"I’m afraid a lot of parents are going to feel the same way," a female elder said, having the good grace to look apologetic.
"I see," Sarahi said. "So harnessing an unlimited source of energy means nothing to you people?"
"There’s more to it than that, love," Lucien said. "These people set a great store by marriage. Josiah has been raised by them. He is... quite attached to Annie. I doubt he would consent to anyone else."
Sarahi shook her head. Could they not understand? "Every day he remains unmated, the risk increases. Lilith knows he exists. She will be reaching out to him, trying to tempt him."
"There is no way a child of our community would consent to incest, not even that one," Mr. Smith insisted.
"And if he has no idea the beautiful creature in his dreams is his grandmother?" Sarahi let the question hang in the air, daring someone to take it up. Only Peter spoke.
"No disrespect, ma’am, but I think you’re overstating Josiah’s importance. I’ve known the kid his whole life. He’s weak, small. Barely equal to the lowest cleric, let alone some otherworldly creature. I really doubt he has the capacity to be... all that you say."
"Peter, be quiet,"The Assassin snapped in a raspy whisper. "You’re an overrated, self-centered turkey. This is no time for your egotistical bullshit."
The youth colored and shut his mouth with a snap.
Sarahi grinned at her friend and winked.
"We will consider the situation, but I don’t expect this to be resolved quickly. Is there something we can do in the meantime to help ensure our safety?"
"Yes," Sarahi said. "Bring my boy home. I want to see him. And if he’s here, we can work on finding him a wife, since that’s so important to you people."
"It is," Mr. Smith said softly.
It looked as though the meeting was about to break up when Jonas spoke. "What about Lucien?"
"What about him?" one of the elders replied.
"His lover is here; the mother of his child. There’s no way he can maintain his vows in the face of that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d been fornicating already."
Lucien blushed, giving away the answer. Sarahi nailed the naphil with a green-eyed glare.
"Well, Lucien, have you broken your vows again?" Mr. Smith demanded.
"He hasn't," Sarahi insisted.
"Liar," one of the elders accused, pointing a gnarled finger in Sarahi’s direction. "Are you denying you’ve been intimate?"
"Not at all," Sarahi replied lightly. Across the table, Lucien choked. "I’m saying it was no violation for him to do so."
"How do you figure?" the elder asked.
"Well, he broke that vow long ago, right?"
The old man nodded.
"Did he ever remake it? Lucien, did you swear, after your return, that you would never touch a woman again?"
"No," he replied. "I knew you were out there somewhere. I would never swear a vow I knew I could not keep. And they never asked."
"There you see," Sarahi said, her voice filled with triumph. "He never vowed. He’s free."
"Hey!" Peter protested. "Why should he get to have a hot woman to play with? Shouldn’t our heroes have to follow the same rules we do? I can’t have a girl in my bed until I get married, right? So why does he get to?"
Suddenly, everyone was talking at once. Lucien brought one big hand down on the table. The shouting ceased.
"This is not my decision to make. However, I will not be parted from Sarahi again. From this day forward, I go where she goes. I fight only for her."
Sarahi’s jaw dropped. "Lucien," she whispered into the tense hush, "you don’t need to do that."
"I do," he said. "I love you."
Sarahi felt prickles of heat climbing up her cheeks. Her eyes burned and her throat clogged with tears. "Oh, Lucien," she said softly.
"Very well then," Mr. Smith said, "since you obviously won’t stop your wicked ways, and we can’t have you setting a bad example for everyone, you two will be married this afternoon. If you refuse, you’ll both be cast out. We’ll figure out how to deal with your... child later."
"I’m agreeable," Lucien said.
Sarahi nodded, not trusting her voice.
"Wait a minute," Jonas said, "that’s worse. I want a wife. I bet there’s not a naphil at this table who would say otherwise. Why should Lucien get one?"
"They’ve already born a child together," one of the female elders pointed out.
"I can make that happen," Jonas said, arching an eyebrow. The other nephilim were nodding
"Gentlemen, wait," Mr. Smith said, "Are you saying you want wives?"
"Yes, Mr. Smith."
"But, Jonas, why didn’t you ever say anything?"
"We did. Many times. We have always longed for that connection. You clerics made celibacy a condition of your help. We gave up asking centuries ago."
"I beg your pardon," Mr. Smith said, contritely. "I had no idea. I assure you it was never my intention to deny your people such an obvious need. Remember, when we came of age, rose among the clerics, you were already established, with your rules, culture, everything. I assumed you took those vows as a formality." The man looked flabbergasted. Sarahi couldn’t take it anymore.
"But that’s foolish," she interjected.
"What do you mean, Succubus," he asked her coldly.
"I’m sorry, but think, sir. Where do nephilim come from?"
"From the joining of angel and human," he replied as if by rote.
"Have you ever considered what that means?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"What?"
"That the angels lay with those human women. Why on earth would the joining of two sexual beings create an asexual one? That makes no sense."
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Why didn’t I think of that?" he muttered.
"Perhaps because you’re not a succubus," she said with a gentle smile.
"Well, this is a dilemma," Mr. Smith said.
"I don’t think it is," Lucien disagreed. "Give them the same rules as clerics. If they want a wife, they can have one. She must be at least twenty years of age and give full consent. And gentlemen, there are no divorces with this group, so if you choose badly, you’re stuck with her. Also, we’re ageless. Human girls are mortal. If you marry, you’ll watch the woman you love age and die." Lucien reached across the table and took Sarahi’s hand. She stroked her thumb over his fingers. "That should be enough reality to keep you from making foolish decisions."
"If your lady is right and that demon is coming for us," Jonas said darkly, we might all be dead in short order."
"If we can keep Josiah on our side," Sarahi replied, "we just might stand a chance."
Sensing she was finished, the clerics and nephilim began to drift away.
Sarahi rose and drifted around the table to Lucien. He wrapped his arm around her slender waist and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
"Mr. Smith," she turned to address the elder once more.
"Yes?" he asked warily, clearly not recovered yet from the events of the day.
"When does my son return? I need to see him."
"We’re expecting them any minute. I’m surprised you didn’t ask about him sooner."
"I had no idea he was here. When The Assassin brought me, she just told me I would be safe. She never said a word about Josiah."
"She?" Mr. Smith raised his eyebrows.
"Yes. The Assassin is a girl," Sarahi replied, "but she’s never told me her name, so don’t ask me who she is."
"Well at any rate," the elder went on, "I don’t know when the young clerics will return, but you two are going to be married this afternoon, before you incite a riot. Sarahi, go to the storage room next to your room and look through the white dresses. There should be one you can wear."
Sarahi nodded.
"And is it to much to ask the two of you not to... do it until after the wedding."
Sarahi gave him a wicked smile which set his cheeks aflame, but s
aid nothing. Lucien pondered the question. "I think we might just be able to manage... if you hurry."
The elder hurried all right. He nearly ran from the room.
"Just what is it about me," Sarahi asked as they walked hand in hand down the hall, "that makes everyone so uncomfortable?"
"Well, love, you represent the decadent lifestyle a lot of them secretly wish they had experienced."
"But, Lucien, I hated that."
"I know, love. If you truly were a tramp, I wouldn’t have wanted you. "
She grinned. Then her smile faded. "Does it bother you how I used to live?"
"Sarahi, it’s two millennia past. And it’s not as though you had a choice in the matter."
She nodded.
"I love you. The rest doesn’t matter to me."
That made her smile. "Now if only we can figure out how to get Josiah and this Annie together, all will be well."
Lucien faltered a bit.
"What?" she asked him.
"Doesn’t it feel... I don’t know...awkward to talk about sex that way?"
"No," Sarahi replied, genuinely puzzled by his response. "No more than you would feel awkward talking about what you had for dinner last night."
Lucien pondered for a moment. "Why is it," he said, "that Josiah lives on food like a human, or a naphil. Why doesn’t he need to be fed your way?"
"I suppose because he’s more a potential incubus than a true one. Besides, he’s only one quarter demon. It’s not a strong part of his nature. He’s more human than anything else. Are you sure he doesn’t, though? But there is a lot more to this than even what I said in the meeting."
"What, love?"
"He has all the powers of a succubus, but in male form. He can enhance lust in women. That means, if he isn’t careful, he could become quite a seducer. Even a predator. Maybe it’s good such a repressed group raised him. If he doesn’t imprint properly to a good girl, he’ll become a monster in his own right. In Mother’s hands..." Sarahi shuddered. "Mr. Smith needs to get over hanging on to his granddaughter. All our lives might just depend on it."
"I know, love, but I don’t know how to fix it. He’s a good leader, but where Annie’s concerned, he’s just not rational."
They had arrived at the storage room by this time, and Sarahi entered, Lucien close behind her. It was a long rectangular room filled with cast-off clothing. Each wall had a bar installed at shoulder height and one at hip level. Two rows of silver racks stretched the entire length of the room. In the compound, nothing went to waste. Just inside the door was a basket of clothing too worn out to be handed down, ready to be converted into rags and patches. Overhead, a single low-watt bulb provided only the dimmest illumination, just enough for her to find the white dresses. They were all the same; long and shapeless, and she held one up to her front.
"Do I really have to wear this?" She made a face.
"When in Rome," Lucien replied.
"Oh, oh, I know how that goes!" Sarahi chirped. "When in Rome... kiss an angel!"
"Does that go for storage closets as well?" he asked
"As far as I’m concerned, there’s no wrong place." She walked into his arms. Just as she had expected, he crushed her in a tight hug.
"Jonas is right about one thing," he murmured against her lips.
"He was right about a great many things. Which one do you mean?"
"Times are uncertain. We have to be close to the ones we love."
"We do," Sarahi replied. "Starting right here, right now."
He pushed her through a forest of hanging garments up against the wall and kissed her breathless.
If anyone had been outside the closet when the two emerged, they would have noticed how unusually red Sarahi’s lips were, how pink her cheeks. They would also have noticed her towering half-angel walking with a decidedly uncomfortable gait.
As they reached the main entrance, which was situated where the two perpendicular hallways met, there was a loud shouting. A crowd of young men ran into the room and pounded down the adjoining hallway to where most of the bedrooms were located. It appeared the clerics-in-training had returned. Sarahi was unable to pick her son from the herd of youths. Behind them, a tired-looking naphil dragged himself through the door and slammed it shut.
"By all the light of Heaven, I would rather face a nest of succubae than babysit those young fools!" he said to no one in particular. "All they think about is glory and adventure."
"Can't you remember being that young, Phillip?"
"Lucien! You’re back! No, I was never that young."
"No?" she could hear the amusement in his voice. "So I never had to pull you out of a nest of reveling Japhethites and succubae?"
"Of course not," Phillip said, flashing his gleaming teeth. "So what’s been happening around here?"
"Amazing things. You’ll never believe it."
"Well, spill. I want to get a spot in the shower before those wild beasts use up all the hot water."
"They’ve rescinded the vow of chastity for nephilim!" Lucien exclaimed. "We will be expected to live by the same rules as any other cleric. I..." he stopped, then pressed on. "I’m getting married this afternoon."
At last it appeared the naphil noticed Sarahi. He focused his gaze on her and blinked.
"Hello," she said. "I’m Josiah’s mother."
He blinked some more. "Congratulations," he said. And then he staggered off down the hallway in an obvious state of shock.
"Love, which bedroom is Josiah’s?" Sarahi asked. "I need to see my son."
"Come on," he told her, leading her down the hall and opening the door of one of the dormitories.
"This is the room Josiah shares with three other young men."
Sarahi looked at the four identical beds. Her hands began to tremble.
"Do you want me to stay?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "Go get ready."
He nodded and kissed her once, softly, before leaving the room and shutting the door.
Sarahi sat down on the bed and waited.
***
Josiah walked down the hallway towards his bedroom, pulling a sweater over his head as he went. Fighting had been exciting, and disturbing, and exhausting. Now all he wanted to do was take a quick nap. The other boys had galumphed off to the kitchen in search of snacks, but Josiah wasn’t particularly hungry. As always, his thoughts turned to Annie. He wondered if she liked teaching the little ones, if she was happy with her studies. If anyone had caught her interest. If she ever thinks about me. He still didn’t understand what had happened that day in the meadow. The event had never been repeated. But when he had seen a real live succubus for last week, something inside him had responded to her in ways he had not expected. She was beautiful. Of course she was. But it was more than that. She had a magnetic pull. It had resonated through him like a chime, or a gong.
Josiah shook his head. If Father was finally home, he’d ask about it later. The other boys had denied feeling it, so maybe it was a naphil thing. He opened the door and blinked in surprise.
A beautiful woman with long red hair was sitting on his bed. On seeing him, she rose to her feet, tiny and graceful, and walked across the room until she stood directly in front of him.
"Josiah," she said.
"Do I know you, ma’am?" he asked.
Don’t you? The voice sounded in his head. He tilted his head and looked at her again. He was quite sure he’d never seen her before, and yet she seemed... familiar.
He closed his eyes and a fragrance wafted over him. Again, he could almost swear he’d smelled it before; like cactus flowers, night blooming jasmine, and something else less easily defined.
"Rose," he said without thought, and then opened his eyes.
She was looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Where did that come from?"
"I don’t know," he said. Something about you just seems... pink. Enough games. Who are you and why are you in my room?" He hadn’t meant to sound so gruff, but the presence of
this woman was causing the strangest sensations to well up inside him.
"Pink." She grinned. "That’s what your father always said too. Josiah, my name is Sarahi. I’m your mother."
Mother? Josiah closed his eyes again and reached out with those unknown senses he seemed to have. Yes, that was the scent he recalled from his dreams, when the pink, sparkling woman held him in her arms and whispered words of love and encouragement which left him feeling renewed for hours or days afterward.
"Have you been in my head all this time, in my dreams?" he asked.
"Yes, Josiah. I’ve never left you." She wrapped her arms around him for a warm hug. In his dreams she’d been big, like a mother with a child. But he was adult-sized, over six feet tall, and her petite body felt child-like. He hugged her back.
She sniffled. "Can you ever forgive me, darling, for leaving you all these years? I had to do it, but I hated it every day."
"I..." he started to give a neutral answer, but that dream-scent washed over him again. It seemed to be coming from her hair. The rational part of his mind told him it was just shampoo, but his overwrought, exhausted nerves were finally overwhelmed by the power of her scent.
"Mom," he said, and his voice broke. He crushed her in trembling arms and just tried not to break down completely.
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