CHAPTER Fourteen INTERVENTION
He left the little warlock terrorists and stepped into the dimension of Kore, far, far from Loti. The only reason why he wasn’t overly miffed was he’d already, more or less, concluded that he would suspend the witch’s solitary confinement.
When he’d left her to the desert dunes, he’d thought that he was going to be free of addiction, free from a contract that controlled his whereabouts, and essentially carefree. But instead he’d begun to feel an emptiness that hadn’t been there prior to his year and a day blackmail payment. No. He was sure it hadn’t been there before.
Then there was that kiss.
For two and a half centuries he’d been forced to seek out sex with five women a day. That was half a million, at least, but who was counting? It felt like it had been a fast-moving, faceless never-ending blur of women. No one memorable. Nothing noteworthy. In all that time, with all those females, he could recall only one kiss that stood out in memory.
Sixt.
The thought still made his lips tingle.
Now and then, he’d unconsciously reach up and touch his mouth before remembering that his body had demonstrated a propensity for its own agenda where the witch was concerned. He’d slap the regret away and chastise himself for moments of weakness.
There was a right and wrong to things. He was right and she was wrong. End of story. Period.
He drank petuil with satyr friends and it was good to be free. But he couldn’t drink himself free of the sensation of emptiness.
Deliverance figured that he had two days before Harm could get back to New York, to figure out how to retrieve the witch and redeposit her in her posh pad without looking like a tool. Not that he cared how he was perceived by the witch.
He was on a rooftop veranda overlooking his favorite elemental hangout, lost in his own thoughts, when he realized he wasn’t alone. He looked over his shoulder to see Kellareal standing there with that annoying look of accusation he so often wore. Worse, he was wearing that stupid Irish elf guise. That one was getting old, but the angel claimed that it got a lot of attention from women.
“What do you want?” Deliverance asked.
“I want you to clean up your mess.”
“Which mess are we talking about? According to you the worlds are full of my messes.”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
Deliverance turned around to face him and leaned back, elbows resting on the railing behind him. “Sixt.”
“Duh. Why are you punishing her?”
“You honestly don’t know?”
“I know you think that you were wronged.”
“I WAS WRONGED!”
Kellareal shook his head. “You brought this on yourself by leading the young witch on.”
“Leading her on?”
“Don’t act ignorant. You know what you did. Your short attention span hurt somebody. What did you expect? You can’t treat people like that.” The demon considered that and had to concede that the angel might have a point. “She lashed out, but regretted it.”
“I was easily distracted!” Deliverance knew his defense was thin, which was why he was yelling. It was a trick he’d picked up from human males. The more uncertain the position, the louder the volume. “And. This is none of your business.”
“At the moment, you are my business. You’re in the process of locking in an eternity in Hel.”
“What are you talking about? If this is angelic double speak, I don’t have time for it.”
“You don’t have time? Because you’re busy headed to a game of maraglia or a drinking bout with satyrs?” The angel was making it sound like Deliverance’s life was empty. The demon frowned. He didn’t like what was being said. But he didn’t have an answer for it either. “You can afford to spare me the couple of minutes it might take to mean the difference between happiness or misery.”
“Whose happiness? The witch’s?”
“Yes, idiot. It just so happens that her happiness is eternally tied to yours.”
The demon raised his arms and let them drop to indicate exasperation. “Again. What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t noticed that she’s near perfect for you in every way?”
Deliverance had noticed that, but intentionally suppressed those thoughts because he had a larger purpose. “Any interest I might have had in Sixt was made null, by her, when she hexed me.”
“You know what humans call self-sabotage? Shooting yourself in the foot.”
“Do. You. Have. A. Point?”
“Of course. I always have a point. Unlike you, I’m clear eyed.”
Deliverance began shaking his head. “You don’t have anybody else to aggravate?”
“Will you stop being an ass long enough to hear what I’m telling you? She’s yours, demon. Or she could be. If you haven’t already screwed it up beyond repair.”
“Look,” Deliverance felt the beginnings of anger as his blood started to heat, “you need a recalibration. She’s not anything to me… except somebody who did me a grave wrong.”
“The hex?”
“That and my Rosie.”
“Rosie?”
“Rosie Pottinger. Litha’s mother. She’s dead because of the curse. She couldn’t live with my… needs.”
“You think that’s why she killed herself?” Kellareal’s face softened. “That’s not why she killed herself.”
Deliverance shot a look that could incinerate Kellareal on the spot. “What would you know about it?”
“Everything.”
“If you’ve got something to say, get it out and stop the pussy footing.”
“Rosie Pottinger wasn’t well. Mentally. She’d been around toxic vapors in the apothecary her whole life. It began to take a toll. Her father was experimenting with cures using metals that particulated when heated and, when inhaled, caused brain damage.”
Deliverance began to look uncertain as he processed that. “How would you know that? How could you know that?”
“I was watching.”
The demon scoffed. “Why would you be watching her?”
“Because Elora Rose’s coming was prophesied.”
“Prophesied?” He almost whispered the word.
“You know she’s special. Unique, even. You couldn’t have thought it was some kind of accident that Litha ended up being raised by Cairdeo Deos monks?” The demon looked away, eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to take in what was being said. “Litha’s mother was losing touch with reality. Moderns would call it a psychotic break. It had nothing to do with you. Or the curse.”
“Nothing to do with me,” Deliverance repeated slowly. “What about the fact that I… left Litha alone?”
“Also prophesied.” Deliverance sat down hard, almost like his knees gave out. After a few seconds, Kellareal walked over and sat down next to him on the patterned red clay tiles. “Here’s the thing. Humans have spent thousands of years debating free will versus fate. The truth is both things are true. There are thousands, maybe millions of little choices in a life that are made by free will because they don’t impact the big things. But the big things are going to happen no matter what.”
Deliverance’s gaze jerked to Kellareal. “Was Sixt part of this prophesy?”
“No.” Kellareal shook his head. “It was just like she tried to tell you. She was young. She got jealous and threw a curse at you without thinking it through. When she calmed down, she tried to find you to take it back, but you were gone. End of story.
“Well, not end of story really. She did the whole contract thing hoping that she’d find a way to redeem herself. She wanted to get on your good side so that you would hear her apology and maybe forgive her.”
“Forgive her?” Deliverance repeated stupidly, as though the idea was too outrageous to consider.
“Yeah. Happens all the time.” The demon gave a disbelieving look. Kellareal nodded. “Especially when it’s in the best interest of the forgiver. That would be you.” The angel took in a deep breath. “Unless it’s too late. There’s always a chance that she wouldn’t forgive you.”
A parade of images rushed across the demon’s mind. Sixt laughing at TV, looking at him over the rim of a wine goblet as she sipped a delicate black blend, eating him up with her eyes the way a woman does when she wants a male desperately, showing him concern and compassion when he’d talked about Litha’s mother.
“You’re sure Rosie didn’t kill herself because of me?” he asked.
“Completely. It wasn’t your fault. Wasn’t hers either. You leaving Litha? It worked out okay. Probably the way it was meant to, but I have to tell you… it was still not a good thing to do.”
“Why are you rubbing it in?”
“To get the point through your thick demon head that everybody makes mistakes. Witches. Demons. Even me. Once.” Kellareal waved his arm. “Tell her you’re sorry. That you made a mistake. That you’d like to start over with her. Give yourself a chance at happiness.”
Deliverance still seemed reluctant. “Maybe.”
And Kellareal was at the end of his patience. “Either get her out of there or I will. If I do it, I won’t tell you where I take her.”
Deliverance glared. “That wouldn’t make any difference. I can still find her.”
The angel smiled wickedly. “I’ve got a long list of potential destinations that are outside your network. You’d never find her unless I wanted you to. So. Do you want her to remember that I rescued her or do you want her to remember that you changed your mind? One way or another, I’m not leaving her there. She has a role to play in the bigger picture.”
“Like what?”
Kellareal crossed his arms. “Need to know.”
“I need to know.”
“You do not.”
Deliverance frowned. “I’ll do it.” He could play ‘need to know’ himself and he didn’t see any reason why Kellareal needed to know that he’d already agreed to extract her.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
“She’s going to be mad, isn’t she?”
“Are you a child? Yes! She’s going to be mad. That’s what happens when you fulfill a female’s worst nightmare.”
“So you’re saying she’s going to be really mad.”
“I’m counting down from five. When I get to one, if you haven’t gone after her, I will.”
“I said I’d do it.”
“Five.”
“I’m going.”
“Four.”
“Why are you so suddenly concerned with my happiness anyway?”
“Need to know. Three.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“You know what? I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to get her and take her home. What you do about it after that is up to you.” And he was gone.
Deliverance stared at the space where the angel had been sitting and thought that at least he could stop worrying about whether or not she was okay. The angel would fetch her and reinstall her in her cushy life as a corporate giant. In a couple of months she’d forget all about him and the desert dunes.
He sat there. And sighed.
Sixt couldn’t say that the night was worry free, but she was encouraged by her results. She did have moments of anxiety, but compared to the night before it was mild. There was noticeable improvement. She’d slept well. So she planned to repeat the exercise.
All in all she was pleased with what she’d done with the place. The barren desert plain had been converted into an oasis as pretty as a fantasy layout. She supposed that’s what it was - a fantasy. Everything she’d asked for had manifested in ways so much more abundant than she’d hoped for.
Shelter. Water. Plants. Food. She hadn’t specified beauty, but she’d been granted it. If only she had company.
“Company!” she exclaimed, then immediately looked at Big Bird. “Sorry. I know you’re company. I just mean I’d like the kind of company that can originate conversation.”
“Big Bird is a good bird.”
“Indeed,” she said.
“Hello?” At first Sixt thought her mind was playing tricks on her. She asked for company and within a minute was hearing a male voice calling, “Hello!”
She looked at Big Bird. “That wasn’t my imagination.” She walked to the garden door, which was standing open and saw Finrar, Kellareal’s Irish elf guise coming up the path.
“Hi.” He grinned.
“It worked! Hi. I hope you don’t mind. Can you come and go? What are you?” She took a step back and narrowed her eyes. “Are you a demon?”
“No, but I know some. I also know the same one you know.”
“You’re a friend of Deliverance?”
“I hate Deliverance. He’s not a demon. He’s a scoundrel, a pig, and a villain,” Big Bird said.
Kellareal laughed heartily until the bird began mimicking him, which didn’t amuse the angel as much as what the parrot said about the demon.
“Alright. That’s enough,” he told the bird.
“That’s enough. That’s enough,” said Big Bird.
“I mean it,” said the angel, glaring at the bird.
“Fucker,” said Big Bird.
When the angel started toward the bird, Sixt jumped in front. “He’s just repeating what he hears. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
Kellareal looked at the bird suspiciously. “You sure?”
“Positive.” She crossed her heart.
“Demon is a douche,” Big Bird said.
Sixt turned and stared at the parrot, trying to remember having said that and concluded that she must have said it in her sleep.
“Well, I’m glad he’s kept you amused,” said Kellareal. “As to whether or not I’m a friend to the demon, I wouldn’t say that exactly. I’m a friend of his daughter’s and guardian of his granddaughter. I think you met? Anyway, I’m forced into a position of having to keep an eye on him for their sake. They’re quite fond of him for reasons that make no sense to me. Of course I’ve never had family. I was created from the ethers as perfection.” He motioned to his body. “As you see.”
“So you’re here because I conjured you?”
“What? No. No. No. I’m here to take you home.”
“Oh!” Her eyes flew wide with surprise and a rush of delight that was ecstatic.
“You ready?”
“Absolutely. No. Wait. What about Big Bird? I can’t leave him here. Alone.”
Kellareal canted his head to the side. “Normally I couldn’t take him across dimensions, but since he’s magical creation… I guess it’s alright.”
Sixt held her hand out in front of the bird and he climbed on. “Do you need my address?”
Kellareal chuckled. He reached out and touched her forehead. After a brief sensation of the floor disappearing under her feet, the way fast elevators are sometimes out of sync with gravity, she blinked and realized she was in her own kitchen. She opened a cabinet and held the bird aloft so that he could sit on the top of the open door.
“Thank you,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. Turning to Kellareal, she said, “I don’t think I asked your name.”
“Kellareal. First angel.”
“First angel? I don’t know what that means, but it sounds important. I’m honored. Also grateful and I really hope this doesn’t sound ungrateful.”
“But…”
“But what if he finds out I’m free?” She looked around nervously. “There are other places where he was contemplating leaving me. For centuries. He said my magic would work in unexpected ways and implied that I shouldn’t use it.”
Kellareal pressed his lips together. He’d known the demon was out for revenge, but was surprised that Deliverance would be that cruel.
“But you used your magic anyway.”
“Well,” she barked out a laugh, “I couldn’t sit down on the burning sand. No food. No water. No rest? It was desperation. Die like this or die like that. That’s kind of how I thought of it.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you. It makes me respect him even less. If that’s possible.”
“So you’re really not friends.”
“This incident has really underscored just how very different he and I are.”
“I see.”
“As to your question, he and I have had a chat. He knows that you are rescued and he’s not going to be looking for ways to make you unhappy.”
“That’s really good to hear.”
“If he crosses paths with you in the future, it will probably be to say he’s sorry.” She smirked, but Kellareal read the sadness behind it. “If I hadn’t come for you, he would have.”
“He didn’t.”
“But I believe he would have.”
“Well, we’ll never know, will we?” She looked away. “Not that I care. That demon wanted me to die a horrible, tortured, lingering death.”
“Demon is a douche,” said Big Bird.
“Well said.” Her eyes went to the top of the open cabinet door where Big Bird was perched. “I agree.”
“Yeah,” said the angel. “You should hate him for that.”
“I do.”
Words could not express how much she wanted to believe that. She promised herself a daily session of meditative affirmations to rid herself of any lingering feelings for Deliverance that were not one hundred percent negative.
“Well, I guess I’ll be going.”
“I feel like I should offer you something in return, but I can’t imagine how I might repay you.”
“We’ll just say you owe me one then.”
She smiled. “Fair enough.” She started to ask if he’d like an I.O.U., but he was gone. “Huh,” she said to Big Bird. “I guess I should have asked him if you’re going to eat like a real bird. I mean, not a magical bird. So I guess you need a cage with, um paper in the bottom.”
The bird was quiet. So no help there.
Sixt noticed her phone sitting on the kitchen island connected to a charger. She picked it up. Thirty-two voice messages. A hundred and eighteen texts. She called Ainsley, who picked up immediately.
“Harm?”
“No, it’s me.”
“Sixt! Thank heavens. I was so worried!”
“And my brother called you?”
“Yes. He told me to run things like I was you until further notice.”
Sixt had to hand it to Harm. That was the exact right thing to do. “How are things there?”
“Under control. Are you alright?”
“Sure. It’s a long story.” There was a pause like maybe Ainsley was waiting for her to tell it. “Maybe I’ll bore you with it sometime. Right now, I just need another day for, ah, re-entry. Can you continue to hold things together that long? Just tell people I’m taking a couple of days of personal time?”
“Of course. Is there anything else I can do?”
“Just don’t tell anybody I’m in town.”
“You got it, boss.”
When the call ended, Sixt thought about calling Graydon to come home, but she realized that she didn’t need a butler. She’d basically been using Graydon as a babysitter so that she could sleep at night and that was a condition that had been remedied.
If she was forced to name something good that came out of the desert dunes experience, she’d have to say that being forced to cure herself of an irrational fear of being alone at night was a really good thing. She glanced upward. And there was also Big Bird, of course.
She didn’t need a bath because she’d spent a lot of time swimming and soaking while away, but she suddenly felt like her muscles could stand a good hot immersion in lavender beads. She poured a glass of Chardonnay and started toward the bath when the doorbell rang.
Nobody ever rang the doorbell. Mostly because nobody could get to her floor without a penthouse key for the elevator. She stood stock still for a couple of minutes going through the options of who it could be, unwilling to accept the likeliest conclusion.
If it was Deliverance and he intended her harm, he wouldn’t use the doorbell. Unless he was toying with her. In that case, she decided she might as well face the music sooner than later. She wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life engaged in the folly of trying to hide from a demon who could be anywhere, anytime, at will.