Evenstar (10 page)

Whitney cut up her pancake.
 
“I’m just sucking this all in frankly.
 
I don’t understand nearly half of what you’re talking about.
 
I never went to church and angels are something that my grandma has on needlepoint with pithy phrases like ‘bless this house.’
 
Helion, come here.”
 

Whitney gave him half of her pancakes.
 
He grinned and stabbed at his.
 
She watched him eat and shook her head.
 
“My boyfriend’s an angel, that’s pretty much the level of acceptance I’m at right now.”

Dahlia finished her breakfast off.
 
“Does this mean that Whitney’s like, my granddaughter times a billion?”

Andy smiled.
 
“Yes, but not on the human side.”

Dahlia and Whitney shared an incredulous look.
 
Andy opened another pop.
 
“Humans weren’t created by you and Lucifer.
 
Gabriel and Michael created humans.
 
As Fallen, we have a duty to exterminate them.
 
No offense you two, but we’ve killed more humans than I can even remember.”

Dahlia and Whitney went quiet.
 
Andy put his arm around Dahlia.
 
“We were a little shocked when you turned up reborn into a human, but it was a great hiding place.”

Whitney leaned on Helion.
 
“Why do you kill humans?”

“Humans were created with the sole purpose of destroying the planet and Dahlia’s babies.
 
They consume, they kill, they use and pollute.
 
They are hardwired to act this way.
 
If left on their own, with nothing to kill, they turn on each other and would eventually off themselves.
 
The impulse to war is in a human’s basic design.
 
What’s worse is that they can be completely decent people, and then their kill button is switched on and they turn on you.”
 

He looked at the sky.
 
“It’s our fault they were even allowed to breed and disperse.
 
We weren’t sure what they were at first.
 
It was only when the angels turned them on and they started wiping out entire colonies of Lilliam that we realized we had a problem.
 
But by then they’d moved, bred, and developed the weapons that Gabriel and Michael gave them.
 
They created entire cultures and religions devoted to wiping Lilliam out.
 
So we fought back, we slaughtered them and razed their cities.
 
But, and this is
my
crowning achievement, we started to fight back with ideas too.”

“Like what?”

“Like our own religions, the truth, not the stuff the angels were feeding them.
 
Paimon figured out that if we got humans on our side and they interbred with Lilliam, we could turn off all the bad stuff.”
 
Andy took Dahlia’s hand.
 
“You were our moon goddess, our green mother.
 
Lucifer was Ouranos, he was the horned god.”

She laughed.
 
“Oh, I would love to see that.”

Andy shrugged.
 
“Yeah, we would have too.
 
He didn’t like to play along; he just destroyed things.
 
Regardless, we got a bunch of converts.
 
Humans couldn’t tell a convert apart from the original, so the converts lived among the human population as subversive elements.
 
You’ll mostly know them as pagans.”

Helion nodded.
 
“It was Michael’s idea to turn that against you.”

Andy grimaced.
 
“Yeah…the
devil
was created along with the bullshit notion of a human soul.
 
There’s nothing worse than creating the ability to have martyrs.
 
As if they didn’t have enough reasons to kill Lilliam, now they could kill Lilliam and themselves in one action.”

Dahlia bit her lip.
 
“Don’t the angels care about the humans?”

Andy laughed.
 
“No, well the ones like Helion do I suppose, but not the Archangels.”

Whitney paled.
 
“So why haven’t you killed
me
?”

“You’re part Lilliam,” Andy replied matter-of-factly.
 
“Otherwise, well…I wouldn’t have killed you, but we would have left you behind.”

Whitney sipped on her coffee.
 
“Oh.”

Dahlia looked at her hands.
 
“Does that mean I can be switched on?”

Andy shrugged.
 
“Don’t know.”
 
He looked at the sun.
 
“Come on.
 
Time to keep moving.”
 
He picked Dahlia up and set her on his shoulders.
 
“You’re not totally depressed right now are you?”

Dahlia shook her head in shock.
 
“I don’t think I can be depressed at the moment, I don’t really feel much of anything.
 
This doesn’t seem real.”

Whitney nodded.
 
“Seconded.
 
I’m waiting for the punchline, even though I know there isn’t going to be one.”
 

Helion got to one knee and let Whitney get on his back.
 
He held her legs and looked up.
 
“I have never killed anyone, Whitney.”

She patted his hair.
 
“Good to know.”

Helion jumped into the air and took off.
 
Andy broke into a run.
 
Dahlia leaned down towards his ear.
 
“So what’s the end goal?”

“End goal?”

“Angels want to imprison me for something I can’t understand, but what does Lucifer want?
 
What do you want?”

Andy smiled.
 
“We all want to see Lucifer and you happy.
 
We want you to be able to go back to the way you were, everything was right then.
 
Lucifer wants you, that’s it.
 
I think he wants to spend eternity alone with you out there.”
 
He waved towards the sky.

“Will I be different when I remember?
 
Not
me
anymore?”

He frowned.
 
“I don’t know, Dahlia.
 
You have the same personality as before, you look the same, but we don’t know what the time in the prison did to you.”

“Can you tell me about the time before?”

Andy shook his head.
 
“That is for Lucifer to do.”

Dahlia sighed.
 
“Fine.”

“Don’t be mad please, it’s just not my place.”

She looked at the passing scenery.
 
“How can I be mad when I don’t know what to be mad about?”

***

Lucifer propped himself up on a picket fence.
 
Apple and Berith sat on a sidewalk across the street from him.
 
They stared each other down, ignoring the sun overhead and the cars that passed between them in the street.
 
Lucifer held up a fistful of syringes.
 
He snapped them in half.

Berith and Apple scowled.
 
She looked at Berith.
 
“This is
your
fault.”

Berith sighed and scratched at his blonde beard.
 
“It made more sense for me to carry them if I am the one having to haul him around.
 
You were gone for a long time.”

“You could have put them somewhere besides your breast pocket!”

Lucifer glared at them.
 
“Shut up!
 
I can hear you.
 
I do not appreciate being
drugged
.”

Apple bowed her head.
 
“We’re sorry, but you were acting crazy!”

Berith shook his head.
 
“
I
am not sorry in the least, you were raving.”

Lucifer winced as he moved to sit up taller.
 
“Of course I am raving!
 
I have a hole through my chest!”
 
His teeth were stained with blood.
 
“We are turning around.
 
We have lost almost a day.”

Berith shook his head.
 
“No, we are not.”

Lucifer slit his wrist open and pulled out Berith’s lamin pendant.
 
“Yes, we are.
 
Get up
.”

Berith grimaced and stood.
 
“You said you would never use those against us.”

“Dahlia was not involved then.
 
No
.
 
You get away.”
 
He waved back Apple as she stomped across the street.
 

She grabbed for Berith’s lamin.
 
“Give it to me.”

Lucifer shook his head.
 
“No.”

She caught hold of Lucifer’s wrist.
 
“Give it to me!”

Lucifer pulled away from her.
 
“Let go!”

Apple sat on his legs.
 
“This plan was
your
idea.
 
We are following your original orders; you said we had to regardless of what state of mind you were in.”

“I recant.”

“You can’t!”
 
Apple pulled.

Lucifer snapped his teeth at her.
 
“I have never hit one of my children; do not make me start now.”
 
Berith crossed the street.
 
Lucifer pointed at Apple.
 
“Pick her up.”

Berith did so and glared at Lucifer.
 
“You are an asshole.
 
Sorry, Apple.”

Apple struggled, but did not attack Berith.
 
“I know it is not your fault.”
 
She pointed at Lucifer.
 
“So what are you going to do now?
 
He’s carrying me and you can’t walk.”

Lucifer gestured weakly.
 
“Steal a car.”

Berith didn’t move.
 
“I don’t know how to hotwire anything.”

Lucifer pointed at Apple.
 
“You do it.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.
 
“You can’t make me and if you have him attack someone for their car, I’ll interfere.”

Lucifer went red in the face.
 
“Appleadris, you are acting
very
immature.”

“Me?”
 
She scoffed.
 
“Look at you!”

Lucifer grimaced.
 
“I am going to speak with your father when we get to the City.”

Apple folded her arms.
 
“Go right ahead.”

Lucifer’s vision doubled.
 
“Shit.”

Apple’s anger turned to concern.
 
“What’s wrong?”

Lucifer shook his head.
 
“Nothing.”

Berith was locked in place.
 
“You look worse.
 
I cannot help you unless you order me to or release me.”

Lucifer clutched at the cloth that covered the hole in his chest.
 
It burned.
 
He threw his head back.
 
“I am fine.”
 
He broke out in a cold sweat.
 
His heart fluttered.

Apple squirmed in Berith’s grip.
 
“No, you’re not.”

“I just need a minute.
 
Berith, set her down.”
 
Lucifer put the pendant in his mouth and closed his eyes.
 
He fought back against the pain that hit him in waves.
 
His muscles contracted, paralyzing him.
 
Veins stood out on his skin; his breaths came in short gasps.
 
He pictured Dahlia’s face and her smile.
 
He thought of Michael,
anything
to take his mind off the pain.
 
He felt cool hands on his face.
 

Apple touched his brow.
 
“You need to get to my father and mother.”

Lucifer shook his head and a whimper escaped his lips.
 
He put his hands on the pavement and pushed away from her.
 
The touch of his skin against the ground sent him into spasms of agony.
 
He rolled to his side and tried to slide away, but every movement was excruciating.

Berith looked at him.
 
“
Please
let us get you healed.
 
You can do whatever you want once you are whole again.”

Apple touched his hand.
 
“If you stop struggling, we can get you there faster.”

Lucifer nodded.
 
He couldn’t fight anymore.
 
He swallowed the pendant.
 
“You are released.”