Adam was right. My body didn't need the rest but my mind needed some time to clear, and I fell asleep on the couch after he left. I wasn't sure how much time pa.s.sed, but it was still dark out when a knock sounded on the door, rousing me from my nap.

Looking through the peephole, I found a man and a woman I'd never seen before standing outside. Her light brown hair spilled loose around her shoulders almost to her waist, and she wore a pale blue sundress with flipflops that had little flowers glued to the straps. The man had on jeans and a blue b.u.t.ton up shirt, a brown leather jacket a little out of place in the warm summer night. From their auras I knew they weren't drug dealers or kidnappers, but I studied them a few moments longer, wondering if they'd go away when I didn't answer. Odds were they had the wrong door.

"How do you even know she's awake?" I heard him ask her through the door.

"Because this is the right room. I wrote it down, see?"

"Maybe he meant the one in Tigard?" He laid his ear to the door and I went completely still. "Does that mean we have to schlep ourselves all the way out there now?"

"You could have stayed home, you're the one who insisted on coming with me." The woman knocked again politely, a confident set to her shoulders.

"Oh right, like I'm gonna let you go off in the middle of the night to some seedy motel. That'll happen... never."

"It's not a seedy..."

"Can I help you?" I swung the door open, willing to give them a few minutes to set them on the right path.

"Hi, you must be Mercy, right?" The woman's smile broadened the instant she saw me. "Adam described you perfectly."

"Adam sent you here?" My brows drew together in confusion.

"He thought you could use our help. I'm Annaliese and this is Nick." She held out her hand and I shook it, then Nick's.

"Help?" They looked so... normal. Then again, there was something about her... "I'm sorry, he didn't tell me he was sending anyone over. What did he say you could help me with?" Anyone could drop Adam's name, I wasn't sure it was such a good idea to let them in, even if their auras were clean.

"He said you have a friend who's had a special run of bad luck lately," she said carefully, looking over her shoulder. "He thinks we might be able to help get him back on track."

"Bat s.h.i.t crazy is what he said, actually," Nick supplied, throwing her a "what?" expression when she shot him a dirty look. "Well, he did..."

"Do you think maybe we could come in to talk about it?"

"If it helps I am a cop." Nick produced an ID badge. "So, we're not trying to lure our way into your motel room to have our wicked way with you." He waggled his eyebrows playfully.

I'm not sure why, but that made me feel better, despite my hit and miss experience with the police. Besides, I was pretty sure I could handle them if they weren't who they said they were, and I had a hunch Ben might feel better with a cop around too.

"Sure, come on in, Detective." I stepped away from the door, holding it open wide.

"Actually, it's Sergeant," he corrected me, and I caught Annaliese tell him to drop it under her breath with an elbow to his ribs.

"What is it you can do for Ben?" I asked once we were all inside. Not entirely sure what Adam told them, I didn't want to volunteer anything.

"Basically he said your friend used to be a cop..."

"A very n.o.ble profession," Nick, interjected.

"But he's been off the force since he had a mental breakdown following prolonged contact with... dark forces."

"It's never the light forces," Nick sighed, taking a seat on the low couch.

"Right, that part I already know." My head ping ponged between them as they spoke. "Where do you two come in?"

"Adam said the two of you were in the middle of something big." Talk about an understatement. "We're here to make sure Ben gets the help he needs."

"You can help with something like that? Are you a shrink?"

"No, but my coven might be able to help him."

"She means witches, not vampires," Nick interrupted again. "I know, it sounds a little cuckoo, but they really can help. I've seen it with my own two eyes."

Adam had called in the local reinforcements. "Oh, you're a witch." That made me feel a lot better. "Okay, great. He's in the bedroom resting. I have to say, he's pretty far gone, but I'm hoping if we keep him away from Azazael, he'll start to recover." I started to lead the way to the bedroom before I noticed she hadn't moved.

"Azazael's involved?" she replied in surprise.

"Yeah, why?"

"Interesting that Adam didn't happen to mention that fact."

"Who's Azazael?" Nick asked, his brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"Another one of those things you don't believe in, sweetie," she said, patting his arm. "That could change things quite a bit. He's not a good one to tangle with."

"Oh, he's not here. We've got him bound and out of the way." I didn't share where though.

"Azazael's been bound?" Her smile returned. "That changes things back again. Show me your friend."

Scarcely a few minutes later, I felt a whole lot more comfortable around the pair. The witch had a sweet, caring personality and genuinely wanted to help. I could see Ben would be in good hands with her. The cop was there as a somewhat skeptical bodyguard, injecting his silly brand of humor whenever the opportunity presented itself. It was easy to see he was nuts about Annaliese, even if he didn't completely accept everything we talked about in the little bedroom.

Unfortunately, curing Ben wasn't as simple as a wave of the fingers and a few flowery words, she informed me. They were prepared to take Ben with them to meet with her coven, or if needed, to set Ben up at a private psychiatric facility on Adam's dime if all efforts to restore him failed.

"It sounds like you've got all the bases covered." I had to admit once she finished explaining the plan. "I don't suppose you know when Adam planned to come back, do you?"

Annaliese turned to Nick. "Why don't you help Ben to the car and I'll be there in a minute?" The detective agreed after a moment's hesitation, easily steering Ben towards the door. Annaliese waited until we were alone before she spoke again. "Some things he knows, but there's still a lot he won't accept," she said by way of explanation.

"He seems like a good guy."

"He's a great guy," her smile dimpled wider before she sobered. "I sort of got the impression Adam wasn't coming back until he took care of some errands."

"What kind of errands?"

"I'm not sure what he's up to entirely, but he mentioned going to h.e.l.l and back to get what was stolen from you. If it was anyone else I'd a.s.sume it was a figure of speech, but with Adam..."

I spent the next twenty minutes yelling myself hoa.r.s.e for Adamiel to show his sorry face. Fortunately, all it took was a few minutes of quiet for my vocal cords to repair themselves, and I was back at it again. I spared a moment's worry I might bother the neighbors, but then again, considering the type of motel I was in, it was probably the least objectionable thing going on in it that night.

When the front door opened, my heart stopped, but instead of Adam's dark good looks, I saw something almost as comforting.

"Sam!" Gone was the cute faux-hawk he'd been sporting since my makeover. His hair a mop of unruly blonde curls, but he hadn't gone back to dressing like a hobo yet. He looked neat and clean in a black turtleneck and dressy pants.

"Mercy, you're a sight for sore eyes." He hugged me fiercely and I felt the desperation of loneliness in his embrace.

"They didn't have to be so sore, you know. You could've come to visit me," I chided him lightly, unable to keep from smiling to see him again.

"I'm truly sorry, but it couldn't be helped."

It could, but I didn't want to get into it with him. "What took you so long to get here?"

"I got here as soon as I could. I went to Seattle first before I checked my voicemail and realized you'd come here."

"Where were you that it took so long?"

"I've been living in the land Down Under. Though, it's not really under anything, I've found."

"Australia?" I blinked. "How did you end up down there?"

"It seemed to make sense to pick the a.s.s end of the world, as Adam put it. He said the distance would make it easier not to break my resolve."

"Adam's advice, I see." No wonder it was so stellar.

I half expected him to ask me about Daphne, but when he didn't, I filled him in on our efforts to get Bunny back and Adam's sudden departure for h.e.l.l if Annaliese could be believed. Sam didn't question it for a moment.

"It does make sense from the message he left me."

"What did he say?" I stopped myself from asking if I could listen to the message myself.

"Merely that he had to prove himself and put your child safely back in your arms."

Typical, as if that one heroic act could somehow negate the months of abandonment... "You know, I'm kinda worried about Adam's safety in going to h.e.l.l alone. Or is that something you angels do all the time?" Lucifer was their brother, after all.

"No, I would not willingly go there," Sam a.s.sured me with an emphatic shake of the head. "Nor, do I think, does Adam take it lightly."

That didn't sound so good. "What could happen to him there? Could he get stuck in h.e.l.l?" I wasn't sure how h.e.l.l worked. Was it another dimension like Midian you had to get to through a portal? I'd never had occasion to ask anyone and the one time I'd met Lucifer, I'd been too distracted to ask him about his homeland.

"Do you mean in torment for his sins? Oh no, that's not very probable at all," Sam reported, and I breathed a little easier. "More likely he'll die in one of the levels before he gets to Lucifer at all."

"Die?" I coughed, not sure I'd heard him quite right from his cavalier att.i.tude. "Are you kidding me?"

"Why would I kid you about death?" His forehead furrowed in puzzlement.

"Sam, we have to go after him! He should never have gone alone. Why did he have to be such an idiot?"

"I believe he did it to win back your love."

"Fat lot of good it'll do him if he dies in the process," I muttered. "Sam, you have to take me there right now before it's too late."

"I can't take you to h.e.l.l. No human can enter and hope to escape with their immortal soul intact."

"Yeah well, as you've been so keen to remind me, I'm not exactly human anymore, am I? So, let's stop arguing about it and go." I grabbed his arm to tug him towards the door, but Sam dug his heels in.

"You still have your soul though. That's not a thing to be given up lightly. Lucifer would surely try to steal a part of it away."

"I happen to know he's got plenty of souls to keep him busy, he's not at all interested in mine."

"Why, because he told you so? And you call me naive..."

"What do you propose we do then? We can't just sit around on our a.s.ses while Adam risks life and limb to get the baby back."

"We don't have to sit at all," he brightened. "In fact, I am instructed to deliver you safely home and then to linger in order to prevent the romantic reunion between you and Parker."

"Oh, really? And what are you supposed to do to prevent... you know what, never mind. I'm not interested in Adam's orders, I'm interested in getting Bunny back, but not at the risk of losing Adam."

"Then you do still care for him?"

"Do you still care about Daphne?" I countered, and he fell silent. "I know you do, but you can't be around her to protect her, right? Well, I can't be around Adam, I have to protect myself from getting hurt by him again. That doesn't mean I don't still care what happens to him though. Now, are you going to show me how to get to h.e.l.l or not?"

"I can't, Adam was most specific..."

"d.a.m.n it, Sam, Adam is not the boss of us!" I snapped. "If you don't tell me, I'll figure it out on my own then."

"How would you find the gate to h.e.l.l without my a.s.sistance?" Sam called my bluff.

"I'll ask a demon," I decided on the spot. "There's bound to be at least one hanging around the portal to Midian who knows how to get there. Or maybe call Oriana and see if she knows? Bert and Hubie might have some ideas." I wasn't completely without resources, but it would save a h.e.l.l of a lot of time if Sam helped me on his own.

"I can't let you..."

"Try and stop me." My eyes blazed in defiance. I got as far as the door when I felt his hand on my shoulder. Closing my eyes as I tried to decide if I had it in me to put Sam down in order to make my escape, I was surprised to feel the rush of cool air as the door opened before me. My eyes popped open in time to catch Adam before he fell to his knees.

"I found her, I know where she is." He got out before his eyes turned up and Adam pa.s.sed out in a heap on the floor.

"Adam!" I caught him before he smashed his head against the doorframe, gently easing him to the worn carpet. "Sam, get me a pillow for his head, would you?" There wasn't a mark on him, but his hands were dirty and smudged with soot that traveled up the length of his arms. "What's wrong with him?" I asked, as Sam crouched beside me, propping his head up with a couch cushion.

"I told you, the road to h.e.l.l is not to be traversed lightly. It takes its toll."

"Yeah, but there are no wounds..." I lifted his shirt, but there was no sign of injury.

"There are many wounds that leave no scars," Sam said gravely. "He needs Grace." His hands hovered over Adam's chest, but I brushed them aside.

"No, let me." I had more to spare, and besides... it was because of me he'd taken such a stupid chance in the first place. The healing energy pooled beneath my outstretched hands, and I sent him a surge of Grace. It was so much easier than the time I'd healed him of the gunshot wounds. I felt so much more in control, not dizzy at all, despite not taking the time to ground myself. Adam's eyes opened with a start and he drew in a sharp intake of breath. I kept the Grace flowing, until he covered my hands with his.

"That's enough, Mercy. I'm fine."

I kept the Grace flowing for a few more seconds, wanting to make sure he wasn't trying to be macho before I sat back on my heels and took my own deep, cleansing breath. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I don't know... if I say no, will you do that again?" he smirked, and I shoved at his hand playfully.

"The next time it'll be a bolt lobbed at your head," I snorted. "How could you be so stupid as to go to h.e.l.l all alone?"