But Talon was no longer paying attention to them.
He had far more important things to focus on. "We have to find Sunshine," he said, heading for the stairs.
"Wait," Ash called. "You have no idea what's up there."
Talon didn't slow at all. "And I won't know until I get there."
With no thought except to save her, Talon followed the thumping noise to a door at the far end of the upper hallway. By the time he reached it, Vane, Fang, and Ash had caught up to him.
Talon flung open the door, ready for battle.
Instead of another group of Daimons, what they found was Sunshine tied on a bed in a room that was lit by a small lantern. Moaning, she was writhing and twisting as if she were on fire.
Terrified something was wrong with her, Talon rushed to her side while Vane and Fang searched the room for more Daimons.
What had they done to her?
If they had touched or harmed her, he would hunt them down and tear them to pieces.
As soon as Talon released her from the bed she latched onto him with a viselike grip.
"Hi, baby," she breathed throatily, rubbing herself against him as she ran her hands through his hair and over his body. "I've been thinking about you, wanting you to come to me."
Oblivious to the others in the room, she kissed him feverishly and started trying to pull his clothes off. For a full minute, Talon was too stunned to move.
Then his hormones surged, wanting her as much as she wanted him.
She pushed him back on the bed, climbing up his body as if she were ready to do him on the spot.
His body instantly on fire, Talon had never seen anything like it. He had to literally struggle to keep his clothes on. Not that he would have objected had they been alone. But there was no way he was going to perform before an audience.
Acheron watched her, his eyes haunted.
There was something about Acheron's expression that reminded Talon of someone reliving a bad nightmare.
"Sunshine?" Talon said, trying to inspect her for damage. "Are you okay?"
"Umm-hmm," Sunshine groaned as she nibbled her way down his chin to his neck. His body was instantly hot and hard for her.
"C'mon, baby," she breathed in his ear. "I need you. Right now."
"Hey, Vane," Fang said. "I didn't know human females could go into heat, did you?"
Vane gave his brother a droll look.
It didn't curb Fang in the least. "You think she'll need a stand-in after she wears out Talon, like a Katagari female would? I don't normally do humans, but for a piece of that I might be tempted."
Talon saw red.
Vane clapped his hand over his brother's mouth and pulled him back. "Fang, I think you better stop or Talon might turn you into a wolf kabob."
Ash shook his head as if forcing himself to wake up from a trance. He pulled Sunshine back, away from Talon. Sunshine fought and hissed like a wildcat as she struggled for her release. Ash whispered something in a language Talon couldn't understand and Sunshine immediately went limp in his arms.
"What did you do to her?" Talon asked angrily.
"Nothing dangerous." He carefully placed Sunshine back in Talon's lap. "It's a small sleeping spell to keep her calm and let you get her home safely."
Ash lifted Sunshine's hand and sniffed her skin.
Talon had already caught a whiff of the strange spicy orange scent that seemed to permeate Sunshine's body.
Ash turned to Vane and Fang. "Would you guys mind waiting for us downstairs?"
Vane inclined his head. "We'll do another sweep of the building to make sure there aren't any more Daimons hiding out."
He led his brother from the room.
Talon cradled Sunshine against his chest, grateful to have her again, but concerned over what had been done to her. He had also noticed how strangely Ash was behaving; the man was much weirder than normal. "What's wrong with her?"
Ash let out a long, tired breath. "She's on a drug called Eycharistisi." At Talon's frown, he defined the unfamiliar word. "Pleasure."
"Come again?"
"It's a very potent aphrodisiac. It floods the body with endorphins and destroys any and all inhibitions. One hit and all the user can think about is finding someone to stimulate them to orgasm."
Rage descended as Talon thought about why someone would give her such a thing. "You think Camulus had sex with her?"
"No, I think someone else did it as a message to me and a warning to you."
"How so?"
Ash's cheeks were mottled with red-something that only happened when the man became truly angry. In fifteen hundred years, Talon had only seen Ash's skin mottled three times.
"Pleasure was the drug du jour in Atlantis and hasn't been produced since the entire continent sank to the bottom of the Aegean."
A bad feeling settled in Talon's gut. This wasn't just about Sunshine and him.
He narrowed his eyes on Acheron. "What's going on, T-Rex? First someone is messing with me who looks like you but isn't you. And now someone has access to a drug that vanished eleven thousand years ago along with your homeland, and he's fed it to Sunshine who was kidnapped by Camulus. What's the deal?"
"Offhand, I would say Camulus has teamed up with someone else."
"Who?"
As expected, Acheron didn't answer. "I need you to stay out of this."
"It's rather hard for me to stay out of it when this person keeps dragging me into it. And I won't stay out of it so long as Sunshine is threatened."
"You'll do as I tell you, Talon."
"I'm not your boy, Ash. You better take another tone with me. Quick."
Ash's cheeks turned even redder. "Are you questioning my authority?"
"No, I'm questioning your judgment. I want you to come clean with me about who and what we're dealing with and why this man gave Sunshine this drug."
"I don't owe you an explanation, Celt. All you need to know is that I have an old enemy pretending to be me."
"Why?"
"Well, it obviously isn't to be nice to me and win over my friends, now is it?"
Talon growled at Acheron's inability to tell anyone jack about his past. Why was the man so damn secretive?
"Is he a shapeshifter or a demigod?"
"Last I checked, he was human."
"Then why does he look like you? Is he a relative?"
"I'm not going to play Twenty Questions with you, Talon. He's not your concern. He's mine."
"Will you at least explain to me how in the future I can tell you two apart?"
Acheron removed his sunglasses. "Our eyes. I'm the only human ever born with eyes like these. He won't have them and he won't remove his sunglasses for fear of revealing himself."
"Why is this guy after you?"
"He wants me dead."