Legion [Book II]

Red Lip Imprint

*a few days later*

Sweat pooled in Miccoli's collar as he watched absentmindedly as his wife continued to solidify the negotiations with the Mortal Realm Liaison. He was tense, annoyed even, at the fact that yet again, Selene wasn't taking his feelings into consideration. 

"So with your signature, we can start creation on the weapons." That brought him out of his day dream. 

"What weapons?" The woman huffed in his direction, not even attempting to hide her irritation. 

"Mr.Vincetti, as we have mentioned through the course of this negotiation, we feel that humans needs some source of protection. Don't you think it a bit unfair if a supernatural decides to reek havoc on this realm and we have no way to defend ourselves?" Miccoli felt his body tense. 

"With all due respect, Selene and I have worked our asses off to ensure that the Mortal Realm as well as any other Realm is safe and we all are in accordance with the treaty. If anything, it's the Mortal Realm's politics that's delaying the process to ensure peace." He felt his jaw clench at his sentence. How dare she? She didn't have to say it outright for him to know what she was suggesting. 

"With all due respect." She emphasized sarcastically. 

"I think it fair to ensure the safety of humans, and creating these weapons will provide us with the proper defense."

"Or the proper attack." He retorted back. He could feel Selene burning a hole in the side of his head but he didn't care. Something about this entire thing felt wrong, and he was going to make it known. The woman let out a big huff.

"Mr. Vincetti...we aren't savages...we have no intention of attacking anyone who doesn't attack us first." That was the final straw for Miccoli. His eyes burned red, as he stared into the woman. 

Savages

She had made it clear what she thought of them. He hope that now Selene would finally see it.

"Madame Chair, please move forward with the creation of CR1700. If having them will give you a peace of mind to sign this union, I am all for the leap of good faith." Miccoli felt like his ears were bleeding. He glared at Selene in a way that would scare anyone else, only to be met with a equally terrifying glare from her. He knew he needed to get out of there. Needed to cool his head before he said something that he would regret. He stood abruptly, signaling that the meeting was over, Selene stood with him, clearly irritated at his behavior.

"Thank you so much for meeting with me Mrs. Vincetti, Mr Vincetti, I'll let you know when the papers are ready to sign." Selene nodded her head and walked towards the door with Miccoli in tow. Madam Chair stood to walk her guest to the door of her office. As they exited, Miccoli could have sworn he felt her hand lightly brush pass his lower back. He sighed. Clearly his rage was getting the best of him. 

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                                                            --Addeline POV--

"So you want to tell me about this juicy mortal you've been visiting?" Rumy ran her tongue over her fangs as she painted another set of her hands. It was girls night, a time where Rumy and I would dish all our latest gossip. She always seemed to have more to tell than me, and I often rotated between being envious and living vicarious through her stories. Don't get me wrong, I was no where near innocent, but Rumy, she was of black widow blood, which made her a hot tempered man eater. I on the the other hand, enjoyed my rendezvous with a minimal collateral damage as possible. 

"There's nothing else to say other than that." I respond to her rolling my eyes in an exaggerated motion. I'd made the mistake of mentioning Luka to her, and ever since, she'd been on my case.

"Is that why you've been in his dreams every night?" I glared at her before letting out a huff.

"Mind you business." She gargled a laugh as I threw a pillow at her. "I will tell you, he has the most striking blue eyes I've ever seen. Makes me wonder about his family." Rumy raised her brow at me. 

"So let me get this straight...you're not riding him or at least getting bent over by him...AND you wanna know what about his family?" She blew on a set of her nails drying them. "OH MY GOD YOU LIKE HIM!" I hissed in her direction. "NO!...He's completely not my type...he's all square and stuffy...you know I like mine carefree like me." Rumy doesn't respond but the smirk on her face tells me that she doesn't believe me. To be honest, I didn't quite believe me either. Luka wasn't my type of all, but that still didn't stop me from thinking he was intriguing. A small frown lined Rumy's face.

"What's wrong Rumes?" She hesitates as if she's nervous to talk to me. "I.. I heard some people in town talking...about you." Rumy looks up from her long lashes waiting for my reaction, but instead, I try my best to remain calm. "Oh yeah...what did they say?" She closes the bottle of polish and shifts awkwardly in her seat. 

"Out with it Rumes." She sighs.

"They were saying how they don't really think you're...you know...IT because you're too...flighty." I flinched knowing exactly what IT she was referring to. It was no secret that I was the reincarnation of Legion, that I was supposed to become this magnanimous being in just a few months who would take over the world. It also was no secret that I completely wasn't interested in any of that bullshit. 

"Well tell them to say that to the damn voice in my head." Rumy eyes widened and she quickly shook her head. "I'm sorry Addy...It's just gossip." The thing was, I knew it wasn't. I had heard it from my mother, my father, my aunts, uncles, cousins, hell even my little brother.

Addeline you got to take this serious, you're being completely irresponsible. 

The thought of it all irritated the s**t out of me. I was only twenty, young, free. I didn't owe anyone anything and if people felt that I did, they were sorely mistaken. 

"f**k em." I say finally, faking a smile. Rumy looks like she wants to say something but she thinks better of it and I'm glad. To say that the gossip didn't get to would be a lie, and I didn't want to lie to my best friend. 

After a few hours of girls time, Rumy asked if we could postpone our sleepover so she could go and see her current boyfriend. Though I was looking to spend time with my friend, I also wasn't going to stand in the way of her getting some action. If anything, I felt bad for the poor bastard, if he's anything like her previous flings, he won't be alive too much longer to enjoy it. 

"Addeline?" I could hear my mother heels as she came down the hall towards my room. I couldn't take another lecture about how disappointed everyone was in me, not from her. I vanish quickly, with a place already in mind. 

Luka laid asleep in his bed alone yet again. I couldn't help but scoff, he had a girlfriend and yet in the few days in which I'd known him, she never seemed to stay the night. I watch his chest rise and fall as he sleeps, and take a moment to really study him. His hair was freshly washed, the curls still slightly wet from the shower. His facial features were softened as he slept, and for the first time, I noticed he had freckles on the bridge of his nose. Per usual, he was in nothing but boxer shorts, something I'd grown to tease him about when I visited. Looking around the room, something instantly caught my eye. I walk over towards his desk to get a better look. There, a slew of cards on the table and white and red balloons beside them. Congratulation on the promotion, was etched in huge letters on most. 

Of course he got a promotion

I thought to myself. How wonderful it must be to have your life be so perfect? I wanted to tear up the cards. To take the anger of the day out on them. Instead, I returned them to their place and with one simple notion, I whisk myself into his dream, curious to see what he's up to.

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                                                                    --Luka POV--

"You're the only person I know who is even orderly in their dreams." I didn't need to turn around from desk to know whose voice that was. It was one that was laced with something both sinful and sweet, a voice that I'd grown fond of hearing. 

"Is this the night I learn your name?" I say to her standing while still arranging the papers on the desk in front of me. She giggles in a way that goes straight to my core.

"See..always orderly..always in control." She teases before lifting herself onto the desk. I wince, noticing that she's sitting on some of the papers I was organizing and she rolls her eyes. 

"You have got to be shitting me. A sexy girl sitting on your dream desk and you all you're worried about is some damn papers...no wonder you're still a virgin." She crosses her legs and glares in my direction.

"And who pissed in your cereal love?" I say in retort causing her to giggle again. This time though, it's not one of the ones I'd grown to love, but one that was forced and full of annoyance.

 "You know, I didn't ask you to come here."

"So you're kicking me out?"

"If you plan on continuing to snarl at me then yes." Her hazel eyes seemed to turn as dark as midnight and I rubbed mine to make sure I wasn't seeing things. "Well look at that...the control freak has a little bite to him."

"What the f**k is your problem?" I feel my neck get hot. In the few days in which I'd seen her in my dreams, it was always extremely s****l, we hadn't done much talking. Still, I never expected her to be a complete asshole. She hoped of the desk causing the papers to fly from under her. I knew she was trying to get a rise from me, and to be honest it was working.

"Well go on...don't you wanna pick them up? Huh Mr.Perfect?"

"I'm not perfect." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh please...everything's labeled, you freak out at some damn papers flying off a desk in a DREAM..you have real life girlfriend begging you to f**k her ten ways from Sunday...but nooo." She wags her finger in my face and I feel my blood starting to boil. "You value her morals too much." She walked around me eyeing me up and down. "Let me guess..you use to look like s**t, and now you don't know what to do with you new found hotness? A shame really...a big ball of useless."

"Says my mother." 

"Wha-" I lean against the desk and lock eyes with her. My arms folded, no longer caring about the papers on the floor.

"My mother..the woman who told me every day of my life that I was about as useless as a glass hammer....the woman who enjoyed assigning me impossible tasks, so she could revel in the amount of failure that I am." Her eyes widened.

"See my mother...my mother was a true mastermind. Some people are sloppy, they leave bruises and scars that can be seen...but my mother, she made sure all the ones she left on me could be easily chalked up to me being a clumsy kid." I feel myself go to a place that I'd worked so hard to forget.

"I remember this one time in fourth grade, I'd stayed up all night making a card for her on mothers day. It had all the bells and whistles, the hearts, the I love you's all that stuff ya know...but the problem was..I made a mistake an got glue on her table." A pained laugh escaped my throat as I rotated the skin on my side to give her a better look of five indentations.

"She burned me with her cigarette until I passed out." Tears lined the rims of her hazel eyes. She swallowed deeply.

"I learned that day to stay in line...to be orderly...a good child...to control everything around me...to ensure I NEVER made that mistake again. So please excuse me if I'm a bit of a control freak...but I just don't know any better." She moves towards me swiftly.

"I-I didn't know." The look in her eyes infuriated me. More than not being in control, I hated being pitied. I shrug away from her.

"Because you don't know s**t about s**t. I could say so much about what I think about you, that you're clearly one of those people who project their insecurities and anger onto other people...but I won't because unlike you...I don't judge people without getting to know them." I huff.

"You're not even f*****g real." She c***s her head to the side at me, as if processing my words. She says nothing, but moves in closer to me and I smell her sweet scent. She inhales.

"You have no idea Luka." I stiffen at hearing the sultry way she says my name. She kisses my cheek before vanishing and I curse under my breath.

*Beep Beep Beep Beep*

The sound of the alarm awakes me. I rub my eyes, exhausted and stand and walk to the bathroom to release myself, stopping abruptly at the mirror. My blood ran cold as I stared in the mirror, in confusion. A red lip imprint shone brightly on my cheek where she'd kissed me.