by Alexie Aaron
“It was a cumulative thing. Your sterilizing yourself. You could have run that by me. Demon genes, Mia!”
“Primal genes,” she clarified, “and it turns out I saved the day. Would you like to have fought The Balance while they were slaughtering my townspeople, a few - very few - who are my friends?”
“No. But, Mia, all this could have been communicated with me.”
“What about the baby mill?”
“That’s your crazy brain. Remember Pumpkin Head?”
“How dare you bring that up,” Mia put her hands on the side of her head. “Yes, I make mistakes.”
Nicholai took her by the shoulders. “This is why I’m here,” he said, tapping her temple. “Call me. Talk to me. Oh, that’s right, I’m not there anymore. Angelo is. Now that, in my opinion, is a big mistake.” Nicholai rubbed his jaw. “Little Bird, you do get yourself into scrapes.”
“I’m sorry, I quit on you. It was my wounded pride. I thought I knew it all. There I was, living in a fantasy world that Enos would be able to resign his commission and come and live with us. I was going to send him and Lazar to college with the money I will make from selling my house.”
“That could be seen as controlling,” Nicholai pointed out.
“I guess so, but it wasn’t my intent. Lazar told me to take a hike. I hadn’t told Enos yet. I had to work up my courage to speak with Victor first. How could you think I would mate with Enos? The spiral was never ever going to be used again by me. The only one I enjoyed spiraling with was you.”
“Was I that important to you?” Nicholai asked.
“Yes. You’re old, and I hate it when you spank me like a child in the sixteenth century, but I felt safe with you. Because of my past, I don’t sleep well. That first night in Alsace, when you held me, was the first night I slept without fear.”
“Mia, I’m a soldier and in my declining years. Odds are, I won’t survive Ted. I’m not retiring again because I know that would kill me. I’m going to die in battle because I need to reincarnate so I can pass all I know on to the next generation.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You need to work with Baxter. I can’t be thinking about you when I’m fighting because I won’t be at my best. You have wizards and archangels who will help you continue your life after Ted. It won’t be me.”
Mia turned around and looked at the destroyed hillside. “So, it was my angst alone that caused that.”
“Yes,” Nicholai lied.
“You never wanted a piece of this,” Mia asked, “even when you stole me, twice.”
“No. Nanny is still outraged about that.”
“She should be. Okay, I’ll drop my constant bombardment of adoration and smoldering looks.”
“Good, that would help.”
“And you’ll stop taking me and sleeping with me. Lucifer’s lemon balls, you put me in your bed!”
“I can see why you had the misunderstanding,” Nicholai conceded.
“I’m not a child. I’m a warrior.”
“Not anymore. You’re in Angelo’s flock. You’re going to be lucky to get into any battles. He stays and protects the children. You’re going to probably be used as a nursemaid.”
“Is that so bad?” Mia voiced, more for herself than Nicholai. “I know I’m not constructed that way, but it’s a noble profession. Enos would laugh at me…” Mia’s voice trailed off.
“I’ll miss him too,” Nicholai said. “But he’ll be fine. He has to forge his own path.”
“Another person I care for leaves me.”
Nicholai didn’t say a word. All that needed to be said had been said too many times already. She was young; she would survive. He offered her a hand up and flew with her to Quentin’s mansion.
Chapter Nineteen
Ted sat down in the booth. He stopped his game after the third text message from Cid. Quentin arrived and waved the waitress over. They gave her their drinks order.
“Who is WBOMB?” Ted asked the waitress. “Does his mother let him stay out of school? He’s at the top of nearly all the games.”
The waitress screwed up her mouth but stayed silent.
Quentin pulled out his phone. “Oh, I have a voicemail,” he said.
Ted watched as Quentin’s face basically told Ted what was going on. It went from concerned to hopeful, from outraged to concerned. Quentin smiled and then hit the tabletop and put his phone down.
“Care to share?” Ted asked.
“Not sure I should.”
“I’ll trade you my texts from Cid for your voicemail.”
“Maybe not,” Quentin said.
“Mine has bees in it,” Ted tempted.
Quentin started the voicemail and handed it to Ted. Ted slid his phone over to Quentin.
Quentin laughed about the bee incident.
Ted growled thinking about Gerald in Mia’s head. He was angry she didn’t call him. He asked for his phone back. He looked, and she did call him. She left a voicemail. He listened to her explanation and sat back. “Why didn’t I answer the phone?”
“Remember, we were ordering, and you said…”
“I’d call her back. I forgot. Now I can’t be mad. Am I a bad husband?” Ted asked Quentin.
“I’ve never been married, so I don’t know.”
“Maybe we should get back.”
“Finish your drink, and I’ll call a cab.”
“Why don’t you call an Uber?”
“Not really convinced I want to get into a stranger’s car.”
“A cab is…”
“Licensed and I’m old fashioned. I don’t even drive because my father insisted I be driven everywhere.” Quentin studied Ted’s face for a moment. “I don’t know about being a husband, but I know you’re the perfect man for Mia. She’s a handful, and you take it in stride. Baxter has to lie down in a dark room after his counseling sessions with Mia. She gives him a migraine.”
“She loves too easily and is loyal to the oddest beings.”
“Like me and Baxter?”
“You guys are quite sedate compared to the di inferi or the crossroads demon Takemi, with whom she has Taco Tuesday with.”
“Taco Tuesday with Takemi,” Quentin said and tried to say it three times fast.
“I remember when she would bounce the demons on the side of the head and send them for a time-out in Hell. Now they grace our dinner table, if Lazar would let her.”
“About Lazar, how closely related is he? Do I have to put him on my Christmas Card list?” Quentin asked.
“That’s a question for Ralph.”
“About these bees…”
“Yes?”
“I think that there is more going on in that house than poltergeists. Demons are fond of bees,” Quentin said.
“I was thinking that Ms. Carter, who is growing on me, isn’t high strung enough to attract poltergeists. I think there is a demon masquerading. I’m going to break it to Burt on the way back, maybe have Mia look. That is, if Mia is functioning after the spanking I’m going to give her.”
“Wait, spanking?”
“I want to, but I won’t,” Ted said. “Gerald Shem is dangerous.”
“Baxter wouldn’t have asked him to help if he felt the man was dangerous to Mia or not absolutely necessary. Baxter is very protective of Mia.”
“Should I be worried?”
“No. He’s not going to take her from you. He’s a professional, and as I said, Mia gives him migraines.”
~
Mia sat staring at Baxter open-mouthed. She closed it and asked, “Please repeat that.”
“Gerald thinks you didn’t start the purge of your memories of Nicholai. He saw evidence of two divine beings in your mind house but only one in the area where you had buried Lucifer’s torture chamber.”
“Michael read my thoughts, maybe Sariel.”
“Why?”
“I was showing trust. He can’t read me unless I
open up.”
“Once your mind is open, he can keep it open for someone else to slip in and sabotage you.”
“I refuse to believe that Sariel would hurt me. It has to be Michael, but why?”
“Let’s say you give permission to let someone walk your mind.”
“Yes.”
“Can they open closed doors?”
“No. Especially now I have the primal demon gene and the Blue Star energy.”
“But the door was broken open by the cascading memories.”
“Yes,” Mia agreed, listening intently to what Baxter was telling her.
“If Gerald wasn’t around… I would have insisted you go to Michael to have him walk your mind house.”
“He would have been able to enter the room. He’s using me to get to Lucifer. How could I be so stupid!”
“Let’s go back to the facts. Gerald gave you an axe, and you planted it into the midsection of Lucifer.”
“The bad thought Lucifer,” Mia corrected. “I doubt I’d be able to get that close to the real deal, not that I would chance it.”
“How did this make you feel?”
“Satisfied.”
“The old Mia would have questioned her actions.”
“Pre-Hell Mia would have. This Mia thinks I should have kept going. Done a Gordon Ramsay on his loins.”
“But he helped you with the tree-bark demons,” Baxter argued.
“We agreed on a solution both of us could stomach,” Mia corrected. “I still fear him, hate him, and would run over him with my grocery cart in the Walmart parking lot, maybe use the truck…”
“Mia, come back to me,” Baxter coaxed.
“Sorry. I’m thankful he listened to reason. I think Altair prepped him, maybe Murphy. Either way, the teens are safe. And Enos is going to spend the winter with the settlement to help them build a better way to remain invisible to the outside world.”
“Michael knew that because of your recent interaction with Lucifer, Lucifer would reconstruct or revisit the torture chamber in your mind. Michael planned on being there and…”
“Can Michael kill him by using Lucifer’s own thoughts?” Mia questioned.
“The question is, did you kill Lucifer?”
“No. I planted that axe in his chest, but I know from our sick little games that Lucifer has no heart.”
“He has a heart, but maybe not in his chest,” Baxter said.
“You just gave me chills.”
“And me a migraine. Please leave.”
Mia did.
~
Mia was sitting on the front porch when Ted and Quentin’s cab arrived. She sat with a few bags of belongs, that she had accumulated at the house, setting beside her.
“Did Baxter kick you out?” Ted asked, picking up her bags.
“Yes. I think it was something I said. Anyway, he’s lying down with one of his migraines.”
Ted and Quentin exchanged knowing looks.
“How was Dave and Busters?” Mia asked.
“Entertaining. I kept getting interrupted by Cid. Would you mind us stopping back at the investigation on the way home?”
“Not at all. I can show off my new sense of balance. Evidently, I was seeing the past and the present at the same time. Altair is going to go apeshit when I tell him.”
“I hope you tell me too,” Ted said with an edge.
“I shall regale you with my misadventures over a meal at Taco Bell,” Mia said.
“Are you asking me on a date?” Ted asked.
“Definitely.”
Quentin hugged Mia and whispered, “You’re in big trouble.”
“I know.”
~
Mia understood the silence in the truck as they drove to Elmhurst. There wasn’t enough time for Ted to express his displeasure at Mia’s choice of saviors. Mia closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. Ted wasn’t talking. That was bad. She hadn’t asked for the problems of the last week, but she did accept that it generated around her. It was all about her, especially the possibility of them losing their children.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, Ted. I’m sorry for taking shortcuts and chances where, upon reflection, maybe I could have been more patient. I’m sorry for causing most of my own problems. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing half the time. Today, I sunk an axe into Lucifer’s chest. I mean, who does that?”
Ted pulled the truck over.
“You canceled/cleared your future because you don’t want anyone shortening my life,” Ted clarified.
“Yes. I think maybe I fell into the tinfoil-hat-wearing crowd with my thinking, but it made sense to me at the time.”
“I really don’t want to belabor this point, but you really don’t want to live without me, do you?” Ted asked.
Mia opened her eyes and stared into his. “No.”
“What about the kids?”
“They will be living their lives. Hopefully, we will have raised them well enough to deal with the challenges ahead. Murphy will be there.”
“But you don’t see carrying on a physical relationship with Murphy.”
“No. Dead is dead. I’m a bit old-fashioned that way.”
Ted smiled. “What about Cid?”
“In a minute,” Mia lied.
“Ha, you’re lying, Mia, I can tell,” Ted said. “What if you die? Did you ever think about what happens to me?”
“I was hoping the kids would have a robot stepmother.”
Ted laughed.
“I know I have a hero complex to work on, but I do intend to outlive you.”
“Mia, I knew you were a hero when I married you. Don’t change. I just want more communication between us. You must trust me to understand, even when you’re being impatient, I’m listening. I don’t want to make your decisions for you; I just want to be in the loop.”
“I understand. Whenever there is time, I will. I can see things so much clearer now. I know how blessed I am to have the smartest man in the world at my disposal for advice. And the sexiest man in my bed.”
“I told you, no threesomes with Cid.”
“Damn, you do put a damper on things, Teddy Bear.”
Ted drew her into his arms and kissed her long and hard. Mia responded with a whimper.”
“Am I hurting you?”
“No, I um…”
“Well, well, well, now who’s a quickdraw,” Ted teased.
Mike looked down the street at the Martins’ truck. “Why are they parked down there?”
“Use your imagination, Dupree,” Audrey said.
“Oh great. Ted all over Mia in the truck three houses from our client’s is not the image I want right now.”
They heard the truck start up and drive towards them.
Audrey and Mike scrambled to pretend to be doing something so they didn’t get caught watching.
Mia took time to look at the team’s bee stings. She insisted Mike take off his shirt. Ted watched with amazement as she pulled a stinger out without actually touching Dupree’s skin. She connected with the foreign object and encouraged the skin to push it out. The urgent care nurse took more care with Audrey, but Mia still eased the swelling. Burt walked out of the house with the beekeeper. Burt’s face was swollen by his lip. She waved him over and looked at him from a few different angles before she raised her hand to the sky and seemed to pull down some honey.
The beekeeper smiled as she tenderly massaged the honey into the large sting. She then took a tweezers and pulled out a few missed fragments.
“How did you do that?” the beekeeper asked.
“I snuck a dab when I walked by your truck.”
The man grinned. “You magicians.”
“Is there a hive inside?” she asked the man.
“No. I looked for a trapped queen but couldn’t find her. I would like to find the queen. If I have her, I can get them to leave.”
“She has to b
e near,” Mia said. “Poltergeists definitely have a limited range of where they can pull items, in this case bees.”
Mia walked the outside of the house and smiled. She waved the beekeeper over. “What’s that?” Mia pointed to the top of the old garage.
The beekeeper pulled out a pair of binoculars. “It’s a cupola. And the window is broken. An excellent place for a hive. I’ll go up, look the situation over. If the queen is there, my partner and I will remove the brood cones and attach them to frames. We’ll assemble a hive and see if we can entice them to take up residence there. If we are successful, I can transport the bees to my farm in the hive.”
“Cool beans.”
“Are you interested in bees?”
“My husband has always been interested in us saving them.”
“I was wondering where Mr. Garrett got our number from.”
“Will I upset things if I go look in the cupboard where they were trapped?”
“No. The bees only stung those folks because they were surprised by the bright light.”
“Good to know.” Mia walked over to the trailer and gathered the team. “I’ll go in and take a look, but no light. Give me night goggles.”
“I’ll go with you,” Cid said, handing Mia a PEEPs T-shirt.
“I think maybe this is a solo job until the bees are relocated,” Mia said, ducking behind the files to change in privacy.
“Mia, you just got on your feet,” Ted said. “I’m going with you.”
“You said there is the possibility of a demon.”
“Quentin said so.”
“Then please understand if I act differently. When I’m communicating with a demon, I’m constantly picking up clues from him, running information from my memory of past encounters and things I have read. I’m there for one purpose.”
“So, don’t interrupt you and ask you if I look sexy in infrared?” Ted said, imitating Betty Boop’s voice.
Mia looked at him amused. “What I’m trying to say is, don’t be surprise by the creature I become.”
“Understood.”