Revenant (Lords of Deliverance 6)

She stared after the surgeon in disbelief. “What did you say to him?”

Revenant snorted. “Boo.”

“I don’t believe you. But I don’t have time to play referee.” She rubbed her eyes, wondering when she’d see her bed again. “You said the object Soduchi found inside my mo – ah, my patient, is an angelic tracking device?”

He nodded. “They’re implanted into the skin.”

Gods, this wasn’t good. “Do they burrow until they hit an organ or barrier?”

“No.” He rolled the tiny device between his fingers. “They’re designed to remain just under the top layer of skin, and they’re only active while inside a body, whether it’s alive or dead.”

She frowned. “How would one get into the inferior vena cava?” At his blank look, she elaborated. “A vein that brings blood to the heart.”

“Ah.” He shrugged. “It might have been implanted inside an open wound. It could bore its way inside from there.” He looked over at the OR door, and even though Blas was pretty sure he couldn’t see through it, she started to sweat. “Who is this patient, anyway? Angels don’t just go around tagging people, and only certain angels possess the ability.”

“Certain angels?” She swallowed sickly. “Like?”

“Interrogators, Eradicators, Enforcers… a few more, probably.” His voice went thick with contempt, while she was pretty sure hers was going to go shrill with anxiety. Why would someone track her mother… unless they were trying to get to Blaspheme? If that had been the goal, it had worked beautifully. “I’m not exactly up on angelic operations. Seems they neglected to invite me to the meetings.”

Had he expected to be invited to meetings? He seemed to take the subject a little too personally.

“Well,” she said, thankful that the shrill thing didn’t happen, “I’ll have to ask my patient when she wakes up.” She held out her hand. “Can I have the tracker, please?”

A sly grin spread over his face, and she groaned. “Go to dinner with me.”

“I’m not going to be blackmailed into a date, especially not over this. I won’t compromise patient care. Ever.” She made a come-on-and-give-it-to-me gesture with her fingers. “So hand it over. Eidolon will want to study it.”

His gaze swept over her, fleeting and almost cursory, and yet she felt as though she’d been examined for hours and stripped naked. “A False Angel with principles. How… rare.”

She was starting to hate the way he could find the chinks in her armor. And she really hated how she seemed to always be playing defense around him. If this were one of her mother’s favorite sports, the Sheoul Fallen Angels would always have the ball, would always be ahead in points, and the Underworld General Vyrm would be struggling to merely get on the scoreboard.

“So you fit the fallen angel mold perfectly?” she shot back. Field goal for the Underworld General Vyrm.

“Hardly. But every species is defined by certain traits. All tigers are carnivores. Seminus demons have to screw or they’ll die.” His gaze took a slow, measuring ride down her body, and said body heated up. “False Angels need to deceive, lie, and seduce others or they’ll waste away. So I’m wondering, Blaspheme, how you feed your needs if you’re such a model of integrity.”

Sheoul Fallen Angels score a touchdown.

She shrugged as if it were no big deal, but inside she was trembling. She couldn’t afford anyone questioning what she was, especially not a fallen angel.

“I go to human clubs to fulfill my needs,” she said. “At work, I’m a doctor, pure and simple.”

“Good.” He dropped the tiny crystal seed into her hand. “Because I despise liars and deceivers.” He waggled his brows. “Seducers, on the other hand…”

Blaspheme rolled her eyes, but was spared from having to scrounge up a witty comeback when the door to the OR opened, and nurses and support staff prepared to move Deva to a recovery room.

“Why don’t you come to my office,” she said hastily, before someone said something about the patient being her mother. “We can discuss Gethel’s lab results.”

“Lead the way.” The team transferring Deva pushed out of the room as they were leaving, and Revenant craned his head around. “It’s that fallen angel you were treating yesterday.”

Shit. “You have a good memory.”

For some reason, that made him laugh. “If you only knew.” He eyed her as they traversed the busy hospital halls on the way to the Harrowgate. “Blaspheme?”

“Yes?”

He hesitated. And then, “Do you feel like you belong here?”

What a strange question. “You mean here? At the hospital?”

“I mean helping people. Your species isn’t known for its altruism.”

She did not like that he kept questioning her False Angelness. “I suppose you could say that I’ve never really fit in with my kind. I’m a bit of a square peg.”

On that, she didn’t have to lie. Being born a vyrm made her a product of two worlds, and she didn’t fit in either, which was probably why she preferred the human realm.

“Have you tried?”

“What, to fit in somewhere?” At his nod, she shrugged. “For a while, yes.”

Encouraged by her mother to blend in with other Sheoulic denizens, she’d attempted to connect with her evil side, but her angel half didn’t handle it well. Guilt ate at her like acid, and worse, she felt physically ill when forced into situations that required a measure of malevolence. But she’d always thought it was strange that the opposite didn’t happen. Good deeds didn’t disturb her sinister half.