Revenant(17)

“I don’t understand. I mean, unless the child is the spawn of Satan…” She trailed off as realization dawned. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Gethel said, her voice as dark and smoky as the Mephisto char pits. “But it gets even better. The beast growing in me is the reincarnated soul of Lucifer himself.” She grinned. “And the day he’s born is the day Heaven and all of those asshole angels get what’s coming to them.”





Five





Blaspheme wanted to throw up. On the best of days hospital food didn’t sit well with her, but today… she had a feeling she’d be losing that bologna and salami submarine sandwich. Too bad about the fries, though, because they had been pretty tasty.

“Revenant,” she rasped. “Could I speak with you for a moment?” She glanced over at Gethel, who was still staring at her with crazed-out eyes. “Privately?”

“I’ve been looking for an excuse to get you someplace private,” he said with a raunchy smile, because naturally, he had to turn everything she said into something flirty, crude, or sexual.

“Please,” she ground out, hating that she had to resort to begging. “I need to talk to you.”

Abruptly, he went taut, his head came up, and he went into deadly serious mode. As he stalked toward her, eyes drilling into her, she braced herself for… for what, she didn’t know. Violence was the first word that came to mind, though.

To her surprise, he drew her aside and angled his big body so she couldn’t see Gethel. “You have my ear,” he said.

Holy… damn. That’s all it took to get him to talk? He needed a please? She’d have to remember that.

“Um… okay.” She blew out a long breath. “Look, I don’t know why you care about that… that… monster on the chaise, but —”

“I don’t care about her,” he interrupted. “If I had my way, I’d slay her where she stands. Or sits. She broke a million rules when she was Watcher for the Horsemen and that can’t go unpunished. But I have my orders.”

“Orders from…?”

She had a feeling she knew, so when he said, “The Dark Lord himself,” she just closed her eyes, as if doing so would block out the reality that she’d just waded, chin-deep, into the worst situation imaginable.

“I’m sorry, Revenant, but you’re going to have to find someone else to treat her. I can’t.”

“I want you.”

Gods, he was stubborn. “Even if she wasn’t the mortal enemy of pretty much everyone I work with, I can’t, in good conscience, treat her.”

“Didn’t you have to take some sort of oath to help everyone in need or some crap when you became a doctor?”

“That’s a human thing, not a demon one. And trust me, even human doctors would agree with me on this.”

He looked down at her, cold calculation in his eyes, and she wondered how far he’d go to convince her to treat Gethel.

“You don’t have to help her,” he said. “Just… give her an examination. Take some blood samples.” Leaning in, so close that his warm breath fanned her ear, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Wouldn’t the information you gather from an exam be useful to your colleagues?”

She inhaled sharply. Was he actually suggesting that she hand over test results to people who wanted Gethel dead? Who wouldn’t hesitate to use anything she told them to either locate Gethel or lethally sabotage her care? Hell, the stem cells she planned to harvest from Lucifer’s amniotic fluid could potentially be manipulated into powerful weapons as well.

Revenant’s suggestion was a good one, but she was pretty sure he was as evil as they came, so why would he say something like that? Maybe he was setting her up. But for what?

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I should discuss this with Eidolon.”

Revenant hissed. “I don’t like him.”

“I get the impression that you don’t like anyone.”

He ignored the jab. “I don’t want anyone else involved. Do what you have to do once we return to your clinic, but for now, it’s just you.”

Dammit. Craning her neck, she peeked around Revenant’s towering form. Gethel had gotten to her feet and was pacing around while she waited, and she appeared to be talking to herself. She was definitely one clown short of a circus. Or a massacre.

“Fine,” she growled. “I’ll do it.” But only so she could gather information. And stem cells.

Figuring she’d probably just made the biggest mistake of her life, she brushed past Revenant and ordered Gethel to sit. The fallen angel was surprisingly compliant, even leaning back against the cushions quietly as Blas kneeled on the floor and listened to her heart. Everything sounded normal, but the thing in her belly was a different story.