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She chuckled. “He can’t be that bad.”
“No, I’m serious. Years from now, he’d be greeting me with a dramatic ‘Uncle! Your eyes! So full of affection!’ He’d be gifting me special glasses, telling me to wear them before a visit in order to shield him from the love streaming from my eyes?—”
Halfway through my explanation, Zoe’s chuckles had turned into giggles, and now she was outright laughing, her eyes watering, her chest heaving. “Oh, my God,” she wheezed. “Now I have to meet him. He sounds like a hoot.”
“He has his moments,” I muttered.
“What about your sister?” she asked after she’d calmed down a little. “What’s she like?”
“She has the biggest heart that she takes care to hide behind an armor built of frivolous playfulness. She’ll only let you glimpse behind that veneer if she deems you worthy, but when she does, she’ll be fiercely loyal to you. Always supportive, will drop everything to help those she loves.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “She’ll take one look at you and bring you under her wing.”
A lovely blush washed over her cheeks. “Your family sounds wonderful.” After a pause, she added softly, “I wish I remembered my human family. Whether I loved them, or they me. I don’t know what it’s like to have that connection.”
“You will, one day.” Because she’d remember. And because my family would become her own.
* * *
Much later, after I’d sent Zoe off with a kiss, still basking in the sated happiness of our encounter, I waited for the obligatory visit from Naamah. Three things in life were certain—death, taxes, and the nosiness of my mother.
She appeared by quickly glancing around the bend and scanning the cave. When she spotted me leaning against a tall stalagmite, fully dressed and waiting for her, she called out, “Oh, bless the Heavens! You are done with your sinful deeds. My eyes have been spared the depravity of seeing my son engaged in unholy, un-matrimony-ish acts!” She fully sauntered around the corner, adding with a contemplative expression, “Though, I guess what you two are doing is actually A-OK for the matrimon-ay, considering that you are, in fact, married.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“So, more progress? Judging by the sweet smell of pleasure that doth linger in the air, you have been getting even closer.” She intertwined her index fingers to illustrate the point.
“I need you to procure a few items for me,” I said, valiantly ignoring her innuendos. I produced the list I’d made and held it out to her.
“So am I to be your errand boy, then?” She cocked her hip and gave me a look that could have been the twin to Azmodea’s “you dare” glare.
“Do you want me to woo your daughter-in-law or not?”
She raised her chin, but her eyes glittered with amusement. “Look at you, bringing out the big guns. Okay, then. Let’s see it.” She snatched the list from my hand and skimmed it. Her brows climbed up to her hairline. Tapping at a point on the paper, she said, “That’s oddly precise. Why specify the exact make and model? Wouldn’t any old vibrator do?”
“Sentimental value,” I said with a smirk.
“You sly dog, you,” she murmured. “All right, I’ll get on it. It might take a little bit, though. I’ll have to send my people to Earth for most of this.”
“How long?”
She pursed her lips. “A couple of days, maybe.”
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
“So you don’t think you’ll crack her memory sooner?”
“Hard to say.” I shrugged. “I’m doing what I can, but there’s no telling how much longer it’ll take. Not like I can look inside her and check to see how close to shattering or unraveling that containment is.”
She studied me for a moment, her expression pensive. “How is your energy? Now that you’ve been here a few days.”
“Same as always.”
“No detrimental effects?”
I shook my head. “I don’t feel any drain. It feels the same as if I were in Hell.”
“Fascinating,” she murmured. “I wasn’t sure if it would actually work.”
Part of the equation of me being able to be here in Heaven did not just come down to whether or not I would be able to pass the gate or camouflage my appearance—physical and energetic—but also to the question of whether I’d be able to draw nourishment from this realm. As a demon in Hell, the matter was simple. Just being in that dimension replenished my energy, whereas if I spent too long on Earth, I would slowly lose my powers and weaken until I was but a human.
