“It did,” he muttered. “You should have seen Wraith before UG started up. And speaking of the hospital, I need to head there for a while.” He urged her back into the bed and pushed her into the mattress. “Get some rest while I’m gone.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, falling instantly asleep. He dressed quickly in jeans and a blue button-down he left untucked and took the nearest Harrowgate to the hospital, where he approached Solice, the on-duty triage nurse.
“Have you seen Gem or Wraith?”
“Haven’t seen Gem.” Solice jerked her thumb down the hall. “But I saw Wraith go that way with Ciska.”
Shit. Ciska, the Sora demon nurse, radiated sex like a contaminated nuclear power plant. Wraith couldn’t resist her if he was in a coma.
Eidolon took off down the hall toward the cafeteria, following the perfume of arousal that ended at the supply closet door, where a muffled giggle and thumping sounds told him as much as the scents did.
He threw open the door, not surprised to find Wraith’s face buried in Ciska’s neck, his hands groping her breasts, her scrub bottoms pooled around her ankles. The fly of his jeans was open, but Eidolon tore his gaze away before he saw more than he wanted to.
Wraith lifted his head to look at Eidolon with golden eyes. Blood dripped from his fangs until Ciska licked it off with her forked tongue.
“I need to talk to you.”
Ciska’s tail whipped up to nudge the front of Eidolon’s pants where he sported a raging hard-on, thanks to the overpowering scent of female arousal. She stroked his shaft through his pants until he cursed and stepped back. With a saucy smile, she swung her tail away and wrapped it around Wraith’s cock.
Wraith threw back his head and groaned. “Bro, either give me a minute or join us.”
It wouldn’t be the first time he shared a female with one or both brothers, but for some reason, all he could think about was Tayla. Which wasn’t good. “Hurry up.”
He slammed the door and stood in the hall, his sex heavy, aching. Images of Tayla, her body pliant yet strong beneath his, flashed in his head until he was ready to howl in frustration—frustration that wasn’t entirely physical. The fact that he couldn’t bring her to climax gnawed at everything that made him an incubus.
Muttering under his breath, he told the triage nurse to page Gem, and then he settled himself in his office with an IV of his blood set at full bore. Gem arrived ten minutes later. She looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed two minutes ago, her bloodshot eyes framed by dark circles.
“Where’s Tayla?”
Eidolon felt a possessive rumble rattle his chest at her tone. “I told you she’s mine. I won’t let you hurt her.”
“She might already be hurt. I went to her apartment—”
“She’s at my place. She’s safe.”
“Oh, thank heaven.”
“Heaven had nothing to do with it,” he said wryly. “And why are you so relieved?”
“The bastards called,” Gem said, closing the door.
“And?”
“They won’t wait any longer. They said they need me right away.”
“What changed?”
“The person they were using can’t do the procedures. Apparently, whoever it was was injured in an explosion.”
Eidolon’s stomach bottomed out. The organ-harvesting operation could be based anywhere in the world—or underworld—and the individual performing the surgical work could live and work anywhere as well. But Eidolon didn’t believe in coincidences.
“The hospital explosion.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. How many were injured?”
“Three killed. Seven injured. Two seriously.” He shoved his hands through his hair, ignoring the tug of the IV line. “Of the seven, four are well enough to work.”
“So that means one of the three is the cutter.”
Rage bubbled up in Eidolon at the thought that one of his trusted staff could have been involved in something so heinous. Traitorous.
Something pricked his memory. Derc, the male he’d treated a few days ago. He’d been aggressive, rude . . . until panic set in when Eidolon asked him about his surgical incision. At the time, it had seemed odd, but now, knowing that someone inside the hospital had been involved . . .
And something Nancy had said bothered him, as well. She’d fingered The Aegis, but what if she’d said something else? She’d been whispering. Her voice had gurgled, been mushy.
The three injured staff members . . . Reaver, Seknet, Paige.
Oh, damn.
“It’s Paige.”
“The human nurse?”
He nodded. “Nancy said something to me before she died. Aegis. But it could have been Paige. Or Paige’s . . . something. And Paige was present when a patient of mine went into a death panic. He must have recognized her.”
“This might mean The Aegis isn’t involved. They wouldn’t blow up the person they need to perform the surgeries, right?” Gem’s voice went as cold as he’d ever heard it, her eyes went black, and for the first time, he saw the demon in her human-shaped wrapper. “I want my parents back. We need to talk to Paige.”