“I knew better, Sin. I knew what would happen if I fed from her too many times, and I did it anyway. I wanted to take feeding to the very edge, to see how far I could go without crossing the line. I played with her life, and she’s the one who lost.”

“And that was how long ago? Have you done it since?”

“It was eight centuries ago, and no.” He pinned her down with his eyes, making damn sure she understood what he was saying. “Until you.”

Oh, yeah, she got it, inhaled a ragged breath and swallowed hard. “Are you…”

“Close.” Too fucking close. Even now he was inching toward her, his mouth watering.

“And what, exactly, does that mean?”

“It means I have an overwhelming desire for your blood. Onlyyour blood. Eventually, feeding from anyone else will make me sick. Probably already will. The addiction grows with each feeding. It’s like a drug. I’ll need more and more, until I can’t stop.”

“Is the only way out to kill the female or to bond?”

“It’s possible to detox. But it takes a long, miserable time. Some dhampires have died before the addiction broke.” Kicking the habit wasn’t easy, and even once it happened, dhampires couldn’t so much as be in the same room as the female whose blood addicted him, or it started up again, even more fiercely.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing the virus is out of your blood.”

“Thank the gods.” He gestured toward the back door before he lost himself to temptation again. “We’d better go.” He paused. “How long before you need sex again?”

“Several hours, probably. You seem to have some powerful juice.”

It was such a male thing to puff up with pride over that, and sure as shit, he did. “I’m not surprised.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course you aren’t.”

“Ah, hey…” He eyed her curiously, realizing that what he was about to ask her probably wouldn’t rub her the wrong way, but he wasn’t sure he truly wanted to know the answer. “What about vampires? Pure vamps. Does their… juice… work for you?”

“It does,” she said, and he had to bite back a growl at the unwelcome images burning into his brain. “The effect just doesn’t last very long.”

Not surprising. Vampires didn’t produce sperm, but since they ingested blood and any other liquid they wanted to drink, their bodies produced fluids like anyone else’s. They could cry, piss, spit, and ejaculate, all in smaller quantities.

“Why do you ask?”

“Curious.”

She started toward the concealed door at the rear of the house with a shake of her head. “You medical people are way too curious about stuff like that.”

Funny, but even though he’d been working as a paramedic for years, he hadn’t ever considered himself a “medical person.” The job had been… a job. A hobby with a bonus of a massive danger element involved, which was cool. But now that he thought about it, the life had seeped into his bloodstream, and the fact that half of his favorite TV shows were on the Discovery Health channel should have been a clue.

The other half of his favorite shows were on the Playboy channel. He mentally measured Sin for a naughty nurse outfit, and when she gave him a sultry glance from over her shoulder but kept walking, her rear swaying temptingly, he knew he’d been caught.

“I’m a succubus,” she called out in a teasing, singsong voice. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Of course you do,” he muttered as she opened the door, which was concealed on the outside by a vine-covered trellis. As they stepped out, he halted, sniffed the wind, but nothing unusual was on the crisp, morning air.

“Do you sense anything?”

“No,” she said, “but—” She cut off with an oof, and he whirled to her, a cry of his own somehow making it past his heart, which had jammed up in his throat.

Sin staggered backward, her face pale and twisted by pain, her chest caved in by what looked like a pool table’s eight-ball—with spikes. It was a demon weapon, designed to punch through armor and skulls. Once the victim was impaled, the spikes would grind, slowly, so the victim died in excruciating pain.

Sin sank to her knees, her mouth working soundlessly. Fear strangled him as he hooked her beneath her arms and dragged her inside the house.

“Sin? Sin!Hold on. Just… hold on.” Shit!He lay her on the braided carpet in the living room as gently as he could. Blood streamed from her mouth, and each breath wheezed loudly through her closing airway.

Oh, gods, she couldn’t die now. She’d been through too much, had led a miserable life, and she deserved better than this. Fighting the urge to panic, he called on all his medical training and reached deep for the clinical detachment he always had when treating patients.

It didn’t work. Inside, he was terrified. Outside, he was sweating bullets. But at least his voice was level, and he hoped Sin was fooled.

“I can’t remove the thing,” he said calmly. “You’ll bleed out. I’m going to get help.”

Her trembling fingers closed around his wrist. “No,” she rasped. “Too… dangerous.”

“If I don’t, you’ll die.” This time, his voice wasn’t so calm.

“Don’t… leave… me.”

They always leave me.A lump formed in his throat. “Listen to me, Sin. I swear, I’ll come back. I won’t leave you.”

A single tear dripped down her cheek as he squeezed her hand and leaned over to brush his lips across hers. A deep, primal rage rose up in him. He would get her brothers, and he would tear apart the bastard who had done this to her.

The pounding on Eidolon’s apartment door came as he was getting ready to leave for the hospital. At this hour of the morning, pounding was not good. He was getting a late start, but he’d been up until three A.M. with a full emergency department. Diseased and injured wargs had been crammed into every nook and cranny, and as he was leaving, injured demons had come in as well—demons caught up in the escalating warg civil war.

The only good thing that had happened in the last few hours was that his father had gotten Eidolon, Wraith, and Con a reprieve from torture, and he’d pulled some strings and gotten the Carceris to lay off until Justice Dealers could determine whether or not the Warg Council had a case against Sin. It wasn’t much, but at least she didn’t have to run from the demon jailers for now.

He just wished he’d hear something from her.

Tayla answered before he did, but her shout kicked him into high gear, and he jogged down the hall, nearly tripping over Mange as the dog darted between rooms, chasing Mickey, Tayla’s ferret. Eidolon cursed when he saw Con standing in the foyer, bloody and holding his arm at an awkward angle.

“What happened? Where’s Sin?” Eidolon caught Con by the wrist and powered his gift into him. Con hissed as the pain started.

“Call your brothers. Come with me. She’s dying.”

“I’m on it,” Tay said as she flipped open her cell phone. “I’ll have them meet us at the 84th Street Harrowgate.”

The desire to rush to Sin’s rescue was nearly overwhelming, but after years of yanking Wraith out of deadly situations, he’d learned to be prepared. “Tell me what happened,” he said with a calm he didn’t feel, but Con jerked away.

“We have to go. Now!”

The guy’s eyes were wild, his panic rattling Eidolon as much as anything. Con was always level. Gently but firmly, Eidolon shoved him against the wall and started the healing process again. “Listen to me. You’re no good to her if you’re dead. This will just take a minute.”

“She might not have a minute,” Con rasped, but he didn’t fight. “She’s been hit by an exomangler. It’s ripping her apart.”

Eidolon’s blood pressure bottomed out. He’d seen the damage those things caused, and it wasn’t pretty. “What happened to you?”

“Had to go through a forest full of assassins, all lined up to kill Sin.”

Tay came down the hall, her blood-wine hair up in a ponytail. She was dressed for battle, including red leather pants, jacket, and weapons tucked everywhere. “All your brothers are on the way.”