“Yeah. The entrance is hidden from human eyes.”
The entrance was generally hidden anyway, since it sat on the basement level of a condemned parking garage Eidolon had purchased, but still, what a fucking mess. He glanced at Tayla, who stood in the doorway, her expression haunted in a way that seemed to go deeper than the immediate situation.
“What the hell are you staring at?” Wraith snapped, the downslide from his high doing nothing to improve his mood. He levered into a sit and leaned back against the wall, head back, glaring at Tayla with hooded eyes.
“I didn’t know demons did drugs,” she said, and Wraith grinned coldly.
“I don’t. I do blood.” He ran his tongue over the points of his fangs. “Come here, and I’ll do you.”
She snorted. “Dream on.”
“Ah, so you’re selective about the demons you do?”
“Wraith,” Eidolon said, his voice low, edged with warning that his brother ignored.
“What? Seems a little hypocritical. Anyone with as much demon in her as she’s going to have—”
“Shut it.”
This time Wraith listened, but Tayla had moved closer. “What do you mean, I’m going to have?” She turned to Eidolon. “I’m already half-demon. How much worse can it get?”
“You haven’t told her?” Wraith laughed and leaped nimbly to his feet, the effects of all drugs completely worn off. “Allow me.”
“Told me what?”
“Nothing,” Eidolon said, but Wraith was moving toward her, blue eyes as bright as a cat’s before it pounced.
Eidolon stepped between them, but Tayla grabbed his arm, swung him around. “Please . . . tell me.”
He’d wanted to wait until her body had taken her as far as it could go so she’d realize she needed his help, but Wraith was forcing his hand. And maybe now was the right time after all. The Aegis had betrayed her—her own kind had cast her out and tried to kill her when they should have protected and cherished her. Learning she belonged to another world might open her mind up to new possibilities.
“Tayla, let’s go into my office—”
“Don’t jerk me around,” she said, planting her feet and crossing her arms over her chest. “Whatever it is, I can handle it.”
Eidolon ran his fingers through his hair. “Fine. I told you that you were half-demon. What I didn’t tell you is that the reason you’re having the problems is that when the Alu bit you, it activated dormant DNA.”
“Dormant DNA?” She swallowed and licked her lips. “What are you saying?”
“Geez, humans are stupid,” Wraith said, propping a shoulder against the wall. “He’s saying it’s taking over. It’s either going to kill you or rob you of everything that makes you human.”
She glanced at Shade, who nodded, and then at Eidolon. “I don’t . . . that can’t be right.”
The sound of Wraith’s cold laughter dropped the temperature in the room. “Welcome, slayer,” he said. “Welcome to hell.”
Fifteen
Tayla didn’t speak a word as Eidolon, freshly changed into jeans and a charcoal sweater, guided her through the hospital’s dark halls. Her thoughts were still frozen at the place where Wraith had said she was going to lose everything that made her human, and it was all she could do to stay conscious, let alone talk.
She certainly couldn’t think.
Ahead, a sleek, black arch framed a glowing gate like the one she’d seen in the tunnel at Nancy’s apartment.
Eidolon uttered something in a language she didn’t know and ushered her through it. They came out on the other side in what looked like a cave of black marble, with maps carved into the polished stone wall. Eidolon touched one that appeared to be a crude representation of the United States, and then an even cruder carving of New York state glowed red next to it. After a few taps, another arch appeared.
In two steps, she found herself emerging from the side of a building in the South Bronx. When she turned around, there was no evidence of any sort of gateway or opening in the brick. Eidolon hailed a cab, and within fifteen minutes they were at her apartment.
She still hadn’t said a word, and her mind still wasn’t working.
“You’re coming home with me,” he said. “We’re here to grab your weasel and some belongings.”
“I can’t.” Her voice sounded rusty and unused and on the verge of breaking. She was on the verge of breaking, trapped inside a nightmare that wouldn’t end.
The demon in you is going to rob you of everything that makes you human.
“You don’t have a choice, Tayla. You gave up that right when you blew up my hospital.” He paid the cabbie and walked with her into her building’s musty lobby, shaking his head in disgust when a hypodermic needle crunched under his boot. “You’re going to need help as your body changes. We have a lot to talk about.”