bedeviled & beyond 06 - bedeviled & befouled by sam cheever Page A

Dialle.
    “What’s wrong?”
    James Phelps, Seraphim and right-hand angel for the Big Guy, slid a glance toward Emo. “Can you excuse us for a minute, son?”
    Emo nodded but I bristled. “I don’t have any secrets from Emo, Father. He can stay.”
    My father didn’t respond, he simply held Emo’s gaze until my friend touched my arm and gave me a sad smile. “I’ll see you later, Astra.” I watched him walk out of the room, past my father, and realized his dismissal made me mad. I glared at my father. “Don’t treat him like an invalid.”
    My father glanced at the door and it closed behind Emo, ensuring that Emo wouldn’t hear whatever we were about to discuss. “He is an invalid, daughter. Whatever you might want, he’s still in a delicate condition. He must be eased back into life on Earth.”
    “He seems fine.”
    I got stern face for my comment. “He’s not.”
    I’ll admit it. I still backed down when confronted with my father’s stern face. “But I need him in the office. How soon until he can come back to work?”
    “Not for a while. Maybe never.”
    I swallowed hard, feeling the blood rush from my face. My hand reached out and touched the firm surface of the long, wooden table that dominated the center of the massive, brick-floored kitchen. “He’s still sick?”
    My father took pity on me. “Not really sick. Just delicate. He’s worked very hard to win the battle against the dark influences vying for his soul. He won, he’s on the mend, but he can still revert and regress. We need to keep him as far away from stress as possible until he regains his confidence.”
    I nodded, feeling a little better. “Which means he can’t help me with Dialle.”
    “Not even a little.”
    I thought about this for a minute and nodded, feeling no resistance to the idea. I loved Emo. We’d been friends since we were kids, and partners for several years. I didn’t want to do anything that would endanger him. “Okay. I’ll stay away as much as possible.”
    “No. That’s not what I’m asking of you, daughter. Myra brought you here for a reason. He needs you now more than ever.”
    I leveled a look on my father. “Have you met me? My life is stress on steroids. Just standing next to me constitutes a walk on the wild side. How am I going to spend time with Emo without passing some of that stress onto him?”
    “I’m not saying it will be easy. But you made a great start today. You’ll figure it out.”
    Sighing, I shook my head. “My entire life is impossible, why should my relationship with my best friend be any different.”
    “Whining doesn’t become you, Astra.”
    I stuck my tongue out at my father and he laughed. “There you are. I was afraid Myra had left your backbone behind when she shifted you here.”
    “Har. Now tell me about Dialle. What in Hades is going on with him?”
    “You probably have already guessed. When prophecy foretold a great unifier, we didn’t realize that his power to walk the line between dark and light had a caveat, if you will. That caveat is you, Astra. Without you Dialle is no longer grounded in the light.”
    “Shit.”
    “Crude but accurate. Your connection with Dialle was what allowed him to become the unifier. Without you...” My father shook his head.
    “He’s being seduced by the dark.”
    “Yes. That’s bad on many levels. It’s bad for the Royal Devil Court on Earth, because as long as you and Dialle are tied to the court it will continue to crumble and degrade, until Dialle begins to heal, or...” He shook his head and went on. “The disintegration of the court is really bad for humans and, by extension, the Celestial Realm. Without the good in Dialle to restrain their baser instincts, the royals and lesser members of the court will explode into violence. Humans will be slaughtered and debased by the thousands—maybe even millions—depending on how quickly we can get the situation under control.”
    “And how will you get it under