Pleasure Unbound

Chapter 17

Eidolon had never liked vampires. Not after what they’d done to Wraith. Not after what they’d reportedly done to their father when Eidolon was just two years old.

The thread of prejudice had woven itself deep into the fabric of his soul, but his upbringing had given him enough of a sense of logic to realize that not every vampire was the same. He’d been fond of Nancy, some of his hardest-working staff members were vampires, and he’d enjoyed all of the female vamps he’d bedded.

But he would never feel anything but contempt for any member of the Vampire Council. Worms and cowards, all seventeen of them. He’d love to get even one of them under his scalpel.

Outside the hospital, of course.

They’d summoned him through his personal portal, as they always did, though they probably hadn’t expected him to respond so quickly. This was the first time he’d seen the summons when it came, and he’d taken only a few minutes to shower and don a robe. Tayla had asked questions, but he’d avoided them, telling her only to help herself to whatever she wanted in the kitchen and make herself comfortable.

Now he stood in the Vampire Council chambers, where they stared at him, their haughty asses planted in gilded, thronelike chairs arranged in a semicircle around the portal that had brought him here. Red and black tapers burned in copper candelabra, adding to the mystical and theatrical atmosphere. If there was one thing vamps loved, it was drama. Hollywood had invented the Gothic vampire melodrama, and the vamps had adopted it as fashion.

Eidolon really, really did not like vampires.

Come forward.

The mental compulsion came from the Key, a silver-haired vampire named Komir. Eidolon resisted the command, willed his feet to remain where they were. He was here to answer for a crime, but this wasn’t his species’ Council, and fuck if he was going to obey as if it were.

“My respect for your work only goes so far, incubus,” Komir said, and Eidolon smiled.

“My medical work, or my work on the females of your species?” It was something Wraith would have said, which seemed appropriate, given that Eidolon was here to pay for Wraith’s transgressions.

“Both,” a female to the right said, her voice an appreciative husky murmur he suspected would go even huskier just before climax.

“Silence, Victoria,” Komir snapped, and then gestured to one of the two burly enforcers flanking Eidolon. “Escort him to the platform.”

The platform that was stained with the blood of countless others, that would soon be stained with Eidolon’s. Again.

“Hold,” he said. “One of yours was recently taken by Ghouls. What do you know of them?”

Komir’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?”

“Because the victims end up in my hospital, dead or dying.”

Victoria sighed. “More vampires are killed by The Aegis every day than are taken by the black market operators in an entire year. We don’t care. Neither should you.”

Idiots. Shrugging off his robe, he strode naked to the platform without the aid of the enforcer thugs. He cleared his mind as he mounted the stone steps and stood beneath the reinforced wooden structure from which chains dangled. Numbing himself out was the only way to deal with this and, probably, the only way to survive.

A massive warrior vamp, whose name Eidolon didn’t know, stood. “Your brother Wraith has taken more than his limit of humans this month. Are you here to receive his punishment?”

“I am.” Though he’d really like to know how they always knew when Wraith killed a human. Thousands of vampires existed in the world, and they couldn’t all be policed. Yet the Council seemed to keep a running tab of Wraith’s kills. Granted, Wraith took pleasure in flaunting them, but still…

“The incubus is ready.” Komir’s lip peeled back to reveal fangs as sharp as a 33 gauge hypodermic needle. “Let it begin.”

The twenty-four hours were up. More than up, and since Eidolon hadn’t called, Gem was taking matters into her own hands. She’d have done it sooner, despite her promise to the other doctor, but she’d been stuck at the hospital on a sixteen-hour shift.

Shift over, and she was going to confront Tayla, and she was going to do it now.

She took the stairs to Tayla’s apartment two at a time. As she topped the second-floor landing, the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She crept to the apartment door, listened.

No noise from inside.

Still feeling the tingle of goosebumps crawling over her skin, she turned the doorknob. Unlocked. The door creaked open.

The rich, fresh odors of blood and death swirled around her, soaking into the walls and becoming another layer of scent in the ancient apartment, which had been ransacked. She entered, noted the boxes in the corner. No, not ransacked. Packed. Someone was moving Tayla’s things out.

A bloodstain marred the floor near the godawful orange couch. Humans wouldn’t see the soiled area, but it was there. Recent. It had been cleaned up within the last hour.

Where was Tayla?

Voices in the stairwell jammed her heart up into her esophagus.

“Shit, man, did you leave the door open?”

“Don’t think so.”

The unmistakable sound of metal blades clearing weapons’ housings echoed in the hallway.

Slayers.

A chill went through her, a bone-deep cold she hadn’t felt since she was a child and her parents had shared Aegis horror stories. The nightmares had plagued her into her teens, had come roaring back with a vengeance when she learned her own sister had become a slayer. A butcher.

A monster.

Gem shot to the bedroom, which was empty. No furnishings, no boxes.

Nowhere to hide.

“Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here,” a deep voice said.

“Who would steal anything from this shithole?”

Laughter belonging to several people filled the tiny apartment.

“Let’s just get this done. We have demons to string up.”

A wail of terror welled in Gem’s throat. There were five of them, at least. She might feel comfortable going up against one, maybe two. But five trained killers? She was outnumbered, outgunned, and she definitely didn’t have a death wish.

Quiet as a were-rat, she slipped into the closet. The restraining tats circling her neck, wrists, and ankles burned, making themselves known. Inside, her inner demon was clawing to get out.

She prayed it didn’t get its wish.

Tayla put her time alone in Eidolon’s condo to good use. Mainly, she snooped, partly to learn more about him, and partly to keep from thinking about what had happened between them.

Because what had happened had shaken her to the core. She’d needed him. Wanted him. Had let her guard down and couldn’t get it to come back up. He’d exposed every single one of her vulnerabilities, and somehow, she had to find a way to mash them back into the place she’d been keeping them.

Shaking off the thoughts she’d been trying to avoid, she went back to snooping while Mickey followed her, chattering endlessly as he explored every nook and cranny.

Eidolon’s living room, decorated in masculine browns, greens, and leather, revealed nothing except that he had expensive tastes.

A search of the den turned up little more than what was on the surface—wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with medical titles and strangely bound texts, most of which she couldn’t read.

Her stomach growled before she made it to either of the bedrooms, so she detoured to the kitchen. The contents of the fridge were a surprise; not that she’d expected quarts of blood and Tupperware containers full of brains, but the fresh fruits and veggies, lunch meats, and soy milk didn’t match up to her expectations. Then again, mixed in with the ketchup, margarine, and jars of pickles were containers she didn’t recognize, marked in languages she didn’t know.

Probably the brains and blood.

She reached for a package of sliced ham, but a thumping noise drew her up short. She closed the fridge door, snagged a knife from the block on the counter, and slipped quietly into the hallway. Easing along the wall, she followed the sound of raspy breathing, her heart pounding painfully in her chest.

Knife ready, she stepped into the den. Eidolon was on his hands and knees just outside the circle, every inch covered in blood, his head hanging so she couldn’t see his face.

“Oh, Jesus.” She crossed to him in three strides and sank to her knees in front of him. “Hellboy?”

A shudder wracked his body. She wanted to comfort him with a touch, but where? Deep slashes scored the skin of his back, his arms, his legs… even the soles of his feet had been laid open like overplumped hot dogs. Bone and muscle erupted from the shredded flesh, and blood dripped to the floor in a gentle patter of grotesque rain.

“I’m taking you to your hospital.” Unsure exactly how she was going to accomplish that, she pushed to her feet because she had to do something.

“No.” His voice was low, gurgling, as if he’d been flogged on the inside as well as the out. “Call… Shade.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said, but when his only response was to shudder again, she ran to the foyer, where he’d left his cell phone on a shelf.

With trembling fingers, she cycled through his address book to Shade’s cell number, and dialed.

“What’s up, E?” Shade’s voice, deeper than Eidolon’s, echoed in her ear.

“It’s Tayla. Look—”

“Where is he? What did you do to him?”

She lowered her voice and drifted farther away from the den. “I didn’t do anything to him. But he’s hurt. We’re in his condo… he went through that portal, and when he got back…” He’d looked like he went through a meat grinder. “He’s messed up. Bad.”

“Shit.” The sound of something breaking on the other end of the line was loud enough to make her jerk the phone away from her ear. “Turn up the heat as far as it’ll go. He’s probably in shock, but you can’t put a blanket on him because it’ll wick the blood out of his wounds. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He hung up, leaving her with the distinct impression that this had happened before. Sickened by the thought, she located the thermostat, set it for eighty-five degrees. As the hum of the heater filled the apartment, she hurried back to the den.

“Hey,” she murmured, as she sank down next to where he shivered on his hands and knees, in the same position as when she’d left him. He said nothing, but the straining muscles in his jaw told her why; he’d clenched his teeth so hard he couldn’t speak.

Nausea rolled through her. Who had done this to him? Other Seminus demons? Were they not allowed to kill humans? The questions ate at her, but until Shade arrived, the only thing she could do was to try to take Eidolon’s mind off his pain.

“I like your apartment,” she said. “I snooped. Hope that’s okay. Didn’t find anything weird.”

She let a teasing note filter into her voice, because as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t surprised at what she’d found in his apartment. Normalcy.

“So, uh… when do you think we’ll know what kind of demon my dear old dad was? I hope it isn’t something really horrible.” She almost laughed, because just a few days ago she’d made no distinction between really horrible and not as horrible when it came to demons.

Eidolon’s breathing grew more regular and less labored, so she kept talking, inane chatter about stupid things like her bad grades in school, her favorite food—oranges—her desire to learn to ice skate. By the time Shade stalked into the room, Eidolon knew more about her than anyone in The Aegis ever had, though she had no way of knowing if he actually heard what she’d said.

Shade didn’t spare her a glance as he dropped his medical kit and knelt at Eidolon’s head. “Hey, man, I’m here. You’re going to be all right.”

As though his brother’s presence had allowed him to feel again, Eidolon moaned, and the pain buried deep in the sound made her heart bleed.

“What did they do to him?” she whispered, and Shade’s flat eyes focused on her as if he had just realized she was in the room.

“Looks like a combination of fists and a cat o’ nines.” He slid his gaze over Eidolon’s frame and added, “They also used teeth.”

Ice formed in her chest. This was her fault. He’d been defending her when the Guardians attacked her in her apartment. He’d killed to protect her. “He didn’t deserve this.”

“Let it go, slayer.” Shade turned back to Eidolon, his expression softening as he gently took his brother’s face in his palms and lifted his head. “Those bastards really worked you over this time, didn’t they?”

“This time? He said he’d never killed a human before.”

“He hasn’t.”

She wanted to ask what he’d done to deserve the other beatings, but the cold rage in Shade’s expression didn’t invite questions.

Shade inspected his brother’s face, his touch tender and light. When he finished, he lowered Eidolon’s head and spoke in a soothing, low tone as he ran his hands over his ribs, belly, and extremities. Eidolon’s teeth chattered, but he didn’t make any other sounds even though the exam must have been excruciating.

“Slayer, open my jump bag and hand me the syringe in the right inside pocket.”

Glad to have something to do, she fetched the item and handed it to Shade, who injected the contents into Eidolon’s shoulder with professional efficiency. The guy might have the fun-loving personality of a pissed-off pit bull, but he exuded confidence in his medical abilities, and, she couldn’t help but notice, a raw masculinity that was every bit as powerful as Eidolon’s.

“Was that for the pain?”

“Antibiotic.” Shade pulled some tubing and a bag of blood from his kit. “Painkillers are against the rules.”

“Rules?There are rules for being beaten nearly to death?”

Instead of answering, he started an IV with the blood, and hung the bag from the door handle. When he finished, he laid his large palm on the back of Eidolon’s neck, one of the few uninjured areas, caressing in slow circles.

“Bro, your pulse is off the charts, and your resps are all over the place. I need you to relax.” Shade closed his eyes, and for a moment it seemed as though Eidolon’s tension had slipped away, but then he convulsed, and his breathing grew labored again.

Without thinking, Tayla covered his hand with hers. Shade’s eyes flew open, and at his dark stare, she jerked her hand away, afraid she was hurting rather than helping.

“No,” he said, grasping her wrist. A low growl erupted from deep in Eidolon’s chest, and Shade’s eyes narrowed. “Well, now, that’s interesting,” he murmured, and very carefully placed her hand over Eidolon’s again. “Your touch seems to calm him. Leave it there until I put him to sleep.”

Gently, she stroked his fingers, the ones that had saved her life and brought her pleasure, and a few minutes later, Shade nodded.

“He’s out. He should stay that way for a couple of hours.”

“He’ll be all right though, yes?”

“Yeah. We’re not easy to kill. Just FYI, Aegi.” He gathered his gear and gestured for her to follow him into the kitchen, where he washed up. “If Wraith calls, don’t speak a word of this. If he comes over, don’t let him in.”

“Why not?”

He hesitated for so long she didn’t think he’d answer, but as he dried his hands, he said, “Eidolon was punished, not for something he did, but for something Wraith did. Wraith can never know.”

“So this wasn’t about what happened at my apartment? I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to.”

“Yeah, I do. I’m not going to hurt Eidolon, or I would have done it instead of calling you, right?”

Shade bared his teeth at her. “If you hadn’t, I’d have—”

“I did,” she snapped. “So tell me why he’s nearly been killed for something your brother did.”

“I. Don’t. Like. You.”

“Feeling’s mutual, buddy. So spill already.”

Shade blew out a harsh breath, as if that would cool him off. At least it got him talking. “Wraith is part vampire. But he’s also a Seminus demon. Vampire and Seminus law don’t always mesh, and he falls into a crack between the two. Neither Council can agree on how he should be punished for various transgressions. But they both want someone to pay.”

“Why Eidolon?”

“Because Wraith wouldn’t survive it.”

This was seriously twisted, and it fired up all her protective instincts, which she hadn’t known she even possessed.

“I don’t understand why Wraith would allow this to happen. Why doesn’t he stop doing whatever it is that gets Eidolon beaten?”

“Wraith thinks he’s untouchable… he has no idea Eidolon is suffering. If he did, if he knew what E has gone through…” Shade shook his head. “We’d lose him. He can never know.”

“That’s crazy. You’ve got to tell him. This has to stop. What if next time they kill Eidolon?”

“It’s none of your concern. Like I said, not a word. If you even hint to Wraith that this has happened, I’ll take you out, slayer.”

She slapped her palms on the counter and leaned forward to snarl, “Try it, asshole.”

Shade’s eyes flared gold, reminding her of the man suffering in silence in the other room, reminding her that now wasn’t the time to pick a fight with the demon who had helped him. He seemed to come to the same conclusion, and the gold melted away, to be replaced by the eerie brown-black, which always seemed to shift, as though a shadow lurked behind his eyes.

“You look like Eidolon,” she said quietly. “But you’re so different.”

He grunted. “All Seminus demons are nearly identical to their siblings, but our behavior varies because we’re raised by different species.”

“But… Wraith. He’s blond.”

“Bleached.”

“His eyes are blue.”

“That’s because they aren’t his.”

“They aren’t his eyes?”

Shade slung his bag over his shoulder, done with the conversation. “E will be healed by morning. Try to get him to drink fluids, and…” He trailed off, averted his eyes before boring those chips of stone back into her. “Stay with him. He usually goes through this alone.”

He slammed out of the apartment, leaving her standing in the kitchen, her heart pounding. Emotion like she hadn’t experienced in years nearly brought her to her knees.

The brothers loved each other fiercely, something she wouldn’t have believed if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. They protected each other, healed each other, and clearly, they’d die for each other. She doubted anyone but her mother would have died for her, and even then, most of Tayla’s life, her mother had been too stoned to lay her life on the line for anything but the next fix.

What would it be like to have family like that? she wondered as she filled a glass with orange juice she’d found in the fridge.

And then she stopped wondering because that road would only lead to the corner of Self-Pity and Pathetic Idiot.

She slipped into the room with Eidolon, where he appeared to be sleeping peacefully despite the fact that he was still on his hands and knees—the only parts of his body that hadn’t been beaten. Already some of his wounds had started to heal.

Yeah, his wounds were closing, but hers had just opened up.

The sound of a phone ringing woke Eidolon. Before he could rouse himself, the ringing stopped and Gem’s voice ground out over the answering machine. She sounded as if she’d been dragged through a frat party and left to sleep it off on the front lawn.

“E, it’s Gem. I think something happened to Tayla. I don’t know what, but I spent the night in her damned closet. I’m at UG now. I need to talk to you. It’s important. Can you come in? If not, I’ll come to you.”

Why the hell had she spent the night in Tayla’s closet? She hung up, and Eidolon groaned. His mouth was dry and his muscles were stiff from spending the last twelve hours on his hands and knees. Rolling his head, he worked out a kink in his neck and then looked down to see Tayla, curled next to him on the floor, her fingers covering his. At some point during the night, she’d snagged a pillow from his bed, and now her hair fanned out like a Leonine Beast’s mane, begging for his touch.

He’d never seen her sleep before, not peaceful sleep that didn’t involve a hospital bed and pain medication or sedatives. The doctor in him measured the steady rise and fall of her chest; the male in him stirred at the push of her breasts against the T-shirt of his she’d put on.

It looked much better on her than it ever had on him.

He inhaled her scent, so brutally feminine, mixed with a tart note of concern, a sharp thread of fear. He vaguely remembered Shade being there, touching her… had his brother threatened or hurt her?

He scanned her body, tipped her face up off the pillow to check for injuries. Sweet relief sighed out of his lungs.

And then he wondered why he’d worried. Tayla could take care of herself, a fact he’d seen with his own eyes. Maybe it was his brother who had borne the damage.

Shit.

Jerking to his feet, he winced at the creak of aching joints. Dried blood cracked on his skin, but beneath it, he’d healed. He made a quick call to Shade to make sure his brother was unharmed, and then he showered. Still naked, he returned to the portal room to gather Tayla in his arms and settle her into his bed.

He’d barely pulled the sheets over her when she opened her eyes.

“Hellboy,” she rasped in a morning voice that sent shockwaves into his groin. “Are you okay? I mean…”

His lack of clothing had registered, and the way she was staring at his erection made him, for the first time, a little self-conscious. “Yeah, I’m good. My species heals rapidly. Get some rest. I know you were up all night.”

He turned away, but then she was there, grabbing his arm to bring him back around. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Her hands slipped frantically along the skin of his back, chest, arms, as though she were looking for damage. “You were pretty messed up. Is that why you have all those little scars?”

“You can see them?”

“In the right light.”

The feel of her hands on his body as she traced the scars was torture, far worse than what the vampires had done. He wanted to pounce on her, but something had changed between them, a subtle, fragile bonding that he was afraid to break by attacking her for sex.

Besides, what she was doing to him wasn’t about sex. It was about her caring enough to make sure he was okay. No one but his brothers had ever truly cared about him. Oh, his Judicia parents and two sisters felt affection for him, but only because it was logical to feel something for someone who’d grown up in the same household. If ever a time came when it would be logical to kill him, they wouldn’t hesitate.

No one outside of his brothers had ever taken care of him as Tayla had last night, as she was doing even now. The newness of the situation left him off-balance, tilting toward her physically and emotionally.

In a move that went completely against his nature, he stepped back. “Thanks for helping me.”

She grinned. “Consider it partial payment on my hospital bill.”

Her smile sent a jolt of lust through him. His groin filled with heat and blood, and the right side of his face throbbed. This was insane. His control was slipping in a downward spiral that was becoming harder and harder to recover from. Shade had transfused him last night, but the s’genesis was rising in him again. It was happening more frequently, so either the transfusions weren’t working, or he needed them more often.

They stared at each other for a moment. Slowly, the smile slid off her face. “Look, ah, Shade said that what happened last night was because of something Wraith did. Is that true?”

“Shade has a big mouth,” he growled.

“So it’s true.”

He sighed. She deserved an answer after what she’d done for him last night. “To keep their existence secret, vampires are allowed a minimal quota of human kills. Going over results in severe punishment.”

She rubbed her eyes and yawned, and he figured Q and A was over, but then she said, “So why are you their whipping boy instead of Wraith?”

“I volunteered.” Shade had, too, but his curse was more than enough to deal with already. “Wraith would never survive the torture.” Not with his mind intact, anyway.

Tayla shook her head. “I still don’t understand why you can’t tell him to stop doing what gets you punished.”

“It’s too late. We kept it from him from the beginning. If he knew he was the cause of my pain…” He blew out a breath. Wraith would either go insane, go on a rampage, or both. “That’s one of the reasons he’s working at UG. Shade and I figured it would keep Wraith busy and out of trouble.”

“I’m guessing the plan didn’t work?”

“It did,” he muttered. “You should have seen Wraith before UG started up. And speaking of the hospital, I need to head there for a while.” He urged her back into the bed and pushed her into the mattress. “Get some rest while I’m gone.”

She nodded and closed her eyes, falling instantly asleep. He dressed quickly in jeans and a blue button-down he left untucked and took the nearest Harrowgate to the hospital, where he approached Solice, the on-duty triage nurse.

“Have you seen Gem or Wraith?”

“Haven’t seen Gem.” Solice jerked her thumb down the hall. “But I saw Wraith go that way with Ciska.”

Shit. Ciska, the Sora demon nurse, radiated sex like a contaminated nuclear power plant. Wraith couldn’t resist her if he was in a coma.

Eidolon took off down the hall toward the cafeteria, following the perfume of arousal that ended at the supply closet door, where a muffled giggle and thumping sounds told him as much as the scents did.

He threw open the door, not surprised to find Wraith’s face buried in Ciska’s neck, his hands groping her breasts, her scrub bottoms pooled around her ankles. The fly of his jeans was open, but Eidolon tore his gaze away before he saw more than he wanted to.

Wraith lifted his head to look at Eidolon with golden eyes. Blood dripped from his fangs until Ciska licked it off with her forked tongue.

“I need to talk to you.”

Ciska’s tail whipped up to nudge the front of Eidolon’s pants where he sported a raging hard-on, thanks to the overpowering scent of female arousal. She stroked his shaft through his pants until he cursed and stepped back. With a saucy smile, she swung her tail away and wrapped it around Wraith’s cock.

Wraith threw back his head and groaned. “Bro, either give me a minute or join us.”

It wouldn’t be the first time he shared a female with one or both brothers, but for some reason, all he could think about was Tayla. Which wasn’t good. “Hurry up.”

He slammed the door and stood in the hall, his sex heavy, aching. Images of Tayla, her body pliant yet strong beneath his, flashed in his head until he was ready to howl in frustration—frustration that wasn’t entirely physical. The fact that he couldn’t bring her to climax gnawed at everything that made him an incubus.

Muttering under his breath, he told the triage nurse to page Gem, and then he settled himself in his office with an IV of his blood set at full bore. Gem arrived ten minutes later. She looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed two minutes ago, her bloodshot eyes framed by dark circles.

“Where’s Tayla?”

Eidolon felt a possessive rumble rattle his chest at her tone. “I told you she’s mine. I won’t let you hurt her.”

“She might already be hurt. I went to her apartment—”

“She’s at my place. She’s safe.”

“Oh, thank heaven.”

“Heaven had nothing to do with it,” he said wryly. “And why are you so relieved?”

“The bastards called,” Gem said, closing the door.

“And?”

“They won’t wait any longer. They said they need me right away.”

“What changed?”

“The person they were using can’t do the procedures. Apparently, whoever it was was injured in an explosion.”

Eidolon’s stomach bottomed out. The organ-harvesting operation could be based anywhere in the world—or underworld—and the individual performing the surgical work could live and work anywhere as well. But Eidolon didn’t believe in coincidences.

“The hospital explosion.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. How many were injured?”

“Three killed. Seven injured. Two seriously.” He shoved his hands through his hair, ignoring the tug of the IV line. “Of the seven, four are well enough to work.”

“So that means one of the three is the cutter.”

Rage bubbled up in Eidolon at the thought that one of his trusted staff could have been involved in something so heinous. Traitorous.

Something pricked his memory. Derc, the male he’d treated a few days ago. He’d been aggressive, rude… until panic set in when Eidolon asked him about his surgical incision. At the time, it had seemed odd, but now, knowing that someone inside the hospital had been involved…

And something Nancy had said bothered him, as well. She’d fingered The Aegis, but what if she’d said something else? She’d been whispering. Her voice had gurgled, been mushy.

The three injured staff members… Reaver, Seknet, Paige.

Oh, damn.

“It’s Paige.”

“The human nurse?”

He nodded. “Nancy said something to me before she died. Aegis. But it could have been Paige. Or Paige’s… something. And Paige was present when a patient of mine went into a death panic. He must have recognized her.”

“This might mean The Aegis isn’t involved. They wouldn’t blow up the person they need to perform the surgeries, right?” Gem’s voice went as cold as he’d ever heard it, her eyes went black, and for the first time, he saw the demon in her human-shaped wrapper. “I want my parents back. We need to talk to Paige.”

“She’s in a coma.” He pinned Gem with a hard stare. “But I’ll make sure I’m here the moment she comes out of it.”

Tayla might have blown up the hospital, but now, it seemed, she’d done him a favor.