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  “Next, we’ll work on aim,” she told him. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. You’re getting the hang of your ability with lightning speed.” She flashed an open smile as if to say ‘Get it?’ which made Wyatt chuckle.

  Her phone vibrated on the counter and she picked it up, smirking when she saw the number.

  “Hey,” she said to the person on the other end of the call. “About half an hour. Just me and Barachiel.” She turned to look at Wyatt who had moved to the bar and was drinking a beer. She grinned proudly and told the caller, “I think he’ll be just fine. K, bye.

  Looks like training’s done for the night.” Gabriel said, placing her phone back on the counter. “We gotta go. Come on.” She quickly walked down the hall to Wyatt’s room. By the time he caught up to her, she was already rifling through the closet.

  “What are you doing?” he inquired.

  “Getting your outfit ready,” she said, throwing a pair of black leather pants on the bed.

  “I’m not wearing that,” he said.

  “Yeah, but you are,” she insisted. “Where we’re going, this tee shirt and jeans thing you’ve got going is not gonna fly. You will stick out like a pussy hat at an RNC convention.” She tossed a dark burgundy shirt and a black vest down next to the pants, picked up a pair of boots and handed them to him. “Wheels up in ten.”

  The two now stood in the alley next to a nightclub, Wyatt watching with condescension as people in clothing as preposterous as what he was wearing filed into the large brick building with blacked out windows. He had begrudgingly worn what Gabriel had chosen for him and while he was wildly uncomfortable, he now understood her reasoning. She, herself, had gone full goth with black lipstick and eyeliner, navy velvet mini dress with extra long flowing sleeves, fishnets and knee high boots.

  “I look ridiculous,” Wyatt complained.

  “Yeah, kind of,” she agreed. “I look like nineteen ninety-six, but, what are you gonna do? This is their jam.”

  Wyatt noticed what looked like cat eyes at the other end of the dark alley. As they drew closer, he saw that they were too high to be a small animal. Out of instinct, he raised his arm in front of his new sister to protect her.

  “Oh, that’s precious,” Gabriel chortled. “Completely unnecessary, but, still, super cute. Listen, when the delegation gets here, keep quiet. I’ll do all the talking. Now, I have every confidence that we can handle ourselves, but we need to lay low, so to keep these things at a distance, I need you to look tough. Like, full on resting dick face.”

  He shot her an annoyed glance.

  “Yeah, just like that,” she approved.

  He rolled his eyes a little. “What do you mean, ‘delegation’?” he asked.

  “She means us,” a man said. Stepping out from the shadows of the alley were three men and a teenage girl. “Hattie, sweetie,” he told the girl. “Stamp our friends.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, hurrying toward Wyatt and Gabriel and placing a red circle stamp on the backs of each of their left hands.

  “I’m Tobin Abney, I’ll be escorting you to Her Majesty this evening,” the man informed them.

  “Gabriel. This is Wyatt,” Gabriel responded.

  “Charmed,” the man said kindly. “Follow me and do your best to stay close.”

  As they filed in, Tobin and the girl in the lead, Wyatt and Gabriel in the middle and the two other men in the rear, Wyatt couldn’t help but notice the unnerving amount of attention they were getting. People stopped what they were doing to stare as they walked past. Even the music, which Wyatt recognized, but couldn’t quite put his finger on, seemed to quiet slightly as they made their way to the back of the club and up a spiral staircase.

  “Don’t mind them,” Tobin told them. “They’re just curious.”

  Be careful. Gabriel warned as they approached the VIP section. She’ll have you feeding her peeled grapes by night’s end if you don’t watch yourself.

  The young girl pulled back a velvet rope and stood aside, allowing the others to walk through. Once on the other side, Tobin put his hand up, signaling for the others to stop before taking a knee.

  “Your Majesty, I present Gabriel and Wyatt, as requested,” he stated.

  “Thank you, Tobin,” a sultry voice said from the darkness. As Wyatt peered into the room, he saw the same kind of animal-like eyes as before looking back at him. As the woman came into the light, he could see that they belonged to her and that they now appeared normal. She was stunning in a black ball gown with dark hair, full lips and vaguely Middle Eastern or Mediterranean features. Wyatt felt drawn to her somehow and as he couldn’t help but stare, he wondered what her skin smelled like.

  “Dude,” Gabriel said pointedly.

  “Sorry,” Wyatt whispered as he gathered his senses.

  “Leave us,” the woman instructed the delegation. The others left and Wyatt and Gabriel sat in a booth next to the Queen.

  “So,” she said. “You call yourself ‘Wyatt’.”

  “Yeah,” he acknowledged.

  “That’s lovely,” she breathed. “Allydia Cain,” she said, holding her hand out for him to take, which he did, resisting the urge, just barely, to press his lips to it.

  “All right, kids,” Gabriel interjected. “Can you flirt later? We’re here for a reason.”

  “Of course,” Allydia said. “Later.”

  Wyatt let go of her hand and reminded himself that he was married.

  “Pfft,” Gabriel let slip.

  “Hey,” Wyatt griped.

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “But, I wouldn’t call what you are married. Separated is more accurate. But, you’re right. It’s not my business.”

  “It’s temporary,” he insisted.

  “Oh, sweetness,” Allydia asserted. “Everything is temporary. Life is temporary. If a woman is feeble minded enough to leave a man as beautiful as you, she lacks the sense God gave her and is undeserving of your patience.”

  “Anyway,” Gabriel said. “I’m assuming you called because you have news.”

  “Yes,” Allydia told her. “There are credible reports of demon activity in the city. Six eye witnesses claim to have seen them, all on the lower east side.”

  “Demons?!” Wyatt blurted.

  “Yeah, dude, chill,” Gabriel directed. “Thanks, Dia. Call me if you hear anything else.”

  “I will,” Allydia said as her guests began to leave. “And, Wyatt, just some food for thought, if your wife regains her faculties and comes crawling back, begging for another chance, perhaps you’ll forgive her indiscretion. In the meantime, however, you would do well to remember that you’re free to have some indiscretions of your own.”

  “Oh, gross,” Gabriel winced. “Let’s go.” She led Wyatt through the crowd and toward the exit. Once outside, she smacked his arm in protest.

  “What?” he laughed.

  “Ew.” she said. “Listen, I’m not your keeper. You do what you want, but I’m telling you, that girl is bad news bears.”

  Wyatt scoffed. “I’m not interested,” he claimed. “Despite what you think, Annie will come back to me. She just needs some time. Once she sees that I’m not crazy, everything will be back to normal.”

  “I hate to break the news,” Gabriel told him. “But nothing is ever gonna be normal for you again. Just because you’re not crazy doesn’t mean things aren’t severely fucked up.”

  Chapter 6

  “So, demons?” Wyatt inquired, sitting at the island and taking a sip of his coffee. He had let it go the night before because he was exhausted after an unreasonably long day and just wanted to go to bed, but it was a new day and he had to know what he had gotten himself into.

  “Apparently,” Gabriel replied. “The Gates of Hell aren’t closed like they should be and that can only mean one thing.”

  “What’s that?” he wondered.

  “Girl!” Valerie called out as she let herself into the apartment. She closed the door behind her and quickly took a seat next to Wyatt a
t the island. Gabriel poured her sister a cup of coffee and patiently waited for her to tell her story, even though she knew everything she was going to say as soon as she saw her.

  “I had a vision last night and I already texted Tae cause I knew you’d want to talk to him about it since it involved the hospital and he said he’s on his way, but first, let me tell you about my date,” Valerie continued. “This man, first, as soon as he picked me up, announced we were going Dutch, and that’s fine, like, I’m an independent woman, I got my own money. But, damn, why you gotta blast that shit in my face as soon as I open the door? Like he thinks I’m a gold digger or something, trying to extort him for some pasta. Then, we’re at dinner and he sent his food back twice because the edges of the plates weren’t clean enough. I was like, ‘For real? You know what kind of awful stuff they’re doing to your food right now?’ and he told me they wouldn’t dare because he’s a health inspector. I don’t care if you’re the mayor, if you’re that rude to your waiter, you’re getting a spit sandwich. So, dinner’s over and we’re in a cab on the way back to my place, and I had no intention of letting him smash at that point. Like, if you treat your servers like shit, I just don’t respect you, you know? So, we’re in the cab and that’s when the vision hits, so I probably look kooky as fuck, just staring off into the distance and shit for a good minute and a half. And, when I come out of it, this motherfucker is kissing the side of my neck, all uninvited, so I pushed his face away and I’m like, ‘Uh, uh. You are not getting in tonight.’ and this dude took it out and said I needed to take care of it.”

  “Oh, my God,” Wyatt said. “That’s awful.”

  “Wait for it,” Gabriel smirked.

  “So,” Valerie told them. “We were less than a block away from my spot, so I yelled, ‘Stop the cab!’ and the driver pulled over, I opened the door, punched this dude in the face and threw a travel size bottle of lotion I keep in my jacket at him and said ‘Handle your own shit, baby dick’.”

  Wyatt and Gabriel couldn’t help but laugh while Valerie nonchalantly sipped her coffee.

  “I’m just salty because dude is fine,” Valerie confessed.

  “Muffins!” Gabriel suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from her seat and rushing to the door. She reached for the handle as they heard the first knock. She flung the door open, snatched the box of muffins out of Tae’s hands and placed it on the counter. She opened it, picked one up and took a bite before turning back to him, grabbing his face and quickly kissing his cheek several times.

  “I thought they’d please you,” Tae condescended.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Gabriel dismissed. “All I eat is carbs. How am I so skinny? Do I know what vegetables look like? Anyway, now that everyone’s here, we need to talk about what we’re doing, like, on Earth, because the plan goes into motion today.”

  “Today?” Wyatt asked.

  “Relax,” she told him. “You don’t need to do anything just yet except practice. Today is just step one, getting the band back together.”

  “Girl, what are you on about?” Tae wondered.

  “Uriel, please share with the class what your vision was about,” she requested.

  “All right, so,” Valerie started. “It was a hospital room and there was a blond dude in the bed with like, tubes down his throat and shit and he was familiar to me, but I didn’t recognize him. Like, I should have known who he was and I felt like, nervous. Like I needed to get him out of that place. No offence, T.”

  “Mm hmm,” Tae sneered. “I mean, I am set to pull the plug on a John Doe in a couple hours. He has blond hair.”

  “Yeah,” Gabriel interjected. “I can’t let you kill that guy.”

  “Bitch, I don’t kill people,” Tae rebuffed. “This motherfucker has been brain dead for a month. I am simply unplugging a machine.”

  “Okay,” she agreed. “But, when you do, I need to be there to wake his ass up.”

  “What for?” he asked. “He one of your companions?”

  “Oh, God! No! Ew!” Gabriel grimaced. “He’s our brother.”

  “Another one?” Wyatt asked. “Jeez, how many angels does it take to screw in a--”

  “Blond hair,” Valerie blurted out. Her eyes became saucers and her mouth hung open as the realization hit her. “Are you serious?”

  “Even when I’m joking,” Gabriel declared.

  “Which one?” Tae asked through clenched jaw.

  “Raphael,”

  “Which one?!” he shouted.

  She looked at him knowingly.

  “Bitch, are you out your goddamned mind?!” he snapped. “Are you trying to get us all killed?!”

  “Calm down,” Gabriel commanded. “He’s on our side. Besides, between Barachiel’s lightning and my all around awesomeness, we’ll be fine.”

  “Somebody gonna fill me in?” Wyatt asked. “Who are we talking about?”

  “Motherfucking Lucifer,” Tae griped. “This crazy bitch wants me to wake up fucking Satan. Mm mm. I am not. Not a chance in Hell.”

  “Lucifer?!” Wyatt gasped.

  “He’s not what you think,” Gabriel said. “Exactly.”

  “No, not exactly,” Valerie confirmed. “But, he is terrifying as shit.”

  “Sure, but he always does his job,” Gabriel insisted.

  “We are talking about the Devil, right?” Wyatt argued. “How are we considering this?”

  “All right, kids, listen up,” Gabriel began. “Back in the day, Lucifer was God’s favorite. Not just His favorite angel, his favorite everything. He was the most beautiful, most powerful, and the most dedicated angel in Heaven. God loved and trusted him above all others. So, when the angels fell and God created Hell as a place to lock them up to protect humanity and the world He’d created, He knew there was no one else that could guard the Gates but his number one. Now, Hell’s a big place, so every once in a great while, somebody will make a break for it and he has to come top side to fetch them, but for the most part, Lucy keeps those bitches in line. With him trapped in this John Doe, though, you know, the mice will play.”

  “The demons Allydia was talking about,” Wyatt surmised.

  “Yep.”

  “You make it sound like he’s a good guy,” Wyatt said, puzzled. “If he’s just trying to keep demons from hurting people, what’s the problem? These two are on the verge of panic attacks.”

  “Being the jailer means you have to spend your time in jail,” she explained. “Hell is separation from God. Being in that place with those vermin, away from us, away from Grace, over time has had an effect. Which is why we need to find the monster we’re after as soon as possible, he can take her back to where she belongs, close the Gates of Hell, sucking all the demons back in,” she brushed her hands together. “Crisis averted.”

  Wyatt, Valerie and Tae sat in mind boggled silence for a few seconds.

  “We good?” Gabriel asked, looking around at everyone stubbornly.

  “We are definitely not good,” Valerie answered. “Knowing the psychology of why someone’s a barbaric, brutal psychopath doesn’t make it fine.”

  “We need him,” Gabriel said pointedly. “He’s the only one of us capable of putting this monster back where she came from.”

  “She? You don’t mean,”

  “Lilith,” Gabriel said plainly.

  “Holy shit,” Valerie all but whispered.

  “Oh, fuck me,” Tae said, sitting down. “I’m gonna need something stronger than coffee.”

  “You two have a vague idea of who this bitch is, but B’s oblivious, so let me break it down,” Gabriel related. “Lilith is Lucifer’s twin sister. Take everything you’ve ever heard about Lucifer, most of which isn’t actually true, by the way, and evil it up by about five thousand times. In our current states, we can’t kill her, but we can weaken her enough that Lucifer can drag her baby eating ass back to her cage.”

  Wyatt nearly choked on a bite of muffin.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel continued. “Bitch fucking eats babies, like, as sna
cks. And that’s just the tip of her bat shit ice berg. She’s heavily into dudes and once she picks one, things get real dark real fast. Lilith is twisted on a level that the human race hasn’t seen since the Bronze Age. I can not stress this enough, guys. We have to take her down. It’s the only reason we’re here and we need our brother to do it.”

  “It’s still morning and I’m already done with today,” Tae muttered as he took a sip of coffee.

  “The plan is pretty straight forward,” Gabriel told them. “We get Lucifer functioning and on board, Barachiel, you’ll keep practicing, getting stronger so you can play your part when we need you, Uriel will hopefully get some helpful visions along the way and I’ll do my best to keep Lucifer on a tight leash. Eventually, Lilith will contact Allydia. When she does, assuming we haven’t found her ourselves beforehand, Dia will give us a location and that’s when we’ll go after her.”

  “And Allydia is?” Tae asked.

  “Lilith’s step daughter. It’s complicated,” Gabriel said. “Point is, she doesn’t know that Dia goddamn hates her. She’s our way in.”

  “All right, girl,” Valerie reconciled, standing up and drinking the last bit of her coffee. “Let’s get to it then.”

  “B, you stay here and practice,” Gabriel commanded. “You never know when Lucifer’s gonna get rowdy. Best to be prepared, just in case. You two with me.”

  The others left quickly while Wyatt sat, stunned, trying to digest all the objectively insane information he’d just heard. Feeling the likelihood of his impending demise, he decided to call Annie, maybe for the last time. The phone rang several times and then, a miracle. She answered.

  “Hi, Wyatt,” she said quietly. He was dumbstruck. For a second, he forgot how to speak. “Wyatt?”

  “I’m here,” he replied, clearing his throat. “I just wasn’t expecting… how are you?”

  “Fine,” she told him, but she didn’t sound like herself. Something was off.

  “Are you? You sound strange.”

  “I’m okay, Wyatt. What do you want?”

  “I wanted to tell you that I’m doing a lot better. No seeing things for a few days now. I had a procedure. Annie, no voices. I swear, I think I’m gonna be okay now.”