by Aya DeAniege
All I could do was ask after her health through Lilly.
Lilly had, in turn, told me where to go and how to get there on several occasions.
That was how I knew that Grace was still on the mend. On the mend was a good thing. After that long on Earth, we all understood that humans took time to heal. There was no spell to seal a wound, only an angel’s grace or a miracle of Father might do that, and none of us was in the position to use grace or beg for a miracle.
The land that Michael was tending seemed a little brighter than normal. It may have had something to do with Michael’s mood, which was soaring despite his muttered curses and his throwing things into his wheelbarrow.
They were all happy, and they had reason to be.
Baal was gone, Hell was without its leader, and the infighting between the demon factions would distract them for centuries to come. They would be too busy trying to take the throne to possess humans. The number of incidents had fallen drastically over the past three days.
Which gave us plenty of time to begin tracking down the demons who had escaped Hell.
Some had physical bodies. Some were corporeal.
Those with physical bodies hadn’t been able to get onto Earth before. Some of them had slipped through the gates. There were a few that wouldn’t cause problems at all. They were downright useful.
Like a certain incubus who knew how to use his power to reach into a comatose mind and pull a person back to Earth from Purgatory.
Or Limbo.
Or wherever it was that humans in comas went to.
Their souls weren’t on Earth, was all I knew about that. While Grace didn’t have a soul, I think, she certainly hadn’t been present and in the physical world.
Perhaps it wasn’t that Grace had no soul, but that my grace was her soul. And after the events on the skyscraper, she had been spent. I had used my grace to rejoin with Baal, to slow my descent and finally land. We had been told a grace was like a muscle. Arc angels were capable of building that muscle more than regular angels, but we didn’t just get it back and have all the strength that we had long ago.
Her name is Grace, and she is a grace.
It only then occurred to me. I had been mulling it over every waking hour, but only then did it occur to me. That may have been because I preferred to think in Enochian, it was much faster.
“Huh,” I said out loud, still looking out over my lawns.
I gave myself a shake and straightened as the door opened behind me. As someone approached, I kept my eyes on the garden and Michael at his work. Out the corner of my eye, I saw someone lean on the railing. Too short to be one of us, too thin even to be Ralph.
Frowning out over the lawn, I wondered why Lilly would have visited me.
Then I turned and realized my mistake.
“Have you ever lied to me?” she asked.
“Should you be up?” I countered.
“I asked first,” she said.
I hesitated in answering, then nodded once.
“Twice, but they are lies we all tell.”
“What were the lies?”
“I’m not on a contraceptive. Arc angel and human cannot make a child, and I cannot get sick, or make others sick.”
“Wait, you can’t get others pregnant?”
“No, I can’t,” I said. “The power of an arc simply cannot be contained in the cells which become a human. Even this skin isn’t really mortal flesh, because mortal flesh cannot contain me.”
Grace made a sound at the back of her throat, looking me up and down.
“I suppose I could forgive that lie, it would have been overly complicated to explain,” she said. “And the second?”
“We are not brothers,” I said. “Not related at all. In Heaven, before we took physical form, a few of us even had relations. We simply tell humans that to avoid the overly complicated explanation, as you might put it. Those are the only two lies I told, and they are what we tell everyone, to keep them safe.”
“But Lucifer is the father of lies.”
“I’m not Lucifer anymore. For once a father was right, it was just a phase,” I countered. “I… saw the rationale behind Baal’s heart. We were both blinded by what the other person could be.”
“Father of lies?”
“I used to lie quite often,” I said. “Especially to demons, that’s what earned me the title. In order to get out of Hell, I had to sacrifice demon lives to pry open the gate. They had to be willing victims, so to speak, but they didn’t know what they were volunteering for. To say Hell was not happy when I left would be putting it mildly. Devils have tried to crawl out to drag me back.”
“Can they?”
“Can who, what?” I asked.
“Can devils drag you back to Hell?”
I considered for a moment before I answered because I wanted to seem like I was thinking it over. I knew the answer already. I knew it was a firm answer. But I didn’t want Grace thinking that I took that question lightly.
“No, they can’t, not now that I’m whole.”
“Will demons come to make your life a living Hell instead?”
“Probably,” I said with a nod.
“Will Heaven?”
I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t considered that angle. While I had been promised that Grace would return, they hadn’t given a firm timeline or promised to allow her to grow old and die. It was very possible that they might swoop down and decide to use Grace against me, even kill her at the drop of a hat because they wanted me to have my grace back and to do whatever it was that they thought I had to do.
Which, as far as I was concerned, could wait until Grace passed away of natural causes.
Anyone who came down from Heaven to do someone else a favour would find themselves on the working end of my weapon.
“Sam, is Heaven going to be coming down to try to do something?” she asked.
“Maybe, I will fix that.”
“Fix it how? If you could go up, wouldn’t he have been able to go up too?”
“While you have a point, I will find a way,” I said.
I couldn’t exactly tell Grace that the cook from her old job was part of the Host. Considering the voicemail from Lilly that was nothing but a string of curse words and threats growled out in such a way that I couldn’t make them out, I had to assume that the Host had come around again.
Lilly didn’t like the Heavenly Host. None of us blamed her. She still had a problem with Michael.
“I now have a question, did Lilly give you something to wear while coming here?” I asked.
“She wanted to,” Grace said before she made a face. “But when I asked if it’d give Michael the shits again she withdrew the offer. I think it might have been a kind of spell.”
“She brought magic into my home when she visited for dinner?” I asked.
“She said you’re lucky she didn’t know where she was going, or she’d have brought the one that skinned him alive.”
I considered Grace for a moment, then smiled and looked into the garden. Michael paused in his work to raise his hand and wave at Grace. She and I then turned to one another and her eyebrows raised.
“Lilly’s pretty upset for someone who almost got murdered, but then saved by her ex before it happened,” Grace said.
“Oh, that’s not all he did.”
“What else did he do?”
Again, I was quiet, considering whether I should tell her what I knew. What was between Michael and Lilly was the type of thing one did not just share around. It was for them to figure out, and Michael had sworn never to try anything of that sort again, he had done it all while he still had his grace.
But Hell hath no fury like Lilly pushed to her breaking point. She didn’t give up easily.
“I feel uncomfortable answering that, if Lilly thought you were in any danger from Michael, she would have said.”
“Does that mean he has a flaming sword?”
“Yes.”
“But the flaming hom
o is Raphael.”
“Not, no, not flaming homo, Raphael is more of a lover of all humans. Uh, all consenting, adults.”
“That’s how Lilly described him. Said that Michael has a flaming sword that Raphael wants to play with.”
“Everyone wants to play with Michael’s flaming sword, in Lilly’s version,” I said with a grumble.
“Gabe has to work on his approach.”
“That’s what Lilly said the first day. We are working on him not being an arrogant prick to women just because his tone of voice could get him off of a murder charge.”
“Good, and is there anything else I should know?”
“Look, Grace—”
“No,” she said, raising a finger to stop me, then waving it about as if taking in my whole body. “No, you threw me off a skyscraper, you don’t get to use that tone of voice with me. I asked if there was anything else that I should know?”
“I have different identities in different countries,” I said.
“About Heaven and Hell coming on down here and splattering me.”
“No, that’s about it.”
“You two morons unleashed demons into the world. Lilly said my doctor was an incubus,” Grace said.
“Us two?” I asked.
“Baal and you, you and Baal. What are you going to do about that?”
“Well, we’re hunting them down. But considering they just escaped Hell, they’re running about as fast as their stubby little legs can carry them because they know we’re hunting them down. They will keep quiet. They will keep their hands to themselves because they know if they don’t, I will murder them. And then, once they’re dead and back in Hell, I will open that gate back up, stroll on down there, and torture them until I get bored of hearing their screams. And yes, they know that is what I will do.”
“Not in any danger from the demons you let out, then?”
“No, none. Any other questions?”
“I want to meet Mary,” Grace said with confidence. “You haven’t got a mother or father to meet. I want to meet Mary instead, and I want to know her story, what happened to her and how this all came to be.”
“Okay,” I said. “Wait, what? Why would you be meeting Mary? No one meets Mary, that’s the point of Mary, she’s ours and no one else’s.”
“She’s kind of like a mother to you four,” Grace said. “You’ve met Lilly, the closest thing to family I have. Now I want to meet your family.”
“Why are you meeting my family?” I asked.
“Because we’re going to date.”
My mind stalled.
Stuck in place and blanked out, I couldn’t find my words or recall what exactly we had been talking about. How had we ended up in that place and her saying that to me?
I chose if I dated someone, she didn’t.
I had decided not to, that there had to be a distance between us because someone, somewhere would try to do something stupid, and it only took once. Just that one time and Grace would be dead and no more. The only plus side of the arrangement I apparently now had with Heaven was that the moment she died, I received my grace back, which meant I would know if she died.
And I’d kill a lot of people.
That didn’t mean I’d stay near her, or even that I’d give her the option of staying near me. I was fully planning on moving out of the city entirely. A new address and name, I’d become nearly invisible. Grace wouldn’t be able to find me, and Lilly certainly wouldn’t know where I was.
Not for at least a century.
Maybe two.
Best make it three.
“Who said we were going to date?” I managed to get out finally.
“I did.”
Grace turned and walked back toward the estate, leaving me staring at the spot where she had been standing a moment before. My mouth fell open as I stared there.
I want that.
It was far too dangerous for her. I wanted Grace to live a long, happy life. I’d pay for everything, pull strings, get her the job she wanted, find her a man eventually. But I wasn’t going to be the man for her because it was too dangerous.
“Grace.”
“No,” she said. “I’m not listening to your excuses.”
“It’s dangerous,” I said.
Finally, a weight was lifted from me. I had gotten the words off my chest and out in the open. She’d see the way of things and move on, see that this was best for everyone.
“So?” she demanded.
“S-s-so?” I stuttered out.
I couldn’t believe the balls of the woman, to just snap that out at me like I had called the sky blue. She turned on me and set her hands on her hips, glaring at me as I stared back at her.
Agape, I was absolutely agape that she had come right out and said that. As if it was no big deal that she could die.
She still believes there’s a Heaven and Hell.
Grace didn’t know that there wasn’t something for her after life. She had no idea that this was her only life to live, and knowing that, humans tended to relax and take the safer route because they could always be wild and crazy next time around. Few humans learned that existence didn’t end with death and acted like they had nothing left to lose.
I hadn’t told anyone about that sticking point. I wouldn’t even tell the others if they happened to stumble on a woman like Grace one day.
They deserved to be happy and to think that they could see her again later on. They didn’t deserve to spend every minute worrying about her safety like I was doing to Grace.
“Danger isn’t anything special,” she said. “Apparently, I’m in danger just walking down the road. I’m in danger going on a guided tour of a skyscraper. So? I want to date you. Are you going to try to tell me that you don’t want to date me?”
“I do, but—”
“Why is there a but? And the but cannot be because it might be dangerous.”
I sighed out through my nose as Grace marched up to me. She stopped bare inches away from me, scowling up at me as I glared back down at her.
“Name the most dangerous angel,” she said.
The growl that boiled up was bitten back as I gritted my teeth. My lips turned up in a snarl, baring my teeth at her. She imitated the motion, except she was smiling as she did.
“I’ve been told that the name of the most dangerous angel is Samael,” Grace said, biting her bottom lip for a moment before she settled her lips back around her teeth and then shrugged. “I mean, Lilly’s my only source for angel information.”
“I am the mightiest of the angels, the strongest, yes.”
“So, do angels have pills for that?”
“Pills for what?” I asked.
“Well, you think you can’t protect me and that my being around you is dangerous,” Grace said slowly, reaching out to set a finger on my chest, then her whole hand as I scowled at the finger. “That’s kind of like having an erection problem for angels, isn’t it? So, do they have a pill for that, that you could take?”
“That is not what it’s like at—” I stopped speaking and bit my tongue in annoyance. “Lilly told you to say that.”
“It kind of sounds like that’s what it is,” she said.
“That’s not what it is. There’s nothing wrong with my cock. It works quite well.”
“I wouldn’t know, haven’t seen you in days. Haven’t had sex in weeks, apparently.”
“We will have to rectify that.”
“Are we’re dating now?”
“Sex,” I countered.
“Dating, they call it dating these days,” Grace said sternly. “I’m not interested in some playboy who sleeps with models and all of his waitresses.”
“Who told you that—” I growled through gritted teeth again. “Ralph.”
Grace smiled almost apologetically.
“He also calls himself a flaming homo. Though it might have been the three bottles of wine we drank before we started talking.”
“What else did my brother say?�
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“That the way to your heart is through a bruise. But, I can’t bruise you, it still hurts to bend most ways,” Grace said. “This will just have to do until I can get back on my feet, get a few defense classes in and then beat you into the ground.”
“That’s not how that works.”
“Then are we dating, or not?”
“We’re dating,” I said.
“Good,” she said. “Conditions.”
“Conditions?” I choked out.
First one thing, then the other. I had agreed to date her, what else could she want from me?
But I was furious. I held myself back and took in a breath to try to calm myself down. After a moment of quiet, I saw it how it was.
I had given up on us, been ready to give up on Grace and let her walk out of my life. I had decided that without consulting her like I had with Lilly.
Grace was fighting for us. She wanted us to be together, and yes, I wanted it too. I wanted her in my life. I wanted to be a part of every second of hers, even if it meant that I had to watch her grow old.
In that calm of the moment, I knew what I had to do.
Which was agree with the woman whole heartedly.
I wrapped my arms around Grace. Pulling her close, I adjusted my hands, trying to avoid where I knew she would be bruised. One hand slipped up without thought, pushing her hair out of her face as she smiled at me.
“Your conditions?” I asked.
“No buying me things.”
“What about a ring?”
“Maybe, after an acceptable amount of time, depending on how we’re both feeling then.”
“Okay, fine, you win on that one. Other conditions?”
“You and Lilly need to get along, and you need to solve this thing between her and Michael because it’s weirding me out that I don’t know what it is.”
“All right, I can do that too.”
“Good, then we can date.”
I smiled down at her. She smiled back up at me, then jumped up and kissed me. It was such a silly little thing, but I allowed it to happen, and then for her to pull away. As she settled back on the heels of her feet, I bent down, capturing her lips with my own.
Our kiss deepened, and I lowered my hands, grasping her firmly and drawing her toward me.