by Jane Kindred
Lucien grabbed his robe from the bathroom and returned, trying not to let on that his stomach was in knots. For Edgar to want to talk to him in real time, face-to-face, he had to be in deep shit. Lucy had ratted him out.
Edgar was dressed in a conservative suit, as if he’d been conducting business at this hour, his steel-gray hair meticulously styled. “As you know, Lucien, being born a Smok comes with great responsibility.”
“I know that—”
“Don’t interrupt.” Edgar’s expression didn’t change, but his voice dropped instantly into a deeper register. That tone had instilled fear in Lucien as a boy. It wasn’t doing a half-bad job of it now. “I’ve been giving you space to grow up, to grow into these responsibilities. My father was so much harder on me. There was no sowing wild oats or running around like a spoiled adolescent doing as I pleased. I had to grow up fast. But I’ve never wanted to be hard and inflexible like my father. I’ve striven to give you and Lucy a better upbringing.”
It was all Lucien could do to keep a straight face at the idea of Edgar as warm, loving patriarch.
“But there comes a time when a man has to take responsibility for his actions and to earn his keep. I’m not going to be around forever, and you’re nearly twenty-five.”
“Edgar—”
“I’ve spoken with the bank about your trust, which is slated to be fully under your control on your birthday.” Which it almost certainly wasn’t going to be now. “I hadn’t planned to do this quite so soon, but a business opportunity has presented itself that makes the timing ideal. I’m prepared to start turning the business over to you.” Edgar’s mouth curved upward into what Lucien supposed was his idea of a warm, fatherly smile. “Think of it as an early birthday present.”
Lucien had been concentrating so intently on Edgar’s tone and facial expressions that he hadn’t really been listening—because he’d thought he knew what was coming. But this was definitely not it.
“You... I’m sorry. What?”
“I’ve made arrangements for the day-to-day operations to fall to your sister. She really is the brain of the organization, and she’s been handling much of it already. That will free you up to be the public face of Smok International and all our subsidiaries, which of course includes any and all business of a sensitive nature. I’d like you to meet with some of my colleagues tomorrow afternoon to get the ball rolling.”
“I don’t understand.” Lucien struggled to follow. “You’re turning the company over to me? Now?”
Edgar gave him that bizarre smile again. “Don’t mention anything to Lucy until I have a chance to talk to her in the morning. I want to make sure she doesn’t see this as some kind of a step down. The arrangement actually is quite favorable for her, but she’s liable to overreact. She’s very much like your mother in that regard.”
“So... I’ll be...”
“The chief executive officer of Smok International, with primary responsibility for the Smok Biotech division. Congratulations.”
The knots in Lucien’s stomach turned into a confusing mix of elation and anxiety. The company was his. He’d never dreamed Edgar would give up control of even the slightest bit of it so long as he was healthy and his wits were still sharp. The business opportunity he was willing to relinquish it for must be something astounding.
A million thoughts whirled through his head. He could change things now from the top down. If the company was really his to control, he could put a stop to the questionable practices that had bothered him all his life. He could actually help people, make their lives better. And he could make Smok’s mission one that permanently removed the predatory elements they dealt with instead of rewarding them. No more turning a blind eye to abuse and mayhem. No more little girls trapped in blood slavery, considered expendable.
Edgar was still smiling. “I thought you’d be pleased. We’ll go over all the details tomorrow, but there is one small condition I’d like to discuss with you before I make it official.”
Lucien’s mind was still lost in grand daydreams. “Condition?”
“I understand you’ve been keeping inappropriate company. Now, what you do for recreation isn’t my concern. If you want to keep that what’s her face, Polly, on the side, it’s none of my business. Keep a dozen Pollys.”
“I’m not seeing Polly anymore. You don’t have to worry about me embarrassing you or the company.”
“As I said, you can do what you like on your own time, in private. But I want you to stop seeing Theia Carlisle.”
“Theia Dawn,” he said automatically, before the meaning of his father’s words struck him in the gut. “Wait. What are you saying?”
“You know perfectly well that the Carlisle sisters are the direct descendants of Madeleine Marchant. I don’t have to tell you what harm that unsavory witch has done to this family. We’ve managed to turn the situation to our advantage over the centuries, but we do not forget where we come from, Lucien. And that will become even more apparent to you once I begin to show you the inner workings of the company. But I will not do so unless I have your solemn oath that you will sever ties with the girl completely. This is nonnegotiable.”
Chapter 19
Lucien was dumbstruck. There was no way he was going to give Theia up. He needed her. More than he wanted to. But it was equally clear that Edgar wouldn’t be swayed by any argument Lucien could make. When Edgar made up his mind about something, it was made up for everyone around him.
“Do I have your word, Lucien?”
“I... Can I think about this?”
“There is nothing to think about. If you refuse this one condition of mine, the company and all its holdings will go to Lucy. Your trust fund will be cut off. You will never see a penny of it. And Lucy will be under a legally binding oath not to turn around and give you a pity allowance after my death.”
A moment ago, Lucien hadn’t given a damn about the company other than the thorn it had always been in his side. Then he’d had an instant to reimagine it as his own before Edgar had taken it away again. But he’d never imagined being cut off completely. He wouldn’t even begin to know how to survive by himself. For all his talk of wanting Lucien to become a man, Edgar had made him dependent on the company and his money, making sure he knew nothing about the details of living an independent life. Lucien felt like a fool.
“Edgar, I think if you met Theia—”
“I said this is nonnegotiable, Lucien. But if money alone doesn’t sway you, perhaps you need a little bit of incentive to come to your senses and make a rational decision. I’ve sent you something via email. Look it over and get back to me tomorrow. I’ll set up the meeting and send you the invite. If you don’t show up on time, I’ll assume you’ve made your decision, and I’ll send someone to collect my property and revoke your access to Smok Biotech and any of our holdings. Good night, Lucien.”
Edgar’s parting shot had been straight to the heart. Lucien couldn’t lose access to Smok Biotech’s labs. He needed the research data on the anti-lycanthropy project. He needed the cure. Maybe if he went to the lab right now and downloaded everything he could onto an external drive... But Edgar would have thought of that. Lucien wouldn’t be surprised if his access was temporarily suspended.
He pulled back his fist reflexively, preparing to punch the screen of the new laptop, but managed to draw his arm up short. This might be the only thing he had to his name by tomorrow. He couldn’t afford to have a temper tantrum.
His phone buzzed, and Lucien picked it up, forgotten on the pillow after finding Edgar’s face staring at him. Theia wanted to know where he was.
Theia.
He could have everything he’d ever wanted—financial security, respect, power and the real possibility of effecting change in the world. Or he could have Theia—and lose everything he’d ever known. It shouldn’t even be a contest. He should have been able to give Edgar his a
nswer without hesitation: Theia was enough, she was everything, and Edgar could go fuck himself.
An email notification popped up on the laptop with a message from Edgar. He’d promised Lucien some additional incentive. What the hell could he possibly say in an email that would make a difference? But maybe Lucien shouldn’t be hasty to make a decision. Maybe for once in his life he should weigh the evidence and come to a reasoned conclusion before making up his mind. It couldn’t hurt to sleep on it.
The message notification on his phone chimed again. Everything okay?
Lucien typed in a response, his thumbs shaking.
Sorry. Took me forever to get home. Had to drive Lucy back from the job site. Long story. She wouldn’t let me keep her car and I had to wait for a pickup.
He sent the message and watched Theia’s typing bubble before writing another.
I really wanted to see you tonight, or even just talk for a bit, but I’m about to drop. Do you mind if we talk in the morning?
Her response came quickly enough, no sign that she was suspicious.
I totally understand. We’ll see plenty of each other tomorrow. But I miss you already.
God, he missed her—like an essential amputated limb he hadn’t even known he had until it was cut off. Talk about maudlin.
Miss you, too. Good night.
Theia sent a little heart emoji that made his actual heart twist.
Lucien turned off the phone, not wanting to allow himself to be distracted in case Theia texted again. He was going to read Edgar’s email and give it due consideration, whatever it was. And then he was going to get some sleep. He’d find a way to make the right decision tomorrow. He just needed fortitude.
He opened the email and found that Edgar had sent him an attachment that looked remarkably similar to the one his anonymous source had directed him to containing Theia’s genealogy research. If that’s all it was, it wasn’t incentive at all. He already knew about Theia’s bloodline.
He breathed a sigh of relief. The scale had tipped toward Theia, and just that realization made it possible. He could do this. He could walk away from Smok’s hold over him entirely. He could learn how to do something respectable for a living. He had some biotech knowledge, after all.
But that reminded him of the reason he’d painstakingly educated himself about the lycanthropy research. If the legend turned out to be not just a legend, he might become what he’d always despised. And he wasn’t sure how much time he had left. Without Smok, Lucien might become a monster.
He’d been scanning the document idly while his mind raced, when something caught his eye. This wasn’t Theia’s research after all. At least, not solely. Someone had made annotations.
The Lilith blood phenotype isn’t simply a magical strain giving those with the dominant gene special abilities. Lilith blood is specifically designed to trigger paranormal abilities in those the Marchant-descended women choose to mate with. More than that, it seeks out such dormant abilities and acts as a pheromone, drawing in the unsuspecting mate. It is how Rafael Diamante Jr. became an avatar of Quetzalcoatl. It is how Dione “Ione” Carlisle controls her familiar, the demon within Dharamdev Gideon. And it is what led the immortal Leo Ström to Rhea Carlisle, one of the twin pair, released from the bond with the Valkyrie only to become bound to a descendant of Madeleine Marchant. It is the Lilith blood that makes these men surrender their human selves to these innocent-seeming women. And every one of the men ensnared becomes the embodiment of the beast: the serpent, the dragon, the snake—Lilith’s companion. Together, the Carlisle sisters are the Whore of Babylon, riding on the back of the seven-headed dragon of the apocalypse.
Chapter 20
There was a problem with Theia’s new access card when she arrived at the lab. When she came back down, the security guard at the front desk confirmed that it wasn’t authorized for access to the floor where the Smok lab was situated.
“I guess something must have gotten mixed up in the system. Can you call Lucien Smok for me and tell him Theia Dawn is here?”
The guard dialed upstairs. “There’s a Theia Dawn here to see Mr. Smok.” After listening for a moment, she hung up, regarding Theia without expression. “Mr. Smok has left orders to revoke your access.”
Theia wasn’t sure she’d heard right. “My access... What?”
Someone spoke from behind her. “The job offer has been rescinded.”
Theia turned to see Lucy, sharply dressed as always, giving her a cool, smug smile. “I suppose this is your doing.”
“Not at all. Can’t say I’m displeased about it, though.”
“Why would Lucien rescind the offer? That doesn’t make any sense. I just saw him yesterday. I talked to him last night.”
“I’m well aware of the time you spend together. And I’m also aware that you got him to make a stupid mistake yesterday that resulted in an innocent woman’s death. If you want to know why he’s rescinded the offer, you can probably start there.”
“That’s ridiculous. I didn’t make him do anything.” Theia took her phone out of her bag. “I’m calling him right now to find out what’s going on.”
Lucy shrugged, arms folded. “Be my guest.”
The phone rang once before rolling over to voice mail. Which meant he’d declined the call when he saw her name. What the hell was going on?
Lucy was smug. “Looks like he’s busy.”
Theia’s hand curled around the phone at her side. “I want to know what this is about. Did something happen on the job you two were on yesterday evening?”
“Something always happens on a job. It’s an unpredictable business. But we left a satisfied customer, as always.”
“Oh, really?” Theia lowered her voice. “Someone was satisfied to sign away their soul?”
Lucy frowned, uncrossing her arms. “This is why it’s a bad idea to bring outsiders in. You don’t understand the nuances of these issues, and you aren’t meant to. But this is not something you can just stand here in the middle of our lobby and talk about as you please.”
“It’s not exactly your lobby. This is a university building, and I happen to be a student here as well as faculty.”
“That can change.”
“Excuse me?”
Lucy turned and walked toward the exit. “If you want to have a candid discussion about the change of plan, follow me.”
Theia paused, glancing back down at her phone. She could send Lucien a text and just wait here. He couldn’t be completely cutting her off. Something had happened, and if she could just talk to him, they could work it out.
Lucy turned back at the door. “This is the only offer you’re going to get. If you don’t leave voluntarily, security is instructed to send for the campus police to escort you out.”
Theia’s mouth dropped open. They couldn’t just kick her out of a university building. Could they? What if she’d been expelled from the graduate program? She could at least get some answers from Lucy—whatever grain of truth there might be to them—and try to reach Lucien again later. Dropping the phone back into her purse, Theia pressed her lips together and followed Lucy through the door.
Lucy walked her out to the parking lot. Maybe Theia was being a sucker, and Lucy wasn’t going to tell her anything after all. She hesitated at the edge of the lot as Lucy pressed the button on her key fob and the convertible beside them beeped in response.
Lucy nodded toward the car. “Get in.”
“Where are we going?”
“We’re not going anywhere. It’s the only secure place to talk.”
Theia opened the passenger door reluctantly and slipped inside, leaving it open a crack.
Lucy got in beside her and reached across to close it. “I’m not kidnapping you, for God’s sake. I’m trying to avoid being overheard.”
“Overheard saying what?”
She
fixed her gaze on Theia, the same startling pale eyes as Lucien’s, her expression grim. “The reason Lucien isn’t responding is that our father made him an offer last night that he couldn’t refuse.”
“What kind of offer?”
Lucy’s mouth twitched. “He’s turning over the entire enterprise to Lucien immediately, something we didn’t expect for years to come.”
Theia knitted her brow. “What does that have to do with my working for Smok Biotech?”
“It’s not about you working for Smok Biotech—though I can’t stress enough what a really stupid idea that was. It was a condition of the offer. Edgar insisted that Lucien stop seeing you.”
Theia’s eyes smarted as if there were smoke in the air. “He offered Lucien control of the company if he stopped seeing me?”
“Not just the company.” There was that twitch again. “Everything. He either stops seeing you or he loses it all, cut off without ceremony.”
Theia raked her hands through her hair, trying to process this. “I have to talk to him. He doesn’t have to do this. And he doesn’t want to. I’m sure of that.”
Lucy’s expression was cold. “I’m not here to help you jeopardize Lucien’s livelihood. I just wanted you to know so you’d stop trying to contact him. You can’t change his mind—Lucien needs Smok Biotech more than you can possibly understand—and you won’t change Edgar’s.”
Theia frowned. “I don’t believe you.”
“That’s your problem.”
“I mean about why you’re telling me this. Why not just wipe my memory like you threatened to? You could probably wipe Lucien clean out of my brain, couldn’t you?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No, I don’t want you to. I want to know why you chose to tell me the truth about what’s going on with Lucien—if it’s the whole truth—instead of just taking the easy way out. Making sure I’d never bother you again. There has to be a reason you’re telling me this.”
Lucy looked out through the windshield. “Lucien said you were intuitive.”