Call of the Siren(26)

“Yeah?” he responded dully.

“Mm-hm. You have a bit of a reputation among the women, actually. You know how to have a good time, and you don’t expect anything in return.” She rose to her tiptoes and suggestively slid her tongue along his throat. “Just the kind of man I need tonight.”

That’s me. No strings attached.

Suddenly he hated it all. Hated the reputation he’d developed. Was this really what the rest of his life was going to be like?

When the woman realized he wasn’t responding, she moved back to throw him a puzzled look. “Something wrong?”

Dagan took his first good look at her, and ribbons of the elusive remembrance she’d sparked earlier fluttered back to his mind. He frowned and grasped her arms. “Hold on.”

Like a butterfly shedding its cocoon, the forgotten memory broke free from the recesses of his mind, floating on a symphony of heavy, broken chords.

Dagan was sixteen years old, and in love for the first time. Their maid was smart, beautiful, and—being three years older than him—already far more sexually experienced. Two weeks ago, the unthinkable had happened. She’d told him she felt the same. She’d taught him how to please a woman.

She was everything sweet and good, or so he’d thought…

Until the day he found her on her knees in front of his father. A show Mammon had clearly orchestrated.

“Why?” he asked his father. Later, when he could speak again.

Mammon shrugged. “I saw you notice her several weeks ago.”

Dagan knew his father despised him, but this was beyond cruel. His heart felt like it would wrench from his body with every beat. “I thought she loved me.”

Mammon laughed. “That’s because you thought she was capable of an emotion like that. She’s not. She’s a woman. Women are objects meant to be used. Nothing more. The sooner you learn that lesson, the better off you’ll be.”

“But…” When Dagan’s hands curled into fists, he hid them behind his back. He’d learned long ago that demonstrating aggression toward his father was a mistake. He couldn’t beat him—demons were never stronger than their fathers. “I loved her.”

“Love?” Mammon threw his head back, and his loud laugh filled the room. “When are you going to learn? There’s no such thing. There’s only money and power, and the games we must play to get what we want.”

“Hey, are you okay?”

The brunette’s words snapped Dagan back to the present. He stared at her in horror. How could he have forgotten all about that part of his past?

Holy hell.

Sudden understanding punched him in the gut, almost doubling him over. All this time—all these women—he’d subconsciously been acting on his father’s lesson. Acting on the premise that he couldn’t be loved…that women were nothing more than objects to be used. And he’d chosen to be only with women who would reinforce that theory.

Even though he knew on an intellectual level how evil and just plain wrong his father was, he’d somehow let the bastard’s disgusting beliefs color the way he viewed life. The way he treated women.

How sick was that?

Suddenly he found himself wishing Mammon would make himself known. That he’d come out of hiding and try to attack them, as his brothers feared he would. Because if he did, Dagan would kill the fucker. Whatever it took.

The woman’s mouth puckered in annoyance. “Do you want to fuck me or not?”

“Not,” he gasped, pushing her away. The walls of the club seemed to be closing in, suffocating him.

Dagan blindly staggered toward the exit. He didn’t know where he was going but he did know one thing…

He had to get the hell out of here.

…

The call came at half past one in the morning, right when Keegan was about to leave his home office to join his wife Brynn and their infant son Aegin in their bedroom. He glanced at his cell phone, silently cursing as he read the caller identification. It was Tenos, the moon elf who’d recently been granted the position of Council liaison for the greater New York territory. Keegan had come to know him rather well in the months since Mammon had escaped from the Council prison. Understandably, the Council had decided that keeping tabs on him and his brothers might lead to Mammon’s recapture.

Under better circumstances, Keegan might even consider the moon elf a friend. But he knew Tenos wouldn’t be calling at this hour unless there was bad news to impart.

The last thing they needed right now was more bad news.

After pretending for a moment that he didn’t actually have to take the call, Keegan answered. “Hello?”

“Keegan, are you home?”