Revenant

“Did you try adrenaline? Cefazolin?” She scrambled for the open drawers and cabinets, knocking stuff out of the way as she desperately sought every drug known to help blanchiers. “Acetazolamide?”

“We’ve tried everything!” Doctor Shakvhan’s shrill voice rang out, but Blaspheme didn’t stop tearing through supplies, knocking wrapped syringes, bandages, and who-knew-what-else to the floor.

Behind her, she heard Revenant’s low curse. She stopped her frantic search to watch him shove his way through the crowd of doctors and nurses.

“Hey!”

“What are you doing, asshole?”

“You can’t be in here —”

Revenant ignored everyone to lay his hand on the demon’s forehead. For a moment, everyone went silent as the room filled with a strange, electric energy. A heartbeat later, the patient inhaled a great, gasping breath, and all the machines that had been beeping in alarm suddenly went back to normal.

Shocked expressions quickly yielded to relief, and then the scramble to stabilize the guy began.

“You saved him,” Blas croaked, her mouth dry from the adrenaline overload. “Oh, damn. You did it.” Her hand shook as she swiped a paper cup from the dispenser, splashed water into it, and downed it to relieve her parched mouth. When she could speak without sounding like a three-pack-a-day smoker, she asked, “How did you do that?”

He shrugged. “I’m powerful as shit.”

“If you ever get tired of your other job, I’m sure Eidolon would hire you,” she said, only half kidding.

Revenant went taut. “I don’t heal, Blaspheme. I kill.”

His words struck her oddly, as if he’d gone dead inside when he spoke them, as if he had no choice but to kill. But he’d saved her life. He’d just saved the blanchier. Yes, she was terrified that he’d turn on her if he learned the truth, but for some reason, she was even starting to question that. He’d been too good to her, his touch gentle, his gratitude genuine.

“If all you do is kill,” she said, “then why did you heal the blanchier?”

Revenant glanced over at the flurry of activity around the demon. “So you’ll owe me.”

That, she didn’t doubt, but she didn’t give a shit what his motivation was. He’d saved the patient, and he might very well have saved her job.

Leaving the patient in capable hands, she slipped out of the room, followed by Revenant and both Slash and Shakvhan. Shakvhan immediately lit into her.

“You stupid twat,” she snapped. “You could have killed that patient. If not for your friend here, the blanchier would be dead.”

“I know,” Blas said.

“I told Eidolon he was making a mistake when he put you in charge of the clinic with Gem. I’m reporting you.”

Revenant peeled off his sunglasses, and Blas shivered at the ice in his dark eyes. “Do that, and you’ll be dead the moment you step outside this hospital,” Revenant said, the stark emotionlessness of his statement much more frightening than if he’d been angry.

“Easy,” Blas said, laying a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Doctor Shakvhan is doing her job.” She was being an asshole about it, but Blaspheme would be just as pissed if the situation had been reversed. “Go ahead and report me to Eidolon. I’m going to talk to him when he gets here for his shift anyway.”

Shakvhan sniffed. Then she eyed Revenant in a new light now that she’d calmed down a little. As a succubus, the doctor was hypertuned to all males, especially those who were especially… virile.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“He’s Reaver’s brother,” Blaspheme said. “Revenant.”

Shakvhan’s eyes flared. “I thought you looked familiar.” She glanced at her watch. “I have some time before my next surgery… want to see the inside of a supply closet?”

Supply closet was code for sex, and Blaspheme bristled. Didn’t matter that she had no claim to Revenant. Hell, she didn’t even want him. But for some reason, she didn’t want anyone else to have him, either. Especially not the bitchy succubus.

Blas didn’t give him a chance to reply. “Sorry, Shakvhan, but we’re on our way to a house call.”

“I don’t know,” Revenant said as he looked the curvy female up and down. “There’s no hurry.”

You bastard. Then she saw it, the impish glint in his eyes. He was trying to make her jealous. And the bitch of it was that it worked.

“Fine,” she said. “Take your time. But I start shift in about forty-five minutes now, so the clock is ticking.”

She didn’t wait to see if her bluff worked or not. She started toward the administrative offices, hoping Eidolon had come in early like he usually did. If not, she’d wait outside his office door.

Revenant caught up with her before she made it ten feet. She was strangely relieved that he hadn’t gone with Shakvhan.

“Blaspheme?”

“What?”

“Why did you admit to your mistake? You could have lied and escaped punishment.”

“Someone would have been punished. Major mistakes like that don’t go ignored. Eidolon and his brothers don’t let shit slide, and they shouldn’t. I can’t let someone else pay for my incompetence.”

He gazed at her for so long that heat flushed her face and she started walking faster, as if she could escape his stare. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”