Ch. 28: Jack's Wake-Up Call

September 8 | Night

I gaped in awe as Sunny hurtled to the bed.

He had incandesced and sprouted wings. His exemplary body had reached a higher octave of perfection. Distant memories of mythologies churned to the surface. In a stunning outpouring of ecstasy, he had scaled Olympus and stolen the lightning bolt. Prometheus, returned to earth now, he wilted.

Mal screamed his name. An explosion of gold dust, smoke, and blood-red filaments of energy discharged from her fingertips. The angel's wings suddenly went up in heatless flames, but by her expression, I realized she had been trying to stop it.

Her lapse of guardedness revealed about her what the orgasm had revealed about Sunny. Her smooth complexion surrendered to the glint of gold. Her eyes came alight with brimstone. Her hair flailed around her in the static of her shadowy countenance. The soullessness of her eyes chilled me to the bone. It was angel versus demon.

In a blink, both parties returned to normal. Mal hit the floor on her knees beside Sunny, yanked up his chin, and stared feral-eyed. "Why didn't you stop?" she shouted.

He shook his head, speechless.

"Gauging by your reactions, what just went down was next level bad." I wiped my mouth and tried to digest what I had witnessed.

"I lost my wings. All my powers are gone." Shock marred Sunny's features. Mal pounded his shoulder, and he stared vacantly, then crumbled in her arms like a child. His pain sickened my heart.

Mal nuzzled him to her chest in a nurturing embrace. "He's been demoted to human," she whispered.

"I can't protect you like this!" Sunny cried.

"Shh, it's alright. We'll figure this out–just–shh." She rocked him.

I stepped into the bathroom for a damp towel and returned to make them comfortable. I didn't know what to say. I had been under the impression Sunny couldn't have sex for job-related reasons. The epiphany jolted me. His job was Guardian Angel. We had fallen in love, and that love had cost him his halo.

I watched Mal wipe up, and I came to terms with also having fallen for one of humanity's worst nightmares. "So, you're a demon," I posed the question as a statement.

"A djinn." Her burning eyes flicked to mine.

I nodded, trying to make sense of that. "So, not quite evil."

"Not quite." Her eyes flicked away.

Sunny decompensated further. "Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I can't go back to Headquarters. I can't accept my reassignment."

"Reassignment?" Mal stiffened.

He sat apart from her and reigned in his emotions. "I let you believe that I hadn't chosen what I did, and I'm sorry. When Wallace came last night, it was to tell me it was time for me to go. By that point, we had discovered a way out for you guys, and I had changed my mind. But how can we go up against Darcy without my angelic capabilities?"

"That's why you were always goading me with speeches on forgiveness and gratitude," I snapped my fingers. "It was in your nature as an angel. Tell me about Heaven."

Mal scoffed. "Heaven and Hell don't exist the way humans interpret," she said as she refocused on our companion. "Sunny, we can still take down Darcy without a fight. I wish you would've told me about your situation sooner, but let's make the best of new circumstances. You're stuck here instead of in limbo at Headquarters. So we press forward with the plan. Find the map and go to the council to limit our physical involvement with the vampire."

"What if something happens to you before then?"

"What if something happens to me?" she laughed ruefully. "Darling, you're the one whose human. We'll take care of you. I suspect the only reason you can still see us is because you used to be a Supernatural. That's a plus. You're basically what humans call a Seer now, I guess."

I clasped a hand over my mouth with an arm crossed. "And that's why you were always saying my wish was your command. What did I do to get an angel and a genie fighting over me?"

"We weren't fighting over you. We were fighting for you," Mal emphasized.

I narrowed my eyes with a sense of foreboding. She was hiding something. "Winner takes what?" I glanced from her to Sunny. Neither responded.

I grabbed my jeans as my unease intensified. Half-dressed, I marched to the kitchen to rehydrate after that otherworldly sex. Yet, I pondered the question. What had brought the two of them into my life? Every messenger, from oracle to osteomancer, had precautioned: Figure out whom to trust. Problem was, Sunny and Mal hadn't trusted me with their Supernatural types, for reasons unknown.

As I headed back to the bedroom, by some serendipitous wonder my hand landed on the books stacked on the piano case by the door. I lifted a manuscript embossed with a symbol like the lapel pin Sunny had. Beneath that was another book, and under that was a thin, unmarked leather journal. I flipped a page and flopped to the living room sofa as I read the opening lines.

Memories flooded in. How kind Sunny had been to my parents. How they had taken to him like fish to water, with Mom baking cookies and Dad offering free haircuts. How he had used people–my parents, even Kato, and the other kids–to manipulate me. How he had known early on what Mal wanted me for and hadn't said a word.

The two of them could be heard discussing Darcy Cyprian from the other room, but their voices faded in tandem to the crescendo of blood rushing in my ears. I read the passages on what Sunny thought of me. I read what he thought of her. I read about their competition and what they hoped to gain, none of it really having anything to do with my benefit. I read and read until the ledger fumbled from numb fingers, and a shadow fell over me. It was Sunny.

"Mal, could you come in here?" he called out anxiously.

She hurried from the bedroom, but when she saw my face, she stalled. "What is it?" she asked.

"You two were fighting for my soul."

***

I shoved clothes into a duffle bag. "I've had people cheat on me. I've had people rob me. I've had a guy die and his murder get pinned on me." My voice escalated in volume and pitch until it rang throughout the room."But I have never had a woman who wanted to eat my heart out, while the man who was supposed to be protecting me knew all about it and didn't say anything!"

The hackles of my wolf raised for a shift, and I beat the transformation back with sheer willpower. As I spun around and slammed the dresser drawer, Mal jumped from the noise, and I got angrier. "Don't you dare act like you're afraid of me! Don't you dare!"

"Jack, calm down." Sunny grabbed my arm.

I threw him off and pointed my finger in her face. "You fattened me up with money, cars, and a condo, with greed and the need for revenge, just to make me prime cuts for you and your demonic sisters!"

"Don't you talk about my sisters!" Mal slapped my hand out of her face. "This isn't even about you! Why do you think Sunny came up with the idea that would free us both? I'm stuck with Darcy as much as you are, and you're so goddamn self-involved that you never realized it! Sunny has sacrificed everything meaningful to him, and all you can do is stomp around, ranting about how 'somebody' was going to eat you. You're alive, aren't you?"

"You don't get to blow this off!" I raged.

"You don't get to make his sacrifice irrelevant!"

"Yes, he does," Sunny murmured weerily.

I glared at him. "You're damn right I do. If you had stepped up and told the truth from the very beginning, we wouldn't be in this mess. I would've known to turn down the vampire's offer because I had a Guardian Angel in my corner, ensuring I got my life back on track, but no!"

"Jack, I think you're misunderstanding things, but I doubt trying to clear this up will work with you in this condition. Why don't I just go," he said as he rose.

I rammed an arm through the sleeve of my shirt and finished clothing myself. "You don't have to go a goddamn place. Stay with your goth girlfriend. I'm done with the both of you." I grabbed my phone and succeeded for once in hailing a car.

"He's blowing off steam," Mal deduced to Sunny as I left the house. The screendoor banged shut with an air of finality. I loved the sound.

"What if he doesn't come around? This is my fault," Sunny mourned.

"Little Light, beloved, none of this is anyone's fault unless its everyone's fault. No gold stars for falling apart right now. Jack will be back. He has to. Darcy won't let him go far."

I grunted a bitter laugh. That was what she thought. I paced the sidewalk in a tumult as I eavesdropped through the raised windows. All I could think about was how much danger I had placed my parents in. No amount of money was worth it. Sunny could have warned me to get my family the hell away from New Orleans. Or Mal could have found another victim.

At the very least, they could have stuck to their antagonistic roles and left my feelings out of this. I couldn't believe I had fallen in love with them.

I covered my face and breathed deeply to recenter. I didn't ever want to see the two of them again. However, thanks to them, I might never revisit my parents, either. It was too risky to return to the studio aparment. As I climbed in my rideshare, I gave the address to my condo, much as I wanted to forget the place existed.

Once at the upscale condominum, I charged from the elevator to my doors and nearly tripped over a package. I jabbed the key into the lock as I picked it up. It was addressed to me. Peering at the address for the sender, it was from Numinosity. I wondered if the shopkeeper had gotten lazy and sent my purchases to the address linked to my card.

Unexpectedly, when I entered the condo and tore open the box, I found a delicate picture frame inside. I stopped in my tracks. It was carved of wood in the shape of a promenade bound by flowering myrtle trees. Honeysuckles and berries wreathed the base, and butterflies and birds got carried away across the top. Within was the postcard of Ava's portrait of the three of us.

I inhaled a quivering breath as I studied the item. I couldn't believe I had fallen in love. The hollowness in my chest seemed to expand as I put the picture frame down. There could be no relationship without trust. I had shown them my most vulnerable self. I had deconstructed the walls protecting my heart to allow them in.

Their slick maneuverings behind my back bordered on narcissistic abuse. They had known they were hurting me and done nothing differently. Why? Because both of them profitted, no matter what happened to me. Mal would satisfy Darcy if she won. Sunny would get promoted. If he hadn't finally coughed up an alternative solution, I would be dead in weeks. And the worst part was, I hadn't made them pretend to feel for me. That had been of their decision. They had used love and lust to bind me to the execution block.

I contended with the possibility something had changed over the weekend. Maybe the two of them had evolved a conscience. But I didn't want to stick around to find out. I didn't want to give them another chance to hurt me with the secrets that they kept.

I had a plan to deal with Cyprian myself. I would let the past be the past and move on, leave the city. I would run from him to someplace he'd never find me. I wouldn't take anymore of his money or his Trojan horse gifts. With the funds I had left, I'd make sure my parents had another month rent-free and try to get Kato into a federal program that could help the teen.

I couldn't save them. I couldn't save anyone. Haley had been wrong. I hoped her sister turned out okay, but I wasn't stupid enough to retain my God-complex. I was a lone wolf without a pack, and judging by the intrigues of Overlay City that I had already stumbled into, my presence in the lives of my loved ones would only imperil them. My destiny wasn't to be the hero. It was to fade into the sunset.

I packed light. I left a message for Numinosity to send my parting gifts to Mal's address. I knew either Mal or Sunny had sent me the frame. I wanted to end whatever we had on a conciliatory note. I accepted what they were, though I didn't understand why they had done what they had done. We couldn't be together, as a result.

As I locked up the place for the last time in the brief history of me owning it, on impulse I snatched up the picture frame and shoved it into the inner pocket of my leather jacket. I traded an expensive knickknack from the condo for enough money to buy a motorcycle. I didn't want to take the hypercar.

I took off in the night headed for the horizon. Dark thoughts weighed on me. The prospect of the Battle Royale was daunting. Yet, there was a way to get out of the battle for the title of Alpha. I would chain myself up someplace until the call to join the fight passed. If I destroyed myself in the process, so be it. I could almost hear what my father would say when he found out I was gone for good. Bad luck runs after people.