7 Chapter 3 (Part 2)

Voices awoke Artimese from her deep slumber and she came to with a haze of confusion. "Where am I?" She asked, holding her head as she sat up.

A hand reached up, gently pushing her back down until she lay once more. "You shouldn't move you just came to from an emotional break"

Hearing Dalin's voice Artimese looked at him with slight confusion before she remembered what had transpired when she had seen him again.

"I'm sorry."

"You say that a lot," Dalin noted.

"I'm sorry. It's a habit."

Dalin shook his head and waved his hand towards Lust, "This is my father."

Lust smiled to Artimese as he leaned over placing a hand on her head then tilted her head so he could see her eyes, "You seem to be recovering well. Not surprising from a Nephilim."

"So much has happened in the last two days." Artimese stated softly, her hand going to her head with a sigh.

"Yes, I am aware that Kin and ChaCha visited you," Lust stated.

Artimese looked at him in shock and pursed her lips. "You know… the angels. Are you an Angel? Or a Nephilim?"

Lust and Dalin chuckled. From Lust's head grew two large horns, slightly curved towards each other at the points. Artimese stared at his horns with utter astonishment, reaching up as if to touch them, but quickly putting her hand down.

"So you are demons?"

"My father is. I am a Cambion."

Artimese frowned, "Cambions are supposed to be evil, aren't they? The same with demons…"

Lust smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Angels can be just as evil as Demons. The balance of good and evil lie on all sides. Now it is far more common for an Angel to be good than a Demon. However, Angels can be corrupted."

Artimese took all that she was being told in and mulled it over. "Do you know… why God created the Cleansing?"

"Because he hates us. Thinks we are abominations."

"He fell in love." Artimese corrected, shrugging her shoulders at Dalin.

"Yes. He fell in love with a human who was burned as a witch for the diseases caused by a Cambion running through town. Even God can falter."

"I don't consider it faltering…" Artimese offered, "It's…. Very human of him to fall in love. I mean at church they teach us he loves humanity. But to imagine him truly falling in love with a human. It's otherworldly."

"What about Mary?"

"I don't think he loved Mary. She was used to give humanity a piece of himself, to stop the suffering."

"If it actually happened." Dalin muttered.

Artimese shrugged at that statement, "Even if it didn't happen. Imagine Abigail's pain when she was burned alive."

Dalin sat silent for a moment before looking at Artimese, "If he loved her, why did he do nothing to save her?"

Silence filled the room as Artimese thought on this statement, trying to decide what indeed was the reason behind his lack of rescuing. "Maybe… because of his love for humanity, he could not save her."

Dalin snorted at the explanation. Lust placed a hand on his son's shoulder and looked to Artimese, "That is a very astute observation young lady." surprise filled his voice. Lust looked between his son and Artimese surprised by each of them.

The silence made Dalin uneasy. The conversation had suddenly fell dead, the quiet like a vacuum sucking all air out from around him. Standing quickly he ran a hand through his hair and looked out the window. "What do we do now, father?"

Lust took a deep breath and ran a hand over his face, "The Angels are here. ChaCha is proof of that. Which means the cleansing has begun. Every time it starts, there is always a different war, or pandemic that wipes out halflings. If the war or the pandemic doesn't kill them, unsolvable accidents will."

Hearing this, Artimese put a hand to her mouth in shock, "What do you mean a pandemic?"

"The black death, the London Pandemic, Ebola." Lust offered staring at Artimese, "each of these specifically designed to target any and all halflings. Some are lucky enough that humans create vaccines to save them, only to die later at the hands of one of Gods Virtuous Angels who then stages it into an accident, or a case that will never be solved. Such as the suppos've Zodiac Killer."

Listening to him Artimese realized that humanities idea of history was very skewed. So many deaths, could have been non-human deaths. "So… Pompeii?"

"It was a safe haven for many halflings. The destruction of Pompeii killed just about every Halfing alive in that time." Lust informed her.

Mulling this over, Artimese looked to Dalin who seemed unphased by all the information given. "Did you know about all of this?"

He shrugged at her "I grew up being told of this. My father has worked hard to prepare me for the cleansing. We plan to make sure I survive it."

Chewing her lip, Artimese scratched at her arm and looked between Dalin and Lust "Will you help me survive it?"

Rolling his eyes, Dalin shrugged his shoulders, "I can't very well let you die after saving you as many times as I have."

Despite the sarcastic notion behind his words Artimese couldn't help but smile. She knew from his response that he will help her even if he acted like he wouldn't.

"Thank you." She whispered, taking a deep breath.

"Now. Since we have decided that. Let's see if the news carries anything that might give us a clue to what the Angels are planning this time around." Lust stated quickly, turning on the TV.