“And miss out on all these fun father-son chats we have through your demons? Why would I ever do that, old man?”
Paimon hissed as if Noir had pulled out of him and left the two of them alone to “chat” in his car. “Do I have to kill you?”
Thorn burst out laughing. “Try it.”
Paimon created a giant mouth with serrated teeth. Then he was stupid enough to try and swallow Thorn whole.
Oops, he’d been wrong.
Noir was still in control of Paimon.
“That was only scary when I was a young idiot, Dad. I’ve grown up. Deal with it.”
Noir, in Paimon’s body, screamed in Thorn’s face. “I weep over your birth!”
So did he.
Thorn patted his heart in deep sarcasm. “Such fatherly love and compassion. It brings tears to my eyes.” Sighing, he spread his hand out and examined his manicured nails as if bored with their exchange. “Why do you want him so badly, anyway? Not like you can use his powers where you are. Or his shield, for that matter.”
Thorn looked up as another way to control Cadegan occurred to him. “Unless you have a body?”
“Why would I tell you if I did?”
His father was so predictable.
Thorn smiled snidely. “Good. You don’t. That’ll save me the trouble of having to track Paimon down and banishing him again.”
Noir, in Paimon’s body, pinned him back against the seat. “You think you’re so clever and smart. But there’s something a lot worse than me after Cadegan, Leucious. We will find him.”
“No. You won’t. Now begone. You’re stinking up the place. And it’s a six-month waiting list to get another one of these.”
Paimon rushed him, then went through his body and vanished from his car.
Sighing in relief, he leaned forward to close Josiah’s eyes and whisper a prayer for the poor man. As he did so, Cadegan’s rosary fell from his pocket.
He’d brought it with him today to return it to his son but had refrained. He had so few things from his son that he hadn’t been able to part with it. It was literally all he had as a memento.
Thorn picked it up from the floorboard and pressed it to his lips. Cadegan was so much more than Thorn had ever hoped for in a son. For now, they were reunited.
Still as brothers.
Even now, he wasn’t sure how to tell Cadegan the truth about their relationship, any more than he’d ever been able to tell Simi how he felt about her. And maybe he never would. Some truths were just too hard to face and served no purpose other than to cause pain.
33
October 31, 2030
“Do something with your son! I’m at my end with him!”
Thorn arched a brow as Karma met him at the front door of her house, shrieking loud enough that it stopped two pedestrians on the sidewalk behind him. Once they realized she wasn’t yelling at him per se, they quickly walked on.
Wow. No preamble. Just another denouncement of E.T. and his stubbornness. Which Thorn could understand. E.T. did enjoy being pig-headed.
Just like his mom.
And his father.
“Where’s the boy? I’ll take him out back and beat him forthwith.”
