The Devil's Lover: The Wish (20 page)

†††††

Kali opened her eyes and found Lucifer
staring at her. He gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and then
nibbled on her left ear. She flinched.

"It tickles so much, stop it!" She
yelled out as she drowned in her own laughter. He used his tongue
to lick her ear. "Lucifer, please! It tickles so much!

"I'm going to take a shower, want to
join me?” he asked as he left the bed. She brightly
blushed.

"Are you still shy?” he
chuckled.

She nodded.

He came to the bed and lifted her up
in his arms with miraculous ease. "I'm not asking you this time.
Take a shower with me.”

Lucifer glanced out of the window for
a quick second. It was not safe to leave Kali alone, he
concluded.

The two demon lords watched Lucifer
and Kali from a tree branch. Arvin was stunned. He clenched his
hands into fists as anger swirled in his brilliant grey
eyes.

“
So it’s true. Even if we
can't see her clearly…” he said in a grave voice. “He’s in love
with a
human
!!!”

“
Arvin, calm down,” Acelin
grabbed his shoulder. “Do not be rash. He knows we are here. He
will come to find us sooner or later. Be patient.”

“
Nine thousand years of
sleep and I wake up to find myself in a tank,” Arvin growled. “Six
hundred years later I wake up to this? These humans are so
troublesome.”

“
I don’t see why we have
to do this,” Acelin sighed. “He will eventually get tired of her.
Give him a decade or two, a hundred years even. Just go back to
sleep, Arvin.”

“
I cannot stand it!” Arvin
folded his arms on front of him. “We were created in the first
orders of angel at about the same time. We’re like brothers! We
followed him from heaven to the depths of Hell! I will not let him
turn his back on us even for a second!”

“
What are you going to do?
He does as he wishes and that’s how it ought to be. I don’t think
we should interfere with his affairs. You may be his brother, but
tell him that when he’s angry.”

“
Soren is
dead.”

“
Impossible!” Acelin
denied it. The news came as a shock to him. “No one has that
power.”

“
Except for our master,”
Arvin corrected him. 

“
Are telling me that Lord
Lucifer killed Soren? That cannot be! Lucifer would never turn his
sword against his own brother.”

Realization was slowly
dawning.

“
That woman!” Arvin said
through clenched teeth. “That despicable woman! She’s brainwashing
him! She’s splitting us, Acelin!”

“
Soren must have done
something unforgivable,” Acelin tried to make sense of it all.
“Lucifer would never…he…”

Arvin shook Acelin abruptly by the
shoulders. “Why won’t you admit that it’s that woman’s
fault?”

“
If that is the case, then
what makes you think Lord Lucifer will not do the same thing to
us?” Acelin asked. “Leave them alone, Arvin. He will find his way
back to us in good time.”

“
I don’t care if he kills
me,” Arvin said bitterly. “I will not allow
anyone
to split our bond, especially
a mortal woman!”

“
She bore him a
son.”

Arvin’s eyes widened.
“
What
!?”

“
She bore him a son,
Arvin. I heard it from the other demons. They were trying to hide
it from us. If you kill the woman, the Prince will definitely come
after you. We can harm neither Lord Lucifer nor his blood. Could
you stand it, Arvin? If you kill the woman, could you stand the
look in the prince’s eyes? Can you looked into the eyes of
Lucifer’s son and tell him you killed his mother?”

Arvin hesitated.

“
Think very carefully,
Arvin.”

“
I must see him,” Arvin
said. “I must see Lucifer’s son.”

Chapter 21: Ephemeral
Bliss

They couldn’t tear their eyes from
him. The spectators were awed. The young, the old, the men, and the
women, they all stared at him. They were made speechless by such a
beautiful man. He had platinum hair that was as brilliant as silver
and a pair of cold blue eyes that could bend the heavens to his
will. He was walking hand in hand with a pretty young girl and a
child on his shoulders. The child had the same color hair and
enchanting blue eyes.

“
What beautiful siblings,”
an old woman said as they walked passed her.

“
We are not siblings,”
Trent corrected her. “They are my parents.”

“
Oh my!” the old woman
couldn’t believe it. The man didn’t look much older than twenty.
The girl next to him was sixteen at most. “What young
parents.”

“
Trent,” Lucifer said to
him. “You are not obligated to tell them anything.”

“
But we are not siblings!”
Trent argued.

“
It is fine for now,”
Lucifer continued, “but when you grow up, no one would believe you.
They will not be able to understand that we cannot age. They will
be frightened of us.”

“
Why will they be
frightened of us?” Trent asked innocently. “We are not the ones
terrorizing them.”

“
It is in their nature to
be afraid of the unknown. They need to test the water many times
before they are sure. Their own instincts keep them safe.” Lucifer
explained.

“
Then why don’t we explain
to them, Father?” Trent asked curiosity. “Would they still be
afraid of us then?”

“
Their life span is a
meager century or less, Trent. Compared to ours… that is nothing
more than a blink of an eye. Why would you want to explain
yourself, and if you choose to do so, how many times must you
explain yourself? Aside from our unending life span, everything
about us is threatening to them. Even if they know what we are,
they cannot live with the knowledge of something so powerful and
dangerous living so close to them. They will set out to destroy us,
but little do they know that they will only be destroying
themselves. Even a small portion of our strength can take their
lives effortlessly. That is why I asked you not to get too close to
the other children.”

Kali tugged on Lucifer’s hand.
“Lucifer…” she shook her head. “Trent is too young for your
lessons.”

"You have highly underestimated your
son's capacity for learning.”

“
I will make them
understand,” the boy said.

“
We’re here,” Kali smiled
when they reached preschool. The teachers were standing on front of
the entrance, welcoming the students. Lucifer picked up the boy
from his shoulders and placed him firmly on his feet.

“
Be a good boy, Trent,”
Kali bent forward and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

He nodded obediently.

The female teacher approached them,
clearly cautious. She offered a handshake, which Lucifer ignored.
Kali quickly grabbed the teacher’s hand with a smile and gave her a
solid shake. She shot a warning look at Lucifer, whose face
remained expressionless.

“
I know this is something
reserved for parents-teachers night, but as Trent’s teacher, I feel
concern. The sooner we address this, the better.”

“
What’s the matter, Miss
Lela?” Kali asked as she pulled Trent closer and wrapped him within
the ring of her arms.

“
Well,” the woman tried to
find words that would best describe the situation, but came up
blank. “Your son certainly does not act like a five-years-old. He
behaves himself too well, I’m afraid.”

“
What do you mean?” Kali
asked, puzzled by the teacher’s description. “Isn’t that a good
thing?”

“
Your son is a loner,
Kali,” she said straightforwardly. “He avoids playtime with the
other children and prefers to be by himself. For a child, he rarely
smiles. Even though your husband is a doctor, I must ask, are there
any conflicts at home we should know about?”

The question was full of
suspicion.

“
Your concerns are
unappreciated, teacher,” the boy replied before his mother
could.

“
Trent!” she knelt down to
his level. “How could you be so rude to your teacher?”

“
I do not like the tone
you used or the accusations you throw at my mother,” his eyes
hadn’t left the teacher. “If you’ve found faults in me, I wish that
you would have addressed me directly.”

“
Do you see what I mean?”
Miss Lela pointed out as she rested her hands on her hips. “Is that
the diction of a five-years-old?”

Lucifer placed a hand on the boy’s
head and he lowered his lids over his keen eyes. His attention was
distracted by a familiar laughter some twenty feet away. His mother
had also heard it. She slowly stood up and gasped at the sight of
him. He stood in front of her with brilliant golden eyes that
couldn’t belong to anyone else. He gave her a soft smile when he
saw he had her full attention.

“
Kali,” he called out her
name.

Kali brought her hands to her mouth in
astonishment. She couldn’t believe he was standing in front of her.
The same face, the same eyes, the same smile. It was him! She
didn’t spare a moment before jumping into his open arms.

Tears spilled onto her cheeks. She
held him tightly as if he was going to evaporate. “Chevalier! It is
really you, Chevalier?”

Chevalier wrapped his arms around her
small body. “It’s me.”

“
Where have you been,
Chevalier?” she cried. “You have no idea how much I missed
you.”

“
Who is he?” Trent asked
his father when he saw Kali run into the arms of a strange
man.

Lucifer did not reply.

Slowly, Kali lets go of Chevalier. She
wiped her tears away quickly and then waved to Trent. “Come here,
Trent, there is someone I want you to meet.”

Trent came to his mother’s side.
Chevalier knelt down, looking Trent in the eyes. “You have grown a
lot.”

Trent moved forward and wrapped his
arms around Chevalier’s neck. There was so much familiarity and
warmth in that man's voice. He had heard it once before, somewhere
in his memories.

Chevalier hugged Trent and then kissed
his forehead. “You remember me, don’t you?”

"I know you,” Trent said. "I have
heard your voice many times before.”

The little girl with Chevalier was
staring at them.

“
Who is she, Chevalier?”
Kali asked curiously.

“
It’s a long story,”
Chevalier said. “To make the story short, I adopted her after her
parents abandoned her,” he chuckled. “I’ve been trying to get her
to call me ‘father’ but she kept on calling me by my
name.”

“
She’s so pretty,” Kali
praised. “What is your name?”

“
Cerabi,” the girl
answered.

“
She prefers to be called
Bi,” Chevalier said to Kali.

“
Bi…I like that,” Kali
said. “Bi, this is Trent.”

Bi’s large hazel eyes stared into
Trent’s blue ones. With a spark of curiosity, the little girl
smiled.

†††††

They sat at a nearby café. Even though
he could sense Lucifer's hostility, Chevalier calmly stirred his
coffee.

“
Chevalier, you should put
some sugar in your coffee,” she offered him a cup filled with sugar
cubes.

“
I take it black now,” he
said.

Kali made a ‘bleh’ expression with her
face as if she was the one who tasted the bitter coffee.

“
What’s this I heard about
you being a doctor?" Chevalier took a sip from his cup. "How is
that profession to your liking? Are you best friends with Death
now?"

"It keeps the days
interesting.”

"It’s surprising,” Chevalier added a
comment.

‘
Why did you come
back?’
Lucifer said to Chevalier through
telepathy.

‘
Jealous?’
Chevalier asked. He chuckled.
‘
She seems very happy. I’m
glad.
’

‘
Answer my
question.’

‘
I sense a strong
concentration of demons in this city. I am worried about her. They
are after her, aren’t they?’

‘
I dismissed them once
before. However, this time they may have awakened some old
friends.’

‘
That is why I came back.
I can’t stay away knowing she’s in danger. I sense a strong
protection circle around her. You are worried too. Thank you for
taking care of her.’

‘
It has nothing to do with
you.’

 ‘
Am I not allowed to
see her?’
Chevalier asked almost too
innocently.

‘
It’s annoying enough that
she loves the boy so much.’
Lucifer looked
to Kali, who was drinking her soymilk through a straw.

‘
You’re an amazingly
complicated demon, Lucifer.’
Chevalier
raised his left brow in puzzlement.