Early Bird

“I should kill you.”

Nick hardly waited for the door to close before he was on his feet, pushing Jaiden with all the force he had onto the bed. It slammed into the wall with a sad crunch. Jaiden pulled the blankets off of him nonchalantly and before he could fully gather himself, Nick was seated again.

“You’re more than aware of what I did to the last dick that tried to touch her. And yes I am being quite literal.”

Jaiden could feel the full onslaught of Nick’s glare, but it was nothing new. He wasn’t listening to him quite yet anyway. The sound of the door closing was still echoing in his head. It had been hard to open his heart again, he’d known it would be the moment he realized Anna knew the truth.  He took a deep breath and swallowed his heart again, turned off the lights, closed it down and it wasn’t as hard as it had been the first time. The emotion fled and the darkness was easier to accept.

“Being protective doesn’t become you.” Jaiden exasperated as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Talking back isn’t in your job description. Though I guess I should be thanking you because banging the enemy to get her to think that you’re doing this so she can win IS. It’s so cruel, I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself. Good job. I’m quite proud of you, really. Come here and give daddy a hug or would you rather have a raise?” Nick had started tapping his lighter on the arm rest, one of the few nervous ticks he had that Jaiden had picked up on in his time with him.

“She loves you.” Jaiden stood and went into the bathroom where he’d left the rest of his clothes. “Even as you are—you’re her father, you meant something to her mother too pure to corrupt, though she’d probably care for you anyway.” He’d tossed the clothes into the hamper next to the toilet and grabbed his toothbrush that was still in the sink where Anna had knocked it. He didn’t even smile, setting it onto the shelves in the shower and turning on the water. “That’s just how she is.”

“Don’t you tell me how she is.” Nick snarled.

Jaiden was feeling the water when his annoyance got the best of him. “Oh sorry, I just know her better than you ever will, okay, so fuck you.”

Jaiden had the drain plug in his hand and had the full intention of throwing it at Nick possibly followed by a punch no matter the consequences, but he was gone, a cigarette burning a hole into the chair.

Nick burned through half the cigarette in one drag and then tossed it aside, hearing the soft poink it made as it hit the floor. Then time seemed to slow for a moment as his ears filled with the dragged out sound of it continuing to burn. He turned to face it, thinking that maybe Jaiden had followed him and was trying to pick a fight. Oh he wished he would. Someone just needed to give him an excuse to destroy something. Fucking anything. Though, then again, he didn’t really need an excuse.

A smile danced on his lips as a plan ran through his head with lots of flames and broken glass, maybe a crying baby or two, and time flowed normally again. He stared at the burning butt start to die out, muffled by the lush carpet and then turned around.

Her scent hit his nose like the smoke of freshly lit weed, intoxicating, painful, nauseating. How had he not sensed her coming? He would have been the first one—the only one to notice. Maybe he was just so used to thinking he felt it—to feeling Anna that he didn’t notice when it was real—when it was her.

“Abdiela.” It was Amy standing in front of him. Jeans, a soft blue blouse that tied at the collar, much too skanky for Anna’s mother. It looked like the woman he’d meet, it was her body, but not the same human he’d known in this world.

“He’s right, Lucifer, you know that.” Her eyes accused him, pleaded with him to accept responsibility, accept feeling from the daughter that would ruin all his plans. That was made to destroy him and what he stood for. The glimmer in her eyes also dared him—challenged him to accept his feelings for her.

“It doesn’t matter.” He intended to walk past her, ignore this damnation, but he couldn’t get his feet to move.

“But it does. Don’t you see that?” The pain in her voice reminded him of one of the last conversations they had when she was still alive, she wanted so badly for him to give it all up, but it was too late now. “I know you do.” Her voice was softer, her hand on his arm. If he had a heart, he knew it’d be racing. It still amazed him how he could feel the heat of her flesh radiating from one limb to the next.

I missed you. The words jumped out in his head. Emerging suddenly from some deep recess that was so small, he often forgot it was there. He swallowed the words back down, like a small amount of vomit that had threatened to fill his mouth. It burned his throat.

“She understands—“

“What, like you?” Nick spat, grabbing her arms and throwing her against the wall. Amy didn’t flinch which surprised Nick for a moment, but then he realized—Abdiela wouldn’t. Without thinking Nick smashed his mouth on hers, wrapping her in his arms that were more afraid of letting go than taking. His hands didn’t roam like they used to, he had no desire for them to. He wasn’t thinking at all, there was just need.

Unbidden, Amy’s tongue was in his mouth, warm and caressing his illusioned flesh. Lucifer responded, pushing against her harder, attempting to make a mold of her body in his skin. He needed it forever.

Lucifer pulled away, his eyes staring at her mouth for a moment, then the wall. Abdiela’s hands held his face and she sighed. Without a word her mouth met his again, soft, tentative.

Nick’s arms dropped to his sides. “Get the fuck out.”

He gave her enough room to move from the wall, from him. He heard her shoes, shuffling, almost like slippers on the carpet, then no sound at all. He looked up from the space of wall he’d been trying to burn with his eyes and the hall was empty. There was no one else besides him there, this hall might as well be considered empty, no one had been here in the first place.