Wayward Son

By Dabeagle

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Chapter 7

Gideon had told me in our first conversation that Woolcott could spot me in the mall, drop a bunch of cryptic shit on me and then bugger off. Maybe Gideon had a touch of the foretelling? I headed back in the direction in which I had abandoned Joel, realizing of course that he had long since departed the particular store I'd last seen him in. But I think the mall had over two hundred stores, and I'm sure most of them sold men's clothes so he still had...probably half the mall staff to piss off yet.

Still, the exchange with Woolcott was exhausting and I decided to make things easy on myself and texted Joel to see where he was. He responded shortly after and I wandered through the wide thoroughfares, thinking to myself again that we should have traffic signs in the mall, and then entered the store Joel was currently victimizing.

“Danny, think this shirt is too tight?” Joel turned in a shirt that defined the term snug fit. It wasn't cold out but I could see his nipples.

“Yeah, a little.”

“Damn, I kind of liked this one too, and the sales guy said it looked good,” He turned to look at himself in the mirror again. I glanced at the sales man who was staring at Joel. I walked up close to Joel and leaned in.

“Joel, the sales guy probably thinks you'd look good in a burlap bag.”

“Is burlap the new thing? What color is that? Brown and...what color has lap in it? Lapiz? Is it like, brown and blue together?” Joel looked at me quizzically. I sighed heavily.

“Yeah, that's it.”

“Not sure those are my colors, but this shirt here...too tight huh? Oh well, I guess I didn't need it anyway. Give me a second to change and we'll go.” So saying he ducked into the fitting room. Moments later he bounced out and added the shirt to a pile of clothes he'd sampled and rejected. He shot the clerk a rueful smile and said, “I'm sorry, I guess I didn't find anything.”

The clerk blushed and said, “No problem, come back anytime.”

I rolled my eyes as we headed out the door and muttered to Joel, “You are such an attention whore.”

We went back home, or more to the point I went home and Joel followed me. We were sitting at the kitchen table and I glanced up at him. “I just realized you had no bags when we left the mall.”

“Yeah, I didn't find anything I liked.” He replied, sipping his coke.

“But...how many stores did you visit?”

“Thirty six.”

“You got me up this morning at eight thirty to go to the mall to go clothes shopping, you threatened to get naked if I didn't go, you went to thirty six stores and tried on stuff and didn't buy a damned thing? Get naked or start explaining.” I shot him the evil eye.

He sighed and started to pull up the bottom of his shirt.

“Screw that, start explaining.” I replied dourly.

“Tough crowd, that guy at the last store, he'd a rather seen me naked.”

“You have Aila for that.”

“Yeah...I think she's breaking up with me, dude.” I glanced up sharply to see him looking at me with a lost expression, large tears welling in his eyes. “She's blowing me off, been doing it all week. She won't say what's up, she doesn't want to see me...Jesus Danny, I freaking love her man.”

“Joel...she's not breaking up with you bro, she's just weird, you'll see,” I tried to comfort him but the dam had broken. So this is why he was hanging around all week, he really was lost. I felt horrible for him, and worse that I hadn't thought to worm it out of him before now. The reason he seemed so vain was because he was so insecure. I knew that, of course, maybe better than he did. I guess that means I have to go see what Aila's problem is. Fuck me.

Aila's house on a Sunday morning, sounds like the title of a dumb pop song. Her house wasn't exactly impressive, just an ordinary ranch style with a concrete front porch and split rail fencing. The family car, a tired old Taurus sagged in the driveway, and actually seemed to lend an air of dreariness to the place. The exterior was pale yellow with white trim – you could pass it and never really notice it. I rang the bell out front and waited, shifting from foot to foot.

I'd decided against texting or calling her ahead of time. After all if she was blowing off her boyfriend what chance did I have? So this seemed like a smarter move; the element of surprise and all that jazz. The door opened and I saw a lady who must have been Aila's mom because...well she was there of course, but the facial resemblance was eerie, almost like Aila had aged to...I don't know, middle parent age or something.

“Hi Daniel, come on in,” she smiled and I thanked her. As I entered the house I was hit with how different the interior was compared to the exterior. Bright colors filled the room, and not like psychedelic colors that didn't go together, but really...I hate to say this because it sounds like I'm an interior designer...but the colors were warm. In fact everything put me in mind of a Thomas Kinkaid painting. The room was a cinnamon color and it had a gingerbread brown kind of trim with a white line down the center of it, almost as if it were a streamer of icing.

The hallway I followed her down was a yellow that wasn't as gaudy as people paint the sun to be, but they seemed to glow with some kind of latent warmth.

“You are some decorator Mrs. Luce,” I commented.

“Oh thank you, that's so nice of you to say. My husband did a lot of the work, I just planned it, bought the materials and threatened him with no dinner if he didn't do it,” she laughed.

We entered the kitchen and it was like the other parts of the house, red shades that simply invited you to stay and eat. Like eat cookies and milk or something. Aila was sitting at the kitchen table with a textbook open, and wiped a surprised expression off her face rather quickly at the sight of me.

“Daniel, I wasn't expecting you,” she closed her book and gave me a less than welcoming look.

“Oh dear, I know that look. Let me just put a snack down there and you guys can work it out over milk and gingersnaps. I just love that word, gingersnap, don't you?” Aila's mom continued to talk while her daughter shot daggers at me with her eyes. Her mom ignored her and set out two glasses, filled them and, taking a glance at her daughters face, left the jug. A plate of cookies joined the filled glasses. Aila's mother looked down her nose and pointed her finger at her clearly displeased daughter.

“No smiting in the kitchen.” With that weird statement, she walked out of the room.

“I suppose Joel sent you?” she growled.

“No, idea was all mine, but it took me a week to figure out why my best friend was always underfoot all of a sudden.” I picked up a cookie and bit, determined that she'd not rattle me no matter how annoyed she looked.

“I'll call him,” she said and turned her full face to me. It was then that I saw the bruise I thought I'd imagined at lunch the other day, a very nasty one running from her cheekbone down to her chin.

“Holy shit Aila, what happened to you?” my eyes searched her wondering who would be moved to hit her so hard and why.

“What are you talking about?” she asked in a cautious tone.

“Your face,” I pointed for emphasis, like she didn't know where her face was, “that nasty ass bruise? Joel would flip shit if he saw that, what happened?”

“You can see...oh this complicates things.” She sighed and put her head down. “How is this possible? It shouldn't be...no connections, I looked myself...”

As I listened to her cryptic rambling I began to wonder again how she tied into Gideon. She must know something about all this weird shit, maybe even shed some light on the details. With her weird statements, maybe she was related to Woolcott. I decided to roll the dice and ask her an off the wall question.

“You almost look like you tangled with a light bomb.”

Her head snapped up so fast, pick your cliché about what zapped her in the ass, and her eyes were as wide as they'd ever get. I felt a ripple of pleasure at having caught her out, and now had to set myself the task of getting her to make some sense of it for me.

“How do you know about light bombs?” she asked slowly, obviously gathering her wits for a defense.

“Gideon and Woolcott,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “I've gotten a lot of weird information, and even though I was on the edge of letting it all go away...I got sucked back in. So tell me, what happened to you Aila?”

She sighed and held her head again for a moment. I took that chance to sip the cold milk and snag another cookie. She leaned back and her face slipped into a placid mask, nothing revealed except calm. She seemed to be assessing me, and I decided to let her. After all, nothing was going to be gained by pissing her off. Finally she finished whatever debate she'd been engaged with and nodded.

“Gideon and I went out to spar, do a little training. We got a lot more than we bargained for., I was lucky to only have this bruise and a snapped hip.”

“What? Bullshit, if you had a snapped hip you wouldn't have been walking in school Monday...” My voice trailed off as I recalled her limping that Monday, and me thinking it was her granny bag. I looked at her and saw nothing to indicate she was lying, no knowing smirk like she was jerking my chain. I then realized she'd said she was out with Gideon.

“Is Gideon all right?” I asked, a little surprised at how concerned I sounded to myself. I guess maybe there was a little bit of guilt there if I was ready to write the guy off, but he was home nursing a broken...whatever.

“He's mending,” she replied.

“Okay, all right. One more bit of weirdness. Please...tell me what happened.” I leaned back in my chair and tried to prepare my mind for whatever she was going to lay on me.

“Gideon and I had agreed to work together, to hone our skills a little bit, so we went out to spar. I guess putting us together, exercising our...talents...attracted some attention. I'm not sure why, it didn't before, but if it was an imp or something, we could have handled that. But it wasn't anything so small.”

“Wait, an imp?” I asked.

“Yes, you know, a minor demon? Hold on,” she put her hand to her head, “How much do you think you know?”

“Woolcott showed up at the mall and laid a whole bunch of angels and demons crap on me, but he didn't really go into detail. But how were you sparring with Gideon I mean he's...”

She raised her eyebrows. She was going to force me to commit before she'd say anything more. Well, fine, I guess it was all or nothing.

“Gideon explained he was human dark. I was at his house when a light bomb went off. He was supposed to come over Saturday, we were going to talk more but...”

“Okay, this doesn't make sense Dan.” she leaned back in her chair and idly munched a gingersnap.

“No kidding...” I sighed.

“You shouldn't be able to see any of this.”

“Any of what?”

“My bruise, the shadows you saw around Gideon's eyes at the Spring Fling, any of it.”

I closed my eyes as my brain cramped. “I know I'm asking for trouble here, but why?”

“Because you're not human dark or light, you're not angelic or demonic.” She shrugged and snagged another cookie.

“Oh, is that all?” I rolled my eyes.

“It's no small thing. See, one talent we have is to hide what we are from the world, and sometimes that means hiding our hurts, like these bruises. No one else can see it unless you fall into those categories. That makes me wonder how you can see, Dan. It's downright weird.”

“You think that's weird? I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone,” I muttered.

“I tried to warn you off him,” she leaned forward and placed a hand on my arm. “It's not that he's a bad guy, Dan, far from it. But he's...complicated, and his situation is dangerous so I tried to protect you. I warned him too, but you two seem to be determined to get together.”

“Yeah, I guess you did.” I sighed. “It's a little hard to swallow though, all this...whatever this is.”

“It's never easy, especially so if you're not born into it. Did he tell you anything else?” she asked leaning away from me.

“No, we were going to talk Saturday, but he didn't show up.” I looked up at her, looking for some clarification.

“Okay, well, let me back up a little. Understand that even though there is a ton to learn, at this point you know some but too little and until we get to the bottom of why you can see things you shouldn't be able to, you need to know more. So here goes, the Light and Dark War 101.”

I smirked at her cavalier attitude, but leaned back and tried to let my mind absorb whatever she was going to share.

“Gideon, as you know, is human dark. I, on the other hand, am human light. Both races are pretty much like all other people, most of us in the middle ideologically, but there are always fringes and polarizing figures. This all took a turn for the worse about a hundred and thirty five years ago. See,” she leaned her elbows on the table as she looked at me, “Some of the people on the light side got it into their heads that dark folks were evil, unredeemable and had to be wiped out. They got a lot of people to come over to their way of thinking, at least enough of them, to wage a war. As the sides fought, it became less about who was good or bad, right or wrong. It became if you were light, you had to kill the dark to ensure they wouldn't kill you and vice versa.

“Lots of good, innocent people died. So many, in fact, that there aren't a lot of either side left. About sixty years ago a new faction formed, one committed to healing the rift between light and dark, trying to find that middle ground where we could all realize that no one is born evil because of being dark or light. Gideon and I are working very hard on that, trusting each other, and that's why we spar. Every Saturday morning at seven, we go out and practice.

“We set up a perimeter, and once in a while an imp finds us, adds a little spice to what were doing, but that's it, until today.”

“Okay, question?” I asked putting a finger up. She nodded at me to continue. “First, the sparring thing...what is that exactly? You guys do Kung Fu or something?”

“Well, physical combat is part of it, but we also practice wielding our talents, practicing our offensive and defensive abilities, learning to recognize what the other one is about to throw at you. But yes, we do occasionally combine the two.”

“Okay and...an imp?” I raised my eyebrows.

“An imp is a minor demon, pretty nasty if you don't have some training, but for the two of us it's just a little something extra. But like I said, we take precautions and we'd never had more than an imp show up.”

“Okay, before you say who did show, Woolcott gave me this speech today about perspectives and what you call a demon might think itself an angel or something...?” I held my hands out in confusion.

“Well, yes, with respect to Gideon and myself for example, that would be true. Human dark might think of me as a demon and Gideon as angelic and the reverse would be true as well of human light people. Is that...the answer you were looking for?”

“No, I don't understand how this angels and demons stuff applies to Gideon--or you for that matter."

“Oh,” she drew the word out and smiled, “I understand now. Well, that's something that's a little personal so I think Gideon should tell you himself, to be honest. If I tell you about me, it gives him away,” she shot me an apologetic look, but I decided to let go of that for now.

“So...what did you guys square off with?”

“Oh god it was awful. Moloch showed up, in fact it was almost like he was waiting for us.” she shuddered and pulled one leg up and rested her foot on the seat, wrapping her arms around her leg. She noted my vacant look and gave me a slightly sheepish look.

“I'm sorry, you're so accepting of all this, I forget that you really don't know some of what I'm talking about. Moloch is a very powerful...well, most would call him a demon.”

“So now we're back to angels and demons.” I muttered.

“Yeah, well, Moloch definitely fits the description of a Demon, and he was after my blood. We were totally unprepared for a fight like that and, I have to say, we held our own for about a minute and a half before he caught me in the face with a hand,” she pointed to the bruise on her face, “and then he whipped one of his arms around and hit me in the hip, and broke it. It hurt Daniel, oh my god did it hurt. I almost passed out. If it hadn't been for the fact I was still trying to defend myself, I would have just from pain alone.

“Gideon was pretty level headed though, he kept dodging him and working his way around to me, pulled me out of the area with his traveling talent. I'd have died if it weren't for him and his quick thinking. He healed me, a gift from his father no doubt. Moloch is going to be a problem though, he was after blood.”

“Holy shit,” I muttered and sat back in my chair. “So Gideon saved your life?”

“Yeah, no question Moloch would have killed me.”

“But why? Because you're light?”

“Not even. See, Moloch is a real demon, he needs human blood. Specifically children's blood, and to him, Gideon and I are still children. When he was still openly worshiped, people sacrificed children to him.”

We sat in silence for some time, digesting the story of their battle. Facing down something out of nightmare, that was way outside why I had come here that night, but I could certainly understand why she hadn't called I guess. Poor Joel, how was he supposed to compete with a life saving Gideon? She had also mentioned that Gideon had healed her, and that didn't seem to go along with the whole prince of darkness thing, so where did that leave me exactly? Best to take care of what I came here for, and then figure out my next move after I had a chance to think.

“So, ah, not to take anything away from your recent brush with death but...you have a boyfriend who's coming apart at the seams.”

“My poor Joel, he needs his reassurances,” she smiled.

“Yeah, he thinks you're breaking up with him.”

Her face lost a shade or two of color and she grimaced before replying, “I guess I've been a little...dismissive of him. I really love him, you know?” she glanced at me, “He's my anchor in all the real, good things. With all the bad things going on, I loved the little back and forth with the three of us.” She reached out and covered my hand with hers, “I'm really sorry all this has come up Danny. I don't know why you can see it all, but there must be a reason. Maybe you're meant to be a part of this but I have to ask you...please let Joel stay as ignorant as he can for as long as possible, no real good can come from this for him. Moloch almost killed me, someone with some practice and a few talents of her own. Joel would have just disappeared and none of us would know why.”

I swallowed and nodded in response. “Just, ah, give him a call, huh?”

“I'll do it right after you leave,” she smiled sweetly.

“Oh, um, now I guess huh?” I smiled and snagged an extra cookie. “Thank your mom please, these were really good.”

I called Gideon's house on Sunday late morning, and Woolcott told me he was meditating and couldn't come to the phone, but that he'd be back in school sometime next week. I was a little suspicious, but really with all the weird shit, who knew what was real and what was strange anymore?

My parents were heavily into spring cleaning mode so I didn't have much chance to think on anything or make any plans as my parents worked me to the bone. I jest of course, but not by much. After dinner I was laying in bed, a little achy and I realized I hadn't seen or heard from Joel all day, so that was probably a good sign. I let some of the angels and demon talk roll over in my mind, realizing that Woolcott was trying to make me think Gideon was a devil, or an angel depending on how I chose to view him. I dreamed of him that night, Gideon looked like one of the Renaissance angels from an old master's brush, beautiful and terrifying in his grace and lethality. I pictured him, avenging in appearance, fierce scowl and a blazing sword held over his head and those sandals with the interlocking straps running up his calves. He also had on the short robe kind of thing the angels in combat always seemed to be wearing in those paintings, and if they were any measure, Gideon had nice legs.

Monday morning rolled around and still no Gideon at his locker, but as I thought on the whole metaphysical happening I was, according to Woolcott, playing a part in I realized I did have a resource to go to about angels and demons. After lunch I snagged Seth as he walked through the hall to his next class.

“Hey, Seth, can I talk to you a minute?” I asked as I laid a hand on his shoulder. He jumped in surprise, maybe that someone touched him or spoke to him I guess.

“Sure,” he replied shooting me a tentative smile.

“I have some questions about angels and demons, and I figured you'd be the guy to ask.” I told him as I leaned against a locker.

“Okay, that's potentially a long conversation...” he trailed off glancing around us, “Not something we can get done in the hallway, beyond angels are good demons are bad.”

“Yeah, I have some sort of involved questions...any chance we can meet up after school or something? After my baseball practice?”

“I'm not allowed out, unless my mom is with me,” He replied with a somber tone. “But...”

“What?” I asked.

“Well, it's not ideal, but...you could come over, maybe?” He looked at me expectantly.

“Yeah I could. Why is that not ideal?”

“Well,” he squirmed, “You remember when we were talking about warlocks, walking in front of my house?” I nodded. “My mother saw and kind of gave me a twenty thousand questions thing so I kind of told her...you were looking for...God.”

My eyebrows shot up and his gaze turned apologetic.

“I had to. If she knew you were gay she'd have flipped shit and locked me in the closet with my bible all night with just water. I'm sorry, I know you don't believe but...I never thought you two would ever actually meet.” He looked at me earnestly and my heart kinda went out to this kid.

“It's cool Seth, I'm not mad or anything. I don't know how to pull that off if I'm in front of your mom though.”

“It's simple, we'll talk angels and demons like you want, just...ask questions and try not to talk too much outside the questions,” he said in a relieved rush.

“Yeah, okay,” I replied as the warning bell rang signifying thirty seconds to get to class. “I'll come over after I wash up from practice?”

“Yeah, about eight is good, bible study starts then, I'll tell her you're coming for that.” He smiled maybe the first true smile I'd ever seen on him, “Oh and Daniel? Please wear the whitest socks you have, okay? See you!” and he was off in the crowd. I scarcely had time to wonder what socks had to do with anything as I ran to my next class.


Practice wasn't anything special, Joel was completely recovered from his confidence crisis and back to his normal self. Once practice was over I headed directly home for a quick supper and to get cleaned up. I rummaged through my drawers and happened on a pack of unopened socks and selected a pair. I shook my head as I did so, not understanding why it was such a big deal. I grabbed a notebook I didn't use much and told my parents where I was headed, snagged my cell, and was on my way.

At this point in my life I should be thinking after school job, saving for a car since I was old enough for a license, but instead I was going to learn about angels and demons. I was talking to myself, hoping to steel myself in front of Seth's mom so I wouldn't make trouble for him. I have to admit, I was really curious though, having never really known a heavily religious family.

Turning down his street I noted the muted lights behind curtains and others whose curtains were thrown wide to reveal the living room and the changing display of the television. Beyond the living room in the so-similar housing styles was the dining room, usually with someone sitting there doing homework or figuring out bills, which I guess was grownup homework. I finally reached their little Cape Cod style house done in unmistakably drab turd like colors and rang the bell. I tried to wipe my uncharitable assessment of their house out of my mind before the door opened.

I rang the bell and waited. And waited. Just as I was itching to ring the bell again a shadow formed behind the gauzy curtain of the glass set in the front door, and the door opened to reveal a very severe looking woman in extremely conservative dress. I mean hair in a bun, pulled so tight she'd never need plastic surgery cause her face was stretched already. She wore a bulky sweater and a skirt that was long enough to hide her shoes. For a moment I entertained, in the back of my mind where I wouldn't embarrass Seth, that she was wearing Nazi jack-boots or maybe dutch clogs under all that.

“You must be Daniel,” she intoned.

“Yes Ma'am, pleased to meet you.” I replied.

“You are welcome in our home, please leave your shoes by the front door.” She replied. I hadn't been exactly intimidated by this lady before, but her sterile voice and formal tone was starting to put me on edge. I stepped into the house and immediately felt claustrophobic. Not because the place was cluttered or there was any real lack of space, but because everywhere you looked there was a religious icon. Crosses on walls, white bearded Jesus's on table tops, and the cliché hands in prayer on top of the TV.

I toed off my sneakers and left them with the other shoes by the door. I noticed that Seth's mom looked down at my feet and took stock of them before making a grunt and turning away to go deeper into the house. Apparently my socks had passed muster. I then realized that his mom wouldn't be wearing shoes and my visions of goofy footwear concealed by her voluminous skirt were unfounded, unless you considered long rainbow striped socks. Nah, too much color for her. I followed and was led into the kitchen, where Seth was seated at the table with his bible and a notebook.

“Seth has told me you are a seeker,” his mother addressed me.

“Yes ma'am,” I replied after getting a small nod from Seth.

“In that case rather than confuse you with the scripture that Seth and I are currently examining, I will let him speak to you in more general terms.” She turned to face Seth, “I will be in my room. I expect study to be done.”

“Yes mom,” he replied.

She swished out of the room and I sat down at the table with Seth. He tilted his head to glance at my socks and smiled at me.

“So, what is the deal with the socks?” I asked keeping my voice down.

“Mom thinks that if you're socks are clean, so are you. Don't ask, we have the whitest socks in the neighborhood,” he smiled.

“All right then,” I smiled back. No weirder than my mom and her idea that if the corners were clean, the floor was clean. “So, I have some weird questions and I hope you can help me.”

“Yeah, you said angels and demons? Pretty heavy stuff for a non-believer,” Seth commented.

“Yeah, well...hey, what is a seeker anyway?” I asked as I opened my notebook and slipped off my light jacket, hanging it on the back of the chair.

“Someone who is seeking God, someone who is trying to find the path to Him,” Seth replied. “I think it's my moms term, but it could be canon.”

“What's Canon mean?”

“Well, in this sense it means that it's an ecclesiastical rule,” he noted my look of confusion, “It's like religious law. In general it means, like, generally held to be true. Like Captain Pike was the first Captain of the Enterprise, so it's canon to the Star Trek universe. See?”

“Got it.” I replied.

“Now was there something specific you wanted to know or...” He trailed off and leaned back in his chair.

So I gave him the same general story that Woolcott had dumped on me, and it didn't make very much sense to him either, I don't think. Or I could have told it wrong, since I wasn't entirely sure of the point myself.

“So you're wondering if...” Seth asked.

“Well, he seems to imply that angels and demons aren't that far apart.” I replied.

“Well, not according to biblical teaching, but I can see a few confusing spots. See, Angels are actually the lowest tier of the angelic spheres, followed by archangels. When Lucifer rebelled, according to canon, he fell from grace as did his conspirators. But they didn't become demons, but fallen angels. But that's different from the Fallen.”

“Does this tie into the nephilim and the...uh...a Cambion?”

“Well, yes and no. According to canon when the humans first began to flourish there was a group of angels sent down to guide them, called the Watchers. According to scripture the Watchers took human form and mated with human women creating the nephilim. That is a point of contention though, because Angels have no sex organs according to church teaching, and they don't have free will; they are instruments of God's divine will.

“Then how did Lucifer get it in his head to rebel?”

“Well, current thought is that it must have been God's desire that he rebel and create the temptations for humanity. But the Watchers weren't supposed to mix with humanity the way they did, carnally, and for that abuse of free will, which remember they aren't supposed to have, God imprisoned them in a layer of Heaven for seventy generations.”

“Wow all for a little piece of ass?” I asked.

“Not so simple, really. Their actions created a whole new race, one more powerful than their human cousins. The Nephilim sometimes manifested Angelic talents and were larger and stronger. In fact, Goliath may have been Nephilim. There were so many Nephilim children that God sent the flood to wash away the Nephilim and save his creation, the humans.”

“But if God created the Angels and Humans, and they mated, wouldn't they also be God's creations?”

“Well, that's a gray area. God decided no, so...no.”

“Okay,” I replied with a frown.

“Cambions are something different. See, there are big differences between Angels and Demons. Angels are the heralds of God's divine will, and if they fall from grace they are still Angels, technically I guess. Demons come right from hell, evil spirits and I honestly couldn't tell you how they are formed. But a Cambion is the child of a human and a demon. They are usually unbelievably beautiful no matter the sex and utterly without a soul.

“See this is where my questions start, to be honest., Angels don't have souls either. Demons are unmitigated evil, but there have been some things written that kind of make you see Lucifer in a more sympathetic light. In it he is a favored Angel who grows jealous of God's son, the Messiah, and they wage a war that Lucifer lost, and he was cast into Hell. Lucifer, by the way, means Light Bringer.”

“Really,” I said slipping into thought and wondering about the wielders of light versus shadow.

“But see Demons are really evil, being born in hell where the dead and the eternally punished suffer, they feed off that terror and anguish, it's like breathing in the smell of a cooking pie would be to you or me, and they think blood tastes good too.” Seth leaned forward, “Why do you want to know about them so much?”

“Well, after Woolcott said all that cryptic shit, I'm trying to figure out how these Angels and nephilim and Demons relate to...”

“Gideon?” he said with certainty.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“He's not a Cambion,” Seth smiled at me.

“How can you tell?”

“I mentioned they are beautiful? They are to everyone. Like if a real Cambion showed up at school, we'd all see whatever our ideal is, they radiate sexuality like a succubus. He's a nice looking guy I guess, but he's no Cambion.” Seth smirked.

“Okay, I guess I can go along with that. What are the chances he's Nephilim?” I wondered aloud.

“Well, hard to say. If you accept Nephilim, then you have to accept at least the lowest tier of the Heavenly Host, the angels.” Seth replied.

“Is there one Angel or Demon that's known for their healing?” I asked, thinking of my conversation with Aila. She'd said Gideon healed her,a gift from his father.

“Demon's aren't known for their healing, but Angels are in general, one in particular. Raphael, the Archangel.”

“Angel, Archangel. You said something about tier's before, spheres? Fallen angels and The Fallen?”I waved my hands vaguely.

“Yep, there are three spheres or sets of the Heavenly Host, my mom is actually a lot more knowledgeable about them, but...they are scary sounding. Like the Thrones? The lowest of the top tier? They look like big cheese wheels covered in eyes basically.” We both giggled a little at that.

“Laughing doesn't sound like studying,” his mother glided into the kitchen and began making herself a cup of tea.

“We were talking about the Angelic Spheres in the Heavenly Host and I was telling him about the Thrones...” Seth smiled at her.

“I'm sure if you were able to survive seeing one, you wouldn't find it nearly so funny,” she said severely. A moment later her face softened as she looked away from his chastised face and onto mine.

“Daniel, you're interested in the Spheres?”

“Yes ma'am, it sounds unbelievable.”

“Many of them are described in a very fierce way. I admit, once I found out what Seraphim and Cherubim really looked like, I was quite shocked. But Seth is right, the Thrones do seem to sound a bit...strange looking.”

“Do you believe in Angels ma'am?”

“Oh yes, of course I do. I've met them before.”

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