“Not everyone who looks human is, Tayla. Friends in high places can arrange anything. Including getting demons who didn’t grow up in human society into med school.”
The idea that demons had come together to do something so organized and not blatantly evil blew her mind. Almost enough to make her forget that he hadn’t answered her second question. Almost.
“And? What about me? You just going to keep me tied to the bed as your personal sex toy?”
“I should point out that you begged me for sex. Not the other way around.”
There he went with the unnecessary reminders again.
“And what? You couldn’t resist the injured, weakened human having a sexy dream?”
Something in his gaze went all smoldering and hot, and her body answered with an inappropriate return of heat. “Call it a peculiarity of my species. I couldn’t resist your scent. You had a need. I responded.”
“But you didn’t fulfill it.” A cruel blow, meant to injure since she had no other way to do so, but he merely frowned, looking troubled.
“Could have something to do with your biology. I could run tests . . . try again . . .”
“No!” She wondered if his apparently keen sense of smell would pick up the odor of her failing deodorant. She knew why she hadn’t climaxed, but she wasn’t about to share. “Just answer my question. What are you going to do with me?”
He finally glanced at his pager and then back at her. “Some of my colleagues want to take you elsewhere and torture you until you talk.” The way he said it, all calm and matter-of-fact, frightened her more than the actual words did. “I’d rather they didn’t do that. I worked too hard to save you.”
Tay poked at her mystery egg sandwich, knowing she wouldn’t eat now. “Yeah, I can see how torturing and killing me after all your efforts would be a bummer.”
“Then give me something, slayer.”
“And what? You’ll let me waltz out the front doors?”
“I’ll make sure no one tortures you.”
“If you think I’m going to say one word about The Aegis, you’re on crack.” She looked down at her hand. “Where’s my ring?”
“Consider it a partial payment on your hospital bill.”
“You . . . bastard,” she sputtered. “That ring has sentimental value.”
Upon joining The Aegis, every Guardian chose a piece of jewelry—rings, watches, necklaces, anything personal—to have imbued with magical enhancements, and her ring had belonged to her mother.
“Much of what The Aegis took from me had sentimental value.”
Great. Just great. If the enemy learned how the sorcery attached to her ring worked and what gifts it bestowed upon the human wearer, demons could find a way to neutralize the Aegis magic.
Clenching her fists, she cursed the antiviolence spell. “I’m not telling you anything.”
“Tell me about your parents.”
She blinked, caught off-guard by the change of subject. “Why?”
“If you won’t give me anything about The Aegis, tell me something about yourself. What can it hurt?”
Surely it was a trick, but she didn’t see the harm in discussing people who no longer existed. “I never knew my dad. My mom died when I was sixteen.”
“Did you ever see your father? Pictures, maybe?”
“What the hell kind of question is that? And not that it’s any of your business, but no. My mom never even gave me a name.”
Tayla doubted her mom had known the guy’s name. Tay had been born addicted to heroin, so her old man could have been one of any number of losers her mom screwed while doped up.
Hellboy looked thoughtful, as if what she’d said had been fascinating. He must not have a life beyond patching up other evil demons and boinking human patients.
“How did your mom die?”
Memories she’d battled for years twisted and rolled like a living thing inside her head. She didn’t bother to tamp down the rage. The bitterness tasted too good, and she needed the reminder of why she hated this man. “She was killed,” Tay said. “By a demon.”
Nancy Allen had no intention of taking the life of the man standing at the junction of a shadowy sidewalk and a dark alley, even though he deserved death for being so stupid. His expensive trench coat, slacks, and dress shoes all but screamed, “Rob me, beat me, and then stab my liver.”
No, she wouldn’t kill him. The Vampire Council imposed strict guidelines regarding the butchering and disposal of humans, as did the councils for most demon species, and though the rules allowed her one kill per month, she hadn’t killed in several.
Perhaps her reluctance to take lives had something to do with the fact that she’d been a nurse since before she turned vamp. Or maybe it was because she rarely achieved the high her kind experienced at the moment of death.
She simply didn’t have an addictive personality, as long as chocolate didn’t count.