The next morning, his head was spinning almost as much as it did after the radiation treatments from Mark. His body didn’t want to move, but rather than being the result of a paralytic, it was the tangle of limbs that he was a part of. One massive wing covered half of his body, the feathered limb hanging off of the edge of the bed. His skin buzzed where they were touching him, bringing back memories of the previous night.
“Fuck,” he whispered under his breath, carefully extricating his body from the arms and legs that had snared him, he slid out from under the wing. The floor was littered with feathers that shined like pale opals in the sun that was streaming in from the window, and the silver angel hair had managed to find its way into all kinds of creative locations on his naked body. Slipping into the bathroom off of his room, he took the longest piss of his life. He couldn’t remember how much he drank the previous night, but it must have been a substantial amount if his hangover was anything to go by. Back in the bedroom he snatched his shorts from the floor, shaking off a few feathers, and pulled them back on. Angel ass stared up at him from the bed. God, they kept in shape. He turned the bedroom door handle as silent as possible to open it before taking a sideways step through, one hand a counter weight on the door as he shut it again. Turning, he jumped out of his skin at the sight of Felix grinning at him from the breakfast table. It was already laden with various fruits, meats, and breads.
“Morning,” Felix said, loud and cheerful, before taking a bite of his toast.
“Fucking hell, Felix!” Elias held a hand over his racing heart. “What are you doing up?”
“It’s not early,” Felix said after swallowing. He waved a hand at the other seat at the table, and Elias sat. “Don’t worry, Mark’s still sleeping. You weren’t kidding about the cinnamon. It was a task and a half to get him to come back to the hotel this morning.”
Elias grabbed a sausage, then thinking better of it, he put it back.
Felix, to his credit, pretended not to notice. “Here, they make the best cheese in this sector,” he said, holding out another serving of what he was having.
Elias accepted the piece of toast, taking a bite and avoiding the other man’s eyes. The bread was covered with a creamy white cheese and slices of strawberries. It was sweet, with a mild tangy flavor. “Mm, it’s good. Thank you.”
The bedroom door opened, and they both looked up. The server from the night before stood in the doorway, all exposed skin and tiny white shorts.
“Jesus Christ.” Elias bowed his head, covering his face with a hand. Soft footsteps approached his chair, a thrum of energy on the back of his neck when the angel placed his hand there.
“Find me the next time you visit,” the man said, kissing his cheek.
He didn’t watch him go, every inch of his skin burning with his embarrassment.
“I’m impressed,” Felix said.
“Shut up.”
“I’m just saying, that’s a good looking man. Not a lot of people who could snag an angel…”
Elias looked up when the other man trailed off. He was staring at the bedroom with his eyebrows raised and mouth hanging open. After a moment he recovered, pointing a finger at the second figure that was standing in the doorway.
“Kiel, right?”
Her eyes were wide, looking between the two of them. “Please don’t tell my boss, Mr. Carens.”
“Oh, no!” Felix waved both of his hands in the air. “I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s none of my business.”
“Alright, time to go,” Elias said, standing from the table. He placed an arm around the girl, leading her to the exit.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t realize your husband would be here.”
“Not my husband,” he said, opening the door for her. “Thanks so much for your, uh, company.”
“I didn’t mean to assume.”
“It’s alright. Just, uh, thank you. On your way, then.” He shut the door before she could say anything else, resting his forehead against the cool metal and preparing himself.
Felix wasted no time as soon as he turned around. “Wow.”
“Don’t.”
“I mean!” the other man laughed, waving a hand between the bedroom and the front door. “Is there anyone else in there?” he asked, craning his neck to get a look inside the bedroom. “Are those feathers?”
Elias rushed forward, pulling the bedroom door shut with a snap. “No. Yes. I mean, they have wings, don’t they?”
Felix about died, his face purple from the difficulty of breathing through his laughter. When Elias sat back down and glared at him, it only made him laugh harder. “I’m sorry!” he said. “I’m sorry! I’m not making fun of you, I swear!”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“No no, I’m not. I’m not.” He cleared his throat, letting out a slow breath that did little to sober him up. “It’s just, you know many people try and fail to pick up an angel, even when they’re willing to pay? And you managed to get two of them! That must have cost you a fortune!”
Elias rubbed the back of his neck. “They didn’t actually charge me anything. I don’t think I would’ve been able to afford it.”
“No fucking way! You’re lying!”
Elias didn’t respond.
Felix scoffed. “You’re fucking with me.”
He shrugged, taking a bite of his toast.
Felix leaned back in his chair. “That’s… unheard of.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, mate. Is Mark still here? Maybe they stole him to square away the bill.”
Felix glanced at the windowsill, nodding when he confirmed that Mark was still sleeping there. They had brought a container of his crumbled energy cores from the ship. Between those, and the radiation from the star during the daylight cycles, it was enough to hold Mark over for a handful of days away from the fusion drive. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Felix couldn’t help himself anymore.
“What was it like?”
Elias rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Oh, come on! I’m not Mark. I don’t know what he said to you yesterday to get you so pissed at him, but I can guess.”
“Felix.”
“I’m just saying, if you want to sleep with some angels, I don’t care. Who doesn’t want to sleep with the angels?”
“Mark doesn’t care about the angels.”
“What, there’re no gay beetles on his planet?”
Elias laughed. “He wouldn’t remember if there were. He can’t remember where he comes from.”
“Oh.” Felix frowned. “That’s actually kind of sad.”
“Yeah, and I’m not gay.”
Felix grinned. “Clearly.”
“Alright,” he sighed, standing. “I’m going to have a shower.”
“Careful not to fuck anyone else on your way in there, could be a third one hiding under the bed or something.”
Elias paused with his hand wrapped around the door handle. The urge to hit the other man was strong, but no. He pushed the door open.
“Did our ancestors proud! This is the start of a second great spread!”
Felix’s laughter haunted him for the next several hours, with more jokes about the proliferation of Terran bloodlines. The willingness of humans to breed with any alien race they encountered was an open joke across the galaxy. There were few species anymore that weren’t well mixed with Terran blood. The Great Spread. It happened a few centuries before he and Felix were born, when humanity had first begun to explore the cosmos. Even the angels of New Los Angeles were at least a quarter human. By the time Mark awoke that afternoon, Felix had finally run out of jokes.
“Hurry up, we’ve got to check out of the hotel.”
Mark yawned, stumbling over the edge of his travel nest before stretching out his legs and wings on the windowsill. “Tck-i-zcktit?”
Elias grimaced, placing his holstered gun on top of the clothes in his bag before zipping it shut. “No, it’s been a boring day so far.”
Felix made a face, picking up his own bag and heading for the door.
Mark stared after him. “Zzckti-tckt-zcktit-ii?”
“Hm?” Elias asked, tossing his bag over his shoulder and picking up Mark’s box from the windowsill. “He’s fine, maybe a little upset about your latest cinnamon adventures.” Felix wasn’t upset, but the more shame that could be piled onto Mark to prevent a future incident, the better.
Mark bowed in a cringe. “Tcktzzi-ii-tckt-tckt…”
“No kidding,” Elias laughed. Mark flew onto his shoulder and they followed Felix from the suite. “That’s the last time he’ll order you a spiced rum.”
When they checked out, it was a different angel at the front desk than had been in Elias’s bed a few hours earlier. Helix was a merciful god. They took a car to the hangar where the Barbara Anne was parked.
“You two all set on the plan?” Elias asked, shrugging on his holster and tucking his gun between his shoulders. “In an out, no fucking about on this one.”
Felix shoved his bag under the bottom bunk. “I’ve been thinking about that, actually.”
Elias caught Mark’s eye, shaking his head before the bug could complain. Felix had begged them the entire journey from Murder City to New LA to join in on their next assignment. By the start of the third week they had agreed just to get him to shut up. “If you want to stay here, Felix, that’s fine. Assassining isn’t for everyone.”
“No, no, I want to come. I was just thinking that maybe I could do something more useful than be a lookout.”
“A lookout is very useful, especially in a city that has real security. We won’t get away with killing anyone in public here.”
“I know,” Felix nodded, playing with a button on his shirt. “I was just hoping to be able to do more.”
“Felix, you gagged when you touched the body of that Weaver.”
“Come on, man, that was awhile ago.”
Elias looked up, thinking. “It’s been less than a month.”
“You know, most people would round up those last three days.”
He scoffed a laugh, tucking a knife into his boot.
“Tckt-ii-tcktitz-zzcktit-i,” Mark suggested from his shoulder.
Elias smiled. “Now that is an idea.”
There were three hangars for the colony, each as massive as the last. The Barbara Anne was parked in the only one on this side of the dome, which so happened to be located directly behind the building that their target worked in each day. Getting in was the easiest part of the operation, all they had to do was cross the street and waltz in through the back door.
“Alright, Felix, this is your moment,” Elias said, stopping the other man a few doors away from their target’s office and placing his hands on the man’s shoulders. “Mark and I will go in first, confirm the target is here, and get everything ready for you. Follow us in ten minutes, ok? Not a minute before.”
“Is this a trick?” Felix wore a flat expression on his face. “Did Mark tell you to trick me into standing guard?”
“I’m insulted at the implication, but yes, that is what he said.”
Felix glared at Mark, who shook his carapace at him.
Elias squeezed Felix’s shoulders. “ It’s fine. I never listen to Mark, anyway. We’ll take care of any witnesses. By the time you come in, you’ll only have to kill the target.”
They walked to the correct door, and Elias grabbed the handle. “Remember, ten minutes. Then it’s all yours.”
“Ok,” Felix said, taking a deep breath, “ten minutes.”
Elias and Mark entered the office, finding themselves in a new hallway.
“Tckti-tckti,” Mark said.
“Yeah, strange,” he agreed, following the hall until they came upon another door. This one was glass, in a glass wall. Inside of the room was a lab with four people working. “Well, here we go.” Elias pulled out his gun and pushed open the door, a rush of wind announcing his and Mark’s arrival.
Four heads snapped up to look at him, and then ducked behind their stations when he pulled his gun. The room held its breath.
“Good evening, all. I’m looking for Lucky Fandell.”
The only response to his statement was panicked breathing from behind metal tables that were laden with lab equipment.
“No takers?” Receiving nothing but in response, Elias rounded one of the nearest tables and dragged one of the men out.
“No! Please don’t!” The man yelled, struggling to keep his footing.
Elias stood him up, wrapping an arm around his shoulders from behind and pressing the gun under his chin. “I’m going to count to three, and then I’m going to shoot you.” The man whimpered. “That is, unless Lucky comes out.”
There was no movement from the other three in the room, and no sound outside of his hostage’s cries.
“One.”
The hostage’s knees grew weak, his body sagging. “Please don’t!”
“Two.”
“I have a baby! Please let me see my baby…” The hostage’s begging devolved into sobs. “Lucky, please!”
Elias’s finger tightened over the trigger, pulling it to the point of resistance. “Three.”
“Stop!”
Lifting his finger from the trigger, Elias pushed the man he was holding aside, pointing the weapon at the station that the new voice had come from. The man scrambled behind a table, and a woman stood.
She stepped out from behind a microscope with her hands raised. She was in her thirties, a white lab coat hanging from her shoulders and her hair gathered at the back of her head in a messy bun. “I’m Lucky.”
“Lucky Fandell, I’ve been contracted to kill you.”
Realization crossed her face and she let out a bitter laugh, dropping her hands and nodding at the floor. “Of course,” she said, her eyes tired when she looked back at him. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Elias’s eyes narrowed. That was new. “Who?”
“Merrick Lavigne.”
Reminder: This story is unique in that it’s being posted as it’s being written, and that it’s up to you, the reader, if it will continue. So, don’t forget to vote in the poll above if you’d like to see another chapter. If majority yes, there will be a new chapter. If majority no, the story will end here. :)
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Another week, another chapter! Six chapters, 18.5k words, and it feels like we’re just getting started.
Were you surprised by the ending? That character was originally a one off for Chapter 1, but the way so many people wanted to know more about them convinced me to give him a bigger role in the story. He’s still very dead lol, but his spirit lives on! I’m excited to see how the lore on him will develop in the next draft now that I know his role in the bigger picture.
Anyway, I had a blast writing this one. There was an insane amount of opportunity for banter, what with Elias’s guests. He’s for sure the shyest playboy assassin in the whole galaxy. And what of this new addition, Miss Lucky Fandell? What’s her deal?
We’ll find out in Chapter 7 if you vote for it. I think we’ll switch to the new cover then as well. Until next time, you lovable dorks.
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