devil 02 - tween a devil and his hard place (23 page)

He turned too and frowned just the tiniest little bit, then waved one hand and a huge storm broke over the riot, complete with horrendous thunder and lightning bolts that hit the rooftops just over the heads of the people in the street. The storm made the unhappy rioters scurry away to take cover.

Then he turned me away from the screen and we started to walk. “You don’t mind if we walk for a while do you, Astra, I find it calming and I try to take a walk every day about this time.”

“Not at all, Sir. I’d like that actually. I’m feeling fidgety.”

He turned a beatific smile on me. “Fidgety huh?”

I grinned. “Well, it isn’t every day a girl gets to meet The Big Guy.”

His smile dimmed just a bit. “No, Astra, I suppose it’s not. I wish it could have been under happier circumstances.”

I felt my heart flutter with angst.
Oh sh—dang! What’s wrong now?

“Oh there’s nothing wrong, Astra… Well, actually, as you know there are lots of things wrong but that’s not why I asked to see you.”

Gulp.
He’d read my mind. Oh Hades, of course He’d read my mind. He was God, for Chri—goodness sake
!

He grinned at me.

“It’s more that I’m the right one to tell you what you need to be told.”

I nodded as if I completely understood. I felt like aliens had inhabited my body.

He laughed. “I’m monitoring the alien situation, Astra, nothing to worry about there.”

I sighed and tried not to think at all!

He stopped walking suddenly and turned to me. His green eyes sparked with repressed power and benevolence. “I’m worried about your father, Astra.”

That certainly caught me off guard. I frowned. “My father? Why, Sir?”

His hand touched my elbow and we started walking again. The world around us didn’t change at all, no matter how far we went. As we walked, the “room” I’d landed in moved with us, the same furniture groupings clustered around us and the huge holo-screen still hung suspended in the air behind. Every once in a while the action on the screen would erupt and He would fling a hand toward it without apparent thought, addressing in his own inimitable way whatever had gone amiss.

Talk about multi-tasking.

“You see, Astra, I never wanted to let your father fall. I tried to talk him out of it but he really cared about your mother and felt as if he had to, for your sister’s sake.” He turned and gave me a meaningful look.

I blinked at him for a few beats, not fully comprehending what he was saying and then it clicked. “Oh…oh shit!” My hand flew to my mouth, Myra would kill me. “Sorry.”

He waved a hand dismissively. “No Astra, I believe that this is truly an ‘oh shit’ moment.” He went on. “Your father fell to make your sister’s life easier and for a chance at a normal life. What we do up here is not easy, Astra. Angels get burned out and lose faith in the system. I’d like to tell you I had a foolproof system going on up here but…well…” He turned to me and smiled a bit impishly. “There are the devils, Astra, living proof that there can be bugs in any system.”

I laughed. “That’s quite a bug, Sir.” I felt myself sharing the grin with him. It felt really good.

I decided I liked visiting the Big Guy in the Big House.

Then his grin faded and he rocked my world. “He was my right-hand man you know, Astra? Your father.”

I was speechless. I forgot to keep walking and stopped dead, my mouth hanging open unattractively. All I could do was blink.

He nodded and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, giving me a gentle hug that sent waves of warmth and peace throughout my body. “I know, it’s quite a shock. I’ve never told anyone that before. Except…” He glanced at me out of the corner of one sparking green eye.

I took a deep breath and held it, expecting the worst.

When he went on I got the worst. And then some.

“Myra of course knows, being his sister.”

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

“Ssss…”

Blink.

Finally he took pity on me. “I’m sorry to lay all this on you like this, Astra. I know it isn’t easy finding out you come from such formidable stock. But with your powers growing, I thought it best to tell you. Your father was a Seraphim, your mother was a royal devil and you have a pretty powerful Witch in your impressive family tree as well.”

Okay, that was it. That did it. My mind melted right there. It couldn’t take any more.

That was okay because He wasn’t done talking anyway.

“Your father learned at Michael’s knee. He led my army when Michael folded his wings. He was a great field commander, Astra. I want— No, I need him back in my army. I fear for the human race if I don’t strengthen my forces against the rising tide of evil in their world.”

Somewhere along the way we had started walking again but I didn’t remember when. I nodded now as if I understood.

He, of course, knew I didn’t. “It’s okay if you can’t grasp all I’m telling you right now, Astra. It’s a lot for a mere Tweener to grasp. Your race is so much like the human race. Emotions rule in times of stress.”

I felt myself bristling at the perceived insult and he placed a benevolent hand on my shoulder. Immediately I became calm.

“As a Tweener you are grounded to things of the Earth, Astra, you have an innate sense of duty and a dedication to right and wrong. Those things are strengths, not weaknesses.”

I nodded, completely placated.

“If my father is…was…Seraphim. Is Myra Seraphim too?”

He shook his distinguished head and smiled a secret smile. “Heavens no, child. Can you imagine how snotty she’d be if she were?”

I couldn’t help myself. I had to laugh.

“No, she’s in the third choir. An Archangel. One of my better warriors I might add. I admire her greatly.”

Staunch praise coming from the creator of all things.

We walked in silence for a few minutes while I tried to soak in everything I’d been told. Finally I stopped walking and turned to him. “So these powers I’ve been growing, they’re because of the mixture of powerful magic in my family? Kind of a fluke?”

He nodded. “You are, as the human race would say, one of a kind Astra, a truly powerful Tweener with powers that are an enigma to most.”

I frowned. “But not to you.”

He grinned. “No, not to me. I know your future, my child and you will have your hands full. But you will do some great things.” And then he frowned just slightly. “And some not so great things too.” He raised elegant gray eyebrows at me and I shrugged guiltily.

I could only imagine what types of things he was talking about. I was pretty sure I’d already done some of them. “But you aren’t going to tell me are you, Sir?”

He shook his head and smiled softly. “No, Astra. I’m not going to tell you.”

I nodded. I was mostly okay with that.

“Well. It’s time I sent you back home. You have things you must do now.”

“But you haven’t told me what you want me to do yet. Why did you call me here?”

His handsome, ageless face opened up in surprise. “I haven’t? Oh dear. How could I have forgotten the most important thing?”

I shook my head and smiled. I wasn’t fooled. He
never
forgot things.

Then He said, “I want you to help your father come back to me.”

My eyes grew round. “But how can I do that?”

He smiled and placed a gentle hand on my head, as if he were giving me a blessing. “You’ll know when the time comes, my child. You’ll know when the time comes.”

And then I was standing back in my office, as if none of it had ever happened.

A few minutes after I returned to my office, Myra popped in and sat herself on the corner of my desk, silently studying me. I know I must have looked shell-shocked. It would be hard not to be after learning your father was once a Seraphim at the right hand of the Big Guy before he fell. And that the angel who was sitting on the corner of your desk was really a kick ass Archangel.

Who knew?

I returned her stare until she finally spoke.

“So. He told you?”

I squinted my eyes at her and screwed up my lips, unsure whether I was ready to talk about it. Especially with her.

After a few beats her patience, never a snake with a long tail under the best of circumstances, burst over me like a shattered dam.

“Astra! Tell me what happened!”

I sighed and sat back in my chair, feeling weary far beyond my measly years. “I found out I’m a freak.”

She gave me
the
look
and crossed delicate arms over her chest. The fabric of her gown shimmered in the light coming from the window behind me and looked as if it gave off sparks. It reminded me suddenly of His brilliance and I squinted almost without realizing it.

“You are
not
a freak, Astra. You’re just…special.”

“Special. Mmm-hmm. Well,” I sighed again, rather dramatically I thought, “at least I know why Prince Dialle thinks I’m his intended queen from prophecy. Apparently my resume is unique.”

Myra cocked her golden head to one side and gave me a rare smile. “You
are
unique Astra, and a very special creature. Which is why you draw so much angst and evil.”

Suddenly I remembered something that made me sit up straighter in my chair and look more closely at her.

Yes, the resemblance was there. I wondered that I’d never noticed it before. “You’re my aunt.”

Myra looked embarrassed for the first time since I’d been old enough to notice her emotions. “Yes.”

“Why the Hades didn’t you ever tell me?”

Myra shrugged. “Your father didn’t want me to.”

I cocked my head and frowned. “Why?”

She looked down at her hands and seemed reluctant to speak. “It’s against protocol for Archangels to serve as guardians. He’s very sensitive to the whole concept of receiving special treatment.” She looked up at me. “He tried to refuse me but it was not allowed.”

That brought my eyes open in surprise. “Are you telling me you got your assignment directly from
Him
?”

She frowned. “Yes. Your father was livid. He insisted that it was beneath me to guard a mere child, even if she was family.”

I felt like I should have been offended by this less than politic statement but I understood my father too well. It sounded just like him. I knew he loved me but he wouldn’t want special treatment for anyone in his family. It went against the grain.

Myra went on. “But He told your father that you were anything but normal, that the fate of the human race might very well rest on your shoulders some day and that he didn’t have a choice. I was yours.” Myra leaned toward me and spoke in a conspiratorial voice. “Between you and me, I think he did it because he someday hoped to lure your father back up.”

I swallowed hard, hoping she didn’t notice. I looked away guiltily.

“What about Darma?” I asked just to avert my very observant angel’s attention from my guilty face.

Myra peered carefully at me for a few beats before allowing herself to be averted. “Your sister does not appear to have gained much from our powerful family tree. She has only minimal powers and what she does have she represses.”

“With a vengeance,” I agreed.

“Anyway, whatever task He gave you to do, I will help you with, Astra. That’s why I’m here. Please don’t shut me out.” She cocked her head and gave me an affectionate tweak under my chin with one, velvety soft finger.

Then she shimmered away.

I immediately turned to the televisual. “Dial James Phelps.”

My father’s handsome face came online almost immediately.

“Blessed Be, daughter.”

“Blessed Be, Father.”

“I understand you’ve had an important meeting today.”

I felt my eyes grow wide. “How did you know that?”

He smiled and it was, as usual, tinged with sadness. “You underestimate the celestial army’s communication system, Astra. I might be earth bound but I’m not, as the humans would say, out of the loop.”

I grinned at him. I knew his army kept him apprised of everything that happened in the Big House, it was one of the things that had kept him sane over the years. “I should have known they’d fly to tell you.”

“Can you tell me what it was about?”

I thought about this for a couple of beats and then nodded. “How about meeting me for dinner at that little super terra diner downtown?”

“Roxies?”

“Yeah.”

He smiled. It had been my favorite place when I was a kid because they served old-fashioned ice cream floats at a shiny silver counter. It was a retro spot, with retro food and a pre-great-war feel to it. Even as an adult I still loved it.

“I’ll meet you there in three minutes,” my father said.

I laughed, “You’d better give me ten minutes. Some of us can’t shimmer across town.”

He nodded. “See you then.” And his beatific face dissolved from the screen.

He was sitting in a booth at the back of the diner. As usual, I received a start of surprise when I saw him in normal, human clothes. He just wasn’t the sweater and jeans type. His angelic robes, which he still wore whenever possible, suited him much better.

I kissed his flawless cheek and sat down across from him. He had ordered me a large root brew float, with chocolate ice cream and a mountain of sweet frothed cream on the top. I grinned like a kid as I leaned over the float and made a huge dent in the sweet cream on the top with my tongue.

Closing my eyes I sighed. “Ummm. Thanks for remembering just how I like it.”

His smile was soft with memories. “I can’t believe you still come here. Although I guess this place
is
filled with good memories.”

Yes it was.

Memories of my father, Darma and me sharing dinner and ice cream on all those nights when my mother was too busy to join us. They were good memories but they were stained a bit around the edges with disappointment and a sense of something lost.

I watched my father over my tall float glass and he seemed upset about something. I presumed he was worried about my meeting with the Big Guy. As well he should be. I sucked thoughtfully on my creamy root brew for a few minutes, casting about for a way to start the conversation. Finally he saved me the trouble.