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AS SOON AS THE NEWS OF WHAT went down at the Palace of Sins, I went to see Eddie. Needless to say, when I went to the palace and found the Hunters and Roscoe lounging around helplessly, I knew something else was going on.
I was grateful that Athena agreed to go with me to the hospital for more reasons than one.
I wasn’t scared of many things - at least, that was how I tried to make it seem - but I was never much of a fan of hospitals. It was another one of those childhood trauma things, if I had to guess the reason why that was a thing in the first place. As Athena and I walked into the hospital, I looked back at her.
“How do you know they’re going to let us see him? You realize it’s one o’clock in the morning, right?” I asked her.
I wanted to see Eddie, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t already trying to back out of this whole situation. Hospitals were not my favorite thing. They never would be.
“Demon hospitals don’t have curfews, Phe,” Athena mused, “You should know that by now - it has been thirteen years since you and your brothers moved here.”
I pouted a little and began to pick at the skin on my arms. I could hear my oldest brother - Calvin, or Cal as I and pretty much everyone else called him - getting onto me for it even though he was still at home in Hell with our other two brothers, Zavian and Dante.
I couldn’t help it, though. This was a habit of mine that I’d picked up when I was little and just couldn’t break no matter how hard I tried.
Then again, it was something that I picked up when we were still in Germany with our mother and a lot of the things that I picked up there seemed to be almost impossible for me to drop. That was a whole other thing that I wasn’t willing to explore for the time being - one of the many things that I wanted to bury for all eternity instead of actually trying to face it head on. In my not-so-humble opinion, burying things was much easier than trying to cope with them in more “healthy” ways.
“You know how I feel about hospitals,” I complained, watching as Athena walked up to the front desk in the lobby. The woman sitting there looked up at us with a blank expression, just smacking her gum.
I wasn’t going to comment on it out loud, but I could hear everything.
I could hear the air conditioning running through the hospital, the other visitor and employees’ conversations, and the receptionist’s teeth clacking and tongue moving around in her mouth as she chewed on her gum.
I didn’t say anything, but that didn’t stop me from silently begging Athena to hurry up and figure out where Griffin was so we could hopefully figure out where Eddie was. Frankly, I didn’t care about Griffin that much - I just wanted to know that Eddie was okay. Then, I could rest easy.
“Can you tell us where Griffin Palmer is?” Athena asked the receptionist.
The receptionist continued to stare up at us for a moment and took one glance at Athena’s wings before raising both of her eyebrows and slowly looking down at her computer. She clicked on the keyboard, using the tips of her obnoxiously long fake nails (I seriously couldn’t understand the purpose of fake nails in the first place, but maybe that was just me) to do so.
After a few more typing sessions, a bunch more smacks and teeth clacks, and a few mouse button clicks, she looked up at us again.
“Room 304. He’s in the ICU, so don’t be surprised if they don’t let you in - plus, I don’t know if he would be particularly interested in someone like... you,” the receptionist mused, looking primarily at Athena as she talked, “Coming to see him at this hour.”
I stepped forward and began to open my mouth to protest. How dare the receptionist speak to either of us that way? Just who did she think she was talking to a Head Council member and an Angel Hunter that way? Did she realize how easy it would’ve been for me and Athena to ruin her life?
“Just who are you speaking to? I know you aren’t talking to us that way,” I growled, my voice becoming much more animalistic than I intended or hoped. I couldn’t do anything but hope that Athena didn’t notice.
The receptionist looked at me, “I am,” she mused.
At that moment, I would’ve lost all of my marbles and I wanted to leap over the desk and give the receptionist a piece of my mind and my fist, but Athena put a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s not worth it, Phoenix,” she said, “Come on. We have more important things to worry about.”
I looked between her and the receptionist a few times before reluctantly following her to the elevators in the distance.
“I wanted to beat her up,” I complained, “You could’ve at least let me punch her once - and you know you wanted to do it, too, by the way.”
Athena had even more of a temper than I did. That was part of the reason why we got along so well and why I always called on her first to come help me fight someone.
Athena nodded, “I’m aware and I did, but you’re also as aware as I am that it wasn’t worth it. We would’ve gotten kicked out of here before we even got to try to find Eddie.”
I followed Athena into the elevator and blew a strand of hair out of my face as I stood in the corner of the elevator. Even if she was right, I still stood behind the notion that she could’ve at least let me punch her once... one little punch wasn’t going to hurt her that much and she had enough ego that it wasn’t going to hurt that very much either.
“Quit pouting - you’re reminding me too much of Finn and I have to spend enough time with him as it is,” Athena told me as the doors to the elevator opened again on the right floor.
We both walked out and began to follow the signs that pointed the way to the ICU.
“At least you don’t have Oliver who’s constantly bouncing off the walls and Will whose best talent is brooding day in and day out,” I argued.
Athena smirked a little, “You know, for a lot of demons, we sure do hang out with a lot of boys that don’t act anything like a demon should. Well, I guess except Will - there’s no denying that guy’s a demon.”
I smiled as we walked into the ICU room that Griffin was supposedly in judging from the sign next to the door (unless there was another Griffin Palmer, we were in the right place, but then again, it wouldn’t have been the first time where we walked into a stranger’s room unannounced).
“Oh my Satan,” Athena muttered under her breath as our sights fell on the scene playing out within the four walls of the room.
Right there in front of us, the princes - except for Griffin who was asleep (or unconscious, I couldn’t tell which) - were crowded around the chair that Eddie was sitting in, but Eddie wasn’t responding. We both knew what was happening and we had a good idea to help, but... well, it would’ve been a lot better if King Victor and Lucifer were here. Much better.
Still, we both sprung into action.
I knelt down in front of Eddie and took her hands into mine. They were hot to the touch - not just warm, hot. For lack of a better term, they were almost hotter than Hell itself. I began to use my ice powers to try to start to cool her body down as Athena ordered one of the princes to go and get some water - as cold as they could get it - from somewhere.
“What’s happening?” Elton asked us as he got up, starting to leave the room to go find what Athena asked for.
I looked up at him, “Just go. If we wait any longer, we won’t have Eddie to explain either way.”