Ishtar Anomaly

by Natalie Gibson

  Nintinugga wanted so many more, but Raphael could only give her one son. She could have had more but Raphael could not stand the idea of another's hands on his woman. Nanae recognized jealousy as the emotion that had stolen his mother's dream. He vowed never to act that way and fate had put his will to test with his own Sinnis. Nanae liked Israel. Camilla had chosen well. He was glad they would have each other after he was gone. “She sang too. After father, her songs healed, not only bodies, but emotions, some said souls.”

  Too bad they would never see what Camilla was capable of with Nanae's power. She might be able to heal that core illness in mankind – hate, but Nanae was determined not force her into holding half his beast. Nathalia would send him to his death with the whole beast and Camilla would be free to raise her child with Israel.

  ***

  The little girl in the metal cell wore a pink dress and matching bow. Both were a little bedraggled now that the man was finished with her. He pulled her up by her hair. “Stop crying, you little whore. You know you liked it.” Using his other hand, he backhanded her so hard that her head jerked around farther than should have been possible. He dropped her then and turned to leave, buckling his belt as he did.

  “I cry because that's what you desire. I did like it. It was just what I needed, but I cannot appear as though I enjoyed it because that is not what you wanted.” Her voice was little and matched the form she was in at the time, but that wasn't her true voice nor her true form. The slight glow to her skin was the only give away that she wasn't completely human.

  The man stood at the door waiting for the other guard to open it. He spoke to the girl without turning back to her, “I can't wait to see what James has got in store for you. I'll be watching the whole time.” When the door didn't open, he banged on it with his fist and yelled, “James! I'm done. Your turn!” Still nothing. “James! Open up.”

  Silence filled the empty space before the crackle of the intercom penetrated it. “You are a sick man, Oliver.” Oliver laughed but his cheer faded quickly. “That thing in the cell that you just raped is over three thousand years old. That's a thousand years before Christ.”

  The girl behind him muttered a curse in an ancient tongue and spit.

  “We've only managed to hold her because she's almost starved to death over the last six months. Guess what she feeds on, Oliver.” The voice paused for effect. “That's right, Oliver. Sex. She feeds on sex.”

  “Quit screwing around James. This ain't funny. Open tha' damn door.” The man banged on the door once for each word in his last sentence for emphasis.

  “James is tied up at the moment. You are hereby stripped of your Fellowship. Your body will rot in that metal room. Luckily, you won't be alive much longer. ”

  Oliver turned to look finally but wished he hadn't. The girl was floating in the center of her cell. Her dress and hair were perfectly prim again. She was smiling. It was terrifying. Then she spoke and he realized what terror truly was. “Stop crying, you giant whore. I know you'll like it. No wait. That's not right. You know I'll like it?” She shrugged. “Oh, well, doesn't matter.”

  “Wait. Wait! This is not what I desire. You have to do what I want.”

  “Aww, Oliver. That part is over now. I fulfilled your desire, now I only have my own to lead me.” She looked down at her prepubescent body, smoothed her dress and then looked back up at him. “I think I'll stay like this. It just feels right to let her...”, she gestured down her torso, “be the one to kill you.”

  Oliver heard the girl screaming but her mouth wasn't open. It was only after her tiny hands were around his throat and the sound cut off that he realized it was him screaming like a little girl.

  Brian clicked off the monitor and turned down the volume. The security camera would record everything for future study if the Paion needed it. There was no need to watch a man get torn to shreds by a little girl. Few men would be able to stand the sight even if it was fuzzy on a tiny black and white screen.

  “Sir?”

  Brian spun around to face the one of his men who held the bound and gagged James. The man in charge dug a cigarette out of the inner breast pocket of his military jacket. He put one in his mouth and lit it.

  “Should we throw him in with her too?”

  James struggled at the suggestion, yelling no and please and the like through his gag.

  “Good lord, no. She'd have his nuts for dessert. It's bad enough we can't retrieve Oliver's body. I'm not sure we can contain her as it is. She'd be unstoppable if we gave her four mountain oysters.”

  James relaxed. Brian put his cigarettes and lighter back inside his jacket and pulled out his service revolver. He put two bullets in James' head. “Burn his body. Get somebody in here to clean up this mess.” As they moved to follow his orders, Brian turned the volume back up. The moist squishing noises told him not to turn the monitor back on yet. The slaughter wasn't over.

  He pushed the intercom button and spoke into the microphone, “I am truly sorry that Oliver bothered you, Kishargalanna. I never meant for any harm to come to you. You have been most cooperative and deserve better treatment than that. Please accept his body and prana as my apology.”

  He leaned back and finished his smoke. He hoped the cell would hold her. An ancient Lilitu was hard to come by and even harder to keep. She could be very useful. At least they had gotten enough blood from her to create the tranquilizer.

  ***

  “I cannot rest. Your tiny baby is strong, but not strong enough that I can lose consciousness.”

  “Our tiny baby,” Camilla corrected. She rubbed her belly protectively but her facial expression said she knew Nanae couldn't go without sleep for as long as it would take for their child to be born. What else was restful besides sleep, she thought. She thought about all he had told her about his kind and came up with a plan. She would switch her schedule around to work with the capacitors at night so Nanae could spend his days in communion with the earth and sun. They would spend full moon nights in the open so that Annu could strengthen him. He needed to feed too and she wondered for the hundredth time if her blood no longer tasted good to him now that she was pregnant. She thought she stank and had been taking more showers, but most mothers to be reported increased sensitivity to smell. “On your knees”, she ordered.

  Nanae obeyed. No position made them the same height, but this made him only a foot taller. He sat back on his heels. Face to face, she reached out to touch his features. Avoiding his sexy mouth, she traced his strong masculine chin, his broad high cheekbones, his perfect statuesque nose and the curve of his eyebrows with her soft fingertips. Laying her head on his shoulder and slipping one arm around his neck, one under his arm, she hugged him. He hugged her back, encompassing her whole torso with his bulky arms. She mouthed the rejuvenating words of healing on the skin of his neck.

  Nanae was stricken by how good it felt to hold his Sinnis Ina Ummum Zumru. He relished the simple experience for a few seconds before it triggered the beast's survival instinct. Incisors burst into his mouth unwittingly. Hunger struggled against it's leash and Camilla only made it worse by nuzzling and nipping at his neck. She knew what he needed and was offering it freely. He was glad that she was a woman of so few words, for if she had said the words aloud, he wasn't sure he could control the beast. He pushed her away with more force than was necessary.

  Camilla was propelled back against the bed and sat with an involuntary 'humph'. She took a deep breath and stood. She was not giving up. The agreement was that Nanae would give her a baby and in return she would provide for the healer. She threw down a pillow in front of the window and pointed to it.

  Nanae was looking at her with what she could only describe as contempt. His eyes glowed red, flames burning in their depths. His lips were parted, teeth exposed, but his jaw was tense, muscles twitching. He snarled and sniffed.

  There was no tang of fear on her. Her blood was not laced with intoxicating adrenaline. She wasn't frightened of him at all. It was only be
cause she wasn't that Nanae could win his struggle with the hunger beast. He stuffed it back down with effort and shakily knee-walked to the pillow. With his head and shoulders above window seal level, Annu's light spilled down on him. She was not yet full and therefore could not give him strength, but she was encouraging nonetheless.

  Camilla watched the tension drain out of his face before approaching him from the rear. She stepped up, one of her feet on each of his calves, her body pressed against his. Only their clothing separated them. She ran her palms over the well formed muscles of his shoulders and down the outside of his chiseled arms. She began to massage his delts and traps in rhythm with her feet that now knead his lower crus. Her fingers worked their magic, melting away the tension in him. She moved to his neck when he bent his head forward to rest his forehead on the window seal. When she slipped her fingers into his hairline, working his scalp, she began to hum absentmindedly. The wordless song took on a shape of it's own as she pressed her fingers out and drew them back in.

  Clearly it was the wrong thing for her to do.

  Before she saw him move, Nanae was up and she was down on the ground. He was pinning her with his much larger frame. He easily outweighed her by four times. One hand clamped over her mouth, one held hers clasped together under her breasts over her belly. She stayed calm. This was what she had wanted. The predator in him needed to feed and Camilla needed him to dominate her. She was unbelievably horny, but submissive as she was, couldn't ask him for what she needed. It had to be him initiating or this wouldn't work for her. She suspected it wouldn't work for him any other way either. She turned her head to the side, offering him her neck.

  Her pulse pounded, enticing it to bite. The beast growled. The thin blue vein throbbed just below the surface of her snow white skin. She was so delicate, a morning glory so easily destroyed by noon heat. It could slice her to bits with it's pinkie nail. Nanae watched helplessly from the depths where his beast usually slept. He could clearly see that the song had enraged the beast, strengthen it, allowing it to bursts free. He heard it say, “I want to kill you.”

  “Why?” her muffled question came.

  “You are so good. I have never destroyed something so beautiful.” was it's reply.

  Her twinkling laugh sounded beautiful even from behind it's hand. That bell-like sound brought Nanae back to the surface, back to the seat of power. She was not afraid, not even a little. She did not care that the beast called for her death, yearned to see the contrast of her crimson blood and her creamy skin. He removed his hand and helped her up. “I'm not good or beautiful. I've been called nice. Cute, maybe, but not beautiful.”

  “For me there is none more beautiful or more perfect than you. I suggest you not sing that again. The song enraged it.”

  “The beast? Why does it want to kill me?”

  “Because you are ...” Nanae couldn't say it aloud. The beast could never know Camilla was his Sinnis. If it found out, no one, not even Nanae could keep it from killing her. “Because it suspects you love me and love is a direct threat to it's existence. Even if you do, never say it aloud. No more questions tonight. Let's to bed. I must hold you.”

  Chapter 4

  The summer heat was holding on even thought they were already into October. In Texas there were two seasons: summer and early summer. Nathalia had never minded the sticky heat of the south, even less now that it invigorated her so. She and Eiran lay on the roof soaking in Ud's rays. Their quarters, though smaller than two giants of their size called for, had direct roof access. They spent all their time outdoors anyway.

  They spent high noon here everyday. Eiran's wings were stretched wide to give him the most surface area to soak up the sun. Nathalia lay on her side, her body tucked into the crux of his shoulder, her leg thrown over his hips. He rubbed the soft sin of her upper arm with his fingertips and she traced designs on his chest.

  What are we going to do about Nanae Raphael Maru? Nathalia spoke in their private intimate way, brain to brain. She spoke the healer's true name. Eiran was mated and had confirmed his Sinnis and so presented no danger to Nanae or any other Nephilim. He would never use the true name to bind Nanae. Eiran had no thirst to quench with a brother's blood. Nathalia provided everything he needed; his hunger beast was still with them but it was quietened and satisfied. I know I promised to end his suffering, but I'm not sure I can do it, even 18 years from now. I can't bring myself to kill when it is undeserved. Not again.

  Eiran hugged her tightly with one arm and kissed the top of her head. He spoke in her head as he shared her broadcasting ability, but he didn't have to. He had a voice. She did not; her vocal cords had been damaged beyond repair when he had found her. She had sliced through them and almost fifty percent of her neck when she committed suicide to protect the One from an evil man before Genevieve was even born. His relationship with his hunger is abnormal. I do not know what is different or why but I feel it in him, right below the surface, the beast strains to get free. I am certain someone will have to kill it. I would that I could do this for you, but the DakuAhu is in pieces.

  Nathalia reached up to touch the hollow of her neck. She couldn't physically feel it but she knew Eiran's birthmark was there. Red and glowing, it enabled her to not only see the thread of life in each of Ki's creatures, but also to slice through the lifeline. She could end any living thing, mortal or immortal, and the being's life force would pool there in the piece of petrified Gregori blood that had settled between her clavicles. She closed her eyes and felt the life that was Eitan, the only she'd killed using her newfound ability. His prana was hers now and it made her stronger, fiercer and more bloodthirsty. She knew there were many Akhkharu that would need culling but she did not want to be the one to do it. She wished again, for the hundredth time, that the DakuAhu had not been shattered. Better the tainted lives of the Nephilim's betrayers gather in it than in her.

  The sun must have come from behind some clouds because the light through her eyelids brightened. No, the light was coming from the side of her face that lay against Eiran. Nathalia sat up. Eiran, you're shining. And I think you're bigger.

  Eiran stood bringing Nathalia with him in one movement, his eyes on the horizon. We are under attack. His right hand slowly reformed into a short sword as he gathered the metals in his body and focused them there. A Nephilim was never without a weapon; they had complete control over every cell in their bodies. What does Ki say to you?

  As a confirmed Sinnis, Nathalia could hear Ki more directly than Nephilim. Ki answered her call when she would only answer a group of Nephilim if they prayed in unison. That they are her children too. She does not want us to kill today. But Nathalia knew that Ki never wanted them to kill, even when it was obviously the right thing to do.

  Eiran's voice startled Nathalia. “Then you had better put away your weapon. Any cut you make will be a mortal one.” The birthmark he had given her attracted lifelines to the surface, enabling any tear in a being's body to be a slice in their soul.

  Nathalia looked down at her hand. It had taken sword shape without any thought. Eitan, inside her, called for violence and death. With effort she retracted the metal and restored her modified hand back to it's natural form. She flexed the fist and looked out over the grounds. Several groups of men, military by the look of their moving formations, advanced on the main building. They were focused and determined and they knew where to go to get what they were looking for.

  Nathalia and Eiran had to get to Maeve and Genevieve. Harith Samseil Maru, he who is for the One, was no doubt with them but all Nephilim had sworn to protect the tiny baby until the time she was grown, converted and capable of defending herself. Eiran wrapped his arms around Nathalia and began the process of breaking down their molecules. As he tabalu'd them, time froze.

  Nathalia saw Christy in the sacred fig grove with the children around her. Christy wasn't a Daughter. Maeve and Aaron had saved her from gang rape and she had moved onto the compound for the safety from her abusive ex that it provided
. Christy was young, a lot younger than they had suspected at first, but at seventeen she was the perfect age for babysitting. She had taken to keeping the younger children during the day as a way to feel like she was paying her own way. She had gathered them to play in the shade of the grove during the heat of the day. As the military men passed near her, one pointed a gun at her. Nathalia heard her shout something and put up her hand. A shimmery transparent dome appeared around her and the children. The man stopped to examine it. He put one hand against it and pushed but it didn't give. It was a shield of sorts. The group's leader barked at the straggling man and he ran to join them. Nathalia had a fraction of a second to wonder what sort of magic it was before she was teleported away to do her duty to the One.

  ***

  The arms that reached out and grabbed Israel were like tree trunks. He cried out before a beefy hand clapped over his mouth. He struggled, but it barely registered to the thing holding him. The fingers covering his face had a slight glow. Israel would have thought he was going to die, except he recognized the caress of the other hand. While clamping his arms to his side, the grip was as gentle as it was firm.

  He stopped squirming when Camilla stepped into view. She stuck her head out the door Israel had just been pulled back through. The arms holding him disappeared and Nanae flashed around and put himself between Camilla and the opening. The light colored cloak he was wearing fluttered and settled around him, covering everything from neck to feet. He stood with his back to them, looking out into the sanctuary.