Desire Unchained

Runa cried out. “Oh, no. Shade, no.”


He looked down and felt the ground fall from beneath him. He could barely see his body. He was fading, and at this rate, he had only minutes left to exist.





Kynan, Gem, and Tay stood next to the Harrowgate in UG’s ER. Tayla had eaten up valuable hours as she searched the area surrounding the Irish Harrowgates, but once she found the right gate and neutralized the demon guarding it, she’d zapped back to the hospital to grab Ky and Gem.

Gem still hadn’t said a word to him since leaving Vamp.

“Did you contact an Irish Aegis chapter for backup?” Gem asked.

“I wish I could,” Tay said, “but I can’t trust them to kill the bad demons and stop there.”

Ky nodded. “Agreed. As helpful as they’d be, we’d have way too much to explain, especially if you two shift form. Besides, we have help.”

There was a muffled consensus of agreement from the semicircle of demons surrounding them, hospital staff who insisted on going along. Nearly everyone on duty had volunteered to help rescue E and his brothers, which spoke volumes about their loyalty, when demons were notoriously self-serving.

Tayla smiled as she pulled her red hair into a high ponytail. “Who’d have thought, huh?” She wore her usual red leather fighting clothes—many demons were blind to the color, making it more invisible than black to them.

“Yeah. Demons who aren’t all bad. Who knew?” He slid a glance at Gem but looked back at Tay quickly. “Ready to roll?”

“Lock and load.” Tay held out her hand, and he pressed one of two syringes he’d prepared into her hand. The contents would knock him out for about five minutes, long enough to get his human ass through the Harrowgate. He’d been generous with the dose—he didn’t want to be out longer than necessary, but he definitely didn’t want to wake up midjump. If he was going to die, he’d rather go in battle than inside a Harrowgate.

“You all know how this works, right?” she began, addressing everyone. “Once we’re out of the gate, I’m going ahead. I’m sure the bastards will be expecting me, so I’m going to get captured. You guys follow, and once I’m inside the castle, you attack while they’re busy with me. Got it?”

Ky didn’t like the idea of Tay sacrificing herself, but they had little choice, and murmurs of assent rose above the dim hospital noises. Gem hefted a duffel of weapons onto her shoulder. Tay had various weapons stashed on her body, as Roag would expect. Ky was weighed down, as well, the tug of his full weapons harness a familiar comfort. In addition, he carried a medic kit.

Ky grabbed Tay’s wrist before she could dose him. “If I don’t regain consciousness within four minutes after arriving in Ireland, have Gem stick me with the episol in my kit.”

It was a risk, taking the epinephrine-based stimulant Eidolon had developed for use in human-demon hybrid patients, but Kynan needed to be on his feet immediately.

“You got it.”

Abasi, a huge male lion shapeshifter, stepped behind Ky as Tay injected the syringe into Ky’s arm. Instantly, Ky’s vision went black, and the last thing he was aware of was Abasi catching him as he fell.





Twenty-one





Shade was almost lost to her. Runa couldn’t take her eyes off him, couldn’t keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. Eidolon told Shade not to look at her, because doing so seemed to make his transparency worse, but he kept stealing glances anyway. The pain in his eyes sliced at her, and God, she wanted to scream until she lost her voice and her mind.

“It’s ti-ime.” Roag’s singsong sent a shiver down Runa’s spine. He led his zombified girlfriend into the dungeon and sat her on one of the autopsy tables he’d set up after he’d tortured Shade and Eidolon. “And I have a present for you.”

The sounds of struggle and chains came from within the stairwell, and as Runa watched, three demons dragged a bloody humanoid female into the dungeon. The devastation on Eidolon’s face said this was Tayla.

She must have been extremely strong, because the three demons, though twice her size, were struggling to keep her under control.

“I’m so glad you could join us,” Roag said. “Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you didn’t care.”

“If you touch one hair on her head, you won’t get what you want from me,” Eidolon swore, and Roag snorted.