The Wicked & Divine

Chapter 19• Survival

"Well...?" Mammon asks impatiently, tapping his foot quickly on the cold floor of my office, creating the most aggravating sound.

I sigh in thought, "Well that is something...I mean you didn't even invite me."

"LUCIFER!"

"Okay okay. I want to sit this one out a bit, I mean I very well can't just ring the Divine Bell with no real cause pinpointed. That would be a riot with the Divine Counsel and some of those assholes are just waiting to build a case to have me removed. I'll keep watch and speak with this Lajakni sister myself. Until then we only confide with our brothers and sister if necessary. Until then, this stays between us, that is my final order" I state with utmost confidence.

What else could I go on? It had to be Artemis, her powers rising and then another equal and opposite force. But who was on the negative spectrum? Or is it completely the fault of nature responding in accordance to an uneven balance of energy?

So many questions, too little answers. Gaia would confirm some of these things, but in utmost discretion.

And as if my Mammon had peered into my mind, "You think it's Artemis don't you?" He asks, still tapping his foot and now his fingertips across the cedar wood top of my desk.

"The situation reeks of that woman but- fuck Mammon would you stop that noise? Do you have fleas or something?" I say annoyedly. Whatever itch he had jumped onto me because moments after I was scratching my scalp in aggravation.

The paleness of his skin had been grayed by the direness of his thoughts and his limbs frozen solid by icy concentration. I had nearly begun to think a statue was in the leather chair across from me.

Before I could even care enough to ask what had stolen his attention so abruptly, I caught a feverish chill. It zapped down bones, like lightning bouncing between my vertebrae.
"You feel it too? I could tell-" before Mammon could proceed, Death quickly entered the room panting.
His hands gripped onto the side of the door, and all though I could not see his face, I knew we had an unwelcome presence lurking. Or well, a divine presence had lurked.

I let that forsaken woman out of my sight for a moment.

"My lord! It's Artemis!" I already knew what he meant without having to be said. Like a beast under the silver moon, I howled so gravely the windows broke from pressure, and the silver and gold in the room had melted from my heat. Fucking woman.

"ARTEMIS!"

-

I followed quickly behind Raphael, dodging citizens of the town below the mountain I had made my buzzing escapade from. It was so unanticipated I hardly had time to find a jacket, I was quite nearly freezing as icy wind wrapped around me and clung to my reddened flesh.

Women and men looked at me as if I had lost my mind, which was an honest possibility. A couple of weeks ago I had no idea if I would be able to make rent on time, now I was sprinting down slippery gray pavement in Europe, trying to dodge the Devils son.

"Where are we going?" I called out to Raphael who was already feet ahead of me and running with ease. He was a stunning vision of warm brown eyes and chestnut skin. His hair was in long dreads wrapped into a bun, divine beauty and perfection. "A place west of here! Gabriel and your Aunt are waiting for us!" He called out to me, his voice ringing like church bells.

I sighed in relief under my breath, ease resting onto my shoulders. But I couldn't let them linger longer than a moment, there was still the matter of arriving at this town undetected and safely. I raised my chin and kept my legs moving quickly, I could really enjoy Germany if it hadn't been under such condemning conditions.