The Getaway God (Sandman Slim 6)

He looks back in the direction of the living room.

“The cleaners will be thrilled to have something to do. And in any case, it’s good to see a friendly face.”

He brings two cups of coffee to a marble-­topped island in the middle of the kitchen. We sit down across from each other. He slides a cup to me. Hell might have the worst food in the universe, but the coffee, at least Lucifer’s, isn’t that bad. Still, I take a small first sip. Lucky me. I can still stomach the stuff.

“To what do I owe the honor of this very surprising visit? I have a feeling you didn’t just appear here out of the blue to bring me good news from Earth.”

“Not exactly. Angra sects are getting pretty hot and bothered back home. They’re turning churches into meat markets and it looks like they might be storing their extra bodies in the underground tunnels where you used to look after the dead.”

“And they open into my storeroom.”

“Yeah.”

Mr. Muninn nods and sips his coffee. He looks a lot older than when I saw him just a few weeks ago.

“If you don’t mind my saying so, you look like shit, Mr. Muninn.”

He smiles. No one down here normally talks to Lucifer like that.

“I suppose I don’t. Things were going badly here, and with a new war in Heaven, we don’t even need a threat from the Angra to feel a bit grim.”

“It must feel funny to be o

n the side of the rebel angels this time.”

“Don’t think that hasn’t occurred to me. But time and circumstances change.”

“Do you think the rebels are going to win?”

“I honestly don’t know. There isn’t the great desire for suicide among Heaven angels as there is here, but there’s plenty of bloodlust.”

“I don’t understand. If they’re not part of Merihim and Deumos’s suicide pact, what’s the war about?”

“Us,” he says. “The four remaining brothers. Brother Ruach wants the three of us dead and so do his followers. The rebel angels refuse to take part in our murder and so a war begins.”

“Is there anything you can do to help?”

“Oh my. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Sorry. It’s just, even though you’re kind of broken, you’re still a piece of God. You still have powers.”

“Not like Ruach’s. He’s the part that broke away from the rest of us first, taking most of our power with him.”

“Do you know where your missing brother is?”

Muninn fiddles with a spoon on the table.

“Chaya. He’s right here. Asleep not fifty feet from us. Ruach was keeping him in Heaven hoping to draw the rest of us into a confrontation. Samael helped Chaya to escape and brought him here.”

“Great. That’s three of you. Can you do some kind of Voltron thing, put yourselves back together and kick Ruach’s ass?”

“We tried to reunite and failed. If our brother Neshamah wasn’t dead, maybe the four of us could combine our strength and fight Ruach, but with just the three of us, it’s doubtful. I don’t know if the others want to try again.”

I’ve never seen Mr. Muninn so down. And I’m the bastard who guilted him into becoming Lucifer.

“I’m guessing you’re not working on repairing the city anymore.”

“No one is left to do the work. Every sensible Hellion is at home hiding.”