Ishtar Rising

by Natalie Gibson

Then he'd given every customer a free lap dance with the girl of their choice. Not a single one had picked Kay. Hurrit was her only paying customer.

  As she danced for Hurrit, Billy and Oren sat apart. No one had approached them all night, not common in a place where the money was made through solicitations and alcohol. Billy guessed that Sarrum Arakiel was using that camouflage he'd told them about. He wondered if anyone could see them at all. He was about to ask when he realized someone could see them. Kay hadn't taken her eyes off of Sarrum. She did a move that put her pussy particularly close to Hurrit's face and the vitala's eyes went solid black.

  “I don't know how you do it. I grew up in a pretty promiscuous and limit free environment...”

  “With the Daughters of Women.” Sarrum Arakiel's voice was crazy seductive and almost alien. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what was different about it but it was off.

  “Yeah. I lived with them in Austin and I was exposed to every flavor of sexual appetite My parents had other people in their bed. They swapped and all that but I'm not sure I could do it. I want my girl to be mine, you know?” He had slept with plenty of the women on the compound but they never took him seriously. He was always just a casual partner. He had grown up there and those women would always see him as that little boy who loved the garden. Thinking of home made his heart ache. He needed to get back there. He was hoping that with Maeve's magic at work for him, he would finally have what he'd always wanted: a genuine and passionate monogamous relationship. He had yet to see her, so the recognition spell hadn't been triggered yet. He was beginning to doubt Maeve's abilities. He was probably the first one to do so. Dubious was not a word that was used to describe her rare and amazingly powerful talent.

  “No, I am sorry. I do not. I thought the days of owning one's spouse were gone.”

  Billy protested, “They are. That's not what I mean. I just want to be the only one she wants to be with and I want to only be with her. Don't you want that with Special K?” Sarrum Arakiel didn't say anything further so Billy plowed forward, convinced he had offended the Nephilim. “It's fine for other people to do what makes them happy but I can't share my wife.”

  “Sarrum Sinnis Tara Kay is not my wife.”

  “No, I know, Sarrum.”

  “Call me Oren. It is the name she has given me, therefore, I am Oren.”

  “I know she's not your wife, Oren, but she's your Sinnis. Hurrit said it meant she's your woman, your spouse.”

  Oren shook his head. “Not my woman. She is the woman of the Arakiel family line. She is not destined to be mine: I am for her. Whatever she desires I will provide, no matter what the cost to myself or my children. Their lives were only to ensure hers. She lives and therefore their, and your, duty is fulfilled, their lives can be ended if it would serve her.” Oren looked at Billy squarely. Billy recoiled at the flames he saw there in the Nephilim's eyes. “You would do fucking well to remember that, young one.”

  “Stop trying to scare my friend.” Tara Kay had heard the whole exchange. She was equal parts relieved and disappointed No, she didn't want any man to think he owned her, but a little jealousy on Oren's part would have been appreciated. She wanted him to feel possessive about her. She held out her hand to Billy, pulling him to stand by her when he took it. “No ones death will ever serve me. Come on. Party's over. Crash is closing up early and sending us all home. You can ride with me and Hurrit. Oren can find his own way home.” Oren had yet to set foot in an automobile, hers or anyone else's. She honestly didn't know how he got around. “You're coming too, Melody.” She called out over her shoulder.

  Kay pulled Billy back into the dressing room with her. Crash was in too foul a mood to fight her on any breech in etiquette She slid her rainbow dress on over her head, grabbed her bag and she was ready to go. Melody wasn't far behind and with her came Hurrit. He strode across the room to the exterior exit and without preamble, opened it for Oren who stood in door jam, leaning on one massive shoulder. Sound poured in from the parking lot.

  “Natives are getting restless.” Melody blanched as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Her eyes when to Hurrit. “I'm sorry. I...It's just a saying. I'm sorry.”

  Hurrit wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. He whispered to her and put a kiss on her dandelion hair. “We do need to go though. Ready, Sarrum Sinnis Tara Kay?”

  “Yes. Let's get the fuck out of here. And it's just plain Kay.”

  “There is nothing plain about you, my queen.”

  She was about to protest but the wave of hateful yelling washed over her. Oren swept her under his arm and Billy took her hand on the other side. They were shielding her from seeing the protesters but they couldn't keep her from hearing. They weren't just shouting the regular stuff. She was shocked to hear that it was directed at her specifically.

  “Go back to Austin, weirdo!”

  “We burn witches in Calum”

  “Devil worshiper!”

  “Satan's slut!”

  “God will drive out the demons and their women.”

  Melody hissed and Hurrit growled at the crowd.

  Oren made a wall between her and the hate when they got to her car. Billy slipped behind the drivers seat and into the back seat. He pulled the front seat back into place and Kay quickly got in. Melody was in the passenger seat and Hurrit was behind her. Oren leaned in and kissed Kay in that way that made her knees weak and her brain go to mush. He spoke over her shoulder to Hurrit, “I will make sure none follow and will meet you there.”

  Kay pulled out of the lot quickly, kicking up gravel onto the protesters. “What the hell's got them so riled up? Club's been there for-fucking-ever.”

  “Hate like that is usually caused by Akhkharu in the area. Their presence causes a spike in violence wherever they take up residence. They feed off of it. And there's the vrykolak that attacked Billy. Those never get too far from their makers. The problem with that theory is that Nephilim can sense their brother betrayers and Sarrum Arakiel cannot find trace of one.”

  Only a few seconds away from the county line and it's row of brightly lit liquor stores and tittybars and the darkness was absolute. The headlights cut a path through it along the winding blacktop but beyond that the trees blocked all natural nighttime light. Even the near full moon couldn't penetrate the canopy over route 4.

  “He wants to be called Oren. He told me tonight. Again.” Billy said softly.

  “That may be so, but he is my elder. There are so few of those in this world and I prefer to use the formal with my king.”

  Kay turned her attention from the road when Melody let out a soft sob. “What is it, Aunt Melody?”

  Melody turned in her seat, bending her knee and folding it under her. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I'm so unworthy.”

  “What?! Don't let those fuckers get in your head. They wouldn't know godliness if it bit them in the ass.”

  “It's not them. It's just that there are so many who have carried the burden for so much longer than me. They have spent hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of years protecting their assigned family, their portion of the bloodline, just waiting for you to be born and then you're born to the youngest of us. I don't deserve to be your guardian.”

  Kay gaped at Melody.

  Hurrit clapped Melody's shoulder over the seat. “Remember when I told you the last time I fed was twenty years ago? Melody was that meal.”

  Kay swerved. “You said you only feed when the mother calls on you to 'make' another.” She looked from the rear view of Hurrit over at Melody. “Fuck me sideways with a barbed cock.”

  Her aunt looked back at her with solid black eyes and smiled sadly and rather apologetically with the shark teeth filled mouth of a vitala.

  They drove the rest of the way in silence. Kay screeched to a halt in front of the stone home. “Boys, could you give us a minute alone.” It wasn't a question. Their exit was awkward since there were only two doors and the guys were in the backseat. Kay closed
her door and waited for Melody to do the same. “Why didn't you tell me?”

  “What? That I was a vampire?” She had that same lisp that Kay had come to recognize. It was because of the extra row of pointy teeth. “That I was 'made' by a six thousand year old vamp for the sole purpose of looking after and protecting you? That when you came in after awakening Sar...Oren, I could hardly contain my hunger? I had to leave right after that because my hunger mask was so blatant. That even now it is hard to think of anything except how delicious your blood would taste? Do you honestly think any of that would have gone over well?”

  “No, I guess not.”

  “You didn't even know what you were when you came into the club on Thursday. I did the only thing I could: I called Hurrit. He had heard the mothers voice that morning telling him to go to his maker, but he didn't even know where Oren had gone to ground. When I called it was the sign he'd been waiting on. He came immediately.”

  Kay laughed. “I didn't think he was the type.” Melody didn't get her joke or maybe her mind was just focused on more serious matters. Billy and Hurrit lapped the car and soon Oren joined them. They spread out, circling, always circling. “Tell me about the beginning.”

  Chapter 9

  Melody had met Hurrit when she was 24 and living in Oklahoma. It was the late 1980's and she was doing the same that she did now, stripping. She made plenty of money at it and she planned to make as much money as she could while her looks held out. Hurrit had come into the club where she worked. He was gorgeous.

  She pursued him and he resisted for a while. They dated. They moved in together. She tried to get pregnant 'by accident' and when she confronted him about it, he told her. He couldn't get her pregnant because he was a vampire. She hadn't believed him at first, of course. She had never seen him drink blood but she had seen him put away a cheeseburger or two. He told her that he only drank when he turned another. Melody tried to force his hand. She had asked him to turn her because what drawback was there if a vampire could walk in the sun, not murder and still eat food. He said no. He only turned those who were called by the great mother.

  Then one night while they made love, Ki had spoken to Hurrit, telling him that Melody was chosen. Melody saw his hunger mask for the first time. He had drank her blood and given her his. It was while his blood flowed down her throat that Melody had heard the mother's voice for the first time. There was a family who needed a guardian and Melody would be that for them.

  After the change, Hurrit had cared for and trained Melody for several years. When she heard the mother's voice again it was urgent. The children of that family had been scattered and the one remaining was suffering. That one had almost killed herself in an offering to Ki and Ki had answered with food and protection. Melody left Hurrit to find each of the children, especially the one who had been left behind.

  Melody had cared for all the children, but she loved Special Kay. She'd watched over the girl from a distance, interfering only when Kay's life was in danger. When Kay was grown, she'd introduced herself to Kay. Kay knew the rest.

  Melody had never heard the mothers voice again, until earlier today. She'd heard the same message that Hurrit had when he drank Kay's blood. It had woken her up and she hadn't been able to sleep since. She was obsessed with the need to come see Kay. See her and drink her blood.

  “Here.” Kay offered Melody her arm, wrist up. “Go ahead. I offer it freely, or whatever the fuck it is I'm supposed to say.”

  Melody looked at the pulse, so close to the surface for a second. She may have even licked her lips, before pushing it away. “Not now. Not yet. The mother said we should all come to you together. Plus, I know what the bloodlust is like.” Melody knew that Kay wasn't into sex with women. Kay didn't judge lesbians, she just wasn't one. She wasn't even bi-curious. “I can wait until you can separate it from regular lust.” Melody paused, as if letting herself come to terms with having to wait.

  Kay didn't get into what Hurrit had told her. To him, and she suspected all of his kind, blood and sex were the same thing. “Thanks. Come on. The boys are bored.”

  They got out of the car and Kay took a moment to enjoy the night. This was why she lived in this horrible little town of East Texas. Early June had the most beautiful nights. Too early in the season to get up to triple digit temperatures, as soon as the sun set it was perfect porch weather. It reminded her of all the nights she'd spent swinging from or climbing in her tree.

  She smiled at Oren. He had done so much for her sad childhood, just sitting there. Her tree had been so huge that he connected the ground to the sky, like he connected the harsh reality of her life to her dreams of happiness. She had always thought the family land had held her here, but it was him. Deep down, she had known that the tree was more than just a tree. He may have grown there for thousands of years before she was born, but he was for her.

  It was early morning and dew had already started to collect on the grass. Tara Kay crossed the distance between them and leaped into Oren's arms, her feet barely wet. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head in his neck. He only needed one arm to support her light weight. Her feet dangled above his knees.

  He had also created an army of guardians to protect the bloodline so she could be born. He'd given her Aunt Melody in a round about way. Kiyahwe had chosen Melody for her and used Oren's child Hurrit to bring her to Kay. Tara Kay sighed into Oren's neck. She sensed, rather than felt, a fluttering there. She lifted her head to look.

  Oren's skin was covered in the vine tattoos but unlike during the heat of the day, the morning glory flowers were opened. The leaves were twisted into tiny tight tubes. The bloom closest to her face had shrunk for a minute because of the warmth of her breath and was now spreading back out. She fingered its violet pedal and wondered if she imagined the skin was softer there than the surrounding. There was no limit to Oren's power, it seemed, so why would a living moving tattoo be any big thing to him. She didn't wonder how but she did wonder, “Why?”

  “I am more plant than animal. The leaves, like my hair, contain chlorophyll that allow me to more effectively harness the power of the sun. Nephilim all do this somewhat, using Ud's light to help them absorb nutrients from Ki's flesh, but I learned a lot in my years as a tree. When I reformed my body I adjusted my major systems so that I breathe in carbon dioxide, soak up water from the air around me, convert it into energy and, like all plants, my waste product is oxygen.”

  Kay lay her head down on his shoulder with her face out. The flowers fragrance was light and clean but masculine, Oren's own scent. She loved it. It mixed well with her own woodsy pine smelling perfume, which she realized she hadn't used since meeting Oren. She could still smell it though. “That's really fucking cool, but I meant, why do they move and change, not why do you have them.”

  “The leaves are hardy and can take the full sun but the flowers are adapted to be more sensitive. They absorb the reflected light of our sister, Annu.”

  The moon. Tara Kay could see it just above the horizon. Still near full, it would set at sunrise, rising and staying up later as it waned away. So the moon was her sister. Pretty fucking cool. She sent up a little prayer, thanking Annu for bringing the light into the night. Kay couldn't hear Annu like she could hear Kiyahwe, but she got a feeling from the celestial body nearest to the earth.

  Oren whispered into her hair, “Your child would like to run in his new form. Annu's pull is strong on him.”

  Kay turned her body so that her shoulder pressed against Oren's and she sat on his bent arm, her feet now swinging at his hips. She should have felt foolish being carried like a toddler but she didn't. It felt natural, like sitting on the branch up high in her tree.

  She looked at Billy who stood between Melody and Hurrit. They were obviously quite taken by the sight of their Nephilim and Sinnis, but were trying to give the two relative privacy for their soft conversation. Kay called out, knowing everyone there had super hearing and had heard Oren, “So what's fucking keeping you?�
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  Billy was scratching his arm with one hand and rubbing his ear on his shoulder. He had more than one itch. “Hurrit says I need to wait for your permission before I run off into the woods.”

  Hurrit spoke up, knowing she knew little about the bond between maker and progeny, “He is indentured to you, bound to execute your will until the time that you release him. He can feed you and feed from only you.”

  Boyish Billy came back in a flash. “I think he's worried for the tiny woodland creatures I might kill.”

  Kay snorted. “Billy couldn't hurt a little furry. He's a vegetarian.”

  “His beast is not. Your friend is a vrykolak, however special in that category he might be, and they must hunt.” Oren spoke so close to her face that she imagined she could taste the extra oxygen. Her head felt light and euphoria tingled her skin. It felt like a light ecstasy roll. Maybe she wasn't imagining it.

  “The wolf isn't different from me. I'm still me in the other shape. It doesn't eat meat anymore than I do.” Billy couldn't understand why everyone was so nervous about him. He was no monster. Of course he'd never met another werewolf, so maybe he wasn't the normal breed. Wait, he had met one. Well, he hadn't really met it, he was too busy being killed by it. That thing was still out there. He felt like maybe it was his job to find it and keep it from hurting and killing anyone else. He wasn't sure he could kill a living creature, even one so dangerously evil.

  Kay's voice broke him out of his worries. “Show me your wolf. I wanna see your magic.” She had always loved Billy. His carefree light hearted manner was fun to be around. He was good in the sac too but it was not to her taste. He was light hearted in the bedroom too and Kay needed a little more passion, less play.

  He grinned and for a moment Kay thought of the boy she'd seen in Libby's photo albums. “I'll show you mine if you show me yours.” He wanted her to test his theory that Oren's blood had healed her shredded ability.

  Kay hopped down and shrugged, “You first.” Her bond with Billy was strong but it was changed. She no longer wanted to have sex with him. She wanted him to drink her blood. She wanted him to want to drink her blood. Maybe it was the maker bond, but maybe not. She felt the same about Melody and was beginning to suspect her attraction to Hurrit wasn't sexual at all. Maybe they were the same to Hurrit but she was a new breed.