Page 20 of Providence

“Kahlila,” he whispered.

I swallowed hard and shook my head. “I haven’t been Kahlila in a long time. It’s Serendipity now. Hello, Gusion.”

It was time to meet my father.

10

Solomon

This was awkward. I mean, I knew that it wasn’t going to be like one of those movies where they run into each other's arms, their souls knowing they are related or some shit. But the big golden angel just stared at Dippy like she was a ghost, and she stood there like she was looking at a stranger.

Judas was doing one of those weird alpha posturing things with the blue-eyed boyfriend, and I figured they were about three seconds away from whipping their dicks out. Unnecessary really, because even I knew the angel with the sunset colored wings was the biggest fucking badass in the room. I wasn’t a fool. It would be a good fight, but we’d all end up going down in flames against Azriel, the Angel of Death.

Hope rolled her eyes and I grinned. “How about we take this outside? No need to stand on ceremony three steps through the front door,” I said a little too loudly. And because I wasn’t above some macho alpha bullshit either, I leaned over and kissed Dippy’s soft pink lips. “Here, I’ll take Madoc.” There. Now everyone knew she was mine.

Dippy passed me the baby with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t drop him on his head, and the fact she trusted me with him at all made my heart beat faster every single time. It didn’t even occur to me to be embarrassed by the fact I’d been walking around with an unclipped baby holster strapped to my chest. I maneuvered him into it one handed. Quite frankly, it was impressive as fuck. I don’t care what anyone else said.

We stepped out onto the patio, and Cara came out of nowhere, launching herself from the porch railing.

“Catch me Gowiath!” she screamed, and I saw the brief moment of raw panic in Goliath’s eyes as he basically jumped from one end of the lawn to the other, his fingertips barely getting purchase in her unicorn shirt. The little girl squealed, wriggling out of his arms and racing across the lawn to Marco, who opened his arms and grabbed her up. He held her tight against his chest and smiled down at her with such open love that it was kind of beautiful to watch. He kissed her head and set her back on the ground. He smiled almost pleasantly at Hope, scowled a little at her consorts. He then looked at me.

She can read your emotions. Just so you know,he signed, andI felt my eyebrows shoot up. No shit? I tilted my head at Hope, appraising her once again.

“Are you telling on me, Marco?” she said, a mock frown on her face which was completely ruined by the way her lips turned up at the edges. I realized she was quite beautiful. She had long red hair and sparkling eyes, with one of those infectious smiles. My eyes slid past her to Serendipity. She was beautiful, but Dippy stole the breath from my lungs.

Marco shook his head and stopped in front of Hope. She lifted her hand, placing it lightly on his arm. She’d done that last time they’d been together too. What the hell was that about?

The baby made a snuffling sound, his hungry noise I knew now. He was getting so vocal, so active. He was growing faster than I could’ve imagined. As always, everyone's eyes turned to Madoc when he made a noise. He had us all trained like Pavlov’s dogs, and I wasn’t fighting it. I would give him whatever he wanted until the day I died. I would love and protect him, nurture him and teach him to ride his first bike.

“Oh God, make him stop before I cry,” Hope sniffled. The blue-eyed guy took a step toward me, like he was going to actually physically make me stop, but Hope whipped out a hand and held him back. “Not literally, Blue.”

Cain came over, shaking everyone's hand. “It's good to see you again, under better circumstances.” He smiled fondly down at Hope. “How are you doing, Trouble?”

She grinned at him, and just like that, the weird mood was broken. Cain got everyone drinks, and Judas went back to the grill. Goliath stood on one side of the porch, eyeing the group like a psycho, but he had a counterpart in Blue. They stood on opposite sides of the group, watching each other and everyone else for the slightest twitch of violence.

Was this the beginning of a sociopathic bromance? God, I hoped not.

Serendipity and Hope chatted, and although Gusion looked a little shell-shocked on Hope’s left, she was slowly bringing him into the conversation. I had to give it to Hope, she made this shit look easy.

The huge onyx angel came over. He looked completely ethereal, even in his human form. He looked like pitch, like all the light from around him was absorbed into his skin. It wasn’t even remotely a skin color found in nature. It was more like someone had chiseled him out of stone and brought him to life. I don’t know how he walked down the street and passed as anything butother.“May I hold him?” he asked, his voice rolling across my skin like a sting.

I looked over at Serendipity, waiting for her permission. She gave a slight nod, and I unstrapped the baby from the carrier, holding him to my chest before shuffling him to the angel. The Fallen handled the baby as if he’d held a million tiny angels before. His fingers slid up under Madoc’s wings, spreading them gently so they splayed on either side of his back.

“Amazing. You are truly something extraordinary, Madoc, Fallen Prince. Proof that something beautiful can come from the most heinous of circumstances,” he murmured to the baby. Madoc looked up at the big man, who towered over even me, like he was digesting what he said.

Then he farted. I laughed at the look on the big angel’s face. “Guess I was wrong about it being a hungry cry.”

I wrangled the baby back from the dark Angel, but Cain was there, taking Madoc from my hands. “I’ll change him. You go be charming and shit,” he grunted.

I rolled my eyes, unclipping the carrier. “I’m Solomon, by the way. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced without holding guns on each other.”

“Mephistopheles. You may call me Memphis.”

“Like the Faust guy in that book?”

He inclined his head. Well, that was pretty fucking cool. We strolled over to where everyone else was sitting, Marco beside Dippy, his fingers tracing small circles on her spine. Interesting. I waited for the inevitable jealousy. It was one thing sharing her with my brothers. We’d been a set for decades. I knew them as well as I knew myself. But he was an outsider. A stranger up until a few weeks ago.

But when I examined my feelings, the only thing I felt was envy that I wasn’t touching her. I was glad she had the Killer. She didn’t realize it yet, I don’t think, but I remembered her face when she first spoke about him when she first arrived at the Clubhouse. She’d been tiny and half starved, but her eyes had flashed furiously when we’d dissed her former savior. Now I understood a little better. She wanted him and I wanted her to be happy. It was that simple.

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