Desire Unchained

“I’ve known him for years, but honestly, I don’t know him that well. He’s a great paramedic, can run the hospital as well as Eidolon, but when it comes to his personal life, he’s pretty tight-lipped.” Gem lowered her voice. “You love him, don’t you?”


“We hardly know each other,” Runa said, which wasn’t an answer. “I mean, we dated before … sort of. But I caught him with these—” She closed her eyes and blew out a breath. “I’m babbling.”

“Yeah, you are.” Gem grinned. “But you’re allowed. You’re in love.” Gem’s smile turned sad. “But he barely knows you exist, right?”

“Something like that,” Runa said softly. She watched a red-skinned nurse walk by on her way to the food counter, where two human-looking servers dished up unidentifiable hot meals. “But I don’t love him.”

“Whatever.” Gem rolled her eyes, making the silver and ruby-jeweled piercing in her eyebrow climb up her forehead. “But girl, you’ve got scars that run deep, and they have nothing to do with Shade.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Runa said, even though she did. Shade’s betrayal a year ago had cut her deeply, but truthfully, she’d come to understand the situation, even if it still hurt.

But that wasn’t what the other woman was talking about, and Runa knew it.

Gem’s green eyes glowed with an eerie luminosity. “Shade can heal them, but only if you let him. Only if you trust him.”

Utterly absorbed in Gem’s words, Runa jumped when Shade’s hand came down on her shoulder. In his other hand, he held a burlap sack.

“Let’s go.” He jabbed a finger at Gem. “Mind your own business and keep your Shredder-shit to yourself.”

Gem stood. “I’m going to let that go because I know a lot has happened to you.” She swept up her book. “But don’t forget that I can see your scars, too, and the path you’re on will give you a lot more.”

“You’re out of line.” Shade’s voice cut through the low-level buzz in the cafeteria, drawing a tense silence. Even the demons in the pit grew still.

The Goth doctor locked gazes with him, as if she wanted to press the issue, but the flat black of Shade’s eyes promised zero tolerance. “I know what I see, Shade.” She swept out of the room, a blur of black and blue and silver piercings.

With the way Shade had tensed up, Runa expected to hear a string of blistering curses from him, but he surprised her by saying mildly, “Come on.”

She didn’t move. “What’s ‘Shredder-shit’?”

“Gem is half Soulshredder. They can see weakness, scars, and exploit them. Let’s go.”

“Wait. What path was she talking about?”

“Nothing, dammit. Now, were you wanting to grow fur here in the hospital or back at the cave?”

“Nothing?”

“Runa, let it go. You don’t want to know. Trust me.”

God help her, she wanted to trust him, wanted to know that at least one person besides her brother cared about her.

She looked at him, at the demon she was bonded to. His eyes were narrowed into dark, dangerous slits, and his expression was as hard and unyielding as his body.

Yes, God help her.





Shade was not in a good mood when they arrived back at his cave. Runa tried talking to him, but his responses amounted to grunts and the occasional snappish yes or no.

He strode straight to the bedroom-slash-torture-chamber and hung the bag of what she assumed was meat from a hook on the ceiling.

She wasn’t about to ask what else he had hung from there. Still, she crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at the equipment hanging neatly, arranged by type and size, from the walls. “Tell me about all of this.”

Shade shook his head, the soft whisper of his hair brushing against his jacket collar joining the eerie squeak of the meat hook swinging back and forth. This was the strangest situation she’d ever been in, and when you worked for the U.S. Army’s paranormal unit, strange situations were a daily deal.

The thought made her flush with guilt. Shade had been distant, not entirely open with her about everything, including what happened in this room, but she’d been keeping secrets, too, like how much the Army knew about his hospital, and why she’d truly come to New York.

And what the heck was she going to do once the full moon was over and she had to go back to work? Shade wasn’t going to let her walk away, but she wasn’t about to give up the job she’d grown to love so he could keep her prisoner in his cave.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Yeah, I think I do.”

“Runa, you don’t want to know.”

“You keep saying that, and I’m sick of it,” she said, jamming her fists on her hips. “I’m not a docile little mouse anymore, buddy, and I want answers. Now.”

Shade cursed, ran his hands through his hair over and over as he paced. She tore her gaze away from him, mainly to give him time to compose himself, because he seemed to be on the verge of exploding out of his skin.