Somehow, Eidolon managed to pry Kar’s fingers away from her throat, and Sin took several grateful gulps of fresh air. Luc bore Kar to the couch cushions and even as Sin sucked deep breaths, she gripped Kar’s ankle and started work again.
It seemed to take forever, and by the time the last virus strand was a crumpled, shrunken little string, she was shaking and her power was nearly drained. “It’s… done,” she breathed. The world spun, and as she keeled over, Con was there, tucking her against him, stroking her hair, and wow… to have someone catch her like that… it made her world spin again.
Kar groaned as Eidolon dug through his medical duffel. “The baby,” she rasped. “How is the baby?”
“It’s fine.” Sin cleared her throat, which was still tender. “I think it’ll be fine.” Then Con, smiling broadly enough to flash those sexy fangs, shook his head. “Who would have seen this coming? Luc the family man.”
Luc snorted. “Trust me. I would not have bet on those cards.” He inclined his head at Sin. “Thanks.” The word was barely more than a grunt, and a stranger on the outside might have doubted his sincerity. But his hands trembled with the emotion that wasn’t in his voice, and his throat worked on audible swallows that spoke volumes as he twined his fingers with Kar’s.
Just a few days ago, Sin would have been rolling her eyes at the intimate, tender gesture. Now, she just remembered how she’d awakened after being hit by the exomangler, and Con had been at her side, holding her hand the same way.
“Just lie still,” Eidolon was saying to Kar. “I’m going to take some blood from you. And then we need to get you to the hospital for more tests. The fact that you were producing antibodies to this virus is major.”
“Won’t it take some time to make a vaccine?” Sin asked.
“If it can be done, yes, but I’ve got demon magic and bone devil eggs at my disposal. I should be able to test the first batch of vaccine within a day or two if all goes well.”
“Bone devil eggs?” Kar asked, and Eidolon nodded.
“They’re what we use instead of chicken eggs to develop vaccines. They cut incubation time by two-thirds.” “You said if,” Sin said. “Why?”
“Because I can’t guarantee it. I think it’s likely, but I’m not going to make any promises.”
Sin’s stomach turned over. And as the others went back to taking care of Luc and Kar, Sin backed up until she bumped into the door. While no one was looking, she slipped out, needing space, but once she was out in the cold, where the coppery zest of spilled blood still hung in the air, there was too much space. Too much blood, too much death.
All of which she’d caused.
She stood there, taking it all in, watching as the UG staff tended to the injured and dragged the dead into the forest, where they could be hidden from human eyes. On her arm, her dermoire tingled, a precursor to the pain that would erupt.
Feel, Con had said.
And yeah, she owed these people that.
Grief welled up in her, a massive wave of agony that burst out as a sob. She ran, stumbling, into the forest, and by the time she was deep in the bush, she was bawling so hard she could barely breathe, and tears were trailing down her cheeks.
“Con, I hate you for this,” she whispered. She’d worked so hard to protect herself from pain, and now it seemed like that was all she could feel. She sucked in a shuddering breath, desperate to get herself under control, and then… the air went still. And colder. Her breath formed an icy fog, and right behind her, a horse screamed, a godawful, evil screech that Sin felt deep in her marrow. The distinct whistle of a missile made her heart skip a beat a split second before an arrow punched into the snow between her feet. Secured to the end of the arrow was a twisted piece of sinew from which something shiny dangled.
Knowing she was a dead woman, Sin turned. The horseman came out of the trees like a wraith, with brimstone smoke as an escort. He drew his mount to a halt, and the giant white beast reared up, flashing hooves larger than an old Chevy’s hubcaps. When the horse settled, the rider removed his great helm. Long white hair spilled out over the male’s broad shoulders, which were covered in armor, and just like in the mountains of Montana, it was dull, sooty, and an oily, bloodlike substance oozed from the joints and cracks. His eyes glowed with an unholy sanguine light, the same as the stallion’s. His face should have been handsome, but his smile was pure malice as he inclined his head, gave Sin a two-finger salute, and then wheeled his mount around and disappeared as if the forest had swallowed him whole.
Unbelievably, Sin was still alive.
“What. The. Hell.” Eidolon’s voice startled her, and she spun to find him and Con standing behind her. “Was that the horse guy who’s been stalking you?” “Yeah. And I’m getting tired of his games.” Covertly, Sin dashed away her leftover tears as she bent to tug the arrow out of the snow and snap the gold object off the twine. “It’s some sort of coin. Well, half a coin.” She rubbed her finger over the broken, zigzagged edge. “There’s writing on the back. She who… blood… carries… spread plague… battle breaks… seal’d.” Eidolon frowned, and Sin returned the look. “What? Why do you look like you licked a Mondevilin piss pod?”
“It sounds vaguely familiar.”
“We’ll have to figure it out later,” Con said. “We need to get Sin somewhere safe. We’ve been here long enough to make me nervous.”
Eidolon’s expression took on a sympathetic cast. “Yeah, I’m worried about the damned assassins, too. We’ll get Sin to UG—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Sin interrupted. “I’m not going to be in danger from my assassins anymore.” “Why not?” Eidolon asked.
“Because,” she said quietly, “I’m going back to the den.”
“Like hell you are,” Con and Eidolon said simultaneously.
Sin jammed her hands onto her h*ps and glared at them both in turn. Maybe if her eyes weren’t swollen and her face damp from tears, she might have looked a little fiercer. And Con wouldn’t feel like such a piece of shit, because he knew damned good and well that every single tear was on his shoulders.
“This is my choice,” she said. “Everyone will be safer if I go back to the den. I’ve made up my mind.”
Eidolon gave her a look that was pure big brother. “You don’t need to go back there, Sin. We’ll find a way to make it safe for you.” Con sure as hell agreed with that. “They can’t touch you at the hospital. Go with your brothers.” “I am going back there. It’s my job.”
“Bullshit.” Gold flecks kicked up in the black of Eidolon’s eyes, and Con braced himself. This could get ugly if the guy started ordering Sin around. “You will not—”
“E,” Con interrupted. “Could you give us a second?”
Though Eidolon’s expression was as frosty as the breeze that stirred up the snow around them, he nodded. “I’ll take Luc and Kar to UG. You two can meet us there.”
Once he was out of sight, Sin huffed. “Good cop, bad cop doesn’t work on me. You’re not going to change my mind.”
“First of all,” Con growled, “I’m not the good cop. Second, I know I’m not going to change your mind. But at least tell me the truth.” He wanted the truth because he did plan on changing her mind. “I just did.”
“Tell me the rest of it.”
She curled her hands into fists and got that stubborn set to her mouth, the one that made him want to kiss her just to make it go away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Don’t do this,” he gritted out. “You’ve made a lot of progress. You know, with your brothers.” Pink splotched her cheeks, and she averted her gaze. Kicked at the snow. “You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand. Because even if you go back to the den, we still don’t know what’s up with the horse guy or why someone besides your assassins wants you dead. So you should be at the hospital with people who care about you right now. Not in your assassin den, all alone and hiding from your brothers.”
The color in her cheeks deepened, and she lifted her angry gaze to him. “Hiding?” He stepped closer. “Hiding.”
“Maybe I just don’t want to be treated like a child by them—”
“Then stop acting like one!” he shouted. Her head snapped back as if he’d slapped her, and he pressed his advantage, stepping into her. “You don’t want to be owned, possessed, chained, but what the hell do you think you’re doing to yourself? You’re going back to your den to be free? How are you free if you can’t go anywhere without worrying about being killed by your own assassins? You’re still a slave, Sin. But this time, it’s of your own making.”
Her dark stare flared with fury. “I told you why I took the job—” “Yeah, yeah. You took it to spare Idess.” He knew he was being a dick, was once again doing a repeat of what he’d done at Rivesta’s, but dammit, she had a shot at having a family. And if she went back to the den and shut herself off, she’d close down again, maybe tighter than ever this time. “But you know what? I think you’d have taken it anyway. You couldn’t even deal with your feelings, so how would you have dealt with the real world if you were out in it instead of living in a cave where you had a great excuse to not hang out with your family?”
Her eyes went steely. “God, you’re such an a**hole sometimes.”
She’d called him that before. Had called him worse. But this time, it actually hurt. Because she was right. “Don’t do it, Sin. Just… don’t.” “I think,” she said, in a soft voice he hadn’t expected, “you’re forgetting that I couldn’t get out of my job if I wanted to.” She dragged her hands through her hair, which glinted with bluish highlights in the sunlight that squeezed between the treetops. “This is pointless. I either go to the hospital and be a prisoner there, with my brothers as jailers, or I go to my den, where at least I’m my own warden.”