Daystar (6 page)

Paimon reached out and grabbed on to a jutting piece of firmament.
 
He pulled himself up.
 
He traced his eyes over the machine, figuring out how it worked by taking in its appearance.
 
He nodded and touched the surface.
 
“Interesting.”

He ran over the top and skidded to a stop.
 
Gabriel looked up from his controls and frowned.
 
Neither brother moved.

Paimon clapped his hands together.
 
“So.”

Gabriel looked right through him down to Earth.
 
He scratched his fingers through his red hair and went back to work.

Paimon gaped.
 
“Hello, fuck-face.
 
Long time no see!
 
No hello for big brother?”

Gabriel sighed.
 
“What are they using against me?”

Paimon chucked Barachiel’s mace at Gabriel’s head.
 
Gabriel saw the weapon, ducked, and watched it pass into space.
 
He frowned and went back to looking at his machine.

Paimon stomped over to Gabriel, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him to eye height.
 
“Hello!”

Gabriel’s eyes focused on Paimon’s face.
 
He blinked.
 
“Who are you?”

Paimon dropped Gabriel.
 
“Who am I?”

Gabriel lost sight of him as they stopped touching.
 
He rubbed his neck.
 
“Odd.”

Paimon kicked his brother in the ribs.
 
“You shit!”
 
Gabriel rolled end over end and stared around him, trying to find the source of the noise and the pain.
 
Paimon tackled him and got his hands around his neck.
 
“You brat!”

Gabriel grabbed at his hands.
 
“Who are you?”

“I am your brother!
 
You know the one you kicked out of Heaven!”

Gabriel frowned.
 
“I do not have a brother.”

Paimon’s face went red with barely controlled anger.
 
He slammed Gabriel’s head into the machine.
 
“Who did you attack then during the war?
 
You tore my throat out!”

Gabriel searched his memory.
 
He shivered.
 
“I—no.”
 
He shook his head.
 
“That does not make sense.
 
I cannot remember.”

Paimon hissed as the realization came over him.
 
He punched Gabriel in the head.
 
“You erased your fucking memories of me!
 
You fucker!
 
I taught you everything you know!
 
You ungrateful shit!”

Gabriel held up his hands to fend off his blows.
 
“Why would I do that?”

“Fuck if I know!”
 
Paimon kicked him in the ribs.
 
“Get out of my way.”

Gabriel rolled to a stop and stared at Paimon confused.
 
“You are not my brother.”

Paimon ignored him and sat down at the controls.
 
“Tell me how you work, baby.”

Gabriel sat up.
 
“What are you doing?”

“What do you care?
 
I’m not even a memory, pretend I don’t exist some more!”

Gabriel frowned and walked over.
 
“This is mine.”

Paimon threw one of Gabriel’s tools at him.
 
“Go away; I do not want to see you right now.”

Gabriel sat down by him.
 
“I cannot get through to the ground below.
 
Are you here to fix that?”

Paimon sighed.
 
“Yeah kid, I’m here to fix that.
 
You’re blocking my light.”

Gabriel sat back.
 
Paimon eyed him; made sure he stayed in place.
 
Gabriel watched him intently, curiously.
 
Paimon fiddled with the controls.
 
“You erased your fucking memories.
 
Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”
 

Paimon made fists and punched the console.
 
The machine bucked.
 

Gabriel looked concerned.
 
“Do not damage it.”

Paimon examined the controls in detail.
 
“Why not?”

Gabriel frowned.
 
“I will have to fix it.”

“You
like
fixing things.”

“How do you know this?”

Paimon hit Gabriel in the face with the butt of his shotgun.
 
“You’re designed based on
me!
 
I know everything about you!”
 
He stared at his brother.
 
“But I would have never guessed you’d erase your memories.”
 
Paimon put a foot through something fragile, the machine groaned.

Gabriel scrabbled forward to look at the damage Paimon had delivered to his machine.
 
“Are you one of the Fallen?”

“How did you become this fucking stupid?”
 
Paimon shoved a bomb into the console and set it off.
 
The force sent them spinning.
 
The machine shuddered.
 
Paimon grinned.
 
“Of course I’m Fallen!
 
You know, I was wondering how difficult it would be to see you, but you’re not really
you
anymore are you?”
 
Paimon shook his head.
 
“It’s a shame, Gabriel.
 
You were smart, brilliant once.”

Gabriel held his head, his memories fragmented.
 
He never thought on the past for this reason, things did not make sense.
 
The story never added up, parts were missing.
 
Gabriel looked at Paimon his voice was shaky.
 
“What is your name?”

Paimon stood on the surface of the machine and bowed.
 
“I am the Archangel Paimon.
 
Shall I spell that out?”

Gabriel shuddered as images surfaced.
 
He looked away.
 
“No.
 
Go away.”

Paimon adjusted his jetpack.
 
“No, I have to destroy this thing.”

“Destroy it?”
 
Gabriel shook his head violently.
 
“No!
 
This is mine!”

Paimon smirked.
 
“Tough luck.”

Gabriel lunged for him.
 
“Get away from it!
 
You are a liar!
 
A Fallen always lies!”

Paimon grinned and punched Gabriel in the head.
 
He wrenched Gabriel’s arm and spoke into his ear, “Well yes, I am a consummate liar, but not about this.”
 
He laughed.
 
“You know I’m right, I can see it in your eyes.”

Gabriel elbowed him in the stomach.
 
“No!”

Paimon kicked him.
 
“Big baby!”

Gabriel bit his arm.

Paimon punched him in the head.
 
“Fight like an adult!”

Chains wrapped around Gabriel’s neck and hauled him backwards.
 
Furcas threw his arms around Gabriel.
 
“Hello, old friend.”

Gabriel looked up at Furcas.
 
“You…
you
I remember clearly.”

“Oh good.
 
Let’s catch up.”
 
Furcas dove for the atmosphere.
 
He called back at Paimon, “That’s twice now, Paimon.
 
Get your job taken care of.”
 
Furcas entered the atmosphere with Gabriel and plummeted.

Gabriel did not wear a pendant.
 
He dropped into the physical realm as soon as they passed through the shield; the sensation was one of pressure, burning, nausea.
 
He held his head, unable to fight off Furcas.
 

Furcas aimed them at the ground.
 
“You make this too easy.”

Gabriel coughed up blood.
 
He looked at the approaching planet with blurry eyes.
 
He smelled ozone, water, earth.
 
Memories played like a bad dream behind his swollen eyelids.
 
He pressed his palms into his eyes.
 
He did not want to see or remember.
 
“Stop this!”

Furcas frowned.
 
“Why?”

Gabriel kicked at Furcas.
 
“Get your memories out of my head!”

“Those aren’t my memories.”

“I have never been here!”

“Yes you have.
 
You and your brother—”

“I have no brother!”
 
Gabriel blasted him with green and gold fire, lighting up the night sky.
 
The heat knocked Furcas back, but he held on to Gabriel by the chains that still wrapped around his neck.
 
Gabriel grabbed a chain and pulled Furcas in.
 
“I have no brother!
 
Take it back!”

Furcas put his feet on Gabriel’s chest and pushed.
 
“It’s the truth!”

“No!”

Furcas hands blistered from the heat, the chain seared his skin.
 
Sharp pain erupted from his side, making him gasp.
 
He looked down to see a knife in his side, under his ribs.
 

“Hello, Furcas.”
 
Barachiel smiled and pulled the blade along his side.
 

Furcas head butted him and knocked his hand aside.
 
He let Gabriel go with both of his weapons.
 
Gabriel screamed and flew blindly for space.
 

Furcas blasted backwards expecting to heal, but the wound did not close.
 
Blood poured down his side.
 
He clutched the wound.
 
“What is this?”
 

Barachiel grinned and looked at the shining blade in his hand.
 
“We forged these from the throne after we saw how effective the spear was.”

Furcas bared his teeth.
 
“Fuck off.”

Barachiel tossed the glowing knife from hand to hand.
 
“I can add a few scars of my own.
 
Michael has, Uriel has, I would like to as well.”

Furcas kept space between them.
 
“You’re all fucking sick.”

Barachiel shrugged.
 
“Perhaps.”

Shapes flickered in of the corner of his eye.
 
Furcas turned to fly.
 
Golden limbs wrapped around his wrists, arms, and legs.
 
Hands covered his mouth, his stomach.
 
Guardian angels swarmed around him.
 
Furcas bit and screamed, but they kept him in place.
 
He called wind, rain, stabbing ice, but the angels held on.
 

Barachiel shoved through the mix and drove his blade into Furcas’ stomach.
 
He grabbed Furcas’ chin and forced his head up.
 
“You do not get to have what you want, Furcas.”

Furcas spit blood in his face.
 
“Fuck you!”

Barachiel pulled the blade across and down.
 
“I gave you a chance, Furcas, to be happy, to have simple desires, simple wants.
 
But you had to seek too much.”
 

Barachiel stabbed him in the chest and wedged the blade between his ribs.
 
“When you seek too much you can only lose it all.”
 
He leaned in and twisted the blade slowly.
 
“You see, I do not have to understand it, to know how to take it away.
 
So say goodbye to Paimon and to Bean, she would have been adorable.”

Furcas bucked.
 
“
No!
”

***

Apple looked up as the red light from the machine shut off.
 
She bit into her gauntlet and tore it off.
 
Her engagement ring, fashioned from starlight and gold, erupted into light.
 
The light shined as a beacon across the ice.
 
The City Guard turned, the Fallen saw, they cheered.

Apple covered her hand, lest the angels use the light against them.
 
She patted Berith’s back.
 
“Soon!”
 
He rumbled and barreled into shockers with vicious glee.
 
He lost a sword in the press of bodies.
 

Apple unsheathed another and handed it to him.
 
She kept her eyes on the battle from her vantage point.

***

Dahlia and Lucifer caught the flash of gold light.
 
Dahlia smiled briefly and resumed her circling attack on Michael.