“Sexy, tattooed bug?” Kujo asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.
“Take the compliment. That’s a whole romance trope.”
“Do you have a shirt for that?”
“MyMonster Fuckershirt has multiple uses.”
“So, that was annoying,” Wrathhog said, slipping into the room.
She wasn’t like her dad. She lightly knocked on the door frame to announce she was here instead of creeping around like a giant celestial jump scare.
“What happened after they left?”
“So, believe it or not, they fight like cats and dogs and don’t much like each other, but they hold to their agreement to not raise a hand to each other. No one wants to trigger the Beast of Eden and Lucifer and my dad are no slouches in a fight either. They just really don’t want to hurt angels again.
“Beelzebub just threw a grenade into that. Asmodeus cheats on his wife all the time. He played it cool in front of you, but when they left, he was pissed, even though he had it coming.Belphegor is loyal to his, but he also doesn’t spend a lot of time around her. He’s more of a loner, but he was still upset. My dad knows damned well Mom wouldn’t give Beelzebub the time of day, but he was pissed at first she might have even been put in that position.
“Apparently, she wasn’t, but Asmodeus and Belphegor were looking for a brawl. Dad had to mediate, even if he thinks Beelzebub has it coming. Dad says you can hear it across an entire realm when angels fight. Abaddon hasn’t had issues in a really long time, but if he heard his brothers fighting, he might.”
Yeah, a rampaging angel was the last thing we needed, so I guess that meantIcouldn’t hit them either. Still, there was one part of the petty angel drama saga I’d zeroed in on.
“Is Belphegor an empath? Nero read all of them when he got permission from Asmodeus. He got vibes.”
“He’s hidden it from the other angels because Dad has never said anything, but it wouldn’t shock me. He mostly keeps to himself, but usually disappears if there’s any sign of conflict. He sometimes got grumpy if he was around me when I was in my moody, puberty phase, but I used to think it was because I was an asshole to everyone. Itcouldbe because he’s an empath. Empaths are rarer than seers though.”
“True, but if an empath knew they were being read by an incubus or another empath, they could just piggyback on the surrounding emotions to hide it,” Kujo said.
“Sure, if they had control over it. From what I understand, it’s miserable for them to let it all in to the point they are feeling what someone else is feeling.”
“Better than anyone figuring out he was the one who kidnapped Lucifer. Mammon has the best motive, though. He clearly hates this place and everyone living here,” I said.
“I agree with you,” Wrathhog said. “But my father and the rest of the Fallen aren’t going to do anything with a feeling.You’re going to need concrete proof. To get that, you’re going to have to get a handle on your wings, magic, and mental shields. You already have a lot of the groundwork done for fighting.”
I was open to that because my magic and wings tended to have a mind of their own. My mind was also a weird place, and I didn’t want someone creeping on my thoughts when I was thinking up things for my books. Because if we ever found Lucifer and fixed Hell, I was going back to writing.
“Let’s do this.”
There really should be an eighties movie montage with a badass soundtrack if anyone had to learn a bunch of skills at once. Even Ren got one inFootloose.For now, I was just learning to put my wings away and bring them back when I needed to and everyone kept telling me to just not think about where they were going.
Except that was all I could think about. They weremassive.They weren’t exactly going inside my back or I’d be ringing a bell in Notre Dame. Was there another realm where a bunch of free range wings lived when they weren’t attached to a body? I’ll bet that was super fucked up.
“Is this your writer brain being weird?” Kujo asked.
“What? It was a valid question. They either shrink and go back inside my back or they gosomewhere.It stands to reason that if there are realms with demons, angels, Fae, and dragons there might be one for our wings.”
Nero shuddered.
“That would be weird. Now you have me thinking about where mine go. They are a part of my anatomy and they hurt if someone pulls on them. But if I don’t want them out, they just go away.”
“You’re both being ridiculous. It’smagic.When you get a boner, the entire block gets a boner.Iget a boner and I didn’t consent to you giving me a boner. That makes about as much sense as where your wings go,” Kujo ranted.
“That makes perfect sense. My ex got a boner in his sleep every night. Men don’t need magic to get erect.”
Kujo shot me a withering glare.
“You know what I mean. We don’t even know what happens to angels and demons if they die. We aren’t exactly going to figure out where our wings go. Is it even important?”
“Well, if I could visualize putting them somewhere, I could probably make them go away and come back when I need them.”
