He gestured to the female. “Take a blood sample. I want DNA results compared to mine ASAP.”
The little female jerked away. “Oh, no. Stay the hell away from me.”
“You got something to hide?”
“No.”
He nodded to the nurse, but his patient hissed and backed away. He grasped her wrist. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I strongly recommend the easy way.”
Her glare drilled holes right through him. “I hate you.”
“I’m hurt.” That earned him a middle-finger salute. He held her arm while Chu-Hua started the draw. “How is the patient?” he asked the nurse, referring to the one who’d been bleeding out while doctors Pon and Rivers went at it.
“He’s being prepped for surgery,” she said, dragging out the “y” in a grating piglike squeal.
“Keep me informed.” He’d have dealt with the patient himself, but the elflike blanchier demon was one of the few species that didn’t respond well to Eidolon’s healing gift. “And make sure Rivers and Pon don’t leave my office.” On any other day, he’d have fired the doctors, but Eidolon suspected that whatever was making the rest of the staff snap was affecting the two physicians as well.
Chu-Hua left with the blood sample, leaving him alone with the female, whose glare hadn’t eased up at all.
“What’s your name?” He pinched the base of her laceration and started the first stitch.
“Ouch! Fuck. Where did you get your degree? Online?”
“I told you it was going to hurt. What’s your name?”
“Sin.”
“Short for?”
“How do you know it’s short for anything?”
Because a human wouldn’t name a child Sin. “Answer the question.”
“Sinead.”
“So… Loren and Sinead. Twins, I’m guessing?” It wasn’t a longshot of a guess; their father had been the rape ’em and leave ’em kind, and Eidolon seriously doubted he’d impregnate the same female twice. When Sin didn’t answer his question, he sighed. “The DNA test will confirm what I already know. So just admit it.”
“Yes,” she snapped. “Lore is my twin brother. You must have been at the very top of your online class.”
He ignored the barb. Tayla had broken him in to a female’s sharp tongue a long time ago. “Why hasn’t Lore mentioned you?”
She snorted. “I told him not to tell you about me.”
“Why keep it from us?”
“Why not?”
Gods, she was exasperating. She was like a female Wraith. “Are you going to answer the question?”
She sighed. “I have one pain in the ass brother already. I don’t need more, okay?” There was a defiance and a wariness in her eyes that indicated there was more to the story than what she was telling him, but now wasn’t the time to push.
Working carefully, he put the final stitches in place. “So if you didn’t want to know us, why risk coming to the hospital?”
“I told you. To find Lore.” She bit her lip, and he gave her a moment to decide if she wanted to say anything more. “He’s sort of missing.”
Yeah, Eidolon was achingly aware of that. But before he told her what he knew, he wanted as much information from her as possible. “He’s after a friend of mine. You know that, right?”
For the first time, something other than anger flickered in her expression. Fear. “What did you do to him? I swear, if you hurt him—”
“I didn’t do anything to him. Yet.”
She swallowed audibly. “It’s not Lore’s fault. He has to do it. There are severe consequences to failing a mission.”
“You sound like you know this from experience. Are you an assassin, too?”
“Another gold star for you.”
“My online degree has served me well,” he said dryly. “So who hired him?”
“Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you, nosy-ass.” She swung her legs to the opposite side of the bed and leaped down. “Now, unless you plan to tackle me again, I’m going to go find my brother.”
Eidolon blocked the door, fully intending to physically restrain her if he had to. “I just want to ask a few more questions. And maybe I can help find Lore.”
She seemed to consider that, and though she narrowed her eyes at him, she nodded slowly.
“How did you get hurt?” he asked.
“That’s none of your business.” When he cursed, she huffed. “What? It’s an answer.”
Gods, she was starting to make Wraith look agreeable. “What’s your gift?”
A plastic model of a set of lungs crashed to the floor, startling Eidolon and making Sin jump. “What the hell was that?”
“Ghost.” Damn, he was getting sick of this shit. “Your gift?” he prompted.
Glancing at the shattered model as if it was going to launch at her, she rubbed her bandage, but when she realized what she was doing, she let her hand drop. “Gift isn’t the word I’d choose for it.”
“Ability, then. What is it? You don’t wear a glove, so I’m guessing it’s not the same as Lore’s.”