Larissa Ione - Desire Unchained

“Oh, Shade,” she whispered.

“Listen to me,” Eidolon said from his cage on Shade’s left. He was sitting against the back bars, arms resting casually on his knees as though he was lounging at home in front of the TV. “The more Shade worries about you, the faster his curse progresses. And if you die, his grief is going to finish him off. You need to hold on. Be strong.”

“She is strong,” Shade said. His dark gaze bored into her, going obsidian with intensity. “You are. You’ll get through this.”

Roag stepped out from the shadowed stairwell at the end of the chamber, followed by two burly, ram-headed demons. “And wouldn’t that be a good trick? Surviving this, I mean.” He swept forward in a fluid, dramatic swirl of black robes.

Wraith, who had been standing in the corner of his cage, head hanging and hair matted to his face with dried blood, hissed. Runa gasped. Wraith looked like, well, a demon. His expression was a mask of rage, his fangs the size of a tiger’s, and his eyes glowed like amber tossed in a fire. He was a mass of blood and bruises, far worse off than either Shade or Eidolon, and as Roag approached, Wraith went rabid. He attacked the bars, slamming repeatedly into them as though trying to break every bone in his body so he could squeeze between them. Shade tried to talk him down, but nothing worked.

“He’s so excitable,” Roag said casually. “Then again, I probably would be, too, if I’d been kept in a cage and tortured for twenty years.”

“You’ve got all of us together now,” Eidolon snapped as he shoved to his feet. “What is it you want?”

Behind Roag, the two hulking demons lit a fire in the hearth. “I have a list a mile long, brother. And it begins and ends with pain.” Roag smiled. “And that’s something you know a lot about, don’t you, E?”

Wraith stilled in his cage, head down, shoulders heaving, his gaze drilling into Roag.

“Shut up.” Eidolon rattled the bars of his cage. “ Shut the hell up. ”

“What? You don’t want poor little Wraith to know how you’ve suffered for him?”

“E …” Wraith’s low growl vibrated through Runa’s bones. Something bad, very bad was about to be revealed.

Roag turned to Wraith. “It was probably bad enough to learn that Shade gets off on torturing females. I imagine that knowing what the Vampire Council does to Eidolon once a month won’t sit well with you at all. Might even send you completely over the edge. You were never very stable.”

“You bastard,” Eidolon whispered. “I trusted you. I cared about you!”

Shade shrugged. “I never did. You always were an asshole.”

Roag snapped something in another language at his minions, who jammed iron pokers into the fire they’d created, and Runa’s blood ran as cold as the Hudson in winter.

“You’ll get yours in a moment, Shade.” Roag moved closer to Wraith’s cage, but not too close, Runa noted. “You know how the Vampire Council leaves you alone? How you can kill and kill and they don’t do a damned thing about it? That’s because a long time ago, our dear, sweet brother Eidolon volunteered to take the punishment for you.”

Wraith went so pale Runa thought he might pass out. “No.”

“You piece of shit,” Eidolon muttered. “I’m going to take you apart with my bare hands.”

“Oh, you’ll be taking one of us apart, but that’ll come later,” Roag promised, not looking away from Wraith. “Now, little brother, do you know what the vamp punishment is for taking more than your quota of humans each month? Do you know that they spend hours brutalizing Eidolon? By the time they’re done, there isn’t an inch of him that hasn’t been bloodied. Here’s the fun part. It’s been going on for years. I’ve been making sure of it.”

Eidolon’s eyes shot wide open. “You. You’ve been shifting into Wraith’s form and doing the killing.”

“Wraith flaunts his kills enough to get you tortured without my help, but really, I just like killing humans.”

Wraith began to tremble, and his eyes had gone so haunted and so full of pain that Runa could practically feel his misery. “Why, E?” he croaked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Roag laughed. “Idiot. They didn’t tell you because you’re a fucking weak little worm. I never did understand why they didn’t just let you die in that warehouse.”

“Don’t listen to him, Wraith,” Shade said, his voice a cold, hard command intended to grab Wraith’s attention and keep it. “E took the punishment because you’d been through enough already. We didn’t tell you for the same reason.”

“He hasn’t gone through nearly enough,” Roag said. “None of you have.” He snapped his fingers, and two more demons who must have crept down the stairs while Runa was engrossed in the conversation brought forward a pale female who walked like a zombie.

Which was, Runa realized with horror, because she was a zombie. Jesus, it was the female Runa had killed when she and Shade had escaped.

“Oh, you sick fuck,” Shade said, as he stared at the female. “You reanimated her.”

“Yes, and your mate will be the blood sacrifice I need to bring my love fully back to life.”

Shade’s lips pulled back in a silent snarl. In a movement so fast Runa didn’t see it until it was over, he shifted into some sort of skinny, spindly demon and swiped an extra-long arm through the bars at Roag. Shade’s claws caught Roag across the chest, and blood splattered on the wooden rack next to him.

Roag yelped and leaped back. Cold, soulless fury flashed in his eyes. “I’m going to enjoy making you suffer. I’m going to enjoy making all of you suffer.” He held his hand to his ribs as he turned to Eidolon. “Did I mention the best part of all this? Besides killing Runa in front of Shade and watching him fade away forever? I’m going to remove a few of Wraith’s choice parts, skin him, and then make you transplant all of Wraith’s good bits onto me.”

Runa’s jaw about hit the floor. Eidolon’s eyes went furious crimson, glowing like Christmas lights. Evil Christmas lights.

“What makes you think I would ever do something like that?” Eidolon’s voice sounded like it had been dredged from the deepest pits of hell.

“Because, dear brother, if you don’t, I’ll torture Tayla in ways you can’t begin to imagine.”

Eidolon’s terror hit her in a blast of cold. “You don’t have Tayla.”

“Not yet. But I will. She’ll be lured to you by your suffering.”

Shade shook his head. “Don’t listen, E. Remember how Wraith couldn’t feel me when I was here?”

“I’ve removed the dampening spell,” Roag said. “She’ll come. And when she does, I’ll be ready.” He stalked to the fire, where several irons had been heating. He nodded to the two burly demons, and they each pulled a glowing iron from the coals. He smiled as he turned back to Shade.

“Time for some fun, boys.”

Kynan had no luck finding Shade or Runa. Hell, he couldn’t find Eidolon or Wraith, either. He’d gone back to the hospital and was about to call E again when his cell phone rang—from E’s home number. “Yeah?”

“It’s Tayla.” Her voice vibrated with panic. “Eidolon’s hurt. Oh, my God, Kynan, it’s bad.”

Adrenaline spiked, a freefall dump into the pit of his stomach and a steep mach-climb to the top of his skull all at once, and he struggled to find his calm medic voice. “Slow down and tell me what happened.”

A choked sob came over the line. “He called me hours ago from the hospital. Wraith needed him. At Shade’s place, I think. Wraith was freaked out about something. I haven’t heard from him since. Oh, God. ”