First Estate

She sighed and came over to me. She sat down and I squeezed her.

"I want you to know that you're my hero, Mariha. You stuck your neck out for us and that's why you're in trouble. We would all likely be dead except for you. I don't care what some smug archangel thinks, there's no one in the universe more special than you. You don't take a back seat to anyone in my book."

She kissed me and one of those golden tears dropped off her cheek onto my belly. I wasn't wearing a shirt and it burned me a little. It was a good burn.

"There have been two times since the beginning that I've been happier than ever before," she told me. "The first time was when Lilith and I lived together in Crete and the second time is when I'm with you all here. I've been in heaven and it doesn't have this. I think maybe that's why God wants humans there. He's going to preserve things like we have here and heaven is going to be full of this kind of joy forever. You could teach Watchers something about love, friendship, loyalty; bonds like that. We feel that toward God, but it's missing from the way we feel about each other. Thank you, Parker. You make me feel good about myself and Adonael can't take that away from me. I'll remember what you said next time I talk to him."

"I think you're just not very assertive, Mariha. At least not with Watchers you feel are ranked above you. Think about it; are any of them better or more deserving of your respect than Boston?"

"No, they aren't."

"But you don't have a problem with correcting Boston when she's out of line. If I do something you don't like, you don't have a problem telling me about it. Why are they any different?"

"I know you love me. I know you would never sacrifice me in the name of heaven, justice, right or rank. They would."

"To hell with them then. They aren't our kind of people. Why care what they think?"

"I shouldn't, I know that. It's engrained in me, Parker. It's who I've been for millennia."

"How old are you, Mariha?"

"I don't remember ever not being. I have no beginning that I know of. When time began, I was there. I know God created me, but there was no time as you know it then."

"My God, Mariha, it's hard to imagine."

"Yes, I can't wrap my mind around it either. I'm a creature of time now."

"Will you tell me about the old Nephilim?"

"Yes, which one?"

"Pick a story. I don't have anything particular in mind. Tell me a story."

"Let's see, I could tell you about the war between Elishah and Seba."

"I never heard of them, but yes, tell me that. Were you there?"

"I was in Calah at the time. It was an ancient city. We had no orders about the war, but when the humans we were Watching began to be affected by it, we became involved."

"Who were you watching," I asked.

"A Moabite woman whose decedents were going to be important. Seba lived in what you know as England and Elishah had a kingdom just to the south of Greece."

"The Mediterranean Sea is to the south of Greece."

"I know, but the earth hasn't always had the same form it has now. Stop interrupting me. As much as I enjoy sitting on your lap, I have things to do today."

"Make time. I like you sitting on my lap. I like holding an angel."

She laughed. "Okay, time will not pass until you're ready."

I really did like her there. She was really soft and cuddly and she didn't weigh much over a hundred pounds. She was really very small. I hadn't thought about it before. She was as tall as I was in fire mode, but a small girl in human form. She felt delicate and vulnerable and it made me want to protect her.

"You may find it difficult to credit, but the ancient Nephilim civilizations had high technology that humans have only recently begun to rival. They were ten times as smart as your modern geniuses of science and they lived hundreds or thousands of years. Hundreds if they destroyed each other and thousands if they stayed out of trouble like Lilith and a few others.

Anyway, Seba was a very powerful mind manipulator and Elishah was a very powerful king and a water manipulator. Their kingdoms were friendly and even allies for hundreds of years. Elishah began to descend into madness and paranoia and his kingdom became unstable. He killed thousands of people for plotting against him and the streets began to run with blood. Many of his top people, powerful Nephilim in their own right, felt like they might be next. He had a seaport near what is now Gibraltar where his navy headquarters was. In the middle of the night, those top aides seized the navy and fled for Nod. That was the name of Seba's kingdom.

Elishah discovered their treachery and, his sanity already hanging by a thread, he snapped. That started a war that lasted 90 years. Neighboring kingdoms were drawn in and I became aware of it when Sela dropped a nuclear device on Rehoboth."

"You mean a real nuke like Fat Man and Little Boy?"

"Yes, exactly. Those were firecrackers compared to this. I told you they had high technology. They had electricity, steam power beyond anything humans ever developed and dirigible air travel. It was really very sophisticated. If you can imagine all that power in the hands of Attila the Hun, you can imagine what this was like. Your mother was born about this time. Ask her about it sometime.

When Sela dropped the nuclear device, it killed over a million people. Many of them were under the care of Watchers and we got involved. Elishah retaliated, of course, and he raised the ocean floor so that water poured over Sela's kingdom. When it receded, England was an island and millions more died. Sela escaped and disappeared.

Watchers began a siege of Elishah's kingdom. There were many powerful Nephilim left and the manipulation of Presence swept the earth like a firestorm. Eventually, Gabriel became involved and he dropped a meteor on Elishah's kingdom. There were massive earthquakes and a prolonged time of volcanic activity. A tidal wave of titanic proportions swept in and filled the crater. As a result, there is now a sea where Elishah's kingdom once ruled vast plains. He was destroyed in the conflagration and Sela was imprisoned. I would estimate that half the world's population of humans was wiped out. Do you see why Watchers would consider you so dangerous, Parker?"

"Yes, but all they have to do is talk to me. I'm not mad, nor am I sinking into paranoia. They really are out to get me."

"Yes, me, too," she laughed. "I know you're a righteous person, Parker, but they don't. I wish they would come and meet you. They would fall in love with you," her voice dropped almost into inaudibility. "As I have."

I was a little confused by that. "What do you mean by that, Mariha?"

"Nothing," she said. "I spoke without discretion. Please, Parker, don't ask me any more."

I took her chin in my fingers and turned her face toward me. Her hands were twining in her hair and she wouldn't look at me.

"Mariha, look at me."

Her violet eyes slowly rose to look into mine and I saw that they were brimming with gold. "Tell me."

"No, Parker, please don't make me. Forget it; it was nothing."

"It isn't nothing to me. You're going to tell me. What does, 'As I have' mean?"

I continued to make her look at me and her lips began to tremble. "O Father, help me," she breathed. "It means I love you Parker. I'm in love with you and I'm lost. I didn't mean for it to happen. I know you love Sagan and I feel so wicked. I didn't want to tell you. You made me. What am I going to do?"

She sobbed against my shoulder and two lines of gold scalded my chest.

"You're burning me, Mariha. Stop crying and listen to me. Why are your tears burning me?"

"They are potent and you are an immortal. If I wished, they could destroy you. I'm sorry Parker."

"Listen to me. You're not lost and you're not wicked. Talk to Sagan and Boston. Be honest with them and explain what you just told me. They love you, Mariha and they will still love you. I love you. This isn't a problem. Can I only love one person? Can you only love one person? Can they? Who said it had to be that way? Sagan will always have a special place in my heart no one else can touch. She's the girl for me. That doesn't mean I don't love you or Boston or Mom. Are you saying you want me for yourself?"

"No, I'm not that selfish. But I do want you, Parker."

"Then what's changed? They've always been willing to have you in our hearts or in our bed. What do you want to change about that?"

"I want you to myself sometimes."

"Have you forgotten the Great Barrier Reef? We can do something like that again. We can do it often. I thought you loved me then?"

"I did and I do. But I wasn't in love with you then. I lusted after you and you were precious to me, but this is different."

"How? So you're in love with me. I'm in love with you, too. I always was. So is Sagan. So is Mom. Everyone in this family is in love with you. You're making something simple into something complicated. Live life, for God's sake, Mariha. What happens, happens. Don't be a drama queen. This isn't something bad or wicked. It's love and life."

She put her face into my shoulder again and her hair floated around us. She didn't say anything for a long time. I just held her and stroked her back. She sat up and straddled me on the sofa.

"You're right, Parker. Thank you. I'm going to do that. I'm going to live life and whatever happens, happens. Now what's going to happen is I'm going to make love with you."

She pulled her shirt over her head and those angel boobs were in my face. Her hair wrapped me like a live thing and a bit of heaven rode me like a cowgirl.

Chapter Sixteen

The demons attacked us on a Friday in the afternoon. Mom and Mariha had set up wards around the place a month earlier and we had warning traps that triggered when they crossed them. They howled around the perimeter for a while and they found our weak spot. They came wailing up the river and a sheet of fire toasted their toes as Mariha sent a curtain of flame across the surface. Some of them weren't fireproof, which seems surprising in a demon. There were hundreds of them and Mariha got maybe half. A hellish blue ball of electricity exploded among them. They dropped like flies but it appeared to stun them rather than kill them. They dropped into the water and sank. As they regained control of their senses, they rose by ones and twos out of the water. I heard Sagan and Boston singing and some of them turned on their fellows and the fur flew, so to speak.

"There's too many of them and they're all scattered out. We're in trouble here. Some are going to break free," Sagan spoke in my head.

"Parker, can you make the black hole thing?" Mariha asked.

"Are you sure? I don't want it blowing up this close to the girls."

"You can send it away," she said. "You control it, Parker."

I gathered up the blackness and when the sparks began to circle it I pushed it down the river like a broom. The demons turned to flee when they saw it and the ones in the back got away. The ones in the front circled the toilet bowl and as black streamers ripped away from them, they were drawn inside. It grew with each ingestion and the river was free of them.

Something like a huge, flaming sword appeared over the river and advanced on the black thing. It swung at the glowing blackness and there was a terrific concussion. The sword thing was stuck about half way through the black thing and there were explosions of fire and darkness as the sword became a distinct winged figure. It had six wings and was circled by what seemed to be spinning disks of fire. It kept producing them and the black thing kept sucking them up. It was growing massive and suddenly lighting tore at it. Sagan and Boston's song changed and it was about defeat and weakness and dying. A huge fireball ripped at it and the black glow increased as streamers of flame began to leak from the winged thing into the black hole. The process accelerated and the figure shrank until it vanished and I was left tethered to what felt like a nuke. It was forty feet across and the sparks had become small golden fireballs. I tried to shrink it and I got it down to about five feet. It was covered with a nearly solid sheet of orbiting sparks and I pushed it away down the river. When it reached the deepest point I knew of, I sank it to the bottom and released the energy binding it together. There was a muffled thump and the ground shook under our feet. A blast of water shot hundreds of feet into the air and we were soaked in mud and river water.

I looked at the girls and they were a bedraggled mess. I scanned the sky and the forest but there wasn't a demon in sight. I looked back at the girls and a huge laugh ballooned up inside me until I couldn't hold it anymore.

They looked at me like I was crazy and then looked at each other. They began to laugh, too, and Mom dove into the lagoon. The rest of the girls followed her in and I did a cannonball. We washed away the mud and splashed each other. When we were as clean as the lagoon water could get us I blinked my eyes and we were inside in the shower in the master bath. It was one of those that have jets that come out of the walls and floor and we stripped off our stinking clothes. I got a garbage bag and we threw them away. We soaped and scraped and cleaned. Eventually I smelled human again, or at least not like a sludge creature. The girls were satisfied and we dressed and sat around the bar while I made sandwiches.

"What the hell was that sword thing?" Mom asked, "And what the hell was that black thing you made, Parker?"

"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." Mariha said.

"Is that a quotation from the Bible?" Sagan asked.

"Yes, it's Genesis. What you just saw was The Guardian. He is one of the orders of the Elohim. He was one of them, I should say."

"What about that black, glowing orb?" Mom asked again.

"I don't know what it is," Mariha told her. "It's something new. Parker is something new. He calls it the black hole. It eats everything around it, so I guess that's as good a name as any. I don't know where this could have come from. It's almost like Parker is a new type of Nephilim. I don't know how that could be."

"It was way cool," Boston said. "I think we make a pretty good team. Do you think the demons will be back?"

"Hardly," Mariha said. "Hundreds of them died out there. I don't know how they were convinced to participate in this attack but I expect they'll feel like they were set up. They might turn back on Netzach and try to take him out. I've got to talk to Adonael. He may be able to use this. I don't know how he'll feel about us destroying The Guardian."

She prayed and then seemed far away for a while. We left her alone and finally she said, "I'm going to him. I'll be back in less than an hour."

We talked for a few minutes and went to bed. Mariha was back in the morning. I showered and ate breakfast. Mariha and I made idle conversation and Mom came in. In half an hour, Sagan and Boston were up and around and Mariha filled us in.

"We have a meeting next week. Adonael has arranged for us to speak with Michael, Gabriel and Camael."

"Who is Camael," Boston asked.

"He is an archangel and the leader of the order of Powers. If we survive, they will pretty much settle things. They put me through a wringer, kids. I'll be lucky to stay out of prison."

"Why would they put you in prison?" Sagan asked.

"Well, let's see; I had a hand in killing The Guardian, a cherub, about a dozen other Watchers, a bunch of demons and I'm living with two Nephilim and two Sirens. I concealed information and conspired against my order. I failed to report a Nephilim and I have a record of doing that before. Other than that, I should be fine."

"Bullshit," Mom said. "You have no orders. The crime would be acting in any of those matters without orders. Are you telling me that Watchers feel free to do anything they please so long as God hasn't forbidden it?"

"No, that isn't our usual mode of operation. From a legal standpoint, we only act in our official capacity when we have orders from the throne to do so."

"That's your defense then. You had no authority to act. You discovered Parker while on an official mission. You had no orders concerning him, only Sagan and Boston. You reported that a girl recovered from cancer. When all the other things happened, you were acting in self-defense. You never attacked anyone and you Watched over the two girls you had orders for. I don't think they have a pot to piss in when it comes to putting you in prison."

"I hope their sense of justice convinces them it's true. Adonael is the arch

angel of justice. He's on our side at least."

"Se la vi," Sagan said. "Too bad we can't just go to God and plead our case."

"Are you nuts," Mom said. "God hates us. He's just been too busy to wipe us out. We're a grain of sand in his shoe and because we're so little, he doesn't bother to shake us out. I've spent 6000 years trying to stay out of his way."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Lilith," Mariha told her. "I love God and I wish you did. He is good and kind. He doesn't hate you and he's not too busy. If he hated you he would have had you hunted down years ago. He could just smite any of us at any time if he hated you. Our lists were quite specific during the war. Your name never appeared on any of them. I think he loves you, Lilith. Why else did he leave your name off the lists? I promise you it isn't because you're too little for him to bother with. Boston is a dust speck compared to you and he gave orders for me to Watch her. Think about it; why me? Why was I assigned to this job? There are millions of Watchers he could have assigned, but he chose me. I think it was because he knew how I'd react and that I'd try to help you. That's what I'm going to tell the archangels."

"I'll keep an open mind," Mom said. "If we get through this I'll begin to believe you're right. Until then, I love you and my babies. I trust them and you and no one else."

"Fair enough, What if they're setting us up to take a fall, though?" Sagan asked. "Can we meet with them and get out alive if they turn against us?

"I don't know how," Mariha said. "They would be unimaginably dangerous. If they turn against us, we have very little hope. We'll have to run and hide. We won't be able to live in the open at all. How long do you thing we can stay hidden if all of heaven and hell is looking for us?"

"A long time, I think, so long as God isn't looking for us, too," Mom said. "Parker's father hid for 6000 years and he was on the list."

"Okay, we'll go with that. I don't see what choice we have."

"We're all supposed to hug now and say 'I'll be happy to live in a cave as long as I'm with you,'" I told them.

We all laughed. "I guess that's true," Sagan said. "I'm alive, Boston's alive and I'll pay whatever price I have to pay for that to continue."

I didn't feel like we were safe at River House. I thought about what I should do. The girls wondered off except for Boston. We went for a walk and she held my big hand in her little one. We sat on a bench in the water garden and I talked to her about what we were going to do. She was confident that I'd figure something out. I wished I shared her optimism. Something felt odd about the air. It seemed very easy to breathe, almost as if the whole area was supercharged with oxygen. Boston's voice sounded sort of tinny and my ears were ringing.

I heard footsteps coming down the path. I got ready to fight. I felt a little awkward when I saw Colonel Sanders walking down the path. Well, it wasn't really him, but it was a doppelganger. I wondered who he was and what he wanted.

"Hey, dude, what's up?" I asked him. "How did you get through the gate."