Revenant

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.”