33. The Importance of Family

Illumi answered, "Yeah. Hmm. I noticed. That's fine. I understand." End.

Having completely missed Mr. Zaoldyeck's responses to that brief, earlier call, Lucia was determined to decipher Illumi's. But who could make anything of that? Illumi's eyes, never readable to Lucia at the best of times, were now misted over with a faraway, dreamlike aspect. She was going to go insane.

"Illumi, wha—"

But she didn't get a chance to finish, as he surprised her by abruptly sitting up and pulling her into a kiss. Slowly percolating through her already overwrought senses was the realization that this was the very first time Illumi had kissed her. On every other occasion when their lips had met it had been at her instigation.

His hands were on her shoulders, exactly where he had placed them when he'd caught her in the hallway, after she had fled from him in terror. And, if anything, his long, elegant fingers were holding her with more strength than he had used at that time, almost painfully so. His mouth was pressed against hers with bruising force. This was not the polite, soft, pleasing return pressure of Friday's kisses or even the skillful, passionate, lover's ministrations of the solarium floor. Hard and possessive, with an edge of desperation to it, it was as if he was trying to take something, when all he really knew was how to give.

A thought like a zephyr teasingly whispered that there were of Illumi, things unknown, or even as yet unimagined. Lucia found this a little bit frightening, even more bewildering… and wholly embarrassing. She blushed and pushed back; they weren't alone. "Illumi, your father..."

Illumi's eyes were again expressionless, but his eyebrows were very slightly raised, and his mouth held just the hint of a smirk. "No, Lucia, your father."

Her father? Her father hadn't said or done anything since before her Nen projection. What could….

She stood up and hurried to the desk. Her father's head was resting on the blotter, eyes closed. He was covered with a fine sheen of sweat, and his forehead felt clammy and cool, actually, more than cool, almost cold. She put her fingers on the side of his neck and felt… nothing.

No. No. He couldn't be.

Had she given him a heart attack when she took him to Kukuru Mountain? She had never taken him before, partially because she was afraid he'd recognize it, but mostly because she was sure he'd be offended at such a silly use of an important power. But that couldn't be it, because Illumi had told her. Could he have…? She ran her hand through the hair on the back of his head, and felt nothing metallic. Yet, somehow, he must have. Somehow, the man she most admired in the world had just been killed by the one she most loved. Lucia placed both hands flat on the desk to keep standing. She was going to start blubbering again, she knew it; she was such a weakling.

It had worked. His plan had worked! Outwardly, he was once again impassive; but inwardly, Illumi exulted.

His partner had successfully rendezvoused with the target, but the timing had been a little off. That was always the tricky thing with poisons. Dosage was so important if you wanted them be dispatched by a certain time; but on a public conveyance, you also had to have time to get away before they keeled over. And for that, she really would have needed more time to study the target's habits, metabolism, activity level, etc. Illumi understood. Mother was a real professional, and he had asked for a rush job. It had been messy, not smooth and elegant as he would have wished, but the plan had worked all the same. Job satisfactorily completed; he had not failed.

But Lucia was not sharing in his success. She was standing next to her father's body, leaning forward supported on trembling arms, her head hanging and her face obscured by her hair. How well Illumi knew the importance of a father to a child, even one as callous as to be able to order its death. And he had been all the family she had. That wasn't going to be the case anymore. His headache nearly gone, and with only a little residual dizziness, Illumi stood up and went to her.

He gently took her arms off the desk and held her close, guiding her the few steps to the rug she had lain on the other evening. Illumi knelt down, pulling her down with him and seating them both comfortably. She was trembling lightly against him, but she wasn't crying. "Lucia, Lu, Lu," he was stroking her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder, and speaking in his most soothing voice, "it's over. It's all over now." At that she let out a whimper. He continued, "Now we can go home. You can come back to Kukuru Mountain." She looked at him then, glistening, tear limned eyes wide with awe. She was beautiful, refulgent from within.

"You…you're taking me back…with you?" her voice full of astonishment.

Oh yes, he was taking her back with him. She had made a choice and he was not going to let her back out of it now! She was leaving this world and moving to the other side of the wall, his side. Now she would have a whole new family: the Zaoldyecks. He very much doubted she had any idea what she had asked for; but it had been her wish, and he would grant it. He wondered if she would enjoy finding out; he had a feeling he was going to enjoy teaching her.

There was a noise from the doorway to the study, and Lucia looked over to see Kikyou Zaoldyeck standing there. She was dressed in a green velvet riding dress, with the skirt pulled up on one side to reveal riding slacks worn beneath and highly polished leather boots. On her head she had a loden velour alpine hat, jauntily tipped forward with two long pheasant plumes trailing behind. Lucia though she looked quite picturesque, in her own inimitable style, although the metal visor over her eye wrappings didn't go with the look at all. Mrs. Zaoldyeck was impatiently tapping her riding crop against the side of her boot, as Mr. Zaoldyeck had not yet lowered the barrier he had apparently placed on the doorway. Lucia stood, with Illumi still supporting her, as the barrier came down and his mother swept into the room.

"What a terrible man that General Barhydt is. He wasn't going to let me in this house, can you imagine! Well I showed him!" This last remark was punctuated with a slap of her crop across her palm, and Lucia suddenly had a vision of the rotund old gentleman General on hands and knees, with Mrs. Zaoldyeck riding on his back making liberal use of her crop. Her fantasies were becoming more and more disturbing.

"Illumi dear, take Lucia out of here. This can't be a very cheery place for her right now and those awful reporters are coming back, not to mention the police, and that stupid army, and the fact that there seems to be some kind of fire burning on the second floor." She paused for breath as she rushed up to Lucia, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek. "It's so wonderful to see you again at last! You're all grown up now, and so pretty, too. We've got so much to catch up on; I can't wait 'till we're all back at home. And just think; now you'll really be my own darling daughter!"

"I understand, Mother," Illumi said as he guided a somewhat shell-shocked Lucia from the room. He agreed. It would be good to be away from here and back home on Kukuru Mountain… with Lucia.

Kikyou turned toward Silva then. He hadn't moved or said anything, just stood observing and repeatedly tossing something in the air and catching it. She snatched it out of the air on the way down and looked at it. It was a large throwing pin modified with a ribbon tied around the end. Kikyou smiled.

"Silva Zaoldyeck, are you going to stand there and tell me, before I called, you were going to kill your future daughter-in-law with one of Illumi's pins tied with her own mother's ribbon?" She leaned up against his broad chest. "Why that's the most splendidly cold-hearted thing I've ever heard of."

Smiling broader, she added, "But...it does seem like that would take a lot of extra time, though. Hmm?"

Whereupon Mr. Zaoldyeck put back up the barrier and grabbed his wife; and the late, unfortunate, Minister VerHoffen's corpse was inanimate witness to yet another Zaoldyeck man's expression of affection toward the woman he loved.