He paused. “You are correct. We should scan the area first.”
There was a sound outside in the hallway like a body being dragged along, and then fingernails scraped across the surface of our door. For a moment I was a child again, frozen in place, terrified about what might be outside scratching to get in. Then I came to my senses.
“Or maybe someone is bleeding to death out there while we stand here and debate about it,” I said, following Nathaniel’s glow until I joined him.
“If it is the shifter, then he would know you would think that,” Nathaniel pointed out. “Your heroic tendencies are well documented.”
A voice came from under the door, small and faint. “Help. Help me.”
“Dammit,” I swore, lunging for the door before Nathaniel could do anything about it. I couldn’t leave someone out there, hurt and asking for help. I couldn’t bring myself to value my own safety first over someone in need.
When I opened the door, though, I sort of wished I’d waited. Because Evangeline lay on her back, bleeding from several stab wounds to the chest. The blood made a patchwork of wine-colored stains on the same red dress she had worn during the festivities earlier in the evening. Whoever had stabbed her had removed the scarf that covered her eyeless sockets. Those empty holes looked horrible, endless pockets of night in her face.
The bulge of her belly looked like it was writhing under the skin. Her baby was dying, too. My own child fluttered inside my body, safe for the moment.
She could not have picked a worse place to be attacked. I would get blamed for this, without a doubt. And while the loss of Evangeline would be bad enough, Lucifer would fly into a rage such as we had never seen when he realized the child was gone.
Nathaniel cursed behind me and nudged me out of the way to check her pulse. “She is still alive, though barely.”
He gripped her hand. I felt the pulse of energy that came from the angelic healing power. But Evangeline’s wounds continued to bleed. Her breath was shallow, a sound so close to death it chilled me to the bone.
Nathaniel pulled away, confused. “My power cannot heal her. Perhaps you can try.”
I knelt on the floor beside Evangeline. The blood pooling underneath her stained the knees of my pajamas. They were flannel Eeyore pajamas, my favorites.
I took Evangeline’s hand in mine, as Nathaniel had done. It was small and cold. Her life was almost gone. I pushed the power of the healing spell into her, and something happened that had never happened before.
The healing spell rebounded on me.
I tried again, only to have the same result duplicated.
“It’s like the healing won’t go into her,” I said.
“It’s because she’s died once already,” Beezle said.
I looked up, and saw Samiel, Beezle and Jude emerging from their rooms into the hallway. Beezle fluttered to my shoulder, looking down at Evangeline with a sad, troubled expression.
“I died, too, but the healing spell has always worked on me,” I said.
“Your soul never actually went through the Door,” Beezle said. “And your bloodline is tied to Lucifer’s, tied to the power of Agents of Death. The rules aren’t going to be the same for you as they are for Evangeline. She’s just an ordinary human. She’s got a touch of power right now because she’s carrying Lucifer’s child. But it’s not enough to overcome the fact that she’s not supposed to be here. She died once, and Death wants her back.”
Evangeline suddenly sucked in a deep breath, startling us all. Her hand tightened around mine.
“The . . . baby . . .” she said, taking great deep gulps of air in between each word. “You . . . have . . . to . . .”
She paused, and there was a long exhalation of breath as her body seemed to relax. I think we all thought it was over then. Her fingers loosened on mine for a moment, then gripped them tight again.
She sat up with a sudden strength and urgency that I did not expect. Her eyeless face pressed close to mine. Her breath smelled of rotting death.
“You must take the baby from me,” she said, her voice fierce. “You must save Lucifer’s child.”
“What? How?” I said. I didn’t want to say that the baby could already be past the point of saving.
“Cut him from my belly,” Evangeline said. “For your grandfather, you must do this.”
“This is crazy,” I said as she fell backward to the floor again.
“You should do it,” Beezle said decisively. “Saving the baby might be the only thing that will save all of us from Lucifer’s wrath when he finds out what happened.”
The thought of cutting Evangeline’s stomach open and pulling the baby out in some kind of half-assed caesarean section made my own stomach turn.
Jude pulled a huge gleaming hunting knife from his boot and presented it to me. Nathaniel knocked his hand aside.
“Do not be so crude,” he said harshly. “Madeline can perform this task with her magic. It will be safer for the child, in any event.”
“If you know how it’s done, then you do it,” I said. “I’m no baby doctor.”
“Her life is slipping away as we speak,” Nathaniel said. “She is holding on to the last of her strength to preserve the life of the child. You must do it now. Now.”
He placed my hands over Evangeline’s stomach. I could feel the writhing mass beneath, and knew that her child still lived.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. “I don’t understand what I should do.”