HornyAsHell69: Thanks, but no. I found someone else to meet my angel fetish needs.

An image of Revenant popped into her mind, and she quickly banished it. Not only was he not an angel, there was no room in her head for him. Although she couldn’t deny that picturing him naked was so much better than having the image of SexySweetXOXO’s bubble butt and cotton candy cooch in her brain.

HornyAsHell69: Don’t contact me again, and if for some reason I contact you in the future, ignore it. It just means I’m drunk, and I’m a mean drunk.

SexySweetXOXO: Asshole. Good luck finding a fuck as good as I am. I’m going to make sure you get kicked off every angel fetish forum on the Internet. Fuck off, punk.

Oh, good, SexySweetXOXO was a sore loser as well. Deva sure knew how to pick ’em.

Feeling like she’d dodged a bullet, Blas shut down IM and poked around the computer a little more, figuring that while she was here, she might as well look for anything that might have tipped off Eradicators as to her mother’s identity.

Nothing. Not unless the angels who attacked were into full-moon werewolf porn and male-on-male vampire sex. Blas had to admit, though, that the vampire videos were kind of hot.

Another search of the house revealed exactly the same; nothing. Frustrated, she straightened the place up a little, and by the time the moon had climbed high overhead, she was starving.

She was about to head for the Harrowgate when her cell rang with Underworld General Clinic’s “Bark at the Moon” ringtone. Rumor had it that Ozzy had recorded the song as the theme for the hospital, but Eidolon would neither confirm nor deny.

She pushed the Answer button. “Doctor Blaspheme.”

“Blas.” Gem’s breathless voice rasped over the phone line. “It’s your mom. She’s in trouble.”

Nine

Blaspheme hit the nearest Harrowgate at a run. The moment the gate closed behind her, the walls inside the dark space lit up with glowing maps of both Sheoul and the Earthly realm, but she didn’t need either of those. Instead, she punched Underworld General Hospital’s caduceus symbol, right next to the smaller clinic symbol that would have taken her to the clinic’s Tube platform entrance. Instantly, the gate opened into UG’s bustling emergency department.

Rushing past a Croucher demon who was holding his own bloody ear in his clawed hand, she slammed her palms down on the reception desk. “Where is Deva?”

The nurse, a new vampire recruit named Bridgette, looked up from her computer. “Your mother?”

Dammit, Blas hadn’t wanted that to get out. Even though she’d stressed the adoptive mother thing, she knew how rumors worked. The adoptive part of the equation would be dropped in conversation eventually, and then the speculation as to how Blaspheme could be a False Angel if her mother was a fallen angel would start.

“My adoptive mother, yes,” Blas ground out. “Where is she?”

“She’s been transferred here from the clinic and taken to OR three,” Bridgette said. “She —”

Blas didn’t wait for the rest. She took off at a sprint, skidding around corners and crashing into equipment and carts in the halls. As the door to the operating room came into view, Gem stepped out, her blue-striped black hair tucked under a surgical cap.

“Gem!” Panting from exertion, Blas came to a grinding halt in front of the other physician. “What happened?”

“She had a cardiac incident an hour ago. A team was able to revive her, and we got her into surgery right away.”

“An hour ago? Why didn’t anyone call me?”

“There was a mix-up… I’m sorry. Your old home phone number was in the records, and when that didn’t work, someone tasked someone else to call your cell… it was a fuckup. We’ll address it at the next staff meeting so it doesn’t happen again.”

Oh, they’d sure as hell address that. But right now, she was more worried about her mother.

“Who is in there with her now?”

“Docs Soduchi and Bane,” Gem said. “She’s in good hands.”

Yes, she was. Bane, one of several Seminus demon brothers Eidolon had hired, was extremely talented, even beyond his natural healing abilities. Soduchi had been a more recent addition to Underworld General, stolen away from the Mayo Clinic a couple of months ago. The noted cardiac surgeon was a werewolf, and when the apocalyptic shit had gone down, his true identity had nearly been exposed in all of the chaos. It had been the perfect time for Eidolon to poach him – and several other ter’taceo medical specialists who had been working at human hospitals and clinics.

Too bad Soduchi was an arrogant ass. But then, most surgeons were. No werewolf blood needed for that. Just a medical degree.

Gem slung her arm around Blaspheme and guided her toward the operating room’s viewing area. “Let’s get you settled.”

Blas, exhausted and worried, allowed the other female to take her into “the box,” where she watched Soduchi and the rest of his team work on her mother.

“Can I bring you anything?” Gem asked as she sank down in the seat next to Blaspheme. “Coffee? Something to eat?”

“Thank you,” Blas said, “but no. Go ahead and get back to work. I’ll be fine.”

Gem’s eyes narrowed with concern. “You sure? Because I can stay.”

Blaspheme liked Gem, but right now she just needed some space. So much had happened in the last few hours, and she felt like she was going to break down at any minute.