Page 16 of Bond of Passion

Chapter 5

Scrubs splattered with blood, his dark hair flattened by the surgical cap that was now wadded up in the trash, Eidolon fumed as he and Shade surveyed the damage to the Emergency Department and his staff.

“I’m sick of this shit,” he growled. “It seems like every other week something catastrophic happens. Deadly plagues, near-apocalypses, homicidal fallen angels, ghosts, people exploding. It’s bullshit.”

Shade popped a piece of gum into his mouth. “I’m betting on an earthquake next. Lore says asteroid. Wraith put money on zombies.”

“Seriously?” Eidolon stared at his brother. “You guys are betting on the next disaster we have to deal with?”

Shade shrugged. “It was Sin’s idea. She put twenty on Satan getting out of prison early.”

Suppressing a groan, Eidolon grabbed the mop and bucket next to the trash bin. “I’m not surprised it was her idea, but I am surprised she went with the Satan theory. Yesterday at the party, she was hoping for an alien invasion.”

“No, man, that’s a different conversation. You heard us discussing what the best kind of apocalypse would be. You know, nuclear, biological, natural disaster, shit like that. She thinks an alien invasion would be the best.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “I kind of agree. At least everyone, human and demon, would have a common enemy. But that’s not what she’s betting will happen. Satan escaping his cage before the thousand-year timer runs out is a lot more likely.”

Agreed. Eidolon just hoped none of it would come to pass. As he went to work with the mop, he swore he’d be happy to get just two consecutive years where nothing horrible happened to the hospital or the people he cared about. Was that really too much to ask?

“You know you’re a doctor, right?”

“What?” Eidolon looked up from mopping. Lost in thought, he hadn’t even realized that Shade was still there.

Shade gestured at the floor. “We pay people to clean.”

Eidolon held out his dermoire arm to his brother. It had been lit up for most of the day, but now his glyphs, conductors of his healing power, lay useless on his skin. “I’m out of juice.”

After a full day of work, he’d already been nearly depleted of healing energy when the attack happened. In the hour following, he’d used every last remaining drop.

“You’re still a doctor. You could be treating people instead of mopping.”

Shade didn’t get it. Wraith wouldn’t either. Lore would, though. And maybe Sin too.

Eidolon regarded the trashed Emergency Department. While in the history of disasters that had befallen UG, this newest one was relatively minor, it was still a wound, and Eidolon was an obsessive-compulsive healer.

“We have enough staff to handle the patients, Shade. I need to fix my hospital.”

Shade gave a slow, thoughtful nod as if he understood. Maybe he did. He might not view the hospital the way Eidolon always had, as if it were an extension of himself, but Shade loved the place too.

“I’ll have Wraith put together a team.” Shade said. “We’ll find out who’s responsible for this.”

“Make sure to talk to Tavin when he wakes up. He knew the patient was a bomb. I want to know how. I also want to know how it got past the explosives detector.”

Shadows flickered in Shade’s eyes, and his expression was as grim as Eidolon felt. “Ditto. I’ll talk to Sin and Lore too. If Tavin identified the bomb because it was an assassin weapon, they might know something about it.”

“Excellent.” Eidolon sloshed the mop around in the bucket of red blood water. Lore and Sin had both been assassins when Eidolon first met them, and their character references for their fellow assassin, Tavin, had been a big part of why Eidolon had hired him. “Lore’s off today, but I saw Sin in the parking lot with Con about ten minutes ago.”

“Lore’s in the morgue.” Shade cocked his thumb toward the stairs. “He came in after he heard what went down. He’s processing what’s left of the bomber. Figured you’d want answers sooner rather than later.”

Lore was worth his weight in Sheoulin marks. Not a day went by that Eidolon wasn’t grateful to have him on staff.

Shade, Eidolon, and Wraith had only known about their half-human twin siblings, Lore and Sin, for around a decade of their hundred-plus years of life, but it seemed longer than that. Things had been rough at first. Real fucking rough. Neither Sin nor Lore had been overly interested in getting to know Eidolon and his brothers, and frankly, they’d felt the same. It had taken a lot of time and trauma to get to where they were today, but it had been worth it.

“Have you seen Wraith?” Shade asked.

Eidolon slopped water onto the floor and started mopping again. “He took off right after the explosion. He’s going to find what he can about the bomber.”

“Okay, I’ll catch up with him and see if I can track down Sin.”

Perfect. They could all meet tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, there would be some answers by then. Aside from the bomber, one person had died, and several were mangled.

Someone needed to pay.