Hell's Requiem (Book 2)

Chapter 24

“Rayne? What the hell are you doing up here, and with that...thing?”

“Lucas? Damn, you scared the shit out of me!” It was a relief to see a familiar face appear out of the shadows, but I had to admit it also had me asking questions. That itchy feeling I'd had, had it been Lucas who was following us? Or I was just being especially paranoid at that moment. “What am I doing here? What are you doing up here? Why aren't you at the executions?”

“I was looking for you. Your room was empty, I thought you'd made an escape or something.”

Maybe I was just being overly suspicious, but I just didn't buy his reasoning. He'd been working for them before there was a very distinct possibility that he was still doing their bidding. I wanted so desperately to be able to trust my oldest friend, especially when the only thing I was currently laying my trust in was Frank.

“But, if you thought I'd done a runner, then why are you up here?”

Lucas shrugged. “You were going on so much about Malick and this prophecy, I thought I could at least try and be helpful. I was going to tell you what I planned to do, but like I said, your chambers were empty.”

“You came up to help me?” I asked, disbelievingly.

“You sound surprised. It's what you asked me to do, wasn't it.”

“Well, yeah. But you didn't seem very enthusiastic about the idea. I mean you couldn't out of the room fast enough once we actually got here.”

“Well, to be fair I'm not very enthusiastic about it now. And really Rayne, Lucifer was there. If you'd been me you'd have high-tailed it out of there too. You're not the only one up to your neck in the shit here, so appreciate that I'm here at all.”

I still didn't like it, but I had a feeling that if I went on picking at him any longer then Lucas would turn back around and walk away. In spite f my suspicions concerning his motives, I had to admit that having three of us there searching for this prophecy would be better than just two – I had a funny feeling Frank wouldn't be all that productive when it came to actually searching. That whole strength and safety in numbers thing again.

“Sorry to break up this touching reunion, but weren't we in the middle of something? If you two plan on chinwagging for the rest of the day do let me know so I can find something more amusing to do, like watch paint dry perhaps.”

Frank may have saved me from having to respond to Lucas, and from letting my mouth run away with me and ask yet more paranoid questions, but of course he did it with his trademark irritation and sarcasm. He earned himself yet another scowl from we – we had to be onto a record by now – and disparaging look from Lucas as he grinned at the pair of us; a wide grin that stretching his face and bared his teeth.

“He...he's right,” I said with a sigh, “let's just get on with this before Malick decides to come back.”

“He's right? Since when did you start listening to creatures like him? What are you even doing here?” Lucas finally turned his attention and questions directly to Frank, the scathing look still on his face, though it was progress no longer speaking about the Whisperer as if he couldn't hear us.

“Oh me?” Frank asked, his expression turning to mock surprise. “Well I'm actually being helpful, what have you done so far, pretty boy?”

“Alright enough.” I strode between the pair of them before they could begin some petty show of macho grandstanding. “He's here, Lucas, because he's one of the few that actually knows what's going on. And, in his own kind of way, he has actually helped me out. So let's just go get into that office.”