“Well, that’s because he is!” I confirmed. The one who was going crazy was me, I thought.
“Have you known him for long?”
“Ah, yes, since I was a child.” More lies. And the natural way they left my lips made me feel depressed. “To tell you the truth, he is more Gabriel’s friend. He came to visit him over the holidays. And, since Gabriel decided to ditch school, he offered to accompany me.” I hoped it would be a plausible explanation, and Michael nodded.
“So, he’s staying with you guys all through the holidays?” Not the kind of question Michael would normally ask, and he seemed to be aware of that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“No! Not at all!” I hurriedly countered. “It’s just that I was thinking about how much this is so unlike you, all these questions. It’s not that I mind answering them. I really don’t know how long he’s staying.”
“Hmm. I see.” He mused silently for a moment. “You know, to tell you the truth, I also didn’t like him all that much.” He sounded almost guilty for feeling like that, and I couldn’t help stare at him. It was the first time I’d ever heard Michael say he didn’t like someone. Normally, from his point of view, people around him were either important to him or plainly indifferent.
“And it has nothing to do with his stuck-up attitude,” he continued. “I guess it was kind of funny being so outright rejected by someone I don’t even know. I’m sure I’ve lived through that many times before, but since I can’t recall any of that, it was kind of a new experience for me. But he gives out an ... oppressive sensation.” His green eyes focused on something unseen as he looked for the right words to describe what he’d felt. “It’s hard to explain. But it’s like something is terribly wrong, something out of place, maybe something that shouldn’t even be.” He had lowered his voice, but then he was smiling again, his bright eyes looking straight at me. “Well, I guess I’m just being paranoid. Will I see you after school?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Ah, I’m sorry, I can’t today,” I excused myself which, by then, was no surprise to him, even though disappointment always took over his face.
“Then I won’t see you till after the holidays?” he asked, looking like an abandoned puppy, and I forced my brightest smile to take over my lips.
“But of course you will! You have my phone number, right? We’ll arrange something,” I suggested and his expression became immediately brighter.
“You won’t mind if I call?”
“Of course not!” I answered vehemently. Those were probably the truest words I’d said all morning.
“It’s a deal then. I’ll see you soon!” he stated in all confidence, and leaned towards me to place a warm kiss on my cheek.
I took a hand to my chest, to my heart beating too fast, and watched as he walked away. I loved him so much and yet my love only seemed to bring him pain.
The morning went by as in recent days, with Steph adding an extra foulness to her mood and Joanne ignoring the both of us. When the bell rang I made sure to go to the cafeteria just to say goodbye to my friends. I asked for their forgiveness for ditching our last meal together before the large separation that followed, and everyone forgave me immediately, between promises of meeting during the holidays, promises I knew I’d probably never fulfill.
When I reached the school gate, Alexander was already there, leaning his tall body against the fence, smiling as if nothing had happened, and attracting too much attention for my taste.
Chapter Seventeen
VTA
– The Vision of the City of the Pyramids.
The Reception of the Master of the Temple. 1 –
“If Knowledge weighs this much, carving daggers of eternal ice deep inside,
wouldn’t it be better to just remain ignorant?
And so we would live in immortal darkness, not wishing for anything that weren’t right there, within our reach;
and we would truly smile, happy with what little we would have.
Then why do we stubbornly look for answers that will only bring us pain;
answers that indisputably reaffirm just how insignificant and feeble our existence really is?”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“ W
elcome back,” he addressed me with a light bow of his head, and I frowned, reminding myself that I was still irritated by his earlier behavior.
“What the hell was that this morning?” I demanded and my question erased his smile immediately.
“Shall we go?” He didn’t even wait for an answer before walking away. I had to run to catch up with him. “On my way here, I saw a small dinner not far from here. We’ll probably be able to get something to eat there.”
“Don’t change the subject!” I insisted.
“If you really must know, I simply didn’t like him.”
“Simply didn’t like him? Are you insane? You can’t just go around hitting people without a reason, just because you don’t like them! Besides, you don’t even know him!”
“Fine. I won’t do it again,” he replied nonchalantly, making my nerves stand on end. “Does Izrail know this Michael?”
I frowned defensively at his question. What did that have to do with anything? “Sure! Why?”
“Oh, that’s OK then. Maybe he’ll give me permission to erase him once and for all.”
I felt my heart jump in panic at the idea.
“You can’t!” I almost shouted, holding him back by his arm. “You just can’t! Besides, he’ll never allow it!” My sudden panic gave way to rational thought. “He’ll never allow you to hurt Michael!”
“Oh yeah? And why’s that? If I didn’t like him, I can only imagine what Izrail thinks of him,” he replied sarcastically, and I kept my fear at bay, holding on to my recent decision to implicitly trust Gabriel’s word.
“Gabriel knows Michael very well! We’ve spent a lot of time together,” I stated as convincingly as possible and he seemed surprised.
“The three of you?”
“Yes! Plus a few of Michael’s friends. Besides, even if you were right and he were to agree with you, he wouldn’t allow you to hurt him!”
“Because of the Contract?” he asked and his dark eyes glowed coldly. “I’m not bound by any Contract. I can do as I please.”
“But you want him to get what he wants, right? And what he wants depends on this Contract. And if you hurt Michael, then this Contract will never be fulfilled. It will end up being void, or something. I don’t think he would really appreciate that.” I argued to the best of my abilities and his elongated eyes opened wide.
“This Michael ... is he the Contract? Is he your wish?” I felt my cheeks burn and looked away. “Jesus!” He muttered with a sharp gasp and fell silent for a moment. “But now everything makes sense,” he concluded and I looked up at him inquisitively. What did? To me nothing ever made any sense at all! “Are you in love with this Michael, Mari?” I walked a bit faster, trying to avoid his prying eyes. “I see ...”
“And what’s wrong with that?” I demanded, defensively.
“Nothing wrong, certainly not from your point of view,” he responded, easily keeping up with my pace. “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything against your Michael. To tell you the truth, I’m not in the habit of meddling in other people’s business. I have enough problems as it is. It’s just that ... he really annoys me! And I rarely feel annoyed. Don’t judge.” He put on a crooked smile from my critical expression. “Things are not always as they seem, and you may well yet find out about that.” It sounded more like a threat than a promise. “Ah, look. It’s right there,” he said, enthusiastically, pointing to a small door on a yellow painted wall, and urged me towards it. I added a mental note to the already long list of questions I’d compiled during morning class. If he was offering questions, I wasn’t about to let that subject slide just like that.
We sat at a table for two in a small, almost empty establishment, in spite of the hour, and a middle-aged man brought
us the menu. I didn’t dwindle much over its contents, too focused on what was yet to come, and chose a baked fish dish garnished with some healthy greens. Incredibly, the apparently young man sitting across me ordered three full sets, all different, just for him! The waiter seemed to think the same as he took our order, asking us if we were expecting anyone else. It clearly wasn’t the case, seeing that Alexander had made a point to ask for a table for two. As soon as we were alone, he reached for a piece of bread and started an intricate fight with a small pack of butter. I sighed before his bewildered expression as he stared at the small thing, and took it from his hands before it could become mush, opening it easily.
“Oh, one is always learning,” he noted pleasantly, making sure all the other packs had the same small corner unstuck to make it easier to open, and spread a generous layer of butter over his bread. “So, where were we this morning?” he asked, almost eagerly, and I wondered how come he was so willing to talk about things that Gabriel had always avoided and Lea hadn’t been allowed to discuss.
I pulled a notebook from under my pile of schoolbooks and opened it to the page where, during class, I’d compiled the many subjects I wanted to go through. He peered curiously at the white sheet, an eyebrow shooting up, and laughed.
“What! You said you’d give me answers!” I argued in my defense. “Well, I have a lot of questions!” He smiled, amused.
“I see. You know, Mari, I think you’re kind of interesting, after all.” My hands froze over the scribbled paper. Interesting. That was the adjective he always used.
“Interesting, me?”
“Yes, I guess. To tell you the truth, I thought you would react much worse to our sudden appearance,” he said, referring to himself and Jonathan, and I glued my eyes on my list of questions. I had reacted badly enough, I recalled, really bad. He himself had just saved me from the edge of yet another precipice just that morning. Hadn’t he noticed it?
“Reacting bad. By now I’m not even sure what it means,” I finally remarked. “Besides, I’ve been living in the same house as Gabriel for more than one month. I guess I’m at the point where I no longer know how I should react anymore.”
He laughed lightly, capturing my attention. His laughter was warm and friendly, so unlike Gabriel’s cold and sneering smiles.
“Yeah, I imagine it hasn’t been easy,” he confided. “Izrail can be difficult at times.” He sounded almost like a father talking about his misbehaved child, and I took that chance to bombard him with one of my questions.
“You said he had seven names. What are the others?” I asked and he smiled, reaching for another piece of bread. My face flushed, aware I hadn’t been subtle at all in the way I’d changed subjects, but he didn’t mention it.
“I don’t know all of them. No one does. Actually, you’re the first person I know who knows his true name, and, frustrating enough, it’s the same as if you didn’t.” He seemed to hope I would share it with him and took a bite on his butter-coated bread. “Izrail is the name everyone uses to call him within the clan. But I also heard others calling him Erebos, Enky and Skylar. I suppose it all depends on who’s calling and what that individual sees when he looks at him. I should probably also call him Skylar, as it is.”
“Why?”
“All our names have meanings. And Skylar means protector.”
“Protector?” It was hard connecting such a frightening creature like him with that word.
“That’s right. I believe that’s where we more or less were before I dropped you at school this morning. The reason why I have such a big debt with him to the point of not being able to deny him my own life, should he ask for it.” I nodded in agreement and Alexander took a deep breath, squeezing a piece of bread into a small ball between his fingers. “I gather, by our previous talk, that the cat told you about our castes?” he wondered, referring to Lea. “Well then, just shortly after I fell, becoming what you see now, I was hunted by a Se’irim.”
“The ones that were Humans once,” I made sure and he nodded.
“Yes. Se’irim can be very vicious, you see, and one of their main hobbies is hunting down recently fallen Mazzikin. Because those are very hard, very confusing moments, and also when we are at our weakest.”
I tried as hard as possible to accept all he was telling me without my usual attempts at escaping reality.
My eyes fell on his hands, still playing with that piece of bread, so close to mine that I couldn’t help watch in wonder. He sat so close to me and I felt fine. If I thought about it, I could feel a slight tingling at the tips of my fingers and at the base of my neck, but nothing else. What was it with standing close to Gabriel that plunged me into such mad darkness? Although a Deiwos, like Gabriel and Lea, the air surrounding Alexander was light, even pleasant, making me completely at ease, maybe too at ease, since I didn’t really know him and he was, after all, still a demon.
“But why?” I asked as he seemed hesitant to go on. “Why hunt you down?” His answer was postponed by our waiter’s return. The man placed four fuming and deliciously smelling plates on the table and, once more, threw a dubious sideways glance towards Alexander, probably convinced that he’d never be able to finish all of it and that half the food would end up in the garbage.
Alexander seemed to hardly notice it, rubbing his hands together as he gladly contemplated his small feast. He looked undecided for a moment, trying to choose from where to start, and pulled one of the plates closer, grinning almost like a kid. The man, still by our table, snorted in disbelief and walked away. I, too, was having a hard time believing that someone with his appearance would be able to eat all that. On the other hand, I mentally added with a bitter grin, by now I should know better than to doubt anything, when they were concerned.
I absently picked on my fish, driving some of it into my mouth, while waiting for him to go on.
“This is without a doubt one of the best things of your world,” he commented almost dreamily, a smile stretching from side to side on his face, and I looked down at his plate.
“Food?”
“Tasty food with no secondary effects,” he answered and laughed at my grimace as I tried to picture what kind of secondary effects their food could possibly have. “Well, where were we? Ah, yes, you asked why they hunt us. I guess because it’s an easy and fast way to please the Shedim. They are at the top of our hierarchy. They are what you Humans would call nobility.”
“Nobility.” I repeated under my breath, unable to stop myself from feeling kind of impressed. So, Gabriel was a noble?
“They usually offer us to the Shedim as a way to guarantee future favors.”
“And what do they do with you? Slaves?” I tried to guess, already picturing some dark-age society, chains and whips included, and Alexander smiled gently.
“They eat us,” he plainly told me between two mouthfuls, and I felt the blood drain from my face, making me queasy. My ever-ready-for-some-more-escaping mind told me I probably hadn’t heard correctly. “I see that the cat didn’t tell you about this,” he calmly observed with pity in his eyes.
“Eat, but ...” I stammered and my body convulsed into a shudder as I imagined Gabriel’s figure, all white, tall and lean, devouring something so similar to a Human Being.
“Yes. But only because that’s the faster and most effective way to rapidly gain power. I guess you can see it as a way of transferring power, or stealing it would be the accurate word.” He was apparently unfazed by the gruesome implication in his words and I stared blankly at my plate. He kept eating, eagerly. I’d just lost my appetite. “I understand this may be shocking to you. But it’s really quite normal for us, even amongst the Merifri, your angels.” My shock was even greater and I stared at him wide-eyed.
He smiled and went on. “Merifri, like Deiwos, are also divided into castes and have their own hierarchy. Of course, for ethical reasons, they do not eat each other as openly and frequently as Deiwos do. You see, Merifri live by a stronger, unchallengeable set of rules. Whi
ch, of course, also includes the who and when they are allowed to eat. Traditionally, their inferior caste, the Micaloz, that could be compared with the Ruhim since they’re also immaterial, aren’t even regarded as living beings and their only mission is to grant more power to the Merifri that, by merit, deserve it.”
I flattened a hand across my lips, feeling sick. Ruhim was Lea’s caste. How could they do such a thing! I clearly remembered his child-like voice when he’d told me about how unhappy and limited his existence had been, before Gabriel had granted him a body. But, even then, he had been alive! He had felt things, had thoughts, had seen the world! And he had felt fear; cold, terrifying, constant fear. Now I understood why.
“Mari, you must understand that, contrary to what you Humans think, your concept of good and evil applies strictly to you,” he added. “For us, that doesn’t even make sense. Not for Merifri and certainly not for Deiwos.”
“So, they took you to him ... for him...” I courageously struggled for the right words and Alexander nodded with a smile.
“Yes. Because Izrail is very powerful, even among his caste. As it seems his mother was a Shedim of incredible power. As for his father, as customary, no one knows exactly who he is. But most believe that he is the son of the clan leader himself. Which, I might add, is probably true. No one can really believe that he’d allow any other male to plant his seed in such a high quality female. Whatever the case, Izrail has always been regarded with very high expectations. They were all hoping he’d be immensely strong, even before his birth. And, as a child, he was raised to be just that.”
“Lea told me that the Mazzikin take care of the children,” I offered fearfully, starting to understand that things weren’t that linear.
“Take care. That cat can really say things pleasantly,” he snorted sardonically. My heart beat anxiously. What kind of world was that? Truly hell, I thought, my fingers tightly wrapped around my fork and knife as if to give me courage to just keep listening. And yet, if that was the truth, then it was the truth that I had searched for so long, in books and on the internet. I couldn’t run away, now that she’d come to me.
Blood of the Pure (Gaea) Page 39