Demon Blood: A Demon Soul Prequel (The Caine Brothers)

by Christine Ashworth

  His sharp intake of breath stopped her. His hand brushed her cheek before settling on her shoulder. “I meant to tell you earlier. You taste as good as you smell.”

  She chuckled. “Well that’s a relief. Let go please, Gideon.”

  His hand relaxed and slowly slid over her arm as she backed out of the car and stood.

  “I’m shutting the door.” Walked around her car to the driver’s side and took another deep breath. This man. Damn it, this man.

  Her shoulder throbbed and she got into the car.

  “You’re mine, you know,” he said.

  She shot him an alarmed look. His face was set in stone, his voice just as hard, his lips compressed. “You’re wounded, not dying. When you can get it up, I’ll be yours for a bit. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here.”

  “I have no problems getting it up. And you’ll be mine for more than a bit, Marie-Therese, I promise you.”

  She snorted and started the car. “Don’t go making promises you can’t keep, mon ami.”

  His hand reached for her thigh, settled there. “Who says I won’t want to keep any promise I make you?”

  “I said can’t, not won’t. I am not the settling down type. Who says I want you making promises to me? Now tell me where I’m going.” Her answer was tart.

  In clipped sentences, he gave her directions. Marie-Therese spent the rest of the short drive in a confusion of lust and annoyance, his big hand on her leg like a stamp of possession.

  She pulled up to the nondescript building. There was nothing there but a street number. No signage showed that a paranormal doctor lived and worked there, but she knew she had the right place. She’d memorized the address and the look of the building before she had left France.

  Gideon’s hand tightened on her leg, and she patted it.

  “We’re here. I’m going to get out of the car, then come around and help you get inside. And keep your eyes closed. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Marie-Therese, I’m fully competent and I do understand.” His dry delivery made her laugh.

  They walked to the doorway, Marie-Therese keeping hold of Gideon’s arm. She pressed the buzzer beside the door.

  “Name?” The sound was tinny, like one of those apartment building communicators.

  She leaned forward to the speaker. “Caine and Gosse. Emergency.”

  “Well of course it’s an emergency. It’s after midnight. It’s always an emergency after midnight, isn’t it?”

  There was a click and a buzz, and she ushered Gideon in through a door and down a hallway. It was slightly cooler than the heat of the night, and there was a faint antiseptic scent in the air.

  A woman opened a door to their left. “This way, please. We’ll do the paperwork after the doctor has seen you both.” She smiled at Marie-Therese, who frowned in response.

  “Mister Caine is the patient. Not me.”

  “Miss Gosse, you are not walking steadily, both of you are dripping wet, and I can smell demon blood. You will be examined, Miss Gosse, I assure you.”

  “I will be fine in the morning,” she protested.

  “Don’t argue with the nurse, babe. Everyone follows her instructions. Hello, Hannah.”

  Hannah squinted as she peered into his sightless eyes. “Hey, Gideon. Can you step up and sit on the exam table?”

  “If Miss Gosse can help me.”

  “As if you need the help,” Marie-Therese muttered. She smiled weakly at the nurse’s grin.

  “I’ll leave you two. Shirt – oh, no shirt. Lose the knives,” Hannah ordered as she stepped out.

  “Okay, Gideon. Hand me your knife.”

  He handed over the knife from his thigh sheath, and another from his pocket. Two smaller knives strapped to his calves, and one she hadn’t noticed on a wrist sheath. She looked at the collection in her hand and shook her head. “Any more?”

  “No.”

  She set the knives on the counter to the sound of his chuckle.

  Nurse Hannah came back. “Doc Cavanaugh will be in a minute or so, Gideon. Miss Gosse? This way, please. And you’ll need to remove your weapons, as well.”

  With a backward glance at Gideon sitting on the exam table, Marie-Therese sighed and followed. “That chest, though,” she muttered.

  Nurse Hannah laughed and opened the door to the exam room next door.

  “He’s a looker, all right. Here we go. Take your weapons off and put them on the counter. Take your top off.” She handed her a paper drape. “You can wear this if you wish.” Hannah disappeared.

  “Stylish.” She hissed when she pulled off her shirt. She unbuckled her harness, wincing, and slipped it off, set it on the counter. Set her belt with the throwing stars on the counter as well. Her shoulder was already a deep purple, and there was a hoof-shaped crescent of blood.

  “That looks nasty.” Hannah had come in again and probed at the wound. “When was your last tetanus shot?”

  Marie-Therese shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  Hannah asked questions, Marie-Therese answered, all the while aware of a low rumbling of male voices next door.

  “How is Gideon?”

  Hannah put away her stethoscope and grinned. “Grumpy. He always is when he comes here. The doctor will be here in just a moment.” She bustled out and before the door had a chance to shut all the way, the doctor was there.

  “Hello Miss Gosse. I’m Carl Cavanaugh, and I’ll be your doctor this evening.” He smiled, and her shoulders relaxed.

  “I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t need any help, my body will heal on its own just fine.” She hissed in a breath when he poked and prodded her bruise, much more firmly than Hannah had. Fresh blood welled at the slice made by the hoof.

  “Well, we like to give the body a bit of a boost, such as a tetanus serum. Ours has an added kick to prevent much more than the basic shot is intended to prevent. We can’t have you warriors catching cooties from hell. Demons carry all sorts of nasties on their hooves, you know.” He held her arm and pulled on it gently.

  Marie-Therese bit her lip against an outcry of pain.

  “A shot, and I would have you wear a sling but my guess is you won’t wear it, so I won’t bother to give you one.”

  “Good.”

  Hannah entered, holding a tray with a needle. “Tetanus here, Doctor.”

  “Ah, thank you Hannah. Miss Gosse, I’ll need your hip, please.”

  She sighed, unzipped her wet pants, and turned around. Felt the wash of alcohol and the pinch of the needle. The drug punched into her muscle like a stream of hot water. “Merde!” She shivered in reaction.

  “Sorry. It takes some Fae that way.” Dr. Carl put a bandage over the needle prick. “Would you follow me to Gideon’s room?”

  She paused in the act of pulling up her pants. Get closer to Gideon Caine? “I’m not family.” Sex or no sex, she wasn’t sticking around Gideon any longer than necessary. Their ideas on her future weren’t the same, and she wouldn’t waste any more time on something that wasn’t going to happen at this point. Maybe the doc could help her find someone else to help her learn how to close portals. She finished zipping and buttoning and picked up her shirt. Pulled it on, wincing again, before turning back to the doctor.

  He had his serious face on. “I think you may be able to help with the diagnosis.”

  “I’m a warrior, not a healer.” At the cynical rise of his eyebrows, she sighed. “Fine. I’ll go with you. Can’t promise I’ll actually be of any help,” she warned, buckling her belt before shrugging the knife holster over her complaining shoulder. “By the way, do you know any other half-breeds around here who could teach me to close a portal to the Chaos plane?”

  Sympathy came and went in the doctor’s eyes. “Gideon is the best we’ve got. He’s the only one we’ve got, since his family departed.” He walked out of the exam room.

  Nerves balled in her belly as she followed.

  Pushing the door open, he walked in ahead of her and straight to the sink t
o wash his hands. This allowed her a moment to catch her breath at the sight of Gideon sitting on the exam table. She’d seen him in the night, and briefly earlier here, but now she could stare. His shirtless torso was broad, hairless except for a smattering low on his belly that arrowed to the point where it disappeared into the blue scrubs they’d had him change into. She watched as he pulled a scrubs shirt on, breaking her stare.

  Marie-Therese swallowed. Hard. Then she looked into his eyes, and her heart broke a little. The white film that covered them seemed thicker. He’d lifted his head when they entered, and turned toward her, but he couldn’t see her. To see such a warrior so incapacitated…

  “Tu es chanceux. Lucky. You got dry clothes.”

  “Je leur a demande´. He chuckled. “I asked for them.”

  When he held out his hand to her, she moved in and took it, and kicked herself for her rapid heartbeat. Why the hell did she feel like she was his prey?

  “So, I bandaged the cut on your back, and gave you a Tetanus shot as well,” the doctor began. “Now, let’s discuss what happened tonight so we can get to the bottom of the vision issue.”

  While Gideon recounted the fight, she was so focused on the doctor and his reactions that she was startled when she heard something she hadn’t been aware of previously.

  She turned to Gideon. “You what?”

  He turned sightless eyes to her. “I scooped up sand and tossed it in the demon’s eyes. See, Doc, they have these big, saucer-like eyes, and I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

  Her fists clenched. “Damn it. Did it get first blood, or did you?”

  “It did. My back. Why is that important?”

  She let out a noise of frustration. “Because the Boargan have a hint of magic that kicks in if they get first blood. Whatever you do to them eventually rebounds on you. Except the killing blows, of course. It’s the petty stuff that gets their prey. So if things had gone the way it had hoped, you would have been blinded in a few minutes and it, or one of its family members, could have taken you down with no more damage to them.”

  Dr. Cavanaugh exchanged a glance with Hannah, who was taking notes in the corner. “Fascinating. So much has been lost about the demonkind, other than what we’ve learned from Gideon and his family. So, Gideon will be blind?”

  She turned to the doctor. “No, not forever. It takes a few hours for the wounds to heal, or in this case the blindness. He should be fine by morning.”

  He nodded and made a note. “That was my take. However, you are Fae. Isn’t there any way you can remove this now?”

  Marie-Therese shrank away from Gideon. “No. Partly because this is a demon thing. Plus, I’m Warrior Fae, not a healer. I’m part witch, but I’m not a healer. And what did you mean about demonkind and Gideon? He’s human and Fae. A half-breed, like me.”

  “He’s a tribred. Human, Fae and demon, almost perfectly balanced but with slightly more demonkind in him.” Dr. Cavanaugh’s kind eyes looked over the top of his glasses at her. “He’ll need help tonight. He shouldn’t be alone.”

  “No. I—no.” She felt the blood drain from her face at the thought. “He’s a demon? No. I cannot.” Her very blood chilled at the thought.

  “Just let me bunk here tonight, and I’ll be fine in the morning.” Gideon crossed his arms over his chest but his chin drooped. “More or less.”

  “He’s a tribred. Not a demon.” Hannah let out an impatient huff as she turned toward Marie-Therese. “He’s not going to kill you, you know.”

  “Now Hannah. If she’s never met a tribred, she’s allowed to freak out a bit. But Hannah’s right, Marie-Therese. Gideon won’t hurt you, much less kill you.”

  Marie-Therese just stared at the doctor, who sighed and looked to his charts before lifting his gaze to Gideon.

  “I can’t let you stay, Gideon. As soon as we leave tonight, the fumigators are coming in. We’ve got rats,” the doctor added. “Courtesy of the construction not far away.”

  “Hannah? You got room at your place? I know Frank won’t mind if I bag the couch.”

  “My husband would be proud to have you, Gideon. And the boys love you. Of course you can stay.” Hannah frowned at Marie-Therese and patted Gideon’s shoulder. “It’s never a problem, you know that.”

  “I’ll take him.” The words burst out of her mouth before she could stop them. Horrified, Marie-Therese clapped her hands over her mouth. Jealousy had hit her straight in the gut. There was no way she’d let Gideon stay with Hannah, even if the woman did have a husband and kids.

  The doctor nodded and his manner became brisk. “I’ve got drops for his eyes. He’ll need to have them put in every four hours, as a precaution to any side nasties that the demon may have passed to him through the slice on his arm. Make sure you get at least two drops in per eye. Is that understood?” He pressed the small bottle into her hand. “He needs to sleep a good twelve hours. If you do try to heal him, go slowly, and temper the power.”

  She ignored Gideon’s snort and grabbed onto the doctor’s hand, desperation filling her. “You really think I can?”

  The doctor patted her hand and looked at her kindly. “A better question to ask is, why do you think you can’t?”

  Chapter 2

  All the way back to her apartment, fear rode her. Marie-Therese had tried to answer Gideon’s chatter with something coherent, but after a couple of attempts, she fell silent and so did he.

  She pulled into her parking space and took a breath. He was just a man. Correction. A gorgeous, um, tribred. With demon blood in him. And he was blind for a few hours, and since he got hurt while he was with her, it was her honor to serve him. She sent him a nervous glance. At least his current state of blindness meant he couldn’t see how much he unnerved her.

  She unbuckled her seatbelt. “We’re here.” Damn it. Way to sound like an idiot.

  “Good. Maybe now you won’t be so nervous.” He unbuckled his seatbelt, felt around for the handle, and opened the door. “Are you coming?”

  At the sly innuendo in his voice, she bit her lip and got out of the car, slamming it shut a little more forcefully than usual. She took a step away from the car, realized he waited for her, and swallowed a sigh at her forgetfulness.

  She went to his side and slipped an arm through his. “This way.” She pulled gently on his arm to steer him toward the pathway to her door. He gripped the plastic bag with his wet pants and weapons.

  “Have you lived here long?” His husky voice made her think of hot sex and dark nights.

  She shook her head to get the images out of it, dug her nails into her hand. “Two weeks. I’m not sure how long I need to be here, so I’m on a month-to-month lease.” She unlocked the door. “A small step up.”

  They made it inside and she steered him to the couch. She turned on only one lamp at the far side of the room, which leant a warm glow to the otherwise sterile apartment. “So, eye drops. Then I’ll find a blanket and an extra pillow, and you can bunk here.”

  “Not with you?”

  His voice turned velvet, and a part of her melted. She cleared her throat. “I’ll just deal with your wet jeans.” She grabbed the plastic sack.

  “A change of subject. Which wasn’t a no. Set my knives out, please. If your offer for a glass of wine still stands, I could use one.” His voice followed her into the bathroom where she rinsed the seawater off his jeans and hung them to dry.

  She busied herself with the task, laying his weapons out on a clean towel in the kitchen before returning to him. “What kind of wine do you prefer? I have a superb white Bordeaux or an excellent California Zinfandel.”

  “I’ll take whatever you have on offer.”

  She studied him, seemingly relaxed on the couch, his head resting against the back. Was he talking about the wine, or her? “Eye drops first. Then wine.”

  “Then your bed.” He sounded way too sure of himself. She found it way too attractive.

  “How much demon are you?” She clapped her hand over her mouth, mo
rtified that she’d blurted out the question.

  “Like Hannah said, I’m not going to kill you. And I have no wish to spill your blood. That’s not how I run.” He put his hands behind his head and stretched out. “I think we’d have fun together. Trust me, I don’t want to eat you, except in purely a sexual sense.”

  She twisted her hands together and paced in the small space between the couch and the bookshelf. “I won’t let simple lust distract me from my training goals. I can’t afford that.”

  “Marie-Therese. There is nothing simple about lust. And there is definitely nothing simple about the lust between us. If you think otherwise, you’re wrong.”

  He hadn’t shifted, hadn’t moved from his position of total relaxation, but the bulge in his borrowed scrubs had definitely grown larger.

  Her body pulsed in response.

  “It’s not like we can run out there right now and kick demon ass,” he added. “I can’t see, and you’re wounded. Tomorrow we can be big fighting ninjas, when we’re both healthy. Right now? Rest and sex is on the agenda. Not necessarily in that order.

  Silly of her to think he’d hurt her. Stupid of her not to take advantage of his current sightless condition. She allowed herself a smile then and kicked off her shoes and socks. “Perhaps,” she purred, and pulled the bottle of eye drops out of her pocket. “So now, I am going to straddle you, and put the eye drops in.”

  “If you straddle me, I can’t guarantee we’ll get to the wine.”

  She remembered the doctor’s warning that the drops tended to sting. “We shall see,” she temporized, and moved to the couch where he sat. She put one knee up on it next to him, and his hands came to her hips to steady her as she settled on top of him.

  His hands were big and strong, holding her hips not too tightly, but definitely firmly. She got the sense that if she wanted, he would let her go in a heartbeat. That thought gave her the courage to continue.

  “Lean your head back and keep your eyes closed. I will remove the sleep mask, open one eye and put the drops in, and then do the same to the other eye. Do you understand?”