Wraith came to his feet and pulled on the pants. “Sounds like you don’t need me.”
“Byzamoth can’t be defeated without you.” Tayla stood in the doorway, dressed for battle in leather—a dark red color that many demon species couldn’t see, and hair pulled into a ponytail. “Underground rumblings indicate that he’s mobilized his own army. The Aegis might not be able to get through his horde to get to him.”
“But I’m charmed and they can’t touch me.” Not unless the army was made up of fallen angels.
“Exactly. Kynan and I have been coordinating our attack plan with that of The Aegis and military units. We need you to at least keep him from performing the ritual until we can get to him.”
“And what are you going to do when you get there? News flash, slayer; he’s immortal.”
“We’re going to do the same thing you are. Hurt him. Keep him from performing the ritual and take the amulet back. According to Reaver, he’s got only a few minutes to open the gate.” She grinned. “Besides, The Aegis does have a few tricks up its sleeve. So keep him busy until we get there.”
“You won’t need to get to him,” Wraith swore, “because I’m taking his f**king head off. Even immortals have issues with decapitation.” He swung around to E. “Now tell me about Serena.”
“Wraith—”
“Now.”
E and Shade exchanged glances, and Wraith braced himself for the worst. “You know she’s dying.”
“Yeah. Fix it.” Shade moved toward him, but Wraith backed up, unable to bear any touch but Serena’s right now. And he knew damn good and well she wouldn’t be touching him. She hated him. She had to. “How… how is she?”
Eidolon gave a dismal shake of the head. “Her disease is irreversible, and it’s progressing fast.”
Wraith felt like he’d been stabbed in the gut. Again.
“I’ve given her something for the pain, and Shade’s been getting inside and forcing her organs to work optimally, but the effects of both are temporary. It’s only buying her time and making her more comfortable.”
“We traded places,” Wraith murmured, rubbing his chest where he could already feel the loss. “What am I going to do without her?”
“I’m sorry, bro,” Shade said, but Wraith held up his hand, not wanting to hear it. Hearing it would make it real.
He brushed past Tayla and came to an abrupt halt at the sight of a dark-haired male sitting in the hallway, his arms and legs bound in Bracken Cuffs—chains used by the Judicia to negate a demon’s abilities while in custody.
The dude was wearing leather pants and boots, but no shirt.
His dermoire appeared to be faded, but it was an exact replica of the markings Wraith and his brothers wore, minus their individual signs. And he had a strange, palm-shaped burn scar over his heart.
Wraith didn’t know what the hell was up, but right now, he really didn’t care.
Serena could have very little time left, and Wraith wasn’t going to waste a single minute.
Twenty-six
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 f**k 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?”