Daystar (56 page)

“She tried to—”

Paimon grabbed him by his neck and lifted him off his feet.
 
“I
said
she was
confused
.
 
We talked some sense into her.
 
You will forgive her and she won’t try and assault you again.”

Jegudiel nodded.
 
“Thank you.”

“We didn’t do it for your sake!”

“Okay!”

“I want this to be clear, real fucking clear, so listen good.”
 
Paimon dropped his voice to a hiss.
 
“If you two
date
.”
 
He shuddered.
 
“You do not touch her, you do not think about touching her, not even in a daydream or when you’re alone in your bed.
 
You see, I have ways of making deaths look like accidents.
 
Got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

Paimon looked away.
 
“I am not a fool, however, so if you two do
touch
one another, make sure I
never
know about it.
 
Ever, I mean it.
 
If she ever has a child of her own, as far as I am concerned, it will be a fucking virgin birth.
 
Understand me?”

“Yes, sir!”

Paimon glared at him.
 
“But if I find out that you have touched her I will be forced to retaliate.
 
I don’t care if it was mutual between you two or if she assaults you again.
 
Your death will be violent and drawn out, no one will save you.”
 
Paimon dropped him.
 
“You will not tell her we had this talk.
 
I don’t need that kind of stress heaped on me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Paimon gave him a once over.
 
“I’ll be watching you.
 
Don’t doubt that for a moment.
 
There’s no place in the universe that you can hide from me.
 
I’ll hunt you down.
 
So keep your dick in your pants and your hands to yourself or I’ll chop
both
off.”

Furcas jumped down the stairs and sauntered into the kitchen.
 
He looked between the two and lost his smile.
 
“
Paimon!
”

Paimon grinned showing Jegudiel his sharp teeth.
 
“What?”

“You fucking threatened him.
 
What did I say?”

“Did not, did I, Yoshi?”

Jegudiel shook his head.
 
“No, not at all.
 
We were just talking about…cocoa.”

Furcas backhanded Paimon.
 
“I am not an idiot.”

Paimon grinned and walked past him.
 
He turned behind Furcas and made a slash across the throat sign to Jegudiel.
 
He strolled out of the room with a giant smile on his face.

Jegudiel felt faint.
 
He held on to the fridge and looked up at Furcas.
 
“Why is he assuming that Bean and I—”

“Oh, Jegudiel.”
 
Furcas poured himself a glass of wine and lit a cigarette.
 
“May I be frank with you?”

“Yes.”

“She’s got Paimon’s brains, my sex appeal, and she wants
you
.
 
You don’t stand a chance.
 
Not saying it’s going to happen anytime soon, but it will eventually.”
 
He took a drag off his cigarette.
 
“That being said, she’s still in possession of an innocent heart.
 
Do not stomp on it or I will do whatever Paimon threatened to do.
 
I’m sure it was colorful and fun.”

“So he’s threatening me if I do, and you’re threatening me if I don’t?”
 
Jegudiel held his head.
 
“Why are you all doing this to me?”

Furcas smirked.
 
“Paimon will lighten up and come around.
 
If he doesn’t on his own, I will make him.
 
That’s a promise.
 
She’s besotted with you and he has to get over that.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“How do you make someone do something?”

Furcas grinned.
 
“That is something you’ll need to learn with her all on your own.
 
Now I suggest you just relax, maybe have a glass of wine, and calm down.
 
You look like you’re going to pass out.”
 
Furcas handed him his glass of wine.

Jegudiel eyed it.
 
“Why aren’t you drinking it?”

“It’s not drugged if that is what you are asking.”
 
Furcas smiled.
 
“I have to go make nice with Paimon.
 
He seems to think I have betrayed him parentally.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“I am getting the hell out of the house then.”

“Take Bean with you.”

“No.
 
I don’t want to.”

Furcas pointed.
 
“She wants to apologize.
 
So please take her out and just give her a chance, Jegudiel.
 
She feels terrible about what she did.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“If she tries anything—”

“She won’t.”
 
Furcas waved towards the front door.
 
“Go for a walk through the city.
 
Shoo.”

Jegudiel knocked back the entire glass of wine and stomped up the stairs.
 
He was excited.
 
He faltered and grimaced, resentment set in.
 
Something else was being forced upon him; he had no illusions that he had a choice in speaking with her.
 
Jegudiel gripped the banister and stared upwards.
 
He would take this walk and he would set things straight with her.
 
He was not going to be pushed around anymore.

Jegudiel passed Paimon on the stairs.
 
Paimon smiled and made knifing motions at him.
 
Jegudiel set his jaw and knocked on Bean’s door.
 

Paimon leapt for him.
 
Furcas hauled him back into their bedroom and shut the door.

Bean opened her door a crack.
 
“Yeah?
 
Oh hi.”
 
She smiled, blushed, and stared at her feet.

Jegudiel stuffed his hands in his pockets.
 
“Your parents are about to get intimate downstairs.
 
I was going to go for a walk; you can come if you want to.”

“Yes!”
 
Bean threw the door open.
 
She had changed into jean shorts, a tank top, and tennis shoes; she pulled back her hair into a ponytail.
 
Her wings fluttered in excitement.
 
“Thanks for the invitation that was thoughtful of you.”

Jegudiel eyed her.
 
“You look rather prepared.”

Bean smiled.
 
“I know my parents.”
 
She closed her door and ran past him.
 
“Let’s go!
 
They don’t wait around for anyone or anything.”
 
Jegudiel ran after her and they dashed out the front door.
 
Jegudiel slammed it shut behind him and stalked after her.
 

Paimon and Furcas leaned out of their bedroom.
 
Furcas smiled, Paimon sulked.
 
Furcas flicked him in the head.
 
“I think it’s cute.”

Paimon sighed.
 
“You would.”
 
He grabbed Furcas’ wrist and kissed it.
 
“I just wish she’d stayed young a bit longer.”

Furcas nibbled on his ear.
 
“She’s always going to be our baby, Paimon.”

Paimon eyed him.
 
“Get in the bedroom and strip.”

***

Selaphiel stared up at the giant light bulb that hung in the center of Hell.
 
He frowned and tapped it.
 
The light reacted to his power and glowed blue in the dark murk of Hell.
 
Wires connected to the bulb and his power flowed out along those lines.
 
Slowly chains of paper stars began to glow and his frown increased.
 
“I find this entire endeavor odd, Raphael.”

Raphael jumped on his back.
 
She shined neon pink in the darkness.
 
Her feathered wings had shifted to webbed oil and water wings.
 
“They’ll like it!”

“It looks like one of those collages you did at the house, pretty but strange.”

She grinned.
 
“It’s supposed to look that way!”
 
She stuck a few more paper stars to the sky.
 
“They’ll be calmed for the duration.”

Selaphiel kissed her hand.
 
“We are not housing children, Raphael.
 
We are housing adults.”

Raphael shrugged.
 
“They’ll be charmed then.
 
She didn’t say it had to look real, she didn’t even say it had to look like the sky, but don’t you think that when people look up they’ll want to see stars?”

“The sun is a giant
light bulb
, Raphael.
 
They will not be under any illusions that it is the sky.”

She smiled at it.
 
“Glows real bright too, thanks to you.”

He sighed.
 
“It is not a comfort to know that my
only
job during this will be to keep the light going.”

Raphael gazed into his eyes.
 
“They’ll need it.
 
No one wants to be in the dark when they do not know what is going on in it.
 
Light is hope and maybe someone will even laugh and that’ll make people feel better.
 
Besides, you’ll be safe inside it.”
 
She kicked off his shoulders and flew into their artificial sky to stick a paper moon on to the carved out surface of Hell.
 
She poked the moon and it glowed along with the light bulb, albeit less so.

Raphael gazed at the space and moved to the black throne.
 
The structure hovered in the murk, unoccupied.
 
She stared at it critically.
 
“We never used this before.
 
I hope it works.”

Selaphiel flew to her side.
 
“It looks as Heaven’s did.”

“Of course.”
 
Raphael smiled.
 
“It’s supposed to.”
 
She reached out to touch it, but held her hand back.
 
“Home base.”
 
She looked at the darkness beyond the throne.
 
“She’ll make the incision back past the bulb, but she’ll need to work from here.”

Selaphiel wrapped his arms around her.
 
“What will you do while she is working and I am lighting up this small refuge?”

Raphael looked away.
 
“I’ll do what I need to as it arises.
 
I can’t foresee everything, big man.”

Selaphiel smiled.
 
“Now I know that is a lie.”

Raphael smirked.
 
“But a comforting one, just like this place, a welcoming lie.”

***

Helion sat where hours earlier he and Whitney had made love in her orchard.
 
The grass was still disturbed.
 
There were apple cores and stems scattered on the ground.
 
Helion held his hand up.
 
An apple came soaring out of mid-air.
 
He caught it and bit where Whitney had left off.
 
Apple juice dripped onto his hands and mixed with the tears already there.

Helion threw the apple and it disappeared.
 
He stared at the sky overhead.
 
Red and blue streaks of light cut the air as Lucifer and Dahlia patrolled above the shield.
 
He sighed and stared at the trees around him.
 
He picked the nearest and imagined it Ariel.
 
“You are
dead
.”

The tree withered, died, snapped in half, and fell over.

Helion scrambled to his feet and backed away.
 
He stared at the tree.
 
“I didn’t mean it!”

The tree stayed dead.

Helion frowned.
 
“You’re not really dead.
 
You’re just faking it.”

The tree shuddered and reformed, coming back into life, though it still looked sickly.
 
Helion pointed at it.
 
“Die again.”

The tree stayed the same.
 
Helion popped his lips.
 
“You are actually dead.”

The tree died.
 
Helion stared at his hands and pointed at another tree.
 
“Die!”
 
The tree remained alive.
 
He smiled a little.
 
“You are dying.”
 
The tree began to whither.
 
Helion looked at another.
 
“I think you are very healthy!”
 
The tree burst into life and dropped fruit like rain.