He cursed, long and loud. The human was a menace to his control. Control would keep him alive. Lack of it would land him as dead as Roag.
And his control was being slowly stripped with every hour he drew nearer to his change.
Gem checked her watch for what had to be the millionth time as she sat on the hood of Eidolon’s car and watched the entrance to Tayla’s apartment building.
What was going on in there? Gem had come to have a little chat with the slayer, had arrived just in time to see the other woman enter her building a half-hour ago. Gem had been poised to follow . . . until she saw the other doctor’s BMW.
It was too much of a coincidence to assume he was in this part of the city on business unrelated to the slayer, so she’d held back, growing more agitated by the minute.
Her suspicious nature was running amok.
A gang of humans approached from the north, their sleazy banter ringing out over the honking horns, distant sirens, and the sounds of domestic violence from the dwellings above. Humans like Tayla should worry less about the evil brought about by demonkind and focus on the evil and violence their own species perpetuated. Violence like what she witnessed today while handing out condoms. What she witnessed every day in the human emergency room where she worked while covertly assessing patients for suspicious injuries, illness, and impregnation with demon spawn.
The men passed by without noticing her, thanks to the spell surrounding Eidolon’s vehicle. She breathed a sigh of relief, not because she’d been afraid, but because defending herself would have been messy.
For them.
Yet another reason she was glad Kynan had neutralized the earlier threat. Had she done it, her secret would have been exposed.
Exposed not only to humans, but to the demons from whom she hid her identity, as well. As far as her demon brethren were concerned, she was a full-blooded Sensor, just like her parents. Because to many demons, slaughtering half-breeds was considered sport.
Movement in the shadows across the street drew her attention, and she sucked in an appreciative breath at the sight of Eidolon exiting Tayla’s apartment building, his shirt wrinkled and missing most of the buttons. The man was fine. Smokin’. Why hadn’t she bedded him before now?
Oh, right. Because she was in love with a married human who hardly knew she existed.
She shook off thoughts she had no business thinking when her parents were in such grave danger and hoped to hell Eidolon wasn’t in league with The Aegis in the demon organ ring.
She respected the Seminus demon and his brothers for what they’d done with UG. The hospital was one of the few places a demon could go for help. UG had had a rough start, but as the word spread, suspicion faded and there was even talk of opening a similar facility in Paris, where the demon population was nearly double that of New York.
If Eidolon had anything to do with the black market killings, or if the hospital was being used . . . the damage done to all medically trained underworld beings would be irreparable.
Eidolon crossed the street, his easy, powerful stride ratcheting her heart rate up a notch. Incubi did that to her, even incubi as uptight as he was. Son of the devil, she’d never met an incubus with such self-control. Then again, he had grown up with Justice demons, a species that couldn’t be more opposite. He was the ultimate experiment in Nature Versus Nurture, and she imagined he must be engaged in a constant battle between what he was and what he wanted to be.
He didn’t miss a step when he saw her sitting on his hood, but his gaze narrowed and the angular line of his jaw hardened.
“Gem.” He stopped next to the driver’s-side door. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same.” Could ask, but given the state of his clothing, the answer was obvious. So much for his famous self-control.
His expression shuttered. “I gave a patient a ride.”
“Oh, please.” She barked out a laugh. “There’s no way in Hades you’d treat an Aegi.”
“Why are you here?” He crossed his arms over his broad chest, the flexing muscles making his dermoire dance. “To see me or the slayer?”
“I was hoping to have a chat with Tayla.”
A blast of scent came from him, sweet yet acrid, like burnt chocolate. It was a potent cocktail of lust and unease, an arousing combination for the demon in her.
“How do you know about her?”
She slid from the hood on the passenger side. “You know my mother works at an East Side free clinic? Well, she took care of Tayla’s mom when she was pregnant with Tayla.”
“Then you know she’s half-demon.”
“My mother had sensed a demon pregnancy,” she said carefully.
Eidolon smiled, nearly taking her breath away. “Get in the car. We have a lot to talk about.”
Tayla sagged against the front door, shaking uncontrollably, as though she was coming off a drinking binge to put college kids to shame. She covered her mouth with her hand as her stomach rolled and rebelled. Why would Eidolon lie like that?