by K. B. Draper
I straightened. “Okay, well I guess we’re going to Hell. Again. Yippee.”
Ashlyn rubbed my back. “I bet they have souvenir T-shirts this time.”
“They freakin’ better.”
It took us another half hour to settle on a plan. Danny and Mia were going to take Mia’s vehicle and swing wide because Danny, who didn’t care to elaborate, needed to go back to the reservation. They would meet us in Hell. Michael, Six and Apoc would ride in Woody with Ashlyn and me. This travel arrangement took up most of the plan-making time, as there were more than a few concerns about taking Apoc to the fight versus having Michael hide him away somewhere with a combo of different options for bodyguards. I could see the pros and cons of each. We laid them out and weighed the options, but it was Apoc who ultimately made the decision during one of the more head-banging moments in the discussion. He simply clapped his chubby little hands, there was a flash of light, and boop. He was gonesy. We all froze. A second later, Six was gone. Another second and another flash and pop and the box of Cheerios they’d been sharing vanished.
I was the first one to open the motel door, rushing out to start the search since it had taken only moments for seven panicked adults to upend the small motel room. I hit my brakes after three strides, causing a six-person pile up behind me. Which was super fun with still healing ribs and even more fun when I was picked up and moved aside by Michael, only for him to stop, too, finding Apoc happily strapped in his car seat with Six in the rear cargo area, his head draped over the back of the seat, waiting for his turn in their “one for me, one for you” Cheerio game.
“That’s a new and super not fun trick,” I muttered.
Michael wrenched open Woody’s back door, making her hinges groan. I stepped forward, ready to send Mikey back to his maker via Priority Mail, and in one of those little boxes too, but Ashlyn grabbed my elbow. “But he–” Ashlyn simply nodded at Michael, causing me to swing my attention back to him. And damnit if he wasn’t all teary-eyed and wibbly-lipped. I groaned. “Fine.”
I’d sent my mom a quick text earlier letting her know that we were all fine, aware she’d heard about the incident at the high school before the fire trucks hit the parking lot. But now she and Dad were on the porch waiting for us when we pulled in.
“Oh, AJ, sweetheart. What happened?” she touched my now just slightly bruised cheek bone.
“Slipped and fell,” I said.
“I’ll get you some ice.”
“I’m good, Mom,” I said, catching her hand before she could fully turn to go after the Ziplocs and ice trays. “I got Norm, remember? I’m good.”
“Right. Right.” She threw her arms around me and squeezed. My eyes watered. It could have been the fact my mom’s were doing the same, or that she had a death hold around my only half-healed rib cage. It was a toss-up really. She finally released me, pulling back to visually inspect me for more injuries and, finding a few, she hugged me again. #Ouchie. She rinsed and repeated the action with Ashlyn, Michael, Apoc, and Six. Mia and Danny would get the same when they got there, but they’d stopped by Vera’s to get Mia’s stuff and to let Vera know our plans and her new apocalypse shutdown side gig. I was sure I’d get an earful from Vera at some point. I would get a whole lot more if I didn’t bring Mia back in one piece, but I wasn’t going to think about that because that was not an option.
Sammy and Ariel had stopped to grab their things. It hadn’t taken them long since they were staying right down the road. And Mom’s freakout cranked up another notch as their vehicle turned into the drive. “Oh dear, that’s Sam and Ari. I invited them over to see us, but that was before I knew …” Mom’s words trailed off. “Just let me make sure they’re okay and don’t need anything; then I’ll ask them to come back at a better time.”
“Mom, it’s okay. I asked them to come.” Mom shot me a confused look, but it didn’t stop her feet from moving or her arms opening to welcome her guests.
“Sam,” Mom greeted, “Are you okay? Let me take a look at you.” Apparently, passing inspection, she pulled him back in. “You’re okay?”
“I’m good, Joy. We’re good.”
Mom didn’t take his word for it, as Ariel came around to the front of the SUV. “Ari, sweetheart,” and again with the hug and examine routine.
“Mom, why don’t we all go inside. We don’t have a lot of time,” I said.
“How about Danny and Mia?” she asked, as Dad took her arm and gently guided her toward the house.
“They’re fine. They stopped by Vera’s and will be here in a bit.”
Apoc clapped and presto poof-o he was in my mom’s arms. Mom luckily still had her finely tuned mom reflexes that had saved me from many things as a kid or maybe it was many things from me. Either way, she caught him without missing a step. That was until she realized her newly adopted half-angel/half-demon grandchild just magic tricked it in front of my childhood friend and his wife. “My-my what a quick jumper you are,” Mom tried. “AJ, did you see how fast our boy can jump?”
I snickered, letting the moment ride for a bit, because it was fun and I just so happened to need fun about now. We all landed in the kitchen, mom wanting to feed and water us after a traumatic evening. I was down with the concept as the one bite of chip and dip I’d taken had lasted about point zero minutes into the “a horseman of the apocalypse landed on the gym roof” scene.
Mom’s anxious energy calmed a decimal point or two when she was in her element and doing her thing. Dad’s shoulders relaxed only about an eighth of an inch as well. But they were humming with nervous energy, and it was unsettling so I had to put them out of their misery. “Mom, Dad, Sammy and Ariel are angels.” Mom paused her potato salad retrieval from the fridge. I stood and took it from her as I did love me some potato salad, the mustardy kind, which is odd since I really don’t like mustard. Another life mystery, kind of like the two sitting in front of us now. “Right? Freaky huh? That’s kind of what I thought.” I set the bowl in the only space left on the table and dropped in a serving spoon. “Sammy, why don’t you share with the class while we wait for Danny and Mia?”
“They know about …?” Sammy asked.
“Recent, but yeah they know.”
“Okay then.” Sammy laid out his story, Ariel filling in her pieces and parts. Long story short, apparently several years ago, my age years ago, there was a call for a volunteer to come to Earth and watch over a certain young VIP, my words not theirs. Spoiler alert: VIP=me. Which explains not only that cactus interruptus incident with the dickhole brothers, but maybe a few other AJ survival mysteries. Apparently, his gig lasted only until Grand, Danny and Norm would take over the job. Curiouser and curiouser. I was really starting to question that whole “fate” gimmick as it sure seems a lot of my life had been scripted for me. But I’d be holding that for another time, another interrogation apparently as mom currently had Sammy wrapped up in an over the back of the chair neck hug.
“Thank you, Sammy, for watching over my baby. I knew you were special. I just knew it,” Mom said.
After an embarrassing length of time, Dad finally stepped in. “Joy, sweetheart, the poor guy can’t breathe.”
There was more. A lot more, but all the feels were tied off when Danny and Mia arrived and it was time to get the show on the road. Ashlyn went up and packed our things while Danny and Mia, Sammy and Ariel, said their good-byes, leaving me alone for the first time with Mom and Dad.
“Make you a deal?” I started.
“Deal?” Mom asked, tears already pooling along the edges of her eyes.
“If I … we shut this apocalypse down—”
“When you all,” Mom corrected.
I tried for a smile, but got only a weak grin to populate. “When we shut this down, I want you to know I, or we …” I pointed at the ceiling. “I think we want to come back here. Build a life. Maybe even pick up that hammer again?”
Mom’s tears double-timed down her face, but it was Dad engulfing me in a hug this go around
. I guess he was down with the idea. We were all wiping tears when Ashlyn came back down, a bag in each hand. She didn’t get a chance to drop them before she was brought into the love-fest.
It was hard saying good-bye to my parents. Trying not to think this could very well be the last time. Harder still not wanting to stay there and defend them and Vera against anything that might come their way if things played out in favor of Team Lucifer. I could only hope that the best protection for them right now was distance—me from them. Well that and me bitch-slapping Lucifer back to where he hatched, and I probably should start figuring out the “how” part of that plan. Hopefully, something will come to me in the twelve-hour drive to Hell. And again—just damn it.
Chapter 12
Note to self: road trips blow. They hadn’t so much back when it’d been just Danny and me. Like girls in a dorm when their menses synced up, Danny and I had gotten on the same bladder schedule. Me—totally dominant bladder by the way. We also ate at the same time. And, something I’ve greatly undervalued until now, we both could go long stretches of time without talking.
This was not my current sitch. Apoc’s vocab had climbed to roughly a hundred words in recent weeks, fourteen hundred if you allowed some linguistic leeway. And he said all of them. Repeatedly. Oh, and did I mention, we were also currently potty training because why not. And for an added funsie, Apoc had straight up Pavlov dogged Six’s ass. Every time Apoc said “potty” Six bolted up from his bed in the back, began panting, spinning in circles, and whimpering. Pathetically. And continuously.
Speaking of Six and training, I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Ariel about the whole Tink naming thing. Maybe at the next stop. I looked at my watch. Because there would be a next stop any minute.
“Potty!” Apoc clapped.
I took the next exit without a groan this time. #GoMe. I’d hoped after the first couple of bathroom breaks, Apoc would fall asleep since it was nearly two hours past his bedtime when we started this party, but nope it was nearly 1:00 a.m., and this kid was acting as if he were a frat boy headed to a kegger.
I went on and topped Woody’s gas tank off just in case we got a chance for a long stretch. Sammy did the same, pulling into the gas pumps behind me. I stopped the “sorry for all the stops” three stops ago because Sammy and Ariel didn’t seem to mind. At the last stop Ariel even volunteered to take a turn with Apoc when it was obvious Michael needed a second to stretch his legs and wings. On this go around, Sammy took Six to the side grass pad, so we gave the appearance of responsible pet owners. Ashlyn went inside to get us some drinks and an after-midnight snack. Michael took Apoc to the men’s room, leaving Ariel and me at the pumps.
“Tink?” I started, moving to the side of the truck to watch my chosen topic of conversation do his thing on the single light pole that was struggling to illuminate the small patch of grass.
Ariel chuckled as she followed suit, resting a hip on the side of Woody as she too watched Six go leg up then down before starting up his sniff every inch of the ground routine. “Well, I was originally thinking Tank as he was the biggest in his litter. But as a pup he seemed to always be flittering around like Tinkerbell, always dancing and prancing around someone’s heels.”
I snorted as Six flopped none too gracefully onto the ground and rolled in something that was apparently to his nose’s liking. Last time, it had been a half-eaten bean burrito, and Danny had picked the short straw, winning the pleasure of having to give Six a bath in a truck stop shower.
Ariel continued with a smile in her voice. “But Tink was my private nickname for him; his given name is Ares.”
“As in April’s horoscope, Aries? ’Cause I dated a few Aries and those chicas are like super one night kind of fun, but next day…” I circled my temple.
Ariel chuckled. “That probably was more to do with your selection process than their astrological sign.”
I pretended to think. “Valid point.”
“And no. Ares, as in God of War. At the time, I thought someone,” she pointed to the sky, “was going through an Olympian God naming phase as we had an Aphrodite in another litter, but now I wonder if it wasn’t because of Tink’s, or Six’s, future journey. This journey. This war that he was to be a part of.” She sighed; all happy memories gone from her tone. “Thank you for rescuing him. My heart broke when he was chosen …” Her words trailed off.
I spun on her. “He was chosen to go? To be tortured and … and …” I steeled myself and lowered my tone. “That’s bullshit. Did you—” I let my words die as her head was quick to shake. “Who?” I needed a name because I’d already formulated four ways to slowly and painfully express my dissatisfaction with their decision to put Six in that situation. Nope wait, potato peeling their eyeballs then stuffing them back in their sockets via their nose holes so make that five ways.
“I am so grateful that because of you, he is here now,” she said instead of answering my question.
“So what? He was planted down there in hopes I would,” I air quoted my next words, “choose the right path.” This time she was more reluctant with her nods. “Yeah, see, that’s where I have a hangup. You all talk about fate and destiny, the ‘you have a choice’ crap, but it sure seems like everything is already laid out.”
“I can see where you’d think that. But look at it more like your life is a huge road map. Hundreds of thousands of points and destinations. Roads and intersections. It is all there, the world, your future. It’s laid out as you say but you, me, Samuel, and Six … everyone, every creature chooses which path, which roads to take. For instance, the day you met Samuel, if you had taken a different route home, then there likely would have been a different outcome.”
“You’re saying if I had taken a different street, Sammy wouldn’t have been in my life?” I asked, not thinking that would have been the case if he’d been sent here to protect me.
“More that you likely wouldn’t have been pushed into the cactus.”
“Sammy was sent here to do the GA thing—”
“Chose to be sent here,” she corrected.
“Chose to be sent here to protect me, and then Grand, Danny’s grandfather, and the elders say the whole,” I circled a finger at my chest, “Norm thing was my destiny. They have legends. Freakin’ legends.”
“Sorry. Norm thing?” she asked.
“Norm, my nickname for the Hunter Spirit who is always bellied up to my bar.” I waited a beat. “Norm from Cheers.” When her look went two cranks blanker, I gave up. “Never mind. I’m just saying knowing all that, and that all along I could’ve simply chosen another path, turned left at Albuquerque instead of on Demon Hunter Way, then why was Sammy here to protect me specifically when some other kid could’ve chosen whatever roads that would’ve gotten them here?”
“No two maps or destinies are the same. And yours, you just happen to be extra-special and we’ll just say,” she pointed upward, “they tend to have a lot of faith.”
Church bells sounded in the distance and Ariel turned toward the sound, a wide smile on her lips. “Nice.”
She turned back to me when they finished their little ditty. “Fan of bells?” I asked.
“Very much so. When you hear bells, it means someone has just become an angel and been granted their wings.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Every bell? Even the annoying bell someone rings every two minutes at Trader Joe’s? Oh or how about the bell over the dirty XXX door at Pete’s Porn Emporium in Emporia?”
“No, only big bells. And the last is more of an electronic chime.”
I gasped and pointed at her. She knocked my finger away, as red flushed up her neck and onto her cheeks. I let her off the hook. “Speaking of special.”
I gave a nod at Sammy and Ariel’s mouth turned up with a playful smirk. “And he’s pretty,” I conceded.
“Very,” Ari agreed.
“If you’re into that kind of thing,” I added.
She
smiled. “Which I happen to be. Very much so.”
We both took a second to ogle the object of our admiration, hers more of a physical ogle then mine, but still.
“Okay, lovefest over. Couple more things on this whole destiny thing. What if I accidentally take the wrong path?”
“I didn’t say there weren’t signs or helpful roadside assistance along the way.”
“But I’m in the driver’s seat.”
“With the keys in your hand.”
“Able to do whatever I want?”
“Whatever,” Ariel confirmed.
“Go wherever.”
My eyes drifted to the gas station doors as Ashlyn exited, smiling as soon as she found me looking at her. “So if we hadn’t gone to Mississippi, then …?”
Ariel laid a hand on my shoulder. “The good thing about roads is they usually have more than one exit to give people a second chance to get to where they need to be.” She moved off with a wink, going to meet her own exit ramp of choice. I watched as she slid an arm around Sammy’s waist. He automatically pulled her into him to drop a kiss on the top of her head.
“You two looked like you were having an interesting conversation,” Ashlyn said, handing me my fave half coffee-half cappuccino concoction.
“Yeah.”
“Care to share?”
I reached for her, and she stepped into me. “Apparently I’m a badass map reader.”
Ashlyn chuckled. “Just one more reason to love you, I guess.”
“As if you needed another one.” I kissed her temple.
“As if.”
We stood there for a beat wrapped up and watching the world play out as if there wasn’t a care. Which of course, large sigh, meant shit was about to drop. Hard. Seriously, hadn’t we been here and done the getting gas when everything goes to hell scene before? I feel as if I’m living a remake movie. And a really badly directed one. Like The Mummy. Or Jumanji. Okay, fine the first remake was good, but … still. Oh, Charlie’s Angels. Again, I can do the Drew Barrymore movie version, but the TV reboot. No. Just. No.