Page 38 of The Morning Star
He replied immediately.
You’re fucking kidding me. You want me to do what?
I texted back: I’ll be the one chopping heads out front. I just need you to be sneaky and grab Caramort if he tries to duck out the back.
There is no ‘grab,’ Mal. I’ll confront him. He’ll fight me. I’ll win because I’m a badass, but I won’t win without suffering some significant injury. Dar replied.
Awesome. Oh, and don’t tell Asta, but the bad dude in all this might be the former Iblis. I might need you to help me kill him.
No. Just…no. That is fucking not going to happen. Dar texted back.
Thanks, man. Knew I could count on you. I’ll be by to pick you up this evening. Maybe after we can grab some wings and beer. I’ll buy.
I shoved my phone into my pocket, ignoring the endless pings of incoming messages and headed out to the pool. Some of my Lows had popped over from the guest house. Rutter was fiddling with the grill. Nyalla was laughing at something Snip had said. Doriel had Lux on her lap, the pair of them stiff and awkward. The angel looked relieved to see me. As much as I wanted to leave him sitting on Doriel’s lap, it was clear he’d had enough. And it was clear that her fascination with Lux didn’t extend to wanting actual close contact with him.
I held out my hands, and with a flash of light he was there, wrapping his arms around my neck.
“I was thinking of cooking some burgers,” Nyalla told me, just as Rutter nearly caught himself on fire igniting the grill. “Doriel has never had them.”
The Ancient smiled up at me. “Or these potato things, or the pizza pie, or hot dogs, although I did have grilled canine meat the last time I was here. It wasn’t my favorite. I prefer lamb.”
Nyalla shot a quick glance over to where Boomer was sleeping and grimaced. “Well, we don’t eat dog. But, if you’re still here tonight, we can go out in Baltimore, grab a bite then go dancing. I’ll invite a few friends, if you don’t mind hanging out with humans and werewolves.”
Doriel appeared intrigued by the suggestion. “Perhaps. I’m waiting for my household to get back to me on something, so I don’t really want to commit myself beyond this afternoon.”
Rutter came over to me and tugged on my arm with a singed hand, inclining his head toward the house. I offered to get the burgers out of the fridge, and handed Lux to Nyalla, then followed the Low inside.
“I have the information on Leethu and the house she’s being held captive in,” he told me as I pulled the ground beef patties from the fridge. “It’s owned by a woman named Red Bird. She bought it only a few weeks ago. Here’s the address.”
I took the slip of paper he handed me. “DuNoir Valley, Wyoming. Closest town is Dubois, population nine hundred something.” Lovely. Middle of fucking nowhere. If the hunters didn’t shoot me out of the sky thinking I was a goose, I’d wind up mauled by a bear.
“Nyalla had me go to her brother to check on this Red Bird woman, and there’s nothing on her. It’s as if she appeared out of nowhere a few weeks ago, paid cash for this place, and moved in. There was some online gossip around town that she was running a commune or something out there. One local called them gun-toting lesbians.”
Well. Leethu did prefer female sexual partners, so maybe this summoning wasn’t as horrible for her as I was imagining. The last time I’d seen her, I’d gotten the impression Leethu could handle this summoning issue herself. Barf’s report of the dead summoner clearly supported that, but if there were a bunch of people yanking Leethu here and there, then this had to stop.
Gun-toting lesbians or sorcerers, they needed to let my foster sister go.
I glanced at the clock and grabbed a few spices from the rack. If I hustled, I could get Leethu free, and still swing by to pick up Dar at five to go nab Caramort. Two jobs in one day was pushing it for me, but Gregory was right. I needed to multi-task and get shit done. Besides, how hard could taking down a group of humans be?
As we headed back out, I noted Doriel was looking particularly ill, and one glance over toward the pool told me why.
Gregory. Fuck, that’s right. He was here to spend time with Lux and me. Whoops.
“Hey, babe.” I handed off the burgers and spices to Snip and walked up to give my angel a big kiss, placing myself strategically between him and the Ancient. “Don’t kill her,” I whispered. “I need her right now. And Nyalla’s going to take her clubbing later.”
“That’s Doriel.” The archangel was not whispering.
I grabbed his arm and hauled him behind the hedges. “Look, this is my house. I’m the Iblis, an Angel of Chaos, so guess what sort of guests I’m going to have here? That aside, I’m trying to bridge the divide between our people. There’s some dickhead killing enforcers. There might be some dickhead killing angels. Bridging the divide isn’t just me tracking those dickheads down, stopping them and punishing them, it’s working to convince demons and Ancients that it’s in their best interests to play by the rules, that there are all sorts of wonderful things they can enjoy here if they make peace and don’t upset the apple cart.”
“That’s why she’s within five feet of my offspring,” Gregory snarled. “That’s why the love of Gabriel’s life is taking her to club humans or animals later today?”
“Clubbing is not…it’s dancing, you moron. They’re going to go to Baltimore, eat dinner, drink a bunch of alcohol and dance. And yes, Lux is five feet from her. He was sitting on her lap ten minutes ago. She looked downright terrified.”
“She’s about to look even more terrified.” Gregory tried to get around me, and I blocked him, grabbing his arm.
“No. Take Lux somewhere else for the rest of the day if you want, but you can’t threaten or assault a guest in my home.”
“My child—”
