First Estate

"What did he mean, 'the earth was changed?'" Boston asked.

"I think he said 'divided.' I think there used to be direct access to other dimensions."

"You mean like heaven?" Sagan asked.

"Yes, I don't know what heaven is. There may be other places left. I know it's there. Hell is real, too. That's where the prison is. I think there are thousands or tens of thousands of us still there. They're bound and warded to keep them there because they're so dangerous to humans they can't be allowed to be free. Some rivaled the archangels in power. They couldn't be made into demons. I don't think the angels know how to kill them. The old ones are too powerful. Maybe God knows how but he hasn't told the angels. Mariha kind of let that slip."

"Were you really lovers?" Boston asked her.

"Yes. She got in a lot of trouble over me and she disappeared. I never knew what happened to her. I hid, too, and we lost each other."

"Well, that's interesting," Sagan said. "How did you decide you wanted a female angel for a lover after all the men you had?"

"She was beautiful and kind. She was everything those men weren't. I saved a little boy's life that she had been sent to watch over. That's how we met."

"Would you like to see her again?" I asked.

"Not right now. It's complicated. I only have time in my life for you, Parker. I've been waiting for a child like you for nearly 6000 years. Now, just when you're getting interesting you move to Austin and I don't see you for months at a time."

"Why don't you move to Austin?" Boston asked.

"I may. I really miss you, Parker. I've never had anyone like you in my life."

I squeezed her. "I miss you, too, Mom."

"Well, now that I've waited all this time it seems like I've got three kids to love," she said. "Humans are changing and getting better if these two are any example."

"Thanks, Lilith," Sagan said. "We love you, too. You deserve to be loved. You've had an awful life but you just kept on going and now you have us. We'll be your kids if you let us; won't we Boston."

"Yes, I love Lilith." She rested her head on Mom's breasts.

I petted her. "You love everyone, kitten."

"No, I hate Tommy Benson," she said.

I laughed. "Why do you hate him?"

"He mocked my central line when I was getting chemo and made fun of my bald head."

"Do you want me to punish him?" Mom asked.

"No, I'm going to learn the language of Shinar and make his hair fall out," she said.

That broke us up. Boston was the only one that didn't think that was hilarious.

"Would you punish him, Lilith?"

"Yes, if you wanted me to. You see, I've fallen in love with you, Boston. I don't permit anyone to hurt people I love."

"Thanks, Lilith, but I've got this," she said.

"Do you know that most humans that know anything about me think I'm a demon?" Mom asked her.

"No, they're stupid," Boston told her. "I think you're wonderful.

We stayed with Mom until Monday and she promised to think about moving to Austin. On Tuesday, things got complicated.

Chapter Eight

Mariha was knocking at our door as six thirty in the morning. I put on a robe and let her in. The girls were still asleep. I made coffee and we ate cinnamon rolls while she filled me in.

Arian's errand boy had showed up at the McDonald's and pulled the information we had planted out of Mona. They seemed satisfied with the idea that Boston's "spontaneous remission" was the result of getting treated in Mexico. We were off the hook on the angel thing as long as the girls stayed in "Mexico" for six months.

We had another problem. Apparently, Boston's oncologist had been doing some tests on the blood samples he had and discovered some unusual properties. He had notified the Centers for Disease Control and the CDC's report had disappeared. There wasn't a trace of the information left in their databases and the doctor had mysteriously disappeared.

"That spells government spooks to me," she told me. "I think someone like the NSA or the CIA got involved and took that information."

"What will they do with it?" I asked her.

"I have no idea."

I pondered that for a while. "Do they know anything about angels or demons or Nephilim?"

"They don't know anything official. They periodically try to capture an angel or a demon. They try to track us. It's all concealed under UFO type stuff. I don't suppose they know anything at all about Nephilim. We make sure they don't find anything out that we don't want them to. I've even busted a demon out of their detention centers a time or two. The way you covered your tracks makes it possible for me to stay in place. I'll hear about anything going on from our end. The problem is, they are looking for Boston. She can't go to school and you need to get her out of Austin. They don't know about you and they aren't looking for Sagan yet. When they find out you're in Mexico from the McDonalds, that's where they'll look for you."

"Can't you just erase everything?" I asked her. "Do whatever it is you do when they get information about you."

"I can't do that without going through the right channels. I would need an official operation. For the obvious reasons, you don't want me to do that. If I just use brute force, someone, likely Arian, will notice. Boston's awake," she told me.

I heard the sound of the shower in her room and in twenty minutes, she came out, dressed for school with her backpack. When she saw Mariha, she set it down and came running to hug her.

"Hello, Boston," Mariha stroked her hair. "You look as beautiful as ever this morning."

"I smell cinnamon rolls. Can I have one for breakfast, Parker?"

"Yes, kitten; I'll heat one up for you. Boston, you aren't going to school today," I told her.

"Why not? I have a big test today in English. I don't want to miss it."

"We need to talk to you. Something's come up and I'm afraid I have some bad news for you about school."

"What is it? Did our plan about the angels not work?"

"No, nothing like that. They aren't looking for you anymore. This is something else. Let's wait till Sagan gets up and then I'll tell you both, okay?"

She agreed and her cinnamon roll was ready. She ate it and chattered with Mariha for an hour. I heard Sagan stirring around in our bedroom and in half an hour, she came out. She was ready for school, too.

"Do I smell cinnamon rolls?" she asked. "Hi, Mariha; what are you doing here?"

She filled the girls in on what was happening while I made a few phone calls. I stepped outside, called Mom and told her what was happening. She was very worried and I told her I'd get back with her when I figured out what to do.

The girls were up to speed when I got done and Boston was crying a little. I picked her up, sat down on the sofa and held her.

"Sagan, you're good at planning, what do you think we ought to do?"

She didn't answer for five minutes. She wrote on a piece of paper for a while, chewing on her pen occasionally while she thought. She wrote some more and finally she was done.

"Okay, I think I've got it figured out. We need to leave Austin, but I need some information, Mariha. Where do you think we should go?"

"Somewhere American Intelligence spooks won't be welcome," she said.

"That's what I thought. That means somewhere that is sort of our enemies. I don't want to go somewhere like Russia, Boston doesn't like cold weather. What do you think about Cuba?"

Boston clapped her hands. "I would love that. Can we go there, Parker?"

"That's complicated, baby. The government won't let us go there directly. We'll have to go somewhere else first, like Canada or Mexico. Can you forge papers, Mariha?"

"What do you want them to say?"

"I want passports and drivers licenses that say we're Canadian citizens. Can we use our real names?"

"You can, they aren't looking for you. Once you get to Cuba you can use your real names. I would suspect that the girls are on the no fly list. They'd be picked up at the airport or at the border. I'll fix that. Look in your wallet."

My license was Canadian. I went and got my passport. It was Canadian. The girls got theirs and the names had changed. They had also become Canadians, Sagan and I were married and Boston was our daughter.

"Well, that's settled. Thanks Mariha," Sagan said. "The next thing is your job, Parker. What are you going to do about that?"

"I've already done it," I told them. "You know I only have an office here because it's convenient. I don't have any work that can't be done anywhere I'm at. I told them I'm relocating. It's not a problem."

"Okay, then we need to fix things at school. I need the University to know I'm going to be in Mexico with Boston. I need them to think I've been there for a while. At the same time, I want them to give me an international study permit to go to the University of Santiago de Cuba and then forget about it. Can we do that?"

"It's already done," Mariha said.

"You're good," Sagan admired her.

"Yes, I'm an angel," she laughed.

"Next, we need Boston's school to know she's been in Mexico getting treatments."

"I took care of that last week," Mariha told us. "That was part of the cover-up. I think I need to go with you until you are settled in Cuba. It's too bad Parker is just a baby. He could do all of this."

"Well, excuse me, but I know what I know. You won't teach me anything so what am I supposed to do?"

"No, I'm not blaming you. Parker, you really don't have any idea how powerful you are, do you?"

"Look, I've been totally honest with you. I haven't told you one thing, but I'm an open book. I really don't know anything beyond what I've told you. Did you think I was hiding some agenda and keeping you guessing?" I was a little offended.

"Teaching you things is forbidden and I barely escaped prison the last time I taught one of you things. How should I know what you know? You're warded so I can't see, you're stronger than me so I can't force you and your kind haven't exactly inspired a lot of confidence."

"That's just mean," Boston told her. "What do you mean, 'your kind?' What kind is Parker? You can't just go around judging people based on 'their kind.' You might as well suppose Sagan is an alcoholic because we're Irish, or I only eat potatoes. I know that's how things work in general, and most stereotypes contain some truth, but you know us personally. When you know people personally, it's just racist to use stereotypes on them."

"What she said," Sagan quipped.

"Well, I'm sorry; you're right. I apologize, Parker. Do you forgive me?"

"If you do a good act of contrition and hug me, I will."

She laughed and suddenly I was wrapped in an amazing warmth and light. Huge wings, dripping fire and orange light were wrapped around me and the most gloriously beautiful thing I ever imagined was holding me like a baby.

"Oh my God," Boston exclaimed, "You do have wings. She has wings, Parker. Look at her. Is this what you really look like, Mariha?"

"Yes, this is the real me. Parker has wings, too; he just doesn't know how to manifest his true form."

"Show us," Boston begged. "Can you show us his wings, Mariha?"

She shifted back to human looking Mariha and stepped back from me. She spoke a few words in the language of Shinar and I was surrounded by a glow. She was a thing of golden glows and fire in her beauty. Mine was different. The aura was a little sinister, even to me. The flames were there, but they were orange and blue, almost like a gas flame burning with too little oxygen. It was beautiful, but somewhat ominous at the same time.

The girls rushed to me and I enfolded them. Mariha spoke a word and it all went away. I was holding them in my arms.

"My God, you're amazing," Sagan told me. "You didn't change like Mariha did, but that was awesome, Parker. Why didn't his body change, Mariha?"

"He has a physical human body. That's part of his genetics. It's basically indestructible, but he can't become totally incorporeal. You know when you met him, and that car was about to hit him? It wouldn't have hurt him. He would have been bruised, scraped and thrown through the air, but he would have been fine. He has the angelic aura and that manifests as wings, but you saw what they looked like. He's the offspring of angels that left their first estate. That changed them and the result is what you see. They're all in prison. God banished them. What they did almost caused the destruction of the human race. Do you understand why I'm suspicious?"

"Yes," Boston said, "but Parker's not like that."

"I know. I shouldn't have said that. You love him and that should have been enough to tell me he wasn't. Do you forgive me now?"

I nodded and the girls both hugged her. "Just don't say mean things to him and I'll love you," Boston said. "We're going to be married when I'm 21, you know."

Mariha looked at Sagan. She just shrugged. "It's a long story. It's just Boston being Boston."

Mariha laughed. "I'm not so sure. I think she means it. Anyway, let's get started. We have a lot of work to do."

I called Mom and she agreed to meet us in Detroit. I told her Mariha would be with us and she was okay with it. She told me she wanted to go to Cuba with us. "I don't want to miss out on anymore of your life, baby. I made a mistake when I let you go to Austin without me. I'm not going to make it again."

I was cool with that. I wondered what kind of fireworks we would see when angel met Nephilim. I didn't warn Mariha, I was too curious.

We packed our stuff and I sent most of it ahead to meet us in Montreal. I had a lot of arrangements to make in Santiago and it took me a couple of hours to get that done. It was very difficult to arrange a place to stay. I eventually just got a hotel and decided to find a better place when we got there. Mariha greased the wheels and got Sagan into the University. I decided to make her teach me how to do that. I could only get us Visas for 30 days and I would have to work on that when we got there, too.

We changed planes in Detroit and the meeting between Mom and Mariha was everything I hoped it would be. Mom sneaked up on her and covered her eyes. "Guess who?" she whispered in her ear.

I think she dropped her wards because Mariha nearly exploded. I saw her leaking flames and she had to make a lot of gestures in the air to get people to stop staring and forget. I thought they were going to crush each other when they hugged.

"Father of all, it's you," Mariha gasped. "My sweet Lilith, my little Shinarian princess. How I've missed you. Where have you been? How did you survive? Is Parker your son? Who's his father? Oh, I could set the world on fire. I'm so glad to see you."

She put quite a lip lock on Mom. It was very disturbing on so many levels. It was erotic and weird at the same time.

"Hello, Mariah. What are you doing traveling with this riff-raff?" She smiled and embraced us all, kissing the girls and me. She picked Boston up and squeezed her. "How are my babies doing?"

"We're fine," Boston told her. "Is Mariha an old friend of yours?"

Mom looked at her. "I guess you could say that. We were lovers for many years, Boston. Circumstances drove us apart hundreds of years ago. Neither one of us wanted that, but we had to do it. Is that okay with you, baby?"

"Of course, it's none of my business, but I'm glad. I love both of you and I'm glad you aren't enemies or anything. I wouldn't like that."

"No baby, I could never be the enemy of anyone you love," Mom told her.

We spent the night in Montreal and left for Santiago the next morning. I don't think Mom or Mariha slept. I woke up twice during the night and heard them talking. I guess 500 years is a lot to catch up on. We all sat together on the flight over to Cuba and the girls and I watched movies on Boston's iPad. It seemed to take forever to get there, we spent a long time in customs until Mom got tired of it and Jedi'd them. They became very cooperative and in 10 minutes, we were on the way to our hotel. We checked in and went to bed. I was dead on my feet and the two girls weren't any better. Mariha didn't sleep and Mom seemed to match her. Boston asked Mariha if she could sleep.

"I do something like that, but no, not sleep. It's more like hibernation. I can shut down, but I don't need to. I might do it if I were bored or waiting for something to happen. I'm not either one now, so I won't sleep. It would be a waste of time. I have a lot to do. Lilith sleeps, but she doesn't really need to. She's just lazy."

"I'm not lazy, I'm decadent," Mom objected. "I like sleeping. It's a luxury."

"Well, the rest of us need to, so hold the noise to a soft roar," Sagan told them.

We went to bed laughing. Boston slept with Sagan and I and she was one of those people that have to be up against you when they sleep. Every time I moved, she did, too. She slept between Sagan and I and she followed me across the king sized bed until I got out and went to the other side and scooted Sagan over. I was safe but Sagan got snuggled the rest of the night, and when I woke up, she was draped across me and Boston across her. I showered and took Mariha with me to get some business done.

We visited the office of the Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation and I got a permanent work visa for my two "associates," namely Mom and Mariha and myself. We went to the Ministry of Higher Education and got my "wife," Sagan a student visa and my "daughter," Boston enrolled in school.

I got office space to set up an Apple branch office and we got some of our funds transferred to Canadian dollars and then into Cuban peso's to avoid the penalty. I rented two cars, both mini-vans, and we started looking for a place to live. Mom went with me on this trip and we started at a nightclub. We hit two or three before Mom got a line on someone that was the right type. She used the force on him somehow and he told us about a place we could get under the table. We couldn't buy property and most of the stuff for rent was tiny and short term for tourists. I didn't know how long we would be here, but a couple of well-placed bribes and a couple of Jedi mind tricks and we had a place. It cost 10,000 dollars to get a six-month deal, but it was quite a place.

We got our stuff shipped there and collected Mariha and the girls. When we pulled up, a guy in a dark suit came out and met us. It turned out that the place came with a staff and they seemed to think we were criminal types. We didn't try to set them straight. Boston and Sagan were very impressed.

"Jesus, are we really going to live here?" Boston was enchanted. "This is like a castle. You remember you promised me a castle, Parker."

I laughed. "I don't quite remember it like that, but this is your chance, kitten. Enjoy it."

There were a dozen bedrooms and we let her pick the one she wanted. "I want to be next door to you and Parker," she told Sagan. "That way, if I get scared in the night I can come and get in bed with you guys."

"Oh no, you can stay in your own bed," I told her. "You're a pain to sleep with. You keep stealing all the room."

She pouted for a while but I think she decided she would do whatever she wanted anyway, so she ran around the house and pestered the staff. They spoke broken English and I realized that was going to be a problem for the girls.

I went and found Mom and Mariha and asked them if they could Jedi the girls so they could speak Spanish. Mom didn't know how, but Mariha did. I was already fluent, I speak dozens of languages, and we soon adopted Spanish as the official language of the house. Mom could speak Spanish, too, though I hadn't known.

I had to go to Seattle on business for a week. When I got back, they were all settled in. Mariha didn't show any signs of wanting to leave. I asked her about it and she said she was having too much fun. I started looking into the American government thing and she helped. She was the supreme computer hacker. She would just tell me what to type. Passwords and encryption didn't bother her at all. She could have been a master criminal.