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As usual, Underworld General Hospital was knee-deep in patients and noise. In the thirty-three years Logan had been alive, he’d rarely seen the demon-run hospital in any other state than organized insanity. The five demon siblings who ran it somehow managed to keep the main facility and its globally situated clinics functioning in an almost military-like operation. But given that most of its patients and staff were underworlders, many things could—and did—go wrong.
Many.
He stopped at the front desk and spoke to a ginger-haired nurse who could have passed for human except for her orange eyes and rust-streaked ivory tusks that curled to nearly her nose.
“I’m here to see Eidolon.”
She sighed. “You and everyone else. Name?”
“Logan.”
She sighed again, this time with attitude. “Last name?”
“You got a lot of Logans asking for Eidolon?”
“You got a last name?” she repeated, getting grumpier by the second, and he decided to stop messing with her.
He’d taken his mother’s last name, Matthews, for human interactions, but he’d found that using his father’s name when dealing with demons was often more impactful. “It’s Logan Thanatos.”
Her head snapped up, and her eyes went wide. “Thanatos? As in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Thanatos?You’rehis son?”
“Yup.” He leaned in and winked. “And Eidolon’s mydaemo-da.” Roughly translated, the Sheoulic word meant godfather.
She no longer looked bored or annoyed. Thanatos’s name usually did that to people.
“Sorry, I’ve only been working the front desk for a few months. I’ve never been here when you came in. You are definitely on the list of people to let through.” Her fingers flew to a switchboard, and she mashed a button with her finger. “Hello, sir. There’s a Logan Thanatos to see you.” She nodded at whatever response she got in her ear and glanced up at him. “Eidolon will see you in his office now. It’s down the hallway on your left, and then—”
“Thanks. I know where it is.” He’d practically grown up here. Well, he’d grown up mainly in Greenland at his parents’ castle, but he’d spent a lot of time at his aunt Limos’s and Uncle Ares’ places, as well. And because the people who ran Underworld General were good friends of the Horsemen, Logan had spent countless hours running up and down the hospital halls with the Seminus kids.
They’d been tight back then. Still were, mostly. He counted Talon and Sabre among his closest friends. And he was cool with the rest of them, although Mace and Rade could get on his nerves. But Stryke…Logan hadn’t seen him in years. He wasn’t sure anyone had, except Stryke’s mother, Runa. His estrangement had rocked the family extra hard, coming on the heels of the tragedy that had cracked their foundations and left them on shaky ground.
He smiled fondly as he passed a serpent statue that sensed murderous thoughts. Anyone with bad intentions got a painful bite that required immediate medical attention. The hospital was already protected by a Haven spell that prevented violence by causing disabling pain, but spells could be broken or bypassed, and Eidolon had installed several backups over the years. Usually, after some painful lessons.
The serpent had been the most fun to fuck with, though. Logan, his Horsemen cousins, and the Sem kids had made a game of thinking murderous thoughts to see if they could trigger the statue. They’d walk past the scaly black snake over and over, imagining themselves slaying evil demons.
None of them had been bitten. Not back then. Eidolon said it was because the serpent sensed intent, not thoughts. So, Logan had always wondered why, several years later, Stryke had been bitten. Who had he intended to kill?
“Logan.”
Jostled out of his thoughts, Logan spun around to the sound of Eidolon’s voice behind him.
“Oh, hey.” He frowned as he tried to orient himself in the hallway intersection. He’d been so wrapped up in the past that he hadn’t paid attention to where he was going. “Did I go past your office?”
“No, I was just coming back from the coffee machine and saw you ahead of me.” Eidolon gestured with his steaming cup. “Just ahead on the right.”
Feeling like a dolt, Logan entered the spacious room, its shelves laden with antique medical equipment and demon skulls.
“Good to see you.” Eidolon closed the door behind him. “Been a few months.”
“You’ve missed a couple of get-togethers. Sabre says you’ve been super busy.” Eidolon and Tayla’s son worked at the hospital, but he ran his own forensics lab and, to his father’s great disappointment, wasn’t a physician.
Eidolon grunted as he sank into his chair. “We’re overwhelmed. I can’t get the new hospital in Australia built fast enough. And when itisfinished, I don’t know if I’ll have enough personnel to staff it. It takes forever to get people through any kind of medical training, let alone a doctoral program. My medical school isn’t pumping out healers fast enough.” He put down his coffee with a thunk and gestured for Logan to take the seat across from him. “But that’s my problem, not yours.” He steepled his fingers together on the desk and shifted the topic. “We’ll try harder to make it to the next party.”
“Good, because there’s a bash at Limos’s place this weekend. You gonna make it?”
Eidolon’s dark eyes grew troubled. “I’d have thought she’d cancel after what happened.”
“You know Limos. She needs to keep busy when shit hits the fan. She’s never been good at sorting through her emotions.”
