Desire Unchained

His prey’s pulse picked up as his heart tried to compensate for the blood loss. Wraith took two more strong pulls, disengaged his fangs, and hesitated before licking the puncture holes to seal the wound. He’d never minded drinking from his victims, but he hated licking them, tasting sweat, dirt, perfume, and worse, their individual essence. Cursing silently, he swiped the holes with his tongue and tried not to shudder, but the shakes wracked his body anyway.

“You should kill him.”

The male voice, deep and calm, startled him. No one sneaked up on Wraith. Ever.

He released the gangbanger, letting the guy hit the pavement with a thud. In a fluid, easy movement, he faced the newcomer, but too late he saw a flash and a blur, felt the sting of a dart in his throat.

“Shit!” Wraith ripped the dart from his neck and threw it to the ground, even as he charged the guy who had shot him with it. He was going to gut the bastard.

Wraith grabbed for the male’s shirt, some sort of burlap tunic, but his fingers only brushed the collar. The guy was unnaturally fast—unnaturally fast for a human. This male was demonkind, species unknown.

The male didn’t make a sound as he whispered through the night, moving in a blur toward a sewer grate. Awkwardly, because his left side had begun to weaken, Wraith drew a throwing star from his weapons harness. He hurled it, catching the newcomer in the back.

The male’s ear-shattering, high pitched scream rent the night as he fell. Wraith slowed, a sudden sense of dread weighing him down, turning him sluggish and uncoordinated.

Something … something wasn’t right. He stumbled, tried to catch himself on the side of a building, but his muscles had turned to water. His vision grew dim, his mouth went dry, and with every breath it felt as if he was taking flames into his lungs.

He tried to reach his cell phone, but his arm wouldn’t work. And then his mind wouldn’t work, and all went black.





Throbbing pain in Wraith’s head woke him, and a serious case of cotton-mouth made him gag. He smelled sickness. Blood. Antiseptic.

Shit, what had he done last night? He’d been clean for months … well, he hadn’t fed on a junkie just for the sake of getting high, anyway. He’d eaten his share of humans and demons who had drugs in their systems, but that hadn’t been why Wraith had chosen them as food. At least, that’s what he’d told himself.

In any case, he hadn’t woken up with a drug or alcohol hangover in months, but this … this was one mother of a hangover.

He peeled open his eyes, the pain convincing him his eyelids were coated on the inside with sandpaper. They watered, and he had to blink several times before he could focus. Through blurry vision he saw chains hanging in loops from a dark ceiling. Low, muted voices blended with the sound of beeping hospital equipment and ringing in his ears. He was at UG.

He should be relieved, comforted to be safe. Instead, his gut wrenched. Clearly, he’d screwed up again, and his brothers were going to chew his ass but good.

Speak of the demons, he thought, as Eidolon and Shade entered the room. Wraith tried to lift his head, but a wave of nausea made the room spin.

“Hey, bro,” Shade said, as he grasped Wraith’s wrist. A warm, pulsing sensation shot up Wraith’s arm. Shade was doing his body probe thing, checking his vitals and whatever other crap needed to be checked. Maybe he could do something about the nausea.

“What’s up?” he croaked. “You boys are wearing your grim faces.” Which meant he’d fucked up even more royally than he’d thought.

Eidolon didn’t smile, not even the fake, doctorish, it’s-going-to-be-okay smile. “What happened the other night?”

“Other night?”

“You’ve been out for two weeks,” E said. “What happened?”

Wraith levered up so fast his head threatened to fall off. “Oh, no. Fuck, no. E, did I kill someone? Did the Council torture you—”

His brothers both pushed him back on the bed. “I’m fine, Wraith. The Vamp Council didn’t summon me for punishment. But I need to know what happened.”

Relief made him sag into the mattress as he searched the black hole that was his memory. An alley. He’d been in an alley. And in pain. But why? “I’m not sure. How did I get here?”

Shade grunted. “I felt your distress. Grabbed a medic team and took a Harrowgate to you.”

“What do you remember?” E asked, jacking up the head of the bed so Wraith could sit up.

He sifted through the fuzzy memories, but piecing them together was like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle while blindfolded. “I was eating a gangbanger. Tasty, surprisingly free of drugs.” He frowned. Had he killed the guy? No, he didn’t think so … remembered closing the punctures. “I felt a sting in my neck. And there was a male. Demon, I think. Why?”

The pulses down his arm stopped, but Shade kept his hand where it was. “You were attacked by an assassin. Sent by Roag.”