Page 21 of Dark Stars

Starlight was the first thing he saw when he woke, but it wasn't the starlight of Earth. No, this was the dark stars of his home. The shattered moon was brilliant red, hints of the full moon it would have been once at this point in its orbit.

He licked dry lips. Human-shaped. That was a good sign for his healing, though he still felt like microwaved death. Bracing himself, he stopped as he registered liquid. Water? He held up a hand, which shimmered faintly, the liquid dripping more like oil than water. Regeneration fluid. All the Old Ones could heal to some degree, but only Cthulhu had true regenerative abilities, the kind that came from a special fluid kept in sacks hidden well behind all his feelers.

"Thank you, Grandfather,"

he whispered, sending out a silent prayer as well. A responding sound echoed through his head, like the fading tones of a great bell countless miles away.

Letting out a shuddering sigh, he finally pushed himself upright, slowly and carefully, eventually working up to actually standing.

Darkness surrounded him, a seemingly infinite pool of fluid, but just a few steps forward broke the illusion, his surroundings nothing but a shallow pool with high sides that blended seamlessly into everything else. Heaving himself up and out, he found himself just past his father's garden, not quite where everything turned wild and untamed again, a sort of gray area where he kept mulch and the like. Guess it was the only place to fit a hasty pool full of healing spit.

As he reached the steps of the temple grounds, covered in ivy most of the way but giving way steadily to smooth, gleaming, dark stone that was actually bone, he could hear voices and just barely smell his father's fragrant blood-and-jasmine tea. The blood came from creatures that would never even see Earth as a dot in the sky, sweet and fruity, excellent in tea and other foods and drinks. After he'd no longer needed his mother's milk, Bobby had drunk a lot of it growing up, though even for the primordial dark, water was still best.

The voices stopped as his steps grew closer, and he'd barely rounded the corner around a set of columns when his arms were full of frantic, crying boyfriend.

"Hey, hey, I'm all right!"

"You almost weren't!"

Alejo said, thumping his chest hard.

"You stupid fucking primordial asshole!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know everything would be that bad, especially as I was juiced up on power from the talisman my grandfather gave me. Did I at least get rid of the shadow?"

Standing nearby, Ahmad chuckled.

"You didn't just drive off Shub-Niggurath's shadow, you drove them several galaxies away to heal from your mother's venom. The entire vial was perhaps overkill, my son, but I certainly do not blame you for choosing an excess of caution. Thankfully, your beloved had the sense to enter the primordial dark enough to call for help. Your mother heard and gathered you and your friends up and brought you here."

"Oh, dark. Jones and Harold are here?"

Ahmad smiled faintly.

"Off exploring, too curious to hold still once they knew you would be all right. I've sent a guide with them, so they will not get into any serious trouble."

"I think you should have sent a small army with them."

Bobby drew back enough to wipe the tears from Alejo's face.

"If they're gallivanting off, why are you still so fretful, sweetheart?"

"Because I've seen you get chewed up and spit out twice now, and it's stressing me the fuck out!"

Alejo said, thumping him again.

"Your dad promised you'd be fine, but you looked— you looked—"

"You were in a bad state, it's true,"

Ahmad said.

"As I said, if your mother had not heard his cries and felt like going to help…"

Alejo sniffled and rested his head against Bobby's chest.

"Your family is weird."

Ahmad and Bobby chuckled.

"Who says 'felt like going to help' so casually. She's your mother. How would you feel if your wife said she let your son die?"

Ahmad lifted his hands in a show of peace.

"I was being flippant. The truth is a good deal more complicated. You must understand that true primordials are nothing like my half-human son. They do not see and hear and feel and taste and even touch the way we do. Hearing your cries, understanding them for what they were, realizing it was her that you called, understanding it was a matter of seconds instead of eons, and so many other little things, made the matter tricky. I love her deeply, more than a human should be able to love such an incomprehensible being, but she is older than time itself. Humans think they understand what life is like for ants, but they'll never truly comprehend it because their minds do not work that way and never will. That's all."

He smiled warmly and rested a hand against Bobby's cheek.

"That is why my son is so precious, the rarest and most precious thing in all of creation, so unique that even his mother realizes it, and so she was better able to see and hear as she needed."

Alejo let out a shaky breath, part sigh, part sob, entirely bewilderment.

"This is all definitely going to take getting used to."

"You can walk away if you want, you know,"

Bobby said.

"I know me and my family are a lot, to put it mildly. That's why I never went looking for any sort of mate. Did not expect to find one, honestly."

Ahmad scoffed.

"I'm not the only romantic in this family, whatever you and your mother pretend otherwise."

Bobby grinned, kissed Alejo, then took his hand.

"I thought I smelled tea walking up this way."

"You did indeed, come along, "Ahmad said, his frosted-glass eyes bright with amusement, mouth curved in a soft smile.

"Your mother and grandfather are off gloating to everyone about you, how is that for a family dust up? Hopefully they'll all get bored soon and move on, at least until they remember again in 500 years and pick a fight out of seemingly nowhere."

Sitting down at the table, Bobby smiled as Ahmad poured them tea, enjoying the bittersweet, faintly fruity scent of it.

"How long was I out?"

"A good six days, give or take a few hours,"

Ahmad replied.

"I would have worried more myself, but that much regeneration fluid would bring back the dead, or near enough, and while you were dangerously, alarmingly close…"

Alejo sighed.

"Can we stop getting you almost dead now?"

"Hopefully,"

Bobby replied.

"The only thing left on my agenda is to deal with that nasty little friend of yours still waiting for us at my house."

"I'd completely forgotten about him,"

Alejo said.

"Forgot about who?"

Jones asked.

"I see you're finally awake. Took you long enough. Thanks for letting us look around, my lord."

Ahmad made dismissive motions.

"You needn't be so formal, not with me."

Matching his scoff, Jones took a seat at the table, Harold sitting beside him, leaving one empty seat to Ahmad's left that was set anyway in a nod to his beloved, who could not join them so easily but always made her presence known in some way.

"You have a beautiful home, if strange to my albeit limited experience,"

Jones said.

"Ain't never seen anything like it."

"Nor had I, when I first arrived. It was a good deal more barren back then. Everything covered in dirt, rolling hills of nothing that took time to whittle away to reveal the temple grounds, longer still to create my gardens."

"Do you get visitors?"

"Yes, quite often. All sorts of beings from all sorts of worlds. Some experienced travelers, others who got lost doing things they should not have, practitioners of the arcane who thought they knew what they were doing. More than a few of them have mistaken me for the primordial god they sought, often enough I'm starting to slip into some books, and now they come seeking me explicitly. Interesting, to be certain. So now this matter of the cults is cleaned up, what will all of you do?"

"Figure out how to tell my family I'm moving permanently across the country to live with the boyfriend I've known for like, not even two weeks,"

Alejo said.

"Wish me luck."

Ahmad laughed.

"Three days, habibi. That is how long it took me to move here. You took your time, really."

"Figure out how to deal with being permanently stuck to this smart ass,"

Harold said, pointing a thumb at Jones, who rolled his eyes.

Bobby smirked.

"So couples' night? Card games? Charades? Couples' cruise? You two would love that, being trapped on a boat with—"

"I will fasten cement shoes to every last one of your tentacles and drop you over the side,"

Jones said.

"I don't need to breathe the way the rest of you do, so that's an empty threat."

Jones heaved a sigh.

"Just be quiet, you damn spooky calamari."

"I wanna go on a cruise,"

Alejo said.

Harold snorted.

"Don't let him cheap out on you, Alejandro. Your little Lord of the Flickering Lights there could rent or buy a whole private yacht to spoil you."

Bobby rolled his eyes.

"We'll figure it out later. For now, we still need to deal with a certain conniving, backstabbing witch."

"Seal his magic and drop him off in the middle of nowhere and force him to live like the ordinary,"

Harold said.

"That's what I said!"

Alejo grinned.

Jones scoffed.

"Let me have him as a snack."

"I'll take him,"

Ahmad said.

"I'll either get him on the straight and narrow, as they say, or feed him to your mother."

"Decisions, decisions,"

Bobby said dryly.

"Let Alejo choose—it's his backstabbing ex after all."

"Tempting though it is to just let him be vampire food, or see how long he stays lost in the woods, I would still like my friend to maybe learn not to be a backstabbing cretin. For old time's sake, or something. Let Lord Ahmad have him. See how he likes life under…do you have a fancy title?"

"My beloved's kin call me Consort of the Secret One. Mortals, more and more often, refer to me as the High Priest of the Temple of Lost Creation, and the Sacred Servitor of the Dark Stars. All titles of service, which is fitting for me, and my happy destiny. Quite different from my dearest son, who is already a lord in his own right."

"Not that I ever noticed,"

Bobby said.

"Priests had to tell me. I didn't know I had any of those either. Still don't want them."

Ahmad chuckled.

"That is your way, and why the light is called to you, despite the deep darkness that is your nature. Be away, then, and bring back to me the trifling boy who will be my attendant and apprentice for many centuries to come. Take this,"

he held his hands out palms up, and they filled with silvery black-green smoke that solidified into a box of black-green wood that would make any human who saw it deeply uncomfortable, and break weaker minds that dared to touch anyway.

"Put this on him, then bring him to me."

"Yes, Father. Thank you again for all your help."

Bobby's eyes glowed as he reached out to his mother to convey gratitude to her as well, and a faint series of resonating trills washed through the air.

"Thank you both, for everything,"

Harold said.

Jones added his own thank you in Arabic, making Ahmad's face light up. Alejo then added his thanks, and hugged Ahmad as well.

Then they left, Bobby taking them back, emerging in his own house.

"So what's in the box?"

Alejo asked.

"Kinda makes my skin crawl a little bit, but that seems to be a thing with primordials."

"At its core, it's similar to your necklaces. But overlaying that is essentially a training collar. It's full, florid name is the Collar of Deep Awakening. Essentially, it will contain Michael to my father's will and orbit. Not a slave, he isn't forced to do anything, but he can't leave a certain area and trying to hurt my father or anyone else will cause considerable pain. But the trick of this collar is that its power is entirely self-regulated. The less he needs it, the less power it has over him, until eventually it will fall off because he doesn't require it anymore. So, basically, the more he grows and improves, the freer he becomes. It's not the sort of thing that would work on everyone, but it will work on Michael, who might be rotten, but not quite all the way to his core. A thousand years of self-reflection will probably fix him."

Harold whistled.

"Cannot imagine something like that in human hands. Your father is about the only one I trust with the leash."

"He would not offer the solution lightly, so he must have faith in Michael's ability to grow and improve."

Jones scoffed.

"Still would have made a nice snack."

"Go enjoy your new permanent snack bar. Leave this to me,"

Bobby said, grinning when Harold scowled.

"We'll see the two of you in a couple of weeks. I'm apparently going on a cruise."

"I wasn't serious about that,"

Alejo said.

"Traveling would be fun, now I'm not running for my life, but I don't know I actually want to be trapped on a boat with a bunch of noisy drunk people."

"You're never trapped with me, and if it's travel you want, travel we can do. Let me get rid of the problem, and then we'll plan."

Alejo gave him a look.

"That better mean stay in bed and rest for a bit because you almost died like ten times in the past week."

"I'm not opposed to staying in bed, but I'd like to negotiate the activity."

Alejo rolled his eyes.

"I'm leaving,"

Harold said.

"See you next problem, Bobby."

"See you later!"

Jones echoed Alejo's eyeroll before following Harold out.

Taking the box, he went to the bedroom where Michael was being kept. He was lying on the bed, propped against pillows, reading one of Bobby's many, many books, but he tossed it aside and stood immediately.

"You can't keep me here forever! My parents will come looking for me."

"Given that you summoned a demon and sold your friend off like a mail-order bride, I think they are probably more out of sight, out of mind with you right now,"

Bobby said.

"Remember why your hair is white, little Wiccan, and sit back down."

Looking suddenly ill, Michael sat. He looked at the box, then looked away, clearly trying not to run away or scream or throw up.

Bobby set the box on the nightstand, silently recited the unlocking spell, and flipped open the top portion to reveal the collar sitting secured around a raised, padded stand. It was black with an oil-slick shine, set with a stone similar to the one Alejo and the others wore, but black and red in color.

"Get that away from me!"

Michael hissed, but when he tried to bolt, it took no effort to call up tentacles to wrap around his limbs and hold him in place.

"Stop it! Don't! I promise I won't—"

"I know you won't. I don't need your worthless promises,"

Bobby replied, and secured the collar around his neck, whispering the enchantment that would lock it in place until a day came, in a hundred days or a thousand years, when Michael himself determined he no longer needed it.

"Now it's time for you to meet my father."

Before Michael could speak, Bobby dragged them into the primordial dark, through to his father's temple, to the very same garden where they'd been having tea just an hour or so ago.

"Father, your apprentice."

He dropped Michael at his feet.

"Thank you. Human, be grateful it was the Lord of the Flickering Lights that you angered, for no other of his kind would have shown the mercy he has today. Rise, and walk with me, and let us converse for a time."

He gave Bobby a soft smile and a wave of his head to say see you later.

Slipping through back to his house, Bobby went in search of his lover, who had left the house to wander around outside, standing by a little pond just barely big enough to hold some medium-sized goldfish. Fireflies flickered all around him, and other insects had gathered at the shore as well to say their hellos. It was a good thing insects didn't bother him, because clearly there would be a lot of them in his life. The poor town was going to see an uptick they would not enjoy. Ah, well. He'd mitigate the dangerous stuff and the rest would be fine. Wasn't like the town was unused to strange happenings.

He stepped up behind Alejo and wrapped his arms around his waist, dropping a kiss to the base of his throat.

"Thought we were going to bed."

Alejo twisted around in his arms and wrapped his loosely around Bobby's neck.

"Yeah, to sleep, whatever you scheme otherwise. We can do the fun things later. Then if you're willing I need to go home to get my things. I can fly or drive or whatever."

Bobby scoffed.

"I can take you, and either wait for you somewhere or help you. Don't want to cause too much chaos with your family."

"It'll happen at some point, may as well get it over with. Though I'm sure I'll get the lecture from hell about jumping from a demonic engagement to a primordial lover. Will I become like your dad, someday? With the eyes and powers and everything?"

"Surprised you never talked about it with him."

"Seemed kind of presumptuous and rude."

"You're stuck with me, little human, so it's neither of those things."

"You nearly died. I wasn't going to be all 'do I get superpowers eventually?' while you were healing. I could practically feel my mother removing la chancla from her foot to lob at my head. I'd rather deal with those weird ass Dark Young again."

"I'm sure we'll see them again someday. My family is always causing trouble, by accident or design, and sometimes it's impossible to say which. Come on, let's go get that rest you think I need so badly, and then we can sort out what to do next."

Surprising no one but Alejo himself, he dropped off immediately, sighing softly in his sleep as though his subconscious was relieved to finally get a break. Bobby lingered for a couple of hours, until he felt one hundred percent himself again. He'd still felt a bit worn thin climbing out of the regeneration fluid, but his father's tea, rest, and time had taken care of that.

Now it was time to work. His haphazard house just wouldn't do for an actual human, so time to reconfigure. Any finetuning or particular requests Alejo had, he could add later.

For now, he started with creating a basement, reaching deep into the fabric of the world to shift and change things the way he wanted. It was something he ordinarily wouldn't do without permission, but Harold and Jones wouldn't care about a little remodeling.

Once the basement was ready, he turned it into a proper library, with shelves, fancy lighting, reading rooms, special archive, everything, and moved all his books there.

With the first level clear, he set to work in earnest. A proper kitchen that he'd leave empty so Alejo could choose the pots and pans and everything else, large and professional grade, as it sounded like Alejo's family liked to cook.

Next a dining room that could accommodate lots of people, and a smaller one that was mostly part of the kitchen, divided by an archway, for everyday use that overlooked the pond and garden Alejo had seemed to like.

Living room, rec room, office space, bathrooms, mudroom, entryway, and a couple of empty rooms for Alejo to do as he liked. Next he added a glassed in room that could be greenhouse or insect metropolis or both, complete with a little pond of its own.

After that, he stopped for a break and food, regain some lost energy and answer some texts from Harold.

When that was all addressed, he set to work on the upstairs. Master bedroom. Spare bedrooms. Roomy hallway, sweeping stairs with a landing that was also a sitting area, complete with a little kitchenette space so no one had to go all the way downstairs for a midnight snack. A large deck with stairs to the ground, and beneath the deck, a sunroom that he adjusted to connect to the first floor.

By the time he'd finished adding all the little details like windows, doors, closets, he was actually ready for a real nap.

Crawling back into a bed that was larger and nicer than he'd left it, he wrapped around Alejo and sank into a restful state, smiling softly.

When he woke some hours later, it was to all sorts of racket downstairs. Alejo, Harold, Jones, and what sounded like delivery people. Yawning and stretching, Bobby went to shower and dress. By the time he made it downstairs, the delivery people were long gone, and Jones was helping arrange furniture.

"Having fun?"

Bobby asked.

Alejo finished arranged an enormous wraparound couch to his satisfaction.

"You really need to stop sleeping for days at a time."

Bobby shrugged.

"I've been busy. I needed to rejuvenate, and sadly my grandfather's special fluids were not here to soak in this time. I see you've been having fun with the new house."

"It's a lot of house. Something smaller would have been fine."

"Meh. Where's the fun in that? But I can make everything smaller if that's what you want."

"No, no, I already sent pictures to my family. They've been calling and texting nonstop since I explained everything to them. I was on the facetime from hell with my parents for like three hours, so thanks for that."

Bobby smirked.

"Glad I slept through it."

Alejo jabbed him hard in the stomach with his finger.

"Brat. On the bright side, we don't have to go get my stuff. They've decided they're going to come here, so they can see everything firsthand for themselves. Be here in a couple of weeks, possibly a little sooner, once they've wrapped things up and arranged pet sitters and things like that. I also told them about Michael."

"I spoke to Michael's parents,"

Jones said, baring his fangs for a bare second.

"Tracked them down, flew out there, had a nice long chat. They'll be laying low for a long time. They asked if they could speak with their son, and I said I didn't know, but I'd be in touch when I did."

"I'll speak with my father about it. Normally it's better if they are cut off entirely, allowed to start fresh and focus, but the circumstances have been peculiar, to say the least. So the living room seems to be coming along nicely. What else have you done?"

"Kitchen is stocked. Fixed up the spare bedrooms. I've been helping get the greenhouse in order for plants and crawlies,"

Harold said.

"Warded the offices so the arcana stays safely contained. Sure you'd have done it yourself, but I was here and had the time and energy to spare."

"I appreciate it."

He settled on the couch, soft and plush, a dark, dark blue in color. The whole living room was styled around it, with grays and browns, splashes of brighter colors. TV, chairs, rugs, blankets hanging on a fancy rack, and so much more.

He'd never really bothered with a proper house before; he just didn't need it. This was definitely something he could get used to; humans were particularly good at creature comforts.

Eventually, he was tugged to his feet and given a tour. The kitchen was indeed functional now, complete with stocked pantry and fridge. There were even herbs in cute little animal-shaped pots in the windows, and there was a grill and table on the deck beyond it. He didn't remember adding that, but the details had gotten hazy by the end.

When they finally wound up back where they started, they ordered pizza for the humans and sprawled out across the living room. Bobby sat at one end of the sofa and flipped the footrest out, so he was lounging nicely. Alejo settled against him, nearly lying across him, which suited Bobby fine. Jones sprawled out across most of the rest of the sofa, and Harold settled into the recliner.

"This is nice. Full domestication suits you."

"Don't get too cozy,"

Bobby drawled.

"This town can only stay out of trouble for so long, and there's still a demon with my blood out there somewhere."

"Let's enjoy the peace and quiet while we can,"

Jones said.

"I took off for the next three days. I don't want no trouble until I'm back on the clock."

Bobby chuckled.

"I've got in-laws visiting soon. I'm not looking for trouble. Now shut up and watch…whatever the hell this is and eat your food, so I can zone out and just enjoy the ambiance."

"Not gonna hear me complaining,"

Harold said, dragging an entire box of pizza over to himself, while Alejo sat up enough to do much the same. Bobby settled more comfortably into his seat, eyes falling shut as he simply absorbed and enjoyed everything around him, from the chatter of the TV to the presence of his friends and lover to the constant, loving presence of the primordial dark.

End