Shaedes of Gray: A Shaede Assassin Novel

standards, and my sarcastic quips couldn’t possibly be that attractive. I did not have time for these ridiculous, dramatic, soap-opera moments.

Raif gave me a knowing look that I wanted to slap right off his snarky face.

“Has she said anything?” I asked as we walked down the hall, away from temptation.

“Not yet. She’s weak. It looks like she was starved in addition to the beatings. There’s not much to her—just skin and bones.”

“Believe me, there wasn’t much to her before she was kidnapped.” I listened to the sound of my footsteps on the thin hallway carpet, letting the rhythm pound torturous thoughts from my mind. Delilah needed all the help she could get right now. She needed me. “Are you going to tell me about the Enphigmale now?” I asked, just as we approached the door to Delilah’s room.

“Afterward,” Raif said.

I gave him a look that said You’d better, and, from the hard expression on his face, I knew he’d tell me. He could taste vengeance, just as I did.

Poor Delilah. I doubt she wanted my pity; she never struck me as that type of girl. But as she lay half- conscious, buried in the heavy blankets of the queen-sized bed, she looked as close to death as she could get. Someone had cleaned her up, and what was left under the crusted blood and grime wasn’t much better. Whoever had done this to her had been doing it for a while. The bruises marked her face in different degrees of color and severity. Some had already begun to yellow. But others were fresh, nearly black. One milky eye had started to swell shut, while the other stared blindly at the ceiling. A shudder swept over my body as I watched the barely noticeable rise and fall of her chest and heard the almost-imperceptible rasping sound that came from the involuntary act.

Raif looked down on her with a mixture of bitterness and compassion. Oracles in general weren’t exactly on his list of favorite creatures. However, Raif was a warrior right down to the tips of his toes. A warrior’s job, first and foremost, is to protect those weaker than himself, and you couldn’t get any weaker or more helpless than Delilah. He stood for about as long as he comfortably could before leaving. “I’ll wait for you outside,” he said as he pulled the door closed behind him.

Just as Raif left, the bathroom door swung wide and Tyler stepped into the room. I thought of Xander’s earlier play for my attention, and guilt swept over me. Clearing my throat, I tried to banish the feeling that I had somehow betrayed him. He looked my way briefly before moving to Delilah’s side, where he placed a cool cloth on her forehead.

“She’ll be all right,” he said, as if he’d been repeating the mantra since she’d been brought here. “Anya says she’ll be in and out of consciousness for a few days, maybe, but she’ll live. You know”—Ty gave me a bitter smile —“in the all the years I’ve known Delilah, this is the first time I’ve ever seen her helpless.”

“How did you two meet?” I asked, wanting to take his mind off his sorrow.

“We traveled in the same circles. The older supernatural community tends to stay close. The world is constantly changing, and life can get lonely when you live so long. It’s nice to have something or someone to ground you. We all sort of keep in touch. Delilah and I would run across each other every twenty years or so. I was living in upstate New York in the eighties. She was hanging out with a CIA contact I’d done some freelance work for.”

“CIA? What’s that all about?” I couldn’t help my wry tone. Good lord, Ty had played with some big-time heavy hitters.

He laughed. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. Delilah’s the one who convinced me to move to Seattle. She was headed out this way, and she told me that my future awaited me here.” His expression was heated as his eyes bore in to mine. “I guess she was right.”

“I’m going to find whoever did this,” I said, speaking more to Delilah than Ty. “And when I do, I’m going to kill every last one of them.”

Tyler’s head snapped up and he stalked around the bed. He grabbed my upper arm, giving me a little shake. “You are not, under any circumstance, going after whoever did this. Do you understand me?”

Did Xander and Ty share a brain or something? Since when did I become the damsel in distress anyway?

“Who are you to tell me what I can or can’t do?” I said, none too calm. “I’m not that breakable, Ty. I can’t sit here and do nothing.”

“I care, okay!” Tyler’s voice was rising to the point that every Shaede in the house would hear our conversation. “I don’t want you to get hurt, or worse. It would kill me if something happened to you.”

Literally, I thought. If this was about saving his neck, then I could fix that problem with little fuss. “If you’re worried about yourself, Jinn, I can release you from whatever bond we have right now. You won’t need to die for me or anyone else.”

Tyler’s face went blank and he looked at his feet, shaking his head. When he looked up, his eyes met mine with a fierce intensity. He grabbed both of my arms just below the shoulder and gave me a rougher shake with each word, “I. Love. You!”

“Shut up!” I said, not caring who heard our exchange now. “Shut up, Tyler! You have no idea what you’re saying.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Darian. Do whatever you have to do to keep from feeling what you know is there. Play your games with Xander, run from the truth, put yourself in danger. Kill every last thing on the fucking planet if you think it’ll keep you from the truth. It’s not going to change anything. It’s not going to change how I feel. And sooner or later, you’re going to have to admit that you love me too.”

His words were flavored with something I didn’t recognize, couldn’t understand. He trembled with emotion. I don’t know what he wanted to do—hit me, kiss me, or maybe take me outside and throw me off the balcony. My arms tingled, his tight grip biting into my skin, cutting off the circulation.

“Tyler.” My voice had grown quieter, but I couldn’t do anything about the hard edge. “You’ve known me for a long time. I’m not made for that. Love isn’t in my vocabulary. I don’t even think I really know what it is. You’re not doing yourself any favors by trying to convince yourself otherwise.”

I broke free from his grasp and paused at Delilah’s bedside, putting my lips to the one tiny spot on her forehead not marred with cuts or bruises. “Don’t worry; I am going to kill the bastards that did this.” I shot one last murderous, albeit confused, glare at the back of Tyler’s head, and left.

“Let’s go,” I said to Raif, closing the door behind me and walking down the hall.

“Where?” he said, trying to keep up.

“Anywhere but here. Is there someone who can look after Xander while we’re gone?”

“I’ve got a detail posted outside his suite and I doubled the personnel around the perimeter of the house. He won’t be going anywhere tonight. The place is in total lockdown.”

“Good,” I said, and bounded down the stairs, straight for the front door.

“What the hell is it with men, anyway?” I asked Raif over the music and chatter as I settled onto a chair in my favorite corner of The Pit. “Do you guys have some kind of internal wiring problem, or what?”

“I take it you’re talking about my brother and his competition?” Raif laughed and then looked around. “Do you actually like this place?”

I quirked a brow. Competition? “There’s no contest. Besides, it’s just too strange. I feel like I have the starring role in some Arthurian poem or Greek tragedy or something.” If the situation was so obvious to Raif, everyone in Xander’s inner circle must’ve known about our little . . . situation. I wanted to gag. “Is it all about wanting what you can’t have? The thrill of the chase? Or what?”

“Darian.” Humor lingered in Raif’s voice. “Time means something different to us. You’re still young, but you’ll soon understand. Xander is more than four hundred years old. You can live many lives in the course of a lifetime that spans so long. What does he care who you chose to spend your nights with a century ago? He’s still a man, and you’re still a beautiful woman.”

Oh, so now this is my fault? I wasn’t getting the coolheaded logic I’d expected, but was instead getting the runaround from him too. “Okay, fine. All of this is because I’m just so goddamned irresistible. It must be my shining personality and lighthearted spirit. I feel so sorry for them both.”

Raif laughed good-naturedly, at once an awkward and icy sound. But now, in our camaraderie, I found his