MEREDITH ENTERED THIRST Bar, immediately looking for Jackson. Only a few hours remained before she needed to give Lucifer an answer, and she still had no idea what to do. She spent a restless night, tossing and turning, but every plan required Jackson’s help, help he refused her. She would force him to help her, refusing him any other option but to help her. The only other choices she had were either trying to kidnap Seraphine or returning to Hell, and neither of those were options she even wanted to consider. First off, how in the hell did Lucifer expect her to kidnap Seraphine? Besides, don’t you kind of have to be dead to go to Hell? Seraphine was very much alive, had been for no one knows how long, and showed no signs of aging or slowing down. How do you kill someone who seemed immortal? And if she didn’t kill Seraphine, but rather took her to Lucifer alive, what would he do to the woman? He lived to punish evil-doers. Seraphine was anything but evil. What did he want with her?
Once inside the bar, Meredith took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting before venturing inside any further. Piper stood behind the bar, refreshing the supplies from the Saturday night crowd, her long red hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Meredith glanced around, looking for Jackson. The man always worked, deciding he had no other real purpose in life, so Meredith didn’t doubt that he was there. Somewhere. The question was where.
Giving up her search, she made her way over to the bar, leaning on it, hands clasped in front of her. “Where’s Jackson?” she asked without preamble.
Piper blinked her dark green eyes, her head tilted to the side as she gave Meredith a confused look. No one ever came into Thirst looking for Jackson. “That seems to be a repetitive question coming from you. Something wrong?”
“Slightly,” Meredith said with a burst of aggravation. “I need to talk to your boss. Where is he?”
Piper shrugged. “Not sure. During October, he tends to hide more than other months. He hates Halloween, you know. I’d wager he’s either on his way here or still holed up in his apartment.”
Meredith nodded as she shoved herself off the bar, turning, and heading for the front door again. She’d walk to his apartment and either catch up to him on his way to the bar or find him at home. Either way, she had to find him.
“You sure there’s nothing I can do to help?” Piper called after her.
“Not unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve,” Meredith said just before she shoved her way back out into the cool October morning.
Lucifer knew Meredith knew about Jackson’s tricks, even if she didn’t know the mechanics of them, how a drunkard duped him not just once, but twice. He would be expecting her to try the same tricks, if, that is, she could convince Jackson to share his secrets with her, secrets he had never revealed to anyone. She was sure he would have helped her, shared his means of escaping Satan’s clutches if she could have gotten to him before Lucifer did. Yet, Lucifer had done his damnedest to make sure Jackson wouldn’t want to help her. She needed to convince him somehow.
She didn’t pass Jackson on her way to his apartment complex, which meant, if Piper was right, he’d be hiding in his apartment. Meredith hoped that was the case. She didn’t have time to waste wandering around town searching for him, having only about four hours to give Lucifer her decision before he made it for her. Meredith would not go back to Hell, not after she had tasted what it actually means to live.
She scrolled the mailboxes on the first floor of the apartment complex, hoping Jackson’s name was on his. She was in luck. Lantern - 408. She made her way to the elevator and headed up, trying to figure out how she would convince Jackson to help her. What could she offer him? What did he want? He never seemed to want anything, not even friendship, especially with her right then. So, what did that leave her? She didn’t have a clue, but she determined to find out.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Meredith made her way down the hall until she came to apartment 408. With a deep breath, she knocked on the door.
She could hear shuffling on the other side of the door, and a few seconds later, she heard the lock slide back and the door open. Jackson stood there wearing nothing but a pair of gray pajama pants while holding a steaming cup of coffee, the aroma filling the hall. She stared at his broad chest, his muscular arms, and strong shoulders, forcing herself not to sneak a peek at anything lower, although she very much wanted to look. Now was not the time, though.
He was already glaring when he opened the door, so he must have peeked through the peephole. “I said no,” Jackson said as he stood there holding the door open, not permitting her to enter. She waited for him to say more, but he just stood there, staring.
“Jackson, you’re the only one I know who’s stood up to Lucifer and won,” she said, seeing no sense in wasting time with formalities. “I need you to help me do it again. You don’t know what he’s asking me to do in order to remain in Black Hollow.” She shook her head. “I can’t do it. Hell, I don’t think anyone could do it.”
“I don’t care,” he said. “The last time I tricked the devil, it cost me my afterlife, making me a laughingstock for all eternity. I won’t risk it again.” He started to close the door. “Good luck to you.”
Meredith reached out, keeping the door from closing. “Please,” she begged. “I know you’re angry with me, and you may even have a right, but just hear me out. Who knows? Maybe we can make this work for you as well.”
Jackson turned around, shaking his head. “You’re right. I do have the right to be angry.” He sighed. “Meredith, every deal comes with that small writing at the bottom of the contract. He always gives you what you want, but it’s not really what you want. He finds a way to screw you in the end and make it look like you’re the one who asked for it.”
She felt the twist in her stomach, seeing every hope she had crash down on the floor around her. If Jackson refused to help her, she had no clue what she would do. “Jackson, I have nowhere else to turn. Please, you just have to help me.”
Jackson sighed. “I don’t have to do anything. Why not just give him what he wants? Then you win.”
Meredith shook her head. “He wants me to give him Seraphine.”
Jackson just stared at her. He lifted the coffee cup to his lips, taking a sip. When he lowered the cup, he ran his tongue over his lips, wiping away the remnants of his coffee. She couldn’t take her eyes off him, the way his tongue glided across his lips. She remembered him standing at the gates of Hell, remembered how much he attracted her even in his lost condition. Lucifer twisted that attraction into something sinister, hoping to put a wedge between Jackson and her. So far, it seems to have worked.
Jackson narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. “Give him Seraphine? Why does he want Seraphine? For that matter, how in the world does he expect you to get her for him? Don’t people who go to Hell kind of need to be dead?”
She nodded. “They do, thus my problem. Now do you see why I need your help?”
“I see why you need help,” Jackson said. “Just not necessarily mine. Seraphine’ll have your head on a pike if you try to go after her. You’ll probably be the latest decoration on her iron gate. Not a very good look and still not my problem. Again, I wish you luck.” He then shut the door on her, leaving Meredith standing there staring.
How could he ignore her situation? Why would he be so stubborn and not want to help her? This was ridiculous. He had the answers she needed, but refused to share them. That’s not how things were done in Black Hollow. People helped each other. Hell, look at what happened during Sarah’s bachelorette party when her cousin’s dog destroyed all the wedding decorations. All the men who attended Adam’s bachelor party showed up at the apartment to try to recreate all the decorations. Even Cupid attempted to remake the wedding cake. He failed miserably, but at least he tried. That’s what this town was about. Helping others. Why didn’t Jackson see that?
She sighed as she turned and walked off toward the elevator. Jackson had no true friends, that’s why. He had his bartenders and his customers, but he never allowed anyone to get close enough to him to call them a friend, and the one person he did get close to, he thinks betrayed him. She pushed the button on the elevator and the doors slid open. Why didn’t Jackson allow people to get close to him? He had lived in Black Hollow longer than Meredith, and in that time, he had no one he would hang out with, go for coffee, a movie, nothing. Why?
As the doors slid closed in front of her, she stared down the hallway at his apartment door. What kept Jackson from letting people in? Perhaps, that’s what she needed to discover in order to make him help her. She sighed. She may never get the chance now.