Blessed by Night

Malachi had always harbored a small attraction to Joanne.

However, it was one that he never planned to pursue due to the nature of his relationship with her daughter.

Anna was everything to him, and because of that he never wanted to jeopardize everything that he had with her for some small fascination that he had with her mother.

He just thought he'd get over it over time.

And he very nearly was, atleast until this moment where she suddenly grabbed him by the face and kissed him forcefully.

Joanne was a firm believer that if you were going to do something bad, you might as well go all the way with it and worry about the consequences later.

So, she didn't even hesitate to slip her tongue into Malachi's mouth so that she could have no regrets about not going far enough later.

She thought she would feel uncomfortable since she hadn't done this in a while, but she found that it was just like riding a bike.

'This.. doesn't feel scary at-'

"Mom! What the fuck?!"

Joanne's eyes immediately snapped open and she pushed herself away from Malachi so hard that she nearly knocked him off of the cliff.

She looked at Anna sadly almost as if she just realized that she made a terrible mistake.

"I… I'm so sorry."

Before she could get chewed out by her daughter, Joanne sprouted her wings from her back and took off in a flash of golden light.

With her speed, she was over a mile away in under ten seconds, flying with her face in her hands as she continued to replay the past minute of her life over and over again.

"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!!"

Her daughter was never going to talk to her again.

The other crazy girls that Malachi kept around him all of the time were going to bite, burn, or tear her head off!

All because she couldn't keep her lips all to her self!

Though Joanne was already a growing ten miles away, that did not stop her from hearing the voice of the man she couldn't stop thinking about within her mind.

'You left before I could say anything, but... I am definitely going to miss you the most, Jo. Let's talk when I come back, yea?'

As Joanne tried to remain steady in her flight, a slight smile that she couldn't suppress broke out on her face.

"Fuck it, it was worth it."

-

Malachi smiled as he kept his eyes focused on the section of the sky where he'd watched Joanne disappear.

He could still remember the soft feeling of her lips on his as she kissed him, and her taste that was like one of the sweetest things he'd ever experienced in his life.

And now that she'd accidentally had some of his essence put inside of her, he was thinking about her more strongly than ever.

Glancing behind him, he found all four of the women he loved standing still and staring with their arms folded.

"Are you mad at me?"

Sei: "No.."

Banca: "You didn't really do anything."

Luna: "But you didn't seem to hate that she kissed you either."

Anna was still trapped within a stunned silence, and Malachi was largely unsure of what she was even thinking.

Nadine was standing by silently a couple of feet away, but her cheeks were puffed out like a damned squirrels as she fought to hold in everything she was thinking.

But he guessed that it went somewhere along the lines of 'That was supposed to be mine'.

It all left him with a serious headache.

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked to Aubrey, Aisha, and Serana for help but only found them desperately going out of their way to avoid his gaze.

It was as if they were clearly saying that this problem was his own.

Malachi pushed a bit of his gray dreadlocks out of his eyes as he sighed deeply.

"Truth be told... I guess I-"

"Santa Clause?!" Serana yelled.

Everyone followed her finger in the sky and were mesmerized by what they saw.

Upon the horizon, there was a dark carriage being pulled by two nightmarish horses with bodies as black as night and muscles like stygian iron.

The carriage galloped across the sky and everywhere that they departed from was replaced by glorious day as far as the eyes could see.

The horses stopped just shy of the cliff and hovered in the air like they were waiting anxiously for their guests to enter.

When the carriage door swung open, Nyx poked her head out wearing dark sunglasses and her usual hypnotic smile.

"Come along now! It's still a bit too bright and early for my liking, so I want to head back home as quickly as possible."

The goddess tilted down her glasses and dragged her gaze across everyone in the group.

"Am I... missing something? Seems a little awkward around here for some reason."

Malachi chuckled dryly as he started to help the girls up into the carriage. "Ah, you know... just some stuff I'll fill you in on later."

"Oh? Okay then!"

With Luna being the last one to get in, Malachi took one last look at the group who was watching him depart and he felt his resolve weaken just a bit.

Aubrey was silently crying while being held by Aisha, and Serana looked to be equally as sad.

He didn't want to be separated from the people closest to him in his life either, but when he closed his eyes he still remembered the moment where he bit his sister and was the cause for why she fell deathly ill.

He absolutely had to prevent something unfortunate like that from happening again.

So instead of running to hug her and weakening his own resole, he smiled at her confidently like he did when they were children, and tried to reassure both himself and her.

"Don't look so sad, yea? Ain't like I'll be gone forever."

"Yea.. I got it. I'll help keep things running in the meantime."

"I couldn't think of anyone better for the job."

After waving goodbye over his shoulders, Malachi climbed into the carriage and sat between Bianca and Sei.

"Are you sure you have nothing left to say?" Luna asked.

"I'm sure... Too long of a goodbye makes it seem like I ain't coming back, you know?"

At that moment, the horses let out powerful neighs that traveled throughout night and day for miles.

Nyx clicked her teeth and the horses started to gallop into the sky above at a speed that was beyond what any normal animal could have ever hoped to achieve.

Malachi held the hands of the girls sitting on either side of him as he peered out the window nd watched the world as he knew it be reduced to a blur.

He could hear the girls chatting with his mother excitedly and making smalltalk but for some reason, he just couldn't focus on anything like that.

His mind was just so weary.

'Do you need my help, honey?'

Malachi knew exactly what Sei was trying to offer him, and he nodded a bit wearily as he smiled at her.

'Wake me up when we get there?'

'Of course, my love.'

Sei's grip on is hand tightened momentarily and a silver power flowed into him in waves.

Like all of the tension within him had been lifted off his shoulders, Malachi suddenly let his he'd droop onto the shoulder of his fiancé.

Once he was asleep, everyone's eyes darted towards him and stared at him lovingly.

"My son...He is tired, hm?"

"Yes, he is... I think everything that is going on has taken a much larger toll on him than he wants to admit.. This is honestly the most worried about him I've ever been." Sei answered.

Bianca: "I still can't believe this all happened... He does so much for the world and has only ever thought of protecting it, and yet they all turned on him in an instant."

Luna: "They don't even know the truth of what's going on... they can't see that Arias is just using them to turn them against the one guy strong enough to stop him."

Nadine: "No matter the world, it seems humanity will forever be the same. A stain upon existence."

Nyx looked like she had her own choice words to say about the subject, but she swallowed all of her comments all the same.

"Be that as it may... I am glad that he has all of you to protect and nurture him all the same. There is little else I believe would serve him better at this moment."

The girls and Nadine smiled appreciatively as they lowered their heads.

It was always nice to be accepted and appreciate by the family of the ones you loved; but that feeling was only amplified when your in-law was a literal goddess.

The apprehension that the girls felt about traveling to her domain was dwindling more and more by the second, and instead they were looking forward to what they might find in their new home.

"So... Did Joanne really kiss my son?"

Nyx did not realize that her simple question intended only to pass the time would set off such a strong reaction in the girls, and for the next several minutes she listened to their frustrated ranting and raving with a small smile on her face.

'It will truly be nice to have them around... My home is certainly about to become more lively.'