“I never expected she would even see me but when I walked in, it was like she had known all along that I would come. What she told me not only changed my life but it gave me a greater purpose. Up until that point I had been letting the rage I felt for Draven start to consume me, until the red mist of hate was swamping my senses to think logically.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me that my destiny would be complete when the Chosen One entered this life and that she would be the one and only means to obtain the Tip from the King.” He spoke as though he could see that day like it was yesterday’s events.
“Man, I didn’t have a chance did I?” I said shaking my head wondering if fate really was on my side or not.
“Not really, no. But as you can imagine I became very interested in you once I heard my time in waiting was coming to an end.”
“I bet!” I said sarcastically.
“Well, after hearing this, I was no longer without guidance and I had my orders from the Oracle.”
“Orders?” I saw a little smile emerge in the corner of his lips and I found myself happier knowing he was no longer tense.
“Pythia told me two other things of importance before I left but only one of them could I do something about. She told me that if I did not complete my mission from the King and put a stop to the war, then the Chosen One would never even be born and all would be lost before it had even begun.” I shot up straight at this and found myself grabbing at his arm.
“What?” He smirked at me before elaborating.
“Your Grandfather was readying himself for the war, I believe.” I thought back to my mum’s dad who was just coming of age and waiting to be drafted but then the war ended. This, my mum was convinced, was what saved his life and therefore our family was born. My mum, I and Libby, all products of the most profound question to ask… ‘What if?’
Well now I knew the answer to that one. So a whole war ended because a young man was born a month too late and missed out on glory for the sake of thirty days. It was mind boggling to think about.
“And just how did you stop the war exactly?” I asked raising one eyebrow, not being able to help my scepticism. I mean come on…Lucius was the one that put a stop to world war two? It just seemed too far from the line to see the truth.
“It was simpler than it sounds Keira, after all, the Demon had invested a lot of time into making it as easy as just taking his place.”
“What do you mean…take his place?”
“I would have thought I was making it perfectly obvious. I controlled him. I have had my fair share in battles Keira and although the weapons change, the tactics don’t.” The thought of Lucius and Draven fighting side by side popped into my head and all clad in leather and steel, it made for a mighty breathtaking sight.
“So you just had to plant a few wrong moves and then…?”
“And then watch as the world did the rest. By this time most that had come into contact with Hitler knew the level his mind had degraded to and so with a few whispered words, Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin.” He stated as calmly as if he was talking about the weather!
“Holy shit!” I shouted and he actually laughed at me!
“You killed Hitler!” Ok, so now he was seriously rolling his eyes?
“I did what I had to do, yes…why is this so shocking to you?”
“Are you friggin’ kiddin’ me!? You saved thousands, hell, probably millions of lives and your acting like…like…”
“Like?” Ok now he was mocking me.
“Like you’re not a hero.” I said softy and his smirk turned into a heart-warming smile that reached his eyes, causing crinkles at the sides. The look he gave me was more than that of a handsome rogue, this time, it looked blessed by the Gods and he didn’t even know it!
“I am not a hero Keira, far from it but the thoughts coming from a soul such as yours are a blessing I will never forget…thank you.” He had lifted my hand to his lips and kissed his thank you over my skin causing me to tremble slightly at the intimate contact.
After a few silent moments he got up and walked over to the bag he had dropped by the entrance. It must have been what Pip had thrown him earlier.
“Get dressed, we leave on the hour and it is cold out there.” He continued to speak softly, like my last words were still lingering just beneath the thick skin that Lucius wore. He dropped the bag on the bed by my side and traced the back of one finger down my cheek before leaving.
“Wait, what about Eva Braun, she was there too, right?” I shouted out remembering my history.
“She had a choice and she decided her fate for herself, a fate I didn’t play a part in. She died in the bunker after I left her.”
“Oh… cyanide?” I asked knowing this was the side of the story I had heard about.
“I believe so, yes. Be quick Keira!” He said getting me off the subject.
“Wait!” I said once again.
“What is it this time pet?” Lucius stopped just before going down the steps to leave the room.
“The last thing I wanted to know.” I heard him expel a sigh but he didn’t face me. Did he already know what I was going to ask?
“You said that the Oracle told you two things of importance, what was the other thing?” I didn’t know if he would answer my question and the silence had me torturing my bottom lip in anticipation. Then Lucius surprised me by turning to the side and looking at me like it was the very first time he had ever seen me. I took a deep breath, ready to hear something vitally important here but no amount of air inhaled was going to prepare me for the deeper meaning my life meant to Lucius.
“She told me that I would meet a mortal girl who would show me the light and that this ‘Bringer of the Sun’ would one day…” He trailed off and I stood up quickly desperate to know.
“What…would one day…what?” I took two steps forward and two soon became enough to bring me next to Lucius. I looked up at him and my hand with a will of its own reached out and cupped the side of his face. With a little pressure I brought his face round to mine and his eyes swirled amber in a grey storm.
“The one that shows me the sun will one day save my life and… my very soul.” I gasped and staggered back in shock. He moved to the other side of the room in astonishing speed and just before he left I heard his whispered echo as though it was next to my ear…
“My freedom.”
Chapter 40
Shiny Beasts
After that supernova sized bombshell from Lucius, in the end the hour I had to get ready ended up being fifty minutes of sat on the bed shaking my head and ten minutes getting ready, while stuffing much needed food down my throat. It was only when it hit my stomach and started making noises like someone throwing pebbles down a well, that I realised I hadn’t eaten in a long time.
It was also at this moment that I looked down at my body and saw that I had lost quite a bit of weight. It looked as though I was at least a size smaller but instead of jumping for joy I found myself nervously biting my fingertips. What would Draven think...? Well if Vincent’s thoughts were anything to go by, then I knew what Draven would think.
I tried not to think about it but as I got dressed it was hard to ignore when the jeans kept edging downwards, to now, bony hips. I definitely needed to get some junk food in me and stat. The image of me like this didn’t help with my repressed memories one little bit, as the last time I looked like this, it was after ‘the incident’… wow it felt like an age ago since I had referred to it like that!
I shook off the feeling and finished getting ready just in time for Pip to come bouncing into my world like a gothic bath bomb!
“Nice trouser shoes!” I said wondering what the actual correct name would be for what she was wearing. She stopped before she reached me, gave me a cute little grin before then skipping the rest of her way to me.
“You like?” She said and we both looked down at her tighter than tight
clothing. The trouser shoes started as charcoal grey converse shoes that tied up with dark red ribbon instead of laces. But in true Pip fashion, this wasn’t where the strangeness ended. No, instead of your usual converse shoes ending just past the ankle, these ended at her waist! The ties continued all the way up her legs and a bow was finally tied at her crotch.
She twisted one foot in a cutesy girly way that made the white rubber tip squeak against the floor. I continued my gaze up now getting past her strange trousers and focused on the rest of her. She also wore a blazer style jacket that was cut up high under her breasts and showed her flat tattooed stomach and then swept down low at the back into two tails that flicked out over her bum. The material was one I couldn’t name but it looked to have been tie-dyed in darker shades of the rainbow. Her green hair was in a cute high ponytail with a massive polka dot, red and white flower bow attached to one side.
“So, you ready to make like a disc?” Pip said leading the way with an outstretched arm and a very confused human trying to decipher Pip code.
“Ok, I have heard of ‘make like a banana’ but disc...? you’ve got me on that one Pip.” She giggled as we walked back out of the bedroom and turned in a different direction to the way I had been before.
“I don’t get that, why split…when you walk away, you don’t split, that’s just crazy talk right there, now suck…you can suck a banana or bite but you don’t do that either when walking away, unless you were on your way to eat somewhere, then I guess it makes sense…or suck, then you could grab hold of a di…”
“LALALA, Pip!” She laughed as always when I did this and it echoed in the next room we were in.
“So, disc?” I reminded her as she continued to lead the way through a small doorway that needed us to be in single file. I followed her through the damp tunnel and instead of producing some over the top, medieval flaming torch, she reached in her back pocket and lit the passageway with the light from her mobile phone screen.
“Disc drive. Make like a disc and drive, we’re driving outta here.” She said this like it should all be obvious to me. I rolled my eyes behind her back but when she giggled again it was if she had somehow seen me do it.
For the rest of the journey I listened to Pip natter on about Transfusion and her wardrobe there and I was thankful we arrived just before she could start to explain further into the benefits of the playroom her and Adam had in their apartment. I don’t know if LALALA’s would have been enough to cut through that conversation.
The walk had been a series of rock tunnels, steps up and down and then one big hallway that was large enough for two double-decker buses to have a drag race down. This was the end of our destination and after walking through one more door, it opened up into a massive cavern that was an underground garage. Now this was like the bloody bat cave!
There were different vehicles parked everywhere I looked and if I thought Draven had an obsession with fast and shiny things he could man handle, then Lucius took first prize in car mania! It made me wonder out of the two, who started with the obsession first? Of course, this particular line of thought then brought on images of the two talking about cars, just like you would find two regular men doing in any pub in the world. It was weird but I seemed to have this fascination with the fact that these two powerful and complex men were once great friends. It made them seem almost…normal. Of course one look up and around made that image melt like a chocolate teapot!
‘The Bat Cave’ was amazing. One look up had you seeing a world created by thousands of years of natural beauty and one look down had you seeing beauty of a different kind…one man made. There were too many cars to count but each one looked as new as the day they were made and that even included the classic cars.
“It’s a friggin’ museum!” I said with a gasp and Pip beamed at me. This, I soon found out, was because Lucius and Draven weren’t the only ones obsessed with expensive gears and metal.
“You like?” She asked twirling round as we came down the last lot of steps. I think she took my hanging jaw as a yes because this spurred her into ‘Car mode Pip’ and if I thought the girl hardly took a breath before, then now it was like Pip on Car Crack!
“And over there is the Jaguar D type, which won the 1957 Le Mans by the way, oh, oh and over here is the Dodge Charger and as you can plainly see the super charger sticks out of the bonnet, I think it looks pretty, like metal flowers in a flower box….oh but wait, now this one…come on, keep up!” She waved me on with an excited little bounce and continued with a squeal.
“This baby is the Audi r8, v10, 5.2 lire which can fly to heaven at 199 mph! Oh and see that one, the Ac Cobra of course with 7.0 litre v8 engine and a 485 brake horse power…man all those horses, now that one for its day to reach 185mph is impressive…man where was I in 1965? Anyway I like it ‘cause it’s really loud!” I think my head was close to exploding all over these shiny beasts when thankfully I heard voices coming through one of the far tunnels.
“Oh just to give ya the heads up, try not to mention the ‘F’ word around Luc.” I shot her a look, as if to say ‘What the ‘F’ word’! She rolled her eyes at me but the smile she had plastered on, kind of counteracted that sarcastic motion. She came up closer to me and went on tip toes to my ear and I loved how being around little Pip always made me feel taller.
“There is a serious lack of Ferrari’s here for a reason…Our Vampy King is a Lamborghini man, while it is well known our other King is a serious Ferrari lover…I mean he does know the family and all, but it has been a rival between the two ever since…well two supercars made in the same town is like two Kings in the same court, if you know what I mean.”
On hearing this I couldn’t help but laugh. It was such a man thing to rival over and again brought me images of the two arguing over something so…un-supernatural!
“Oh and over there is my car…come see.” I felt my long sleeved top being tugged as Pip weaved her way in and around so many cars. I saw Lucius as we passed, roll his eyes and Adam just smirked at the sight of his wife’s obvious pleasure. She pulled me over to a very 80’s looking Lamborghini but I couldn’t help the bug eyes seeing her car did to me. It was so…Pip! The only way to describe it was like a baby pink cheese wedge with a serious 80’s hang-up! Instead of the holes in Swiss cheese it came with a painted rainbow splashed across and ‘My Little Pony’ stickers…yes, that’s right, My Little Pony stickers, on both doors and one of the whole gang on the bonnet!
“Umm…wow!”
“You like my baby?” She asked rocking on the balls of her feet.
“Umm…just…wow!” It was the only thing I could think of to say.
“Lucius bought it for me for my birthday one year and the next year Adam had it painted like this for me. I love my little Lambony Pony!” She said while stroking it like a cat waiting for the purr.
“Eh…your what now?” I asked, thinking I had never heard that car name before and I know I wasn’t exactly a car connoisseur here, but Lambony…really?
“It’s my Lamborghini Countach and instead of getting a pink puppy, I got a v12 pony that does 205 mph! It lives longer and I don’t have to clean up its shit, that’s how Lucius put it anyway.” I tried to keep the smirk from my face but it was all in vain as I ended up laughing.
“Shhh! She will hear you!” Pip said before continuing to coo at her car. I was still shaking my head when I felt Lucius come up behind me. I didn’t even hear him approach but the electricity it created in the air was enough to raise the hair on my neck.
“Pip! We don’t have time for your love affair, Adam is waiting for you.” He snapped and with that, she smacked a kiss to her palm and slapped it on the one of the My Little Pony’s butt. She then spun round, gave me wink and went off running to Adam’s waiting arms.
“Nice collection.” I said as I didn’t know what else to say to the man that came to my side, who still hadn’t spoken to me. He made a huffing sound, which I didn’t understand and then I felt the top of my arm in a vic
e grip, moving my body along with him.
“Hey!” I objected to the whole, ‘me man, you woman’ caveman deal but he didn’t let me go. He pulled me along the zigzag of cars and I noticed as we went past some really old models, I pulled my arm from his hold.
“YO, grabby McGee, ease up will ya!” I said exasperated at my man-handling. He looked at me rubbing my arm where I could still feel his fingers embedded in my skin and his frown softened slightly. He looked like he was trying to find the right words to say and I doubted it would be the ‘sorry’ that was the usual response for hurting someone but he looked like he was struggling on that front, so I cut him a break. I turned round to something that had caught my eye when being tugged around the place.
We were stood next to an old black car that had a long body and soft top, that at the moment was folded back to show the Swastika flag hung over the back seat. It was higher up on a raised platform and it looked like it hadn’t been touched in a long time.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked shaking my head in disbelief.
“That is Hitler’s armoured Mercedes Grosser.” Lucius said and I looked up at him in wonder.
“It isn’t?” I asked like a numpty and his bad boy grin had my heart pounding. He leaned down to my neck and just when I thought he was going to start kissing me there, I felt his lips move up to my ear.
“Well, I needed something to drive away in, after someone’s head went bang, bang!” I shuddered at his crude words and the light kiss he gave me under my ear contradicted the murderous actions he was joking about.
“Times a ticking princess and your carriage awaits.” I let him turn me around and this time, the grip on my arm was of the gentle variety.
I saw the others gathered around a big black four wheel drive that looked like a black, road legal tank.
“Adam, take the others to the helipad and get things ready, we will meet up with you shortly.” Lucius’ voice had retracted back into order mode and Adam nodded at his master’s command. But my mind was screaming at the word ‘helipad’ and what was next on my list of horrors! I tried to pull out of his hold again but it was made near impossible when instead of letting me go, he simply repositioned me to stand in front of him and rested his hands at my waist in a possessive hold. Now I had his solid chest at my back and both his hands keeping me from running far away from any word that had ‘heli’ in it!
The Triple Goddess Page 52