Blade flung his go-bag onto the floor. “Who?”
He drew out the anticipation by chugging half his water. He’d always liked a side of drama the way everyone else liked a side of fries. “Gabriel.”
Scotty’s eyebrows shot up. “No way! The Archangel?”
“The very halo.”
Blade, his dark eyes as wide as Scotty’s hazel ones, paused with his bottle of water halfway to his lips. “But angels can’t enter Underworld General.”
“They can if they’ve lost their wings.”
Shock lit their expressions, making the freckles on Scotty’s cheeksstand out like a dusting of cinnamon on cream. “What? He’sfallennow?”
“Unfallen, but yeah.”
“Holy shit.” Absently, she reached up to twirl her hair around her finger. She’d fidgeted with her hair since she was a kid. He’d thought it was cute when they were younger, the fierce little wildcat with a sword in one hand and a finger wrapped in a curl on the other. Now, he couldn’t look at her doing that without thinking about how her ponytail had felt in his fist while his teeth were in her throat. “Was it because of what went down on the oil rig?” She gave her ponytail a frustrated tug. “Iknewhe killed Hutriel. No way a demon did it the way he claimed.”
Mace had similar thoughts about Gabriel and the other angel. The battle scene on the helicopter pad, littered with demon and angel parts, had been sketchy as hell. The cut that had severed Hutriel’s head had been oddly clean, unlikely to have been made by a demon’s claws or teeth. But Gabriel’s sword could have done it.
“Gabriel didn’t say why,” Mace said, “but it sounds like he got the boot right after that. And get this… Lilith caught him and held him prisoner. It was Raika who rescued him.”
“Lilith.” Scotty sank onto the couch as if her legs had given out. Her grandmother was a heavy subject. Blade moved as if to lay a hand on her shoulder, but seemed to think better of it at the last second, snatching his hand back like she was a hot stovetop. Made sense. Sometimes, Scotty was as prickly as her father when it came to physical comfort. Pricklier when it came to her demon granny. “Did Raika get her? Tell me she got her.”
“Nah. Bitch got away.” Mace threw his aching leg up onto the ottoman. The throbbing eased, but it only made the growing throb in his pelvis more noticeable. He needed an injection. Soon.
“Where was Lilith keeping him?” Scotty’s eyes were bright now, the flecks of emerald embedded in the hazel depths having turned to shards, lit by the fire of hatred. “Where can we find her?”
“Chill, Scott.” Mace fell back against the cushions. “It’s not like I interrogated the guy. I didn’t even see him. Just heard it through the FGC.” The family gossip channel had a lot of fodder lately. “That’s all I got for catch-up.” He slumped as he thought of one more thing. The worst thing. “Did Ky tell you about Eva?”
“Yeah.” Scotty stood again. She seemed oddly restless, more than usual when someone brought her grandmother up. “I’m going to help my sister find Harvester’s blood as soon as I leave here. She thinks she’s close.”
“Let us know if you need help,” Blade said.
“Will do.”
The situation sucked, and Mace didn’t like being mired in suck, so he changed the subject. “So, how did you guys get the wendigo?”
Blade snorted. “It wasn’t just one. We took out six of the bastards in their lair.”
“Six?”
“Plus demons.” Scotty popped her foot onto a chair and bent to tie her sneaker. Mace forced himself not to stare at her legs. Toned and smooth, made to squeeze a male between them. He’d gotten a taste when he fed, and now he couldn’t stop thinking about it. “Low-level hordes.”
The hordes were the worst. Whether in video games or real life, he’d rather fight one powerful demon boss than a dozen scrappy minions bent on overwhelming their opponents.
“Where was their lair?”
“A cave system,” Blade said. “The demons were coming through an incursion deep inside the mountains. We think it happened during a recent earthquake that awakened the original wendigo.”
Scotty nodded. “Kynan’s going to ask StryTech to seal the rift the way they did with the one at the oil rig.”
“It’s weird that we’re suddenly finding a bunch of these things.” Most rifts had existed for thousands of years, but for various reasons, they couldn’t be easily used by most species. But when the veil was extra thin or torn, it allowed for demons and malevolent energy to pour out uninhibited.
Blade’s voice took on the gruff tone he always used when his brother was the topic of conversation. “That’s what Kynan said. He’ll talk to Stryke about that too.”
“Did you catch any demon souls with the new weapon?”
Blade glanced over at Scotty again. This time, Mace absolutely knew Blade looked contrite.
