Chapter 28
“What are you doing?”
Stryke looked up at his uncle as he buttoned his shirt. “What’s it look like? I’m getting dressed.”
“You’re not ready to be discharged.”
“I feel great. It’s fine.”
Eidolon slammed his clipboard down on the counter loud enough to make Stryke jump. “Listen to me, you arrogant ass. I’m tired of your shit. I’m tired of everyone walking on eggshells around you because they’re afraid you’ll retreat from them even more.” He jammed his finger into Stryke’s sternum and pushed him backward until the backs of his legs hit the bed. “You’re going to sit your ass down and listen to me.”
Stryke gaped. Arrogant ass? His uncle had never spoken to him like that before, and it was enough of a shock to have him sitting down, just like Eidolon said.
He’d gone toe-to-toe with genocidal dictators and faced demon emissaries who ate the flesh of their enemies while they were still alive. He feared little and respected few.
And his uncle just put him on his ass like a spoiled child.
“You almost died,” Eidolon barked, jabbing into Stryke’s sternum again. “Do you know what that would have done to your family? Do you know what that would have meant to the entire world? What you do is important, too important to entrust it to someone else. But you have a fucking death wish” —he thrust his finger in Stryke’s face when he opened his mouth to argue—“and don’t even try to fucking deny it. Do not take me for a fool any longer, Stryke.”
Eidolon stepped back, his fists clenched, anger putting gold flecks in his eyes. “The suppressant’s killing you. You know it, and you keep using it. Knock that shit off. You might think you’re invincible, but you’re not, and—”
“It’s not about being invincible,” Stryke protested, even though the truth wasn’t much better.
“You’re right,” Eidolon said with a nod. “It’s about not caring if you live or die.”
Bingo. Stryke hadn’t cared about much outside of work since Chaos died. But lately…things had changed. Cyan had helped him find interests outside of work. He even enjoyed the pool now.
As long as she was in it too.
“I care, Eidolon,” he argued. “There was a time when I didn’t. But I do now.”
Skepticism flickered in the angry gold glitter in Eidolon’s eyes. “Good. Your parents have been through enough.”
“Agreed.” Stryke was done with this conversation. He started to stand, but Eidolon slammed him back down.
“We’re not finished.” He breathed deeply as if bracing himself for what he was about to say. “StryTech’s demon-detection software is leaps and bounds ahead of the closest competitor’s. You probably outsell everyone ten to one.”
“Twenty to one,” Stryke shot back in a flare of temper. His uncle was treating him like a child. Worse, Stryke wasn’t sure what to do about it. He’d rarely been treated like a child even when he’d been a child.
“Yeah, why is that?”
“It’s because my tech is far superior.” Stryke met his uncle’s gaze, daring him to find fault with his company. “The number of demon species in our database is three times that of Demonovation’s. Four times the number of Ufelskala Five demons.”
“And how,” Eidolon began, his gaze locked with Stryke’s, aggressive tension thickening the air, “did you manage to acquire the genetic material for that many species?”
Oh, shit .
Stryke’s gut took a dive all the way to his feet. His uncle had walked Stryke up to the edge of a trap and let him spring it himself for maximum humiliation.
He knew .
Eidolon wheeled away from him and looked up at the ceiling. “We recently upgraded our security, data, and storage software, and it created some strange glitches in the hospital’s DNA library. We brought in a specialist to identify the problem.” He shook his head, hands locked behind his back as he turned to Stryke again. “Turns out someone hacked our original software and added code that alerted them every time we logged a new species. After a little more digging—”
“Spare me the forensics,” Stryke said, shame making his voice gruff. “You got me.”
The disappointment in Eidolon’s expression shredded him.
“Dammit, Stryke.” Dismay weighed down Eidolon’s voice. “You’ve been stealing from me for years. Why? Why not just ask me? I’d have given you whatever you wanted!” He threw up his hands and cursed. “You remind me of Wraith when he was young. You take what you want because you can. Too proud to ask for help. Using your pain as an excuse to be toxic to everyone around you.” He threw open the door. “Get your shit together, kid. Your family needs you, whether you believe it or not.”
Stryke snarled and leaped to his feet, but Eidolon slammed the door closed before Stryke could defend himself. Yeah, he’d taken the samples from the hospital, but he hadn’t exactly stolen them. He’d just mapped the genetics and duplicated them.
Okay, maybe he should have asked, but he hadn’t wanted to put his uncle in a compromising position with the WCSG, which was already wary of Underworld General. Finding out there was a secret demon hospital beneath New York City had freaked them out so much that UG’s existence hadn’t yet been revealed to the human population.
Fuck. Angry, hurt, and full of self-loathing, Stryke strapped on his wrist comms just as it vibrated.
Taran.
Had it been anyone else—other than Cyan—he would have ignored it. But he’d apparently been talking with his foreman when he had his event , and he had questions.
He threw Taran’s hologram into the room and finished dressing while they talked.
“Boss,” Taran said. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Yeah. About that.” He tucked his shirt into his pants. “I don’t remember anything. What happened?”
Taran shrugged. “One minute we were discussing the Gehennaportal, and the next, you were on the ground.”
Stryke stilled as he tugged on his belt. “Why were we discussing the port—?” The memory hit him like a brick to the face. The portal was possibly still active. “Never mind. I remember. Has anything changed?”
“No, but I took the liberty of showing the newest casing images to Quillax. He wasn’t happy about being interrupted during his leave. Very grumpy. Anyway, he said the glyphs have been repaired, but he also said they aren’t destruction spells. They’re containment spells.”
“So? They would have needed to contain Gabriel’s destructive energy inside the breach.”
“That’s what I said. Quillax insisted there would have been another glyph alongside the seals. A backup of sorts in case destruction rattled the seals loose. It’s like I said, the Gehennaportal is intact, and there’s no way Cyan wouldn’t have known that.”
Stryke couldn’t believe it. Refused to believe it. Cyan had told him the portal was destroyed. Why would she lie to him?
He thought about all the times she’d quizzed him about Sea Storm . He had thought she seemed oddly interested in its operations and what he planned to do with the rig. Restart it? Sell it? Use it for research?
He’d told her more than once that he planned to hold onto it. Who knew what kinds of residual effects they’d see after the incursion. Sheoulic elements could have been introduced to the sea floor or water. Aquatic demons may yet be lurking in the depths, breeding with native species. It was even possible that the portal’s destruction had caused a weakening in the membrane that separated the demon realm from the human one. The site needed to be monitored for decades. Centuries, maybe. And Stryke wanted sole control of it.
Had she been as curious as she was because she feared the breach would open again?
“Boss?” Taran’s voice brought him back to the present.
“Yeah. I heard you. I’ll talk to Cyan about it. Is that all?”
Taran nodded. “Just glad to hear you’re okay.”
He was not okay. He’d been spanked by Eidolon, and the female he lov—no, the female he felt strongly about might have duped him.
He disconnected with Taran and got the hell out of there. He didn’t want to see anyone right now. This was all too humiliating. Rock-bottom shit. Time to drown himself in work, numbers, and anything that would keep him from feeling the crush of emotions he didn’t know how to process.
Fortunately, the halls were empty of anyone he knew, but as he passed the private waiting room, he saw his family. He stopped. Backed up. Peeked inside.
His mom, Blade, Crux, Parker…they were all gathered around Cyan, who sat slumped in a chair. Blade’s dermoire was lit up as he gripped her forearm.
What was wrong with her?
Panic shot through Stryke. Cyan was pale, her skin damp. He needed to be at her side—
“Holy shit, Cyan.” Blade stared at Cyan, wide-eyed. “You’re pregnant.”
Stryke froze in mid-step. Pregnant ? Impossible. Well, almost impossible. Crux and Chaos had been born during this offspring-less time for demons. But still. Blade had to be messing with her.
She rolled her eyes. “Real funny, Blade.”
“I’m serious.” He kneeled next to her, his dermoire lit, pulsing gently as his power connected with Cyan’s body on a level not even Stryke could. “I can sense fetal tissue.”
Stryke’s heart stopped, and his lungs locked up hard. She couldn’t be pregnant. Stryke wouldn’t be fertile until s’genesis . So, if she was pregnant…
It wasn’t his.
Parker .
Parker was a turned werewolf, so the child could have a human soul, and therefore bypass the no-demons-born-since-the-destruction-of-Sheoul-gra thing.
Stryke’s heart shriveled as Parker reached over and took her hand. How gentlemanly of him.
The male was going to die.
Icy cold rage spread through every cell. If the hospital wasn’t under an anti-violence spell, he would have pounded Parker into the ground.
Stryke didn’t care that he and Cyan weren’t officially a couple at the time of conception. The logic of the situation didn’t matter right now. Right now, there was only pain and bitterness and a sense that his life was one gigantic pile of shit.
As if in a dream, he watched his family—and Parker—gather around Cyan. He could no longer hear what they were saying, maybe because his pulse was beating so loudly it echoed through his head like drums in a canyon. Oxygen became precious, and he panted, sucking in shallow breaths as he slammed his palms against the sides of his skull, covering his ears.
This was too much. Things were breaking inside him, like his organs were cracking open. Especially his heart. That sucker was being raked up and down a cheese grater.
Sensory overload. Sensoryoverloadsensoryoverload ...his head swam as he tore away from everything going on in that room and stumbled to the Harrowgate. His vision faded and wavered, but he somehow managed to operate the gate’s interface and get home.
He entered a house that had never felt empty before. Now, it was too quiet. Too still. It was a dark void.
Just like his soul.
Cyan sat, stunned and baffled, with half a dozen sets of eyes staring at her.
“I don’t…Blade, that can’t be.”
Blade shrugged and waved Eidolon over. “We need a second opinion.”
Eidolon approached, the intensity in his expression reminding her of Stryke. “On what?”
“Her pregnancy.”
One dark eyebrow arched. “Cyan, would you rather do this in private?”
Splotches of pink spread across Blade’s cheeks, and he gave her a sheepish look. “Oh, yeah…hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blurt it out like that. There’s a reason I work for DART and not the hospital.”
“It’s okay.” She sighed. “You’re wrong anyway.” She offered Eidolon her hand so he could do his glowy thing. “Go ahead.”
Eidolon gripped her wrist, and his dermoire lit up. No worries. He would find that Blade was wrong, and this was all a silly mista—
“You are pregnant,” Eidolon said, and she nearly choked on her own breath. “Your species gestation is similar to that of humans, so I’m guessing you’re no more than three weeks in.”
Which would have put her on the oil rig. With Stryke. Shock left her swaying in her seat, her brain short-circuiting.
“That’s not possible,” she rasped. “None of this is possible. I haven’t been with anyone.” Her cheeks burned. “I mean, except for Stryke…”
“Stryke isn’t fertile,” Blade said. “Not for another sixty-five to seventy years.”
“I know. So, it’s impossible for me to be pregnant.” She looked frantically at Eidolon. “Right? I mean, no demon female has gotten pregnant since Sheoul-gra—”
“That,” Eidolon interrupted, “isn’t entirely true.”
“Okay, I know about…” Crux and Chaos . She gestured to Runa, but he shook his head.
“Those rare exceptions aren’t what I’m talking about.”
Runa reached over and took Cyan’s hand. Then she waved away all the males except Eidolon.
“Give us a minute, okay?” Once the guys moved off, she turned back to Cyan. “I know this is difficult,” she said. “I know you’ve only been with Stryke.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was soft. Understanding. Compassionate. “But is it possible that you were drugged at some point? Have you felt like you’ve lost any time?”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I remember everything from the last month clearly. I was never the victim of a spell, or drugs, or anything.”
“What about your dreams?” Eidolon took a seat across from her. “Some species of lust demons are known to fill your sleep with erotic images so they can impregnate you while you’re dreaming.”
She shuddered. Her parents had raised her with a healthy fear of demons that were threats to their kind, and she’d always thought that the ones who assaulted you and didn’t kill you were the worst.
“I haven’t had any dreams like that.” On the verge of tears, she buried her face in her hands. “This can’t be happening.”
“Let me run some tests,” Eidolon said gently. “If we can identify the father’s species, we can go from there.”
The father . She shuddered again. It had to be Stryke. Please, let it be him .
Lifting her head, she blinked back tears. “Where is Stryke? Still in his room? I need to talk to him.”
“He discharged himself against my orders,” Eidolon said, irritation lacing his voice. “He’s pretty furious with me.”
Looking as alarmed as Cyan felt, Runa turned to him. “Why?”
“Because I injected him with a large dose of truth.”
“Well, I’m sure he needed to hear it,” Runa said, but Cyan had questions.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have a chance to ask any because Eidolon stood and held out his hand to Cyan. “Are you ready?”
To learn if she was carrying a monster inside her? Sure. Who wouldn’t be?
Still, she couldn’t imagine being in better hands, and it was a relief to let Eidolon take charge. She just wished Stryke were there.
Resigned, she took the doctor’s hand and allowed him to help her up.
“I’d be happy to go with you if you’d like,” Runa offered.
“I appreciate it,” Cyan said, touched by the concern. “But I’ll be okay. I just need to know how this happened.” And then she had to sort out how she felt about it.
Runa gestured to her chair. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
“You really don’t have to—”
“Cyan.” Runa gave her a stern look. “How long have we worked together? You’re part of the DART family. And now, you’re part of Stryke’s life. So, I’m staying until I know you’re okay. Got it?”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Yes, ma’am,” she croaked, unable to contain the emotion starting to surface.
She might be carrying the spawn of Satan for all she knew, but at least she had a support system, something she felt she’d lost after Shanea died.
Now, she realized, it had been there all along.