“I might be.” I mix my stuffing in with my mashed potatoes. “Though I can still be very petty and impulsive, don’t worry.”
Lucas grins. “You know I love your petty and impulsive side.”
“Good, because it’s not going anywhere.”
Lucas sits with me while I eat breakfast, and then gets a fire going in the living room while I feed my familiars and Scarlet. We snuggle up on the couch together, and now that it’s officially the day after Thanksgiving, I get Lucas to watch a Christmas movie with me. I fall asleep before it’s even halfway over, and wake up when my phone rings.
“It’s Easton.” Lucas picks up my phone from the coffee table. “Want me to hang up on him?”
“No,” I say, grumpy from being woken up. I take the phone and close my eyes once I answer. “Hello?”
“Hey, Callie. Did I wake you up?”
“I was awake and then fell back asleep. What’s going on?”
“The FBI took over the murders,” he rushes out. “We have a friend on the inside who let me know last night…and then this morning he called to say another body was found in Ohio. Another twenty-something-year-old woman, heart cut out and a sigil carved into her back.”
“Do you know whose sigil it is?”
“Michael, the archangel.”
My eyes fall shut and guilt pushes me under murky water. This is my fault, isn’t it? I was the one who told Bael Michael was my father, and only hours later a woman turns up dead. He would have gone through the list of archangels, I know, but I can’t help but feel responsible.
He’s killing them to get to me.
“I’ll send you photos of the police report. It’s pretty graphic,” he warns. “More so than the others.”
“Thank you,” I say. “I, um, I don’t think you should look into this anymore. We know the demon responsible and he’s dangerous.”
“I actually agree with you.”
“Fuck,” I huff. “Be careful.”
“You too.”
I end the call and look at Lucas, knowing he heard everything. My phone buzzes with a text message, and I hold the phone up so we both can see. Easton was right about the photos being graphic. The victim, Carla Stoner, was tied up like the others and had her heart cut out while she was still alive. But unlike the others, her face was scorched, and the ME’s report stated that her eyes burned from the inside out.
To further torture myself, I look up Carla on Facebook. She’s a mother of four, and just had a newborn six weeks ago.
“Stop,” Lucas tells me, taking the phone from my hands. Bottom lip quivering, I nod and turn my face in, burying it against Lucas’s chest. He holds me as I suck in a sob, trying to stop myself from thinking about Carla’s poor children…and how easily that could be me.
What the hell were we thinking, bringing a child into this world? I know it wasn’t planned, but for us to think we should actually go through with it?
“Dad?” I pray, sitting up straight. I fold my hands together and close my eyes, fat tears rolling down my cheeks. “I could really use some help right now.” I hold my breath, waiting for something—anything, but I get nothing. “Julian?” I try next, not expecting to hear from him either. He left right before I went to bed last night, saying he was summoned by Alona, who needed him to round up another legion of demons Lucifer set loose on a college campus in Arizona. The demons were living it up again, getting students to drink, smoke pot, and party.
Illegal, yes.
Evil, hell fucking no.
“Whatever,” I sigh and drop my hands to my sides. I lay back against Lucas, and he holds me, knowing I’m not in the right mindset to talk or even be reminded that it’s not my fault Bael is murdering innocent people.
I know it’s not, yet I can’t help but shake the feeling that, again, I don’t belong here on earth, that maybe the angels were right all along to say it’s dangerous to allow a Nephilim to live.“Lucas is right.” Kristy sets the bowl of stuffing on the counter. “You cannot blame yourself, Cal. Bael is a bad, bad guy and he’s the one killing innocent people.”
“To get to me.” I run my fingers though my hair. “I’m not trying to be a dramatic martyr or anything, but think of everyone who’s been caught in the crossfire. Ever since the rumors started surfacing in the spring about me being alive, demons have sought me out, killing anyone in their way. Varrador killed how many witches before he finally found me?”
“And again, that’s not your fault. Did you ask to be born?”
“No one asks to be born.”
“Exactly.” She opens the fridge and takes out a Tupperware full of turkey. After a busy Black Friday at the store, she came over for leftovers.