Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Like everyone else, Lucifer could only stare in awe as Lucca picked the duffle bag up and threw it over his shoulder.
“Anyway, I guess I’ll be seeing you around, then.”
“Oh, you will,” Lucifer said with a tilt to his lips, certain they had just witnessed history being made and, next time he saw the kid, he’d be made. That, I’m sure of.
He watched the kid leave into the night like he had entered as if he were the boogieman, and even though only two years younger than his own son, Lucca Caruso was going to be the youngest man to ever become made and …
That was the son he had wanted.
TWO
FROM CHILD TO MAN
“He’s still a child!” he heard his mother cry from the other room.
“We both know Lucca is far from a child, Melissa,” Dante said calmly, under no disillusions of what exactly his son was.
“He’s still only seventeen!” she wailed. “I thought you couldn’t be made till you were of age?”
“The only rule is a child cannot be made, and what he did”—he paused for a brief moment, as if picturing the things his son had done—“no longer constitutes him as a child.”
Even though Lucca couldn’t see them from the other side of the door, he could still hear his mother’s tears as they fell upon her cheeks. When the door flew open, however, nothing would prepare him for the look in his mom’s eyes …
* * *
“Mom, please.” Lucca rolled his eyes heavenward. It didn’t matter how much he dragged his feet, he still found himself going farther and farther down the aisle as they passed each pew.
“That demon is coming out …”
He couldn’t help but laugh, knowing it was one of their inside jokes. She didn’t mean any harm by it because, everyone but his mother believed him to be a lost cause …
“I see the goodness in you, and no matter how much you pretend you don’t, I know you have a heart, Lucca.”
Sure, he did, but figuratively speaking, it didn’t mean he felt the way everyone else did. And while he felt more for his mom than any other person, it was nothing compared to how she felt for him. He wished he could return even half her love, but he was thankful she didn’t hold it against him that he couldn’t. He did what he could to make her happy, though, by spending time with her while she taught him to do her favorite things—gardening and cooking—which seemed to be enough for her.
But, as they drew closer to the confessional, his voice echoed across the church. “This is stupid!”
Mellissa suddenly stopped as her emerald gaze bore into him. “Saving my son’s soul could never be stupid.”
* * *
That had been the first time his mother had taken him to confession, and it was just a week ago when she’d dragged him to his last. Both of them now knew it, yet Mellissa still went to her knees, begging for him to go confess his sins, knowing where he was going and what he was about to do …
Lucca took both of her hands in his, holding them as tensely as he held her emerald gaze. “Mom, there’s no saving me after what I did.” His words were not only clear in tone but in meaning.
It hadn’t hurt to say it, but it shocked him that it did hurt when his mother could finally see that he was right. For her to see that her child was no longer a child but a demon after all.
“Ready?” Dante spoke softly after watching Melissa wipe her tears as she walked away. It was clear the battle between being a good husband and proud father was beginning to take its toll.
Lucca nodded. It was time to take his code of silence and speak the omerta as he went from child to man.
Lucca, Age 18
The sun was setting as he walked through the garden, the colorful flowers swaying in the gentle breeze. He approached his mother, seeing she was on the ground, fussing with the herb part of the garden. Thankfully, Melissa was the kind of mother from Christmas movies and children’s books, the kind of mom who could even love a monster. So, while she had now seen the true evil in him over this past year, she still loved him the same as when she had first laid eyes on him after she had birthed him.
Attending church was no longer something they did together, but he tried to make up for it by spending any extra time he could with her in the kitchen, cooking, or in the garden, gardening. After being made, though, it wasn’t as much time as he liked, but it was still the only way he knew how to return her love.
“I thought you told me not to garden when you’re too stressed or emotional; otherwise, they won’t grow?” he teased his mom at seeing the bit of stress on her features.