Daystar (21 page)

“Yes okay I am!”
 
Jegudiel held his hands up in front of his face.
 
“I agree with you!
 
All right?”

Paimon got in his face.
 
“I know when someone is saying something just to placate me.
 
You cannot placate me!
 
Your very presence is a desecration to Furcas’ memory!
 
You are not even half of what he was.
 
You never will be!”

“I know, Paimon!”
 
Jegudiel flinched.
 
“I know that.
 
I am not trying to be!”

“You are worthless!
 
He was far above you, more in every way.
 
You…”
 
Paimon jabbed a finger into his chest.
 
“You are without value.
 
You don’t matter.”

Jegudiel held back tears.
 
“To someone I matter.”

Paimon scoffed.
 
“To whom besides your ineffective shit of an older brother?”

Jegudiel closed his eyes.
 
“Someone, I do not know yet, but someone.”

Paimon laughed.
 
“You think someone will ever love you?
 
What is there to love?
 
Stupidity, naiveté, or perhaps they will love your generally sappy nature.
 
No, no one will love you.
 
I certainly
never
fucking will.”
 
Paimon jumped off Jegudiel and kicked him into the overturned couch.

Jegudiel got up and limped towards the wall.
 
He sat against it, and stared at Paimon.
 
“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to fucking leave!”

“But I cannot!”

“Me neither!”
 
Paimon sat down.
 
“And you can’t until you join our side?”

Jegudiel nodded, blushed, and said, “That is correct.”

Paimon smacked the back of his head into the wall.
 
“
Fuck!
”
 
He sighed.
 
“I don’t suppose you want to do that now and get the fuck out?”

Jegudiel stared at Paimon.
 
“I, uh—it has to be genuine.”

“Genuine?”
 
Paimon threw his hands in the air.
 
“Then what will it take for it to be genuine?”

“Dahlia said I would be brought over through love.”

“Damn it!” Paimon shouted towards the ceiling.
 
“I am
not
fucking
you!
”

Jegudiel’s mouth dropped open.
 
“What?”

“Not even if I were blackout drunk and the highest I’d ever been.
 
I am a one man, man!
 
So if she thinks my dick is going anywhere near your—”

“
Wait!
”
 
Jegudiel jerked.
 
“What?
 
I do not want that!
 
Why would you even think about doing that to me?”
 
He edged away along the floor.
 
“No!”

Paimon cocked his head to the side.
 
“But I thought.”
 
He looked confused.
 
“That’s not what you are here for?”

“No!
 
I mean, I did not think so!
 
That was not told to me!”
 
Jegudiel looked at the door with worry.
 
“Why would
that
make me want to join your side?”

Paimon rubbed his temples.
 
“You like girls then?”

“Girls?”

“Chicks, broads, bitches, things with tits like Dahlia.”

“What?”
 
Jegudiel got to his feet.
 
“I don’t fucking know!

“Ha!”
 
Paimon pointed towards the sound of Jegudiel’s voice.

Jegudiel looked around.
 
“What?”

Paimon smiled.
 
“You said
don’t
and
fucking
.”

“So?”

“Quick learner.”
 
Paimon sniffed the air and got to his feet.
 
He wandered over to his table and found a knife.
 
Jegudiel flinched as Paimon stabbed it into a steak.
 
Paimon lifted the meat up and took a huge bite.
 
He could not see Jegudiel, but he could hear him panting, he could smell his fear.
 
Paimon sighed.
 
No longer under the illusion he was supposed to fall in love with Jegudiel, his feelings of hatred dulled to annoyance.
 
“Come here.”

Jegudiel watched the blade.
 
“Are you going to stab me with that knife?”

“No.”
 
Paimon waved the steak around.

“Do you promise?”

Paimon grinned.
 
“No.”

Jegudiel stayed where he was.
 
“What are you doing?”

Paimon took a bite and swallowed.
 
“Eating.”
 
He grabbed for a bottle of wine and decanted it.
 
He fumbled for a cup and poured himself a glass.
 
“Now I am drinking.
 
I love drinking.”

Jegudiel sniffed the air.
 
His pupils dilated.
 
“Why?”

“It is fun.
 
Don’t you do things for fun?”

“Yes!”

“Such as?”

Jegudiel smiled and stared into space.
 
“I sing and compose poetry.
 
Do you want to hear some?”

Paimon groaned and looked away.
 
“You recite
anything
and I will beat you senseless with one of your own limbs.
 
Got it?”
 
He pointed his knife to the right of Jegudiel.
 
“How the fuck can you create poetry?
 
You have no experience in anything.
 
You are a baby.
 
Do you talk about the sparkly lights in Heaven, or the choirs of angels?
 
That’ll get the girls wet and ready to go.”

Jegudiel blushed.
 
“I…I have watched humans and Lilliam.
 
I think I may know something.”

“Changed my mind.”
 
Paimon knocked back his glass and refilled it.
 
“Recite me your best.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“No, you will make fun of me.”

“Fine.”
 
Paimon switched to drinking straight from the bottle.
 
“I feel a deep, unending pity for whatever poor creature attracts your attention.
 
What a pathetic thing she will be to desire you, a wet blanket.”

“That is not very nice of you to say.”

“Oh!
 
I
am
sorry.”
 
Paimon got another wine bottle.
 
“I am so incredibly sorry.
 
Did that hurt your precious set of feelings?
 
Please forgive me, I am ever so remorseful.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“You are mean.”

Paimon threw a pear at Jegudiel.
 
“Lighten up, pansy.”

Jegudiel dodged the fruit.
 
“Do not call me that.”

“What’re you going to do about it?”
 
Paimon threw another piece of fruit his direction.

Jegudiel set his jaw.
 
“You want me to hit you, so that you can hit me back and feel better in general.
 
You’re grieving and want to take your mind off of it by making something else hurt as bad as you do inside.”

Paimon shrugged.
 
“When you say it clinically, it doesn’t sound as satisfying.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“I will not comply.
 
I am against violence in general, unless forced by Michael.”

“Oh, is that why you engaged in that pathetic attempt to attack Furcas and I?”

Jegudiel blushed.
 
“I am sorry, but it was that or having our wings removed.
 
But I do not do it for fun.
 
I do not have fun at the expense of others.”

Paimon stabbed the air with a spoon.
 
“That’s the spirit!
 
Kill
fun!
 
You’re going to woo your future damsel with offers of boredom!
 
You’ll fight on our side with ennui!
 
Reciting poetry at Uriel until he falls asleep?”

Jegudiel bared his teeth.
 
“I want to tear that fucker into pieces!
 
He should be flayed alive!
 
Ripped apart!”
 
He punched the wall.
 
“I want him to die painfully!”

Paimon’s mouth dropped open.
 
“Whoa there, kiddo.”

Jegudiel paced.
 
“He hurt Belial!”

“You like Belial?
 
Get in line.”

“No.”
 
Jegudiel frowned.
 
“It’s not about Belial.
 
I mean it is, but what she had with Andy was
pure
and what he did to her impure.
 
It was not right.
 
He
ruined
their love.
 
They should have been together and now they cannot.”

“Well you have multiple people ahead of you in the Uriel death pool, so sorry.
 
You probably won’t get your chance to tear him apart.”

Jegudiel ignored him.
 
“And Michael.
 
He helped separate Dahlia and Lucifer.
 
Again!
 
And you and Furcas!
 
When will love conquer all?
 
It is supposed to you know!”
 
He paced.
 
“The greater the obstacle the greater the return, but I keep seeing chances taken apart, I cannot stand it!
 
Love has to win sometime!”

Paimon smiled.
 
“You’ve just been looking haven’t you?”

Jegudiel stopped in his tracks.
 
“Looking?”

“You’ve been looking for an excuse to join our side.
 
Maybe you didn’t think of it that way, but it doesn’t sound like you tow the party line, know what I mean?”
 
Paimon shook his head.
 
“Never mind, just an expression.”
 
He ate some ice cream.
 
“You want Dahlia and Lucifer to succeed.”

“I want
love
to succeed.”

“Same thing.
 
No wonder Dahlia grabbed you.”
 
Paimon smiled.
 
“You haven’t spoken a word of this to anyone in Heaven have you?
 
I doubt you could have.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“I told Selaphiel.
 
He always told me to keep my opinions to myself.”

“Smart brother.”
 
Paimon grinned from ear to ear.
 
“Come here.”

Jegudiel eyed him.
 
“Now what?”

Paimon held up a plate of bacon.
 
“You are going to eat something.”

“Why?”

“Because I am your boss and I say so and you are still my prisoner so you have to do what I say.
 
Get over here.”
 
He pointed to the food.
 
“You are going to eat one of everything, and then you are going to start drinking.”

Jegudiel took a seat at the table.
 
“Why?”

“Poets and love-sick fools are supposed to be drunkards.
 
Trust me, if you want to be a genuine lover instead of a fluff piece, start imbibing.”
 
Paimon shoved a bottle in his general direction.
 
“So drink.
 
Then we are going to watch a few things.”

Jegudiel picked up the bottle.
 
He sniffed it and took a sip.
 
“What kind of things?”

Paimon licked his fingers.
 
“Educational things.”

***

Dahlia invited the Fallen and the first and second generation Lilliam to a conference inside the palace.
 
She stared at the hardwood table that had been set up inside the throne room.
 
The others waited for her to speak.

She nodded to herself and looked up.
 
“I am going to get Lucifer back.”

Belial grinned.
 
“Fuck yes!”

Dahlia rapped her fingers along the table.
 
“I will need volunteers for a distraction.
 
It will have to be good, because I need the Archangels pulled out of Heaven, as many as you can get.”