From Hell with Love (49 page)

“How bitter you seem, Buné.  I got these, Cadmus,” Lucifer said before stopping Cadmus and taking the scrolls from underneath his arm, forcing the reaper into an awkward stance. 

“Are you…sure?” Cadmus asked, drawing a look of disappointment from Lucifer.

“I’m
really
not that old, reaper,” he said before stepping back and standing next to Buné.  “Anyway, I think Buné and I can take care of all this.  You two go out and have a good time on the town.”  The statement prompted Niccolo to look at him with uncertainty.

“Good time on the town?” he asked, drawing a shrug from Lucifer.

“Whatever it is that you can do in Dis, these days.  The two of you haven’t really spent time together yet, and you’re two of the Horsemen,” he said before turning to Buné.  “It’s about time they get some bonding in.”

“What’s your game?” Buné asked, but Lucifer just nodded at the entrance of the palace.

“I’ll tell you inside.  You two have fun,” Lucifer said before turning and walking away, Buné at his side.  Niccolo stared after them for a moment before turning to the awkward reaper standing a few feet away from him.

“So…we’re supposed to bond?” Niccolo asked, drawing a sigh from Cadmus as he brought the end of his scythe down onto the ground, using it to support his weight.

“I’ve heard that’s a
thing
,” he said before tilting his head from side to side.  Eventually he breathed in deeply and then looked over the Horseman in front of him.  He then extended his right hand.

“My name is Cadmus.  Welcome to the Apocalypse.”

***

Buné placed down the scrolls onto the long table and then walked over to a chair on the far end, pulling it out before sitting down and then placing his elbows onto the surface of the rich wood.  He then propped up his head by placing his right hand underneath his chin, letting out a deep breath as he analyzed the fallen angel on the other side of the table.

“Mind telling me what you’re up to?” he asked, prompting Lucifer to smile before pulling out his own chair and falling down into it, his body relaxing for the first time in days.  Buné was one of the few people Lucifer knew backward and forward, which meant that he did not have to pretend everything was fine.

“No chance for small talk, huh?” Lucifer said, waiting for Buné’s expression to change. 

It didn’t.

“Big talk, Lucifer.  We got all of our small talk out of the way during the first million years,” the armored demon said, drawing a light chuckle from the other side of the table.

“That’s true, that’s true.  Well,” he said before putting his left hand behind his neck and massaging the muscle there, “I do want them to bond, Buné.  That was not a lie.”

“
Why
?” Buné asked, the word drawn out for emphasis.  Lucifer knew that he was asking for more than just a surface answer.

“They need friends, Buné.  Niccolo definitely does, he’s not going to make it if he doesn’t have someone to talk to, to regain some semblance of his humanity.  Cadmus can fill that role, I’m pretty sure.  I can recall another reckless soul who was balanced out by someone with a more serious head on their shoulders,” Lucifer finished with a slight flicker in his expression.  Buné groaned before sitting back in his chair and crossing his left leg over his right, letting his left arm fall to rest on his knee.

“Keep going.  We both know you’re not done,” Buné said, adjusting himself to be more comfortable.

“It can’t just be that?” Lucifer teased, causing Buné to look at him beneath droopy eyelids.

“While you have had
plenty
of time on this planet, Lucifer, we both know that you consolidate on your schemes.  There’s another reason you’re making my reaper get to know your leper.  Just get on with it; we have far too much to discuss today,” Buné said before yawning, drawing his right hand up to cover his mouth.

“I want a back up, honestly,” Lucifer admitted, drawing forward and placing his elbows on the table, supporting his head with the knuckles of his hand.

“A back-up?  For Cadmus?” Buné asked, raising an eyebrow.  “I thought we decided that it made more sense to build up the Pale Rider.  Ajax is too antagonistic and Diogenes is too lazy.  Cadmus has a good head on his shoulders.”

“I know, Buné, I know.  I still want him to be part of this, but there’s something about Niccolo,” he said, making the armored demon squint at him.

“Don’t play favorites, Lucifer.”

“I’m not, brother.  There’s a potential buried in him, that’s all.  Lü Bu was about to kill him but then Nico created that sword out of thin air,” Lucifer said, causing Buné to groan before uncrossing his legs and placing his right elbow back on the table.

“This is about
theatrics
?” he asked before supporting his head, Lucifer glaring at him over his hands.

“No, Buné.  I’m serious.  That child has a willpower, a sheer strength of self, that I feel will be helpful.  I’m not saying we’re giving up on Cadmus, I still feel like he’s the best option, but we can afford to give Nico a chance.”

“Nico, huh?” Buné asked, stretching his jaw and letting it pop before closing his mouth.

“Quiet,” Lucifer said as his eye twitched.  “What’s the harm in having two options?  Who knows?” he asked before sitting back and placing both of his arms behind his head.  “They might actually like each other.”

“I guess there’s no harm in a little redundancy,” Buné admitted, scratching his face with his armored finger.  “I just don’t want to draw suspicion to Cadmus.”

“He should be fine.  People are allowed to socialize, brother, and I don’t think anybody is going to catch on to our plan.”

“Let’s hope they don’t,” Buné said before turning and looking toward the doorway, his face turning dark with a frown as he considered his next statement.  After a long moment, Buné finally continued.  “So
he’s
getting more active.”  Lucifer’s light expression dropped at the change of topic, bringing out a more serious tone in his own voice.

“Yes, Agares.  I had hoped that he would have waited before making his reappearance.”

“You can’t count on him for anything, Lucifer, except for his sudden but inevitable betrayal,” Buné said as he turned to the fallen angel, his face made of stone.  “Are you sure you don’t want to remove him and carry on with our work?”

“What, and draw attention to it?” Lucifer asked, his expression that of dismissal.  “No, I’d rather
know
who my enemy is.  As soon as we get rid of him, Adonai or the archangels are just going to send another lackey and it will be even more secretive.  No.  It’s better this way.”

“Turned him into a crocodile, Lucifer,” Buné said, crossing his arms across his torso.  “Agares was never more than a ferryman in Egypt in life, but in Hell we respected him.  ‘The Shroud,’” Buné said while uncrossing his arms and curling his fingers into air quotation marks, “turned him into a goddamned crocodile.  Almost ate Crocell’s leg.”

“Did Cadmus get his memories?” Lucifer asked, skipping past Buné’s remarks.  The armored demon sighed before shaking his head.

“No, the boy still has some way to go.  But I’m fairly certain that Agares wasn’t in his way.  Agares was a warning shot, Lucifer.  The Shroud is on his way back up.”

“We knew this would happen,” Lucifer commented, drawing his hands behind his neck once more.

“Yeah, Lucifer.  We
knew
.  Are you sure you don’t want to get rid of him, now, and get rid of the headache of dealing with him later?”

“Of course I want to get rid of him, Buné.  I do.  I don’t like that he’s turning souls into feral beasts.  But,” Lucifer said before bringing his arms down to his sides and stared at the ceiling.  “It’s a sacrifice we have to make for the greater good.”

“Hah,” Buné let out a bark of laughter before sitting forward and grabbing one of the scrolls from the pile.  “An angel talking about the greater good.  As if I need another reminder that I’ve lived too long.”  Lucifer continued staring at the ceiling before closing his golden eyes, remembering the woman he used to love, the son that he could not stand to look at, and the poor boy with the ruined arm.

“You and me both, brother.  You and me both.”

***

“So…. umm,” Niccolo said as he looked off toward the crest of the hill.  He and Cadmus had been trying to make conversation for the last five minutes, riding through the Death Quarter, but Niccolo was finding it difficult to come up with any suitable topics.  Finally, he sighed and looked at Cadmus who was riding on his pure white horse.  “So how’d you die?”  The reaper was so shocked by the question that his horse felt the effect, causing Mercy to stagger.

“Are you insane?” Cadmus asked as he turned to Niccolo, who was riding along on his own horse.  In his mind, Plague chuckled.

Smooth, little man.  Smooth
, his deep voice came unbidden, making Niccolo curse at him internally.  After thinking a few choice words about the horse’s mother, Niccolo looked at the reaper, who was glaring at him.

“I mean, just a little.  You’ll see that I mean well, though,” he said as he shrugged and turned back to the road ahead of them.  A large beast, somewhat resembling an ox, was pulling a cart behind it over the hill.  “I don’t know; it just felt like a good topic for us.  Former humans and everything.”

“You don’t think that was rude? 
At all
?” Cadmus asked before watching the same beast, which was just passing them as they came to the top of the hill.  Niccolo shrugged again before looking at the creature, its pitiful head lowered to the ground.  He almost wanted to set the animal free.

“I’m sure it was, Cadmus.  I just don’t have any problem with being rude.  Look, you can be rude to me, too,” he offered, turning to Cadmus with a slight grin.  “Don’t you get tired of being polite all the time?”

“I mean…yeah,” Cadmus admitted before bringing his hand to Mercy’s neck, running his nails through the white hair.  “I guess I’m just used to it.”

“You’re used to being polite as the
Pale Rider
?” Niccolo asked with a tone of incredulity, causing Cadmus to look at him in confusion.  “Cadmus, you’re one of the most powerful humans in all of creation!  You’re a Horseman of the Apocalypse!  People should be polite to
you
!”

“They
are
, Niccolo.  Nobody treats me like I’m not worth respecting, except for maybe Ajax,” Cadmus said, looking behind them after the ox-like creature, his face full of sympathy.  “Like I said, I’m just used to it.”

“Well,
how
are you used to it?  You’ve had this gig for what, five hundred years?” Niccolo, drawing a nod from the reaper.

“Something like that.  Before then I was still reaping souls.  It wasn’t Hell that caused this little polite streak of mine,” Cadmus said, easing off of his awkwardness, becoming comfortable around his fellow Horseman.  “It was life.”

“Yeah, well, life does some stuff,” Niccolo agreed, drawing a snort from the reaper.  Niccolo turned to find him smiling at his remark.

“Yes, life does some
stuff
, alright.  I’m sure it did plenty to you to make
you
so damaged,” Cadmus teased, causing the leper to laugh in reaction.

“There you go!  Open up, you stoic bastard!” he shouted, causing Cadmus’ face to draw into an even wider smile.

“Fine.  Fine, I will,” Cadmus said before turning to look back at the animal dragging along its cart.  “Do you know what it’s like to be owned by someone, Niccolo?”

“Mmmm, not really.  I know what it’s like to owe a debt,” he offered, but Cadmus shook his head at that.

“Almost, but not quite.  I was still a boy when my family was captured for having the audacity to be Christian during the Roman Empire.  This was before Constantine and his little change of heart.  We became slaves for our faith, Niccolo,” Cadmus admitted before biting his lip.  “That’s where it comes from.  If I wasn’t polite, I was whipped and beaten.  You only need that lesson once.”

“Sounds rough,” Niccolo said, drawing a weary sigh from Cadmus before he replied.

“Little bit.  Getting thrown to the lions was a little worse,” Cadmus said under his breath, shivering at the memory.  “They still make me uneasy.  The lion on Buné’s shoulder makes me jump if I turn and he’s standing right there.”

“You’re scared of a big cat?” Niccolo teased, trying to draw Cadmus out of his sorrow and pain.  It worked, as the reaper looked surprised before turning to face him.

“You would be, too, if a
cat
with three-inch long fangs was tearing out your throat!”

“Maybe he just wanted you to be quiet,” Niccolo said with a mischievous gleam in his eye, causing the reaper to laugh and shake his head.

“Alright, you bastard, fair trade.  Tell me how you ended up here,” he said, making Niccolo return to his own memories.  He found that he was not entirely angry at his misfortune, anymore; he seemed to have found his place in Hell.

“Stabbed in the back,” he said, not able to remember the pain that Giovanni’s thrust had caused him.  He really only remembered Camilla’s pretty, if grief-stricken, face.  It almost made him smile.

“You? 
No.
  I can’t believe it!” Cadmus shouted in mock surprise, causing Niccolo to slap his shoulder with his right hand.

“Took my eye off the enemy, reaper, that’s all,” Niccolo said, gathering his reins with his demonic hand so that he could make wild gestures with the other.  “It wasn’t like I was minding my own business and some guy got the better of me.”

“Oh, then what was this over?  Some big battle or something?” Cadmus asked, the walls around him having broken down completely.  Niccolo shook his head and waved off the comment with his free hand.

“No, nothing like that.  Fight over a girl, if you believe it.”

“I can.”

“Yeah, well, she used to be mine.  Then, well, this happened,” Niccolo said before pointing at his arm.  “It wasn’t this terrifying up there on Earth, but it was still gross and messed up.  Ended up getting me exiled from my family.”

“Ouch.  Sorry about that,” Cadmus offered, making Niccolo tilt his head from side to side.