Daystar (32 page)

Lucifer paused.
 
“Oh.”

“Oh?”
 
Dahlia smirked.
 
“What did you think I was doing back here?”

Lucifer shrugged.
 
“Taunting me.”

Dahlia tore the other scar open.
 
She grinned as he shuddered.
 
She flicked her wrists and feathers appeared in the wounds.
 
She backed away.
 
The feathers quivered and midnight blue wings erupted from the spot, completing his set of six.
 
A third group of halos formed around his ankles, wrists, and forehead.
 

Lucifer stretched and was hit with a surge of raw power.
 
He grinned and stared at the stars, hearing their full voice again.
 
Fire and light raced across his skin.
 
He sang a note and the space around him heated broiling hot.
 
He sang another and the heat was sucked back into him, ice formed on his skin.
 
His eyes glowed brilliantly blue, his hair and skin shining.
 
His smile lit up the night.

He whirled around.

Dahlia chewed on a red nail.
 
Her wings were back to being soft things of feather.
 
Her skin plain white, her halos barely visible.
 
She stood at ease, her eyes lazily trailing up and down his body.
 
She met his gaze and smiled innocently.
 
“What?”

“Do not dare ‘what’ me.”
 
Lucifer reached for her.

Dahlia pulled back, her smile grew larger.
 
“What?”

Lucifer took a deep breath.
 
“I suggest you come here now.”

“Really?
 
Why?
 
You have a dangerous look on your face.”

He smiled.
 
“Do I?”

She nodded.
 
“I think I should run and hide.”

Lucifer grinned.
 
“Dahlia, Dahlia, if you run I must give chase.
 
If I chase I will catch you.
 
If I catch you then I must pin and devour you.
 
You will be consumed.”

She rolled her ankles.
 
“Must you?”

“Without a doubt, my love.
 
I am afraid I will have no choice.”

Dahlia’s eyes burned bright red.
 
“None?”

“None.”
 
He tensed.

Dahlia bolted towards deep space.

Lucifer grinned and raced after her.
 
He cut through the red wake of matter that followed her, his blue light marked the air.
 
His heart soared as he tracked her across the sky.
 
He laughed and the stars brightened.
 
Dahlia smiled and led him towards the center of the galaxy.

They made spirals in the darkness.
 
Dahlia corkscrewed away.
 
Lucifer plunged through the coils.
 
From a distance, they looked like a comet, a pair of shooting stars.

Lucifer reached out, his hand brushed her foot.
 
He tickled her toes, grabbing at them playfully.
 
Dahlia screamed gaily and increased her speed.
 
Lucifer matched it.

She dove into a belt of asteroids and wove between the large rocks gracefully; as if they played a game of connect the dots.

He smashed through them, paying the rocks no heed.
 
He reached for her feet.
 
She plunged down and away, laughing as she went.
 
Lucifer’s eyes locked on her body, unable to look away.
 
He hummed and trailed her lazily.
 
“Why will you not stop, my love?”

Dahlia looked back at him as she flew.
 
She grinned.
 
“Your intent is rather obvious.”

He looked down at his body and shrugged.
 
“I had no idea you wanted it hidden.”

She looked away and dove into another solar system.
 
“That is our difference, you and I.
 
I act in secret and you are ever the blunt instrument.”
 
She flew on her back and faced him.
 
She stuck her tongue at him.

Lucifer flashed through the darkness, teleporting in front of her.
 
Dahlia collided with him.
 
He grabbed her shoulders and pinned her arms to her side.
 
He trailed his lips across her cheek.
 
“Sometimes, one needs to be blunt.”
 
Lucifer grinned into her hair.
 
“Sometimes it is the only way to get things done.”

Dahlia looked up at him.
 
“Blunt instrument, you have me.
 
Now what?”

He grinned and slammed them both into a dark moon.
 
He pressed her into the rock, cracking the stone beneath them.
 
He kissed her neck.
 
He buried his hands in her wings and smiled as she moaned.
 
He leaned on an elbow, his other hand behind her neck, holding her head.

Lucifer looked into her eyes.
 
“Yes, I do.”

Dahlia scratched at his back, trying to hide the smile on her face.
 
“Bastard.”

He brushed back her hair and kissed her brow.
 
“Bastard?
 
I disagree.”
 
He crawled between her legs and pushed them apart.
 
“Can you not come up with something better, more fitting perhaps, for my nature?”
 
He pressed her down and thrust before she could respond.

Lucifer pushed her face to the side and sank his teeth into her throat, holding her in place with his hands, his mouth, and his weight.
 
He rocked against her.
 
Dahlia wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in close.
 
She moved her body with his, knowing exactly what he wanted and needed.
 
He buried himself in her, his vocalizations guttural, his desires base and apparent.

Lucifer plunged his feet into the rock, trying to enter her further, he wanted to consume and devour her.
 
She shuddered underneath him, her cries fueling him onward.
 
Lucifer thrust faster, harder.
 
The moon beneath them split and fractured.

She held on to him as if her life depended on it.
 
She scratched gouges into his glowing flesh.
 
Her eyes rolled back in her head.
 
Dahlia bucked underneath him, her movements of ecstasy drove him over the edge.

Lucifer cried out, his voice pure in song.

The agony of the prison and memories were drawn out of him.
 
The guilt washed clean.
 
Dahlia kissed him, drawing him in closer, healing him.
 
He poured himself into her fully and completely.
 
As equals again, without reservations, they restored one another.

Together they were flame and form, liquid and light.
 
They joined with the sensation, bodies losing their distinction.
 
Dahlia held him inside her.
 
Lucifer kissed her, seeking to cement their connection.
 
Neither wanted to part.
 
In this closeness, they shared feelings, thoughts, and desires.
 
Love poured between the two, redoubling, shining bright as a light in the darkness.
 
Lights danced under their skin, swirling possibilities of creation and choice.
 
Dahlia and Lucifer kissed and sustained it, having no need to separate.

The moon trembled beneath them.
 
The base components churned and changed under Dahlia’s influence and heated under Lucifer’s.
 
Together the two of them made the matter luminous.
 
They created a star as bright in the sky as they were.

Lucifer smiled and sighed like a song into her skin.
 
He slowly lifted his head from hers as new light emanated below them.
 
He kissed both of her cheeks.
 
“My love.”

“My Lucifer.”

He stared at the marks he had left on her.
 
“Did I hurt you much?”

She smiled and kissed him.
 
“Enough to be perfect.”

“Good.”
 
He ran his hands up and down her body, not yet wanting to pull back.
 

Dahlia wrapped him up in arms and legs and kept him from going anywhere.
 
She smiled.
 
“You are healed.”

He kissed her breasts.
 
“Yes, my wings are whole.”

She bumped her chin into his forehead.
 
“I mean inside too.”

Lucifer looked up flashing blue eyes at her.
 
“Yes, inside too.
 
I served my time in the prison in your stead.”

Dahlia frowned.
 
“You know I never wanted that, or considered it necessary.”

Lucifer pinched her lips shut.
 
“But I did and now it has passed.”
 
He moved against her.
 
“And now my only need is for you.”

She loosened her grip and allowed him to press her into the heat and light of the star.
 
She grinned.
 
“Do you not want to know what happened?”

He pulled her up.
 
She sat with her with legs around his waist.
 
He put his hands on her lower back and pulled her towards him.
 
She moaned and he smiled.
 
“Eventually.
 
I am sure it is fascinating truly, but this I find more engaging than a story.”

She bit his ear.
 
“Always in the here and now.”

He pinched her bottom.
 
“Join me and stop planning for the future for once.”

Dahlia grinned against his neck.
 
“Done.”

***

Lucifer and Dahlia’s Archangel’s watched the birth of a new star from Earth.
 
They smiled.

Belial and Helion did not.
 
Belial pressed her face into Helion’s chest and stifled a wail.
 
Her left arm twitched uncontrollably in his grip.
 
The bone broke and healed with each movement.
 
The skin had gone purple and black.
 
The limb sought to act on its own.
 
Twice it had driven her to stab at Helion.

Helion had not let her go.
 
Belial did not wish him to; the darkness inside her would seek out Andy.
 
Helion breathed into her hair.
 
“Shh.”

Whitney hovered nearby, but stayed back at Helion’s request.

Belial bit him and hissed.
 
“It hurts!”

“I know.”
 
Helion wiped her mouth as Belial gurgled and spit up cancerous liquid.
 
“You can hold on.”

Belial shook her head furiously.
 
“Please tell me they are almost back.”

Helion looked to the sky.
 
“I do not know, Belial.”

Belial bit back tears.
 
“Then you do it
please
.”

“I—”

“Please.
 
I hurt, Helion!”

Andy stalked over and grabbed Helion’s outer wing.
 
Helion wrapped his inner wings in around her tighter.
 
Andy looked at Helion.
 
“One of you is going to explain what is wrong with her
right now!
 
And do not tell me it’s nothing, I am not a fool!”

Helion flashed sharp teeth at Andy.
 
“Back off!”
 
Belial moved beneath his wing, pushing towards Andy.
 
A black tendril ripped through her arm.
 
Helion grabbed it and the cancer shrank away from his touch.

Belial pulled Helion’s wing back slightly enough to show her one remaining blue eye.
 
“Andy.”

Helion frowned.
 
“Belial, you do not need to speak.”

Belial shook her head.
 
“No, he should know.
 
Andy…Andy, I am dying.
 
I should have told you earlier, but I couldn’t.”

Andy froze, remembering Uriel’s words.
 
“No, no you’re not.
 
That’s ridiculous!”

“Andy,
listen
,” Belial pleaded with him.
 
“Andy, I
am
dying.”

“Let me see you.”

“No Andy, you can’t.”

“Why not?”

Belial’s blue eye welled up with black tears.
 
“It wants to hurt you.
 
It’s been trying to hurt you this whole time.
 
The closer you are the worse it is.
 
I do not want you hurt by it!”