He just had to get through this without letting himself get attached, which shouldn’t be a problem. The ability to care about anyone or anything had been tortured out of him long ago.
Sure, he’d reluctantly admit to caring for his brothers, and his mates-in-law weren’t total wenches. And then there was Gem, who was pretty cool for being half human, but to say he actually cared about her… that would be an exaggeration.
He continued to watch Serena as she let herself into her room. Wraith had no idea what was going through her head, but he knew what was pinging around in his. He’d enjoyed that kiss, and he wanted to kiss her again. He tried to tell himself the desire to do so came from necessity, the need to seduce her, but if that was true, why did his breath come a little faster and hotter in his throat when she turned to glare at him one last time?
He held her gaze, and even across the distance she got the message, the flare of her eyes giving her away as she caught his silent declaration of intent. Tomorrow, she was his.
The Feast Moon was out tonight. The new moon always brought out the crazies of the underworld. The deaths. It would be even worse now that Army intel had determined that a battle was coming, a confrontation between good and evil that threatened every human life on the planet
Kynan Morgan had always been sensitive to the tides of the night, and the vibration in his blood told him this was going to be a bad one. His stomach churned as he stepped out of his car in Underworld General’s underground parking lot, knowing the ER would soon fill up.
He missed the rush of treating trauma patients, of working while hopped up on adrenaline to save a life, and not for the first time he wondered why he’d spent the last ten months in an Army facility getting poked and prodded when he could have been back with The Aegis, battling demons and then patching up Guardians.
Or he could have been back here, working in a demon hospital to save their lives.
Either way, he was no longer conflicted by his loyalties to humans and demons. He was working both sides, because neither was wholly good or bad, and he’d discovered that the good on both sides wanted the same thing: peace.
He threaded his way through the vehicles, stopping short as Gem exited the hospital through the sliding doors. His heart did a flip and settled into a rapid-fire machine gun rhythm.
She was even more beautiful than he’d remembered. She’d changed her hair—still black and falling to her shoulder blades, but she’d replaced the blue streaks with a hot pink that suited her.
She walked toward her red Mustang, keys twirling on her finger. He’d planned to find her after he spoke with Eidolon, but what the hell. He opened his mouth to call out to her, but snapped it shut when a huge male approached her. Where had he come from? His short, dark hair reminded him of Eidolon, and his head-to-toe black leather, including gloves, brought Shade to mind. The deadly aura was pure Wraith.
He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Gem smiled, her teeth flashing white against the contrast of her black lipstick. He’d kissed that mouth, had wanted to do a lot more before they were interrupted in her apartment by the U.S. Army’s paranormal unit, the Ranger-X Regiment. They’d barely given him a chance to say good-bye.
That had been nearly a year ago. Last week he decided he’d had enough. The R-XR had determined that he was descended from a fallen angel, and they were pretty sure he was part of a prophecy, but they’d stalled out.
And he born of man and angel shall die in the face of evil and may yet bear the burden of Heaven…
What a bunch of bullshit. Was it too much to ask that a prophecy actually make sense?
He’d left the R-XR with two goals: getting Gem back, and being reinstated as a Regent in The Aegis.
The Aegis thing hadn’t gone well—they hadn’t been happy that he’d walked away from the organization after his wife died, and worse, he’d left The Aegis to work in a demon hospital. But with trouble looming—not to mention his distant fallen-angel relative and link to a prophecy—they’d been willing to give him another chance.
If he’d use his demon connections to find out all he could about what was brewing in the underworld.
Basically, they wanted him to spy for them.
So no, The Aegis thing hadn’t gone as smoothly as he’d have liked. But there was still hope with Gem.
He started toward her, stumbled to a halt when the guy took her hand and led her to his Hummer.
Feeling as if he’d been run over by a tank, he watched helplessly as the asshole held the door open for her, his hand brushing casually over her butt as though it had been an accident. Accident, my ass. She actually grinned at him. Grinned.
Tell her not to wait. The message he’d given Runa to relay to Gem came roaring back. When the R-XR had taken him, he hadn’t known when, or if, he would return, and he’d wanted Gem to be happy.