The Virtue Of My Dark Angel, Dark Angels of the Apocalypse Book 3

Chapter Seventeen: Emotion's Aftermath

Drew..

He could hear them arguing again. More still, he could feel it through the strange bond he shared with them both.

Drew snatched up the home-made wooden cane from beside the bed and hobbled his way towards the front door. Technically, Barbatos had him on ‘bed rest’ with the cane only meant for emergencies, but Drew counted his precious sanity and sleep an emergency.

“No, I’m telling you, if you slice them and sugar them, you can freeze them with no problems!” Bethany snatched a plastic bucket back from Barbatos, who growled, reaching for it again.

“We don’t need any more strawberries.” Barbatos spat, and Bethany whipped the bucket out of reach behind her back.

“Well, I want them!” She stuck out her tongue at the Demon despite his glowing red eyes, sharp fangs and fur popping out along the nape of his neck. Drew couldn’t help it, standing in the doorway of the farmhouse, he burst into a mixture of laughter and groans, doubling over to hold onto and protect his still healing tissues around his delicate ribs. Barbatos was at his side in an instant, with Bethany following at a slower pace behind him.

Truth be told, she looked pretty awful herself, after letting Barbatos use her basically as a battery to power the healing of the dog, Drew himself, and everybody else. Dark circles seemed permanently etched under her eyes, and little burst vessels could be seen in and around the lids themselves. Plus it looked like she’d lost another five or ten pounds, and she seemed always cold, layering up as if she just couldn’t keep warm anymore. But she refused to stop helping, and Drew felt his heart squeeze in his chest. This girl had dug her way under his skin to stay.

“Let her have the strawberries, ‘Tos.” He said, squeezing Barbatos’ arm as Barbatos helped ease him into a new rocking chair on the porch. “And stop conjuring things that are going to make you two sicker!” He scolded, making Barbatos scowl. Ginger went trotting by, baring his teeth at Barbatos, though he had a wagging tail for Drew, and stopped to lick his hand and wait for a pat on the head. Seemed Ginger was the only one of them feeling one hundred percent. Barbatos grumbled something about spoiled pets, but turned his attention back to Drew as Drew banged his cane against the rocker’s chair-leg to get his attention.

“We needed something to fit your height anyway. Besides, we’ve got a female living with us now, she’s gonna want all the amenities of home.” Barbatos made the excuses without batting an eye, until Bethany yelled from behind them as she headed indoors.

“I didn’t ask for that! I was fine sitting on the porch step!” She gave a little shriek and ran when Barbatos turned his fierce glare on her, taking it from Ginger who had meandered into the yard.

“Just wait until you’re heavy with our first child to say that!” Barbatos roared. Drew cleared his throat, and barbatos flinched.

“Um, ‘Tos.. care to explain?” Drew asked mildly.

Barbatos..

His shoulders slumped, and he sank down onto the porch.

“She irritates me so badly.” He grumbled.

“So you threaten to.. Impregnate her?” Drew asked mildly, and Barbatos hunched in on himself further.

“You know what I said earlier? That all I saw was her?” Barbatos mentioned, meaning his shattered glimpses of the past, present and future left over by his former role as Virtue.

“Yeah..” Drew drawled, waiting for more. He wasn’t going to make this easy on Barbatos, and that was obvious.

“Well the whole time you were unconscious, I kept checking the future to see if you would be alright. Never really got my answer. Well, not directly. It was more that, I could see the future with Bethany, and how many of those futures included you, and what shape you were left in. But as time went on, more and more of the future changed over to her..” Barbatos jerked a thumb in the direction Bethany had gone, which was mostly likely the kitchen “staying, and fulfilling your desire to be a father. Hybrids abound. Blond, brunette and raven-haired..” Barbatos’ voice trailed off and Drew leaned forward, clutching his ribs to squeeze his shoulder. Barbatos tensed, but didn’t immediately shrug him off, which told Drew how absorbed he was in his own thoughts.

“How would we have a blond hybrid?” Drew teased, looking from his lap to Barbatos’ to make a point. Barbatos snapped his fingers, a light glow emanating from them as they sparked.

“Magic.” Barbatos joked weakly. “It’s just a single cell, easy to manipulate into a different one. After all, what do you think I’m doing when I heal you? We just need a willing host body.. Or in this case, a womb to mature the cells..”

“I think.. I regret asking.” Drew uncomfortably chuckled, resisting the urge to grab his balls.

“Don’t worry, it would all happen at insemination, or conception if you choose to think of it another way, you nitwit. I’m not going to turn your balls into ovaries, good grief. Man up.” With that, Barbatos straightened and stretched. “I’m going to go see what the onions and peppers have for me today.” He whipped around and pointed at Drew. “You rest.”

As Barbatos stomped off, he heard Drew say faintly behind him. “You sound more like her every day.” And he growled at the insolence of the remark.

Bethany..

She tried to ignore Barbatos’ shouted comment for as long as she could, but it just kept echoing in her head.

“You’ll change your tune when you’re heavy with our child.” She mocked. “What does that even mean?!” She exploded, throwing a weed to the ground in exasperation.

“It’s not like either of you have ever.. I mean.. Who says I would even let you..” Bethany could feel how false her words were before she even finished the sentences. She grumbled in frustration and reached for a strawberry, hardly resisting the urge to toss it too. Just then, Ginger came snuffling his way by. For a dog who’d taken a beating by a bear, he’d recovered remarkably quickly, thanks to Barbatos of course. Seeing a new outlet for her frustration, Bethany pounced.

“Hey you, traitorous one! Where have you been? I helped save your life, and this is how you treat me?” Bethany grabbed for Ginger, who side-stepped her with a sigh, only to come back when she landed on her face to sniff along her ear and neck, tickling her and making her laugh. “Stop it, stop it.” She swatted at the dog lightly and he huffed, but laid down next to her and exposed her belly like they were playing a game. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth and he waited for Bethany to give him bellyrubs.

“You know, Barbatos is supposed to give me lessons on how to speak to you.” Bethany mused, sitting up to rub the dog’s broad chest. “Guess we haven’t really had the time, what with the bear and the healing and..” She plopped down beside the dog, who sent out his tongue to lick at her face, but missed.

“Eww!” Bethany giggled, then yawned. “Maybe a nap would be nice. Just a few minutes. Here in the sun.” Of course, Barbatos would find her like that, sometime later.

“Girl!” He snapped, making her jerk and jump to her feet in alarm. Ginger was instantly on alert as well, snarling and fangs bared at Barbatos with hackles raised. From the looks of it, Ginger had come within an inch or two of biting the Demon, but held off with a threatening growl. Barbatos glared at the dog, who opened his mouth and inched his teeth closer to Barbatos’ leg in challenge.

“Uh, Ginger.. I know he’s a d**k, but don’t be a bigger one, ok?” Bethany said softly. The dog’s tail wagged, but he didn’t back off. “Ginger!” She scolded sharply, but Barbatos growled in return at the dog, and Bethany rolled her eyes. “Ok fine, have a d**k measuring contest then, but just know, you’re not helping at all.”

“Oh he very well knows whose d**k is bigger. And what he happens to be doing.” Barbatos grunted, and Bethany found herself rolling her eyes even harder. Barbatos refused to move or even stem the slow rumbling building in his own chest, so Bethany decided she was through with the whole affair and turned to leave, but Barbatos spoke again, drawing her back. “This is payback for the sofa incident. Your beast has a long memory.” The two stood their ground and growled at each other, neither one willing to back down until Bethany threw her hands in the air and turned to stomp off.

“Well you two settle this then. I’m going inside to finish my nap. I’m exhausted!” She called over her shoulder, and for a brief moment, Demon and beast watched the human woman march away, then looked at each other in bewilderment. Ginger merely shook out his fur and trotted after her, tail wagging, while Barbatos himself tossed his hands in the air.

“I thought you were picking strawberries!” He roared Bethany’s way, but she chose to ignore him, continuing on into the farmhouse as if she hadn’t heard a word.

Barbatos..

Barbatos had never been more tired, so once he finished the necessary evils of farm life, he was all too easily convinced to take a nap himself by his favorite human in the world, Drew.

Drew patted the sofa cushions beside himself and encouraged Barbatos to lay down with his head in Drew’s lap. He’d let Bethany take the bed, because of how bedraggled she’d looked, he’d said, but told Barbatos he wasn’t much better off. Barbatos had scoffed, but still couldn’t resist the allure of a few hours’ peace with his head in his lover’s lap. So Barbatos sprawled out with a groan, one arm hanging off the couch to drag the ground, one leg bent to prop him up and the other extended along the arm of the sofa, dropping off into space heavily. But Barbatos didn’t mind. The minute he laid down his head on Drew’s lap, Drew began to gently scratch at his scalp, avoiding tangling his fingers in the messy curls, and going straight to Barbatos’ weak spots. He groaned as Drew’s fingertips massaged and scratched at the base of skull deliciously. Drew chuckled and murmured something, but Barbatos was already half-asleep, sent towards unconsciousness by his lover’s magic fingers.

It was time to face the music. A discussion had to be had about the bear incident, Barbatos’ Virtue’s gifts, Bethany, and the attacks on the other Demon Marked.

Barbatos had faced down deadly enemies with less trepidation. Worse still, he could feel Bethany’s urge to start asking questions.

“What-?” She began, but he held up a hand to silence her. She scowled, squinting her eyes at him and thinking at him that if she had the Demon powers, she’d pinch him from across the table. He sighed heavily.

“I can only tell you what I know. And I don’t know a lot. Contrary to popular belief,” Barbatos shot both of his Marked challenging looks. They conveniently avoided his eyes. So Barbatos attempted to fill them in on what he did know.

“What, who is this Deceiver guy?” Bethany broke in, confused. “And hold on, you have friends?”

“Think of him as our version of Lu-” Drew began, but in a quick movement, Barbatos had a hand over his mouth.

“Do not say his name. Saying the name of a Demon or Angel or whatever you want to call one of my kind gets their attention. Didn’t you ever wonder why your bible says not to take the Lord’s name in vain? We get tired of being summoned all the time. It’s like a phone constantly ringing that you can’t pick up.” Barbatos snarled.

“What? A phone ringing?” Bethany looked confused and Drew snorted.

“Before her time Barbatos. She’s probably never heard one. Or seen one. Surprised she knows what it is.” Drew chortled.

“I can read.” Bethany objected defensively, although, her face still looked confused, so Barbatos sighed again, digging his forefinger and thumb at his closed lids.

“Alright, a bit of dimensional displacement, but I’m not doing this for shits and giggles, hear me?” Barbatos thrust a hand out and grasped a ringing phone from another plane, dropping it to the table in front of him where it rang shrilly twice more before time and space caught up to the fact that it was no longer connected to anything. Bethany looked at the shiny black metal and curly wire leading to the receiver in awe, picking up the abruptly severed cable leading away from it.

“Did they all look like this?” She asked. “Because some books describe people keeping them in their pockets-” Drew snorted again.

“No, our Demon has a penchant for old things.” Drew chuckled, then abruptly stopped as if realizing the look Barbatos was giving him could indicate Drew himself was included in those ‘old things’. “Hey!” Drew objected.

“No.” Barbatos grumbled over Drew’s loud protests that he wasn’t that old. “They had plastic versions, much smaller hand-held phones, satellite phones, cellphones, and at one time coin-operated pay phones you could pay per call with coins inserted in a slot. Telephones came in nearly every color, multiple sizes, hung on walls, became cordless, wireless. Humans downsized, upsized, then downsized again, never happy with a thing, but then when are you really? Tech companies always added more features, phone plans tried to upsell, capitalism thought it was winning for quite some time, and then you guys forgot that not all your myths were false.And that’s where we come in.”

“Tech companies..?” Bethany asked, bewildered.

“Oh my god, Barbatos, just stop explaining the phones or we’ll be here all day. Continue with the rest of your info dump. I know how much you like to teach, but now’s not the time.” Drew held a hand to his forehead and sighed while Barbatos scowled.

“Very well. Later Bethany. So as I was saying..” Barbatos proceeded to explain what he thought he understood was going on.

“So, I don’t get it.. This Deceiver” Bethany whispered the word cautiously like she expected him to appear.

“You don’t have to whisper Deceiver. It’s a title, not a name. Just something the Fallen fave taken to calling him amongst ourselves.” Barbatos dismissed her caution, and she sat up, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

“Fine, but what does he have against us humans?” Bethany asked belligerently. Barbatos dug his fingers into his eyes again.

“It’s not just him, you know. It’s most of my people. Well, my former people, and probably the vast majority of my ‘current’ people as well. There are a select few, the ones you call Fallen who were either outcast or chose to leave our original home for sharing forbidden knowledge with your people, or for the desire to do so, or even so little as our ambivalent attitude towards your kind. Our desires to mingle among you, learn more about you, were considered base, crass even. Seen as obscene. We were ridiculed for our ‘appreciation of the primitives’, as it were.” Barbatos’ voice held a bitter edge, but Bethany and Drew could sense it was not directed at them, but at his previous Home.

“Primitive!” Bethany sputtered, and Drew reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “But we wouldn’t be that way if they hadn’t-” She harshly whispered.

“Yes, yes. ‘Tos knows, doll.” Drew murmured. Barbatos resisted the urge to sigh again and rubbed his temples.

“The vast majority of my Homeworld considered you so: primitive, that is, because when we first encountered you, you still were.” Barbatos sat and pegged Bethany with a glare. “It was Centuries ago, and we’ve aided your kind in progressing. You’ve worshiped us. Can there be any doubt why they hold such contempt? Your lives are short, meaningless, fleeting things. You hold no technological power, you’re no threat. We had to teach you to bathe for Virtue’s sake, there’s reason there. But worse, I guess is how those in power in our society decided it would be fine to let the little humans worship us, and mandated we step in once in a while. Oh not always on your behalf, mind you. No, never that. We’ve killed our fair share of your people for defying us, but your kind always bounces back, praising us as ‘Gods’ and ‘Demons’ and ‘Angels’ and bribing us with gifts and offerings and oh, how much the ones in charge loved that!” Barbatos ground his teeth together, his two Marked were staring at him wide-eyed with mouths agape, and he could feel their confusion and how their minds tried to wrap around his ramblings, which could alter everything they thought they knew about themselves and their people. He raised a hand and shook his head.

“Never mind, my pets. The point is: There is long-held resentment between our two people. Mine has a long memory. Yours does not.” He summed up as succinctly as he could. He saw Bethany shudder and sneak a peek at Drew.

“Should we be worried about more attacks?” She asked softly, then gritted her teeth and straightened her spine. “And don’t call me pet, it’s rude!” Barbatos chuckled, the spontaneous fire spilling from her, despite his news, enough to catch him by surprise and startle the laugh from him. He rose and walked around the table to lean over her chair, watching her shoulders stiffen. He placed a quick kiss on her exposed Mark, drawing a startled gasp from her.

“Always be prepared for another attack, pet.” Barbatos purred near her very still cheek. When he looked up, he met Drew’s smoldering gaze, but Drew quickly looked away like he’d been caught stealing. Barbatos frowned. He would need to have another discussion with his first Marked. And soon, it seemed.