Daystar (86 page)

Apple leapt over their heads and crashed into a rack of wine bottles, laughing.
 
Belial chased her.
 
Celeste grabbed an unbroken wine glass and scooped up wine that gushed forth.
 
“To everyone.”

Whitney raised a bottle.
 
“Friends who couldn’t be here.”

Tracy ducked her head.
 
“If they could see us now.”

Dahlia sighed.
 
“They probably can if they wanted to.”

The others stared at her.
 
Dahlia shrugged.
 
“Do you not see them?”

Whitney frowned.
 
“See what, Dahlia?”

“The dead.
 
They do not float around so much here now that they have the entire universe to roam and play in, but ever so often, you know…”
 
She snapped her mouth shut.
 
“Never mind.”

Whitney’s eyes widened.
 
“You mean the voices?
 
You’re talking about the voices right?”

Tracy frowned.
 
“What voices?”

Belial fell amongst them.
 
“I heard footsteps!”

Dahlia jumped to her feet.
 
“Shit, I am first.”

Paimon stepped up beside her.
 
“Do not destroy the planet, Dahl-face.”
 
He bumped her with his hips.

Dahlia pushed him into a wall.
 
“Okay,
Patience!
”

Belial giggled.
 
“Paimon’s a girl!
 
Paimon’s a girl!”

Paimon reverted to a woman and flipped his hair.
 
“I am drunk enough not to be offended by that.”
 
He gazed at the rest of them blurry-eyed.
 
“But fuck you all.”

Lucifer stepped into the room.
 
He grinned at his bride.
 
“Dahlia.”

Dahlia found herself alone.
 
“What the fuck guys!”

Lucifer smirked.
 
“They are not stupid or suicidal enough to come between you and me.”
 
He walked towards her.

Belial slammed into him.
 
“Wrong!”

Apple kicked him in the stomach.
 
“Double wrong!”

Whitney shrugged and went for his legs.
 
“Me too!”

Paimon broke a bottle over his head.
 
“Ha!”

Celeste, Tracy, and Leviathan slid away along the wall.
 
Dahlia watched amused.
 
Andy, Berith, Furcas, Helion, Nodin, Tokala, and Jacob stepped in after Lucifer.
 
They waved at Dahlia.

Paimon looked up and caught sight of Furcas.
 
“Bastard!”
 
He leapt and grabbed hold of Furcas by his suit.
 
He swung him into a wine cask.
 
The wood exploded and the floor was covered in wine.

Leviathan sent a wave of wine at the men.
 
“Splashy splashy!”

Celeste’s eyes turned red.
 
“Might as well.”
 
She ran headlong for the wrestling match and leapt on Lucifer’s shoulders, pummeling him with a blur of fists.

Lucifer sent off flame, knocking all of them back.
 
He leapt and tackled Dahlia.
 
“Be nice.”

Dahlia kissed him, turning the wine to ice.
 
“I am always
nice
.”

Lucifer hauled her to her feet.
 
Apple smashed a piece of the fountain into his face.
 
Celeste punched his kidneys.
 
Tokala barked and leapt for her back.
 

Berith ran in and grabbed Apple by the wrist.
 
“Out!”

Apple high kicked his face.
 
“No way!
 
Belial!”

Belial sent spikes of metal flying at Berith.
 
Apple ducked and ran towards Paimon and Furcas.
 

Furcas kicked at her blindly.
 
His fingers were intertwined with Paimon’s, pulling them from around his throat one at a time.
 
Furcas began to lose consciousness.

Paimon relented.
 
“That was too easy—”

Furcas kicked him in the stomach and grabbed his long auburn hair.
 
“Patience, Patience, there were so many times I wanted to kick the shit out you in high school.”
 
He threw him end over end.

Tracy and Nodin’s eyes met through the crowd.
 
She looked at the fighting with vague distaste.
 
He jerked his head towards the door.
 
She nodded and smiled.
 
She ran through the fighting not taking a single blow.
 
He grabbed her hand and the two ran out unmolested.

Helion and Andy shared a look.
 
The floor shook as Whitney missed Berith’s face and slammed a stone fist into the ground.
 
Andy kept his balance.
 
“Should we do anything?”

Helion shrugged.
 
“I am not jumping in there.”

Andy nodded.
 
“I am not hurting Belial.”

Belial looked up at the sound of her name.
 
“Andes!”
 
She leapt for him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
 
She planted drunken kisses across his face.
 
“Why aren’t you playing?”

Andy kissed her back.
 
“Not really my thing.
 
Can we go?”

“Okay, Andrealphus!”

Andy looked to Helion.
 
“Have fun.”
 
He carried Belial out.

Helion scuffed his feet on the ground and spoke softly, “Whitney.”

Whitney caught his eye.
 
She jumped out of the fray.
 
Helion whispered, “Gabriel made cookies and left them unguarded at the house.”

“Serious?”
 
She grinned.

“Yes.”

Whitney eyed the fight behind her.
 
“Let’s go!”

Berith wrapped Apple up in an embrace.
 
Apple twitched and Berith lost the use of his limbs.
 
He scowled.
 
“That is not fair.”

Apple grinned and danced back and forth.
 
“Ha-ha-ha!”

Lucifer punched her in the back of the head.
 
She lost focus and Berith regained the use of his limbs.
 
Berith swept her up and dashed from the room.
 

Lucifer grinned.
 
Dahlia pushed and sent him careening into the fountain.

Jacob and Leviathan floated near the ceiling.
 
Jacob blushed blue.
 
“Can we go, Levi?
 
I wanted a real first date.
 
I didn’t know that this is what this meant.”

Leviathan shrugged.
 
“Sure, dragon boy.
 
Buy me dinner after the wedding.”
 
They slipped out.

Tokala taunted Celeste and bolted from the room.
 
Enraged Celeste followed without thinking.
 
She passed by the doorway barrier and he won by default.
 
She lost her glow.
 
“Damn it!”

Dahlia leapt on Lucifer.
 
“There are only four of us left.”

Paimon and Furcas crashed through bottles and hit the floor next to them.
 
Paimon reverted to his male self.
 
He sat up and wiped blood off his face.
 
“That is because we are the best.”

Furcas grinned and wrapped his arms around Paimon.
 
“True.”

Paimon looked at Lucifer and Dahlia.
 
He hauled Furcas to his feet and gave him a quick kiss.
 
“I’m yours, babe, forever.
 
Come on, we can’t outdo the
gods
.”

Furcas winked at them.
 
“Though we could, if we
really
wanted to.”
 
The pair sauntered out, arm in arm, clothing in tatters.

Lucifer waited until they were out of sight.
 
He pulled Dahlia down into a kiss.
 
The room repaired itself.
 
He smiled into her neck.
 
“Shall we?”

She sat up his chest.
 
“Yes.”
 
She jumped up, reformed her clothing, and fixed her hair.
 
Lucifer did the same.

He held out his arm for her to take.
 
She did.
 
Dahlia walked with him towards the stairs.
 
She looked at her ring.
 
“So how does this work anyways?”

Lucifer paused.
 
“Hmm?”

“Do we just marry each other to each other?”
 
She smirked.
 
“We are the highest authority.”

He looked positively smug.
 
“I thought of this already.”

Dahlia eyed him.
 
“You did?
 
So what is it?”

Lucifer grinned.
 
“I gave Paimon my proxy.”

Dahlia thought that scenario over.
 
“
Temporary
I hope.”

Lucifer nodded.
 
“Just long enough to do us the honors.”

Dahlia laughed.
 
“He is never going to stop bragging about
that
one.”

Lucifer kissed her cheek.
 
“Well if he did, he would not be himself.
 
Come now, Ms. Evenstar.
 
The sooner we are joined, the sooner we can return to space and consummate our new partnership.”

Dahlia smiled.
 
“You are still the same, Mr. Morningstar.”

The pair left the wine cellar, smiling and utterly content.
 
They walked into a bower created from trees and plants where their family and friends were waiting.
 
The sun hummed overhead and nothing stood between them and an eternity together.

THE END

(Yep, that’s right…it’s ‘happily ever after’ all over the place)

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If you enjoyed this trilogy, please check out my other series that starts with
Wastes of Space
.
 
It’s on Amazon!
 

Here’s an excerpt:

Rake was in the middle of a righteous dream when Commander Danny showed up to ruin it.
 
Bad enough that Danny guilt-tripped his waking hours, the bastard had to screw over his favorite sex dream too.
 
The jerk stood at the edge of his vision and folded his arms, disappointed.
 
Rake ignored him and got back to business.

He fell to the floor with an alien girl.
 
They tumbled across broken furniture in a dilapidated palace.
 
He moved with her, but his eyes were on the prize, the Princess.
 
He’d just made eye contact with her, showing her his stuff while ramming it home to the alien.
 
A crowd of onlookers cheered him on.
 
Rake grinned.
 
He just needed a few more minutes and—

Danny grabbed him by his hair.
 
“Wake up, cadet!”

Rake’s bloodshot eyes opened to Bangkok, the end of monsoon season.
 
He took a deep breath and shook off the remnants of the dream.
 
“Motherfucker…I haven’t been your cadet in years.”
 

Rake made a face and wiped his lips.
 
His mouth tasted like warmed over vomit, and he smelled like fermented piss.
 
He looked around bleary-eyed.
 
He sat at the end of an alley between a rusted dumpster and wet garbage bags.
 
He must have passed out there the night before.
 

He wrinkled his nose as he brushed his puke off his shirt.
 
Sweat made his skin slick and his clothes damp.
 
He twitched and created ripples in the warm puddle of refuse that he’d slept in.
 
He kicked his heels to shake liquid off his boots.
 

His black hair hung lank in his face.
 
He noticed bright green highlights.
 
He couldn’t recall doing that to his hair, but he rarely remembered anything that he did after lunch.
 
He itched like crazy.