“Well?” Kirielle was asking Lucian as he finished locking the door of their home behind them that night.
“Well?” he repeated as he turned back to look down at her, his dark eyes mirroring the question in her much lighter ones.
“You let me do all the talking the entire way home,” she semi-expanded on her question.
He gave her another questioning look, “Well, you do have a lovely voice,” he smirked, “and it seemed you had plenty to say.”
“Of course I did, but I still wanted to hear about your night too,” she continued.
“My night?” he responded, his expression remaining. “My night was the same as yours, dear girl. We both spent the evening watching the performances. You just watched from backstage with all your new comrades.”
“So, you’re not gonna mention a thing about Claire?”
That did make him take pause, attempting to find a response, “What about her?”
Kirielle just let out a laugh of disbelief, “You were at her side all night,” she stated, almost as though she was the one reprimanding the closest thing she had to a parent in this particular scenario.
Lucian took another moment to reply, “Well, she and I have known each other some time. You know that. We were just catching up,” he claimed, trying to busy himself straightening a nearby painting.
“Right,” the teen scoffed, “and what part of catching up involved you kissing her?”
That did make Lucian freeze momentarily before eventually turning back to face the tiny blonde girl looking up at where he stood over a foot taller than her, yet she still wore a smug grin, awaiting his response.
After taking another moment to find words, he spoke, “You do know it’s well after three am. Shouldn’t you be heading off to bed like an obedient child, thankful that her guardian decided to go along with allowing her to pursue her dreams of stardom this very night?”
“That won’t work,” she stated plainly. “Now, what is going on with you and Claire?”
Lucian let out a sound of disbelief, once again lamenting the fact that a teenage girl could so easily manipulate an immortal born nearly eighty years before she herself was.
“I’m honestly not sure what answer you’re hoping for here. Not that any answer would actually be a concern of yours. At least not yet,” he added more quietly, averting his eyes as he did.
“Yet?” she pressed.
He scoffed again, “Kirielle, dear, the truth is, I honestly don’t know what is ‘going on’ with Claire and I. It is all rather up in the air right now,” he admitted at last.
“Right...” she repeated, though more thoughtfully.
“Well, I’m sorry dear, but that is the most truthful answer I can give you. Now, about you going to bed,” he added pointedly, gesturing toward her bedroom door.
After a long moment, Kirielle spoke again, “Claire knows that lady, doesn’t she?”
“Wait, there’s another lady now? I’ve been busier than I thought tonight,” he played off her question.
Kirielle wrinkled her nose before her expression grew more serious, “I mean the lady who made Summer leave.”
That did do well to make Lucian’s eyes fly back to her, “Pardon?”
“The lady you used to know too. The one who showed up here that night. Summer got really strange after that. Then she left. She was scared of her,” she told him quietly, looking down then as well.
Lucian flinched slightly, needing a moment to find words, “If you’re talking about who I think you may be talking about,” he swallowed slightly, “then that was years ago. You were only ten or so. How would you even have known or understood what even was going on with Summer, or any ‘ladies?’” he asked warily.
“I understood enough to see how scared Summer was. She even implied that she had to leave before ‘she’ came back. I was ten, Lucian, not blind or deaf,” she pointed out though softly.
He closed his eyes momentarily, his mind immediately returning to another little girl who had meant so much to him before that ‘lady’ in question took her away from him as well. Only, in a much more direct way than she had also now done to make Summer leave, or so Kirielle seemed to believe.
“Summer was.... Summer could do amazing things. I doubt that Awsha could have scared her bad enough to have been the only reason that she would have left, Kirielle.” he attempted to convince himself as much as the young girl before him.
“So what other reason was there? Was it Claire?” she dared, though softly.
“Claire?” Lucian swallowed again, trying to hide any true reaction he had to that particular question.
“Well, you said you’ve known Claire a long time. And Summer said that Awsha was someone all of you used to know. So, I’m guessing that means that Claire knows sca—Awsha, too, right?”
Lucian gave her another look of surprise, “Aren’t you full of theories?”
“And you’re not denying it,” Kirielle pressed, though cautiously.
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Lucian shook his head back down at the girl. “Yes, Claire knew Awsha, long before I ever met that horrid woman. But I’m still not sure where you’re even going with this line of questioning.”
Kirielle looked down a moment before answering, “I just want to know if Claire, or Awsha, or both of them, are the real reason Summer left.”
Lucian’s eyes moved to the floor then. “That’s not the easiest question to answer, I’m afraid.”
“Still not a denial,” Kirielle stated sadly.
Lucian sighed heavily, “Summer was quite capable of defending herself if Awsha were to try anything... serious. And things between Summer and Claire were always a bit... difficult. But the reason Summer left was because that’s what she wanted to do. Blaming the people who are still here, any of us, is not going to change that, Kir’,” he attempted to offer some semblance of wisdom to the girl.
“And whatever is happening with you and Claire now... was that happening when you and Summer were still together?”
Lucian gave her another shocked look at the accusation, “You’re honestly asking me if I cheated on Summer with Claire, and then she just used Awsha as an excuse to leave?” he restated, shaking his head back at her.
“I mean, you said you’ve known Claire a long time. And the two of you did look pretty cozy tonight,” Kirielle asked as she bit her lip, her eyes not moving from his face now. “So, were you cozy with her when you were supposed to be with Summer, too?”
Lucian shook his head up at the ceiling before speaking again, “If you only knew the irony of that question.”
“What does that mean?” Kirielle asked, eyes narrowed.
“You think you know so much, little love, but you’ve only been here, in this world, for fifteen short years. So much of our lives happened before you even had life,” Lucian attempted to keep his tone gentle.
“Now you’re just being condescending,” she glared up at him. “Just because you and your friends have been around forever, doesn’t mean the rest of us, the ones who still have a pulse, don’t count!”
Lucian sighed once more, “That is not what I meant. And forever is a little inaccurate,” he shook his head again. “I just mean, it would take a long time to explain everything that’s happened before you even came into this world.”
Her glare remained, “What’s so hard to explain? I just asked if Summer really left because you were sleeping with Claire.”
Lucian let out another chuckle of disbelief at the blunt question, “Firstly, not really a question I expected to have to answer to my fifteen year old ward, ever. But since I don’t foresee you letting it go, Claire and I were together, but---”
“So I was right!” she interrupted angrily.
“If you’d be kind enough to let me finish,” he stated through clenched teeth, “we were together, all of one time, and it happened to be seven years before Summer was even born,” he finished emphatically.
“What?” Kirielle asked, a little thrown then.
“Yes, dear girl: Claire and I had one night together, back in 1873, when both of us were in a rather bad place. And since then, we’ve simply been friends, from time to time,” he added more quietly. “What you witnessed tonight was both of us making some attempt, in vain though it may have been,” he couldn’t help interjecting, “to reconnect.”
Kirielle seemed lost in thought a moment, taking a seat on the sofa, despite the time being nearly three-thirty am at this point. “And what did you mean about the irony of my question about Summer and Claire?”
“It’s not really relevant to—”
“Lucian,” she interrupted another attempt of his to shut down her questions.
"Fine, if you really want to fill your head with decades' old drama,” he mumbled. “But yes, I may have been with Claire once, forty-two years ago, scandalously enough,” he smirked, “but Summer has her own history, and that was closer to, say, fifteen years ago.”
“Wait, what history?”
Lucian sat down next to her, having all but given up on dissuading the girls’ questions, or getting her to go to bed. “As I said, things between Summer and Claire had always been a bit tense, and that was mainly due to the relationship Summer was in before she and I got involved.”
“Relationship?”
“I suppose, I was really only on the peripheral of the whole thing at the time. But needless to say, Claire had good reason to keep her distance until well after Summer left our lives.”
“What relationship?” Kirielle had to ask again.
Another sigh from Lucian, “Well, Summer spent about a year with, well, with Claire’s husband,” he forced the words out as though he really didn’t want to say them at all, but this young girl was relentless.
Kirielle nearly choked then, “I’m sorry, who?”
“Yes, him,” Lucian sighed in defeat.
“Claire’s... husband? As in the biggest, baddest vampire in the whole city? The one you all have to answer to? That one?” she exclaimed.
“A little louder, I’m not sure you woke up the neighbors yet, doll,” he scolded her with a lack of seriousness. “And I don’t know about big and bad, but he is very old, very powerful, and... annoyingly pretty,” he mumbled the last bit.
“Well, I mean, Claire’s way too pretty too... and I suppose, just about as old and powerful as the Prince, isn’t she?” Kirielle then bit back a smile before adding, “I guess they are the perfect couple... aside from all the other people they’ve apparently been involved with?” she added, thinking on the matter.
“Thank you for that. Helpful,” Lucian responded wryly.
“Well, I mean, you were with Claire even though she’d been married to Sean for like a millennium, right?”
“OK, can you please stop talking about your pseudo-father’s one time lover? It’s a bit jarring, still. And ‘millennium’ is a bit of an exaggeration. It’s a good thing you’ve got enough talent to offset your abysmal math skills,” he had to tease her. He then added, “And yes, they do have a very... interesting marriage,” he had to admit.
“Wow,” Kirielle stated thoughtfully then.
“Wow?” he repeated incredulously.
“I was just thinking, you’ve been with not one, but two women who have been with the most powerful, and annoyingly pretty,” she grinned, “vampire in the city. You must have a lot of confidence in your... skills.”
Lucian looked back at that particular statement, appalled enough to reply, “Well, I am a doctor. That does come with an extensive knowledge of... anatomy.”
“Oh eww!” she scowled back at him.
“You started that tangent, dear,” he returned smartly.
Kirielle just groaned before yanking the conversation back to a previous subject, “And where does Awsha come into all of this?” she asked a minute later.
He then paused a moment realizing just then that every lover he had been with since the night of his death had indeed been with Sean prior to his own encounter with them. Which would actually bring the total to three. Though, he wisely chose not to mention that piece of his history with Awsha just then.
“Awsha, my horrid sire, is a nightmare we’d all like to forget,” he instead admitted with obvious discomfort. “And it is nearly four am. I think we’ve had a long enough stroll down memory lane for one night, don’t you?”
“I suppose I have made you squirm long enough for one evening. And you did allow me to audition tonight. So, I suppose I can let you off the hook … for now,” she teased, finally standing to move toward her bedroom door.
“How generous a daughter you are,” he replied wryly, causing her to only snicker again before finally heading into her room at last. Though, Lucian still looked more than a bit uncomfortable about any of that entire conversation, nonetheless.