“Your spell did something,” Rev said. The orgy across the way had gained two more participants. Someone was going to have to disinfect that table. “Lucifer is twice the size he should be.”

Gormesh shrugged. “What do you want me to do about it?”

“I want to know if it means he’ll be born soon, or if there’s still three months to go.”

“I have no idea. Have Gethel see a physician.”

“Gee,” Rev drawled. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“No need to get pissy.” The air became charged with sex, tangible enough that Rev felt it skate across his skin in an electric tingle. Gormesh felt it, too, and began to rub himself through his muslin breeches. “I’m just saying that I can’t tell you when Gethel will drop the little bastard.”

Shit. Revenant wasn’t ready to make any rash decisions regarding handing her over to Reaver, but he definitely didn’t want to procrastinate and risk her giving birth before he could decide if, when, or how he’d surrender her to Heaven.

At this point, the only thing he was sure about was that if he chose to hand over Gethel, he wanted into Heaven on his own terms, not because a bunch of archangel pricks said they’d purify his blood in exchange for her.

“She had a prenatal checkup a couple of days ago,” Revenant said as Gormesh got more serious with the fondling. “Tests revealed an unknown substance in her blood. Know what it might be? And put your cock back in your pants before I slice it off and feed it to the hell stallion outside.”

Cursing under his breath, Gormesh shoved his pencil dick back inside his breeches. “Fuck if I know. Does her physician think it’s harming her?”

Just the word, physician, gave Rev a hard-on. Blaspheme had gotten way too deep under his skin.

Revenant shifted into a more relaxed pose, giving Gormesh the impression that the next question meant nothing to him, when the exact opposite was true.

“The doctors are stumped. If it is harming her, do you know if it can be removed? If her blood can be purified?”

Revenant didn’t give a shit if Gethel’s blood could be purified. This was all about him. If Revenant could purify his own blood of Satan’s taint, then he wouldn’t need the fucking archangels to do it. Which meant they couldn’t blackmail him into shit, and he could hang out in Heaven as much as he wanted to.

Yeah, it’ll be great to hang out with people who don’t want you there.

So what? He didn’t need to be wanted. He needed to take what was his, whether or not the archangels approved.

Gormesh cast a longing glance at the orgy in the other booth. “Purification depends on what the substance is.”

Revenant looked at the Orphmage over the rim of his beer mug. “What if it’s blood?”

“She has blood in her blood?”

The dense idiot. “What if she drank Satan’s blood?”

Gormesh’s gaze narrowed, and Revenant started to sweat. “Of course she ingested his blood. It was part of the ritual required to prepare her body to host Lucifer.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I was there,” Gormesh said, the faintest hint of a smile turning up his blue-tinged lips.

“When Lucifer was conceived?”

Gormesh reached for his crotch again, but wisely jerked his hand away. “Yes.”

Okay, now they were getting somewhere. “Can she be cleansed of Satan’s blood?”

Say yes. Please say yes.

“No.”

Disappointment soured Rev’s porter. Shit might as well be vinegar. “Are you sure?”

Gormesh growled. “I am the most powerful mage to ever exist. And when I say that, I don’t mean in Sheoul. I mean in all three realms.” He leaned forward, slapping his hands on the table. Dude was worked up. “Not even Heaven has an angel who can wield magic as well as I can. So question me again at your own peril.”

Revenant laughed softly, his body languid from the alcohol, but his mind was razor sharp. “You do remember who I am.”

The Orphmage, drunk on a power trip fueled by the sex magic in the air, sneered. “Even you can’t match my ability to control the environment. Your power is limited in scope, while mine is —” He cut off in a strangled wheeze as Revenant’s limited power garroted the moron.

Revenant hadn’t even moved a muscle. Didn’t think he could, given the Pestilence porter’s relaxing effect.

“Just yesterday, I stood in Archangel Hall and sent an archangel to Sheoul-gra. An archangel. Do you know what an archangel is, fuckhead? Sending him to the demon graveyard guarded by Hades and the Grim Reaper took less effort than getting an erection.” He squeezed Gormesh’s throat harder. “Now, do you really want to see whose dick is bigger?”

Gormesh’s gray eyes were bulging and wild. “No,” he wheezed.

“Good. You’re smarter than you look.” Revenant released the Orphmage, who grabbed his neck and sucked in huge lungfuls of air. “Let’s try this again. Are you sure Gethel’s blood can’t be purified of Satan’s blood?”

Gormesh coughed, still holding his neck tenderly. “Yes.”

“How do you know?”

The Orphmage hesitated for a heartbeat. “Because I tried it on your father.”

“You… what?” Rev shook his head, unable to process that. Finally, he croaked, “Sandalphon died in the battle that got my mother captured.”