“This is a very pleasant room,” Agrat said. “Thank you, sister.”
Naamah smirked briefly. “You’re welcome, sisters. Oh, the floor’s heated, by the way. I have a hypocaust system beneath the building.”
“Wonderful,” Lilith said.
“I thought so. So, do you remember how to get back to the family room?” Naamah asked.
“I think so,” Agrat said.
“Good. I’ll show you the kitchen and bathroom, and then I have to run to my meeting.” Naamah led them out of the guest room and down another corridor. “The bathroom’s in there,” she said, pointing at a closed door. “That will be for you two alone. And the kitchen is just along through here.” She led the way down more corridors and halls to a large white-washed kitchen that seemed more suited to preparing a banquet for a hundred people than for a family of three. A ghoul, a vampire, and two shifters were at work, chopping vegetables, preparing a stew, and to one side, a demon was kneading bread dough. They did not look up.
“My servants,” Naamah said. She smirked a little again. “They live in the kitchen behind the pantry.”
Lilith peered around the room. “A very welcoming space,” she said. And Agrat heard Lilith’s thought to her, “These servants are wearing manacles. They are enslaved.”
Agrat swore inventively, her mental voice colored with the rage she was finding hard to keep down.
Naamah, however, looked at an antique brass clock on the wall. “Now I have to go to my meeting. You two head back to the twins, and I’ll join you for dinner.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Agrat said, forcing herself to sound enthusiastic.
“We have much to discuss,” Naamah said. “I look forward to doing so over a good meal.” And then she was gone, bustling out of the kitchen.
Agrat looked at Lilith and Lilith scowled.
“Demon,” Lilith said, and the baker paused, raising her head. “How do you come to be here?”
The demon bit her lower lip. “I can’t say, Mistress.”
“Can’t?” Lilith moved to the demon’s side. “Naamah’s made it impossible for you to do so?”
The demon nodded. There were tears in her eyes.
“What about you?” Agrat asked, turning to look at the ghoul, shifters, and the vampire.
The small knot of them exchanged a look and the ghoul stepped forward. “We’re in the same situation, Mistress.”
Agrat shook her head. “I am so sorry,” she said softly.
The ghoul looked at her, its eyes wide. “We have no reason to live other than to serve. You do not need to feel sorry for us.”
“But I do.” Agrat moved to the creature and took its hands in hers. The ghoul’s eyes grew even wider. “I feel for all of you. Do you remember being free of this place? Any of you?”
The vampire sighed. “Yes, Mistress. But we don’t think about it too often.”
“We will fix this,” Lilith said. “I promise you.”
The creatures looked at her and then at Agrat. “Hope is dangerous,” said the ghoul. “But I think I believe you. And… now I have a little hope again.”
Agrat embraced the creature, ignoring the way the monster felt against her. As far as she was concerned, the ghoul was in pain, and her empathy was strong. She let the ghoul go and moved to embrace the vampire, shifters, and then the demon. When she stepped back to stand beside Lilith, she saw that they had tears in their eyes.
“Thank you, Mistress,” the vampire said. He bowed to her, and the others did as well, jerky, clumsy movements. “Even if you cannot fill your promise because of her, that you made it at all means much.”
“I’ll be helping her, so Agrat isn’t alone in this,” Lilith said. She turned to the demon. “And I will take you and all the other demons here in Purgatory home to Hell.”
The demon made a choked sound, like a sob. “Lady Lilith, you honor us.”
“No. I should have come sooner. But now I and my sister are here, and we will set things to rights.” Lilith looked around the kitchen. “Keep silent on this conversation, dear friends. And we will keep you safe.”
They all bowed again, and Agrat fumbled for Lilith’s hand. When she grasped it, she could feel Lilith shaking. “We should go and meet the twins properly,” Agrat said.
“If I may, Lady Agrat,” the ghoul said, “be easy with them. They are… as much prisoners as we.”
“Understood. And thank you,” Agrat said.
Lilith led the way out of the kitchen without another word. She did not need to speak, for Agrat could read her sister’s body language, and the rage, sorrow, and desire to destroy Naamah she could see in Lilith’s aura were all things that she was experiencing as well.
As they crossed the courtyard again, they caught a flash of white. Agrat frowned and stopped, tugging at Lilith’s hand. “Lilitu,” she hissed. “I think that’s Naamah’s guest.” As one, they ducked down and hid, watching Naamah.
“I don’t want her to know we’re spying on her,” Lilith said. She had switched to communicating telepathically, shielding her thoughts to Agrat alone.
Agrat wrinkled her nose, even as she followed her sister’s lead and spoke with her mind. “No kidding, Captain Obvious. I wasn’t going to jump up and wave my arms and shout, ‘Yoo-hoo!’, you know. I think it’s best that we keep quiet and watch. She doesn’t really trust us completely anyway.”
Lilith snorted. It sounded as if she were stifling a laugh. “I can’t imagine you shouting ‘Yoo-hoo!’ to anyone, let alone her. But keeping our distance and pretending that we’re willing to do whatever she asks, whenever she asks it is better than leaping out and seeming overeager. That would make her more suspicious. It would make me more suspicious, if the situations were reversed.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Agrat shifted a little as they watched. “Now hush.”
“Hush, yourself,” Lilith retorted.
Agrat rolled her eyes at her sister, amused at how easily and quickly they’d fallen back into the patterns of sisterhood from centuries gone by. Lilith peered over the fountain once more, and through the leafy fronds of a fern. Then she let out a startled oath in Agrat’s head. “Aggie, it’s an angel!”
“What?” Agrat peered through the cracks of greenery. She stared as she saw the shimmer of wings and the aura that was unmistakably angelic Grace. “What the hell!” she gasped, unable to keep her surprise telepathic.
“We need to move,” Lilith said. “But after this dinner tonight, we’d better make a call to Lucifer.”
“And to Michael,” Agrat said.
“Good thing we know a few tricks that Naamah doesn’t,” Lilith said with a wicked smirk. “We can get in touch with our people easily enough.”
“And help those poor individuals who are enslaved by her.” Agrat scowled again. “I swear, Lilitu, I’m so angry right now, I could spit nails.”
“So am I,” Lilith said. “But we need to play happy families, so paste on a smile and let’s go meet the twins. And remember what the kitchen staff said about them.”
“Staff?” Agrat asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I refuse to call them anything that demeans them. They are working in the kitchen preparing food and drink, so they are staff, not slaves.” Lilith squared her shoulders and smiled at Agrat. “Do you think I look suitably welcoming?” She spoke out loud now.
Agrat tried not to laugh. “You look like you’ve got an ulcer.”
“It’s not easy pretending to like all of this,” Lilith grumbled. “But still. Let’s go make our debuts as actresses on the stage of Purgatory.”
“I just hope we don’t end up living in Dante’s Inferno or Goethe’s Faust.”
Lilith laughed at that and linked her arm with Agrat’s. “If I think of it like that, then I’ll smile a natural smile. Thanks, Aggie.”
Agrat leaned into her sister and lightly nudged Lilith’s side. “You’re very welcome, Lilitu.”
Arm in arm, the two made their way out of th
e courtyard and into the enormous family room.
Chapter Six
SAMAEL LOOKED around the small village that huddled beneath a lowering sky on the edge of Lake Titicaca. It seemed the most innocuous of places for a group of Nephilim to hide, but now that he was here, Samael could see the slight tinge of purple-gray energy that identified a Nephilim soul. There were several souls here, Samael thought, close to twenty-five, if he was reading the signs correctly.
At his side, Remiel took a deep breath. “Right,” began the Archangel of Mercy, “I need to warn you, Sammy, they’re very skittish. Ish and I have been in and out for a while now, so they’re more or less used to us. They’re very nervous about Mike and Gabe, though. I think they’ll be quite frightened of you.”
“I will tread softly, good Remiel,” Samael said. “It is a strangely peaceful place in which they have hidden themselves.”
“Yeah. When the boys first brought me here, I wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t a trick,” Remiel said. “It’s too… ordinary.”
“Yes. I find, too, that there are sigils of protection all around, I can see them inscribed deep into the earth. Who was it who did that?”
Remiel looked surprised. “Really? I never noticed.” Samael could see Remiel’s face take on an expression of intense concentration as his companion reached out with his power.
“Huh.” Remiel scratched the back of his neck. “I think, if I’m reading the workmanship right, that this was Ahijah’s doing.”
“Inevitably.” Samael smiled. “He was always the more studious of the two.”
“That’s true,” Remiel said, his expression clearing. “Come on, then. Ish is waiting for us, and so are the boys.”
Samael gestured for Remiel to precede him. “Lead and I shall follow.”
The village was neat and tidy, Samael saw, the houses laid out in an orderly fashion on both sides of the single street. The street itself was paved and cleared of grass and weeds, and the pavement was swept of dust. Between the houses were corridors of green grass leading to the back of each building and, Samael surmised, the rear yards. There was a small church at the end of the street and, opposite that, a large general store.
The Nephilim were silent, standing in small clusters of three or four, watching as Samael and Remiel walked along. Remiel smiled and nodded to them as he passed, but the Nephilim did not return his greeting. They seemed frozen in fear, worried that Samael’s presence might mean death was about to claim them.
“They are terrified,” Samael said to Remiel.
“They don’t really see an Archangel,” Remiel said. “They see Death.”
“I know.” Samael was saddened. He wasn’t surprised, though; it would have been more remarkable if they had been relaxed and comfortable with him in their home. Even among his own kind, Samael was feared, and he kept to himself for the most part, interacting only with his fellow Archangels, Shateiel, Agrat, and Ishtahar.
Ahijah stepped out of a house not far away, and he waved to the two Archangels. Samael waved back. Ahijah turned to say something to whoever was inside the house, and then he turned back to the street and jogged down to join the pair of Archangels.
“Uncle Sammy, it’s so good to see you,” Ahijah said.
Samael felt a pang in his heart. It had been so long since he’d been called ‘uncle’; the last to do so had been Gabriel’s adopted children and he had loved them more than he had loved any other human being. Now with Ahijah’s greeting, Samael was catapulted back into the distant past, to a time when all humans and their allies lived within a sprawling marble-sheathed city surrounded by desert and built by Raziel and Uriel—a city lost to myth and legend and remembered as Eden. Ahijah, as a child, had called all of the Archangels ‘uncle,’ a title that Hiwa had adopted as he saw that none of them minded it.
Ahijah hugged Samael then, and Samael was jerked from his memories by the feeling of a warm body embracing him. He wrapped his arms around Ahijah’s slender frame and hugged him tight.
“It is good to see you, too, dear Ahi,” Samael said.
“You should have visited earlier,” Ahijah said, stepping back after a few moments. A bright smile lit his face.
Samael returned it. “I would have enjoyed that. I did not want to cause fear among your people, however. And yet here we are, driven by necessity, and your people are very frightened of me.”
Ahijah’s expression changed, becoming sad. “Yeah, I know. They’re scared of all angels, but mostly of the smitey ones.”
“Smitey ones?” Remiel asked, chuckling.
“Yeah. Uri, Mike, Gabe, Sammy.” Ahijah shrugged. “I tell them over and over that they won’t get into trouble now that Hashem has decreed they have the right to live as much as anyone else, but old habits die hard. They still think being the half-breed children of angelic fathers and human mothers means the death penalty. And”—he shrugged again—“until Semjaza escaped from Aquila, it did. Why did God end their death warrant? No one has ever told me the whole truth.”
“You know all there is to know, Ahijah,” Samael said. “God relented. Such is His way. It is my own personal thought that He rescinded the order because He felt that it was cruel to have living beings endure such a life sentence, a life sentence that could exist forever.”
“I don’t remember Him being so kind,” Ahijah said.
“He has changed since Eden,” Samael said.
“I believe you. No, I do, Uncle. It’s just… a lot to take in. And we’ve been living in fear of death by Archangel sword for millennia, so not having that anymore, it’s a bit weird. Good, though,” Ahijah added hastily.
“Truly,” Samael said. He ruffled Ahijah’s hair. “Are your brother and mother within?” He indicated the house that Ahijah had exited.
“Mom’s baking. She said something about you and banana caramel cream pies,” Ahijah said.
Samael and Remiel exchanged a look and then began to laugh.
“Your Uncle Sammy developed quite a taste for those before the war,” Remiel said. “Run along, scamp. Tell her that we’re here.”
“Okay.” Ahijah did as he was bid, and Samael and Remiel walked sedately to the house.
“Do you think the Nephilim will be willing to help?” Samael asked in an undertone.
Remiel pursed his lips. “If you’d asked me if they’d be able to, I would have said yes, absolutely. But willing? I don’t know. I really don’t. And that troubles me.”
“It is understandable, though,” Samael said. He raised a hand and knocked on the door.
“Yeah, but frustrating.” Remiel ran a hand through his copper-streaked strawberry-blond hair, causing it to stand on end. “I know I have to move softly here, but sometimes I feel like I’ve taken two steps forward and ten steps back. You don’t have to knock, by the way.”
“Being feared is not an enjoyable experience,” Samael agreed. “And I am always polite, beloved Remiel.”
“Okay. And now I know what it feels like, I wish you didn’t have to live with that every damn day,” Remiel said.
Samael gave him a small smile. “Worry not, my dear friend. I am accustomed to it.”
“You shouldn’t be, though. It’s not something that anyone should get accustomed to.” Remiel shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so petulant.”
“It’s all right.” Samael turned his attention to the door as it was opened to reveal Ishtahar. Petite and lovely, her long black hair held back in a thick braid that fell down her back to her waist, Ishtahar stood on the very tips of her toes as she stepped up to kiss Samael’s cheek.
“It is so good to see you,” she said. “And dearest Remiel.” She kissed him quickly and smiled shyly as he caught her about her waist and held her close. “I have missed you both,” she said.
“And we hear you’re baking Sammy’s favorite dessert,” Remiel said, his expression sly.
Ishtahar laughed. “I am, it is true. I think we will be talking a lot today, and talk goes easier with good fo
od and drink. Come inside, both of you. You are welcome in my son’s home.”
They followed her into the cool, dim interior of the house and down a long hallway to where it opened out into a spacious kitchen with many windows letting in the light. There was a polished wooden table and chairs set near a potbelly stove, and the rest of the room was full of cupboards, a fridge, oven, and cooktop. There was also a sink and faucets, and Samael wondered who had constructed the building and provided all the amenities.
“Sit,” Ishtahar said, waving a slender hand at the table.
“All right.” Samael moved to the table and sat, nodding a greeting to Hiwa, who sat at the head of the table repairing a bridle. “Hello, Hiwa.”
“Hi, Uncle Sammy.” Hiwa grinned at him. “Good to see you again.”
“And you,” Samael said. “Are you planning to go riding?” He pointed at the bridle in Hiwa’s hands.
“Later, I think so. The next town over has a market day tomorrow, so a few of us are going down to buy supplies.” Hiwa set the bridle aside. “But I can fix that in a bit. Right now, I’m guessing we’re having a meeting and some pie, right?”
Remiel had joined them and he laughed. “A meeting and pie. That sounds pretty perfect.”
“Hey, Ahi,” Hiwa called out then. “Everyone’s here, so get your butt into the kitchen or no pie for you!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Ahijah called back. A few moments later, he entered the kitchen and sat down beside Samael. “Right, so we’re all here, then?”
“Just waiting on Mama.” Hiwa got to his feet and went to his mother. “Need a hand?”
“Thank you, yes,” she said, and the two of them bustled about the kitchen collecting plates, forks, a teapot, teacups, and other things that Samael knew were used for preparing afternoon tea.
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