ARKAS HAD A BAD FEELINGagain.He’d traveled a long way to reach his commander and brothers.They’d entered New York and were trying to drive as close to the city as they could get.
“I don’t think we can go any further by road,” his cambion said when he reached yet another massive collision.It blocked the crossroads, barring their way.He could see more cars and trucks blocking the way in all three directions.“We should find somewhere to park,” Oaklie suggested.
“I saw an open garage a few houses back,” Arkas said, then reversed to the property.He couldn’t sense anyone in the immediate area as he backed into the large garage.“The truck should be safe here,” he hoped.
“We won’t need it anymore,” Oaklie said uncaringly.“Or I hope not,” she added with a frown.
“You never know,” he said, flicking a look at the covered bed where he’d stashed the statue of his likeness.He hated to leave it there, but he couldn’t exactly carry it through the streets.“It looks like it might snow soon,” he said, sniffing the air.He’d spent too many wars in ice ages to forget what the scent of impending snow smelled like.
“Ugh,” Oaklie complained, peering upwards at the clouds.“That’s just what we need.”
“We could stay here for the night and enter the city tomorrow,” he suggested, following a hunch in his gut.
“Are you sure you don’t want to head to Manhattan now?”his cambion asked in surprise.“You were pretty keen to find your commander before.”
“Fate sends us hunches sometimes,” he explained.“My instincts are telling me to wait until morning.”
“That’s fine with me,” Oaklie said with a shrug, opening the back door of the truck to grab her gear.“I’ll have to decide what to take with me,” she mused.“I can’t carry all of this food.”
“We can always come back for it when we’ve located Amaros and my brothers,” he figured, then pulled the garage door down to hide the truck.
Oaklie opened the door to the house when she found it wasn’t locked.“Holy Mary, mother of God,” she said in a cross between awe and amusement.
“What’s wrong?”Arkas asked, grabbing his bags from the back of the truck.
“You need to see this for yourself,” she replied as she entered the abode.
Arkas braced himself, but he wasn’t prepared for the scene as he entered a hallway.“Who is this woman supposed to be?”he asked, staring at the portraits that hung on the wall.
“I just told you,” Oaklie replied.“She’s Mary, the mother of God.”
“Oh,” he said sheepishly.“I thought that was just a human saying.”
“It is,” she said with a smirk.“It’s also her title.I’ve never seen so much religious stuff in one house before,” she added as she entered the living room.Crosses both with and without Jesus adorned the walls.More portraits of Mary hung on the walls, as well as portraits of her son.
“I take it the family who lived here were raptured,” Arkas figured, turning in a slow circle to absorb the décor.
“There won’t be any nookie for us tonight,” his cambion joked.“Jesus would strike us both dead if he saw us getting down and dirty.”
Arkas couldn’t stop his body from reacting to her words.It didn’t take much to set him off when he was so close to his female.“I’ll check the other rooms,” he said, turning away.From her snicker, she’d caught a glimpse of his hardon.
Searching the bedrooms, Arkas couldn’t find any signs of the former inhabitants.Oaklie had said a lot of religious folks had been called to their churches.They’d left their homes in the middle of the night, drawn by their faith.The car was gone, so he assumed it was still parked at their local church.
“It’s clear,” he reported when he returned to the living room.
Oaklie had found a jigsaw puzzle and was sitting at the dining table nearby.“I’m glad I won’t have to sleep in a bed someone was raptured from this time,” she said.
“You knew about that?”he asked in surprise.
“I heard you changing the sheets,” she confirmed.“Have you ever done a jigsaw puzzle before?”she asked, then shook her head.“Of course you haven’t.They hadn’t even been invented the last time you were on Earth.”
“I’m sure I’ll be able to grasp how they work,” he said wryly, taking the seat next to her.“Really?”he asked when he picked up the lid of the box.It was yet another portrait of Mary.
“It was either that, or a jigsaw puzzle of Jesus on the cross,” she said with a shrug.“This seems less creepy.”She snickered and he smiled in response.
Never in all of his existence had he ever pictured himself sitting next to a cambion and doing something as mundane as a puzzle with her.It shocked him to find he enjoyed it so much.It wasn’t the jigsaw, but the female he was with who made it so pleasant.Oaklie was young, but she’d been through hell.He still wanted to resurrect her adopted brother, then strangle him with his bare hands.He wanted to tear anyone apart who caused her physical or mental harm.
“What’s wrong?”Oaklie asked when he clenched his fists.
