That wasn’t entirely accurate. There was pleasure, pure unadulterated bliss. She had been alive, but couldn’t feel her body. She was conscious, but had no thought. Just joy. Many said this was how the Capacitors felt after being plugged into the pure raw physical pleasure of hundreds of couples. The exposure to that power turned their bodies into stone, but Nathalia hadn’t felt like stone. She’d felt like air. Eiran had been there too, in that moment of pure being, and she was glad. He was warmth and he permeated every cell of her body.
She could just make out the neck of the vrykolak. She pushed her happy calm feelings toward the monster. At first it made him struggle more, but then it took hold. The beast breathed a big sigh of relief.
“Watch.” Eiran held one hand out for her to examine. As she watched his fingers lengthened and thinned. Then, when all semblance of individual fingers was gone, the skin took on a shiny metallic look. The end of his arm became a short sword. “You can do it too. Look inside yourself and find the metal. Push it and mold it. You have control over your body.”
Eiran struck the neck, severing the head in one move. Slowly, as if allowing her time to study, his sword became fingers, hand and forearm. All covered in blood.
She felt like she should have been disgusted, but she wasn’t. It seemed very natural to kill in this way. She doubted that she could do it, though.
Chop off the heads with my sword-hand. Got it. Now what?
“Now we wait for the sun.”
Why wait? He’s not going anywhere.
“We have to make sure that no animal eats any of the carcass. Our blood has strange effects on all other life and though this is a human, he was changed and corrupted by it and carries some of our blood inside him.”
So what if some of my blood had dripped on the ground? Nathalia sat on a rock that Eiran pulled off the pile, amazed to see a tiny lizard crawl out from under it to rest on her foot. It seemed very relaxed.
Eiran paced around the body of the vrykolak, removing rocks, preparing it for the rise of Ud. “The body of Ki is packed with life waiting for the right circumstances to come out. Your blood would have fed and fertilized a small dormant seed and it would spring to life. Eternal life.” After a moment to consider, Eiran pierced his own thumb with his teeth and let one single drop land on the sandy soil. The drop didn’t sit on the top, but was sucked in by the earth itself. A tiny sprig of green coiled its way out from the very spot the drop touched. Very quickly a rolled up leaf and then another followed. They unrolled and the plant grew.
“Long ago we had wise medicine men who tried to help us harness the power in our blood. We made fields of grain and vegetables that would live through any drought, but what good is a plant that will continue to grow and thrive in any condition? No man nor beast can consume such a thing and live. We had to destroy all of our work. We retreated into legend and myth, but the medicine men would not give up. They, who called themselves the Paion, continued to use our blood for their own gain. In the end we destroyed them too. Our confidants became our enemies.”
Nathalia reached over and plucked the small miracle plant from the ground. It continued to grow as she held it. A vine twisted down and around her finger and a small purple flower blossomed there. She smiled at her natural ring. She leaned back bracing herself with her other arm as she enjoyed the tiny blood-fed bloom. She was so distracted that she barely felt the thing coiling up her arm. She looked down expecting to see a vine, but found herself locked eye to eye with a snake.
The snake wound around her bicep and ducked its head behind her neck under her hair. Nathalia had never been afraid of snakes. The Daughters housed many on their compound. They were seen as a holy animal by numerous ancient cultures and their venom had many uses. Nathalia noticed that it wasn’t just the snake and the lizard who sought out her company. Many insects made their home under her legs and butt.
“They are attracted to your heat. Our bodies are much warmer than the average human. Insects and reptiles are very simple minded. Focus your ability on them and fill their minds with wanting to be away from you.”
As soon as she had decided to try, the bugs were gone. I’ll let the snake stay. Its scales feel good on my skin. But what if it bites me?
The first streaks of orange signaled the sunrise over the desert. “It won’t. All animals recognize us, but snakes have an unusually high attraction to us.”
Ud’s trip up over the horizon’s edge was slow and beautiful. Nathalia felt sure it was the most beautiful sunrise she’d ever seen. She’d certainly never seen one with the kind of detail she was capable of perceiving now. She watched the line of light move across the desert floor and up the rocky mountains where they waited. It turned from orange to pink and red. For a moment she saw Maeve’s curvy body reflected in the mountains and the sunrise became her blood. A twinge of hunger sparked at the vision. Nathalia thought of the many times she’d tasted Maeve’s sex without knowing the value of that prana. Her life tasted so incredible; how amazing would her death taste.
Shaking the strange thought from her head, Nathalia turned to the vrykolak’s body. It smoked, burning from the inside out. Blood and veins caught first. The body quickly followed, consumed by the bluish flames along with every drop that had landed on rock, plant and sand.
Eiran thrust his hand out in front of him. Coated when he chopped off the head, the tarnished blood now burned, his hand along with it. Nathalia could see him crying and knew why. It wasn’t because of the pain, and there was plenty of that. That fire symbolized the wrong path that led to only pain and violence. He spent every waking moment resisting the hunger, but he tired.
Come lay down.
The flame licked his arm clean and it healed quickly. “I will. I need to protect you from the Akhkharu before I do.” He came to stand behind her. “In the ruckus of battle, it came very near to losing the protections I wove into it.”
She couldn’t sit silently as he so tenderly redid her hair. She wasn’t comfortable with how intimate it seemed. Speaking of the battle, Why did you change into a wolf?
“Sometimes it is easier to get close to your enemies if they think you are one of them. It is a trick to use when you must hunt alone.” He sounded exhausted.
Can I…change into different things? She held a strand of hair for him when he didn’t have enough hands for the intricate procedure.
“I don’t know what you will be able to learn to do. It takes many years to learn to manipulate your body. I will teach you because…” He stopped speaking but she heard his thoughts. She would have to learn to hunt alone because the brothers would never accept her into a justice circle. They would be afraid of her.
Why would they be afraid of me?
Eiran didn’t answer; he closed his mind to her. He tucked the last strand into the knot while saying the last of the spell. Nathalia could feel his anxiety and knew it was for her. He hoped this binding of hair was enough to protect her from the Akhkharu’s influence.
Eiran walked back around to examine the burning body from another angle. The sun-fueled flames did their job. He helped by moving a few rocks here and there, removing any shade.
I’ll watch it while you rest. I’m not tired at all. I guess that is the up side to sleeping for half a month. She hoped he would take her offer; his exhaustion was tangible.
“It is not the sleep that gives you energy. You fed.”
And you didn’t. How long’s it been?
“I feed every month before the new moon.”
Right before I let the Akhkharu out.
“No, I did not feed then. I did not want to leave you. I was afraid our separation would affect us. I was proud, thinking I did not need to feed to control the betrayers. I did not know you could come through the veil. When you were hurt I was too weak.”
He laid down on the other side of the smoldering rock pile, leaving her alone to think. She had plenty to consider.
Nathalia felt the other, the moment Eiran brought her back to the moth
er’s tomb. She could feel the mind, the receptacle for her thoughts and feelings, somewhere in the cavern. We aren’t alone, she warned Eiran. There is another Nephilim here.
He Who is for the One comes here bringing holy women to speak to the Igigi. He is like us and has chosen the path of the light. He is no danger to me, but… Eiran put himself between Nathalia and the other. He managed to effectively hide her body behind his in the hallway that led to the main room.
He greeted the other in the ancient language that Nathalia couldn’t fully understand. Then the other spoke in turn and stunned Nathalia. She knew him. It was the Guardian who served the Voice of the Council. Margaux had been the voice of the Council while Nathalia was Abbess of the Austin, Texas sect. He had been placed with Maeve, once the French woman chose to join the ranks of the holy Capacitors.
I know him. Let me by.
NO. He has come to inform me of a Justice Circle and to deliver you a message from the Igigi, but should not lay eyes on you. He knows that I found…you, but not who you are. He knows you are the First and therefore dangerous to him.
The Guardian began to speak to the air, having been given permission by Eiran. “You are to meet and serve the Council of Esteemed Elders as their representative with all chapters of the Daughters of Women. You are the long awaited First, and embody hope for all of humanity. Keeper of the Betrayers is your mate and will serve as your Guardian. I have been relieved of that duty. Giving you this message and summons is my last act as Guardian to the Representative. They will see you now.”
Having given his speech, he was gone.
You said he was here to give me a message from the Igigi, but he serves the Council.
Eiran walked forward out of the hall, toward the gisig. Not the one that led to the prison, the other door. “Shinar, the Igigi, the Gregori, Watchers, your Council of Esteemed Elders: they are all different names for the same. They have waited for this moment in human evolution since Yhwy broke their law, gave herself a name, and gave birth to our fathers. You are what they have been waiting on. You will right the wrongs of their betrayer by destroying ours.”
Nathalia didn’t have time to question before the next visitor dropped through the ceiling. Eiran was between them before Nathalia blinked. He hid her again, shielding her presence from the other woman.
Nathalia knew it was a woman by her thought patterns. She felt like a woman. But just as Eiran felt like a man but more, so did this one. Eiran had said that Nathalia was the first female Nephilim, but that was exactly how this woman seemed. Supernatural. The superwoman spoke and something in her voice made Nathalia nervous.
“I am no threat to the Mothers. I was tracking He Who is for the One. He has been many months without a lover. He is gone now?”
Eiran answered her, “He is.”
Nathalia crouched behind a stalagmite.
The woman’s voice melted as she moved toward them. “I can see you have been even longer without, He Who is Keeper of the Betrayers. Maybe my visit can be mutually satisfying.”
Nathalia peeked from around her obstruction and could see the woman. Not exactly. She could see the woman’s light. She glowed and gave off light in the ways other people gave off shadows. Her illumination lit up Eiran’s face. He did not look pleased.
“Not this time, Lamashti.”
“Ah, yes, I had heard that you have found your mate, the first of those that will replace us. If it is true, where is this perfect woman? Why is she not caring for you? Can she not feel your hunger, as I can?”
Nathalia caught a brief glimpse of lust from Eiran’s mind before he banished it. He immediately tabalu’d away from Lamashti’s offer and embrace. It left the two women looking at each other.
Nathalia felt at a disadvantage for a split second before Eiran caught her feeling and gave her clothes. She felt the gown grazing her body and it gave her strength. Nathalia stood up to meet the glowing woman.
The women were eye to eye, but Nathalia was taller by quite a bit. Lamashti hovered. The much smaller woman was light skinned and most of her long blonde hair hung to her waist. The rest of her hair flowed up and around her, as if she were under water and the current had hold of it. She glowed, but her eyes shone black.
“Well, well.” Lamashti licked her lips then smiled when Nathalia focused on that moist red tip between pale pink lips. “Perhaps I can tempt her where you resist. Maybe she will give me what I need.”
Lamashti’s body changed. Nathalia watched as the thin woman’s body became more rounded. Her breasts and hips got full, but her waist stayed tiny. She looked very much like Maeve with someone else’s face.
Lamashti looked pleased with Nathalia’s reaction. “Then I have it right?” She gestured to her body. “This is someone you would like to have sex with?” She rubbed her newly reformed body enticingly. “Oh, Keeper, what a poor choice in mate you’ve made. She’ll never replace any Lilitu. She wants my kind, not yours. If your brethren choose as poorly as you, we will never have any reason to worry.” She reached toward Nathalia.
What do I do, Eiran?
What you will, my love. I do not judge.
What exactly were her options? What did Eiran think she would do! She was not about to have sex with a stranger, no matter how lovely and much like Maeve she may look. This thing glowed, for Mother’s sake! Oh, Great Ki, I’m too tired for this right now. Take her away.
Lamashti’s feet fell to meet the ground. They did not stop there. Her ankles, then knees and hips sank into the earth. Lamashti’s face held confusion and ecstasy rolled together. The woman’s waist, elbows, and shoulders went the way of her lower joints.
She was gone. Nathalia and Eiran were alone again.
What in the Mother’s name was that?
“Lamashti is a Lilitu, a child of the light. A Nephilim fell in love with a human woman long ago and, in hopes that she might be his mate, broke the law, fed her his blood and made her darisam baltutu. She lives on prana, like all of our progeny, but cannot take it from the blood nor flesh. If she were to ‘feed’ from a human multiple times, it would surely kill him.”
Lilitu are a race of succubus! They’re real too?
“How did you send her away?” Eiran asked as Nathalia paced the great central room of the Mother’s tomb.
I don’t know. I just wished she would go. I sent her after the Guardian she came here for. Will he feed her?
“Yes, of course. To leave Lilitu unfed would force them to hunt among humans. We have taken vows to protect mankind from all of our creations. Some of our children must be killed, but Lilitu are children of the light and do not burn at Ud’s rays. So we have vowed to provide for them, until…”
Nathalia was getting used to Eiran’s half-finished sentences. Did the one that was here create her?
“It is possible that he was her maker. I do not know.” Eiran seemed to hesitate over some bit of information. “Our names are our most valued secret. To possess that knowledge is to have power over us. Our names can be used against us, to bind and hold us.”
I know your name.
“Yes.” Eiran looked tired, old suddenly, and a little sad.
Eiran, I would never…
“No, of course not.” But she saw in his heart that he knew she would. The Igigi told them all she would come and erase them, good and bad, from the face of the earth. She had just done so. She would destroy even that which the Nephilim could not. Themselves. Their stolen time would soon come to an end.
THEY HAVE wings! Nathalia exclaimed.
The dozen or so nude Guardians stood in a circle around a small building. Some had light hair and some dark, but they were all men of epic proportions. Even so, their wings dwarfed them. Each one had a set attached to their shoulder blades that matched their hair color. They didn’t appear to be made of feathers, like in all church renderings of angels. More like cloth, or canvas.
Or skin.
But you don’t. Nathalia couldn’t take her eyes off them. They were things of leg
end. Angels and demons all rolled up into one. And they were real. Her life had become a parade of the absurd come to life.
What are they doing?
“This is a Justice Circle.”
Like the one carved on the wall in our mother’s tomb? It’s beautiful, Eiran.
“Yes, my love. It is a sight to behold for all those who have not tasted the blood of a brother. It is quite terrifying to those who have. It means capture, punishment and pain to the betrayers.”
Eiran and Nathalia stood on a small hill some distance from the other Nephilim. They could barely hear the song of justice being sung in that circle. As the two watched, mounds of earth all around the Guardians and throughout the field bubbled up. Like a graveyard scene in a zombie movie, hands and then heads and torsos began to spring out from underground. As soon as light touched their flesh, it set aflame. The decrepit humans began to scream and writhe in what must have been excruciating pain, but they continued to advance toward the Nephilim.
Nathalia looked away. Why does the sunlight burn them?
“They are the Akhkharu’s children. His creations. They have the same strengths and weaknesses as the one who made them. Our blood in its natural state converts sunlight into energy, but when one of us ingests the blood of another the process is corrupted. Ud’s energy is absorbed, but cannot be used, and it consumes their bodies. They provide what their maker hopes to be enough of a distraction to the Nephilim, enough that he might escape his fate. Their pain and the violence of their lives also provide him with added strength as he lays within the structure. The Justice Circle speaks to Ki, their voices and the vibrations of their wings ask Her to hold him once more so that they may bring Ud’s light and justice upon him.”
Nathalia jumped as the building exploded, destroying any shelter the Akhkharu had, leaving him exposed. This was not an angel, nothing like the Akhkharu who’d drank her blood. He stood tall like the others, but twisted. His skin was the wrong color and his hair knotted, sticking out all directions. Ki held his rotten flesh locked in that spot, forcing him to accept the discipline he deserved. The earth grew up around his feet, holding him still as the sun burned him. Talon-like claws scraped the air, searching for something to grab.
The Dying Art of Magic Page 9