Exodus (Imp Series Book 8) (18 page)

“How much?”

Stengal quoted a price that had me nearly passed out on the floor. Then he smiled and gestured to his apprentice. “I’ll drop that in half if you take Andor across the gates and allow him to live among the humans for a century or two. He’s made some friends in Libertytown and has been longing to see some of the human metalworking techniques himself.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d never contemplated taking a dwarf across the gates. Honestly, they’d never seemed interested. Yes, they were grumpy about demons, grumpy about elves, probably just as grumpy about humans, but in spite of that they seemed to love living in the mountains of Hel. I’d overheard many of them say it was better than Fuera where the majority of the trolls, dwarves, and orcs lived.

“Seriously?” I asked the blond dwarf. “You really want to live among the humans for a few centuries?”

He nodded. A man of few words. I liked that.

This could work. The humans didn’t have dwarves living among them, but they did have Little People, some of whom looked an awful lot like dwarfs. And hadn’t Leethu been telling me she’d had a hard time finding childcare for Dar?

“All right,” I told him. “I’ll need to make you part of my household—”

“No.” Andor shook his head. “I’m a dwarf, not a demon. I won’t be in a demon’s household.”

I didn’t bother arguing that I had werewolves, humans and Nephilim in my household. I was pretty sure I could sneak him in. What happened to him after that was his own problem. Well, Dar and Asta’s problem.

“Fine, but you’ll need to have employment in order to survive in the human world. You’ll need to learn their language, their customs, their currency.”

He nodded. “I will do that. I’m willing to perform whatever job I need to in order to fit in among the humans.”

Perfect. “We’ve got a deal. I’ll be back in a couple days to collect the weapons and escort Andor to his home for the next few centuries.”

Stengal smacked me on the shoulder to seal the deal. I smacked his shoulder back, then grinned at Andor. “Hope you like kids, because your job is to take care of the first Angel of Order born in the last two and a half million years.”

I
hated Aaru with all the fury of a dragon whose treasure had been stolen. The bland landscape—actually the nonexistent landscape—the feel of a hundred thousand or so angelic eyes upon me, the way my skin itched like a wool sweater on an August day in the rainforest. It sucked. And being the only attendee in corporeal form at a Ruling Council meeting sucked too. At least at the Marriott conference room they’d all needed to manifest a physical appearance. And there the hotel staff had provided bacon, Danishes and coffee. Here there was nothing. And I mean nothing.

I was late to the meeting, and I was sure I saw disappointment on the faces of several angels when I arrived. This time it wasn’t my fault I was late. I’d returned from Hel to find my neighbors banging on my door, angrily demanding to know why I was now running a campground in my back field. The zoning was Ag, not Commercial Rec, and they’d not seen any postings for zoning change. I was pretty sure come Monday I’d have the county inquiring as to why I was hosting a renaissance fair in my pasture. I’d need to see if there was a capacity limit or time limit for personal parties so I could assert that forty-four elves were my friends and we were all having one big Tolkien-themed celebration. I doubted that required a permit or a zoning change. People had parties all the time, this one just included camping and stretched on for a few days. A week tops. Stupid neighbors. I should have let Little Red fly over and burn their house down.

The dragon was another pain in my ass. He hadn’t set anything else on fire aside from the elven cook stoves. The elves were oddly enchanted with him, treating him like a cross between an honored guest and an exotic pet. When I left I’d caught them playing “fetch” with the dragon by shooting arrows into the air and having him fly up to catch them.

And then I arrive here in Aaru, where the air was decidedly chilly when it came to my presence. Fuck them. If they were going to hold the Ruling Council meetings at Aaru, then I was going to be there, like it or not. And I wasn’t going to give in and float around without a body like the rest of these assholes.

I felt Gregory notice my stubborn resistance to the incorporeal existence. There was a flash of light, then he manifested his usual polo-shirted form.

“In light of the events at the end of the last meeting, I agreed that we should hold this session here, in Aaru. A change with such short notice is unusual, but in keeping with millions of years of Council meetings all held in Aaru. That said, with the obvious discomfort the Iblis’s presence causes, I recommend we alternate meeting locations.”

“She won’t be on the council for long,” New Guy snapped. “We’re voting on that during this session.”

“We’re
discussing
that this session,” Gabriel corrected. “Action in haste has dire consequences.”

New Guy gave the incorporeal equivalent of a bowing his head. “Of course.”

“I suggest we all create physical forms for this meeting,” Gregory continued. “If we’re to drag the Iblis here into what is truly a hostile territory for her, then we at least owe her the courtesy of a physical appearance.”

There was a lot of grumbling, but the angels complied. Gregory, Raphael and Gabriel were present along with New Guy, Sleazy and a stranger. A smug blond angel had taken Uriel’s spot. I was wishing the red-haired angel would burst on the scene and smack the smirk off the pale face of her usurper, but the archangel remained absent.

“This is the first and last time I’m doing this,” Usurper announced. “Ruling Council meetings should be held in Aaru, and we shouldn’t be required to sully our vibration patterns so that
thing
feels like she fits in. If we’re going to tolerate her presence here, she needs to respect our rules.”

“I don’t want to tolerate her presence here,” Sleazy added. “It will take me a century of effort to wash away the stink of being in her presence this past year. She shouldn’t be in Aaru at all.”

Whoa. I knew Sleazy didn’t like me, but he’d never been so vocal about it before. I wondered if he wasn’t playing to an audience, making sure he didn’t wind up ousted with another taking his Council seat. And for the record, I did not stink. Although I took a quick armpit sniff just to make sure.

“Well, she
is
here,” Gregory snapped back. “And if you want to hold meetings in Aaru, then you’re going to need to tolerate her as well as accommodate the philosophical differences of an Angel of Chaos.”

Sleazy glared. Gregory glared. I got the feeling a brawl might be in the near future.

“Like you’ve accommodated her?” Usurper sneered. The way he said
accommodated
made it sound as if Gregory and I were fucking every hour on the hour, in every possible position and location. In reality our angel-sex happened far less frequently than I wanted, and although we’d gotten kinky in Aaru and off-planet, nothing had happened that I considered particularly scandalous. I did have a rather high bar for scandalous, though. Could be these were the sort of angels who thought holding hands was going too far into the territory of sin.

Instead of being angry as I’d expected, Gregory smirked. “I’d prefer I be the
only
angel ‘accommodating’ our Iblis, but that’s entirely up to her. Cockroach? Do you favor a quick go-round with any of these angels? We could delay the meeting while you dash off with one or two. I’m sure it wouldn’t take long.”

I nearly choked at his words. What was he doing, stirring the pot like this? I thought he was trying to smooth things over at Aaru, putting a more moderate Gabe in place, and trying to diffuse the situation with the rebels. Rubbing our relationship in everyone’s faces was a complete change in direction.

Either way, I was happy to play along if this was what he wanted. I pursed my lips and looked around as though I was considering it. “Nah. Not my type.”

Rafi was the only one who looked disappointed.

“Well, if there aren’t going to be any further
accommodations
, then I suggest we get to our agenda,” Gabriel announced drily.

I wasn’t sure if I was more shocked at the fact that the staid archangel actually had a sense of humor or at the first item on our agenda.

Renegotiations of the treaty between the Angels of Order and the beings formerly known as the Angels of Chaos.

I should have known this was coming. I don’t know why I thought all the venom would be directed solely at me and my spot on the Ruling Council. Of course they’d go after the lot of us, and the treaty was the only way to do so.

But what was with the new title? Was that like Prince? Was I to be now referred to as the Being Formerly Known As An Angel of Chaos? I always did like the color purple.

I heard Gregory snarl, and I put a hand on his arm. Yes, we both knew where the angels were going with this, but in all honesty I too felt it was time to renegotiate the treaty. And renegotiate was the key word in all this. That deal struck millions of years ago had been signed by both sides after the war. It was binding and while the occasional violation on the demons side really did nothing but put us at risk of losing our lives, the angels were held to a different standard.

Yes, they could also lose their lives by violating the treaty, but the worst punishment was what such a deliberate breaking of the rules would do to their vibration patterns. They were Angels of Order. And willfully disregarding a treaty that they themselves had agreed upon would hurt their evolution, or enlightenment, or whatever.

We demons hadn’t signed; the Ancients had but few of them were still alive. We were all many, many generations removed from the original warring parties, hence the “beings formerly known as” title. It was about damned time we stopped being held to a document our ancestors had agreed to. About damned time we renegotiate the whole fucking thing. Actually, it was about damned time we threw it all in the trash and got back to living as one angelic host. But that was probably not something I’d see in my lifetime.

“The first part of the treaty grants Hel to the Angels of Chaos, hereinafter known as the ‘Demons’ for their exclusive use. No angel is allowed to cross into Hel,” Gabriel read.

“I’m in agreement with that section,” Usurper said.

“Well, I’m not,” I jumped in. “We haven’t had ‘exclusive use’ of Hel since day one, we’ve had to share it with those fucking elves as well as a ton of other beings.”

“It’s not like you tried to kick them out,” New Guy protested.

I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously? You ever tried to get elves to do something they didn’t want to do? Oh, that’s right. You’ve been trying to get them to come home to your open arms for millions of years. How well has that worked out?”

“That won’t be a problem for long,” Sleazy said. “According to you the elves are migrating here, returning to help with the humans. You’ll soon have Hel all to yourselves.”

“Nope.” I waited a second to let that sink in. “Dwarves. Humans. And a handful of elves who will refuse to migrate. Did I mention humans? The elves were bringing them over through traps and imprisoning, and now there’s a group of freed humans who want to stay. We don’t have exclusive use of Hel and never did. I’m claiming a party-foul going back nearly three million years. You angels owe us reparations.”

“How do we owe you anything?” Usurper snarled. “You suffered the elves to remain, allowed the humans in as well as the dwarves, trolls and other beings. Plus you constantly violated the treaty by coming through the gateways in direct violation of section four-dot-six-eight-three. It’s not like there have ever been angels in Hel. We owe you nothing.”

“But there
is
an angel in Hel,” I argued. The fact that I put him there wasn’t relevant, he was still there.

“You’ve gotten pretty good at this lying thing,” Gabe commented. I got the impression there was a warning hidden behind the mocking words. I ignored it because I usually don’t pay attention to warnings, and this was Gabe.

“Seriously. He’s not leaving, though, and I doubt any of you would sully yourselves to go to Hel and verify my statement, so you’ll just have to believe me.”

“Demons get exclusive use of Hel,” Usurper announced. “Except for those beings they allow to live there with them and this one angel. No other angels are allowed.”

It irritated me that he thought that was a concession. Not much I could do about it though. I didn’t want Bencul to go back to Aaru and rat on me for all the shit I’d done to him. The angels would take his side, even if he did glamor a human and have sex with her with the intention of having a child. Besides, he was probably dead anyway. I doubted an angel could exist for long among a bunch of demons in Hel.

We weren’t going anywhere. Might as well let that one slide. “Okay. I’ll agree.”

It was put to a vote, and, of course, the next item was more contentious.

“The demons shall not utilize the angel gates. Any demon caught doing so will be put to death,” Gabriel read.

There was that “caught” word. Gate Guardians weren’t all that skilled at catching us, and given that Gregory was in charge of that group, I imagined they’d become even more lax. Plus, any demon I really wanted here I could transport myself, without needing to use a gate.

And if I needed one of my demons to use one, there was always a Chinese food joint nearby to pick up a suitable bribe.

“Okay. I got no problem with that,” I told Gabriel.

“No demons shall be allowed in Aaru under any circumstances,” Gabriel continued on.

I fucking hated Aaru. “Sure. I’ll just Skype in for the Ruling Council meetings that are held here. No problem.”

“
I
have a problem with that,” Gregory argued. “Since we’re renegotiating and changing things around, I propose we make the terms of the treaty temporary and build in a way to come together once more as angels. They can still have Hel, and we Aaru, but there has to be some sort of provision for the Fallen and Angels of Chaos to earn their way back home.”