“It's about time,” Samael grumbled as we stepped out of his tracing room. “What's with the gas masks?”
“You said there was bleach,” Azrael said.
“Yes, but it's faint. It shouldn't bother you if you don't breathe too deeply.”
I looked at Arach, Kirill, Trevor, and Viper, all of whom were wearing masks.
Viper yanked his off and gave a hesitant sniff through his mouth. He wrinkled his nose and said, “It's not too bad.”
But when Viper tracked someone, he did it a little differently than the rest of us. Thus the mouth breathing. So, I lifted my mask and took a tiny sniff. Then I pulled it off.
“He's right. It's tolerable,” I said.
The rest of them pulled off their masks.
“You may leave them here.” Samael waved at a slender table along the wall near the tracing chamber.
He was a tall, slender man with deep sienna skin that set off his green serpent eyes. As odd as it was for an Angel, Samael was a snake-shifter like Viper, and the two men nodded at each other as if acknowledging their kinship. Their coloring was close, but Samael was much darker than Viper in all ways—eyes, hair, skin, and personality. Still, the similarities were interesting. So much so that Lilith sidled up between the men, swishing her full hips, and grinned.
“I'm suddenly hungry for a snake sandwich,” Lilith drawled and tossed her thick red curls over her shoulder.
Samael narrowed his eyes at her.
“Oh, lighten up, babe.” Lilith smacked her husband's shoulder. “I'm just teasing. We need some levity after all theshouting you did this morning.” She leaned over to me to add, “His eyes popped out.”
Most people would assume Lilith meant that Samael had been so upset that his eyes had bulged either literally or figuratively. But I knew better. I'd seen Samael's other form. The one covered in scales. And eyes. Eyes popping out on this Angel of Death was very literal. And it only happened in extreme circumstances.
I lifted a brow at Samael.
“Someone invaded my home,” Samael said.
“You sound like Luke,” I said.
“Lucifer was robbed too?” Samael straightened. “What was taken?”
“There have been a few things taken,” Azrael said. “A trickster is afoot.”
“A trickster?” Lilith said with glee. “How fun. But how do you know it's a trickster?”
“They left us clues to follow,” I said. “But their game has changed. They started taking people.”
Viper held up his hand.
“You don't have to hold up your hand. This isn't a classroom. Just speak,” Samael said.
Viper chortled. “No, man. I was indicating that I was one of the people taken.”
“Then you must know who it is.”
“Nope. They whammied me with some kind of Confusion Magic.”
“Confusion,” Samael murmured. “There aren't that many gods who can use confusion against another god.”
“Do you happen to have a list?” Trevor asked.
Samael grimaced. “No. But Set comes to mind.”
“Yes, we've already considered and dismissed Set,” Re said.
