Rachel's grin was utterly smug and utterly merciless as she turned to the other angels.
"You can't seriously think you won that bet," Timothy frowned. Her grin was undiminished. "Your boy admitted he couldn't win! My guy was all over him!"
"Who's going home crying, Timothy? Whose posse was still standing?"
"He could've stuck it out long enough to put Alex in the dirt," Martina grumbled at Timothy, "but he didn't. The whole thing was dumb to begin with, but he could've seen it through."
Rachel nodded, folding her arms across her chest. "Wear it like a hat, bitches."
Timothy glared at her sullenly. It was really all just teasing. No harm was done. "Fine," Timothy frowned. "What do you want?"
"You," she said, pointing at the blond basketball player's guardian, "On your knees, buddy. Holy of Holies. You," she said, pointing at another, "call the corners. I wanna hear the full deal. You? Maha Mantra. Sing it. Sing it 'til the rest of 'em are done." She looked to Martina. "Gimme something Buddhist. Something long. And you," she grinned at Timothy. He scowled, waiting for it. She reached behind her back, produced something, and tossed it to him.
Timothy caught the rosary with ease. He looked at it, then frowned back to Rachel. "The whole thing," Rachel taunted. "Best get prayin'."
Rachel giggled to herself as the guardian angels surrounding her gave voice to a cacophony of very different prayers. Without much of an economy, this was the only sort of thing that angels really had to offer in wagers amongst themselves.
Her only regret was that it wasn't the right time for the Salaat. Otherwise, she'd have had them all kneeling toward Mecca.
************
They had to use Sherri's bedroom, which for Alex was just a touch awkward. Lorelei read it on his face as if she could read his mind. Though she winked at him, she said nothing. Luckily, nobody else noticed anything. He and Jocelyn had thrown a clean comforter over the one that had been on the bed, which seemed to be more than enough of a cover-up.
"What you did this past Thursday night was no small thing," Lorelei explained. She stood among them in the bedroom, holding a manila envelope that none of them, even Alex, had seen her bring into the house. "Gorge was not highly placed in the hierarchy of his kind, but even so, it is not at all ordinary for any of our ilk to be destroyed by mortals.
"You were all very brave to have stood together against a demon of the Pit," Lorelei said, looking at each of them intently, "and I am personally very, very grateful, as I have said, that you were there for Alex." She paused, but no one had anything to say in response to that. She nodded then, and pulled out several sheets of paper from the envelope.
"The Pit operates largely on the Right of Might. There are essentially no laws beyond those which others commonly impose through force, but there are a few things that all agree upon in order to prevent complete chaos. One of these is that to the victors go the spoils."
She handed each of them a copy of business papers that were only a few pages in length. "Each of you is now one-quarter owner of one of the most stable, successful pool halls in the Seattle area."
"Daaamn," Drew breathed. Alex and Wade both choked. Jason's jaw dropped, as he looked at the papers in disbelief.
"There will be some complications in claiming outright ownership, of course," Lorelei went on, "as Gorge didn't live long enough to really paper everything over. But the original owner of the establishment fully concedes the sale, and yesterday I took care of most of the necessary steps to secure your rights. As none of you are old enough to legally operate an establishment that serves alcohol, I took it upon myself to hire on Ahmed as the regular manager. The previous staff is unanimously interested in keeping their jobs. Ultimately all you need to do is occasionally look over the books, give your approval to expenses, sign a few papers now and again...and sit back and collect approximately eighteen to twenty-five thousand dollars apiece in profits annually, if the last few years hold as an accurate measure. That's not enough to live well on by itself, but I imagine it will still be quite a sizeable boost to your incomes."
She was met with four shocked, disbelieving pairs of eyeballs and an accompanying stunned silence. Lorelei allowed herself a sly grin. "Obviously you can take for granted that you won't need to pay for time at a table or anything from the kitchen, as well."
"This is... legal?" Wade blinked.
"Effectively, yes. It will hold up in court and to state and Federal scrutiny. We'll have to come up with some plausible reason why Gorge passed ownership to you immediately after purchasing the business, but Ahmed can be pliant. This works out for him financially as well."
"But didn't that guy do some sort of supernatural woojiness to Ahmed to get him to sell?" Jason asked.
"I don't believe so, no. I cannot prove that one way or another, but he certainly didn't need to. Ahmed was paid a generous price for his business, and all of it in cash. He could have bargained a bit more and the decision was a bit rash on his part, but it was still his decision to make. He came out well ahead financially in the short term -- and will in the long term as well if you keep him on as manager for at least a few years."
Drew seemed ever bit as overwhelmed as the others. "How did you swing this? I thought all of Gorge's papers burned up in the church?"
Lorelei's sly grin only broadened. "Really, you boys know what I am. One doesn't spend the better part of a few dozen centuries with all of the worst sorts of people without learning a trick or two. No one is harmed," she quickly added for Alex's reassurance, "but I did have to do a bit of creative forgery and paperwork. It's not like Gorge could explain himself at this point. But by his own customs, you destroyed him when he forced conflict upon you. His belongings are now yours. It's only a small pity that you couldn't have held him upside down and shaken him to see what fell out of his pockets before he died.
"And on that note," Lorelei added, picking up her purse, "there is the added concern of the diamonds he was so quick to flash around and which you left behind in the midst of your brouhaha."
She handed out four white envelopes, which each of the guys tore open without much pause. Inside each was several thousand dollars in cash.
"Be careful how you spend that," Lorelei said. "I wouldn't suggest you deposit it in a bank unless you want to run the risk of having to explain how you got it if we do somehow wind up with legal concerns."
"This is too good to be true," Jason thought aloud.
"My having a happily ever after with Alex that would never put anyone else at risk of harm was too good to be true," Lorelei said. "You have all stood with him, repeatedly now, in the face of dangers grave and...well, whatever those boys out there might've dished out," she shrugged dismissively. "You are not millionaires. You'll likely need to keep quiet about this until we can all agree on a solid cover story. But you earned this. And my unending gratitude as well."
"I'm gonna suggest," Alex said after swallowing hard, "that we just all shut up about this for tonight and let it sink in. I mean this will all run itself for now, right?"
Lorelei nodded. Wade spoke up. "Yeah, this is... awesome. Ah mean this is really great. But, uh, there's a li'l geeky brunette cutie out there waitin' for me I was talkin' to 'fore half the Huskies bench showed up."
"Yeah, I'm kinda hangin' around here late with Sherri, too," Drew thought aloud. "Thanks, Lorelei. Seriously. Thanks."
"My pleasure," she nodded as Drew headed out the door. Wade followed, and Alex offered Lorelei his hand as he was about to leave. She took it with a smile.
"That's awesome," Jason grumbled. "Everyone picks up at the party but me 'cause I showed up late."
"There's still party left," Alex shrugged. "Just show 'em your awesome stun gun. I bet chicks dig that."
"Funny."
"A moment, Alex?" Lorelei asked. Her hand slipped from his. She fixed Jason with a smoldering hot gaze of lust that stopped him dead in his tracks. She slipped her leg in between his, grinding upward with her thigh, just as she took his neck in both hands and planted a deep, wet, aggressive kiss upon his mouth.
Jason fainted dead away on the bed behind him.
Alex just looked on in shock. Lorelei shrugged, dabbing at her lips. "You said I could flirt, and I do owe him my gratitude. It's not like he'll remember that happened, anyway."