Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (166 page)

"I want a guard on Ninsianna at all times," Lucifer said. "That
thing
has a vested interest in getting its hands upon her baby."

"Lerajie will watch her," Eligor said. "He is quite smitten with her, you know? They all are, all of the men."

Lucifer snorted. He had seen into her mind when she'd tried to convince him to trust her. Yes. He trusted her with his life. But he pitied the poor bastard stupid enough to ever trust her with their heart!

"What did she say when you told her?" Lucifer asked.

"She was not happy," Eligor said. "Doctor Halpas promised her you would let her go. I told her it was just a delay, that you feared letting her leave until you are absolutely certain your friend will live."

Lucifer squeezed his lover's hand.
His
mind he could read much better, for even in Jamin's dreams, every thought he had echoed within Lucifer's own heart as if it was his own.

"She dumped him when the Colonel came along because she wanted to see the stars," Lucifer said, "and now she is apprehensive about going back to him, because she fears her husband will relegate her into a role of housekeeper and mother. Find out what excites her, and then use it to make her want to stay."

"She is quite a healer," Eligor said. "Perhaps if you let her shadow Doctor Halpas? That should keep her happy for a while."

Lucifer stared at the place beneath the bandages where Jamin bore evidence of a second scar. That scar was one of the few things he remembered from the night they had bonded; an intimate wound that would be only seen by a lover or a healer. Even within a modern Alliance, when one found such talent as that possessed by Ninsianna, one did not allow it to lie fallow.

"Order Halpas to start training her to do whatever sparks her interest," Lucifer said. "I want two guards with her at all times, but order them to make it appear as if they are tour guides. We must somehow convince her
not
to go running back to my father's watchdog."

"Yes, Sir," Eligor saluted him and left. If Lucifer didn't know better, Eligor looked to be relieved.

He brooded at his lover's side as Jamin drifted somewhere between consciousness and sleep. Power … or love. That was the choice the gossamer-winged creature of light had given him, and
he
had chosen love. The only problem was, She-who-is hadn’t told him exactly what that choice entailed. Should he disappear into the uncharted territories to avoid prosecution, perhaps set up a brand new colony like the Seraphim had done? Should he turn himself in to his adoptive father for punishment and in exchange for Earth's protection, let Hashem put him in jail? He couldn't stay
here,
because there was a Sata'anic armada on the way.

At last Jamin began to stir.

“
Mo ghrá
? Lucifer stroked the luscious, sandpapery beginnings of a beard which graced Jamin's cheek. “
Tá tú ar ais chugam ó mhairbh
[you have returned to me from the dead]."

Jamin opened his bottomless, black eyes, filled with pain as he felt the bandage wrapped around his midsection and wondered how he came to be still alive.

“You came for me?” Jamin said in broken Galactic Standard. “Why did you risk yourself to save a lowly mortal such as myself?”

“It is you who saved me,” Lucifer's voice warbled. “But now I face a difficult decision. As you know, while I was possessed by evil, I committed many heinous crimes?"

"Yes," Jamin said. He avoided Lucifer's gaze. "I committed some of those exact same crimes myself, only unlike you, I cannot claim some defect of possession."

"Then you understand the nature of the problem," Lucifer said. "The only justice I can give to those I have so bitterly wronged is my own death. But I fear in doing so, not only will I take
you
with me into the next world, but also my species, and the fates of our sister-species as well.”

Jamin gave him a bittersweet smile so handsome it took Lucifer's breath away. He was a beautiful, muscular man, built to hunt and relish in the blood of his enemies, a primal force of nature, the very essence that Hashem had bred out of the Angelic species. 

“Then we shall do our best to make amends,” Jamin said. “And if we fail, then we shall walk into the next world
together.
For I realized as I entered the garden with the Eternal Tree, that I did not wish to be parted from you. I only came back because you called for me.”

Lucifer gasped for breath, for all his life he had longed to hear those words, even as he had cursed his mother for making that same choice.

“What did you see on the other side?”.

Jamin looked past him, as if he could still see it.

“All of the wrongs I committed flashed before my eyes." Jamin said. "But I also saw the one thing I had done right. Loving
you.
”

Lucifer grimaced to hide an overwhelming jumble of feelings. His wings, however, he could not force to obey, and as he tried to suppress it, his feathers rustled like leaves in a wind-blown tree.

“I was shot once in the heart,” Lucifer whispered. “I saw a room on the other side. It was terrifying and dark, and nobody waited for me there.”

“My mother waited for me with my baby sister,” Jamin said. He reached up, and captured the tear which slid down Lucifer's cheek. “And there was another woman there, a winged creature such as yourself, only she was dark like Mikhail, and her eyes were blue instead of silver. There was a man with her, tall like you are, with the same white-blonde hair and wings. She pleaded with me to go back and tell you she had not abandoned you by choice.”

The wellspring of grief which Ninsianna had released bubbled forth from the place he had hidden it all those years ago. It was not the ruler of the Alliance who blubbered onto his lover's bandages, but a fifteen year old boy who had been abandoned to sit next to his mother's body. Jamin ran his fingers through his hair and feathers and told him he knew exactly what it felt like to feel such sorrow.

"Tell me what to do?" Lucifer wept. "For never have I felt so lost!"

Jamin reached up to cup his face.

"I do not trust this Emperor you speak of," Jamin said, "for when I bonded with you, I saw how he left you alone. My father became grief-stricken and paralyzed after my mother died, but he did not abandon me as your adoptive father did. I realize now my father loved me as best he could, and if some defect has arisen in our relationship, that fault lies with
me,
and it is up to me to make amends."

"And what of your friends, the lizards?" Lucifer asked. "From how you spoke of them, you seemed to be on good terms?"

Jamin sighed.

"General Hudhafah treated me fairly," Jamin said, "and amongst their kind I enjoyed a kinship with many good men. But men are not their gods. This dragon god they worship likes to sit upon his treasure, and because he is stingy, some of my good friends needlessly died. After all I have been through, I trust
no
god, and I would not trust Shay'tan any more than you trust your father."

"And what of Moloch?" Lucifer asked. "Would you love
him?"
His voice was a whisper, for he feared the answer.

Jamin looked past him, his black eyes filled with pain and longing.

"He is everything you are," Jamin said, "but twisted beyond belief. I see in him, you, and you in him. And I loved him. I won't deny it, for he was beautiful, and powerful, and oh! So powerful! Never have I sensed so much power! He showed me what he thought I wanted most to see, and he would have given it to me, too, because deep down I sensed that all he wanted was to be loved."

"Then why did you not choose him instead of me?" Lucifer asked. "He is a god, while I am just a mortal man."

Jamin's smile was wistful.

"Because Moloch did not know how to love me back," Jamin said, "but
you
did. You saw within me the yearning that your spirit-father could never give me."

Spirit-father… 
Lucifer's mind rejected the notion even though he knew it was true.

"He will destroy you for betraying him," Lucifer said.

"I know," Jamin said. "And I choose to pay the price."

Jamin's dark eyes fluttered, for he was still very weak, and when he drifted back to sleep, Lucifer brooded some more.

Nothing had changed. His species still teetered at the brink of extinction. The Eternal Emperor was still oblivious, even callous about the hybrid's plight, and even though he was a god, had proposed no solution to their problem. Parliament was a snake pit of petty, fractured self-interests. And if Shay'tan got his hands on the planet, there would be war. Oh, goddess! There would be a war unlike any the galaxy had ever seen!

Lucifer made his decision. He pressed the button on the communications device he always carried.

“Eligor,” Lucifer said.

“Yes, Sir,” Eligor said.

“Send a communique to General Abaddon, eyes only, A-priority-one, and make sure that message is not intercepted by our enemies.”

"Zepar took the needle, Sir," Eligor said. "We have no way to send a message without broadcasting Earth's coordinates to the entire galaxy."

“There is a string of smugglers which works the uncharted territories," Lucifer said. "Send the shuttle to find one of them. They always leave beacons telling others how to arrange a rendezvous to transport goods or trade. When you find one, use them to send Abaddon an encrypted message giving him the coordinates to this solar system. Be cryptic. Send him constellations that only his wife would recognize. He will retro-engineer our location from there."

"What is the plan, Sir?" Eligor asked.

Lucifer's white wings flared just like a raptor.

"We are about to secure Earth for
ourselves,
” Lucifer said. "For it is
my
planet, and I intend to keep it."

~ * ~ * ~

Time: Indeterminate

Ascended Realms

Bishamonten

The Infernal Palace was a different place any time the goddess of All-That-Is chose to take up residence with her husband, but today as he was summoned, it struck the Cherubim god that except for its ebony ramparts, the Dark Lord's palace positively glowed.

Two singing unicorns opened up the enormous, black-carved doors, and as he stepped through, Bishamonten had to cover his eyes until they adjusted to the blinding, brilliant sunlight. Birds sang up upon the ceiling, and grass obscured the chess squares on the floor. Vines had grown up to mask the chess pieces and make it appear as if they were trees, and everywhere
SHE
had stepped, there sprouted flowers in every color of the rainbow.

She-who-is danced happily in a circle, surrounded by her creations as she spun the shadows into light. As he watched,
SHE
picked up one of the shadow-cats which forever begged at her ankles, kissed it and declared,
'you shall be called a Phoenix, in honor of my brother's return.
'  The shape turned into a bird, complete with a fiery tail.

Bishamonten looked up at the terrifying dark visage that did not look quite so intimidating with
HIS
horns adored with flowers and hummingbirds dancing around his head. Those pitiless dark eyes rarely displayed any emotion other than disapproval, but when his mate was happy, all of creation was happy, and
HE
was happy, too.

"You called me, Your Eminence?" Bishamonten asked.

"Yes," the Dark Lord said. He turned to his mate. "
Uxor mea,
" he said, "I must speak to Bishamonten alone. Why don't you take these creatures down to their new home, and when I am done, perhaps you would like for me to join you?"

From the look of hunger in the Dark Lord's eyes,
'join'
would include a brand-new bout of much creation, for whenever She-who-is was happy, she indulged her husband's passion.