Desire Unchained

Wraith leaped to his feet and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “You wanna change your story, bro? Because I’m thinking that these—” he grabbed a pair of handcuffs off the wall “—are exactly what I think. Our brother is one sick puppy.” He laughed bitterly. “And I thought Roag was the sick one.”


Runa bounded off the bed so fast she nearly knocked Eidolon over. She got right up into Wraith’s face. Buck naked. “Don’t you dare compare Shade to Roag. You have no idea what you’re talking about. Say one more word and I’ll drop you.”

In all the years Eidolon had known Wraith, he’d never seen his brother speechless.

Runa had just done the impossible.





Runa spun away from Wraith and knelt on the floor next to Shade, who was ashen and shaky, and much of him was fading in and out. What he’d done for her, how he’d somehow fought her desire for punishment and turned it on himself, well, it was a sacrifice beyond comprehension.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “So sorry.”

She palmed his cheek, feeling the rough scrape of new whisker growth. “No. Don’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry. What you did for me—”

“I’d do it again.”

Her eyes stung. “I know you would.” She tugged the comforter off the bed and wrapped them both in it. “Can you feel it? I’m free.”

The guilt over her mother’s death was gone, as was her anger at Shade. Suddenly, nothing mattered but the bond they shared. She might not be physically marked, but that didn’t make the connection any less powerful.

He swallowed. Once, twice. “The darkness in you is gone. But I still can’t … Gods, Runa. What I did to you. I’ve never been able to protect the females in my life. I always hurt them. I hurt you.”

“Shh.”

She pressed her finger against his lips, and he tugged her into his lap and held her so tightly she had to struggle to breathe. The sound of his heartbeat came to her in a rapid-fire punch, nearly drowning out the voices of his brothers as Eidolon tried to explain Shade’s gift for releasing females from whatever troubled them. From Wraith’s angry words, she guessed it wasn’t going well.

Gently, she pushed away, but stayed in Shade’s lap. “You need to tell me what’s going on with the disappearing act.” She glanced meaningfully at his left arm, which flickered in various stages of transparency. She felt him begin to shake beneath her, and her heart nearly broke. Whatever the problem was, it was bad.

“Remember when you asked about the Maluncoeur?” When she nodded, he continued. “It’s a curse. A curse I brought on myself.”

“How?”

He reached up to stroke her hair, but when her hair passed right through his hand, leaving behind only a whisper of air, he dropped his arm. “Do you know how long it took me to stop being angry at the warlock who cursed me? How long I blamed him and not myself?” He shook his head. “I was twenty. My mom went hunting, left me to take care of my sisters. But while she was gone, I entered my first transition.”

She nodded, remembering what he’d said and what she’d read about a Seminus demon’s maturation process. “You need nonstop sex for days to get through it.”

“Yeah. I went out, prowling for females, taking what I needed. And when I say take, I mean it.” He blew out a long breath and looked up at the ceiling. “I’d never had sex before the transition hit me, and then when I did, it was insane, fast, violent. I just needed to get off to get through the transition, you know? So when it was over, I wanted it because I wanted it. Not because I needed it. Does that make sense?”

Not really, but she nodded, noticed that his brothers had moved to just outside the doorway to give them some privacy, and she wondered how much of this story they’d known and how much was new.

“So instead of going back to the cave to protect my sisters, I pick up this human starlet. We go to her place.” His gaze strayed to the tools on the wall. “That’s when I discovered that I’d inherited the Umber ability to sense the things females bury deep inside—and that when she needs to be free of it, I can help.”

“So you …”

“Yeah. I did. And while I was doing it, her husband came home. It wasn’t pretty. We fought. I killed him.” Shade shuddered. “But before he died, he cursed me. Cursed me to never know love, because if I did, I’d fade away.”

“You’d die?”

“Worse.”

She listened in horror as he described what would happen to him. “Oh, my God.” She put her hand over her mouth. “That’s … that’s why you wanted to hate me. You didn’t want to—”

“Fall in love with you,” he croaked. “But it’s too l—”

“Shade!” Eidolon stalked into the room. “Don’t say it. Don’t say anything else.”

She watched in horror as Shade’s entire body flickered, and she had a sick feeling that if he actually said he was in love with her, it would all be over. No wonder his brothers had wanted to get rid of her. And though it still hurt that Shade had considered it, she understood.