kingdom.”
“I don’t think I’m up to solving any more mysteries this week,” I said. “We’ll just have to die not knowing.”
“Ignoring this problem means it will come back to bite you in the ass,” Beezle warned.
He was probably right. He usually was. But I really wasn’t up to any more investigating. The mystery of the portal would just have to be.
A couple of hours later Wade and Jude arrived to pick up the body of their pack mate. We had moved it out of the alley and into my garden shed, which looked totally suspicious but again, none of my neighbors seemed to notice. Gabriel had magically wiped the alley clean of any blood and gore.
Wade and Jude loaded the body in the back of their pickup truck. Baraqiel hadn’t had a chance to tear the body to pieces like the others, so at least they would be able to bury this one.
Wade shook his head as my entourage and his stood awkwardly behind the truck bed. “I cannot believe that we were all so deceived by James. How could we not know that was not his true form?”
“He was a spawn of Lucifer,” Jude growled, and he directed his glare at me. “They are most adept at deceit.”
“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I’m the spawn of Azazel.”
“And Madeline Black was the one who stopped Baraqiel for us, so we owe her our gratitude,” Wade said, his voice mildly reproving.
Jude shut up, but I didn’t think he’d be thanking me anytime soon. He turned without another word and climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck.
“You must not mind Jude,” Wade said. “He has a . . . history with Lucifer.”
“Whatever.” I shrugged. “I’m getting used to people not liking me.”
“Whatever Jude may feel, our pack owes you a debt of gratitude. You may call on us whenever you feel the need, Madeline Black, and we will be there to assist you.” He placed his hand over his heart and bowed his head. “You are a friend to our pack.”
“Thanks,” I said. It was nice to be welcomed by someone for a change instead of being threatened. “Back at you.”
Wade smiled. “Until we meet again. En Taro Adun!”
“Uh, Wade?” I said, and he stopped and turned back to me. “What exactly does that mean?”
“ ‘En Taro Adun’?” Wade said. “It’s from StarCraft.”
“StarCraft?” I said blankly.
“It’s my favorite computer game,” he replied.
“So, you’re like the world’s biggest dork?” Beezle asked.
“How do you think I won leadership of my pack?” Wade said. “I am the reigning StarCraft champion.”
He got in the truck as we all stared after him, wondering whether or not he was joking.
Jude glanced back before he pulled away. The snake on my palm shifted restlessly, like it recognized his stare, and then they drove down the alley and out of sight.
Azazel called a couple of hours later, demanding the whole story. It seemed that the tale of my slapping Amarantha had already carried back to his court and he was royally pissed at me. Somehow the tale-carrier had neglected a few details, so I told him everything that had happened from the time Gabriel had been taken up to and including my killing of Baraqiel. I left out Nathaniel’s assault. That was between me and Nathaniel.
Azazel was silent after my recitation. “Well, I cannot say that Lord Lucifer will be pleased to hear of Baraqiel’s death, but it does seem that you have averted a war between Focalor’s court and my own.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “Did you pick up Antares?”
“When we arrived, the cage was open and Antares was gone,” Azazel said.
I shook my head even though I knew Azazel could not see me. “I swear, when the apocalypse comes and all living things in the world are wiped out, Antares will be the last man standing.”
“And you should have told me of Gabriel’s disappearance,” he rebuked.
“You would have killed him, and that is not acceptable to me,” I said.
“Do not begin to start getting ideas above your station, daughter. You are still below me in rank,” Azazel said angrily. “It is my word that is final, not yours.”
I looked at the palm of my hand and the squiggling serpent there. “I’m not so sure that you still outrank me, Father. And since I have more than proven my worth by averting a demon uprising and by being the only person to ever survive the Maze, I think you should start giving me a little more respect. I’m not a child to be pushed and manipulated by you. Don’t expect me to behave that way anymore.”
Azazel sputtered into the phone.
“Oh, and I’m not marrying Nathaniel, either,” I said, and hung up.
Okay, so there would be some fallout from that conversation, but I’d really had enough of Azazel. Sometimes I couldn’t believe that I’d ever wanted a father when I was a child.
I turned to see Gabriel staring at me moodily. “You should not speak to Azazel thus. He is still your father.”
“And I’m still his daughter,” I retorted. “I’m not his slave.”
Slave was probably the wrong word to use. It hung awkwardly in the air between us.
“What are you going to do with Samiel?” Gabriel asked.
He glanced into the living room, where Beezle was gleefully beating the half nephilim at checkers. Beezle is a sore winner, but I had a feeling that Samiel would be kicking his little gargoyle butt on a regular basis once Ariell’s son figured out the rules.
“Like I said, he’s staying,” I said firmly.
Gabriel stared moodily at Samiel. “It is strange to find that I have a brother.”
“But kind of nice, too, isn’t it? To have family?”
“I do not know,” Gabriel said. “My family members have always wanted to kill me.”
There wasn’t a real easy segue from that. I looked down at my left hand and wiggled my three remaining fingers.
“I can try to heal you,” Gabriel said, and took my injured hand.
It was the first time he’d touched me since I’d released him from the cage in Amarantha’s forest. My breath sucked in sharply and he dropped my hand. There was a meteor shooting across the black expanse of his eyes.
“I do not know how we will resolve this, Madeline,” Gabriel said. “We cannot be.”
I shook my head at him. “You always say that. Anything can change.”
“I do not think what you want will happen just because you want it,” he said.
I thought of what happened in the Maze, how I had survived by my strength of will. “Just wait and see.”
A few days later we had fallen into a pretty regular routine. Beezle was asking for doughnuts every three seconds and trying to justify his piggy behavior by saying they were for Samiel. Samiel did seem to have an unnatural love of sweets matched only by Beezle’s.
Gabriel and I were teaching Samiel sign language. Well, Gabriel was teaching me and Samiel, I guess. Samiel was learning way faster than I was, but at least we could exchange some basic information.
I was back to work and collecting souls as usual. J.B. had gotten over his recent bout of adorableness and gone back to being a crab every time I talked to him. He had tersely informed me not to put any stock in anything he had said to me while at his mother’s castle. Amarantha, he asserted, had cast a spell on him so that he would be drawn to me. Actually, she’d cast a spell on our whole party—it just didn’t take with me for some reason. She’d figured if Nathaniel attacked me, then I would turn to J.B., and then she’d have a different kind of family tie to Lucifer.
“So you didn’t mean any of it?” I said. I wondered why it hurt so much. J.B. was just a friend.
“My mother was hedging her bets,” he said.
“That’s not an answer.”
“That’s all the answer you’re going to get,” he said, and walked away from me. This was becoming a theme with the men in my life.
It was almost comforting to have an argument with him every time we saw each other. It made it easier to
