Dad left us then, to return to Rome and the Angels. "Someone needs to keep an eye on them," he said with a final hug for me, reminding me just how amazing his hugs actually were, Death or no Death to back them up. I'd noticed the change in him after the persona moved on, how he'd altered, reverting, I guessed, to the Angel he used to be. I'd been saddened by that shift in him, missing the man who'd always been there for me and wishing things could have been different for him.
But you know what? He was still my dad underneath it all, maybe even more so now that he was Samael and didn't have to share how he felt with one of the giant powers of Creation. Regardless of what we'd done to one another or what we'd been through, how he'd changed, and how I'd changed, I knew he loved me.
That would always be enough.