by Eve Langlais
We walked in to find Lana, with her feet soaking, watching Jaws-a favorite of hers. She especially enjoyed grossing us out by saying she’d do the shark if she could ever figure out how to change into her tail. Another siren issue she was dealing with along with Thalassophobia.
Her eyes widened as she took in my two companions. I smirked at her and gestured absently at them. “Lana, meet Simon and Gene. Our dinner plans got waylaid because of a run in with a demon.”
“A what?” Lana’s screech followed me into the kitchen where I pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured myself a shot. I downed the burning liquor, before grabbing a few more shot glasses and carrying everything out to the living room.
Simon and Gene sat at opposite ends of one couch with a tempting spot between them just right for me. I bypassed the invitation and sat beside Lana.
I poured everyone a generous dollop of whiskey and raised my glass, saying. “Salut.”
My friends followed suit and we slapped our empty glasses down on the table. Fortified by the alcohol, I spilled the encounter with the demon to Lana, whose eyes grew rounder and rounder.
“Ah shit, Beth. That doesn’t sound good.”
“We’ll protect her,” rumbled Simon.
“Excuse me,” Lana said and I almost smiled knowing they were about to see why it was best to leave annoyed sirens alone. “But, first off, you just met Beth and I have a hard time understanding your motives in wanting to protect her in what is surely a deadly endeavor. Second, you both seem to know an awful lot about what she is and what’s going on, which I find pretty freaking suspicious.”
“Which we will explain if you give us a moment,” interjected Gene. He shut up though when Lana, with a high pitched, hummed note, glared at him. I snickered.
“And finally, exactly how are two guys supposed to stop the hordes of Hell if what the fiend said was true?” When the boys didn’t immediately answer-probably too cowed to reply-she let out a shrill whistle that would have probably caused a school of fish to commit suicide.
Gene winced at the strident sound. “Again, Beth, I must say your friends are interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever met a siren who lived so far from the sea.”
Lana blanched and I hastened to shut him up. “Ixnay on the biggay water thingy,” I said in very poor pig Latin. I think the finger drawn across my throat with the accompanying gurgle sound got the point across better as Gene clamped his lips shut. Simon said not a word, but I could read the mirth in his eyes. Okay, so my friends are special. It’s why I love them. “Now stop stalling with the attempt at idle chit chat and fess up.” As queries went, I should have probably been more specific, but there was too damned much I didn’t know, so I figured any information was better than nothing at this point.
“Where would you like me to start?” Gene asked. “You heard the prophecy. The demon thinks you might be the one mentioned in it and wants to kill you. What I don’t understand is how you don’t know about the message?”
“Humor me,” I said not willing to get into why I missed my membership to the supernatural club. “Why is there such a hoopla about some stupid message? Did it never occur to them that maybe someone was playing a joke-a really mean one?”
Gene appeared shocked at what I thought was a reasonable question. “You’re a creature of both light and dark, even if raised by only one side, you would know the message carved using the words of creation themselves; a power beyond even the Lord of Light and Dark means serious business.”
I squirmed. Their assumption that my state of being came from natural means made me uncomfortable, but exactly how should I explain my creation at the hands of mad scientists? I hedged. “So what if some unknown super dude posted a message? I still don’t understand why that demon and his friends want to kill me. And what’s this about cleansing others like me?”
“About two thousand years ago, when the words appeared on the walls around Heaven and Hell, there was panic. The forces for good and evil, fearing the end was nigh, set out to destroy those they believed the prophecy spoke of.”
“The cleansing?” Lana interjected.
“Exactly, “said Gene with a sage nod. “All Nephalim, whose blood by birth contained the seeds of both good and evil, were destroyed, hunted down like the vilest of vermin and eliminated. Once the world and the various realms were cleansed of their presence, a ban on matings between angels and demons was put in effect with the verdict of immediate death if anyone chose to ignore it.”
“So I’m a Neflim?” I replied scrunching up my nose at the awkward name.
“How can you be so ignorant of your own history?” Simon asked in a wondering tone, but I could read Gene’s confusion. The moment of my outing fast approached.
“Well, I was raised by humans,” I said releasing a bit of the truth.
“Ah, that would explain a lot. Your mother must have been an angel forcefully seduced by a dark one. Giving you up would have been her only option to let you live. I guess your upbringing explains why you seem so human.”
I fidgeted at his mistaken assumption. “Isn’t there any other way for me to have gotten my powers?”
Gene frowned at me. “Anything other than birth would be unnatural.”
I almost snorted. Unnatural, that’s funny coming from a genie. I drew in a deep breath and decided the time had come to reveal my dark secret. I just hoped they wouldn’t regard me as some kind of Frankenstein creation. Although, I wouldn’t blame them, because there are times when I cry because of what was done to me. “What if I was created?” I whispered the words, ashamed and afraid of their reaction.
“What do you mean, created?” Simon looked at me in confusion, but I could see dawning understanding-and horror-on Gene’s. Those looks were quickly followed by pity.
So much for thinking I’d be accepted and find answers to who I was. Even among the freaks, I was an outcast. Angry at the pill Fate force fed me, I decided to wipe the pity off their face. “You want to know who I am? What made me into a monster?” I smiled at Simon, and in a nonchalant tone that bordered on sarcastic to hide my anger and bitterness, I told them my tale.
“I was born human, and by the age of seven, I was sick, really sick with leukemia. The doctors, as soon as they diagnosed me, didn’t give me long to live. They hadn’t counted on my mom and dad though. My mom ended up being a close marrow donor match, and she donated to the point she jeopardized her health. Not that she cared. She just wanted me to survive.” I blinked back the tears that always brimmed when I thought of the woman who’d birthed and loved me. I missed her so freaking much even though she’d died years ago-killed because of her love for me. “My parents also turned to religion and prayed almost constantly. They stayed abreast of all the latest research, but leukemia is a killer and by the time I hit sixteen, bald as the day I was born, I’d just about given up the fight to live. And that was when my parents got the offer.”
Oh, how I remembered their excitement. “A chance,” they’d crowed gleefully even if that chance was experimental. And free of cost, a golden egg to loving parents who’d given everything they had to pay for my survival.
Gene and Simon watched me with rapt expressions, not interrupting me. Lana, at my side, gripped my hand tight, already knowing my story. I gave them what they wanted to hear even as I knew my story would make them turn from me in disgust-/the demon was right. I am an abomination/.
“They flew us and other families in the same situation like we were celebrities-first class. Everyone was still so happy at that point. We were taken to a top secret facility, government owned and operated.” I jumped up and stood, pacing in front of the couch as I waved my arms. “Welcome one, welcome all, to building nine where children are mutated as you wait. Hey mom and dad, have some coffee and cookies while you talk with the other parents. Be blinded by our façade while we inject your precious darlings with a toxic cocktail.” I mocked the start of my torture, my mechanism for fighting the tears that threatened to choke me. “But a
s it turns out, while we were receiving our first doses of the vaccine that would change our life, our parents went through their own life changing episode. The institution laced their food with cyanide and killed them all. Not that many of us had time to notice or care, we were too busy dying.” I spoke stonily, fighting the screaming despair that remembering brought.
Simon’s face registered shock and I stopped him before he could voice his query. “How could they, you say?” I laughed bitterly. “They thought they were doing something for the greater good. After all, we were sick children and our parents, unfortunate victims in their narrow sighted struggle for greatness. They told the public they died in a plane crash to avoid scrutiny and as far as the world knew, we died with them.” What I still didn’t understand was why us? Why sick youngsters? Why weren’t our parents experimented on as well? What made us so special? Years later, I still hadn’t found the answer.
Simon bounded off the couch, his body tense and he let out a roar that no human throat could have uttered. I gaped at him, once again wondering just what he was. The demon had called him something, but English was my one and only language.
“What did they inject you with?” Gene asked in a soft voice drawing my attention away from the pacing Simon and setting me back on track.
“Ooh, all kinds of good stuff.” At Gene’s stern look, I sobered up. “The government managed to capture a demon and an angel.”
I heard a thump and a crack and turned to see Simon pulling his fist out of the wall-a solid brick wall which now had a hole of crumbled dust. If they were still talking to me after discovering my dirty secret-and I was beginning to think they would by their reaction-I’d have to find out once and for all just what Simon was. “According to the doctors, who liked to brag, they performed all kinds of tests on their captured prizes. They were fascinated by their ability to heal and regenerate damage. They tried to inseminate human women with their sperm, but it didn’t work.”
Gene shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t have. Special conditions need to be met for their seed to take in a human receptacle, and even then, the pregnancies rarely come to fruition.”
I made a mental note to ask him more about angels and demons later. It was sure to be an interesting conversation. But first, I needed to finish my tale. “They decided to up the ante and inject humans directly with the genes. They couldn’t just start picking people up willy-nilly, so they came up with a fabulous plan to use sick children, to have their own parents volunteer them. Thus did the drug trials start with us as the guinea pigs. There were three groups. Those injected with demonic blood. Those with angelic. And then the ones who got both. Most of their test subjects went into seizures and died. They were the lucky ones.”
“Don’t say that,” Lana cried. “You survived and you’re a great person.”
I looked at her stricken face, framed by hair that always had a green tinge despite all the peroxide we poured on it. “It’s true though. Those of us that survived became monsters, ones that need to prey on humans to live. I can be the most awesome person in the world, but it doesn’t make what I do for survival right.” I turned from her and resumed my retelling of a story that never fully left my thoughts. “In the first group, only some of the boys survived, but the demon gene turned them into vampires.”
Gene shook his head sadly. “Humans can be so foolish. They have sowed the seeds of their own destruction. This is not good news. I must ask, what powers did your vampires inherit? I wonder if the splicing of the DNA might have made them weaker than those born to the curse.”
I looked at him sharply? Born as vampires? There was so much I needed to learn. Especially if I was to survive, for despite the loss of my humanity, I longed to live. I answered Gene’s question. “Keep in mind, my knowledge is from years ago when we were no better than caged animals. The boys might have expanded their powers since. Not your classic Count Dracula’s, my brothers in the institution became a highly intelligent, extremely powerful, psychically gifted bunch with an unfortunate penchant for human blood.”
“That’s a species wide trait,” Gene said nodding his head while Simon just stood facing the wall, his forehead touching the brick. “Go on.”
“I’ll start with the tests the scientists did following the legends. The idiots brought crosses and holy water to work. Forget the Catholic drama, vampires, or at least the lab created ones, don’t care about that shit. They do drink blood, and tests revealed that their special diet is what makes them sensitive to the sun, so they go out only at night. The scientists, fascinated with what they created, ran them through live simulations to see what a vampire was truly capable of, and how to best kill them.”
Gene dropped his head in his hands and shook. “Oh, that must have made the fledglings happy. Let me guess what worked? A stake in the heart which, I might add, kills pretty much everything along with decapitation, chopping the body to pieces and fire.”
I nodded my head as he itemized the tortures inflicted upon my departed brothers. “They killed quite a few before they stopped. What fascinated them though was their healing rate-most wounds mortal for a human healed quickly. And they could even regenerate limbs after a time. The scientists wanted to harness that ability for humanity.”
“And as a vampire ages, his healing abilities increase as does his imperviousness,” said Simon, finally adding to the discussion, his face a stoic mask. But his eyes blazed and when they looked at me, I felt comforted by the warmth still evident in them.
“That I didn’t know. Keep in mind, the ones I knew were only a couple of years old. One interesting thing was the fact that they didn’t like to drink the blood of people who imbibed large amounts of garlic or hot spice. Apparently they taste bad.”
“Curry is famous for repelling blood suckers as well. Did they have the power to mesmerize with their gaze?”
“I don’t know. They might have, but I never heard of it.” I tried to recall if the vamps who’d attacked me outside the club had tried, but in all honestly, I couldn’t remember.
Simon moved back to rejoin us, but instead of sitting across from me, he slid onto the couch beside me and with some titillating manhandling, placed me in his lap. I snuggled into his embrace, a huge relief off my chest as I realized abomination or not, he still liked me.
“Tell us of the second group. The ones injected with the angels’ blood,” Gene urged.
“Group two, injected with the angel blood, died more than they survived, and in even greater proportion than those who got the demonic stuff. Those that lived through the convulsions became incubi and succubi. They fed off people’s emotions and auras. Like the vamps, they were hard to kill, but healed more slowly and could walk in daylight.”
“Sexuality is increased in them as the pleasure and intensity of sex allows them to connect with their partner thus making the feeding more enjoyable and powerful. You said there were fewer of these creations?”
“Maybe a half dozen if they all escaped when I did.”
“And now we come to you, one with both sides, light and dark. How many like you did they create?”
“Ah, yes, the third group if you count one member as still making a group. Lucky me, I got dosed with both strains of the DNA. As you both guessed, I’ve got a vampire side, but I am not affected by sunlight. I heal quickly and I’m strong. There might be more powers, but I’m not crazy about the blood lust thing so I don’t encourage it.”
“You don’t need to feed regularly?” Gene asked leaning forward.
“Oh, maybe once a week or so I’ve got to use the fangs and feed the hunger. A few ounces and I’m good.” I didn’t mention that my victims never even knew what bit them, for I tended to take my blood from an intimate area while feeding my succubus side. Overcome with lust, they never even noticed.
“That’s amazing. Natural born vamps, especially young ones, must feed daily and more than once.”
“My brothers could usually go a few days at a time,” I said with a shrug of incomp
rehension.
“What about your succubus needs?”
“Again, I give that part of me a good feed about once a week, but the club makes it easy to supplement in between. The sexual energy is so thick it’s like I’m bathing in it and it keeps me from going all nympho.” Lap dances worked especially well because of the light skin-to-skin contact.
“Amazing,” Gene said. Simon’s response was to tighten his arms around me. His hug reassured me, but even more awesome-to me at least-was the fact that my science experiment existence hadn’t made him run. On the contrary, evidence of his interest poked at my backside insistently.
“I don’t know if I’d call it amazing. I mean, I’m thankful that they wiped my Leukemia out, but I can never forgive them for taking my parents away and taking my humanity.” Although, had they given me the choice, I admit I would have taken life at any cost. And honestly, once I’d escaped, life ended up not sucking too bad even if I sucked people.
“So how did you escape?”
“They underestimated us.” At the remembrance, I grinned ferally. “My brothers destroyed them and set the place on fire.” The place was a leveled wasteland of debris, which I was thankful for. I hoped the records of the experiments and our existence were wiped in the conflagration. It was enough I had the Legion of Hell possibly after me, I didn’t need the government, too. “In the confusion, I escaped and ran. Eventually, I stopped running and found work that appealed to my succubus needs.”
“And met other freaks who let her know she wasn’t alone,” Lana piped in, squeezing my hand.
I smiled at her. “You’re not a freak. You’re just different, like me.”
Lana grinned back and gave a happy trill. “So knowing she’s an experiment, does it make her more or less in danger from the demons?”