Page 30 of The Hellhound's Mate
“You won’t. Not ever.”
“I will also close the gates here and in Ravensgate.”
I looked to Mother again, confused now. “But how can you? Won’t that upset the balance?”
“It will not.”
A new voice, musical and yet menacing, had me looking behind the humans gathered around us. They looked, too, and screamed at the sight of the angel. Though they’d not made a peep at the demon amongst them, they were frightened by the angel with its multiple floating eyes, fiery halos, and nearly imperceptible golden form. They clung to each other and stared in silence now. The angel sighed.
“These gates are too well known to the damned thanks to Gaufrid’s machinations below,” Mother said, “so they must be closed.”
“And rather than open new ones somewhere else,” the angel added, “we will close two gates to Heaven to maintain the balance.”
That there were gates to Heaven shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. What soul would ever want to leave that perfect place?
“You’d be surprised,” the angel said, several of its eyes fixed on me.
I gulped to have its attention and nodded, willing to admit I did not know everything.
“Morning,” Ambrose whispered harshly, “is this what you did?”
Sitting on the grass with an old, very thick book open in front of them, Morning appeared exhausted to their bones but they smiled just the same. “I did, yeah.”
“And you won’t do it again,” the angel said, its voice full of reprimand.
Morning ducked their head a bit sheepishly. “Well, I thought we’d need you to stop Gaufrid.”
“No, you only needed the mate to facilitate that.”
Ambrose gasped. “The angel knows who I am…”
The angel groaned. “Bothersome creatures. Say your goodbyes, Demon.”
Between one blink and the next, the angel was gone.
Mother enveloped Ambrose’s entire head in one hand and cupped my cheek in her other. “Dear boys,” she said with a smile, “I doubt we’ll meet again, so please remember that you are brilliant and brave and loved by those below. Have the happiest of lives.”
I closed my eyes as she kissed my forehead and, when I opened them again, she was gone.
“Will we really never see her again?” Ambrose said sadly.
“Not unless we visit Hell in our afterlife.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Okay.”
My mate, a delicate and beautiful human willing to visit Hell when he could spend eternity in Heaven… I cuddled him close and kissed his sweet mouth.
Though I wished to do far more than kiss now that the dangers were gone and I was free, we had so many guests and fellow warriors to see to first. The woman with the van turned out to be Celestine, and she took six people with her to the local urgent care facility with Ambrose’s credit card. Morning was given snacks and juice before LaRhonda packed them and the rest of her coven up and drove away. Diego’s crew left his motorcycle in the drive with the promise of bringing him back to get it once he was declared fit to drive. Ambrose called Vera to let her know all about what had happened and that everyone was fine.
Once all of that was done, the reality of my freedom settled into me. I couldgo. I could go anywhere. With Ambrose, of course, but I wouldn’t have to spend my life reading about the wonders of the modern world—I could go see it all. I’d have to look human to do it, but I could go.
“That’s everyone gone,” Ambrose said as he walked into the studio. “Even the ghouls have, uh, finished, and gone back to Ravensgate. Or at least that’s the direction they shuffled off to.” He waved out the window toward our own little cemetery. “I don’t know but I don’t think any of them stayed here.”
“Ravensgate has fresh corpses for them, so I’m sure they’ve gone there.”
He made a gagging sound before tucking his face into the fur of my chest between my pecs. He leaned there breathing, and I wondered if he minded that I didn’t smell like brimstone anymore. I could see in the window’s reflection that my fire was gone, nothing within me burning now. I wasn’t sure that I missed it.
Ambrose looked up at me, concern furrowing his brow. “Did I overstep earlier? With your mother?”
