Reaver (22 page)

“Help,” he croaked. “Help her.”

Eidolon shoved the clipboard at Gem. “Have Grim handle the shifter.” The Sem, one of Tavin’s

brothers, hadn’t been here long, but the guy had a powerful healing ability, and Eidolon trusted him to

be sensitive to abused females.

“You got it.” Gem took off as Eidolon sprang into action, ushering Arik to the closest open exam

room.

Blaspheme joined them, holding Limos’s head as Eidolon helped Arik settle what was left of the

Horseman onto a table. Gods, she was messed up. He’d been a doctor for decades and had never seen

anything like this.

“What happened?” Eidolon let Blas perform the ABC’s—airway, breathing, and circulation—but

the procedure was more protocol than necessary in this instance. Limos was immortal. Fucked up

beyond recognition, but immortal.

“I don’t know.” Arik was trembling so hard his teeth chattered. “We were going to have a party. I

got back to our place with a keg.” He inhaled a shaky, tormented breath. “I found her like this. Her

brothers… they’re the same. I couldn’t… I couldn’t bring them all… fuck…”

Eidolon didn’t bother gloving up. He placed his hands on Limos’s torso and channeled his power

into her. His
dermoire
glowed as his healing gift winged its way down his right arm. There was too

much damage to focus on a single injury, so he spread the healing wave evenly through her body. In

his mind’s eye, he could see internal organs plumping up, muscle fibers knitting together, and bones

fusing.

Sweat beaded on Eidolon’s brow as Limos started to come together like a jigsaw puzzle, but he

didn’t have enough power to bring her even halfway back.

Blaspheme knew. “I’ll get Shade.”

She took off like a shot, leaving him with Arik, who was about to come apart at the seams. Eidolon

got that. Didn’t matter that Arik’s mate was immortal. Arik saw only her pain and misery.

“She’s in bad shape,” Eidolon said, “but she’s going to be fine. I’ll have Shade or Forge help to get

her back with a minimum of suffering.”

Arik nodded, but he was still shaking like a leaf. “What about the baby?”

Eidolon sucked in a sharp breath. He’d forgotten Limos was pregnant. The last time he’d seen her,

she hadn’t been showing yet. He drew back his power and focused it in a concentrated laser into

Limos’s womb.

“Oh, shit,” Arik breathed. “You’ve got to save it.”

Eidolon wanted to. Gods, he wanted to. “How far along is she?”

“Almost five months.” Arik spun around and jammed his hands through his short brown hair as he

walked back and forth across the obsidian floor where Limos’s blood was pooling in shiny wet

puddles. “Fuck, I’m going to destroy whoever did this.
Fuck!
”

The curtain swished open and Shade entered, his dark head bent, his gaze glued to his phone. “Blas

said you needed me. And why did I just get a text from Thanatos’s mate saying the Horsemen had

been attacked? Limos is missing—” Shade cut off at the sight of the female on the table. “Hell’s fires,

is that her?”

At their nods, Shade raced over and palmed Limos’s forearm. His biceps glowed along the lines of

his
dermoire
as he channeled his power into her.

Eidolon eyed his brother, but he couldn’t get a read on him. Shade’s gift wasn’t the same as

Eidolon’s and wasn’t as useful for healing, but it was powerful in its own right. Shade was able to

manipulate bodily functions, to make a heart start beating or force bone marrow to create red blood

cells.

Eidolon glanced at Arik, judged him to be justifiably unstable, and lowered his voice. “Remember,

she’s pregnant.”

Shade’s head came up. “Fuck.” Closing his eyes, he concentrated.

Eidolon kept his healing energy spreading through Limos as Shade probed her womb. Her skin and

extremities had almost fully formed now.

But there was no baby bump.

“Well?” Arik gripped the table near Limos’s head so hard his knuckles turned white. “How’s the

baby?”

Very slowly, Shade’s eyes opened. Eidolon didn’t like what he saw.

“I’m sorry, Arik,” Shade murmured. “The baby is gone.”

Seventeen

Revenant stood outside the exam room where Limos was being attended by Underworld General staff.

The baby was gone? Lorelia had killed Limos’s child? Revenant felt the blood in his veins begin to

steam, and as usually happened when he was pissed, his hair went from the sandy color he’d chosen

today to jet black.

When Lorelia was punished for what she’d done, he wanted to be there. He wanted to see her bleed.

He hadn’t been able to make that happen earlier; the angel had flashed from Hawaii, and Rev hadn’t

been able to follow her Watcher signature. Which meant the cowardly bitch had gone to Heaven.

A blonde female in ridiculous purple scrubs dotted with blue hearts came out of the exam room, and

he grabbed her arm. “You. When will Limos be released?”

She rounded on him, a nasty smile curving her bloodred lips. “Let go of me or you’ll lose your

hand.”

An idle threat, given the hospital’s antiviolence ward, but it was cute that she tried. He let his gaze

travel down the length of her voluptuous body. Her scrubs and lab coat didn’t hide nearly as much as

she probably thought they did. Nice breasts. He could even admire them while pretending to be

fascinated by her name tag.

Very deliberately, he held her arm for another five seconds, and then he dropped his hand. “Answer

me, Dr. Blaspheme.”

“Fuck off.”

She strode away, and damn, her ass was so fine that he wasn’t even angry. No, he was intrigued. No

one told him to fuck off. At least, not if they weren’t sure they could match his strength.

Or his cruelty.

When she reached the end of the hallway, he flashed in front of her, halting her in her tracks.

“Answer,” he repeated.

“I neither work for you nor am I mated to you, so I don’t have to respond to your rudeness. And if I

was mated to you, I’d respond with a blade to your balls. So I repeat, fuck off.”

He got hard. Brutally, painfully hard. He could so easily imagine this hellcat in his dungeon, her

wrists bound with silk, her skin pink from his leather lash as she submitted to him in every way he

asked her to.

“What species are you?”

She stiffened as if he’d offended her. “I’m a False Angel. Not that it’s any of your business.”

False Angel? Odd. She didn’t read like one. Didn’t act like one. False Angels were known for their

teasing, seductive natures and malicious tricks. Not to mention their sex drives. This female should be

creaming herself over him, drawn to his darkness and his power.

Time to try another approach. “If you answer my question, I’ll let you suck my cock.”

Mostly, he was testing her with his crude suggestion. Mostly. If she wanted to give him a blow job,

he wouldn’t object. He’d tell her exactly how to do it. How to lick him from his balls to his crown.

How to swallow him deep and hum on the backstroke. How to use her teeth to balance pleasure and

pain.

He shivered with the exciting possibilities.

“Really?” Clapping in exaggerated delight, she gave him the most superficial smile he’d ever seen.

“You’ll let me put a total stranger’s piss hose in my mouth while my knees scream in agony on the

hard floor? Right here in front of everyone? Gosh, such a hard thing to pass up. But you know, I’d

rather eat Ebola pudding than let your sad little dick near me.” She wiggled her fingers as she slipped

past him. “Toodles.”

Oh, he needed to tap that.

He waited until she was out of sight, and then he headed back to the emergency department, where a

gaggle of Seminus demons had gathered, heads together with a dark-haired female who bore faded

Seminus markings on her right arm that, if she were male, would make sense. Sems were
exclusively

male, and their female mates took the markings on their left arms, so what the hell? He wondered if

her marks were tats, and then he realized he didn’t give a shit.

He recognized Eidolon and tapped him on the shoulder. “How is Limos?”

Eidolon’s dark eyes flashed with irritation. “Take a seat. I’ll get to you when I can.”

“Dumbass,” the female muttered.

Revenant hissed. “Who the hell are you to talk to me like that?”

He eyed each of the Seminus males. He knew Eidolon and had seen the blond one, Wraith, hanging

out with Thanatos. But the other other male and the female were strangers.

“I’m Sin.” She gestured to the group of males. “These are my brothers.”

“Ridiculous.” He snorted. “There’s no such thing as a female Seminus demon.”

Sin rolled her eyes. “Clearly, my existence renders your statement… stupid.”

“Your existence is not in the natural order. You should be executed,” he said, and her brothers all

growled.

“Your mama must not have liked you much,” Sin muttered.

Wraith’s lips peeled back from an impressive set of fangs. Was the guy part vampire? That wasn’t

normal, either. “Can’t imagine why that would be.”

Revenant had no idea if his mother had liked him or not. “Tell me what’s going on with Limos.

When will she be released?” They all glared, and he clenched his teeth. These insects should give him

what he wanted without him having to dig for it. “I’m her Watcher. Tell me.”

Finally, Eidolon got the bug out of his ass and gestured for him to move to an area with little more

privacy. When they were away from the others, he shook his head gravely.

“Limos was injured beyond what anyone here can heal, but we got her to about seventy percent.

She’s resting now and can go home tomorrow. She’ll need a couple of days to recover. She doesn’t

know about the baby yet,” he said, and Revenant felt a twinge of… something. Couldn’t be sadness,

though. “Do you know what the hell happened at Limos’s place?”

“Yes.” The weird sensation plucked at him again, and this time, it was almost painful, as if his body

were trying to reject a foreign emotion the way it might reject a transplanted organ. His chest

tightened and his skin grew clammy and that was enough of that. He needed to change the subject. He

gazed off in the direction the False Angel had gone. “Tell me about Dr. Blaspheme.”

“After you tell me what happened.”

Frustrating demon. The rare intelligent ones were the worst. “The Horsemen’s Heavenly Watcher

had a nuclear meltdown.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” He really didn’t. Her actions hadn’t made sense. If she were that volatile, she

should never have been assigned as a Watcher. So what had made her go berserk enough to mince the

Horsemen and kill a baby? Unless… unless she hadn’t killed it. He thought back to the aftermath,

when she’d been crouched over Limos, her palm hovering over her belly. When she stood, she’d

looked… guilty. And what had she put in her pocket? “Wait… Limos’s child… you said earlier that it

was gone. You mean dead?”

Eidolon glanced over at Limos’s room. “Given the extent of her injuries, as well as those of her

brothers, we’re assuming the baby didn’t make it.”

Assuming. Revenant didn’t like assumptions. He liked cold, hard facts. Assumptions were for