Demon Huntress

Her gaze flew up, as if she remembered he was still in the room. A sob escaped her, and then her eyes went wild and a scream of frustration tore through the air and, apparently, the paper-thin walls, because someone on the other side pounded against them and shouted vile curses about Shu lan's s.e.x.u.a.l habits that made him want to punch through the plaster and rip out the man's throat.

Another sob wracked her body. What the hell? No female could withstand a topical aphrodisiac of that nature . . . unless her father's species possessed some sort of natural immunity, something he'd never heard of.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Never in her life had Shu lan been so miserable. She writhed, clenching her t.h.i.g.hs together. Her body was a powder keg, lit and ready to blow, but unable. It was as though she were being licked, s.u.c.k.e.d, c.a.r.e.s.sed, held on the very edge of ecstasy until the need for relief became torture.

"Please, make it stop!"

She flailed around on the bed, humiliating herself with the begging, until she felt the cool, wet rasp of a washcloth between her legs as Eidolon washed away what he'd done to her.

"I'm sorry, Shu lan . . . gods, I'm sorry." He knelt beside her, his gentle ministrations the most intimate thing anyone had ever done to her. "I don't understand this," he muttered. "This shouldn't happen."

None of this should have happened, but she didn't have the energy to say that.

When the l.u.s.t finally eased, she lay limp, trembling, barely able to move. Her s.e.x tingled, felt tender and warm, but at least the maddening arousal had gone.

As with all her s.e.x.u.a.l encounters with men, she hadn't been able to climax, had never even been aroused enough to come close. But whatever Hellboy had done when he pulled out and let loose his potent—

Oh, God.

"You." She sat up in the bed, her head spinning. "balberith demon . . . you're an incubus, aren't you?"

The lean angle of his jaw grew sharper as he speared her with an unreadable look. "Yes. A rare breed."

Which explained her unnatural vulnerability and attraction to him. Incubi were opportunistic creatures that used s.e.x as a means to an end. Some fed on s.e.x.u.a.l energy until the victim died, some stole souls through s.e.x, some planted their offspring inside—

Her stomach heaved. "What did you do to me? Did you suck my energy? I swear, if you i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.ed me " "

"Don't worry. I'm incapable of impregnating anyone until my s'genesis is complete. After that, only other demons need fear me."

"Other balberith demons?"

"There are no females of my breed," he said, tossing the washcloth into her hamper beside the bed. She'd trash it later. Burn it, maybe. "We have to i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.e other species. The offspring are always male, always pure-blooded balberith demons, though every individual shares some minor traits with his mother's species."

She tugged a sheet up to cover herself, because the way he was watching her made her feel like a science experiment. Besides, she was shaking like a leaf. "Like?"

He shrugged. "Chen can turn to shadow in the presence of a shadow. yuan possesses extraordinary speed and needs to ingest blood to survive. I suffer from a terrible sense of fair play that my brothers lack."

"Why not i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.e humans?" She couldn't believe she was asking these questions as though they were bonding over beer and peanuts, but hey, the more she knew, the more efficiently she could kill them.

"Breeding with humans results in cambions. Sterile half-breeds. We need to mate with other demons to keep our species from extinction."

"And these other species . . . they don't mind giving birth to yours?"

The bed creaked and sagged beneath his considerable weight as he stretched out beside her, uncomfortably close, as if they were lovers. Real lovers and not the most mismatched pair of f.u.c.k buddies ever. The wolf and the rabbit. The predator and the prey.

A shudder shook her because she was dangerously underestimating him. They were both predators.

"They mind. Which is why, when the s'genesis is complete, we have the ability to shapeshift into the male of any species."

"So you're parasites who trick the females into having s.e.x with you."

"Essentially. The females have no idea what they've slept with."

"And what happens when Junior pops out and he doesn't look like Mom?" Now her questioning had nothing to do with the job and everything to do with her curiosity. She found it interesting that demons scammed other demons as well as humans.