The Lamia Hunt

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Results

21:06 21/03/2015

Honestly, out of all the events she had seen that would provide some kind of information on Gilbert's personality, nothing stood out more to Claire than the fact that, when his phone started ringing, he answered it. In the middle of a fight, where he'd already killed two people and was about to go up against a pair of highly intelligent monsters who were almost certain to kill him if he wasn't as alert as he could possibly be, Gilbert Jones answered a phone call.
Jesus, he was an idiot.
That being said, he didn't have to pay a price for it; there were no surprise attacks launched at him as he nodded and responded quietly to the person on the other end of the line. It was nonsensically polite, to the point where it made Claire want to scream. This wasn't right. This wasn't how things were meant to go. Everything was supposed to be good, to be clear, and you weren't supposed to get bloody phone calls when you were fighting the powers of evil.
But then, shit happened.
"Fine, alright," said Gilbert, a wide smile on his face. "Talk to you later; bye." He hung up the phone, and put it back into his pocket – not the one which had been holding the dirty stake; that was good news – before turning back to face Fidèle and Lucille, smiling.
"Well," he said, "I didn't know that this was going to end up as a family reunion."
Fidèle blinked at him.
"What was that supposed to mean? And you know, it was rude of you to-"
"Don't try and be evasive, Fidèle." Gilbert's voice was stony and cold, and Claire hated it. "We've just been provided with some particularly interesting lab results."
Lucille raised her eyebrows.
"And?" she said. "What about them? What're you trying to prove?"
Gilbert shrugged.
"Actually, I'm not trying to prove anything; I have proved it. So you two don't need to keep up the act any more; the cat's out of the bag now."
"What?"
"It's an expression; it means-"
"I know what it means, you twat." Lucille said it monotonously, not looking at him. "Just tell us whatever it is you seem so happy about, or let's get on to killing each other, because this little farce is growing old very quickly."
"If you insist." Gilbert grinned, and straightened his back, clearing his throat before saying. "The Praedatori," he said, "Are now certain – with no doubt in their minds – of the whereabouts of the biological parents of the Lamia known as Lucille Taite. The first of these..." He paused, looking at the ground. "Is dead. However..." He grinned; Claire could see how much he was enjoying this. "The other one is very much alive. In fact, I can see them standing right in front of me as I speak."
Lucille rolled her eyes.
"That's such bullshit; you know for a fact that I can't be my own parent, and this is just-" She paused, cutting off her own flow of speech, and her eyes widened.
Gilbert nodded.
"Yes, we know; it's terrible to have your secrets discovered, isn't it. Oh well; it doesn't matter, seeing as we're going to kill you anyway."
Lucille shook her head.
"No," she whispered, loud enough that it could be heard throughout the room. "No; this isn't right. This isn't how things are supposed to happen. This – are you sure?"
Gilbert faltered, looking at her.
"Wait... You mean you weren't?"
She shook her head.
"There's got to be some sort of mistake, I mean..."
She trailed off, and Gilbert would have responded, but for the fact that Fidèle crumpled to the ground at that moment, his body falling just next to Emiliya's corpse.
Claire didn't know what else to do.
She screamed.