Revenant (27 page)

This was going to fail, and then Revenant and Reaver were going to die.

“Reaver,” he gasped.

“Why the hell are you waiting? Do it again!”

“It’s not going to work!” Revenant’s eyes stung as grit and dust ground into them. Yeah, it was the grit. He wasn’t tearing up. “I’ve got to do it from the inside.”

“The fuck you do!” Reaver’s hair was plastered to his sweat-drenched skin and he was bleeding from dozens of wounds, but his gaze was fierce as he looked at Rev. “Do it like we planned!”

It wouldn’t work, and he knew it. In order to seal the box, he had to damage its occupants and interrupt their flow of power.

“Reaver…” His voice was raw from yelling, and he wasn’t sure his twin could even hear him. “I’m glad we got to be brothers.”

“What? No! Rev, don’t —”

“Keep Blaspheme safe. Tell her… I wish I could have seen her butterfly wings.”

“
No!
”

Revenant reversed his powers, sucking them back into his body. Every cell vibrated at a level so intense that he saw himself glow with searing heat as he dove into the cage. He had a brief glimpse of Satan and Raphael throwing themselves against the walls, their roars of rage rolling through the air in a constant thunder.

Satan lunged at him with clawed hands and T. rex–sized teeth made to shred flesh from bone.

Revenant let the explosion go.

The world went crimson.

 

 

Reaver felt his brother die.

Unbearable pain ripped through him as a fissure broke his soul wide open. “No,” he whispered, even as his legs gave out and he hit the floor in a crack of kneecaps. “No.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to get a chance at being brothers. They might not have ever been let’s-toss-a-ball-together brothers, but they could have worked out their own thing.

Reaver struggled to breathe. Revenant had sacrificed his life for him. For everyone. He’d also just taken out the top three assholes in the universe. Four, counting Lucifer.

The screaming vortex dialed down, and the cage’s spinning slowed. In a moment it would stop and melt into oblivion. For how long, Reaver didn’t know. This kind of magic had a shelf life, and he just hoped they got at least a few decades out of it.

“Revenant,” he rasped. “You son of a bitch.”

He looked over at the cube as it slowed to a lazy, wobbly spin. The crystal had gone opaque, the surface dulled, except for —

Reaver shot to his feet. The trap’s door hadn’t closed. Something was jamming it open, and blood was streaming like a river from out of the foot-wide gap. Inside, something stirred.

Fuck!

Extending his tattered wings, he shot into the air and banked hard to the right, grabbing the edge of the door as the cage spun. He clawed for purchase, gritting his teeth as he reached for the shredded arm that was jamming the door. If he could just shove it back inside —

Shit, wait!
He recognized that arm. Hoping it was attached to Revenant’s body, he swung his legs up and wedged himself into the doorway as he yanked on his brother’s wrist. Revenant’s broken body, mangled and slippery with blood, slid out of the trap and flung to the floor.

As Reaver launched away from the cube, he caught one last glimpse of Raphael, his body regenerating from the dozens of pieces it was in. Satan, already mostly re-formed, lunged as the door closed. His gaping maw and sharklike teeth were the last things Reaver saw before the cube became a solid chunk of angel-reinforced crystal.

Reaver hit the ground next to Revenant’s shattered body as the trap began to vibrate, faster and faster, until it winked out of existence.

Everything went dead silent.

The trap was gone, launched into an abyss of nothingness.

A vision flashed before his eyes, words on a page he’d read a million times.

“
And I saw a dark angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.
”

It was that moment in which Reaver understood what had just happened. The biblical prophecy had been there for eons, running alongside the one that said Reaver would ultimately break the Horsemen’s Seals and kick off Armageddon.

Revenant was part of that prophecy, and he’d just fulfilled it.

The momentousness of what had just happened combined with relief and grief, but he pushed through it to gather what was left of his brother in his arms.

“I’m sorry, Revenant,” he whispered.

And just then, he felt a spark of life. It was weak and flickering like a dying lightbulb, but it was there.

Hastily, Reaver channeled a stream of healing power into his twin, but nothing happened. If anything, the thread of life inside became even more brittle and unstable, and shit, Reaver had to get him help.

“Hold on, Brother. Please… hold on.”

“
Eidolon!
” Reaver’s voice boomed through the hospital… and it wasn’t coming through the speaker system. “
ER STAT
.”

Blaspheme’s heart jumped into her throat. Leaving behind the DNA samples and all the supplies she’d gathered to alter her identity, she sprinted from her office to the clinic’s Harrowgate, shouldered past UGC’s new dentist, and leaped inside the gate. The second she stepped into Underworld General’s Emergency Department, the metallic tang of blood assaulted her nostrils and she knew it was Revenant.

Across the room, in the closest trauma cubicle, Eidolon, Shade, and Raze were channeling power into his unresponsive body.

Crying out, she ran over, shoving her way between Reaver and Eidolon’s brother-in-law, a dhampire paramedic named Con who was doing his best to start an IV.

“What happened?” She took in Rev’s broken form, the splintered bones punching through mangled flesh, the hemorrhaging gashes, the exposed body parts that shouldn’t be on the outside of his body.

Reaver’s voice was hoarse. “I think he’s dying.”

“No.” She shook her head so hard her hair stung her cheeks. “He can’t. He’s a Shadow Angel. Nothing can kill him!” She was screeching now, as if yelling would make her words true.

“Satan can,” Reaver said. “But he did most of this to himself.”

“Eidolon,” she cried. “Please. Save him.”

She knew the doctor and the others were doing their best, but the grim expression on Eidolon’s face said it all.

Revenant wasn’t going to make it.

After all of this, he was going to die in front of her. After everything they’d been through, after he’d broken a sacred rule for her, now he was going to die. Was this the kind of consequence he talked about when he discussed his reluctance to break rules? Steal blood from a Horseman and pay with your life?

She jammed her hand into her pocket and clutched the vial of blood. She was going to smash it, destroy the damned thing. In the back of her mind, she knew she was being illogical, that destroying the vial wouldn’t bring him back, but she had to do something.

The essence of fucking death was going to —

The essence of death was also an elixir of life for those who can’t die
.

Revenant’s words rang through her ears as if funneled through a blow horn.

“Reaver.” She held out the vial. “What about this? Thanatos’s blood. Revenant said it was also an elixir of life.”

Reaver frowned. “He did?”

“Your mother told him that.”

He lifted the vial from her hand. “It can’t hurt.” He popped the rubber stopper, but she grabbed his wrist.

“No.” Oh, gods, was she really doing this? She glanced at Revenant, his lifeless eyes staring blindly at the chains hanging from the ceiling, and she knew it was the right thing. “You need to ask Thanatos.”

“But we have the blood right here.”

“Listen to me.” She clung to Reaver, her knuckles going white with the force of her grip. “Revenant broke a Watcher rule by taking it, and Thanatos clearly wasn’t willing to give it up. To use it without his permission to save Revenant’s life would be a huge violation. Revenant wouldn’t want that, I promise you. This goes all the way back to his childhood. All the way to your mother. Please, ask Thanatos.”

“Fuck,” Reaver muttered, but in an instant, he was gone.

“We don’t have time for this,” Eidolon growled at Blaspheme. “Our powers are the only thing keeping him alive. Once they fade…”

His
dermoire
was glowing brighter than she’d ever seen it, same with Shade and Raze. But their power was limited, and already she was seeing a flicker in the intensity of the glimmer shooting down Raze’s skin glyphs.

“I know,” she whispered. “Believe me, I know.”

While she waited, she held Rev’s cold, limp hand, sticky with his blood.

“Don’t you die, you bastard. Don’t you dare die.”

She repeated the words over and over, as if they were some sort of protective mantra that would keep him going. And fuck, how long did it take for Reaver to convince his son to save his brother?

“I’m fading,” Raze croaked, and Blaspheme bit back a sob at the sight of Raze’s
dermoire
losing its reddish-golden glow, its black lines swallowing the light.

Sweat dripped off Shade’s brow as he gripped Revenant’s ankle tight. “I’m running on fumes.”

“Hold… on,” Eidolon ground out, his own
dermoire
starting to flicker as well. “Where the fuck is Reaver?”

On the other side of the emergency department, the Harrowgate flashed, and Reaver burst out, followed by Thanatos and Ares, the Horseman known as War. Both Horsemen were fully armored, as if they suspected that this was some sort of trick.

“Let’s do it!” Reaver had the vial open before he skidded into the trauma room. Wasting no time, he dumped the contents between Revenant’s shredded lips. “Stand back,” he said. “Everyone but Shade and E.”

Blaspheme stayed. He gave her an I-warned-you-look, but wisely, he didn’t argue.

The Harrowgate flashed again, and Limos, her mate Arik, and the last Horseman, Reseph, entered. Great. More people who would witness her breakdown if this failed.

Closing his eyes, Reaver laid his hand on Revenant’s forehead. A low-level hum started up, startling Blas when she realized it was coming from Reaver. A golden glow surrounded him, and she watched in fascination as it seeped into Revenant’s body.

“Thanatos,” Reaver gritted out, “more.”

Instantly, Thanatos was there, a dagger in his hand. In a motion so fast she saw only a blur, he sliced into his wrist and placed the laceration against Revenant’s mouth. Limos appeared next to her brother, her pregnant belly bumping up against Revenant as she touched her fingers to a single teardrop in the corner of her eye.

“I don’t know why I feel the need to do this,” she whispered, “but…” She pressed the tips of her wet fingers to Revenant’s forehead.

Tears of the hungry. Of Famine
.

Reaver’s glow intensified, blinding Blaspheme with painful stabs of light. Eidolon and Shade shouted in agony, and then they were blown backward, and the stench of charred flesh filled the room. She heard a commotion, people calling for help, but she was frozen in place, unable to move, let alone see.

She must have blacked out, because a moment later, she felt hands lifting her off the ground.

“Wha… what happened?”

Reaver’s blurry face appeared in front of hers. “I warned you.”

“Revenant,” she gasped. “Is he —”

“I’m… here.” Revenant’s throaty voice rumbled through her like a long-overdue caress.

She wheeled around, nearly knocking herself over again as her wobbly legs tried to reorient themselves to the new vertical position. Revenant was lying on the table, his body covered only in a sheet up to his waist, and although he was bruised and looked exhausted, he was whole.

“Thank you, oh, gods, thank you.” Blaspheme threw herself on him, hugging him hard, as if he hadn’t just been pretty dead.

He threw an arm around her, holding her tight against his chest. “What… what happened?”

Reaver gripped Revenant’s hand and squeezed. “We won.”

“Awesome.”

Blaspheme straightened, afraid of hurting the ribs that only moments before had looked like a jigsaw puzzle. “You died. That’s not awesome.”

“But we imprisoned Satan for a thousand years,” Revenant said, his voice as torn up as his body had been.

Shade, his right arm wrapped in bandages, snorted. “Seriously. What did you guys do?”

Reaver frowned down at Revenant. “How did you know they’d be gone for that long? Prophecy?”

Everyone who had gathered outside the room filtered in, and suddenly the tiny space was packed with Horsemen, Seminus demons, and a couple of mates.

“The Pruosi tome.” Revenant swallowed. Winced as if his throat was sore. Blas had a feeling he’d be feeling the aches and pains of this battle for a while. “It’s kind of a recipe book. I combined a recipe for a brig and an abyss, and both have a shelf life of a thousand years.”

“So wait,” Eidolon said, wearing bandages that matched Shade’s. “You’re serious. You’re saying you locked Satan in a magical brig and tossed him into an abyss? Satan.
For a thousand years?
”

“And we locked him up with Raphael, Gethel, and Lucifer.”

Wraith, lounging against the doorjamb, whistled. “Dude, he’s gonna be
pissed
when he gets out.”

“We’ll worry about that in nine hundred and ninety-nine years,” Revenant said. He took Blaspheme’s hand and tugged her down onto the bed. “You didn’t perform your ceremony.”

“The blood went toward a better use,” she said. “And you’ll be happy to know that Thanatos willingly gave it to you. And more.” She smiled over at the pregnant Horseman. “And Limos gave you her tears.”

From near the doorway, Thanatos dipped his head in a slow, respectful nod. Limos rolled her eyes.

“What ceremony?” Wraith asked, and Eidolon used that opportunity to usher everyone out to give them some privacy.

When everyone was gone and Blaspheme was alone with Revenant, she allowed herself to relax. The tautness in his body melted away as well, and for a moment, they lay there in silence, reveling in the relief that the nightmare was over.

“I wish you’d told me what you had planned,” she finally said.

“You only would have worried more.”

“That’s not your call to make,” she said sternly. “Next time, you tell me. Got it?”

He chuckled. “The next time I imprison Satan inside a mystical box?”

“You know what I mean,” she ground out.

His arms closed even more tightly around her. “I know.”

Another comfortable silence wrapped around them, and she almost wished they could remain like this, with no immediate worries, no dealing with anything except recovering from wounds, physical and mental. But at some point they needed to discuss the future, and Blaspheme had spent too much time facing uncertainty to want to delay the talk they had to have.

“So,” she said softly. “What now?”

His hand sifted through her hair as she snuggled against his chest. “That depends, I guess.”

Her stomach clenched. “On what?”

“On if you can get past what I did to your father.”

She pushed up onto her elbow so she could look at him while she spoke. “My mother told me everything. You were right. He was a bastard. And even if he wasn’t, you weren’t… you. Your past doesn’t matter to me, Revenant.”

He grinned. “That settles it, then.”

“Settles what?”

“We’re getting mated.”

She nearly swallowed her tongue. “Ah… what?”

“You don’t have to say yes right away.” His expression turned serious. “But never doubt what I feel for you. I lost everything the day my mother died, including my soul. And when no one else saw the good in me, not even my brother, you did. You brought me back to life in more ways than one, Blaspheme, and I never want to be without that lifeline again.” His hand came up to cup her cheek. “I love you, and whether you say yes or no, that will never change.”

Tears stung her eyes. “I love you, too,” she said, her voice breaking with the force of her emotion. “You let me in when no one else could. Yes, I’ll mate you. I’ll
so
mate you.”

Sliding his hand around the nape of her neck, he drew her down for a kiss so full of promise that the tears let loose. “I want you. Here. Now.”

Through her tear-blurred vision, she saw the evidence of that pushing the sheet into a tent. “As your doctor, I would be remiss if I didn’t say you should rest and avoid sex.”

His eyes shot wide in horror. “For how long?”

With a sly smile, she burrowed her hand under the sheet. “Until I say otherwise.” Her palm found him, thick and hard. “For now, I promise you’re in good hands.”

He groaned. “Who am I to go against doctor’s orders?”

Smart male. And as his doctor, she was prepared to give him a lot of orders.