzamoth, grinning, was holding her, her back to his chest, his hand clamped over her mouth.

  “Hello, Josh,” the fallen angel said, clearly aware of the truth. Serena’s backstabber at work again. He looked between Serena and Wraith. “Fucking tell me it isn’t true. Tell me this little whore didn’t give you her charm.”

  “I’d tell you that,” Wraith growled, “but it would be a lie.”

  Serena made a noise of outrage, and Byzamoth shifted his hand, allowing her to fire off a shot. “Oh, now you decide to tell the truth?”
r />   Though her verbal slap smarted, he ignored her. If Byzamoth knew how much Serena meant to Wraith, he’d have a damned effective weapon to use against him. “So, angel, what gave me away? Someone leak it to you? Or is the post-coital glow?”

  Byzamoth hissed. “Something like that, you fuck. You aren’t cloaked.” He shoved Serena onto the bed. She bounced awkwardly and rolled into the headboard. Byzamoth drew a sword from his robes, a dull silver blade that glowed azure in a thin line down the length of the metal and at the hilt, where symbols pulsed. He pointed the sharp tip at Serena but never took his eyes off Wraith.

  “No sudden moves, or I run her through. My specialty is destruction, Sem, so I know how to use this.”

  Man, he was going to rip this guy’s heart out and feed it to him.

  “You’ve really fucked things up.” Byzamoth gestured to Serena with a flick of the blade. “Fucked her all up, too. Pun intended.” He bared his teeth. “No matter. I’ll still get what I want. Destruction. Yours. Hers. The world as you know it. I think I’ll start small and work my way up to mass chaos.”

  Serena’s glare promised pain if she ever got her hands on the fallen angel. “You aren’t going to get away with whatever it is you have planned, you know.”

  Byzamoth laughed, carelessly lowering his blade. “This is like a bad movie. The good guys all tied up with no hope of survival, but darn it, they’re still plucky. ‘You’ll never get away with this,’ ” he mocked.

  Wraith charged Byzamoth. The angel spun and tipped up the sword. Serena cried out, and Wraith froze. A four-inch gash streaked her shoulder, its edges as smooth and clean as a scalpel’s slash. The sword hadn’t touched her, but it had somehow sliced her flesh open and was now aimed at her throat.

  “Serena!”

  “It’s okay,” she said, slapping her hand over the bleeding wound. “I’m okay.”

  “Such bravery.” Byzamoth rolled his eyes. “Does it really matter, Serena? Given your condition?”

  Wraith’s gaze cut sharply to the fallen angel. “Go to hell, you sonofabitch.” He flexed his hands, dying to get them around Byzamoth’s throat.

  “Been there, done that. But then, so have you.” He made another tiny cut in Serena’s arm to get her attention, and she didn’t even flinch. “You’re going to pay for choosing him over me.”

  “There was no choice.” She bared her teeth so viciously Wraith almost expected to see fangs. Under any other circumstances, that might have been hot. “Josh might be a lying scumbag, but at least he’s human.”

  Realization dawned, and Byzamoth turned to Wraith. Serena chose that moment to lunge at the fallen angel. Wraith leaped to catch her, but lightning fast, Byzamoth seized her, held her with an arm looped around her neck, her feet dangling off the ground.

  “Idiot,” Byzamoth said into her ear. “He’s a demon. An incubus, a master of seduction. You gave it up for a demon as evil as I am, you stupid human slut.”

  “Liar!” she spat, but when she looked to Wraith for support, her expression fell. “Josh? Tell him.”

  Wraith said nothing. What was there to say? She stopped struggling. Just stared at Wraith like she’d never seen him before.

  “Was it worth it, Serena? Was having a demon between your legs worth your life, you foul whore?”

  Wraith’s body jerked with fury. Serena was good and pure and everything Wraith wasn’t. “Take your filthy hands off her!”

  “Yes,” she snapped. “Do. I’m going to kill him.”

  Byzamoth laughed and released her. The moment her feet hit the ground, she launched herself at Wraith. She slapped him so hard his head snapped around. Her fists pounded against his chest. He did nothing. Closing his eyes, he took the strikes, wishing she’d hit harder, draw blood.

  “You sonofabitch!” she screamed. “You goddamned sonofabitch! I hate you.”

  Her tears flowed in rivulets down her face. He could smell her fury, her fear, and it sliced at him like no physical weapon ever had.

  She struck him over and over, each blow growing weaker. As her strength faded away, so did the color in her face. She swayed, blinking unfocused eyes, and then collapsed. He caught her before she hit the floor and swept her into his arms, feeling the fragility in her body, the delicate set of her bones that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe he’d chosen not to notice.

  The chickenshit bastard attacked while Wraith’s arms were full. Byzamoth hauled the sword around, catching Wraith in the shins. The snap of bone rent the air, and a firestorm of misery swept his entire body.

  Wraith’s feet flew out from under him, but he twisted as he fell, took the brunt of the fall on his shoulder to protect Serena. His legs didn’t work, crippling his ability to get back at Byzamoth, and the fallen angel didn’t spare Wraith any mercy. His foot came down on the back of Wraith’s skull, over and over, and as the kicks rained down, he could do little but roll on top of Serena, shielding her.

  A searing, slicing pain ripped through his back and belly. Once, twice. The wet sound of a blade grating against bone screamed in his ears as, for the third time, a red-hot poker of agony gutted him. Through blurred vision, he looked between his body and Serena’s, saw the bloody end of a sword buried in the floor.

  Oh… oh, Gods. He’d been stabbed through the back and impaled, the blade barely missing Serena.

  Cranking his head around, he saw Byzamoth smile as he crouched to catch a stream of Wraith’s blood in a vial he’d drawn from his robes. “And the blood of the Charmed One shall open the Gates of Abyssos.”

  “No.” Serena’s voice was a weak whisper as she struggled to crawl from beneath Wraith.

  “Now, you little whore, you can watch your demon lover die.” Byzamoth drew one finger across her cheek. “I think, after I’ve taken my place as a god, that I’ll make you my whore. See, I can keep you alive, and soon enough, you will beg for death.”

  Byzamoth swirled in a dramatic circle, and in a poof of dark smoke, he was gone. Wraith groaned and fell onto his side, pain tearing through him as the blade wrenched through his gut.

  “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 Lo
re 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 fucked 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… fuck, 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 fuck? 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 fuck?” Eidolon stood in the center of the office, eyes red, blood dripping down his chin.