Page 22 of Dark Stars
"There's no way…" Alejo whispered, the glowof Bobby's eyes reflected in his own. He worried his bottom lip,and it took everything Bobby had not to surrender to an impulse totaste those lips himself. "You're really a Great Old One?"
Stepping back, Bobby cast out an arm, andbehind him on the wall, across the beds, a shadow rose up, bulbousand tentacled, twisting and pulsing.
Alejo drew a sharp breath.
Bobby snuffed his arcana, once moreappearing as a perfectly ordinary, unremarkable human.
Delicate shivers ran through Alejo, and hereached up to wrap fingers around the pendant Bobby had given him."That's why you gave me this, why you said…"
"It's protection from me, yes, though mostlyit's protection from my relatives." He made a face. "Like whicheverone is skulking around here creating yet another cult."
Alejo frowned, pressed fingertips to hishead, eyes pinching shut before he slowly opened them again. "Didyou…before…I mean…" He shook his head, huffing in frustration."Does the name Ctheldush mean anything to you?"
"You remember that?" Bobby asked, pleasedfor no good reason. "That's the name I was born with, bestowed bydark stars. But my dad named me Bobby."
Alejo gave a small, sad laugh. "I'm used toflirting hopelessly out of my league, but trying for a primordialbeing I didn't even think existed is a new low. Or high. Hmm."Before Bobby could say anything, Alejo yanked open the connectingdoor and vanished through it.
Bobby sighed. He was starting to trulyappreciate his family's obsessions with humans, especially hismother's. If she'd been this intrigued by his dad from thestart…
Turning away from the door, from temptation,Bobby went to get a shower. It was time to get back to work, andonce this area was safe, once Alejo would be safe once and for all,he'd break the binding.
In the shower, he cranked the water to ashot as it could get, then scrubbed and soaped himself to death.Climbing out, he dressed quickly, glancing out the window as hestrapped his watch on and pocketed his wallet.
Not quite dusk yet, so he had time to gointo the woods for a bit, resettle himself. Grabbing his keys, herapped on the connecting door. It opened a moment later, to aflushed and clearly frustrated Alejo, who had his phone pressed tohis ear, with very loud, very colorful Spanish coming out of it."Mamá, give me a minute."
Bobby laughed as Mamá immediately launchedinto what she thought ofthatrequest. "Sure you wouldn'trather have the demon?"
Giving him an exasperated look, Alejo yankedthe phone from his ear and said, "What did you need?"
"I'm going out, first to the woods and thento do some more investigating."
"I'm coming with you!"
"No, you should stay here and—"
"Absolutely not," Alejo said. "Wait there."He spun away before Bobby could reply, and resumed speaking to hismother, almost shouting as loudly as her to be heard, as heshrugged into a jacket and gathered up his things."Mamá, I haveto go, I love you, I'll call you tomorrow, bye."
He hung up the phone and shoved it into apocket. They hadn't even made it out the door when it startedbuzzing again.
Bobby grinned as he made sure the door waslocked behind him, though recent events had proven he may as welljust leave it wide open. "Are youreallysure demons areyour biggest problem?"
Alejo made a face. "Mi mamá is always numberone, believe me. So why are we going to the woods?"
"I like to do it when I need to regroup, soto speak. You'll like this." He hit the button for the elevator,and the doors immediately slid open. He chucked Alejo under thechin and then stepped into the elevator, enjoying entirely too muchhow the move made Alejo blush.
This was a stupid, foolish thing to do, butthe more time passed, the less he cared. Alejo was a child of darkstars, and fireflies harkened to him, and he hadn't run screaminginto the night when learning what Bobby really was. Not yet,anyway.
They took his truck, and Bobby headed off,following his own senses rather than any GPS, until they reached apark. Alejo kept shooting him curious glances, but Bobby refused tosay anything. Not for any good reason, just to be a brat.
Climbing out of the truck, he waited untilAlejo joined him and then led the way into the woods, walking forseveral minutes until the tug on his heart pulled him to a perfectclearing. Dusk was just settling in when he reached the center ofthe field, Alejo barely an arm's length away.
Only a few at first, but in rapidlyincreasing numbers, fireflies filled the clearing, winking in andout of color, a light show that nothing manmade could ever match.Alejo's breath hitched as the fireflies surrounded them, some ofthem landing in his hair, one on his cheek. Several others flockedto Bobby, brushing against him before flitting off again.
Tears ran from the corners of Alejo's eyesas he took it all in before slowly shifting his gaze back to Bobby."Why does this feel more right than any other single moment of mylife?"
Bobby's eyes glowed as he reached up tocaress Alejo's cheek with his fingertips. "Because despite myattempts to be good and do what is right, you are meant for me,child of dark stars, though it is for you to decide the shape ourrelationship takes. I am a dangerous creature to be close to, inany way, whatever the protections I bestow, forged by my mother ina time and place beyond human comprehension. My father was born in1413 by the metrics of humans, though if you factor in…a lot ofthings…he's a few thousand years old by this point. Those samecomplicated metrics mean I am much, much older than that, born andraised in a place where time is not so easily gauged. More troublethan is probably worth dealing with."
Alejo kissed him.
