“An evil wizard named Gargamel made her,” Tayla said. “In a lab or something.”
“So you’re suggesting that an evil wizard made Sin?”
“Of course not, silly. I’m just saying she’s a Smurfette. A lone female amongst males.”
Eidolon frowned. “Did the Smurfette mate with the males?”
“Dude.” Wraith grimaced. “It’s a cartoon.”
“Then why are we talking about this?” Eidolon asked, and Wraith and Tayla exchanged looks that said he was a hopeless case. “Wraith, did you find an exorcist?”
Wraith shoved his blond hair back from his face. “Yup. He’s a weird one. Left him in the emergency department to get a feel for things.”
“Good. I’ll have him start work right away. If there’s anything he needs, I want you to get it for him.” As the hospital’s procurer of nontraditional supplies unique to demon medicine, dealing with an exorcist’s needs fell within Wraith’s job description.
“No problem.” Wraith jerked his chin at Sin. “Did she find Lore?”
Sudden tension took root at the mention of Lore’s name. “No.”
“Hope he’s not dead,” Wraith said, startling Eidolon. His brother stuck his hand in a coat pocket, probably feeling up a weapon. “If he needs killing, we should do the honors.”
Okay, yeah. That was more like it. “Wraith—”
“What?” The challenge in Wraith’s voice was what made Eidolon back down. Not that he was afraid of going toe-to-toe with his brother, but that was exactly what Wraith wanted, and Eidolon wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. There had been too much fighting between them lately.
“Nothing. Just make sure Kynan has a lot of backup. If one assassin has been sent after him, there could be more.”
“Kynan hasn’t been left without a Guardian since all this began,” Tayla said. “In fact, it’s my turn to stay with him. I need to go.”
“Be careful.”
“It’s no fun if I do that.” She kissed him and took off, and Eidolon took a much-needed moment to admire her swinging retreat.
Wraith stared after Tayla, but for different reasons. “What does The Aegis think of all this?”
“They don’t know any more than we do,” Eidolon replied, returning his gaze to his brother. “Kynan said they know a hit has been put out on him, so they’re prepared to have to fight fallen angels, but they don’t know who’s behind the hire.”
“You know,” Wraith muttered, “life was a whole lot easier when we hated all humans and didn’t give a shit what happened to the lot of them.” He laughed. “Okay, I couldn’t say that with a straight face. I still don’t give a shit.”
That wasn’t entirely true—Wraith considered Kynan a friend and brother, and then there was the fact that he’d fallen in love with Serena while she was still human. And he had a human father-in-law who also happened to be a member of The Aegis’s Sigil. Wraith wheeled around. “I’m going to see if Exorcist Dude needs anything, and then I’m going home to Serena and the hellspawn.”
He jogged off, nearly colliding with Shade as their brother took a corner.
“Where’s the fire?” Shade shouted after him, but Wraith kept going. Shaking his head, Shade stopped in front of Eidolon. “What’s going on?”
“Sun’s up.”
Shade nodded in understanding. As a vampire now, Wraith’s mate was all but trapped in their home during daylight hours, and Wraith didn’t like leaving her unprotected. Not that she was completely helpless. He’d had an underground tunnel built from their cellar that led into a maze of caverns with exits near Harrowgates, and within a month, one would lead directly to the hospital.
“How’s the warg?” E asked.
“Not good. Shakvhan is working on him, but he’ll be lucky to make it another five minutes.”
“Damn.” Eidolon shoved his hand through his hair. “I’m going to set up an isolation room in case we get any more. And until further notice, I want all warg staff to avoid the emergency department and all warg patients.”
“And I’ll inform my warg medics that they’re banned from responding to any calls that involve werewolves.” Shadows came alive in Shade’s nearly black eyes, writhing angrily. “This was the last thing we needed right now.”
“The ghost problem should be fixed soon, so that’ll be one thing off the plate.”
“Good. This morning both ambulances had flat tires.”
Eidolon growled in frustration. “And we nearly lost another patient because his respirator had been turned off.”
“I hate ghosts—” Shade broke off at the sight of Sin, still sitting on the bed, now pawing through a medical text. He swallowed, and the shadows in his eyes settled. “Is that… her?”
Eidolon inclined his head. “She’s been waiting a while. I need to grab her paperwork.”
“Guess I should go say hi.”
“Does this mean you’re willing to give Lore a break?”
Shade glared. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect Ky, whether you get that or not.”