Sins of the Son: The Grigori Legacy Read Online Free Page B

moment. Mittron saw the brief internal struggle he waged with himself, the hesitation—and then the dark head dipped once in agreement. The One’s son had accepted his words.
    He had made his choice.

THREE
    “W ell?”
    Dr. Elizabeth Riley looked up from her notes and ran a sharp gaze over the man on the other side of the counter at the nurses’ station. Weariness lined his face and, while he had shaved and his shirt looked clean and pressed, she recognized the rumpled suit from the day before.
    “You didn’t go home,” she accused, ignoring his question.
    Detective Hugh Henderson shrugged. “It’s been a busy week.”
    “You need to sleep.”
    Hugh sighed. “For your information,
Mom
, I got four hours on the cot in the back office.” He jerked his head toward the corridor. “How is she?”
    Elizabeth pursed her lips. “She’s a mess, is how she is. Which is what you’ll be if you don’t go home soon.”
    A heavy gray brow lifted. “Is that your professional shrink opinion? About her, not me.”
    She favored him with a glare and then peered through her glasses at the chart, scanning the neat, precise handwriting that made her a favorite among nurses: Melanie Chiu,age twenty-two, in the mid- to late stage of pregnancy despite her claim she had been a virgin until two weeks before. Suffering from an obvious psychotic break, unable or unwilling to detail actual sexual history.
    “She’s complaining of abdominal and pelvic pain, but they’re still waiting for an ultrasound,” she told Hugh. “Based on the initial exam, they estimate she’s between five and six months along. There’s obviously been a severe emotional trauma, but until she’s more coherent, I can’t tell you what it was. I’ve sedated her for the moment, and I’m hoping she’ll be calmer when she wakes.”
    Rubbing a hand over his short-cropped, graying head, Hugh sighed. “So we really have no idea whether she was raped or not.”
    “Not yet. It would appear you were called prematurely.”
    Hugh’s brow furled. “Don’t go shitting on ER over this, Liz. They were only doing their job. Someone even breathes the possibility and they have no choice but to notify us.”
    Elizabeth closed Melanie Chiu’s chart with a snap. “I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”
    “So you keep telling me.”
    “Then why do it?”
    He grinned. “Keeps you humble, Dr. Riley.” Nodding at the chart on the counter, he added, “So now what?”
    “Now we wait. I’ve left instructions to be called when she wakes. As soon as I have anything, I’ll let you know.”
    “That works. You heading to the cabin tomorrow?”
    “I’ll see how Melanie is doing first, but probably.”
    “Well, the weather is supposed to be fantastic, so you should go if you can. No telling how many more nice weekends we’ll get.” Hugh ambled in the direction of the elevators, wiggling fingers over shoulder. “Talk to you tomorrow,
Liz
.”
    W AS IT SUPPOSED to hurt this much?
    Or had Mittron gone back on his word?
    Seth curled into a ball against the force crushing in on him, squeezing until he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move,couldn’t even blink. Fighting to detach from the pain, he gritted his teeth and swallowed against the nausea, then arched back as a sudden, sharper agony tore through him like a thousand unseen claws shredding body and mind.
    It subsided an eternity later, leaving him drifting, hovering at the edge of consciousness, pulsing with aftershock. Remnants of pain jangled along his nerves until, little by little, they subsided and he could reach again for his thoughts, collect them, hold them steady where he could focus on them. Focus on what lay ahead. Mortal life. Alexandra. An end to his part in the struggle between Heaven and Hell.
    If he survived.
    Another spasm twisted through his belly and Seth curled into himself once more, jaw clenched. Had he been wrong to trust Mittron? The Seraph had appeared willing enough, but maybe Seth had