Black Howl

“Umm, my father was being an…” I began.

“Sixty-two,” J.B. said. “Sixty-two phone calls. Do you know how hard it is to keep these calls from actually reaching the authorities? Do you know how much trouble I get into every time you do something like this?”

“I don’t know why I get the blame,” I said angrily. “Azazel was the one who showed up on my lawn threatening to take Gabriel away to his death. What was I supposed to do, let him?”

“No,” J.B. sighed. I could almost hear him pulling on his hair. “I’m just grateful no one has caught you on their phone’s video camera—yet.”

“J.B.,” I said. “I’m sorry I’m nothing but a headache for you.”

“You’re worth it,” J.B. said.

He hung up before I could apologize again.

So another day passed, with our little family behaving as normally as we knew how to be, given that we were composed of an Agent, two angel/nephilim crossbreeds and a gargoyle. Lucifer still wasn’t returning my calls, which gave credence to the notion that he wanted to see how I handled the fallout from the marriage.

“The least he could do is make some sort of proclamation from afar,” I said to Gabriel the next evening as we walked home from the grocery store.

The trudge through the snow was not pleasant. We lived about eight blocks from the nearest grocery. Many people had done a half-assed job of shoveling the walks in front of their buildings. The snow was tamped down into an icy, slippery crust in many places, and it made for treacherous walking even when you weren’t laden with bags of food.

Something gray and misty darted across the road when we were about a block away from home.

“Hey,” I said, staring. “That’s Amarantha.”

Gabriel frowned. “Do not get any ideas, Madeline. J.B. asked you not to follow her.”

I looked around, but I didn’t see any Agent in the vicinity. “No one else is doing it.”

I was already pushing my wings out, disappearing into the night. The grocery bags fell to the ground.

“Madeline,” Gabriel said, scooping up the bags.

“I want to know what she’s up to,” I said.

“She is near our home. Doubtless she was attempting to haunt you and found that she was unable because of the spell the Agency provided.”

“She’s not hanging around as a ghost to haunt me or J.B. That’s a side benefit. She’s still out to get revenge against Lucifer. I’m sure of it.”

Gabriel sighed as we chased after her as inconspicuously as we could. She glanced around a lot, obviously expecting a tail.

“She must have shaken off whoever was following her before,” I whispered.

“I am not going to carry this food all over creation while you do the exact opposite of what was asked of you,” Gabriel said.

“Why do I hear J.B. in your voice?” I said. “Just stow the groceries somewhere and we’ll come back for them. Come on, she’s getting farther away. I don’t want to lose her.”

Amarantha was drifting along the sidewalk, her head moving around constantly. I got the impression that while she was concerned about being followed, she was also unsure exactly where she was going. She seemed to be checking landmarks.

Gabriel quickly flew to the top of a multi-unit apartment building and put our groceries on the roof. The building was only a couple of blocks from our house so the stuff would be easy to find later. I can’t afford to throw away groceries, and I was glad that Gabriel was conscientious enough to remember that even when I couldn’t.

Amarantha turned on Lincoln just past the Metra tracks and went north. She went past the underpass where Ramuell had killed Patrick. I always have to swallow the lump in my throat when I pass by that place.

Gabriel murmured something and I felt a weight like a heavy cloak settle over me.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Redoubled our spell of invisibility,” he replied. “It will better protect us from the eyes of supernatural creatures—or ghosts.”

“Cool,” I said. “When are you going to show me how to do all this neat stuff?”

Gabriel gave me a half smile. “We have plenty of time.”

We followed Amarantha for more than a half hour. She seemed to be wandering aimlessly at times, stopping to stare at sculptures or the glowing signs of chain stores.

“This is really boring,” I muttered.

“As I understand it, this is what surveillance work is usually like,” Gabriel said.

“Who told you that?”

“Beezle. It seems he spends a great deal of time watching police procedurals on television. We can always contact J.B., let him know her location and return home.”

It pained me to admit that he might be right. Amarantha seemed to have no clear purpose in mind, and my stomach had been rumbling for a while. I pulled my phone out to make the call to J.B. It was a given that he would scold me for ignoring his wishes, and I braced myself for the argument that would follow.

We followed her into Welles Park, which is across the street from Sulzer, the large regional library branch on the north side. Amarantha floated over the baseball fields, which would be crowded with leagues for the young and old in the summer. Now they were covered in drifts of snow.

There was a large gazebo in the center of the park, just south of the complex that housed a fitness center and pool. Several feet to the right and left of the gazebo were play lots filled with swings and slides and things from which children could jump. Between the two play lots was a wide, empty field.