“See?” he said, turning to Dedrus and Treycore. “It doesn’t hurt to communicate with mortals.”
“Um—” Treycore muttered.
Something hit the back of Kinzer’s head. His face smacked into the floor. Ceramic shards scattered across the carpet around him.
It was the lamp from the nightstand. Evidently, when Kinzer’d turned to his higherling friends, Maggie had made haste with finding a weapon.
In a flash, she was at the window, unfastening the lock.
“Oh, fuck!” Dedrus hopped over the bed.
Treycore ran around and wrapped his arms just above her belly.
“Let go of me, you crazy fucks!” she shouted. “Help! Rape! Rape!” She scratched at his arms. Exposing her teeth, she bit into his hand.
“Fucking bitch!” he shouted.
Dedrus struggled to restrain her.
A few bite and scratch marks later, they had her stabilized on the bed.
“Please don’t kill me!” she wailed. “God, save me from these crazies!”
“Guys,” Kid said. “Why don’t you show her something?”
Kinzer, Treycore, and Dedrus exchanged uncertain looks.
Treycore threw him a condescending glare. “What?”
“She’s scared ’cause she thinks you guys are insane. Don’t any of you have wings or something you can show her, so she’ll believe?”
Treycore’s glare transformed from condescending to curious. He undid the buttons on his shirt, pulled it off, and tossed it aside.
The dip in his back ran down to a peek at his ass crack.
“Finally!” Maggie exclaimed. “Just rape me and get it over with! Fuck, it’s not rape with those abs. Jesus!”
Treycore closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Feathers shot out from between his shoulder blades and expanded until they filled just over half the room.
“No fucking way!” Kid exclaimed.
Maggie’s mouth dropped open. “Shit. What am I on?”
***
“Anything?” Treycore asked Dedrus. He held his cell to his ear. He leaned against a doorframe, his blond hair in a swirled pattern created by Maggie’s frenzy. His shirt, only buttoned halfway, exposed the grooves down his chest. As he looked at Kinzer with disdain, his wince intensified.
You’re such an asshole, Kinzer thought.
Kinzer hated that wince, which made Treycore appear as if he was disapproving of everything his gaze beheld. Did Treycore make this face because he found himself constantly disapproving of creations lower than himself? Or, had the Almighty crafted the expression to compliment his beautiful features?
Before the Fall, Treycore had been one of the Almighty’s most prized creations. He’d been free to delight in whatever he desired. After the Fall, he’d sided with the Leader. Still, Kinzer couldn’t help but despise the span of time when Treycore had basked in the fruits of Kinzer and other inferior immortals’ labor.
“No,” Dedrus replied, his cell also against his ear. With his free hand, he pushed a brown lock of hair out of his eyes, curling it behind his ear. He knelt between a couch and a coffee table. He weeded a plate and bag of Oreos from between the couch cushions and added them to a pile of TV dinner trays and magazines on a side table.
“Sorry about the mess,” he said, his eyes scanning the room for more debris.
Dedrus’s panic about his and Treycore’s wreck of a place reminded Kinzer of how adorable he could be. He’d always been messy and wildly ashamed of it. During the war, he’d dig through piles of hoarded garbage, searching for his shit. His cot had always been covered with so much crap that it looked like he was trying to make a nest. It was a habit that, even after all this time, Dedrus hadn’t been able to overcome. He was clearly ashamed of that, but Kinzer found the hoarding—coupled with Dedrus’s embarrassment about it—charming. It was part of what Kinzer had fallen in love with.
