Dark Cotillion: The Brenna Strachan Series, #1

Prologue

The Overlords sat at a large wooden table.  It was built in the shape of a u with square corners.  The open end faced east as it had since it had been built.  The table had been in existence for about two million years and it showed the wear and tear. 

Inside the open part a man stood.  He was wearing a drab uniform with nothing particularly notable or striking, except the pins on the collar.  The pins were a stylized double-s. The double-s looked like two lightning bolts.  He spoke English fairly well, occasionally throwing in a German word, and then looking concerned, as if the Council members wouldn’t understand them.

The Wunderwaffen, um. He shook his head.  He was very nervous.  He wasn’t sure why he had been picked to stand before this conglomerate, except that he didn’t want the war to continue.  He had been picked by them, and plucked from his home in the middle of the night by something with wings.  The something sat at the Council table, looking at him intensely.

The wonder-weapon, Die Glocke, uh, the bell, as Fuhrer says, is almost complete.  If it does do everything they claim, more will die.  He shifted nervously. 

I have done what I could to... the German SS scientist searched for the right word.

Sabotage it, the figure that spoke was impressively tall, toweringly so, even from a seated position.  He had fair skin, blond hair, and green eyes.  The scientist was sure that his wings were a very light green.

Yes, break it, the scientist agreed. 

That is why you are here, the large one who sat in the middle of the back table finally said.  That is why you are all here.  We have been shown a future that is very bleak. 

Lucifer stood.  His horns were full size, jutting from his head with a slight s-curve to a full seven feet tall.  This made his entire frame almost fifteen feet tall.  His skin was a dark red with tints of burgundy and copper.  His eyes were slit like a cat’s, only the irises were red with a very fine line of lilac at the edges.  It made them both beautiful and frightening to stare at.

There were three other Humans in the room.  All were heads of state, one spoke Russian, the other two, English.  Lucifer was addressing all four Humans as he spoke.

As we have seen it, the United States of America will resort to using nuclear weapons.  Germany will complete and use Die Glocke, and it will be horrifying.  England will be the first of the Allies to fall, or rather, be obliterated.  Die Glocke will destroy the land, make it barren.  The US will retaliate with their own wonder weapons.  Germany will be obliterated.  The fall-out, the fall-out is unimaginable.  In ten years, the entire world’s population will drop to a measly 10 million people.  Within forty, there will be no Human population left.

Lucifer, we do not meddle in Human affairs, another Overlord spoke.  He was tall as well, but not like Lucifer.  His skin was orange and he smelled of fire.  His hair was pitch black.  His name was Kagutsuchi.

We do when they concern our own, Morgana, the only female Overlord, spat at him.  This will concern us.  We have no idea what that type of radiation would do to us, or to the other creatures on this island.  It could wipe us all out, not just the Humans.

Is there no alternative?  The American President finally spoke, standing up.

Yes, but it is just as grim.  If the US doesn’t use its nuclear arsenal, Germany wins the war, and the instruments of death continue to work their way across Europe.  Then it moves to Asia, Africa, finally to the other side of the globe, North and South America.  The population drops again, almost as much as if you did use your nuclear bombs, the Angel with the green wings answered.

There must be another option, the Prime Minister for Britain held his arm out, looking for suggestions.

There is, Lucifer answered him.  We join the war effort.  The Elders have kept out of this for far too long as it is.  Too many have died, we cannot afford to stand by and watch any longer.  The Elders will join the side of the Allies.  This will eliminate the use of nuclear weapons and Das Wunderwaffen.

What do you want in return?  The Russian asked in Russian.

We want to live, Lucifer told him.  We will reconvene after the end of the war.  Herr Doktor, I believe it is unwise for you to return to your fatherland.  You have been a great asset and we would all hate to see you die for your efforts, when we can prevent it.

After the Humans left the Council Chamber, Morgana, Overlord of the Fey, stood and addressed the entire room.

Their memories are not that short.  It has only been a couple thousand years since our war leveled their cities, set their populations back several generations.  They still consider most of us ‘evil’ even.  Look how they portray Lucifer and Fenrir.

It was their war too, Morgana, they just didn’t realize it then, just as we don’t seem to be taking into account that this is our war now, Anubis countered her.  Besides, maybe we can alter their perceptions if we fight with them.  Maybe we can create the society we have been dreaming about since Human evolution began.

Good ol’ Anubis, always looking for the silver lining, Chiron sneered.  When it is over and we have won their war, they will turn against us.

But to do nothing, Anubis gave an awkward frown.  Nuclear holocaust, genocide, darkness, that is the true evil that lies before us.  If we do nothing, we have surrendered our own fate into their hands.  If we do nothing, we have to watch as they destroy themselves and the planet.  How can you even suggest such a thing?

We can fix the earth when they have finished, an Elemental suggested.

Enough, Lucifer stood up.  All eyes turned to him.  "What they think of us has nothing to do with our current situation.  What we think of them has nothing to do with our current situation.  We were here once before. Only our brethren were the ones hell-bent on destroying Humanity.  We cannot sit idly by and watch them destroy themselves.  If we do, then what did we fight for all those years ago?  To do nothing, is to condemn them to a fate they do not deserve.  We have all dealt with prejudice and fanatics.  That is all that we would be dealing with here.  It is all they are dealing with here.  We will take a vote, majority rules.

All those in favor of helping the Allied Powers, stand now and be counted.  Lucifer tallied the number of votes.  Only the Overlords were in the room.  Along with himself, he counted eight.  He didn’t bother with the opposed; there were only two of them. 

It is decided, we help the Humans to avoid their own extinction and prevent whatever fallout would reach us.  The two that did not agree to help; I recommend you keep you and yours on this island.  We do not need opposition, or those that would begrudgingly assist.  We are strong enough without you.

You seem to forget, Lucifer, there are other matters of more importance at hand, Chiron continued, undeterred.

I am aware that Leviathan has pointed out that my mate lives.  I only need find her now.  Lucifer looked at him squarely. 

That is the problem, Lucifer.  She must be Human.  Chiron gave a look of pure hatred at the large Demon, as he said the word Human. 

Your mate lives, the prophecy will come to pass, now, Kagutsuchi, the Elemental, spoke up.  You will create our downfall should you mate.  If we allow the war to unfold, we will not have to worry about that.

Centaurian prophecy, regardless of whether it comes from Chiron or another Centaur, is rarely 100% accurate.  We cannot deny Lucifer the chance to mate on some random poetic nonsense spouted while a Centaur was entranced, Gabriel spoke. 

Agreed, Lucifer’s offspring and their fate is not our concern, especially at the moment.  We must focus on stopping the war.  Until Lucifer’s offspring are born, we cannot worry ourselves with trivial matters such as prophecy.  Ba’al stretched his wings.  I believe we have had enough conversation and discussion.  We must intervene, and we will not prevent Lucifer from mating because of a half-baked prophecy.

For all we know, Chiron, you invented the prophecy to keep him from mating, a new voice spoke as he entered the Council Chamber.  Forgive the interruption, but I believe we have much to do.

What is it Leviathan?  Lucifer asked his younger brother.

You have all been sequestered in here for most of the day, the hordes are getting restless.  They want to know what the verdict is, so they can prepare one way or another, Levi answered.

We are joining the Allied Powers. We will stop their madness and preserve the Human race at all costs, Lucifer told him.

I’ll ready them. Levi left.

Chiron, your cruelty is maniacal.  I can’t believe you would begrudge any Elder a mate because of a prophecy.  Morgana turned from the table in disgust.  One day, you will get what you give.

With that parting shot, all the Overlords, except Lucifer, shuffled from the chamber.  Lucifer fell back into his seat, the chair groaned a bit with his weight and he echoed it with a heavy sigh.  His brothers all entered the vacated space.

Are we doing the right thing?  Lucifer asked, head down, hand over his eyes.  He didn’t need to see them to know they were there.

Yes, Beezel spoke first, this is necessary.  We must stop them from eliminating themselves.

And after?  When they have defeated the Hun, they have a new enemy to stand up against.  They will be screaming for our heads and begging our Demons to heal their fragile Human conditions.  Lucifer gave another sigh.

Either they will accept us, or they won’t, Luc.  If they do, we will provide them with all the wisdom we have.  We will help with their pollution problems, sort out some of their religious fighting, and do everything we can to make the world a better place.  We have been waiting for them to reach this point, Levi reassured his older brother.

And if they don’t accept us, we come back to the Island.  We find your mate first though, Luc, Beezel answered the unspoken what if. 

They have reached the precipice, Luc, only the Elders can save them now, Mammon added.  If they reject us afterwards, it is only proof that they are still not ready for us to walk among them.  That time will come though.

Eons and eons we have sat and watched, Lucifer began, and I guess there is no time like the present to make an attempt to merge.

Three weeks later, headlines read, Japan Surrenders.  A week after that, the headline read, Italy Falls Victim to New Allies.  However, the one that got the most attention was, Hitler discovered by Lucifer in Secret Bunker.  The picture that accompanied it showed an unhappy Lucifer holding Hitler by the collar of his coat; Hitler’s feet were dangling six feet from the ground.  Hitler looked terrified.  That was seven weeks after the Elders joined World War II.

In the months that followed, the United States and other countries offered to let the Elders join the Human world.  If it was just a courtesy gesture, the US got a big shock, when 90% of all the Elders in the world, or roughly four million beings, set up their own city outside of Kansas City, Missouri.

After being given commendations for their efforts in the war, most of the Overlords set up their own small communities, with Lucifer and Demonnation at the heart of it.  They built several small cities that they called Post-Merge Cities.  They began retrofitting buildings that did not hold historical meaning, to accommodate their larger than Human sizes.  They encouraged Witches, hiding amongst the Humans, to come out, stand up, and declare themselves as real as anything else.

In 1946, the Pope blessed Lucifer in the Vatican.  Lucifer took part in communion and was baptized, and did not spontaneously combust or scream in pain.  Together, the Elders began helping Humans write a new religious book that righted several misunderstandings, including, Demons are bad and Angels are good.

That same year, Lucifer met a young woman while giving a speech at a university.  She was in her twenties, smart, funny, and a Strachan Witch.  He fell head over heels, and three years later, they were married.  The Pope attended their wedding, as did several world leaders.  A new job was created, Ambassador of Human and Elder Affairs, and it was given to Lucifer. 

In 1980, the Elder world was rocked when Lucifer and his bride, Elise, gave birth to their sixth child, a Demon Half-Breed who had lilac skin, lilac eyes, and power enough for twenty Demons and Witches.  A prophesized child, Chiron the Centaurian Overlord, immediately demanded her death, but it is hard to kill an immortal, even a half-breed.

Chapter One

I met him once, Gabriel took a long drag off a cigarette.  His eyes were glassy, searching for some long lost memory.  Until that moment, I had been reading a book, and was completely clueless whom he was talking about.  Especially, since he did seem to be talking to me, as opposed to talking to some imaginary person in the room.  He hadn’t spoken in well over an hour.  His mind had been preoccupied with other things, possibly my safety, possibly not.

Who?  I asked, after I put the bookmark in between the pages.

Conan Doyle.  He made a motion towards my book.  I had been reading Sherlock Holmes stories. 

Was he as bright as Holmes?

No one is as bright as Holmes, except Mycroft, and even that could be debated.  Gabriel stretched and yawned, before turning his vivid green eyes on me.  Pleasant man though.

I see, I frowned at him.  Decided to break the silent treatment?

I figured it wasn’t doing me any good to sit here chain smoking and trying to ignore you into submission, since you seemed to be rather casually reading.

I’m slightly disturbed that it took you so long to figure it out.  I tossed the hard back onto the coffee table.  It made a satisfying thunk sound as it hit the wood.

You shouldn’t do that to your books.

No, I shouldn’t do that to your books, my books are nice hard bound editions that can be purchased at any local book store.

Someday, your books will be like my books.

Gabriel, no one’s books will be like your books.  What is it with Angels and book hoarding anyway?

We all have our idiosyncrasies.  He gave a shrug.  He was incredibly pissed at me.  I had spent the last day or so feeling it vibrate off of him.  It came in waves, slamming into my psyche before rebounding to fill the voids of the room.  I was sure that in a month or so, you would still be able to find those pockets of anger hiding in corners.

Of course, in a month or so, it wouldn’t matter.  I wouldn’t be holed up in this room with the angry Angel, or anyone else for that matter.  I would be back to enjoying my life, whatever that meant.

Gabriel stood.  He was impressively tall.  Not as tall as my father, but then, few beings were.  My father made Gabriel seem small, but the Angel was thinly built, his sinewy body belied the strength that was contained in the muscles just beneath the skin.  My father was built like a brick wall, and almost the same color.

Brenna, Gabriel frowned at me, you still do not seem to be taking any of this seriously.

Uh, Gabriel, I’m a Demon Half-Breed, and relatively speaking, immortal.  Threats on my life really aren’t anything new, and they certainly aren’t particularly frightening.

You will not be immortal during the Maturing.

No, no, I won’t, but I will be surrounded with an armed guard of very powerful beings, who can efficiently and effectively take care of me, everyone in my condo, and most of the people in this neighborhood by batting an eyelash.  All of us have gone through it.  I looked at him finally.  You forget, I’ve had two brothers and three sisters go through the Maturing.  My parents are still breeding like rabbits, so I imagine there will be more of us in the future.

Zealots, Gabriel spit the word out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.  It probably did, when you thought about it.

I’ve been dealing with zealots, fanatics, and lunatics all my life.  Not to mention my peers haven’t been real thrilled with me either.

Gabriel made a guttural sound and waved a hand in the air.  I wasn’t entirely sure of its meaning, and I was guessing he wasn’t going to tell me either.  He began to pace around the room.

Really?  I frowned again, this time much deeper.  I had been caged inside my condo for three days with the Angel, and he had been pissed at me for most of it.  I could understand that he was under an enormous amount of pressure.  It was very hard to play bodyguard to the daughter of Lucifer, when she was being uncooperative.  Worse yet, I had been slightly teasing him off and on, using my mother’s Witch powers as a form of torture.  It was cruel, I knew it, but I was bored as hell, and going out of my fucking mind inside the tiny condo.  It had never felt so small in the eight years I had inhabited it.

The Angel had presence though. He was about seven feet tall, with wings that were even wider when unfurled.  He was also a very dominant male, too many years of being the alpha of his breed.

I was a very open minded, stubborn woman, who was about to come into all my little Demon powers.  I was very much the poster child for equal rights in the 21st century.  I was female, half-Human, half Demon, with very little going for me, except that I could fire a gun really well and my parents seemed to be exciting and important people.

Damn it!  Gabriel suddenly blurted out.  His voice boomed against the walls and reverberated into my eardrums, creating a fake echo. 

What?  I asked, trying to shake the shock of the sound out of my head.

Can’t you feel it?

No, what I feel is you acting like a caged animal, and unfortunately, I’m trapped in the same damn cage.  Your anger is overwhelmingly strong and seems unbalanced.

Unbalanced?  Gabriel stopped pacing and looked at me.

Yes, unbalanced.  I sighed heavily and lit a cigarette.  The bonus of being immortal was no cancer, but other things weren’t so great.  I am small for a demon.  For eternity, I was stuck at five feet, five inches tall and 397 pounds.  My father tipped the scales at over 1000 pounds and managed to be over seven foot tall, not counting his horns.  Most of my siblings were somewhere between six and seven feet tall and all weighed well over six hundred pounds.  However, once a demon hits fifteen years old, they stop growing, period.

In addition, while most Demons were red, green or blue, I was purple.  Not a deep, rich purple or even a dark, shimmery purple, but a soft, pastel purple, lilac to be exact. 

This was where half-breeds had problems.  Demons were denser than humans were.  Everything was slightly larger in a Demon and more compact.  The bone density of a Demon was nearly three times that of a Human.  When Demons said they were big boned, they meant it.  On top of that, most Demons had an impressive rack of horns.  Not like deer horns, but like elephant tusks that could weigh nearly a thousand pounds all by themselves.  My father kept his ground down using to make them manageable.

My pitiful horns might weigh 9 ounces.  That means, not only do I have a weight complex, but a height complex and horn envy. However, to be fair to Demons of all types  and myself, I only wear a size 18 in regular women’s clothing, a standard used only for those who insist on buying clothes out of department stores, instead of boutiques that cater to the Elder Breeds.  My measurements, since I was 15 years old, have been and will always be 38-32-36.  Therefore, I am huge for a Human, and tiny for a Demon. 

My scale is set to tell me that I weigh 180 pounds, never an ounce more, never an ounce less.  If my father steps on my scales, they will tell him that he weighs 180 pounds.  If my 145-pound mother steps on the scales, they will tell her that she weighs 180 pounds.  That is one of my vanities, but since I have very few, I allow it.  My parents indulge it, because they know I have identity issues. 

The only thing I could claim from my mother was the crown of black hair on top of my head, and the fact that I managed to have black eyebrows.  This was kind of fantastic, since Demons were hairless, and the hair hid the very pathetic horns that raised a whole half-inch from the top of my head.  However, that was where the hair stopped. I would never even remotely pass as Human, because I didn’t have arm hair or any other body hair.  My eyes are the same color as my skin, with a single red ring around the iris.  My pupil is oblong, not round, and is actually lighter than my irises, which gives me a creepy blind look.  I can see wonderful in the dark though. 

Good grief, Brenna.

Yes, Gabriel, I am a giant pain in the ass, and no, there is probably nothing that anyone can do about it.

I hate when you do that.  Gabriel glared at me.

Do what?  My mother’s a Witch, very powerful actually.  My family is a bit of a cliché, a Witch married to a Demon, but hey, it’s 2010, so a little cliché is understandable.  It became completely ironic when you consider that Gabriel is one of my father’s closest friends. 

Read my mind.

I can’t read minds. I’m not a Djinn.  I put my feet up on the couch.  I read emotions, but not minds.

Whatever you read, it’s occasionally very irritating.

Funny, I think it’s irritating all the time.  I sighed again.  Gabriel, would you just take a couple of deep breaths and calm down.  You’re really killing me over here.

Anger is a very strong emotion, it is hard to mask, even harder to ignore.  It spills out of a being, like a river breaching a levee and engulfing everything around it.  Put a Witch in the middle and they can feel nothing else.  It covers all other emotions, only rage is worse, but that is usually reserved for crazy beings.

Sorry, Gabriel sat down again.

So, do you want to tell me why you are angry, or am I supposed to guess?

Do you really need to be told?  His eyes flashed quickly.  Gabriel does amazing things with light and its perception.  When he loses control, his eyes become completely white, unable to keep light reflecting at the right wavelength.  I have only seen him lose complete control once.  The room went dark and he glowed like a Chinese lantern, a pure, shimmering white being, with nothing but rage flowing off of him.  It had been so thick that I had gagged on it, literally.

Well, if I thought I could guess, I would have put it right yesterday, so that I wouldn’t have had to feel you leaking out all over the place.

A member of the Council is going to appeal to have you put to death, and you are treating it like it happens every day.

Well, it sort of does happen every day, Gabriel.  I puckered my face, feeling my forehead and eyes wrinkle.  Chiron has been trying to put me to death since I was born.

Yes, but you’ve never been mortal before, and we would never ask an Overlord to kill their own child, Gabriel responded, anger flowed again.

True, but I believe the Council will agree with you, my father, and the other Overlords about the absurdity of putting me to death before I’ve come into any powers, let alone mythic powers foretold in some bizarre prophecy three thousand years before my mother was even born.

You don’t understand prophecy very well.

Sure I do, I just understand rational behavior some as well.  The Council is predominantly made up of rational beings.  A few Centaurs and a handful of other beings are going to have to come up with some really good arguments, to convince them that the rational thing is to put me to death.

And if you’re wrong?

We deal with it, I looked at him.  Gabriel, honestly, do you believe that the other eleven Overlords and eighty-four lieutenants are going to allow something as irrational as an execution without a crime to happen?

Eighty-three, Gabriel corrected, you can’t vote on the issue.

Fine, eighty-three.  I shrugged.  In the millions of years that the Council has been in existence, how many times have the lieutenants not voted the same way as the Overlord?

Three, Gabriel responded. 

Okay, three, and of those, how many had enough to gain the majority?

None.

So, I’ve already got a head start.  We know that Ba’al, Anubis, Fenrir, Morgana, Vishnu, you, and my father, are all going to vote against Chiron.  Most of their lieutenants will vote in line with their Overlord.  Of the ones that might vote against their Overlords, most will vote with them simply because it’s Chiron making the motion, and we all know that Centaurian prophecy is rarely 100% accurate.  The prophecy says that a lavender colored Demon, born of Lucifer and a Witch, will gain powers unseen before on this planet and bring about the end of the world.  First off, I’m not lavender, I’m lilac.  Second, even if I did manage to achieve some sort of new power, it doesn’t necessarily mean complete destruction of the planet.  Others have been born who are unique, and they didn’t destroy the world.  Third, I kind of like the planet, I do not see myself willingly destroying it.  Furthermore, while my siblings are sort of different, I’m very fond of my parents, my friends, Elders, Humans, and pets, with the exception of very yippy dogs and anything that looks like a mouse.  I do not think those two irritations are enough to send me over the edge.  While there is the possibility that I will develop Maturing Madness, it is rare in Demons, even half-breeds like myself, and it has never happened with my father’s bloodline.  No cousins and siblings that have matured suffered from it.  One of my uncles might have it, but it could just be that he is a bit of an asshole and it has nothing to do with his brain rotting during Maturing.

Beezel, Gabriel smiled at me.

Well, he is definitely nuttier than a fruit cake, but I think that it has more to do with my father being more powerful than him, even though he is the oldest.  I shrugged.  We can’t be absolutely, positively sure of this, since there isn’t a single creature on the planet that remembers any of the first of the bloodline maturing.

So you aren’t worried?

I’m terrified. A group of friends, a larger group of acquaintances, and some that I do not even know are deciding my fate, but honestly, I do not foresee something as insane as this passing the Council.  If it does, I think the zealots will use it as cannon fodder against us.

What are you going to do?

I’m going to go to bed.  Tomorrow, I’m going to go before the Council.  The day after that, I’m going to attend that horrifying Maturing Party that my mother planned.  The day after that, I will go back to being sequestered and protected until the Maturing ends.  After that, I’m going back to work.  Chasing down bad guys is far more my style than the rest of this crap.

Optimist. 

You’re an Angel, aren’t you required to be an optimist?  I asked him ruefully.

Nope, it is not in the breed description.  Gabriel yawned again. 

Obviously, you need to go to bed as well.  I pointed to the spare room.  I’m not Maturing yet, which means I’m still immortal, which means that you can sleep for a couple of hours.  I have a feeling the next forty days or so are going to be terribly long for all of us.

Fine, Gabriel stood up, he motioned me forward.  As I moved to my room and started to close the door, I heard his favorite parting shot at me.  Good night, Demon.

Good night, Angel, I responded cheerily as the latch caught.  I knew he had heard me.  He could hear a pin drop in a crowded room full of dancers clicking wooden heels on a wooden floor. 

I changed into my pajamas quickly and climbed into bed.  I wasn’t nearly as calm as I had pretended to be.  Rational did not trump fear, ever, and there were those that actually feared what I might become if left alive.  I couldn’t change their minds any more than they would be able to convince me that mice were not evil.

Chapter Two

I waited until I could feel the delivery boy dropping off the standard half dozen cake donuts on my doorstep from the bakery below.  Once that had been dropped and his energy had moved out of the hall and into an elevator, I climbed from bed.  I should have been exhausted, nauseated, and anxious.  I wasn’t.  I was calm. Tonight, I would probably sleep like the dead, with a house full of bodyguards.

As I exited the bedroom, I heard the front door close.  Gabriel had fallen into a routine as well, picking up the unhealthy donuts and putting them on the table.  He tried to balance it out by adding orange juice, bacon, and eggs to the mix.  I stuck with the donuts and a glass of whole milk.  If you can’t gain or lose weight, you might as well enjoy the food you toss into your gullet.  Besides, as a Demonling, I needed about 4,000 calories a day, hard to get that from salad every meal.

Don’t forget, you have an exam after the Maturing, Gabriel reminded me, as he had every morning for the past couple of days. 

I haven’t forgotten and I still think it’s ridiculous, I quipped.

Ridiculous or not, now that we do not all live in a small cluster with imaginary creatures, the exam is important.  You never know when a dragon or some other beast is going to go rogue, leave the island, and start terrorizing the world.

Yes, yes, I selected a white cake donut with chocolate icing and crushed peanuts.  Sirens, harpies, dragons, trolls, and chupacabras, are just the tip of the iceberg for things that could cause havoc in the normal world.

There is no such thing as a chupacabra.  Gabriel handed me a plate.  I accepted it and set it off to the side.  I had a napkin under the donut, no reason to dirty up a perfectly good plate.

At some point during my adult life, my mother had decided I needed a set of fine dining china.  She failed to realize that I did not own dinnerware as a general rule.  I don’t cook.  I don’t like to cook.  I hate to eat what I cook.  I have some issues, particularly with meat.  If it isn’t a bagged salad with the salad dressing included, or microwave popcorn, I’m probably not going to cook it.  Cooking is overrated for me.  It’s hard to keep groceries when I might be called away to a crime at any time, in any part of the world.  Food spoils.  I keep soda, milk, a few munchies, and popcorn.  My freezer is barren; I don’t even keep ice cube trays.  If I am away for more than three or four days, my mother comes by and tosses out the milk.  She’ll put a new gallon in there if she knows when I am returning. 

Besides, there are lots of facilities to fill my need for food.  In New KC, there are places that go to other places, pick up food orders, and deliver them to your house.  All you need is a phone or an internet connection.  I have both.  Some of them even offer reward programs.  Hell, there are people who will deliver my groceries and pick up items like toothpaste, cigarettes, and anything else you might desire.  The best part is that they are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The need to go to a store has been completely removed.  If I’m feeling energetic, I go downstairs and get something from the Subway Sandwich shop, and that way, I can say I walked a few extra steps. 

Since I hate to shop almost as much as I hate to cook, I love the age of technology.  Most Elders are sort of bothered by it; it takes a while to adjust, but me... I think it’s the greatest thing ever to happen.  The internet is an amazing place where food comes at the click of a button.  Most Elders have to adjust to the light and the constant hum of the world. I didn’t have their super-hearing, so I barely noticed it. 

Gabriel again tried to feed me a healthy, balanced breakfast, which I managed to ignore.  Finishing three donuts and two glasses of whole milk in the time, it took him to eat his bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice.

I kept waiting for my stomach to sour.  It didn’t.  This meant that either I was in complete denial about the day ahead, or I had accepted my fate without realizing it.  Since I wasn’t good at acceptance, I was guessing it was denial. 

We finished eating in silence.  Gabriel’s magic rolling off of him, filling the room.  He was not as calm as I was.  This would have been a sign if I had been a Centaur, but I wasn’t. I was a Demon and Demons didn’t read signs or omens.  They didn’t have the right mojo for it or something.  Even when a Centaur was giving prophecy or revealing signs and deciphering omens, Demons tended to be skeptical.

Gabriel opened his mouth, but before he could speak, there was a knock on the front door.  I felt my brother, Elijah, on the other side.  This got an eyebrow raise from me.  That I felt like an outsider around my older siblings was no secret.