Risen (Haunted Series Book 22)

leaned down and kissed her soundly.  “That’s so you’ll come back for more,” he said.
“And to get the rest of us nauseous,” Mason called out.
“Good luck.  If you don’t find him in two days, come back.  I’ll be waiting,” Ted said.
“Yes, Ted.  Watch out for the Peacock. She’s not above ramming a boat and drowning the crew just so she can meet a quota.”
“I’ll be careful,” he promised.
“Me too,” Mia said.
The water went from choppy to smooth as they crossed.  It took them three tries before they had the angle right.  Mia powered down and looked at her crew.  Kevin was squinting at the sun, and Fergus kept pinching himself and saying, “Ouch.”
Mia was poked a few times.  “Get it out of your system,” she said and powered the boat deeper into the GSD.  She stopped after ten minutes, turning the engine off, and letting the boat drift.  The only sound was the waves gently lapping at the sides of the skiff.  “This is the area where the birdmen fly the lowest to make the transitions,” she said.  “The Devil’s Pride should be in this area if she’s still hunting.”
“Why do they call ships shes?” Kevin asked.
“Cid once told me it had to do with the word ship in the Romance languages being feminine.  So, the sailors in the Mediterranean started calling ships she, and it just was adopted as she after that,” Mia said.  “Ironically, it takes the romance out of it, knowing the explanation.”
“Maybe,” Kevin said with his hand on his stomach.  “I feel weird.”
“You’re probably hungry.  I have packed us some food.  It’s in the cooler if you want to eat now, or you can have one of Ted’s candy bars that I stole.”
“You’re married; the candy bars are yours too,” Kevin said.
“That’s a very good way of thinking about things,” Mia said.  “After you departed this earth, a rather famous Irishman named James Joyce wrote, ‘What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.’  My husband only follows this rule when it comes to sharing snacks.”
“And you don’t mind?”
“Of course not, it’s one of the quirks I love about him.  Besides, a stolen candy bar tastes all the sweeter.”
“Mia, you’ve spent too much time in Hell,” Fergus said, shaking his head.
Kevin picked up the oars and placed them in the oarlocks.  “I think we’re drifting out of position,” he said.  “Best not waste the fuel.  Besides, it’s too noisy.  We may call undue attention to ourselves, and I can’t hear myself think.”
“Mia, would you mind explaining to us whose doublet you are wearing?”
“It’s from the house of Abigor. He’s the Grand Duke of Hades.  He commands sixty legions of demons.  He and I are inextricably interrelated.”
“What?” Fergus said.
“Sorry, that means we wouldn’t exist without the other.  I was genetically engineered and nurtured to be able to seduce and kill him.  He is alive because I refused to kill him.  I wouldn’t be alive had he not existed, and he stayed alive because my programing failed.  We are…”
“Inextricably interrelated,” Kevin said, liking the way the two words sounded.
“Because of this, I fear, he and I will bump into each other again and again.  One of his squires found me in the pit and notified him.  He got me out.”
“So, he likes you,” Fergus said.
“I would say he’s too wary of me to like me.  After all, I could kill him.”
“Would you?” Kevin asked.
“I wouldn’t want to.  It would satisfy the ones responsible for making my young life so horrible.  They would win.”
“Please explain, Mia, if it doesn’t hurt too much?” Kevin pleaded.
“There is a council of very powerful women who operate on the side of good, as in good versus evil.  This spiritual group has played a long game.  First, they brought together demons, birdmen, angels, and humans so that, genetically, I had these gifts and talents for battle and magic.  After I was born, anytime anything good happened in my life, they destroyed it.  I was, for the most part, uncared for, ridiculed in school, and lived some time on the streets of Chicago.  I found protectors and love amongst some young men who were killed when they came upon a hoard of demon treasure.  I fled west where I found acceptance and love with a crippled man.  Then I lost my unborn daughter and my bedridden lover in a fight with a ghost.  It twisted my mind, made me bitter.”
“But you’re not bitter.  You’re the most loving person I know,” Kevin said.
“Thank you, you’ve honored me,” Mia said before she continued with her tale, “This plan of theirs started failing because they couldn’t control three things.  One was your son, PEEPs, and my determination to be normal and accepted.  Also, there were a few entities who pulled a few strings.  What happened was, instead of a demonic-fueled oversexed assassin who would attract Abigor, I ended up, well, me.  I didn’t learn about what they had done to me until I met the being I was to kill.  My birth was foretold by Lucifer, and Abigor was sent to kill me.  He held me in his arms and showed me mercy.  Me, his assassin.  Think about it.  Abigor had the opportunity to destroy this thing that was going to grow up and destroy him, and he didn’t.”
“You were a baby. Who destroys babies?” Fergus asked.
“Demons do, you eejit,” Kevin said.  “But he didn’t, why?”
“I don’t know.  A tortured man named Shane Quivers told me that when Abigor held me, I didn’t see the demon. I only saw the angel he was before he fell.  Shane said he saw the transfer of love from a human baby to a demon and back again.  This is why he didn’t kill me.  But he followed me throughout my life until Shane