Gabe shrugged. "I don't know, but he almost came in here to get you, despite both Michael and I trying to stop him."
I rolled off the bed and shuffled toward the bathroom. Even ethereal bodies had to pee.
As soon as I came out, shaking water off my hands instead of drying them. Luc went in after me and he caught up with us downstairs.
"What is it?" I asked Joel.
He sat at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee. Michael handed both Luc and me one. "What time is it?"
"Early morning. You slept the rest of yesterday and all night," Gabe explained. "I know it's not enough after changing, but..." He motioned toward Joel.
"Raphael has been spotted on Earth," Joel explained. "And he has a little girl with him."
I jumped up. "Where? When?" Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel put a hand on me, prepared to disappear.
"Sit down. He's moving around. We lost him in Chicago, and we're waiting for a new sighting." He waved his hand. "It's bad."
I sank back into the kitchen chair and loosened my grip on my coffee, focusing on sipping it to try to calm my racing heart. "What's bad?"
"The little girl, Lilith. When she touches a demon, they move into the Earthly plane. They become visible to humans."
The blood drained from my face. "The news," I whispered.
We jumped up and ran for the living room, where there were no signs Luc and I had made strong, almost violent love on the couch. I was pretty sure we'd knocked the coffee table over at one point and jarred the couch out of place, but Michael and Gabe had to have fixed it.
Gabe switched on the TV, and we crowded onto the couch to watch.
Every channel was full of breaking news.
Elysium and Hell are real.
Demons walk the earth.
Where is God? Where are the angels? Have they forsaken us?
Joel sighed at that one. "Lovely. This proves Raphael's intent. He wanted the humans to know it was real."
"What are you guys getting handed down?" Luc asked. "How are you supposed to handle this?"
"We're to take out Raph at all costs," he said. He gave me a sad look. "And the child."
Fury boiled inside me and ignited my magic. As I was about to lash out at Joel, Asmodeus appeared beside him. "Lilith! We found Raphael!"
I reined it in and looked at my brother. "Where? "He's got Ariel, there's no way it's anyone but your kid, she looks just like you. They're in Des Moines."
I disappeared immediately. I didn't care if anyone went with me, there was no time to waste.
When I appeared in a street in downtown Des Moines, Lucifer was beside me, with his arm around my shoulders. Joel and Asmodeus appeared a few seconds later.
Demons ran around us, wreaking havoc wherever they went. Cars were on fire, windows busted out of businesses. Humans ran screaming around cars that had crashed into each other. It looked just like all the other news reports of chaos and terror.
We walked around, running to and fro, trying to find the source of the demons, to no avail. He wasn't here. I sent demons back to Abaddon one after another, but there were so many it wasn't easy. I knew they'd just come back, but at least they'd be back on their plane, invisible to humans when they returned.
"Joel!" An angel I didn't recognize appeared beside us. "He's sticking to downtown areas. Los Angeles."
I grabbed Luc's hand and disappeared. It wasn't precise, appearing in cities I wasn't familiar with, but I did the best I could. The scene was exactly the same. Fires, screaming. Police ran around trying to help, but they were as overwhelmed as the citizens. Gunfire sounded from several different directions.
This time, instead of running around, I used my magic to reach out and probe as far as I could. Human life forces and demons were dismissed easily. I searched for Raphael. Something stronger than the demons, much stronger.
