“Announce yourselves,” Cynthia commanded. Her voice had dropped a register and taken on a gravely quality that was absent before.
“Henri Cherusci, my lord. And my apprentice, Vincent Rodrigues of the bloodborn tribe.” You bowed and, not knowing what else to do, I copied your movement.
“It’s been a long time since I last saw you.” The woman—Azrael—turned stiffly toward me. She looked possessed, and I supposed she was.
“Yep,” I said, not at all jazzed about this guy, who seemed like a real dickhead if I’m being honest.
“Has he realized his powers?” Azrael asked you. So much for foreplay.
“Not yet, my lord. We seek your audience for a different matter, in regard to Lena’s incarceration.”
“I can assure you she is contained,” Azrael said.
“Thank you, my lord, but it is something else altogether. My brother Lucian informed us she’s not being offered bloodmeals with any regularity. I’ve come to make an appeal on her behalf.”
Azrael fell silent and the room temperature dropped several degrees.
“Are you making this appeal on behalf of Lena or your apprentice?” Azrael asked.
Before you could answer, I interrupted.
“I’d like to make the appeal. My mother’s a god, and she deserves better.”
Azrael studied me through Cynthia’s wide, unblinking eyes. “Your mother bled your father to death, slowly. And then she ate him.”
I glanced toward you, but you didn’t offer up anything, only grabbed my hand. I was shocked into silence, trying to process that my father was cannibalized by our mother. But even if she had bled him to death, it was probably because Azrael had been starving her in the first place.
“There are laws governing a bloodborn’s imprisonment,” you said, saving me from my stumble, “and one of those is access to human blood.”
“Lena lacks the discipline to temper her thirst. We cannot provide an endless buffet of human life in a fruitless attempt to satisfy her hunger.”
“There must be a way to ration her portions,” you argued. “Isn’t that her guard’s purpose?”
Azrael fell silent. I wished I could get him in a body so I could seduce him because that angel was made of secrets.
“There is a prophecy regarding your bloodborn apprentice,” Azrael said, even though he obviously knew my name. “Would you care to hear it?”
“No, I would not,” you said gruffly. You shut that shit down. I could certainly see why.
“What news do you have regarding the search for the Belial demon?” Azrael asked, trying again to change the subject.
“I haven’t made much progress,” you said. I honestly didn’t give a shit whether we found that demon or not. We had bigger problems.
“Well, allow me to make this offer to you both,” Azrael said. “Deliver me the demon named Seneser, and I will consider your appeal. There will be no blessing today, for you have inconvenienced me greatly with nothing of consequence to report.”
A few seconds later, he was gone. What a dick.
Cynthia blinked, then glanced between us with a goofy grin. “You two look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said in an attempt at humor.
“Your boss is an asshole,” I informed her. In fact, he reminded me a little bit of my dad.
Cynthia shrugged. “Most bosses are.”
With a few more words of thanks and a not-so-subtle exchange of cash, which Cynthia spread like a hand of cards and fanned herself in delight, we were back on the streets outside Glitterati. I was grumpy and frustrated. I hated Azrael. Even more, I hated that you had to serve him. How could you be so decent to him? After all that he’d done to you and to us?
“I suppose we could enlist Lucian’s help in locating Seneser,” you mused while I fumed. “He does seem to have eyes in all of the casinos.”
I was already thinking about what it would take to bring down a god like Azrael. He would only continue to manipulate you and make impossible demands. He didn’t give a shit about you or anyone else. I didn’t care that he was some all-powerful being. I was a god too, and I alone ruled you.
