Daystar (43 page)

Selaphiel frowned.
 
“Jegudiel, were you being a voyeur?”

Jegudiel laughed.
 
“No!
 
I just know they’re together.”
 

Raphael poked him.
 
“How?”

“I know when love is there.
 
I see it like you see light, and it burns brightly there below.”
 
He corkscrewed through the air.
 
“Love, an element all its own,
my
element.”

Selaphiel grabbed Jegudiel’s wrist to keep him from flying into deep space.
 
“I think you should probably go back down to the planet.”

Jegudiel blinked.
 
He focused through his love high.
 
“Why?”

“I don’t think you are sound of mind to take rotation here and Paimon and Furcas were looking for you earlier.
 
They need someone to babysit Bean when they take their rotation.
 
They’re up next.”

Jegudiel made a face.
 
“Well thanks for the warning.
 
I am going to hide.”

Raphael grinned.
 
“What’s wrong with Bean, Jegudiel?”

“The Hellspawn?
 
Sorry, you’re Hellspawn, Raphael.
 
She’s
worse
.
 
She’s actually sin incarnate.
 
It is her ward I am positive.
 
I expect to see horns any day.”

Raphael smirked.
 
“Paimon and Furcas
adore
her.”

“Yeah, well, of course
they
would.”
 
Jegudiel clenched his fists.
 
“Because she’s just like them except she’s tiny and adorable and evil and she has these sharp terrible teeth that she never bites
them
with!
 
Only me!
 
And she looks at you with this evil gaze, and you find yourself helpless to stop her evilness!
 
She’s evil, I swear!”

Selaphiel snorted.
 
“Jegudiel, she does not have an evil gaze.
 
She is enchanting and a darling.”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“Then she has you fooled with her wicked wiles!”

Raphael smirked.
 
“She’s less than a week old, babies don’t have wiles.”

Jegudiel scoffed.
 
“That’s what you guys think!
 
But it’s not true, you’ll see.
 
They’ll all see eventually!”
 
He looked around.
 
“I am going to hide.
 
Do
not
tell them you saw me.”
 
He dove for the planet below, heading for one of Dahlia’s remote islands.

Raphael laughed at his retreat.
 
“He’s doomed.”

Selaphiel nodded and smiled.
 
“Quite doomed.”

***

Paimon and Furcas leaned down to kiss Bean on the cheek as they said their goodbyes.
 
The three of them were still in costume from having an extravagant tea party earlier in the evening.
 
Bean sparkled purple, pink and blue in the moonlight.
 
Her opal wings fanned back and forth, worried.
 
She looked up at them and frowned.
 
“I wanna go too.”

Furcas shook his head as he pulled off his white gloves.
 
“No.”

Paimon knelt down and put his top hat on her head.
 
“And it is
want to
go, not wanna go.”

Bean shook off his hat.
 
She tossed her set of mouse ears and pulled at his orange bowtie.
 
“I want to go!
 
Want to go!”

Paimon shook his head.
 
“No, it’s dangerous.”

Bean went red in the face.
 
“Want to go, Mommy-daddy!”
 
Her wings blurred and she hovered in the air like a hummingbird.
 
“Want to go!”

Paimon and Furcas grinned.
 
Furcas hugged her.
 
“Bean, you can fly!”

Paimon examined her wings.
 
“That’s amazingly fast,
remarkable
.”

Bean watched them; her purple eyes flitted between her parents.
 
“I am a big girl.
 
I can fly.
 
I want to go.”

Furcas kissed her on the forehead and set her down on the ground.
 
“No.”
 
He smiled and took Paimon’s hand.
 
“We agree on this.
 
You are going to stay with Apple and Berith.”

Apple stepped over.
 
“Bean, we are going to have fun!
 
We are going to visit a big waterfall.”
 
She pulled out a pink rain slicker and pink galoshes.
 
“New clothes!”

Bean’s eyes lit up.
 
She loved clothes.
 
She buzzed over to Apple.
 
“I want!”

Paimon snapped his fingers.
 
“Bean, say
please
.”

Bean hopped up and down.
 
“Please I want!”

“Good enough.”
 
Furcas shrugged off his dovetail jacket and tossed it to the side.
 
“Come on, Raphael is waiting.”

Paimon and Furcas gazed at their daughter before taking to the air.
 
Once into the clouds Paimon grabbed Furcas and wrapped him up in a hug.
 
Furcas smiled and squeezed him back.
 
“What’s this for?”

Paimon nuzzled his neck, teary eyed.
 
“You’re still alive!”

“Yes, I am and?”

“That hasn’t ceased being remarkable yet, so stop smirking, fuck face.”
 
Paimon sniffled.

Furcas continued to smirk.
 
He kissed Paimon and the pair hovered in their embrace.
 
Furcas broke off.
 
“Come on, we’ve kept them waiting long enough.”

Paimon handcuffed Furcas to him.

Furcas looked at the metal on his left wrist.
 
“We can’t stop and have sex.
 
We have to get up there.”

Paimon grinned.
 
“Appreciate the thought, but no, this is my new solution for you being stupid brave.”

Furcas flicked his wrist, shaking the chain.
 
“I can get out of all the handcuffs you’ve devised in the past.”

“But I did not devise these.
 
Remember that toy Apple put on Dahlia and Lucifer?”

Furcas frowned.
 
“Yes.”

Paimon tapped it.
 
“This is one of those.”

Furcas wrinkled his nose.
 
“Fucking great.
 
I suppose this means it will retract randomly and we have to solve a puzzle.”

“Nope, I modified it.
 
It retracts only when
I
want it to and it only comes off when I want it to.”
 
Paimon grinned.
 
“If I want, you will stay within inches of me no matter what happens.
 
So if you want to kill yourself again, you have to be willing to kill me too.”

Furcas flew towards space, dragging Paimon with him.
 
“Fine.”

“Upset?”

Furcas eyed him and smiled.
 
“No actually, I’m rather touched.
 
I realized after dying that someone should probably put a check on my mad braveness and I suppose that would be you, Paimon the craven.”

Paimon pulled on the chain dragging Furcas to him.
 
He smiled.
 
“I know you mean that as an insult, but I can tell you’re still deliriously happy with me for thinking about you, so much so that when we return home you are going to do all sorts of wonderful things for me.”

Furcas rolled his eyes.
 
“Uh-huh.
 
Only if Jegudiel shows his face.
 
We need a Bean distraction for those sorts of dalliances.”

Paimon grinned.
 
“She’s quite taken with him or enjoys the taste of his blood.
 
I can’t tell which.”

Furcas laughed.
 
“Poor boy.”
 
He shook his head.
 
“He hasn’t hit her once for it, just takes it like a stoic.”

Paimon grinned.
 
“Seems he’s taking after you in that regard.”

They breached the shield and found Raphael and Selaphiel waiting.
 
Selaphiel nodded.
 
“All clear so far, not a sound.”

Raphael flew in corkscrews.
 
“Jegudiel was up here.”

“
Raphael
.”
 
Selaphiel looked at her and frowned.

“What?
 
He’s your brother, not mine.”

Selaphiel covered her mouth with his hand.
 
“My brother
was
up here.
 
Apparently, Andy and Belial have finally consummated their relationship and he was quite delirious over it.
 
I expect he’s flown himself into a mountain accidentally.
 
Apparently love gets him high.”
 
He dropped away with Raphael and left the pair in space.

Paimon and Furcas shared a look.
 
Paimon laughed.
 
“He’s fucking hiding from us.”

“Hiding from Bean more like it.”

Paimon gave the chain some slack.
 
He grabbed it and swung Furcas around in lazy circles.
 
“You know doing this only means we have to harass him some more.”

Furcas grinned.
 
“Of course.
 
It’s his fault.
 
He brings it on himself.”

“Agreed.”

“Still.”
 
Furcas yanked on the chain and slipped into Paimon’s arms.
 
“We cannot encourage
her
by teasing
him
.”

“Of course not.”

Furcas made a face.
 
“Can you imagine that pair?”

Paimon laughed.
 
“
No
and I am not going to.
 
As far as I am concerned Bean is staying celibate forever.”

Furcas hummed.
 
“Speaking of, have we had sex in space yet?”

“I do not believe so, come here.”

***

Thursday

Lucifer sat on the stone floor of the throne room and tied a blindfold over his eyes.
 
He stretched and rolled to his feet.
 
He adjusted his loose, fuzzy robe and counted out loud, “Ten.”
 

Giggling children caught his attention.
 
He cocked his head to the side, following the noise.
 
“Nine.”

Scuffling of feet, a scrape of a chair.

“Eight.”

Doors closing quietly, reopening silently.

“Seven.”

Someone hid in a box, another behind a curtain.

“Six.”

Whispers.

“Five.”

A rustle.

“Four.”

A tense breath.

“Three, two, one.”
 
Lucifer pulled off the blindfold.
 
“Ready or not, here I come.”
 
He stood and turned around.
 
Eden’s throne room appeared empty.
 
His eyes flitted over every surface.
 
He spotted a rustle of curtain, a glow from behind the bookcase.
 
He grinned.

Lucifer hummed and walked very slowly across the room.

Each one of his children held their breath, but first they inhaled.
 
He heard all eight.
 
Then he heard hers.
 
He turned.

Dahlia hid behind him, but the children were in front, so many choices.
 
Lucifer smiled and turned from Dahlia.
 
Too expected, too easy.
 
Chronos had yet to be tagged, so that was who he sought out.

Lucifer walked, barely touching the floor.
 
His wings fanned out behind him, picking up temperature differences in the air, he knew where Ifrit hid.
 
He felt light and dark, Ra and Nix.
 
Gaea hid despite being completely obvious with her green glow and pulse of life-force.
 
He and Dahlia had passed her over several times simply because it wasn’t fair for her.

He clicked his teeth.
 
Leviathan jumped on his left, but settled herself inside a vase.

Lucifer tapped his foot on the ground; Titan had merged with the wall.
 
Lucifer’s eyes flicked up.
 
Ouroboros circled silently overhead, invisible.
 
Lucifer made sure his son knew that he could see him before continuing his search.