Sometime between leaving Daemon in the hands of the healers and Gabrielle asking for the Lady, Daemon had pieced together enough of his mind for the body to be assaulted once more by the drugs he had been given just hours before being found.

Oh he was fighting… one could see it in his tortured face. Smell it in the raged filled room. Fill it in the cold brutal air.

Mother night. In helping him to regain balance it had open a flood gate for everything else. Damn it he couldn't help the healers with these drugs running thru him. And he wouldn't be able to trust them to give him the strength he would need.

He wasn't a black widow but who was and he was about to get them to help him regardless what else they had in mind. "High Lord, I need you to make a dream web will allow me to see/ talk to Daemon while in the abyss."

"Lucivar, that can't…" Karla started to interrupt. Well it could but only between two black widows. Or so she thought.

"At what level do you have at mind prince?" Saetan asked his son. He and Daemon had done something like this when Jaenelle was twelve. Lucivar wasn't a black widow but he knew enough that whatever it was that he was thinking just might work.

"Red. It would have to be red." He hoped. He would need his ebon gray jewel later if his idea worked but Daemon would meet him on the red. He hoped.

He felt his father's power come up from beneath him and surround him. Felt the black coursing thru his veins. He had never felt anything like this before. Or at least he didn't think that he had.

Another moment and he was descending into the abyss. A controlled guide with his Father creating the path ahead. Colors passed by fast at first then a bit faster. Until stopping suddenly at the red.

Locking away the fear that would surly get him killed he called out, *Bastard.*

For a full minute nothing answered then…

The dark power overwhelmed him. Ice clogged his lungs. Cobwebs filled his thoughts. Then…

*Hello Prick*

The voice but no one there. Fine. Not what he wanted but he would take what he could get. *I'm trying to decide if I should be pissed that you didn't ask me to the dance or be annoyed because you started without me.*

Dance? Yes this was a dance. One both and his brother had had too many times before. Yet there was no carnage, no rivers of blood, no… *Have you come to help me, Prick?*

*You can't battle this on two fronts Daemon… Unless?*

Like hell he couldn't. He wore the black. He still had his birthright red to fall back on… he could do anything he damn well pleased. He lived for the carnage... *Explain.*

*Well you could continue to fight the drugs and the healing webs… Or…*

He was being baited he could fell it. Yet Lucivar wasn't that cunning. He didn't use words when his fist worked just as well… *Or what?*

*You can allow me to help you and wake up in time to… well then again maybe you wouldn't be interested.* Lucivar looked away from where the voice was coming from. Acting almost as if he were truly going to leave.

Now he stepped out of the mist and into the prick's view. *Either tell me what it is you don't want to or I will take down so far and so quick no one would be able to stop me.*

Damn. Daemon didn't bluff. He didn't have to. Well time to end this game then, and hope that Daemon did what he wanted him to do and not do what would surly kill him. *Well… Papa… your wife is very upset that you're fighting the wrong webs.*

Papa? His world rebuilt itself and a span of a heartbeat. Oh the drugs were bringing out everything primal but the knowledge of what he would wake to filled him with too much joy. *What do you have in mind?*

Lucivar took a breath with relief.*If you just fight the drugs and…* he wasn't sure when he made the connection he just did, *and whatever webs shouldn't be here and I'll help the healer's do what's necessary.*

Webs? What webs? That made him think about some things. The penalty for murder ..there was no penalty… there was no punishment for killing a queen or he would have been dead hundreds of years ago… as would have Lucivar… what the hell had clouded his thoughts enough to believe that. He knew better. Hell he was a black widow and he knew better.

A quick check of things had told him plainly enough about the webs. They were light. Probably from a rose jeweled witch. That and they hadn't been triggered until he had begun searching for the cause from the sizzle of the blood. They hadn't completely taken him until he had begun to shatter his own chalice. The drugs had made him believe the lie long enough for the spell/webs to worm their way into his inner barriers.

He had opened those barriers. This was something that was not going to admit to anyone anytime soon. Especially the Eyrien who would kick his ass for not shielding or dropping that shield to begin with.

*Alright Prick, I won't fight the spells that the healers need to use as long as they go thru you fist. But I want your word before I let you go.*

Nerves tingled inside him. Giddy with relief and knowing that this dance wasn't over yet he too calmly snarled, *And what do I need to give you my word on?*

Daemon smiled a cruel, brutal smile then crooned,*Explain to my wife if she's not tucked in somewhere and lifts more than a light book I will rise from the abyss regardless of what else she thinks needs healed.*

Well that wouldn't do. * You have my word that my sister will be well tended to while you heal. However I was under the impression that she wanted to tell you about the child.*

* I see no reason as why she can't do that.*

Mother night what the hell was Daemon planning. No, on second thought it was better not to ask that question. After all the answer would be made perfectly clear after his body had a chance to heal.

Slowly Lucivar opened his eyes. The healers were tending to Daemon but it was his father's stare that drew his attention. "He'll be pissed off when he wakes but he won't fight the healing webs."

The high lord drew a deep breath then too calmly spoke, "At what price. Prince?"

Damn he knew. Still he wasn't going to admit to the bargain that he and his brother had made. Oh, no he wasn't. "That's between my brother and myself, High Lord. But if you truly would like to know You could ask him."

Saetan shuttered. His sons were hard to deal with individually, dealing with them together… unspeakable. "I trust that the Queen won't have to be told about whatever you and your brother discussed."

The barest of smiles crossed Lucivar's face, "Not unless you prefer to see if she can still move the walls of the Hall." With that said he glided out of the room with more speed then needed. It also gave him the time to think of something else….

… where had Jaenelle disappeared to while he was in the abyss?