24. Medusa

I loved New York. It had basically been a tradition for a very long time that I spent New Years Eve in New York with Dionysus, Hades, and Persephone. We’d watch the ball drop, catch an up-and-coming band at a bar, and then stay there long enough to see a new show and for Persephone and me to hit up China Town to shop.

I hated that we were here under these circumstances. This could either go really well or very bloody. And we basically had no idea what Gabriel intended to say. They basically said they knew what to say and pulled the other archangels into a huddle and then we were on our way.

A few people jumped back when we landed in the middle of times square. The archangels shot into the air in a show of wings and light. Damn. I had to admit that was pretty impressive. Everyone gasped and whipped their phone out. My men surrounded me and wrapped their arms around each other and me.

Yahweh came to stand next to us.

“They were always impressive when they do this,” he said proudly.

“Do you know what they are going to say?” Pax asked.

“Not a thing. But I trust them. You should see them in action.”

I had to admit, it was pretty badass. I’d never seen an angel in action before. They lined up in some sort of formation with Gabriel at the lead. For all the warnings we gave these people about angels, they all stood there with their mouths open pointing their phones at them. They had no idea these weren’t the violent angels.

“You have disappointed God!” Gabriel boomed. Yeah, there was some kind of magic amplifying their voice. A few people winced, but they didn’t leave. “This wasn’t his order. He never asked you to hurt anyone in his name. He didn’t ask that any time you’ve done it. Rogue angels lied to you and ask you to do it. You’ve perverted his message every time you’ve hurt one of his children. And make no mistake—Supernatural creatures were born that way and if they love him, he considered them his. The people telling you that angels can’t portal and what happened at the prison was unavoidable are lying to you.”

Ariel disappeared in an instant and reappeared wearing an I love New York T-shirt. Yeah, angels were fucking fast. We were going to have to find whatever vendor they got that shirt from and pay them because none of these angels had fucking jobs and I had a feeling Ariel stole it.

“There is a faction of rogue angels in your realm who are rebelling against the Father. They used you to do that and now that they can’t anymore, they will spill violence into this realm. The other gods you’ve seen are real gods. We have several pantheons coming together to end this threat and let that be a message to you. If the archangels can work with pagan gods, then all of you can be a little more accepting of your neighbors who were born different or might believe differently than you.

“The others that told you to steer clear of the rogue angels were right. They are on a mission and it’s not from the Father. They don’t care about you or your life. We don’t want any martyrs, either. Don’t take them on for any reason. We’ll handle it. Try to stay inside. We can appear at will anywhere we want. That could easily be your front yard.”

The archangels all disappeared. Fuck. We needed a GSP collar on them like Benji’s degenerate cats since none of them had cellphones. I was looking around because what now?

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Yahweh said. “Gabriel was created to be a messenger. I do believe they are waiting for you back at Dionysus’s place for their next orders. They’ve been independent for a while, but old habits.”

“He’s right,” Dionysus said. “I felt my wards go off. They are back at my place.”

Eventually, the rogue Powers were going to make their move. They were going to figure out what they wanted to do with their Father now that they had him and they’d just been discredited by the entire choir of archangels.

I already knew it was going to be violent. I just hoped when we had our showdown, it was away from innocents.