Blessed by Night-Chapter 453: Don’t Duck My Calls

Malachi woke up later than the others.

His eyes only fluttered open around 6 a.m., when light was beginning to peek over the horizon.

Malachi was quite surprised by the fact that he didn’t end up in hell when he woke up.

Lucifer had claimed that every time he went to sleep, he would wake up in hell. But maybe it was a once-a-night kind of thing.

’How generous of you not to overwork me...’ Mal rolled his eyes.

Malachi gently sat up without waking Joanne.

He wrapped her in a blanket twice over to ensure she was fully comfortable and wouldn’t easily wake.

Leaning forward, Malachi started to stand up when he felt his foot land on something soft and spongy.

Once he looked down, he was surprised to find Camille sprawled out on the floor like a starfish with a pot belly like she’d just eaten an entire Christmas ham.

Her condition was shared by the three other children lying on the floor with her.

For the moment, Malachi had flashbacks to the sleepovers he had as a kid with Aisha and Aubrey.

"Glad to see the tradition continue." He murmured.

Malachi stood up and began gently lifting the children into his arms.

One by one, he carried the kids from the living room floor to the girls’ bedroom upstairs.

The space had been expanded to better accommodate his nephews during their stay better. All four corners of the room now had beds, toys, and other little trinkets that kids would love and their parents would get sick of.

Malachi put each of the kids in their beds one by one.

Since they were all suffering from a bad case of the itis, he was able to tuck them in without waking any of them.

Except for young Askari, who regained consciousness for a bit.

"Uncle Mal..?"

"Yeah, little man?"

"I think your wings are awesome..."

Malachi blinked slowly as a smile began to spread across his face.

"I appreciate that, kid. Get some rest."

He kissed his young nephew on top of the head before standing up and quietly leaving their bedroom.

When Malachi stepped into the hall, he smiled a bit before heading back into the living room to clean up while everyone slept.

Luckily, it seemed the kids had done him a service and eaten up the bulk of the food as soon as the adults shut their eyes. Malachi just told himself that they were being considerate and making sure he had less to clean.

’Aisha’s probably going to flip...’ He chucked to himself.

Malachi was nearly finished with his cleaning duties when he suddenly heard the sound of chewing come from behind him.

He looked over his shoulder and found Joanne sitting on the counter, still wrapped in the blanket he gave her.

She offered him her now half-eaten granola bar. "Morning, demon-boy. Didn’t scare you, did I?"

Mal swallowed the urge to laugh.

He had seen Joanne’s every move. His eyes could follow her in a way that almost made her look slow.

But he thought if he told her that, she would pummel him like he owed her lunch money.

Instead, he took the granola bar from her and stuck it in the refrigerator.

"How about you let me make you some real food. Since I can only assume you were planning on eating what was left of the caramel cake for breakfast."

"You know me too well." Joanne nodded robotically.

Chuckling, Malachi slipped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

The two of them shared a lengthy hug. They enjoyed each other’s warmth and scents and all of the various telltale signs of each other’s bodies.

Without understanding why, Malachi placed a hand over her stomach.

Joanne flinched. Mal immediately pulled his hand away.

"Sorry, I was just..."

"No, no, it’s okay." Joanne grabbed Malachi’s hand and put it back where it was.

She looked up at him and smiled warmly.

"We’ve got brighter days ahead of us, remember? I never wanna forget what happened, but... I don’t want to keep dancing around it anymore either."

Malachi knew that Joanne’s good mood had more than a little bit to do with her new fertility.

He was ecstatic to see her gradual return to her former self.

Joanne looked over her shoulder and saw that everyone else was still sleeping.

"We probably have another hour or two to ourselves before everyone gets up... shower’s free, and-"

Joanne suddenly felt her husband’s phone buzzing in his pocket.

"....I’ve decided. I’m throwing everyone’s phones away. This family is going off the grid."

Malachi chuckled as he pulled his device out of his pocket.

To his surprise, he saw that Opal was calling him again. Only at that moment did he remember that he had never called her back after yesterday’s hectic afternoon.

"...She’s gonna kill me."

-

"I’m going to kill you."

Opa put down a steaming cup of coffee as she paced about her office, phone in hand.

"Listen here, the last time I called a man twice for anything was when I was in college and couldn’t get my weed man to be consistent. But for you to ask me for a favor and then ignore me just because you’re on this little honeymoon is-"

"I’m sorry, Opal. I had a night you literally wouldn’t believe." Malachi said over the phone.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard it all before. See, you think just because I’m a little sweet on you, you can ignore my calls, but that’s where you got it twisted because I think Anna and Sei are hotter than you anyway."

"You know what? Totally fair."

Opal suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned around.

She found Malachi and Joanne sitting in her office looking entirely innocent and underdressed.

"Oh, shit, is that coffee? Thank god..." Joanne pilfered the mug from Opal’s desk and brought it to her lips. "Thanks, babes."

"You have another mug lying around by chance?" Mal asked, also feeling a dire need for caffeine.

Opal had no idea where she was even supposed to begin with these two. But she found herself handing Mal a mug nonetheless.

"Good morning to you two asshole lovebirds too."

""Mornin’."" They waved.

Opal circled Malachi like he was an exotic animal. "Mind tucking these in? They’re taking up half my damn office space."

"Believe me. I’m no more thrilled about it than you are. I gotta go home and cut holes in all my shirts."

Opal was surprised. "They won’t go back in? Is your body mutating??"

"Something like that..."

Joanne picked up an open tablet sitting on Opal’s desk.

On the screen, there was a photo of a man taken from long-range surveillance. Joanne held up the tablet.

"Who’s this, your next date? I never pegged you for the stalker type."

Joanne knew she had inadvertently stepped on a land mine based on the way that Opal’s body tensed up.

She lowered her gaze and began pacing about the room again.

"Guess I gotta just come out and say it..." she finally sighed.

Joanne slowly put the tablet down. "Say what exactly..?"

"...That man is named Kincaid. He’s the reason I was calling your husband, and... he’s also the person who killed your friend."