Page 6 of Bond of Passion

Chapter 1

A spinning sphere of color hurtled toward Tavin in a meteoric blur. Only his lightning-fast reflexes, a finely-honed self-preservation instinct, and years of brutal experience as an assassin saved him from becoming the victim of an errant beach ball.

He volleyed the inflatable sphere back to the group of kids playing in the sand under the watchful eyes of their parents, older siblings, and a dozen hellhounds.

Tavin kept a wary lookout for the bison-sized things, but they largely avoided him as they played in the ocean waves or lolled about in the sun like giant puppies.

Giant, man-eating puppies that could go from “aw, cute” to “oh, shit” in less time than it took for your life to flash before your eyes. These particular beasts lived on the Greek island belonging to Ares, the Horseman of the Apocalypse also known as War. As long as they considered you a friend, you probably wouldn’t die.

Probably.

So, Tavin obeyed the rules and didn’t reach for them, talk to them, or look them in the eyes. “Completely ignore them,” Cara, Ares’ wife had said.

“And if I don’t?” he’d asked.

She’d smiled and patted him on the shoulder as she passed him on the path to the mansion. “We’ll have a nice funeral for you. With whatever bits of you we can find.”

He’d laughed, assuming it was a joke. But he wasn’t going to test that assumption.

“What do you think of your first Underworld General staff party?”

Tavin glanced over at Lore, a fellow Seminus demon he’d known since long before he started working at the demon hospital a year ago.

“It’s better than most parties thrown by demons,” he said. “The punch has ice instead of eyeballs, no one is hanging from a hook, and I really appreciate that the streamers are made out of paper instead of intestines.”

Lore grunted. “Demons are fucked-up,” he said as if he weren’t half demon.

Tavin gestured toward Ares and Cara, who were building a sandcastle with their daughter, Aleka. “It was nice of them to donate the island for the party.”

Lore dipped his dark head in a nod. “Limos, Ares, and Thanatos have all been generous about giving us space to do things like this. Before they moved, we had a bash at Reseph and Jillian’s mountain place once too.”

Tavin didn’t know the full backstory of the Four Horsemen and how they were intertwined with the Seminus demons who ran Underworld General, but they were tight. Everyone joked about keeping the Seminus sons away from the Horsemen’s daughters, but as he watched them playing, he wondered how much of a joke it would be when the kids got older.

Somehow, Tavin didn’t think the Horsemen would want their post-pubescent Daddy’s girls hanging out with horny demon boys who needed frequent sex or they’d die.

Sems were fathers of daughters’ worst nightmare.

“Hey.” Lore jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow. “You’re being eye-fucked. Check your two o’clock.”

Tavin glanced over at the buffet table, where two of the hospital’s cafeteria workers were volunteering. Evi, a curvy brunette lion shifter in a scarlet bikini, gave him a sultry smile and a flirty wave. Next to her, Churla, a fangy, pointy-eared succubus who looked too much like a Neethul for comfort, flicked her forked tongue at him in a way that made it clear what she wanted to use it for.

He nodded in acknowledgment but didn’t offer any encouragement. He’d hooked up with Evi a couple of times, but he wasn’t in the mood right now. As for Churla? Yeah, no. Her platinum hair and pale, iridescent skin reminded him of someone he didn’t deserve to think about.

Tavin turned back to his friend. “It still freaks me out to see Tier-Five demons working at UG.”

“That’s kind of the assassin calling the executioner a killer, isn’t it?” At Tavin’s reluctant shrug, Lore continued. “Why are you working there, anyway? You used to kill people for a living.”

“So did you,” Tavin pointed out. “But now you’re working in the same hospital I am.”

“Yeah, but I work in the morgue. The people I have to deal with are mostly dead.”

Tavin grinned. “Only mostly dead? Not all the way dead?”

“What?”

“The Princess Bride?” Tavin prompted. “It’s a reference. Your dead people are only mostly dead?” When Lore stared at him as if he’d lost his mind, he shook his head. “The movie is a classic, man. Watch it sometime.”

“You sound like Wraith,” Lore said flatly. “Always talking about movies. And you didn’t answer the question. After the Horsemen destroyed the slave and assassin bonds, you were free. You could have done anything. Why did you decide to save lives?”