Disclaimer: Please see first chapter…I get so tired of having to write it per chapter…
Author's Notes: AKA Author's Apologies. I have to apologize if you have been waiting at all, reader. I hate the summers, you see, they make me lazy. I can't believe how lazy I've been. Anyway, here it is, chapter 9. Hope you guys like it. Oh, those who don't like Lilith…you'll start to hate her even more…I'm already starting to hate her…
ACT 1: THE COMING OF THE DARKNESSCHAPTER 9
"Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday"
~HELLO by EVANESCENCE
By half past 9.00 that evening, Lucius had already reached a decision. All that was left was to convey it to Lilith. Lilith was a creature of the night, and was therefore constantly moving to follow it. Where she was at the moment, Lucius could not know. All he knew was that he needed to talk with her. Perhaps if he stayed awake all night, she would come.
Two hours later, Lilith still had not come, and sleep was starting to take hold of Lucius, even as he sat playing at the piano. The moon was already high in the sky, and the owls outside the mansion were hooting noisily. There had already been 2 additions of wood to the fire, but Lilith still had not come.
Lucius was determined to stay awake. Lilith was bound to show up, he was sure of it. She must know by now that he needed to have a dialogue with her. He rose from the piano and moved back into his study, ordering the nearest house-elf to bring him absinthe.
He found his cane propped against the desk in his study just as he had left it. As he passed by it, he picked it up. He fell into the cushioned armchair with a sigh of frustration. How could it have slipped his mind that Lilith was a woman, and that women, for no apparent reason, liked to be "fashionably" late? Oh, but this was much too late, even for her. He pulled his wand out from his cane, examined the snakes-head design of it for a while, and then pointed it at the piano. A beam of glittering blue light shot forth from its tip and hit the piano. "Play something for me," he said as a house-elf entered his study with a bottle of absinthe and a glass for him. The piano began to play a melancholic tune as he poured himself some absinthe while the elf scurried away. "No, no!" Lucius half-roared at the piano, "Something with a little more bounce in it!" The piano stopped abruptly and then obediently began to play the Eine Kleine. With another sigh of frustration, Lucius downed the first glass of absinthe in one gulp, and thus he poured himself another…and another…and another…
It was not until the stroke of midnight that Lilith arrived. The absinthe had lulled Lucius into such a deep sleep that even as the grandfather clock in the hall struck twelve and its clang echoed through the house, he did not stir. In his sleep, he began to dream, and it was in his dream that he heard Lilith softly calling his name. He awoke slowly to find her standing over him, a smile on her gentle, coloring face. "Awake yet, my love?" she asked him softly. She did not wait for him to reply, and closed the gap between their lips as she kissed him gently, seductively. She let his hands tangle in her hair as he deepened the kiss. "Did you miss me?" Lilith said with a smile, pulling away just a little. "More than you think," Lucius replied, ending his sentence by kissing her again.
"What took you so long?" Lucius asked when they pulled away. "Does it matter?" Lilith said, moving away from him to the stolen letter on his table, "You've called, I've come." She picked up the letter and began to read it.
"You know I've been wanting to talk to you?" Lucius asked as he, out of habit, poured himself another glass of absinthe. Lilith gave a snort. "I can feel you from halfway around the world," she said, "You've decided to let me speak with Voldemort?" "Against my own wishes, yes," Lucius answered, replacing his wand into the cane. He caught the tiny flicker of a smile at the whooshing sound of the stick entering its hole.
"Against your wishes?" Lilith asked. Lucius rose to join her at the table, the cane in one hand, glass of absinthe in the other. "I won't lie to you, Lilith," he said, "If he doesn't like you, he'll kill you." Again, Lilith snorted. "I'm already dead, remember?" she said coyly. Lucius put the glass of absinthe down on his table. "Fine," he said then, rubbing at his temple, "Let me rephrase it. If you displease him, in any way, he'll dispose of you."
Lucius found Lilith's hand climbing slowly up his chest. "And that is a problem for you?" she asked him quietly. Lucius swallowed. "Yes, it is actually," he answered hoarsely. "Why?" Lilith asked as her fingers climbed his neck ever so slowly. Lucius cast around for an honest yet misleading answer. He thought he knew what she was getting at, and much as he liked it, it was becoming an extremely uncomfortable thought. "Can't a nephew just be a good nephew and worry about his dear aunt?" he answered after a while. Lilith smirked at him. "I don't think that's all there is to it, Lucius," she whispered, "I like you, Lucius. I say it out of all honesty. You are quite unlike any other man I've ever met. Your wife is one lucky woman." And with that she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Tomorrow then," she said as she pulled away. With a flash of light and a crack, she was gone.
Lucius breathed out. Lilith's words stuck to his mind and clung fast to it. He tried hard to push it away, but he could not. "Damn," he whispered to himself as he realized that he was being weak.
She had said she liked him. Here was a good sign, but Lucius knew it had never been safe to assume. Why in the world would he want to take comfort in such a thought in the first place? It wasn't as if…
Here his thoughts trailed off. This is bad, he thought to himself, this is very bad. It was all of a sudden no wonder to him that he was aching to see her again. He was past the "enamored" stage. It wasn't just infatuation anymore, but it wasn't love either. It was just…somewhere in between. And he knew exactly what was in between infatuation and love.
Lucius chuckled to himself. Very rare was it that a woman would have such an effect on him, such power over him. It was unnerving, yet at the same time all too exquisite. Not even Narcissa held him in the palm of her hand as Lilith did, and he knew it.
An owl hooted again outside, and Lucius came back to the present. His eyes fell upon the letter, and reality hit him. He suddenly realized how completely, utterly wrong the picture was. He was not to supposed to get involved intimately with Lilith. It was a rule of negotiations. No intimate involvements with those he was to negotiate with. Lilith was just a client. That was all. And a distraction. A very alluring distraction, he thought, but a distraction nonetheless. He drained the absinthe from his glass and threw it into the fireplace, where it shattered into the flames.
Tomorrow. He would deal with it tomorrow. He headed back to his room, where he fell asleep almost immediately.
A/N: I didn't really like this chapter, I know it's total crap. But if you feel otherwise (which is highly unlikely), then a review might help me feel better about myself…