Just a Little Death (Children of the Apocalypse Book 1) (15 page)

“Demons tend to run evil because they are pulled by the temptations Lucile offers, she is their queen. She can seduce them back to her side to do her bidding because of that. Yes, they have freewill, but just like some humans, they tend to bend easier to the side of evil.” My mother stayed by the door. “Occasionally one breaks the mold, but it’s rare, especially for one she trusts as a gatekeeper.”

Ruthie sipped her coffee and thought for a moment. “What is the nearest gate?”

“You can’t seriously be thinking about going there.” My mother snapped. “There’s two of you.”

“Three,” I interrupted, “because dad will be here and he can go with us. There’s a chance she’s trying to throw us off because we’re here. There might be something in the closest gateway.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going to let you go to a gateway.”

“We went to Devil’s Playground and I’m fine.” I tapped my fingernails against the mug. “I’ve taken on demons, I’ve fought Sins, and I’ve seen a family killed by the plague and famine on their farm. Another gateway with Ruthie and Dad at my back won’t be a problem.”

The color drained from her face. “You’ve been busy.”

“Did you think I was sitting around idly?” I gave a short laugh. “Did you know my math teacher was Lucile? Yeah, it’s been an interesting semester.”

Ruthie sucked in a breath and looked down at her coffee.

“I still don’t want you at the gateway. You wanted a normal vacation.” She stormed past us and disappeared down the hallway.

I leaned my head back and counted to ten until I could think through the confusion and anger that I felt. “I’ll be right back.” I set the mug on the table and went down the hall.

I knocked on my mom’s door and waited against the wall. “Mom?”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Sammy. Nothing you say is going to convince me.” Her muffled voice answered me.

I rolled my eyes. “There’s obviously something else bothering you. Can I come in and we’ll talk about this alone?”

The handle clicked and the door swung inwards. I walked in and closed it behind me. “What is going on? You go from being fine with what I am to flipping out about me wanting to do my job.”

“A job is something you get paid for, you don’t have a job. You have a handed down responsibility that you never asked for and I never wanted for you.” She turned away from me and crossed her arms. The bed dipped as she sat down. She ran her hand over the creases in the comforter. “I didn’t think things would escalate so fast. I don’t like the idea of my daughter in that much danger.”

I sighed and dropped my arms to my side. “This isn’t what I would have chosen either. Do you know how much I want to just be a normal college student? To have my biggest worry be if I’m going to pass my finals? To go on a date with the guy I’ve been crushing on?”

“You could have that if you just tell your father you want to be left alone and move away from the others.” She looked up, her eyes begging. “You could run from this and let them handle it all.”

“I can’t run because it will just follow me and I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if the world fell into a complete apocalypse because I didn’t do this.” I sat next to her on the bed and she wrapped her arm around me. “You always told me I needed to do the right thing and sometimes that was the hardest choice because it wasn’t always what we wanted to do.”

She squeezed my shoulder. “I didn’t want you to make the same mistakes I did, but I never imagined your situation would be this.”

“I don’t think ‘Child of the Apocalypse’ would be a situation most parents see their kid ending up in.” I smiled. “The warning, that’s just a scare tactic.”

“But I can’t imagine what I would do if I had to bury you.” She kissed my head. “You’re my baby girl. A blessing I never thought I would have because of mistakes I made in the past.”

I closed my eyes. “And what mistake did you make in the past? How did you end up being fallen?”

Her fingers dug into my shoulder and I opened my eyes to see her staring at the wall. The fingers loosened and she pulled her arm away. “That’s not a story I want to share with you.”

“Will you ever tell me?”

She didn’t meet my gaze. “Maybe one day when you understand why I made the choice I did, for now though you’re just going to have to trust me.”

“But—”

She put a finger against my lips. “No. You trust me; I’m your mother. Any choice I make is because I have the best intentions for you.”

I resisted the urge to argue and clenched the bed sheet with my hands. “So what now? Are you going to be this moody all weekend?”

“No, but I also still won’t be telling you where the gateway is and I’ll make sure your father understands my wishes.”

The idea that her and Death were going to chat over my wellbeing gave me a smile. Death would listen to her, but it didn’t mean he’d respect her wishes in terms of keeping me and Ruthie away from the gateway. Another part of me said we were getting off easy. We could go back and tell the others we couldn’t go because my mom refused to give us the information we needed in order to find the gateway.

The easiest path was often the wrong path. I knew that, but the temptation was still there. “I have a question.”

“Yes?” She looked at me and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, but the short lock did nothing but fall back forward.

“You said all I would have to do is tell dad that I’m done?”

She smiled. “Yes, he wouldn’t be able to retire and the archangels would have to find another person to take Death’s spot and start a new cycle for his replacement if he was killed. It’s a process, but it could be done. I can’t promise it would take all the demons and Sins away.”

But there would be a chance at a normal life. “And the consequences?”

“Those I don’t know, but you wouldn’t be handling them alone.”

She had mentioned this option during parents’ weekend, but the temptation didn’t lure me as much. Now, if I closed my eyes I could see starting over at a new university with a new schedule…

But Ruthie, Kaleb, Pete, and Aeron weren’t there and the thought formed a pit in my stomach.

“Just think about it.” She kissed my cheek. “I think we’ve left Ruthie out there alone long enough, don’t you?”

I nodded and treaded over the carpet and back out into the living room. Ruthie walked out of the kitchen with a fresh mug of coffee.

“Are we ready to get back to our vacation? Because I really want to watch this show.” She motioned to the living room and I smiled.

“Yes, let’s start enjoying our vacation.”

Pages with notes covered the floor and open books lay within arms-reach, while Ruthie and I leaned over various pages to study. I pulled my study guide close and read over the lists of topics.

“I don’t think I remember any of these in my class. What the hell do I do in class? I took notes, but the subjects aren’t familiar.” I growled and shuffled through the papers trying to find headings that matched the subjects.

Ruthie peeked over the novel she had out for her American Lit class. “You have test anxiety. Take a deep breath and try not to focus on the fact that it’s a test you’re studying for, but just look for the information.”

I wrinkled my nose. Dinner would be here soon and a few minutes later my dad would show up for our first ever family Thanksgiving. That’s what I wanted to think about, food and fun. Not tests and subject points that might or might not have been covered in class. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My heart stopped pounding rapidly, and when I opened my eyes I felt like a fog had been lifted and that I could focus.

I slowly went through the papers to find the ones that matched the subjects. When I thought about it, I knew the information was all there, I just needed to organize it right. “I really wish open book tests were still a thing in college.” I growled.

“Sadly, it’s not, but you’re going to get through it and be fine.” Ruthie patted my hand and turned her gaze back to the novel. “Just think, you decapitated a demon and you’re scared of tests.”

“It’s not funny, Ruthie.” I shook my head and moved to the next subject line. “I’d rather face Lucile herself than a test I don’t feel prepared for, or any test for that matter.” I rubbed my eyes and put the papers down.

“Don’t joke about such things.” My mother walked in. “Using her name like that gives her power.”

“Old myths.” Ruthie waved a hand. “Old paranoia that doesn’t do any good.”

My mother snorted but didn’t say anything more. “I hope you girls are ready to eat, because I just got a message from the company saying they were on their way.”

My stomach growled, giving its own answer. “We’ll start cleaning up so that it doesn’t look like a paper tornado went off in the house.”

“No, no, you girls don’t worry about it. Keep studying and just tidy up when the food gets here. I’m sure Death will understand a few books being left around.” She sat on the couch and folded her hands on her lap. “Besides, it’ll be a nice reminder to him that you’re also trying to be normal college kids.”

Except Ruthie wasn’t a kid, for her it was all about keeping up the facade. For me it really was about passing the classes, but if mom wanted a little bit of a human element to the dinner, then I’d gladly leave my books sitting around for a couple of hours while we ate.

I looked back down at the study guide and grumbled. “Now, I know we didn’t actually cover the effects of the plague. Wait, maybe in speech.”

“Now you don’t need to study that subject, we all know how it’s affecting things. You could use your time in quarantine as an example.”

“Quarantine?” My mother’s voice shot up a pitch more than normal. “When were you in quarantine?”

“After I found the dead people on the farm.” I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, so I spent some time chilling out with Kaleb away from people.”

She took a deep breath. “I have to remember that you can’t get the plague, but what if they questioned it?”

“Questioned that we didn’t manage to get infected? They would assume we were lucky. It’s not like being a Child of the Apocalypse shows up in the blood test.” I looked around. “Does it?”

She shook her head. “No, but with how fast people are falling victim, the other than human creatures will soon be noticeable.”

“We’ll worry about that when we get to that point. For now, we were cleared and that’s what matters.” I looked at Ruthie for help.

“It was just a matter of wrong place at the wrong time. She’s fine and it’s not like the government is going to start collecting people who don’t come down with the plague.” Ruthie started to stack her papers.

The government would be too worried about trying to stop the war that would be coming soon. The doorbell rang and I jumped up. “I got it.”

My mother shook her head. “It’s the food, let me get it.” She pushed away from the couch and went to answer the door.

I picked up my papers and Ruthie handed me one of my books. “If you can handle your mother, you can handle the finals.” She winked at me and I put the books on the end table.

“Really? I think I’d rather face Lucile than risk setting my mom off again. I swear she goes from being okay with everything to freaking out about me possibly dying.” I kept my voice low while my mom talked to the catering employee.

She stepped out of the house and I ran a hand through my hair. “Can you imagine what dinner conversation is going to be like? ‘Oh, Death, yes, I don’t want you teaching my daughter any more. It’s just too dangerous. I’m going to sweep her away to some safe island.’”

Ruthie laughed. “Your mother is just worried for you. She’s being a mother. No one wants to see their child go to war.”

“I’m not going to war. This isn’t something that will end. It’s not something I can un-enlist from. It’s my life.” I looked up, waiting to see if my mom was going to walk in.

“Did she ever tell you what her sin was? The one she was cast out for?” She straightened the books.

“I asked and she told me now was not the right time to tell me. I don’t think she ever intends to.”

The door clicked and squeaked as it was pushed in. I went to help my mom and the employee in with a few bags of food. I grabbed the big white bag from my mother before it crashed to the floor from her over-filled arms. Mom nodded and handed Ruthie another bag.

“They’re bringing in the turkey now. Has your father ever celebrated Thanksgiving?”

I blinked and shrugged before turning to take the bag into the kitchen. “I don’t know. We don’t really talk about holidays My guess is no, his dad is no longer around and it’s not like he had me until recently. I don’t know anything about his mother.”

“She is a beautiful Archangel of the highest order.” My dad’s voice filled the kitchen and my heart skipped a beat and my hand reached out to summon my weapon. “You’re too slow, Sammy. I could have had mine at your throat by now.”

I relearned how to breathe and glared at him. “Don’t you know how to knock?”

He shook his head. “No, and I wanted to surprise your mother.”

My mom stepped up to my side and her gaze wandered over him. “How did I not know what you were that night?”