She paused for a second.
“Does that make any sense at all?” she asked.
“Yeah, it does,” he told her. “It would be like having a scar and having no idea where it came from.”
“The experience, no matter how bad or painful, it teaches you something…forces you to grow.”
Remy nodded, understanding exactly where her head was. He could not help but be pleased at her decision.
“So I’m guessing that Francis and his scalpel will not be required,” Remy said.
“No,” she said firmly. “I think I need to remember what’s happened.”
“You’re sure that you can live with that?” he asked, just to be sure.
“Yeah,” Ashley said. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy at first, and will probably take a while…but I think I’m going to be all right.”
It was good to know.
“And us?” Remy asked.
She stared at him intensely, studying his face as if seeing him for the very first time.
“I think we’re going to be okay, too,” she told him, a sly smile starting to form before disappearing entirely. “Especially after I collect my winnings.”
They had a good laugh then, until Remy remembered her parents. They were probably still worried sick.
“Have you been in touch with your mother and father yet?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you first.”
“Do you think they could handle the truth?” Remy asked.
She shook her head vigorously. “No way,” she said. “I think they both have a difficult time with the way the world is currently, never mind adding this other business.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“How about that I freaked out…that I needed to get away…that I wasn’t ready for the whole college-and-adulthood thing.”
Remy made a face. What Ashley was planning on selling to her folks and the authorities that were looking for her was ridiculously thin.
“They found blood in your car,” he said.
She shrugged. “I cut myself.”
“Do you seriously think they’re going to buy it?” Remy asked.
“I’m not going to give them a choice,” Ashley said firmly, rising to her feet as she took Francis’ phone from her pocket.
“And, besides, what I’m giving them is more believable than the truth.”
The city was still pretty much in turmoil, even spreading as far as West Roxbury, where Remy had gone to pick up his car from where he’d left it in front of Saint Augustine’s Church.
He didn’t see the old ladies there holding vigil, and he wondered if maybe they’d somehow ceased to be with the death of the Grigori Garfial. It might be something he should look into at a later date, just to be sure. He didn’t want the angel scientist’s lab falling into the wrong hands.
The ride home was a little hairy, lots of streets still closed off, but he managed to get to the Hill in a roundabout way and had even managed to find parking on Pinckney Street.
He’d used Francis’ phone to call Linda before leaving, his phone having been incinerated when he’d gone nova in the expanding eye of the shadow storm. She was excited to hear from him and equally excited to hear that Ashley was safe and sound. Before hanging up, she’d asked him if he’d seen the news, if he knew what had gone on in the city today, and he told her that he’d caught it in bits and pieces and that it all sounded pretty crazy.
Linda said that it was beyond scary, and for him to hurry home, that she would be waiting for him at his place.
Remy let himself into his building, stepping into the foyer to find his door wide open.
“Hello?” he called out, moving toward the opening cautiously. After what he’d just gone through in the past twenty-four hours, cautiously was just the way to go.
From inside he heard the sound of toenails scrabbling across the hardwood floor, and Marlowe bounded out to greet him.
“Hey, buddy,” Remy said, bending down to wrap his arms around the dog’s thick Labrador neck. “How’s my good boy?”
“Talk again?” Marlowe asked, between furious licks of his face.
“Yeah, I can talk to you again,” Remy answered him. “And it feels good.”
“Missed talking,” Marlowe said, giving him his paw.
“And I missed talking to you,” Remy said, giving it a shake. “This is a new trick. Who taught you this?” As if he didn’t know.
“Linda,” the dog barked.
“Thought so. What else has she taught you?”
The dog then proceeded to get down on the floor and place his face between his paws, looking up at him pathetically.
“What’s that?” Remy asked.
“Sad face,” Marlowe answered, springing to his feet, tail wagging.
“And what does that get you?” Remy asked him.
“Treats!” the black Labrador barked happily.
“I think you’re also learning to play Linda like a fiddle,” he said, sticking his head into the apartment to see if she was inside. Finding it empty, he figured she must’ve been up on the roof.
“No fiddle,” Marlowe explained. “Shake and sad face. No fiddle.”
“Got it,” Remy said. “Is Linda on the roof?” he asked the dog, already starting up.
The dog told him she was and joined him on the stairs, practically running him off the steps in order to get up to the rooftop of the brownstone first.
The dog barked his excitement as he bounded out onto the top floor of the building, announcing his and Remy’s arrival. He could hear Linda telling him to calm down, and smell what he believed to be swordfish steaks wafting from the grill.
“Hey,” she said, putting the grill cover back down and coming to greet him in the entryway with a kiss. “It’s good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back,” he told her, returning her kiss and putting his arms around her thin waist to hug her. Touching her, he realized how much he needed this at the moment and didn’t want to let her go, fearing that he might be pulled from the rooftop, sucked up into a swirling vortex that had appeared in the sky.
“Hungry?”
Remy looked from the nighttime sky, where a swirling hole between dimensions had not appeared, and turned his attention to Linda.
“Starved,” he told her.
“Excellent,” she said, pulling from his embrace to return to the grill. “The swordfish should just about be done. Why don’t you open that bottle of Chardonnay for me and pour yourself a whiskey, and we should be ready to eat.”
He heard a crunching sound and looked to see that Marlowe was lying down and happily gnawing on a giant-sized pig’s ear; the ultimate treat when it came to the Labrador.
“Seems as though everybody is eating good tonight,” he said, opening the bottle of wine as he watched Linda take the steaks from the grill and place them on a plate.
All so perfectly normal.
They sat down and ate their meal at the patio table, enjoying each other’s company.
All so perfectly normal.
After they had finished, they took their drinks to the rooftop’s edge, looking out over the sparkling city, the shape of the darkened Hermes Building sticking up among the lights like a jagged spike of darkness.
All so perfectly normal.
And, in reality, as far from the truth as it could possibly be.
“It feels different now,” Linda said as he held her.
She had told him everything that had happened in the city as they ate, about the little girl’s message and how some of the people who had been listening had somehow been stricken dead, about the explosion on the rooftop of the Hermes Building, and the strange atmospheric phenomenon that nobody could explain that had appeared in the sky.
And of the sighting of what some people were saying was an angel just before the thing in the sky disappeared in a flash of light.
He remained silent as she told him everything, hold
ing her tighter as he felt her shiver in his arms.
“Some people are saying that it’s the beginning of the end of the world,” she told him, and he was certain that she wanted to be reassured by him that this was all crazy talk, that there was a rational explanation for every one of the strange incidents that had happened today.
But Remy said nothing, choosing instead to continue to hold her, hoping that this gave her some sense of security.
“Just tell me that everything is going to be all right,” she asked of him then.
And he told her, “Everything is going to be all right.” But Remy knew otherwise.
For this, too, was as far from the truth as it could actually be.
EPILOGUE
Steven Mulvehill awoke feeling…different.
Reborn.
He smiled at how stupid and over-the-top the thought was as he left his apartment building on his way to the grocery store, but there was a certain truth to it. The heavy cloud of dread that he had worn as a cape since the events connected to Remy’s case was apparently gone, and he no longer felt paralyzed by the fear that had been his constant companion since that day.
He closed the door behind him and started down the steps.
He’d had his first really good night of sleep in close to a month and actually was feeling terrific.
The events of the previous day flashed before him: the jogger he had saved in the alleyway and the old woman—and the things he had confronted to rescue them. Mulvehill felt himself immediately start to react, his heartbeat quicken, the itchy sensation of cold sweat prickling on his neck and back, but then he remembered what had come from the top of the Hermes Building.
And then he remembered the light.
The light from atop the building had given him something. Courage? Is that the appropriate word? he wondered as he left his apartment building and headed for his car.
Whatever it was, it made him want to go back out into the world, despite the shadows and the things that lurked inside them. It hadn’t taken away his fear, for only very stupid people weren’t afraid, but now he understood his fear, and, in understanding it, he could confront it and shoot it in the fucking face, if necessary.
He’d reached his car and was taking his keys from his pocket when he saw the man approaching from the corner of his eye.
“Steven Mulvehill?” the man asked, stepping out from between two parked cars to address him.
“Who wants to know?” Steven answered, giving the man the once-over as he looked up and then back to his keys. The man was dressed in a dark suit—expensive-looking—and white shirt, black-striped red tie, black shoes. He wore his blond hair cut short, and Mulvehill thought that he might have heard the hint of an accent, but would need to hear him speak again to be positive.
“My name is Malatesta,” the man said, reaching inside his suit jacket pocket and removing his identification.
Mulvehill took the offered leather folder and flipped it open to read. “That you are,” he said, eyes scanning the information presented. “What can I do for you, Mr. Malatesta?”
Mulvehill’s eyes came to an abrupt stop, the sound of cartoon brakes slamming down in a screech inside his head as he read where the man was from. He looked up from the identification, unsure of what to think.
“I’m from the Vatican, Mr. Mulvehill,” Malatesta said, taking his identification from him and placing it back inside his coat.
“I see that,” Mulvehill responded, still in shock. Why would somebody from the Vatican be speaking to…
“What can you tell me about a man named Remy Chandler?” Malatesta asked.
And suddenly, it all made a terrible kind of sense.
He was not certain at first, but the stranger decided that he would indeed miss the sad Grigori.
He stood inside the Boston skyscraper they had called home and stared out the very windows that had once captivated them, twirling the star signet ring upon his finger. The glass was stained and cracked, but the stranger saw as the Grigori did, and so much more than that.
Turning away from window, he scanned the empty space, searching for anything of theirs that might be salvaged, anything that could be put to use in the coming days. The wooden box that contained the ashes of their beloved leader caught his attention, and he glided to it, taking it from its place of honor atop a stack of wallboard.
The stranger carefully opened the lid, turning his dark gaze to the powdery contents.
“Hello, Sariel,” he said softly. He poked a finger into the ashes, looking for any fragments of bone that might not have been devoured by the Seraphim’s flames.
Armaros and the others had certainly loved their leader, and their sadness had provided the perfect incentive for them to follow the stranger’s…
Suggestions.
From amidst the ash, he found a fragment of bone—something that perhaps had once been part of the angel leader’s finger—and carefully took it from the box and slid it into a pants pocket.
One never knew when something like this might prove of use.
His search exhausted, the stranger callously tipped the box over, allowing the ashes to join the layers of dust and plaster residue that were already there. He then tossed the empty casket over his shoulder to land among the other pieces of refuse that had been left behind when the construction of the office space had halted.
Scanning the remainder of the room, the stranger found nothing of importance and decided that his time there was at an end. One of the angels—the Grigori—had practiced the art of creating life. The stranger decided that he would have to see about finding that one’s workplace.
Who knew what treasures might be found there?
Sensing that the stranger was ready to depart, a sphere of light ignited in the center of the room, allowing the demons to emerge.
He could sense them behind him, waiting, but he did not acknowledge their presence. They were always in such a hurry—so impatient—and he found it good for them to have to wait.
Waiting was what it was all about.
“Sir?” one of the three demons called.
He was going to ignore the request, but decided that since he’d pretty much found everything that he was going to find, he’d respond.
“Yes?” the stranger answered, still not looking at them.
“We felt that you were ready and…”
“You sensed correctly,” he said, turning to face them.
They hated him—he could feel it in their horrible gazes—but they could do nothing about it. He reached over and casually twirled the ring on his right ring finger.
All they could do was obey.
They had no choice.
The stranger stepped toward the foul, pale-skinned creatures and entered the glowing circle on the floor.
“Take me home,” he commanded, his thoughts already racing. He had to find another sorcerer to serve him, seeing as neither of the two that he had been considering had worked out. If he’d been a betting man, he would have thought Stearns to be the victor, but Deacon had managed to prove himself quite the surprise.
If only one of them had survived.
It was just one more detail to be added to his list of chores for the coming days. There is still so much to do, he thought as he gave the demons a barely perceptible nod to activate the sphere of transference to take them from this place.
So much to do to start a war.
And bring the dominions of Heaven crashing down.
Thomas E. Sniegoski, In the House of the Wicked: A Remy Chandler Novel
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