The Timekeeper (28 page)

“There’s no way to know. The Order of the Seraphim doesn’t keep the best records on the subject and neither does the Visa department on our side. People go missing all of the time, doesn’t mean they’ve been kidnapped, it just means they don’t want to be on the grid.” I frowned.

Figured. Countless times I’d ran into someone who had a Visa, and had been reported missing. Some came here to escape the oversight of their governments, and not checking in with Immigration seemed par for the course.

If I hadn’t been an agent for the government, I wouldn’t check in either. I’d never been a proponent of Big Brother and often turned a blind eye to infractions. Yeah, some employee’s would always be slackers, and this was one of many reasons I decided to resign
.

“I don’t know what to say. We can’t tolerate renegade Angels running off with Aliis Mundi citizens, but there isn’t a good way to track them down. Even if we came up with one
,
the Council would never approve the manpower. I had to fight with them and drag Dexter into it just to get the additional personnel to deal with the already existing Veil jumping problem.

“If Dex hadn’t been involved, those assholes would’ve turned my request down. Needless to say
,
the Council isn’t happy with me. There’s no way they’re going to give me this too.” Fucking useless bastards.

They’d gladly waste resources on bullshit before they lent me a hand
.
The Council’s stance on missing citizens seem to be that the general public weren’t important enough to locate, which benefited the deserters, but sure didn’t help the people who actually vanished
.

“How did everything go?” Darius asked. I never had a chance to tell anyone what was going on, getting nabbed too fast to share the wealth of information I’d managed to drag up.

“Well, I got my additional Guards and agents to monitor visas and deportations. They aren’t thrilled I’m getting married, but allowed me a couple weeks off
,
and I can go home for once in something other than an astral body. A great deal of bitching and moaning about me retiring, and being forced to find a replacement at short notice. King Pain-in-the-Ass is happy, but he pushed the date forward so I need to talk to Echo. Other than that, a typical day at the office.” He gave me a skeptical look.

“Azazel moved the wedding date up to when?” I tried to fake a smile, but I obviously wasn’t thrilled.

“About two weeks, on the full moon.” Darius stopped moving, lurching me to a stop with him. He bore down on me
.

“Two weeks from now?” I nodded and started walking again, counting on Dalvin to remember where they’d parked.

“Ilana, stop and talk to me about this. What’s he thinking? Not only is that not enough time to plan a wedding of this magnitude, and this is a terrible time to take a honeymoon. We’ve got way too much shit going on at the moment
.
” I agreed with him, but there was nothing I could do to change the situation. The rule: No arguing with the Demon King.

“Listen, dealing with dad was a huge drama I’d rather not get into right now. As it stands, in two weeks is the full moon, and it also happens to be the moon he married my mother under. He wanted the wedding on the same day as some kind of honor. I tried to fight with him, but in the end he got the better of me. It means a lot to him, and he means a lot to me. I’m not going to tell him no.” Darius furrowed his brow.

He understood. He’d been stuck between a rock and a hard place just as I’d been, and after all this time, you learned to live with it.

“You’d better call Echo, she needs to knows she’s been elected to plan the largest, fastest ceremony in the history of weddings.” He tossed me my phone to me and walked me the rest of the way to the car. We had a two-hour drive ahead of us, so I had plenty of opportunity to relay everything to Echo. If anyone could plan a wedding in record time, it’d be her.

Nighttime ceremonies were tricky, and she’d need to find assistance of the undead to ensure she followed Vampire custom
,
as well as Demon and Djinn. I was grateful I wasn’t the one doing the planning.

How would I work around this fucked up schedule? Fittings and run-throughs would dominate my existence, everyone was going to have to try and adhere to midnight arrangements. How did they plan to get a hold of my mother? Cassandra might be anywhere, and she hadn’t bothered to show up for the last two weddings.

My marriages weren’t at the top of her priority list
.
Then again, nothing I did seemed to be important unless Assassin related. We hadn’t spoken much since I’d started working for the Council. She didn’t approve of my choice in employers
,
and my career caused a rift between us.

All I wanted to do was go home, take a shower, change my clothes, pop some pain pills and pass out on the couch. Of course, I didn’t believe I’d accomplish anything on my list. Everyone would want to know something about either the meeting or the kidnapping. I slid into the car, and started to dial my girl, but hesitated.

The good thing to come out of all of this
,
I’d now had found the perfect plan to get rid of Chester and Gideon. I intended to send them after the Wings of the Daemons. A call to Nathan would be in order, but everything could be worked out later. It’s not like I didn’t have two hours to do nothing but make phone calls.

“Darius, did you forget to tell me something?” I surveyed him as somehow his large body shrunk down to the size of an average person.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, my love.” I snorted, bullshit. He was acutely aware of the reference, and I wasn’t happy.

“Funny thing, I’m sure someone mentioned something to you, since you’ve been spending so much time in Belt ta `Demm, that Nicolette’s been plotting to take my throne.” He cringed. Oh, he’d been notified all right, in fact the Dragon had been told several times. He turned around in the front seat to face me.

“Listen, yes I was informed, but I didn’t want to tell you and stress you out more. You’ve been put under enough pressure lately. No one is going to allow her to take over. Your father’s on top of this with a billion precautions. Even Seraphine is helping thwart your sister’s efforts. The situation is being handled. I assume Azazel told you?” I started thinking about who else might be keeping things from me.

“No actually, it wasn’t him. He didn’t say anything to me. The subject never came up, but I presume he was too excited about the prospect of a new son-in-law and grandchildren. Either it’s a simple oversight, or he expected someone else to talk to me about it. It doesn’t matter who told me, other than it should’ve been you. How long have you known?” He frowned and I scowled.

“A week or so. Azazel brought it to my attention when he started harassing me about your third marriage. Right before you found out about Hel trying to kill Jaylynne. Everything happened all at once. Really, I wasn’t trying to keep this from you
,
but I didn’t want you to completely freak on me and have a nervous breakdown. We were already working on correcting the problem, and you were stressing, adding to it wouldn’t help.” I would give him that. I was ready to lose it at the time, and things started to compound on top of me.

Everything was different now. I’d found some resolutions to the piles of shit that kept cropping up all around me. I’d resolved the marriage, dealt with the Council, and assumed we’d put a serious pause on the lunatic Angel squad.

“Well, it appears some items dropped off my over the top to-do-list. So, tell me everything you’ve kept to yourself for the past week, Darius. I assume this hostile takeover of my throne by Nicolette had a lot to do with Azazel’s need for me to take on a third husband?” Darius nodded sheepishly
.

“A little bit. He’s looking for the prophecy to be fulfilled. You know
,
the one you’ve been ignoring. Everything needed to come to pass
,
this won’t be put off forever, Ilana.” He was right, but I hadn’t wanted to be a part of it. Putting off my destiny was no longer an option.

“I understand, so tell me what you know about this bullshit.” I watched him as he tried to find the best choice of words.

“Okay, the Council leaked the spell to Hel so she’d be able to get out of Helheim. The whole situation was designed to distract you. If they kept you tied up with Jaylynne, you wouldn’t notice your sister’s crap. Azazel’s been spreading misinformation
,
and they will think you’re extraordinarily busy.

“The Council believes they’re keeping Azazel on the go with the territory disputes, but for once Ariannona and he are getting along, so she’s been hitting in hard and heavy and he’s been mock fighting leaving everything up to Relboron. Neal’s been working his ass off, Ariannona failed to mention to anyone in her staff
,
it’s all just a ploy.” I chuckled
.
They certainly had this worked out without my help
.

“Good to know you and dad have this covered. What’s Seraphine up to in this mess?” A smile crept up on his handsome face.

“Sera’s playing Nicki. You’re bitch-sister approached Sera with her plan and Sera agreed to help her. She handled it pretty well, bad mouthing you and such, but as soon as Nicki left Summer Island she went to Azazel with the news. Sera’s still pissed off about Nicki trying to break up her marriage
,
and yours. The way she sees it, you never can trust a Noire.” I smiled
.

Seraphine and I used to tease Nicolette endlessly. Her family, the Noire Clan, was notorious for traitorous behavior, selling out everyone around them, including their own blood
.

“Figures Nicki would fall for Sera’s act, she’s never been the brightest and Sera’s always been the gentle one. I’ll pay Sera a little visit and thank her. What does Azazel plan to do with Nicki? He can’t allow this kind of treason.”

Darius turned back to face the road, “I wouldn’t put too much thought into that right now. Let this play out and you’ll find out what Azazel’s planned for his troublesome daughter
,
and the useless Spider she married.” Count Rodrigo Spider of Belt ta `Mewt, my sister’s husband, and Azul couldn’t be around each other without starting an all out brawl. I never figured out what he’d done to deserve my husband’s hatred.

“You need to thank Sera for putting Queen Ariannona on our side. All she had to do was explain to her how you had no intention of threatening her kingdom the way Nicki intended to, and ta
-
da, instant ally. Please continue to pretend you’ve got no idea what’s going on.

“If the Council finds out you’re aware of their plan, they’ll tell Nicki. This is a chance to rid us permanently of Nicolette, and screw the mangy bastards in the process. Azazel is making sure your place on the throne is safe.” I understood. I’d play along for now.

“Does Dexter know?”

Darius turned to me, “Everyone does, especially Dexter. He’s one of our greatest allies. So you’ll have this wedding, you’ll live out the rest of this life, and then you’ll secure Belt ta `Demm. Got it?” I didn’t appreciate being told what to do, but I’d have to get the reasons from my father if I wanted to put all of the pieces together.

Azazel rarely gave away his plans, if someone stabbed him in the back, he would still have an exit strategy. He wouldn’t even let me in on the whole plan.

I leaned against the seat, unsure of the best way to handle this situation. I’d have to wait and let it unfold, react to things as I normally would and only time would tell.

After we had gotten home, I’d taken a shower but didn’t bother to do anything else. I passed out. I hadn’t slept well in several days and I needed the rest badly. My wonderful husband called me in sick to avoid playing a million questions with my mom. Echo agreed to cover my shifts and she hopped all over the wedding planning. I heard her jumping up and down
,
and clapping like a fool over the phone when I told her.

I slept for about sixteen hours, and they’d been the best hours I’d had all month. I didn’t dream, get pulled away for a meeting, and no one bothered me. When I woke up, Darius had been kind enough to bring me pancakes and eggs in bed
,
even though the clock said it was closer to lunchtime
.

I’d always believed breakfast was an anytime meal. We talked for a while; consisting of Darius catching me up on shit I couldn’t care less about. I needed this break, and the time off had definitely reduced my stress level.

Since I seemed to find myself with a little extra time on my hands, I decided to read. Reading remained my favorite activity, and I wished I had more opportunity to indulge myself. I could easily polish off a four hundred-page book in a day. Personal favorites included historical fiction and erotica.

History brought back memories of the good ol’ days. I loved the clothing, the language, and the eras of the past. For me, the medieval ages were some of my favorites and allowed me to relive my childhood. Erotica, well that’s self-explanatory, and combining the two genres really caused me to long for my own history.