“These things really ought to come with owner’s manuals,” he sighed, reaching down to turn off the water.
The tiny room didn’t seem significantly drier.
Shaking drips off the ends of his hair, he stepped out of the tub, slipped on the wet tiles, and suddenly found himself airborne.
Seventy-eight percent of all accidents happen in the bathroom, Higher Knowledge informed him as he landed.
“Samuel? Samuel, how many fingers am I holding up?”
“Why?”
“I have no idea, but it’s what they always do in the movies when someone knocks themselves out.”
“I’m not out.” He blinked and tried to focus on what looked like three fat pink sausages. “I’m in the bathroom.”
“No, you’re not. I moved you to one of the beds.”
“You carried me?”
“As if. I just, you know, poof.”
“Oh. Poof. Was that the burst of light?”
The sausages disappeared and the edge of the bed dipped as Diana sat down. “No. I think that was when your head hit the edge of the tub.”
“My head…” Movement brought smaller bursts of light. Pain. He remembered pain. On the up side, it didn’t hurt as much as catching himself in the zipper.
“There’s a bump, but angels seem to be pretty tough.”
“Yeah, well, soldiers in the army of the Lord and all that.” He could feel her concern—her pain for his pain—and he kind of thought he ought to do something about it but he just couldn’t seem to muster the enthusiasm.
“Samuel, I don’t want to rush you or anything, but could you get over this a little faster. Checkout time is at noon, and I don’t have enough money for another day—which clearly means we’re not supposed to stay.”
We. He felt a vague nostalgia for the time he’d spent on his own. “Maybe it means you’re supposed to send me back to the light.”
“Maybe you should just stay out of this.”
“Sure.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means my head hurts.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
The bed rocked as she threw herself off it. Samuel winced. “You want to hear the weird thought I had as I finished showering?”
“I guess.”
“That makes me feel more human.”
“What does?”
“The shower, I guess. It’s the thought I had: That makes me feel more human. And then…” He waved a hand in the general direction of his head. “…this. Pain.”
Diana snorted. “Got news for you, bucko. Pain is the general human condition.”
“Then send me back. I don’t think I want to be human anymore.”
“Well, that’s just too…” Her voice trailed off into thought. They couldn’t find the demon because she was the exact opposite of Samuel. The exact opposite. Throwing herself back onto the bed, she grabbed his shoulders hard enough to dimple the bare skin. “I’m an idiot!”
“Look, I know it’s unangelic of me, but I don’t really feel up to dealing with your lack of self-esteem right now.”
“What?”
“Stop shaking me!”
“Sorry.” She pulled her hands away but continued looming over him. “I’ve just solved the problem. If you don’t want to be in a human body, you don’t have to be.”
“I don’t?” Pushing back against the pillow accomplished nothing much, but he didn’t like the way her eyes were gleaming.
“No, you don’t. I helped make you. My, for lack of a better word, power signature is a part of you. That’s why I can unmake you, but it should also mean I can transform you.”
“Should?”
Ignoring him, she leaped up and spun around, arms outstretched. “You’ll still be you but different. The demon copied this body, so without it, we’ll be able to find her. It’s simple.”
“I won’t be human?”
The spinning stopped. “No.”
“But I’ll still be me.”
“Yes.”
“What will I be?”
“I don’t know. I’ll undo the human seeming and the light will rearrange. Without Lena and her father to interfere, you’ll self-define.” Suddenly serious, she sat down and pushed her hair off her forehead. “I don’t want to push you into this, Samuel, but it would solve all our problems.”
It took him a moment to figure out her expression. When he realized he was looking at hope, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. Hope was, after all, one of the primary messages of the light. Maybe this was why he was here. “Would my head hurt?”
“Different body. No reason why it should.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Claire and Dean had opened the way for the light, but her crepe-paper snowflake hanging from the ceiling in the gym had held it together. Standing at the foot of the bed, Diana closed her eyes and reached into the possibilities until she could see Samuel lying in front of her. Slowly and carefully, she detached the parameters Lena and her father had placed around him. She took him back to what he had been in the gym, then wrapped the part that was Samuel in the possibilities and pushed him forward.
In the instant between Diana taking him back and shoving him forward again, Samuel thought he heard voices.
“So he’s off the duty roster?”
“Let’s just say he’s on an extended leave of absence.”
“Let’s just say?” The first voice snorted. “Oh, easy for you, Gabriel. You’re not the one who has to fill his post on the Perdition front.”
“Bitch, bitch, bitch.”
“Hey, there’s a war on, you know. Or maybe that’s something you guys in the band have forgotten.”
And then there was only light, and a question.
If he wasn’t an angel, and he wasn’t a human, what was he?
Diana blinked away afterimages and stared down at the towel she’d thrown over Samuel’s crotch. Whatever he’d become fit under it with room to spare. Fingers crossed, she bent down and flicked it back.
The marmalade tabby sat up and looked around.
“You’re a cat.”
“Well, duh. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that angels were like cats only with…” He cocked his head, trying to remember just what it was Ilea had said. “…you know, differences.”
Staggering back, Diana went to sit down on one of the chairs but, at some time during the proceedings, it had
