Exodus (Imp Series Book 8) (13 page)

“Stay,” I told Little Red, realizing that I too was treating him like a dog. I’d make it up to him. Maybe swing by the store and get him a few tins of Spam on the way home. “Oh, and guard my crate of wine.”

I was exhausted. These two elves wound up in the middle of Dis, surrounded by curious demons. Their feet barely hit the ground before I was gone. I grabbed my wine and my dragon, and headed for home. Maybe I could ask if Nyalla could get the Spam, or I could pay someone to deliver it. All I wanted right now was to put my feet up, try some of this wine that I was sure I’d hate, and take a nap.

It wasn’t to be either. Bob greeted me enthusiastically upon my arrival, informing me that he’d just received word that another migration was occurring in Iowa.

“It’s almost dark,” I complained. “I’m off the clock. I’ll go chase elves in the morning. Right now I’m going to crash. Oh, and can you ask Nils to run out and buy some Spam for Little Red? He’ll need it to counteract the fruit and bread those stupid elves fed him in France.”

Bob sighed at my slight toward his people. “It’s an hour behind in Iowa,” he reminded me. “If you hurry, you can be done and back before it gets dark there.”

“Bed,” I told him. Actually I was hoping the humans could do the work for me and I’d just collect the elves from the jail as I had in France. Even if I did zip out to Iowa, I was too worn out to transport another dozen or so elves to Hel. Which meant I’d either need to stay there, taking turns watching them all night with Little Red, or bring them back here, where I really didn’t want them. Six elves in my house? I didn’t want them here. Nyalla wouldn’t want them here. In fact, she was probably getting a bit pissed about Bob’s freedom with my home and my internet. Nope. No elves. There would be no additional elves staying at my home. And hopefully I could manage to get rid of Bob soon too. I wondered if the werewolves would take him in.

“Bed,” I repeated again as I headed to the stairs. “And don’t forget to tell Nils about the Spam.”

I
awoke to the glorious feel of arms around me, Gregory’s weight pressed against my backside, his legs entwined with mine.

“Things okay in Aaru?” I asked, knowing that he wasn’t asleep. That angel never slept.

“No better. No worse.” He pulled me tighter against him. “How’s the elf problem?”

I sighed, thinking I really needed to get my ass to Iowa and deal with batch number three. Later. Much later. I had an angel in my bed and I wasn’t about to leave voluntarily.

“Two migrations so far. I managed to send the group in France back to Hel. The humans had locked them all in a jail cell for defacing statuary. Iceland is another matter. Seems they have something close to elf-worship there. I stuffed the lot of them in a car while I was arguing with their magistrate and they wound up with metal-allergy burns. They’re all in a hospital right now, being plied with sandwiches and gifts. They plan to use them as a tourist attraction.”

Gregory laughed. “In a zoo? Or like the dragon in the British Museum?”

“The latter, except I think they plan to give them a forest area. Designate it as a sanctuary or something and charge people admission. Personally, I think they’d be better off with a dragon.”

“A dragon would eat them,” Gregory observed.

“Better eaten than enslaved,” I countered. Although I was beginning to doubt even that. Yes, there were elves that would want to rule this place and its inhabitants, but the elves I’d encountered to date seemed to truly want to work with the humans and improve their lives. “I should have let the ones in France stay,” I told him. “I feel kind of guilty about sending them back.”

“Don’t go getting all soft on me,” he teased. “You’re the Iblis, the Adversary. You’re not supposed to be feeling guilty about these things.”

Maybe. I still did feel guilty, though. And I had work to do. I thought briefly of the elves in Iowa, then closed my eyes. My angel and I snuggled for a while, neither of us wanting to move.

“How many?”

It took me a second to realize he was asking about the elves. “A dozen in France. Six in Iceland.” I purposely didn’t tell him about the ones in Iowa, knowing he’d make me get up and get over there. I didn’t want to go anywhere right now. Or possibly ever.

“We need to get those elves out of Iceland,” he said. “I’d planned on spreading the Klee elves around individually, but these are clustered together. And if the humans plan to capitalize on their existence, the angels will eventually find out.”

“How? It’s not like Aaru gets e-mail. Angels there aren’t receiving travel brochures in the mail or searching vacation destinations on Expedia. The only angels likely to come across them are the Grigori, and they’re yours.”

“Mine on loan,” he corrected. “They are pledged to be loyal to me, but their hearts are with their choirs. I’ve tried to weed out the extremists, but there’s no saying one won’t find out about the elves in Iceland and spread the word.”

I shrugged. “You covered up when your Grigori saw Amber. Twice. Hush this one too.”

“Amber is one, and her succubus half allows her to blend in with the humans most of the time. This is a group of elves, living openly as elves and being advertised as such by the humans. I won’t be able to hush it.”

He seemed so frustrated by this whole thing. I got that he didn’t want elves here. I didn’t want them here either. They’d royally fuck things up with the humans, and I didn’t trust them one bit. That said, six elves in Iceland wasn’t an apocalyptic-sized disaster. And I didn’t get why he was so worried about the angels knowing.

“So they find out and throw a big welcome party. Big deal. We’ll keep the elven migration to a few hundred tops. We’ll divide them across the globe so they can’t take over a first-world nation. No biggie.”

“It
is
a biggie.” Gregory rolled me over to face him. “There’s not just a welcome party at stake here, it’s the whole human realm. The elves chose to leave for Hel at the end of the war, but we made it quite clear that we’d welcome them back. At that time humans weren’t as they are now. We thought the elves would be of help in shepherding them along.
They
were to be the ones here, walking among the humans, not the Grigori. If they come back, they’ll be expected to take our place among the humans. My job here will be done.
Aaru’s
job here will be done.”

The elves had gone to Hel after the war. The tenth choir had taken their place here among the humans, and then disaster. The first Grigori had fallen into sin, giving the humans gifts they weren’t yet ready to receive, lying with them and siring children. The direction human evolution had taken was the fault of the tenth choir. What better solution to this whole mess than to pull away and let the elves do the job the angels had originally intended them to do.

Only the humans had changed considerably over two and a half million years. The elves had changed too. And there was no going back in time. Not that the rebels in Aaru would think of that. This was just one more reason for them to believe they were right. With the elves finally realizing the error of their ways and coming back to help, they’d leave the humans to elven management, and lock the gates of Aaru to regain their precious vibration levels.

“There has to be another way,” I argued. “If I can’t manage to keep the elves in Hel, if they get discovered, then the angels will insist that they remain. I’m less than thrilled with that, but if it happens the only way elves living among humans will work is with angelic supervision—Grigori supervision. You
can’t
leave.”

Tears stung my eyes. Stupid fucking elves. This was their plot. Divide Aaru. Come through the gates. Then take over. The elves clearly had the notion that they’d be left in charge of the humans while the angels holed up in Aaru. It would be like turning the world over to a group of megalomaniacs—megalomaniacs with fireballs and paralyzing arrows.

“I think you’re underestimating the humans, Cockroach. There are what, a few hundred thousand in all the elven kingdoms together? The humans greatly outnumber them. This is their land. Their ‘magic’ is completely unfamiliar to the elves. I foresee the sheep will soon be guiding the shepherd.”

Maybe he was right, but the humans were easily enchanted by magic and the idea of fae. I’d just witnessed that in Iceland, and I worried that with pretty speeches and promises of riches for all, the sheep would be hobbled at the best, led to slaughter at the worst.

“But you can’t leave them. There must always be Grigori here to assist.”

Gregory’s grim expression wasn’t reassuring. “If it’s discovered that we were refusing to allow the elves to leave Hel, it will strengthen the opposition against us in Aaru. I’ve been thinking about this. What we’re fighting against—it’s inevitable, as inevitable as the eventual apocalypse. I’d hoped to put the half-elves on an island or something to get them up to speed on human society and planned a staged integration. We can do the same with the other elves as long as I have time to organize it. That way the Grigori and I could can claim that we have some kind of assimilation process for the elves. That will satisfy a good number of the angels and may take the heat off us. It could even be enough to quench the fires of rebellion. It would direct their attention to the elves and away from us.”

I got it. It would also direct their attention away from me. But the idea still bothered me. An island orientation program sounded great for the half-elves, but I hated the thought of hundreds of thousands of elves here. Hated it.

“What rights do the humans have in any of this?” I asked. “This is
their
place. It’s bad enough they have you Grigori standing over them with a gun pointed to their collective heads, ready to pull the trigger if they don’t ‘evolve’ the way you want. Now you’re going to dump a bunch of elves on them, and the best you can do is stuff them on an island and hope to train them into being good co-stewards of this place?”

“We’re angels. The ‘transition over time’ can be tens of thousands of years. In the meantime, we’ll ensure they don’t leave the island or interact with the humans until they’re ready.”

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes! You’re trading humans in a deal you made nearly three million years ago. And for what? To win enough angels to your side to keep the Ruling Council intact?”

“How do you not understand?” Gregory snapped in return. “You were there at the meeting when we were attacked. Judging by Chabriel and Baradel’s actions in recent Council meetings, we’ve lost two choirs to the rebels. We’ve lost Uriel’s seat. We’re losing. If things keep going this way, my brothers and I will be replaced from the Ruling Council, possibly even banned from Aaru all together. That’s if we’re not killed. Weaken us, tear us down little by little and it won’t be so hard to murder us in our own circles. This situation has become so dire that we three archangels practically stand alone. If we can sway enough of the angels to our side, hold onto Aaru, then everything will be better in the long run. It’s a short term sacrifice for a better future state.”

Better future state for whom? I knew he loved Aaru, that he and his siblings were the eldest, the ones who formed their heavenly home. I sympathized, but to trade the humans and
their
home for Aaru wasn’t acceptable. And it wasn’t like the angel I’d come to love to propose such a thing.

He ran a hand through his chestnut-colored curls, the lines on his face deepening. “There will be a transition. The Grigori will remain until the elves can take over. You know the Ruling Council. This whole thing could take thirty thousand years.”

“And then what? You’ll take your angels and go home, close the doors of Aaru? And all the guidance you’ve provided for the humans to this point? They will be out of your hands forever. All the angels who had hopes of finding a demon to mate, or even to create offspring with will leave. Asta will never see Dar again.” My voice hitched. “
I’ll
never see you again.”

His black eyes were wild, and I knew he was desperate and not thinking things through. Where was his omnipotence when he needed it? Perhaps these things only worked at a certain vibration level?

“You can come with me to Aaru. You’re a member of the Ruling Council, an Angel of Chaos.”

Right. “You heard the petition at the Ruling Council meeting. They blame me for this whole mess. I’m not welcome in Aaru. I’m sure they’ll find a way to do away with the clause that allows the Iblis visitation rights,” I told him. “And even if they don’t, I cannot turn my back on my household, on my humans, on Hel. I won’t. Even for you, I won’t.”

“I may lose Aaru,” he hissed. “I’ll have fallen. I’ll be banished. I can’t lose my home, the place I helped form. I can’t.”

“Then fight harder.” I saw the look on his face and reached up a hand to touch his cheek. “I’ll be by your side. I’ll bring a whole host of demons to the party. I’ll bring the Nephilim, the werewolves. Heck, I’ll even bring a little red dragon. Just fight harder. This doesn’t have to be you or me. There has to be a solution that’s us.”

He hesitated, an odd light coming into his eyes. “Cockroach, I’ve got an idea. You…that might just work. I’ll need you and the demons of Hel to join in this fight.”

I had no clue how that was going to help. “Sounds to me like it would just make things worse.”

Gregory shook his head. “I refuse to accept the rebels’ demands. They refuse to change. If it’s going to come down to a war, then I want to make sure we win it.”

He was crazy. He’d completely lost his mind. Demons fighting angels? “That didn’t exactly work out so well last time, remember? The Angels of Chaos lost. We’re demons now. What makes you think that this time we’d win?”

“Because this time you’ll have half of the Angels of Order on your side. Because this time instead of one archangel against three, we’ll all be united.”

Crazy. I was supposed to be the insane one, not him. “How am I supposed to get everyone up there, though? I’m not very good when I need to teleport more than three or four. And I hate to tell you this, but no one in Hel gives two shits about me being the Iblis. I don’t have an army, and last time I checked I was the only Angel of Chaos—”