5. LUCI
LUCI
Things were not going well. In fact, there was a distinct possibility that everything I’d been working towards for the last several centuries was about to go to hell in a handbasket, as the mortals like to say.
A prophecy that had been over two millennia in the making seemingly meant nothing to my son and heir, leading to him refusing my invitation to join me here and demanding a meeting with me in the mortal realm to ‘negotiate his terms’.
Under other circumstances, I might have been impressed at his total lack of interest in the crown and kingdom that were his birthright, but it didn’t bode well for my future plans.
This had to be his mother’s influence, as I hadn’t even considered refusing to do my duty for so much as a single second.
Obviously I’d been devastated when I’d drawn the short straw – quite literally – and ended up as overseer of the new realm we’d created here for our offspring, but I’d made the best of things and carried out my duty without a single word of complaint.
Even when my brothers had gone back on their promise that one of them would change places with me after a few centuries.
Well, very few words of complaint. Under the circumstances.
And now I was being forced to go to the mortal realm if I wished to meet my own son – and told to make a fucking appointment to see him in his office, not even to visit his home.
“Perhaps the charcoal Canali, Majesty? With the pastel pink?” My ‘manservant’ was holding up the suit and shirt he was suggesting I wear for this infernal visit.
“Not that one. Something black.”
“The pinstripe Brioni then, Majesty?”
“Not pinstripes. Black. Plain. Unadorned. Black. The Prada one. Black shirt. Red tie,” I snapped, then immediately felt guilty for taking my irritation out on him.
“Please,” I added, “and drop the Majesty bullshit. This is not a good day to be winding me up.” After three hundred years of looking after me, Kalek was no more a mere manservant than I was a lady’s maid.
“Maybe stop sulking like a petulant man-child then. You can’t really blame your heir for not wanting to come here for this meeting,” he said, totally ignoring my rumble of displeasure and the scowl that accompanied it.
“Gabriel is not the most tactful of beings, and I’ve no doubt he’s been doing his best to railroad him into doing his bidding with his usual lack of delicacy.
This whole situation will have come as an enormous shock to him. ”
“That is not my problem. He agreed to the terms of the Prophecy and now he’s trying to fucking renegotiate them.”
“Did he though? It’s not as if he was aware of what he was agreeing to at the time. And I understand that he only recently claimed his Kaderi Olan.”
“What’s your point, Lek?” I was getting a little tired of this conversation now and starting to wonder whose side he was actually on.
“My point,” he said, and I heard the eye roll even though he’d turned his back to hang the rejected suit back up, “is that it’s hardly surprising he doesn’t want to leave the mortal realm to come and guard a rusty old gateway.
One, I might add, that doesn’t need guarding nearly as zealously as your brothers insist it does,” he added as he turned back to face me.
“You know full well that you don’t need to convince me of that. I’ve been telling my brothers the same thing for centuries.”
“He’s probably thinking that if he comes here he’ll never get back out again. Why don’t you try and look at this as an opportunity to shake the dust of this place off your feet for a bit rather than as a slight against you. It’s not like you aren’t always complaining about being stuck here.”
“I suppose,” I conceded. “Are you sure you can handle things here while I’m gone?” Another eye roll.
“When was the last time anyone tried to make a break for it? Although things were a lot more fun around here when they did. And yes,” he added huffily before I could repeat my question, “I’m quite certain I can handle it if someone does decide that today’s the day.
” Not that I’d really doubted it. Lek was one of the most powerful demons in the realm next to me.
“Right then.” I let him help me into my jacket and straighten my tie for me before I pulled back the tapestry concealing the gateway to the mortal realm.
Anticipation thrummed in my veins as I stepped through.
More than two millennia had passed since I’d last been there, and although my brothers had provided me with the means to keep myself informed of all the changes that had occurred, and kept the realm provided with a steady supply of new amenities, I had to admit I was quite looking forward to seeing it all for myself.
Gabriel was waiting for me when I stepped out of the gateway and into the mortal realm.
“You look like you’re about to go to a funeral, not a meeting with your own son,” he scoffed. “Do you want to change into something a little less formal before we go?”
I cast a disparaging look at his well-worn jeans and leather jacket. He’d never been one to worry overmuch about his appearance, but this was even worse than usual.
“Some of us still have standards, brother. And it’s not like I’ve been invited to a family barbecue. This is a business meeting, correct?”
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Let’s go.” He linked his arm with mine and I did my best to suppress my irritation at needing him to escort me.
I felt the usual momentary disorientation before we materialised in a deserted alleyway that reeked of urine and rotting food. If this was what the mortal realm was like now, my son should be only too glad to escape from it.
A short walk brought us to a far less rundown area and Gabriel led me towards a glass fronted building with one of those ridiculous doors that for some unknown reason were designed to go round and round instead of just opening like a normal fucking door.
“Good morning, how can I help you?” The woman guarding the reception desk gave me a cheerful smile and surreptitiously slipped the book she’d been engrossed in out of sight as I stumbled into the lobby.
“I have an appointment to see Seth Adams,” I announced irritably, giving the door a glare as Gabriel emerged from it without missing a step. She waited expectantly and I looked at Gabriel in confusion.
“Lucien and Gabriel Black,” he supplied. Oh, right, she’d been waiting for my name. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d met anyone who didn’t already know who I was.
We emerged from the lift she directed us to into another reception area, presided over by yet another guardian, who showed us into a medium sized office with large picture windows giving a view of a small marina and some expensive looking yachts.
That wasn’t what I’d come here to see though, it was the man standing by those windows.
When he turned and spoke it wasn’t me he addressed, but my brother.
“Leave us.”
“I second that request, brother,” I said before he could protest. “I can find my own way home.” At least the binding spell that had prevented me from portalling here without one of my brothers’ assistance didn’t stop me from returning to my realm.
“And I want your word that none of you will be eavesdropping on our conversation. This is between me and my son.”
He gave me a long assessing stare. “Very well. You have my word. Don’t get lost on the way back,” he warned before he disappeared, and I had no doubt I’d find him waiting outside for me when we were done here to make sure I didn’t go anywhere but home.
Gods forbid I should have a little fun before I returned to my servitude.
We stared at each other in silence after Gabriel had left, each of us appraising the other, and I had to admit I was well pleased with what I saw.
When he’d first turned towards me I’d been shocked at the resemblance between us.
His hair was lighter than mine, brown rather than black, but everything else about him was like looking in a mirror, from the emerald green of his eyes to the sensual mouth that was currently puckered in disapproval.
Well, if he didn’t like what he saw, there must be something wrong with him.
“So you’re my father.” His voice was pleasing too, deep, and with a hint of steel in his tone.
“So you’re my son.”
“Son? Or get out of jail free card?” Straight to the point. That was something we had in common then.
“Both, I suppose,” I conceded, as there was little point in lying. “But it’s not quite that simple. Shall we sit? I have a feeling this meeting is going to take a while.”
He pointed to the visitor’s chair in front of his desk as he strode behind it and settled into his own seat.
“I don’t know how much Gabriel has told you about my realm, but considering he knows very little about it himself, I doubt anything he has said has been very helpful.”
“He hasn’t been particularly forthcoming, no. But as I have no intention of going there, that’s hardly the problem you appear to think it is.”
“You may not be so adamant in that regard once you fully understand the situation.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, either in amusement or irritation. Probably the latter. “Unlikely, but I suppose you may as well state your case now that you’re here.”
I took a moment to gather my thoughts before I spoke.
I’d recited my speech a dozen times in my head, but now that I was actually here, looking at the son I’d waited so many centuries to meet, I felt totally unprepared.
Everything I’d done over the past thousand or so years had been building towards this moment, and I was very much aware that what I said in the next few minutes could change the course of not just my life, but the lives of everyone in my realm.