Ah, damn. The anger leaked out of him as if he’d been shot full of holes. He was a freaking emotional sieve. Before he could think better of it, he pulled her against him, held her while she sobbed into his chest.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to snarl and strike and draw blood for what she’d done. Cuddling her, pressing his lips to the top of her head, rubbing her finely muscled back . . . yeah, bad fucking idea.
It certainly wasn’t supposed to feel this good. Nothing felt this good, not anything that happened while fully clothed, anyway.
Her hard body, soft in the right places, tucked against his in a perfect fit, and the way he stood between her legs as she sat on the edge of the desk made him remember that they could fit together even better. His cock stirred at the thought, and gods, he needed to get his head on straight.
“Yuri,” she said, her voice trembling as violently as her hands on his shoulders, “was he a doctor?”
“Yeah. A good one.” A shudder wracked her body, and even though he shouldn’t, he felt the need to alleviate her guilt a little. “He was also a hyena shapeshifter and a cruel asshole.”
“Still, what they did to him . . .”
He’d probably deserved. Eidolon didn’t voice that, though. He’d lost a talented surgeon, and replacing him wouldn’t be easy.
A noise outside his office drew his attention away from Tayla, and what he saw through the window made him curse.
“I really hope that guy isn’t a doctor,” she said, drawing back to watch Wraith, swaying like a sapling in the wind, in the outer office. He stumbled forward a few steps, and then fell back against the wall.
“Fucking perfect,” Eidolon muttered. “Stay here.”
He threw open the door and crossed to Wraith in four strides.
“Hey, bro.”
Eidolon seized his brother by the throat and lifted him off the ground. “You idiot. Secor des unez!”
Wraith laughed, flashing fangs. “Oooh, the language of Justice. Big E is pissed.”
“I told you to lay off the humans.”
“Yeah, and I’m pretty fucking sick of the reruns, man.”
With a roar, Eidolon heaved Wraith across the room. His brother hit the floor and rolled into the wall. Before he could sit up, Eidolon was on top of him, slamming his head into the carpet.
“E!” Shade’s hands closed on his shoulders. “Eidolon. Let him up.”
“He’s high.”
“Yeah, I know. I brought Narcan.”
“Screw that,” Wraith slurred. “I ate that junkie fair and square.”
Still straddling his brother, Eidolon ground his molars until they hurt. “Did you kill him? Is the junkie dead?”
“Dunno.”
Shade knelt, scrubbed a hand over his face. “Any witnesses?”
“Don’t give a shit.”
“Wraith—”
“Give it a rest already.” Wraith used his tongue to caress one of his fangs as though tasting the blood that had flowed over it when he ate the human junkie. “The Vamp Council won’t touch me, and you know it.”
No, they wouldn’t. As a Seminus demon with vampiric tendencies, he fell into a gray area between both species, and the Councils had nearly gone to war over the laws he should be required to obey. Punishment for various offenses was an especially sticky and sensitive matter, and both Councils had finally, with Shade and Eidolon’s help, agreed to a compromise. Wraith didn’t know about the agreement, and if Eidolon had his way, he never would.
“Arrogant asshole,” Shade muttered, as he pinned one of Wraith’s arms and then tugged the cap off the syringe with his teeth.
Wraith hissed and struggled. Eidolon roughly slammed his knees onto his brother’s shoulders to hold him in place while Shade shot him up with the Narcan, one of the few human medications that worked as intended in demons.
“I’m so sick of babysitting you,” Eidolon said, knowing he should be more understanding.
Eating a drugged-up human—always male, since Wraith wouldn’t touch a human female for sex or blood—usually meant something had set him off, made him remember the trauma of either his childhood or his torture. It was something he didn’t talk about, other than to say that he’d been forced to watch human females suffer and would not be responsible for doing the same. As a result, he fed only from other demons and human males. The occasional junkies were an escape for him, but Eidolon was the one who would pay for his transgressions.
Wraith snarled, his eyes already losing the glassy sheen of his drug high. “You should be babysitting your whore.”
“You should have been eaten at birth.” Consumed by rage, Eidolon stood before he killed his brother. “Shade, did you get hold of Gem?”
“Ah, yeah. And brother, she had a message for you. Said to tell you the twenty-four hours is up. What’s she talking about? She was riled. Definitely channeling her inner demon.”
“It’s nothing,” Eidolon lied. “Did either of our ambulances survive the explosion?”
Shaking his head, Shade came to his feet. “Nope. And the parking entrance collapsed.”
“Shit. Has the glamour spell been repaired?”