Chosen by Sin

by Virna DePaul

  “I lost it,” he muttered.

  “Yeah, you could put it that way.” Cy shoved to his feet and stepped closer until he towered over Dex. “Can’t say I completely blame you, given the shock you’d just had. But frankly, you losing it isn’t what has me worried.”

  At the other man’s threatening posture, Dex’s muscles automatically tensed. He braced himself to take a blow or to deliver one. “What do you mean?” he asked. At the same, he deliberately rested one hand against the small table to the right of his bed and gripped the edge; if he had to, he’d use the table as a weapon and bash Cy’s head in.

  Cy’s gaze followed the small movement. He frowned, then took a step back and held up his hands, silently indicating he wasn’t a threat. Dex relaxed, but only marginally.

  “What I mean is that you lost it for a while there, but then you were gone. And whatever was in your place instead wasn’t lost—it was exactly where it wanted to be. Inside you and wanting you to kill. A diabol.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Dex glanced at the small clock by his bed. Seven p.m. Roughly eighteen hours had passed since Dex had tried to kill Cy, and Jes still hadn’t been by to see him.

  Go figure.

  Instead, Jes’s assistant, the full-blooded werewolf who’d looked at him with such disdain the day he’d arrived—had that been just yesterday?—occasionally stopped by to check on him. She did her job, taking his vitals and changing his dressings, but she barely looked at him and only spoke when she needed to, which was pretty much not at all.

  If he’d been physically capable of it, he would have gotten out of bed immediately after talking to Cy several hours ago. Unfortunately, any time he’d tried to stand, his limbs had crumpled like straws under an elephant’s feet. He’d finally decided to take it easy for a while rather than risk falling flat on his face and not being able to get up again without someone’s help.

  But despite the werewolf’s final instructions to take the pills she’d left him and get some sleep, Dex couldn’t take it anymore. He’d go mad if he stayed in bed any longer.

  Assuming, of course, he already hadn’t.

  Damn Cy for dropping his bomb and leaving to let Dex stew about it, which the other male had no doubt done deliberately. At first, when Cy had implied Dex had been possessed by some kind of dark spirit, Dex had laughed his ass off. But then he’d remembered the look on Trosseau’s face just before the shape-shifter had done his best to kill him and his laughter had quickly faded.

  With Dex stunned into silence, Cy had turned on his heel and walked out. Dex had been too busy weighing the possibilities, including the status of his own mental health, to even think about stopping him. What was so ludicrous about a person being possessed by a demon? He’d thought the same thing himself—that Trosseau had been possessed, his actions completely outside his own control except for that one flash of clarity when he’d seemed to recognize Dex and had said his name.

  Was that what had happened to Dex? Had someone or something been controlling him? Because why else would he have tried to kill Cy when the male hadn’t even been the one to deliver the news that Jes was pregnant?

  Right. Can’t forget that little fact, Dex. Jes had told him she was pregnant with his child and he’d sure as hell responded well to that, hadn’t he?

  Not.

  He’d practically run from the room. But that time was over.

  He was going to have to find Jes, get the truth out of her, and then get the hell back to the States. Only he hadn’t yet done what he was supposed to do in France. He needed to check in with Mahone, tell him about his meeting with the shape-shifters, and figure out what to do next.

  Call Mahone first. Then see Jes. But he’d already checked and there wasn’t a phone in the room.

  Dex shoved back the bed linens and swung his legs off the side of the bed. He was feeling almost normal and surprisingly, his burns weren’t as bad as he’d thought. They’d appeared badly burned, but with each hour, they’d improved until they were slightly chapped. As always, Dex’s body had healed quickly. Now, he just hoped he had enough strength to get out of the damn bed. He was just about to put it to the test when Cy walked into the room unannounced.

  “Ah, I’m just in time, I see.”

  Dex glared at the other male. Cy was beginning to annoy him even more than the pretty boy psychic on his team, O’Flare. “In time for what?”

  “In time to watch you make a break for it. Or maybe I’m wrong? Perhaps you’ve gotten over your shock at being a daddy and are about to pledge your eternal love and devotion to your baby-mama?”

  At Cy’s taunts, Dex’s composure, already shaky at best, fled completely. His fear and anger upon learning about Jesmina’s so-called pregnancy came barreling back at him. He gripped the mattress hard when what he wanted to do was shout in denial. Only, he’d already done that several times before. He wasn’t going to amuse Cy by doing it yet again.

  So Cy apparently believed that Jes was pregnant with Dex’s child. Did Cy also know Jes wanted Dex to stick around so the baby actually lived long enough to be born? She’d said the baby would be born in less than a month, and for a second he tried to imagine it—him at Jes’s side for all that time, slowly adjusting to the idea of becoming a father.

  Predictably, his thoughts gave way to a whole new set of denials. It didn’t matter what Cy thought. Jes was lying. Or she’d made a mistake about him being the father. At the very least, she was wrong about the affect of his proximity on her pregnancy—

  “Nope, I guess not,” Cy drawled, stopping Dex’s runaway thoughts. “You just don’t have the look of a proud papa. Too bad for Jes.”

  Dex ground his teeth together before asking, “So you knew she was pregnant when you brought me here? Did you also know she wants me to stay close in order to prevent losing the child? Because it doesn’t matter. I’m not staying.”

  “I suspected she was pregnant. I didn’t realize she’s been banking on your presence to keep the baby healthy. And as for you not staying?” Cy shrugged. “I didn’t expect you would.”

  His utter lack of concern threw Dex off. He’d been expecting Cy to plead Jes’s case. To start talking about how much a child needed a father figure. The fact Cy didn’t simply further annoyed Dex for some reason. “So then what happens?” he challenged. “To her? To the baby?”

  “If she’s right about needing you around, she loses the baby, just like the others. It will hurt her, but she’ll survive. No matter how much she doesn’t want to.”

  They stared at each other for several tense seconds. “What others?” Dex finally asked.

  “The other babies she’s miscarried,” Cy said softly. “And in case you’re wondering, there’s been a lot of them because she had no qualms about trying artificial insemination.” Suddenly, his voice turned tight and guttural. “Who knows, you might get lucky after all, and Jes will lose this one, too. Problem solved, right?”

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Dex snapped, though he wasn’t quite sure what had set him off. Unless it was hearing that Jes had miscarried. A lot. But since he thought she was liar and a manipulative bitch, why should he care?

  Instead of complying, Cy shook his head. “No. You need to hear this. Jes has tried to have a baby for years. She can conceive just fine, she just can’t carry a baby to term. It’s actually not that unusual for vampires. Most give up after the first two or three losses. Not her. But it didn’t matter. No matter what race the father was, whether she used artificial means or not, she could never keep the pregnancy. She always lost the child within the first week. This one’s held on longer than most.”

  Dex felt another surge of discomfort, irritation, pain. Whatever it was, it swirled through him like a slow winding tornado picking up speed. He wanted to punch Cy in the face, if only to stop him from talking. Dex couldn’t deny it—he barely knew Jes and he was angry as hell with her, but a part of him suddenly ached for her, too. Not wanting to examine why, he sneered, “Did she try to
have a baby with you, too?”

  The question seemed to rankle Cy like nothing else up to now had. “I’m only sixteen years old and Jes views me as a dear little brother. But we aren’t connected by blood, and when you leave, I’ll have an even better chance of reminding her of that.”

  The male’s statement of intent rubbed Dex raw, but he was too busy reacting to Cy’s stated age to immediately respond. “Sixteen? You’re bullshitting me.” Cy looked like a fully matured, well-experienced male who was at least thirty. Then again, Dex looked about the same age but was over eighty.

  “No,” Cy said simply. “I’m not.”

  “In what world are you sixteen years old?”

  “In the Draci world.”

  “Draci?”

  “I’m a dragon-shifter.”

  A dragon. In a strange way, it made sense. “You burned me. After you shifted. But you didn’t look like any images of dragons I’ve ever seen.” No, Dex recalled, Cy had looked like himself, only he’d transformed into a marble statue just before he’d exploded in flames.

  “That’s because I can shift into three forms. You saw form number one.”

  A dragon-shifter with multiple forms. Of course. Why not? Dex was a were. He served on a team with a ghost, a psychic, a vampire, and a feline mage. Why shouldn’t dragons be a represented Otherborn, too?

  Dex shook his head and raked his hands through his hair, thankful that at least his head had stopped throbbing even if his mind was still spinning. His gaze dropped briefly to Cy’s kilt. It was different from the one he’d worn yesterday, but it was still a kilt. “So I guess that’s why you need to get in and out of clothes so easily. Because you’re naked after you shift?” Before Cy could answer, Dex said, “Let me guess. In another form, you have a tail and can breathe fire?”

  “Pretty much. You got a problem with that?”

  Dex actually laughed. “Problem? No. You forget I have a tail when I shift, too.”

  “Ah, that’s right. I’d like to see that someday.”

  “I bet you would.” He bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile.

  Cy narrowed his eyes. “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, when I shift, it hurts like hell, and I assume you’d enjoy seeing that.”

  “Damn straight. But luckily shifting doesn’t hurt me. Which I suppose is a tradeoff of sorts. For you, it hurts when you shift, but you get to live hundreds of years. Me…”

  “You?” Dex prompted. “It doesn’t hurt when you shift, so you…”

  “Let’s just say my time on earth is more limited than yours. Which is why I don’t fuck around when it comes to going after what makes me happy.”

  “Let me guess again. Jes makes you happy?”

  “Yes. But to be fair, an average life span of thirty years is also one of the reasons she’s not interested in me, so you can take your own pleasure in that.”

  Draci only lived an average of thirty years. Cy didn’t seem all that broken up about it. Dex supposed to him, a life lived was a life lived, no matter how short. Didn’t butterflies live between a few weeks and a few months? Yet Dex had never felt particularly sorry for the beautiful creatures. And speaking of beautiful creatures…“If you want Jes for yourself,” he asked, “why bring me here in the first place? Why not just get rid of your competition?”

  The right side of Cy’s mouth tipped up in a hint of a smile. “One of my poisonous throwing stars should have been more than enough to do the job.”

  “So how come I’m not dead?”

  “I don’t know. But maybe one day I’ll get the chance to find out.”

  Yeah, and if it was up to him, one day would come sooner than later. So fine. He couldn’t put if off any longer.

  Slowly, steadily, Dex pushed himself to standing, thankful that someone had dressed him in a loose pair of sweats rather than one of those ridiculous hospital gowns that would have left his ass exposed. Still, he wasn’t quite steady on his feet, which Cy would plainly be able to see, but no way was he going to sit and let Cy tower over him while they talked. “So why are you here, Cy? You planning on trying to kill me again?”

  The other male’s silence was telling.

  Dex took a step toward him.

  But Cy sighed and rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not here to kill you. Now sit down before you fall down.” He dropped himself into the same chair he’d occupied earlier and then looked at Dex.

  Dex waited several beats before sitting back down himself.

  Cy leaned forward while clasping his hands between his knees. “Look, I’m not going to lie. I didn’t want to bring you back here, but I didn’t shoot you deliberately; it really was an accident. That said, I was perfectly willing to take advantage of a little bad aim, only you didn’t cooperate. Maybe it has something to do with why Jes thinks you can save the baby. Either way, I’m not going to kill you in cold blood, especially now that Jes needs you. The only reason I’m here now is because she asked me to see you.”

  “And you always do as Jes asks?”

  Again, Cy’s mouth tipped into that one-sided smile. “Always.”

  Cy’s smile hinted at an intimacy with Jes that made Dex want to choke him again. Easy, he thought. First Raul, now Cy. He had to stop thinking of Jes as his. She wasn’t his. The baby wasn’t his. This monstrosity of a castle wasn’t his. And he wasn’t staying. “So does Jes think you can keep me here?”

  “Not at all. She made it quite clear you’re free to leave whenever you want. But she did say you were probably bored and she asked me to entertain you.”

  Cy gave an exaggerated wince, but Dex didn’t smile. So he was free to leave whenever he wanted, huh? While Dex was glad he wasn’t going to have to battle his way out of Jes’s castle when he was feeling as weak as a newborn colt, he wasn’t exactly pleased with what Cy had said, either. “I don’t need a damn babysitter,” Dex groused.

  “No. But I’ve thought a lot about it, and you deserve to know about Jes. And if you’re willing to listen, I’m willing to talk.”

  The guy was just full of surprises, wasn’t he? “Why would you want to help me understand her? You’ve already admitted you’d like nothing more than to get me out of the picture.”

  “I want you to understand her because I care about Jes and I’d rather know that when you hurt her—and you will hurt her—that you’ll be doing it deliberately, with full knowledge of all the facts, rather than hurting her inadvertently because you’re bumbling around in the dark and don’t know any better. Also, I have no doubt you’re going to leave, whether it’s before the baby’s born or after. But in the meantime, Jes is pregnant. She’s vulnerable and fragile. If she’s going to keep this baby, I want to give her every shot she has. And if that means trying to reason with you or even having to play nice, then I’ll do it.”

  Damn dragon was making it really difficult for Dex to stay pissed off at him. He appeared to be a good guy. A good friend to Jes, even if he did want to be more.

  And the thing was, Cy had already made Dex understand Jes better. Now that he’d had the shit kicked out of him and had spent hours lying in a damn bed, Dex was finding it easier to think of Jes, even a pregnant Jes, without getting quite so angry. First, just knowing that she’d suffered because of her desire to have children made him less prone to view her as a cold-hearted calculating bitch. Second, if she really was pregnant, that meant she’d told him the truth despite knowing he wouldn’t like it. In Dex’s book, honesty was a major factor in her favor.

  “Tell me, Hunt. You close to your family?”

  Cy’s abrupt question made Dex instantly suspicious, but his response was as natural as the rising sun. “I don’t have family.”

  Cy smiled, which made Dex’s hackles rise even more.

  “What’s funny about that?”

  “Nothing, except it proves just how much you and Jes have in common. Jes is an orphan, too.”

  Dex gestured around him. “Yeah, well, it hasn’t seemed to impact her too badly.”

 
Cy’s expression swiftly became serious. “That’s where you’re wrong. Jes’s life hasn’t been easy. She lost her parents when she was young and my people adopted her. Can you imagine how that must have been for her? To lose her parents, then adjust to a new family only to have to stand by and watch them die, one by one, over and over again? Because every few years, that’s what happens to Jes. She loses someone she loves, and even if she did believe in an afterlife, which I’m not sure she does, she can’t even comfort herself with notions of post-death reunions. Not when she’s immortal. That’s why having a baby is so important to her. She’s desperate to love someone who won’t leave her.”

  Dex got what Cy was telling him. And if Dex was the key to keeping Jes’s baby alive, could he really jeopardize her chance at motherhood, let alone be the cause of extinguishing a budding life? But neither could he put his life on hold and just chain himself to her side. Even if it was just for a few weeks, that time was enough to make a difference. To his team. His plans for his grandfather. Wasn’t it? “She can never be sure of a love that won’t leave her,” Dex pointed out. “Even immortals can die given the right circumstances. Death comes for all of us at some point.”

  “Yeah, but usually other people’s odds aren’t quite as bad as hers.” Cy stood and clapped his hands. “Okay, so I’ve said my piece. Mostly. I just have one more thing to say.”

  Dex arched a brow.

  “I told you Jes wants someone who’s not going to leave her. That’s not me, but it’s not you either, Hunt. Maybe someday she’ll find someone who can give her that, but until then, all she has is this baby. If you care for her at all, you’ll give her the chance to have it.”

  “I’m not going to rip the baby out of her.”

  “No, but you’ve already upset her more than you can imagine. That can’t be good for the baby and it can’t be good for her. So don’t wait. Either decide you can support her or leave now.”

  “You’d like that and believe me, I’d be happy, in this one case, to help you out. But I really don’t understand you. You act like you care about her, but aren’t you jealous? Of her? Hell, of me? We live so much longer than you.”