Page 9 of The Morning Star
As if I could ever have ignored that feeling. There had been blood and bits of flesh sprayed all over the inside of the shed. The chipper shredder had still been humming away. The half-torso that housed my little angel had been pale and dead, oozing blood across the wooden planks of the floor. But Lux had been safely inside, somehow huddled into the lifeless legs of the body. If the whole thing had gone through the machine, I wasn’t sure he would have had the skill or the quick reaction time to either recreate a physical form, or throw his spirit-self into something inanimate. It scared the fuck out of me to even think of what might have happened.
Lux had recreated his form then giggled, launching himself into my arms. I’d held him tight, took him inside to Nyalla’s care. Then I’d gone back out to the shed and destroyed the chipper shredder, reducing it to subatomic particles in a fit of blind fear and rage.
Two hours later the hot dog incident had occurred, and that had seemed like a fucking papercut after the morning I’d just had.
“Cockroach!”
I looked up at Gregory. He was scowling at me. I preferred the besotted expression he’d had a few minutes earlier.
“What happened with Lux and the chipper shredder?”
I pushed the memory down deep inside and gave the archangel my most innocent look. “He broke it. No big deal. It’s not like I needed the thing anyway.”
Gregory shot me a hard look then sat down on the lounge chair next to me, his knees touching my side. “He’s a handful, and you’re not used to caring for angel young. It’s my fault for not being here more.”
“You’re busy. And technically he’s my responsibility. I’m the one who promised his sire I’d take care of him. I just wish I had a damned dwarf here. This would be so much easier with a dwarf.”
The archangel reached out and ran his fingers through my hair, pulling a lock away from my shoulder and rubbing it between his thumb and other fingers. “You are just as busy as I am, and what is your responsibility is mine as well. Cockroach, I have claimed Lux as if he were my own creation, and I take the proper care and upbringing of my only offspring seriously.”
I held the little angel tight and leaned into Gregory’s hand, feeling the edge of his spirit-self against mine. “I suck at this. I need a dwarf. I really need a dwarf.”
I felt his smile. “We do not have a dwarf. It’s just us, and angels have been guiding young angels into maturity for billions of years. The two of us can do this on our own.”
I thought again of the chipper shredder and shuddered. “I’d be happier if we had a dwarf.”
“I’m not a dwarf, but I’m pretty good at taking care of babies, including angel babies and Nephilim infants as it turns out,” Nyalla chimed in. “Let me be your babysitter and part-time nanny. I’m happy to do it.”
My heart twisted. I kept forgetting what the elves had done to Nyalla, how she could never have children of her own. How tragic that not only was her life so short, but she’d not have the joy of bearing a child—of bearing Gabriel’s child.
I hated Gabe, but in a weird kind of way. Of all the demons and angels I’d battled in my life, I’d never had this much emotion, this much dislike toward another being. But along with that hate was a sort of affection. I’d miss the bastard if anything happened to him. And as much as Nyalla’s eventual death would tear me apart, I knew it would be nothing to what Gabriel would feel. And he wouldn’t even have a child by her to help soothe the pain of her eventual loss.
She was good with Lux. And he adored her. It was a tragedy that she was unable to bear children, but I had a child I called mine that I’d not formed, there was no reason the same couldn’t happen with her. And in the meantime, I’d be happy to share Lux with his Aunt Nyalla.
“We do need your help today, Nyalla,” Gregory said. “There’s something I need you to see, Cockroach.”
I flinched, sensing that this was something serious, something that would require my full attention. I shifted on the lounge chair, untangling Lux’s arms from my neck and passing him over to Nyalla. He went willingly, happily even. Nyalla’s face brightened and she said a bunch of nonsense words to the angel infant in a high-pitched voice. He smiled and babbled back to her, shifting his form to appear even younger and cuter.
“I’ve got him,” she told Gregory. “You go do what you need to do. I’ll make sure he’s safe.” She turned to press her nose against Lux’s. “Wont I? We’ll have tacos for dinner tonight, because it’s taco Tuesday, then we’ll watch Adventure Time and then you can sleep in my bed with me. How does that sound, big boy? Huh? My sweet angel boy?”
I felt the shift in Lux’s energy and shot him a narrowed glance. “Don’t get any ideas. You might be young and cute, but Gabriel will still have your ass if you try anything. And if he doesn’t, I will.”
Nyalla gave me a side-eye look. “Sam. Seriously? He’s a baby.”
“He’s a baby angel. They’re not exactly babies.” I’d found that out quick enough.
“Thank you,” Gregory told Nyalla before turning to me. “This is something serious, and right now you’re the only one who knows about it besides me and a select few among my Grigori.”
The relaxing afternoon was over. Back to work. I sighed and got to my feet, shifting my wings as I put my hand on Gregory’s quite impressive bicep. “Okay, babe. Let’s go.”
Chapter 3
We stood near the end of a filthy alley. There were stinky dumpsters, greasy chipped brick walls, a faded ornate graffiti tag on the stockade fence. Nothing unusual aside from the dead angel.
“I didn’t do that.” I pointed to the pile of sand that had once been the corporeal home to a being of spirit. The last time Gregory showed me a dead angel it had been more or less intact from a physical standpoint, the spirit-self ripped from its form leaving jagged bits behind as a testament to who, and what, it had once been. That angel had been killed by a devouring spirit. This angel had been transmuted in the method that powerful angels used to kill each other—held firmly in the captivity of their corporeal form as the killer dissolved it around them. I’d learned it was a way of making sure your victim didn’t escape the body to take refuge in a nearby rock, or quickly create another form. It was a way of making sure the angel you intended to kill was truly dead. It was a method that required a significant amount of power and skill.
Or a sentient, magical sword.
Gregory ignored my protestation of innocence and knelt down in front of the pile of sand. “Humiel was one of my enforcer Grigori. The gate guardian said she sent him after a mid-level demon that had attacked her and killed a group of humans near the gateway.”
