Blessed by Night

As the sound of rumbling started to get ever closer, Malachi looked at his daughter for ideas on next steps.

"What do you think? Where should we hide?"

"Bu…. "

"What do you mean you don't want to hide? Nightmares will swarm this place in an instant if we linger here too long."

"Da!"

"The hell do you mean this is a chance for self discovery? And what kind of newborn worries about things like that when their soft spot hasn't even closed yet?!"

*frustrated cooing*

"Alright, alright, Dad is sorry, he knows you're special. Just tell me what you had in mind."

-

A few moments later, a pack of hulking figures emerged from around the corner of a ruined building; eagerly looking for their next meal.

They were quadrupedal in stature, with bodies reminiscent of furless black hounds with mouths that split apart like tentacles and enormous claws filled with dark noxious venom.

The group of hounds found something in the area where they had been called, but it wasn't exactly food.

It was another one of their collective, although it looked and felt very different.

The group of hounds circled it from all angles and sniffed at it curiously.

What they were staring at was a smallish nightmare of around seven foot tall with four snake-like tails swaying behind his back and long dreadlocks that floated in the air above his head.

His face had no eyes, ears, or even a nose, only a single mouth filled with black dagger-like teeth- yet it seemed undeniable that it's senses were better than theirs.

Drastically better in fact.

The creature held another, smaller nightmare creature in it's arms.

It… was a lot stranger.

Surely a nightmare creature, but… also not.

A baby-like thing with two leathery bat wings jutting from it's small back and it's cute and nubby fingers were replaced with black claws that were as long as pocket knives.

The skin up to it's elbows was completely black in color, as was the top half of her forehead.

Short but lethal looking horns curled out of her forehead that were reminiscent of a demon's.

Her eyes were completely black and empty as if they were devoid of all light or charity, and their was no escape from them.

Interestingly enough, she looked more like some sort of cross species than the one holding her.

But still, both were beyond strange.

Almost on cue, the entire pack of baphomet class beasts sat onto all fours as they stared at the odd pairing like they were waiting for them to do something.

Malachi and Cami looked at all members of the pack calmly while trying to remain as nightmare-like as possible.

Out of all of the things Mal may have been expecting to happen, this was far from among them.

He was honestly kind of glad that his daughter had suggested they do this.

'I gotta say, muchkin. You really-'

"HISSSS!!!"

Suddenly, the creatures became agitated and they lunged at Malachi from all sides.

"Shit..!"

He easily leapt straight up into the sky before any of them could reach he or his daughter and let the hounds crash into each other comically.

"Bu!" Cami chastised in frustration.

"What do you mean my thoughts were too loud? They were just thoughts!"

The hounds recovered in an instant and started leaping into the air like large hungry meteors.

Malachi flicked his hand and the hounds were knocked away by an invisible force and sent crashing through the ruined library.

"I think we should get out of here. Your moms will skin me alive if they found out I had you exposed to mortal danger before you even took your first steps."

*disgruntled cooing*

"No I am not calling you deadweight, munchkin. I'm just saying you shouldn't be seeing your dad open up monsters from button to belly this early in your life."

Cami said nothing and instead held up her clawed baby hands as if to give her father a loud and obnoxious reminder that she was not now, nor had she ever been, a human infant.

"...Fine, but don't tell Sei. She's the one most worried about your development."

"Ada?"

"Your mom with brown hair who sings to you a lot and is the most adamant about you getting proper nutrition."

"Ah!"

A loud crashing noise rang through the empty campus as the hounds recovered and leapt through the library Mal had all sent them through.

"Tell me, munchkin... can you fly with your wings yet?" he asked.

"Bu!"

"Alright then, stay up here and watch your old man work for a bit, yea?"

Malachi begrudgingly loosened his grip on Camille and she flew up into the air with no trouble at all.

On the other hand, Malachi let his body plummet through the air as he reverted back to his normal appearance.

Once the hounds saw a single human man adorned in a simple black outfit and jewelry, their irritation skyrocketed along with their fervent hunger.

Lunging into the air once again, Malachi smiled as he narrowly avoided their horrifying mouths by a hair's breadth.

Angling his body to the side ever so carefully, Mal easily avoided being chomped to death by the first creature and buried his heel right between the eyes of the beast.

The contents of it's skull were immediately knocked out of it's head and spilled onto the shattered concrete in grand fashion.

'I hope that wasn't too violent for her... I should dial it back a bit.'

Summersaulting through the air, Mal landed on the back of another baphomet hound as if he were attempting to ride it; and the creature immediately protested by thrashing about as if it were a bull.

With the faintest bit of negative energy, Mal made a slight twisting gesture with one hand and the hound's neck twisted itself nine times over.

The creature hit the ground a moment later, and instead of having a moment to rest Mal was immediately besieged by the remaining three hounds.

'Shit, I'm supposed to be less violent!' Mal lamented.

Ever since he'd gotten his powers and started training, he had only learned how to put things down effectively, not cleanly!

Who did he have to go to in order to learn some G-rated violence?

'Wait. Maybe I can..?'

Malachi suddenly threw both of his hands out and held the three nightmares firmly in place.

Concentrating on their body temperature, he amplified it and amplified it by several hundred degrees until he was literally cooking the creatures from the inside out.

Today, Mal learned by complete coincidence that the smell of slow cooked nightmare is more appetizing than one would have ever expected.

It had a sweet yet smoky smell like slow roasted barbecue that practically made his mouth water.

As the nightmares fell over dead, he seriously contemplated walking right up to them and taking a bite out of their flanks.

"This... is a little bit like cannibalism, no..?" he wondered aloud.

He quickly shook off his macabre thoughts as he heard audible giggling coming from above his head, and he remembered the fact that his young daughter just watched him slaughter hounds casually.

But as he looked up, he found that she was not even paying attention to him, much less his fight with the hounds.

Instead, she was in the arms of a mature and beautiful woman with an empty silhouette filled only with darkness, stars, and swirling nebulas.

Her little toes were being nibbled on playfully, and judging by the fits of giggles she had fallen into, this had been the most enriching experience of her whole life.

Smiling wryly, Malachi sat atop the fallen body of the nightmare he'd killed and watched his mother be the best grandmother in the world.

Eventually, Nyx felt his eyes upon her and she shuddered before she floated down from the air and sat atop the hound's corpse alongside her son.

"...You're looking at me like you've seen a ghost."

"More like a stranger. I've hardly seen you since I've been back, you know? You kind of ran off on me." Mal said honestly.

"Hardly that. We've been apart for longer than a few das before, haven't we."

"I guess." he admitted with a shrug. "But somehow this time around just feels.. different."

Nyx bit her lip uncomfortably as she avoided her son's ever piercing gaze.

She casually looked up into the sky above their heads and divulged her feelings honestly.

"I... suppose you could say that I find it very difficult to face you ever since your return. Do not mistake my words as I am elated beyond belief, but... I did not do well in your absence."

"I heard that no one did." Mal admitted.

He took Cami away from his mother with great difficulty, and she returned to her normal appearance as she delighted over the receiving of back to back affection.

Nyx brushed her hair from her face as she bit her lips uncomfortably.

"I... fear that I handled things worse than most. I did things that I knew you would abhor in the name of my grief and out of determination to not think about the void losing a child left within my life."

Nyx lightly touched her son on the hand and stared at him with a serious look in her eye.

"If you are willing.. and if you promise not to despise me for what I have done...I would share it all with you."

Smiling, Mal took her hand gratefully and spoke to her in his usual deep and gentle voice.

"If you tell me about how you slept with Aubrey and her girlfriends, I am going to kill myself."

"...Maybe I did not miss you as much as I thought."