An Eternity of Dead Sun (An Eternity of Eclipse Novel Book 2) (33 page)

“I’m still mad at you,” I declared immaturely.

“As long as you’re still my friend.” He rewarded me with a beautiful smile before slyly tilting his head in warning. “In Hell, they make a big deal about my birthday. Since I’m away from home, I hope you make this birthday a memorable one for me.”

“Well, don’t expect too much,” I muttered, my mind already skimming over all the things I could do to make his birthday a fun one.

He chuckled again. “I’m looking forward to this weekend with you, Gracie.” His lips came near my ear. “If it’s not up to par, then I’m going to take matters into my own hands and make it special myself.”

A dubious expression came over me. “What are you going to do if you don’t like what I plan?”

He merely imparted me with a sensuous wink before walking ahead of me, leaving me to chase after him, bugging him for his answer. Wrapping one arm around me, he gave no more explanation on the matter. He simply covered his powerful body over mine when it started sprinkling again and became my shield as we walked home.

And just like that, after a week without each other, after a confrontation, after a confession, and after a heartfelt moment . . . we were back.

It felt like nothing had changed, but in truth, that moment was the beginning of a world of change that would turn our biblical universe upside down.

“I have waited several millenniums for you.”
21
: The Eternity Milestone

I was pretty sure that it was universally frowned upon to celebrate the birth of the spawn of Satan.

It eluded me as to why I cared so much about his birthday, but despite how much he had angered and exhausted me, Eclipse was still the closest living thing I would label as my friend. With that type of label, I felt obligated to do something special for him. After several hours of research, I thought I had something amazing planned for his birthday. However, it only took one person to rain on my happy parade.

“This has got to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” Coco critiqued the next morning while helping me pack for the birthday surprise.

“Why?” I murmured, packing energy bars, energy drinks, and water bottles into two already full backpacks.

“His Dark Majesty isn’t human, Gracie,” she went on hotly, staring at me like I was a deranged looney tune. “Who in their right mind would celebrate his birthday like this?” Her horrified eyes combed over the backpacks. “It’s so . . . human.”

“Why wouldn’t he like it?” I questioned defensively, proud of everything I had set up for the weekend. “
I’m
planning it.”

Coco rolled her exasperated eyes. “He’s a Royal Demon. He doesn’t care if you put ‘thought’ into it. All he cares about is whether or not he has a good time. And let me tell you . . . you’re going to make him miserable with what you’re planning.”

“How about you stop giving me your opinions on the birthday plan and just stuff the things I need into the backpack, Coco?” I dismissed coolly, having enough of her opinions. I didn’t spend hours coordinating this whole birthday weekend to give up because some former actress thought it was a bad idea.

I zipped up my pink backpack and slung it over my shoulders.

“How do I look?” I enquired meekly, modeling for her. My heavy backpack swished aggressively over my petite body as I twirled around to give her a full view of the outfit I was wearing: a dark purple tank top, black shorts, and white sneakers. My long curls were tied up in a high ponytail while a purple ribbon held up the hairstyle.

“Oh,
now
you want my opinion?” Coco appraised me judgmentally. She crossed her arms over her chest, her leather jacket smoothing along her short black dress. “In my opinion, you look shorter than usual.” I shot her a chiding look to be serious, and she resignedly said, “You look cute for a little midget girl.”

I smiled broadly, nodding in approval at her comment. Apart from the inescapable reality of Coco having little to no skills in the field of social decorum, I had actually found myself enjoying her company. I wouldn’t say that she was my favorite person in the world. In fact, I still found her to be immensely annoying and offensive. However, over the past few days, she had proven to be a cool person. She was honest and I could always appreciate that type of individual in my life.    

I did a quick survey of the living room to make sure I had everything I needed. When I was certain I had packed all the necessities, I grabbed Eclipse’s backpack and stepped out of the apartment with Coco in tow.

“What are you and Phix going to do when Eclipse and I are away?” I asked once we entered the elevator. A mechanical humming coursed through the confined space as the metal cage began to descend to the lobby.

“Since he’s still recuperating, his Dark Majesty charged us to dig into your past some more,” Coco answered, mindlessly helping to zip up a loose zipper on my backpack. “Needless to say, we’ll be running around a lot.”

Her response intrigued me. Eclipse was as resourceful, smart, and cunning as they come; he didn’t strike me as the type who would delegate duties to someone else unless they were highly capable individuals. Phix and Coco, as cool as they were, appeared like total goofs to me. I couldn’t fathom the reason behind his decision.

I didn’t hesitate to express my concerns. “What can you guys find that he wouldn’t be able to find?”

Coco’s red lips drew upwards into a smirk. “Phix is one of the most talented Demons in Sloth’s Kingdom. If Phix needs information on something, then he will do his best to get it. Most of the time, he comes back with something.” She eyed me. “How do you think we learned so much about what happened to his Dark Majesty in such a short time? Phix did research on his Dark Majesty before we got to your apartment.
That
was how we learned so much.”

I went quiet, recalling how much info Coco was able to give me about Eclipse’s situation in Hell. Though they didn’t know the truth behind the events, it was still impressive that Phix was able to garner such secretive information. “Is that why Phix is one of Sloth’s workers?”

Coco nodded. “Phix is one of Sloth’s favorite Demons. He’s the most hardworking. Every important task that needs to get done, Sloth always assigns it to Phix.”

“If he’s so good,” I started to point out, my memory roaming back to the inn, “then why couldn’t he figure out which Dark Majesty he was supposed to serve when Sloth assigned Eclipse to him?”

“Because it was an abrupt assignment and Phix wasn’t given any hint as to which brother it was. Once he found out which Dark Majesty it was, it became easy for him to dig for more dirt.”

“So Phix is like Gossip Girl!” I summed up, my eyes kindling with admiration.

Coco gave me a strange look, and I went quiet from embarrassment.

“You need a sense of humor, Coco,” I told her in a soft but firm voice. I resented how she never failed to make me feel uncomfortable. “You were funnier when you were acting on TV.”

“And you need to stop being short,” she countered, glaring at me for bringing up her glory days. “There. Was that funny?”

I blinked bitterly and changed the subject entirely. My mind journeyed back to Eclipse. “Why is he still recuperating anyway? Hasn’t he gotten enough rest?”

She shrugged. “He woke up earlier than expected.”

This still didn’t answer my question. “Do you know why he woke up so early?”

Coco offered another shrug. The elevator doors slid open as she said, “He was probably tired of sleeping and wanted to celebrate his birthday.”

I nodded halfheartedly, exiting the elevator with her. That made sense. Eclipse was as selfish as they come. I imagined the Demon wouldn’t want to miss out on a day that was specifically dedicated to celebrating his existence.  

Torrents of wind wafted over us once Coco and I walked out of the apartment and hopped off the steps. The morning sky still possessed a gray hue, and although the sidewalks were sleek from the rainfall, it appeared as though the storms had shown us mercy for the time being. 

I blew out an uneasy breath after another pressing thought besotted me. I glanced at Coco cautiously. We were now standing at the curb as we waited for Eclipse and Phix. Since I had her to myself, I wanted to bring up something that I couldn’t say when the guys were around.

“You’re not going to ask me why I’m not mad at him anymore?”

Coco grinned, her eyes scanning the quiet block. With humor infused in her voice, she asked, “How can any woman be mad at a hot piece of immortal ass like that?”

Even though I was amused that she was actually joking with me, I still managed to give her a look to be serious. At my reprove, she gave me a warm laugh.

“I’m sure he gave you a good reason to not be mad at him. I’d rather not know, just in case I get drunk and accidentally spill any secrets again.”

I smiled, appreciating the silent understanding between us. I wasn’t about to tell Coco the things Eclipse told me, but I simply wanted her to know that it was truly okay now. After venting to her about Eclipse these past few days, I felt that I owed her that much. Judging by the small smile on her lips, she was glad to be updated too, if only subtly.

“So, a getaway with just the two of you, huh?” she mused, watching as the Rav4 emerged from the parking garage. The engine roared throughout my neighborhood, echoing off the quiet street as it made its way over to us.

“OinkOink’s going too,” I corrected.

It was Coco’s turn to cast me a chiding look. “You know what I meant.”

I frowned at what she was suggesting. That pervert. She had such a dirty mind. “It’s not like that, Coco.”

“Uh-huh,” she hummed dismissively.

I gazed up at her, my eyes boring into hers with challenge. “You’ve never had a birthday getaway like this?”

“Yes,” she murmured, waving at the car once they came closer to us. “I’ve done it once with my ex when I was human.” Impishness grazed her features as the Rav4 stopped in front of us. “We did nothing but have sex on that getaway.”

I gasped, gaping at her with burgeoning eyes. I was stunned at what she was insinuating could happen between Eclipse and I.

Before any more suggestive thoughts could trickle into my mind, Phix had already gotten out of the driver’s seat. Dressed in jeans and a brown leather jacket, he strode over to us and promptly relieved me of Eclipse’s backpack. As Phix opened the back door of the car, Eclipse remained seated in the passenger seat (as I had ordered him to), looking perplexed. He silently evaluated the heavy backpack that was being dumped into the backseat. OinkOink, who was sitting in the front seat with him, was poking his furry head out of the window in curiosity as well.

The only thing I disclosed to Eclipse about this surprise was that I was planning on taking him on an overnight trip. I hadn’t even planned on telling him this much, but in an effort to ensure that our safety wouldn’t be compromised, I was forced to ask if he thought it would be safe for us to travel out of the city. Eclipse assured me that as long as he didn’t use his powers on this trip, the likelihood of us running into Demons would be slim. For the most part, he reasoned that we would be fine. With this reassurance in mind, I eased my worries aside and got excited for what I had planned.

“Thanks for helping me with all this, guys!” I chirped after Phix returned to us on the sidewalk. I beamed gratefully at the two of them, my hands proudly tugging on the straps of my backpack. “I can take it from here.”

Phix grinned broadly at me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I thought he was about to wish me luck on this trip, yet what came out of his lips completely contradicted the bubbly expression on his face.

“This is a bad idea, Gracie,” Phix hissed, his face still smiling while dread brewed in his voice. It struck me then that he was smiling not for me, but to put on a show for Eclipse.

“That’s what I said!” Coco hissed as well.

The cheeriness I displayed cooled as a scowl took over my face. I should’ve known that Phix and Coco, regardless of how much they bickered, would see eye to eye in terms of my shortcomings. It was evident that they had come to a consensus that my birthday plans for Eclipse—for lack of a better word—sucked.

Doing well to ignore the evil eye I was giving him, Phix forged on like a tow truck on a mission.

“Out of all the goddamn things for you to plan, you want to take him to do one of the most trivial things a human can do?”

He spared a glance at Eclipse, who was still staring at us, no doubt trying to figure out what we were chattering about. Phix plastered on another excited smile before turning back to me with a chastising look.

“Seriously, Gracie? What if he doesn’t have any fun? Do you know who’s going to get punished? He would never hurt you.” He dramatically pointed a shaking finger at himself. He looked like he was about to cry. “He’d come after me.”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic,” I appeased, waving a hand of dismissal. “He’s not going to come after you.”

“He told me a second ago that he was going to take it out on me if you fuck up!” he squeaked out in horror.

“Oh,” I uttered nervously. “Well then, lucky for you, he’s going to have fun!” I motioned for Coco to open my backpack and give me my proof. She did as she was gestured and handed me a manila folder. “Look, I have everything planned out.” I began to show evidence of my itinerary for the weekend. I pointed at all the nice pictures I printed out from my late-night research. “I’m not doing this by the seat of my ass. I have everything worked out already.”

Phix didn’t even bother to look at all my hard work. He remained convinced that Eclipse was going to be miserable.

“How about I book you guys a 5-star hotel in Europe and the two of you can have a luxurious experience there?” His eyes lit up. “Oh! What about Greece? Don’t you want to hang out in Greece, Gracie? I can make it happen!”

I let out an exasperated breath and handed Coco the folder. I glared at him while Coco obediently tucked the folder back into my backpack, shaking me slightly before she was done zipping it up. My eyes turned into admonishing slits. I held my palm up towards him.

“Keys, Phix. Give me the keys now.”

He cursed under his breath and bitterly handed me the car keys. “You better give him a good weekend then, Gracie!” 

“If all else fails, give him a lap dance!” Coco encouraged.

Phix gave a thumbs-up at the suggestion, and as my response to that, I demurely flipped them off before running to the car where the birthday Demon awaited me.