Daystar (37 page)

Jegudiel blushed.
 
“How do you know I sing in the shower?”

Furcas grinned.
 
“We had sex in your room earlier.”

“
Twice
.”
 
Paimon looked him over.
 
“You take
long
showers.
 
What the hell are you doing in there?”

Jegudiel went white.
 
“What?!”

Paimon shrugged.
 
“The door was unlocked.”

“It’s
my
bedroom!”

Furcas leaned forward.
 
“My house.”

Jegudiel stared at his paper.
 
“I want a lock on my door.”

Furcas smiled.
 
“No.”

“Then I am going to live with my brother!”

Paimon snorted.
 
“Trust me; the freaky stuff he and Raphael get up to is not any better.”

Furcas grinned.
 
“And you know, it’s kind of creepy to see your brother getting frisky with his girlfriend don’t you think?”

Jegudiel pointed at them.
 
“He cannot possibly be worse than the two of you!”

Furcas grinned and bounced Bean on his knee.
 
“It’s not him I’m thinking of, but the sex-starved shape-shifting Hellspawn that is his girlfriend.
 
Just imagine what Lucifer and Dahlia would have been like if they had not consummated their relationship until a few hours ago.
 
Epic, down and dirty sex.”

Jegudiel shook his head.
 
“They are in love, that doesn’t mean they’re—”

“Fucking.”
 
Paimon offered.

“Humping like bunnies.”
 
Furcas grinned.

“Shagging.”
 
Paimon made kissy faces at Jegudiel.

Furcas looked over at Paimon.
 
“Making sweet, sweet love to one another.”

Jegudiel put his hands on his ears.
 
“How can you say this stuff in front of her?”

Paimon and Furcas glanced at Bean.
 
She grinned, looking between all three of them.
 
Paimon waggled a finger in front of her face.
 
“She’s a grand total of what, a day old?”

“She’s a four-year-old now!
 
She is aging
right now
.”

They frowned.
 
“Well, yeah, but mentally?”

“She can spell and her handwriting is better than mine.”
 
Jegudiel held up her paper.
 
Her handwriting looked exactly like Furcas’ letters.

Paimon grinned.
 
“She’s a genius baby obviously.”

Jegudiel looked back at the chalkboard.
 
“You two are going to be way out of your ability to handle her shortly.”

Furcas smirked.
 
“Ooh big scary Bean!”
 
He went back to bouncing her on his knee.

Bean laughed and pointed at Jegudiel.
 
“
Retard!
”

The three adults gaped at her.
 
Paimon kneeled down to look into her eyes.
 
“Where did you learn
that
word?”

Bean frowned.
 
“Mommy.”

Paimon glared at Furcas.
 
“When did
you
say it?”

Furcas scoffed.
 
“I am not the mommy, dumbass.”

Bean grabbed Paimon’s nose.
 
“Mommy, Mommy!”

Paimon gaped.
 
“Oh, I don’t think so.
 
We’re
daddies
, Bean-baby.”

“Mommy!”
 

Paimon made a face.
 
“If anyone is a mommy, it’s Furcas.
 
Furcas is Mommy,
I
am Daddy.”

Bean frowned and looked at Furcas.
 
“
He
Daddy.
 
You Mommy.”

“I am
not
a mommy!
 
I’m a daddy too!”
 
Paimon stood up and glared at Furcas.
 
“You did this on purpose.
 
How?”

Bean burst into tears.
 
“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”

Paimon picked Bean up and held her tight.
 
“I am sorry.
 
Shh.”

Bean punched him in the eye.
 
“Mommy!”

Paimon watched Furcas laugh.
 
Bean cried into his shoulder and kicked him in the ribs.
 
He took a deep breath.
 
“There, there.
 
No more crying,
Mommy
is here.”
 

Furcas hit the ground laughing.

Jegudiel went back to reading.
 
“You guys are so screwed, and it is going to serve you right.”

Paimon and Furcas glared at him.
 
“Shut it, retard.”

Bean laughed.
 
“Shut it, retard!
 
Shut it, retard!”

Jegudiel shook his head.
 
“So screwed.
 
You heard it here first.”

***

Andy walked barefoot on the burning sands of Ra-Giza.
 
The land sparkled gold in the heat and haze of the scorching afternoon sunlight.
 
This place was desolate, empty of Lilliam and life.
 
It looked as he felt inside, desiccated and bleak.
 
His face was blank; his eyes were the color of slate.
 
His wings were drab and gray.
 
He crested a sand dune and plowed into Whitney.

Whitney tumbled away.
 
“Sorry!”

Andy scrambled to his feet.
 
“Whitney?”

Whitney landed on her back and slid down a dune on her marbled wings.
 
“Yeah?”

“What are you doing here?”

Whitney sat up and brushed sand out of her hair.
 
“I like it here.
 
The only thing around is rock for miles and miles and miles.”

Andy looked around.
 
“Oh, yeah.
 
Rocks are your thing.”

She opened her wings over her head to give her some shade.
 
“Why are
you
here?”

“It’s empty.
 
I
thought
it was empty.
 
I can go.”
 
He scrambled up the dune to leave.

Whitney raced after him.
 
“Wait!”

Andy paused and looked over his shoulder.
 
“Yeah?”

“I know you guys are really used to being alone for long periods of time, but I’m not.”
 
She held back tears.
 
“I don’t know how to do it.
 
Can you teach me?”

He offered her his hand.
 
“Come on.”

Whitney took his hand.
 
“I can fly.”

Andy allowed himself a small smile.
 
“True, but, can you go this fast?”
 
He ran.
 
He stopped and they stood in New York City.

Whitney gaped.
 
“No.”

Andy walked down the street.
 
Whitney trailed after him.
 
“Why are we here?”

“This is my city.
 
I’ve lived here ever since it was conceived.
 
It’s kind of rundown at the moment, but it’ll get better once this whole war is resolved.”

Whitney nodded and looked around.
 
She ran to keep up with him.
 
“Andy?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Helion will come back?”

Andy stopped and leaned on a dust-covered car.
 
“I really don’t know, Whitney.
 
I’d like to say yes, but I don’t know.”

Whitney nodded and looked at her feet.
 
“I know, I—I just want to hear something positive.”

Andy took her hand.
 
“Whitney, Helion and Belial, they were linked, two beings.
 
I don’t know what her death will have done to him.
 
He might not be himself anymore.
 
Maybe he went away to collect his thoughts, maybe he...”
 
Andy stopped, not wanting to voice what he really thought.

Whitney tugged on his hand.
 
“You can say it.
 
I’m not going to explode.”

Andy nodded.
 
“I am not entirely sure one can exist without the other.”

Whitney blinked and tears ran through the dust on her face.
 
“Yeah, I was thinking it might be like that too.
 
He told me all about their past.”
 
She wiped her eyes and stared at the street around them.
 
“I just can’t help but think that he would have said something to me if that were the case, goodbye at least.
 
I mean, I’ve had boyfriends before that just didn’t call, you know, the kind that can’t break up with you to your face.”

Andy nodded.
 
“The ones that just fall off the face of the planet to avoid you.”

“Exactly!
 
But Helion, he didn’t strike me as the type.”

Andy kicked a can down the street.
 
“Nah, he’s not the type, that’s Belial’s style, gone without a goodbye.”

“Yeah?”
 
Whitney caught him with his guard down for a second, his face ashen.
 
He shook his head and recovered.
 
She spoke softly, “We don’t have to talk about it.”

Andy shook his head.
 
“No we should talk about them.
 
We should.
 
She uh, let’s see.
 
She and I would have these fights you see.
 
Really crazy ones.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, tearing through cities kind of fights.
 
Nothing recent, this was way back in the day before I stopped being so destructive.”
 
He waved the thought aside.
 
“We’d destroy places.
 
Her screaming and driving people mad, me aging stuff when I lost my temper.
 
We were a scourge to everyone around us when we were angry at each other.
 
After our fights, when the dust had settled, literally, she’d be gone, run off to somewhere without a word to me.”

“What did you two fight about?
 
You weren’t a couple?”

“Well, looking back I suppose we were, but just in the platonic sense.
 
I’d get pissed because we would hang out, doing everything that couples would except for the physical stuff.
 
I wanted to be with her, but she always said she had to put her duty first—”

“A career girl.”

Andy laughed quietly.
 
“Yeah, focused on the killing humans stuff.
 
I wanted to start a—”

“Family.”

Andy shrugged.
 
“Of sorts.
 
I wanted her to settle down.
 
At the time, I thought that if she just settled down we could be together.
 
I didn’t know about Uriel.”
 
He covered his mouth.
 
“I didn’t know.”

Whitney reached for him, but he shook his head.
 
Andy looked to the sky.
 
“I couldn’t understand her and I got angry with her for it.
 
She couldn’t bring herself to tell me, so she was angry with herself
and
angry with me for not being able to tell that she was hurting from something else.”

Whitney nodded.
 
“You’d ask what was wrong, she’d reply with
nothing
.”

“Pretty much.”

“But that’s not your fault.”
 
Whitney skipped alongside him.
 
“I mean, you could have been more open to her feelings a bit, but she did make the choice not to tell you.”

Andy balled his hands into fists.
 
“I should have known, Whitney.
 
I really, just, I really just should have.
 
I mean, come on.
 
Uriel has her, I knew how he felt about her, and she comes back different, unable to be touched.
 
I just should have known.
 
But I didn’t want to know.”
 
His voice broke.
 
“I didn’t want to know.”

Andy stared into the empty shops around them.
 
“I couldn’t accept it as a possibility up here.”
 
He tapped his temples.
 
“So I told myself it wasn’t the case until I believed my own story and forgot the details of the truth.”
 
He looked at Whitney.
 
“She might not have told me, but I never really asked her for the truth, not in time at least.”