Ishtar Anomaly

by Natalie Gibson

  The doors opened and Israel slipped out first, mumbling “It was nothing”. Then he unlocked the room's vault-like doors. He left as soon as the hissing signaled the seal was broken. Then there was too much activity for Camilla to think any more about it.

  Chapter 5

  What happened? Nathalia sat up as soon as she was aware that she was laying in the grass. She broadcast to every mind around her. She even remembered to move her mouth in case someone around did not know of her magic.

  “They had some type of tranquilizer that only works on us. I metabolized it, analyzed it after they shot me. It was specially designed for Nephilim. They took my blood.” Nanae answered her.

  So that's what they had they been after, she thought to herself. Sounded like the Paion Fellowship to her. You know what you have to do. We cannot allow them to use the blood.

  He knew what he had to do, but to do it would kill his only progeny. Kishargalanna was his Lilitu, a woman he had loved, who had loved him back for many years. Hers was the blood used to make the injection that took them all down today. No humans could best a full strength Lilitu, so it followed that she must have given her blood, and his by association, to the group of invading men. Nanae closed his eyes and concentrated. He hoped Kishargalana would forgive him. He opened his eyes and nodded once. It was done and he couldn't even outwardly mourn her. To acknowledge her existance would be to damn himself in Ereshkagil's eyes. She forbade the creation of all Nephilim's children.

  Is anyone hurt? Besides the ones I sent limping home, I mean?

  Once a warrior, always a warrior. Eiran smiled at Nanae and then let it fade. He had forgotten for a moment that Nathalia had sworn to kill the very Nephilim healing her. Nanae had healed him first, knowing that touching a Sinnis without consent was a good way to start a war. Eiran nodded a thanks to Nanae for his thoughtfulness and then helped Nathalia to stand.

  Nanae looked back to Nathalia. “I do not believe so. I came to you only after seeing to the One. She is untouched; you served her well this day. There are other Nephilim still unconscious, but they will heal without my aid, though slowly.”

  A blood curdling scream cut their conversation off. “Help me! Leonard!”

  Eiran, Nathalia, and Nanae, after scooping up Camilla in his arms, ran toward the library. They were a blur to anyone watching and found themselves inside before Libby finished the d in her husband's name. Nathalia pulled Libby up so that Nanae and Camilla could kneel on either side of Leonard. The older man was laying crumpled on the floor but they couldn't see any reason for it. Nanae could feel the irregular beat. “It is his heart”, he informed the room.

  Camilla shook her head at Nanae. Her healing ability was no use with heart attacks. Nanae placed his hand on Leonard's chest. The muscle was seized up almost entirely. Leonard did not have long enough for Nanae to heal him the usual way.

  “They told him they would kill me if I didn't give them the DakuAhu. I know how dangerous it is to you. I kept it secret. The stress of seeing me with a gun to my head killed him.” Libby buried her face in Nathalia's shoulder. She couldn't bear to see her husband's mouth go blue.

  Camilla started CPR. The pumping and breathing gave her something to do; she couldn't just sit there while someone died. She pleaded with Nanae with her eyes. He had to stop this. Nanae held his hand over the man's chest and Camilla watched as the nail on his middle finger elongated. It's sides curled inward, creating a tube. The tube grew in length and thinned, taking on a metallic sheen. He'd made his hand into a syringe.

  Nanae pushed Camilla back gently with the other hand. He plunged the needle into the left side of Leonard's chest and forced his own healing blood into the silent but offending organ. Leonard gasped after a few seconds and Nanae withdrew his hand from inside and laid it on top. The beat returned to normal as did Leonard's color.

  Libby dropped down beside her love, taking Nanae's place. Nanae stood and lifted Camilla from the kneeling position he knew she would find impossible to rise from. Nathalia, while no expert on pregnancies, knew that Camilla was much more pregnant than she should be. Her dress was busting at the seams across her middle. She wondered if Nanae would allow a sonogram.

  “Where is the DakuAhu? We will take it from you; it should not have been your responsibility to protect such a thing.” Eiran clearly felt guilty for endangering the older couple.

  Libby pointed to an open safe on the wall. Eiran went to it and extracted the black velvet pouch he knew contained the shattered remains of the 'kill-brother'.

  Nathalia had an empty feeling in her stomach. Why did they leave you alive if you didn't give the DakuAhu to them?

  Libby stopped her barrage of kisses to Leonard's face long enough to answer but did not take her eyes from him. “I had to give them something. They knew it was a weapon made from bone.”

  Do we have something like that?

  “We didn't. Not until after your disappearance last year. We found it in your room that night. I was loath to touch it, but I did to make sure you weren't killed with it. The glowing gods gave it to Michael. He used it to hurt people but he never used it on you.”

  Nathalia needed to sit down. This wasn't as bad as if they had gotten a piece of the DakuAhu, but it was close. I'm glad to hear it never touched my blood. If it had, they would now be in possession of a new and whole DakuAhu. That's how I, as Ereshkigal, forged the first one 7,000 years ago, with the blood of an unclaimed Sinnis.

  ***

  “Get it to the lab. Quickly. They're waiting.” Brian had not accompanied his men on the mission, instead trusting Montana to do the field work. As always his right hand man had not disappointed. Though his team had not been the one to find the Healer and acquire his blood, he had lead the entire unit into and out of enemy territory successfully.

  The team that had been the one to find the Healer was the youngest group. They were new recruits, the same group James and Oliver had been from. They ran past him and down the hall to the laboratory section of their compound. Hidden in the hill country south west of Austin among the sprawling mansions, no one thought twice about their high security level or black ops soldiers milling about. Most assumed it was a wealthy heiress' or starlet's Texas home.

  Montana's was the next team home. Each group had taken a different route, making sure they weren't being followed. Montana hid his limp well but the majority of his team headed right for the medic. His left arm hung at an awkward angle, slightly behind him from where it should be.

  “Report.” Brian demanded.

  “At 12:23 all three groups approached the gate. We easily subdued all guards and entered the compound. A team headed to intersect the primary target, B team to subdue the Nephilim guarding the children, and C team sought the secondary target inside. We engaged Nephilim as did B team. C team secured the desired blood without conflict and signaled mission complete. We left with the wounded. There were no casualties on either side.”

  The larger man was shaking. Brian handed him a cigarette out of his own package, lit it and led him into the office. They both sat down, Brian behind his desk and Montana in the chair across the room. They both silently smoked for a moment. The Paion superior waited for his subordinate to say what had the black man so shaken up. He didn't ask, but the darker man told him.

  “C team tells me they took the healer down while his back was turned.” The two men smiled at each other. That confession alone said how young they were. Never admit you took an enemy down by any means other than superior skill and planning. “B team struggled with the monsters in the courtyard but the way they tell it, the little girls gave them more resistance than the Nephilim. A team encountered two Nephilim that almost derailed our entire operation. They were faster and stronger than we could have anticipated. They had this battle armor that looked like leather with metal plates and studding. It looked like something from Xena. It kept our darts from penetrating. One of them was a woman.” The way he said the word would have sounded like an insult if it wasn't sai
d with such astonishment. “She was a trained warrior, much more skilled at combat than her male partner, and though she didn't have wings, she glowed like them. She moved like them. And when we finally managed to shoot her with the tranq, she fell like them. Before that, she mopped the floor with us, like we were just recruits instead of war hardened soldiers. She had no weapons. She caused enough damage with just her fists and feet.” He gestured towards his left shoulder with his right hand, cigarette between his pointer and index fingers. “She landed a punch that felt like mack truck to my shoulder. If I had turned a split second slower she would have hit her target. With the kind of heat she was packing in those guns, I think my heart would have stopped if she'd made contact with my chest.”

  He deposited the yellow end of his stubby cig in his mouth and raised his now empty right hand to rub the back of his head. His hair was clipped short, military style. There was nothing to smooth nor adjust; the movement was exasperation alone. He was embarrassed. This woman had made him feel something he hadn't felt in years. Fear. He could have been killed. “She didn't just dislocate my shoulder. She broke my clavicle in three places, tore, not stretched, not pulled, but ripped, no, destroyed every ligament and tendon holding my arm to my body. She turned my muscles and cartilage into jelly a full 5 inches out from her strike. Hell, she hit me from the front and somehow managed to pulverize my shoulder blade. This is going to take a while to heal.”

  “No it won't. I promised you the first dose of the serum.” Brian reminded his friend of the reward of having served the Paion successfully. Montana would be healed within seconds of the injection, never to sustain injury that required lengthy recovery again. That was why the healer's blood was most desirable.

  “She caved in Dave's chest and practically vaporized Curt's knee and shin.”

  Brian cut his objection short with a movement. No matter the injuries, Montana earned the first dose. The other men could wait until both men in this room had theirs. That was the way the hierarchy worked.

  The dark man nodded his acceptance of the lighter man's decision. With sweat breaking out on his forehead, he went on, “The only reason I'm conscious right now is that I took a shot of morphine in the van and even with that, the pain is breaking through. With all the hurt she put on us, she could have easily snapped our necks or morphed her arm into a sword like they usually do. She could have cut us in two. Hell, she could have torn us in two. It was almost like she was restraining herself.” Montana shook his head in disgust. “I don't know what the hell she was, but I hope they never make another like her.”

  “Me too. Why don't you go have your injuries seen to? Maybe get another dose of morphine. We can finish this up later. We have the blood and that's all that matters.”

  “I lied. I took two on the way here. Another would put me into a coma. It's fine. I've got more to tell you, information that shouldn't wait.” Plus, he needed the pain. It told him he was still alive. He didn't say that aloud. “As we expected, the Daughters have no offensive magic. They've got something new though. Fox said he saw a girl throw up some kind of magical shield around herself and a group of toddlers.”

  Before Brian could ask any follow up questions, a wale came up through the floor. Brian switched on the monitor that the prison level security cameras fed to. Kishargalanna looked like her normal self, though normal was an odd choice for describing such a creature. She floated in the center of her cell, feet the same distance from the floor as her head was from the ceiling. Her facial features and body measurements and proportions shifted constantly, never pausing in one long enough to be recognizable. As always it was disturbing to see the human so fully distorted by the blood of the Paion's enemy.

  Montana stood with some effort and crossed to stand behind Brian's shoulder. They watched as she writhed midair. The monitor was black and white. They couldn't tell so Brian hit the intercom switch for the guard room and asked, “What's going on down there?”

  The guard answered after a minute. “We don't know. She just started screaming and crying about her maker not loving her anymore. She keeps saying 'Raphael' over and over. I didn't open the door but I looked through the keyhole. She looks the same as she has,” He didn't mention her change in healthy appearance since Oliver's slip in protocol. “Except her color is off. Her glow is flickering and flashing. Oh, shit, shit...”

  Brian and Montana could see what had the guard so worried. Kishargalanna was on the floor of her cell. She had never touched ground, not even at her weakest moment. She convulsed and Montana warned the guard, “It's a trap. Open that door and you are a dead man.”

  The Lilitu looked up to where she knew the camera was embedded in the wall near the ceiling. She laughed though it pained her to do it. The sound was harsh and the men who heard it suppressed a shiver. “My maker is destroying his blood to keep you from using it. He kills one to save many.”

  She gave one last ragged sigh and the guard's voice came back to tell them, “I think she's really dead. Her glow is gone.” As they watched Kishargalanna's shape settled into that of a woman. Small and petite with fine facial structures, she looked about 15. Her body then changed for it's last time. Growing old, going from fifteen to forty-five then to a hundred in about eight seconds, Kishargalanna became what she would be now without the help of Raphael's blood for all these years. A shriveled dessicated mummy was all that was left of the Lilitu.

  Brian and Montana were stunned. They had not known a maker could kill his child with a thought. Not from miles away. The healer had destroyed his blood inside her. His blood. They must have had the same thought because they both bolted out of the office and down the hall toward the lab.

  Because of his injuries, Montana was slower. By the time Montana got to the laboratory door, the lead tech was already stammering to Brian. “I...I...d don't know...i..it...just changed.” Montana stood in the doorway and watched as Brian stormed over to the centrifuge where a dozen vials held the ruined blood. It boiled up from around the seals, eating away the rubber stoppers and glass alike.

  Enraged, Brian raked his arm across the work station sending the spinning machine and it's contents flying. “Did you get even one batch of the serum made?!”

  The lead tech didn't answer because he was screaming. One container of the burning liquid had shattered against his desk and splashed on him. Most of his body was covered with the white coat, safety goggles and gloves but everyone could see the boils forming on his exposed cheek. Without thinking he tried to swipe away the offending liquid. His hand came away taking a large portion of his cheek skin and muscle with it.

  His screams were cut short when Brian put a bullet in his mutilated face. The armed man then turned to one of the other two lab techs in the room and asked again, “Did you get any serum made?” His voice sounded calm and Montana knew it was because of the killing. The worse the fuck up, the more Brian would kill to settle his nerves. Lab technicians were easy to come by. Montana recognized that probably both the two still standing wouldn't be in a matter of seconds.

  “No sir. We were taking our time, getting it right.”

  The second shot was just as loud as the first but since Montana was ready for it, he kept from jumping. Not so with the final tech, who started to shake as Brian turned the gun to point at the last man standing. “I trust you will be quicker next time.”

  The smell of urine was the only answer they got. Brian took it as affirmative. “Good. Now clean this mess up.” Brian turned to go and heard the sink nob turn and the faucet spring to life. He called over his shoulder, “Use vinegar to neutralize the blood.”

  Idiots, Brian thought to himself as Montana fell in step behind him. The ruined blood had reacted to the water in the things it had come in contact with. Any first level grad student could see that. The healer had turned his blood into a corrosive alkaline like lye and that flunky chemist was going to wash it with water. Brian decided right there that the man would not be faster with the next batch of blood they brought. He wouldn
't be alive. As soon as he exhausted his last usefulness up by cleaning the lab, Brian would kill him.

  ***

  Nathalia and Eiran sat on the bed in their oh-so-small quarters with the DakuAhu pieces still in the bag between them. She didn't dare touch them nor allow Eiran to either. Even now she could see their lifelines straining to get near the 'kill-brother'. She was certain that even the smallest of cut would end their lives.

  Eiran could sense her need for silence and honored her unspoken request. He allowed her to think on this. Eiran had married Ereshkigal in Mesopotamia over seven thousand years ago. He had not known at the time that she was the Sinnis of his brother, the then king, Sarrum Eitan. Ereshkigal had chosen Eiran. She had seen that Eitan was evil even if on some level she had known she belonged with him. His beast was too strong and Eitan allowed it too much freedom. She could not align herself with such a creature. Eitan may have recognized her as his Sinnis, but he had not loved her. She had been the chosen one of the Shinar. To their warrior they had given one of their own bones along with instructions on how to forge it into a weapon capable of killing even an immortal. She had cut herself with it, coating it with her blood, endowing it with power. She had then used it to stand against the first Akhkharu. They had been created by Eitan and, though there were too many for her to overcome, she had managed to kill one.

  She had thought the weapon was safe in it's shattered state but now a replacement was out in the world just waiting for the right blood to activate it. With the time upon them where all Nephilim could find their Sinnis, the world was filled with women who could be used to create the new DakuAhu. More than ever, she needed the Nephilim to gather around the One with their Sinnis, converted or not, in tow.