Antilove

Trentatre

CAPITOLO TRENTATRE

a gift of life

***

TO ROSE, IT FEELS LIKE four years had passed since she made her deal with Lucifer. To think that that one night in a parked car could alter the very fabric of her existence—she never thought it was even reality that day, just a hallucination wrought by paranoia and intense desire.

    "I didn't think you had such a burning wish to live, Rose."

    It was broad as moonlight that Lucifer and Lucien were cut from the same cloth; father and son shared a hellish stare and wicked grin, a combination that Rose cannot rip her gaze away from. And if Lucifer is predator, it came to no surprise that Rose is merely a rabbit.

    "It's not like I want to die," Rose replies.

    The three of them are seated at a table on a terrace overlooking a well-tended garden. Lucifer's country manor is every definition of secluded and every example of grandeur. The night breeze feels sticky against Rose's skin even though it is well into winter. Rose is undecided whether she should attribute it to the outdoor heater or the thick atmosphere between them—stranger, father, and son.

    "Have you found everything to your liking?" Lucifer inquires.

    Lucien sits silently next to his father, one hand lax against his lap and the other tracing the base of his wine glass. "I should hope so," he says. "The appetizer is taking a while to get here, no?" In Lucifer's presence, Lucien's demeanor transforms into one that is composed and what Rose can only describe as frosty. It isn't unfamiliar to her but certainly it juxtaposes the previous manner in which they would interact with each other.

    Rose is unsure how to proceed. It's not as if she were dining with her longtime friends or even estranged family members. No amount of life experience and etiquette class can prepare her for conversing with Lucifer over a five-course meal.

    "I invited you for a purpose, Rose," Lucifer says, reaching his point before they've even touched their cutlery. "It seems that everything has been satisfactory according to Lucien's reports and if you do not wish to renegotiate your terms, I'd like you to complete some paperwork. Are there any amendments you'd like to add?"

    "No," Rose says. Huntington's may give her memory lapses but she could never forget their verbal contract. "I get everything I could want."

    "It's not a credit card you can use as you wish, Rose. This is a one-term transaction."

    "I want to be cured and I want a certain amount wired into my account in the next two business days. Two things should be easy to fulfil, yes?"

    Lucifer laughs, the first instance in which emotion breaks through his neutral expression. "Clear and concise. It'll be granted but I will need you to sign a few documents. It is carelessness on my part to not have had you sign a contract beforehand." Though he admits fault, Rose finds his tone contradictory. In fact, she has the inkling that, at the time, he didn't think a contract was even necessary. After all, Rose was proud but she was also desperate. She does not and has not ever wanted to die. Had there been a contract, she would have made it void the second she sent Lucien away. Perhaps Lucifer had even anticipated that as well.

    "About my mom," Rose begins. A myriad of questions cloud her mind and she is uncertain where to even begin. "You knew her right? My birth mom."

    "She's one of the few individuals I remember," Lucifer says. "She traded her motherhood for a longer lifespan and then tricked me into another contract. That second contract resulted in our meeting. I see you've inherited her will to live."