Lightbearer

by L.C. Davis

The only real similarities between us are the Roman nose we’d inherited from our deadbeat dad and our deep disdain for commitment--also, coincidentally, inherited from our father.

Compared to her, I usually look like someone who snuck into the family reunion for the free tacos.

Ben.

Levi...

The cashier kept giving me worried glances, but that could’ve just been the fact that I’d passed out the last time I was there.

I’d left everything Sirena had left to me in a place that would be easy to find, along with a note that explained the bare minimum of what he needed to know to get his police buddies off his back. Investigating Sirena’s cult. If you find this, I’m probably dead or sucking demon cock. Either way, don’t bother looking for me. P.S. I bequeath to you my evil cat. Don’t ever give him catnip or you’ll figure out why his name is Cheese. P.P.S. This isn’t a suicide note, but if anyone asks, tell them it was bears.

“Hi, Devil Daddy,” is what came out, and I smacked myself in the face. “I mean...cock. Fuck! I mean fuck. Not you...me. Wait, that’s not right either.”

“And you are?” A second earlier, I’d known the answer to that question. At the moment, “the devil’s rent boy” was starting to sound better than Levi.

He raised a thick, sharply arched eyebrow. “Levi,” he mused. “That name sounds familiar. Didn’t one of my imps cure you of a terminal illness recently?”

“You want me to teach an architect how to use his power?” she asked, her hands planted on her hips. “In here?” “If I wanted to discuss the idea, I would have said so,” he answered in a calm voice that held the edge of a threat, his hand wrapped around the cane I no longer needed. I was steady enough on my feet now, but my mind was another matter. Then again, they seemed impressed that I remembered my own name and wasn’t drawing creepy shit on the walls, so who knew?

lol

Apollyon looked between us in confusion. “I told you to start him off small.” “He has two modes. Hopeless incompetence and mad genius. There is no inbetween.” “Aww. You think I’m a genius?”

“Did you just say Lucifer?” Shera asked, her voice strained with something I’d never heard in it before. Fear. “Yes,” Apollyon said listlessly, staring at me. Or maybe through me. “Where’s the stone?” one of the hooded figures hissed. His voice was far too serpentine for him to be anything close to human. “It’s inside of him,” Apollyon answered, unblinking. Then, he uttered the three last words I ever thought I’d hear him say. “I was wrong.”

“You did say you wanted romance,” he remarked out of the blue. “I can’t imagine discussing Lucifer is very conducive to that.” “Don’t kinkshame me.”

For once, I didn’t have a comeback, so I just took another sip of my coffee. “Think I’m developing a tolerance,” I muttered. “This shit isn’t working.” “Oh, it’s not caffeinated,” he informed me. “Excuse me?” “You’re not allowed to have caffeine. Part of protocol.” “So your protocol is fine with you stabbing me with your knife cock, but caffeine is off the table?” “It’s for your benefit,” he assured me, smirking.

I took another sip of lies, AKA decaf coffee, and sighed. “Here’s hopin’.”

took another sip of lies, AKA decaf coffee, and sighed. “Here’s hopin’.”

“Where can you take him that’s safe from Lucifer and the angels when you can’t even get back into Hell?” Sirena challenges. “There’s a place even angels fear to tread,” Apollyon says wryly. “Massachusetts?” I blurt out. Now he and Sirena are both giving me withering stares. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”

When he finally pulls away, his eyes are as red as the blood on his lips and I can’t resist the urge to taste it. To taste him, and my blood on his tongue. It’s sex and scarlet, a flavor I want more of. “Now who’s got a dirty mouth?” I taunt. He kisses me hard enough to shut me up and I stroke his face with equal affection. “God, I love you,” he mutters. And for the first time ever, I believe those words to be true.

“That’s it,” he coaches in an urgent whisper. “Feel the pain and the guilt. It’ll guide you. Life is pain and guilt and all the ugly things we try to push away to make room for what makes it worth living.”