Revenant(4)
Raze’s ginger hair, longer in front than in the back, fell over his eyes as he leaned in for a closer look at Deva’s abdominal wound. “This is strange.”
Those weren’t words you wanted a doctor to say. She attempted to summon her most useful FA ability, what was commonly called X-ray vision, used by False Angels to determine the health or virility of their potential victims. As a medical professional, Blas had found a better use for it.
Sadly, it barely flickered before snuffing out. Great. Another False Angel ability was failing. How long before they were all gone and her true identity was revealed?
“What’s strange?” she asked.
“I can’t heal her. Nothing’s happening.”
“What?” Blas looked up from inserting an IV catheter into Deva’s vein to stare at the incubus. “Are you out of juice?”
He held up his right arm, which was covered in glowing glyphs from his throat to his fingers. “My power is at full charge. I’m telling you, it’s not me. It’s her.”
The vibe. What if the weird vibe coming off her mother was somehow interfering with Raze’s powers?
Raze glanced over at her. “Can you take a look inside her and tell me what’s going on?”
“I just tried,” she said. “I think I’m too emotional.”
Raze nodded, apparently buying her bullshit story for the X-ray failure.
Her mother groaned, and her eyes flickered open. Her hand fumbled for Blas’s. “Alone,” she rasped. “I need to talk to you alone.”
Blaspheme looked up at Raze. “Arrange for an OR. We’ll get her into surgery right away. And page Eidolon. I want him on this.” Despite Blas’s fears of discovery, she needed him. As the most skilled, most experienced doctor in the entire underworld, Eidolon just might be the only one who could save her mother.
Raze and Luc took off, leaving her alone with Deva.
“Mom,” she said quietly. “What’s going on? What happened?”
“Angels,” she said, and Blaspheme’s stomach churned. “I was attacked by angels.”
Which explained the vibe and Raze’s difficulty healing her. Some angelic weapons caused injury that couldn’t be repaired using supernatural means.
“Where were you?” Blaspheme squeezed her mother’s hand when Deva’s eyes closed. “Hey, stay with me. Where were you when they attacked you?”
“Home,” she rasped. “They found me, Blaspheme.”
A chill crawled up her spine. “They?” She had a sickening feeling she knew who they were, and she prayed she was wrong.
Deva coughed, spraying blood. “I think… I think they were Eradicators. They found me.” She sat up, clawing at Blaspheme’s hand, desperation and terror punching through the haze of pain in her eyes. “Which means they’re also looking for you.”
Two
A high-intensity Satanic summons shrieked in Revenant’s head as he stood atop Mount Megiddo, his lungs filling with hot, dry air.
Ignoring Satan’s command, Revenant called out with his mind and voice to the highest-ranking archangel in Heaven.
“Metatron.”
Nothing. A breeze whipped up a dust devil a few yards away, but other than that, nothing moved.
“Metatron!”
More nothing. Even the dust devil died a slow, agonizing death.
“Metatron!”
Fuck. He should have expected that he’d be ignored. The archangels had abandoned him thousands of years ago, so why the hell would they pay any attention to him now?
Assholes. All he wanted were some answers. Why had they left him and his mother to rot in hell? Why didn’t anyone, in five thousand years, tell him the truth before now? Before he regained his memories and got a promotion… thanks to his brother’s “heroic” actions and Heaven’s rule that what was done to one twin must be done to the other. And why hadn’t they told him he was welcome in Heaven? After all, Reaver was allowed.
Because you aren’t welcome. You’re evil. Corrupt.
The Dark Lord’s summons came again, this time blasting him so violently that pain drove him to his knees. Blood sprayed from his nose and ears, and as he gripped his head, he swore his skull was cracking.
Dammit, he was not ready to face Satan. Not that he was ever ready. No one in their right mind would happily drop everything to take a meeting with the Dark Lord. And now that Rev knew the truth about his past – or at least, about most of it – he had even less motivation to have a face-to-face with the king of all demons.
Satan had lied to Revenant for thousands of years, had even hinted that Rev was his son.
It was all bullshit, and Revenant wondered how things were going to change now that the truth had come out. One thing was certain; he wanted to be armed with as much knowledge as he could gather before he faced Satan, and only one person could give him the answers he sought.