Revenant

“Technically… no, he didn’t.” Gormesh signaled the barmaid for a War Lager. “Your father was badly injured. Dying. He was taken to Satan, who decided to try an experiment. He force-fed your father his blood. Sandalphon healed, was subjected to gruesome torture and experiments, and then I was brought in to try to remove the taint of Satan’s blood from his own.” Before Rev could ask why, Gormesh held up his hand to stop him. “The Prince of Lies’s blood turned your father dark. Satan wanted to send him to Heaven as a spy, but he needed to be sure the taint couldn’t be removed. The angel who betrayed your parents to Satan joined me in my efforts to remove the taint, but we couldn’t do it. The attempt killed him. We tried again with a captured Seraphim, this time letting the angel return to Heaven, but later we learned that whatever purification process the archangels used killed her, too. I assure you, removing Satan’s blood is impossible.”

Revenant couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His father had been forcibly turned evil, and then he’d died in Sheoul, just like Rev’s mother… which meant that his soul was suffering eternal torment in hell, unable to get out and join all the other angelic souls in Heaven’s Hall of Heroes. And all because he had been betrayed by someone he should have been able to trust.

“Who is this angel who betrayed my mother to Satan?” he ground out. The skin covering his wing anchors itched as the desire to spread his wings and rain down hell on the bastard filled him.

He’d just chosen his angelic sacrifice to Satan.

Gormesh scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Ba’addon. Raphael’s father.”

Raphael’s father was about to die a horrible death. Raphael would be next. All of the archangels would be next. They’d lied to him about cleansing his blood so he could reside in Heaven. They’d fucking lied.

His blood started to boil – literally, causing his skin to steam and crack. He had to force himself to calm down. Raging out would only raise suspicions about why he was so angry, and it certainly wouldn’t help him get any answers from Gormesh if he blew up the pub and everyone in it.

“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.”