How interesting that Jagger was so plugged into the cell’s leaders. Tayla really needed to start hanging out at HQ more. She’d gotten an apartment to maintain the emotional distance she required, but she definitely didn’t like being kept out of the loop. And sure, she could admit to a little jealousy where Jagger was concerned. He was such an ass.
The ass turned to Tayla. “If you can contact your demon and tag him, we can track where he goes. We might be able to locate the hospital.”
Your demon. Eidolon wasn’t her demon. He was her captive. Visions of him chained to her bed clouded her brain again. She shivered and tried to tell herself it wasn’t from pleasure.
Liar.
“Sounds good.” She smiled, but her joy felt halfhearted. The hospital needed to be destroyed, and Eidolon with it. All for the good of mankind.
She repeated that to herself as she hoofed it to the weapons room to replace those Hellboy had confiscated at the hospital, but for some reason, “for the good of mankind” didn’t ring as true as it had just a few days before.
Nine
Tayla arrived at her apartment as darkness began to swallow the red glow of the sun on the horizon. Hardcore executives were just now leaving their Wall Street offices. Drug dealers were hitting the streets. Vampires were waking from their sleep and getting ready to suck innocent humans dry.
Her own blood sang, ran like a wolf pack through her veins as the hunt called to her. Oh, how she wanted to be tracking and destroying hellspawn. But her wound ached, and she had a demon tied to her bed.
She entered her apartment cautiously, in case he’d pulled a Houdini. Once inside, she peeled the tracking sticker—nothing more than a spell-saturated black paper dot—from its backing and concealed it in her palm. She eased around the door frame to her bedroom, and her jaw dropped at the sight of Eidolon lying on the bed, one arm nearly free from the chain still attached to the twisted mass of metal frame. He’d obviously gone on a rampage to get loose, but what shocked her was how Mickey lay curled on Eidolon’s washboard abs, looking content as the fiend petted the traitorous animal.
“Oh, hey, Tayla,” he drawled, as though he were lounging on a beach and not being held prisoner. “I hope you picked up some Taco Bell while you were out. I’m starving.”
She dropped the bag of weapons she’d taken from HQ. “You eat fast food?”
“Only when there’s a shortage of live sheep and small children.”
Smartass. At least, she hoped he was being a smartass. “I’m fresh out of those things, but I have stale marshmallows and oranges.”
His eyes caressed her, half-lidded and glittering with hunger that had nothing to do with food—or affection, which was something she’d do well to remember. “I can think of something else I’d like to—”
“Don’t say it.” The dark, sultry note in his voice hit her right between the legs, and she gritted her teeth to keep from falling into the incubus trap. “Is that all you think about?”
“Lately? Yeah,” he said, and he didn’t sound happy about it, either.
“Does it have something to do with that s’genwhatever you were talking about?”
“S’genesis, and yes. I’m close to the change.”
He scratched Mickey on the belly, and the ferret rolled onto its back, practically purring. The weasel was in so much trouble, though if she were being honest with herself, she’d admit that Eidolon’s touch had made her purr, too.
The bastard. She moved to the bed and pretended to check his bonds. When she leaned across his big body to test the loose one, she casually applied the sticker to his pager, a necessity since Stephanie’s magic worked only when attached to electronics. Tayla’s breasts brushed his chest, the light contact sending up a violent tingle through her body.
God, he felt good, even when he wasn’t trying.
“You going to release me any time soon?”
Straightening, she peered down at him. “I was thinking I’d hold you prisoner for as long as you held me in the hospital. Why? You have some other patient to screw?”
“I need to feed my dog.”
“You have a dog? To eat?”
Eidolon stared at her.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
He snorted. “My kind has been terrified of you for centuries, and now I realize how stupid we’ve been.”
“Excuse me?” The demon was chained to his mortal enemy’s bed, vulnerable, and calling her stupid?
“Aegi. You kill indiscriminately. You have no idea what you kill or why. You know nothing about us.”
“I know exactly what I kill,” she shot back. “Evil. I don’t need a reason to do that.”
He kept petting Mickey, the silence growing thick until he finally said, “We’ve always assumed The Aegis is all-knowing, highly trained and organized,” he mused, one corner of his mouth turned up as if he’d uncovered a great secret. “But it’s nothing but a cult, isn’t it? The weak and uneducated being led by those with their own agendas. Brainwashed lemmings following orders without question.”