Ecstasy Unveiled

Something splashed painfully in her stomach, as if a stone had been skipped across a lake of acid. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Since the age of twenty, she’d never been free, unowned, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do with herself if she suddenly had no orders.

She stepped out of the Harrowgate and into the emergency department… and right into chaos. Shade and Eidolon were rolling around on the ground, throwing punches and, as far as she could tell, not holding anything back.

Conall and Luc were watching, each holding a handful of bills. Another bet. Wonder how I can get in on that one. Conall’s molten silver gaze locked with hers, and she took a sudden, hot breath. He was every woman’s fantasy, from his perfect body to his remarkable eyes to his dangerous masculinity. Nice girls would tremble before him, even as they entertained wicked, private fantasies. Bad girls would make those fantasies reality any time, anyplace.

Sin was a bad girl.

And her inner bad girl—well, her inner demon—was itching to do anything that might get in her brothers’ faces.

Fucking one of their paramedics might just be the ticket. Plus, as she’d already learned, sex with Conall wasn’t exactly a hardship.

The battle raged as she crunched all the delicious possibilities in her mind, until suddenly, Shade rolled away from Eidolon, clutching his stomach, his mouth open in a silent gasp. Sin instinctively stepped forward to help, and was surprised when Eidolon did the same. They’d been fighting as though they hated each other, were bloody and bruised, but the fear in Eidolon’s expression left no doubt that they were not enemies.

“Shade?” Eidolon was on his knees next to his brother, his dermoire glowing. “What is it? Dammit, Shade, talk to me!”

Shade shoved to his knees. “Fuck,” he breathed. “Runa. She’s… she’s… in trouble.” He struggled to his feet and lurched toward the Harrowgate. “E. Send Tay to my place. The house. Fucking hurry!”

Eidolon wasted no time in fishing his cell phone from his pocket as Shade disappeared into the gate.

Sin had no idea what had just happened, but a sinking feeling told her this was just the beginning of something horrible.

Eighteen

The female named Runa sprawled in a rapidly spreading pool of blood, Lore’s knife impaled in her gut. She’d tried shifting into a warg, but Rariel had been prepared, and he’d jabbed her in the neck with a silver pin.

Don’t kill her, Roag said. I want her to live. To suffer for the rest of her life, forever hearing her children’s screams and knowing they died in excruciating pain.

Rariel had to hand it to the demon—he was sneaky as shit, tricking Idess into flashing him to Shade’s old apartment. From there, he’d hoofed it over here and slipped inside when Runa opened the door.

Rariel kneeled next to her and adjusted the ski mask he wore to conceal his identity. The bitch had wrenched it askew in her struggles. “I’m going to kill your cubs now.”

He gently smoothed his knuckles over her face in an odd, impulsive need to comfort her despite what he was saying. He despised that about himself, the little glints of goodness that hadn’t yet been corrupted by the evil surrounding him. Fortunately, they didn’t last long or happen often.

“You’ll hear their cries,” he continued, “but you can do nothing about it. I’ll take one of them, and you will tell Shade that I will trade him for Kynan. If you don’t hand over the human within twenty-four hours… use your imagination.”

She let out an agonized cry and tried to claw her way toward the stairs. He admired her pluck, for all the good it would do her.

Leaving her to bleed, Rariel followed the sound of wailing babies. They were at the top of the stairs, three of them, in a nursery decorated in deep blues and greens. Though toys littered the floor and animal murals covered the walls, the room was in no way set up like a frilly human nursery. Still, from the two rocking chairs to the daybed where it was obvious one or both parents had lain with the infants, the room was a testament to the love Runa and Shade shared for their offspring.

Regret turned Rariel’s stomach inside out, but after a single, shaky breath, he got over himself and lifted the loudest child out of his crib.

The thing bit him. Maybe wringing his little neck wouldn’t be so hard after all.

“Runa!” Shade’s shout carried up the stairs, and so did the pounding of feet. Shit.

Go, Roag said. I’ll slip into the Harrowgate with them. I want to watch Shade’s misery.

“Have fun.” Rariel cast one last glance at the two infants in the cribs, and flashed out of there with the third.

So he hadn’t killed the babies, but he’d still get what he wanted: Kynan. Dead. Amulet. In hand.

Idess. Disgraced.

Victory was so close he could taste it. As he materialized in his central Sheoul hideout, he smiled down at the glaring baby, and thought maybe he’d allow Deth a taste, too.

Of the child.

* * *

Needing to stretch her legs and feeling the itch of helplessness, Sin went to grab some coffee. Not that she knew where the cafeteria was. Funny how she found the very closet where she’d knocked boots with Conall, though.

Warmth flooded her body at the memory, and she actually trailed her fingers over the door as she passed.

Idiot.

And where the hell was the cafeteria? Lost in the maze of hospital halls, she followed the signs back to the emergency department, where the staff was concentrated around one curtained cubicle.

Craning her neck, Sin could make out the top of Eidolon’s head. Nimbly, she climbed up on one of the waiting-area chairs so she could get a better view. And then she wished she couldn’t see a damned thing.

Shade and Eidolon were in the tiny room, where a bloody female lay motionless on the bed. Shade looked as if he was going to break down at any second. The female must be Runa, his mate.

Eidolon and Shade were both channeling power into her, Eidolon cursing and Shade pleading. Twice Shade’s dermoire flared so bright Sin had to squint. Both times, Eidolon reached across Runa to lay a hand on his brother.

“Easy, bro,” Eidolon murmured the second time. “Downshift a gear. You’re going to burn yourself out.”

Shade trembled as his markings dimmed, though they still glowed brighter than Eidolon’s.

“Please, Runa.” Shade’s voice broke. “Come back to me, baby.”

Sin stood frozen, unable to look away from the female fighting for her life and the two males who were so fiercely trying to make it happen.

“Yo, Sin.”

She spun around to the owner of the voice, nearly falling off the chair. A red-haired female who bore the Seminus mate marks on her left hand stood next to her, but Sin couldn’t tell to which of the other brothers she belonged, given that her leather jacket and high collar covered the rest of the dermoire. But she held a squirming infant in each arm, and as Sin stepped down from the chair, the other female shoved a baby at her.

“Here. Hold your nephew.”

Too startled to refuse, Sin held out her hands, and the next thing she knew, her hands were full of rugrat. She sniffed it. Didn’t smell like baby powder or crap. Bonus.

“Are you Tayla?” Sin vaguely remembered Lore mentioning that Eidolon’s mate was a Guardian, and this woman was wearing a weapons harness beneath her jacket and a scabbard at her hip. Sin totally respected that.

“Yeah.” Tayla absently rocked the infant in her arms as she watched Shade and Eidolon work on Runa. Some of the staff had dispersed to handle an incoming trauma, leaving the scene open for Sin and Tayla to see everything going on.

Sin emulated the Guardian’s rocking motion. Tried to, anyway. For some reason her baby jiggled a lot more than Tayla’s did. “What happened to Runa?”

“I don’t know,” Tayla said. “I got to Shade’s place right after he did. Runa was unconscious and Rade was gone.”

“Rade?”

Fury turned Tayla’s green eyes into a forest on fire. “One of the triplets.”

Sin peered down at the squirming baby she held, unable to imagine someone stealing something so small and innocent. “Do you know who did it? Or why?”

“No. But if anything happens to him…” She trailed off, and Sin filled in the blanks. The kidnapper was so dead. Probably was whether or not the child was hurt.

“Sh-Shade?” Runa’s voice was reedy and weak, but both Eidolon and Shade appeared relieved to have heard it at all.

“Thank gods,” Shade whispered. “What is it, lirsha?” He gently stroked her cheek with his fingertips. His throat worked repeatedly on hard swallows, and Sin got the impression he was trying to hold back tears.

Runa blinked, her gaze unfocused, but Sin saw the moment everything came back to her with horrifying clarity. Shade’s mate screamed and levered up so fast no one had a chance to push her back down.

“Rade! Where is he?”

“Runa, calm down—”

“Where?” She fisted Shade’s shirt and dragged him down to her. “He has him. Oh, my God, he has him! Have to find him…” Sobbing, Runa struggled to get out of bed, but Eidolon injected something into her IV line. Almost instantly, she grew dazed, her eyes unfocused, and Shade was able to ease her back onto the bed.

“Runa? What happened? Who has our son?”

“I can feel him… but he’s so far away…”

“He’s alive then. Thank gods.” Shade squeezed her shoulder gently. “Runa, tell me what happened.”

“I tried to fight… so hard…” Tears streamed down her face as she lay there, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “He said… he said we have to hand over Kynan within twenty-four hours. Or… or…”

Shade gathered her against him and used his big body to buffer her powerful sobs. In Sin’s arms, the baby sobbed.

* * *

Misery like Shade had never known tore through him, his own considerable pain magnified by Runa’s. She was strong, and her physical pain was bearable, but her emotional agony was a hot blade through the soul.

We have to hand over Kynan within twenty-four hours. Or else.