Who had been sedated after Shade and E told him he was dying. Wraith had taken the news surprisingly well, but neither Shade nor Eidolon had trusted him to not immediately take off after the second assassin. They wanted him here, where they could monitor his health, though they had to know that their little brother wouldn’t be held immobile for long. That demon couldn’t sit still, and doing nothing wasn’t in his DNA.
Making matters even worse, the hospital had been plagued by odd equipment and structural failures. All of the windows lining the inside of the administrative area had cracked, the lights in the cafeteria flickered constantly, and the third-wing lava bath had leaked, destroying the sulphur-steam room next to it. Eidolon had been kept too busy with the problems to concentrate on medicine, because every time he fixed one thing, something else would go wrong.
“I had a consult with an Orphmage this morning,” Gem said, “but he was no help.”
She hadn’t expected the powerful Cruentus mage to be of assistance, but it had been worth a shot. Cruenti had a bloodthirsty love of killing that didn’t stop even at their own species, so she’d thought that maybe a Cruentus mage capable of the vilest of death magic would know something about how to interrupt mordlair toxin.
He’d been more interested in how to get some for himself.
“I could try again—” She broke off with a gasp.
A sinister wash of energy rolled over her, followed by several smaller concussions, as if a stone had been dropped into tainted water. She was about to ask if anyone else felt it, but from their expressions, she definitely was not the only one at the table to experience the… whatever it was. Even after the tiny waves stopped, the uneasy feeling remained, a sense that something evil had ripped into the very fabric of life.
Something bad, something very, very bad had been set into motion.
“What the hell was that?” E rasped, seeming more affected than Gem, but then, he was full-blooded demon, and she was half human, less sensitive to the tides of evil.
Gem shook her head, which did nothing to get rid of the impending feeling of doom.
“Reaver?” Tayla leaped to her feet. “Shit!”
All heads turned to the fallen angel, who sat in his high-backed leather seat… convulsing. Instantly, the doctors and Shade, a paramedic, had him on the floor and were assessing his condition, but this wasn’t a medical issue, and both Gem and Tayla knew it.
“Leave him alone.” Tayla’s voice shook as badly as Gem’s hands.
Thanks to their half-Soulshredder parentage, the sisters could see that Reaver had split wide open along the seam of an invisible scar that ran from his throat to his groin.
Soulshredders possessed the ability to see scars, both physical and emotional, that no one else could. Their species used their ability to expose old wounds, exploit them, make them worse. Gem had spent twenty-six years battling her nature, sometimes unsuccessfully. But her nature also gave her a lot of advantages when it came to her job.
Gem moved in, crouched next to Reaver as he seized, sapphire eyes rolled back in his head. The other docs were still crowded close, and as Tayla joined Gem, she shoved them all aside. Dimly, Gem heard E ask what the hell was going on, but her full attention was on Reaver.
He grabbed Gem’s wrist with one hand, squeezing so hard she had to clench her teeth to keep from crying out. “Someone found… her.”
She placed her hand on his chest next to the emotional scar that had come apart as if he’d been unzipped. As a Soulshredder, she could use her power to mend scars as well as make them worse, though her mixed blood diluted her ability, and something this big was way too much for her to handle. Still, she had to try.
“Who, Reaver? What are you talking about?”
He didn’t seem to hear, was muttering, mostly incoherently. “Serena… Sentinel… exposed… fuck.”
Gem was confused as hell, but Tayla leaned in, placing her hand next to Gem’s. “Reaver? What about Serena? Do you mean she’s charmed?”
Reaver didn’t answer, but his convulsions eased into mildly spastic twitches. Something ugly reared up inside Gem, made her want to keep the scar open, to probe harder and deeper. The impulse to dig and cause pain terrified her, and she jerked her hand away, only to have Tayla grab it and put it back.
“This is important,” Tay growled, her own Soulshredder instinct surfacing. “We need to learn more.”
Gem took a deep, ragged breath and demoned up. Ruthlessly, she dug her fingers into his scar and tugged, as Tayla did the same. Reaver screamed, but Gem ignored the sound, got into his face.
“Who is Serena?”
“Kelley…” Reaver groaned, muttering in a language Gem didn’t know.
“She’s a Marked Sentinel?” Tayla asked, and Reaver froze. Then, suddenly, in a blinding flash of light, he flew across the room as if he’d been knocked senseless by a Gargantua demon and landed in a crumpled heap against the wall.