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“Balem, my dear, when was the last time I used it?”
Seraphi continued to examine her face on the golden mirror by the bed. She didn’t have to be specific, he knew perfectly well what she was talking about, and so he answered without turning his gaze from the planets and moons outside the window.
“I think it was… five years ago.”
Seraphi leaned into the mirror to have a better look at the wrinkles under her eyes.
“I swear it was ten years ago. My hair doesn’t shine anymore…”
She didn’t hear him walking to her, but she wasn’t surprised when she felt her son’s hands running slowly from her elbows to her shoulders. She smiled at the feeling of his breath on her ear and locked her eyes to his in the reflection.
“You look perfect as always, mother…”
“You know as well as I do that time flies when you’re having fun,” she extended her hand to touch his cheek and Balem closed his eyes, “but I cannot stay in your ship forever, my love. I must pay a visit to your brother and sister one of these centuries…”
“They’ll be fine. They don’t need you like I do…”
Seraphi smiled.
“I believe I taught you how to share with Titus and Kalique.”
“Perhaps you should stay, since I haven’t learned my lesson…”
She laughed carelessly and closed her eyes for a second when Balem’s lips touched her neck. Then she felt cold as her son returned to the window.
“Come with me to the Altarf system,” he asked and she had the impression that his voice had trembled. He was so emotional, “and after that we can visit my dear brother and sister together...”
At last, something to surprise her, but she didn’t let it show. Having Balem willingly visit his siblings was a rare gift that only happened on some of her birthdays, on the important ones.
That he suggested doing something he so openly loathed could only mean…
“Is there anything you want to tell me, Balem?” asked Seraphi getting to her feet, not worrying that her nightgown slipped over her shoulders to the point where the soft blue fabric hanged only from her waist.
Balem turned around and took his time to admire her body. For a second he looked conflicted but then he gave her a subtle smile.
“Only that I consider you to be the most beautiful being in the universe, mother,” he bowed barely, “and I would do anything to please you. Even grace the rest of your offspring with my presence…”
Seraphi shook her head, smiling amused.
“What am I going to do with you?” she asked in a low voice while getting closer to him with lazy steps. He was taller and towered over her but at the same time he had the unmistakable aura of a prey, paralyzed in the presence of a hunter. Seraphi ran her hands over his chest and pushed his black cape off his shoulders, caressing his freckles, “I accept your proposition, but lets take a bath before we go,” she ruffled his hair playfully, like she used to do when he was still learning to walk, “your hair is so grey already…”
He didn’t answer but she felt him shiver. After all those eons she could still make him nervous with the mere touch of her fingers?
Her beautiful, beautiful son; so fierce yet at the same time so delicate.
“Sadal, prepare a nectar bath for two,” she ordered as she left the room, leaving her nightgown behind.
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” said the chamber presence while Balem stared at the opened door.
-.-.-.-
He entered the room already naked and found his mother at the edge of the pool, waiting for him.
“Come,” she said, extending her hand and he obeyed, not being able to take his eyes from her.
It wasn’t common for him to think about his childhood, but that moment reminded him of those brief years when his mother would take his hand and encourage him to follow her around so she could explain how the universe worked.
He felt her hand shudder when her feet touched the blue liquid, “It’s cold”.
“I can have it warmed for you”
“No, this way we’ll be young and fresh,” she gave him a delighted smile as they reached the middle of the pool, with the liquid almost touching Seraphis’ breasts.
She put her hands around his neck and he took her by the hips, bringing her closer to him. The hot touch of her skin contrasted with the icy ticklish effect of the RegenX and his heart started beating like crazy.
Seraphi raised her eyebrows; there was no doubt she could feel his heartbeat.
“Let’s go down together,” she said, starting to pull him underwater before she finished the sentence.
The dive lasted only a few seconds and then he made sure to hold his mother firmly in his arms before rising.
When they reached the surface Seraphi gasped desperately for air and he tensed.
“Where am I? Let me go!”
“Calm down Jupiter,” said Balem in a monotonous tone while using all his force to keep her in place.
“Balem!” she used her nails to scratch his chest and backed from him. Balem didn’t even blink; the insignificant wounds were healed before they could bleed. Instead he watched the girl: there was not a single wrinkle on her face, she was as young as the first time he met her in the refinery.
Seraphi Abrasax had died once more.
Jupiter almost lost her balance while looking around her, trying to understand, “What am I doing here?! What the hell is going on?!”
“What does it look like?” he asked with a sly smile, all previous affection gone from his eyes.
Jupiter took a look at herself and immediately covered her chest, her face red with humiliation and fury.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!” she screamed and then the color left her face as fast as it had painted it: she started to remember, “Where’s my mother?! And Nino?!,” she forgot the shame and half-swam until she reached Balem, “Caine?! What happened to Caine?! What did you do to him?!”
Balem looked away, uninterested in her pleading, “Sadal, I require Mister Night’s presence.”
“Yes, Lord Balem.”
“ANSWER ME!” ordered Jupiter and for a split second he could see his mother trapped inside that woman.
“The Earth was harvested two hundred years ago,” he explained. He hated every second of his encounters with Jupiter, but this was the only part he could actually enjoy.
The girl stopped trying to shake him and Balem had to take her by the arms so she wouldn't sink, “Your family, and friends, everyone you know is dead,” he felt like the hunter now, spitting those words, shooting through Jupiter’s heart, “Except for your beast. Death would be such a relief… so he gets to live as long as you do.”
Jupiter’s lip trembled and she started to cry. She didn’t even try to get away from him.
“I want to see him…” she whimpered in a voice so strained that he had to read her lips.
“He will be fine,” he said taking advantage of her shock to whisper to her ear, “He doesn’t need you like I do…”
The doors burst open and Chicanery Night entered followed by a medical team.
Balem pushed Jupiter to the edge of the pool so they could take her and the collision broke her stupor.
“Goodbye Jupiter.”
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” she promised like always as the doctors took her away. She was already sedated by the time they exited the room.
The grim smile on his face disappeared and he climbed out of the pool, walking towards the oldest man in the room.
“Lord Balem I…”
“I remember,” said Balem, speaking slowly, letting his rage show in each syllable, “you said this time she wouldn’t break through the implants.”
“The last records of Her Majesty’s consciousness are too much for her fragile mind,” said the doctor as if Balem hadn’t listened to that same excuse hundreds of times, “If she stopped using RegenX…”
“She would be dead already,” he said in a definite tone that made clear that quitting RegenX wasn’t an option, “I will not live another three hundred years like this. Find a way to make it last or I will show you what it feels like to be trapped in a loop of eternal agony.”
Like me, he thought and then he glared at Chicanery, who only bowed in response, not daring to look at him in the eye.
Balem rushed to the door; he had a lot of things to prepare before his mother woke up, but suddenly he remembered one last thing, “And prepare a bath for the splice,” he ordered, and then he was gone.