Mercy for the Wicked (20 page)

“As you wish, Mistress,” Nelo nodded readily.

“After we get home and sleep for about a thousand years we can decide what to do next.  Unless you have any ideas?”  He shook his head and I realized how rattled he was.  Seattle was probably a little overwhelming for someone who’d spent his entire existence in a demon plane.  Good thing we managed to get there at night instead of full daylight, that would have made him
really
uncomfortable. 

Even with the cloak, I was pretty cold by the time Matty pulled up in his beater car.  He didn’t bat an eye when I held the door open long enough for Nelo to climb in or mention the unusual cloak or what I was doing out there in the middle of the night by myself.  All he did was nod blearily over my profuse thanks for the ride.  Maybe he was on autopilot, but I was grateful for the no questions asked ride, I was sure to get the opposite from Ben. 

Ben.

He was probably going out of his mind insane with worry. He didn’t like it when I was a half hour late and I’d been gone for days…  “Did Ben contact you at all while I was gone?”  I asked Matty as we turned onto my street.

“No, was he supposed to have?  Is this about that Thanksgiving thing?  I told you I’d come, but I don’t know if I’ll have a date or not.  Just text me the address to Ben’s place.”

I frowned over that; had something happened to Ben after all?  Did Bert and Hubie go back even after I went along with them quietly as promised?  Because I couldn’t imagine him being okay with me never making it up those stairs that night.  “Yeah, I meant about Thanksgiving,” I replied, not wanting Matt to worry. 

“How come you didn’t call Ben to come and get you?” he asked, waking up a little more and I seized upon the distraction of my apartment building up ahead. 

“It’s a long story, but I promise I’ll tell you sometime when we’re both more awake.  Do you have your spare key to my place?” 

“Yeah, sure…” he unclipped it from his keychain and held it up.  “Where are your keys?”

I leaned across the console and dropped a noisy kiss to his hair like I used to do when we were kids.  “Thanks for the ride, Matty.  That’s one less you owe me,” I grinned, slipping out of the car before he could press for more.  The barest flicker of movement told me Nelo scooted out beside me, and I shut the car door with a slam.  “Here we are, home sweet home.”  Leading the way up the stairs, I saw Nelo relax at my side once we were in the darkened hallway.  “Almost there.”  I gave him a comforting little pat on the shoulders as I unlocked the front door.  I was about to invite him inside when the door was yanked out of my hand, Sam’s face a mask of surprise as he caught sight of me. 

“You are back!” he crowed in excitement and I shushed him.

“Hey, keep it down, I have neighbors.  Wait until you hear where I’ve been.”  I might have said more but his face went deadly calm, that lethal look descending over his features. 

“Mercy, come to me.”  Sam stretched one hand out towards me as a gleaming sword appeared in the other.  “Do not be afraid, I will protect you.”

Was there something dangerous standing behind me?

Chapter Thirteen

I froze, expecting bloodshed at any moment.  “What is it?”

“Come to me, Mercy.  You mustn’t let that unclean thing touch you.”

Unclean?  I had to look then, and turned around, but there was no one behind me.  No one except for Nelo, who hid behind me, his hand clutched tight in mine.  “Oh, for crying out loud… Sam relax, he’s with me.  This is Nelo.”

Sam’s head canted to one side as he studied us, the sword remaining fixed in his hand.  “How do you mean he’s with you?  He’s a demon.”

“Yeah, I know,” I snorted.  It wasn’t like he could pass for anything else.  “Now put the sword away and let us in, it’s been a hell of a few days and I’d like to sit down.”

“Hours.”

“What?”

“You’ve only been gone a few hours,” Sam clarified.

“That’s impossible.  I was in Midian for…”  I wasn’t exactly sure how long, but it had been at least a few days.

“Time works differently there, you could be gone for years and only have a few months elapse here on Earth.  It’s the opposite in Heaven, time is measured differently.  That’s why I was gone so long when I went to see Nathanael.”

“Oh.”  That changed things.  At least I wouldn’t have to worry about explaining to Parker why I hadn’t shown up for work, but I was tired enough to call in sick and sleep for a week.  Still, it was hard to wrap my head around the concept.  “Just a few hours?” I frowned when I realized that Sam hadn’t eased his stance or taken his eyes off of Nelo.  “Sam… relax.”  I laid a hand on his chest pushing him backwards, tugging Nelo behind me like a human choo choo train. 

“I don’t understand,” Sam replied, but he did send the magic sword back to wherever it went when it wasn’t in use.  Maybe it lived wherever he kept his wings? 

“I can see that, but you can calm down. I never would have gotten out of Midian if it wasn’t for him, he can be trusted.”  I gave the little demon’s hand a soft squeeze of encouragement, but he still hid behind me like a two year old.  “I had to have some help since
some people
were unavailable.”  I gave him a pointed look.

“I could not go to Midian.”

“Adam did,” I pointed out.

“OMG, he did?”  Sam gasped and I did my best to stifle the smile that rose to my lips.  He had to have been spending more time with Daphne lately… 

“But you did know I was in Midian?  I thought you were in the Ether going after Azazael?”

“Yes, Adam sought me out there after you were taken.  He told me you were safe in Midian and not to be disturbed.  He said he would deal with Azazael personally.”

There went Adam, making life altering decisions for me again, and my temper snapped.  “For the love of God, when are you going to stop doing every little thing that Adam tells you!  He tells you to hide away from me and you do it.  He tells you to stop pursuing Azazael and you do it.  He tells you to leave me in a
demon world
and you do it!  When are you going to start thinking for yourself?”  I stared at him accusingly.

“I… had not thought…”

“No, you don’t think.  That’s the point.  You’re happy to let him make all the decisions.  Well, I’m sick of it.  Just because I’m in love with the guy doesn’t give him the right to play with my life like that.  From now on, I’m in charge of my destiny.  Not some ancient prophecy, or a sadistic demon lord or even God’s gift to angels.”  My anger spent, I was instantly contrite as Sam shrank away from me like a spanked puppy.

“I apologize, I didn’t realize it was so contrary to your wishes.”

He was backing away from me, and I felt about an inch high for putting that look on his face.  “Sam, I’m sorry… it’s been a rough day.”

“I will leave you to your rest then, if you are certain you are safe?”  He looked to Nelo who enacted his best impression of a statue, remaining perfectly still.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but you don’t have to leave…”

“I won’t be far.”  With another pointed look to the demon, Sam stepped out onto the balcony and disappeared from view.

Great, now I’d gone and upset the sweetest guy on the face of the earth.

“Perhaps I should go, Mistress,” Nelo’s small voice pulled me out of my shame spiral and I gave him a reassuring smile.

“No, don’t be silly.  He might be Fallen but Sam’s still an angel, that comes with a certain amount of prejudice, I suppose.  He’ll get used to you being around after a while.  If you decide you want to stick around that is, you don’t have to stay with me.  You can go anywhere in the world you want to.”  Instead of taking that as an encouraging thing, the idea seemed to throw Nelo into a panic and he crouched down smaller as he looked out the window to where Sam disappeared. 

“He lives here with you, Samael?”

“Sort of.  He’s helping protect me from Azazael and the demons Raum sent after me.  Not that it ended up doing a whole lot of good.”

“And you belong to Adamiel…”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“Are there any other angels that live here with you?”  His eyes darted around nervously.

“No…” Poor little guy, he was scared to death.  “Oh Nelo, try not to worry about it, okay?  I won’t let them hurt you.  But I’ll understand if you don’t want to stay with me, my life can be kinda complicated.”

“Oh no, Mistress.  I would not willingly leave you,” he shook his head earnestly.  “If you will allow me to stay, I would serve you.”

It warmed my heart to hear his pledge, but I wasn’t looking for a servant.  “You don’t have to serve me, Nelo, you can stay here as my friend.”

“As you wish, Mistress.”

“And you don’t have to keep calling me Mistress.”

“As you wish, Mistress.”

I decided to give up, it was late and I was bone weary.  Only… would Azazael be waiting for me in the Ether when I closed my eyes?  Even if Adam decided to handle him personally, would he have taken care of it already if only a few hours had passed since I’d left?  It was enough to give me pause and send me to the kitchen for a cup of coffee instead of to the bedroom.  Would I be a big fat chicken if I called Sam back to watch over me while I slept?  Somehow I wasn’t able to bring myself to do that after the way we’d parted. 

I was turning the coffeemaker on when I heard the jangle of keys at the door.  Was Sam coming back on his own? 

“Mercy?”  It was Ben who stormed into the apartment, looking frantic until he spotted me in the kitchen, my keys and purse in his hands.  “Where the hell have you been?”

Any relief I felt at seeing him was instantly sucked down the drain at his tone of voice.  I
hated
it when he talked to me like that.  Only how had he even known I was home again?  “Ben, what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” 
Uh oh…
I recognized that tone and I did my best to remember he was only worried about me and leave my temper at the door.  “I’m looking for you.  You show up at my house, never make it upstairs, your purse is in my garage, your car is on my street.  You don’t answer the phone, you don’t call… you could have told me you were leaving again.”

“Yeah, but how did you know I was
here
?”

“I had a black and white keeping an eye on the place.  They told me you got dropped off about fifteen minutes ago by a seedy looking car.  So, where were you?”

“That’s my brother’s car,” I frowned defensively.  “You had the cops watching my apartment?”

“I thought you were in danger, I thought you’d been attacked or something.”

“Yeah, well you’re not wrong there,” I conceded.  “Do you want a cup of coffee?  I could really use one.”

“Do I…”  Ben’s hand clenched into a fist and he brought it up to his mouth, as if he didn’t trust himself to speak any further until he got a hold of his temper.  “I swear, if you don’t tell me what’s going on right now, I’m going to walk out that door and I won’t come back.”

“I’m trying to, but you need to calm down.  Have a cup of coffee, trust me, you’ll need it.”  Either that or something a little stronger, but I already had the coffee mugs down.  Ben slid onto one of the barstools, waiting patiently for me to begin.  I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to the conversation at all, so the story spilled out in a disjointed, convoluted manner. 

Starting with the arrival of Bert and Hubie in his garage, I led him through the tale, ending up with my arrival back home again but leaving out my argument with Sam or the fact that Nelo was crouched behind the couch, watching us like a tennis match.  I went a little light on the details involving Adam, because that was a whole other conversation we needed to have, and I wanted to tackle one thing at a time.  But otherwise I didn’t skimp on the particulars, and I was almost to the bottom of my coffee mug by the time I finished. 

Ben hadn’t touched his coffee.

“So…” I ventured, setting my mug into the sink.  “Now you can see why I didn’t call you, and why I disappeared so suddenly.  It wasn’t exactly my idea.”  I expected an apology maybe, or an expression of worry over my wellbeing.  I didn’t expect the simmering anger at all.

“
That’s
where you were.  You were in another plane of existence.  How the hell am I supposed to deal with this?”

“You could be a little nicer to me, considering where I’ve been,” I scowled, immediately on the defensive.  Was I pushing his buttons on purpose to put the break up on him?  Looking back I can agree I could have handled it differently.  But hey, I never claimed to be an angel, I’m just as screwed up as the next person.

“This… this isn’t normal, Mercy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”  Things hadn’t been normal for me since I’d woken up in the hospital with Sam’s Grace, but it was my reality and I thought he’d had some time to reconcile himself to the idea. 

“This isn’t what I signed up for.  I can’t take not knowing what might be happening to you when you aren’t there.”

“It’s not like I did any of this on purpose.  I didn’t ask for the Grace, and I didn’t ask to be a demon magnet.”

“It’s just… you never consider what I have going on in my life, Mercy.  It’s all about you.  I have an incredibly stressful job, and a responsibility to the community to do it well.   I can’t be up all hours of the night chasing after you every time you attract a new threat from the underworld.”

“Are you saying you want out of this relationship?”  A flutter of guilt pulsed in my belly.  Was I taking the coward’s way out?  There wasn’t even time to think about it before he rose to his feet, pushing away from the breakfast bar. 

“Is that what this is?  Because I feel like I’m the last to know about every little thing that happens to you.  You won’t let me stay here with you…”

“I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“That’s
my
job.  I’m the cop for chrissakes.”             

“Wait, are you complaining because I don’t let you into my life enough, or that I’m making too much of a dent into yours?  ‘Cause I’m a little confused.”  It stung that he thought I was selfish, partly because it was true.  I had been incredibly focused on the things going on in my life, but just then was the wrong time to call me on it; my nerves were already frazzled to raw edges.