I looked across the counter at Kevin’s hopeful expression and smiled. “I’ve got plenty of room. You stay as long as you like.”
“Thanks.” Kevin let out a breath he had been holding. “I’ll pack up my things and bring them over Tuesday.”
A little nagging thought tried to remind me that Maalik was paying for the condo, but Kevin was my apprentice, and I was supposed to be considering this my home. Maalik was hardly ever around anyway. If he had a problem with Kevin moving in, he could kiss my ass.
Chapter 24
“My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery,
people would stop dying.”
-Ed Furgol
“Don’t say it’s a fine morning, or I’ll shootcha!” John Wayne sounded even grouchier in surround sound. Or maybe it was just the mood I was in. It was nearing ten, and Maalik still hadn’t shown. The council meeting was probably running over again. Sometimes I wondered if Grim didn’t work them so much lately just to spite me.
Sunday was really the only day of the week I got to see Maalik, and even then, it wasn’t a guarantee. Lately, he had missed more dates than he kept.
I had a moment of hope when the doorbell rang out its church bell tune. Maybe he was just running late. Maybe he would show as promised, after all. But it was just Gabriel, looking about as miserable as I felt. His wings twitched, shaking loose a few feathers in the hallway.
“Interrupting?” he asked, looking past me.
I shook my head and let him in. “McLintock?”
“McLintock,” he grumbled, making his way to the refrigerator to stash away the case of Ambrosia Ale he’d brought with him. He was wearing a pair of his ragged drawstring pants, and the red in his eyes told me he had started drinking a little earlier in the evening than usual.
I grabbed a bag of Cheetos out of the pantry and joined him on the sofa. I had already changed out of my date clothes and into a tank top and yoga pants, ready for my pity party. At least I wouldn’t be sulking alone now. Gabriel handed me a beer and I passed him the Cheetos.
“Amy?” I asked.
He nodded. “Maalik?”
I rolled my eyes. You know you’ve been friends with someone a long time when you can hold an entire conversation with the exchange of single words.
I unpaused the movie and skipped it back to the beginning before stretching out and kicking my legs up in Gabriel’s lap. We quietly sipped our beers as John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara bickered on screen.
I couldn’t remember the last time we’d watched a movie together, and I suddenly felt guilty. I guess our new relationships and job ventures had something to do with that, but I missed our quality time. We hadn’t had a poker night in some time either.
“You up for a game of poker next week?”
Gabriel nodded. “Yeah. Maybe that’ll give Amy something else to bitch about.”
“Is she still carrying on about occupational responsibility?”
“You know it.” He snorted. “Maalik’s trying to get you to be less ambitious and Amy thinks I should be more ambitious. Maybe we should just swap partners.”
“Ha. I’ve already got one demon after me.” I bit my tongue immediately after I said it. I could feel Gabriel tense.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s nothing.” I shifted my legs around in his lap. “You know Bub. He flirts with everyone.”
“You’d think he’s show a little respect for Maalik. They’re both Hell-dwellers, after all.” His mouth twisted into an involuntary snarl, much like the one he wore when he had first found out about Maalik’s interest in me.
Gabriel wasn’t jealous, but he was protective. Sure, I had my moment of swooning, girly crush on him when we had first met, but that had passed quickly enough. Gabriel had shifted into something of a big brother. I loved him unconditionally, even when he crashed at my place after hitting Purgatory Lounge and puking on my couch. Hey, what were friends for? I was relieved that he wasn’t harassing me about the dangers of my efforts to join the Posy Unit, like nearly everyone else. But like a big brother, he probably knew chewing me out wouldn’t accomplish anything. Instead, he was inconspicuously hanging around to keep an eye on me. I smiled, loving him even more for protecting me without smothering me, something Maalik needed to take notes on.
Gabriel let out a huff as Wayne took the coal shovel to O’Hara’s ass. “If only all relationship problems were that easy to solve.”
“Yeah.” I sighed.
“Look as us.” Gabriel laughed. “Your lover’s never around, and mine won’t leave me the hell alone.”
“They got good reasons. Sometimes.” It was funny how I could gripe about Maalik all day, but the second someone else did, I felt the need to defend him.
Gabriel yawned and scratched his head, tumbling his blond curls around. “Mind if I crash here?”
“Not at all. I’ve even got a guest room set up.”
“Moving on up in the world.” He snorted and tickled my feet.
“Hey!” I kicked at him and pulled my legs up. “I’m just looking out for you. I don’t think a set of apocalypse mugs will suffice Holly if you puke on one of her white sofas.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“I forgave you. I think that’s good enough.” I grinned.
Gabriel stood, and only stumbled once before catching his balance. He stretched his arms and wings out with a yawn. “Lead the way, pilgrim.”
I hadn’t really given much notice to the other two rooms in the condo, but they were really quite nice. Each one had a private bathroom, though not as fancy as the one in the master suite. The bedroom I led Gabriel into was decorated in shades of gold and green. Gauzy curtains were layered over the window, and an engraved armoire rested in one corner.
Gabriel looked around the room with a frown. “Maybe I should leave myself a note. So I know where I am in the morning.”
I laughed. “I’ll wake you up with breakfast.”
“In bed?”
“You wish.”
He shrugged. “Worth a shot.”
“You good?” I asked.
He pulled me if for a hug. “Yeah, thanks.” I hugged him back, breathing in the smell of beer and frosting. I hadn’t spent much time in Heaven, but I was sure there had to be some killer bakeries there. Everything and everyone from there smelled like cake.
“Goodnight, Gabe.”
“Night.” He plopped on the bed and was snoring before I had even flipped the light off.
Chapter 25
“We always long for the forbidden things,
and desire what is denied us.”
-Francois Rabelais
“Lana? Lana, wake up.”
I opened my eyes to find Maalik sitting on the edge of my bed and sat up with a start. Usually he let me sleep in after he stood me up, waking me with the delightful smells of his impressive cooking skills to cool my anger. Not this morning.
“Maalik.” I relaxed back against the headboard with a yawn, and rubbed at my eyes with the palms of my hands.
I wanted to give him hell, first for standing me up, and then for not making it up to me with breakfast, but I changed my mind in a hurry. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. His chocolate curls were frizzed, and his formal robe was wrinkled and spotted with coffee stains, and he- I sniffed him- yup, he actually smelled.
“Good lord, when’s the last time you showered?”
He blinked a few times. “I’m not certain.” Then he frowned. “That’s not important. We need to talk.”
“Okay.”
“Lana, I need you to tell me something.” Maalik looked at me with his sincere brown eyes. He reached out to squeeze my shoulders, holding me in place before him.
“What?” I frowned, not liking the direction this was headed.
“Why is Horus cultivating favor for you among the council?”
“The assignment I completed last fall was very important to him, I guess.” I looked down
at his chest, knowing full-well I was as bad at lying as I was at intimidating demons.
“No, Lana.” Maalik shook me, startling me enough to look up at him again. His eyes had lost their sincerity. Now they were desperate. “What does he have you doing for him? What is he planning?”
“Nothing!” I shrieked, jerking my arms from his icy grasp. I threw the covers back and stormed off to my closet, suddenly feeling entirely underdressed. Having an argument in pajamas just didn’t demand the proper authority.
Maalik followed me. “Lana-“
“Is it so impossible that someone thinks I’m capable of more than low-risk harvesting?” I said over my shoulder as I pulled on a gray sweater and a pair of jeans. “Do you think I’m not good enough for the Posy Unit? Is that it?”
“You know it isn’t. Dammit, Lana, you’re going to get yourself killed.” Maalik stepped inside the closet and grabbed me, turning me around to face him again. “Is that what you want?”
Now I was fuming. “I’m taking all the proper precautions. I’ve hardly left the condo, except for school and my training-“
“With Beelzebub. In Hell. Where half the rebel army is from,” he growled.
“Yes, with Beelzebub, who is just as equipped to protect me as anyone else.”
“And you really think he would, don’t you?” Maalik scoffed.
I paused a moment, and then looked back up at Maalik with a soft smile. “I know he would.”
The hurt in his eyes was almost too much. He released me so suddenly that I stumbled and caught myself on the closet doorframe. He ran a hand through his unkempt hair and swallowed as his eyes glazed over. It was frightening seeing him this way. He was always so cool and collected, even when we were bickering. Today, he just looked lost and somewhat frantic. I was afraid to touch him.
I inched towards the bedroom door, never turning my back on him. “Why don’t you take a shower and get some sleep. I have to go.”
He glared at me a moment and then buried his face in his hands with a sigh and slumping down on the bed. “I’m losing you to him.”
I could feel the heat crawl up my face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Part of me wanted to go to him, to wrap his body in mine and crawl back beneath the covers and make his misery vanish. But another, stronger part of me wanted to run from the room, as far and as fast as I could.
“I have to go,” I repeated.
“Then go,” he said, his face still in his hands.
I turned and left him there, sitting alone on my bed. I felt like a traitor as my heart leapt at the thought of seeing Bub.
I poked my head in the guest bedroom I had set up for Gabriel, but he had already left. The bed was sloppily made up, but I smiled that he had even bothered. He never had to worry about making a bed when he crashed on my couch.
Saul and Coreen were finishing up their breakfast. I decided it must have been Gabriel who fed them, considering Maalik’s frazzled condition. I snatched up their leads and rushed out the front door, waving them to hurry along before Maalik changed his mind and decided to try and stop me again.
I felt mildly guilty for not telling Maalik the whole truth, but he was a by-the-book kind of guy. He could overlook the fact that I was different from the other reapers since it was his prophet’s wife Khadija who had made me different. He could even respect her reasons and appreciate the fact that the replacement soul I had found made it possible for Khadija to go home to Firdaws in Jannah, the Islamic heaven.
What Maalik didn’t know was that I had killed Wosyet. I wasn’t even sure he knew that Khadija had gifted me so greatly. Horus knew, and he was using it to blackmail me into hunting down another soul for him, something not sanctioned by the council. I couldn’t tell Maalik one secret without exposing the other, and that would be too much for him. His took pride in his loyalties, and those loyalties would force him to take my secrets to the council. The ultimate decision would be my execution, whether that was his intention or not. So I pretended that Horus was still patting me on the back. In a way, I guess he was. After all, he was paying me.
I took the quick route to Bub’s Tartarus home, skipping the gates of Hell as he had instructed. The hounds took up guard duty without any prompting form me. They were doing a lot better now that they were getting out more often. I think being in their homeland was helping improve their moods as well.
An intoxicating blend of nerves was swirling in my stomach. I wasn’t sure if it was the uncertainty of how Bub was going to act around me today, or if Maalik was right about me falling for the demon. Maybe it was a combination of both. My hands were sweating as I climbed the front steps of Bub’s summer home, and I missed the first few times I reached for the doorbell. Jack answered the door.
“Ms. Harvey.” He gave me a short bow and welcomed me inside with a wave of his hand. “This way, please.”
He escorted me through a different section of the house that I hadn’t seen before, into an elaborate office with wall-to-wall bookcases. The room was long with a round table on one side and a heavily engraved desk on the other. The matching chair behind the desk backed up to a tall, picture window, displaying red mountains in the distance against an amber sky.
Jack cleared his throat. “Master Beelzebub requested that I express his deepest apologies. He is unable to join us today, but he has fully instructed me on what lessons he desires you to cover, and he has laid them all out on the study table. I am quite versed in demonology myself, so I will be at your disposal for any questions, and I will be commencing your review at the end of the day.”
I frowned. “Okay.” This was awkward.
“I’ll fetch some tea while you get started.” He left the room, leaving me standing there, unsure if I should be pouting or relieved.
Was Bub really unable to be here, or was he intentionally avoiding me? I was ashamed at how disappointed I was.
I opened one of the books, but I found myself constantly distracted by my thoughts. Bub had laid out quite a bit for me to study. I frowned, wondering if this was somehow punishment for dodging his advances. Or maybe he was really that concerned about the possibility of me encountering six hundred different kinds of demons. Right.
The morning dragged on into the afternoon. I spent the majority of my time reading and rereading, and then reading aloud different incantations for Jack so he could correct my pronunciation with an annoyed scowl. Incantations and spells wouldn’t do much good if they weren’t spoken correctly, and Latin was hard. Wowzers. There were a few lines Jack finally gave up on teaching me altogether. When I felt like my brains would start leaking out my ears, he finally relented and brought in a small gift bag.
“I took the liberty of hunting down a few additional items for your protection.” He set the bag on the table.
I smiled at him and reached into the bag, shuffling through a heap of tissue paper before retrieving a small bottle of… hairspray. I frowned. “You have a problem with my hair?”
Jack sighed. “It’s angelica mace. The holy root is ground into a powder and diluted with holy water. It’s quite potent against evil spirits.”
“Oh. Neato.” The bag still felt heavy so I reached back in it and found a small, flat box at the bottom. It was white with a creamy peach ribbon tied neatly around it and into a bow on top. It looked like something jewelry might come in. I raised an eyebrow at Jack.
“That one was at Master Beelzebub’s suggestion.”
I grinned and tried to keep my hands from shaking as I untied the bow and opened the box. A black, silk pouch was nestled inside. I loosened the drawstring on the pouch and emptied its contents into the palm of my hand. Dozens of triangular crystals glittered up at me.
“What are they?”
“Crystal tips for your throwing stars. I told him I thought it was overkill. These are peasant rebels you’re dealing with, but he insisted that they have worthy players. Those crystals were mined from caves in the Jerusalem Mountains of Heaven before they passed legislati
on forbidding it, so use them sparingly, my dear.”
“Of course. Thank you.” I shifted my fingers, admiring their twinkle before replacing them in the pouch. It wasn’t exactly jewelry, but it was pretty damn close, if you asked me.
“Master seems quite fond of you,” Jack said. I couldn’t tell whether or not he was happy about that. Hell, I couldn’t really tell whether or not I was happy about that.
Jack looked at me as though he was expecting a reply.
“Well, he was hired to train me. I don’t suppose my death would look good for him,” I said with a shrug.
Jack chuckled, making his short horns quiver. “I suppose not, but I suspect his interest in you runs deeper than that. He has never invited a reaper into his home before. Not even Grim.”
I gave him a strained smile. “Well, aren’t I a lucky girl?”
It felt an awful lot like he was prying, and call me crazy, but I really didn’t feel like spilling my guts to a demon, even one as harmless seeming as Jack. A clock somewhere in the house chimed five bells, and he jumped in surprise.
“Time to prepare dinner already. Well, my dear, it seems we are finished for the day. Would you like me to walk you out?”
“I can find my way, thank you.” I gave him a smile and put my gifts back in the bag as I stood.
“Very well. Good evening, Ms. Harvey.” Jack left in a hurry, presumably to prepare dinner, and I had a moment to wonder if Bub would be dining alone or if he had guests coming over. Which also made me wonder if he had come home yet. I really didn’t have time to snoop around and find out.
I wanted to go over my final project one last time before presenting it with Craig. I didn’t really need to go over it again, but I was paranoid. I couldn’t fathom the idea of letting that bastard show me up in front of an audience. Josie and the study gang had drilled me on the last assignment enough times that I could have recited it in my sleep. Not even Jack’s extensive demon review could scour that from my mind. Jack might not have been impressed with my Latin, but I had a hopeful feeling that Grace Adaline would find my harvesting expertise more satisfactory.
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