Crimson {COMPLETED}

CHAPTER XXXVII

CHRISTOS' POV

NOVEMBER 14
12:43 p.m

FIVE DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING

I WALK downstairs, straightening my jacket. Jackson stands at the door, taking his coat off.

"Afternoon Jackson. You enjoy yourself last night?"

He chuckles. "I want to say I did but my head is still pounding and Emily got mad at me for almost throwing up on her bed."

"That's what happens when you come to a party and drown yourself in booze." I finish walking down the last step.

"Look, we need to talk about something. It's really important." He sticks his hands in his pockets.

"Can you come back upstairs with me then? Me and Alice are working on wedding preparations with some of the staff."

"Course." He starts back up the staircase with me and we walk into the small lounge area where several staff members crowd Alice as she picks out flowers.

"I'm back, love. What type of flowers were you thinking?"

"White roses mixed with blue carnations." She calls over the crowd of staff.

"Sounds lovely dear." I flop down on the loveseat and start flipping through a catalog for decorations.

Alice seems to want a slightly untraditional wedding, or at least untraditional by the realms standards. Most color schemes in the weddings around here contain dark colors. Dark reds, dark violets, greys, black.

I'm at least glad she went with a dark, royal blue.

"So what were you saying?" I ask as Jackson sits down next to me.

"Right, so I was taking Emily home and on our drive we saw a missing persons poster. The person on it looked an awful lot like Lucifer."

I look up from the decoration catalog. "What?"

He nods. "I went and got a good look of it on my way back here. Got his name on it and everything."

"Why is Lucifer a missing person?" I look down in thought.

"My thoughts exactly." He leans back in the loveseat. "But I think we both have an idea why."

Alice rounds the corner of the loveseat and sits down on my lap. She smiles at me a moment before looking at Jackson confusedly.

"Why do you smell like McDonald's?"

He starts to argue but sighs in resignation. "Better I smell like a McDonald's than like booze."

"Did you and Emily go get McDonald's without me? Boo."

"What in the hell are you two talking about? What's a McDonalds?"

"See, I knew I wasn't the only one." Jackson snickers.

"It's a fast food restaurant. That building with the red sign and bright yellow M." Alice draws out an M with her finger.

I nod and hold up the catalog for her to look through. I want Alice to have a lot of control over what goes into the wedding. I want it to be everything she's hoped for.

"So did Emily have fun last night?" I lean back into the loveseat.

"Hell, I hope so. Feel like I made a drunk fool of myself last night." He shrugs. "Dunno, maybe she found that funny."

"Emily really likes you, you know that right?" Alice doesn't even glance up from the catalog.

"Really? You think so?"

"I know so. Sister intuition." She smiles. "Besides, I've seen the way she looks at you. The last time she looked at a guy like that, she was hella into him."

"Oh yeah?" Jackson mumbles, jealousy taking over at the thought of Emily being into any other man, even in her past.

Alice doesn't seem to notice his tone. "Yeah, She was pretty heartbroken when they broke up." She finally looks up from the catalog. "So you better not hurt her or I'll kick you in the shin."

He chuckles and shakes his head. "Duly noted, your highness."

Alice looks confused for a second at Jackson calling her that but she smiles, shrugs and goes back to looking at the catalog.

"So about the Lucifer situation, what else was on the poster?" I turn to Jackson.

"An address, a phone number and a last seen location. A gas station in the area."

"What are you two talking about?"

I look over at Alice and frown. I don't want her knowing about this.

"Nothing to worry your pretty little head about." I kiss her forehead and draw her attention back to the catalog.
                            __________

NOVEMBER 15
10:18 a.m

FOUR DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING

Jackson and I walk down the street. He tucks the missing poster in his pocket as we walk into the gas station.

On the front counter is another poster. To keep from looking suspicious we make conversation and grab some food before walking up to the counter.

The young employee stops drumming his fingers on the counter and starts ringing up the snacks, still bobbing his head to the music coming from his headphones.

"What's this about?" Jackson taps a poster on the counter.

The employee takes of his headphones and looks down at the poster.

"Oh that? He's an employee here. Went missing one night after he clocked out from work. His dad said he never came back home. You got any information on it?"

"No. Sorry." Jackson shakes his head. "It's just not something you expect to see around here. Quiet town."

"Yeah, little too quiet I guess." He bags the snacks. "You know, a town over from here there's been a serial killer. Lot of people been wondering if it has anything to do with that. Considering most missing people are kidnapping victims and nineteen year old boys aren't a large target, you know?"

"Yeah." I mumble, handing him the money.

"If you hear anything though, don't be shy to call or even stop by here." He hands us our bags and we turn to go.

"So he claims Lucifer went missing after leaving work one night." We walk quickly from the station. "And Adalia claims she found Lucifer one night by a river."

"And who's to say that wasn't the same night." Jackson mumbles.

"Exactly." I sigh. "There's no way to get the truth from Adalia, she's got a charmed jewel from your family, she can filter her thoughts. Choose what people can and cannot read from her mind."

"And Lucifer is naive. God knows how much he even knows."

"There's got to be something to work with."

"That serial killer thing might be worth looking into."

"What makes you say that? Adalia's a bitch, don't get me wrong, but a murderer?"

Jackson shrugs. "Adalia claims she randomly decided to feed off Lucifer and found out they were mates, right? Who's to say Lucifer's the only mortal she's fed off of?"

I catch on to what he's saying and grab his arm, practically pulling him down the road.