“It’s possible. The managers my team spoke to just said they were at a conference. Who knows if that’s actually true.”
“Well, even if just a few of them come, we should be prepared with some idea seeds to spike their food; getting even a few stores to shut down would be better than none.”
Shemhazai chuckled. “Why would we put the seeds in their food?” he asked slyly, and I felt my own lip curl in amusement.
“Isn’t that how you plant the seeds?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“If they were human, sure. Angels need the seeds to be planted in a more…immediateorifice,” I mused, and Lilith’s brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of what I was implying. I saw it the moment she realized what I was getting at and could barely keep myself from laughing out loud at her expression.
“Ew!”she cried, and both Shemhazai and I cracked up laughing. “So you stuck it up Rafael’s butt?!” she asked in disbelief, her nose wrinkling in disgust.
“Sure did, sweetheart,” Shem purred, winking at her.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Hey, at least I wore gloves.” Shem shrugged, still smirking. She just shook her head in disbelief.
“You two are something else.”
We went backto the room after breakfast, and Lilith announced that she was going to take a shower. I offered to accompany her to help her redress her bandages but she brushed me off, saying she was fine with doing it herself.
Since I was trying this new thing where I didn’t smother the shit out of her, I forced myself to sit down with Hazai and play a game of chess while we waited.
“While you’re supervising girl time, I’m going to meet with Gabriel and Art,” I said. “I need to know who else Art told.”
Hazai gave me a hard look. “Don’t be too rough with him if he happened to have told a few more people. There’s no way he could have known someone might turn on us; no one ever has since the founding of Hell.”
I knew Shem was right. Before now, there had never been any reason for us not to trust our own people. We liked to torment each other, sure, but when it came down to the real shit, we were typically loyal to a fault. It didn’t stop me from wanting to fucking rot Art’s brains out of his ears for putting Lilith at risk, despite the fact that it wasn’t his fault.
“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try,” I muttered, moving a black pawn onto the board.
“See if you can figure out which angels are planning on attending the feast from Gabe without giving our plans away.
“What if none of them show? I’m sure they’re all skittish now if they really were informed of our plans to impregnate them with idea seeds,” I muttered dryly.
Shem’s eyes flashed. “Then I’ll blow each and every store to kingdom fucking come. It’s nice that Lilith wanted to do this the gentle way, but I fucking refuse to take this shit lying down. If I have to, I’ll do whatever it takes to get the upper hand,” Hazai replied darkly.
I sighed. “I promised Lilith I wouldn’t hurt people she cared about anymore,” I muttered, already feeling annoyed with myself for making that promise. It really limited my options when it came to protecting her. “Somehow, I feel like putting the entire human race at risk counts.” I thought of her reincarnated mother and how much it seemed to have meant to her that the soul of the woman who had birthed her was thriving in its new life.
Shem shrugged and moved a white pawn into play. “I made no such promises. We’ll try to do it her way first, but if none of the GMs show up tonight, the gloves are coming the fuck off.”
I gave him an evil smile across the chessboard, feeling a swell of affection rise in my chest for my friend.
“I fucking love you, man.”
He smirked back at me. “Love you too, asshole,” he chirped back, claiming my pawn. “Let’s get Yahweh off our asses once and for all.”
“I’m not okay because you’re not okay.”
–SAM WINCHESTER, SUPERNATURAL
After I showered, Shem slinked off to ensure everything was being prepared correctly for the festivities later that night, and Ramel followed me like a shadow to the bedroom.
“What do you want to do today?” he asked, and I couldn’t help but raise a surprised eyebrow. It wasn’t like him to let me take control and make my own decisions. But there he was, standing quietly with his hands in his pockets, looking genuinely interested in what it was I wanted to do.
“Uhm. Well, maybe we should take it easy if it’s going to be a late night?” I wondered, and he nodded, giving me a soft smile.
“We can do that.” He slid closer to me, curling a finger under my chin, tilting my face up gently. “Will you let me spoil you today?”
