Chapter 27: The End

Orion shifted on his throne, looking at the festivities below. The party was in full swing, and pretty much everyone was either drunk, dead, or in a dark corner.

At the start, it had amused him. The Archdemons had wasted no time into swearing their loyalty to him. He had killed the Devil not once, but twice.

Not to mention he had killed Gorgon as well.

He shook his cup, and Seraphin, dressed only in red veils, filled it up for him.

That had amused him at the start once, too. Now, he just wanted to tell the demon to get lost.

"Damon," that was the only bright light left in Orion's life. Damon, his one-time best friend, and now his lover. The man looked up from his book, looking about as amused by the festivities as Orion himself.

Or maybe he was simply not amused by Orion? These days, Orion could not tell.

"No, old chap, the party is fun," Damon said, as he placed his book down. "It is your ugly mug that I don't want to see."

Orion snorted, as he decided that tonight would be just another night with Damon having a headache.

Damon chuckled, took Orion's cup, and then started to drink the wine. Orion watched as a trickle of wine fell down Damon's throat, and he groaned.

The man was blue balling him in the worst way possible. Not by leaving and letting him fume, but by staying and letting him yearn…

"If I bring our lady love back, will you finally…?" Orion did not know why he made the pause. Edwin was dead, reborn, and now living life as a human.

And yet, when Damon threw the cup at his head, Orion let it hit. Wine spilled over his robes; his nose hurt slightly from the hit.

Damon would have never allowed himself something like this before. Never.

"Why the fuck did you kill him? What have you been doing with his lands?"

That was a good question. One to which Orion did not have an answer to.

"You," Damon pointed an accusing finger at Orion, as the man bowed his head. "Are a brat and a pest! And I am calling Edwin here, darn you because…"

"Because he loves you?" Seraphin cut in. Normally, Orion did not let him speak. He had never slept with the man. Sleeping near him would surely end with him becoming a head shorter.

Damon scoffed, turned his head to the side.

"He did love you, but you wanted perfection. And he was born a human, Damon. Those are flawed by design," Seraphin continued, as the veils around him turned into his old robes. "Besides… he has plans for us."

Before Orion could react, he was in chains. How? Why?

Did Death pull a number on him, and left Edwin as a demon?

"For fuck's sake!" Orion roared, as he saw Edwin, a little bit younger than he remembered him, but still the same pretty boy he had always been, with an axe in his hands.

"Honey, I am home!" Edwin chirped. Damon had known that the man had been fighting his way through hell. He had known that the ghoul by Edwin's side had led him inside.

And yet, when he noticed the blue ribbon on his ex-lover's braid, he could not help but think that this was just his luck.

"So, what are you going to do with me?" Orion asked, as he watched Damon make his way to Edwin, Seraphin took a moment to pat Orion on the head, before descending the raised platform as well.

Edwin grinned, the axe in his hands, as he made his way to the throne.

"I tried everything, Orion. I tried to make it work," Edwin said, a grin on his lips. "But you are an asshole, so now I am going to do that, which I should have done long ago."

Orion watched, as the axe made its way towards his head. He watched, as Edwin brought it down again and again… as a ghost, a little bit to the side.

He pouted, as Edwin placed runes on his corpse. Servitude runes, calming runes.

Runes to control him, runes to bind him.

As his soul was forced back in his body, he could not help but think that Edwin had truly fallen low.

For the brunette unchained him, took his hand in his, and then started to tug him in the direction of the Lust District.

"You are still about as good as a brick," Orion could not help but mutter, as Edwin giggled like mad by his side.

"Yeah, but your brick. Oh," Edwin turned to Len, who was looking anywhere but at Orion. "Thank for unlocking the door, Len!"

"Anytime," the traitor spoke, and Orion simply decided that he was going to get even.

As soon as he found a way to create runes without his ability to grant himself permission when he wanted to.

Which, as Death had decreed, was impossible.

And so, Edwin got his harem, ruled over Hell, and spoke with Martha three times per day.

Because one could be the Devil, but if one did not pick up the phone when one's mother called, then there was only one response of said mother: tracking you down and bringing the wrath of the holy sandal upon your head.

The End!