I swung the sword for the last time, and the head of Baraqiel ap Lucifer rolled away into the sand. A few moments later the head and body started to decompose rapidly until all that was left was a kind of tarlike goo.

I kicked a whole lot of sand over the goo so no one would step in it accidentally. Also, I wasn’t sure that Baraqiel couldn’t regenerate from the light of the sun even in this condition.

I was pretty sure I’d buried him well enough that no one would dig him up accidentally—it was winter, after all, and not many kids would be down here with their sand pails for several months. The sun was just starting to come up, which meant that I’d been out for at least three hours. Samiel had probably woken, and Beezle might be up, too. They were probably panicking.

Unfortunately, my magic was still out and my cell phone was still in my travel bag, sitting on the floor of my kitchen.

I sighed, and started to climb the dune. It was going to be a long walk home.

19

AS I’D EXPECTED, BEEZLE WAS UP AND TOTALLY freaking out when I got home. He, Samiel and Gabriel were all sitting in the dining room with their heads together, apparently devising some action plan.

“Anyone for cinnamon rolls?” I asked, leaning against the doorjamb.

They all looked up, three identical expressions of surprise on their faces. Beezle flew toward me first and put his clawed hands on my face, examining first one side and then the other.

“New bruises on the neck but nowhere else,” he announced. “Where in the four hells have you been?”

So I sat down at the dining room table and told them about Baraqiel—how he was Lucifer’s son and the wolf-killer, how he could shapeshift, and how he had tried to first frame me and then kill me. Gabriel looked graver than usual when I finished my story.

“You have killed another of Lord Lucifer’s progeny,” Gabriel said. “He will not be pleased with you.”

“Believe me, I’ve thought of that already,” I said, waving my right hand. “I try not to contemplate Lucifer’s feelings too closely. It makes me queasy.”

Samiel grabbed my hand out of the air and turned it over, looking at it. Then he looked up at me, questioning.

I stared. There was a mark there that I hadn’t noticed before. It looked almost like a henna tattoo, and it was the exact shape of the snake that adorned the hilt of Lucifer’s sword. The snake seemed to wink at me as I looked at it.

“It couldn’t be,” I said. I crossed the room to the place where I had left the sword leaning against the wall. The blade was still covered in blue-black ichor from Baraqiel’s body.

I picked up the sword and examined it. The snake had disappeared from the hilt. I looked down at my hand again.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said. “I think the sword branded me.”

“Perhaps that will save your life when Lord Lucifer discovers you have killed Baraqiel,” Gabriel said. “In all the years that Zerachiel and Nathaniel carried the sword it never marked either of them.”

“Did you know? About Baraqiel?” I asked Gabriel.

He shook his head. “The fallen have always known Baraqiel only as Lord Lucifer’s messenger. I do not know how he managed to hide the evidence of his paternity, but one should never question the Morningstar’s ability to deceive others. As I have told you time and again, he is a law unto himself.”

“Right,” I said, and sighed. “Well, I should call Wade and tell him I’ve solved his pack problem. And that he should come and pick up the body in the alley.”

“Speaking of alleys,” Beezle said thoughtfully. “We never did find out who put that portal in the alley where we found the second body, the one that led to Amarantha’s kingdom.”

I shrugged. “Maybe it was Baraqiel. Maybe he wanted a fast way to get in and out of the kingdom.”

Beezle shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. That location is far from anywhere useful in her kingdom.”

“I don’t think I’m up to solving any more mysteries this week,” I said. “We’ll just have to die not knowing.”

“Ignoring this problem means it will come back to bite you in the ass,” Beezle warned.

He was probably right. He usually was. But I really wasn’t up to any more investigating. The mystery of the portal would just have to be.

A couple of hours later Wade and Jude arrived to pick up the body of their pack mate. We had moved it out of the alley and into my garden shed, which looked totally suspicious but again, none of my neighbors seemed to notice. Gabriel had magically wiped the alley clean of any blood and gore.

Wade and Jude loaded the body in the back of their pickup truck. Baraqiel hadn’t had a chance to tear the body to pieces like the others, so at least they would be able to bury this one.

Wade shook his head as my entourage and his stood awkwardly behind the truck bed. “I cannot believe that we were all so deceived by James. How could we not know that was not his true form?”

“He was a spawn of Lucifer,” Jude growled, and he directed his glare at me. “They are most adept at deceit.”

“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I’m the spawn of Azazel.”

“And Madeline Black was the one who stopped Baraqiel for us, so we owe her our gratitude,” Wade said, his voice mildly reproving.

Jude shut up, but I didn’t think he’d be thanking me anytime soon. He turned without another word and climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck.