Page 5 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
“Thankfully, Magoth has no powers left. Or near to none.” Gabriel continued to look thoughtful. “But there is someone else. ...”
“Sally!” May said, nodding, then suddenly frowned. “Oh, but she’s mostly powerless, too, now that she’s no longer running the Court of Divine Blood.”
“That’s ...” Allie scrunched up her nose.
“The Court is what mortals think of as heaven,” Adam said. “My grandmother is the polter ambassador there. The Sovereign is the being—or beings—who run it.”
“Gotcha,” Allie said, drawing patterns on the tablecloth with a spoon. “And your friend is connected with it?”
“Formerly, and Sally isn’t really what you’d call a friend,” May said with a wrinkle of her nose.
“She helped us more than you like to admit,” Gabriel reminded her.
“Yes, but she also encouraged Magoth to bind me to him, tormented me while I was stuck in Abaddon, and, worst of all, always had the hots for you and was constantly trying to touch you right in front of me,” May said with a little growl to her voice.
Gabriel laughed and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “She didn’t give a damn about me except insomuch as it angered you whenever she paid me attention. But I do agree that I’m not sure how much of her Sovereign power she retains.”
“OK, so scratch Sally,” I said, absently watching Jim as it finished its dinner. I’d warned it that it could contribute to the conversation only so long as it was not being offensive or obnoxious, and had something to say that would be of interest to everyone. Its nose was a bit out of joint because of that, and it pretended to ignore me in order to gaze hopefully at May (the weakest against its begging) and the little bit of salmon left on her plate. “If we want powerful, there are two people I can think of. One is Caribbean Battiste, the head of the Guardians’ Guild, although ... I don’t know. Nora—she’s my former mentor, and is getting married next month to Drake’s guard Pal—Nora says she thinks I could give Caribbean a run for his money. Not that I’d want to, mind you.”
“Aisling is a Guardian savant,” Drake explained when the polters and vamps looked confused. He didn’t look pleased by the fact, but I did hear pride in his voice. “She may have had an unconventional start, but she is quite powerful in her own right.”
“Unconventional start,” May said, giving Gabriel a cheeky smile. “Like ... so badass that some other wyvern tried to steal her.”
Gabriel looked momentarily horrified. I laughed. Drake rolled his eyes.
“That is old news, and long forgiven,” I told Gabriel, enjoying when he sent Drake and Baltic a pleading look.
“Yes, I think that’s best for all,” he said, then cleared his throat and added, “I doubt, however—and no offense is intended, Aisling—if even you could deal with a demigod. They are notoriously tricky.”
“Ratsbane! I’m going to have to call Dr. Kostich, aren’t I?” Ysolde said, her elbows on the table as she dropped her head to her hands. “And he’ll make a smart-ass comment about Baltic being fat, and that’ll just piss me off, and then we won’t end up getting him to help stuff this bad vamp back into the underworld without demanding all sorts of things.”
“I could go a long time without seeing Dr. Kostich again,” May murmured, but so softly that only Gabriel and I heard her.
“You and me both. Did I tell you about the time he basically started to kill me? I was perhaps a minute away from death. It was in Budapest. I’d say he’s a threat to the Otherworld, but he’s so damned powerful, I don’t know how anyone would ever get rid of him.” I leaned back, worrying the problem in my mind. “Maybe if your council sent him a request for help?”
Christian shook his head. “This is an issue to Dark Ones, not the Otherworld as a whole. The Committee would not help us, even assuming they had the power to restore the thane to his prison. No, we must find another way, and while I appreciate the willingness to help, it is a problem for the Moravian Council.”
“Not necessarily,” Ysolde said, clearly dismissing the vampire’s objection. “You don’t know how powerful the mates can be when we put our heads together, and you have a bonus of having three wyverns and two polters to add to the collective brainpower. Maybe if we found a way to pressure one of the existing demon lords? Who’s the premiere prince now?”
I frowned. “I’m not sure. ... Jim?”
“What?”
I gave it a good, hard look. It wasn’t normally surly, so something had to be up with it. “Do you happen to know who the premiere prince is? I know they reset things with the recent renaissance of the Otherworld.”
“Paymon.” It went back to licking the plate that May had, indeed, set down for it to finish her dinner.
“Maybe if we asked that Sasha person if the Court could help,” Ysolde suggested. “The one who told us that Jian was dead.”
I leaned down to Jim while May was quickly explaining that Jian had been the red wyvern before his much lamented death, and who Sasha was. “Are you feeling all right?” I asked, unsure if Jim was just being moody, or if something was actually wrong with it.
“Yeah.” It was silent for a moment; then it said softly, “It’s just that today’s my birthday, and no one remembered. Not even you.”
“You what?” I said in a volume that had everyone turning to look. “You don’t have a birthday. You can’t.”
“Why can’t I?” it asked, giving me a jaded look. “You have one.”
“Yes, but I’m human. That is, I was born human.” I glanced around the table for support, but everyone looked as confused as I felt. “But you’re a demon. Demons are made, not born.”
