“And yesterday,” Darien continued, “he was in a rage allday.Not even Lilliana dared to cross him.You should have seen him at dinner.He devoured a steak like it was someone’s soul.He was fuckingsnarling.”
“Yeah?You know what else is snarling?”Hawk looked down athis destroyed abdomen.“My wound, thanks to the radioactive sludge you drippedinto it.”
Darien laughed.“You think Underworld General will be anybetter?”
“Can’t be worse.”
Funny, but Darien had nothing to say about that, and Hawkynwasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
The staff at Underworld General Hospital weren’t thenicest people Hawkyn had ever met, but they fixed him quickly, and withoutusing crazy mystery potions.They’d even called in the head doctor afterHawkyn’s full sister, Idess, explained who he was.UGH might specialize indemon care, but the children of Azagoth and siblings of Idess got first classtreatment.
As he started to leave the building, located beneath thebusy streets of Manhattan, Idess gave him a hug.“I’ll be taking Mace to seehis grandpa tomorrow.Will you be there?”
Idess was mated to one of the Seminus brothers who ran thehospital, and they had a rambunctious, dark-haired toddler who was full ofmischief and who might be just the thing to lighten Azagoth’s mood.
“If I am, I’ll make sure to see you guys.”
She gestured to the sliding ER doors to the parking lot.“Where are you off to?”
He hesitated.Idess had broken Memitim rules for one of herPrimori a while back, so he could probably trust her, but...
“I haven’t decided yet,” he lied.He hesitated again, andthen, well, fuck it.“Idess?”
“Yes?”
“When you were Memitim, you had to protect some realscumbags, didn’t you?Including an assassin?”
She cocked an eyebrow.“Careful, little brother.”Her tone,issuing a playful warning, reminded him of Suzanne.But given that he, Suzanne,and Idess were full siblings—centuries apart—he wasn’t surprised.“Thatassassin is now my mate.”
“But he’s not an assassin anymore,” he pointed out.“He’s apartner at the hospital, and he works here, right?”
She nodded.“In the morgue.”
Since the dude’s bare-handed touch was fatal, working withdead people seemed like a good job for him.
“Okay,” he said, “but what was it like having to protectsomeone who killed for money?”
“What’s this about, Hawk?”Idess crossed her arms across theblack scrub top she wore over a pair of jeans.She had the mom-thing down pat.“Is one of your Primori an assassin?”
“Serial killer.”
She winced.“That’s tough.I know that bad people affectchange in human society in ways we can’t understand at the time, but it’s stillhard to stand by and let them wreak havoc.I had to watch overa number oftruly disgusting Primori in my two thousandyears of service, and the ones who tortured and killed for pleasure were someof the worst.”
Agreed.But somehow Hawkyn hadmanaged to disconnect himself from his Primoris’ lives, duty-bound to protectthem no matter what.And he still would.But he couldn’t get Aurora’s eyes,wide with terror, out of his mind.
“How did you deal with it?”he asked, lowering his voice asif the hospital was full of Memitim Council members instead of vampires,demons, and werewolves.“Were you ever tempted to save the victims?”
“All the time,” she sighed.“If not for my brother reiningme in, I might have.”
“Would that have been so bad?”
She blinked in surprise, and he couldn’t blame her.He wasjust as surprised that those words had come out of his mouth.
“Hawkyn, I’d think you of all people would understand theneed to not interfere in the lives of our Primori.Don’t you want to join theMemitim Council when you Ascend?It won’t happen if you break a rule likethat.”
Well awareof that fact, heswallowed dryly.“I’m just curious.”
She didn’t appear to buy it.“Once,” she said, lowering hervoice the way he had, “when I had a breakdown over the death of a teen girl atthe hands of one of my Primori, a king who got off on raping and murdering hisown subjects, a Council member broke with protocol by telling me that the kingwasn’t Primori because he was a great ruler who would make a difference in theworld.In fact, his name has been, deservedly, lost to history.He was Primoribecause he was destined to kill the girl.If he hadn’t, she would have givenbirth to someone who would have changed the course of history and made Caligulaseem tame and sweet.”She inhaled a ragged breath.“It’s still hard to thinkabout, but youhave totrust that the systemworks, andremember that ninety percent of the people youprotect are good.We just tend to obsess over the bad ones.”
