Once You Go Demon (Pure Souls)

by Killian McRae

  The house was quiet in the lull of mid-day. No doubt all three Pure Souls were out, as wasn’t unusual around this time. Only, this was the morning after he’d dropped a bomb. Unusual held foreboding. There should be nothing usual about it. He listened for the presence of human heart beats; nothing. As he felt his first breath fill his lungs, Ramiel tried to figure out if he was more relieved or worried by that fact.

  He should have come sooner. They had been trying to summon him all morning, but his shame trapped him, put off his arrival. Damn, what if something had happened? What if they were in the midst of a battle now? What if one of them was injured or worse?

  What a freaking softy he was becoming in his old age. Why should he give a fuck if he pissed off one of the Pure Souls? His job was to relay marching orders and help keep them in line. He wasn’t their confidante, and he sure as hell wasn’t their friend. Just because he chose to be friendly with them, that didn’t mean he should feel anything beyond a mild sense of duty and convenient camaraderie.

  Only, when he’d seen the hurt in Riona’s eyes the night before and knew he’d had a hand in causing it, that whole above-human-emotions façade of his exited the building with the trash. Reality was, he did care. Cared a lot, actually. Jerry could go take a flying leap, but Dee and Riona were like family. And in Riona’s case, she actually was family.

  “Stop it!” he lectured himself in the emptiness of the safe house. “You can’t do this. You get too emotionally wrapped up in their lives, Gabriel’s going to yank your ass off of PS duty. They’re only human. They’re only human.”

  The liaison had to maintain a distance, stay removed so that the Pure Souls didn’t develop a dependency on him. He was already on probation after his little Jackie Chan routine outside Riona’s apartment almost two months ago. He’d only managed to keep his post by reminding Gabriel that Lucifer’s direct and physical involvement constituted an exception. But the terms of the most recent Hell-Heaven accords put the facts down in plain red and white: outside of the regents, elites on both sides could only influence and counsel their human agents, they couldn’t fight along side them. “Lucifer’s not under my jurisdiction,” Gabriel had reminded him with no lack of disgust. “But you are, so start towing the line or I’m going to desk your ass for the next millennium.”

  The knock at the door drew him out of his reverie. Casting out his spirit, he tried to sense if it was one of his three. Why would one of them knock, though? he wondered to himself. They all had keys. A jingle of metal and the turning of the deadbolt confused him even more. He was taken aback for a moment when instead of Riona’s fire-red hair, Jerry’s furrowed brow, or Dee’s decidedly deadly brawn, an idol of beauty and poise rounded the corner.

  “Oh, it’s you.” Persephone seemed just as disappointed as him.

  “Yeah, just me.”

  She polished away a smile and stared silently at the floor. After a few moments spent biting her bottom lip, she spoke up in a voice far too small for her history. “About last night …” Her eyes turned up slowly, cautiously. “I’m sorry I bolted like that. But when I saw an angelic blade, I panicked.”

  “Panicked, ey?”

  Her head turned sideways in confusion when his acidic tone hit her ears. “Um, yeah. Because Riona being half-angel, and she was really drunk, and the blade having the power to strike down an immortal and all, I …”

  Ramiel held up his hand, stopping her. “You know, when you first came on to me, I admit I couldn’t understand why. You are the female form perfected. You could probably have any man, and many of the women, you set your eyes on. And you knew I couldn’t give you anything except a few hours of my body. I’m not human, this isn’t my world. I have no long term prospects in this plane. But, damn, you were so … beyond anything I ever experienced. And I let myself get drawn in, fooled when you kept coming back wanting more, that you might actually be after more than just my ability to please you proper. You actually made me believe you cared for me.”

  “What?” Persephone’s wide eyes glossed over. To see someone of her stature so easily reduced to weeping … Well, that just sort of supported his theory, didn’t it? Honest tears you had to work up to, but fake ones could be summoned on demand.

  A moment later, her sadness shifted, and she lashed back. “What the hell are you talking about, Ramiel? What, are you saying I’m just using you as a booty call? That I’m some sort of liar-slut like everyone else in my family?”

  “I didn’t used to think so. We’ve never been that close through the eons, but outside of your love of hard liquor, I’ve never heard anyone say an unkind word of you. Maybe you just do your dirty dealing in the dark, because it all added up for me last night. Do you know why Gabriel made it illegal for an angel to take a nephilim as a lover? Because he understood how easy it was for one of us to buy into your lies and get wrapped up in your politics. You’re so much like us except in your ability to deceive.”

  Her fisted hands planted on her hips. “Big words for someone who last night got caught keeping a Solomon-sized secret. What possible reason could I have for trying to con you?”

  His hand went to his belt and seized around the handle of his own blade, always present but kept cloaked unless needed. As predicted, the sight of the weapon sent a shockwave over Persephone. She shuddered, then retreated, her back pinning against the ornate oak veneer of the living room’s fireplace.

  “You told me yourself a few weeks ago. The only thing keeping you on Earth is the possibility of revenge. How convenient would it be if you got one of the archangels wrapped around your pretty little finger and drove him to the point where he was willing to kill your husband off? Seriously, how long did you think it would take me to figure out that’s what you were up to? You self-centered, manipulative nephilim.”

  Again, the front door opened, and this time a pair of animated voices blew in with the gust of bitter winter air. When Riona rounded the corner, a bruised and bloody Dee hunched over her shoulders, Persephone finally drew her burning gaze away. She went liquid at the sight of her half-brother’s bloodied face, and ran to his side to take Riona’s place.

  “Holy shit, what happened?”

  Despite his swollen lip, Dee was able to answer. “Attempted beat down by a demon posse. But you were right; we found Riona exactly where you told us she’d be.”

  That statement snapped Ramiel back into the here and now. “Found her?” he squeaked. “Was she missing?”

  Persephone scowled as she lowered Dee on to the couch. “Some guardian you are. Yes, in a manner of speaking, she was.” She turned back to Dee. “I’ll take you to the hospital. You’re hurt. Bad. Just let me get my car.”

  Dee’s head shook meekly. “Don’t bother. I might only be half-god, but I still got all that regenerative DNA stuff working in the background. I’ll be back in tiptop shape in a day or two. But if you don’t mind, something to dull the pain would be great.”

  Persephone nodded her head. “Pills or booze?”

  Dee deadpanned. “Booze, of course.”

  “Right. No problem.”

  Dee turned away Ramiel’s worried expression with a flick of his finger. “I’m going to be fine, Chief. But her,” he motioned towards Riona, “you need to do something about.”

  “I wasn’t really missing,” Riona spit out before Ramiel could get a word in edgewise. “I was just so freaking angry last night, I ran off without a cell phone. I went home with Steph. Not that it’s any of your business, really. After all, if you’re teaching by example, it’s the really important stuff I’m supposed to keep secret.”

  “Telling you about your heritage was forbidden until it became need-to-know. If you had revered the angelic blade instead of tried to slice a lean piece of breast meat with it …”

  He could tell by the shade of red her face flushed this wasn’t really the best tact to take.

  “But you’re right,” he decided to say instead, softening his posture. “I should have found a better way to tell you
. You might argue that you’ve needed to know that for a long time. It’s just … Well, never mind what. So, now you know. You’re half-archangel. If you have any questions about what that means, I’ll answer whatever I can.”

  “No need, Ramiel. I got this covered.”

  From the entry and from the past, a voice crept into the room that made the hairs on the back of his neck sizzle. Angels could take on almost any human form—or animal, for that matter—they saw fit for the purposes of doing their duties on Earth, but Michael had always preferred this one. And behind him, Jerry Romani shuffled in basking silence.

  Jerry, silent. Maybe a miracle had occurred.

  “Sire.” Ramiel managed finally to at last breathe after several moments spent in suspended animation. He dipped his head and lowered his gaze. “I wouldn’t presume to …”

  “Damn it, Ramiel. You still turn into a little girl when I’m around, don’t you?” Despite the biting comment, Michael’s smile managed to give away the tease. Stepping across the living room, he held his compatriot at arm’s length. “How fair you, brother? It’s been a long time.”

  “Twenty-nine years.” Ramiel could have lit Las Vegas he was beaming so.

  “Oh, so you did know who my father was, and when you said he was no longer with us, that was another confiscated truth?” Riona asked.

  “Patience, daughter.”

  Ramiel could see by the way Riona prickled at the title that she wasn’t exactly grooving with this new reality. No doubt, then, she and Michael hadn’t spoken too much about what really had resulted in all this confusion.

  “Ramiel is an angel. If he was commanded not to speak of it, he would have no choice. Unlike you, the will of an archangel while on active service is subject to the commands of his superiors. Gabriel must have put a gag order on him.”

  “Actually, it was Larry,” Ramiel corrected. Oh, things in management had shifted quite a bit in three decades, but that wasn’t really for human ears. Besides, there were more pressing things right now to worry over. “Does she know?” Ramiel asked, just as Persephone rounded the corner from the kitchen, a tumbler with clinking ice cubes in her hand. As soon as she caught sight of the new arrival, her frame slackened, her hand unfurled, and the alcohol went in to full-on Niagara Falls posture towards the floor.

  “Damn it,” she hissed, examining the amber liquid’s stain on the carpet. Luckily the glass hadn’t broken. “I’ll, um … I’ll get something to clean that up.” Before she left the room, she managed a curtsy, an undertaking no doubt meant to keep her flushing cheeks out of view.

  Michael turned back toward Ramiel, knowledge filling his features. “We’ll discuss that later.”

  Call it having paid attention to her psych courses in college or women’s intuition, but Riona was damned sure Ramiel, Persephone, and Michael had just had a three-way conversation between them without a word being spoken.

  Whatever. If something predating Kennedy had gone down between these three, that was their business. At the moment, her concerns were a little more self-centered.

  “You said you’d talk when we got back here, so talk.” Riona could have blown the house up if someone had taken a match to the fuming glare she was giving her alleged dad. “Straight up truth here. I’m sick of lies by omission, and turns out archangels excel at that.”

  “Of course. Right, well …” Michael shuffled as a flustered Persephone scurried back into the room, a fresh glass of something on the rocks in one hand, and a cheesecloth towel in the other. She handed off the drink to her brother and got down on all fours to blot the carpet. “Maybe it would help me to know where to start if you first told me what you already know.”

  Riona nodded. “You mean about how you knocked up my mom, tied her to a bed so she wouldn’t abort me, then conveniently fell off the face of the Earth when I was born, leaving me to be raised by one of the most horrid banshees this side of a sailor’s coffin? Yeah, that part I know.”

  “That’s … not … quite … what happened. I didn’t just ‘knock up’ Molly, as you so crassly put it. I loved her.”

  “Oh, heelllll no.” With rolling eyes, Riona coughed out a sound of indignation. “Now I know you’re lying. Nobody loves my mother. Even I’m fifty-fifty on some days.”

  “It’s true.” This time it was Ramiel speaking. “We all were just as perplexed about it, too. But in Molly’s defense, she wasn’t that bad back then. Nothing like she is now.”

  Riona’s upheld hand begged silence. She turned to Ramiel with a furrowed brow. “Wait a minute, you knew my mother back in the day, too? But why didn’t she recognize you? And how did you,” she pointed back to Michael, “even cross paths with my mother? No, let me guess, at church.”

  Michael gave Ramiel a questioning gaze. The latter angel shrugged. “Wasn’t my place to tell her.”

  Michael sighed. “Molly was a witch of some renown in her younger days. She dated one of the pillars for a short time. That’s how we met. She … intrigued me. So smart, so witty, so unconventional. She had a tongue that could skin a cat when you crossed her, but was gentle as rain most of the time. She wasn’t privy to the truth, mind you. She didn’t know her boyfriend was a Pure Soul. She definitely didn’t know I was an archangel. I let myself get wrapped up in the emotions. I fell, and she was all too happy to catch me. Before I knew what was happening, she was with child.”

  “Love gets you like that,” Dee piped up from the couch where he sat with Persephone, his sister stroking his hand as he nursed his gin and tonic. “Consumes you, eats your rational thoughts. We’ll all do the most stupid things for it.”

  Michael bobbed his head. “Indeed. But as you may know, angels are forbidden to take a human lover. It’s a slippery slope toward subjugating free will.”

  “And how is that?” Riona asked.

  “Angels are beings connected to the light, the divine spark. Our very natures have a tendency to strike lust in humans. Especially women; they sense inherently the connection with creation. For some, the craving borders on obligation. They give themselves into the longing, and can be taken without fully understanding why they even feel the way they do. Surely … you’ve … noticed …” Michael stumbled for words, showing that even if he hadn’t been on active duty for the last three decades, he had perused the guidelines regarding inappropriate things to discuss with your adult daughter.

  Riona lowered her head and met his uncomfortable posture with one of her own. “Um. With Ramiel, yeah. And I guess with Lucifer and Azazel, too, if I think about it. But it doesn’t happen with you.”

  He coughed a laugh. “Of course not. I’m your father. And if you’ve crossed paths with one of the Grigori, they always use that fact to their advantage.” Then, having realized what she said, his eyes flashed fire to Ramiel. “What does she mean with you? Do you have anything you need to confess to me, Ramiel?”

  The leering liaison blanched. “No, sire. Riona and I have never been intimate. I once tempted her, but not with intention. It was only a means to make her see a larger reality.”

  Riona’s face screwed into confusion. “Why does he keep calling you sire?”

  Ramiel perked up again. “In Heaven, Michael is the equivalent to what Lucifer is in Hell. A sort of President, CEO, regent … Whatever analogy works for you.”

  “Was, anyways, until I was vanquished,” Michael amended. “When I told your mother what I really was, and that because of it I couldn’t stay with her and with you, she accused me of coming up with a horrific lie to get out of my responsibility. We … had a row, during which she somehow managed to seize my blade and, without meaning to, pierced me. If she had been any other mortal, it wouldn’t have done anything except given me a superficial cut that my body would have quickly mended. But because she carried you within, the angel blood enhanced her magic. The charm that each blade carries activated. I was vanquished.”

  “But why didn’t you come back to Heaven? Why did you decide to go to Nirvana instead?” Ramiel asked.


  Finally, Jerry made his presence known. “He wanted to be numb.”

  “Huh?” Both Riona and Ramiel asked.

  The former gnosis demon, of course, would be the one with all the answers, wouldn’t he? “I heard rumors that one of the elites was hanging out with Buddha, but I didn’t know which or why. The reason for getting to Nirvana is the same for anyone, mortal or angel. You go to Nirvana because you want to be separate from the world. Molly’s outburst must have hurt him pretty damned bad, and even in Heaven, he’s have known he’d have the ability to see Riona, but never to connect with her. It would have torn him up, like a hungry man being caged inside a Chinese buffet. Riona? Riona, what’s wrong?”

  The witch raked her hands into her red hair and clutched at the roots like she was trying to take off a hat. “Oh, my goodness. Do you mean that man I slapped? That was Buddha? The Buddha?”

  Michael shooed the comment away with a wave of his hand. “Trust me, he thought it was hilarious. He’s been pulling that old ‘sound of one hand clapping’ line for eons. I’m sure he’s relieved to hear another answer. Or, really, hear any answer. But about your mother. When I was vanquished, I sent a message to Gabriel of my predicament, and told him he was in charge until I returned. However, your mother knew too much. A witch like her, I knew she’d move in all the right circles with all the wrong people. Someone would see you were different, and eventually someone would figure out why. The only way to ensure both of your safeties was for you both to separate from the wiccan community wholly. I asked Gabriel to erase her memory, to supplant it with a painful recollection of events so that neither one of you would ever go searching for me and stumble on the truth, and to bind her magic so that she couldn’t find a way to accidently undo the charm. I’m afraid so much manipulation of a human psyche may have enhanced her less pleasant attributes. I hope, however, that she is not without some of her good nature still?”

  Riona considered that thought. “Well, every so often, she tells me I’m not a complete screw up. So …”