Evenstar (11 page)

Berith sagged.
 
He picked Lucifer up.
 
“I’d hit you for that, but you’re suffering enough.”

“Thank you.”
 
Lucifer leaned on him.
 
“Do you have to carry me like this?”

“What way would you prefer?”

Lucifer looked around and spotted a wheelbarrow.
 
“Put me in that.
 
I do not want to be carried like a helpless infant.”
 

“I got it.”
 
Apple ran for the wheelbarrow.

Berith shifted his weight.
 
“You
are
helpless.”

Lucifer glared at Berith.
 
He squeezed his eyes shut.
 
“Do not remind me.”

Apple set the wheelbarrow down on the concrete.
 
A car went past them and pulled into the next driveway.
 
They were unnoticed.
 
Apple waited until the car was empty.
 
She walked to it and slipped inside.
 
She ripped out seat cushions and set them in the wheelbarrow.
 
Berith put Lucifer on top of them.
 

Apple and Berith shared a weary look.
 
Lucifer examined the car.
 
“Just steal it.”

Apple shook her head.
 
“I can’t get us in the Lilliam lanes with that thing, and they’ve moved since last time I was here.”

Lucifer eyed her.
 
“You do know where they are?”

Apple shrugged.
 
“More or less, kind of.”
 
She quailed under his gaze.
 
“Okay we were not expecting to go this way!
 
So I didn’t check.
 
Tokala and Sani had this area mapped out and Sani—” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
 
Tears formed in her eyes.
 
Berith hugged her.

Lucifer bit back a sharp response.
 
“I am sorry about Sani.”

Apple dried her eyes and composed herself.
 
“I
will
find the lanes.”

Another car turned down the street.
 
Berith picked up the wheelbarrow; they got out of the middle of the road.
 
The car picked up speed and raced by.
 
Iron bolts blanketed the sidewalk.
 

Berith jumped in front of Lucifer, taking most of the iron in his chest.
 
He growled and jumped after the car.
 
He got a hand on the trunk.
 
He unstrapped one of his swords and impaled the car, nailing it to the road.
 
Berith ripped the doors off and pulled out the driver and passenger.

Apple got off the ground and checked Lucifer.
 
“Are you okay?”

Lucifer pulled a bolt out of his arm and looked up.
 
“Appleadris, you have been shot.”
          

Apple looked down at the iron bolts in her chest.
 
She tore one out, then another.
 
The skin beneath healed.
 
She frowned.
 
“Weird.”

Berith brought the men over.
 
“Are we still enchanted?
 
Apple!
 
You have been shot!
 
Stay still!
 
I will help you!”

She held up a hand.
 
“I noticed.
 
I’m fine.”

Berith cocked his head.
 
“It is iron, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Lucifer waved them away.
 
“Talk about it later.
 
How did they find us?”

Berith held the men up.
 
They trembled in his grip.
 
The driver asked, “Why aren’t you dead?”

Lucifer tried to smile.
 
“You attacked fallen angels.”

The captives went pale; one passed out.
 
The conscious one searched for a blade and brought it to his throat.
 
Berith broke his arm and he dropped the blade.
 
The man screamed.
 
Children from the closest house ran out into the yard to play.
 
The man reached for them and yelled.
 
The children continued their game.
 
The man’s scream died on his lips.
 
“Shit.”

Apple snapped the neck of the unconscious man, and she rifled through his things.
 
She picked up a pair of glasses.
 
She put them on her face and did a double take.
 
“Crazy!”
 
She handed them to Lucifer.

Lucifer touched the metal and lenses.
 
He held his chest and handed them to Berith.
 
“Here is your answer.”

Berith looked through the glasses.
 
“Things are colored strangely.”
 
He looked at the humans.
 
“They do not glow, but we do.”
 
The children in the far lawn had faint auras.
 
“They can see the ones with mixed blood.
 
This is how they’ve been hunting the half-breeds.”
 
He punched the man in the face and dropped his body to the concrete.

Lucifer fought off pain.
 
“Kill them, we need to move.”

Berith broke the man’s neck and placed both bodies back in their car with the weapons they had carried.
 
He wrenched his blade out of the trunk and strapped it to his back.
 
He handed the glasses to Apple.
 

She ran her fingers over them.
 
“Dad will be interested in this.”

Lucifer managed a nod.
 
“Paimon too.”

Berith grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow.
 
“All the more reason to get to the City.”

Lucifer sighed.
 
“I know.
 
Move.”

Apple skipped alongside them.
 
She drove one of the iron bolts into her hand and pulled it out.
 
“Look!”

Berith grimaced as he picked bolts out of his chest.
 
“Do not do that.”

“Why?
 
I heal!”

Lucifer closed his eyes.
 
“Dahlia must have done it when she fixed you.”

Apple grinned.
 
“Awesome.”

Lucifer scratched his nails along his arms to get his mind off his chest.
 
“Your children will probably be similarly gifted.”
 
Apple and Berith shared an unhappy look.
 
Lucifer curled into a ball.
 
“Appleadris, you have over thirty brothers, you do
not
need to have children in order to rule.”

“But it’s the law.”

“And now it is not.”
 
Lucifer looked at her.
 
“So sayeth me.
 
Okay?”

Apple kissed his cheek and grinned.
 
She kissed Berith’s cheek.
 
“I’ll be back.”
 
She took off running in one direction, looking for the Lilliam lanes.

Berith kept the wheelbarrow steady.
 
“Thank you.”

“You are welcome.
 
Take me north.”

“
No
.”

The pair travelled in silence.
 
They passed rows of pre-fabbed housing.
 
Everything looked the same, one bland streak of beige and gray on the landscape.
 
Lucifer’s lip curled.
 
“I hate what they have done with Dahlia’s planet.”

Berith shrugged.
 
“They took ‘be fruitful and multiply’ seriously.”

“Fucking Michael.”
 
Lucifer let his hand trail over the lip of the wheelbarrow.
 
He snatched up a newspaper as they went by a mailbox.
 
He flipped it open.
 
The blaze at their mansion was on first page along with ten other fires.
 
Lucifer paled.
 
“
Berith
.”

Berith stopped and read over his shoulder.
 
They opened the paper and followed the story together.
 
Berith stopped breathing.
 
Lucifer tore the pages into shreds.
 
“Every outpost in the United States?”

Berith clenched his jaw.
 
“This has been planned and a long time coming.”

Lucifer struggled with his limbs.
 
“No wonder Apple cannot find the lanes, they have been shut down.
 
Damn it
!”
 
Cracks opened up in the street.

Berith looked in both directions.
 
“What do we do now?”

Lucifer grimaced and pushed himself up.
 
“We take the Old Road.”

Berith set the wheelbarrow in motion.
 
“You cannot make it down the Old Road.”

Lucifer snarled.
 
“Do not tell me what I can or cannot do!”
 
He gasped and curled over.
 
“If you need to, you are going and leaving me behind.”

“No.”

“I will order you to.”

Berith stopped the wheelbarrow.
 
He tore at Lucifer’s bandages, exposing the gaping wound.
 
He held Lucifer’s mouth shut with one hand.
 
Berith reached into the wound where Lucifer’s esophagus would have been.
 
He grabbed the pendant and held it in front of Lucifer’s face.
 
“I will not.”
 
He wiped the pendant off.
 
Berith sliced his own arm open and pushed it under his skin.
 
“Dick.”

Apple skidded to a halt.
 
“What are you guys doing?”

Lucifer bit Berith’s hand.
 
He spit Berith’s finger back at him.
 
“He is being unreasonable.”

“
I’m
being unreasonable?
 
You’re being suicidal!”
 
Berith grabbed a paper from another person’s yard and threw it at Apple.
 
“The lanes are closed.
 
He wants to take the Old Road.
 
Apparently, he never wants to see Dahlia again.”

Lucifer pointed at his chest.
 
“I am putting
her
first!”

Berith scoffed.
 
“You die and she loses the most powerful ally she has and we all lose our power.”

Lucifer looked away.
 
“That is just Paimon’s theory.”

“Frankly, I don’t want to test it!”

“Shut up both of you!”
 
Apple threw the newspaper at Berith’s head.
 
“In the event we have a large attack and have to close the Lilliam lanes, we open
secondary
outposts, you idiots.
 
There are less of them and they aren’t magically protected, but they stay open to let retreating Lilliam get back to the City.
 
So that’s where we’re going.”

Berith cocked his head.
 
“You never told me that.”

Apple shrugged.
 
“Since the lamin attacks we’ve kept our secondary and emergency routes a secret from you guys.”

Lucifer bandaged his chest wound.
 
“Where is the closest?”

“Seattle, Pier 57.”

He raised an eyebrow.
 
“A pier?”

Apple shrugged.
 
“Yeah, a
pier
.
 
It’s a crowded tourist attraction with lots of human meat shields.”

“Oh.”

Berith rumbled.
 
“This is off of our course.
 
We will need a car to make speed.”

Apple shrugged.
 
“No reason not to now, we don’t need the lanes to get there.”

Berith went to the closest and smashed the window.
 
He hopped inside and fiddled with the wires until he got it going.
 

Lucifer pointed.
 
“You said you could not do that!”

Berith smiled and helped him into the backseat.
 
“You did not order me to tell you the truth.”

***

Belial’s eyes were bloodshot.
 
She stared straight ahead, her foot on the gas pedal.
 
The day was well into late afternoon.
 
They were somewhere in California, but she couldn’t have told her passengers where.
 
Sun glinted off the highway.
 
The tiny car roasted in the heat, but the windows were up, per Belial’s orders.

Tokala twitched in feverish sleep.
 
He was stretched across Jacob and Celeste’s laps, adding his heat to theirs.
 
They squirmed, uncomfortable and antsy.
 
Belial had not let anyone out since the journey started.

“Again?”
 
The car ran on empty.
 
Belial grumbled at the fuel gauge, “Gas guzzler piece of shit.”

Tracy, Celeste, and Jacob quietly communicated to one another.
 

Belial glared at them in her mirrors.
 
“I know you’re talking.”

Tracy leaned away from her in the front seat.
 
“We just thought you might want to stop for gas, food, or something?
 
We could get out and walk ar—”

“I don’t need to eat.”

“We do!”
 
Celeste snapped.
 
“And I need to call my roommate!”

Belial clacked her teeth.
 
“You will not call anyone.
 
We are not stopping!”

Tracy crossed her legs and bounced in her seat.
 
“I have to pee!
 
Please, Belial!
 
No one wants me to pee in the seat and I will if we don’t stop soon!”

“
Mortals
.”
 
Belial saw a gas station and swerved off the road.
 
She hit the brakes and threw open her door.
 
“Jacob, fill up the tank.”

He touched his pockets.
 
“I don’t have any money.”

Belial jumped out the car and walked up to the car next to them.
 
The driver looked up, shocked at her haggard appearance and torn up clothes.
 
Belial smiled.
 
“
Give me your cash and credit cards now
.”
 
He handed his wallet over with a dreamy look on his face.
 
She flicked a credit card at Jacob.
 
“Full tank.”

Tracy and Celeste got out of the car, Belial handed them cash.
 
“Get snacks.
 
I want licorice, red, I
hate
black.”
 
She looped her fingers around Celeste’s hand.
 
“You call anyone and I will break your pretty black legs.”

Celeste pulled out of her grip.
 
“I won’t all right?”

Belial smiled and leaned on the car.
 
A group of sorority girls pulled in, stopping on a road trip.
 
The girls spilled out of the vehicle, giggling.
 
Belial walked over to their car and addressed the group, “
I need clothes.
 
Give me some of yours
.”
 
The girls went blank-faced and handed her a suitcase.
 
Belial stripped down and changed in the parking lot.
 

Jacob gaped as pedestrians walked around her, oblivious.
 
“Can’t people see you?”

Belial ignored him.
 
She ripped her greasy and burnt hair out in chunks and it grew in clean.
 
Jacob couldn’t take his eyes off the process.
 
She left bloody clumps of hair and scalp on the ground.
 
She caught him staring and glared at him.
 
“
What
?”

He looked away.
 
“Nothing I guess.”

Celeste and Tracy walked out of the store with water bottles and armfuls of junk food.
 
Tracy shoved licorice at Belial.
 
Belial smiled and clicked her heels.
 
“Yay!”