Whatever.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Eidolon peered closely into Gabriel’s wrecked eye. “Are your injuries a result of your expulsion from Heaven?”
“Angels took my wings,” Gabriel growled. “Everything else is the handiwork of Lilith and her merry band of evil skanks.”
“Lilith?” Eidolon’s voice dipped low as he channeled energy into Gabriel’s eye. “If it’s the Lilith I think you mean, I have a lot of friends who’d be interested in any information you can provide.”
Gabriel was counting on that. They’d also be interested to know about the fallen angel who worked with Lilith. Fearr, once a high-ranking commander in Satan’s armies, had taken the number-two spot on the Horsemen and Underworld General staff’s must-die list after a violent encounter in UG’s parking lot. Apparently, her two accomplices had already met gruesome ends at the Horsemen’s hands, but they’d been looking for Fearr for three decades now.
Eidolon frowned. “You’ve got multiple injuries in various stages of healing. Damn,” he breathed. “Some of them must have been excruciating. How long were you—?”
“A million years,” Gabriel broke in. That’s what it had felt like,anyway. “A million damned years.”
Gabriel had to give the demon credit. He took a hint and stopped asking questions about something Gabriel wanted to put behind him. Angels were highly resistant to severe mental trauma and skilled at compartmentalization, which meant locking shit away. And every time you opened the door to access a little information, you risked letting everything out.
Shadows flickered on the edges of his vision. “Doc? My eye—”
“It’s almost healed,” Eidolon said. “Just one second…”
There. Gabriel could see out of that eye again. He glanced around at the skulls and jars of grotesque things on the shelves and mounted on the walls and decided it had been better when his vision sucked.
“We done, doc?”
Eidolon nodded. “Find a safe place to hole up for a while. You’ll probably fall into a light coma. You’re only partially healed, and your Unfallen body needs time to adapt to its new status. Once it does, you’ll be as good as new.”
“Good as new would mean having wings,” Gabriel said.
“True.” The doctor reached for a clipboard hanging nearby. “You never said what happened to get you booted from Heaven.”
“You’re right.” Gabriel left it at that.
The demon probably already knew far too much of what was happening inside Heaven than he should. Again, it appeared that Eidolon and his family were trustworthy, fighting on the side of Team Good. But while Gabriel wasn’t beneath allying with them when needed, he refused to trust them.
Once again, Eidolon didn’t press. That was the thing about this particular demon. He was calm, cool, and smart enough to know when to push and when to let go. Gabriel knewangelswith worse temperaments and lower IQs.
“So, what’s the plan?” Eidolon asked. “You don’t strike me as someone who wants to enter Sheoul willingly, and once word gets out there’s an Archangel Unfallen on the loose, you’re going to be hunted to the ends of the Earth. So, how are you going to avoid being caught and forced to become a True Fallen?”
Gabriel had thought a lot about that. A lot. There hadn’t been much else to do while he was being held prisoner, and right now, survival was his number-one priority. He’d resisted coming here, to this hospital run by evil degenerates, but Raika may have unknowingly provided him with exactly what he needed.
“Actually, I was hoping you could help me with that.”
One black eyebrow cocked up. “You want a job? Reaver was a physician here back when he was Unfallen. Kept him safe for decades.”
There wasn’t a Celestial in Heaven who didn’t know that story. Reaver was a legend among angels, loved by many, hated by more. Once an Unfallen with either no memories or false ones, he had been one of only a handful of fallen angels who had earned his wings back. His mate, Harvester, was the only True Fallen to earn hers, and together, the two formerly fallen angels made a formidable team.
Until a coup in Heaven resulted in Reaver being taken captive and Harvester being killed.
“I don’t want a job,” Gabriel said. No, it was not the time to hide. Right now was the time to fight. Heaven was in trouble, ruled by an extremist faction, and Gabriel had to find a way to take it back. That wouldn’t happen if he buried himself in work—work healingdemons. “I want you to help me get in touch with one of the Four Horsemen.”
“Why would you think I can do that?”
He gave Eidolon an are-you-kidding-me look. “Don’t bullshit me. I know you’re all tight. You run in the same circles, and your kids all hang out together. Ares’s daughter is practically chained to two of your nephews. So cut the shit.”
Eidolon snorted in amusement. “Fair enough. Who do you want me to contact?”
“Ares.”
“Why?”
