Revenant (16 page)

From now on, he’d run the Revenant/Blaspheme show, and any plot twists that came up would be orchestrated by him, and him alone.

 

 

Blaspheme was shaking so hard by the time she entered UG’s emergency department that her head hurt from her brain rattling around inside her skull.

She’d had sex with Revenant. Good sex.
Really
good sex.

And he hadn’t even laid a finger on her.

As she strode through the halls on the way to Eidolon’s office, her body flushed hot from the memories.

And then it flushed cold as she remembered the story Revenant had told her as they lay in the aftermath of their passion. He was an angel born and raised in hell, forced to become something he wasn’t.

Sounded familiar.

She hated that she could relate to him, especially since he admitted to killing
vyrm
like they were nothing more than flies that needed to be swatted. If he learned the truth about her, would he destroy her as nonchalantly?

He’d terrified her when he’d said he wasn’t a danger to her… as long she was being honest with him. So what had she done? She’d tried to use her seductive powers on him, aphrodisiac and all, in hopes of distracting him. Making him feel something for her so he wouldn’t kill her.

Clearly, it hadn’t worked, since he’d said there wouldn’t be a next time for them.

She should have been happy about that, but for some reason, his rejection had stung. Gods, she was an idiot. She wanted him out of her life, and yet, when he agreed, she got upset.

How could he be such a danger to her but at the same time, make her feel… safe? Because she
had
felt safe with him. He’d saved her from an angel assassin and then took her someplace where only someone harboring a death wish would try to get to her.

Then there was the simple chemistry of their relationship. She was flat-out attracted to him. His power and darkness drew her, but beneath all of that, behind the arrogant wall of defense mechanisms, was a male no one had loved for a very long time.

The physician in her wanted to heal him. The False Angel in her wanted to seduce him. The female in her wanted to comfort him.

The
vyrm
in her wanted to run.

Instead of running, she walked calmly through the hospital halls and made a quick call to Gem, who assured her that her mother was stable, but that she was raising hell with the staff. Throwing things was bad enough, but Deva had also tried to bite a nurse, earning a Gargantua-sized headache when the Haven spell kicked in.

“I’m sorry, Gem,” Blas sighed. “I’ll talk to her.”

Great. This was the last thing she needed.

Wondering what else could possibly go wrong today, Blas hung up as E’s office came into view, and she found him inside, a half-eaten ham sandwich and a cup of fruit in front of him on the desk. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything since a half of a bran muffin with her coffee this morning.

“Blaspheme,” he said, looking up from the stack of papers he was going through. “You’re early.”

“Figured I’d get a head start on my day.” She gestured to the chair across from his desk. “May I?” At his nod, she sat and got right to it. “Did you know Revenant is Reaver’s brother?”

One dark eyebrow arched. “Yes.”

Yes
. Like it was no big deal. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“It didn’t come up.”

“Really? And I suppose the fact that he’s a Shadow Angel slipped your mind as well?”

Eidolon sat back in his chair, his coal-black eyes flat and cold. “I understand that you’re under a lot of pressure right now, but be careful, Blaspheme.”

She cringed inwardly at the realization that she was mouthing off to her boss. Not only that, but she’d never known Eidolon to be unfair. Still, this was her life, and she was in trouble. If she had to ruffle a few feathers, so be it.

Well, she probably shouldn’t ruffle
his
.

“I’m sorry, Eidolon. I’m just… I’m in a bad place right now.” She closed her eyes and tried to put her thoughts in order. When she opened them again, his expression had softened. “I was attacked at my new apartment today.”

He jolted straight up in his chair. “By what?”

She hesitated, even though she knew it was past time to come clean. “By an angel.”

“How did you get away?”

“Revenant saved me.” He’d been like an avenging angel, dark and horrifying, and yet she’d never been happier to see anyone.

“Why was he there?”

She shook her head. “Long story. Then Reaver showed up, and they fought… it was a disaster.”

Eidolon swore. “You can’t go back to your place.”

“I know.” She looked down at her lap and fidgeted with the gold clasp on her Coach bag. She never fidgeted. “I can get a hotel room, maybe move every couple of days —”

“You’ll stay here. That’s what the on-call rooms are for.” He reached for his cell phone. “I’ll have someone fetch whatever you need from your apartment.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said, hating to be a charity case.

“You and your mother have angels after you,” he pointed out, as if she wasn’t aware. “Now is not the time to take unnecessary risks. Which means you need to stay away from Revenant and Reaver as well. Unfortunately, thanks to their power upgrades, they can
both
enter the hospital.”

Obviously, her own thoughts had gone down that path, but why would Eidolon’s? Unless he knew the truth about her. She played dumb, wanting to test the waters before she laid it all out. “Why do you think Revenant and Reaver would be after me?”

His dark gaze pinned her down. Hard. “I think it’s time we stopped with the games, don’t you?”

Busted, all she could do was utter a raspy “Yes.”

“Good. Now, I’m going to ask you some questions, and I want some straight answers.” At her nod, he continued. “Deva isn’t your adoptive mother, is she? She’s your birth mother.”

Her heart kicked so hard in her chest that she thought it might be bruised. “Yes,” she whispered.

“But you aren’t
emim
, are you? Your father wasn’t fallen. He was an angel.”

This time, she didn’t have enough saliva to answer, so she just nodded.

“How much time before your False Angel enchantment fails?”

“How…” She cleared her throat. “How did you know?”

“Do you recall a few years ago, when Yuri went a little far during one of your… sessions?”

How could she forget? A total, utter sadist, Yuri had harbored a love for sexual torture, and he apparently had no idea what “safe words” were.

“Yes.”

“I offered to heal you, but you refused.”

“I refused because if you used your healing powers on me, you’d have known I wasn’t a False Angel.”

“I suspected you were hiding something, but I didn’t know what. Then, a few months ago, you assisted me during surgery. The eviscerated Slogthu demon, remember? You were massaging his heart as I sent a wave of power into him. At that moment, I sensed angel inside him. Since purebred angels can’t enter the hospital, it meant you were a half-breed. But False Angels can’t breed with other species, so I put two and two together.”

She felt sick to her stomach. Making it worse was the fact that she just now understood that this was about more than her and her mother. Eidolon’s knowledge of her situation could get him put to death.

“Have there been any more angel sightings?”

He inclined his head. “Bane confronted one in the parking lot this morning. I just got done healing his broken jaw.”

Ah, gods. “I’m so sorry, Eidolon. I’ve put your hospital and clinic at risk,” she said. “I’ll go as soon as I can pack my desk up —”

“The hell you will. We need you.”

“But my presence is causing trouble, and it’s only going to get worse.”

He laughed. “It’s almost like you haven’t worked here for decades. This place is practically fueled by trouble. Or have you never met my siblings? And mate. And in-laws. I could go on.” He shoved the sandwich aside and rested his forearms on the desk, clasping his hands as he leaned toward her. “Look, Blaspheme, we take care of our own here. If I truly think the hospital or clinic is at risk, we’ll make other arrangements. But one thing we don’t do is abandon our own. You’re family, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

For all of Blaspheme’s life, her mother had stressed that the two of them were the only family each other had. Blas had believed it. But at some point, the staff at Underworld General had become her family as well, and hearing Eidolon say that made the outside world seem a little less scary.

“But what about Reaver?” she asked, speaking of scary. “He’s your family, too, and if he finds out what I am, he’ll kill me.”

“We don’t know that. He has a tendency to not follow the herd when it comes to protocol. But when and if he learns what you are, let me worry about that. I’ll handle Reaver. Now,” he said, “how long until your enchantment wears off?”

“Could be any day,” she said miserably. “My mother said that once my
vyrm
powers start appearing, my False Angel aura will disappear completely, and my true identity will be visible to every angel and fallen angel who sees me.” She looked up at him. “You’re aware that if you turn me in, you will be awarded more riches than you can count.”

“I know.”

“And if you don’t turn me in and it can be proven that you were harboring a known
vyrm
, you will face more tortures than you can count before your own species Council kills you.”

“Are you trying to talk me out of helping you? Because it won’t work.”

“I’m just making sure you understand the risks.”

“I was a Justice Dealer before I became a physician. I’m well aware of the consequences of my actions. So let’s not talk about it again, shall we?” At her reluctant nod, he continued. “So what have you got planned to renew your cover? Another Fallen Angel sacrifice?”

Ugh. The very idea made her want to scream. “My mother is planning on it, but I won’t do it.”

“Why not?” He gestured to the fruit, but she shook her head.

“I won’t sacrifice an innocent.”

He plucked a grape from the container of fruit. “There’s no such thing as an innocent False Angel.”

“So you’re saying you think I should do it?” she asked, incredulous.

“No.” He popped the grape into his mouth and chewed slowly before continuing. “I’m saying I’d understand if you did. Do you have another plan?”

She blew out a long breath. “I’ve spent decades researching an alternative, but haven’t found anything.”

“I’ve done a little research myself,” he said, stunning her. He’d been trying to help already? “I haven’t found much information on
vyrm
, probably because they’re usually killed before they reach adulthood. But I did find this.” He slid a piece of paper at her.

She frowned as she studied the writing. “It’s a ritual of permanent alteration.”

“It supposedly works only on fallen angels, but maybe since you’re half fallen angel, it’ll work for you, too. Apparently, the spell will turn a fallen angel into any species of demon as long as they have the right ingredients.”

She kept reading, her hope growing… and then crashing. “What it requires… it doesn’t make sense. The essence of death? What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know.” He ran a frustrated hand through his short hair, leaving unruly tufts behind. If there was anything Eidolon hated more than not knowing something, she couldn’t say what. “But I don’t think what I found was the complete ritual.”

“Where did you find this? The hospital’s library? One of your Justice Dealer contacts?” She lowered her voice, realizing the ridiculousness of doing so, given they were in a private office. But better safe than sorry. “An evil sorcerer?”

He shrugged. “Demonic Spells dot com.”

She stared. “Seriously?”

“Yep.” He popped another grape, and she heard the seeds crack as he chewed. “But it’s just an excerpt from a larger tome. I couldn’t find the title, but it appears to be a necromancer spellbook. I have Wraith working on it. He can locate almost anything, but until he knows what, exactly, he’s looking for, he’s sort of chasing ghosts.”

Necromancer magic wasn’t something to be trifled with, but at this point, she was running out of options. And actually, she knew a certain Seminus demon doctor whose background in necromancy and fetish for False Angels might pay off.
Bane, buddy, you might just become my best friend today.
She made a mental note to give him a call as soon as she was finished here.

“Thank you, Eidolon. What you’ve done… it means the world to me. I don’t know how I can pay you back.”

“Don’t get killed. That’s payment enough.” He stood, a clear sign that this convo was done. “As far as your mother, she can stay here, too, for as long as you both need to after she’s healed.”

Her eyes stung at his kindness. Oh, she knew a large part of his motivation was keeping her as a doctor, but he was also loyal to a fault.

“Thank you again,” she said. “You almost make me believe I can get out of this alive.”

Almost.

“Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite fallen angel.”

Revenant sat in the underworld pub known as the Four Horsemen, working on his… tenth?… mug of Pestilence porter as he lounged in the corner booth and watched the curvy succubus saunter toward him. She was carrying her own mug of Horseman-themed brew, Famine ale, if he wasn’t mistaken.

“’Sup, Laylach.”

Her ruby lips curved into a seductive smile he’d seen wrapped around his dick once or twice. He waited for his cock to remember and get all excited, but it didn’t seem to want to come out to play.

Lay, as she fittingly liked to be called, sank down in the booth and scooted next to him. Her short skirt hiked up, revealing her lack of panties and a whole lot more. The scent of her arousal engulfed him, but still he felt dead below the waist.

Her hand came down on his thigh. “Wanna hit the back room?” She slid her palm up to cup his crotch. “Or I could do you right here.”

Across the room, another succubus was doing exactly that to a Bathag demon, his moans carrying through the air as she blew him from under the table.

“Not now,” he said, keeping his eye on the front entrance. “You can fondle me all you want, but that’s not what I’m here for.”

“Yeah? Why are you here, then?”

He grasped her wrist and shoved it into her lap. “Nunya.”

She frowned. “Nunya?”

“Yeah. Nunya business.” In the other booth a portly Oni male had joined in, lifting the succubus onto the bench so he could fuck her while she sucked the Bathag. The patrons at the bar were cheering and making ribald comments, and he had a feeling an orgy was about to start.

It would be the second one tonight.

He should be worked up into a sexual frenzy by now, but dammit, all he could think about was Blaspheme and how she’d tasted. How she’d felt. How she’d sounded when she came.

Now his cock joined the party, and Lay, not one to miss a cue, had him unzipped and was stroking him in a heartbeat. For a moment, he closed his eyes and let her work him, her expert touch something that should have gotten him revved in an instant.

But she made the mistake of whispering in his ear, telling him how badly she wanted to suck him off. But her offer wasn’t the mistake. Her mistake was that she wasn’t a False Angel named Blaspheme.

Fuck, he had it bad. Yes, she was sexy and mouthy and drop-dead gorgeous. And she had a streak of decency in her that drew him, made him want to be decent, too.

But she was also of a species that used deception to fulfill their needs, and by all accounts, no False Angel had ever settled down with a single male. Even when they hooked up with a male False Angel for breeding purposes, they only stayed until they conceived.

And why in the hell was he even thinking about this?

Snarling, he shoved Laylach away, zipped up, and scooted over before she realized he was going to deflate in about two seconds.

“Sorry,” he said gruffly. “I told you. I’m not here for that.”

She pouted prettily. “Maybe next time?”

“Sure, babe,” he said vaguely. “Next time.”

She grinned, satisfied with his answer, grabbed her beer, and headed for her next mark. As she sidled up to a Ramreel at the end of the bar, the front door opened, and the demon he’d been waiting for walked in.

The Orphmage, a Neethul demon powerful enough to earn the status of Satan’s personal mage, caught sight of Revenant instantly and came over. “I’m surprised you wanted to meet here,” Gormesh said. “It’s very public.”

Which was precisely why he’d chosen this location. Word of this meeting would get back to Satan, and he wanted to make sure it didn’t look like he was trying to hide anything.

A twinge of pain shot through his head, and wouldn’t you know it, Satan was sending a summons. It wasn’t urgent; the pain would increase as the urgency grew, and right now it was merely an annoyance. But still, the timing was curious.

Gormesh took a seat across the booth from Rev and flashed a mouthful of sharp, white teeth. “You know I don’t meet with anyone outside my residence. I almost didn’t come.”

Revenant slammed his fist on the table, startling the cocky bastard. “Don’t fuck with me,” he growled. “You were salivating over the opportunity to meet with a Shadow Angel to see what I want. So let’s cut the shit.”

Gormesh’s sleazy smile made Rev want to rip it off his face. “Let’s do that, then. What is it you want from me?”

“Information. I want to know what you did to Gethel to speed up Lucifer’s birth.” Actually, he didn’t give a shit. But the only way he was going to get the information he needed was to pretend this was about the pregnant fallen angel.

“Ah.” Laylach caught Gormesh’s attention, and he watched her lead the Ramreel into the back room as he leaned back in his seat. “It was a blood spell. But it didn’t work, thanks to the archangels’ interference.”

“Your spell did something,” Rev said. The orgy across the way had gained two more participants. Someone was going to have to disinfect that table. “Lucifer is twice the size he should be.”

Gormesh shrugged. “What do you want me to do about it?”

“I want to know if it means he’ll be born soon, or if there’s still three months to go.”

“I have no idea. Have Gethel see a physician.”

“Gee,” Rev drawled. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“No need to get pissy.” The air became charged with sex, tangible enough that Rev felt it skate across his skin in an electric tingle. Gormesh felt it, too, and began to rub himself through his muslin breeches. “I’m just saying that I can’t tell you when Gethel will drop the little bastard.”

Shit. Revenant wasn’t ready to make any rash decisions regarding handing her over to Reaver, but he definitely didn’t want to procrastinate and risk her giving birth before he could decide if, when, or how he’d surrender her to Heaven.

At this point, the only thing he was sure about was that
if
he chose to hand over Gethel, he wanted into Heaven on his own terms, not because a bunch of archangel pricks said they’d purify his blood in exchange for her.

“She had a prenatal checkup a couple of days ago,” Revenant said as Gormesh got more serious with the fondling. “Tests revealed an unknown substance in her blood. Know what it might be? And put your cock back in your pants before I slice it off and feed it to the hell stallion outside.”

Cursing under his breath, Gormesh shoved his pencil dick back inside his breeches. “Fuck if I know. Does her physician think it’s harming her?”

Just the word,
physician
, gave Rev a hard-on. Blaspheme had gotten way too deep under his skin.

Revenant shifted into a more relaxed pose, giving Gormesh the impression that the next question meant nothing to him, when the exact opposite was true.

“The doctors are stumped. If it
is
harming her, do you know if it can be removed? If her blood can be purified?”

Revenant didn’t give a shit if Gethel’s blood could be purified. This was all about him. If Revenant could purify his own blood of Satan’s taint, then he wouldn’t need the fucking archangels to do it. Which meant they couldn’t blackmail him into shit, and he could hang out in Heaven as much as he wanted to.

Yeah, it’ll be great to hang out with people who don’t want you there
.

So what? He didn’t need to be wanted. He needed to take what was his, whether or not the archangels approved.

Gormesh cast a longing glance at the orgy in the other booth. “Purification depends on what the substance is.”

Revenant looked at the Orphmage over the rim of his beer mug. “What if it’s blood?”

“She has blood in her blood?”

The dense idiot. “What if she drank Satan’s blood?”

Gormesh’s gaze narrowed, and Revenant started to sweat. “Of course she ingested his blood. It was part of the ritual required to prepare her body to host Lucifer.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I was there,” Gormesh said, the faintest hint of a smile turning up his blue-tinged lips.

“When Lucifer was conceived?”

Gormesh reached for his crotch again, but wisely jerked his hand away. “Yes.”

Okay, now they were getting somewhere. “Can she be cleansed of Satan’s blood?”

Say yes. Please say yes
.

“No.”

Disappointment soured Rev’s porter. Shit might as well be vinegar. “Are you sure?”

Gormesh growled. “I am the most powerful mage to ever exist. And when I say that, I don’t mean in Sheoul. I mean in all three realms.” He leaned forward, slapping his hands on the table. Dude was worked up. “Not even Heaven has an angel who can wield magic as well as I can. So question me again at your own peril.”

Revenant laughed softly, his body languid from the alcohol, but his mind was razor sharp. “You do remember who I am.”

The Orphmage, drunk on a power trip fueled by the sex magic in the air, sneered. “Even you can’t match my ability to control the environment. Your power is limited in scope, while mine is —” He cut off in a strangled wheeze as Revenant’s
limited
power garroted the moron.

Revenant hadn’t even moved a muscle. Didn’t think he could, given the Pestilence porter’s relaxing effect.

“Just yesterday, I stood in Archangel Hall and sent an archangel to Sheoul-gra. An
archangel
. Do you know what an archangel is, fuckhead? Sending him to the demon graveyard guarded by Hades
and
the Grim Reaper took less effort than getting an erection.” He squeezed Gormesh’s throat harder. “Now, do you really want to see whose dick is bigger?”

Gormesh’s gray eyes were bulging and wild. “No,” he wheezed.

“Good. You’re smarter than you look.” Revenant released the Orphmage, who grabbed his neck and sucked in huge lungfuls of air. “Let’s try this again. Are you sure Gethel’s blood can’t be purified of Satan’s blood?”

Gormesh coughed, still holding his neck tenderly. “Yes.”

“How do you know?”

The Orphmage hesitated for a heartbeat. “Because I tried it on your father.”

“You… what?” Rev shook his head, unable to process that. Finally, he croaked, “Sandalphon died in the battle that got my mother captured.”

“Technically… no, he didn’t.” Gormesh signaled the barmaid for a War Lager. “Your father was badly injured. Dying. He was taken to Satan, who decided to try an experiment. He force-fed your father his blood. Sandalphon healed, was subjected to gruesome torture and experiments, and then I was brought in to try to remove the taint of Satan’s blood from his own.” Before Rev could ask why, Gormesh held up his hand to stop him. “The Prince of Lies’s blood turned your father dark. Satan wanted to send him to Heaven as a spy, but he needed to be sure the taint couldn’t be removed. The angel who betrayed your parents to Satan joined me in my efforts to remove the taint, but we couldn’t do it. The attempt killed him. We tried again with a captured Seraphim, this time letting the angel return to Heaven, but later we learned that whatever purification process the archangels used killed her, too. I assure you, removing Satan’s blood is impossible.”

Revenant couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His father had been forcibly turned evil, and then he’d died in Sheoul, just like Rev’s mother… which meant that his soul was suffering eternal torment in hell, unable to get out and join all the other angelic souls in Heaven’s Hall of Heroes. And all because he had been betrayed by someone he should have been able to trust.

“Who is this angel who betrayed my mother to Satan?” he ground out. The skin covering his wing anchors itched as the desire to spread his wings and rain down hell on the bastard filled him.

He’d just chosen his angelic sacrifice to Satan.

Gormesh scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Ba’addon. Raphael’s father.”

Raphael’s father was about to die a horrible death. Raphael would be next.
All
of the archangels would be next. They’d lied to him about cleansing his blood so he could reside in Heaven. They’d fucking
lied
.

His blood started to boil – literally, causing his skin to steam and crack. He had to force himself to calm down. Raging out would only raise suspicions about why he was so angry, and it certainly wouldn’t help him get any answers from Gormesh if he blew up the pub and everyone in it.

“Why would Ba’addon betray Heaven like that?” he growled. “Does Heaven know? Where is he?”

Gormesh ticked off his dirt-stained fingers as he spoke. One finger. “He’s dead. Satan killed him.” Two fingers. “I doubt Heaven knows what he did.” Three fingers. “I’m certain he didn’t see what he’d done as a betrayal. He wanted power. Prestige. He believed that his name, Ba’addon, was a form of Abaddon, the angel prophesied to do battle with Satan. By turning your parents over to the Dark Lord, Ba’addon thought he could get close enough to do that. His bones now make up the seat of Satan’s throne.”

Fitting, Rev supposed, that the angel who betrayed his parents now had to support Satan’s ass.

Shaken to the core, he could barely string together coherent words for his next question. “But… why would everyone think my father died in battle?”