Enemies, friends, whatever. The angel…it was the same one…stepped out from behind the altar despite not having been there before.

“I was hoping for some advice. Tyz’vel’s…trying to hurt my friends and destroy my family.” I let out a breath. “I need to resist the temptation to try to find a more powerful demon lord to sit on him.”

The angel laughed a dry laugh, then moved to sit on the front pew. I hesitated, then sat down as well.

“He won’t back down. Banishing him worked for a few days. I need some kind of leverage.”

“And being a demon, he won’t even respect your superiors.”

I shook my head. “Not really. I could talk to my father, but…”

“Your father probably thinks you can deal with your own romantic problems.”

My father, I thought, would have a one night stand and be done with it. “I probably should talk to him.”

I thought the reality was that Loki didn’t have any great ideas either and didn’t want to get into a prank war with Tyz’vel with me caught in the middle.

“In the meanwhile, I will talk to some people.” The angel actually smiled. It didn’t look like it belonged on his face.

“Thanks.”

“He is, at some levels, our responsibility and courting you is one thing…”

I nodded. “I could handle him being creepy stalkerish. Trying to set up my friends to go to jail? I won’t tolerate that.”

“Asgardian.” The angel smiled again, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Then, he vanished.

I watched the space where he had been for a moment and then stood and walked towards the door.

Outside, I felt the tension relax. I hoped they could help, but I had a feeling I couldn’t count on it. Or couldn’t count on the help to come in time.

Or maybe it would be more subtle. I headed home, hoping I still had a home. I decided I really should get a lawyer, talk about the emancipation stuff. Just in case. I wondered if that also meant I could legally change my name.

It didn’t matter.

Neither name was my real name anyway. But…getting rid of the stupid Doe moniker would be a lot of fun.

And I’d never be able to use my real name any more than Thruor could. I was pretty sure it was something unpronounceable.