The Judgement Of Divinity (TMOE #2)

Chapter 3: Lips are sealed, kind of

So, he was clearly not human.

No matter how Lucius tried to reason with himself, Ethan Hargreaves was in some way a supernatural person.

"You're..." Lucius stared at the man's deep red eyes, grimacing in an almost offended confusion. "... You're Anthony's brother?"

"I am," the probably-not-human Ethan confirmed. "Like I said just now. I'm his younger brother."

"But you, um..." Lucius' gaze shifted to his fangs. "... You don't look like him."

"No." Ethan closed his eyes with a smug, content smile. "Guess the good features were passed on to me."

Lucius had no idea what to say to this. Was Anthony something similar to that man? Not human?

Ethan opened his eyes, raising an eyebrow as he did.

"A joke." The corner of his mouth curled upwards. "I looked more like him before. Before I—"

Tom cleared his throat, and Ethan rolled his eyes before looking over at him.

"Yes, Tom, I've missed you too."

"That's not—" Tom's usual inability to talk properly returned. "I just don't think now is a good time for, well... Anything, really."

Ethan shook his head at him with narrowed eyes, seemingly used to the man's odd awkward behaviour but also not sure what to make of that sentence.

"What the Waste are you on about?" He turned back to Lucius only to have something suddenly dawn on him, and his head snapped back to look at Tom again. "They don't—?"

"No."

"Oh." Ethan sucked air through his teeth, slowly looking back at Lucius. "Like... Nothing?"

"I sure feel like I know very little at the time," Eliza said, still trying to grasp the situation from where she was standing. "Where—How did you... End up there?"

She pointed at the spot where Ethan had first appeared in a cloud of smoke, and he drummed his fingers against his thigh in thought.

"Magic trick," he then settled on, and Lucius was quick to reply.

"Fucking bullshit."

"Sure it is." Ethan shrugged, actually looking sympathetic at the two startled humans. "But I don't have a good answer. At least not one they'd be satisfied with."

He gestured towards the men by the stairs, and Lucius sighed.

"Figures."

His gaze then wandered, having noticed movements further above them and soon spotted Anthony on the balcony before the stairs. It almost looked as though he was planning on turning around again at the sight of what was going on, but upon seeing Lucius' scalding glare he hesitantly walked down to join them.

"Ethan," he then acknowledged the previously unknown man. "I didn't know you were in town."

The not-quite-human Ethan turned around, revealing a weak, fanged grin as he spotted Anthony.

"Abram's ship was passing by, so I had him drop me off." He suddenly noticed the mess that was his blood-caked hair and made a disgusted face before trying to comb through it with his hands. "I was going to stop by earlier, but..."

Anthony scanned his appearance with a tired look.

"... Derek?"

"The usual treatment."

Lucius narrowed his eyes, pretty sure he'd heard that name before. If he wasn't mistaken it was the man who'd caught him sneaking inside that ball Anthony's organisation was hosting.