“He was the doc working on Wraith.” Shade grabbed her hand, hating that she was asking about the man. “Back to the cave.” Because the way he was behaving, he belonged in a f**king cave. He might as well take her by the hair and drag her there. To top it off, his skin had begun to tingle and stretch, and he had a feeling he was about to go canine.
“I’d like to run some more tests,” Eidolon said, falling back into doctor mode. “An MRI, a bone marrow aspiration—”
“Bro, we stay much longer and you’ll need to send her to a vet clinic for all that.” Shade glanced at Runa. “We’re going to hit the cafeteria on the way out.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Did you notice the demon species on staff? They all have unique diets. Which includes raw meat.”
She wrinkled her nose. “So you keep …”
“Not live animals. But we’ve got a walk-in fridge full of carcasses.” Her expression of disgust made him smile. “You eat raw meat three nights a month and you’re offended by our cafeteria?”
“It’s not like I want to eat raw meat. Trust me, if I could cure the lycanthropy, I would.” She glanced at Eidolon. “Do you think there’s a chance, at least, that Shade could be cured?”
She wasn’t supposed to care, and that she did made Shade’s heart bleed. “He’ll do his best,” he ground out, and tugged her toward the cafeteria. To Eidolon he said, “If you learn anything from the tests, ring me. And let me know if you get any leads on Roag.”
“I will.
“Be careful, Shade. Be really careful,” Eidolon said, but he wasn’t talking about Roag.
He was talking about Runa.
The cafeteria was like nothing Runa had ever seen. Strange, foul odors mingled with familiar, spicy scents that made Runa’s stomach both turn and growl with hunger.
The tables and benches appeared to be made of massive slabs of granite, and a pit, maybe five feet deep and forty by forty feet in size, took up one corner of the cavernous room. Three demons of unidentifiable species were in the pit, tearing something apart with their teeth and claws. Around them, a half-dozen smaller creatures, grotesque, spiderlike things the size of Chihuahuas, were snapping up scraps.
Runa shuddered and clutched Shade’s hand a little harder. “I hope those things aren’t employees.”
“The big ones are patients. The others are cleaners.”
One of the demons, a green, winged, man-sized thing, turned to look at her, and she nearly froze at the intensity of the evil in its gaze. Except, it really didn’t have a gaze, since it had no eyes.
Shade barked something to the creature in a language she didn’t know, and it snarled, but it went back to crunching bones between its sharklike teeth.
“Don’t antagonize the patients,” he said to her, but she didn’t have time to protest, because they stopped at a table where a pretty black-and-blue-haired woman in scrubs sat alone, reading a mystery novel and sipping coffee from a mug stained with her black lipstick.
“Gem,” Shade said, and the woman looked up. “This is Runa. Keep an eye on her for a minute. No one is to lay a finger on her.”
He didn’t wait for a reply, simply strode off with the arrogance of someone who knew damned good and well he wouldn’t be disobeyed. Annoyance and appreciation warred as she watched him walk away, all silent menace in his black leather and boots.
The female he’d called Gem stuck her pierced tongue out at him and then gestured to the bench across from her. “Have a seat. You must be Shade’s—” she glanced at Runa’s bare arm and broke off. “Or not.”
“I am,” Runa sighed. “I just don’t have the marks yet. Shade’s brother is trying to figure out why that is.” She watched Gem take a sip from her cup. “Smells like a Kona-Colombian blend.”
Gem’s pierced brow shot up. “Wow. You’re good.”
“I used to own a coffee shop.”
Pushing aside the mug, Gem gazed longingly at the lunch line. “I’d love you forever if you taught these morons how to brew a decent pot of coffee.”
“Brewing bad coffee should be a crime,” Runa said, smiling. She liked this woman. “So, are you a doctor here? Are you human?” She bit her lip. “Was that a rude question?”
“Not at all.” Gem slipped a bookmark between the pages of her paperback and put it aside. “I’m a doctor. And I’m half human. Eidolon’s mate, Tayla, is my sister. I’m sure you’ll meet her soon. She can help you figure out what to expect from the bond—and from Shade.”
Runa stared across the table at the Goth doctor, wishing she wasn’t such a stranger to this world. A stranger to Shade. “How well do you know him?”
“I’ve known him for years, but honestly, I don’t know him that well. He’s a great paramedic, can run the hospital as well as Eidolon, but when it comes to his personal life, he’s pretty tight-lipped.” Gem lowered her voice. “You love him, don’t you?”
“We hardly know each other,” Runa said, which wasn’t an answer. “I mean, we dated before … sort of. But I caught him with these—” She closed her eyes and blew out a breath. “I’m babbling.”
“Yeah, you are.” Gem grinned. “But you’re allowed. You’re in love.” Gem’s smile turned sad. “But he barely knows you exist, right?”
“Something like that,” Runa said softly. She watched a red-skinned nurse walk by on her way to the food counter, where two human-looking servers dished up unidentifiable hot meals. “But I don’t love him.”
“Whatever.” Gem rolled her eyes, making the silver and ruby-jeweled piercing in her eyebrow climb up her forehead. “But girl, you’ve got scars that run deep, and they have nothing to do with Shade.”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” Runa said, even though she did. Shade’s betrayal a year ago had cut her deeply, but truthfully, she’d come to understand the situation, even if it still hurt.
But that wasn’t what the other woman was talking about, and Runa knew it.
Gem’s green eyes glowed with an eerie luminosity. “Shade can heal them, but only if you let him. Only if you trust him.”
Utterly absorbed in Gem’s words, Runa jumped when Shade’s hand came down on her shoulder. In his other hand, he held a burlap sack.
“Let’s go.” He jabbed a finger at Gem. “Mind your own business and keep your Shredder-shit to yourself.”
Gem stood. “I’m going to let that go because I know a lot has happened to you.” She swept up her book. “But don’t forget that I can see your scars, too, and the path you’re on will give you a lot more.”
“You’re out of line.” Shade’s voice cut through the low-level buzz in the cafeteria, drawing a tense silence. Even the demons in the pit grew still.
The Goth doctor locked gazes with him, as if she wanted to press the issue, but the flat black of Shade’s eyes promised zero tolerance. “I know what I see, Shade.” She swept out of the room, a blur of black and blue and silver piercings.
With the way Shade had tensed up, Runa expected to hear a string of blistering curses from him, but he surprised her by saying mildly, “Come on.”
She didn’t move. “What’s ‘Shredder-shit’?”
“Gem is half Soulshredder. They can see weakness, scars, and exploit them. Let’s go.”
“Wait. What path was she talking about?”
“Nothing, dammit. Now, were you wanting to grow fur here in the hospital or back at the cave?”
“Nothing?”
“Runa, let it go. You don’t want to know. Trust me.”
God help her, she wanted to trust him, wanted to know that at least one person besides her brother cared about her.
She looked at him, at the demon she was bonded to. His eyes were narrowed into dark, dangerous slits, and his expression was as hard and unyielding as his body.
Yes, God help her.
Shade was not in a good mood when they arrived back at his cave. Runa tried talking to him, but his responses amounted to grunts and the occasional snappish yes or no.
He strode straight to the bedroom-slash-torture-chamber and hung the bag of what she assumed was meat from a hook on the ceiling.
She wasn’t about to ask what else he had hung from there. Still, she crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at the equipment hanging neatly, arranged by type and size, from the walls. “Tell me about all of this.”
Shade shook his head, the soft whisper of his hair brushing against his jacket collar joining the eerie squeak of the meat hook swinging back and forth. This was the strangest situation she’d ever been in, and when you worked for the U.S. Army’s paranormal unit, strange situations were a daily deal.
The thought made her flush with guilt. Shade had been distant, not entirely open with her about everything, including what happened in this room, but she’d been keeping secrets, too, like how much the Army knew about his hospital, and why she’d truly come to New York.
And what the heck was she going to do once the full moon was over and she had to go back to work? Shade wasn’t going to let her walk away, but she wasn’t about to give up the job she’d grown to love so he could keep her prisoner in his cave.
“You don’t need to know.”
“Yeah, I think I do.”
“Runa, you don’t want to know.”
“You keep saying that, and I’m sick of it,” she said, jamming her fists on her hips. “I’m not a docile little mouse anymore, buddy, and I want answers. Now.”
Shade cursed, ran his hands through his hair over and over as he paced. She tore her gaze away from him, mainly to give him time to compose himself, because he seemed to be on the verge of exploding out of his skin.
So she stared at the walls, where the rows of whips, canes, and bondage equipment hung. Bottles and jars lined a shelf, alongside gloves and masks, and even some less-threatening toys such as feathers. God, how many females had he brought here? And what did he do with them?