Sin Undone

Retarded. Nice. “So if Lore and I shared the same womb, why would it affect me and not him?”


“You’re fraternal, not identical. You have different genes that are susceptible—or not—to different things. Same thing happens in alcoholic human mothers. She might give birth to one twin with fetal alcohol syndrome, while the other has no symptoms at all.” Eidolon shifted, sitting forward in his chair again. “There’s something else. Unlike Lore, you’re not sterile.”

She blinked. “Then why haven’t I gotten knocked up, like, a million times by now?” “Because you don’t ovulate, but you do have viable eggs. You can have a family, Sin. You’ll just have to go through an in vitro procedure.” “That’s not going to happen.” Not only did she not want kids, but who would she have them with? No one but Con had ever wanted to be with her. She’d never wanted to be with anyone but him. And in the end, he’d rejected her. Left her, the way he’d said he wouldn’t do.

God, how could she hate someone and ache for them at the same time?

A hot, angry flush settled over her skin, and she knew she was going to burst into tears again.

“I have to go.” She leaped to her feet, making a slashing motion with her hand when her brothers tried to stop her. She needed to be alone. Like she’d always been. Sin hightailed it through UG’s halls as fast as she could without looking like a complete idiot. It was only as she entered the emergency department, where the Harrowgate was, that she realized she had nowhere to go.

She’d lived for so long at the assassin den that she had no other residences. In her haste to get out of the den, she’d left her clothes, her few trinkets, and all her weapons—except what was on her body and a few spares she kept at Lore’s place—behind. Now she was homeless on top of everything else.

“Sin.” She wheeled around. She wasn’t overly surprised to see Raynor, the dude she’d seen in Scotland, standing there, but still a ball of “oh, shit,” dropped into her gut. He’d been waiting for her. The hunter’s gleam in his eye was a dead giveaway.

“Are you here about the vaccine?” It was a lame question, but she was on the verge of tears over Con, was unnaturally nervous, and her guilt over the fact that she’d started a plague that had killed hundreds, maybe thousands, of his people still ate at her.

“Yes, thank you for asking.” He moved toward her, and she felt like a rabbit in a wolf’s sights. “You destroyed a lot of lives, including those of many of my friends and family.”

“I know,” she said. “I’m sorry—”

“That’s not good enough, you little bitch,” he snapped, the sudden change in him putting Sin on edge.

Somehow, she kept her expression and voice neutral. “Is that why you’re here? Because you want your pound of flesh from me?” “That’s exactly why I’m here. I have a proposition for you.”

“Whatever it is,” Sin said wearily, “you can shove it up your ass.”

He laughed. The dude’s moods flip-flopped like a dying snake. “Trust me, you want to hear this. If you don’t, more people will die.” He headed toward the parking lot, obviously expecting to be followed. Sin nearly didn’t. But she had a feeling he wasn’t bluffing, and she couldn’t be responsible for more deaths.

Once they were in the parking lot, he stopped near an ambulance. The stall next to it, where the rig she and Con had taken should have been, screamed with emptiness, reminding her of Con, of being in the back of the rig, of his hands on her.

Stop it. Grow a fucking pair of balls and get over your tender feelings. Good plan. She’d let Raynor take the brunt of her misery.

“Okay, dickhead,” she said finally. “What do you want?”

“I want the born wargs to be destroyed. It’s time the balance of power shifted and turneds took over.”

“That’s all? Well, good luck with that. I want world peace and for people to stop making bad Batman movies, but guess what, buddy, I’m screwed, too.”

“Sarcastic little wench. I will get what I want, and you’re going to give it to me.” “I don’t think so.” She jammed her hands into her pants pockets. Her left hand felt weird and she wondered idly when she’d get used to the missing digit. “I mean, the ‘me giving it to you’ part. I am a wench.”

Raynor snorted. “Only a demon could be proud of that.”

God, this guy was slime. How had Con not killed him before now? Con. Stop it! “What do you want? I’m bored. You’ve got ten seconds to tell me why I’m here.”

“You’re here because I want you to create a virus that affects only the pricolici.” Not just slime, but delusional. The parking lot vehicle entrance flashed, and an ambulance zipped through, pulling to a stop in the unloading space near the doors to the ER. Sin’s pulse went a little crazy as she peered into the cab to identify the medics. Con wasn’t one of them. Not that she’d expected him to be, but she couldn’t help but look.