“Why would Ba’addon betray Heaven like that?” he growled. “Does Heaven know? Where is he?”
Gormesh ticked off his dirt-stained fingers as he spoke. One finger. “He’s dead. Satan killed him.” Two fingers. “I doubt Heaven knows what he did.” Three fingers. “I’m certain he didn’t see what he’d done as a betrayal. He wanted power. Prestige. He believed that his name, Ba’addon, was a form of Abaddon, the angel prophesied to do battle with Satan. By turning your parents over to the Dark Lord, Ba’addon thought he could get close enough to do that. His bones now make up the seat of Satan’s throne.”
Fitting, Rev supposed, that the angel who betrayed his parents now had to support Satan’s ass.
Shaken to the core, he could barely string together coherent words for his next question. “But… why would everyone think my father died in battle?”
“Because we returned his body to the battle site with a message that we had your mother.” Gormesh cast another hungry look at the orgy, and Revenant decided he’d had enough. Of Gormesh. Of Sheoul. Of half-truths and total lies.
No one but his mother had ever been honest with him, and suddenly, he needed that comfort as much as he’d needed it as a child.
And he knew exactly where to get it.
Eighteen
Eidolon had just put down his son for a nap when Reaver arrived. And good thing for him that he knocked lightly instead of using the doorbell. After an hour of the toddler’s explosive, exhausted screaming, Eidolon was thankful to have gotten the boy to fall asleep. He’d kill whoever woke him.
“Hey, man,” Eidolon said as he led Reaver to the kitchen. “Thanks for coming by.”
Reaver took a seat on a counter bar stool. “You said it was important. And I always like to hang out with Sabre.” He looked around. “Where is the little tyke?”
“Napping. And if you wake him up, you get to deal with him.”
Reaver grinned. “Fair enough. Where’s Tayla?”
“She should be home in a couple of hours. She’s out with Kynan and Decker investigating a suspected Soulshredder attack in Missouri.”
“So she’s still with DART, huh? Not back with The Aegis?”
Eidolon shook his head. “Even with the key Aegis players dead, the organization has still been going down a dark path. Kill demons first, don’t bother asking questions later. Tay says The Aegis is lost to corruption and extremism. But the good news is that the Demon Activity Response Team is growing as Aegis defectors find their way to DART.”
In Eidolon’s opinion, The Aegis had always been a lost cause, so secretive and full of hatred that they couldn’t see that not all demons were evil. DART, started by Aegis defectors and working in conjunction with human law enforcement authorities, operated like a demon CSI unit, investigating suspected demonic activity and eliminating verifiable threats to humanity. Demons deemed harmless were left alone.
“Good.” Reaver watched Tayla’s ferret, Mickey, dash through the kitchen and slide under the china cabinet in the dining room. “I heard some gossip today. About Idess and Lore.”
It was Eidolon’s turn to grin. “We got her pregnant.”
“We?”
“Well, we don’t know who the father is yet, but yeah, we did the procedure last week.”
Lore, Eidolon’s half-breed brother, was sterile, but he’d desperately wanted children with his mate, Idess. So Eidolon and his other two brothers, Wraith and Shade, had donated sperm, and Eidolon had implanted it deep inside Idess’s womb. They’d all agreed that no matter who the biological father was, the child would be raised by Idess and Lore.
Reaver cocked a blond brow. “I know a Seminus demon can’t orgasm without being, ah, inside his female, so how…”
Eidolon laughed at the angel’s discomfort. “Our mates had to help. There are work-arounds.” The memory of Tay’s hot mouth working him made his loins stir, and dammit, now he hoped she’d get home a lot sooner than a couple of hours.
“You know,” Reaver said, “ten years ago I would never have predicted that your lives would turn out the way they have.”
“Trust me,” Eidolon muttered. “I’m as shocked as you are.”
Eidolon’s dog, Mange, trotted into the kitchen and nosed around the china cabinet for his friend. Sometimes, like now, he couldn’t believe he had a dog, a ferret, a son, and a mate, and he could only thank the Powers That Be that he’d been fortunate enough to have been given such a gift.
Reaver’s smile faded, and he braced his forearms on the countertop. “So why did you ask me here?”