“No. But I’m not about to ask you to put your hands on her. Could you imagine the shit Orianna would go through when you scrubbed Winnie’s mind?”
True. Eclipse hadn’t thought about that. In order for them to wipe the mind of a human, they were required to be hands on about it. Though the pain it caused was bearable, he damn sure wouldn’t want Orianna to experience it.
“Same reason I can’t ask Obsidian.”
“I’m sure Cimmerian’ll drop in if you ask him. Or you putting it off for another reason?”
“Nah. She’s done with me and I’ve run out of excuses to have her stay.”
“So I take it she’s not youramsouelot.”
Reidar shook his head, then peered over his shoulder. “It’s about fucking time.”
The cheer in Reidar’s tone spoke to the male’s desperate need to get out some of his frustrations. Eclipse couldn’t say the same. While he’d always longed for a good fight, he wasn’t so much in the mood for one right now. In fact, he would’ve preferred to be back at the mansion with Orianna, preferably naked, curled up in his warm bed with his female draped over him.
Not out here in this nut-shriveling cold looking for the mindless, soulless bastards who’d started appearing more and more often around these streets in recent days. The only positive was that their presence meant Perfidious was still close. The demon had a penchant for transforming humans, and considering theimpietansonly lived for three days, it meant he was hard at work with his turnabout army.
“How many we got?” Magnar asked when he appeared at Reidar’s side.
“From the scent, I’d say three and they’re defimpietans.”
“How about I leave you boys to this,” Eclipse offered.
Reidar clapped his hands together with glee. “More for me. Perfect.”
“Holler if you need backup.”
“Will do, boss man,” Magnar noted as he fell into a quick jog beside Reidar.
Eclipse didn’t bother to stick around, returning to the mansion to check in. He’d been out since the sun went down, skipping over the evening meal to ensure he had a couple of hours of recon under his belt. As it was, theamnighhad kicked into high gear, leaving roughly four hours tops between the time it subsided and returned. Obsidian had already warned him that he’d had to drug Penelope before they’d undergone thelintamair, just to give her a brief reprieve. Eclipse hoped like hell it didn’t come to that. Considering they had roughly a month before the next full moon, it was going to suck if he had to keep his female doped up.
After materializing on the back porch, he slid open the doors to the sunroom, stepped in, and closed them quickly to keep out the chill. Eclipse heard voices coming from the main-floor office, so he strolled that way, hoping to check in with Obsidian before he made a trip upstairs to see Orianna.
The voices on the other side of the door were clipped and quiet. Too quiet for Eclipse to make out, so he rapped his knuckles on the door and waited to be granted entry.
The door opened on its own, Obsidian and Michael squared off in the center of the room, neither looking happy.
“What’s up?” Eclipse stepped inside, wondering briefly if he needed to weapon up.
“Nothing,” Obsidian growled. “He was just leaving.”
Michael never looked away from Obsidian. Instead, he offered a quick nod before vanishing.
Obsidian’s shoulders lowered from his ears when the male disappeared, but he didn’t make a move to leave.
“This about Taayin?”
Eclipse knew Obsidian was keeping something from him where the male was concerned. The fact that he’d talked Michael into aligning Taayin’s and Asmia’s destinies meant Obsidian now owed Michael a huge favor. As for what that might be, no one seemed to know, and Obsidian wasn’t talking.
When he realized Obsidian wasn’t going to answer, he huffed. “Fine. Just thought I’d let you know I’m back. If you need me, shout.”
Eclipse paused his exit when Obsidian said, “You know anyone with experience delivering babies?”
“Uh…” He turned around to face his brother, smiled. “Yeah, that would be a big fat no. Why? You think she’ll need someone?”
Obsidian shrugged. “No idea, but I’d prefer not to get down to the wire and realize she does, and we’ve got no one here.”
Damn fine point. However, Eclipse didn’t know any angel midwives, and all the healers resided in Heaven since they rarely needed treatment down here.
