They both hit him with blasts of power – Harvester’s loaded with fire, Reaver’s a concussion wave that blew out his eardrums and turned his organs to jelly as his skin burned. He screamed with the pain of it, his vision going dark as his eyes melted.
“I warned you, Revenant,” Reaver growled. “I warned you that if you harmed my family in any way, I’d come at you in every way I know how.”
As his body healed, they hit him with another blast, and another, keeping the injuries and pain constant so he couldn’t recover fast enough to strike back. With every drop of concentration he could muster, he thought about Blaspheme, pictured her heart-shaped face and brilliant blue eyes, and flashed to her.
“Oh, bloody hell.”
“What the fuck?”
“Shit, not again!”
At the cacophony of voices, Blaspheme looked up from the pile of garbage she was sweeping off the cafeteria floor. Gasping, she dropped the broom, and stood there, stunned.
Revenant was on one knee in the center of the room, his singed wings out but not extended, blood dripping down his face and body. Wisps of smoke curled in thin tendrils from his clothes as he unfurled to his full, impressive height.
“Revenant!” She ran to him. “What happened? Are you okay?”
He opened his palm to reveal a small vial containing a few drops of what she assumed was blood.
“Thanatos was… uncooperative.”
“Oh, Gods, Revenant,” she said. “I’m so sorry —”
“It’s okay. Nothing I can’t handle. I’m nearly healed already.”
“I wasn’t talking about the injuries.”
His black, bloodshot eyes locked onto hers, and for the next thirty seconds, all she could do was think that of all the females he could look at like that, he’d chosen her.
“Don’t be sorry, Blaspheme.” His voice was throaty, as smoky as his clothing. “Whatever consequences my actions have earned, I’ll be glad to pay them.”
Her eyes burned and she didn’t know what to say… and it turned out she didn’t need to say anything, because abruptly, Revenant shifted into battle mode. Expression stony and body taut, he went for the Pruosi spellbook and slapped the vial of blood down on the table.
“You sure this will work?” he asked.
She flipped to the page that went into the details of the procedure. “It should. All I need is DNA from whatever species I’m going to disguise myself as. We’ve got False Angel DNA samples in storage, so I can maintain my cover —”
“You’ve got to disguise yourself as something else. And you’ll need to get a new job.”
She stared at him. “Are you high? I’m not leaving UG.”
“You have to.” He jammed his hand through his lush hair. “Satan is onto you.”
“Funny, Rev.” When he didn’t smile, her heart seized. “Wait… you aren’t kidding, are you?” Satan was onto her? Satan?
Revenant inhaled a shaky breath, held it, then exhaled softly. “It’s my fault. I led him to you, and now he wants to use you to ensure my loyalty. The only way you’ll be safe is if you get a new identity and a new life.”
There had been a time when getting a new identity and a new life was a regular event, but she’d put down roots here, and she couldn’t give that up. “I can’t do that. I’ve put everything into this job. This place. These people. This is my life, Revenant.”
“And it’ll be your death if you stay.”
She sank numbly into a chair. “This is unbelievable. I’m always going to be the worm, aren’t I?”
“The worm?”
“The one that doesn’t turn into a butterfly. I knew that re-disguising myself as a False Angel again wouldn’t be me, exactly, but at least I know what to expect. I’ve felt like an angel… of sorts. Now I’m going to be trapped again, inside a body I don’t want.”
“You won’t be trapped. You’ll be —” He broke off as Eidolon entered the cafeteria and jogged over, his expression calm, but she knew the look in his eyes.
Trouble was brewing.
“We have a situation,” he said, lowering his voice so no one but Blaspheme and Rev would hear. “Angels have surrounded the hospital and the clinic, and somehow, they’ve managed to shut down the Harrowgate. No one can get in or out without going through the angels.”
“I can,” Revenant said.
Eidolon inclined his head. “You and Reaver are probably the only ones who can still flash in and out.”
“What do they want?” Blaspheme asked, even though she knew.
“They want you. And your mother. And they said they won’t leave until we hand you both over.”
Revenant watched the Seminus demon who ran the hospital, hoping that the next words out of his mouth weren’t Come on, Blaspheme, let’s hand you over.
Because the doctor would have to die.
“Blaspheme,” Eidolon said, “don’t worry. We’ll figure this out.”
“I can flash Blaspheme and her mother out of here,” Revenant said. “I’ll get them to safety. And then I’ll deal with the angels. Wipe out the lot of them.”
And he’d relish every second of it. When he was finished, it would look like giant ogres had a pillow fight in the hospital’s parking lot.
A bloody pillow fight.
“That’ll be a temporary measure at best.” Blaspheme tucked her hands into her lab coat pockets. “They know who I am. Where I work. And I don’t think —”
A flash of light filled the cafeteria, and on its heels was the warning tingle unique to Reaver. A heartbeat later, the angel materialized, still looking as pissed as he had been at Thanatos’s place. His murderous gaze zeroed in on Revenant.
Here we go again.
“This sibling rivalry is becoming tiresome,” Revenant drawled.
Reaver, having no sense of humor that Rev could see, hissed. “I’ll deal with you later.” He looked over at Eidolon. “What’s happening outside? There’s an entire legion of angels barricading the hospital.”
“You think I didn’t notice that?” Eidolon turned away to order a nurse to test Harrowgate operation between the hospital and the clinic.
Reaver rounded on Revenant. “Is this your doing? Does this have something to do with why you attacked Thanatos for his blood?”
“He has nothing to do with the angels,” Blaspheme said, putting herself between Rev and Reaver. Which was adorable. “As for what happened with Thanatos, that’s my fault. Revenant got the blood for me.”
Reaver scowled. “For you? Why?”
“Don’t,” Revenant warned, but the muley glare Blaspheme gave him said she was determined to spill the beans.
Revenant primed his power, just in case Reaver reacted badly. And then his brother would see just how far Rev would go to protect those he cared about.
“Because I’m a vyrm,” Blaspheme blurted. “And I needed the blood to complete a spell that will conceal my true nature.”
Reaver’s brow climbed up his forehead as he glanced over at Eidolon. “It was Blaspheme you were talking about the other day?” At the doctor’s nod, Reaver exhaled a curse. “You could have told me why you needed Thanatos’s blood, Revenant.”
“Yeah, because it was so easy to talk while engulfed in fire. Oh, and the crushed lungs didn’t help with that, either.”
“You did that to him?” Blaspheme’s hands clenched as if she wanted to take a swing at Reaver. Revenant was tempted to nullify the hospital’s antiviolence spell so she could. “He’s your brother! How could you?”
Eidolon held up his hand. “We can deal with family matters later. Right now we have to do something about the angels. Injured patients can’t get in, and there are at least two mated Sems, including myself, who can’t get to their mates. The situation will go critical in a few hours unless we can hitch rides with Reaver and Revenant.”
Ah, right. As incubi, Seminus demons needed sex to survive, and while the unmated ones could get it from anywhere, mated Sems were limited to sex with their f
emales.
“So all these angels are here for Blaspheme?” Reaver asked. “Seems a little drastic, even for extremists like Eradicators.”
Blaspheme swore softly. “I don’t think this is entirely about my being a vyrm. They wouldn’t send an entire legion of angels for that. This is bigger, and I’d be willing to bet that if you dig deep, you’ll find that an archangel named Raphael is responsible for this.”
Revenant thought Reaver’s head was going to blow off. “Tell me,” Reaver growled. “And don’t leave anything out.”
Blaspheme shared the information she’d apparently gotten from her mother earlier, and the longer Reaver listened, the more Rev could feel the fury building in him. His brother was a bomb with a lit fuse, just waiting for someone to throw it. Revenant had a feeling that Raphael was, very soon, going to experience an explosion.
Good. If Reaver could take care of the angels’ UG embargo, Revenant could concentrate on what to do about getting Satan off Blaspheme’s back. Unfortunately, there was no easy solution to that.
Blaspheme definitely had to perform the Pruosi spell, but as long as Raphael was alive and Satan was still looking for her or her mother, she was in danger. What if one of them caught Deva and tortured her into revealing her daughter’s location and new identity? Revenant didn’t trust the fallen angel’s ability to stand up to the kind of torture either of the assholes could dish out.
Frustrated, he thumbed through the Pruosi book, hoping a miracle would jump out at him. Something that would save Blaspheme without her having to lose everything. Maybe there was a spell that would trick Raphael out of Heaven. Or bind Satan’s ability to spy on Revenant. Hell, at this point, he’d be happy tossing the Dark Lord into a bottomless pit and —
He broke off as a thought occurred to him. Could it be so simple?
“Revenant?” Blaspheme rested her palm on his shoulder. “What is it?”
Turning his head, he kissed her hand before flipping to the page he’d merely glanced at before. And there it was. The crazy ramblings of a Pruosi demon whose words had been made immortal between the pages of the Daemonica itself.
They try, one after another, to send the beast into the abyss. Failure to them all, but the one who holds the key.
It was a long shot, completely insane, but at this point, that was all he had.
Twenty-Nine
As Revenant contemplated the logistics involved in his long shot of a plan, Blaspheme put her head together with Eidolon and Reaver over the angel situation outside UG. A few minutes later, Eidolon’s blond brother, Wraith, sauntered into the cafeteria.
“Yo, Blaspheme. Your mother is standing just inside the ER doors and taunting the angels in the parking lot. I like telling angels how douchey they are as much as anyone, and she’s got some righteous zingers, but they’re going to start throwing vehicles at the building if you don’t stop her.”
Blaspheme groaned. “I’m on it.”
With Blaspheme gone, Rev figured it was a good time to have a chat with his brother. Naturally, Reaver gave him the evil eye as he approached.
“I think I’ve found a way to eliminate a few of our problems,” Revenant said. “Namely, Satan, Gethel, and Lucifer.”
“I’m listening.”
Revenant glanced around the cafeteria, which had filled to capacity with patients and staff who were freaked out by the angel presence outside the hospital and clinic.
Rev didn’t trust any of them, except, maybe, Eidolon. Revenant didn’t like the guy, but he had to admit that the doctor ran a tight ship and seemed to value his family, friends, and employees. No wonder Blaspheme liked working here.
“Meet me at Megiddo.” He flashed away, materializing at the same time as Reaver on the Israeli hilltop.
“Why here?” Reaver asked.
Revenant looked out over lands that had seen battle after battle over the course of thousands of years. Fitting, perhaps, that Revenant and Reaver, who had done nothing but battle each other, were here now for what Rev hoped would be the last time.
“Because it’s time I answered your question,” Rev said, “and this was where you first asked it.”
“And what question is that?”
“You asked what happened to our mother.”
“And you said you killed her.” Reaver rubbed his chest, and Revenant wondered if he felt the same ache Rev did when he discussed her. “But you never said why or how it went down.”
Revenant closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself to go back to that awful time and place. To his credit, Reaver didn’t rush him, merely waited in silence. Finally, Rev opened his eyes and looked his brother in the eye. He deserved that, at least.
“I told you I was separated from our mother and taken to slave in magma crystal mines, yes?” At Reaver’s curt nod, Rev continued. “Ten years later, I was taken to Satan. Filled with lies and half-truths. Promised power and influence. Once he felt I was loyal to his cause, he sent me to fetch our mother from the dungeon where she’d been kept for two decades. I didn’t know what he was going to do to her, but I knew it wouldn’t be good. She knew it, too.”
Gods, he could still feel her frail frame hanging on to his when they’d been reunited in that filthy cell where he’d spent the bulk of his childhood. The years had not been kind to her, and she was but a shell of the beautiful angel he’d remembered.
And yet, in the depths of her dull, sunken eyes, there had been a spark of life that burned bright when she’d seen him. The breath that shuddered from her lungs had reeked of despair, but her strength shone through even the wear and tear on her body.
“I escorted her out of the dungeon, but I couldn’t take her to Satan. I tried to run with her, to get her out of Sheoul, but we were surrounded and trapped by Satan’s forces. She had no power left in her, and I wasn’t powerful enough to flash with someone else, so we holed up in a cave and waited to die. That’s when she told me the truth about who I was.”
“Who did you think you were before that?”
“I grew up thinking I was vyrm. Our mother told me what Satan told her to say, that she was an angel imprisoned for mating with a fallen angel. But while we were holed up, she told me about our father. About you. She was desperate for me to find you and for us to be a family. It was her greatest hope that somehow you could help me rid my blood of Satan’s taint.” He took in a deep, shuddering breath. “And then she begged me to kill her.”
Reaver closed his eyes. “Aw, damn.”
The air around them went still and cold. Rev didn’t know who was responsible for that, himself or Reaver, but the damp chill settled deep in his bones, making them ache as much as his soul.
“I couldn’t do it,” Revenant said. “Not at first. I refused, argued, was prepared to fight Satan’s forces to the death. But as they closed in, they shouted out their orders… what they intended to do to us before they took us in chains to their master. I didn’t care about myself, but I knew her suffering would be beyond measure.” He held out his palm. “Give me your hand.”
Reaver hesitated, the distrust between them thickening like an invisible wall.
“I’m going to show you,” Revenant said. “You need to know.” And he didn’t think his voice would make it through the entire tale.
Finally, Reaver pressed his palm flat against Revenant’s, and Rev queued up the memory he’d tried so hard to forget.
“Please, Revenant.” Lying limp in his arms, Mariel gazed up at him with eyes that were once brilliant sapphire blue, but were now pale and cloudy. “I’m so far gone that you don’t need a special weapon.” She cupped his cheek in one trembling hand. “Feed from me. Drain me as far as you can. My blood will strengthen you and weaken me so your blade can finish it.”
“Mother, no. I can’t do what you’re asking. Your soul will be trapped down here —”
“You must. Hurry. They’re coming.” A tear slid from her eye and plopped to his arm, and all he could think was if she had her way, the next thing dripping
from her would be blood.
“Please, no,” he whispered.
“Do it!” She lowered her voice to a gentle murmur, barely audible over the pounding footsteps and coarse laughter of the approaching demons. “I love you, Son. Tell Yenrieth that I love him, too. I hope he can forgive me for abandoning him.”
Revenant’s tears joined hers as he bent and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. “I love you,” he rasped.
“Hurry.”
Against every instinct that screamed for him not to do this, he bared his fangs and bit into her throat as tenderly as he could. In his arms, she went taut, but gradually her body relaxed, until her strong pulse became stronger as her body tried to compensate for the blood lost.
He wept as he fed, and eventually, her heart couldn’t keep up. The tap of her heartbeat against his teeth grew weaker and slower, until he couldn’t feel it at all.
She wasn’t dead, but she was close. The rumble of Satan’s advancing army made the ground shake outside the cavern they’d hidden inside. He had a minute. Maybe two.
“Forgive me, Mother,” he whispered as he palmed the dagger at his hip. With the greatest of care, he brushed her hair back from her pale face and sang the lullaby she’d sung to him when he was little.
“Moonbeams and sunshine, the clouds and the seas, all part of the many worlds I want you to see. Fear not the unknown, nor the depths of the night, for nothing can harm you when I hold you tight.”
He could barely see through his tears as he shoved the blade between her ribs and pierced her heart. In his arms, her body went limp, and in an instant, she was gone.
At some point during the instant replay, Revenant and Reaver had gone to their knees in the dirt, were both panting and shaking.
“I killed her,” Revenant choked out, feeling as if he’d slammed that blade into his own chest. “I killed her and tried to flash out with her body, but she was right. I couldn’t take her with me. And since the flashing ability only allowed for me to flash to somewhere I’d already been, I was screwed. I materialized at one of the places on our escape route, and from there I ran like hell. I was on the run for… fuck, I don’t know how long. I eventually found a Harrowgate and used it to get to the human realm, where I contacted you.”