Chapter 7: Meeting Audrey

Audrey lived in the town, and it didn't take them long to find her. She gave English online classes to people oversees, and so, she was home most of the time.

Harry held the car door opened for Tagas, and the angel got in the sports car.

"Where did you get the car from, Harry?" Tagas asked. He relaxed on the red leather seats, and stared up at the driver's seat, where Harry was making himself comfortable.

"Magic," Harry told him with a little laugh. "Anyway, let us go meet the cheater, shall we?"

Harry drove them pass the busier streets, and into the suburbs. He stopped before a small house, with a boy, no older than two, playing on the lawn while a woman watched on.

"He is like a mini-Arthur," Tagas gasped, and began to wish he could hug the boy. This was his soul mate's son. His son, as far as Tagas was concerned.

Harry got out, and then opened the door for Tagas. The angel got out, and went to the play pen that was on the lawn. Peering inside at the black-haired blue-eyed boy.

"Hello, little cherub," Tagas greeted. The boy smiled up at him, and waved a teddy bear at him.

"Can I help you, are you lost?" The woman, Tagas supposed she must be Audrey because her eyes and nose were to be seen on the boy's face, as well, approached them with a worried look.

"Audrey, we are Arthur's friends," Harry began to work his magic as soon as he said that. "And we are here with a preposition."

"I have nothing to say to anyone sent by Arthur," Audrey snapped, and looked pointedly at Tagas. "Get away from my son!"

"The boy must miss his father, right, little cherub?" Tagas asked the boy, who looked up at him and tilted his head. "Can he not talk?"

"No, and it is all Arthur's fault!" Audrey hissed, but kept her voice low. "He never paid Jake any attention. And now, Jake is three years old, and can't talk."

"Surely, you didn't cheat just because of that?" Harry asked her. Placing even more magic into his voice. "Look, let us just talk, ok? Take Jake inside, invite us for coffee, and we can straighten this whole mess, ok?"

Audrey's eyes turned hazy. A small voice told her this was a trap, but few could resist the persuasion of a demon. She was not one of those few.

"Ok, let us go in," she spoke, and then picked up her son and carried him on her hip inside the house.

"You used magic, didn't you?" Tagas was disapproving of Harry now. "Robbing mortals of their free will, is..."

"Look, do you want lover-boy to be happy or not?" Harry snapped then. The outburst startling Tagas. "Because if you do, you need to let me handle this."

"Are we going to separate a mother from her son?" Tagas asked, guilt already eating at him.

"No, we are going to reunite a boy and his father. The mother could always come and visit. Think, with her out of the picture, you can become the second parent for the boy," Harry tried to tempt Tagas, but the angel was having none of it.

"You will not use any more magic on her," Tagas demanded. He was tempted to let Harry handle this, but he was an angel. He had morals.

"If that is what you wish, boss," Harry brushed past Tagas's shoulders, and went inside the house. Audrey was blinking up at them, and Tagas tried to give her a reassuring smile. The woman's eyes narrowed at the angel.

She placed Jake in a crib, and then went to the kitchen to get them all some coffee. Tagas was like glued to the crib. He touched the boy's head, and began to gently pet him.

"Little cherub, son of my soul mate," the angel stared at the boy in wonder. The mute child stared up at him with equal wonder. "I hope I can talk some sense into your mother."

Audrey came with a tray with coffee and cookies, and set them on the coffee table.

"You wanted to talk, come and talk," the mother told them, and Tagas separated himself from the crib, to go and sit on the couch. Jake reached out his little hand over the bars of the crib, and opened and closed his mouth a couple of times.

Harry spared the boy a glance. Did the child know what Tagas was? Children felt these things more keenly than adults. The demon winked at the child, who tilted his little head at him.

Yet, Jake did not cry. So, Harry supposed the boy didn't know what either he or Tagas were. For, if he had known, he would have been afraid of Harry in particular.

"You want me to leave him to Arthur, don't you?" Audrey said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"No. We want for you to make sure he visits with his father often," Tagas told her. "It would be best if Jake doesn't grow away from Arthur. He is his firstborn, the apple of his eye."

"Jake is not the firstborn. Some friends of Arthur you are, if you don't know that," Audrey snapped. Both the angel and the demon stared at her in confusion.

"Then, who was?" Tagas asked. In his eyes Arthur could do no wrong, yet, Audrey had to be angry for a reason.

"Andrew was. He was kidnapped and Arthur gave up the search!" Audrey all but yelled at them. Then, she took a napkin from her pocket, and began to wipe at her eyes furiously. "My firstborn is out there somewhere. Now five, if he is still alive. And he gave up the search. Called off the detectives. Agreed with the sheriff that this must be a cold case. How heartless can someone get?"

Tagas swallowed. Arthur's firstborn must be out there somewhere, and Arthur had given up on him. Excuses began to pool in his mind in defense of his soul mate.

He had been heartbroken, to have given up. He must have lost all hope. Yet, staring at Audrey's tear-streaked eyes, he knew that there was only one thing he could do.

"I will find your firstborn, just give me your hand," and he showed her his blue wings, in all their glory.