Stigmata

by L M Adams

  He shakes his head no, “The givers give, but the Atums help with building and upkeep… all give to the upkeep of the palace in some way.”

  “What about the Ishtars?”

  “They give in other ways, as all of the people do.” He turns to look at our escort, “And we can call the duties of your guard fulfilled… for now.”

  I glance at Nyrobi, but she only smiles. Hmmm, I wonder what way the Ishtars give to the upkeep of the palace.

  She bows her head, “This is where I shall leave you, Jaevia… my Raja, my Emir.”

  “Will I see you again?” I ask, unable to keep the longing from my voice.

  “If you wish it so.”

  I nod.

  “Then I shall see you… again,” she smiles again before turning away and walking in the opposite direction.

  Most of our escort follows suit. The children of the Madu have kept their word, to return the lost son. Kondo, Imani, Kwame – they break off to go in a different direction than Nyrobi. Nassor and the young son Keyon stay with us.

  “I shall show you to your rooms,” Henenu says and takes the lead.

  Keyon moves up beside me, I let him take my arm and guide me away as Henenu explains the palace, so we won’t get lost.

  “We are on the side of the lions, here you will find the followers of Atum and their guests, on the east end or river side, are the dwellings of Isis, the north the Ishtars.”

  “What about the west? Where the large tower is?”

  “That is the domain of Apedemak and only open to those with an invitation from him.”

  “Why is that?” I ask, immediately suspicious.

  “It is not a point of secrecy or deceit, but he must be protected… he was the last god-king… until our Hari returned at least. Apedemak slumbers now but shall rise for the solstice and then he will meet his son.”

  I look over at Lucien, his lips are in a slight frown. The link isn’t filled with worry, so either he’s blocking what he’s feeling… or he hasn’t decided what to feel just yet, I’m betting on the latter.

  On our walk, it is easy to see that this is the Atum side, pictures of Ra and Horus, lions and sun disks are a repeating theme in the art. I wonder how closely these people identify with whatever god they follow. I know for the Kindred our declared houses are everything. When I became Cerberus, that is all there was to me in my world. Of course I was aware of the other houses, I was aware of Wôdan and Peitho and Magi… but I was Cerberus, and that was all that ever mattered… it only became more tribal when I declared my heart for Abbadon and pledged my life to the Reapers.

  What a foolish girl I was.

  Henenu leads us up to the second floor, towards the inner courtyard of the palace, “We will get you all settled in your chambers, yes?” He holds out a hand and bows his head, “Welcome home.”

  I grin and look to Luey almost bouncing from one foot to the other, he gives me a gentle smile and nod. I run forward to push open the heavy wooden door with a mosaic of a roaring lion carved into the wood. I’m surprised to find the door swings open easily and stumble forward a bit laughing.

  88

  Jaevia

  Our chambers are everything a queen… or even a reluctant king could want. I walk into the receiving room, a clear pool of water in the center, above it is open to the sky but shaded with a white canopy. Colorful fish swim in the pool of water, with flowers floating on the surface.

  The back wall is open to a large patio and on either side of the pool are seating areas. Chaises, loungers, chairs, tables – along with large painted floor vases and oddly colored, large leafed plants sprouting from within.

  Bookshelves with handstitched tomes and scrolls with ancient stories cling to the corners of the room. A sideboard table with glass carafes filled with water, wine, an odd-looking juice, perhaps.

  To the right is a massive double-sided fireplace or can act as an airway between this room and the next when it’s a hot day. I go over to the door on the right and open it, stepping into a room larger than the receiving room, the bedroom.

  The bed is massive, larger than a king, it may be the largest bed I’ve ever seen. A colorful red and gold covering, at the head of the bed, above it, is a large tapestry hanging from the ceiling. A pattern of a red lion on the tapestry.

  More chaise lounges, tables, seating areas, vases and plants. There’s another opening in the back wall that leads out to the same patio. Everything is so open here… everything but where Lucien’s father stays.

  I walk across to another door and open it, it leads to the bathroom, one large pool of water and another smaller one beside it. Along one wall, a table almost overflowing with glass bottles of perfumes, oils and soaps. A small walled off area in the rear which I assume is the commode.

  The bathroom isn’t open to the patio, but every wall has a planter filled with large flowering plants, growing wildly in the midst of the warm moist air.

  “Perfect,” I whisper turning back around to the bedroom.

  Jack is looking around, a bit amazed. He goes to try out the bed.

  “Better than the palm leaf hut?” I smile.

  He lays back on the bed groaning, “Most assuredly.”

  I huff and go to join him on the bed, curious myself now. I have to use the little steps to get on the bed… otherwise I’d have to hop. As soon as I sit down my ass is cushioned by the pillows of the angels.

  “Wow,” I whisper and lay back on the bed with Jack.

  “Right,” he chuckles and rolls to his side, propping his head up on his hand and looking down at me.

  I smile up at him, “This isn’t so bad.”

  He gives me a smile and brings up his hand to run his thumb across my bottom lip, “There is no existence where I am unhappy being in bed with you.”

  I roll my eyes at his sweet words, but I can’t help the smile that creeps out, “You already got me, no need to ‘mack’ me anymore.”

  “I respectfully disagree, Mistress,” he whispers and replaces his thumb with his lips.

  His tongue slips between my lips, tasting me gently, I welcome every bit of it, I welcome him. My heart open to him, I feel his need crawl over my skin gently. No succubus power urging him, he saw me and wanted me; Goddess knows he can have me.

  I moan as he breaks the kiss moves to my neck, bringing up his hand to grip my waist gently, “Yes,” I whisper.

  “Jaevia! Capaneus!” Lucien’s voice calls out and Jack stops kissing my neck to let out a sigh.

  “I finally get you alone…”

  I smile, “We can ignore him.”

  He sighs, “That would hurt his feelings.” Jack pushes up from the bed and away from me, standing – probably needing to put some distance between us.

  I prop myself up on my elbows smiling, “You’re cute when you’re sweet.”

  “A man does not want to be called cute standing before his wife with a raging hardon.”

  I look down at his crotch… and have to agree, his cock is both hard and raging. I chuckle, “I’ll make it up to you.”

  “Reverse cowgirl until my toes curl.”

  “Done,” I smile.

  He smiles, biting his bottom lip a bit to give me a hint of fang, letting me know just how much he’ll enjoy watching my ass bounce up and down while I ride him.

  “Rogue,” I raise an eyebrow.

  “At your eternal service.”

  I hold out a hand so he can help me from the bed, and we go to find our very demanding Master.

  Lucien is out on the large patio, “Come Wench, come Capaneus.”

  We join him on the stone laid patio. It has a large white canopy above to shield us from the sun. We walk around the long stone table in the center with cushioned wood benches on either side to join him at the railing and look down on the garden.

  It is easy to see that Gaia’s heart is bountiful here. We look out into a majestic garden. There are a few trees, but one stands out, it’s a different type than the others, and old… so ver
y old I wonder if it’s seen the beginning of creation.

  “It is much like home,” Lucien whispers and I know he isn’t talking about the warehouse, or even the park – he’s talking about his home… where he lived with his Momma.

  A shrieking laugh sounds out and Keyon runs out from the receiving room and down the stairs into the garden… Nassor quick on his heels.

  “Come with you now!” Nassor yells.

  “I stay with my Kandaka!” Keyon screams and runs around a tree.

  I cover my smile, looking at Keyon already being a troublemaker – a kid after my own heart.

  “It’s gorgeous, Luey,” I breathe out and turn to run down the stairs and explore the garden a bit and save Keyon.

  The grounds are enclosed in high vine covered walls – giving us privacy. Like a world within a world.

  I throw up my hands and do a perfect spin and join Nassor and Keyon in their merry game of tag… well Keyon and I play the game – Nassor is becoming frustrated.

  “My Queen! Please do not encourage him!” Nassor yells as I grab Keyon’s hand and tug him, running away.

  We laugh as the guard chases us. There is a gentle stream that cuts through the garden, we race towards it as if it’s some boundary that means safety.

  “Together!” I yell and we both make the leap and my heart is as light as it was when I was a young daughter and I would lead my own tutors and guardians on a merry chase.

  We tumble down to the soft green ground, laughing all the while. Keyon and I roll onto our backs and up at the blue sky and the clouds, catching our breath.

  “Kandaka… I wish to stay with you,” Keyon whispers.

  “Come now, they need their private time,” Nassor says catching up to us.

  “Private time?”

  “Yes… now come before I take a switch to you.”

  “But…”

  “I will show you the hall of lions and find you a bed with the other young sons of Atum,” Nassor promises and the boy sits up suddenly.

  “The real hall of lions? Where the soldiers of Atum live?”

  “That very one,” Nassor entices the boy.

  Keyon turns to look down at me… “But my Kandaka needs me…”

  “Go, I will be just fine, I have Lucien and Jack.”

  He looks dubious, “They serve my Kandaka well?”

  I nod, “Very much so. But you can help me up.” I smile.

  He stands up and rushes to the side of me to help me to my feet, as chivalrous as ever. I know he’s probably feeling a bit of anxiety. He’s probably never been away from his momma for long and he’s comforted by me. But if he wants to have a heart song of Atum, he must learn their ways.

  Lucien and Jack join us an amused look in their eyes.

  Yet, “You are always welcome for a visit.” Because I remember how hard it was for me to leave my own home. How hard it was for me to say goodbye to my own momma and da.

  “I will come to check on my Kandaka,” he glances at Lucien and Jack, “to make sure she is being well cared for.”

  The kid has got spunk with his thinly veiled threat towards Lucien and Jack.

  I bow my head, “I will be comforted knowing you shall return.”

  He nods to me once more and turns running towards the soldier and then stops suddenly to turn around, bowing low, “My Raja, my Kandaka, my Emir – I am always ready to serve if you should have need of me.”

  “Go, Keyon, enjoy yourself,” I smile at the young boy watching him walk away, imitating the swagger in Nassor’s walk and wonder if my own son would have been anything like him.

  I hope so.

  Nassor and Keyon slip out of a door in the wall at the rear of the gardens and the three of us are left alone.

  I look to Luey, “Wow, this is amazing, Luey…”

  “Oh aye, ’tis a grand palace indeed.”

  “Not just the palace… the people – everything seems to just blend together.”

  “Not everything,” Jack says.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t notice?”

  I shake my head no, “Notice what?”

  “In the welcoming crowd, there was a small group of people, dressed in red with their hoods pulled up… I think they were vampires; they didn’t seem welcomed among the people.”

  I glance at Lucien, “I didn’t notice them – are you sure they were vampires?”

  “Yes,” he nods, “the magic isn’t the same, but I know a vampire when I see one.”

  Lucien hums, “I do not know much of the cursed ones, I do not believe they are vampires the way we think of them. I know they come from lands in the north, before you reach the sea.”

  I walk over to a bench that sits near the small stream and sit down crossing my legs, “That’s how they’re always referred to? ‘The cursed ones?’ That’s a bit insulting.”

  He looks to Jack with a bit of shock, “My apologies, Capaneus, I did not mean to be… thoughtless with my words.”

  “It’s fine,” Jack whispers and joins me on the bench, “do you know anything else about them?”

  Luey shakes his head no, “I was not a good student, Capaneus. If I remember correctly, they are also known as…” he pauses as he thinks, “I believe the common word is close to nosferatu.”

  “The unclean,” Jack whispers.

  “You know this name?”

  Jack nods, “I know it from the old world – from Romania, where my grandfather, Belly is from… the nefârtatu. Nosferatu is a deviation from the Romanian necuratu, nesuferitu or nefârtatu… it means the unclean, the insufferable, the damned….”

  “The cursed,” I whisper, and he nods, seeming a bit lost. I take his hand in mine and lean on his shoulder.

  “I can’t seem to escape it, no matter where I go.”

  “Escape what?”

  “Everything that I am,” he hangs his head.

  “You are more than a word, Capaneus.”

  Jack looks up to Luey, “Yet none of the words they call you mean filth.”

  Lucien frowns, “You are not filth! You are Capaneus, you are my husband.”

  “That’s why everyone was looking at me strangely, their perfect king is married to filth.”

  Lucien growls low, a trickling of a roar rumbling from him, “Come here.”

  I pull back and Jack stands up, bowing his head, “Master.”

  “Closer,” Lucien orders, his eyes flashing with fire.

  Jack steps closer, keeping his head bowed and titled away, offering his vein, “I submit.”

  Lucien grabs Jack’s jaw and forces him to look into his eyes, “You… are… Capaneus.” He moves his hand to cup the back of Jack’s head and leans forward, closing his eyes, pressing their foreheads together.

  Jack relaxes into the embrace after a moment, exhaling softly.

  “You are having a hard day today with our love,” Lucien murmurs gently.

  “Yes,” Jack whispers.

  “The sadder you are the more I wish to love you, but this does not help you, Capaneus – tell me how to help you.”

  “I will manage, let me adjust…”

  Lucien pulls back and lets go of Jack’s neck, “Whatever you wish, I shall do.”

  “You know what I want.”

  Lucien sighs deeply, “That will not fix things…”

  “You promised me.”

  “Aye,” Lucien nods, “I did.”

  “And now you regret that promise.”

  Lucien nods, “I’m finding I do not have the stomach for it.”

  “So you lied?!”

  “I did not lie to you!” Lucien roars.

  I stand quickly to break them up before things get out of control. “All right, let’s just get settled in for now, there’s plenty of time to discuss…”

  “There’s nothing else to discuss,” Jack seethes and walks forward, brushing past Lucien and heading back to our private rooms.

  89

  Lucien

  I walk the
lush gardens with the Wench while I work through my hurt and anger. I have no wish to lash out at the Bloodsucker. He calls me a liar – perhaps I am that. I did promise to destroy him, he has every right to demand that promise be fulfilled. Yet, I spoke those words in a different place, a different time. I have no wish to commit such atrocities in the lands of my mother, under my father’s roof. I have no wish to make those memories here in my homeland.

  Why can he not understand me? Why can he not love the good in me?

  Why must he hurt me always?

  “Just let him calm down,” the Wench tries to sooth my prickling anger.

  “He is a stubborn, ungrateful wretch! Carries on so because I do not wish to abuse him?! Accuses me of having a false tongue?”

  “He will accept it, Luey, just give him time.”

  “No, he will not, he will act out and try to provoke me so that he can have his way.”

  “He’s a vampire…” the Wench shrugs as if that explains it all.

  “He is a petulant child.”

  “That’s not fair…”

  “Oh, aye it is, I cannot show happiness here or he will become sad. The only way I can have peace and softness between us is to abuse him to the quick. Even this I will do, but he demands more, always more – now I must rape him, I must force myself on him like some brute with no love in his heart.”

  “That’s not how Jack sees it, you know that’s not…”

  “Yes, Jaevia, it is… he wishes for me to be abusive to him just like all the others.”

  I have bent over backwards for him, but he will not even give me even a mustard seed for my happiness.

  “Working through that kind of trauma is going to take time, Lucien.”

  “He does not wish to work through the trauma, Wench. He wishes to replace it with another kind of filth.”

  Her sigh is heavy, “I wish I knew how to help you two with this.”

  “It is not your concern, Wench.”

  She stops walking, pulling away from me. I can feel her unhappiness in my words strike in my heart.

  “What do you mean it’s not my concern, Lucien?”