Black Spring

“So it is settled, then?” Nathaniel said, cutting us off before our bickering spiraled down further. “The gargoyle will stay with you whenever you leave the house. He is the only being that can see the true essence of the shapeshifter. It would be too easy otherwise for the creature to approach you in the guise of J.B. or someone else you know.”

“He’s going to have to stay on my shoulder at the wedding like a mutant parrot. It would be too easy to approach me there.”

“Wedding? What wedding?” Beezle asked. “I don’t know anything about a wedding.”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, patting my pockets. “I left the invitation in the suit that was covered with squid blood.”

“So whose wedding are we going to?” Beezle demanded.

“Lucifer and Evangeline’s,” I said.

Beezle looked from Nathaniel to me. “When did this happen?”

“When we were at the Ghirardelli shop,” I said.

“Wait—you had time to go to the Ghirardelli shop between confronting Alerian and completely destroying our block? And you went without me?”

“Isn’t this business of a wedding more pressing than chocolate?” Jude asked.

“Nothing is more important than chocolate,” Beezle said.

“I don’t like the idea of you at Lucifer’s wedding,” Jude said. “Too many opportunities for an attack on you.”

Or for someone to attack Lucifer and for you to get caught in the cross fire, Samiel said.

“I will be with her,” Nathaniel said.

“And J.B. will be there, too,” I said. “Unfortunately, attendance is not optional.”

Samiel stood up abruptly. I just remembered. I noticed something when I picked up the mail outside.

“Oh, the mail,” I said. “I forgot about it after I tossed it on the lawn.”

Samiel retrieved the packet from the side table near the front door and brought it to me, bottom side up. Lucifer’s seal was on the back of the envelope.

I pulled the letter out of the rubber band and turned it over.

“This is for you,” I said to Jude.

The werewolf took the envelope from me with a fierce frown. He did not like anything that had to do with Lucifer.

“There’s another one,” Beezle said.

I turned it over. This letter was addressed to Samiel. There was another for Daharan, and even one for Beezle, who seemed thrilled that he had gotten a personal invitation.

“I’m totally bringing a video camera,” Beezle said. “I know people who would pay good money for video footage of Lucifer in a cummerbund.”

“So we’re all invited,” I said slowly. “Even Beezle.”

“Like I would have stayed at home anyway,” he said.

“But the point is that Lucifer made absolutely sure you would show up. All of you,” I said, looking around the table.

We are your team, Samiel said.

“But does he want you there to back me up in case things go pear-shaped? Or does he want to take you all out in one shot so I’m left alone and vulnerable? Or does he want to hold you hostage in order to get me to do what he wants?”

“Regardless, you are not going alone,” Nathaniel said.

“And who’s to say we could all be, as you put it, ‘taken down in one shot’?” Jude asked. “None of us are weaklings. Even the great and mighty Lucifer won’t be able to destroy us without a fight.”

“I just wish I knew what his game was with this wedding in the first place.” I said. “He’s a law unto himself. He doesn’t need an American wedding to give Evangeline legal rights. And for all his talk of an heir, I can’t see that he needs one. Lucifer and all his brothers are immortal, older than the galaxy. Their parents are creatures that were born with the formation of the universe, and according to Daharan they are still alive, although sleeping. Which is apparently a good thing for humanity, because they are powerful and short-tempered.”

“Not like anyone we know,” Beezle muttered.

“The point is, why now? Why marry Evangeline? Why all the fuss about an heir? Why threaten the relative stability of his kingdom by bringing everyone together in one place? He’s practically guaranteeing a war will start,” I said.

“Alerian is attempting to start a war also,” Nathaniel said.

“Are they looking for an excuse to go at one another?” I asked.

“I think it’s pointless to try to anticipate Lucifer’s plans,” Jude said. “Unless we get more information between today and the wedding day, we should focus on the problems before us. The shapeshifter. Alerian. The mayor’s plan to fence off anybody magical and different.”

“The giant dead squid in the front of our house that’s not going to get moved anytime soon and already stinks to high heaven,” Beezle said. “And it’s not even rotting yet.”

I pushed away from the table. “And we still have to check the house for infestations. Samiel and I can start up on this level. Nathaniel, you and Jude can check the apartment downstairs.”

I gave Nathaniel the spare key. He looked at me. “What if Daharan is in the apartment?”