"No, no, there was - is danger, at least in the dark, and I did need you to get Sophie, but I met someone. "
"Daddy got laid!" Sophie cheered again.
"Honey, we don't say that, okay," Charlie said. "Auntie Jane and Auntie Cassie shouldn't say that either. It's not nice. "
"Like 'kitty' and 'not in the butt'?"
"Exactly, honey. "
"Okay, Daddy. So it wasn't nice?"
"Daddy has to go to our house and get his date book, pumpkin, we'll talk about this later. Give me a kiss. " Sophie gave him a huge hug and a kiss and Charlie thought that he might cry. For so long she had been his only future, his only joy, and now he had this other joy, and he wanted to share it with her. "I'll come right back, okay?"
"Okay. Let me down. "
Charlie let her slide to the floor and she ran off to another part of the house.
"So it wasn't nice?" Jane asked.
"I'm sorry, Jane. This is really crazy. I hate that I put you guys in the middle of it. I didn't mean to scare you. "
Jane thumped him in the arm. "So it was nice?"
"It was really nice," Charlie said, breaking into a grin. "She's really nice. She's so nice I miss Mom. "
"Lost me," Cassandra said.
"Because I'd like Mom to see that I'm doing okay. That I met someone who's good for me. Who's going to be good for Sophie. "
"Whoa, don't jump the gun, there, tiger," Jane said. "You just met this woman, you need to slow down - and remember, this comes from someone whose typical second date is moving a woman in. "
"Slut," Cassie murmured.
"I mean it, Jane. She's amazing. "
Cassie looked at Jane. "You were right, he really did need to get laid. "
"That's not it!"
Charlie's cell rang. "Excuse me, guys. " He flipped it open.
"Asher, what the hell have you done?" It was Lily. She was crying. "What the hell have you let loose?"
"What, Lily? What?"
"It was just here. The front window of the shop is gone. Gone! It just came in, ripped through the shop, and took all of your soul thingies. Loaded them into a bag and flew away. Fuck, Asher. I mean FUCK! This thing was huge, and fucking hideous. "
"Yeah, Lily, are you okay? Is Ray okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Ray didn't come in. I ran into the back when it came through the window. It wasn't interested in anything but that shelf. Asher, it was as big as a bull and it fucking flew!"
She sounded like she was on the edge of hysteria. "Hold on, Lily. Stay there and I'll come to you. Go in the back room and don't open the door until you hear me, okay. "
"Asher, what the fuck was that thing?"
"I don't know, Lily. "
The bullheaded Death flew into the culvert and immediately fell to all fours to move through the pipe, dragging the bag of souls behind him. Not for much longer - he would not crawl much longer. The time had come, Orcus could feel it. He could feel them converging on the City - the City where he had staked his territory so many years ago - his city. Still, they would come, and they would try to take what was rightfully his. All of the old gods of death: Yama and Anubis and Mors, Thanatos and Charon and Mahakala, Azrael and Emma-O and Ahkoh, Balor, Erebos, and Nyx - dozens of them, gods born of the energy of Man's greatest fear, the fear of death - all of them coming to rise as the leader of darkness and the dead, as the Luminatus. But he had come here first, and with Morrigan, he would become the one. But first he had to marshal his forces, heal the Morrigan, and take down the wretched human soul stealers of the City.