Page 14 of Kiss of Wrath

Vikar flinched.

He does not hesitate to war with fiercesome demon vampires and yet he cringes at my singling him out. Holy heavens! You’d think I was going to wield a whip or rain down locusts. “Pray tell, what is that vast hole in your back bailey, Vikar? Art thou digging a tunnel to Hell? Is that how you plan to fight Satan’s Lucipires now?”

Vikar’s face, a healthy golden tone today due to some recent vangelizing, flushed with heat. “Of course not. It is to be a swimming pool,” Vikar explained in a low voice, scarcely a murmur, as if embarrassed. As well, he should be!

Michael arched his brows. “You were ordered to renovate this castle into a suitable accommodation for vangels. Not a luxurious spa.”

“Hardly luxurious!” Vikar protested. “Alex . . . I mean, I . . . wanted a pool for the children to swim in.”

Michael laughed. “Please! Those little ones are not yet three feet tall, and by my estimate, your pool will be at least thirty cubits. Pfff! Next, there will be a hot tub.”

By the increasing color on Vikar’s face, Michael assumed the pool would be even larger and that, indeed, a hot tub was in the plans. In truth, Michael did not mind a swimming pool, or even a hot tub, if it kept the Vikings out of trouble. Still, he cautioned, “Pride, Vikar. Remember, pride is e’er your downfall.”

Vikar nodded. “All right. I’ll skip the wet bar and fake palm trees.” He immediately realized his mistake when he noticed his brothers snickering at him.

“Cnut,” Michael said then.

Cnut’s head shot up, and Vikar breathed a sigh of relief.

“What is the latest tally on vangels-in-training?”

Cnut, too, looked noticeably relieved since it was not one of his sins that was being exposed. Yet.

Cnut was in charge of military training—in particular, training to fight Lucipires, which was all together different from regular military skills. The only way to destroy one of Satan’s demon vampires—destroy, not just kill, which did not prevent their return at a later date—was to pierce them with swords or bullets treated with the symbolic blood of Christ or the symbolic splinters of the True Cross. Holy water was a deterrent, but it only burned the skin off the vile creatures, and regular weapons merely killed them, allowing them to be resurrected over and over as demon vampires.

“We now have five hundred and seventy full-fledged vangels, and twenty vangel trainees about to graduate into the ranks. Another fifteen of the newly turned need additional training. At least a month more.”

Michael nodded. “I will be sending a hundred more shortly.”

Seven jaws dropped at that news.

“And, no, Ivan the Terrible will not be one of them.” Vikings were great ones for rumormongering. Like old women they were betimes. They had yet to learn that he heard everything.

“Is it necessary to expand our ranks?” asked Vikar. “I mean, we annihilated a large number of Lucies on that Southern mission at Angola Prison a few months back.”

“They’re like roaches,” Sigurd, the physician, explained, to no one in particular. “Kill a roach in one spot, and five others spring up in another.”

Michael nodded. “With Satan’s help, in the Lucipires’ case. Word coming up to the heavens is that Lucifer has given Jasper another thousand of his demons.” Lucifer had been Satan’s name when he’d been an archangel. Jasper, Lucifer’s cohort in heavenly crimes, was also a fallen angel, once a friend of Michael’s, now king of the demon vampires.

“I do not have room for another hundred vangels here,” Vikar griped.

“Ivak, have you not made ready the Southern headquarters for the vangels?”

“I’m trying,” Ivak contended. “Workers keep quitting on me because of the snake problem. The repulsive reptiles seem to multiply by the day. Like Lucies.”

“Has it never occurred to you that they might be just that?” Michael asked.

“Huh?” Ivak said.

“Asp, Garden of Eden, original sin. Ring any bells, Viking?” Verily, Vikings could be so thickheaded. When Ivak still stared at him with lack of understanding, Michael continued, “Have the plantation renovated enough to house fifty new vangels within six weeks.”

“That is imposs—” Ivak started to say, then quickly amended, “As you wish.” And bowed his head with seeming meekness, which was fooling no one. Vikings did not do meek well.

“By the by, how is the baby coming?” Michael asked. To Michael’s consternation and total surprise, Ivak was soon to be the father of a human baby. Vangels were not supposed to be capable of begetting children.

“Not soon enough. Gabrielle looks like she swallowed a wild boar, whole.”

“Mayhap it will be twins. Or triplets,” Michael offered.