Demon Huntress

He was holding one shoulder, the arm hanging uselessly to the side, blood running in a stream to the floor. Deep lacerations scored his entire body, exposing ribbons of tendon and white bone, but he was grinning as if he'd just gotten his first blowjob.

"Page ren fu and call ming jie at home," daquan told the triage nurse. "Now." ming jie had gone home an hour ago, but he needed to be here for this.

Daquan hooked an arm around yuan's waist to keep him upright. "Shit, you weigh a ton." He guided yuan toward one of the available rooms. "What happened?"

Yuan g.r.o.a.n.e.d as he sank down on a table. "Shot." He peeled his hand away from his shoulder, where blood oozed from a sharply defined hole.

"The other wounds aren't from guns, man," Daquan said, as he gloved up.

"Machetes."

Only yuan would get himself chopped up by machetes. "Out hunting African rebels again?"

"Maybe."

"Keep pressure on that bullet wound." Obviously, yuan's airway and breathing were fine, so he quickly checked the demon's pulses in all of his extremities. Everything looked good, but emergency medicine in a demon hospital was a hell of a lot different from in a human hospital, mainly because every demon species had different normal vital signs, constitutions, death thresholds … for the most part, daquan winged it.

Daquan cut through yuan's shirt with a pair of trauma shears and then carefully peeled the cloth away. Dried blood stuck the fabric to his skin in places, but this was the easy part. Those wounds were nasty.

The curtain separating the cubicles swept open, and ren fu entered. "Wow. You get into a fight with a really big cat?"

"Funny, ren fu. Now why don't you get your funny a.s.s over here and suck my—ow! F.u.c.k!" yuan glared at daquan.

"Sorry." daquan tossed the bloody shirt to the floor. "The fabric is embedded in the lacerations."

"My a.s.s. You did that on purpose."

"Can't prove it." daquan probed one of the deeper cuts. balberith demons healed rapidly, and yuan's bleeding had slowed, but not enough. "If it makes you feel any better, ming jie's on his way. He'll have you all healed up and back out hunting genocidal maniacs in no time."

Ren fu thumbed up one of yuan's eyelids. "You been draining junkies again?"

Yuan gave an indignant grunt. "No."

Daquan hooked his stethoscope's earbuds into his ears. "But you fed on the Africans, didn't you?"

"Well, duh."

When ren fu shot daquan a questioning look, he said, "The fighters are feral. Completely wild, half out of their minds on kanif and harder drugs."

"That explains the glassy eyes."

"What happened?" ming jie stalked into the room, dressed in tan cargos and a blue linen button-down.

"The usual," ren fu said. She gestured to mu lan, who was preparing instruments. "Get a unit of blood. Any species."

"Dammit, yuan," ming jie murmured. "Why do you do this to yourself?"

Daquan slid the stethoscope's cold bell against yuan's back. yuan winced. "There were only, like, a dozen guys. And then all of a sudden I was fighting the entire f.u.c.k.i.n.g army."

"You were supposed to be looking for hong."

"I was. I took a lunch break."

Ming jie bent to inspect yuan's shoulder. "You've been shot."

Yuan snorted. "Cowards. Seriously. Who brings a gun to a knife fight? That's cheating."

"You don't have a gun?" daquan asked.

Yuan made a face of disgust. "It's not very sporting to shoot people."

"So you're saying that you didn't shoot the people who shot you?"

"Hell, yeah, I shot them. Disarmed a punk and took out as many as I could before I hoofed it to the closest Harrowgate."

The dermoire on ming jie's arm began to shimmer as he channeled healing energy into yuan. Before daquan's eyes, yuan's lacerations began to knit together. yuan g.r.o.a.n.e.d, baring his teeth. His fangs elongated, and daquan could practically feel them throbbing. The healing process could be painful—daquan had endured the pain a couple of months ago after being bitten by a anzu demon during an ambulance run.

Mu lan returned with the blood and handed it to yuan, who bit into the bag.

"That's disgusting," daquan muttered.

Yuan c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. "You volunteering to play Big Gulp?"

"You wish."

Yuan snorted, but before he could spew some smartass remark, ming jie nodded in satisfaction. "Done. Now for the bullet wound." He glanced at daquan. "We'll need a local for this."

"I'm fine," yuan said.

"This is going to hurt like hell, bro. daquan, get the shot."

"I said, I'm fine." yuan's voice was a low growl that vibrated the air in the room.

Ming jie got right up in his brother's face, his eyes gold—which meant he was either aroused or pissed, and since shu lan wasn't around …

"We're not doing this tonight, yuan. You got the fighting out of your system. S.e.x probably, too. And, I see, a little chemical assistance. It's time to chill out."

"No. Local. Anesthetic."

Narrow pinpoints of red began to poke through the gold in ming jie's eyes as his anger hit the next stage of pissed. This was going to deteriorate into a critical situation, and fast.

"Get the shot, man," chen said from the opening in the curtains, a new dermoire around his throat and a new female at his side. His mate?

Daquan couldn't be sure. She wore jeans and a short-sleeved silk blouse that revealed toned arms that were unmarked by the mate-dermoire shu lan had.

Yuan's eyes flashed ice—he'd obviously noticed the same thing. At least it took his focus off the issue of the injection.

"Get the shot," chen repeated, his voice low and soothing. "If Ming jie says you need it, you do."

Yuan scowled, but if he was going to listen to anyone, it would be chen. "Fine. Yeah. Whatever. Gimme the shot, human." As daquan brought the needle near the wound, yuan grabbed his wrist. "Make it hurt."

"It'll make my day."

In the silence that fell, daquan could hear yuan's low, steady growl as he stared at the new female as if she was an enemy. chen had picked up on yuan's animosity, and the two brothers locked gazes. This was bad, though daquan had no idea why or what the hell was going on. But a break in the tension would be a good idea right about now.

He knew he shouldn't do it, but as he injected the local, he said, "Hey, yuan. I have a new X-Box game. Really violent. I plan to get seriously f.u.c.k.e.d up and play tonight. Want to try to kick my ass?"

Yuan's head swung around. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're always beating the hell out of me in the gym, and I want a chance to take you down."

Yuan's eyes narrowed, as if he knew this was a trick, but he couldn't resist the bait. "I do knock you around, don't I?"

That was a no-shitter. daquan had been training with yuan for months, learning new fighting techniques and honing the old ones, but he'd never acquire even a tenth of the skills yuan had mastered.

"I'll kick your a.s.s in the game, too," yuan said, not so much as flinching as daquan pulled the needle out of his flesh.

"You don't stand a chance."

Yuan snorted. "I'm so going to grind you into dust."

Ming jie offered daquan a subtle nod, a silent thank-you for defusing an explosive situation. daquan returned the nod and made the mistake of glancing over at ren fu. He might have snuffed the fuse from one stick of dynamite, but it was clear by the glint in her eyes that the thing between him and ren fu still burned.

Chen didn't wait around in the ER to answer questions or listen to lectures about yu xie. He took her to the lab, plunked her into a chair, and gave the technician, one of the few humans on staff, orders to take enough blood to run every test available.

Then he waited just outside the door where he could see what was going on, because no way was that man going to touch yu xie without chen's being present. He'd have preferred to draw the blood himself, but he knew his brothers would be showing up at any moment to ask questions he didn't know how to answer.

He watched yu xie through the window, inexplicably pleased to see that she was looking around the lab with curiosity, not terror, as he might have expected from someone who had never been inside a demon hospital. Then again, she knew he was right outside the door, and he'd assured her that nothing bad would happen to her as long as he was near.

What a big, f.u.c.k.i.n.g lie.

His gut wrenched as he dragged his gaze away from her. He was growing too close, too fast, and this morning's s.e.x had made the situation worse.