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“Aside from Angel having heart spots, some that were purple, why did you think Aurora changed her color?” Duke asked Jerome at dinner.
“Angel cleaned the brimstone from the hotel,” Jerome said. “Didn’t you notice no one summoned any demons, but Uriel was able to enter it a few moments after Angel did?”
“Damn you’re smart and observant,” I said.
“The brimstone is what made her fur grow back. She couldn’t be allergic to it like your dad. That left the girls. Aurora has told me before that Angel’s scary because she’s all black. Plus, I didn’t think Ariel would give her heart spots. Leopard spots maybe, but not hearts.”
“Do you know how she did it?” I asked him.
“No, but I’d bet a dollar that Pinkie Pie the unicorn has balloons on her butt by tomorrow,” Jerome said.
“Oh, my wizard, I have my hands full,” I said.
“You? What about me?” Jerome said and smiled. “I have little nephilim girls changing what my dog looks like. Then I have another nephilim who’s an archangel and swears a lot, taking care of me.”
“Okay, we both have our hands full,” I agreed.
“Yes, you do,” Duke said.
“I got to admit, the other night when you were being sly and were leading us to the memorial for my mom, I thought you were going to propose to Soleil.” Jerome said, looking at the Marshal.
“Would you have approved or not?” Duke asked.
“When the time comes, I’ll approve. I like you,” Jerome said. “But I don’t think that time has come yet.”
“Me either,” Duke said. “Have you met her family? They require some adjusting to and she’s a handful herself. She also has this kid in her life that is a handful and is going to need someone strong and powerful looking out for him. I like her a lot, but I don’t know that I’m ready to take on all those challenges.”
“Dude, sir, when you’re ready, you’ll know,” Jerome nodded at him.
“Oh, my wizard, aren’t you sage.” Duke said, and Jerome laughed.
Since Helia had gotten an infection from her wing sacks, my dad had arranged for me to have surgery in the morning and get mine removed, even though it was a Sunday. He and Helia had gone back to the hospital. My mom had a room in the hotel, deciding to not take the girls back to their house. Pinkie Pie the unicorn was being boarded by the large animal vet I’d called a week ago. My dad had met with his receptionist, who turned out to be the vet’s mom, and he remembered her.
I had less than an hour to go before I wasn’t allowed any more food or drink.
“I’m always going to be hunted,” Jerome said as we sat on the sofa watching a movie.
“Yeah, kiddo, there will probably always be some asshole who wants to use your power for themselves. Sometimes it will just be greed and sometimes it will be for evil.”
“That’s what I thought,” Jerome sighed.
“But I have something to give you,” I told the boy. “Lucifer didn’t give me his name for me to use. He gave it to me in case you ever needed it. I’ve noticed before that you have a bit of the Stygian in your blood too. Look at Angel.”
“And Pinkie Pie,” Jerome said.
“And Pinkie Pie,” I nodded. “If you called, Lucifer would come, and it wouldn’t take much magic from you. When he whispered his name to me, he told me it was for you and me.” Jerome nodded and I handed him a piece of paper. He looked at it. “I wouldn’t practice it, we’d probably have to replace the hotel and we’d be temporarily homeless,” I said. “Well, more homeless than we are now.”
“Thank you,” he said, and the paper went up in flames in his hand.
“Don’t thank me, that was Lucifer’s decision.”
“Not that, for making me and Mom part of your family.” Jerome said.
“I think you were always part of my family, even before we knew you.”
“Thank you for tying your soul to mine and promising to always keep me safe.”
“Just because you’re powerful doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to have a normal life, grow up, get your heart broken a few times, get married, have kids, etc., etc., etc.” I said.
“Oh, my nephilim, now you’re laying on the sappy stuff a little thick,” he smiled.
“You started it,” I said and gave him a hug.
“When I start driving, you have to start asking permission to hug me.”
“Well then, I’ll just keep you 14 for the rest of your life.”
“Uh, no,” Jerome said, very seriously.
There was a knock on the door.
“Fucking really?” I said and put my hand over my mouth, hoping my mom wasn’t on the other side of the door and wasn’t about to wash my mouth out. Jerome got up with me and we both stood in front of the door, wondering whether or not to open it. Jerome muscled me over and looked out the peep hole.
“It’s a guy with a gun,” he said. Jesus fucking Christ. What now?? I thought but didn’t say. We both stepped back a bit and I opened the door.
Remiel was standing on the other side, and sure enough, he was wearing a gun in a shoulder holster. I blinked at my uncle. Then I blinked at him again. Then I blinked for a third time.
“Are we just going to stand here all night?” he asked and held out a bag to me.
“What’s that?” I asked, not moving to take it.
“It’s a bag full of books for learning the laws of being a private investigator,” Remiel answered. “I had put them in the Tiguan, but you’ve changed cars since then.”
“Right,” I said.
“This is the part where you take the bag; I promise it won’t explode.” Remiel said, shoving the bag into my hand.
“Remiel, I appreciate it, but I’m not sure I want to be a private investigator anymore.”
“You’re tired and you’ll probably never deal with another murder case again,” Remiel told me. “Insurance fraud pays the best anyway.”
“Thanks,” I said, finally closing my hand around the handles of the bag. I handed it to Jerome. “Now, we are going to bed. I have surgery in the morning, and we’ve had people around us constantly for days.”
“A week,” Jerome said.
“There you have it, a week.”
“Technically, not a week until Monday.” Remiel smiled and I shut the door.
“That was kind of rude,” Jerome said.
“It’s Remiel, he’ll get over it,” I said and walked away from the door.
“If he stops inviting me to baseball games because you shut a door in his face, I’m going to be really unhappy.”
“Me too,” I said and yawned.
My surgery was outpatient. I was done and ready to leave in less than three hours. Dad and Helia were up and ready to go when I was. His blackened feathers had fallen out and he had a hole in the wing as a result, but otherwise, he looked back to normal. Helia still looked tired and kept bumping her wings into things.
“As a kid, I was pretty pissed off about not having wings,” I said.
“Me too, but now I regret having them,” Helia said, and I nodded. They sucked.
Monday morning, they broke ground on my new house. They were digging me a basement for some reason. My father announced we were all going to be living at the hotel for a while. It seemed having a wendigo in your home was bad luck and he, Mom, Helia, and the girls couldn’t go back there.
Tuesday afternoon, we had the ceremony to place Valerie’s ashes in the Archangel Mausoleum. Jerome and I both cried when the mausoleum door was sealed back up. Then Jerome and I went to look at the giant hole being dug on the two lots where my house was going to be built.
The hole was huge. Excessively massive. At least 40 feet deep by 60 feet wide. We stood at the edge and stared down into it.
“Oh my,” Jerome said. “You’ll never be able to move,” he added after a moment.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered.
“Oh Soleil, holy fuck doesn’t even cover it,” my Uncle Gabriel said.
“That is the holy grail for those that want to do evil. After some discussion, now that your parents’ house has been violated by a wendigo, it was decided that having an archangel and the world’s most powerful wizard living over top of it was the best place for it,” Uriel said.
“It took forever to get him down there,” Raphael said.
“I can’t believe mom approved this.”
“Your mom thinks it’s at my house,” Gabriel said.
“Oh boy,” Jerome said.
“So, I want to put this another way for you all. You expect me, the dysfunctional half archangel, to raise the most hunted wizard in the world over the corpse of my uncle, who rules the Stygian?” I said.
“Yes,” Uriel said.
“Yes,” Gabriel agreed.
“What if someone comes looking for Jerome and finds him instead?” I asked.
“Why would someone be searching for Jerome 40 feet under your first floor?” Remiel asked. “Hey, tomorrow night, I have a box for the Cardinals/Cubs game.”
“We knew it would make you cranky, which is why we didn’t tell you,” Raphael said.
“Don’t change the subject,” I said at the exact same time my father spoke, but mine was aimed at Remiel.
“I’m not changing the subject. I’m just letting you know—and Samael called this morning—he thinks Jerome’s cousins will be here in time for it.”
“Do they like baseball?” I asked.
“My mom never told you her dad was a professional baseball player, did she?” Jerome asked.
“No,” I answered.
“Yep, my grandpa lived for baseball. We all like it,” he told me. ‘I think it will be fine. If bad guys show up, we can raise him and have his body break through the floor and attack them.”
“Oh, yeah, okay,” I sighed. This was going to bother me more than it was anyone else in my life. I didn’t want to live over Lucifer’s not-exactly-a-corpse.
“Did you find the rest of the wendigos?” my dad suddenly asked.
“No,” Remiel said. “But we’re looking. Apparently, they moved recently.”
“We definitely need to get the house built faster,” Dad said. Bill came over. “Can you get this hole filled in by tonight?” Dad asked.
“Yes, is it as you wanted?” Bill asked.
“Yep,” he said. “Thanks Bill.”
“I think it will help chase away bad guys,” Bill said, then he smiled and left. Fan-fucking-tabulous.