“Well,” Gem said, “that was better than what Wraith said.” She lowered her voice and did an imitation of Wraith. “Way cool about the f**k-trophy.”
Kynan rolled his eyes. “The demon does have a way with words.” He took Gem’s hand and clapped Lore on the back. “Thanks, man.”
The party in Rade’s room hit its stride when Ky and Gem went inside. Lore’s brothers all looked so happy, their mates grinning and holding each other tightly. It was a scene right out of a damned movie or something, complete with laughter, reminiscing, and a few good-natured insults.
Lore so didn’t belong here.
He needed to find Idess anyway. He peeled off toward the Harrowgate just as the ER doors slid open. Idess darted inside and right into his arms.
Lore scooped her up, squeezing her hard in a silent promise that he’d never let her go. “Where have you been? Are you okay? Where’s Roag?”
“Later.” She took his mouth in a desperate kiss that pushed all his startup buttons. “Did you…”
“Yeah. Rade was alive.” He let her feet touch the ground again. “He’s going to be okay.”
“I’m so glad.” She sounded relieved, but there was an odd, underlying tone he couldn’t identify.
Frowning, he tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. “What is it? What are you not telling me?”
Her hand came up to his cheek, her touch tender. “Nothing. It’s just been a long day.”
Rami. God, he was such an ass. The guy might have been a monster, but he had still been her brother, and she’d loved him for two thousand years. Expecting her to be okay with killing him mere hours after finding out what he’d become was just stupid.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
The sound of a clearing throat had Lore growling at the interruption. But when he turned to see all of his brothers—and Kynan—standing there, the viciousness turned to confusion.
“Ah… yeah?”
Shade stepped forward. “Runa and I are in your debt.” He breathed deeply, cast his gaze at the ceiling. “I don’t know what the f**k has been wrong with me these last few days. I wanted you dead, I turned on my brother, and I don’t know why.”
“I do,” Idess said, and five sets of eyes focused on her. “It was Roag. He wasn’t just inciting the ghosts. His very essence was affecting all of you. When he was near, you were all more angry. More aggressive. It was what he wanted.”
“Where is he?” That from Wraith.
“He’s been destroyed.”
Kynan’s dark eyebrows shot up. “He’s dead? For real? Not just invisible?”
“He’s not dead. His soul was annihilated. Erased. He cannot be reborn.”
“Holy shit,” Shade said. “How?”
“Let’s just say that my father is a very powerful man.”
“That’s a little understated, don’t you think?” Lore draped his arm over her shoulder and tugged her into him where she belonged. “You know, seeing how he’s the Grim f**king Reaper.”
Man, you could have heard the ghosts tiptoeing by in the silence. At least until Wraith shot Lore a look of sympathy. “Duuuude.”
“No shit,” Kynan chimed in.
“Well, whatever you and your father did,” Eidolon said, “we’re all very grateful.”
Idess’s gaze dropped to the floor. “It’s the least I could do.” She cast a glance at the ER doors as if she expected the Prince of Darkness himself to pop through them at any moment. “I think I can do something about your ghost problem, too.”
“Now that Roag is gone, shouldn’t they settle down?” Eidolon asked.
“A little. But they don’t belong here. They’re trapped, and they’re going to grow bitter. The ones who have been here the longest already are. It just took Roag to show them how to wreak havoc. Now they need someone to guide them to, ah… the light.”
For some reason, she tripped over the last part of her sentence.
“And you can do that?”
“Yes, but there will be more. You’ll need someone to purge your hospital on a regular basis.”
“Are you volunteering for the job? Because I’m thinking I’ll have a hard time finding another angel to handle it.”
Idess stiffened. It was a subtle motion that probably only Lore noticed. But yeah, something was definitely wrong here.
“I can’t,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”
Lore expected his brothers to argue or try to convince her, but Eidolon merely nodded. “If you change your mind, I’d love to have you.”
Shade gestured to Rade’s room. “I’m taking Runa and the boys home. I don’t like having them here with the plague going on.” He squeezed Lore’s shoulder. “Thanks again. And welcome to the family.” Very slowly, he turned to Eidolon. Their gazes locked, and everything around them stilled. Then, Shade embraced E in a silent but powerful apology. When they broke apart, Shade’s eyes were wet.
Wraith and Kynan left with Shade, and once they were gone, Lore wrapped himself around Idess, because she wasn’t going anywhere for a while. “Speaking of the plague, what’s going on with that?”
There was a long, tense silence, and Lore wondered if Eidolon was silently cursing Sin’s existence or maybe he was still soaking up Shade’s apology—something Lore guessed was a rarity. “Hell if I know. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern of how it’s spreading or what segment of the warg population it’s affecting. Bodies are piling up in my morgue, and the Warg Council is breathing down my neck.”
“You have a morgue?” Idess asked.
“A morgue with no ME. He was a freaking warg.”
Lore considered that. “Can I take a look?”
“At my dead medical examiner?”
“The morgue.”
“Whatever gets your rocks off.” Eidolon started down one of the halls. “This way.”
They followed him to an elevator big enough to hold a Gargantua. They took it down, which was the only option, and it opened up into a chilly area the size of a gymnasium. Drawers used to store bodies made up one wall, their sizes varying from human to four times that large.
“What does your medical examiner do?” Idess asked.
Eidolon’s fingers trailed over an autopsy table like a lover’s, which made sense; this hospital was his baby, and he was proud as shit of it. “Since most demons aren’t concerned with justice that requires detailed proof and scientific evidence, our guy mostly just determines identity and a general cause of death. Mystical or natural, accident or homicide, type of weapon used… that kind of thing.”
Lore tugged off his glove, opened one of the drawers, and laid his bare hand on the stiff female inside. “This one died of natural causes. At least, she died of nonmystical causes.”
E frowned. “How do you know?”
“Because my resurrection power only triggers if the person died of natural causes. I can only bring someone back if the death takes place a few minutes earlier, but that same power tells me how someone died.” He glanced around the room. “Where are the diseased werewolves?”
Eidolon took Lore to a stainless-steel door. He tugged it open, and inside was a refrigerator a gourmet chef would give a nut for. If it wasn’t storing two dozen bodies.
Lore palmed a male’s forehead. The telltale sting of a supernatural death shot up his arm. “The disease is definitely not of natural origin,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean Sin is responsible.”
“She admitted to killing the first victim,” Eidolon said. “Apparently, she was interrupted before she could deliver a full dose of whatever she does. The warg ran to a pack-mate, who died a few hours after patient zero. The entire pack is wiped now, and the disease has spread to Europe.”
“Oh, hell.” Lore scrubbed his hand over his face. “What are you going to do?”
“I need Sin here. She’s the key to all of this.”
“That’s not going to be easy—”
“Tough shit,” Eidolon bit out. “She caused it, so she can damned well be at my disposal.”
Lore shook his head. “It’s not that. She’s going to be busy.” He leaned against Idess, needing her strength. “She committed to a lifetime of slavery in order to get Rade back.”
Idess gasped, and Eidolon sucked in a harsh breath. “We’ve got to get her out of that.”
Lore had tried that before, and had ended up serving for thirty years. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Cursing, Eidolon closed the fridge door gently, as though he didn’t want to disturb the dead. “You two have had a rough couple of days. Get some rest. The ghosts can wait. Let’s meet soon and talk about what we can do to get Sin out of her situation.” He took off, leaving Lore and Idess alone in pretty much the last place Lore wanted to be right now.
Right now, he wanted to be inside her, working off the day’s events in bed, where there would be no assassin masters, no fallen angels, no evil brothers, no werewolf diseases. There would be only Lore and Idess, and lots of bare skin.
Lust flared in his belly, and she must have known exactly what he was thinking, because her liquid caramel eyes gleamed with heat, and her face flushed. “What do you say we take the doctor’s advice and head back to my place to get some… rest?”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t go with you.”
“Then your place. We don’t have to go to mine.”
“No, Lore. I can’t go anywhere with you.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. Lore stopped breathing completely. “Ever.”
* * *
The confusion and devastation in Lore’s expression nearly made Idess’s knees give out.
“What is it?” Lore gripped her shoulders. “Dammit, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”