Es
Silas was almost too charming. Daria had invited me to dinner at a little before two in the afternoon, which gave us over five hours to get ready. Normally, that would have been more than enough time, but due to my recent transition, I didn’t have a lot of men’s clothing.
Basically, just what my brothers had been willing to give me, and while I appreciated their support, that meant I didn't have much of a selection. Mainly because Zel was a total twink and none of his clothes fit me, while Taz preferred going shirtless. Which was something that I still wasn’t comfortable doing.
All of that just to say that I only really had a single outfit suitable to meet Lysc for dinner, and it was the one that I was already wearing when we first met yesterday. It probably wasn’t going to make a difference, but there was a chance that she could see it as me not taking the matter seriously and coming unprepared. Which would be incredibly disrespectful to both her and her pack.
Even still, five hours should have been more than enough time for me to find an outfit and get back to the hotel where I was staying, but like I said, Silas was charming. The two of us spent way too long finding an outfit at a local department store, then had to rush to where he was staying so we could both get ready. It was already five to seven by the time we made it back to my hotel, and there was a monster of a shifter waiting impatiently in the lobby. She greeted me with a smile and an outstretched hand as we walked through the door.
“Es, right? I’m Rashka, the boss’s second, and here to make sure you get to Gusto Della Caccia.”
I took her hand and wasn’t at all surprised by her trying to crush mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Rashka. I’m honored that Lysc would send her second to escort us.”
“Don’t be, she didn’t. I sent Naomi home so I could size you up before the fight.”
“Oh? Like what you see?” I asked with a grin.
She looked me up and down before shaking her head. “Honestly, I’m surprised you were able to take down Mazi, let alone Dezra. I think this fight is going to be a slaughter.”
“Well, I’m looking forward to surprising you again. Now, should we get going? I’d hate to make Lysc wait.”
“Yeah, sure. There’s an auto-shuttle parked out front that will take you to where you need to go. Ask for Thomas when you get there. He’ll take you up to the third floor to meet with Lysc.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Silas asked.
“Nah, I’m not supposed to be here, remember? Daria would have my head if she found out I ignored an order from the boss.”
“In that case, we definitely didn’t see you, and it was wonderful to meet Naomi,” I joked, and Rashka laughed.
“Be sure you leave out that last part when you talk to the boss or she won’t believe you. Everyone knows Naomi is a bitch.”
~~~~~
The shuttle ride was a short one, and Thomas was standing by the door waiting for us, which made finding him easy.
“Es, Agent Silas, it’s a pleasure to meet you both. I’m Thomas, the proprietor here at Gusto Della Caccia. Please follow me. The boss is upstairs waiting.” The mostly human looking man led us through the restaurant and up two flights of stairs to a room with only three tables. Two of the tables were empty, while Lysc and Daria sat on the same side of the middle one.
“Please have a seat.” Lysc nodded toward the two empty seats across from her before addressing the human who led us here. “Thomas, let Jacob know our guests are here, but take their drink orders first.”
“Right away, boss.” Thomas bowed slightly, then looked at us expectantly.
“A whiskey, please. On the rocks, whatever you would recommend should be fine,” Silas answered first.
“Fruit juice or water, please. I don’t drink alcohol.”
“Would you be amenable to a virgin cocktail? Our bartender enjoys experimenting with them for the pups and a few of the sober members of the pack. From what I’ve heard, they’re quite good.”
“Um, sure, that sounds wonderful, thank you.”
“Of course. I’ll be back with your orders shortly.” Thomas turned to walk back down the stairs while Silas and I made our way to the empty chairs to sit down.
“Before we begin, there’s something I need clarified. When we first met, I made the mistake of calling your sister Thea a demon. She rightfully corrected me, but Daria has told me that she believes you truly are a demon, and not a devil. Is this true?”
I nodded. “It is. I took care of Thea after she fell, and we belong to the same household, so we consider each other family despite not being directly related. Besides, devils and celestials don’t really have any blood relations due to how they’re created. So, adopted family is the only type of family they have. I’m just lucky enough to be considered a part of hers.”
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Lysc nodded appreciatively. “Now, that’s a very good answer. Tell me then, Es, the demon, brother to Thea, the devil, how do you know Agent Silas?”
“The same way as you, actually. He’s the older brother of Bryce Virra.” I smiled at her, but she frowned back at me.
“You’re certain?” Daria asked. “That seems like the sort of thing she would have mentioned when we told her he was here.”
Silas definitely perked up at that, and I tensed, waiting to hear his explanation. “You spoke to Bryce and were still going to have me killed? What did she say when you told her?”
Lysc shook her head. “Nothing. She didn’t respond, and nobody in the pack knows how to cast messaging magic, so we couldn’t follow-up.”
I eyed Silas, not sure how much I should actually say. We had been talking about our sisters all day, but I had gone out of my way to only talk about Thea, and not mention anything that happened after she met Bryce. I wasn’t sure how much he knew, or how much she wanted him to know. So, I tried to keep my explanation vague. “Bryce has been through a lot recently, and even had to relearn how to use magic. It’s possible that she didn’t have full control over the spell, or perhaps she got distracted before she could respond. The matter she’s dealing with right now is rather urgent and potentially very volatile.”
“That’s... concerning,” Silas pointed out. “I don’t suppose you could elaborate?”
“No,” Lysc answered for me. “Captain Virra can explain it herself tomorrow should she wish for us to know. Until then, Thea has vouched for Es, and he vouched for you. So long as that doesn’t change, I am inclined to believe you are who you say you are.”
“I understand, thank you for your trust,” Silas responded, and Lysc nodded approvingly, but before she could say anything, Thomas crested the stairs with another server. They were each carrying a tray, one with drinks and the other with food. Thomas set a bowl of dark-red soup in front of Daria, an extremely rare looking cut of meat in front of Lysc, then a seasoned salad in front of Silas. Finally, he placed a well-seared steak in front of me. It smelled delicious, albeit a bit strange for a reason that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I didn’t have all that much time to think about it, though, because the other server started distributing the drinks.
A whiskey for Lysc and Silas, red wine for Daria, then a tall glass of, well, something for me. The drink was layered in about a half dozen different colors, all very vibrant, and there didn’t seem to be any mixing in between the layers.
“Please, enjoy.” Thomas turned to leave, and I pushed the thoughts of the drink out of my mind. I was going to have to try it before the end of the night, so I didn’t offend Lysc, but the steak actually looked pretty good and I wanted to try that first.
So, I cut off a small piece and bit into it. The taste was strange. Definitely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place where I’d had it before.
“The food is to your liking, I hope?” Lysc asked, and I nodded while I cut myself another piece.
“It’s delicious. Cooked perfectly, and well seasoned. Which is surprisingly hard to find with mortal food in the hells.”
“That’s good to hear. Jacob prides himself in his ability to cook food from other cultures, and wasn’t given enough time to prepare an appropriate dish for Thea while she was here. He spent nearly half an hour complaining to me that night and demanded we order him ingredients from the hells for him to practice cooking for devils.”
I froze with a piece of meat halfway to my mouth. “Which ingredients, exactly?”
“Daria?” Lysc asked, and the vampire pulled out her data-pad. It only took her a few seconds to find the answer.
“Brimsalt, frost powder, ember dust, void pepper, wraithroot smoke, nether quartz, soulbloom blossoms, and something just listed as ‘berry extract.’ That last one was surprisingly expensive.”
That explained why the taste was so hard for me to pin down. It had a random assortment of spices from a half-dozen different cultures, many of which took the authenticity of their food seriously.
I wasn’t a part of those cultures, and the steak was actually pretty good, so I didn’t care that the spices were mixed. But there was another issue that I did care about. “Please tell me Jacob was careful. Nearly all of those are incredibly toxic to mortals.”
Lysc laughed. “Not nearly as careful as he should have been. He tasted a small amount of each of the ingredients the moment they were delivered, despite the warning labels. He was bedridden for two weeks, and Thomas left managing the restaurant to their sous chef in order to nurse his idiot husband back to health. He used the incident to prove to Jacob that the two of them could actually take time off without the place burning down. In the end, nearly dying was the best thing he could have possibly done for his marriage.”
I chuckled as I finally bit into the piece of meat that was left on my fork. “Well, I’m glad he’s okay. Please, let him know that the food is amazing, and that it comes from a mortal chef makes it even more impressive. But if he were to serve it to the wrong demon, there’s a chance that mixing spices could offend them.” I quickly realized how that could sound, so I tried to clarify before Lysc took it the wrong way. “Not that it would ever offend me or Thea. The head of our household doesn’t exactly put a lot of value on tradition for tradition’s sake. She raised us to believe that the merit of an action should be judged solely on the intention and the outcome. Not on how many times it’s been done in the past.”
“She sounds like a wise woman,” Silas said, and I smiled.
“She is, but that way of thinking hasn’t exactly made her popular in the hells. Most of the noble lords there have held their positions for tens of thousands of years, and only keep them due to tradition instead of merit. Lilith’s beliefs question that idea, which means her existence is a threat to their power.”
“Are you saying that your mother is Lilith, the arch-demon?” Daria asked, and I hesitated because that wasn’t a simple question to answer. Lysc took that moment to voice Daria’s real concern, which just complicated things further.
“Would she interfere with the fight tomorrow, or try to avenge you if you’re killed?”
“Lilith wouldn’t interfere or try to avenge me. I’ve already told her what happened, and even knowing that I could die, she approved of me coming here to make things right.”
“Why does it feel like you’re missing a ‘but’ there?” Silas asked.
I sighed and reflexively reached out to the glass in front of me to buy myself more time to come up with an answer. Surprisingly, I actually really liked the complex fruity flavor of the layers, but I couldn’t spend any time enjoying it, because everyone was staring at me while they waited for my response.
“Lilith isn’t my mother. My father sent me to her household because he didn’t want to raise me in one of his temples, and he didn’t trust his ex-girlfriend to do it either.”
“Your father’s temple? That seems to imply that he’s a god. Which one is he?” Daria asked.
“Chorus.”
“That’s not too bad. Chorus isn’t known to be a particularly violent or vengeful god,” Silas pointed out, but Lysc had already caught on to the part I had been trying to avoid.
“I’m assuming this ‘ex-girlfriend’ was the one who gave birth to you? Should we be concerned about her interfering?”
“That would be Kai, and if she somehow finds out about the fight, then yes, we should be concerned.”