Blood of the Demon (5 page)

Ronin nodded, then touched Brynn’s arm. “I’ll make something for us to eat.” He glared at Keegan as he made his way toward the door. “Dinner in an hour. I’ll need some help.”

Keegan waited until Ronin had left before speaking. “I’m sorry for hitting you. I didn’t think you’d come with me if I explained all this to you, and we needed to get out of there fast. We don’t know how far Mammon has come in locating you.”

“Okay.” Brynn thoughtfully rubbed her chin. “Why don’t I hurt, by the way? Is that one of your gifts? You
are
gifted, too, right?”

Damn, he didn’t want to talk about this right now. Or ever.

“Yes.”

She appeared to consider that for a second. “What else can you do?”

Oh, no. He wasn’t about to discuss his other abilities with her. “Why don’t we talk about this another time? I’ve got some things to settle before dinner.”

Without giving her a chance to respond, Keegan turned and stalked toward the door.

“Will you at least leave the door unlocked?” she called behind him. “You know I’m not going anywhere.”

He didn’t dare turn around. Those green eyes of hers were far too distracting. If he looked into them, he was afraid he might go weak. He already felt way more for her than he should. “Not this time.”

Keegan closed the door and bolted it. The sound of something soft hitting the door punctuated Brynn’s shout of frustration. He chuckled. Apparently she didn’t like to be locked up. But then he sobered. After all, who did?

Ronin paced the length of the living room while Taeg leaned against one of the large windows, staring out of it.

“What do you think?” Keegan asked.

“She’s telling the truth,” Taeg said. “She doesn’t know anything about what she is, or about Mammon. The girl’s as innocent as they come.”

Even though Keegan had already arrived at the same conclusion, it was still a relief to hear it coming from Taeg’s mouth.

Ronin stopped pacing and turned to face Keegan. “Now what?”

Taeg closed his eyes and sighed. Keegan opened his mouth to reply, but Taeg beat him to it. “Now we kill her.”

Unexpected fury coursed through Keegan’s veins, boiling his blood. “No,” he said, at the same time that Ronin said, “What?”

Taeg raked a hand through his short hair. “Do you think I want to kill her? She’s sweet, not to mention hot. But she’s too dangerous to live. We’re talking about the end of the worlds as we know them, man.”

“No.” Keegan said it again, because it was worth repeating. “We’re not going to kill her just like that. Not when there’s a chance we can stop this without having to shed her blood.”

“I agree with Keegan on this one,” Ronin chimed in. “We don’t kill unless there’s no other option. We’re not Mammon.”

Taeg sighed, keeping his gaze steady on Keegan. “You’re just saying no because you’ve got a thing for her.”

“What?” Ronin said. “Is that true, Keegan?”

“No.” The word came out shakier than he’d intended, and Keegan had to clear his throat before repeating, “No. You both know that I’ll do my duty above all else, but I don’t want to take an innocent’s life before it becomes a necessity.”

Ronin pressed his lips into a thin line and turned back to Taeg. “She’s mostly just a woman. An innocent woman.”

Taeg ran a hand through his hair again, a simple gesture that belied his frustration. “Dagan would agree with me, and you know it. That’s why he’s at the bar getting shitfaced right now, instead of here with us.”

“We’re
not
doing it,” Keegan said. “Not yet, and not if we don’t have to.”

After a long moment’s silence, Taeg sighed. “Okay, fine. We’ll hold off for now. Have dinner with her. Treat her like a guest who can’t leave. If she has any questions about us, we’ll go with that stupid superheroes story.”

Ronin nodded. “Agreed.” Without another word, he turned and headed toward the kitchen.

“Superheroes,” Taeg muttered. “Fucking ridiculous.”

“Should we tell her that we’re demons instead?”

“Only half.” Taeg’s response was automatically defensive, born from years of trying to justify what they were.

“She’d believe the other half even less,” Keegan reflected dryly.

Taeg grumbled in wordless acknowledgment. “I need a beer.” He turned to follow Ronin, but then stopped and faced Keegan dead-on. “Take my advice, bro. Stay away from her. She’s dangerous. And I don’t just mean in a
key to the apocalypse
sort of way.”

Much as it irked Keegan, he had to agree with Taeg. Brynn was dangerous. And it appeared he was weaker than he’d ever thought, because even now all he could think about was how inviting her lips had looked when she’d asked him what else he could do.

The problem was, even though he knew better, he really wanted to show her.

Chapter Four

Was she dreaming? Was this entire event some deluded figment of her imagination?

The events of the past few hours were too crazy to believe. First, she was kidnapped from her gallery, then she’d found out her kidnappers were gifted like her and that they might actually be good guys. Brynn never would have even considered buying that story if Taeg hadn’t shown her what he could do.

Even though she’d arrived on less than promising terms, something inside her longed to place her trust in Keegan and his brothers. Maybe it was because they’d had every opportunity to harm her but instead had treated her well. After all, why would they have bothered explaining anything to her if they intended to hurt her?

Or maybe it was the amazing discovery that they had abilities, too. She’d never been so vain as to think she was unique in the world, but honestly never thought she’d meet other people with abilities. Not even her own father had admitted what he could do, and he was her flesh and blood.

She had finally found other people like herself.
What would it be like, to be able to confide in others about her powers? To learn more about their own? To not be so alone anymore?

Brynn let out a ragged sigh. She would feel so much better if she wasn’t locked in this room like a prisoner. There was no worse feeling than being trapped.

Shuffling into the bathroom connected to the bedroom, she examined the space. Even for a bathroom, the area was vast. Every movement sparked an echo that bounced off the cream-colored walls. She picked up a silver-plated hairbrush lying on the countertop. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the heavy feel of the brush, on the ridges of the metal beneath her fingertips. It heated in her palm as the memories drifted to her in waves. She caught glimpses of the brush passing from one set of fingers to another in preparation for storage. Other than that? Nothing.

Like everything else she’d touched in this room, the brush was new, and no true memories had been associated with it yet.

Crap.

She released the brush and it fell to the marble countertop with a loud
clang
. She walked into the bedroom and slumped onto the bed. It would have been nice to learn a little more about the brothers, but the objects in this room weren’t telling their stories. The men’s odd language made it obvious they weren’t from around here. But if they were foreign, their American accents were perfect.

For the millionth time, Brynn’s mind wandered to Keegan. He was similar to his brothers in so many ways—certainly no more strikingly handsome than they were—but something about him called to her, made her hormones go into overdrive. For God’s sake, she’d almost kissed him earlier.

If only she could trust that he really was just trying to protect her. But certain things about his story didn’t make sense. Something was off. They knew about her abilities, for one. And about this Mammon guy, who was supposedly tracking her just because she happened to be the ancestor of some long-dead Egyptian priest. Who the hell did that, anyway?

Brynn sighed, feeling a knot of tension curl up between her temples. She was probably being a total idiot for not being more freaked out. After all, someone who wanted to protect you didn’t generally knock you into unconsciousness and then keep you imprisoned. No matter how nice the prison. But Keegan didn’t feel dangerous—at least not in a psycho killer sort of way.

This was all so confusing.

The door to her room unlocked with a
click
, jarring her from her jumbled thoughts. Brynn rose as Keegan opened the door. He leaned against the doorjamb. “How are you doing?”

She fought to calm the sudden racing of her heart as she drank in the sight of him by the doorway. How could he affect her so intensely? “I’m fine, but I’ve got a lot of unanswered questions. And I don’t like being locked away.”

He nodded, an expression of understanding on his face. “I’m sorry about that, but it’s for your protection.”

“Don’t I get to decide how I should be protected?” She crossed her arms, trying her hardest to look pissed off instead of conflicted.

His brows knitted, and he pressed his lips together. “Not this time.”

Brynn swallowed her exasperated sigh and tried for reason. “Listen, if what you said earlier about protecting me is true, then you’re being a caveman. You seem to think you can just club me over the head and drag me away, no questions asked, but it doesn’t work like that anymore.”

He chuckled. “Believe me, if I was a caveman, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”

She opened her mouth to retort, but then closed it as the innuendo behind his words struck her with all the force of a speeding bullet.

He couldn’t have meant it like that.

Keegan reddened, likely realizing what he’d implied, and cleared his throat. “I meant if I was a caveman, I wouldn’t have bothered explaining anything to you.”

“Oh.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“We’ll talk some more over dinner. Come on.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice.

Brynn strode forward, trying not to show her discomfort when Keegan didn’t give her enough space to walk by without touching him. Her heart thumped as she slid past him. Whether from fear or excitement, she couldn’t tell. The heat of his arm seared her shoulder.

Pausing, she turned to face him. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes.” He wrinkled his brow. “Why do you ask?”

“You feel so warm,” she said. “Your brothers did, too, come to think of it.”

Keegan stared at her for a moment before throwing her a playful smirk. “Didn’t you say we were hot earlier?”

“I... ” Her cheeks heated. He was teasing her.

Keegan lost his flirtatious smile and shrugged. “We all run a little hot. Got it from our father.”

“That’s weird.”

“Probably the least weird thing about any of us.” He pushed away from the door. Then he motioned to another door directly across from hers. “That’s my room.”

Before Brynn could reflect on the fact that his room was mere steps from hers, Keegan said, “Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”

He led her through a long hallway decorated with marble flooring and elegant wall sconces. They passed two more doors.

“Taeg’s room, and Ronin and Dagan are sharing this one,” Keegan said as they walked by. He pointed to the final door in the hallway. “That’s an office.”

“This place is huge. Whose is it?”

“So, obvious that it’s not ours, huh?”

“Well”—Brynn paused before admitting—“I tried reading just about every object in that room, and everything seemed to be new. No real memories attached to them. If it’s yours, then you just moved in.”

He nodded in acknowledgment. “We’ve got it on loan, actually. Belongs to that government agency I told you about.”

“The secret branch of the government? You were serious about that?”

His lips twisted into a brief half-smile. “Yes.”

Not sure whether or not to believe him, Brynn whistled. “No wonder taxes are out of control, if this is what Uncle Sam is buying.”