The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Thirteen

Shade recognized Opium, though he had never really known that she was one of the Halfangels. He thought she was just a really ethereal singer. "Welcome to Nede," she said.

Shade had been in Eden, as several that were living in Nede had. He understood the horror of life underground for those who had once been so great, so feared. Nobody mentioned Joy. No one thought of her. They all stared at Shade. He was legend. It wasn't just because he'd always lived in fancy house and had nice clothes, and lived among humans unknown. It wasn't because he'd lived over two thousand years. It was, partly, because it was well known that Shade was the Nephill Spawn that Lucifer had planned. Lucifer had sent the right fathers to the right mothers until this perfect child was born, and he had made sure that Shade would be raised to believe in nothing but himself. And then he sent Azyur Ka to give Shade the blood. All the old ones knew this, most of them also knew that Gabriel herself had done her best to encourage Shade to have no masters, to honor no debts he didn't choose for himself and to trust no one, especially not Lucifer. And it had worked, because Shade had been living in Lucifer's enmity for years. It was this, this fighting over Shade by Angels that made him legend, the mere fact that Angels cared that he was there, made him legend. These forgotten ones, these lost children, they could not help but wish to be so desired by Angels.

"Morpheus will show you where you can rest; later you can talk to us," Mother said, suddenly seeming in charge. She gave Morpheus this look that said, "Listen, he doesn't even know who you are at this point, take it easy."

Morpheus glumly, but obediently, showed them to the room where Joy was. Julien saw her first. He screamed. "Joy!"

She was on the floor feeling hungry, as usual.

Julien was kneeling before her in a split second. And then he was crying. Shade came into the room and did not seem surprised. Morpheus made a gesture toward the bed. "You can sleep here, it's safe," he said. Shade walked toward the small cot.

"I'm not putting anyone out?" He was watching Julien and Joy as they clawed at each other's clothing. Morpheus lowered his eyes when he saw them.

"It's Mazzy's bed, but she can always go sleep in the Lilim room." Morpheus shrugged, "actually, I think it's still her watch, so she won't be sleeping anyway."

Shade took off his jacket and opened his cuffs. The clothes didn't seem to suit him, or Morpheus' image of what he was, they might have been stolen. His face was not quite what Morpheus expected either, even though he'd seen him before. Shade looked very young. And unlike Vampyres who started out white, his skin was still dark enough to pass for human, the sort of color humans usually got when they were as African as Morpheus was human.

Morpheus remembered Absinthe saying that when she had first seen Death she thought she looked so much like Shade because they both had such black eyes. Morpheus looked. Shade did have very striking eyes, the whites were very white, the rest was entirely black so that it was impossible to tell how wide his pupils were. Maybe Lucifer had thrown an Angel into the mix when he planned this man's birth.

Morpheus glanced at Julien and Joy. They were both on the ground shirtless and sucking at each other. A shiver ran up Morpheus' spine that sent River running from shoulder to hair. Morpheus tried not to show anything, tried to think of a good way to leave the room.

He just stood watching. He wasn't jealous of Joy, that wasn't it, because he knew how it was and would always be with Julien and her, she had been his first and only human lover and now she was his child-in-blood. He loved her. He loved her exactly as one does love their child, the only difference being that Vampyres love their children by cutting them a lot and feeding them blood. Morpheus was just feeling helpless being in the room with Julien, and having Julien not care.