Pulling my coat up around my ears, I hurried up the broken concrete path to knock on the security gate fastened to the front door.
“Mercy, I’ve been expecting you. Are you hungry?” Luz opened the door with a smile, inviting me into the colorful warmth of her home.
“No, thank you. I’m not interrupting your dinner, am I?”
“No, we eat early here. Come on in, let me take your coat.” A small tree covered in bright lights and homemade ornaments stood in the front window, brightly wrapped packages stacked artfully around the table it sat on. Deeper in the house I heard the sounds of children squealing in play, a rapid fire string of Spanish calling after them. “Parker said you wanted to talk to me about Ben?”
“Yes, I do.” I needed to work myself up to the baby topic. “Did he tell you about what happened the other night? When Ben threatened him with the gun?”
“Yes, he did. I take it that’s not normal behavior for your friend?”
“Not even close.” Briefly, I laid out the message Nathanael delivered the night before. I could care less that he’d complained about involving humans, I needed all the help I could get to try and handle it without getting Ben killed in the bargain. “What I want to know is, can we do some kind of exorcism on him or something, to get the evil out of him?”
Luz was already shaking her head before I finished my sentence. “He’s not possessed, he’s been corrupted. The only way to save his immortal soul is to purge him of the evil.”
“Okay, how do we do that?” I brightened, glad she had an alternative in mind.
“The only thing I know that would purify him is with holy fire.”
“Holy fire,” I blinked. That did not sound at all pleasant. “How would he survive that?”
“He wouldn’t, but his soul would be cleansed, and he could achieve salvation.”
“No way,” I shook my head. “We’re not doing that.” Why did every solution end with Ben as a corpse? Did no one get his innocence?
“You might not have much of a choice if what the prophecy says is true. At least this way you can save his immortal soul. Do you need some help?” she offered, but I shook my head again.
“No. This is still my fault he’s gone all postal. If there’s no other way, I need to make sure it’s done as humanely as possible. I haven’t given up yet. I’m convinced there’s a way to save him, we just haven’t found it yet. That’s not my only problem though. He stole the box you bound Azazael to. What are the odds he’ll be able to jimmy it open?”
“
No te preocupas
, he’ll never get it open.”
“But, couldn’t he find a spell to open it, like you spelled it shut?”
“It’s possible, but it would be very difficult, and I can guarantee you there isn’t a witch in the state who would do it for him. It should give you enough time to get it back.”
“I tell you what, the first thing I’m going to do once I get him back is stick Azazael in a safe deposit box, Indiana Jones-warehouse style.” I closed my eyes as a wave of nausea hit me, and I took a slow, deep breath. I thought you were only supposed to get sick in the morning? Hence the name,
morning sickness
.
“I know what you need, I have just the thing.” Without waiting for my response, she took off in the direction of the kitchen, leaving me sitting alone in the front room. “Here you go, drink this. Be careful, it’s nice and hot.” Luz thrust the mug towards me, handle out, and I took it with a hesitant sniff. It smelled like raspberries.
“Thanks, but what is it?”
“Don’t worry, it’s only tea. It will help soothe your stomach.”
How she knew my stomach needed soothing was beyond me, but I was a little leery of drinking strange brews in my condition, even from a good witch. “Thank you, but I’m not all that thirsty,” I begged off, setting it down on the coffee table.
“It’s safe for the
bebe
.”
I froze with my hand still extended towards the cup. “How did you…?”
“We see things, remember?” she smiled, taking a seat and nudging the mug towards me. “Take a sip, it will help, I promise.”
Sitting down, I cupped the mug in my hands for warmth. “How many other people know? You didn’t say anything to Parker did you?” my eyes flew wide at the implications.
“
Calmate hermana
,” she patted my shoulder. “I didn’t tell anybody.”
“This thing is harder to keep secret than I thought it’d be,” I sighed, taking an experimental sip of the tea. It wasn’t bad, a little tarter than the blackberry I was used to, but not unpleasantly so.
“Isn’t that why you’re really here? To talk about the
bebe
?”
“Well… I know you have kids, and you seem to have all this knowledge about things I’m pretty clueless about, so I thought… I don’t know what I thought.” I hung my head.
“What’s the problem? You’re not happy about the news?”
“To tell the truth, I’m not sure how to feel about it yet, except for scared to death. Adam’s going to flip out when he hears about this, he really doesn’t want to have children. He’s been very clear about that.”
“It’s not always up to us, is it?” she smiled as a loud bang sounded from overhead, followed by a rush of giggles. “I truly believe things happen for a reason. Talk to Adam, he can’t blame you for this, it’s something you created together.”
“You don’t know him like I do. Trust me, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. And considering what the past couple of months have been like for me, that’s saying a lot.”
“I think you should give him a chance. You never know, Adam might surprise you.”
Sipping my tea, I digested that for a few moments. “I am going to tell him, I just need a little time to get used to the idea myself.” That and I had absolutely no idea how to broach it with him at all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
For the next couple of days I waited to pick the right moment, but there never seemed to be a good time to say “Hey, Adam, guess what? I hope that house of yours has room for a nursery.”
It almost didn’t feel like the holidays to me at all, and it seemed a little foolish to go through the effort of putting up a tree so late in the game. Christmas Eve came and went, and we didn’t particularly celebrate it between Adam’s indifference and my nausea. So far I’d managed to put him off about that, telling him I had a light case of the flu, and the tea Luz made up for me helped with the worst of it. I didn’t object at all when he left to go “take care of some stuff”, spending the night watching A Christmas Story over and over with Nelo until I fell asleep on the couch.
On the plus side, none of us had heard from Ben since my last confrontation with him. Neither was he staying at his townhouse, according to Adam, who assured me he’d gone there strictly on a recon mission to look for Azazael’s box.
My mother called daily, but I begged off another visit, telling her I wasn’t feeling well, and I’d see her on Christmas. I felt bad ignoring her, but I didn’t have the energy to deal with her while I agonized over how to tell Adam the big news. I ran scenario after scenario through my head, discarding each one as insufficient or plain old lame.
Why did people in the movies always have such an easy time of it? Should I wrap up a gift for him to open with little baby booties in it? Or buy him a #1 Dad coffee mug? If I thought it would work, I’d get a sonogram picture, put it in a Father’s Day card and wait for him to catch on, but all of those movie-type ideas sounded too kitschy.
As Christmas morning dawned, I made a decision. No more lies. It wasn’t doing me any good to put it off any longer, I wasn’t getting
less
pregnant by the day. And why was I hiding Adam from my mother? I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. She’d meet him eventually, why not come clean and explain the little mix up about Parker? Not that I was ready to tell her about the baby yet though, that would be better served when she was safely back in California, otherwise she might never leave.
I hadn’t given Adam my final answer yet about moving in with him either, but what was I so afraid of? Maybe in the back of my mind I equated sharing his house with giving up some freedom, but look at what I’d get in return. The chance to see Adam every day, to build a real life with him (especially with the baby coming) was too good to pass up. Not to mention money would be tight, and not having to keep my apartment would make things a lot easier.
All of a sudden it dawned on me… I lay in
bed
making those life altering decisions when I’d fallen asleep on the couch. “Adam?”
“Out here…” came the response, from the direction of the living room.
Slipping on my robe and fuzzy slippers, I shuffled out of the bedroom, stunned to see a seven foot tree scraping the ceiling in the corner by the TV. Completely decorated with posh red and silver ornaments, the delicate white lights twinkled on and off, casting the room with a bright glow.
Adam moved through the kitchen with ease, a hand towel slung over one shoulder while he expertly flipped a pancake up into the air and caught it with the plate. “You made it just in time, how do you want your eggs?”
He’d gone though such an effort for me, I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t hungry in the slightest. “The pancakes are enough for me, is there any hot water?” Hopefully with some tea I’d even be able to eat a few bites. “When did you do all of this?”
“I had a little bit of free time. Some of us don’t sleep away the best hours of the night,” he smirked, sliding the plate across the breakfast bar to me.
“This is really sweet, Adam, thanks.” Eyes shiny with unshed tears, I blinked rapidly to keep from crying, my emotions running away with me.
“Hey, don’t let that get around, I’ve got a rep to protect,” he pretended to frown. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
I shook my head, it was a big deal to me. “No, I’m pretty sure this is the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me before. The tree, breakfast… especially since you don’t even celebrate Christmas to start with.”
“Eh, I can appreciate the sentiment even if the calendar is a bit off,” he shrugged it off. “Besides, you haven’t been eating much lately, I had to try and tempt you with something.” Setting the butter and syrup before me, he poured out a cup of steaming water for my tea.
“Is this the kind of treatment I can expect if I move in with you?” I took a sip of the tea before it was even done steeping, craving the relief it brought.
“If that’s what it takes,” he winked. “I’ll make you breakfast in bed every day.”
“Okay then.”
Adam blinked, “Okay then?”
“Let’s do it. I’ll give my notice to the landlord tomorrow, and maybe I can move out as early as next month.”
Vaulting the breakfast bar, Adam landed lightly on his feet, pulling me into an excited hug. “Hell, who cares about notice? You can move in tomorrow. I’ll make all the arrangements.”
I couldn’t help but laugh over his eagerness. “How about you show me your place tomorrow? I haven’t even seen it yet.”
“You’re gonna love it. We can go today if you want.”
“I’ve got to spend most of today cooking, remember? After everyone goes home tonight you can show it to me if you want.” His enthusiasm was hard to resist, and I found myself eager to start the new chapter in our lives together too.
“Alright, as soon as you’re done with your family we can take a drive. Unless you feel like stretching your wings a little?” he raised a brow.
I hadn’t even tried calling forth my wings since the night we returned from Midian, and I had to admit, the idea of zooming through the night sky with him was awfully tempting. But my stomach gave a lurch at the thought of the heights and speed involved, and I rethought answering yes. “Maybe we should drive for the first time. I might be tired after having everyone over. But um, listen, I’ve been thinking…”
“Uh oh…” A roll of the eyes was given, and I smacked him lightly on the shoulder.
“Be nice. I was thinking, I don’t want to have any secrets between us.”
“Everybody has secrets.”
“Okay… well, I’d like to minimize the secrets between us. I want to tell my mother about you today, I’d like her to meet you.”
“Really?” Adam’s face lit up with a surprisingly innocent smile. “You don’t think that will raise a lot of uncomfortable questions?”
“It might, but I want her to know you, especially with… you know, the future. I don’t want to get into the whole angel thing, but the rest of it, where I’m in love with you, that part I’d like to share with her if you want to.”
“I’d like that.” Adam leaned in to kiss me, and I felt my stress level go down from DefCon One to level Two. I just had to work up the nerve to tell him the rest of it, and I took another steadying drink of tea, but he beat me to the punch. “That sort of goes along with something I had in mind as well.”
“Oh?”
“Your present.”
“I thought you said you didn’t celebrate Christmas?”
“It’s not a Christmas present.” From his pocket, Adam produced a small velvet box. That wasn’t what I thought it was, was it?
“Adam…” I didn’t have any other words as I stared at the little box in shock.
“I know we’ve never talked about this before, but your mother did indicate that she has fairly strong opinions about you living in sin with a man who’s not your husband,” he smiled, opening the box to reveal a perfect princess cut diamond set in white gold, flanked by two smaller sapphires, the exact color of his eyes.
“Oh, Adam,” I swallowed, hardly daring to reach for the beautiful ring. “Wait, you aren’t doing this because of my mother, are you? Because I don’t want you buying in to her guilt…”
“I’m not doing this because of your mother, Mercy. I’m doing it because I love you, and I’m ready to keep loving you for all eternity. I know I’ve spent the past thousand and more years trying to forget my past and everything I lost, and for the first time, I feel like maybe I’m done paying for my sins. I feel like maybe I have a chance at true happiness. I don’t want to spend another sleepless night without you by my side. Merceline Renault, will you be my wife?”