Passion Unleashed d-3

by Larissa Ione

  Making matters even worse, the hospital had been plagued by odd equipment and structural failures. All of the windows lining the inside of the administrative area had cracked, the lights in the cafeteria flickered constantly, and the third-wing lava bath had leaked, destroying the sulphur-steam room next to it. Eidolon had been kept too busy with the problems to concentrate on medicine, because every time he fixed one thing, something else would go wrong.

  “I had a consult with an Orphmage this morning,” Gem said, “but he was no help.”

  She hadn’t expected the powerful Cruentus mage to be of assistance, but it had been worth a shot. Cruenti had a bloodthirsty love of killing that didn’t stop even at their own species, so she’d thought that maybe a Cruentus mage capable of the vilest of death magic would know something about how to interrupt mordlair toxin.

  He’d been more interested in how to get some for himself.

  “I could try again—” She broke off with a gasp.

  A sinister wash of energy rolled over her, followed by several smaller concussions, as if a stone had been dropped into tainted water. She was about to ask if anyone else felt it, but from their expressions, she definitely was not the only one at the table to experience the… whatever it was. Even after the tiny waves stopped, the uneasy feeling remained, a sense that something evil had ripped into the very fabric of life.

  Something bad, something very, very bad had been set into motion.

  “What the hell was that?” E rasped, seeming more affected than Gem, but then, he was full-blooded demon, and she was half human, less sensitive to the tides of evil.

  Gem shook her head, which did nothing to get rid of the impending feeling of doom.

  “Reaver?” Tayla leaped to her feet. “Shit!”

  All heads turned to the fallen angel, who sat in his high-backed leather seat… convulsing. Instantly, the doctors and Shade, a paramedic, had him on the floor and were assessing his condition, but this wasn’t a medical issue, and both Gem and Tayla knew it.

  “Leave him alone.” Tayla’s voice shook as badly as Gem’s hands.

  Thanks to their half-Soulshredder parentage, the sisters could see that Reaver had split wide open along the seam of an invisible scar that ran from his throat to his groin.

  Soulshredders possessed the ability to see scars, both physical and emotional, that no one else could. Their species used their ability to expose old wounds, exploit them, make them worse. Gem had spent twenty-six years battling her nature, sometimes unsuccessfully. But her nature also gave her a lot of advantages when it came to her job.

  Gem moved in, crouched next to Reaver as he seized, sapphire eyes rolled back in his head. The other docs were still crowded close, and as Tayla joined Gem, she shoved them all aside. Dimly, Gem heard E ask what the hell was going on, but her full attention was on Reaver.

  He grabbed Gem’s wrist with one hand, squeezing so hard she had to clench her teeth to keep from crying out. “Someone found… her.”

  She placed her hand on his chest next to the emotional scar that had come apart as if he’d been unzipped. As a Soulshredder, she could use her power to mend scars as well as make them worse, though her mixed blood diluted her ability, and something this big was way too much for her to handle. Still, she had to try.

  “Who, Reaver? What are you talking about?”

  He didn’t seem to hear, was muttering, mostly incoherently. “Serena… Sentinel… exposed… fuck.”

  Gem was confused as hell, but Tayla leaned in, placing her hand next to Gem’s. “Reaver? What about Serena? Do you mean she’s charmed?”

  Reaver didn’t answer, but his convulsions eased into mildly spastic twitches. Something ugly reared up inside Gem, made her want to keep the scar open, to probe harder and deeper. The impulse to dig and cause pain terrified her, and she jerked her hand away, only to have Tayla grab it and put it back.

  “This is important,” Tay growled, her own Soulshredder instinct surfacing. “We need to learn more.”

  Gem took a deep, ragged breath and demoned up. Ruthlessly, she dug her fingers into his scar and tugged, as Tayla did the same. Reaver screamed, but Gem ignored the sound, got into his face.

  “Who is Serena?”

  “Kelley…” Reaver groaned, muttering in a language Gem didn’t know.

  “She’s a Marked Sentinel?” Tayla asked, and Reaver froze. Then, suddenly, in a blinding flash of light, he flew across the room as if he’d been knocked senseless by a Gargantua demon and landed in a crumpled heap against the wall.

  “Shit.” Eidolon hit the intercom on the wall and called for a stretcher, and in moments, nurses and another doctor had arrived to wheel Reaver into the emergency department. Doctor Shakvhan went with him, leaving Gem with Tayla, E, and Shade.

  Shade was pacing the length of the room, fists clenching reflexively. “Someone want to explain what the hell just happened? Anyone else feel that weird vibe right before Reaver turned into Seizure Boy?”

  “I did. Freaked me out. I can still feel it.” Tayla rubbed her arms, as if she were suddenly cold, and Eidolon tucked her protectively against his chest.

  Pain and a sense of longing bubbled up through an old wound. Gem was happy her sister had found love, but she couldn’t snip the thread of jealousy that had woven its way into her heart after Kynan had left her ten months ago—just when they’d finally found their way to each other.

  “Me too.” Gem cleared her throat of the bitterness that lingered in her voice. It wasn’t Tayla’s fault Gem had lost the love of her life. “Something is stirring in the underworld.”

  “I don’t like it,” Eidolon murmured. “This could be bad.”

  “Or,” Shade said, crossing his arms over his broad chest, “it could be nothing.”

  “Right,” Eidolon said wryly. “Because Reaver often collapses into seizures and speaks in tongues.”

  Tayla broke away from Eidolon. “Reaver said something I think could be important. For Wraith.”

  E and Shade went taut, and Gem tugged on one of her black-and-pink braids. “The Marked Sentinel thing?” When Tayla didn’t answer, Gem put a hand on her sister’s arm. “Tay?”

  Tayla nodded. “There are stories—rumors, really—in the Aegis… about humans charmed by angels. No one knows why, or if it’s even true, but the stories say that these humans are invincible. Immortal.”

  “How does that help Wraith?” Shade asked.

  Tayla hesitated until Shade cleared his throat. She shot him an annoyed glare before speaking. “According to legend, Marked Sentinels can give up their charm to someone else.” She shuffled her feet, clearly uncomfortable sharing intimate Aegis secrets even with her own brother-in-law. “If we can find this Serena Kelley, Wraith might have a shot at survival. All he has to do is take her virginity.”

  Chapter 3

  It took less than a day for Gem and Tayla to track down Serena Kelley, but their discovery came at a high cost. They’d had to consult a Darquethoth shaman, who had, after casting a seek spell, taken a strong interest in the human. Too strong. Eidolon had a feeling that the shaman would gladly reveal the charmed human’s location to the highest bidder.

  Wraith needed to get to Serena immediately, because not only was his life at stake, but so was the entire hospital’s future.

  But before Eidolon unloaded all the details on his brother, he was going to have a little chat with Reaver, who had recovered from his ordeal and was about to be released.

  E entered Reaver’s hospital room, where the dripping wet angel had just stepped out of the shower.

  “We need to talk about Serena Kelley.”

  Eidolon swore Reaver’s hands shook before he clenched them into fists at his sides. “Who?”

  “The charmed human you told us about yesterday. We think she may be the cure for Wraith—”

  In the span of a heartbeat, Reaver’s fist was wrapped in Eidolon’s scrub shirt and he’d been yanked into the fallen angel’s face. “Keep Wraith away from her.�
�� Reaver’s voice was a low, dangerous growl, but the writing on the walls—a ward against violence—hadn’t begun to pulse, so he didn’t intend harm.

  Shade entered the room, black brows raised at Reaver’s nudity. “Am I interrupting a private moment?”

  Eidolon met Reaver’s heated gaze with a glacial one of his own. “I suggest you release me,” he said coolly. “Now.”

  Reaver uttered a curse and stepped off. “Eidolon, you can’t let this happen.”

  “Wraith will die.”

  “I’m sorry for that,” Reaver said, pulling on a pair of scrub pants, “but he got himself into this mess. Serena is innocent.”

  “He’s not going to hurt her. He’s going to have sex with her. And you know he can’t rape her if she’s protected by the charm, so she’ll be going into it willingly.” Eidolon was bluffing, performing a little exploratory surgery with the fallen angel. What information Tayla had gotten from The Aegis about charmed humans was mostly speculation, but so far, it seemed as though her information was dead on.

  Reaver jammed both hands through his golden hair, kept them there as though he was trying to hold his head on. “Why her? Why not one of the other half-dozen charmed humans?”

  “There are only six of them?” When Reaver didn’t answer, Eidolon shrugged. “You gave us her name. Gem and Tay consulted a shaman who performed a locator spell. She lit up like a cheap beer sign.”

  “Dammit,” Reaver breathed. “The cloak that keeps all charmed humans invisible to demon eyes has been broken. It’s what caused my… condition. Someone must intend to use her for great evil.” Before Eidolon could ask more, Reaver shook his head. “You’ve got to forget about Serena. Wraith can’t touch her.”

  The persistent headache E had been suffering for days kicked up a notch on the pain scale. “That’s not your call.”

  “Don’t do it. I mean it, E. She needs the charm.”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” Reaver said, his voice as cold as a grave, “the charm is all that’s keeping her alive. If she loses it, she’ll die.”

  Reaver watched the expression on Eidolon’s face fall. Shade just looked pissed. As usual

  “What the hell do you mean, she’ll die?” Shade demanded. “Does that happen to all charmed humans who give up their charm?”

  Reaver didn’t want to answer any of their questions, didn’t want to talk about something so sacred, and he really wanted to kick his own ass for spilling his guts about Marked Sentinels at all. The existence of charmed humans had been a carefully guarded secret for thousands of years, and if it got out… Reaver’s stomach turned over violently.

  “Answer the question.” E was all cool Justice Dealer calm, which was deceptive; the guy could go from sub-zero to scorch in a heartbeat. He’d been raised by the Judicia, demons who meted out justice, and his icy, detached disposition only made him that much more lethal, because he was rarely swayed by emotion.

  “Serena is a unique case.” Reaver’s voice was guttural, the instinct to protect the charmed human something he couldn’t suppress even though he was no longer worthy of doing so. Technically, no angel could interfere in a Sentinel’s life—not directly. That job fell to their human Aegis Guardian.

  He rubbed his temples, considering how much to reveal. He couldn’t do anything about whoever broke her cloak, but if he wanted to save her from Wraith, Reaver would do well to appeal to his brothers’ medical sides, the parts of them that saved lives.

  “Serena’s mother, Patrice, was the keeper of the charm until Serena was seven, and Patrice gave it up to her.”

  Shade interrupted. “Wait. Patrice had to have been a virgin, right? So Serena was adopted?”

  “Patrice was a virgin,” Reaver said, “but she was Serena’s biological mother. She was impregnated through in vitro fertilization.”

  Eidolon propped his hip on the sink and watched Reaver with the intensity of a hawk. “How do you know this?”

  “When there are only a handful of charmed humans in the world, you know everything about them,” he said, though it wasn’t entirely true.

  “And why was she gifted?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Reaver was telling the demons far too much as it was. Eidolon and Shade were about as decent as demons could be, but if Reaver had any hope of getting back into Heaven, he didn’t want to blow it by handing over vital information to demons. Consorting with demons, working in a demon hospital… he was walking a fine line as it was.

  “What matters is that shortly after Serena was born, a Mara demon somehow learned the truth about Patrice. He bit Patrice’s parents… and Serena.”

  Being bitten by a Mara was bad news. Each one carried a unique disease within its body, to be spread through a bite, and only that demon possessed the antidote to its individual disease.

  “He wanted the charm in exchange for the cure. Patrice had a terrible choice to make, and she chose to kill the demon. As a result, her parents suffered for months before they died. Serena spent years in and out of hospitals, and doctors could do nothing. Just before her seventh birthday, her time ran out.” Reaver’s voice was scraped raw after being dragged down memory lane. “When it became clear Serena was going to die and no cure could be found, Patrice passed her charm to Serena in order to keep her alive—”

  “How?” Shade interrupted. “I thought sex was the key.”

  “Serena was a special case,” Reaver said shortly. The truth, that the transfer never should have happened, was something he didn’t care to discuss.

  Or think about.

  Shade took the hint and steered the conversation in a new direction. “So what happened after Serena got the charm?”

  “Her health improved instantly, but if she loses her charm, the disease will progress. She’ll die in a matter of days. Hours, maybe.”

  “Oh, fuck,” Shade muttered. “We can’t tell Wraith.”

  Eidolon’s dark brows shot up. “He needs to know.”

  “If he knows, he might not take her charm.”

  Reaver stared. “Are we talking about the same Wraith who screws and eats everyone he meets?”

  “Wraith won’t kill human females.”

  “That’s a character flaw I didn’t see coming,” Reaver muttered.

  “If it makes you feel any better, he does make exceptions for female Aegi,” Shade said, and turned to E. “She’s just a human, so I don’t know what your deal is.”

  “Your own mate is human.”

  “Was human. She’s cured of that now.”

  Reaver rolled his eyes. It was a stupid argument; werewolves, both born and turned, had human souls, and were therefore technically human. Vampires were, as well, though the fate of their souls was more complicated than that of humans, weres, and shifters.

  “Find another way to cure Wraith,” Reaver said, “because I won’t allow this to happen.” It was a bluff; under no circumstances were angels, especially fallen ones, allowed to interfere in a Marked Sentinel’s life.

  Then again, he’d done it before when he’d facilitated the transfer of the charm from Patrice to Serena.

  And he’d paid dearly.

  Shade got right up in Reaver’s face. “You interfere, and I’ll make you sorry.”

  “You can’t kill me, incubus.”

  “I sure as hell can try. And if I fail, I can still drag your sorry ass down to Sheoul for a little eternal fun.”

  Sweat dampened Reaver’s temples. Right now Reaver was stuck between realms, tossed out of Heaven but not completely ruined. A fallen angel who stayed in the human world still had a chance of getting back into Heaven, but one who entered Sheoul was lost forever.

  “Shade.” Eidolon clamped down on Shade’s thick biceps. “Back off. This isn’t helping anything. Wraith will do the right thing.”

  Wraith? Do the right thing? Reaver couldn’t believe that had come out of Eidolon’s mouth.

  Reaver willed his heart rate to slow down so he could hear through the roar of blood i
n his ears. He didn’t care about Wraith’s survival, or even Serena’s, no matter how much he liked her. Because this wasn’t truly about her life or death.

  Every Marked Sentinel was charmed for a reason. Every one of them was in possession of an object vital to the well-being of humanity.

  And what Serena held was the most important of all.

  Shade hung his head. “We tell him. Gods help us, we tell him.”

  Darkness closed in on Serena as quickly as the demons surrounding her. Four of them, ugly toadlike creatures that came no higher than her waist, had ambushed her when she’d stopped the car at the mailbox outside Valeriu’s mansion’s main gate

  Yesterday she’d depleted her entire savings to pay a sorceress to repair her cloak, but clearly, the word was out.

  She still hadn’t told Val. There was no reason to at this point, and besides, he was already on edge, because an alarm had been sounded within The Aegis, of which Val was a high-ranking, card-carrying member.

  According to Val, The Aegis was gearing up for what they thought might be a demon incursion. Demon sightings by the general human population were on the rise, skirmishes between demons and The Aegis were taking place much more frequently, and they were taking heavy losses.

  In an effort to combat the growing threat, the demon-fighting organization had lowered their standards for recruitment, put former Guardians on alert for recall, and were deploying current members on research and reconnaissance missions.

  Serena was itching to help, had been hoping Val would send her on her own assignment, and if the text message she’d gotten from him telling her to get home immediately was any indication, her itch might just get scratched.

  After she got away from these demons, anyway. Their creepy, overly wide mouths gaped open, rows of sharp teeth disappearing far down their throats. A tremor of excitement shot through her, because she rarely got to handle things like this. Her specialty was treasure hunting, and normally her only challenges consisted of layers of dust, poisonous insects, and the occasional booby trap of either the physical or magical variety.