Chapter Two
The night was filled with booze, a friendly prostitute, music, and laughing.
I hadn't laughed in a while, at a joke that wasn't my own, so I welcomed it with open arms, despite being a little tipsy. Jahlia was nothing like the other women I'd been around. Fos was obnoxious and nosy while her sister, Skotadi, was just as sly and manipulative. The other women just wanted to try and suck up to me or make bets on who could make me straight first.
Yeah, that's so how it worked.
NOT.
Jahlia didn't care who I was and would happily slap me with insults that I countered to the best of my ability, only to have her bitchslap me with a comment even harder. She was damn good company, and even though she knew nothing about my life, I still felt like she could relate. Not quite to the dot, but to the point where it effected her strongly.
"Men are pigs," Jahlia stated as she leaned on the bar, knocking back another martini, rolling the toothpick around on her tongue before she snapped it in half with her fang and dropped it in the glass, "You can never trust them. They say they love you? What a joke!" I nodded, even though technically she was insulting me as well, but even I had to admit that the word "love" had lost its meaning. I'd had a couple of one-night stands who said they loved me, but it was all bullshit. They just wanted what little power I possessed, or to fuck my life up.
One man told me he loved me, and I believed him.
In return, to show his precious love to me, he killed me more times than I can count. With more than a dagger and fists. With words.
"I can drink to that." I told her, beating my hand on the bar to get the bartender's attention, but he was too busy trying to flirt with a woman that had crawled in through the back somehow. I cursed foully and Jahlia patted my hand.
"You gotta do more than that to get attention, sugarlumps."
"Sugarlumps?"
"I've knocked back enough alcohol to kill a human. You're sugarlumps, candycrust, and gumdrops. Whatever the hell I say you are."
"Mmm," I moaned at that, grinning wickedly at her as I rested my cheek on my fist, elbow on the bar, "Keep talking like that and I might just get a sugar high before I get drunk." Jahlia snorted at that, then smacked her hand down and snapped her fingers in the air, turning her head to look over her shoulder down at the bartender.
"Oi! We're paying you to get us drunk, you! Two Enigmas!" She shouted, making the bartender wince and glare in our direction before he sulked off to obey as the woman he was trying to flirt with slunk off to find new prey. I snickered, running a hand through my hair before dropping my hand to the counter.
"I can't handle that much alcohol without puking." I warned her with a smirk. Jahlia shrugged, waving me off as she licked her red lips, then paused to make a face at the lipstick on her tongue. She picked up a napkin and wiped the lipstick off her pale pink lips, smacking them to try and get the paint off.
"Don't be a light-weight after all that talk about drinking like a man," She drawled, tossing her napkin at my face before she paused to watch me pull it off my face and study the lipstick there, "Wow, red's your color." I snorted at that, flicking the napkin at her as she caught it and shoved it into someone's shot glass behind her.
"So, why'd you decide to come out and drink anyway?" Jahlia asked as the bartender pushed our drinks across the counter to us. She took hers and swallowed a huge gulp, barely flinching at the harsh alcoholic flavor. I was a little more hesitant. I could handle alcohol, sure, but enough to have me going up like a Roman candle? Not so sure. I took a little sip and instantly withdrew to set it down, coughing. Jahlia smirked at that, watching me with amusement dancing in her eyes. I scowled, recovering from the coughing fit to glance at her.
"I got bored." I replied breathlessly. Jahlia cocked a brow at that, taking another drink of her glass of flaming liquid.
"You got bored in such a big palace? Obviously you're not using it right, pumpkin." She said, pushing my drink back at me. I was tempted to just shove it back and let it spill in her barely covered lap. I could see the lacy thong peeking out from under her dress. Jahlia snapped her fingers in my face, making me look up to see her cocking a brow at me.
"What happened to being gay?" She asked, making me smirk wickedly.
"I was just wondering if they came in my size." I responded. Jahlia snorted into her palm, stifling the first laugh I would have heard from her all night. I could see why she had tried not to laugh. She snorted obnoxiously, but somehow, I found it funny and laughed. Jahlia whacked me in the arm.
"Don't laugh at my laugh."
"Why not? You sound like a drunk pig."
"At least I don't sound like a dying camel."
"How do you know what a dying camel sounds like?"
"Because I eat them." Jahlia responded with enough sarcasm to flood the bar. I laughed at that, fully enjoying her company as I reluctantly downed the vicious throat biting drink she'd ordered for me. It had me drunk in a matter of half an hour. I was giggling wildly at almost everything Jahlia said, which wasn't totally because I was drunk. The woman had a wicked, morbid sense of humor. She could also switch from humor to something deep and philosophical when she needed to. It was pretty great.
Eventually, though, we were causing enough trouble to have the bartender boot us out for being loud and obnoxious-- and trying to sing along with the band off tune. Jahlia and I stumbled out of the bar, laughing hysterically. Her weird pig laugh and my apparently dying camel laugh. The bouncer looked like he was waiting for me to carry out that offer I made earlier, but I barely noticed him as Jahlia and I headed down the street that was now dark and vacant during midnight hours.
"Gods, it's cold out here," Jahlia declared, her voice echoing off the buildings, "And it smells like a piss pot."
"Well," I drawled, barely noticing the cold from the alcohol that burned my veins and poisoned a liver that healed itself in seconds, "I have no coat for you, so don't ask me to take off the leather."
"Ew, I don't want to see your hairy ass."
"Who said it was hairy? I may laugh like a camel, but I ain't a camel."
"No, no, you are not. Camels don't have blue hair."
"What about blue camels?"
"There are no such thing!"
"Ah, I could make a blue camel if I wanted to."
"But you're not a god." Jahlia pointed out, making me grimace. She sighed, stumbling closer to me and linking her arm with mine and almost knocking me over in the process with our combined impaired coordination. She rested her cheek on my shoulder, patting at my hand in her cold, skinny ones.
"That's not a bad thing, sugarbutt. Gods are terrible creatures anyway." She assured, making me wrinkle my nose.
"They are terrible, aren't they?" I mused. Jahlia nodded as I used my powers to teleport us from the street to the front door where we almost fell, laughing loudly. I pushed open the front door, holding it open for Jahlia, who gave me a none-too-graceful bow before she sauntered in, pulling up short at the sight of Fos gaping at us.
"You bring girl home?" Fos asked, horrified. I flipped her the bird, linking arms with Jahlia again, who grinned mischeviously at Fos, whose face lit up like a Christmas bulb.
"I bring girl home. Girl name Jahhhh-leeeee-ahhh." I mocked Fos, who pinned me with a fierce glare that I ignored as I teleported Jahlia and I to my room.
My room wasn't as extravagant as Adrian's or Malachi's. Why should it be? I wasn't one of them anymore. I was my own entity. Some kind of cursed, deformed little guy that couldn't even handle a couple of drinks before he found himself drunk on the floor. I only had a large gold and blue designed bed pushed against a wall of stained-glass windows covered by black curtains. The floor was made up of wood, except for the center where a thick plush black carpet took up a good amount of space. A wardrobe, a dresser, a desk that was all dusty from lack of use. And a door to a bathroom with a triangular tub in the corner, shower across from it in the other corner.
Didn't even have a hot tub like Adrian did.
But I wasn't a super powerful Titan spawn, huh?
"What a nice bed," Jahlia exclaimed, letting go of me to run over and jump on the bed, sitting with her legs crossed before she gestured me to join her, "But take off that suit, damn it. You're not working." I laughed at that, slinking over to the bed to bend over on it, laying my torso and head on it so I could look up at her, wiggling my butt.
"I'm always working, tea cake."
"Tea cake?"
"If you can call me stupid names, I can call you stupid names."
"Fair enough," Jahlia agreed, then shook her head and slid off the bed, heading to my wardrobe, "There has to be something else you can wear. Can't you summon clothes?" I paused, wrinkling my nose at that. I had never bothered. I only needed to wear this uniform, and occasionally I would wear something less tight if I had a lot of injuries, but I didn't really want to wear that. I just walked over to hover over Jahlia's shoulder as she dug around through my wardrobe, throwing all my other leather suits out and older clothing that I never really wore. I had no need for it.
I paused, watching Jahlia work at my wardrobe. Gosh, she was so short. She came up to about my chest. Even worse, as she drew out of the wardrobe and smashed her head into my nose because I was leaning in trying to sniff her hair.
"Ow!" We protested in unison. Jahlia reached back to rub her head, turning to glare at me as I rubbed my sore nose.
"What were you doing? Trying to take a whiff of me or jump me from behind?" She demanded, getting a suspicious glint in her eyes again. I scoffed, dropping my hand to my side.
"I don't want what you're offering. If you had a cock and some more hair on your body, maybe we could talk." I responded defensively. Jahlia studied me for a moment, then turned back around to take out a smokey black blouse that was actually a gag gift from Theo, when he met me for the first time and thought I was a woman because of the way I looked in the leather suit.
"Wear this." She tossed it at my face and I scowled, pulling it off to hold it up.
"Seriously? This is a girl's shirt. I don't even have breasts to fill out the front."
"And neither did Mimi." Jahlia pointed out. I grinned at that. Normally I would've thrown the shirt back at her and told her to go fuck herself, but I was heavily intoxicated and agreed. I struggled to reach back and pull the zipper of my suit off when Jahlia came up behind me and tore the zipper down, then paused to make a purring sound deep in her throat.
"It's too bad you're gay. You have a really nice ass. Do the other gays swarm you?" She asked, popping me on the buttcheek before returning to my wardrobe. I rolled my eyes, dropping the leather suit so I was standing in the nude. I picked up the blouse and put it on, pausing to frown at the fact that there really wasn't a place for breasts anyway.
"Usually they end up dead." I responded briefly. Jahlia paused, glancing over her shoulder.
"Does that bother you?" She asked. I pulled the front of the blouse down so I could hide my groin from her, even though she'd probably seen thousands of them. Her question bothered me, though, and I wasn't quite sure why as I went over and sat on the bed as she found a pair of leather pants, tossing them at me. I caught them and pulled them on, ignoring her question in the end.
"You don't wear underwear?" She asked, lifting a brow as she came over to plop on the bed. I fell back on the bed, tucking my hands behind my head.
"Nope. Makes it easier when whores rip my clothes off." I added, glancing at her pointedly. Jahlia scoffed and whacked me on the stomach, making me wince. She leaned back on her hands, blissfully ignoring the fact that everything under her dress was visible to my eye.
"You never answered my question." Jahlia hummed, using her toe to poke my armpit, wiggling it there and making me snicker and roll away from her onto my stomach, elbows on the thick quilt of my bed. I traced the designs with my finger now, oddly fascinated with the way they twirled and swirled so freely. I barely thought about her question now.
"Which one?" I asked carelessly, leaning down to nuzzle my nose against the soft blanket. Jahlia smirked and pushed her foot against my shoulder.
"The men around you that die. Does it bother you?" She asked, her smirk fading as a frown worked itself onto my face.
"It does when I actually like the whore." I muttered, thinking of Deo. I dropped my head against the blanket, facing Jahlia, who studied me intently. She let herself fall on her side so she was laying beside me, a couple feet away, resting her head on her folded arm.
"Who are you thinking about?" She asked. I scowled.
"Who are you thinking about?" I asked. Jahlia stared at me blankly now.
"Patroclus." She answered without pause. I blinked, confused.
"Patroclus? Achilles's Patroclus?" I asked. Jahlia shook her head, sitting up to prop herself on her elbows, studying the blankets until she found a loose string to tug at and twirl around her finger.
"My Patroclus. He was a very good friend of mine before Artemis killed him." She responded. I frowned.
"Why did she kill him?" I asked. Jahlia turned her head to stare at me.
"Tell me who you're thinking about and I'll tell you." She responded. I scowled. I hated playing games like this, but she'd already peaked my curiosity, so I caved in and told her.
"Deo." I told her. Jahlia nodded, looking away.
"Patroclus killed one of her stags by accident. He was aiming for a squirrel, but it moved and he tried to follow it with his arrow and let it fly. It struck a stag instead. Artemis was furious, so she killed him with his own arrow. Plunged right into his face. His soul went to the Fields of Asphodel, and because your brother is such a swell guy, he won't let me in to see him." She informed. A bolt of anger rushed through me at that as I shot her a dirty look.
"He is not my brother." I snapped. Jahlia's eyes glowed.
"Cain is your brother."
"No, he's not."
"Yes, he is."
"We may share blood, but he's not my brother. I'd sooner call Cronus my brother than him."
"You hate Cain."
"Hate is an understatement. If I ever got the chance to eternally torture the little shit, I would take it in a heartbeat."
"Even if it meant damning your soul for eternity?" Jahlia asked. I laughed at that, rolling onto my back and tossing an arm over my head, the other resting across my stomach as I stared up at a ceiling that I had painted over with black to avoid having to see the damned scenes of Cain killing me painted there-- because Malachi was a sucker for the Bible and my feelings for it didn't matter enough to him for him to change it.
"I'm already damned." I responded flatly. Jahlia hummed, scooting over and picking my head up to rest it in her lap, her fingers sliding through my hair, fingernails scraping my scalp gently and giving me goosebumps. She was incredibly talented at massaging my scalp.
"Do I have to pay you for your company tonight?" I murmured under my breath as she stroked my hair.
"No," She answered after a long pause, "It's a mutual agreement, and we're not having sex."
"We would, if you would just grow a penis."
"Damn, sorry, out of seed." Jahlia sighed wistfully. I laughed, closing my eyes and relaxing to enjoy the way her fingers felt in my hair. I had always loved having people pet me. It was weird, but blissful nonetheless. Even just having someone like Jahlia do it put me at ease.
"So, who was Deo?" Jahlia asked softly. I wanted to tell her to shove it, but for some reason, I found myself speaking.
"A whore," I answered honestly, "I rented him out often. He was really pretty, and very good at what he did. I liked the way his fingers felt in my mouth and the way he moaned. He sounded like a woman."
"I thought you were gay."
"I am."
"All righty. What happened to him?"
"Cain killed him." I told her hollowly. Jahlia stopped stroking my head to look down at me. I opened my eyes to stare up at her, watching her eyes study me. Neither of us said anything for a while before she returned to massaging my head. I closed my eyes again, savoring the gentle strokes and scratches.
"Does Cain kill all of your whores?" She asked me after a moment.
"Yes." Why was I even answering her? Gods, I was more drunk than I thought.
"Who else does Cain kill?"
"Me."
"Why does he kill you?"
"I asked him once."
"And?"
"He killed me."
"Sounds like a great guy."
"Totally. Like Hades during his six months of PMS." I said sarcastically. Jahlia smirked for a moment before it faded and she stopped massaging me again. I frowned, opening my eyes to look up at her to see her staring at me. I couldn't figure out what she was thinking, which frustrated me. I was used to knowing a lot of things. I guessed the alcohol was just drowning everything out. With half my powers gone and what remained being blurry from intoxication, I was probably as helpless as a human, which disgusted me. Humans were disgusting.
"Do you love Cain?" Jahlia asked. I snapped my eyes to lock with hers as I stared at her intensely, feeling a hot sensation boil through my blood. I couldn't tell if it was anger or not. I guessed it was since we were talking about Cain.
"I hate him," I breathed, watching Jahlia's eyes flicker, "I hate him so much. I've never hated anyone as much as I hate Cain."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Yes, I did."
"No, you didn't. I asked if you loved Cain."
"And I told you I hated him."
"You can love someone you hate."
"You're drunk."
"You're drunk." Jahlia accused. I grinned drunkenly at that. I couldn't quite remember what happened after that. Things got blurry and eventually grew dark. All I knew was that I woke up in the morning in an empty bed with a pulsing headache in my temples. I stared at the empty space beside me, the blankets rumpled and pillows tossed everywhere. I was naked. I didn't remember having sex with Jahlia, though. I rolled out of bed, feeling vomit bubble its way up my throat, preparing to greet the world. I stumbled out of bed, hit the floor a couple times, but managed to make it to the bathroom where I opened the door, freezing at the sight of Jahlia standing in front of the mirror in a green towel, her curly black hair wet and tied back in a ponytail. She turned to stare at me and I stared at her before the vomit hit my mouth and I doubled over, puking all over the floor.
My stomach clenched and twisted, throat burning strongly as I coughed and gasped for air. Jahlia scrunched up her nose as I managed to lift my head. She grabbed some toilet paper and came over to hand it to me so I could wipe my mouth, her arms folding over her chest as she watched me clean off my face.
"Rude. I didn't think my body was that repulsive." She deadpanned. I glared at her past my hair, then grimaced, getting up and using my powers to clean up the mess on the floor.
"It's not. I just... Ugh. I'm never drinking that enema drink again."
"Enigma, Abel. Not enema."
"What's the difference?" I grunted, stumbling over to the shower and turning it on. Jahlia watched me, cocking her head so her wet ponytail fell over her shoulder.
"You gonna be okay, bub?" She asked, coming over to open the shower door for me. I nodded weakly, grimacing at the bad taste in my mouth.
"Yeah, just need something in my stomach."
"Not a good idea if you're just gonna puke it up again."
"I'm a demigod. I can do what I want."
"Fine, fine. But I won't stick around to see you vomit again." She said, waving her hands at me as she went to the mirror again. I frowned, leaving the shower door open as I washed my hair off, watching her dab lipstick onto her lips again.
"You're leaving?" I asked, masking the disappointment in my voice. Or at least, trying to, because Jahlia smirked sideways at me before she continued doing her make up. There was something oddly attractive about watching a woman put make up on. A graceful, feminine ritual.
"I have to, sugarbutt. I have a job to go to."
"Can I pay you to stay?"
"Nope. I like what I do anyway. I get to be a man while being a woman. Anyway, I have to go find Mimi and make sure she made enough money for her half of our rent. Why don't we meet up again, same place, same time?" She asked. I hesitated at that, trying to go through my memory bank to see if Malachi had said we'd be busy tonight, but I didn't think of anything, so I just nodded. Jahlia beamed as she finished dressing before coming over to me in the shower. She avoided the water, but leaned in and kissed me gently on the cheek before she took her leave. I watched her go, then sighed as I shut the door and returned to showering.
Once I was done, I towel dried myself before pulling on one of my leather uniforms. I headed to the kitchen, intent to fill my stomach, even if it made me sick. I was feeling better now that I'd puked up enough food to end world hunger.
I just hoped today went better than yesterday.
Well, except last night.
Last night was nice.