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  Chapter 28

  We appeared on the pier.

  And by we, I mean Jehudiel and myself. The two demons travelled through portals. No self-respecting demon would be caught dead hitching a ride with an angel. That's how the end of the world starts.

  "You took your time." Gil stood there leaning against a white, unmarked van. As if she wasn't creepy enough already.

  "You weren't much help," I shot back. "How's the concussion?"

  "I'm fine. Thank you, Erik." That sounded sincere enough.

  "So, what do you want?" I asked.

  Her face was an ice sculpture. "I need to determine whether you're a danger to society. I saw your change," she said. "That is a dangerous power. Mephisto tells me you wielded Life magic."

  Figures. My sister never sends backup for free. There was always a catch, always a price.

  "And who gave you the authority to judge me?" I held out my hand before she could answer. "Yeah, let me guess, some secret society whose name you can't even utter out loud? Spooky."

  Gil folded her arms and huffed. "This has nothing to do with that. This area is my responsibility and I don't want someone with your destructive record running around with powers that are beyond his control."

  "I have plenty of control," I said.

  "You destroy almost everything you touch," she rebutted.

  "No, I don't."

  And just as I said that, there was a loud crunch of metal. The tanker was a good distance from the pier but still visible. It was already battered, even before the battle that took place on it. The ship crunched and bent and actually folded down the middle before gently sinking amidst waves and white foam.

  Great timing, universe.

  "I… That…"

  I saw Gil raise her eyes and heard Amaymon chuckle.

  "Oh come on, that was an accident," I blurted out.

  "Nice save, dude," muttered the demon.

  "Shut up!"

  Gil cleared her throat. "Current demonstrations not withstanding, you have powers that you do not understand," she said. "Can you guarantee that you won't go on any rampages?"

  "How the hell should I know?" I yelled exasperatedly. "You're the genius of the family. So, how about you tell me what the hell is going on with me?"

  Amaymon let out a chuckle. "Heh. This is better than cable."

  Gil's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Tell me all you know about your powers. When did you get them? Under which circumstances? I want to know everything," she said.

  We glared at each other for a second.

  Should I spill the beans here and now? I mean, if this was a family thing Gil had the right to know, but I wasn't sure I wanted Mephisto and Jehudiel to hear this. Who knows what I could reveal, or how they might use that against me. I might be giving them my Achilles Heel on a silver platter without even knowing it. And, trust me, you do not want to have your strings pulled by either one.

  I weighed the pros and cons and felt my brain slowly starting to melt. Then, I made my decision the only way I know how.

  "Ah, fuck it," I said before telling Gil everything.

  "This is… unique."

  Mistress of understatement. Gil must have noticed my expression because she folded her arms defensively.

  “Although, admittedly, there’s very little I know about this particular subject," she admitted.

  "Lemme give you the cliff-notes version. I have a ton of magic I cannot use, because of a curse," I said, extending one finger. Then, I began counting off on the other fingers. "I can heal from almost anything due to my magic being trapped inside of me. Which means I am constantly charged with magic."

  "A gross oversimplification, but go on," she interjected.

  "Now, I find out I can use Life magic. I don't know how or why, but he says I can," I said, pointing at Jehudiel. "So, I'm gonna take his word for it. Oh, and let's not forget the anima particles he shoved inside me."

  "That sounds kinda gross man," Amaymon quipped.

  I ignored him. "Remember when Dad tried to kill us?"

  Gil's eyes darkened. "How can I ever forget?"

  "Our bloodline is cursed and he wanted to kill us to keep all that power for himself," I continued. "I guess it was only a matter of time before our inherited power manifested."

  Mephisto cleared his throat. I didn't know dogs could do that. Then again, this was Mephisto we're talking about.

  "If you remember our talk correctly, I explained how your bloodline curse sucks power from the current Head of Household and gives it to the next, with each having both their own power and that of their ancestors available to them. But when you two were born, that vast power was split in two. It was that trauma—as well as other circumstances of a more insidious nature—that changed your father into the man he became."

  "You mean a killer who tried to sacrifice his own children?" I spat.

  "Yes. Now that you have both matured enough, you will begin to access your powers." He turned his snout at my direction. "Your first experience with this power was when you forcefully claimed your portion to fight against your father."

  I remembered being in that room, confronting my father. I remember him injecting himself with drugs to boost his powers. I remember the fighting. After that I blacked out and remember nothing. Only a vague memory, that of a tree in a red desert and a figure calling my name.

  Offering me help—offering me power.

  Then, I came to and found the lab in the mansion's basement destroyed and Dad in ruins. He was dying, and no drugs or magic could have changed that. I remembered Gil fainting and Mephisto telling me to run.

  That night I had to run away, so that Gil could stay out of danger.

  "Yeah. I remember," I said darkly. As you can imagine, this wasn't the most comfortable subject for me to talk about.

  Mephisto kept going, completely oblivious to our feelings.

  "And Master Gil came into her power shortly afterwards, when she killed your father-"

  "Mephistopheles!" Gil's sudden outburst made all of us jump. Her eyes were wide with panic and her poker face completely shattered.

  "Oh dear," Mephisto said, in the most insincere tone possible.

  "You did what?" I blurted out.

  I had killed our father. I did it, not Gil. I went all crazy and left him for dead. I had shouldered that fact for years, never once regretting it.

  But it was my burden to carry, not Gil's.

  She wouldn't meet my eyes.

  "I killed Dad," I reaffirmed. "Right, Gil?"

  She didn't answer me. She just kept staring at her shoes. "No."

  Her voice was barely a whisper. "You just left him for dead, but the concoction of drugs and magic he was under kept him alive. Barely, but alive." She actually started shaking.

  "So, once you left, I grabbed a piece of glass and I-" There were tears in her eyes now, but she kept herself from breaking down. "I dragged it across his throat."

  There was stunned silence.

  It all made sense now. Her sense of duty, taking up the family business, trying to make it better and more humane but still keeping the Warlock traditions and practices alive. She was atoning for Dad's mistakes. For the mistakes all our ancestors, in fact.

  For years I thought I was the one with the burden. Turns out my sister was making amends for our entire ancestry. I thought she had become a cold-hearted bitch.

  Turns out she was the real hero after all.

  And on that pier I did something I hadn't ever thought I'd do again: I hugged my sister. Not the leader of the Ashendale mansion or some businesswoman, but my real sister.

  It was a brief hug, but it mattered. After all these years, after all we had been through, it took this moment of understanding to finally reconcile us.

  "So, what now?" I asked, finally letting her go and backing away.

  "The both of you need to awaken your powers, but even that might not be sufficient," Mephisto said. "You are two halves of a whole. From now on you must both act as one entit
y." He let out a laugh. "Personally, I would wager my money on the Sins right now."

  That was the last straw. I was about to say something, but Gil beat me to the punch.

  "Leave," she said in a tone that suggested pain.

  "I'm sorry, Master. I apologize for speaking out of turn."

  He wasn't and Gil knew it.

  "Again," Amaymon added with utter glee.

  "Leave," she repeated.

  Mephisto turned tail and disappeared inside a portal.

  Once he was gone, Gil turned to me. "He is right, though. We need to understand ourselves, what these new powers are, and do it fast."

  "Do you already know what your power is?"

  She blinked once, very deliberately. "No."

  Even I knew that was a blatant lie.

  "But you can come back home if you want," she said before I could say anything.

  "Yeah," Amaymon said. "You guys should stick together for now. You only defeated Lilith ‘cause her powers weren't complete. She wasn't fully in tune with the Sin of Lust and that made her fall to pieces." He chuckled at his own pun.

  "But seriously," he went on. "The next Sin ain't gonna be so easy. Mephisto's right. You got no chance unless you stick together." He cracked his neck. "Besides, you ain't got no office. And a warm shower would be nice."

  They were all valid points.

  But I couldn't bring myself to leave that office. It symbolized my independence and my growth. I had literally constructed that dingy little hole from the ground up. It was my home in a way that the mansion never was.

  "Thanks, but no thanks," I said. "We may be allies now but I still got a business to run. I'm not a Warlock, Gil."

  She held her hand up. "I get it. Just promise me we'll work together, okay?"

  I smiled. It was like catching a glimpse of the little girl I grew up with again.

  "Sure thing. We'll stick together," I said. She nodding and turned to leave.

  "Oh, Gil," I called out. "Wait."

  She stopped behind the open limo door.

  "When you were unconscious on the boat, I remember feeling something," I said. "My black shadow stuff reacted with your aura and there was something like… like fog or smoke."

  Her face remained impassive.

  "Was that your spell?" I insisted.

  "Not that I recall," she replied shortly.

  "How come you knew about these powers?" I asked. "Seems to me like you had a couple of hints. And if you knew what was gonna happen to me, you must have taken note of what was gonna happen to you. You know, since we're twins and all that."

  "Is there a point you're trying to make, brother?"

  "Yes," I said. "What are you hiding?"

  I saw her shake her head a little. "You know, you're not as clueless as you seem," she muttered.

  Maybe it was the sun, but I could swear her body shimmered in white fog for a second, like a thin breath in winter.

  "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, before winking and disappearing into the car.

  Son of a…

  "Hey, Gil," I called but it was too late. The car drove off, followed by the white van.

  "Too late," Amaymon said.

  "I know!" I retorted exasperatedly.

  He grinned. "Think this is gonna come back to bite you in the ass?"

  "You know it." I turned to where Jehudiel had stood quietly all this time, but saw nothing but empty space. "Hey, where'd he go?"

  "He left a second ago," Amaymon replied.

  Figures. He was done with his duty. From here on, we were on our own.

  Amaymon and I started walking back towards the rental car.

  "Back to the office it is, then," I said. "Whatever's left of it anyway."

  He smirked. "Yep. Back to lickin' myself clean."

  "Admit it, you love doing that."

  "Yeah, but where'd you think I get hairballs from?"

  "Ew."

  Chapter 29

  This was supposed to be a happy ending, where the hero gets a steamy kiss from the damsel in distress, answers to all the questions, and a new power and responsibility to contend with.

  Hey, one out of three wasn't bad. I got the power, a crap load of new responsibility and even managed to get a hug.

  When we came into her line of sight, Abigail wrapped her arms around me and started crying. I guess it was to be expected given the trauma she went through. Amaymon jumped out of the car in kitty form and she pressed him on her chest. He purred delightfully and she kissed his little feline head.

  Lucky bastard.

  I sighed and turned to receive my prize: a pile of rubble I once called home. After the hell I went through on this case, the last thing I wanted was to enter my office and be surrounded by more debris and destruction.

  "No rest for the wicked," I murmured with a chuckle. That was the same retort I shot at Lilith.

  Guess the universe finally took a liking to my jokes.

  I decided to procrastinate a little further by digging up my cell phone and calling Gracie Valdez. I mean, she did hire me after all, and I suppose both she and Abigail deserved a tearful reunion.

  As if on cue, Gracie appeared out of thin air. "Abi!"

  Wow. She did say she was an adept but I didn't think she was this good a clairvoyant. Almost immediately Abigail lunged at her, and a second later the two girls were busy exchanging hugs, tears and squeaks.

  I stood back, giving the best friends some privacy, and sat down on the single stair on my porch and just stared at the ground.

  Something was not right about that girl.

  Gracie's shadow was out of proportion but it was not a trick of the sun. The sun doesn't make you look like an armored, six foot figure with large wings on your back.

  "Ah, crap!"

  It was more of a moan rather than a warning. I got up and went towards them. By now they were both staring at me as if I had snapped.

  My hand reached for my short sword and I pulled out Djinn in a swift, well-practiced move. Not that I had the strength to fight an angel. The most I could do right now was distract him with some jumping jacks.

  Maybe that would be enough to save the succubus.

  "Mr. Ashendale, what is the meaning of-" Gracie began.

  "Shut up," I snapped. "I know you're an angel."

  Abigail gave me a bewildered look.

  "The shadow," I said by way of an explanation.

  She must have noticed because she sprung away from Valdez like a frightened cat.

  "You're either ready to pounce and didn't bother with a good disguise," I said, "or you're just an idiot." Djinn quivered in my hand. "Either way, you're not getting the girl."

  Gracie Valdez laughed. Her body began dissolving in a glow of light and in her place stood Jehudiel.

  "Or, I could be making your life easier," he said in that melodic tone of his.

  I pushed Djinn back into its sheath. "Unless a bunch of you angels are gonna put on hard hats and help out with that disaster," I said as I pointed at the remains of my office, "I don't see how much help you can be."

  Jehudiel put on his helmet, which promptly changed into a hard hat. "I'll see what I can do," he said brightly.

  He snapped his finger and there was an intense flash of light. The office began repairing itself. The holes in the wall filled up and the furniture went back to its proper place, fully repaired. Even the doorbell that Amaymon had bent out of shape was repaired. A familiar buzz of magic indicated that all the crystals were back in their position inside the walls, enabling my magic.

  While I was busy fawning over my office, I heard Abigail sniff and turned just in time to watch her wipe away a tear.

  "How?" she asked the archangel. Her expression morphed into a feral scowl. "Did she ever exist?" she demanded. "Was my best friend just an illusion? Did I imagine it all, all those years of being together with her?"

  Jehudiel nodded slowly, before bending over into a deep bow. "Yes," he replied. "They were all fake memor
ies which I planted. I am so sorry. I had to gain your trust early on, and keeping secrets from me would have hastened your death. I hope you can forgive me."

  I wasn't sure what her forgiveness method was until Abigail stepped forwards and slapped the angel in the face.

  "Never do that again," she said angrily. "Don't ever mess with my head again. Ever, you hear me?"

  Jehudiel remained silent. Abigail gave him one last glare before pushing past me and going inside the office.

  "Point, redhead," Amaymon muttered.

  Jehudiel ignored him and entered the office too.

  Okay then, apparently everyone was invited.

  Once inside the archangel smiled at us. "Heaven thanks you for your service," he announced.

  Then he waved his hand and, like a scene from Fantasia, a silver tray with burgers and cakes appeared on the coffee table. On my desk table, stacks of paper money were piled up on top of each other—more money than I had ever seen in my entire life.

  Certainly more than enough to buy each of us an office and maybe a mansion to go with it.

  "We take care of our own," Jehudiel said as he beamed at each of us. Abigail just glared at the empty space around the angel while Amaymon flicked his tail and muttered something obscene.

  I just put on my best poker face. "You take care of your own?"

  "Yes."

  "And since when am I 'one of your own'?" I quoted.

  Jehudiel's eyes remained blank. Not that he ever wore an expression to begin with, but he was usually more human than the others. Now, he had reverted back to his Terminator face. "You and your sister have pledged your services to Heaven's forces. Please, wait for our call."

  There was a moment of silence as I digested that piece of information and read in between the lines.

  Then, I punched the angel in the face.

  Jehudiel reeled back. Something about his stumble seemed so fake, so unnatural. He let me hit him—of course he let me hit him. I was nowhere near strong enough to actually touch the angel, let alone deck him. And if I hadn't been busy yelling at him, I would have stopped to question why he had let me punch him in the face.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" I yelled. I looked around to see both Abigail and Amaymon utterly speechless.