Cain felt his resistance crumble yet again. No, not crumble. It was more like his defenses were bypassed effortlessly by Al’bah’s vulnerable bearing. Like the way the cries of a strange infant can turn the heart of any woman who knew motherhood. He didn’t exactly trust the strange woman he met under even stranger circumstances. But he didn’t exactly feel repulsed or threatened by her either—quite the opposite, in fact.
Al’bah sighed again, vocalizing her approval and desire, pressing her body against his, stealing breath and thought, completely unfazed by his show of sternness earlier. “I can conceal my wings in my body. They are too cumbersome here.” She playfully bit his shoulder and caressed his elbows.
“Al’bah! Al’bah, stop!” Cain was quickly losing control from Al’bah’s caress. She stopped, staring at Cain with raised eyebrows, slightly parted lips, and a hot blush to her cheeks, an expression that radiated innocence. He had almost forgotten why he had stopped her in the first place and stood still for a moment panting, his breath misting in the air along with Al’bah’s slight gasps.
“I think I want to hear the answers you promised me last night.” Cain noticed Al’bah about to speak and quickly added, “Not here. I need a moment, okay?”
Al’bah traced her finger on Cain’s chest, but it was bereft of the energy he felt earlier. “Well, it is a long explanation.”
“That’s fine,” he said, slightly panting, still trying to recover fully from her caress. “But I want to talk, okay? Not, uh—well, you know what I mean.”
Al’bah seemed disappointed but nodded. “Of course, I will wait for you.” She promptly left the shower, looking over her shoulder and grinning. She plucked the towel from the stand and started to dry herself using slow, sensual movements.
“Al’bah!”
She sighed and left the bathroom, glancing over her shoulder, still grinning. “Very well.”
Cain shook his head, glad to have resisted a supreme urge to call her back. He quickly grabbed the water valve to turn it to cold, only to realize the water was cold all along. “Losing my mind,” he muttered, at last feeling the cold water, which was just as well, and he started to clean himself.
After a few moments, he closed the frosted window mounted near the top of the wall and started to turn the water to hot when he stretched his arm. Hey, my shoulder. Both my shoulders! Indeed, the usual soreness in his shoulders and elbows was gone. Cain stretched his arms out and reached behind his back. I haven’t been able to do this in years! he thought happily as he tested the limits of his range of motion. Maybe there’s something to taking cold showers after all.
Chapter 9
The Authority of Existence
“I could make you so happy, Cain. But you don’t care. I knew long ago what you were, but I never wanted to believe it.”
—Cynthia Ronalds
Cain quickly finished his shower, shivering and yet still feeling a strange burning sensation in his shoulders and elbows. He dressed quickly, marveling at how the cold water seemed to ease his aching joints. Once dressed, he found Al’bah in the living room. Her towel was discarded on the floor, and she stood in the sunlight that was pouring through the window that (thankfully) didn’t face the front of the apartment. Her wings and arms were outstretched, her eyes were closed, and a soft smile lit her face.
“Al’bah? Al’bah?” Cain stepped close. “Hey, Al’bah,” he said, shaking her shoulder, rousing her out of her trance.
“Hmmm?” Al’bah turned to face Cain as her wings folded and wrapped around her body.
”I think I am going to have to get you some clothes,” Cain said, leading her to the couch, sitting her down and facing her.
“You do?” Al’bah smiled coyly and unfurled her wings. She traced her fingers along the lines of her body.
Trying his best to ignore the display Al’bah was producing, Cain quickly asked, “Now could you be more specific about ‘much to say in that respect’ about being a Succubus, a Demon, and, uh, evil?”
Al’bah’s smile vanished, and her eyes dropped to the cushions between them. She took a deep breath. “Cain, I must begin by asking you a question.” She looked up into his eyes. “Do you have faith for the unknown, and the unseen? Faith in a Creator, faith in the divine purpose of everything?”
“God isn't real, and everything has a rational explanation,” Cain said with a small scoff.
Al’bah seemed confused. “Do you leave the possibility of being wrong? The possibility of being a fool by denying God?”
Cain felt his anger rise as it always had when others questioned his world view. For him, God was a fairy tale the masses believed in so they wouldn’t fear death. Religion was a coping mechanism weak people used so they wouldn’t have to face the world on its own harsh terms. And when a tree falls in the woods, it does make a sound! The bigger the tree, the bigger the sound, regardless of who was there to hear it or not!
He opened his mouth, ready with his perfectly honed arguments of logic and reason. Al’bah cocked her head to the side. She seemed to be able to sense his feelings and his intent. She stood, grabbing his right arm in a vicelike grip, and unfurled her wings that now spanned the entire living room with a beautiful flourish. Her grip grew stronger as she positioned Cain’s arm in front of him, bringing his healed hand in front of his face.
The sensual energy she always had was gone, replaced by an absolute air of authority. “Look upon me, my most precious Bond! Do you dare to deny my existence? Do you dare to deny my works upon you?”
Cain’s anger collapsed in frustration and confusion. He dropped his brown eyes from Al’bah’s blue-violet eyes to look at the healed wound on his hand. “I can’t deny that there are things about this world that I don’t understand.” He raised his eyes to look at Al’bah again. “I guess this includes you as well.”
Al’bah nodded and let go of his arm. She wrapped her wings around her body and sat down again. “Then I will start from there, but I must warn you, Cain. My answers and explanations will not satisfy your curiosity. My words will not satisfy your questions.”
“Why not?”
Al’bah shook her head. “Because you doubt that which is in front of you.” Upon seeing Cain about to interrupt, she quickly added, “Not me, mind you. You doubt the most simplistic explanations to life, because they do not glorify you, or mankind.”
Cain narrowed his eyes. “I don’t seek glory.”
Al’bah shrugged. “What do you seek, then?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. What do you seek, Al’bah?”
Al’bah lowered her eyes. “Restoration,” she whispered.
“Restoration?”
Al’bah nodded. “Yes, I wish to be restored back to God.”
Cain had to consciously resist the almost reflex response to spout his arguments against God. He remained quiet, but his thoughts were a torrential rainstorm within his mind. How can I not even believe what is right in front of me? he thought to himself.
“Al’bah, how do you know there is a God?”
“I know, because I can feel it.”
Cain sighed, expecting an answer more profound than what most Christians had ever professed to him. “Care to explain it a little better than that? I mean, uh…well, it’s just that feelings are sometimes misleading.”
Al’bah stared at him for a long time. Her eyes were windows into a vision that hinted at one so desperate to speak, but so unable to describe. “I wish I could tell you how I know, Cain, but I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because humanity has such a weak grasp on the concept of communication. For humanity, for you, words describe. Words tell.” Al’bah sighed deeply. “But for me and for those like me, words are. Words carry power—power that can make and unmake so much.”
Cain shook his head. “I don’t believe it. Language doesn’t have that kind of power, and the gibberish you and Law spoke to each other didn’t seem that complex, or that profound.”
“Oh, really?” Al'bah sto
od, and the air of authority returned. “It is written that God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and existence obeyed. As for my conversation with Law, perhaps I can repeat my words and his, and see what you think once they are directed toward you.”
Cain stood as well and locked his eyes into Al’bah’s. “Fine, do it.”
“Cren-Tak-Shu-Bai-Teem-Cain.”
Cain’s knees buckled, all strength drained from his body, and if it weren't for Al’bah, he would have fallen to the ground. Each word—no, each sound—communicated so much meaning. Books, libraries, and the entire worth and meaning of lifetimes were conveyed with such simplistic sounds.
“Cren…” Visions of horrible torture flashed across all his senses, visions, feelings, thoughts, music, screams, and laughter.
“Tak…” Destiny, pure destiny, perfused his awareness. The sense of legends and fate filled him with a motivation and resolve normally reserved for the best of heroes—courage in its truest form.
“Shu…” Change, so swift, so complete. The change that remakes a person, country, nations, a world.
“Bai…” Fear, a fear so complete and consuming, but it was more than fear. It was an untranslatable emotion for human senses.
“Teem…” Acceptance, but an acceptance far beyond anything he could ever describe. The acceptance one acknowledges upon the moment of death—no, worse than death. The acceptance a damned soul might have?
“Cain,” Cain said softly and resumed his stance. “Me.”
Al'bah nodded and took in another breath.
“No, don’t. I—I understand,” Cain said as he sat back down on the couch, glad that Al’bah did not repeat Law’s response to her…statement? Plea? Blessing? He had no words to categorize the complexity of her language. They sat together uncomfortably for a few moments, neither seeming to know how to continue. Then Al’bah placed her hand on Cain’s chest and waited for him to look upon her.
“Close your eyes, Cain.” Al’bah touched his hand. “Now tell me, Cain. Do you have a hand?”
“What? Of course I do.” Cain snorted.
“How do you know? You cannot see your hand, can you not?”
He opened his eyes. “I know, because I can feel it.”
Al’bah nodded and continued to nod as Cain slowly realized the point Al’bah was trying to bring him to.
“No, no! I refuse to believe it’s that simple! You couldn’t possibly know…I—shit, I hate this.”
Al’bah shrugged. “I told you my words would not satisfy you. Words are not the means by which faith is explained, or birthed. What hope does knowledge and the spheres of science have? To understand, to explain the creation of all…from nothing?” Al’bah closed her eyes and placed her hands over her heart. “There is faith, or there is not faith. There is God, or there is not God.”
Al’bah opened her eyes and gestured around the apartment. “The place where the world and its knowledge ends, is the place where the wonderment of Faith begins.” She took Cain’s hands into her own and placed them over her chest to feel her heartbeat. “And where they meet, is where you will find me. And I—I am a Succubus…created, not birthed. I know my Maker, and give Him my praise, and acknowledge Him as God.”
Cain felt a hint of the previous energy from Al’bah’s words, and he wished he could dismiss her claims and her as delusional. He got up with an exasperated sigh. He had to step away for a moment, as his frustrations were at the limit. He didn’t know what to make of the last eighteen hours. His hand was healed overnight from a cut and paralysis. He agreed to some sort of contract within a dream and was now “Bonded” to a Succubus from hell who revered God.
All this summed up a problem he didn’t like; there wasn’t any rational way to explain the unusual events of the last eighteen hours, except admitting that his world view was wrong, that he was wrong.
Feeling a familiar urge, he went to the bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” he said over his shoulder. Cain was so full of his thoughts that he was startled out of his wits by Al’bah’s cry.
“Oh! Cain!” she squealed. “That water is sacred! You must not do that!”
***
After Cain was done laughing harder than he had in a long time to Al’bah’s expression of panic, he had to explain a particular detail of the physical side of existence (namely, taking a whiz) before Al’bah would at last calm down.
“Such a relief!” Al’bah said happily. “I had thought such water was sacred.”
Cain nodded, wishing he could share her relief. Her presence in his life was something that he just wasn’t ready for. Indeed, he wondered how Al’bah’s presence and knowledge might change his consciousness. Especially considering she already shattered the foundation of his worldview. Here in his living room was something more than just some sort of extraordinary alien. Al’bah declared herself to be a Demon. And since she was real, the place where she came from would also be real.
“You are troubled,” Al’bah said, looking concerned. “I can feel it.”
“I am troubled,” he admitted, not really liking the way she could sense his emotions. “You being here, being real, is something I am not prepared for. I don’t know how to react to this. I don’t even know how to keep you a secret. People will eventually find out about you, and soon after, the world.”
Al’bah smiled and shook her head softly. “This will not happen so easily. You and I are Bonded. We are connected. You will find yourself unable to reveal my nature carelessly.”
“What’s going to stop me?”
“You,” Al’bah replied. “I do not hold any power over you that you have not given willingly to me. Even so, why would I want to control you?” She scooted closer to Cain and caressed his face. “Do you not know, you are above even the Angels? How much higher does that make you above the Demono?”
“Demono? Don’t you mean Demon?”
Al’bah frowned slightly. “To answer the questions you asked of me earlier about me being a Succubus, a Demon, and evil. And the question you ask now, I answer: I am, in fact, not a Demon. I am Demono.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Demono, in its most simplistic translation, would literally mean ‘not one.’ Which is to say, my race and I are not one with God. I am unsure what ‘Demon’ means for your language. But the translation for ‘Demon’ in my language identifies and labels a race literally as ‘not man.’ And both are separate from the Fallen Angels, whom Taint is among their number.”
“Whoa, wait a second. The Bible doesn’t mention anything that you’re talking about,” Cain said as he scooted from Al’bah. “In fact, the Bible doesn’t mention anything about our Bond, Succubi, or—” Cain stopped talking, as Al’bah was nodding to everything he said with a soft smile.
“That is true. The Bible does not mention anything about all this,” she said as she maneuvered into his lap and caressed his body with hers. Lips, hands, arms, legs, and wings all seemed to touch him. “No mention to confirm—or deny,” she moaned softly.
Chapter 10
Jealousy Becomes Al’bah
“You act like I tricked you, like I deceived you. I told you from the beginning that if you want love, to stay away.”
—Cain Lamentson
“Hold up, I need a second,” Cain said as he scooted away from Al’bah. Her hands were becoming hungrier the more she caressed his body. He had a nagging feeling that Al’bah was feeding him information slowly for a reason. Almost like she was hiding something, perhaps ashamed of what she might reveal.
He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, trying to digest the information she had told him. It was all so overwhelming. He didn’t even know what to ask Al’bah. Every question he had asked, and every answer received, needed so much explanation. To understand what he really asked, and to know what Al’bah really meant by her answers. She shifted on the couch and slid behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his torso.
“Perhaps your questions and my
answers could be a daily thing? I would not want to miss out on living while getting to know you, and you getting to know me.”
He was about to shake Al’bah off, as she obviously didn’t understand what he meant when he asked for a moment. But Al’bah’s hands and body remained motionless. In fact, he felt a calming influence from the still contact their bodies shared.
Cain glanced at the time on his cell. Indeed the day was getting along, and he hadn’t even left the house yet. “Yes, that would be best. Maybe we can get you some clothes at the mall. We can talk more tonight,” he said, deciding to observe her closely. He had always been a keen judge of character, and felt certain watching her interact with the world would give him a more genuine feel of who she was.
Al’bah sniffed, pulling a pouty face and looked at her perfect form. “Why do I need clothes? Do you not like me as I am? Why do you want to cover my body?”
Cain had to make a conscious effort not to roll his eyes. “Al’bah, I don’t know how things are where you are from. But here, everyone wears clothes, okay?”
Al’bah, on the other hand, made no attempt to hide rolling her eyes, and she sighed comically in exasperation. “Very well.”
He led Al’bah to his bedroom and got the smallest pair of pants and shirt he had and offered them to her. “Try these on.” With a little assistance, Al’bah finally got the two articles of clothes on. She looked down at her body and then up to Cain with an awkward look on her face.
“What is it?”
“I do not like the way this feels.” Al’bah pouted.
Cain sighed and turned back to his closet.
Dressing Al’bah proved to be quite an undertaking. First she kept trying to rekindle his desires and lusts back into passion. Then, she didn’t like the way his clothes fit and wanted to try on everything he had. Which wouldn’t have been too bad, but she had to inhale his scent on every scrap of cloth. And sometimes her wings would come out from her body. Cain could swear she was getting her wings stuck on purpose, to have him help her, to have him touch her. His impatience fought a losing battle against his amusement of Al’bah’s antics. He even caught himself grinning a few times in the mirror.
Succubus Tear (Triune promise) Page 6