No Mercy (Dark-Hunter 18)

"You can't touch me. It'll open a conduit between us and I'll see everything about you and I do mean everything. Any instrument you touch me with and I'll know things about everyone you've ever used it on. No offense, but I don't want to be that intimate with you."

Carson let out a low whistle as he held his hands up in surrender. "No offense taken. I don't want to be that intimate with you either. No wonder you went crazy a second ago."

He had no idea.

Dev scoffed as he shifted her weight. "Yeah, and I don't want to know what she's getting from me right now. I cringe at the mere thought."

Sam met his gaze. "We both know what a perv you are."

He actually blushed which made her wonder what was on his mind.

Deciding to alleviate his embarrassment, she wrinkled her nose. "Relax, Grizzly Adams. I'm still getting nothing from you."

Carson laughed. "Damn, Dev. Remi's right. There is nothing going on inside your head."

Dev cut him a vicious glare. "You better be glad I'm holding her, Birdman, else you and I'd be going round right about now."

Carson ignored him as he returned his attention to Sam. "How are you feeling right now?"

"Aside from the gaping hole in my heart and the pain it's causing, I'm strangely okay."

Dev looked less than convinced. "So what do we do about this, Doc? You have to have something to fix it."

Sam shook her head. "It won't kill me. Take me home and I--"

"No." Dev cut her off before she could finish her thought. "You can't go home. The Daimons could come back through the hole they made or be there waiting for you and you're in no shape to fight them. Why the hell did you invite them into your house to begin with? What were you thinking?"

His accusing tone seriously offended her. "You think I'm insane? I did not invite them in. I..."

They both fell silent as the reality of that thought went through them simultaneously. Daimons couldn't enter a private residence without an invitation--that had been part of Apollo's curse that was designed to protect humans from them. If a place was public domain, they could enter.

But her private residence should have been completely off-limits....

"How did they get in?" she whispered, trying to think of something she might have done. But there was nothing. She'd been extremely careful about setting up her home and no one other than she had been in it.

Oh crap.

Dev shifted his weight before he spoke again. "You really didn't invite them in?"

She shook her head.

Carson stepped closer. "Maybe they came in as pizza delivery or something and you forgot."

That was a ludicrous thought. How could she forget something so intrinsic to her sanity? "No one comes inside my house. No one. Not for any reason. I know better. If they touch something, even briefly, it contaminates it and I have to throw it out." Another valuable lesson she'd learned from her one-night stand with Ethon.

Dev met her gaze. "Then how did they get in? You leave a window open with a note on it or something?"

She gave him an irritated smirk. "Yes, yes I did. I told them to come in and make themselves at home and while they were at it, to immobilize me and stab me straight through the heart 'cause I'm just that effing bored."

Carson laughed. "Wow, someone who has your knack for sarcasm."

Dev glared at him.

Sam sighed before she continued with only a tiny bit less venom. "I don't know how they got in. I happened to have been asleep at the time they entered. Maybe what ever's allowing them to walk in daylight is also allowing them to come into a house uninvited."

Carson's face paled as if the thought of that horrified him. "This can't be good."

"Oh, I don't know." Dev's voice was saturated with his own sarcasm this time. "I think it's great that they can come in and suck us dry. Remind me to leave my window unlatched tonight. Oh wait. It don't matter anymore. Day. Night. What ever. Come steal my soul, you worthless bastards. I'm open like a twenty-four-hour blood diner donor."

Carson didn't respond to that in the least as he kept his attention on Sam. "If they can come into any home anytime they please and we can't stop them...We have skidded off the hell ramp into Shitsville." He indicated Sam's injury with a jerk of his chin. "We need to get that tended before you weaken any more."

"No. I'll be all right." She had no intention of anyone touching her if she could help it.

Dev notwithstanding. And she definitely didn't even want to think about Dev and the fact that he held her like she was petite--something she most certainly was not. Nor did she want to think about how feminine and dainty he made her feel.

Or how great it'd been to make love to him...

Forcing those thoughts away, she focused on the matter at hand. "What we have to do is tell Acheron they can get into homes and let the other Dark-Hunters know before they're attacked like I was."

Dev arched one brow. "I can't do anything if I'm holding you. Not that I mind. I'm just saying."

She looked down at the floor, wishing she could stand on her own two feet. "I need some of my shoes."

Carson frowned. "You can't even touch the ground?"

"No."

"Dang," Dev breathed. "Artemis got her jollies with you, didn't she?"

"Yeah. I definitely didn't get one of the better powers. Now could you please get my shoes for me?"

Carson stepped back to give them room. "I have a thought. If you're immune to Dev...would his room work for you?"

Dev looked down at her. "Want to try?"

She wasn't so sure about that. The last thing she needed as bad as she currently felt was another assault on her senses. But she couldn't stay in his arms all day either and if she couldn't go home...

"Let's try it."

Dev heard the reluctance in her voice. "Just because I'm a bear doesn't mean I live in a cave, you know?"