Part 27 (2/2)
The door closed.
Abdiel was back in his chair as though he'd been there the entire time. His little disappearing trick was unnerving.
”Isn't that always the way?” I said. ”Every time you're interviewing an angel, the maid interrupts.”
”Calynda is a good woman,” Abdiel said. ”She works two jobs. Here and at a diner on Fifth Avenue. Did you notice her eyes? She's worried about her two-year-old daughter, Nuria, who woke up last night with a fever. Calynda didn't want to leave her, but she needs the money.”
I cut him off with an upraised hand. ”I get it,” I said. ”No need to flash your credentials.”
Abdiel looked at me with the expression of a disapproving schoolmaster. ”Believe me, if I flashed anything, you'd know it.”
A dozen quips like puppies in a box wanted to escape past my lips. I regret it now, but I swallowed them and returned to the subject at hand. ”Question,” I said. ”My grandfather, Grandpa Tall. Was he an angel?”
”Yes and no.”
”That's it? Yes and no? Would you care to elaborate?”
”I don't care to do any of this. As I informed you, I am here only because-”
”I know . . . I know . . . you were ordered to talk to me. So talk. Tell me about my grandfather.”
”Yes, your grandfather is an angel. No, Ulysses William Austin was not an angel, nor was he your paternal grandfather. Reality is not what you think it is.”
”That's what everyone keeps telling me. So what is the reality of my birthright?”
”It was born of scandal.”
”Makes sense. Hollywood is the scandal capital of the world.”
”Not even close,” Abdiel said. He didn't elaborate. ”You know about the fame of your grandmother.”
I nodded. ”Gigi Beaumont. Real name, Denise Garrett. Movie star. Gorgeous, if her publicity photos are to be believed. Witty. Talented. Would have eclipsed Esther Williams had she not died tragically soon after giving birth to my father.”
”Do you know the details of her death?”
”She died in an . . .” The next words caught in my throat. ”. . . in an automobile accident.”
”They like the convenience of car accidents to cover their tracks.”
I narrated the incident by rote just as it had been handed down to me. ”She attended a Hollywood party. Got tipsy. On her way home, she lost control of the car and drove over a cliff into a Hollywood ravine.”
”That part is correct.”
Abdiel sounded like a schoolmaster evaluating an a.s.signed lesson. Didn't he realize this was my life we were talking about?
I continued. ”The way I heard it, Grandpa Tall took her death hard. He isolated himself in a cabin, got drunk, and blew his head off with a shotgun.”
”That part is only partially correct.”
”Enlighten me,” I snapped, irritated by his att.i.tude.
”Ulysses Austin did indeed take his own life, but only after learning he was not the father of his wife's child. The father was Azazel.”
”Azazel. Sounds like an angel name.”
”It is. However, the world knew him as Jerry Thoms.”
”Never heard of him.”
”He was the insurance commissioner for the state of California.”
”Insurance commissioner? You're kidding, right? An angel was the state's insurance commissioner.”
”Powerful position, low profile. Perfect for their purposes.”
”OK. So how did he and my grandmother . . . you know, hook up?”
Was I mistaken, or did Abdiel pause and take a deep breath? ”During the rebellion, Azazel sided with Lucifer and was driven from his place in the heavenlies. On earth, he became a Watcher and, like many of them did, developed a l.u.s.t for human women. His l.u.s.t, dormant for centuries, was rekindled when Lucifer's forces infiltrated California. Azazel rose to the position of insurance commissioner and, as such, mingled with California's elite. At a Hollywood party he seduced a rising young starlet named Gigi Beaumont. When that seduction produced a male child, the news was kept secret from all but a select few. For decades, not even Lucifer knew.”
”Lucifer's minions keep secrets from him? I didn't know that was possible.”
”You have much to learn of the angelic order.”
”I understand this much: You're saying that my father was the love child of an insurance commissioner and a starlet?”
”That is correct.”
”Did he know?”
”Yes. Azazel revealed himself to your father.”
”He didn't take it well, did he?”
”No. Your mother took the news even worse. She did not know she had married a Nephilim, nor did she know-”
”Nephilim?”
”The offspring of a son of G.o.d and a daughter of man.”
”So I'm a Nephilim?”
”You're unique. The first of your kind. You are only one-quarter angel. There has never been a being like you.”
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