First Estate

"You mean, find a way for her to get pregnant?"

"Yes, that's what I mean. Make it special for her. Would you like to go back to the Great Barrier Reef? I'll set it up if that's where you want to go."

"I don't want to go back there," I told her. "I can't do this now. We're going to Japan next week; remember?"

"Yes, that's six days away. Take three or four and make her stop bugging me."

"Okay, but she can just zap us somewhere."

"No, make it special for her, Parker. She deserves to have you put some effort into this. She's the sweetest person we know and you're going to treat her like the queen of the world."

"Well, I wasn't going to drag her off to some rent by the hour motel. I'll come up with something and we'll leave tomorrow. Is that okay?"

"Yes, but make it something special."

I thought about it that night and in the morning, I had it worked out. I packed a bag and told Mariha I had always wanted to go to Christmas Island. Just the name sounded like it would be really cool. I asked her if she would go there with me for three days.

She was all over it and I told her not to pack anything but bikinis and wraps. I asked her if she wanted to fly or manifest. She decided to fly and we took a flight to Perth and then got on another to the island. We got a hotel and I took her snorkeling. It was beautiful water and there were a lot of beautiful fish. The coral was spectacular and we spent five hours diving. She turned Mermaid as soon as we got out of sight of people. There weren't many around and we had the ocean to ourselves. She was as charming and spectacular looking as she had ever been and I loved being with her. You forget how lovable angels can be when you have as many other distractions as we'd had in the last year. She reminded me.

We had dinner and she ate. I took her back to our room and this time I had a plan. She nearly killed me on the Great Barrier Reef and I wasn't going to fall behind this time.

I told her that this was for all the marbles. She could do whatever she needed to do to have a baby. She laughed and cried and her clothes disappeared.

I loved on her for an hour, just exploring and finding out the little places that made her shiver and quake; which made her gasp and moan and I was ready. She came easily and I brought her up to a peak and kept her there. I manifested the Presence in the places I couldn't touch and just when she would begin to relax I would push a few buttons and send her off again. After an hour in a constant orgasmic state, she was hoarse and writhing underneath me.

"Stop, please stop, Parker. Please, you're killing me. Oh Father, no, don't stop!"

I ignored her and kept on an on until she was limp and I could just get a quiver out of her when I manipulated one of those spots. I lay on her and in her and she closed her eyes. To my amazement, she seemed asleep. I kissed her nipples and she woke up.

"No, Parker, no more. Really, I can't take any more."

"I wish Sagan were here," I told her. "She has more stamina than you."

She laughed and then cried.

"Why are you crying?" I whispered against her lips.

"I just can't believe you made me lose control like that. I love you Parker and I'm afraid of you. You could hurt me really badly and that scares me. I'm afraid because I'm so in love with you that you could take advantage of me and I wouldn't care."

"I thought I just did take advantage of you," I told her.

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, but I never would. I'll never take advantage of you, Mariha. I would as soon cut off my arm."

"I know, that's just what makes me feel so vulnerable. I came a million times, Parker. Will you do that again tomorrow?"

"What's wrong with tonight?"

"No, please, I can't stand any more of that."

"I was just kidding, baby. Neither can I. I'm just going to hold you and sleep. Will you sleep with me?"

"No, I'm going to Watch over you and think."

"Will you lie here and do that?"

"There's no place I'd rather be.

We did it again the next night and the night after that. I told her that we were going to a clinic in England and she was going to have a baby. She laughed and cried and we didn't get out of bed that day.

We went to the clinic and she had the procedure. We spent the night in London and she told me that she was pregnant.

"How do you know?"

"I feel a little life inside me. It's just a spark, but it's there."

"Really? Do you think I can feel it?"

"I don't think you can yet. Soon though, you'll begin to feel its emotions. I couldn't feel it if it weren't inside me."

"How long is an angel's gestation period?"

"No female angel has ever had a child. I don't know. I think I can hurry it up."

"Do you want to do that?"

"Maybe; I want it badly, Parker. I want to hold it and feed it."

"Can you lactate?"

"I suppose. Like I said, this is virgin territory."

"Not any more," I laughed.

"No," she agreed. "I had never had a man inside me before you, Parker."

"I'm so honored you let me be the first."

"Yes, it is a great honor," she said.

"Not a little stuck on ourselves are we?' I kidded her.

"Not me, silly, but having a female angel is something that's never happened before. God favors you, Parker."

"I know, and I was just kidding. It is a great honor with you, too. Just because you're you, I mean. Every man in the world would cut off his arm to be with you."

"I don't want any man in the world, or on any other world. I will only allow you to be with me; and it's because you are who you are. Let me get on top. You're squishing me."

I rolled us over and went to sleep holding an angel.

Chapter Twenty

When we got home, the girls were thrilled with the news and they all wanted Mariha to hurry the process along as much as possible. They became quite solicitous of her and babied her all the time. Sagan and I spend five days in Japan and we did the tourist routine. It was amazing and we felt like the interrupted honeymoon was complete.

She got the idea in her head that we should visit a children's hospital in Tokyo and heal some of the children there. I thought it was a bad idea and that God might not approve. After the mess we got in healing Boston, this seemed like a blunder. She believed that with all this power, we should be helping people and I didn't disagree, I just felt a lot of trepidation about it. I didn't know what they would think about a Nephilim and a Siren wandering their halls anyway. She told me to come up with an excuse for being there.

I talked to the corporate promotions office and persuaded them to donate iPads to the sick kids. They're very good about helping kids and schools. Sagan and I got to give the iPads away and we had a cover story.

It was heart wrenching to go there and see how happy they were with the new iPads. I took a look at them and found a way to heal them without attracting a lot of attention. I didn't cause hysterics but I fixed them so they would get well, just not overnight. Sagan was very pleased and the way she looked at me and held my arm made me feel all mushy inside.

Haniel dropped into our hotel room that night and Sagan shrieked in alarm and tried to pull the covers over her. He apologized and she told him to never do that again. He was profuse in his regret and promised to appear outside doors and knock next time. He told us that our little scheme hadn't gone unnoticed, but that it was the "good work of the Lord," and that we were encouraged to do as much of that type of thing as time and opportunity allowed. He said he knew that she was wondering why God permitted Mariha to have a baby and not her. He had permission to tell her that her third child would be "The Child of Destiny" and that he needed to be born at the appointed time. She felt better about the whole thing after that. He chatted for five minutes and he was gone.

A week after we got home a demon arrived. The buzzer at the gate sounded and I saw a girl standing in front of the camera. She asked to speak with me and I manifested at the gate behind the wall so she couldn't see me appear. There was something odd about her. She was a lush and dusky Mediterranean looking young lady. She told me her name was Oniah and she had been assigned to us for six months.

I asked her who had assigned her and she said it was Raphael. A Cowabungs or two later and he dropped in. He confessed that he had indeed assigned her and that she was a demon. He said that Haniel had told him to select her on instructions from God. I was very skeptical. My experience with demons hadn't been happy and this one didn't seem likely to be any better.

Raphael zoomed away and I let her in. She told me that she didn't want to be there any more than I didn't want her to be there. That seemed to get off on the wrong foot so I apologized for my lack of grace and hospitality and held her hand as we walked up the drive. She didn't seem to like that much either so I abandoned it half way. I found out later that she considered it a crime to touch her and that people were executed for daring to do it. I introduced her to the girls and it turned out that we were related. She was some sort of a niece of Mom's. That didn't endear her to Mom at all. When she mentioned the name of the brother that had been her ancestor, Mom became positively hostile. "That bastard," was the way she referred to him and angry words flew.

"Mom, stop it," I told her. "Oniah, you better get used to being viewed with suspicion. This squabbling isn't helping. You're stuck with us and we're stuck with you. If you can't be polite this is going to be a long six months."

She muttered something about race traitors and Mom fried her with a lightning bolt. That knocked her unconscious and blew up the microwave. I got a chair and we set it in the middle of a ward and put her in it. When she woke up, she couldn't move and I told her we were going to keep her there until she could be polite. She sat there for three days before she got bored enough to repent. She promised not to be rude and I erased a line and let her out.

She started muttering again and I redrew the line. She stopped instantly and I decided to leave the chair there to remind her. She was really unpleasant to be around for everyone but Boston, to whom she was nice for some reason.

She made a special project out of trying to corrupt Mom. She told her about the cause of the Nephilim, their unfair and despicable treatment, how Mom and I could liberate them and rule the earth. How she could benefit us. She told us that we could order Mariha to restore her powers and how Mom could be queen of everything if she would only assert herself.

Mom was incorruptible. "Do you really think that after 6000 years I haven't thought about everything you could possibly say to me? If I wanted any of that I could have had it centuries ago. You're wasting your time and if you don't shut up I'm going to kill you."

"Mom, you can't kill her. God sent her here and he wouldn't like that."

"I don't give a damn," she said. "She's making us all wretched and if she whispers that shit in my ears again I'm going to chop off her tongue."

I took Oniah and Boston out in the garden and we had a chat. "What is wrong with you, Oniah?" Boston asked her. "Why won't you even give us a chance? We've never harmed you in any way. I know you can be nice; you're nice to me. Why won't you give the rest of us a chance?"

She didn't say anything. "Tell me why you hate us," I asked her. "Maybe we can figure something out."

"Look at me," she screamed. "I'm the princess of Sidon. You're a bunch of peasants. I'm not a slave, but I'm treated like one and you're free. I have pitiful powers, I'm mutated into this creature and I have spent thousands of years being forced to tempt wretched humans into petty sins. You live with a Watcher who is responsible for making me this way. You're free, you have a child on the way, and the rest of us were imprisoned or mutated like this for doing what you are doing. I hate you for that. I'll hate you forever."

"You aren't the way you are for doing what we do," Boston told her. "You're the way you are because you were a ruthless bitch that used humans and everyone else you could control like cattle. You're the way you are because you enslaved other people and now you're a whiny little bitch that complains because you're being treated exactly the way you treated others. Don't compare yourself to us. You think you're better than us because you were a 'princess' by an accident of birth. Do you see any slaves here? Do you see anyone that is being mutated? Do you see anyone that is being controlled? We help people, not enslave them. If there were a spark of humanity in you, I'd pity you. There isn't. You're a monster and that's why you're the way you are. You deserve whatever you get. You'll always be like that because you see others as objects to be used, not as people like you."

Oniah sat there for a minute. She wouldn't look at us. I saw tears running down her cheeks. "I don't want to be like that," she said quietly. "Don't you think I wish I weren't? I am, though, and I'm doomed because of it. I can't help it. I know I'm a monster and I don't want to be. I'm a demon. I don't know how to change."

"We could help you change," I told her. "I think that's why you're here. The problem is, you treat us all except Boston like shit. You talk about race traitors and you torment Mom. You shiver with revulsion every time one of us 'peasants' touch you. You say you want to change; how can we trust that? Everything you do tells us that you are a Monster and that this is just an act to get our sympathy so we'll help you in the big 'Nephilim are treated unfairly scheme.'"

She flared up a little at that. "You don't know anything about me. No, I won't do that. I, I'm sorry." She began sobbing. "I've never said that before. I'm desperate and wretched. I need help. I'm lost eternally and I have no hope."

"Show me," I told her. "Go in there and hug Mom. Tell her you're sorry. Then you go over, hug Mariha and tell her you're sorry. When Sagan gets home, you do the same thing. You make yourself useful around the house. Clean up that mess you've made in your room. Clean yourself up, take a shower, get a haircut, and stop dressing like a whore. Be nice to everyone. Help us do whatever we're doing. Help Mom out with tutoring Boston. Quit trying to seduce Bronley. Sit down at the table and eat with us without snarling all the time. Trust is earned around here, Oniah. Make us trust you. Can you do that?"

"I don't know. Your mother, she's a living reminder of what I was. Mariha is a living reminder of what was done to me. The Sirens are so beautiful it makes me insane with jealousy. How can I do that? How can I be around them and not hate them?"

"Because they're beautiful and kind and loveable." I told her. "Get over yourself and we'll help you. If you can't do that, you're going to have six months of hell and then back to that same hopelessness you've described. Let us help you and we'll use all our influence to give you hope. We're God's elect, Oniah, and we're kind of a big deal."

"I know, but I don't know why. What did you do to deserve that?"

"We had morals and character," Boston told her. "Grow some."

Gradually, over the next three months or so, I began to see changes in her. There were relapses and she spent five days in the chair in those three months but she eventually did everything I had asked her to do. It took her three weeks to apologize to everyone. She started paying attention to her hygiene and asked Sagan to take her to get a haircut. The ragged mane disappeared and she started dressing like a normal person instead of hooker Goth. She took over more and more of tutoring Boston and she cooked meals. She cleaned her room and actually became friends with Bronley. She had a lot of trouble coming to terms with Mariha and one of her relapses came after the baby was born. I'll get to that later.

After five months, you wouldn't have known her. She looked like any normal girl and she acted like one, too. She became beautiful. She loved working in the garden and it looked better than it ever had. She actually hummed to herself, a little ragged tune from some ancient past, looking up at me and smiling: a little dusky demon with dirt on her face. She got used to being touched and didn't go rigid anymore when someone hugged her. Two weeks before her time was up, Mariha let her hold the baby and that was it for her. She wept, sobbed, and couldn't be comforted. She ran off to her room and wouldn't come out. We could hear her crying and after three hours, the girls couldn't stand it anymore. They sent me in to talk to her.

I oozed through her door and she was a little dusky ball on her bed, crying into a pillow. "Parker, get out," she told me.

"No, I'm not going to leave until you talk to me," I told her.

I picked her up, carried her to her big chair and held her on my lap. She tried to push me away at first but I was stronger than she was and I just squeezed her tighter. She gave up after a minute and then she clung to me as hard as she was trying to push me away before. She shook and trembled when I touched her and she wouldn't stop crying. I didn't know what to do so I just held her and she went to sleep in my arms. She slept for thirty minutes and when she opened her eyes she went stiff until she saw me holding her, then she relaxed.

"Oniah, you have to tell me what's wrong," I told her.

"I don't know if I can," she was still shaking and I pulled her closer. "I held the baby and I realized that this, what you have here, is what I'll never have. I have two more weeks and then it's back to the hookers and sleazy bars. It's back to the thugs and the drugs and the porn. I'm clean for the first time in my life and I don't want to go back."

"Can we go back so the girls can hear this?"

"Yes, but please don't let me go. Will you still hold me?"

"Watch and see," I said.

I carried her back into the living room. Boston and Mom had wandered off but they came back when Sagan called. Oniah explained to them what was going on. "I just realized that I only have two more weeks with you guys and I don't want to leave," she said.

"Explain to us why you have to leave," Sagan asked.

"She's a demon," Mariha said. "Demons have jobs to do, just like Watchers. She'll be compelled to go, just like she was compelled to come here."

"What if she weren't a demon," Boston asked. "Could she still be compelled?"

"I think Parker could compel her. He could compel any of us and I know some of the Powers could compel her. She isn't strong enough to resist."

"What if she were assigned to us as her job," Mom asked.

"I don't think you need to be tempted," Mariha laughed. "Her job is to lure humans into idolatry."

"Well, that job sucks," Sagan said. "I think she needs a new job."

"That is her nature. How could that be changed?"

"It's already been changed," Boston said. "Look at her. She just wants a chance to be normal."

"Is that what you want, Oniah?" Mom asked.

"More than anything. You'll never know how desperately I want to do that, but it's hopeless." She began to cry again. "I only have two weeks."

The despair in her voice broke my heart. I looked helplessly at Mariha and she was glowing. She went flaming, and she seemed to be going nuclear.

"Bide a moment," she said. "I'm being used for something."

The glow spread and touched Oniah and she was pulled out of my arms. Some force pulled her upright until only the tips of her toes touched the ground. Her arms rose over her head and the glow surrounded her. There was a flash and she collapsed to the floor. Mom rushed over and picked her up. She laid her down on the sofa and we all hovered over her. She opened her eyes and sat up.