“It hoses off.”
Blaspheme, a False Angel who truly enjoyed her ability to fool humans into thinking she was the real thing, shoved Yuri’s feet aside so she could sit, and then took a sip of the iced tea in her hand. “So, Yuri, how often do you have to wash your floors?”
“Two or three times a week. It’s not always blood. Petroleum jelly, honey, urine . . .”
Eidolon folded his arms over his chest and braced a hip on the snack counter. “Nice.”
Yuri shrugged. “The females are almost always willing.”
“The slayer won’t be.”
“That’s the point. I can make her talk. A few hours of hanging from my razor cuffs while I flog her will have her spilling her guts.” He grinned, revealing slightly elongated canines. “Which will also hose off the floor.”
A low growl brought Eidolon’s gaze around to the doorway, where Wraith stood, his eyes burning gold. “No one told me about the staff meeting.”
Yuri didn’t spare Wraith a glance. “Because you aren’t staff, phlegmwad.”
“This isn’t a formal meeting, Wraith,” Eidolon told him, before his brother could go off on their chief of surgery.
Dressed in low-slung jeans and a Jimmy Buffet T-shirt, Wraith bared his fangs and stalked into the break room, and Eidolon knew his anger had nothing to do with feeling left out of a staff meeting.
“You aren’t going to torture the Aegi.” Wraith grabbed a Styrofoam cup and reached for the coffee pot.
“For once, I’m with my brother,” Eidolon said. “We don’t need to torture her for information. We can turn her loose, watch her.”
More than watch. Touch, take, taste. The thought blasted through his brain, along with images of Tayla’s naked body sliding against his. He’d move inside her, deep, hard, and she’d find her release if he had to spend hours getting her there.
His failure with her ate at him, ripped into his most basic instincts and told him to try again, to take her over and over until there was no doubt that the other day was a fluke.
Gods, he was losing it.
“So that’s your idea? Spy on her?” Yuri rolled his eyes, black marbles spinning in their sockets. “Yawn.”
“That’ll take too long,” Blas said. “Yuri has these thorny flails . . .” She shivered, and Eidolon caught the scent of lust, which made his own ramp up a notch. “Let’s just say that fragile human skin won’t stand up to them.”
Wraith hurled his fresh cup of coffee into the sink, splattering it on the walls and counters. “You two can beat yourselves into pulps all you want, but you are not torturing the woman. Kill her outright or let her go, but no burning of limbs or peeling of skin or hanging from hooks. We clear?”
Yuri bounded to his feet, nearly knocking Blaspheme’s glass out of her hand. “Who made you chief of staff? You need to shut the fuck up and go back to being a gofer.”
The writing on the walls began to shimmer and pulse. Had it not been for the Haven spell, the room would have erupted in fists and claws. Instead, Wraith collected himself, his hands clenching reflexively even as he smiled. “E, did you tell them she’s half-demon?”
“She’s what?”
“A half-breed,” Wraith drawled. “You know, one parent is human, the other is demon? Dickhead.”
Yuri shot Eidolon a confused glance. “Aegi are human.”
“That’s what we’ve always assumed. But I don’t think she knows.” Yesterday, Eidolon had intended to tell her, before her revelation about her mother being killed by a demon. At that point, mentioning that her father might have been a demon as well didn’t seem prudent. “She’ll know soon enough. The demon DNA is taking over. She’ll need our help to survive. We can wait until she comes to us. Take her while she’s weak and bring her over to our side. Having a spy inside The Aegis would be invaluable.”
Yuri considered that for a moment, then shook his head. “Our people are dying, being cut up by some barbaric butcher. The Aegis is involved. We can’t wait.” His eyes glazed, his thin lips stretched into a toothy grin, and Eidolon once again caught the odor of lust, this time musky and bitter. “The slayer will look good in chains. Helpless. Bleeding . . .”
Wraith’s irises went gold again, and Eidolon alone knew why. Nearly eighty years ago, Wraith had been tortured nearly to death, a fate their sire hadn’t escaped.
Their father, by all reports half-insane, had been made to pay for his obsession with Wraith’s mother, for impregnating her during her transition from human to vampire and holding her captive until she gave birth.