Daystar (15 page)

Whitney gaped.
 
“Ah!
 
What’s on me?”
 
She looked over her shoulder.
 
“Oh, Celeste, you’ve become rather, uh, pushy since your change.”

Celeste shrugged.
 
Tokala wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her backwards.
 
“Stop pawing your friends.”

Celeste punched him in the shoulder.
 
“What do you know, fox-face?”

Tokala hoisted her up in the air.
 
“What I know is that you are still suffering from blood loss and should I hold you upside down like so…”
 
Celeste passed out.
 
Tokala grinned.
 
“You’ll pass out.”

A breeze swept the Promenade.
 
Dahlia made room and Jacob appeared beside her.
 
She swept him into a hug.
 
“How are you doing?
 
Marvelous work out there, by the way.”

“Thanks.”
 
He smiled.
 
“I am fine, I need to sleep for about a year, but I’m good.”
 
Jacob leaned on Dahlia.
 
“We did not lose a single person.”

“The angels lost many; your service was quite valuable.”

Whitney high-fived Jacob.
 
“Way to be.”

Giggles and chirps announced the arrival of the rest of the sylphs.
 
Dahlia looked past him as the girls materialized.
 
The girls looked between Dahlia and Jacob, antsy.
 
She let her friend go.
 
“I think your ladies want you.”

Jacob sighed and looked over his shoulder.
 
“I am
tired
.
 
I just want to sleep.
 
Don’t any of you sleep?”

Three girls reached out and pulled him into their midst.
 
Jacob cast one look back at Dahlia.
 
“They’re going to kill me!”

Tracy catcalled at him, “Let me know if your kids want to have play time with mine!
 
How many are you expecting now?”

Five of the girls raised their hands.
 
Jacob frowned.
 
“What?”
 
The girls blurred and hauled him into the air and out of sight.

***

Paimon slipped away from the gathering, letting his feet lead him along familiar streets.
 
He did not need to see to find his way.
 
He wrapped his iridescent jade-colored wings tight around his body like a blanket.
 
He turned up a street and walked towards the house that he and Furcas had called home.
 

Belial followed behind him on the street.
 
Andy trailed them across the rooftops.

Paimon stumbled and fell to his knees in the road.
 
Belial wrapped her arms around him and helped him to his feet.
 
“Going home?”
 

Paimon nodded.

Andy dropped down to his side.
 
“We’ll get you there.
 
Let’s go!”

Belial wrapped a metal wing around Paimon.
 
“What are you going to do when you get there?”

Paimon struggled to speak, “I…I need to clean.
 
Furcas wants it clean, everything was always clean.”

Andy nodded.
 
“We can help you.”

Paimon stared at the air sightlessly.
 
“I can do it alone.”

Belial pinched his arm.
 
“Andy and I do not have anything else to do since Dahlia doesn’t need us.
 
You have to let us help.”

Andy walked ahead of them.
 
“And we can pick things out for the wake.”

Paimon stumbled.
 
Belial snarled at Andy.
 
Andy blushed and cupped his hand over his mouth.
 
“I mean—”

“I know, Andy, and you’re right.”
 
Paimon rubbed his eyes.
 
“I need to find his best things.”
 
He went limp.

Belial picked Paimon up and carried him the rest of the way.
 
Andy held the front door open and the trio slipped inside Furcas’ house.

***

Dahlia gazed at her Archangels, she focused on not letting the loss of Furcas or Lucifer derail her.
 
She clapped her hands.
 
“Right.
 
Berith and Helion, I would appreciate it if you would do as I say in this project, even if you do not agree.
 
I do not wish to order you.”

Berith nodded.
 

Helion smiled.
 
“Of course, Dahlia!”

“Good.”
 
Dahlia grabbed Berith and Helion’s hands.
 
“Those of Hell, I grant you access to teleport.
 
Follow girls.”
 
She vanished.
 

Apple and Whitney gaped.
 
Whitney stared at the spot.
 
“Grant access to teleport?
 
Was that a
teleport
she just did?
 
Are we supposed to know how to do that?”

Apple concentrated.
 
“I don’t know!
 
I guess so…”

Whitney closed her eyes.
 
“Okay body, go where Dahlia went!”
 
She disappeared.

Apple grinned.
 
“Follow Whitney!”
 
She winked out, leaving an awestruck crowd of Lilliam behind them.

Whitney and Apple appeared in the air thirty feet off the ground above the remnants of a human city.
 
They hung for a moment before falling and crashing in an empty street.
 
Shadows drifted over them.
 
They looked up.
 
Berith and Helion grinned down at them as they hovered in the air.
 

Apple pointed.
 
“How come they can just float?”

Dahlia looked up from where she stood on a rooftop.
 
“They are the Archangels of Energy.
 
Physics do not apply to them.”

Apple brushed herself off.
 
“Why?”

“They
are
forces of nature, not affected by the forces of nature.
 
So gravity, among other things, has no hold.
 
They can hover and do what they want, but we cannot, not in that arena at least.
 
So if you want to fly, flap your wings and stop being lazy.”

Whitney sneezed, the dirt at her feet hardened into rock.
 
She blinked.
 
“Where are we?”

Apple rubbed a bruised elbow, the flesh beneath her fingertips healed.
 
“The old lands.”
 
She stepped away from Whitney.
 
Blood oozed up where she walked.
 
Apple wrinkled her nose.
 
“Gross.
 
Dahlia?”

“What?”

“Why am I stepping in blood?”

Whitney added, “Dahlia, I am making things turn to stone!”
 
She sneezed and the stone turned back to dirt.
 
“Uh, scratch that.”

Dahlia looked down.
 
“What did you think would happen when you became Archangels?
 
You have power now.”

Apple looked at the guys.
 
“They can throw fire and do stuff with sound waves and lightning.
 
Can we do that?”

Dahlia grinned.
 
“Are you an Archangel of light, sound, heat, or fire?”

Helion held up his hand.
 
“I cannot do
any
of that.”

Dahlia ignored him.
 
“Archangels are aspects of their Primangel, power granted to you and you alone.
 
As Archangels of Hell you represent
material
realms of influence.
 
Granting you the ability to manipulate, create, and destroy certain forms of matter.”

Whitney turned in a circle.
 
“I can?”

“What are you creating at your feet?”

Whitney ducked down and looked.
 
“Oh.
 
I get things stoned.”
 

“Appleadris, you are flesh, bone, and blood.”

Apple wrinkled her nose.
 
“What is Belial?”

Dahlia surveyed the ruined city.
 
“Metal.”

“Why does she get to be
metal?
”
 
Appleadris looked at her body.
 
“What can I do with
blood
and muscle?”

Dahlia held her hand out.
 
Red liquid curled out from her wrist and hovered over her palm.
 
It elongated into a thin blade.
 
She raised her hand and threw it at Apple.

Apple jumped back.
 
The point pierced the earth.
 
She picked up the blade.
 
In her hands it changed to a sword.
 
The blood morphed into a pick, a shield, throwing stars all sharp as razors.
 
Apple grinned.
 
“Nice.”

Dahlia smiled.
 
“Think how nice it is when you can control it in others.”

Apple hooked a finger at Berith.
 
He lost control of his body and sailed over.
 
Apple grinned.

Berith grimaced.
 
“I sense that this will be an unfair advantage in our relationship.”

Apple looked him over.
 
“I doubt it will be to your detriment, not when I can get all of you to do as I wish anytime I want.”
 
She pressed up against him and grabbed his crotch.
 
“I think I quite like this.”

Berith wrapped his freed arms around her.
 
“I never have had a problem in that regard before.”

Dahlia smiled.
 
“Whitney, your gift is similar…”
 
She eyed what Apple did.
 
“Though not the same.
 
You can manipulate glass, coral, clay, and stone.
 
You can fossilize living matter in an instant or create objects from stone or glass, whatever you can imagine.”

Whitney stared at her hand.
 
Armored plates appeared up to her elbow.
 
“Weird.”

Helion swooped in the air.
 
“Dahlia, a bunch of people are coming.”

“Let them, we are leaving anyways.”

Berith eyed the humans.
 
“What exactly are we doing here, Dahlia?”

Dahlia spread her wings.
 
“Surveying.
 
Come on.”
 
She jumped up into the air and soared high into the atmosphere.
 
The others followed close behind.
 
Dahlia headed north.
 
She scanned the ground and dove towards what once had been Budapest.
 
The Danube had jumped its banks and wound a new course through the city streets.
 
Forests had sprouted through much of the city.
 
The electricity had gone out, though some buildings glowed.
 
Dahlia squinted.
 
They were on fire.
 
People roamed the streets confused and injured.

Dahlia looked at Berith.
 
“This happened when Lucifer and I had sex?”

“Yes.”

“All over?”

“Most likely.
 
Apple and I did not see.”

Apple grinned.
 
“We were busy.”

Dahlia flew over Prague, Stuttgart, and made her way to Paris.
 
Across the landscape, the scene was much the same.
 
Forests, fields, and wetlands had reclaimed the land.
 
Farms had gone feral, roads were cut in half or non-existent.
 
Power lines and windmills no longer dotted the countryside.
 
Blackouts were widespread in the places where the power was still on.
 
Dahlia saw buildings sheared in two, cities reclaimed by meadows.
 
People still populated the planet below, but Dahlia could only imagine there had been losses.
 
She looked over at Apple.
 
“World pop, go.”

Apple did a double take.
 
“What?”

“Human population, give me a tally.”

“Uh, how do I do that?”

Dahlia soared towards London.
 
“Concentrate, you are linked to them all now.”

Apple closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
 
“Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Three billion.”

Dahlia fell out of the sky.
 
She landed in a haystack.
 
“
What?
”