Page 86 of Greed

She leaned over and buried her face in the soft fur as she kissed him for the last time.

I drove Minny home, and the look on her face broke my heart. I wanted to wipe the pain away, comfort her, but she barely responded to me when I spoke to her. I had no idea what to do. I wanted her to come to my place, but she wouldn’t hear of it and insisted that she needed to be in her own space. Her eyes were red and swollen, and the tears hadn’t stopped once since Toby crossed over.

I couldn’t wrap my head around her connection to her dog when all I saw was a dog that could be replaced with another. I’d never had this kind of closeness or connection with anyone, not even Callista. What we now shared was the only experience I could draw on to understand her grief. If I lost her, I realized I would be like this. I would be worse. I may not even survive. I gripped the steering wheel tighter and pushed the thought aside.

It was clear that Toby had meant so much more to her than simply being a pet, and I wanted to understand, but the only thing she said was she lost her dad before she broke down into uncontrollable crying again.

I pulled into her driveway and shut the car off, but she didn’t move. “Do you want me to come in with you?”

She gave a noncommittal shrug, but I took that as a yes. Opening her door, she slowly looked up at me, and I wished that I had the power to take away pain for the first time. I’d have saved the animal if I could, but saving souls was not my specialty. Breaking them, taking them, and warping them was what I could do, but saving….

I didn’t bother to ask and bent over and picked her up out of the car as if she were a child. Giving the door a nudge with my hip, it closed as she wrapped her arms around me and buried her head into the crook of my neck.

Penny met me at the door, and she looked like she’d been crying just as hard. Her red-rimmed eyes met mine, and then she fell on her friend before I could step back out of the way.

“Follow me,” Penny said and turned to walk further into the small home. She jogged up the stairs ahead of me, and although I already knew which room was Minny’s, I followed her as if I didn’t. Penny pulled the comforter down on the bed, and I gently laid my little bird down. She rolled onto her side and curled up in a ball.

“Do you want me to stay?” I whispered in her ear.

She shook her head no as a fresh wave of tears filled her eyes. “I just need to be alone right now.”

“Okay.” I gave her temple a kiss, my lips lingering as I did something I’d been holding off on doing, and started to dig through her memories. I wanted to see why Toby meant so much to her.

“What are you doing?” Penny hissed and pulled on my arm, breaking the connection I was trying to establish.

I glared at the young fallen angel turned Erinyes, and she took a step back, but she was right. I needed to stop. I’d managed to be good about not invading her private thoughts so far, and to cross that line would most certainly upset her. The thing was, Minetta shut me out. It was like a door had been slammed in my face, and the panic it was causing in my chest was new, and I didn’t like it at all.

“I’ll come by tomorrow,” I said to Minny, and she nodded but didn’t move from her fetal position.

Grabbing Penny’s arm, I dragged her out the bedroom door and closed it softly. I didn’t stop dragging her along until we were in the tiny living room. I gave the girl a shove, and she fell on her ass in the big chair.

“Don’t you ever question me again, Erinyes. I will pluck your wings one feather at a time.” She swallowed hard, but her chin tilted up in defiance.

“Then so be it, but I was looking out for my friend, and I’d do it again, from you or anyone.”

Crossing my arms, I studied the demon girl, my power reaching out and feeling her soul. Her caring was not bravado. She really did care for my Minny. “And is looking out for your friend what you were doing when you told her that I’m a fallen archangel?”

Penny gasped, her hands covering her mouth. “You know that she knows?”

“Of course, I do. I didn’t have much choice to admit it when my wings made an unexpected appearance, but that’s beside the point. She was not scared like I’d expected her to be.” I squinted at the girl as she nibbled at her bottom lip. “What is it? Why do you look so concerned?”

She stood and went to the bay window that looked out over the street. “It’s dangerous for the two of you to be together, Mammon.”

“Call me Riker, and what do you mean dangerous?”

“Just what I said. There are many that don’t like the idea of the two of you being together. They fear you’re going to turn soft, stop being the embodiment of greed, and most of all, stop the apocalypse.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, my forehead drawing down as I studied Penny’s face. She was telling the truth, or at least the truth as she saw it. “You’re talking about the prophecy? That’s ludicrous. Everyone knows the prophecy is a wild card. The forks are constantly shifting, someone could have a bowel movement the wrong way, and they will shift. Why do you think no one takes them seriously?”

“Riker, there are those that believe you’re an important key to this particular prophecy. A stabilizing link between yourself and the great war to come.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. Would you really want to see the Earth destroyed and all the humans on it crushed if you were to fall in love with one?”

“First.” I held up a finger. “Love is a powerful word, and no one is slinging it around,” I said, but the voice in the back of my brain refuted my words. “Second, even if I was to fall in love with her and what you claim is true, the likelihood that the great war will happen between now and her life expectancy as a human is somewhere between zero and none. Not only that, but I am one archangel of seven that have fallen. What am I going to do on my own to stop Lucifer, other than nothing?”

“I’m just telling you what they believe. Demons on all plains are not happy about the two of you spending time together. Word is spreading that you are siding with humans over your own kind. Even here on Earth, I heard about the anger you showed over your newest exhibit.”