I finally forced myself to move in the ensuing silence. Everyone looked away from me, except Niphon. He was obviously enjoying all of this. I sat back down, and the card game commenced. None of us were really into it, though. The atmosphere was stiff, the conversation forced and halting. It was the proverbial elephant in the room situation. When Peter awkwardly said he was getting tired, the rest of us practically flew out of our seats to leave.
As I was putting on my coat, Carter strolled over to me.
"Seth makes his own choices, as is his right," Carter said softly. The angel was regarding me in that way that always sent chills down my spine. Someone wearing such an ugly baseball cap really shouldn't have that kind of ability. Honestly, how did his hats always get so dirty? "You can rage all you want, but in the end, mortals live their lives the way they decide to. It's not our place to interfere with that."
"Of course it is," I said. "It's what you guys do. It's what we all do. That's the whole point of the Heaven and Hell battle - we purposely interfere with people's lives."
"Yes, but this is different."
"No, it's not." Beyond him, I saw Niphon saying something to Seth. Great. The imp was probably trying to buy his soul. That was so not what I needed right now. I turned back to Carter. "Look, I've got to go. Say hi to the Get Along Gang when you see them."
I dragged Seth away from Niphon, and we headed home. I hadn't thought things between us could be any more uncomfortable than they had been at Peter's, but the car ride proved me wrong. Earlier, Seth and I had discussed him staying over at my place, but as I merged onto I-5, he asked, "I'd kind of like to get some more work done. Do you mind if I just go home?"
The elephant had apparently joined us in the car now. I smiled tightly and kept my eyes on the road. "Sure. No problem."
CHAPTER 16
As I walked into my building after dropping Seth off, I was surprised to see the guy who staffed the front desk still working. He usually went home at dinnertime. A sheaf of papers in his hands indicated some sort of mandatory overtime. He brightened when he saw me.
"Miss Kincaid! I have something for you."
I blanked for a moment, then remembered the daily Post-it reminders on my door. There'd been a total of three now. "Oh, yeah," I said. "Sorry I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. I keep forgetting."
He was already rustling around for something behind him on the other side of the window. I strolled over, just as he heaved a huge box up onto the counter. The printing on the side was upside down, but I could still make it out: Christmas Tree - Austrian Fir.
"Oh, man," I grumbled. "This is somebody's idea of a - "
But the guy was busy hauling another box up to the counter, a smaller one with pictures on the side depicting the 'pre-decorated fiber optic tree' inside. It was followed by another box, a bit smaller than the Austrian Fir, and a smaller one still that was about two-by-two feet. These last two boxes were wrapped in glittery green paper, with a wrapping job so perfect that only one being on earth could have managed it: Peter.
The desk guy surveyed the boxes. "You must really like Christmas."
"I thought each of those notes was a reminder for the same package."
"Nope. New one each day. Want some help?"
We hauled the trees up to my apartment and deposited them on the living room floor. I thanked him, and as soon as he left, Aubrey emerged and began stalking the boxes.
"That's a lot of tannenbaum," a voice behind me suddenly said.
I jumped and turned around. Yasmine. "Don't do that. Carter does exactly the same thing."
"Sorry," she said, looking sheepish. "Wasn't intentional. I just got here." She walked over to the boxes, tilting her head to read them. She wore jeans and an LSU sweatshirt, her black hair pulled into the trademark ponytail that made her look seventeen. "What's up with all these?"
I took off my coat and flounced onto the couch with a sigh. "My friend Peter started this whole buzz that I needed a Christmas tree after Carter burned mine down. So I guess everyone made good on it."
"Wait," she said. "Did you say Carter burned down your Christmas tree?"
"Yeah, it's a long story."
"He must feel bad."
She pointed to the little fiber optic tree, the one that was already decorated. Words were scrawled on the side of the box in spidery, nearly illegible writing:
G -
Figured you could handle this one. Ready and decorated!
- C
P.S. - And flame retardant.
"Hmm," I mused. "'C' could be Cody too."
"Nah. I recognize the poor attempt at penmanship. It's Carter."
"Okay, so the angel repents. But who are the rest from?"
We soon found out. The wrapping job on the two matching boxes had already given Peter away. The larger box contained a very beautiful, very expensive tree with 'winter moss green' needles that were lightly dusted with silver glitter. The smaller box contained a matched set of lights and ornaments all done in purple and fuchsia. Peter apparently hadn't trusted me to decorate his gift myself.
The Austrian Fir turned out to be from the bookstore staff. A card from Maddie read: Surprise! We all pitched in for it. Now you can't be a Scrooge. It was signed by other store workers, as well as Seth.
I looked back and forth between the boxes. "It's a Christmas miracle. I had no tree. Now I have a forest."
"C'mon," said Yasmine. "I'll help you set them up."
I looked at her in surprise. "Aren't you here to meet up with Vince or something?"
She shook her head. "I'm here to talk to you."
Uh-oh.
I didn't really want to set up the Christmas trees, but a being vastly more powerful than me did, so I set to it. Carter's tree was the easiest since all I had to do was plug it in. I placed it in a window sill, one with an outlet right underneath. The tree's fiber optic needles lit up to pale pink, then purple, then teal, then white.
"Good God," I said. "It's the Christmas tree equivalent of a lava lamp."
"I like it," declared Yasmine. "It's got moxie." She looked really excited. She could have been a kid on Christmas morning. You'd think after seeing so many Christmases (and trees) in her existence, they'd get kind of old. She pointed at Peter's tree. "Let's do the prissy one now."
We were stringing purple lights on the 'winter moss green' tree when she finally started The Talk.
"So. Vincent told me what happened." She paused as she looped the lights over a branch. "I'm glad your guy is okay."
"Me too. He was lucky...if Vincent hadn't been there..."
More silence. I didn't entirely know where Yasmine was going with this. My guess was that she was concerned I'd tell someone about Vincent. I felt absolutely certain, however, that she wasn't going to threaten to break my kneecaps or anything to keep me silent. In fact, I realized then that what she wanted was reassurance. It was a crazy and startling idea. She was an angel, after all. A being of hope and peace, a being that others prayed to for comfort. Yet, here she was, seeking it from me - a creature of Hell.
"I meant it," I told her. "What I said to him. I'm not going to tell anyone."
"I believe you," she said, confusion all over her face. Angels knew when others were telling the truth. "But I don't understand it. Why? Why wouldn't you? You could get into big trouble if your superiors - if Jerome - found out you knew and weren't telling." Vincent had said the same thing. It was true. "Your people tend to get pissed off over stuff like that."
"What, and yours don't? Would they be forgiving if they found out?"
She looked away from me, diverting her attention to hanging a pink glass dove.
"Look," I said. "I work for Hell, but I don't, like, delight in others' suffering. Especially since I like both of you. I don't want to see you get into trouble. I don't even think what you're doing is wrong. Dangerous, maybe, but not wrong."
"Which part? The loving part or the nephilim part?"
I shrugged. "It's all risky."
She smiled at me. "You talk about nephilim pretty calmly. Most people - in our circles - go running for the hills."
"I met one once. Dated him." I hung a bejeweled purple orb on the tree. "He was scary as hell, yeah. Had this whole homicidal revenge thing going on, which kind of negated his sexiness a little. But at the end of the day...I don't know. He wasn't much of a monster. He couldn't help being born what he was."