by T. R. Hamby
Mel was quiet for a moment.
Then he sprang to his feet, making Nora jump. “Claire,” he breathed, whipping out his phone. “Claire Jansen. She has records of all my properties….shit--I have to call her.”
And he strode into the study.
Nora got up and followed him, her heart racing. She had spoken with Claire before, not long after Mel had Regenerated. It felt like a century ago now.
She entered the study, listening as Mel said, “She’s not answering. I have her personal number; she always answers.”
He was pale, shaking, and he looked at her. “What if they killed her too?”
“Try her office,” Nora said, rubbing his arm soothingly.
Mel fumbled around in his phone for her office number, then dialed it. He asked to speak to Claire, his voice shaking.
Then he let out a sigh of relief. “Holiday. How long?….I see. Thank you.”
He was still pale as he ended the call. “She left England, didn’t say where she was going, or for how long.”
He took a deep breath and looked at her. “She’s in hiding. One of them got to her.”
“But she’s not dead,” Nora breathed, relieved.
“No. But it means they know all my residences. My buildings, my estates, my apartments….”
He was steadily becoming more frantic, pacing the length of the room. “We have to get out of here. Forget Hudson--we have to leave, go somewhere random.”
Nora grasped his arms and shushed him. “Breathe, love. Let’s think it through. Talk it over.”
“They’ll kill Gabriel. They’ll kill you.”
“They won’t,” Nora replied firmly, looking into his eyes. “We’ll figure it out. We always do. And we have Them.”
“Them’s been shit.”
“Mel, you need to breathe. I don’t want to argue with you.”
He paused, his jaw working. Then he let out a breath, running his hands through his hair. “Okay. Sorry.”
“Okay? Let’s go talk to them.”
They returned to the living area. Everyone looked at them warily.
They sat down, and Nora caught Roone’s eye. He looked concerned. She looked away quickly.
Mel told them what he knew, and everyone let out frustrated noises.
“We have to leave,” Mel said firmly.
“They’ll find us anyway,” Gabriel replied. “We have to stay. Prepare. It’s what we’ve been doing anyway.”
“We have to protect you,” Barry said, taking his hand.
“The best way to protect me is to kill them,” he replied darkly.
Nora agreed. They could only run for so long.
Andreas seemed to be of the same mind. “The more we run, the lower our morale will be,” he said. “Then we’ll be weak.”
“Not to mention that they could surprise us at any time, no matter where we are,” Michael murmured. “We don’t know their movements.”
Mel was pained. “They’ve already killed one of us,” he said, looking at Andreas.
Andreas glowered. “And I say we stay. Should we vote on it?”
There was a pause as everyone looked at each other.
It was Gilla who said, quietly, “I vote stay.”
Michael nodded. “So do I.”
“Well, I vote leave,” Barry said stubbornly, and Gabriel’s lips twitched.
Everyone looked at Nora, and she flushed. She knew it was best to stay, but she hated disagreeing with Mel.
She finally sighed, looking at Mel. “We need to stay. We need to fight.”
Mel held his head in his hands, heaving a sigh. On the other side of the room, Barry glowered, and Gabriel squeezed his hand.
Nora instinctively looked opposite her, and found Andreas looking tense, troubled. Beside him, Roone was clearly trying not to look at her. He looked pained, and her heart sank. He wasn’t over her yet.
Hudson shifted in her seat, and set her third cup of coffee on the table.
“I should go,” she said quietly. “This….is a lot. We need another break, and I have work to do.”
“We’ll start looking around on that road,” Andreas said, as everyone stood. “Tonight.”
“You better get some rest, then,” Hudson said, returning somewhat to her old self. “And don’t kill him.”
And she left. Everyone stared at the door, deflated and tired, and slowly the group broke apart.
Nora and Mel went to their bedroom, and as soon as they were inside Mel flopped onto the bed. “Motherfucker.”
Nora sighed. She hated seeing him so stressed. She sat beside him and brushed at his hair. “I’m sorry. I voted against you.”
He looked at her, and there was the ghost of a smile on his face. “We can’t always agree on everything, diletta.”
She was heartened by the nickname, and she leaned over and kissed him. He melted, moaning, and pulled her close. Soon they were tugging their clothes off, frantic and breathless. The sheets were cool beneath her, and Mel was so gorgeous above her.
They decided later to take a bath. Nora leaned against Mel’s chest, his arms around her, and for a while they were lost in thought. The water was hot, lovely, and it made Nora drowsy.
She had Roone on her mind. She had thought, for a moment, that he and Andreas were in love. But that couldn’t be the case, as it was so clear that Roone was still in love with her. Hopelessly. She didn’t know what to do.
Nothing. She couldn’t do anything. Roone wasn’t her responsibility anymore, she reminded herself. If Andreas wanted to take up the mantle, that was fine, but it wasn’t her job regardless. She and Roone couldn’t speak again.
She remembered Mel’s remark from earlier, and frowned. “What did they say when you and Michael talked to them?” she asked, as if they had already been conversing.
Mel sighed. “Andreas did most of the talking. He said….”
And his voice became hoarse. “That both of them have nothing. Except each other, I guess.”
He squeezed her. “We didn’t mean for it to happen….but our involvement with him cost him his life. I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive us.”
Nora felt a horrible ache. “Oh.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to put a damper on the mood.”
Nora shrugged. “You could’ve been nicer earlier. I know you can’t forgive Roone, but it doesn’t do any good being unkind.”
Mel was quiet for a moment. Then he replied, “I know.”
He held her so tight, and she knew he was thinking about the day Roone had abducted her.
Her heart ached, and she turned her head and kissed his cheek. “I’m right here.”
He smiled. “I know.”
“You’re not sick of me yet?”
“Never.”
“Good,” she replied firmly, “because after this we’re getting a nice place back in Rome, just you and me and the beach.”
“What about everyone else?”
“They can visit.”
Mel was smiling, kissing her temple. “You can’t deny that it’s been nice. All of us together like this. It’s made me happier than I thought it would.”
Nora looked at him tenderly. “Like a pack.”
“A wolf pack.”
“Whatever.”
Mel threw his head back and howled like a wolf, and Nora laughed, covering his mouth with her hand. It was good to laugh, good to be in his arms, and for the rest of their time upstairs all they talked about were good things.
No one emerged from their rooms until evening. Andreas and Roone went out to the stables, and Gabriel and Barry played a video game in the study. Michael and Mel volunteered to make dinner--pizza from scratch--and talked quietly as they worked.
That left Nora and Gilla, who sat on the sofa with glasses of wine. They talked about neutral things first--needing their nails done, when they should do the laundry tonight.
Then Gilla whispered, “How are you? With Roone and Andreas?”
Nora felt a chill
at Roone’s name, but shook herself. “I think I’m okay. I mean--they need each other, don’t they?”
“Yes,” Gilla said thoughtfully, “they do.”
She traced the rim of her glass, frowning.
“What is it?” Nora asked.
Gilla shook her head slightly. “Michael says he’s never heard of an Angel having….an illness. I just wonder….why Roone? And how?”
Nora frowned too. Then she glowered. “You know what Mel would say,” she said, as he and Michael talked in the kitchen. “‘It’s all part of Father’s twisted plan.’”
“But God has always liked you,” Gilla said. “Why would he give an Angel an illness so severe that it would drive him to kidnap you? And even then, why would he let it happen? You weren’t being shielded by Them when it happened; he should have seen everything.”
Nora stared at the contents of her glass. They were very good questions.
But it was the age-old question, wasn’t it? Why did God let bad things happen?
Gilla shifted, turning to face Nora fully. She had a strange look on her face. “What if God can’t….affect things? What if things just….happen?”
Nora was intrigued. “Like Roone being sick?”
“Yes….like anything. Everything.”
“So he’s not omnipotent.”
“I don’t know that word.”
“He’s not all-powerful,” Nora explained.
Gilla nodded thoughtfully. “Yes….but he can do things….he took my voice….brought you back to life, brought those--those things back to life….gave me all my powers….”
“He can’t control us, either,” Nora said suddenly, her mind racing as their discussion continued.
Gilla frowned, and she continued, “He told me. After I died--he said that Mel had taken his control away when he had run off with Lilith.”
She remembered his words clearly: I don’t have control over what mortals do with themselves anymore. That is something Mel took from me a long time ago, when he ran away with Lilith.
“So he had control at one time?” Gilla wondered.
“I guess he did.”
“But….how? I know Mel is one of his greatest Creations, but how could he weaken God’s power?”
Nora whipped her head towards the kitchen. “Mel!”
Mel looked startled, seasoning the sauce. “Yes?”
“Come here!”
He and Michael approached, looking slightly alarmed.
Nora suddenly hesitated--Lilith was a sensitive topic. “Did you--you know, with Lilith--”
His head twitched.
“--did you do anything--I don’t know, special, when you ran away?”
Mel looked bewildered. “What do you mean?”
Nora sighed. “I don’t know….danced under a blood moon maybe….Gilla and I were talking….”
“God said that he lost control over everything when you and Lilith ran away,” Gilla said boldly. “Control over everyone, I mean. We were wondering how you did it.”
Mel frowned. It was clear by the look on his face that he had never thought about it. Michael, too, looked stumped.
Mel’s head twitched again. “When he spoke to me, he said that he lost control of me when I revealed myself to Lilith, and that he….lost control of her when I let her eat the fruit from the Tree.”
He leaned on the sofa, thinking. “When Lilith ate the fruit, there was a sort of--I guess a sort of shift. The air changed, and so did the weather. It was like the universe was flexing.”
“Like what Them is sensing,” Nora breathed. “A shift.”
“But what is it?” Gilla asked.
“It’s Father losing control,” Michael said, and he and Mel looked at each other.
“So what he’s doing--these Demons he’s making--it’s making him weak,” Nora said slowly. “He loses something when he does things like this.”
“Because he’s breaking the law,” Gilla exclaimed, and she nearly bounced with amazement.
“So say he was never allowed to control his Creations,” Nora said, piggybacking off Gilla’s excitement.
“But he did it anyway,” Gilla replied.
“And he did it so much that his power finally broke when Lilith ate the fruit.”
“So now he can’t control us anymore.”
“He can only influence us--barter with us. Threaten us. Like he did with Barry. He told him he would relapse.”
“But he didn’t,” Michael said thoughtfully. “Father lied to him.”
“Because he can’t see the future,” Gilla breathed.
“He’s just guessing when he makes predictions,” Nora said, nodding.
There was a pause as the four looked at one another.
Then Mel said, “This is why he’s always had Michael and I kill for him. If he does it himself, he loses more power.”
They were quiet a moment, looking at each other.
“So,” Gilla said quietly, “he’s lost the ability to control us. He never could see the future, or affect what happens in the world. Things just….happen. All he can do is influence us, manipulate us. He shouldn’t kill, because he loses more power. There are laws he has to follow. Otherwise….if he doesn’t….”
“He becomes weak,” Mel whispered.
“If I had known….” Michael breathed. “I wouldn’t have….I would have said no….I would have spared her….”
He trailed off, white as a sheet. His hands shook, and Gilla went to him, squeezing his arm.
“Let’s go upstairs,” she said gently, and Michael allowed her to tug him to the stairs.
Nora and Mel looked at each other. Mel looked pale too.
“I never thought Father could have weaknesses,” he whispered hoarsely. “If I had known….”
“How could you?” Nora replied, rubbing his arms soothingly.
His hand went to his necklace, and she felt a sharp pang.
“What does this mean, now?” he wondered, slipping his arms around her waist. “We know he has weaknesses….but what can we do with that?”
“It’s good information,” Nora said firmly. “And it can’t be all we can find out. It’s more than likely he has other secrets.”
He nodded vaguely. “Yeah.”
“Do you think Michael will be okay?”
He looked worried. “He’ll need a little time.”
“Let’s go upstairs too,” she said firmly. “Lie down for a bit.”
But he shook his head, managing a smile. “Everyone’s expecting pizza. Will you help me?”
“Well--I am Italian,” Nora replied, feigning exasperation, and he grinned.
She nodded, taking his hand, and they went to the kitchen. But they were quiet as they worked, and Nora thought over everything they had said.
God had weaknesses. That was a start. And now, she wondered--with all the shifts Them was sensing--how close was he to losing more of his power?
Michael
It took some time for him to settle down. When he did he lay in bed with Gilla, exhausted. Gilla had her arms around him, and he felt safe and comfortable. He could almost forget the horrible things he had done.
Almost.
“That’s why it’s always been Mel and I doing the dirty work,” he said quietly. “If our theory’s right, and Father really can kill. He’s just not allowed. If he does it, he loses more of his power.”
“We need to tell Them,” Gilla said. “In the morning.”
“Barry’s probably telling her now.”
“I don’t think Mel and Nora have said anything. They probably want everyone to have one night of peace.”
Michael’s heart ached. “Yeah.”
“Peace and pizza.”
Now his lips twitched, and he looked at her. “Was that supposed to be a joke?”
“Just for you,” she replied teasingly.
He rolled his eyes, and she giggled, squeezing him. He felt a surge of love for her, and he turned and kissed her.
They went
to bed soon after, and Michael lay thinking about everything. So many theories. And at that moment, he knew, Andreas and Roone were out on Elle Road.
They were both Immortal, strong, invincible against a human, and yet Michael worried. What if one of the Demons found them? Even with Andreas’ shield it was still possible. They would be alone. Would they Call for help, or try to be heroes?
At one point he was thinking of the two men, out in the cold together. Then he was in the forest, dragging a deceased Mel through the trees.
Michael….
He was horrified, but couldn’t stop himself as he finally approached a clearing.
There was a pyre. Atop it were three bodies. One of them was a man who looked very much like himself. Another was a woman, who looked rather like Mel. And next to her was the woman Michael had Created before. They were all dead--the first two bloody and stabbed, and the woman clearly strangled.
He laid Mel’s body on the pyre, and then set about arranging the bodies. He placed their hands together on their torsos, closed their eyes. He took extra care with Mel and the Created woman, brushing at their hair and smoothing their clothes.
Michael was repulsed, and his heart pounded, seeing his brother cold and gray. He knew he was in a dream now--Mel wasn’t dead, and he didn’t recognize any of these other people. Now if only he could stop what he was doing.
He took a shaky breath. The pyre was large, and he could easily walk back and forth between the bodies.
He went to the man, who so closely resembled him, and knelt down beside him.
“Goodbye, Abi,” he whispered, and he kissed his cold cheek.
Then he went to the woman, who resembled Mel. “Goodbye, Mai,” he said, and kissed her cheek too.
Mel’s turn. He looked at him for a long time.
“Goodbye, Adel,” he breathed hoarsely.
He kissed him, and then it was the woman’s turn. He brushed at her dark hair, held her face in his hand.
He kissed her lips. They were cold and stiff.
“Goodbye, Reina,” he said.
He stood, and looked around at them. He let out a little laugh--a bizarre, high-pitched chuckle that made his skin crawl.
“Look what I’ve become,” he said, as if the bodies were listening.
Then he climbed down, and got to work making the fire.
