Blood of the Demon (8 page)

Brynn sighed, her shoulders relaxing with relief. “Thank you.”

With a brusque nod, Keegan stepped into the hallway and closed the door. He hesitated for a moment before walking away, leaving the door unlocked.

He found Ronin and Taeg in the kitchen. Ronin sat at the counter, surfing his laptop, while Taeg scarfed down a huge bowl of cereal at the table with an open beer next to him.

“You’re a fucking drunk,” Keegan muttered.

Taeg shrugged, taking no offense. “I think better when I’m not sober.”

“Hey, man,” Ronin said without looking up, “I’m researching Egyptian tombs.”

“Yeah,” Taeg added, “we can’t just sit around on our asses waiting for the Council to find the
Book
.”

Ronin nodded. “It’s a needle in a haystack, but we might as well start searching for where this Egyptian priest was burie—”

“Get dressed,” Keegan interrupted. “And wake Dagan up, too.”

That got their attention.

“Where are we going?” Ronin asked.

“We’re gonna take Brynn to her home so she can pick up some clothes.”

Taeg sputtered, choking on his cereal. “Are—are you out of your mind?”

Chapter Seven

“I love this deli. They have the best croissants,” Brynn said to Keegan as she inhaled the mouthwatering scent of baked goods. Her fear and doubt had begun to melt away as soon as she hit the sidewalk, especially since he’d let her use his phone to call her assistant, Amanda. She’d made up an excuse for why she’d left in such a rush and wouldn’t be back for a while. Amanda seemed suspicious, but Brynn didn’t want to involve her in any of this. Not if there really was a madman stalking her. In the end, she’d told Amanda she’d be keeping the gallery shut down until further notice.

Keegan’s willingness to let her call someone backed up his claim that he wasn’t keeping her prisoner. Hell, the man had even volunteered to go shopping for her, and she hadn’t missed the look of distaste on his face when he’d said it.

His brothers walked several feet behind her, though none of them appeared particularly happy to be taking this trip and Taeg kept mumbling to himself. Earlier, she thought she’d heard him grumble to Keegan, “Why don’t we take her to Disney World next? The Taj Mahal?”

“Shut it,” Keegan had snapped.

Dagan joined them, and he was just as good-looking as his brothers. Not that she hadn’t already expected it. She’d met him back at the apartment when he staggered into the living room, clearly hungover. He’d barely said two words to her, though his words had sent a shiver down her spine. His voice was the most amazing she’d ever heard, the kind that could coax a woman into doing pretty much anything. Right now, he stayed as far away from her as possible. She didn’t know what she’d done to make him dislike her, but it was clear that he did.

Whatever. She had bigger problems. Like the fact she couldn’t even look at Keegan without the memories of last night’s dreams flooding into her mind, leaving her aching for things she shouldn’t desire. The man was far too distracting.

“Thanks for bringing me back to my place,” she said.

“You’re welcome.” The beauty of Keegan’s smile blinded her for one heart-stopping moment. Lord, he was gorgeous.

Focus on something else.
Anything
else.

“I would think the government could afford a private driver rather than having us take the subway,” she half-joked.

“I usually just fly”—he hesitated—“never mind.” He slid a hand across his hair, an awkward silence hanging between them.

Eager to dispel it, she jumped on the first thought that came to mind. “You never told me what it is that you can do. Is it the same thing as Taeg?”

“Charm others?” Keegan laughed. “No.”

“So, what is it?” she pressed when he didn’t go on.

“I… I’d rather talk about you right now. How long have you known about your powers?”

Ah, so he was uncomfortable with what he could do. Well, she knew all too well what that was like, so she let it slide. For now.

“I’ve been reading memories off objects for as long as I remember. I think my father could do something like that, too, though he never admitted it. To be honest, I never thought I would find others with abilities.”

“You sound relieved,” he said.

“It’s hard being around normal people when you aren’t.” She shrugged. “I guess you know all about that.”

“I suppose so.” Keegan chuckled, and then hesitated for a fraction of a second. “So there’s no one waiting for you at home, then?”

“No.” Definitely not. “It’s hard to date when you can read a man’s memories. Even a simple brush of his shirt might coax me to learn more, and that’s not the sort of compulsion I can always fight. A lot of times I see stuff I’d rather not know.”

He gave her a curious look. “What sort of stuff?”

“Oh, you know, stuff they’ve done.” She laughed to cover her embarrassment. “Usually, I find out a lot more than I’d like to know about their love lives. It tends to be a turnoff.”

Keegan nodded and arched a brow. “I can understand that. What about your ability to drain other people’s energy?”

The memory of the day she’d discovered that particular power came back to her in one big rush, threatening to choke her with its heaviness. Sweeping the panic aside, she locked the memory back into her mental vault. She wasn’t ready to talk about it. Might never be.

“You know, it’s weird,” she said instead, turning her gaze to him. “What I can do—the energy draining thing—it’s worked on everyone except you and your brother. I wonder why that is?”

Keegan hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “I—”

“Don’t mean to interrupt your little heart-to-heart up there,” Taeg shouted, his voice sarcastic, “but isn’t this where you live, Brynn?”

She glanced at the building next to her.
Whoa.
They’d almost passed her apartment building. Taeg, Dagan, and Ronin had stopped right in front of it, close to twenty feet behind them.

“Oh, yes it is.” Heat burned her cheeks. How was it possible that being with Keegan made her forget what was happening in the world, even if just for a moment?

§

Keegan was screwed, and the icy glares his brothers lobbed at him as they climbed the stairs to Brynn’s apartment only reaffirmed that conclusion. He liked Brynn. Liked her to the point that he wondered how he’d be able to off her if the Council ordered him to.

Damn it. How had he allowed himself to get into such a bind? He thought he was above this. But a few vulnerable looks from her, and all he wanted to do was please her. Brynn’s demon ancestry was clearly on full display here. Only a woman with succubus in her blood could bring a grown man to his knees like this.

He ran a hand through his hair, willing himself to calm down. In all honesty, that wasn’t fair. Brynn didn’t know what she was, and any mystical powers of seduction had likely diluted, along with the bloodline, in the 3,000 years since that Egyptian priest had mated with the succubus. Anything he felt for her was on him, a hundred percent.

He couldn’t forget their true mission. Wouldn’t. She was just a job, and a very important one at that. If he had to destroy her to save the world, he would.

“Here we are.” Brynn’s nervous smile quickly dimmed. “Oh crap, I don’t have the key. It’s in my purse back at the gallery.”

Keegan exchanged a glance with Taeg, who muttered “Be right back” before walking down the hallway and turning the corner.

She turned to him with an apologetic look. “I guess we have to go back to the gallery first.”

“No we don’t,” Dagan responded flatly.

Brynn tilted her head in Dagan’s direction. “What? Why?”

A second later, her front door clicked. When it opened, Taeg stood on the other side. He adopted a roguish grin. “Come on in.”

She gasped. “How did you do that?”

“Magic,” he quipped. And in a way it was. Taeg’s particular brand of fae magic.

Brynn stepped into her apartment. “No, really, how did you do that?”

Taeg sobered. “You don’t want to know.”

She opened her mouth as if to protest, but she must have decided to let the matter drop because she simply exhaled and turned away. Keegan didn’t fool himself into believing the matter was over, though. She’d eventually ask again, and keep asking until she got an answer that left her satisfied. That much he was sure of, from the short time he’d known her.

“I’m going to go change my clothes. I’ll be right back.” Brynn disappeared through a door and swung it shut.

Keegan glanced around the tidy living room. It was tiny but very bright, with blond wood floors and daisies arranged in a glass vase on the coffee table. From what he already knew of Brynn, it suited her.

A hard, unexpected shove sent him staggering toward the wall. Taeg pounced on him, grabbing him in a chokehold. “What the devil is
wrong
with you, bro?”

Dagan stepped behind Taeg. “I’m with Taeg on this one, man. I’m doing everything I can to avoid getting attached to the chick, and here you are, eye-fucking each other already?”

“Fuck off,” Keegan said.

“Right back at you, bro,” Taeg snarled.

“Settle down, everyone.” Ronin stepped forward with his hands up. “Let’s think this through.”

Ronin’s soothing energy spread through Keegan, and he fought it back with a low growl. He didn’t want to calm down. Right now, he was itching for a fight.

Taeg must have felt the same way because he shouted, “Tone that shit down, Ronin,” keeping his eyes on Keegan the entire time.

Keegan pried Taeg’s hands off his throat, pushing him away with a hard shove. “Don’t forget who’s in charge here,
little
brother.”

“You’d never let me,
big
brother,” Taeg shot back. “And right now, you’re being a
huge
asshole.”

“That’s it,” Keegan bit out, lunging at Taeg. His fist connected with Taeg’s jaw.

Taeg’s head whipped back. He rolled his head around before looking back at Keegan with a devilish chuckle. “All right, let’s go.”

He flew at Keegan, slamming his fist into the side of Keegan’s face. Keegan swung Taeg around, about to retaliate, when Ronin’s voice boomed, “Stop it
now
!”

The barely restrained fury in Ronin’s voice stopped them, all the more effective because he rarely lost his temper.

Keegan’s rage faded as quickly as it had come. Taeg’s too, apparently, since he mumbled out a quick “Sorry.”

“They were just letting off some steam,” Dagan said to Ronin with a casual shrug.

“Yeah, well, any other time you two can pummel each other to the ground and I won’t give a rat’s ass,” Ronin said through gritted teeth. “But right now we’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

“I know.” Keegan started pacing. “Damn, I know that.”

Once he’d calmed down enough to speak rationally, he turned to face his brothers. “I won’t deny that I find her attractive, or that I feel bad for her. But I’ll do what I must.” When they continued to look dubious, he said, “I will. I have to. There is no alternative. If it’s one life or the destruction of billions, then I’ll do what has to be done.”

After a tense silence, Ronin nodded. “We all will.”

The heavy air in the room dissipated.

“You really do need to get laid, bro,” Taeg said.

Dagan chuckled, but his expression became pensive. “You know, I met these adventurous twins the other night—”

He broke off as the door to Brynn’s room opened. She stuck no more than her head out. Devil, was she only half-dressed? It sure looked like it from this angle.

“Is everything okay in there?” she asked. “I thought I heard something bang against the wall.”