“I’m sorry,” Lore rasped.
For a long moment, she thought Eidolon was going to break down. He swallowed repeatedly, his eyes bloodshot and liquid. But when Lore’s blood began to drip to the floor, he shifted into doctor mode.
“Come with me.” He left them no choice but to follow him into an exam room, where he gestured to Idess to sit on the bed, and for Lore to take a seat. “I assume the bastard is dead,” he said, as he gloved up.
“Very.” Lore tucked his injured arm protectively against his body. “Take care of Idess first.”
Before she could protest, Eidolon took her wrist. “Keep pressure on your wound,” he said to Lore. Idess clenched her teeth as he began the painful process of healing her cut, and when he was done, he gently wiped away the blood and covered the mostly healed gash with a gauze pad and tape.
Eidolon sank into a chair across from his brother. “Did you get… the remains?”
Idess closed her eyes and offered a prayer for the small boy her brother had killed.
“I’m going to get them the second I’m done here.” Lore said grimly.
Very gently, Eidolon rested Lore’s arm on his thigh. “You did a number on this,” he muttered. “Sword?”
“Wow,” Lore said, as Idess moved to him and took his good hand in hers. “You’re good.”
“I see a lot of this,” Eidolon said wryly. “Usually on Wraith. You ready?”
“Yeah.” Gazing up at her, Lore squeezed her hand. “Yeah, I am.”
Something in her chest lurched. Lore usually suffered alone and didn’t rely on anyone, and he probably preferred it that way. But he was taking strength and comfort from her.
Eidolon’s dermoire lit up, and when Eidolon was done, he wiped away the blood.
Idess sank down next to Lore just as the doctor’s pager went off. He checked it, cursed soundly.
“What is it?” Lore asked.
“Wargs,” he said. “There are two incoming via ambulance, and three coming through the Harrowgate.” Eidolon closed his eyes and blew out a long breath. “This makes eight in a matter of days. We have an epidemic on our hands.” He opened his eyes and gave Lore a look that chilled Idess to the bone. “Does Sin have any healing abilities at all? Any reversal powers?”
“No, why?” But Idess had a feeling she knew, and she saw in Lore’s face that he did, too. “Oh, God. Sin. She started it, didn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
Lore cursed. “We can’t catch a break around here, can we?”
Eidolon adjusted his stethoscope around his neck. “I’d like to say that this is unusual, but the last couple of years have been nothing but chaos. And it’s only going to get worse if we can’t get rid of Roag and his merry band of ghosts.”
Stupid bastard! You can’t get rid of me. You made me!
Idess wrenched her head around to the doorway, where Roag was lurking, hood shoved back to reveal a hideous, deformed face. His skin was a mass of dark scar tissue stretched tight over bone that was, in places, visible. Insanity gleamed in his dead eyes.
“Actually,” Idess said quietly, “I think I can do something about that.”
You can help me? Please. This curse… it is agony you can’t comprehend. I did nothing to deserve it.
“You hired your brother to kill his own brothers,” she said to him. “Your brothers.”
“Ah… Idess?” Lore’s voice came from behind her, but she held up her hand to stop both him and Eidolon.
“Did you hear me, Roag? You wanted your own brothers dead.”
Because they burned me alive! He tore off his cloak, and she nearly gasped at the shriveled, twisted wreck that was his body. And now I hurt. I starve. I thirst. Nothing relieves me. Please, help me. His lips peeled back in the most evil grin she’d ever seen. Slaughter my brothers and their families so their blood runs like a river through the streets. Gut them. Rend their limbs from their bodies and their eyes from their sockets!
His laughter pierced her like a lance carved of ice. “You want help? Really?” She grabbed Roag by the arm. Though he wasn’t solid to her, his energy clung to her like static electricity. “I can put you out of your misery. Absolutely. I don’t have the power to destroy souls, but I know someone who does.”
She dragged him out of the hospital and into the parking lot. Dimly, she heard Lore and Eidolon calling her name, but she kept going. Her brother had torn this family apart, and she couldn’t do anything about that, but she certainly could do something about this.