Page 57 of Demon Apathy: Sunderverse

“What then?!” I demanded as my panic reached a deafening crescendo. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. I couldn’t lose him. “Please, tell me…”

I pressed a hand to his face. He leaned into it, eyelashes fluttering.

“You’ll heal, right?” I asked hopefully.

Vampires and werewolves could, so why not demons? Nephilim? Or whatever he was.

“Not from that blade,” he said in a hoarse voice.

I despaired. He would die.

“Your… sister. She can help me.”

“What?! Dani?”

Devan nodded.

My oldest sister was a healer. She worked at the Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, but what could she do that doctors here couldn’t?

“S-she’s been studying certain esoteric healing,” he said, growing paler and paler.

Whatever the hell that was, I didn’t have time to ask questions. If Drevan said my sister could help him, then we needed to go there. Now!

“Can you open a portal?” I had no idea if he was strong enough for that.

“Easy peasy,” he said with a weak smile, then that awful nauseous feeling took over me, and we were gone.

21

Wematerializedinadark room. When I regained my bearings and my sight adjusted, I peered around and quickly realized I was in Dani’s living room in St. Louis. I helped Drevan lay flat on the floor, then jumped to my feet and headed toward the single bedroom of the small condo.

I burst in to find my sister standing on the other side of her bed, pointing a gun straight at my head. I froze. We stared at each other for a long, paralyzed moment.

“I could’ve k-killed you,” Dani stammered, shakily setting the gun on her night table. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were in New York. You set off Mom’s protection spells.” She was dressed in a pair of short shorts and a flimsy tank top.

Mom specialized in the creation of security spells. She had them in her house, Toni’s agency, and both my sisters’ condos. They protected the house from intruders, though they were supposed to allow family in unless told not to, but it seemed Drevan had triggered them.

“You have to help him. He’s hurt!” I said, pointing back the way I’d come.

“Help who?” Dani smoothed her disheveled hair.

“Drevan.”

“You mean…” She swallowed thickly, looking frightened by the prospect of having anything to do with Lucifer’s son. She knew all about him. I’d confessed everything to my family after I left New York, but no one had met Drevan, and only Toni knew I’d had athingwith the prince of Hell.

“Yes, I mean Drevan Morningstar,” I said slowly, trying to sound as calm as possible. “He got stabbed by some blade he says he can’t heal from.”

As if a switch had been flipped inside her head, Dani’s eyes lit up with interest. “It must be a blade forged in heaven and tempered with ill-intent. It’s the only thing that can kill angels, Nephilim, and demons.” Hurriedly, she snatched a robe from an armchair in the corner, slipped it on, and rushed out of the bedroom, skirting past me.

I went after her, watching her march with determination. When she got to the living room, she glanced about. “Where is he?”

“Over here.” I went around the sofa and pointed at Drevan’s prone shape. The hand he continued to press to his side was completely covered in his golden life force that was like the ichor from the Greek gods. He blinked up at us, his eyes colorless as if the blood loss had left him empty.

“Bring my medicine bag,” Dani ordered, her tone calm and commanding. “It’s on top of the kitchen counter.”

I ran into the small kitchen and found a leather bag that looked like something a doctor in the eighteen hundreds would’ve owned. I rushed back and set it by her side.

She opened it deftly, pulled out a pair of scissors, and cut through Drevan’s shirt. I gasped at the sight of the wound. It was a ragged hole, oozing with what looked like golden lava, its edges glowing as if tiny little embers were burning away at his skin.