Chapter 10

"Oh, what time is it?” Lucien asked suddenly. Nikolas glanced at his watch. “11:00, why?”

“I should check in with my grandmother and uncle. It’s about 5:00 in Paris, so if I call them now, I can say I’m not in my room in case they try to call me back. Do you mind?” he asked, pulling out a cell phone.

Nikolas shook his head. “Not at all.”

Lucien dialed their number and waited for the housekeeper to answer.

“Hello, Leila. It’s Lucien, are they home?”

“Just a moment, sir....” A moment later Faison came on the phone.

“Hello, Lucien. How are you doing today?”

“I’m good uncle. I’m studying with a friend right now, but I thought I’d check in with you since I probably won’t get back to my room until late.”

“Ah, the life of a college student. Well, it’s good to hear from you. Have you run into that girl again, by any chance?”

“You mean Robin? No, just that one time, why?“ He wondered why they both kept asking him abbot her.

“No reason. You seemed like you might be taken with her, and I just wondered if you saw her again.”

“Oh, no. She was very nice, but I didn’t like her that way, so you don’t have to worry about me. My concerns right now are with my studies, as always.”

“That’s good to hear. I will make sure to inform your grandmother that you are doing well. She was asking about you earlier.”

“Tell Grandmother that she needn’t worry about me so much. I’m not her baby any longer.” He chuckled. His grandmother had always doted on him to the point where she nearly smothered him sometimes. He didn’t notice the look of surprise on Nikolas’s face when he heard this comment.

“I will try, but you know how she is. We both worry about you Lucien. I hope to hear from you again soon.”

“I’ll try to call in a couple of days. I have mid-terms coming up, so things are pretty busy here right now. Good-bye, Uncle.”

“Good-bye, Lucien.”

Lucien hung up and looked at Nikolas. “Why do you look so amused?”

Nikolas shook his head. “Are you sure we have the same grandmother?”

“Helena Cassidine. Is there more than one of her?”

“I sure hope not!” Nikolas said, laughing. “I just can’t picture her as the motherly type. I mean, Stefan is her son, and she can’t stand the sight of him!”

Lucien shrugged. “I don’t claim to understand her, but I do know that she loves me, and that she’s the only mother I’ve known.”

“What about your uncle? What’s he like?”

“Well, he’s more reserved. He loves me in his own way, but he’s much more formal about it. I think he still grieves my mother’s death, even after all of these years. He was very close to her, from what I hear. He doesn’t talk about her very much, though, so most of what I know of my parents comes from our grandmother. She doesn’t really talk about my mother, either. I don’t think she ever approved of her.”

Nikolas nodded. “Now that sounds more like Helena. Okay, so what exactly are we trying to figure out here?”

“Why they are so determined to keep me away from Port Charles, I guess.” Lucien answered.

Nikolas thought for a moment. “Maybe Helena just didn’t want my father to find out about you yet. But, see, that’s what I don’t understand. Why would she have spent so many years trying to win me over to her side, when she knew I wasn’t Stavros’s son, if she was raising you in secret the whole time? If she knew you were the true heir all along, why bother with me?”

~*~

Luke sat at the bar, nursing a bottle of whiskey. The club was closed, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave just yet.

“Hey, partner,” he greeted as Sonny walked in the door.

“You okay, Luke?” he asked. It had been a while since Luke had drunk this heavily. Right after Lucky’s death, they couldn’t keep him away from the alcohol, but eventually he stopped drinking himself to sleep every night. Something must be wrong if he was doing it again.

Luke shook his head. “No, partner, I’m not okay. I saw my kid today. At least, I saw a kid who looked a heck of a lot like him. You know what the kicker is, though? And this is a good one...he’s a Cassidine.”

“What are you talking about Luke?” Sonny asked, afraid that he had finally lost gone off the deep end.

Luke laughed and got off of the barstool. He staggered over to where Sonny was standing. “There’s a new blood-sucker in town, and he’s got my son’s face, that’s what I’m talking about. He’s some secret grandson of Helena’s, and it gets better: he actually likes the old witch! At least Count Vlad and the ex-Prince hate her almost as much as I do, but this kid.... man, he gave me the willies.”

Sonny is silent for a moment, trying to digest everything Luke just said. “Okay, tell me what you know about him, and I’ll see what I can find out.”

Luke sighed. “His name is Lucien, he he’s probably in his early twenties. He said Starvros was his father, and his mother’s name was Anna. They’re both dead, so I can only assume that Helena raised him in secret somewhere. He would be the heir, so she’s probably been grooming him to take over the estate all his life.” He shivered involuntarily before continuing. “According to Mac, he’s been in Paris at the Sorbonne, and he met Robin there. She called Bubba to tip him off that the kid was asking a lot of questions about Port Chuckles, and would probably be heading over here soon. He’s looking into the kid’s background for me right now.”

Sonny nodded. “Okay, I’ll have someone look into him as well. Do you know where he’s staying?”

Luke shook his head. “I’d try the PC Hotel first. I don’t think he’s publicizing his identity around here very much, so he might be under an assumed name. Sonny, you gotta see this kid. I feel like I’m in that ‘Body Snatchers’ movie or something! You don’t think..”

Sonny knew where he was going with that and stopped him. “No, you know he’s dead, Luke. You saw the body yourself, and they matched the dental records. This has to be just a strange coincidence, that’s all. Don’t worry, I’m going to put someone on this right away, and I’ll let you know as soon as I find something.” He patted his friend on the shoulder and left the club.

Luke sighed and sat down on the barstool. He grabbed the nearly-empty bottle of whiskey and held it up in the air. “I guess it’s just you and me tonight.” He gulped it down, and slammed the empty bottle back down on the bar. “Now it’s just me.”

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