Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“You’re sure they won’t eat him?” Marcus asked Raphael.
“Stop,” Joe scolded his husband. “Why on earth would Raph, who’s an angel by the way, bring animals into our home who would hurt either us or our very own angel straight from heaven?”
“I can assure you,” I told Joe, “your dog did not come from heaven.”
“Says you. Like you visited all the heavens. Maybe there’s one that’s only dogs.”
I looked at Raphael.
“Don’t drag me into this,” he muttered as Napoleon walked by and tried to take a bite out of Raphael’s sneaker.
“Maybe Napoleon is a hellhound too,” I offered. “Do they come that small?”
He rolled his eyes at me.
“Be honest,” Marcus pressed, picking up Napoleon and tucking him against his chest. “Will they eat him?”
“It’s possible,” Raphael replied seriously. “Hellhounds aren’t inherently evil; they’re neutral and only kill things they’re told to hunt or those that are demonic. So yeah, sorry, Marcus, they might eat him.”
But Joe only laughed, clearly not buying it.
Now, at our party, Saga and Bard, wearing their beautiful new collars, hers with daisies, Bard’s with leaves, were visiting with everyone. One of Raphael’s guys, Julio, had brought along his daughter, who was scared to death of dogs, yet now she was sitting beside Saga, leaning on her and reading her a book.
“Maybe this means we can get one now.” Julio smiled at the pair.
When I asked Raphael on the way home if since Saga was a girl and Bard a boy, we had to worry about more hellhounds, I was assured they weren’t born, they were conjured, so we had nothing to worry about.
Going on patrol in the city, I left them home with Raphael, but once, when he was stuck on a job and I had to go, I went ahead and took them with me and Leith, who was my partner for that evening.
It turned out that hellhounds could climb ladders, leap just as high and far as I could, and Leith really enjoyed the fact that they could run down the demons, and then we could kill them and drop them into the void that appeared whenever warders killed something. It was fun to see the dogs watch the vortex open and close as though amazed.
“They’re so adorable,” Leith proclaimed happily, which wasn’t like him at all.
After that, everyone wanted to patrol with me.
“I’ve never been this popular,” I told Raphael.
“I’m sure it’s you,” he said indulgently as he petted our dogs.
Raphael insisted I see a therapist, because even though I couldn’t talk about the specifics of what happened to me, he felt there were issues I needed to work through with someone other than him. And yes, he was an angel, and I was a warder, so it wasn’t a fear that something would hurt me or take me away again—that couldn’t happen in my world. But the feelings it had dredged up, like losing my family when I was young, he felt needed to be addressed.
I resisted, it was my way, but he was adamant, and I finally found a woman I liked who was a bit quirky. I trusted her, and it was going well, and she enjoyed that I brought my dogs with me.
Uriel came to visit and was absolutely enchanted with the dogs and horrified over our home. He kept walking around, looking for more.
“This is honestly all of it? No stairs to the gardens or an open-air rotunda?”
When Raphael made dinner, I thought Uriel was going to pass out. Apparently, culinary skills were not something most angels possessed.
At work, Cielo explained why he’d made the decision for us to stay independent.
“If there ever comes a time when we need to become a security company that officially protects people from the paranormal as well, I wanted us to have that option.”
It was thoughtful and not something I’d ever even considered. “You’re really smart,” I complimented him.
He shrugged, but his sheepish smile told me how pleased he was. “I try.”
We were quiet a moment.
“Hey, you should bring the dogs to work with you. They would look badass in the lobby.”
I wasn’t so sure about that suggestion.
At the end of April, we went to Malic and Dylan’s wedding at an outdoor venue near Muir Woods. Malic was grouchy, as usual, because he was certain he didn’t even know two hundred people, but Dylan had friends and lots of family, and so it had gone big very quickly.
It was a beautiful ceremony. Dylan cried, and in front of everyone, Malic pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed at his new husband’s eyes. It was very sweet, and the general aww made Malic even more grumpy.
At the reception, I was standing on the patio, looking out at the beautiful woods, when I felt a hand on my back. Turning, I found a friend of Frank Sullivan, my ex. For two years of my life Frank had been my hearth, my home, my everything. When he cheated on me, my world imploded. At the time, I thought it would be the end of me, but it turned out I was wanted by an angel in disguise, so everything worked out for the best.