Daystar (54 page)

Paimon nodded.
 
“Totally, one hundred percent.”
 
He gave her a squeeze.
 
“Really do you want to be a normal kid?
 
Bleh, going to school.”

Furcas smiled.
 
“Having to hang out with those boring children.”

Paimon pulled her close.
 
“You’re way out of their league.”

Furcas leaned against the tree.
 
“You’re way too cool to be a normal kid.
 
We love you just the way you are and you should too.”

Bean rubbed her eyes and tucked her knees into her chest.
 
“Does this mean I can stay this age?”

Paimon and Furcas shared a look.
 
Furcas nodded behind her back.
 
Paimon smiled.
 
“Of course!
 
You get to skip the awkward pimply phase of life, who wouldn’t want that.
 
You should have seen Furcas when—”

“I
did
.”
 
Bean smirked and looked at Furcas.
 
“You were never awkward or pimply.
 
You were always perfect.”

“No, but I was dumb!”
 
He grinned.
 
“I fell for Paimon, yikes.”

Bean smiled.
 
“You two are the best ever.”

Paimon bumped her.
 
“Now you’re just being nice.
 
We’re assholes.
 
Everyone hates us but us and maybe Dahlia, but we raised her too, so you’re both biased on our side.”

Furcas nodded.
 
“Though she turned out okay, I guess we didn’t fail completely.”
 
He grinned at Bean.
 
“You have hope!”

Bean laughed.
 
“Shut up, you guys.
 
I know you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

Paimon nodded.
 
“Of course.
 
How’re we doing so far?”

Bean used Furcas’ shirt to wipe the rest of the salt off her face.
 
“Pretty decent, but that doesn’t mean I’m still not a freak.”

“We’re all freaks, Bean.”
 
Furcas leaned back to let the sun hit his chest.
 
“Especially
us
.
 
If you were a normal child we’d have issues.”

Paimon squeezed her hand.
 
“Embrace your freakiness!”
 
He pulled her to her feet and dipped her, brought her up and began to waltz across the sand.
 
Furcas watched them as he tanned.
 
Paimon twirled her into the sunlight.
 
“You’re one of a kind, my dear.”

In the sunlight, her purple hair took on shades of pink and blue.
 
Her wings sparkled.
 
Bean laughed as he bowed.
 
“What are you doing?”

“A young lady should know how to dance.”

“I do, remember.”

Paimon frowned.
 
“Damn it.
 
Half the fun of being a parent is teaching their kids stuff.”

Bean smiled.
 
“I’ll pretend.”

“Good enough, it’s all your father ever does.”

Furcas flipped them off from the sand.
 
“You’re just insulting yourself when you say that you know.”

Paimon grinned.
 
“Why?
 
I don’t care if you get off or not.”

“Fuck you.”

“Later.”
 
Paimon blew him a kiss.

Bean snorted.

They looked at Bean, but she just laughed.
 
Paimon waltzed her over to Furcas.
 
“That doesn’t bother you?”

Bean frowned.
 
“What?”

“Us talking about sex.”

“Why would it?”
 
She shrugged.
 
“There’s nothing you can say that I can’t just close my eyes and remember.”
 
She closed her eyes.

Paimon opened them.
 
“Don’t go there, that’s
private
.”

Bean smiled and batted his hands away.
 
“Does that make
you
uncomfortable?”

Paimon blushed.
 
“Ehh.”

Furcas jumped to his feet.
 
“If you had those memories why did you hound us when we wanted alone time?
 
You knew what we were trying to do.”

“Because it’s funny.”
 
Bean grinned.

Furcas glared at Paimon.
 
“That is all
you
right there.”

Bean smiled and then it went away.
 
She grabbed on to the both of them.
 
“Did you kill Yoshi?”

Furcas laughed.
 
“No.
 
I’m kind of glad we didn’t though since it seems he wasn’t trying to assault our ever so
innocent
daughter.”
 
He eyed her.
 
“You came on to him didn’t you?”

Paimon rolled his eyes.
 
“Of course she did.
 
He couldn’t come on to anything.”

Bean stomped on Paimon’s foot.
 
“You be quiet!
 
He’s a
nice
boy!”

Furcas looked down at her.
 
“A nice boy you tried to sexually assault.”

Paimon pointed a finger in her face.
 
“Don’t lie.”

Bean blushed.
 
“But, that’s how you guys act!
 
He would have enjoyed himself.
 
I’m pretty sure I would know what I was doing!”

Paimon cupped a hand over her mouth.
 
“You might have memories about our sex life, but I don’t want to know anything about yours.”

Furcas pulled Paimon’s hand away.
 
“Stop it and grow up, Paimon.”
 
He led her back to the tree and sat down, patting the spot beside him.
 
Bean plopped down.
 
Paimon sulked but followed them.
 
Furcas looked into Bean’s eyes.
 
“You cannot just rape Yoshi and expect him to be cool with that.”

“But you guys—”

“We have a long-standing relationship with a lot of little rules that perhaps are a bit too nuanced for your brain to understand at the moment.
 
I’m sure you know about sex in the same way that a kid does who reads an erotic novel or watches porn, but that doesn’t mean you really know about it and add onto that, it’s different between each couple.”
 
Furcas looked at Paimon.
 
“He might act like he gets to do what he wants whenever he wants, but there are limits and rules and if I say no, it’s a no, game over.”

Paimon nodded.
 
“But he has to say no the
right
way.
 
I mean there have been plenty of times when…”
 
He blushed.
 
“Never mind you know.”

Bean looked at them confused.
 
“So, I shouldn’t have done that to him?”

Furcas shrugged.
 
“Well, if it had been his thing, I’m sure he would have loved it, but he
thankfully
has his head and heart in the right place.”

Paimon nodded.
 
“And his dick, which by the way is going nowhere near you, forever as far as I am concerned.”

“What?!”
 
Bean kicked at him.
 
“I’m not a baby.”

Paimon pointed.
 
“No, but you are still our child.”

“This isn’t fair!”

Paimon folded his arms.
 
“Why do things have to be fair?”

“But Dad was practically younger than I was when you two had sex!”

Paimon turned beet red.
 
“Yeah, well, I’m not proud of that.
 
So don’t use it against me.”

Bean gave him a light shove.
 
“You guys turned out fine and I
know
you don’t regret it.”

“Well, no,” Paimon mumbled.
 
“But you’re supposed to learn from our mistakes or something like that.”

Furcas patted her leg and looked at Paimon.
 
“You know this isn’t going to work that way, Paimon.
 
Abstinence education is not a viable option.
 
If she is both of us I am sure you can imagine what her sex drive is going to be or as it seems already
is
.”

“We are
not
talking about this.”
 
Paimon put his hands over his ears.
 
“Both of you shut up.”

Furcas grinned.
 
“This is fascinating.”
 
He looked over at Bean.
 
“I always expected him to be quite the hands-off parent.”

Paimon glared at Furcas.
 
“Stop talking when I can’t hear.”

“Take your hands off of your ears then.”
 
Furcas kicked him in the ankle.
 
“Don’t stick your head in the sand like an ostrich.
 
We have to contend with the fact that she likes boys.”

Paimon lowered his hands and scowled.
 
“I am perfectly fine pretending she does not.”

Bean frowned.
 
“It doesn’t matter anyways.
 
He called me depraved and sociopathic.”

Paimon played in the sand.
 
“Well there are plenty of other boys in the world.”

“I don’t want any other boys!
 
I want
him
.”

Paimon scowled.
 
“You’re just saying that because he’s the only one you’ve been around.”

“I am not!”

Paimon perked up.
 
“Maybe we can introduce you to girls and maybe you’ll like girls more!
 
I’d be fine with you being a lesbian.
 
Do you like girls, Bean?
 
Maybe even a little?”

“I like
Yoshi!
 
And how can I like girls?
 
Neither of you do!”

Furcas turned her face to his.
 
“Bean, is he the one for you?”

“Yes.”
 
Bean nodded.
 
“He is.”

Furcas sighed.
 
“She’s telling the truth, Paimon.”

Paimon flopped onto his back.
 
“Why him?
 
He’s a retard!”

“He is not!
 
He’s sweet and nice.”
 
Her eyes welled up with tears.
 
“And now he hates me!
 
I fucked up so badly!
 
Oh fuck!”

Furcas pulled her into a hug.
 
“He does
not
hate you.
 
He cares about you.
 
He was the one that beat us around the heads until we realized what complete fucks we were being about this.”

Bean’s tears would not stop.
 
“It doesn’t matter.
 
I saw how he looked at me.
 
He despises me!”
 
She touched her chest and sobbed.
 
“And it hurts!”

Paimon rolled up to sitting.
 
“No one despises our daughter!”
 
He looked at Furcas.
 
“Fix this
now!
”

“Me?”

“You’re the
vamp
.
 
Train her in your ways.”

Furcas raised an eyebrow.
 
“My ways end up leading to sex with the one being sought out.”

Paimon frowned.
 
“Well, train her to get him as a boyfriend and then they can just hold hands or something.
 
Jegudiel would be content like that.”

“He’s a boy, Paimon, and a teenage one at that.”

“A soon to be castrated one, there problem solved.”
 
Paimon grinned.
 
“See?”

Bean glared at him.
 
“You will not do that to him!”

Paimon frowned.
 
“He said he didn’t love you right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s enough of a reason right there.
 
He’s obviously an idiot and he deserves to be hurt.”

Furcas kicked Paimon.
 
“Will you shut up?
 
You are not helping anything.”
 
He brushed out Bean’s hair.
 
“Jegudiel is just confused, Bean.
 
He sees you as a child, but you’re not a child mentally.
 
You suddenly age and want to get physical, but he hasn’t had time to adjust.
 
You need to think about him too.
 
Besides that, he did have one point.”

“What?”

“Emotionally, you are not there yet.
 
You have the body and the brains, but that’s not everything you need to be an adult.
 
You need to learn a few things through experience.”

Paimon leaned into her.
 
“First lesson, no means no, at least until you two work it out between you.”
 
He closed his eyes.
 
“I can’t believe I am saying this to you, but since you want to
obviously
be on
top
in this relationship…he has to trust you.
 
You breached that trust back at the house,
big time
, and you’ve landed yourself in the abusive, untrustworthy box.”

Furcas nodded.
 
“Paimon did the same thing to me.
 
Like father like daughter.”

Paimon made a face.
 
“Yeah and it’s really hard to get out of so you don’t want to be there.
 
I have just been fortunate enough to have Furcas who has a seemingly never-ending supply of forgiveness.”

Furcas took her hand.
 
“But before you can think of overcoming that obstacle, you need to let him get used to you as an adult in a non-sexually threatening way.
 
So lesson two, learn to interact with him in ways that don’t involve trying to seduce him, got it?”

Paimon took her other hand.
 
“Go get coffee or take walks in highly populated areas with chaperones, preferably one of us.”

Furcas nodded.
 
“It probably won’t take that him that long.
 
I’m used to your age already—”

“I’m
not
.”
 
Paimon grimaced.
 

“Well, you’re a little slow sometimes.”
 
Furcas smiled at Bean.
 
“Once he’s used to you as an adult, we work on your seduction skills.
 
Jegudiel obviously does not want to get punched, drug by his hair, and fucked over a countertop.”

Paimon scowled.
 
“Can you not say
fucked?
 
Please?”

Furcas laughed.
 
“Fine, jumped then.
 
Jegudiel doesn’t want to get jumped like he’s a random lay in an alley.
 
Is that better, dear?”

“Not by much.”
 
Paimon groaned.

Bean frowned.
 
“So how do I, uh, jump him then?
 
Or would it be better if I let him jump me instead?”

Paimon shook his head.
 
“I don’t like that word either.
 
Not when it comes out of your mouth.”
 
He stared at the sky.
 
“I am being punished for all of my varied and many sins.”

Furcas smirked.
 
“It’s about time.”
 
He hugged Bean.
 
“Everything will be fine, you’ll see.”

Bean nodded and smiled.
 
“You guys are the best!”

“Go us.”
 
Paimon put his head in his hands.
 
“I hate life.”

Furcas stood up and stomped on Paimon’s stomach.
 
He looked at Bean.
 
“Don’t do that to Jegudiel.”

Paimon grabbed Furcas’ leg, wrenched it, and tossed him into the ocean.
 
He smiled at Bean.
 
“I am fine if you want to punch and beat the little ingrate, it’ll do him good.”
 
He wrapped an arm around her.
 
“Seriously though, don’t you think maybe there’s someone else out there for you?”

Bean glared at him.
 
“I’m running out of eligible Archangels.
 
Don’t you think?”

“I’m fine if you want to date a Lilliam, or you know, never date ever.
 
Celibacy is okay, I survived for awhile.”

Bean ground her teeth.
 
“You were a raving drunk at the time and you never bathed!
 
No one would have fucked you, so that does not count.
 
I am
hot!
 
I deserve to have a hot boyfriend!”

Furcas jumped out of the water and landed by her side.
 
“She’s vain!
 
I am
so
proud.”

“So…”
 
Bean smiled.
 
“What took you guys so long anyways?
 
I’ve been here for awhile.”

Paimon shrugged.
 
“I thought you would have gone to S and G.
 
This was Furcas’ choice.”

Furcas smirked.
 
“Why would she go there?
 
I don’t even understand that, this place holds the best memories.”
 
He looked at his bare left hand.
 
“It’s too bad about the ring.
 
It was beautiful.”

Bean’s eyes flicked up to Paimon’s face.
 

Paimon warned her with a glance.
 
He shrugged.
 
“Yeah too bad, I’ll make you another one sometime.”

Furcas raised an eyebrow.
 
“I assumed you no longer wanted to get married.”

Paimon punched him in the shoulder.
 
“We have a kid now.
 
Time to be grown-ups and deal with the facts of life.”

Furcas pushed him away.
 
“I liked your first proposal better, so no thanks, I must refuse your offer.”

***

Whitney arrived in Heaven in a flash of light.
 
Dizzy, she tried to walk and fell down.
 
She blinked against the light.
 
Her eardrums healed and she heard music.
 
She recognized it from Helion’s songs, but being stunned she did not connect the dots.
 

Whitney snatched at sparkly lights as they floated by.
 
Her eyes dropped to her wrist, she had bracelets on.
 
She reached up and felt a collar around her neck.
 
She jumped to her feet.
 
Her eyes focused and she saw many angels looking in her direction.
 

Whitney made a face as the dots connected.
 
She flapped her wings, anxious.
 
“Ooooh,
shit
.”

WHITNEY.

Whitney whirled around and found herself facing the throne and fire.
 
She put her hands on her hips.
 
“
What?
”

RESPECT ME.

“Respect
me
.”
 
She folded her wings behind her to hide her trembling.

I AM YOUR GOD.

“I am an
atheist
.”

KNEEL AND BEG FOR MERCY.

Whitney took a deep breath to keep from losing her cool.
 
“Kiss my ass.”
 
She turned and pointed at her butt.
 
“Right here.”

MICHAEL, GRAB HER.

Michael lifted Whitney off the ground.
 
Whitney struggled with him, but she was as weak as if she were human again.
 
She recognized Michael.
 
“Oh
you
, I knifed you recently.”

Michael set his jaw.
 
“Yes, you did.”

Whitney gazed at him to avoid looking at the fire.
 
“So, yeah, about that.”

Michael squeezed her arms.
 
“I suggest you remain silent.”

WHITNEY, LOOK AT ME.

Whitney kept staring at Michael.
 
“No, I’d rather not.”

MICHAEL.

Michael pushed Whitney to the ground and lifted her head up to stare at the fire.
 
Whitney elbowed Michael.
 
He snarled, but maintained his grip.
 
He whispered to her, “You are weakened here.
 
Ladriam cannot come for you and neither can the others of her kind.
 
The collar you wear prevents your escape and drains your energy.
 
Your death has not been ordered; do not tempt that with stupid actions.”

Whitney trembled.
 
“All I do are stupid things.”

WHITNEY.

“What already?!
 
Just say what you want!
 
Fuck!”

HELION.

Whitney struggled against Michael.
 
“What for?”

HE HAS A GIFT, WHITNEY.
 
SURELY YOU HAVE NOTICED THAT HE IS SPECIAL.
 
I NEED HIS GIFT.
 
HE CAN UNDO THEM.

“Yeah, I get it.
 
I’m dating a sped kid ok.
 
Why don’t you just leave him alone?”

SPED?

Whitney managed to crack a smile.
 
“Don’t you know what that means?”

The fire remained silent, pulsing.

“Oooh, someone’s not as omniscient as they pretend to be!”

SILENCE HER.

Michael cupped his hand over her mouth.

YOU WILL CALL FOR HIM.

Whitney shook her head.

YOU WILL IF YOU WANT TO OR NOT, HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO STAY AWAY.
 
REGARDLESS OF LADRIAM’S ORDERS, HE WILL FIND A WAY TO BREAK THEM WITH HIS GIFT.
 
THEN HE WILL COME AND UNDO LUCIFER AND LADRIAM AS IF THEY NEVER WERE.