After Mass, Gramps and I stood in line, waiting our turn to meet and be greeted by the pastor. Gramps was giving me sidelong glances, no doubt, wondering at my patience. I usually tear ass getting out of church as quick as I can, but here I was standing in line like everyone else. When our turn arrived, Gramps thanked Father Turnick for an excellent sermon and complimented the church's beauty and magnificence. Then the stout little priest was shaking my hand and looking me in the eye.
“Father, I have a question if I may?”
“Certainly.”
“Have you ever heard the names Barbiel, Briathos and Eae?”
His eyes widened and he nodded. “Of course. Barbiel is the angel of October. Briathos is an angel who fights demons. I'm not so sure about Eae, but that one may also be a demon fighter. Why do you ask?”
“Well I heard the names mentioned in passing and wondered about them, that's all. But can you tell me what Michael's charge is?”
He nodded again. “He is the Angel of Protection and Courage. Patron angel of law enforcement and military. You have a look of one or the other about you, so he may well be your Patron.”
“Thank you, Father.”
I took advantage of the long line behind us to move past him, although I could tell he was curious about my questions.
“What was all that about?” Gramps asked, when we were fully outside.
I gave him a quick rundown of my strange encounter with the confused and possibly angelic young man who called himself Barbiel.
Epilogue
We remained mostly quiet on the way home. Any attempts to discuss my odd experience at the church petered off as we each struggled with the implications. Instead, by mutual, if silent consent, we ignored it and spent the rest of the day roaming about Brooklyn shopping for some things that Gramps was interested in (mostly books), and sampling the international foods. Gramps went home to the farm the next day and I returned to work. I was waylaid by Briana Duclair right after seeing Gramps off. His Ford pickup had no sooner pulled away, when a black government SUV pulled up in front of me and the head of D.O.A.A. popped the rear door.
“Hey, Gordon, let me give you a ride to work. Our introduction last week seemed too short.” She smiled as she said it but her eyes were hard and the two beefy guys in the front looked ready to try to force the issue. I actually contemplated letting them have a go at it, but decided it was early in the week for a charge of assaulting federal agents. So I paused long enough to let the tension ramp up, then shrugged.
“Sure, it'll give me a chance to ride on the government’s dime.”
I climbed into the back seat next to her and the door no sooner closed then we were pulling into traffic.
“So, Gordon, you're pretty tricky for being just a tracker. But then you're not just a tracker are you?”
It was apparently a rhetorical question, because she continued without waiting for answer. “Took me a while to track down the specifics on you.”
She was smiling and it reached her eyes, but there was a harshness to her that set me on edge. She was brassy and aggressive, the kind of woman who really enjoyed going head to head with men and trying to dominate them. Me, I'm not that big into the whole pack dominance and status thing. To many school bullies had tried to use my outcast self as a social step stool over the years. It never worked out well for them and left me with a bad taste for the human social structure. I would make a lousy werewolf.
“So, I find out that you're not only a demon exorcist, but, if the reports are to be believed, an incredibly effective one at that. Then I'm told you're the individual who stopped the 'Thing in the Pit', as your brothers in blue are calling it,” she shook her head. “And your talents are being wasted in Roma's outfit.”
I was starting to actively dislike her, some of which she must have read on my face.
“Oh, don't get me wrong. He's done okay for what he has to deal with, but he just doesn't have the full resources of the federal government behind him. Chris, I would like to bring you by our offices sometime and show you what we have to work with, the kind of cases we handle and the kind of perks I can offer someone of your talents.”
The muscle head in the front passenger seat was watching me throughout her spiel and a grimace of anger flashed across his features. He was a guy who wouldn't approve of my coming aboard. He caught my eye and made a little show of tapping the dashboard with the law enforcement grade Taser he was holding in his right hand. Did he know that Tasers weren't effective on vampires and weres? I'm not sure what effect they would have on me, but he might be in for a surprise, if he ever zapped me with it. Briana caught our stare down and immediately rapped the back of his seat.
“Simmons, stay the hell out of this!”
Like a scolded school kid, he turned back to the front, his shoulders and the stub that passed for his neck rigid with anger.
“Well, Briana, maybe I'll drop by some time and check it out. Sounds interesting.”
I would have said no right off the bat, but I was thoroughly enjoying taunting meathead Simmons.
“Oh, we'll make it happen. You really need to see what you're missing out on. Right guys?” she asked the two in front. Simmons grunted, but the big black guy driving smiled into the rear view and gave a hearty “Hell Yeah!”
His sly glance at his partner told me that he also enjoyed baiting the Neanderthal next to him.
I tuned out much of her speech on the rest of the ride. It mainly consisted of telling me what a great leader she was and how much better her team was than anyone else's. For all her vaunted prowess, her sources hadn't linked me to the New York Coven, club Plasma and certainly not the New York Pack.
When I finally got to work I was feeling pretty pissed off. Roma held a morning meeting and update, wherein Fran announced a veritable flood of visiting vampires leaving the city, Chet reported a break in and container theft at a certain dockside container yard, and I told them the reasons for both, conveniently ignoring my own role in the events of Friday night and Saturday morning.
“So let me see if I got this right,” Roma said. “A faction of the vampires was in league with the Hellbourne to spread chaos and Hance throughout the world, then step up as rulers. You stomped the demon at Plasma, and your girlfriend and an Elder named Senka stomped the others?”
“Pretty much.”
“ Now Senka is on her way to Europe to take charge of the vacuum left by Fedor’s death, taking Galina with her. Your girlfriend is in charge of the New York Coven. The other North and South American covens have their own division heads , all of whom will report long distance to Senka, is that right?” he asked.
“Anything else to report? Anyone? Okay, I’m going to brief the Commissioner. For once we are ahead of Duclair.”
He dismissed us and rushed off to his office to fill in his boss. The rest of us broke up, but Gina pulled me aside and asked if we could talk in her office.
“Chris, I noticed you grimace when the Inspector mentioned Briana’s name. Has she been in touch with you?”
I gave her my annoyed look, which slid off her pretty features without effect.