of all time. The only reason he hasn’t caused more damage is because he leans toward fits of uprising. Once in a while, his better nature rears its holy head and he gives his master a little bit of a headache.”
“I don’t get it,” Riona shrugged. “If that’s true, and that was so long ago, how is he still around? Why hasn’t another Pure Soul taken him out?”
“Oh, they have,” Ramiel assured with a smile that tried, unsuccessfully, to belie lack of a deeper meaning. “His earthly days have come and gone, even as a demon. But no matter what tricks and trades old Lucifer picks up, only the Big Boss can actually destroy a soul. Between you and me, I think He still holds out hope that one of Gaius’s insurgencies could pay off. He might find a way to break his bonds of demonhood and come back to our side. Gaius was… is a smart prick. He sees an opportunity, some loophole he can exploit, he’ll fucking take it. Might even overthrow the devil someday, if the circumstances are right. It’s happened before, after all. Lucifer’s only had the job for about four thousand years. Before that, he was just a minion like any other. No doubt, Gaius has the knowhow, he just needs the moment and the right circumstances to materialize. It’s probably the reason the Big Boss hasn’t blown his traitor-ass soul to bacon bits.”
Her eyes went lazy as she mulled over Ramiel’s story. “So, if either Marc or I betray our moral code, we’re doomed. Therefore, if Marc and I…. If we were to ever…”
Ramiel’s eyes narrowed like they were knives he meant to throw at her. “You fuck Marc, you fuck us all.”
“That’s putting it bluntly.”
“It is, isn’t it?” With another louder-than-necessary sip, the angel stood and set his cup on the side table. “Look, I’m not telling you how to lead your life or trying to say there’s anything wrong with Marc. Big Boss takes that whole ‘free will’ thing pretty darn seriously. But just keep that tidbit in mind when you’re back in your room and imagining his sacraments in your altar. Every moment you indulge in that fantasy, you’re creating a tailor-made plan for Lucifer to move in and exploit.”
She swallowed. Hard. “I’ll keep everything on the up and up.”
“Good.” With a swipe of his hand through the air, Ramiel conjured a manila envelope sealed with cardinal wax and about the size of a magazine. He tossed it unceremoniously into her lap. “These are the details of your next assignment. Get yourself together — or hell, go toss yourself off once more if you think that helps — and then get Dee and Marc and head out. Marc needed a few days to recover from that deal with Hermosa. I’ve kept this on the backburner as long as I could, but y’all can’t keep sitting on the side lines. Time to get back into the game.”
Chapter 16
“The last time I saw this many crucifixes, I was shopping in my seminary school’s gift store.”
Dee gave a hearty laugh to Marc’s quip. There was no denying that, if not for the prominence of fishnet stockings, leather collars, piercings in any body part that could play host, and more flashing flesh than in the most liberal of nudist colonies, the less informed might think the crowd hoping to make it past the bouncers at Persephone’s Grotto were here for some sort of old-fashioned, midnight church revival.
“Why is it that the further off the mark you Christians go, the more you cling to your crosses?”
Marc turned him an amused expression. “You want the church’s answer, or one of my personal, smart-ass variety?”
“Whichever one you think is true, Father.”
Marc pointed to a his-and-her set of matching Goths. A quick look from side-to-side, a smack of their hands and their transaction was signed, sealed, and intravenously delivered. “After they’ve committed themselves to a dark path, only traces of their former faith lies behind them. They cling to the last relic of that faith like a tether. It gives them an anchor in time, in which they were someone better than they are today, and maybe they can be again.”
Dee rolled his eyes. “And your smart-ass answer?”
Marc looked affronted. “That was my smart-ass answer. What, did I not come off as sarcastic enough for you?”
Maybe not in his first comment, but his follow up retort was classic bastard Marc.
It was amazing how the priest had rebounded from his