And on the subject of demons, she wondered if the tracking device she’d planted on Eidolon had led The Aegis to the hospital. Then again, if it had, Kynan would have told her by now.
“Ky . . . do you think there is such a thing as good demons?”
He blinked, taken aback. “Ah, well, there are eudaimons, benevolent spirits, but in most cases these are thought to be guardian angels.”
“But can other demons, like Cruenti, ever be good?”
“What? Tayla, what has gotten into you?”
Eidolon had. Twice.
“I guess . . . I just . . . what if they aren’t all bad?”
He felt her forehead with one hand, checked her pulse with the other, his medic training taking over. “I’m going to take you to the hospital. You’re tachy and a little warm.”
“I don’t need to see an Aegis doctor—”
“Tayla, you’re talking crazy. And it isn’t a bad idea to have you checked out. Who knows what was done to you at that demon hospital.” She pulled away, and this time he let her, but he moved up to the couch. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? They took care of you. Saved your life. And now you’re feeling sympathetic.”
“This isn’t some twisted form of Nightingale Syndrome.”
But the suspicion burned in his eyes, navy fire. “I’ll give you until tomorrow, and then you’re coming into HQ, and I will take you to see Dennis.”
He’d left, and she’d spent the next several hours doing nothing but napping and pigging out on marshmallows and oranges.
Now, curled up on her couch with Mickey in her lap, she dug her nails into the skin of a tangerine, working her frustration off on the poor fruit. She didn’t need a doctor. Well, she probably did; last night on the way home from the warehouse, she’d suffered another loss of function, the episode leading to people at a bus stop calling paramedics. By the time the ambulance arrived, Tayla had recovered and was long gone.
In a moment of extreme weakness, she’d thought about calling Eidolon on the off-chance that he’d been telling the truth about his ability to help her.
She’d gone so far as to say the words on the back of the card he’d given her, but when her breasts tightened and her thighs quivered at the mere thought of seeing him again, she’d thrown the phone across the room. If her hormones were that out of control when he wasn’t around, what would happen in his presence?
She hadn’t known her body could react like that to any man, let alone one who wasn’t human. If someone had told her a man could make her heart race, her breath catch, her sex ache, she’d have laughed, but that’s exactly what happened when Eidolon touched her. She craved him even while she hated him.
She was an addict, the same as her mom. The only difference was that Tayla’s drug of choice could be destroyed.
The phone rang, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Mickey shot under the couch, chattering indignantly. Something cold dripped onto her leg, and she realized that at some point, she’d squeezed the hell out of her tangerine and now had juice and pulp oozing between her fingers.
Quickly, she rinsed her hands in the kitchen sink but didn’t bother drying them before picking up the phone.
“Yeah?”
“Tay.” Jagger’s voice made her tense. He rarely called, and when he did, the news was always bad. This time, though, he sounded almost giddy, which raised her alert status even higher. “Get over here.”
“I’m taking today off.”
“Trust me. You want to be here for this.” Silence stretched, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of asking about his cryptic response. “We caught your demon doc. He’s not in good shape.”
Tayla froze. Nearly fumbled the phone. “What . . . what do you mean?”
“I mean that if you don’t hurry, you won’t have a chance to watch him die.”
Tayla couldn’t afford a cab, but she took one anyway. She burst through the Aegis HQ back door, startling the half-dozen Guardians watching a movie on the big-screen TV.
Play it cool, Tay.
“Where are they?”
“Basement.” Excitement lit the expressions of everyone in the living room, a far cry from the depressed atmosphere Kynan had led her to believe had taken over. The Guardians were practically bouncing in their seats, throwing off anticipation and bloodlust.
The familiarity of it all came crashing down on Tayla. A demon had been captured and was being made to pay for the deaths of their three colleagues. They enjoyed knowing that Eidolon was being tortured. She’d have enjoyed it, too, a few days ago.
Sickened, she dashed down the stairs. Several Guardians practiced with weapons and fighting techniques in the fitness room, but their halfhearted efforts didn’t fool her. They were eavesdropping on what was going on in the Chamber—a room most, including Tayla, had never seen inside.
No, she used to hang out like the others, listening and laughing, because really, they were just demons. So what if they got slapped around a little before they were dispatched?