Summoning Trouble, page 22
“I feel Jerome coming for you, Soleil. Remember, as long as you walk between the worlds, you are doing what is expected of you,” Leviathan said.
“But please don’t stop sending pizza.” Asmodeus said. “It is truly a marvelous creation.” I couldn’t help but give a little chuckle at this, and as I did, I felt Asmodeus grow a little larger behind me. Uriel’s soul was now screaming at me, but he’d been out of his body so long I could no longer hear him.
“I guess it’s time to put my uncle back together.”
“Probably, I can continue to keep him mute, though, if you would prefer,” Leviathan said, and I noticed the hell prince was smiling.
“Oh, I thought he’d just been separated long enough he couldn’t be heard anymore,” I said.
“No, I got tired of listening to him,” Leviathan said, with a small head cock to the side. “If she puts you back, will you shut up?” Leviathan asked Uriel, leaning into the archangel’s soul. There was some wild gesturing from Uriel’s soul. I put his soul back into his body and instantly the shouting began again. At this point he was just screaming invectives at us, all three of us, calling us monsters and telling me repeatedly my father would hear of this, and blah blah blah.
A portal opened near me, and Jerome stepped through first with the pack of hellhounds. They ran to Leviathan barking excitedly, doing the dog equivalent of talking and prancing of all things. I was familiar with hellhound prancing, Angel did it any time she felt she deserved extra attention for being a very good girl.
Leviathan petted and hugged and loved on the hounds and then patted their behinds to send them to wherever they lived within the grounds of the palace. Raphael stepped through after Jerome and the hounds. He immediately rushed to me. Uriel began complaining about my exorcising his living soul as Raphael knelt down next to me. He gasped at my shirt, which was sprayed with droplets of blood, as well as soaked around the neckline from my wound. He touched my face. He touched whatever it was that was tied around my neck.
“Soleil, you’re hurt!” Raphael said.
“The magaru slit my throat. I’ll be fine in a day or two,” I said.
“Uriel, shut the fuck up.” Raphael said to his brother. “That is your knife brother, so while your son slit her throat, did you provide just the weapon or the weapon and idea, because I am struggling to figure out why Soleil separated your body and your soul if you weren’t threatening her.” To my surprise, Uriel shut up. I wanted to turn and ask Leviathan if he had muted him again, but I didn’t think I could safely turn my head that far to one side. Remiel was suddenly kneeling next to Raphael. He repeated the gesture my father had done, first touching my face, and then touching the thing wrapped around my neck, which was providing head support, because heads are actually heavy and the weight of it could pull it off on its own.
“Soleil are you...” Remiel suddenly broke down and began to sob.
“I’ll be fine, Uncle. I just need to remember not to move my head too much until it’s healed. However, I do need a favor from you. Uriel believes you have some sort of magical key that can heal his son’s soul. Could you get it, so we can try to repair the fracture?” I asked. Suddenly there was an explosion of noise and wind and my father, who had been kneeling beside me, was just gone. I wanted to look for him, but Asmodeus kept hold of the cloth around my neck and braced my body back against him, and I realized the bracing position was to keep my head attached. He slowly turned me around, my body in his lap.
“Did you hear that!” My father shouted and it echoed throughout the great hall of the palace as though it were the voice of a god. “You sniveling, whiny, self-absorbed narcissist! This family has had enough, Uriel. I don’t know where your entitlement and superiority come from, but it stops now! A demon is holding my daughter’s head on, and she’s worried about healing your son’s soul, a soul he intentionally fucking fractured! Look at her!” Raphael was glowing with rage, literally. His individual feathers quivered with it as well. “Look at her!” He grabbed Uriel’s head and forced him to look at me. I looked down at my lap, at the demon king’s legs, wrapped around my body as his arm ran down my shoulder, bracing me against him so my head could not tilt backwards. And I felt the tears slide down my face.
“Stop, please stop. No more fighting,” I said, a plea and waver in my voice that I hated but couldn’t stop. “I feel as if we have been fighting my entire life, please stop. The gift was given to me not because I’m superior or because your child was inferior, but because my mother was the descendent of Hecate and as a result, I am the descendent of both sides of the feud; the archangels and Hecate.” Uriel looked like I’d just punched him in the face. Then he looked to Leviathan.
“Of course,” Leviathan replied. “Only your ego and vanity blinded you to the truth, Uriel.”
“I did not give Jophiel or Zadkiel their powers over demons, they evolved on their own. It was the source of the rift between my kind and yours. We thought the birth of Azazael might eventually heal it, but Hecate, poor Hecate. She got caught in the middle and the damage became so much worse. When Leviathan figured out he could dream walk among his family, he came to me because Lucifer remembered I could dream walk among my family. It was then that we realized the possibility of healing ancient wounds might be in our grasp. So, I gave magic to it, as well as Leviathan and Lucifer. We thought it would never find a home, we knew the key lay with the union of Hecate’s bloodline with the archangels, but the damage had been so great. We had to stimulate your gifts and your hearts and your souls. It was torturous for all of you and for us,” Asmodeus said.
“Poor Remiel, my poor brother, cursed as I was, and we had to do it.” Leviathan held out a large hand to Remiel. For a moment, Remiel stared at it as if it were a basilisk and then Leviathan gave him no choice, he pushed the hand forward and grabbed Remiel, he pulled the archangel in and hugged him, hard. “But we had to remind Sophia and Raphael about the love of a child for its parent and vice versa. And we had to get Gabriel ready to work his gift on them. So, night after night, we sent all of you dreams of laughing, smiling, loving children, playing under a warm sun. But I knew it would haunt Remiel, incapable of ever having that himself.” Leviathan looked haunted as he said this last. “But then, it happened, and Remiel felt a connection before he even really knew why, and I thought maybe, just maybe. But the child was stronger than expected, making the gift stronger than expected. The connection was Remiel’s magic, and it was so tenuous.” Leviathan stopped again. He let go of Remiel. “I am so sorry, brother,” he said to him, as a tear fell.
“But there was still reason to hope, because even without the gift, Soleil was an archangel. The first one born in several centuries. The first time she visited, we realized Soleil had a double dose of Stygian magic. As magic sometimes does, it had coincidentally occurred the magic Jophiel had been born with, the first of its kind. God or fate or the universe, something had wanted us to try to heal the damage. Had we not intervened, it still would have been possible,” Asmodeus said. “The bridge has been built, she can bring Earth to the Stygian or the Stygian to Earth, and she understands there are consequences to both.”
“Now, Remiel, if you would get that key,” I said, after everyone had been quiet for several minutes. Remiel went to the vault. He entered and returned with an old, rusty key. I had expected the key to be a metaphor, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that it wasn’t. “Uriel, if you would assist me, perhaps, since I can see souls, and with the assistance of this magical key, we can heal your son’s soul,” I said. Several people protested.
“No, Soleil, I did this. I must fix it. If I can’t, I have no one to blame but myself,” Uriel said to me. “You are in no condition to do anything except heal.”
“Uriel, we are family, we will fix this together,” I said.
“Soleil, the former demon king is holding your head in place so it can’t fall backward and rip itself off,” Remiel said to me.
“Meh, that’s just a minor detail,” I said. “I’m sure if we looked around, we could find some kind of magical thread to sew up the wound and get on with our day.”
“Sol, there’s no such thing as magical thread to reattach heads, and I will be very fucking unhappy if you die because your head fell off,” Jerome told me.
“Well, what do you suggest? I don’t think this is a wound Michael should tackle, especially so soon after being envenomated by a basilisk,” I said.
“I don’t know,” Jerome said, and the kid scooted in close to me. “We may have to sit like this for a couple of days, but you are not moving in your current condition.” I had lots of objections to that, like what if I need to go to the bathroom? I am a side sleeper; I am not going to be able to sleep very well propped up against a demon. What happens if Asmodeus needs to go to the bathroom? I didn’t know if the physical bodies of demons needed to excrete waste product, but I felt it probable. We could not sit here for a couple of days waiting for my neck to grow back together.
“Well, we are going to have to think of something,” I told Jerome. “Because I’ve already thought of three reasons we cannot sit here for days. None of them included the inconvenience Leviathan would have, with us sitting on the floor of his Great Hall unable to move.”
“With a full coven, we might be able to help, but I’m not sure how we’ll get everyone here,” Magda said.
“I could open a portal,” Jerome said, and he brightened slightly.
“Actually, a witch is a good idea,” Leviathan said. “But possibly an entire coven is unnecessary. Jerome, you can mimic Soleil’s powers, correct? Do you think you can identify people’s pre-demon identity?”
“Maybe,” Jerome said.
“I can,” Remiel said.
“Okay, both of you go out into Demonation and mingle until you find the demon that was once Hecate and bring her here,” Leviathan said.
“It won’t necessarily be a female demon,” I pointed out.
“With Hecate it will be a female demon,” Leviathan told me. “She was the first female witch and the first feminist, I think you call them. Her demon will be female.”
“Do not enter Belial or Beelzebub’s territories,” I said. Hopefully Hecate hadn’t come back to one of them or we were fucked. They would never allow her to come assist me; they’d want to bargain for my soul in exchange for healing. Of course, I wasn’t sure that Hecate’s demon would be much help either. So maybe I didn’t know much. Jerome and Remiel went running out of the palace with a small group of Leviathan’s demons as well as our hellhound. I hoped Angel would be protection enough in the Stygian for Jerome.
“Stop fretting, niece, the boy has some Stygian magic of his own,” Leviathan said to me.
“Shit, Janet and Kabal and Helia!” I exclaimed. “I hope they are all right.”
“Kabal can take care of himself and Helia if he needs to,” Raphael said. “He’s good for her, now if we can only get him out of his own way until she’s had time to see that he’s good for her. Soleil, perhaps you should talk to him.”
“I am not the Love Connection. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m single,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but that’s different.” Gabriel said.
“If I can’t do anything about my love life, why would I be able to fix Helia and Kabal’s?” I asked.
“He means you will probably always be single, because you are too much your own person to compromise being with someone else, even someone you love.” Magda said.
“No offense, but that sounds depressing.” I said.
“Being single and being alone are different things,” Magda said.
“Are they?” I asked.
“Are you lonely?” Magda asked, and I took some time to think about it.
“No, but I have Jerome and Angel in my house, plus my family and my friends.”
“Hence my statement. It is fine to be single or be part of a couple, but don’t be part of a couple just because you don’t want to be single.” Magda told me. “In fifty years or a hundred years or whenever, when Jerome is busy with his own life and your nieces are too and your baby sister is having her own kids, if you decide you want companionship, it is fine to look for love, whether that be for a decade or a century or a millennium. But staying with someone because you don’t want to be alone is not love and it’s not good for you, because you will slowly lose a part of yourself to the relationship.” It sounded to me like Magda might be talking from experience.
“She’s correct,” Raphael said. “If you find someone who completes you, it’s a bad thing, because it means you weren’t whole to begin with. However, if you find someone who complements you, hold tight and never let go. That’s what I have with your mother. She doesn’t complete me, and I don’t complete her, but together we are better because her strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa.”
“Since it seems like we have time, why do you sometimes call Raphael dad and at other times call him by his name, and sometimes you really mix it up and refer to him as your father?” Magda asked me.
“I don’t know,” I told her.
“None of us know. We thought it was a phase at first and she’d grow out of it. She started doing it as a child, like at six, and she’s done it since. We used to think she referred to me by name when talking to others or in a group, because others refer to me by name. But the longer it’s gone on, the more we’ve realized there’s no discernible pattern to it. Sometimes she calls me Raphael and sometimes dad. Sometimes she says I’m her dad, sometimes I’m her father, and sometimes I’m just Raphael.”
“Do you do the same with Sophia?” Magda asked.
“Sorta,” I frowned. “I don’t call her by her first name very often, but sometimes I do refer to her as my mother and sometimes as my mom.”
“I’ve spent less time with Helia, but she always calls your parents mom and dad,” Magda said.
“I think it’s just one of my peculiarities.” I wanted to shrug but was afraid of the movement. I hoped Jerome and Remiel would find Hecate fast, so we could get on with whatever plan Leviathan had. “Also, it might have something to do with...” I stopped myself because I’d almost said Raphael, “Dad’s presence. I’ve seen souls as long as I can remember and his soul is like his physical stature, it looms. As a child with little control or understanding of her power, I have to wonder if Dad’s soul was intimidating, or perhaps overwhelming is the better word. Especially as a child. I’ve only met a few people with overwhelming souls, even now, and I remember every one of them. My friend Walter, the US Marshal, has an enormous soul, I think it’s even more impressive because technically he’s mortal and mortal souls in general tend to be small. Valerie had a large soul,” I said sadly. “Actually, most of the people I am close to, whether mortal or supernatural, have large souls and I’m not sure why.”
“Souls reflect the capacity for love,” Asmodeus said. “The larger a person’s soul, the more love they are capable of. If you could see your own soul, as I do, you would know yours is gigantic, larger even than Raphael’s.”
“I believe that” Raphael said.
“As do I,” Gabriel echoed. “Even angry, Soleil finds the ability to love.”
“Okay well, that’s awkward. So, I don’t know why I do it, I just know I do, and I always have, but I don’t have an explanation for it. How long do you think they will be?”
“I don’t know. I’ve sent messages to the hell princes who communicate with me asking them to send their demons to Jerome and Remiel because they are on a quest,” Leviathan said. “Hopefully that will help.”
“Huh,” I said. “If we could just do a demon parade, I could probably find her faster, or if I could get up.” I felt Asmodeus’s arm tighten around me. “I didn’t say I was going to get up.”
“Just sit.” Asmodeus told me. “Be still for a while. It won’t hurt you.”
“Soleil doesn’t do still,” Raphael quipped, and grinned at me. “Patience has never been one of her stronger virtues.”
“I do hate waiting,” I agreed. A demon suddenly ran into the Great Hall. He was panting.
“Sire, there is a line of demons coming to the gates. We called down to them to see what they wanted, and they said they had been called here by magic,” the demon said.
“Soleil,” Raphael said.
“I didn’t mean to. It was just a thought; I didn’t intend to send the magic out for it.”
“Let them in, I guess we are going to have a demon parade through the palace,” Leviathan said, and took a seat on a bench in the hall. After a few moments, the others sat down, too, including Uriel, who hadn’t said anything for quite some time. Hordes of demons traipsed through the palace from all the hell princes, even Belial and Beelzebub. Jerome, Remiel, and Angel followed the line of demons back to us. Jerome started to say he didn’t know what happened, but the demons just started this way and my dad stood up and went over to him. He wrapped his arms around Jerome and guided him to the bench to sit with him.
“Just enjoy the parade,” I heard him whisper to the teen. Jerome nodded, smiled, and began to watch intently as the demons walked into the room, walked past me and then walked out, exiting the Great Hall through the dining room and then the kitchen. Once they had gone by the spell seemed to break, and they went back about their lives.
More than a hundred demons had gone past, when I locked eyes on one to see a beautiful woman with blond hair, blue eyes, and a lovely smile. She reminded me of my mother, and I knew I was looking at Hecate. As she came closer to me, she began to smile.
“Stop, Hecate, please come to me, I need your help,” I said, and everyone turned to look at the demon I was looking at. Leviathan was correct, the demon was female. She was also one of Zaleos’s demons.
“I have heard of you, Exorcist,” she said as she came forward.
“Yes, and I have heard of you. My mother is one of your many descendants. We need to repair the damage between you and Zadkiel and Remiel, it is long past time,” I said to her.
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