| |
“No one has magic like Leviathan’s,” my father told Jerome.
“Three years ago, we would have all agreed no one had magic like Jophiel’s,” I commented.
“Aunt Asha took a rock and drew a tunnel with it that took us to Leviathan,” Aurora said proudly. “Then when the big, scary demon came to hurt Uncle Zadkiel to get to me and Asha, Aunt Asha forced him to get on the ground just like on COPS, but she didn’t have a gun.” My father looked confused.
“Using magic, I drew a tunnel through a mountain that took us from Ashtoreth’s territory to Leviathan’s castle.”
“Oh, and don’t forget when you took all the demons from the scary one or took feathers from the white one,” Aurora piped up.
“The white one?” My father asked.
“So much to explain. The quick and dirty version: I humiliated Belial, forced Azazael to give me feathers for Jerome, and then I came back.”
“I have so many questions,” Remiel said. I spent nearly an hour explaining the events. Aurora chimed in to help every so often, which didn’t really help at all. My sister occasionally looked horrified and terrified at the same time, despite Aurora being back safe. I looked at the girl.
“Uh, hey, I know today has been really strange, but has anyone noticed Aurora has wings?” I asked.
“What?” We all looked at her.
“Uncle Z gave them to me,” Aurora said proudly and spread them out for all to see. Her wings were not white and yellow like most, they were a dark pink with white spines. “When Aunt Asha was controlling Belly the scary demon, Uncle Z told me all archangels should have wings, and I felt them grow.” She made me laugh until I cried. My niece called Belial “Belly the scary demon.” I laughed until I thought I would wet my pants. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, and that made me laugh even harder.
“Are you okay?” My sister asked, and I gasped for air.
“Belly the scary demon,” I finally huffed out, and then broke into more peals of full-body laughter.
“Even children remember the names of demons because they terrify them. Soleil finds it hilarious that Aurora wasn’t scared of him enough to even remember his name correctly or to bother trying to pronounce it,” Remiel told her.
“Why would I be scared? He was big and ugly, but I was with Aunt Asha and Uncle Zadkiel, and I knew they would protect me. Oh, and there were lots of hellhounds. Uncle Z has two dozen or more of them, plus he made the hellcats while we were there. It was only scary when we were running to get to Uncle Z in the tunnel and Belial was after us.” I watched my sister visibly pale and that stopped my laughing. “Then a demon named Asher met us in the tunnel and took me so Soleil could run faster and we escaped the big, ugly demon. Asher was nice though.” Of all the adjectives used to describe demons, I couldn’t imagine anyone using nice, not even Aurora, but she had, and she was enjoying the attention her trip to the Stygian had brought her.
“Aurora, how do you know his name?” I asked.
“He told me while he ran with me,” Aurora replied sweetly. I nodded once; apparently no great mystery there.
“So, we need to find Menard the Leprechaun and find out who he gave the instructions to,” I told my father and uncle.
“Menard the Leprechaun?” Remiel looked confused. Raphael did as well. I considered asking, but figured they’d get to it in their own time and my hurrying them wouldn’t help.
“You slept through leprechaun day, didn’t you?” Jerome asked, and I realized he was looking at me.
“Leprechaun day?” I asked.
“Or are angels so special they don’t learn about things like leprechauns?” Jerome continued.
“If it didn’t involve demons, she probably slept through it,” Helia said.
“Good grief,” Jerome said. “Leprechauns are like banshees and wendigos. They exist on this plane, but they aren’t like other supernaturals. Leprechauns spend most of their time performing alchemy and messing with the weather. They wouldn’t be building demon boxes.”
“However, if they got their hands-on instructions for something like a demon box, they would sell them to the highest bidder,” Raphael said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Leprechauns eat gold,” Jerome said. “It is their primary food source. Selling stuff makes them money that they can then turn into another metal like nickel or lead that can be transmuted into gold for food.”
“How strange,” I said. “I must have slept through leprechaun day. I remember banshees and wendigos, but not leprechauns.”
“Wendigos and banshees are more like demons than leprechauns,” Jerome said.
“How is it that some supernaturals have leprechaun blood, then?” I asked. “I always thought of them as tiny fairies.”
“Because they are fairies,” Raphael said. “Fairies are the only supernaturals that can create offspring with leprechauns. It is frowned upon because if the bloodline becomes too overwhelmed by leprechaun genes, it subjugates the fairies to a life similar to that of a leprechaun. In ancient times, it was more common, but those bloodlines have been trying to remove their leprechaun blood for centuries. They need to snack on gold like a vampire needs blood.”
“Huh,” I said.
“You need a tutor,” my mother said. “A non-magical tutor. I don’t know how you graduated from school. You should talk to Haniel about teaching you history.” I considered this and really didn’t want to do it. I’d spent eight months the previous year learning about magic that wasn’t Stygian or demonic with a tutor to help me better understand Jerome, in theory, but I knew it was because I hadn’t paid attention to it in angel school. My mom was correct. I probably shouldn’t have been allowed to graduate. I’d been born an exorcist and had ignored everything not directly related to that, which was why my nearly 15-year-old was lecturing me on leprechauns.
“I’ll go talk to the leprechaun, but chances of him knowing who he sold the instructions to are slim,” Remiel said. “Maybe with my ability to read his mind, I can get some idea of it.”
“Why wouldn’t he know?” I asked.
“They are leprechauns, not bureaucrats,” Remiel said, looking at me. “Wow, you really did sleep through it.”
“Let’s go home so that my family can muse over my scholastic inattention without my hearing it,” I told Jerome.
We drove home. Sunday came and went without event. Monday morning, Jerome went to work with me. We’d been in the office about two hours when we had a woman come in and report her daughter missing. We had five calls about exorcisms, and I sent Janet to look for the source of the possessions immediately. Remiel finally showed up from the leprechaun errand at about lunch time and brought cheeseburgers for everyone. We were eating when the world erupted. Every cell phone and landline in the office began going off. My caller ID informed me it was Jerome’s school calling. I answered it.