No sign of any angels. Or of Father William for that matter. The church was completely empty.

I frowned. Maybe the angel was already on the case. Maybe he was distracted by something else. Something, though, felt subtly wrong. I looked around for anything that might indicate that the church had been desecrated again.

I saw nothing. But there was still that subtly wrong feeling. “Hey?” I called, not expecting any kind of a response.

It felt…then I realized. It felt as if the place was under siege. Whatever it was hadn’t broken through – or come close to breaking through – the protections on the church, but they seemed to be weakening.

This wasn’t just Tyz’vel having Loki. This was more than that, and I understood why Coyote was worried.
And why he didn’t want me heading off on my own to do something about it, as much as I wanted to.

And why the angel wasn’t here. Okay. I closed my eyes, then shook my head and stepped outside the church. My presence there probably wasn’t remotely helping. It was probably weakening the defenses further.

Then I closed my eyes again, trying to see what I could feel or sense.

I heard distant laughter, but nothing more.

Okay. I wasn’t going to get any help from Heaven and I wasn’t about to seek it from Hell. Which meant. “Odin?” I whispered. “Munin?”

A raven showing up would have made me feel much better.

It wasn’t a raven that showed up. It was the warrior I’d seen earlier. “You okay?”

I shook my head. “No. You know what’s going on?”

“I know that Hell is breaking the rules.”

I shook my head. “He wasn’t breaking the rules when he tried to seduce me?”

“No, but if he’d tried to force you.”

“How the heck did he snag him?”

The warrior shook his head. “I don’t know. By the way, my name’s Hans.”

Hans. There was a common Germanic name if there ever was one. “Alright. Do you have any bright ideas? Does your boss?”

“Not that she’s shared with me. Come on.”

He offered me his hand I took it, not entirely sure where he was heading.