Of course, that was so fucking easy to say, not nearly as simple to do, but Eclipse would keep her safe at all costs.
“Take Miklós and Magnar with you,” Obsidian ordered.
Figuring it would be ignorant to refuse additional protection for hisamsouelot, Eclipse nodded.
“I’ll have Kandarie assigned to you from here,” his brother continued. “I’ll have him monitoring your movements and keeping an eye out for demons.”
Eclipse could only nod. He knew Obsidian would do what he wanted when it came to protecting them. Now that Penelope was with him, their oldest brother was on a mission to ensure they were not in harm’s way, theiramsouelotslocated, their souls safe and secure and out of Lucifer’s nasty clutches. It never failed, Obsidian was the one who kept them together, the leader, some might say.
He let Obsidian worry over them for a few more minutes with hisbe carefuls andkeep me informeds. When he returned to his private quarters, Eclipse found Orianna already dressed, her wet hair hanging down her back.
“It’s cold out. You need to dry your hair,” he insisted. “By the time you’re finished, I’ll be ready to go.”
Though she harrumphed at his request, Orianna made her way to the bathroom while he made a quick pass through the shower. As promised, he was dressed and tossing a few things into a bag when she emerged from the bathroom.
“I don’t plan to stay,” she told him. “So you don’t need to pack much.”
Eclipse grinned. In lieu of socks and underwear, he was packing weapons. An arsenal, in fact. He was taking no chances with Orianna’s safety, and he seriously doubted the vampires had lost her scent. He still imagined them hovering on the perimeter of Darkness, waiting for her to emerge so they could get their nasty little claws in her. No doubt, the fact they hadn’t encountered any on their last two trips out made his decision to take her easier. He could only pray if those bastards did catch up to them, they could outrun them at the very least, because he could feel the determination coming off Orianna in waves. She was hell-bent on coming to her mother’s rescue, and no demon was going to get in her way.
Roughly twenty minutes later, armed to the teeth and weighed down with a care package hand-prepared by Phillip, Eclipse was steering his Bugatti out of the garage while Miklós followed in the Range Rover, Magnar riding shotgun. Neither hislieterranor hisladearehad batted an eyelash when they’d learned of their new assignment. If he had to guess, they were eager to get out from under the weight of the mansion and the doom and gloom that lingered heavily throughout.
The silence in the car was the equivalent of a drop in cabin pressure at thirty thousand feet. When it got to be too much, Eclipse flipped on the radio, “Crooked Halo” by Stitched Up Heart choking out the hush-hush. Relaxing evidently wasn’t an option, because no matter how hard he tried, Eclipse’s senses were hypervigilant, tracking everything within a mile radius. Not an easy feat when they were averaging speeds around ninety miles per hour.
Orianna’s frustrated exhale pulled his full attention back into the vehicle. “I can’t believe Erik’s doing this.”
“You refer to your father by name?”
She peered over at him. “I figure he hasn’t earnedDad, so yeah. When I refer to him at all.” Orianna sighed, shifted her gaze out the window. “He must’ve hit rock bottom. That’s the only reason I can figure he’d go after my mother. She told me a few days ago he’d stopped by. Probably realized she was low on funds, figured shipping her off would allow him to sell the house.”
“He wants to hospitalize her?”
“Yeah.” Orianna leaned into the seat, stared straight ahead. “I’m not oblivious. I know my mother’s addicted to painkillers. But the doctor keeps prescribing them, so who am I to intervene? And who the hell made Erik her boss? I always figured he’d use her weakness against her, but this is lower than low.” Her voice grew more tense with her agitation. “He’s never given a shit about her. He’s too selfish for that. And now he’s going to what? Upend her world, ship her off? Fuck that.”
“We can bring her to Darkness,” Eclipse offered before realizing the words had been hanging on the tip of his tongue.
Orianna’s head snapped over, her mouth hanging open, shock stretching her delicate skin tight around her eyes.
“She’s your mother, Orianna. I know you’ve taken care of her most of your life. If you want her close, we’ll bring her to Darkness.”
A strangled laugh escaped. “I’m not sure how well that’ll go over. Elizabeth might live in a drug-induced haze, but I’m pretty sure she’ll catch on to the fact there’s a house full of angels.”
Yeah, that was where the problem lay. “She won’t live in the mansion,” he said softly. “But we can get her a place of her own. Theheurospdon’t reside in the mansion. We’ll design a house for her. Get her a fewheurospand a nurse or two to take care of her.”
“I can’t tell her about you, can I?”
He cut his eyes to her, saw the worry on her face. “No. We’re restricted from interacting with humans.”
Although, he wasn’t sure the rules for family. Perhaps there was an amendment Eclipse hadn’t read. One that said it was cool for the mom-in-law to know about Heaven’s warriors on Earth.
“What about Oliver and Winnie? You interact with them just fine.”
“We overstepped,” he admitted. “Obsidian brought Oliver because he worried Perfidious was going to use him against Penelope. And Winnie … that was a fluke. No one could’ve known she was Reidar’samsouelot.” Ornot, as seemed to be the case.
“So why isn’t she an angel now? Like Penelope?”
He found it fascinating that she could talk so easily about this.
“What?” she asked. “Penelope likes to share her thoughts.”
