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So else washed over her, too Gratitude Eidolon couldn’t hurt her inside the hospital; she knew that But he also didn’t have to relieve her pain If he wanted her to suffer, she’d suffer She couldn’t help but wonder, if the situation were reversed, would she have done the same?

"No," she whispered, and Eidolon frowned

"Are you still in pain?" One hand flew to her other wrist to check her pulse "What is it?"

"Sorry," she choked out "Talking to myself"

He looked at her as if she was daft, and Shade shook his head, but then they went back to what they’d been doing, and she went back to wondering when she’d started feeling so other than blind hatred for the deiven that she was supposed to help destroy the hospital, and hiot intimate with the lay of the land Not that she could seefro, but hey, no creepy detail would go wasted She’d always hated hospitals, but the s actually comforted her now, bits of norentle tugging on her skin stopped Eidolon snipped the thread he’d been working with

"Done?" she asked

"Yep"

Shade yanked his hand away "Good I’o help a patient who actually deserves it" He stalked out Pain ian to throb in her abdomen

"Damn him," Eidolon muttered, so softly she barely heard

"It’s okay I don’t blame hiaze flickered to hers "I can give you painkillers," he offered roughly, ignoring what she’d said

She shook her head "I need to stay alert" Going fuzzy in enemy territory could be disastrous Besides, after her ain Her mother’s battle with addiction had caused too much misery, had led her down a dark road where de the tray closer with his foot, he selected a syringe froive you a local to keep the discomfort at a minimum"

He injected the medicine, and after the initial burn wore off, the wound went nulanced at her in surprise, but didn’t comment, because suddenly the roos A dozen of them, furry and about the size of rabbits, scurried beneath the curtains, rolling and pouncing on each other One paused to look up, its big eyes blinking at her It was sort of cute For a de hot for a demon Or a human, for that matter

They climbed up her IV pole, onto tables and stools, and she smiled as one dived down the sleeve of her jacket that Shade had draped over a chair They chattered and squeaked and then one dipped into her pocket--and came out with her cell phone The creature flipped the phone open Tayla tore out her IV

line and leaped off the table

"Gimme that," she said sweetly The critter scaed to snare the phone

The curtain whipped open What must have been the little ones’the floor

"Apologies, doctor," she growled through fangs the length of Tayla’s index finger Her gaze shifted sharply to Tayla "Is thathu a silver ri Tayla’s phone, Eidolon addressed the deround around Halloween "Gather your young, flitta This is not your concern"

The flitta, whatever that meant, didn’t seem to hear, instead took a step toward Tayla Drool dripped fros "You," she hissed "You should die"

Shade moved up behind her, watched with ill-concealed as"

Tayla frowned at the little de around beneath her, and the mother roared "Not them! My nest before this All of them In pieces, shtered my babies"

"It wasn’t me," Tay said lamely, because it could have been How many demon nests had she destroyed?

Too i butcher, same as you"

One of the babies leaped toward Tay’s arht it in midair, tickled it behind its pointy ear, and handed it to the angry i Gather your brood and go Bring the flossa back next week and I’ll remove her cast"

That hen Tay noticed a quiet baby in the corner, one leg wrapped and dragging behind it Gently, Shade picked it up and tucked it against his chest Tayla nearly fell over as he began to sters following hilare of pureoff after Shade and the babies

"Wow, she was a little worked up"

Eidolon swept the curtain closed again "An Aegi "

"Because that species coetables"

"What?"

"Her particular breed They’re vegetarians They ourds" Still holding her phone in one hand, he dumped his tray of bloodied tools into a nearby container with the other "Your Aegis buddies slaughtered innocent younglings that would have grown up to do nothing worse than suck the guts out of a few pumpkins"

Nausea swirled in her stoet hurt?"

"Stepped on by an adult If it weren’t for the hospital, she would have died Fractured bones are a death sentence for that species"

Tay seriously wanted to throw up Things had gone wrong, so wrong In a matter of days, her world had been flipped upside down Everything she thought she’d known about deetarian demons? Demons who cured instead of killed? Her sione about a ray

"Tayla? Are you okay?"

She blinked out of her gray world and back to the strange, dark one that was Underworld General A hospital whose very existence should be i down She couldn’t do it Right now she was too vulnerable, too unsure of her feelings to commit to the destruction of UG

"Can I havefor help, you nal here"

"No extended network, huh?" She stood there as he closed the distance between theravitational pull, and without thinking, she took a step to meet him He held out the phone, but when she reached for it, his hand captured her wrist

"Why do you want the phone?"

She sed dryly, unsure what to say, not because she couldn’t lie, but because suddenly, she didn’t want to Not when the gold flecks in his eyes had begun to glitter again She licked her lips, and his gaze dropped to herdarker swirling in his eyes "What’s wrong?"