by Laura Kaye
Keegan’s willingness to let her call someone backed up his claim that he wasn’t keeping her prisoner. Hell, the man had even volunteered to go shopping for her, and she hadn’t missed the look of distaste on his face when he’d said it.
His brothers walked several feet behind her, though none of them appeared particularly happy to be taking this trip and Taeg kept mumbling to himself. Earlier, she thought she’d heard him grumble to Keegan, “Why don’t we take her to Disney World next? The Taj Mahal?”
“Shut it,” Keegan had snapped.
Dagan joined them, and he was just as good-looking as his brothers. Not that she hadn’t already expected it. She’d met him back at the apartment when he staggered into the living room, clearly hung over. He’d barely said two words to her, though his words had sent a shiver down her spine. His voice was the most amazing she’d ever heard, the kind that could coax a woman into doing pretty much anything. Right now, he stayed as far away from her as possible. She didn’t know what she’d done to make him dislike her, but it was clear that he did.
Whatever. She had bigger problems. Like the fact she couldn’t even look at Keegan without the memories of last night’s dreams flooding into her mind, leaving her aching for things she shouldn’t desire…especially from a man who’d knocked her out and then locked her in his apartment. But then, he was taking her back home now, wasn’t he? If that wasn’t a gesture of good intent, she didn’t know what was.
“Thanks for bringing me back to my place,” she said.
“You’re welcome.” The beauty of Keegan’s smile blinded her for one heart-stopping moment. Lord, he was gorgeous.
Focus on something else. Anything else. Oh, like maybe the fact that he kidnapped you.
Yet she found she couldn’t bring that topic up again…not when there seemed to be the beginnings of an uneasy sort of truce between the two of them.
“I would think the government could afford a private driver rather than having us take the subway,” she half joked instead.
“I usually just fly—” He hesitated, his brows drawn together. “Never mind.” He slid a hand across his hair, an awkward silence hanging between them.
Eager to dispel it, she jumped on the first thought that came to mind. “You never told me what it is that you can do. Is it the same thing as Taeg?”
“Charm others?” Keegan laughed. “No.”
“So, what is it?” she pressed when he didn’t go on.
“I…I’d rather talk about you right now. How long have you known about your powers?”
Ah, so he was uncomfortable with what he could do. Well, she knew all too well what that was like, so she let it slide. For now.
“I’ve been reading memories off objects for as long as I can remember. I think my father could do something like that, too, though he never admitted it. To be honest, I never thought I would find others with abilities.”
“You sound relieved,” he said.
“It’s hard being around normal people when you aren’t.” She shrugged. “I guess you know all about that.”
“I suppose so.” Keegan chuckled, and then hesitated for a fraction of a second. “So there’s no one waiting for you at home, then?”
“No.” Definitely not. “It’s hard to date when you can read a man’s memories. Even a simple brush of his shirt might coax me to learn more, and that’s not the sort of compulsion I can always fight. A lot of times I see stuff I’d rather not know.”
Case in point, her first serious boyfriend, an investment banker named Mark. She’d been so in love with him, and had thought he felt the same way…until she’d met him out for dinner after work one day. The moment he’d pulled her in for a kiss, the sleeve of his shirt had touched her palm, setting off a tidal wave of memories. Suffice it to say, he hadn’t spent the afternoon in client meetings as he’d claimed. Not unless a naked gymnastics session at a hotel with a curvy blonde counted as a client meeting.
He gave her a curious look. “What sort of stuff?”
“Oh, you know, stuff they’ve done.” She laughed to cover her embarrassment and the residual hint of pain she felt whenever she thought of Mark’s betrayal. “Usually, I find out a lot more than I’d like to know about their love lives. It tends to be a turnoff.”
Keegan nodded and arched a brow. “I can understand that. What about your ability to drain other people’s energy?”
The memory of the day she’d discovered that particular power came back to her in one big rush, threatening to choke her with its heaviness. Sweeping the panic aside, she locked the memory back into her mental vault. She wasn’t ready to talk about it. Might never be.
“You know, it’s weird,” she said instead, turning her gaze to him. “What I can do—the energy draining thing—it’s worked on everyone I’ve tried it on.” It had certainly worked well enough on Mark that day. He’d dropped like a stone, leaving her only slightly mollified as she walked away from him and out the door of the restaurant. “Everyone except you and your brother, that is. I wonder why?”
Keegan hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “I—”
“Don’t mean to interrupt your little heart-to-heart up there,” Taeg shouted, his voice sarcastic, “but isn’t this where you live, Brynn?”
She glanced at the building next to her. Whoa. They’d almost passed her apartment building. Taeg, Dagan, and Ronin had stopped right in front of it, close to twenty feet behind them.
“Oh, yes it is.” Heat burned her cheeks. Being in Keegan’s presence was far too distracting…and she was beginning to realize that might turn out to be very dangerous indeed.
…
Keegan was screwed, and the icy glares his brothers lobbed at him as they climbed the stairs to Brynn’s apartment only reaffirmed that conclusion. He liked Brynn. Liked her to the point that he wondered how he’d be able to off her if the Council ordered him to.
Damn it. How had he allowed himself to get into such a bind? He thought he was above this. But a few vulnerable looks from her, and all he wanted to do was please her. Brynn’s demon ancestry was clearly on full display here. Only a woman with succubus in her blood could bring a grown man to his knees like this.
He ran a hand through his hair, willing himself to calm down. In all honesty, that wasn’t fair. Brynn didn’t know what she was, and any mystical powers of seduction had likely diluted, along with the bloodline, in the 3,000 years since that Egyptian priest had mated with the succubus. Anything he felt for her was on him, a hundred percent.
He couldn’t forget their true mission. Wouldn’t. She was just a job, and a very important one at that. If he had to destroy her to save the world, he would.
“Here we are.” Brynn’s nervous smile quickly dimmed. “Oh crap, I don’t have the key. It’s in my purse back at the gallery.”
Keegan exchanged a glance with Taeg, who muttered, “Be right back,” before walking down the hallway and turning the corner.
She turned to him with an apologetic look. “I guess we have to go back to the gallery first.”
“No we don’t,” Dagan responded flatly.
Brynn tilted her head in Dagan’s direction. “What? Why?”
A second later, her front door clicked. When it opened, Taeg stood on the other side. He adopted a roguish grin. “Come on in.”
She gasped. “How did you do that?”
“Magic,” he quipped. And in a way it was. Taeg’s particular brand of fae magic.
Brynn stepped into her apartment. “No, really, how did you do that?”
Taeg sobered. “You don’t want to know.”
She opened her mouth as if to protest, but she must have decided to let the matter drop because she simply exhaled and turned away. Keegan didn’t fool himself into believing the matter was over, though. She’d eventually ask again, and she’d keep asking until she got an answer that left her satisfied. That much he was sure of, from the short time he’d known her.
“I’m going to go change my clothes. I’
ll be right back.” Brynn disappeared through a door and swung it shut.
Keegan glanced around the tidy living room. It was tiny but very bright, with blond wood floors and daisies arranged in a glass vase on the coffee table. From what he already knew of Brynn, it suited her.
A hard, unexpected shove sent him staggering toward the wall. Taeg pounced on him, grabbing him in a chokehold. “What the devil is wrong with you, bro?”
Dagan stepped behind Taeg. “I’m with Taeg on this one, man. I’m doing everything I can to avoid getting attached to the chick, and here you are, eye-fucking each other already?”
“Fuck off,” Keegan said.
“Right back at you, bro,” Taeg snarled.
“Settle down, everyone.” Ronin stepped forward with his hands up. “Let’s think this through.”
Ronin’s soothing energy spread through Keegan, and he fought it back with a low growl. He didn’t want to calm down. Right now, he was itching for a fight.
Taeg must have felt the same way because he shouted, “Tone that shit down, Ronin,” keeping his eyes on Keegan the entire time.
Keegan pried Taeg’s hands off his throat, pushing him away with a hard shove. “Don’t forget who’s in charge here, little brother.”
“You’d never let me, big brother,” Taeg shot back. “And right now, you’re being a huge asshole.”
“That’s it,” Keegan bit out, lunging at Taeg. His fist connected with Taeg’s jaw.
Taeg’s head whipped back. He rolled his neck before looking back at Keegan with a devilish chuckle. “All right, let’s go.”
He flew at Keegan, slamming his fist into the side of Keegan’s face. Keegan swung Taeg around, about to retaliate, when Ronin’s voice boomed, “Stop it now!”
The barely restrained fury in Ronin’s voice stopped them, all the more effective because he rarely lost his temper.
Keegan’s rage faded as quickly as it had come. Taeg’s, too, apparently, since he mumbled out a quick “Sorry.”
“They were just letting off some steam,” Dagan said to Ronin with a casual shrug.
“Yeah, well, any other time you two can pummel each other to the ground and I won’t give a rat’s ass,” Ronin said through gritted teeth. “But right now we’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
“I know.” Keegan started pacing. “Damn, I know that.”
Once he’d calmed down enough to speak rationally, he turned to face his brothers. “I won’t deny that I find her attractive or that I feel bad for her. But I’ll do what I must.” When they continued to look dubious, he said, “I will. I have to. There is no alternative. If it’s one life or the destruction of billions, then I’ll do what has to be done.”
After a tense silence, Ronin nodded. “We all will.”
The heavy air in the room dissipated.
“You really do need to get laid, bro,” Taeg said.
Dagan chuckled, but his expression became pensive. “You know, I met these adventurous twins the other night—”
He broke off as the door to Brynn’s room opened. She stuck no more than her head out. Devil, was she only half dressed? It sure looked like it from this angle.
“Is everything okay in there?” she asked. “I thought I heard something bang against the wall.”
“Fine,” he said, while his brothers mumbled similar responses.
“Okay. I’ll be right out.” She shut the door and Keegan let out a deep exhale. He could stand around here all day, getting into pointless fistfights with his brothers…or he could come up with a plan.
Keegan turned back to Taeg. “Hey, what about that incubus friend of yours who moved to this world a few years back, the one who worked under Mammon for a while?”
“Cresso? He was in London last time I heard from him.”
“Can you track him down, maybe see if he can get wind of what’s going on in Egypt?”
Taeg nodded. “No problem, man. He detests Mammon. I’m sure he’ll be happy to help.”
“You and Ronin are right,” Keegan said. “We need to do something to find the book, even if we have to dig up all the damn graves in Egypt ourselves. We—”
“Shh,” Ronin interrupted him. He slanted his head to the side. “Do you feel that?”
Keegan stilled and concentrated. If Ronin sensed something, that meant something was there.
Yes, there it was. Like a pulse of energy. Something malevolent.
“Shit.” Keegan’s eyes darted toward Ronin as they both realized what it was. “Demons coming—”
The front door exploded, and a small army of demons marched inside, some humanoid like them and the rest glamoured into human form. But the energy that emanated off them gave them away. Demons always recognized other demons that way.
The invading demons stared uncertainly at one another before one of them turned to Dagan and said, “Who the fuck are you?”
“One, two…” Taeg counted the demons out on his fingers before shooting Keegan a deep look. “Ten of them, bro. You know that fight you’ve been itching for?”
“Yeah.” Keegan bared his teeth at the nearest demon. Ten to four? He probably wouldn’t have minded those odds if Brynn wasn’t in the same apartment.
As if she’d sensed his thoughts, the door to her room opened. “What—?”
She cut off with a gasp, shock and confusion etched all over her face.
“Get back in your room,” he ordered. “Lock the door.”
He didn’t have time to make sure she heeded his command before one of them jumped him. The demon’s fist smashed into the left side of his face. His head jerked to the side, the loud crack in his jaw accompanied by a burst of pain and the metallic tang of blood. He ignored it, using the momentum to duck when the demon swung again. The demon lost his balance and stumbled forward. Keegan shoved him at the same time he swung his left fist. It caught the demon square on his ear. He hit the ground hard and didn’t get back up.
“You want some?” Dagan yelled somewhere behind him. “Take that!”
Keegan turned just in time to see his brother’s obvious relish as he knocked another demon to the ground with a brutal blow to the head. A quick glance confirmed his brothers had wholeheartedly thrown themselves into the fray. Guess they all needed to let off some steam. He turned his attention to the next demon.
Blocking jabs and throwing punches consumed the next few minutes. The demons got a few lucky ones in, too, and one asshole broke Keegan’s nose with a kick to the face and dropped him to the ground. These guys were trained to fight, and this was taking too damn long. What if more of them showed up?
Shit. Times like these, he wished he had more control over his other abilities, the ones he’d inherited from his mother’s side of the family. But no—they were too sporadic, too uncontrollable. Too fucking dangerous.
“Watch out,” Taeg yelled.
He whirled. A long, wicked dagger headed for him. Blocking the hit just in time, he disarmed the demon and slit his throat.
Finally, there was no one left to fight. His war haze cleared enough for him to see Taeg, Ronin, and Dagan standing over the bodies, shallow wounds covering their faces and torsos.
Keegan nudged one of the demons with his foot, rolling him onto his back. His glamour had slipped in his deep state of unconsciousness. Red horns sprouted from his green, pockmarked face. Two mouths existed where one should be. Maliki demon. Flesh-eater.
“Ugly asshole,” he commented to no one in particular.
“Oh, shit,” Dagan said.
Keegan turned his gaze toward him. “What’s wrong?”
Dagan’s eyes darted over the bodies of the fallen demons. “Only nine of them here. One escaped.”
“Not good.” Keegan let out a curse as worry and fear settled in his stomach like a lead weight. Not good at all.
“This was obviously Mammon’s work,” Taeg said.
Ronin touched his fingers to a gash on his arm, which immediately knitted itself together. He gave Keegan a meaningf
ul glance. “You know what that means, right?”
Keegan nodded at him. Oh, he knew. His tone flat, he voiced what they had all clearly deduced.
“It means Mammon knows about Brynn.”
Chapter Eight
Brynn leaned against the locked door of her bedroom with her ear pressed to the cold, hard wood. Thumps, yells, and crashes had punctuated the huge brawl in her living room. There had been so many of them—more than Keegan and his brothers. That much had been clear.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as she searched her room for potential weapons. But of course, she didn’t own any. With her gift, she’d never thought she might need one. Now she didn’t know if her abilities even worked anymore.
The fire escape. She could take that. But what if more men waited downstairs for her?
Oh, this sucked. Big time.
Fear and uncertainty filled her. What should she do? The primitive urge to scurry away warred with her desire to stay and make a stand. If anything, she was pissed as hell that a strange group of men had invaded her personal space—her sanctuary. But she was no match against a small army, not if her powers weren’t working.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sounds of battle had died down, settling into a murmur of voices. Please, please, let that be Keegan and his brothers.
She’d strained, trying to hear. Finally she heard the unmistakable sound of Keegan’s voice saying, “We’ve gotta move. Now.”
“Oh, thank God.” Taking a deep breath, she unlocked her door and swung it open. A loud creak interrupted the silence, and she poked her head out. Keegan and his brothers stood in the living room, battered but largely unhurt as they examined the figures of the men lying on the floor.
Superheroes. That was what she’d called them yesterday, and obviously she hadn’t been far off. Her own little band of superheroes. Respect and admiration for them swelled up inside her. These guys kicked major ass.
“What was that?” Her voice cracked from the remnants of her fear. “Was it Mammon?”