Larissa Ione - Sin Undone

“I hope you like it a lot, because with your mouth, you’ll be getting it nonstop.”

“Goody,” she said dryly. “Because I so love a man who needs to prove his masculinity by beating on women. Do you hit children and kick cats, too?”

He laughed. “You’re no woman. You’re a half-breed abomination who’s lucky enough to have not been caught by a Purifier yet.”

Purifiers were demons—of any species—who hunted half-breeds for fun or money or just a twisted sense of responsibility. In the demon world, anything mixed with human blood deserved to die. And she had encountered Purifiers before. She’d just killed them before they killed her.

“So, is that why I’m here? So you can use this half-breed freak as a punching bag?”

“I’m going to take you to the warg village you visited with Conall. You’re going to infect a few pricolici with something that will spread to others.”

Her cheek throbbed from his blow, and she tested a tooth with her tongue. “Are you completely stupid? We went over this before. The last time I did that, the virus mutated. What makes you think this will be any different? You could end up killing your own people.”

Raynor took a drag on his cig, and Sin suddenly wondered if turned wargs got lung cancer. She kind of hoped so. “And I told you: not if the pricolici are contained. The warg version of Dragaica has just started.” At what must have been a what-the-hell-is-that look on her face, he rolled his eyes. “Romanian midsummer festival,” he said, as if she should know all about Romanian holidays. “Very important to born wargs. In the town you visited with Con, the largest pricolici gathering of the year will take place, and now that immunizations against SF have begun, there is even more reason to celebrate. Nearly every pricolici in the world will be there.” Raynor paused to take another drag, and Sin felt bile rise up in her throat, scouring it raw with disgust and hatred. “We’ll bar the gate, they’ll get sick, and they will die within the confines of their own walls. The beauty of this is that even though all pricolici won’t be destroyed, the race will be weakened, scattered to the winds, and the varcolac will finally become the dominant warg species.”

“You,” she said hoarsely, “are a sick fuck.”

Raynor shrugged. “Eye of the beholder.” He frowned, and at the same time, Sin picked up the sound of… a scuffle? Muted… and from several directions, but definitely fighting going on. Cursing, Raynor threw his butt to the ground, grabbed Sin’s arm, and dragged her toward the rear of the junkyard.

Out of nowhere, Wraith appeared, blocking Raynor’s retreat. “Hey. Where ya goin’?”

Ray’s hand tightened on Sin’s biceps. “One of your brothers, I’m guessing?”

“Yep. The mean one. Oh, wait, they’re all mean.” She grinned. “You are so fucked.”

Ray snarled at Wraith. “You do realize that if you hurt me, she suffers.”

“Yeah,” Wraith drawled. “Sucks, because I would love to beat you to a pulp.”

All around, the shadows stirred, and from them the rest of her brothers, plus Kynan, Luc, Tayla, and a guy she thought might be a Guardian, surrounded them. “Thought” being the key word, because the tall, blond male looked an awful lot like a vampire, and she didn’t think The Aegis employed the bloodsuckers. Though she supposed that if they could keep a half-demon in charge of an entire cell, a vamp might not be a big deal.

Sin slid her gaze to Eidolon. Next to him were two female Judicia, their green skin eerily luminescent in the moonlight. Then she heard the click of weapons being brought to bear, and damn if she didn’t nearly have a heart attack.

Men in black SWAT-like gear swept through the compound like ants. That would be the R-XR. Here? Working with demons?

“What’s going on?” Raynor practically screamed. “You’re killing my men!”

“Only the ones who fight back,” Kynan said. “The rest are being rounded up. If they’re productive, harmless members of society, they’ll be freed.”

Shade snorted. “Something tells me a lot of them are going to rot in some military testing facility.”

“Release them, and I’ll free Sin.” For emphasis, Raynor jerked her roughly against him.

“Sorry, buddy,” Eidolon said coldly, “but the time for negotiation passed when you put that collar on her.”

“If you touch me—”

“Yeah, yeah, she dies, yadda, yadda.” Con’s voice came from behind her, and Sin whirled—or did as best as she could while still being held by Ray.

“Con?” she gasped.

He moved like a ghost through the maze of vehicles, hand around the neck of a badly beaten male, the one from the warg village and the dhampire grounds. “What, you thought you could get rid of me so easily?”

She smiled so big it hurt, and tears sprang to her eyes, and geez, she was a faucet lately. “How? Oh my God, how are you here?”

Something was different about him. He was still as sexy as ever, but maybe a little paler. And the way he moved… Before, he was like a panther in motion. Now, he was a phantom panther… silent, more sleek and deadly. As if his most potent, most powerful elements had been distilled, leaving nothing but raw grace and an overpowering presence. God, it was so hot. Her sex drive, which had been as dead as she thought he was for the last twenty hours, roared back to life.

“Long story. When I called Eidolon a few minutes ago, he said you’d be here, so here I am.” He shoved the male forward. “Brought you something. This is Valko, if you don’t remember. He’s going to call off Lycus.” Con’s hand slammed into the warg’s throat. “Aren’t you?”

Valko grunted. “No, I’m not. And if you kill me without a formal challenge, you’ll face a death sentence, dhampire.”

“Vampire. And I’m not going to kill you.” Con smiled, flashing fangs that seemed a little larger than before. “I need you alive so you can take any punishment handed down to me, Wraith, and Eidolon for keeping Sin out of Carceris hands.” He glanced at Eidolon. “Volunteers are allowed to do that, right?”

Eidolon grinned. “Hell, yes.”

“I will never volunteer,” Valko snapped, and Eidolon shrugged.

“You will if you want your SF vaccination.”

“I already got it.”

“You got a B-12 shot. Con’s idea.” He slid Con an approving glance. “Good thinking, man.”

“Thank you.” Con’s voice was pleasant, as if he wasn’t gripping an enraged warg in the middle of a situation so tense the air seemed heavy. He shoved Valko to the ground and gestured to Raynor. “Release Sin. This is your last warning.”

“I will not. And if you slipped me a damned vitamin shot, your sister dies with me.”

“You, unfortunately, got the real thing.” Eidolon stepped forward with the green demons. “And I’d like you to meet my other sisters, Omira and Ravan.”

Right… Sin remembered something about Eidolon growing up with Omira, but Ravan had been born long after he left the fold.

Raynor snorted. “Do I look like Captain Kirk? Because I already told Sin I don’t do demons. Especially not ugly-ass green ones.”

Omira laughed, a curiously beautiful sound, given that, really, she wasn’t all that attractive. “My brother was right. I’m going to enjoy this.” She dug inside her leather satchel and drew out a thin, gold rope in the shape of a figure eight. “A charge has been brought against you by… well, all those present. The charge is conspiracy to commit genocide. I do find you guilty.”

“What?” Raynor’s voice was strangled. “You can’t do that! Who are you?”

Eidolon patted Omira on the shoulder. “She’s a Justice Dealer. She can definitely do it.”