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My house was bustling with activity. Michael was healing Ariel’s wings with Jerome’s assistance. Ariel and Aurora were playing Snakes and Ladders with Sophia and Helia. Remiel was sitting on my couch eating leftover pizza and watching Frozen 3. Raphael was outside with Angel, watching for us.
“Soleil, what were you thinking?” Raphael asked me as I got out of the car.
“That I wanted to kill him,” I said.
“Oh,” my father said. “Possession is better, I guess.”
“Have you seen Aurora’s memory of it?”
“Jerome showed us,” Raphael nodded.
“I’m going to argue diminished capacity due to duress,” Gabriel told my father. “I think we can get her a fine and maybe probation.”
“Does it matter?” I demanded. “I mean, does it really actually fucking matter? He butchered his own child, and everyone is angry that I caused him to be possessed for 12 hours? One of us is a much bigger fucking monster than the other. I mean, if I had forced Belial into him, it might be worthy of being angry about, but I didn’t. I used Chernonil. There are much worse demons I could have picked. Even then, it still wouldn’t be as barbarous as what he did.”
“Soleil, I agree he deserved to be punished, but that is for the courts to decide, not you.” Raphael told me.
“Normally, I would agree, but in that moment, after watching my niece scream and beg her own father to fucking stop, all I could think of was causing him as much pain as he caused her.” I wiped a tear from my eye.
“Are you okay?” he asked, pulling me into his wings and holding me as I cried. I tried to whisper that I was, but no sound came out. He held me on my front porch, and I felt his wings open and admit someone else into the circle. It was Jerome and Ariel. Her wings were starting to grow back. I cried harder.
“Uncle Michael said by Monday they will be good as new,” the little girl told me.
“Good,” I croaked, and I felt the rage begin to well up again. In the back of my mind, a little voice suggested that even Belial wouldn’t have been punishment enough. I ignored it, lest I leave myself open to demonic possession via bad thoughts.
“Remiel ate every bit of your leftover pizza,” Jerome told me.
“Figures,” I chuckled.
“Child Protective Services along with the Chesterfield Police will come to your office Monday to talk to Jerome about his ability to project memories. They want to see Ariel’s memory of what happened,” Raphael whispered to me. “We all agreed you will not see it, even if that means you have to go out during that time. We want to avoid a repeat possession of Mark.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. I had no desire to experience Ariel’s memory of the event. Aurora’s was traumatic enough. After several more minutes of hugging and the addition of Aurora to our circle, we went inside the house. There was a package on the countertop in my kitchen. It was wrapped in birthday paper, but it was at least two months past my birthday. I stared at it.
“Whatever it is has magic,” Jerome told me.
“I’m fairly certain it’s a demon box,” I told him.
“Yeah, we are too,” Raphael said.
“I don’t want a demon box,” I said. “Especially not today. Today has sucked enough.” I pushed the box further across the counter; it enlarged, tearing the paper, and I decided I didn’t want it in my house at all. I picked it up and carried it to the shed that we used for storage. I had multiple outbuildings due to the hellhound, horses, and the wizard who needed an extra-large lab that doubled as a workshop where he made his magical possession protection amulets. As I unlocked the door, I noticed a light on at Abigail’s house. It would be even better in her shed. I walked toward the vampire’s house and she met me at the door.
“What’s up? I heard you were arrested for reckless and intentional possession of two people.”
“Boy, good news travels fast,” I said.
“It’s all over the news,” she told me. “They are also saying you had a breakdown after someone cut off your wings, but you have your wings.”
“My niece’s father caught off her wings, which is why I forced him and his girlfriend to become possessed,” I told her.
“Good lord, what an asshole! Is she okay?” She looked at the package. “It’s not my birthday.”
“It’s not mine either. So, before tonight have you seen talk of the demon boxes on the news?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I am pretty sure there’s a demon box in here, but I don’t want to deal with it tonight. I was going to put it in our shed, but I have a house full of angry archangels plus Jerome and saw your light on, so I was hoping you’d let me put it in your shed.”
“Not to mention an angel’s corpse under your house,” Abigail grinned.
“That too.” Only two people knew about the moving of Lucifer’s corpse beneath my house during the building process: Abigail and Bill. They helped the archangels arrange the move and hiding of the body.
“Of course,” Abigail said. She pulled a key from her long dress. Abigail always wore dresses out of habit. I followed her to the shed and we stowed the box away. I wrote, “Demon box Inside. Do not open” and Abigail locked up the shed. We secured the shed and Jerome came running over to add a few protection spells.
“If that isn’t a demon box tomorrow, we are all going to feel a little silly,” the teen said.
“Yes, but today has been awful and I’m positive it is a demon box, so better safe than sorry,” I sighed. “Jerome, I am ready for bed. Do you think my family will leave if I ask nicely?”
“No. Remiel, Michael, and Gabriel are building a blanket fort in my game room because Ariel is also tired.”
“Huh, I guess we are having a sleepover if you want to come over for a glass of wine,” I told Abigail.
“Unfortunately, Libby is also having a sleepover; it’s why I’m awake. I thought they were trying to sneak out a while ago,” Abigail told me.
“Were they?” I asked.
“Undoubtedly.” Abigail smiled. “So, when I saw you come home, I decided to stay up in case you needed to be checked on as well.”
“I have a hearing in a month. Gabriel is representing me. Also, we have a big day in five hours. Amiel is coming over to check Jerome’s family tree for angels.”
“I could see him being nephilim,” Abigail said.
“Yeah, Dad agrees.” I nodded.
“You might be an archangel. How does that make you feel?” Abigail asked Jerome.
“I don’t feel like I’m nephilim.” Jerome shrugged. “If it turns out I am, it is a really well-kept secret.”
There were two cots in my living room. Raphael was making up one of them. Sophia was making up the other.
“We should have made your house bigger,” my mom said as she tucked a sheet corner in.
“I thought there was a blanket fort,” I said.
“I am 600 years old, and I am not sleeping in a blanket fort,” my mom said. That was hard to argue with, so I didn’t. When I’m 600-plus years old, I probably won’t want to sleep in a blanket fort either. However, I wasn’t sure where the cots came from.
“Girls get one fort, guys get the other,” Remiel told me, coming into the living room.
“Great,” I said, wondering if everyone would be mad if I slept in my own bed.
“They will,” Remiel told me. I shook my head at him then went to change into my pajamas. Occasionally, all of my uncles could be quite childlike. There was something about being immortal that made them bounce between being very mature and very immature. When it was important, they had all the wisdom of their millennia, but when it came to comforting the family, they built blanket forts and had water gun fights. I hoped that in a thousand years I still had that ability to switch between the two.
Jerome’s game room was built off his bedroom. It was a fully contained room without other access. It worked as our storm shelter as well. One wall was shared with my bedroom and one with the master bathroom. The third wall was shared with Jerome’s bedroom and the last with the hallway. As such, there were no windows and it only had one entrance and exit. Getting sucked into a tornado killed more than a dozen people a year in Missouri. I didn’t have a basement because of Jophiel’s corpse buried under my house, but we did have a tunnel system should something really awful happen. There was hatch access in each of the three bedrooms, all of them under the beds. There was also a hatch in Jerome’s workshop and in the stable, but if you didn’t know the hatches were there, you’d never find them. However, the tunnels were only four feet tall by three feet wide, so they weren’t places you’d want to spend a lot of time.
The heads of Ariel, Aurora, and Helia poked out from one fort. Gabriel and Michael stuck out of the other one. Their feet were also sticking out from the edge of the blanket fort. I didn’t have a single uncle under six-and-a-half feet tall. I joined my sister and nieces as Remiel and Jerome crawled into the other fort.