Page 4 of Legacy of Temptation

Eidolon snapped on some gloves. “You got caught in a storm?”

Than took Regan’s hand in his. It was too cold. Or maybe he was just freaking out and being paranoid. “My family was attacked by a Tempestus demon.”

“I knew it,” Regan muttered.

Eidolon’s gaze flicked up to Thanatos. “Tempestus demons are forbidden in the human realm.”

“Not only forbidden,” Than said, “they can’t survive outside Sheoul for more than a few minutes.”

“They’re normally hellbound?” Regan frowned. “Then why was it here?”

Thanatos could only think of one reason, and it sent a chill down his spine. “Someone sent it. Someone so terrifying that it chose to risk its life in the human realm rather than refuse the order.”

This was bad. Really fucking bad.

“Good luck narrowing down the list of potential senders.” Eidolon placed his hand on Regan’s belly. His right arm, covered in black glyphs from his fingers to his jawline, began to glow as the gift that gave him healing power flowed through the symbols and into Regan. “There are probably hundreds of high-level demons who want to hurt all of us.”

“Hundreds?” Thanatos let out a bitter snort. “Try thousands.”

They’d all made a lot of enemies, but the foes Thanatos and his siblings had made over the course of their thousands of years required a calculator to tally.

And the thing was, all those baddies shouldn’t have been a problem. Their souls should have been contained in Sheoul-gra for all eternity—or at least until they were reincarnated as a completely different species of demon who wouldn’t remember their pasts or their deaths at the hands of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Unfortunately, Sheoul-gra’s catastrophic destruction had released billions of demon souls, returning them to the bodies in which they’d died, memories intact. And bloody revenge took priority for many of the ReSpawned.

“I was being optimistic. It’s a new thing I’m trying.” The doctor stepped back from Regan with a satisfied nod. “Mother and baby are fine. I want to run a few tests, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”

Relief flooded Thanatos. But only for a moment. His family was safe, but something told him this was just the beginning…

Chapter One

The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children

—William Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice

The club was on fire.

Literal fire.

Flames licked at a wall near Thirst’s entrance, the remnants of an unrulyimpignusdemon that had burst into flames and disappeared after being punched in the face by a bouncer. He’d regenerate in his family’s eternal furnace, but if he was smart, he wouldn’t show his face around here again. The club’s owner, a vampire named Nate, didn’t tolerate assholes who destroyed his stuff.

Logan led his buddy and fellow agent with the Demonic Activity Response Team, Mace, through a cloud of smoke and fire-suppressant vapors from the extinguisher in Nate’s hands.

“Logan,” Nate called out, his deep voice carrying over the din of music and rowdy patrons. “Haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks. DART keeping you busy?”

“Always.” Logan gestured to his friend. “Mace guilted me into an after-work drink.”

“As if you’ve ever felt guilt in your life.” Mace rolled his dark eyes and turned to Nate. “I bribed him. I’m buying. Also, I met a screaming hot Lilith who said she’ll be here tonight.” He tapped Logan on the shoulder. “And she said she wants to meet you.”

Logan groaned. The wordLilithhad become slang forsmoking hot chickthanks to demon culture leaking into human language, and Logan couldn’t wait for that fad to pass. But it wasn’t Mace’s jab at Logan’s family history that annoyed him.

“Why were you talking about me? I don’t need help getting a date.” Mainly because he didn’twantto date. He was thirty-three, a mere baby by immortal standards, and his dad kept telling him that the first five hundred years were for fucking around andfinding yourself. Logan was fine with fucking around, but he didn’t need Mace’s help to do it. The guy had wild tastes in females.

But then, as an incubus who needed sex to keep from dying, Mace couldn’t afford to have a lot of standards.

Mace shrugged. “She’s the one who brought you up. We were talking about hellhounds, and she said she’d heard a rumor about some hot local who had one as a pet.”

Shit. “You didn’t tell her who I am, did you?”

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