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After my shower, I ate my bacon sub and went to bed. All three kids crawled in bed with me for some reason and I let them. In the weeks immediately after Valerie’s death, Jerome crawled into bed with me a half-dozen nights. I felt terribly awkward and uncomfortable with it, but Jerome’s therapist, who was also our neighbor, talked to me about the normalcy of it and that it was only weird and awkward if I made it that way. Whether he called me Mom or not, I was for all intents and purposes Jerome’s mother and he would treat me as such, which meant crawling into bed when he was scared, upset, or in need of a reminder that he was not alone in the world. As quickly as it started, it had stopped, and he hadn’t come into my room at night anymore.
I awoke around dawn in pain, surrounded by little bodies that made it impossible for me to find a more comfortable position. Not only were Jerome, Aurora, and Ariel in my bed, but Angel and Helia had also crawled in after I’d fallen asleep.
“I think I need a shot,” I whispered to my sister. “It has Stygian poison in it, so I think you should give it and not Mom.”
“Yeah, Jerome told us,” Helia whispered. “How bad is your pain?”
“Even my hair hurts.” I whispered, rolling over to face her over Jerome’s head.
“Okay, coffee and pain meds coming up,” she said. “P.S., I’m calling in to work today; my sister and girls need me at home because my sister nearly got herself killed yesterday.” A tear slid down from her eye onto the pillow. I blinked at her, unsure what to say. She lay there for close to a minute and then climbed from the bed. Angel lifted her head and attempted to crawl closer to me, but there were too many kids and she had to content herself with putting her head on my lower leg. She blew out a puff of air that made her jaws flap, and I tried to reach down and rub her head, but found it caused more pain. There was a small feeling of disconnect. Everyone seemed certain I had been on the brink of death, but I hadn’t felt like I was dying. I didn’t know what to do with that bit of information or how to deal with it. I wondered if Camille would be available for an emergency therapy session for myself and my family.
Aurora, curled up next to me, snored lightly and, behind her, Ariel’s breathing was still even and steady. Only Jerome’s breathing betrayed that he was no longer asleep.
“How do you feel?” he whispered.
“I feel like an asshole,” I whispered back.
“Yeah,” he said softly and nodded his head. “But I meant your pain.”
“You were awake when I told Helia even my hair hurt,” I told the kid.
“I was,” he said. “But that just tells me you aren’t used to being in pain. I want information beyond that.”
“I’m a little hungry,” I said, and my stomach growled as if he needed proof.
“Probably a good idea to get coffee and pain meds in you first. We don’t want you throwing up because of pain and caffeine withdrawal.” Jerome smiled for the first time that morning, and I thought nothing was so radiant. “And maybe brush your teeth. Your breath could slay dragons this morning.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Yeah, well.” He shrugged. “I’ll take the girls to my room to continue sleeping, so Helia can give you a shot and you can start getting some caffeine into your bloodstream. Then I’ll start waffles.”
“You don’t have to cook breakfast,” I told him.
“I’m volunteering to cook them and only I know your true secret ingredient.”
“Almond extract?” I asked him.
“Not that one,” Jerome told me.
“If you say love, I’ll gag.”
“Yeah, no. I was talking about the three drops of vanilla you add to the sugar before you put it in the fresh berries.”
“Ah, yeah, that one’s still mostly secret.” I nodded. Jerome climbed from the bed and I felt the workings of a spell begin. I felt both girls float from the bed and after a moment, Angel joined them. Jerome floated all three out the door and down the hall. I gently moved my body a bit now that I had room in the bed and stretched gingerly. Helia came in carrying a huge mug of coffee that said,
“There’s too much blood in my caffeine system” and set it on the nightstand.
“Roll over,” she said to me. I rolled over and she yanked my pajama bottoms down about two inches and jabbed the needle into my upper butt cheek. I lay there unmoving for several minutes, letting the smell of coffee fill the room.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked her as I pushed myself into a sitting position and reached for my coffee. Pain meds or not, the pain was still there, so Helia ended up handing me my coffee. She drank hers like a normal person, with a bit of sugar, a bit of creamer, and mostly coffee. I drank mine white, about half cream, and it had to be dairy creamer, and a pinch of sugar.
“You’re my sister. You are not allowed to leave me,” Helia said. “Even if we live as long as Dad and his brothers, it won’t be long enough, Soleil. I’m not talking about Jerome or Ariel or Aurora, I am talking solely about you and me. We lost too many years due to Mark. If you die, I’ll be forced to learn to summon demons so we can continue to hang out, and I don’t think that would be good for any of us. Also, I’d miss your waffles. I still haven’t figured out exactly what you do to them, but I can’t make them taste the way they do when you make them.”
“Well, Jerome knows how to make them, and we’ll see if he manages this morning.” I smiled at her. “There is nothing I can say in defense of my actions yesterday. I made a really stupid decision. I know demons are unpredictable and I forgot that for a moment. I can’t promise to take fewer risks, but I will try to remember that I’m not invincible and that demons are unpredictable even at the best of times.”
“I’m not sure taking fewer risks actually improves the situation,” Helia said solemnly, looking at me as she sipped her coffee. “You take risks so the rest of us don’t have to. However, remembering you aren’t invincible is important. We’re all just thankful you were still tied to Jerome and able to draw from him when you needed it. I will tell you though, if you ever make that kid cry again like you did last night, I’m going to have to kick your ass. He needs some happiness in his life, and he can’t be happy when he’s feeling you on the brink of death.”
“I know,” I said. We sat in comfortable silence for a while as we both finished our coffee. To my surprise, my mom came in while I finished off my cup.
“We’re going to pull the second one off,” she announced, and I just stared at her.
“Uh, pull what off?” I asked, not liking the way the conversation was starting.
“Your damaged wing spine, of course.” My mom told me as if this was the most natural thing on the planet.
“Is that something we should do? Is it even something we can do?” I asked.
“Yes,” my mom said. “Michael is already here and he will be helping.”
“I’m not sure about this.”
“It will be fine,” she informed me in her ‘this is not open to discussion’ voice.
“Is someone helping Jerome with breakfast?” I asked.
“Jerome has more help than he needs. You’re going to eat breakfast, then we’ll remove it, and if you need another shot, you can have one. I called and asked the doctor about it already.”
“The sun is barely up, why did he take your call?” I asked her.
“Because I have a daughter with a serious injury.”
“Maybe we should have pulled it off before the full effects of the poison wore off.”
“Nope, this is better,” she told me, and I stopped attempting to protest and reason with her. I got out of bed slowly. I felt old, which was weird because I was really quite young for a nephilim. I wondered if perhaps it was a side effect of nearly dying. It seemed possible.
I headed to my bathroom, expecting it to look like a crime scene. I bled a great deal when I lost my wing spine. I knew it would have been spurting blood that would not contained to the shower stall. To my surprise, my bathroom was immaculate. I wasn’t a slob, but I wasn’t scrubbing my grout with a toothbrush. I caught sight of myself in the mirror. I looked almost as old as I felt. One side of my face was bruised and swollen, making the few wrinkles I had on the opposite side seem deeper and more pronounced. Bandages peeked out of the neck and sleeves of my t-shirt. I turned away from my reflection and groaned as I tried to sit down on the toilet.
Every muscle in my torso ached. I stood there for a few moments, but my bladder started to ache, and I wondered if anyone would notice if I emptied it standing in the shower. I rejected the idea simply because I would have had to take off my pajama bottoms to do it. I groaned and sat down. My bladder thanked me, but my body did not, and I considered calling someone to help me get up. It was harder to get up than down, and I struggled with it. It took me more than one attempt to make it to my feet. I flushed, went to the sink and started the water running. I needed to wash my hands as well as my face before I went into the living room to face the crowd that would no doubt be there.
I scrubbed my hands, procrastinating about washing my face. I was sure it was going to hurt, even if all that touched it was water. I let the water drain out, pushed in the stopper, and filled the sink with warm water. Despite the shower the previous night, I felt grimy. When the sink was full, I carefully splashed water on my face. I was correct, the water hurt when it hit the bruised side of my face. I considered the face wash on the vanity and rejected it. If water hurt, using a sponge to wash my face would be torture.
When I finally made it into the kitchen, there was a huge stack of waffles at least a foot tall, a plate with at least a pound of bacon on it, another pound of sausage slices, a giant bowl of scrambled eggs, white sausage gravy in my gravy pitcher, biscuits, a tray of fruit, and an assortment of cheese slices. Apparently, we were feeding an army, because my father still had bacon and sausage cooking and Remiel was whipping up another batch of eggs. Gabriel was pouring yet another batch of waffle batter into the waffle iron, and Jerome was mixing up some berries in a large bowl.
“Are we expecting more people?” I asked as I hobbled to a chair and sat down as softly as I possibly could.
“Shift change in half an hour,” Remiel said. “I have to go to work, as does Gabriel. Michael is here to remove your other wing and Amiel is coming to assist. Krystal will be here with you today along with Azrael. So yes, we are expecting to feed more people than the ten already here.”
“Kinda sorry I asked.” I pulled a plate toward me and grabbed two waffles off the stack. They were purple. I didn’t know if that meant they had berries in them or food coloring, either was possible. Jerome brought over the mixing bowl and scooped out three big spoonfuls of mixed berry compote onto my waffles. He took the bowl back to the island, set it down, and came back with fresh whipped cream that he dolloped onto my waffles. To finish, he dropped a half a handful of chocolate chips on top of the cream. They instantly melted and ran down the cream and compote. Jerome was smiling. I had no idea how he did most of what he did, like make chocolate chips melt on whipped cream, but I don’t know that it is important for me to understand the mechanics of it. I told him thanks and set about eating. My mom took my empty coffee cup to the coffee pot and brought it back filled with coffee, cream, and just a sprinkle of sugar. I considered pointing out that my arms weren’t broken and I could still make my own coffee, then remembered I’d had trouble getting my coffee from Helia when she’d brought it to me in bed, so I let her make it without protest. I took a sip of coffee. It was very sweet, and I realized Mom had thrown in a bit of the fresh whipped cream to go with my regular creamer. I silently ate my waffles and sipped my coffee as people arrived at my house, filled plates and searched for places to sit. Jerome sat across from me, as per usual. He put a couple waffles on his plate and then grabbed some bacon. He counted out six pieces, stuck three of them on my plate, and took the other three for himself.
After breakfast, Michael pulled off the other damaged wing spine. It really fucking hurt and I made sure everyone knew it. I once again suggested it should have been done while I was still at the hospital under the influence of the poison. I was basically told to stop whining, so I did and went to my office to look at the missing person’s file.