Desire Unchained

She yanked on her chain as though hoping it would break so she could launch at him. “I should bite you.”


“Demons are immune to lycanthropic infection.”

“It’ll still hurt.” She bared her teeth, and he had no doubt she’d rip into him if she could. “I’d planned to hunt you down and cause you some serious pain, you know. Unfortunately, the Ghouls caught me before I could do it.”

“How did they catch you?”

She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I went back to the place where the werewolf attacked me. It was a long shot, but I was hoping to find some clues. Since it was close to your place, I went by your apartment afterward. You weren’t there, but a man approached me from the street as I was leaving. He asked if I knew you. Asked too many questions. I got suspicious and tried to leave, but he jabbed me with a needle. I woke up here.”

Shade frowned. “How’d they know you’re a warg?”

“They didn’t until another warg came to interrogate me,” she said, which made sense. Usually it took a were-creature or shapeshifter to recognize another.

“What did they question you about?”

“You, Shade. They kept asking what I was doing at your place and how I knew you.”

Oh, fuck. She wasn’t taken off the streets for her pelt. She was taken because she knew him. But why?

Runa still glared at him, her delicate brows angled in a severe line. He inhaled her again, took in the sharp aroma of her anger and the softer, feminine scent that tapped into his protective male instincts. She didn’t belong here, trapped with demons in a dungeon that smelled of mold, urine, and layers upon layers of despair.

Neither did his sister, and the knowledge that both Skulk and Runa were here because of him drop-kicked a sick feeling into the pit of his stomach.

His track record for protecting females was the stuff of nightmares.

A harsh grating noise accompanied a draft of cold air as the iron door to their cell swung open. Runa crowded close to Shade. A male Nightlash demon entered, his humanoid appearance broken by clawed feet and sharp teeth. Two imps—one male, one female—followed, eyes and mouths disproportionately large for their small, round heads. They carried chains, a cudgel, and a bamboo cane.

“Take him,” the Nightlash said.

Shade lunged at the imps. The Nightlash tripped one of two levers on the wall. Instantly, the grind of turning wheels rattled the cell, and Shade’s chains shortened, tugging him until he was hanging sideways, plastered to the wall.

He gritted his teeth against the pain wrenching through his shoulder and hip. One of the imps clamped a metal collar around his neck while the other installed leg irons. His curses echoed off the damp walls, but through them, he heard Runa pleading with the Nightlash to leave him alone. Surprised, Shade slid her a glance as the imps lowered him to the floor.

Rage glittered in her eyes, and maybe she didn’t hate him as much as she’d said. Then again, maybe she wanted the Keepers to leave him alone so she could kill him herself.

“Where are you taking me?” Shade thrashed against his bonds, which earned him a strike to the back of the head by the imp with the cudgel.

The Nightlash didn’t answer, merely curled his lips in a nasty smile and wrapped the chain connected to the collar around his fist, yanking Shade to his feet. The imps wrenched his arms behind his back and slapped restraints on his wrists.

They dragged him toward the door. When he struggled at the threshold, a caning to his hamstrings dropped him to his knees. A cool breeze caressed the back of his legs—the cane had torn through his pants. His flesh would be next.

Behind him, Runa spat curses and threats that were as creative as they were ineffective. He couldn’t imagine the Runa he’d bedded saying those things, not the shy creature she’d been. Seemed the little human truly had grown claws and teeth.

Freakin’ sexy.

Or it would have been if he weren’t being dragged toward one of three whipping posts. Sure, Shade could appreciate a good whipping as much as the next guy, but he had a sneaky suspicion that he wasn’t in for a good time. Still, better the post than the water wheel, the rack in the corner, or the meat hooks hanging from the ceiling. And those were the tamer pieces of the torture equipment that littered the cavernous space.

At the rear of the dungeon, an arched opening into a smaller chamber revealed a sight that sent blades of ice right into his spine. Medical equipment filled the room—cutting tools, an autopsy table, a bone saw, and a chest spreader. Fresh and dried blood stained the floor.

Gods, this was beyond sick.