“And if I did?” he asked as he eyed the insanity around him. She gave him an apologetic shrug, and he shook his head. “I need to see Shade or Eidolon.”
“I’m sorry, but we’re a little busy.” She ducked to avoid being brained by a pipe someone had thrown. “I suggest you come back later—” She broke off as some long-clawed thing as large as Lore hit her across the face.
Lore leaped over the desk and wrenched the demon’s head around. There was a satisfying crack, a twitch, and the thing slumped, dead, to the floor.
Satisfaction had been his payment for that one. He glanced at the nurse, who was holding her bleeding cheek. “You okay?”
“I’ll live. Thank you.” She looked down at the dead demon. “I quit.” She stalked off in a huff.
Well, hell. He stood there, wondering if he should search for the two brothers or not. He’d heard that Wraith was off trying to save his life, but Lore knew damned good and well there was no cure for the poison his partner had dosed Wraith with. The guy was as good as dead.
But the other two… he needed to find them. The way Roag had set up the payment schedule had specified that all three must be dead in order for the money to be released.
And that burned-up Roag guy had been specific. He’d had one hell of a bug up his ass about these brothers. He’d never said why he wanted them dead, but then, Lore hadn’t asked. Didn’t care. He had a job to do. But really, in his thirty years of killing for money, he hadn’t come across anyone so desperate to see someone dead that they’d make arrangements for it to happen even after they themselves died.
Lore and his partner, Zaw, had received a third of the money up front, but the rest wouldn’t come until the brothers were verifiably deceased.
Zaw’s death had thrown a kink in that plan. Lore had been helping out the Byzamoth loon while Zaw was taking out the brothers. They’d been in contact via radio earpieces, and Lore had known exactly when Zaw had been taken out.
It had sounded pretty gruesome. As far as Lore could tell, Zaw had been eaten by a werewolf.
Nasty.
Lore much preferred a clean, bloodless kill. He might be an assassin, but only because he was good at it. And because he couldn’t do anything else. The demon world didn’t want him, and neither did the human one. As a half-breed, he was trash in either place.
Oh, and because he was owned by a demon who pimped Lore’s services out and demanded a cut of the money. Or else.
He looked down at his hand, covered by a leather glove to protect people from an accidental touch. He could kill even through the leather if he tried, but he didn’t have his kill skill turned on right now, so no one here was in danger. No one but the brothers he was after.
Something screamed, and simultaneously, blood sprayed in a fine mist, catching him in the face. He wiped his eyes with the back of his gloved hand and turned to the Harrowgate.
“Lore!” Gem’s voice rang out over the chaos. The smoking fine Goth chick jogged toward him, her stethoscope bouncing against her ample breasts.
What a stroke of luck it had been to run into her in the parking lot the other night. He’d stopped her to ask a few questions, but there’d been a spark there, a tangible one he hadn’t felt with a female in a long time.
Mainly, because he avoided them. Accidentally killing a partner he liked during sex wasn’t something he cared to repeat. Killing one during sex that he’d been paid to eliminate… that was a little different.
But Gem had fascinated him, and besides, she knew a lot about the hospital—and about his targets. He’d had a prime opportunity to kill two demons with one stone; he’d gotten to hang out with the sexiest female he’d been around in a long time, and he’d gotten good intel.
Last night he’d gone to her apartment, but she’d been upset, obviously by the aggressive human at the elevator, and she hadn’t wanted to talk.
Apparently, she hadn’t done much talking with the human male, either, because they’d both smelled of sex, which had gotten Lore worked up and, at the same time, pissed off. He wanted Gem for himself, no matter how bad an idea that might be.
Hey, baby, yeah, that’s right… we can get down to it, but never mind that I have to stay covered up and keep my glove on. Oh, and I can’t touch you at all with my right hand because when I come, I kill whoever I’m touching even through the glove. But yeah, just keep doing that thing with your mouth and I’ll try not to put you in your grave…
“Gem,” he said, pulling her out of the way of a thrown chair. “You didn’t mention your hospital is a war zone.”
She blew out an exasperated breath. “It normally isn’t. This is—” She broke off to yell at a horned demon in scrubs who was trading blows with a vampire in a hospital gown. “This is insane.”
“Good to know this isn’t the normal state of operations.”
“Not at all.” She frowned. “I need to go, see if I can help get the Haven spell back up.”