Wanted: Undead or Alive

A Celestial Pissing Contest

Valynais was a tall, broad-shouldered man in slim-cut black dress pants and a button-front shirt so white it practically glowed beneath the dim lights. He was much cuter than I'd have imagined Death would be. His long, curly blonde hair, square jaw, deeply tanned skin, and pouty lips gave him the air of a rock star from the 1980s.

He went straight to Holly and took her in his arms. "Are you hurt? I should have been here." There was the slightest hint of a British lilt under his American accent.

"No, you couldn't have come earlier. It would have ruined the plan. But it worked. We caught him."

I looked at Moose to see if he was going to do anything. He shrugged. That wasn't helpful at all.

Valynais drew back an arm's length from her and studied her face. "How did it come to be that you were involved in his capture?"

"It was the only way," Holly said.

"Uhm..." I stepped forward, not wanting to offend the Mighty One, but unable to quash my concerns. "Is anybody going to get Nick out of there?"

We all stared at the metal ball lying in the middle of the road. The silver no longer gleamed. Black tarnish, or perhaps soot, covered the entirety of the device.

Valynais was the one to stoop and pick it up. "Nick?" He turned the sphere slowly between his hands. "You speak of Nicolai Adamos? He's within the sphaera captivitatis?"

"He and the demon got sucked in," I said.

"Bad luck, that. I'd have not thought his celestial blood was enough to make him susceptible." He handed the ball to me. "Not a lot of knowledge about those like Nick."

"Ain't no one like Nick," Moose mumbled behind me.

The sphere weighed half what it did before. Among the many facts I'd learned in the past few days was that physics and magic had little connection to one another.

"If I were you, Olivia Nowicki, I would not open the sphere. Allow The Organization to retrieve your employer. I'm sure they will have questions for him, anyway. They'll have the means to contain the demon and separate his essence from that of Adamos."

Their essences were mixed? Eesh. "How do you know my name?" The question popped out of my mouth before I had time to think that, most likely, Death knew everyone's name.

He smiled at me. "We've met before, though humans tend not to remember such interactions."

Oh, cripes. My stomach dropped to my feet. Was I in trouble for thwarting death? Had I broken some celestial rule? I hadn't even considered it.

But he didn't look angry. He gave a little bow of his head. "I am in your debt, Olivia Nowicki. Thank you for your service to my family."

A bright light, like a shooting star, sliced the sky directly overhead. When I'd blinked away the yellow spots in my eyes, a man as tall as Valynais dark hair and tawny skin stood in the middle of the street. He looked at each of us, and when his eyes met mine, I shrank back. It was as if every shameful thing I'd ever done had been laid bare for the world to see.

"Michael. It's been an age," Valynais said.

Michael... the archangel? I edged back a few more steps away from him.

"Your actions have caused a disturbance."

Valynais shifted, putting himself between the angel and Holly. "I've broken no law of God or man."

"The angels are concerned."

"The angels debased themselves by associating with demons. They ought to have known better. Tell the angels to stop concerning themselves in the business of beings more powerful than them. Isn't that how one third of them got in trouble so many years ago?"