“Thank you, Eidolon. What you’ve done… it means the world to me. I don’t know how I can pay you back.”

“Don’t get killed. That’s payment enough.” He stood, a clear sign that this convo was done. “As far as your mother, she can stay here, too, for as long as you both need to after she’s healed.”

Her eyes stung at his kindness. Oh, she knew a large part of his motivation was keeping her as a doctor, but he was also loyal to a fault.

“Thank you again,” she said. “You almost make me believe I can get out of this alive.”

Almost.

Seventeen

“Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite fallen angel.”

Revenant sat in the underworld pub known as the Four Horsemen, working on his… tenth?… mug of Pestilence porter as he lounged in the corner booth and watched the curvy succubus saunter toward him. She was carrying her own mug of Horseman-themed brew, Famine ale, if he wasn’t mistaken.

“’Sup, Laylach.”

Her ruby lips curved into a seductive smile he’d seen wrapped around his dick once or twice. He waited for his cock to remember and get all excited, but it didn’t seem to want to come out to play.

Lay, as she fittingly liked to be called, sank down in the booth and scooted next to him. Her short skirt hiked up, revealing her lack of panties and a whole lot more. The scent of her arousal engulfed him, but still he felt dead below the waist.

Her hand came down on his thigh. “Wanna hit the back room?” She slid her palm up to cup his crotch. “Or I could do you right here.”

Across the room, another succubus was doing exactly that to a Bathag demon, his moans carrying through the air as she blew him from under the table.

“Not now,” he said, keeping his eye on the front entrance. “You can fondle me all you want, but that’s not what I’m here for.”

“Yeah? Why are you here, then?”

He grasped her wrist and shoved it into her lap. “Nunya.”

She frowned. “Nunya?”

“Yeah. Nunya business.” In the other booth a portly Oni male had joined in, lifting the succubus onto the bench so he could fuck her while she sucked the Bathag. The patrons at the bar were cheering and making ribald comments, and he had a feeling an orgy was about to start.

It would be the second one tonight.

He should be worked up into a sexual frenzy by now, but dammit, all he could think about was Blaspheme and how she’d tasted. How she’d felt. How she’d sounded when she came.

Now his cock joined the party, and Lay, not one to miss a cue, had him unzipped and was stroking him in a heartbeat. For a moment, he closed his eyes and let her work him, her expert touch something that should have gotten him revved in an instant.

But she made the mistake of whispering in his ear, telling him how badly she wanted to suck him off. But her offer wasn’t the mistake. Her mistake was that she wasn’t a False Angel named Blaspheme.

Fuck, he had it bad. Yes, she was sexy and mouthy and drop-dead gorgeous. And she had a streak of decency in her that drew him, made him want to be decent, too.

But she was also of a species that used deception to fulfill their needs, and by all accounts, no False Angel had ever settled down with a single male. Even when they hooked up with a male False Angel for breeding purposes, they only stayed until they conceived.

And why in the hell was he even thinking about this?

Snarling, he shoved Laylach away, zipped up, and scooted over before she realized he was going to deflate in about two seconds.

“Sorry,” he said gruffly. “I told you. I’m not here for that.”

She pouted prettily. “Maybe next time?”

“Sure, babe,” he said vaguely. “Next time.”

She grinned, satisfied with his answer, grabbed her beer, and headed for her next mark. As she sidled up to a Ramreel at the end of the bar, the front door opened, and the demon he’d been waiting for walked in.

The Orphmage, a Neethul demon powerful enough to earn the status of Satan’s personal mage, caught sight of Revenant instantly and came over. “I’m surprised you wanted to meet here,” Gormesh said. “It’s very public.”

Which was precisely why he’d chosen this location. Word of this meeting would get back to Satan, and he wanted to make sure it didn’t look like he was trying to hide anything.

A twinge of pain shot through his head, and wouldn’t you know it, Satan was sending a summons. It wasn’t urgent; the pain would increase as the urgency grew, and right now it was merely an annoyance. But still, the timing was curious.

Gormesh took a seat across the booth from Rev and flashed a mouthful of sharp, white teeth. “You know I don’t meet with anyone outside my residence. I almost didn’t come.”

Revenant slammed his fist on the table, startling the cocky bastard. “Don’t fuck with me,” he growled. “You were salivating over the opportunity to meet with a Shadow Angel to see what I want. So let’s cut the shit.”

Gormesh’s sleazy smile made Rev want to rip it off his face. “Let’s do that, then. What is it you want from me?”

“Information. I want to know what you did to Gethel to speed up Lucifer’s birth.” Actually, he didn’t give a shit. But the only way he was going to get the information he needed was to pretend this was about the pregnant fallen angel.

“Ah.” Laylach caught Gormesh’s attention, and he watched her lead the Ramreel into the back room as he leaned back in his seat. “It was a blood spell. But it didn’t work, thanks to the archangels’ interference.”