Desire Unchained

Roag stepped out from the shadowed stairwell at the end of the chamber, followed by two burly, ram-headed demons. “And wouldn’t that be a good trick? Surviving this, I mean.” He swept forward in a fluid, dramatic swirl of black robes.

Wraith, who had been standing in the corner of his cage, head hanging and hair matted to his face with dried blood, hissed. Runa gasped. Wraith looked like, well, a demon. His expression was a mask of rage, his fangs the size of a tiger’s, and his eyes glowed like amber tossed in a fire. He was a mass of blood and bruises, far worse off than either Shade or Eidolon, and as Roag approached, Wraith went rabid. He attacked the bars, slamming repeatedly into them as though trying to break every bone in his body so he could squeeze between them. Shade tried to talk him down, but nothing worked.

“He’s so excitable,” Roag said casually. “Then again, I probably would be, too, if I’d been kept in a cage and tortured for twenty years.”

“You’ve got all of us together now,” Eidolon snapped as he shoved to his feet. “What is it you want?”

Behind Roag, the two hulking demons lit a fire in the hearth. “I have a list a mile long, brother. And it begins and ends with pain.” Roag smiled. “And that’s something you know a lot about, don’t you, E?”

Wraith stilled in his cage, head down, shoulders heaving, his gaze drilling into Roag.

“Shut up.” Eidolon rattled the bars of his cage. “Shut the hell up.”

“What? You don’t want poor little Wraith to know how you’ve suffered for him?”

“E …” Wraith’s low growl vibrated through Runa’s bones. Something bad, very bad was about to be revealed.

Roag turned to Wraith. “It was probably bad enough to learn that Shade gets off on torturing females. I imagine that knowing what the Vampire Council does to Eidolon once a month won’t sit well with you at all. Might even send you completely over the edge. You were never very stable.”

“You bastard,” Eidolon whispered. “I trusted you. I cared about you!”

Shade shrugged. “I never did. You always were an asshole.”

Roag snapped something in another language at his minions, who jammed iron pokers into the fire they’d created, and Runa’s blood ran as cold as the Hudson in winter.

“You’ll get yours in a moment, Shade.” Roag moved closer to Wraith’s cage, but not too close, Runa noted. “You know how the Vampire Council leaves you alone? How you can kill and kill and they don’t do a damned thing about it? That’s because a long time ago, our dear, sweet brother Eidolon volunteered to take the punishment for you.”

Wraith went so pale Runa thought he might pass out. “No.”

“You piece of shit,” Eidolon muttered. “I’m going to take you apart with my bare hands.”

“Oh, you’ll be taking one of us apart, but that’ll come later,” Roag promised, not looking away from Wraith. “Now, little brother, do you know what the vamp punishment is for taking more than your quota of humans each month? Do you know that they spend hours brutalizing Eidolon? By the time they’re done, there isn’t an inch of him that hasn’t been bloodied. Here’s the fun part. It’s been going on for years. I’ve been making sure of it.”

Eidolon’s eyes shot wide open. “You. You’ve been shifting into Wraith’s form and doing the killing.”

“Wraith flaunts his kills enough to get you tortured without my help, but really, I just like killing humans.”

Wraith began to tremble, and his eyes had gone so haunted and so full of pain that Runa could practically feel his misery. “Why, E?” he croaked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Roag laughed. “Idiot. They didn’t tell you because you’re a fucking weak little worm. I never did understand why they didn’t just let you die in that warehouse.”

“Don’t listen to him, Wraith,” Shade said, his voice a cold, hard command intended to grab Wraith’s attention and keep it. “E took the punishment because you’d been through enough already. We didn’t tell you for the same reason.”

“He hasn’t gone through nearly enough,” Roag said. “None of you have.” He snapped his fingers, and two more demons who must have crept down the stairs while Runa was engrossed in the conversation brought forward a pale female who walked like a zombie.

Which was, Runa realized with horror, because she was a zombie. Jesus, it was the female Runa had killed when she and Shade had escaped.

“Oh, you sick fuck,” Shade said, as he stared at the female. “You reanimated her.”

“Yes, and your mate will be the blood sacrifice I need to bring my love fully back to life.”