CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Seth back-flatted against a city utility shed, the burn of heaven’s grace pulsing through his veins. The only boon to being the bastard offspring of an archangel was the elixir which ignited in their bloodstreams when they embraced their duty. The stuff boosted their adrenaline, heightened their senses, and he didn’t know about his Nephilim brothers, but gave him a fighter’s hard-on that would last all night.
Bits of concrete exploded off the corner of the piece-of-shit storage building. As cover went, he wasn’t in great shape. He shucked off his slicker and pulled up his shirt. The hole in his side oozed blood down his hip like a mofo. “Celt, is it an innie or an outtie?” He twisted around so Brennus could see his back from behind a massive tree, twenty feet away.
Two shots rang out in rapid fire as an arrow whizzed by.
“Yer good, lad,” Brennus said. “Ye got an exit hole just above yer hip.”
Cool. That was good. Being shot was a bitch, but having one of those red-metaled bullets inside him was nothing he wanted to experience. He’d seen what it did to Kyrian.
Someone whistled off an all-clear signal, and Phoenix spoke into his mind. The bodies are in the stand of trees opposite the ball-diamond.
Seth gathered his jacket and sauntered over, taking a survey of the land as he went, just in case their bad guys got a second wind. He joined Hark and his twin at the epicenter of death, while Brennus and Bo made a wide sweep of the area. The smell of scorched flesh singed his nostrils as he bent over the extra crispy cadaver. The dissected corpse was tucked behind a downed tree and covered over by brush.
“Who called this in?”
Hark straightened from inspecting some footprints in the spongy earth. “A good Samaritan Djinn. He left his name but didn’t want to stick around and be tied to the scene. We can contact him though, if we need to.”
“Thank fuck it’s late,” he said. “A few hours ago, this place was probably crawling with dog walkers, horny teenagers, and punk wannabes thinking they’re badass drug dealers.”
“Just another day in paradise,” Zander said, joining them. “All I wanted was to spend an evening alone with Austin, a bar of soap, and a shower nozzle.”
“I guess some Otherworld cockblocker had other ideas.”
“Glad yer here, Z.” Brennus straightened from where he stooped over the smoldering chunk of ash and bone.
Zander scrubbed his palm over his face and winced. “Damn, that reeks. Won’t be long before it draws attention. Are we looking at human or Other?”
“Human. If it were Other, life would be all strawberries and orgasms. We could dispatch the body with one flick of a lighter and, presto—clean as a whistle.”
“Colt can take over once we know what we’re dealing with. What are we dealing with, anyway?”
Seth stepped over the heap of barbeque. “Well, the most interesting thing is that either this guy left the house without three of his vital organs, or he lost them along the way. He did, however, have a surplus of diamonds rammed into the back of his throat to offset that.”
“Did we get the harvesters?”
Brennus shook his head. “Opened a portal and scurried away. Got a quick look at em, though. A real hulk of a guy, brush cut, and a fast runner, ye ken.”
Phoenix strode forward and held out an oversized Ziploc containing a wallet, as well as some bits of charred paper, an iPhone, and a handful of crystal rocks that gave him a sinking suspicion that he knew what was going on here.
Zander shook his head. “So, you think this is Shedim?”
Seth nodded. “Not for nothing, our friendly neighborhood Djinn said he was meeting the victim to do a little business. Apparently, before he became a human torch, our vic posted his organs up for grabs on the black market.”
Zander growled, something he’d taken to doing since his beast had been unleashed a few months back. “What has the world come to when humans offer up their own organs?”
Seth shrugged. “A kidney here, a pancreas there. My guess is that he was expecting to walk away with seventy large tonight.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not walking away now. How stupid can one race be? And here we are, busting our humps night and day, to protect these idiots.”
Seth grabbed his phone and dialed Kyrian. “What.”
“Bad time, my brother? You sound like roadkill.” There was a pause at the other end, and he wondered if the guy was going to answer him.
“What’s up, Seth?”
“First off, about what I said at the loft. I was spouting off shit. I didn’t know—”
“Why the call, Seth. I know it isn’t concern for Cassi.”
They all knew the implication of a Nephilim’s mate dying. They’d seen it in that cave when Zander lost his cowgirl. It was a crusher. A total crusher. He still got the shake and heaves when he thought about Austin, drained and dead in that fucking cave. Then there was the danger factor. “I’m sorry, man.” Seth scrubbed a rough hand through his hair. “Forget I called. We’ll figure it out.”
There was a long silence and a sharp exhale, like he was blowing smoke. “Nah. Tell me what’s doing. I’m just cranky.”
Seth toed the charcoal lawn ornament. “Look, I feel like an ass for asking, but any chance her people are still harvesting off the approved menu?”
“I have no idea. Why?”
He filled the brother in on the scene they were working and waited.
The old Kyrian, before this mating insanity bullshit, would understand why he asked. The Kyrian of late might want to rip his balls off for the implied offense to his mate.
“I’m not sure about her hunters, but it wasn’t by her order directly. She hasn’t regained consciousness since I got here. Dougal said she’s been down for days. He and his wife have been fronting, trying to run things without everyone realizing she’s sick.”
“But they do mine diamonds and consume organs.”
“That doesn’t mean this kill is Cassi’s people—”
“Can you find out?” He hated putting this on the guy, but business was business. “You’re in the perfect position to figure out what’s going on.”
Cursing. More exhaling. A whole lot of what-the-fuck audible in the tone coming back at him. “Spying on her isn’t going to work for me, Seth, but I’ll see what I can find out.”
The fuck you was implied. Seth rubbed his eyes, as the pounding in his skull upped its game. Hells bells. He hated this mating bullshit. He hoped to Purgatory and back he never got infected. Almost made him want to give up sex altogether.
Well, almost.
Kyrian ended the call and tossed his phone onto the bathroom vanity. He’d excused himself to speak to his brother, in case something had happened with Austin or the baby, but had no interest in Watcher business right now. Now that he had stepped away, he wasn’t ready to go back. They were losing her, and there was no doubt in his mind that it was his fault. Whatever ran in his blood had poisoned her and now, no matter what they fed her, she threw it up. All he could do was watch her die. He’d been sent to kill her, and it looked like he would complete his mission after all.
He cupped his hands in the washbasin and splashed water over his face. He felt hollow. He bowed his head and sent up a prayer. Lady Divinity, please. Don’t let this be the end. We haven’t even had a chance.
When he stepped out of the washroom, Dougal waited in the hall. The man looked like death himself. Tired, bone weary, the guy seemed utterly heartbroken. Kyrian’s strength left him as he met the male’s gaze. He caught the doorframe to keep from falling to the floor. “Is she . . .?”
“No,” Dougal said, coming under his elbow. “Apologies, no. I never meant to scare you. She rests.”
Kyrian braced his hands on his knees and let his head drop, his heart still locked in his throat. “I fucking hate this.”
“Come. Let us speak away from the females.”
It took a moment to get his feet moving, but once he was in motion, he followed the warrior away from Cassiane’s suite to the dining area. Sabine had been good to him over the past hours, or perhaps it was days now, in trying to keep him fed. Sadly, he had as much appetite as Cassi.
“Forgive any offense, Watcher, but the time for propriety has passed.” Kyrian sank into one of the fifteen wooden chairs and gazed past the man to the wall of family portraits. Dougal poured something at the buffet and brought over two glasses of cognac. “Your presence here is more than the two of you making amends, isn’t it?”
How to answer that? Yes. No. “It might have been . . . if things were different.”
He sipped at the edge of his glass. “I don’t understand.”
Kyrian laughed and drank deep. “How could you? We’re living it, and we have no idea what’s happening.”
“But you have affections for one another?”
Kyrian straightened. “Why do you ask?”
Dougal sensed his mood swing and pulled out the next chair over. Sitting knee to knee, he shook his head. “Be at ease, Watcher, I would never hold anything against that sweet girl.”
“So, what? It’s my fault?” Kyrian launched to his feet and strode to the window looking out over the courtyard. The acid rains of Hell still held the outdoors prisoner, the swipes of colors across the sky deceptively alluring. “I suppose it is. The connection. Her dying. It’s nothing I wanted, but I don’t know how to stop it either. I’m sorry.”
“Forgive me asking, but did she feed from you?”
Kyrian remained facing the window and emptied his glass. The heat of the alcohol burned down to his belly but failed to warm his insides. “Yeah, she did.”
“I see.” The disapproval in Dougal’s voice was expected and warranted.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I would never have allowed it . . . if I’d been thinking straight. And now it’s all gone to shit. She’s poisoned or something, I don’t know—”
“You must feed her again.”
Kyrian turned, not sure he’d heard the male correctly. “What? She’s already dying.”
“Exactly,” Dougal said. “Soon, her heart will stop beating, and we shall always wonder what more we might have done, what else we could have tried.”
“But what’s in my veins is poison to her. It’s acid eating her body from the inside. She’s dying because she fed from me.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she’s dying because she hasn’t fed from you since. Maybe your blood altered her somehow. Maybe she needs something only you can provide her.”
Kyrian’s beast roared inside him at the thought. The man, however, was skeptical. “Dougal, don’t ask this of me. If she dies in my arms, I don’t think I can bear it.”
“You must at least try. Please.”
Kyrian didn’t know what to say or what to do. His hamster was stuck in an endless race around his wheel. What did they have to lose? She’d be dead in a few hours anyway. With all kinds of WTF reeling in his skull, he strode back down the hall and into Cassiane’s chamber. He’d taken his gear off when he’d arrived, and he went to the dresser to unsheathe his dagger from his Watcher’s vest.
“What’s going on?” Sabine said, standing between him and the bed.
With the Crystalline dagger palmed and glinting in the dim light Kyrian scored his neck and let the blood flow. Sabine looked faint, but Dougal ushered her out of his way. Heart pounding, he climbed onto the massive bed and pulled Cassiane into his lap. He likely should have waited till then to score his neck but whatevs. Shedim liked blood.
“Cassi, wake up.” He laced his fingers into her strawberry hair and forced her lips to the scarlet runnel warming his neck. She was too still. “Cassiane Elizabet Thomasine, open your fucking eyes and feed, damn it.”
He waited, and his heart sank. She likely didn’t have the strength to feed anywa—
The strike of her bite exploded through his system like lightning. Not the passionate pull of their last encounter. This was primal, savage. It was a claiming of sustenance. Her incisors sank deep, burning his flesh, as her lips swept in hot silk strokes over the skin of his neck. She licked and suckled, clawing at his chest as if she couldn’t get enough. His body responded immediately.
“Leave us,” he said, before he lost all gentry to his own primal needs. His beast stretched in triumph as the narcotic of her need lured him closer to his undoing. It felt right. If only he could know for sure. If he was what she needed. God, each stroke of her tongue was ecstasy itself.
He was dying from the pleasure of it.
The idea that his blood might sustain her, bring her back from the brink of death, it was a power so humbling he fought the urge to scream to the heavens. His hands stroked the cotton shirt she wore, caressed, urged her to take more of him.
She moaned, deep in her chest, and tightened her grip.
He couldn’t help but lift her against him, stroke the delicate curves of her back and hips. She threw her thigh across his lap and climbed his chest. The friction of her movement brushed the desperately hard length of his erection. He wanted inside her again, but that had to wait.
He needed her to drink until his essence filled her stomach, flowed in her veins, and enlivened her. The possibility was a blessing beyond anything he’d ever expected. Settling back against the ornately carved headboard, he protected their contact and relaxed for the first time in weeks.
Raising a heavy-lidded glance to the room, he caught Dougal staring from the doorway. The Shedim’s eyes were dark, clouded with emotion.
A territorial growl tore from Kyrian’s throat as he adjusted the bedding to cover his mate. A blaze of anger burned through his system, roared from his body. What was between them was private. “Leave. Us. Now.”
The warrior dropped his gaze and cleared his throat. “Sabine and I will tend to our duties. We’ll not be far if you need anything but won’t enter without invitation.”
Kyrian closed his eyes, letting the weight of his mate keep him from floating away. There was a chance she wouldn’t hold down the nourishment he provided her. What then?
For now, to hold her, to touch her velvet skin, to feel the warmth of flesh against flesh—that was enough. She was his. A gift from the Heavens created for solely for him.
And the one woman who could destroy him.
Austin slid her phone into her back pocket and patted Stetson’s head. She didn’t care what hard feelings the boys had toward Kyrian’s female, she would bring this hot-headed family back together if it was the last thing she did. If Kyrian was right, and Cassi was getting stronger after feeding from him, then the two of them were tied together, whether they liked it or not.
She wasn’t sure that she did like it, but then again, it wasn’t her call, now was it? She smoothed her hair and rescored her ponytail before heading down the hall toward the rumble of angry men. There was a time, only a few months ago, that the shouting, cussing, and fighting intimidated the bejeebers out of her. Now, it just meant the boys were home.
“And what if she is behind it, Z?” Seth said. “How do we act against her while Kyrian’s beast is tangled in her web?”
There was a long pause, and she searched the room for where Phoenix was speaking with his hands. Her Otherworld sight wasn’t perfect, but after two decades of living a human life of darkness, seeing Nephilim by their auras and Marks was more than she ever thought possible.
“He’s right,” Danel chimed in, nodding toward Phoenix. “We don’t pick and choose who follows the accords. Laws are laws. If she’s Shedim Master, she’s responsible for the actions of her people and what goes on here.”
Austin sighed. Now was as good a time as any to start paving the road to family unity. “So, what did go on here?”
The seven of them stood and turned her way. Zander came over, kissed her cheek, and squeezed her shoulders. “Nothing to concern yourself with, cowgirl. Just ugly Watcher business.”
She smiled. “I smell what y’all are stepping in, but this isn’t just Watcher business. What affects Cassi affects Kyrian and what happens to him affects all of us. Besides, maybe I can help with a fresh perspective—a female perspective. And before any of you think to argue, remember that I’m a Texan. I can out stubborn all y’all, and you know it. Now, fill me in on what the Shedim are up to and just how much hot water that puts Kyrian’s female in.”