My father was silent, but my grandmother was not. "Where is that worthless assbag?" she demanded. "I have had it up to my ears with this bullshit nonsense."
"Mother," Satan warned.
"Enough," she spat. "Enough of you." She slowly turned and faced my mother. "What do you have to say for yourself, Eve?"
"I don't know," Eve replied.
"That's what I thought." Gigi shook her head in disgust. "You are done. Your duties have been revoked. You are weak and selfish and you have been since you bit the damned apple."
"But the balance," I said as I took my grandma's hand in mine. "Temptation is part of what balances us."
"Who said I was eliminating balance? I'm simply taking it away from Eve."
"And what True Immortal will you put in her place?" Elijah demanded, speaking up for the first time. He kept a healthy distance from Hayden, but his question was pertinent.
"Why, her daughter, of course," Mother Nature replied as if we were all idiots.
"Her daughter is Balance," my father said angrily. "You shall not condemn Dixie to holding more than one trait."
Hayden stiffened beside me. He liked the idea no more than my father. Quite honestly I didn't like it either.
"Not Dixie, you assknuckle. Lucy. Lucy is Eve's daughter too. She is the logical and only choice."
"She's dead," I said. "Cole killed her. I saw it. He used the Sword of Death." My knees buckled and Hayden caught me before I fell.
"For God's sake! Sorry, son," she shouted to the Heavens. "Lucy's not dead. And where the Hell is God? Is he too good for every family meeting?" she yelled as she stomped over to Lucy's lifeless body. "Wake up, child," she said lovingly. "It's time to get up."
Suddenly the realization that I hadn't felt Lucy's death left me breathless. Lucy hadn't died. I would have known. The Beginning of Time was correct. There were True Immortals floating in our midst and Lucy was going to become the product of her own genius—she was the spare heir. She would become Temptation.
"She was stabbed with the Sword of Death," Elijah said loudly. "The Sword of Death kills True Immortals."
"For the love of my big bosom, it has to be a three part finale," Mother Nature shrieked and stamped her foot. Vines and trees erupted out of the cement and brightly colored parrots flew through the fractured ceiling. Gigi was getting pissed. "Lucy did not have a broken heart, she did not want to die and she was stabbed in the neck from the looks of it. Not the heart."
"Sorry—my mistake," Elijah muttered and jumped out of the way of a massive tree that exploded through the ground where he was standing.
"At least this one isn't weak," Gigi said as Lucy slowly came to. "She won't cave to anyone and she will do her duty as it should have been done in the first place. The reason Eve failed is that she took the easy way out and only dealt with the sexual side of temptation. Temptation in its truest sense embodies much more than sex." She aimed her derisive words straight at Eve.
"Give me the Sword of Death," my mother cried. "I will end myself so all of you can have your happily ever after."
"Oh no, dearie. That would be far too light of a punishment for you. You shall not forfeit your life. You will live for eternity to make amends for your transgressions."
My mother slumped forward, dropped her head to her hands and silently wept. There was good in her, but it had been eclipsed or her will had been bent by evil. She wasn't fit to lead, but Gigi was right not to let her die. A large part of me wanted her to get well and become who she had been a long time ago. I wanted to know the woman who rocked back and forth on the floor. I wanted to earn her real love and I wanted her to earn mine.#p#分页标题#e#
"I'll take her to Hell," my father said.
"No, you won't," Grandpa informed him. "She is your weakness. She will go with Mother Nature. Someday she might go free, but until then she will be dealt with by one who is not tempted by her."
"Why are all you people staring at me?" Lucy demanded as she stood shakily and took in all the unfamiliar faces. "Who in the Hell are all you people?"
"That's no way to talk to your step-Gigi," Mother Nature admonished a shocked Lucy. "Your mother has fallen down on the job, so you get to be Temptation."
"But. . ." Lucy stammered.
"Don't thank me now. The job's a bitch, but you can handle it. Just remember that sex is fun, but temptation has many faces."
"But. . ." Lucy choked out.
"I know. I know. You'd rather be emotion or death or something more stable, but you get what you get and you like it. You are a True Immortal, Lucy. I've known for ages, but until you are called to serve you cannot be privy to the gift. The expense account is divine and the family dinners would be wonderful if all the bastards would show up." She cast an evil eye to my father who ran his hands through his hair and looked at the sky. "So darling, what do you say?"