The thing bit him. Maybe wringing his little neck wouldn’t be so hard after all.

“Runa!” Shade’s shout carried up the stairs, and so did the pounding of feet. Shit.

Go, Roag said. I’ll slip into the Harrowgate with them. I want to watch Shade’s misery.

“Have fun.” Rariel cast one last glance at the two infants in the cribs, and flashed out of there with the third.

So he hadn’t killed the babies, but he’d still get what he wanted: Kynan. Dead. Amulet. In hand.

Idess. Disgraced.

Victory was so close he could taste it. As he materialized in his central Sheoul hideout, he smiled down at the glaring baby, and thought maybe he’d allow Deth a taste, too.

Of the child.
* * *

Needing to stretch her legs and feeling the itch of helplessness, Sin went to grab some coffee. Not that she knew where the cafeteria was. Funny how she found the very closet where she’d knocked boots with Conall, though.

Warmth flooded her body at the memory, and she actually trailed her fingers over the door as she passed.

Idiot.

And where the hell was the cafeteria? Lost in the maze of hospital halls, she followed the signs back to the emergency department, where the staff was concentrated around one curtained cubicle.

Craning her neck, Sin could make out the top of Eidolon’s head. Nimbly, she climbed up on one of the waiting-area chairs so she could get a better view. And then she wished she couldn’t see a damned thing.

Shade and Eidolon were in the tiny room, where a bloody female lay motionless on the bed. Shade looked as if he was going to break down at any second. The female must be Runa, his mate.

Eidolon and Shade were both channeling power into her, Eidolon cursing and Shade pleading. Twice Shade’s dermoire flared so bright Sin had to squint. Both times, Eidolon reached across Runa to lay a hand on his brother.

“Easy, bro,” Eidolon murmured the second time. “Downshift a gear. You’re going to burn yourself out.”

Shade trembled as his markings dimmed, though they still glowed brighter than Eidolon’s.

“Please, Runa.” Shade’s voice broke. “Come back to me, baby.”

Sin stood frozen, unable to look away from the female fighting for her life and the two males who were so fiercely trying to make it happen.

“Yo, Sin.”

She spun around to the owner of the voice, nearly falling off the chair. A red-haired female who bore the Seminus mate marks on her left hand stood next to her, but Sin couldn’t tell to which of the other brothers she belonged, given that her leather jacket and high collar covered the rest of the dermoire. But she held a squirming infant in each arm, and as Sin stepped down from the chair, the other female shoved a baby at her.

“Here. Hold your nephew.”

Too startled to refuse, Sin held out her hands, and the next thing she knew, her hands were full of rugrat. She sniffed it. Didn’t smell like baby powder or crap. Bonus.

“Are you Tayla?” Sin vaguely remembered Lore mentioning that Eidolon’s mate was a Guardian, and this woman was wearing a weapons harness beneath her jacket and a scabbard at her hip. Sin totally respected that.

“Yeah.” Tayla absently rocked the infant in her arms as she watched Shade and Eidolon work on Runa. Some of the staff had dispersed to handle an incoming trauma, leaving the scene open for Sin and Tayla to see everything going on.

Sin emulated the Guardian’s rocking motion. Tried to, anyway. For some reason her baby jiggled a lot more than Tayla’s did. “What happened to Runa?”

“I don’t know,” Tayla said. “I got to Shade’s place right after he did. Runa was unconscious and Rade was gone.”

“Rade?”

Fury turned Tayla’s green eyes into a forest on fire. “One of the triplets.”

Sin peered down at the squirming baby she held, unable to imagine someone stealing something so small and innocent. “Do you know who did it? Or why?”

“No. But if anything happens to him…” She trailed off, and Sin filled in the blanks. The kidnapper was so dead. Probably was whether or not the child was hurt.

“Sh-Shade?” Runa’s voice was reedy and weak, but both Eidolon and Shade appeared relieved to have heard it at all.

“Thank gods,” Shade whispered. “What is it, lirsha?” He gently stroked her cheek with his fingertips. His throat worked repeatedly on hard swallows, and Sin got the impression he was trying to hold back tears.

Runa blinked, her gaze unfocused, but Sin saw the moment everything came back to her with horrifying clarity. Shade’s mate screamed and levered up so fast no one had a chance to push her back down.

“Rade! Where is he?”

“Runa, calm down—”

“Where?” She fisted Shade’s shirt and dragged him down to her. “He has him. Oh, my God, he has him! Have to find him…” Sobbing, Runa struggled to get out of bed, but Eidolon injected something into her IV line. Almost instantly, she grew dazed, her eyes unfocused, and Shade was able to ease her back onto the bed.

“Runa? What happened? Who has our son?”

“I can feel him… but he’s so far away…”

“He’s alive then. Thank gods.” Shade squeezed her shoulder gently. “Runa, tell me what happened.”

“I tried to fight… so hard…” Tears streamed down her face as she lay there, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “He said… he said we have to hand over Kynan within twenty-four hours. Or… or…”

Shade gathered her against him and used his big body to buffer her powerful sobs. In Sin’s arms, the baby sobbed.
* * *

Misery like Shade had never known tore through him, his own considerable pain magnified by Runa’s. She was strong, and her physical pain was bearable, but her emotional agony was a hot blade through the soul.

We have to hand over Kynan within twenty-four hours. Or else.

Only one person wanted Kynan that badly. The weird sense of malevolence that had overtaken the hospital lately seemed to seep inside Shade through the laceration in his soul, adding fuel to the rage and hatred that bubbled like molten metal in his heart. Gently, he lowered Runa, now knocked out from whatever E had dosed her with. He barely held himself together as he snatched up the dagger that had been impaled in his mate’s body and stalked toward Sin.

She held her ground as he approached, even though he knew his eyes had gone red and she could probably feel the anger radiating off of him.

“Shade—” E palmed his shoulder, but Shade shrugged him off and planted himself in front of Sin. Wraith burst out of the Harrowgate.

Hilt-first, Shade thrust the dagger at his sister. “Who does this belong to?”

Sin drew a startled breath. “Where did you get it?”

“Answer the question.”

Her eyes flashed with annoyance, but she smelled of anxiety.

“Sin!” His bark made her jump and made little Stryke stop crying.

“It’s Lore’s.” Somehow, she made her answer sound like a challenge.

He might have respected that, had this been any other situation. As it was, a dark, icy void formed in his chest. Despite everything that had happened, most of the time he hadn’t truly hoped for Lore’s death. For some reason, when he was away from the hospital and Eidolon, he could actually settle down and think rationally. And ironically, Runa had championed Lore. It wasn’t that she wanted Kynan to die; she just wanted Shade to not give up on any of his brothers.

It was too late for that.

“Where is he?”

Stepping back, Sin actually tucked Stryke closer to her chest, as though Shade might be a danger to his own son. “You can’t think he had anything to do with your mate’s injuries or your son’s disappearance.”

“Where. Is. He?”

“Listen to me—”

“Where?”

“He’s being tortured right now, okay?” She met his gaze levelly and with defiance. “He couldn’t have done it because he’s being tortured.”

“Did you witness it?”

“No, but, he wouldn’t have done this,” she snapped. “And there’s no way in hell he’d have left the dagger behind.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I gave it to him. He’d never have given it up willingly. Never.”

Shade didn’t give a shit about sentimental value, and right now, he didn’t give a shit what Sin thought she knew about her brother, either. “Go to him,” Shade growled. “Go to him and tell him I want to see him. Now.”

Sin handed over Stryke. “I will. And I’ll expect you to grovel at his feet and ask forgiveness when I prove you wrong.” She glanced at Wraith as though she had something to say to him, but after a brief shake of the head, she took off, disappearing into the Harrowgate.

The moment she was gone, Shade hugged Stryke close and rounded on E, whose face was sallow, his gaze haunted.

“This is your fault,” he snarled. “You son of a bitch, that bastard nearly killed Runa, and he has my son because you refused to do what was necessary.” Shade’s hands shook with the need to strike out, but instead he tightened his grip on his son. “If I didn’t need you to take care of Runa, I’d tear you apart right now.”

“You need to back off, Shade,” Tayla said, her voice low and calm, so as not to frighten the babies, but the underlying warning was clear. “Before you say something you’ll regret.”

“There are a lot of things I regret,” he said, never taking his eyes off Eidolon, “but trust me, nothing I say here will be one of them.” He turned to Wraith, who looked as pissed as if his own child had been taken. “I can’t leave Runa or the babies, and I don’t trust Sin to do anything but tell Lore to run. Find him, Wraith. Find him, kill him, and bring back my son.”

Nineteen

Sin sprinted down the assassin den’s narrow halls, her weapons clanking against her hip, her breasts, the small of her back. She had to find Lore. Had to see for herself that he wasn’t responsible for what had happened to Runa and the baby.

Not that she had any doubt. Lore would never harm a child. He’d been hired or ordered to kill them before, and refused… actions that had resulted in days of bleeding at the hands of Deth’s special torturers. The ones he called Peelers.

Sin shuddered and silently cursed Deth and his unholy minions.

But what if Lore had taken the child as leverage, with no plans to harm it—just to frighten Shade into giving up Kynan? She couldn’t imagine his being so ruthless as to hurt Runa like that, and he certainly wouldn’t be sloppy enough to leave his dagger behind, but…

Oh, God.

Her sprint turned into an uncontrolled mad dash. She ran wildly through the den, bouncing off walls and knocking over Sunil, a tiger shifter with an unusually docile nature. He didn’t even curse at her when she sent him sprawling. Lycus, however, did. The male warg had always despised her, and his nasty promise of retribution clocked hang time in the icy air as she ran.

Ahead, the door to Deth’s chamber opened, and in the pale orange light streaming from the opening, a dark figure threw a large shadow. Encased in black robes, he swept down the hall, away from Sin, but not before she caught a glimpse of something squirming in his hands.

A tiny, pale foot draped over the crook of his arm. “Rade,” she whispered.

Heart pounding, she sprinted toward the demon. “Hey! Stop!” The male cast her a hateful glare over his shoulder, picked up his pace, rounded a corner… and vanished.

Shit! Furious, and on the verge of freaking out, she hauled ass to Detharu’s chamber, where her master was near the hearth, na**d and observing as a new female Drekevac assassin was being held down by two guards and forcibly fitted for a tongue piercing. Deth’s eyes were bright, his c**k swollen, and Sin knew the female on her knees was in for a rude introduction to the world of the Detharu brotherhood.

“Yo. Deth. Where’s Lore?”

“Below. He’s free to go.”

She blinked. “Can he be moved?”

“He will be healed.”

Thank God. She cleared her throat. “The male who just left. Who is he?”

“Rariel?” Deth reached out to stroke the female’s spiny head as her jaw was forced open. “Why?”

“Just curious.”

“You’re a pain in the ass.” He cut a sharp wave of his hand. “Be gone.”

His tone left no room for argument—he’d already been much more helpful than she’d expected, probably because he was distracted by his new acquisition. That, and all his blood had run south and left him stupid.

“Just one more thing… the infant. Was it his?”

Deth’s head swiveled around as if it was on a ball bearing, and she knew she’d gone too far. “One more word, and you will join Ystla on her knees.”

The female cried out as the piercing punched through her tongue. Sin had escaped that fate years ago, thanks to a loophole in her contract—a loophole Deth had since found a way around. Sin definitely didn’t want him to take advantage of his underhanded maneuverings now.

“And remind your brother that time is running out for him to deliver the human’s head.”

She nodded just deeply enough to satisfy his need for bowing and scraping, and headed for the staircase that would lead to the dungeon below.
* * *

“Lore?”

Lore groaned at the sound of Sin’s voice, groaned more as she cut him down from the beam he’d been hanging from. “Where’s Idess?” he croaked. His throat was as raw as if he’d been screaming for days, and his jaws ached from avoiding doing just that. “Where?”