I closed my eyes and exhaled. “Thank you.” I hung up and did a Google search, finding the number to Hartford Hospital and repeated the process.
They took down my name and phone number, validating I was on the list of next of kin. Once they were satisfied, they put me on hold. I paced while waiting for a voice, glancing at the clock and calculating the time we first entered the emergency room and now. Seven hours had passed. A hell of a lot more than I thought and the longer I was on hold, the more unnerved I got.
“Mr. Andreas?” a male voice asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m Dr. Browne, the surgeon in charge of your cousin’s case,” he said and papers shuffled. “She is in the recovery room at the moment, but we will be moving her to the intensive care within the hour.”
“Is she... okay?”
The doctor hesitated. “I’ll know more in the morning. I understand her uncle is on the way. If you have the means to get here...” he drifted off.
“Unfortunately, I’m not in the position to get to Hartford at the moment,” I said. “Can you give me some specifics?”
“The knife punctured her right kidney and we were unable to save it. It also nicked the renal artery and she lost a great deal of blood.”
“She can survive with one kidney, right?”
“Yes, the kidney is the least of her worries,” the doctor said. “The blood loss and increased chance of infection are the bigger issues, but now that we’ve contained the bleeding, she should have a better chance to fight off whatever bacteria might have been on that knife.”
I remained quiet. “Chances of survival?” I asked when he didn’t say anything more.
“If she makes it through the night I can give you better odds.”
“What are her odds of making it through the night?”
“A little better than fifty percent.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the information,” I said and hung up. My next call was to Ted and it took a couple of rings before he answered.
“Damian?” he asked after the shuffle sounds stopped.
“Yes, sir.”
“I assume you know what happened,” he said and I heard a blinker in the background.
“Demons, sir,” I said. “They attacked her when we were in Torrington.”
“What the hell were you doing in Torrington?”
“Valerie wanted Naomi checked out by a doctor.”
“Why?”
“Naomi is pregnant.”
Silence. Ted’s breathing filled the line and all the prophecies Michael had told came to the forefront of my mind.
“Naomi’s due in October and Val was worried that she might be diabetic.” I crossed the kitchen and leaned on the window frame, scanning the wood line beyond the fence. “Val took us to the doctor’s office.”
“Let me guess, the doctor was a demon?”
I blinked at the venom in his question. “No. One of the nurses.”
“You think that’s a coincidence?”
“I... uh,” I stumbled on the words.
“They’ve been watching the house ever since Michael dropped the two of you on our doorstep, and you can bet they were laying in wait for this day.”
The mention of Michael’s name tightened my throat. “Michael’s dead.”
“What?”
“Lucifer showed up at the hospital. So did Michael, and he didn’t make it.” Just recounting the day sucked the life out of me and I walked to the couch in the living room, dropping into the soft cushions. “I don’t know how soon after that they sent Val to Hartford, but I’m glad they did otherwise Lucifer would have found her and eaten her heart too.”
“How did you get out of there?”
“Cops converged.” It was the first time in my life I had been truly happy to see a cop in the vicinity. “And I grabbed Naomi and ran.” I paused and licked my lips. “Did you know Michael gave me his grace?”
An exhale filled the line. “No. He didn’t mention that, but I knew bringing you back from the dead nearly did him in,” Ted said and the soft purr of the engine cut off. “I’m at the hospital. I’ll let you know if her condition changes.”
“Thank you.”
“And Damian?”
“Yeah?”
“You and Naomi need to look for another place to live.”
I huffed a laugh out. “What?”
“I have to keep my niece safe, and I can’t with you there.”
“Ted...” I trailed off. He was right and even though the property was mine, it was where Valerie had lived all her life. I couldn’t take that away from her, not when association with me had cost her everything else.
“I’m serious. I want the two of you gone before I bring her home from the hospital.”
There was no leeway in his statement and I closed my eyes. “Fine. I’ll start looking in the morning.”
“I’ll let you know if anything changes with Valerie,” he said and hung up the phone.
I dropped the phone on the table and rubbed my face. Naomi wasn’t going to take this well and I had no clue how I’d get us out of here without being attacked.
***