The next morning, the first ray of sunlight filtered through the curtains, drawing a line of dust in the room's air.
Lief opened his eyes and sat up in bed, stretching his arms until he heard the satisfying crack of his vertebrae.
Despite the brutality of the previous night, his body felt light. His recovery capacity never ceased to surprise him.
He got up, dragging his feet across the carpet, and as he walked toward the bathroom, images of the warehouse flashed in his mind.
It was truly comical. Art the Clown, that immortal abomination, was now nothing more than an inert object, a trophy in his collection trapped in a dirty soda bottle.
"One down," he murmured while brushing his teeth, spitting the paste into the sink with reluctance, "Now I just need to know what kind of monster, demon, or cosmic entity will be the next to knock on my door. At this rate, I am going to have to start charging admission."
He washed his face with cold water to finish waking up and went downstairs.
The house was immersed in that particular silence of workday mornings. His parents had already left.
However, breakfast was ready. On the kitchen table, a grilled cheese sandwich was still steaming, accompanied by a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.
And there was his "Sister".
Lillith was sitting at the table, with her feet hanging from the chair without touching the floor. She wore a pastel pink dress with ruffles that screamed "innocence", and she was humming a happy melody while spreading jam on a piece of toast.
But as soon as she heard Lief's footsteps, she raised her head and her eyes shined and a sweet smile, worthy of a cereal ad, illuminated her face.
"Good morning, brother!"
"Good morning," replied Lief, dragging the chair to sit down.
He took the sandwich and gave it a generous bite. It was perfect, crunchy on the outside and melted on the inside. He chewed, swallowed and then took a sip of juice before looking the girl in the eyes.
His expression became a little more serious, lowering his voice so that the conversation didn't leave those four walls.
"So... how are things going with the new ones?" he asked, wiping a crumb from the corner of his lip, "They haven't tried to burn down the house nor stab each other while we slept, right?"
Since his mother had brought those two girls for a "temporary" stay, the atmosphere of the house had passed from being tense to being a psychological minefield.
He had Emma, an eight year old sociopathic killer, he had Esther, who in reality was Leena, a thirty three year old woman trapped in the body of a nine year old girl, psychotic and manipulative and to top off the circus, he had Lillith… the worst.
Sometimes he felt that his house was one bad decision away from becoming Arkham Asylum of Gotham City.
Lillith placed the jam knife on the plate and leaned slightly toward him, losing the childish tone.
"Do not worry, Master," she said, with her eyes turning completely black, "They are being... extremely obedient."
"Emma has spent the morning in her room reading stories. And Esther... well, she is trying very hard in her role of a traumatized girl who needs constant affection."
She took her own toast, but before biting it, a sharp smile curved her lips.
"I think both are very clear on who really holds the leash in this house. And they know what happens if they pull on it too hard."
Lief nodded with satisfaction, and returned to his breakfast.
That cold smile of Lillith was something only he could understand and, curiously, it was what gave him peace of mind.
He had no doubt about his control over her.
Since the day he "purified" her, which basically meant giving her the beating of a lifetime until subduing her and tied her through the system's rules, the demon's loyalty was absolute.
As long as Lillith was in charge of the nursery from hell, those two little calamities wouldn't dare move a finger out of place.
After finishing breakfast, Leif slung his backpack over his shoulder, went out and mounted Fenrir.
The engine came to life with that deep roar that made the neighborhood windows vibrate, and he shot off toward school.
The days turned into weeks, and the weeks stretched into months. Time passed in a deceptively quiet blink.
During this period, the world seemed to regain its sanity. The surface of reality smoothed out, hiding the cracks through which monsters used to crawl. Leif slid into a hypnotic routine: home, school, training, sleep.
In his free time, Leif's "School for Special Talents" progressed by leaps and bounds.
He took Carrie to a junkyard on the outskirts of the city to practice far from prying eyes. The girl who used to tremble if someone raised their voice at her, now stood in the middle of mountains of metal with her back straight and her gaze fixed.
Maria had also undergone a metamorphosis. With Airam's help, she had overcome that paralyzing inferiority complex. She was no longer the shadow fleeing through the hallways. She had cut her hair, walked with a new and radiant confidence, and had even started going out with a group of new friends.
She radiated an energy that made people want to be near her.
Even the domestic front, that potential war zone that was his house, was disturbingly quiet.
The three "little sisters" behaved in an exemplary manner.
Under Lillith's strict tutelage, both Emma and Esther seemed to have understood the rules of the game. They strove to appear normal. They did their homework, watched TV as a family and kept their murderous and manipulative instincts under lock and key.
Everything seemed peaceful.
If it weren't for the slight occasional vibration he felt in the system backpack, Leif could almost have believed that all that madness of demons, killers and alternative dimensions had been a dream.
But the night brought its own pleasures.
That evening, Leif and Jennifer had decided to escape the routine. They had a date at a new French restaurant that had just opened, famous for its exclusivity and its dim lighting.
"Love~ you have to try this. The escargot is cooked to perfection."
They were seated in a private booth, a semicircular alcove upholstered in red velvet, isolated from the rest of the diners by a curtain of beads and strategic shadows.
Jennifer was in her element. She had given free rein to her nature, not only as a woman, but as a succubus.
She wore a black evening dress, tight like a second skin, with an off-the-shoulder neckline that exposed the elegant curve of her neck and the alabaster pallor of her skin.
Under the amber candlelight, she shone with a supernatural luminosity and her light blue eyes were deep wells of devotion and desire, and every small movement she made was charged with a lethal seduction.
She leaned her body forward over the table, invading Leif's personal space, holding the small fork with the snail bathed in garlic butter and herbs, and her red lips, curved in a mischievous smile, brushed almost imperceptibly against his ear.
"Open~…" she whispered, with a voice that was pure hot honey.
Enjoying the implicit power play, Leif opened his mouth and let her feed him, savoring the rich and earthy mix of the food.
But it did not end there.
Before she could withdraw her hand, Leif gently held her wrist and with a deliberate slowness, deposited a soft, almost reverent kiss, on the tips of her fingers.
"The taste is exquisite" admitted Leif, without stopping looking her in the eyes, "But, honestly... it is still not as delicious as you."
Jennifer's cheeks were dyed with a blush and her eyes went slightly out of focus, while she absorbed the compliment and the energy that came with it.
Since she had become his "pet", their bond had evolved. It was no longer just a question of survival for her, it was adoration.
She felt a dependency that went beyond the physical.
That intimacy, that small private world they had built, filled her with a satisfaction and happiness she had never known.
…
The romantic dinner had concluded, leaving a sweet and intoxicating aftertaste in the air. The laughter, the knowing looks and the whispers had created a bubble of perfection that Leif and Jennifer did not want to break.
Instead of calling a taxi or materializing Fenrir immediately, both opted for a more classic ending.
They would walk.
Slowly, under the silver light of the moon, enjoying the fresh night breeze that gently rocked the leaves of the plane trees on the sidewalk, whispering secrets between them.
The streets, usually bustling, were almost deserted at those hours and the streetlamps of a warm yellow tone cast long and shifting shadows of both of them onto the asphalt, dancing with every step.
Jennifer clung to Leif's arm, her head resting on his shoulder, the sweet perfume of her skin mixing with the night air.
They arrived next to a small solitary park.
And suddenly, Jennifer stopped.
Leif looked at her, puzzled.
She turned toward him, her light blue eyes shining with a feverish intensity under the moonlight, as if they were full of stars.
She stood on tiptoes, sliding her arms around Leif's neck, pulling him toward her.
"Master~..." she whispered with a voice charged with an expectation so deep that he could almost taste it, "Tonight... I don't want to go back home."
Leif fixed his eyes on hers, feeling a tremor that ran through his heart.
Without saying a word, his hands grabbed Jennifer's waist, pulling her toward him, feeling the curve of her back and the softness of the dress.
He simply tilted his head and their lips met.
It was a tender kiss at first, a soft touch that tasted the sweetness of the moment, but which quickly transformed into something else.
The contained passion exploded.
Their mouths opened, their tongues intertwined, searching and savoring with an urgency that came from the deepest depths.
Jennifer's fingers buried themselves in Leif's hair, pulling gently, while their bodies pressed against each other, leaving no space between them.
Time seemed to stop, dissolving in the cold night air.
Everything around became an indistinct blur, an irrelevant background.
Only the two of them existed and the furious beating of their hearts resonating like drums in their ears, their accelerated breaths mixing into one. The sweetness of the kiss was almost overwhelming, the taste of wine and strawberries in their mouths, the softness of the skin, the friction of the dress.
However, at the peak of that sweet intoxication, an icy shiver ran down Leif's back.
A gaze.
A slight, but unusually unpleasant gaze, coming from not very far away, fell upon them and it was not the casual curiosity of a solitary passerby, nor the furtive eye of a thief.
It was something more… Something dark.
It was a gaze soaked in greed… A morbid excitement. A sick desire that went beyond voyeurism.
Like two hungry snakes, secretly stalking their prey, enjoying the beauty of the moment before the inevitable devouring.
Leif's movements stopped for just an instant, a pause almost imperceptible to Jennifer, who was completely immersed in the kiss.
But his perception of the surroundings was abnormal. He had detected that gaze charged with malice immediately.
Without showing anything on his face, not even a hint of alarm, Leif separated his lips from Jennifer's, leaving a last tender brush, and gave her a few reassuring pats on the back.
"What's wrong?" asked Jennifer with swollen lips and eyes still half-closed from passion.
"Nothing" replied Leif relaxed. However his eyes, slid with a calculated casualness toward a black sedan parked on the other side of the street.
The engine was off.
The car remained motionless, parked inside the deep shadow cast by a large tree, like a steel beast crouched, waiting.
The windows had a tint so dark that it was impossible to see through them.
But Leif did not need to see.
He could feel with absolute clarity that those two pestilential gazes, charged with a repugnant intention, emanated directly from the interior of the vehicle.
"Let's go" he said, wrapping his arm around Jennifer's waist.
And with the same relaxed smile as always, he guided her along the sidewalk in the opposite direction, moving away from the park and the dark car.
…
Meanwhile, inside the impeccably polished black sedan.
The driver, a man of average build, held a high-powered telescope pressed to his eye.
After a few seconds he lowered it slowly with a smile spreading across his lips.
"Oh... my God, honey, did you see that?" His voice was a whisper charged with a devotion that froze the blood, "That scene from a moment ago... so... raw. A work of art, don't you think?"
In the passenger seat, a woman with impeccable makeup and a designer dress that radiated cold elegance, lit a thin cigarette with a lighter.
She inhaled deeply, her red lips curving around the filter, and exhaled a perfect ring of smoke.
Her eyes, equally full of a distorted spark, did not look through the window, but at the silhouette of Leif and Jennifer moving away.
"I saw it, Bob" confirmed the woman, "That girl... yes. Like a black rose about to bloom. And that boy…" A giggle escaped her lips, "How interesting. It seems he noticed us. Those light blue eyes didn't miss a detail."
"He noticed?" The man, Bob, licked his dry lips.
"That makes it even more interesting, don't you think? A prey that fights... has a much richer "flavor". I can feel it... his "vitality" is so fresh, so..."
"Then... do we act tonight?" The woman crushed the half-consumed cigarette in the car's ashtray.
"No, no, honey, don't rush" Bob shook his head slowly, his eyes still fixed on the spot where the couple was disappearing.
He started the engine and began to follow Leif and Jennifer silently at a safe distance.
"For such a beautiful work of art... a little prelude is needed. A meticulous prologue. We have to observe and let them bloom a little more in their happiness. So that in the moment when they are happiest, most relaxed... comes their most glorious end."
"I want them to become our most perfect work. In the place where they love each other the most, with their own blood... we will draw the most beautiful... flower of love."
While listening to her husband, the woman let out a laugh full of satisfaction.
________
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