Demon Huntress

shu lan and ming jie exchanged glances during the long, tense silence that fell between the four of them. The grin slid off ren fu's face, and chen went taut.

ming jie scrubbed a hand over his face, relishing the burn of his palm over his tired flesh. "We have a problem. A berus claims yuan is involved with the Ghouls."

"He's not," chen said fiercely.

"I know." And ming jie meant it. "But someone is trying pretty damned hard to make it look like he is. Looks like they're tricking local hunters into thinking berus leaders are in on it, too."

"Hell's f.u.c.k.i.n.g bells."

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Well, he was thinking a lot more than that, mainly because shu lan was standing next to him, her hand squeezing his, and all he wanted was to be alone with her. They could deal with Yuan later.

Right now, his entire world was shu lan, and he wanted to make sure she knew it.

ren fu shot through the zoo at a dead run. shu lan, ming jie, and chen were making one last sweep of the park to make sure all loose demons had been ushered away and the dangerous ones destroyed, as well as to capture any remaining hunters.

ren fu couldn't care less about dangerous demons and rogue hunters.

When shu lan told her what happened with ting and daquan, ren fu hadn't waited around. All she could think about was finding him, and as she moved swiftly through the zoo in the direction he'd gone, she prayed he was okay. That his bitch of a wife hadn't injured him. That yat sen hadn't done worse.

When she reached the old tiger habitat, she came to an abrupt halt at the sight of the berus leader standing there, shoulders sagging, head bowed. His pain rolled off him in seismic waves, vibrating through her at regular intervals, nine-point-oh-my-God on the anguish scale.

"daquan?"

He didn't appear to have heard her, but she knew he had, and she approached carefully.

"She's gone," he said, when she eased up next to him. "I can't find her. Even if I could . . ."

She didn't think. She simply wrapped her arms around him. The contact made something break inside him, and his legs gave out, dropping them both to their knees. And then he was sobbing and she was holding him, and even though she knew he hated her for what she was, she didn't care.

For now, the man she loved was in her arms, and somehow, she couldn't feel guilty for being glad.

************

They met up at the hospital.

chen had finished mopping up with ming jie and shu lan, had then sent them ahead to the hospital so his brother could get patched up from his encounter with the hunters who'd tried to kill him. chen had remained behind to find yuan and ren fu.

yuan had gone MIA, but he'd found shu lan's sister standing near an old fountain, watching as the man she'd called daquan walked away. She'd seemed upset, but chen had no idea why, and really, he didn't care. Touchy-feely-mushy crap made him uncomfortable.

They traveled through Harrowgates to the hospital, where ming jie and shu lan were tangled together on the couch in the staff lounge. Talk about touchy-feely-mushy crap. They practically glowed with some sort of after-bond bliss, and her new dermoire stood out starkly on the creamy skin of her left arm. ming jie, dressed in scrubs, sported his own new marking; mated, post-s'genesis males lost the face tats but gained a linked circle around the throat. He had no idea when they'd completed the mating ritual, but it had obviously happened at the zoo—what, somewhere between the apes and the hippos, between fighting demons and Hunters?—but chen was glad. He still wasn't sure he trusted the berus, but she'd saved ming jie from a fate he'd been dreading, had given chen his brother back.

And speaking of brothers . . .

"Has yuan shown up?" chen asked, grabbing a Coke from the fridge.

ming jie shook his head. "He was pretty messed up. I've been ringing his cell, but . . ."

"Yeah." yuan had probably s.u.c.k.e.d some junkie dry and gone to ground. If chen focused, he'd be able to feel his younger brother's energy, but yuan would feel it, too, and he'd dig in deeper. "I hope he's okay."

The very idea that some sonofabitch might be impersonating yuan left him wanting to take someone apart. Too bad they hadn't found any hunters who were still breathing. chen wanted answers, and he wanted them now.

He'd never been a patient sort.

"Hey," shu lan said, extracting herself from ming jie's embrace. "I guess I need to do that integration thing, huh?"

Her attempt to steer the conversation away from the black hole that was their brother couldn't have been more obvious, but ming jie grinned. "How about now?"

"Hold on." chen moved to the couch. "Can I have your hand?"

ming jie tensed, probably some sort of instinct the bonding had released, but chen couldn't be sure. Mated balberith demons were so rare that he'd never met one and had no idea how they were supposed to react when their mates were near other incubi. Considering how horny incubi were, a protective instinct probably wasn't a bad idea. Then again, the bonding made it impossible for either one of them to willingly have s.e.x with anyone else.

shu lan reached out, and he took her palm in his. Warmth washed over him as he probed her body, moved through her bloodstream to her w.o.m.b. This was his specialty, the ability to manipulate a female's reproductive organs—he could trigger ovulation in order to ensure conception, though he was not yet fertile. His heart rate spiked as he probed, his instincts firing up because even though she was ming jie's mate, she was female, and she was ovulating. But she hadn't quickened with his brother's seed.

"Well?" ming jie asked, his voice husky with emotion.

"Sorry. No little ming jies in there."

shu lan pulled her hand away, and he winced at the sudden loss of sensation. "Was there supposed to be?"