Page 32 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
“Of course I remember the Court. It’s where many of the fellow Defenders of the Blood reside.” She set her sword aside and picked up a massive two-handed battle-ax.
“Do you remember being Sovereign there?” Gabriel asked.
“Sovereign? I’m not the Sovereign; I’m a warrior.” She paused, then added, “Although come to think of it, I believe someone mentioned there was a shake-up in the Court, and a new Sovereign took over.”
“You were the Sovereign approximately sixteen hundred years ago,” Gabriel told her.
She shook her head. “You’ve got me confused with someone else. I’m just a simple defender, nothing more.”
A thought occurred to me at that moment. “That’s exactly what we need, though. There’s a very bad thane that was recently released from his prison in the Seventh Hour, and the only way we can save all the innocent mortals and immortals is to have him put back into the Hour. To do so, we need to help liberate a man named Desislav from the Akasha.”
“Desislav?” She frowned, shaking her head again. “I thought ... but no. I am no Guardian. If you need someone brought from the Akasha, that’s what you need.”
“My demon lord is a Guardian,” Jim told her.
She studied him again, then, to my happiness, knelt down and took its head in both her hands to examine its face. “I don’t have a son. I would know if I did.”
“You didn’t get to see me much, according to Hildegarde. They took you away because they couldn’t stop you from bleeding out,” Jim said.
“None of this is familiar to me,” she said, and stood up, apparently done with the subject.
“Jim, perhaps you would shift to human form so that your mother can see if something about you refreshes her memory,” Gabriel suggested.
My eyes opened wide at his words, and while Jim answered, “OK, but I’m not going to stay like that. Dog form is just so much cooler,” I whipped off my shirt, thankful I had a camisole on under it.
“Mate?” Gabriel asked as I jumped forward when Jim’s form shimmered and elongated into that of an approximately six-foot-tall, stockily built, dark-haired man.
A completely naked man.
I had my shirt whipped around Jim’s waist before Parisi could do more than blink, and although the shirt left its butt exposed, I tied the sleeves together behind to keep everyone from getting an eyeful.
Parisi took an involuntary step backward at the sight of Jim. She lifted a hand as if to caress its face, blinked twice, then dropped her hand.
“I’m sorry. You seem like a nice demon, but I don’t know you,” she told it in a softer voice than she’d used before.
“Will you help us?” Gabriel asked, and I knew he figured if we could get her out of the memory-stripping Beyond, we had a chance of restoring her past. “Saving the mortal and immortal worlds would be a fitting project for a defender of your status.”
She looked dubious for a few seconds; then her brow cleared as she reached into a cloth bag sitting on a bale of hay and extracted a cell phone. “It would appear that I am free at the moment.”
“Dude,” Jim said to me in a whisper. “My mom has a cell phone.”
“Kind of boggles the mind, huh?” I answered.
“Are you certain I can be of help?” Parisi asked. “There are so many worthy individuals who could use a defender. ...”
“Absolutely,” I said at the same time that Gabriel said, “We couldn’t do it without you.”
She thought for a moment.
“Please,” Jim said, and with the emotion it bound to that one word, tears pricked behind my eyes. I gave it another quick pat to let it know Gabriel and I were there for it.
Evidently Parisi wasn’t immune to the pleading in its voice, because after another few seconds’ hesitation, she relented. “Very well. I can give you three days. Then I really must return, because Don Diego will take advantage of my absence to take charge of the Defenders Pilates Class should he find out I left.”
“We will naturally return you to the Beyond at any time,” Gabriel told her.
“Stay here,” Parisi said, then disappeared into the house.
I caught Mabel eyeing Jim.
