The Watcher Chronicles: Oblivion Part 5

"Your sister?" Leah asks, instantly realizing why I'm actually here. "You came here to get her not me."

"I was sent here to get both of you," I tell her. "How I came to be here is irrelevant. We've been looking for you, Leah. If I hadn't followed Faison here, we would have never found you."

"We?"

"You're the fourth archangel vessel I've found. We saw you in a vision earlier tonight. You were burning down a Watcher owned building. In the vision you heard sirens and ran down a street to get away from them. Honestly, I think you're the whole reason I was brought here."

"Then G.o.d did send you?"

"Yes, he opened the Tear so only Mason and I could go through. He'll open the Tear again when it's time for us all to go home."

"Then we need to find your sister," Leah says with conviction. "If He only meant for you to find me, the Tear would be opening. He must want you to find her too."

"I hope you're right," I say, wondering to myself how hard it will be to get Faison to agree to come home with me.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?"

I look over Leah's shoulder and see Lucifer standing a short distance behind her. I know it's him because he looks just the same here as he does in my reality.

Instinctively, I draw my sword and place myself between Lucifer and Leah.

I hear the sound of running behind us and know Mason and Brand are heading to our location. Lucifer looks over my shoulder and smiles. Almost instantly the running stops and I hear cries of pain.

I point my sword towards Lucifer.

"Stop torturing them," I tell him. I feel like a mother telling her son to stop using a magnifying gla.s.s to burn ants with the sun's rays just to see what will happen to them.

"Who are you?" Lucifer asks, completely ignoring what I said.

"No one you need to know," I tell him. "Now... let... them...go."

"No, I don't believe I will. Not until you at least tell me your name."

I feel like just stabbing Lucifer in the chest with my sword but have no idea if it will even faze him. Odds are it will just p.i.s.s him off.

"Jess."

"Jess what?"

"Jessica Mich.e.l.le Riley. Need to know anything else?" I ask not hiding my growing irritation.

Lucifer smiles and I know that's not a good sign.

"Why aren't you cowering in my presence?" He asks, eyeing me up and down. "Most human's do, unless I'm working my charms on them, though I mostly only do that to the females I want in my bed."

I realize I'm having the same conversation with this Lucifer as I did with the one on my Earth once upon a time.

"Listen, I really don't feel like having this conversation twice in my life. I've already had it with the Lucifer on my Earth. It's getting kind of old."

"So you are the agent Malcolm had in custody. He said he wasn't sure how you escaped." Lucifer smiles. "I'm not sure why he thought he could lie to me, but I think I made it crystal clear to him before I left his apartment this evening that it's never a good idea."

"What did you do to him?"

"I don't believe that's any of your concern, Jessica. Though, I did get some interesting information from him before he blacked out from the pain. He mentioned a sister..."

I remain silent. Do I admit I have a sister or not? He seems to be baiting me. I decide to not say anything and see where he leads this conversation.

"Faison isn't it?" Lucifer says.

c.r.a.p. He does know about her.

"She doesn't seem to like it here much," he comments dryly. "I a.s.sume you followed her here to take her back home?"

I try to remain calm.

"What do you want?" I ask him.

"A simple conversation in private, nothing more."

"And after this simple conversation?"

"I promise to let you go."

"Do you keep your promises?"

"Sometimes," Lucifer says, smiling grimly.

"Don't trust him," Leah advises me.

"I never have," I tell her, lowering my sword. "Fine. We can talk if that's what you want. Then I want my sister back."

"We'll see," Lucifer says. "It all depends on you, Jessica."

"Stop torturing them first," I say, chancing a glance in Mason and Brand's direction.

Both men are knelt on the sidewalk holding their heads in their hands. Almost instantly it appears their pain stops. Slowly, they get to their feet.

"Go to them," I tell Leah.

She runs over to Brand and Mason without asking any questions. Yep, smart girl. Unlike me because I'm about to put a little faith into a Lucifer I don't even know.

Lucifer holds his hand out to me.

"I guess you want to go somewhere private for this talk of ours?" I ask.

Lucifer grins. "You a.s.sume correctly."

"Jess no!" I hear Mason scream, but it's too late.

I've already put my hand in Lucifer's.

Lucifer phases us a few times. I have to a.s.sume he's trying to cover his tracks so Mason and Brand don't follow us. We end up at the top of the Empire State Building. I only recognize where we are because Chandler and I came here on the day we acted like tourist. The wind is biting cold at this elevation but Lucifer doesn't seem to be affected by it. Color me not surprised. I sheath my sword so I can wrap my arms around myself to ward off the chill.

"Who are you really?" Lucifer asks. "I know you're more than human but I can't quite put my finger on what's different about you."

"Neither can your counterpart on my Earth, so don't feel bad. You're ignorant on two worlds."

Lucifer scowls at me. "Insolent for a human."

"Yeah, I've been told that tonight already. Why don't you tell me something useful like where my sister is?"

"In a safe place. If I get the answers I want, I'll give her to you."

"Alive?"

Lucifer grins. "Smart question for a monkey. Since you asked it, yes, I'll give her back to you alive."

"Jessica."

I look to my right and see Michael.

"Tell him what you are," Michael says.

"Are you crazy?" I ask.

"I'm beginning to think you might be," Lucifer says, staring at the empty s.p.a.ce I'm talking to.

I choose to ignore him.

"Think of it as a trial run," Michael says, eyeing this alternate version of Lucifer warily. "Let's see what he'll do."

"He might kill Faison," I argue.

"I don't think so. I don't even think he has her."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because if he did, he would have her here and torture her in front of you to get the information he wants."

It made sense. It felt strange to be counting on Lucifer's penchant for cruelty as a tool to measure his truthfulness by. But Michael was right. If this Lucifer had Faison, he would have shown her to me by now.

"Why do you want to tell him the truth?" I ask Michael.

"Because it might give us an idea of how our Lucifer will react if you tell him."

"What does that gain us?"

"It will let us know if we shouldn't do it with our Lucifer. If it goes badly here, then we'll know what not to do back home."

"Not much of a plan," I complain.

"Don't worry. You're in no danger. I might have to take you over for a moment if things do go wrong, but I'll only do it if I think you're life is in peril."

"All right," I say, not wholeheartedly believing what we're about to do will work in the slightest but placing my trust in Michael's judgment.

I look at this Earth's Lucifer who is still looking at me like I may have completely lost my mind.

"You want to know what I am?" I ask him.

"Yes, I believe that's what I've been asking, isn't it?"

"I'm a human vessel whose soul is bound with an archangel's soul."

"Which archangel?"

"Michael."

Lucifer stands completely still. If he wasn't breathing, you could have mistaken him easily for a statue.

"You're lying."

"No," I say, "I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"I refuse to say no I'm not again. Otherwise, we're going to start sounding like a couple of five year olds. You can either believe me or not."

"I suppose you were talking to Michael just now?" Lucifer asks snidely, completely convinced I'm lying to him in some game of wits.

"Yes."

"If you're telling the truth, have him tell you what the last word I said to him was."

I look over at Michael and raise an eyebrow at him because I know he heard the question for himself.

"He said 'Go'," Michael answers, looking at his one time best friend with pity.

"The last word you said was 'go'."

Lucifer stares at me like he's trying to find his best friend in the depths of my eyes.

"Michael?"

"Tell him I've missed him," Michael says to me.

"He misses you," I tell Lucifer. "He misses your friends.h.i.+p." I take in a deep breath. "I can feel his pain."

"Pain?" Lucifer questions incredulously. "What could he know of pain? You just left me here," Lucifer says, his eyes growing even darker than usual. "You're no friend of mine. If you had been, you wouldn't have left me to rot with the monkeys. You would have found a way to protect me from our father. He might have listened to you if you had begged him to give me another chance."