Page 28 of The Redeemable 4

“Because he boozed, cracked skulls and womanized?” she asked, arching an eyebrow primly.

“Pretty much. He had the best stories.”

Clary opened her mouth to reply, then hesitated. “Is he?” She pointed toward the floor.

“In the gift shop?” She scowled and I laughed. “He is almost definitely in Hell. Trust me when I say that’s as much as you wanna know.”

She went over to Arcadia and settled her in the bed, her gentle yet firm grasp repositioning Arcadia to prevent sores, fluffing pillows and making her as comfortable as possible.

I watched on as Clary fussed over her best friend. They were both such great examples of the capacity humanity had for good.

“Eli told me you managed to get her soul restored. It’s how it should be.” She sat down on the hard plastic chair as if she were defeated. Perhaps she was.

“You talk as if she isn’t going to recover.” I sounded more accusing than I intended.

She heaved a sigh. “I’ve seen a lot of death. I sometimes feel like I’m part Banshee. I can smell it. She’s gonna die if something big doesn’t happen soon.” She wrapped her fingers in Arcadia’s and I could see her facade cracking. She would hate crying in front of strangers, I knew that much from my years as her pseudo-bestie. I reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

“Don’t lose faith yet, Clary Mulligan. We have a lot of fight left in us; me, you and Arcadia.”

With that, I left her to her grief.

We sifted to the apartment to find it in chaos. There were babies crying, Adnan was howling hysterically and Nazir was standing over him, teeth bared. It was barely 7am.

“What the hell..?”

Lux was trying to get Nazir out of the way, as Eli attempted to get to the crying Adnan. Oz held Estrella, rocking, and was using the other hand to soothe Hope.

“Enough!” I boomed, taking a page out of Luc’s books. The room went still, even the babies stopped crying, for about two seconds. Memphis went over and picked up Hope, and the baby instantly calmed. Once her sister stopped crying, Estrella settled in Oz’s arms. I strode over to the other occupants in the room.

“What’s going on?” I asked in a calm voice.

Eli stood beside me, his voice just as neutral. “Adnan tripped on his crutches and opened the wound slightly on his leg. Nazir saw the blood and is having a moment of PTSD and won’t let us near him. I don’t have any sedation here, and I don’t want to manhandle the boy.”

I nodded. I took in the wide-eyed feral look in Nazir’s eyes. He wasn’t in an apartment in SoHo. He was somewhere much worse.

I pushed some of my angelic light toward him. “Be still, Nazir. Eli is going to fix Adnan.” I reached out and touched his head, and his body slumped on contact. Lights out. Lux caught the boy before he hit the ground. He picked him up as if he weighed nothing and cradled the boy with gentleness that belied his rough exterior. I noted the bite marks and crescent gouges in his arms. He walked down the hall to the boy’s bedroom.

Adnan was still sobbing, but it was probably more from fear than pain.

“Hey now, tough guy. It’s okay.” Eli lifted him up and set him on the bench. “It’s not too bad at all. We’ll just put some stickers on it and cover it back up.”

Eli went to work, and I stroked Adnan's dark hair. Poor little guy. Eventually, he nodded off to sleep too. “Whoops. Must have still had a little juice in the tank,” I said, as he listed to the side. Eli caught him up and walked him down the hall on silent feet. The boys shared the second bedroom.

A minute later he crept back down the hall and flopped onto the couch. “Who’s with Arcadia?”

Lux handed him a beer, then gave one to Oz and Memphis. “Clary’s there. Just got back from Boston.” He offered one to me. “It’s not even eight in the morning.” Lux raised an eyebrow. He made an excellent point. I took the beer.

“Where's everyone else?” I asked. We all needed to talk.

“Ri is at the bar, Valery has gone to chase down some weird medicinal herb that he is sure will cure her cancer according to the Internet, but Eli will veto immediately. Sam and Tolliver are hiring a management team to take care of the foundation while we figure this whole thing out,” Oz said, sucking down half his beer in one gulp.

Lux’s phone rang. I didn’t need angelic hearing to pick up Clary’s frantic words.

“She’s crashing!”

I’d never sifted with three humans before, but we had no time to waste. Memphis offered to stay with the kids, and it was a testament to Lux’s fear that he didn’t even protest.

I sifted us into a supply closet, and the effort made my knees buckle. Lux and Eli were out the door in a flash, but Oz bent down and hoisted me to my feet, a hand around my ribs keeping me on my feet as we ran towards Arcadia’s room. The doctor was there with the crash cart, trying to shock her heart back to life, the eerie whine of her machine threatening to break my world apart.

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