Transit of Ishtar, Paranormal Erotic Romance / Urban Fantasy (Book 2 of Sinnis)

by Natalie Gibson

  When he pulled away, he stayed locked in that embrace, but he held her gaze. Nathalia put her hand over his heart, where her tattoo should be and the memories immediately flooded her mind. She knew they belonged together, no matter how corrupted her feelings towards men had become through her life with Michael. Eiran would have saved her from all that pain if he had known she needed him.

  She knew now that she did need him. She always had. It was amazing to know that she would have forever to get to know this man. He could never be taken from her. Eiran had given her the gift of eternal life. How do you effectively express gratitude for something like that? It was out of the scope of her experience. It was out of the scope of human experience. She showered him with her feelings; she could hardly keep them inside.

  What is it, Eiran?

  It is time for us each to go to our duties, but I needed to see you look at me this way again before... Eiran turned from her and crossed to his own doorway. The one that led to the prison was his destination.

  Before what? Nathalia stared at him as he picked up the prisoner pod where it had fallen into the sand, and then, without looking back, walked through the gisig and left her. She heard him in her mind as she stepped through the veil and went to meet the Igigi, but he spoke in the ancient tongue.

  ***

  Alisha's voice sounded raspy and rough after the trauma of having a tube shoved down it and then removed. All her strength was gone as she told the anxious Primos what she had found on her ethereal pilgrimage. She was weak, not only from her physical experience, but because she had been wrong about Nathalia. Wrong about Maeve.

  The words stuck in her sore throat, “I couldn't find her”.

  The disappointment could be felt in that room. Everyone wanted Nathalia to be alive. Even Maeve, who had most to lose by Nathalia being found, was crushed. Maeve wanted to be wrong. She pressed for further evidence, knowing it would be misconstrued as rubbing it in. “Did you find her body? My guardian said that she was being taken to a sacred place to be laid to rest with holy mothers. “

  “I think I was there. I thought I'd found her twice, but both times weird magic kept me out. Once at The Four Seasons in Cairo and then in some sort of underground catacomb. Both times there was a magical barrier, almost like a doorway, that I couldn't go through. At the hotel it was just one of the rooms I couldn't get in. I didn't think to look through the windows on the outside of the building. I should have, but I ... got distracted.”

  Alisha stopped. She gestured and her friend handed her a glass of water. She took a long sip of that cool moisture from the straw. She did need a drink, but she was also stalling. She didn't like to tell people about the limitations of her magic, but there had been special circumstances that could be important.

  “There was something else weird happening there.” Her voice sounded a little more normal. “Every couple I found in that hotel was having sex, and every woman, even the ones who were alone, including the maid on the 18th floor, was having an orgasm.”

  “Well, I know where Leonard and I're going for our anniversary trip. He's always wanted to see the pyramids and now there's a real reason to go.” Libby's joke only received minor laughs and they were mostly out of sympathy for their librarians feeble state. Alisha was glad to see that Maeve, for one, was taking this very seriously.

  “How soon can you leave?”

  Libby didn't look shocked. She was sitting in one of the few chairs, looking much older than any of them had ever seen her look. The reading she had done on the stones where Nathalia had died had taken a huge toll. “Whenever my Abbess wishes.”

  Maeve knew Libby was trying to show everyone her devotion to Maeve and her position, temporary or not. Maeve put her hand on Libby's shoulder. “I meant how soon will you be recovered?”

  Libby closed her eyes, as if she was looking inside and evaluating the damage. “Two weeks. Maybe sooner if Camilla could help.”

  Ingrid, their Ingenium Primo, spoke up, “I could mix up a drink to help too.”

  “Good. Ok, it's settled. Libby, go see Camilla and then get to bed. As soon as you're ready, I want you to go and see if you can get the same room. What number was it Alisha?” Maeve barely paused for Alisha to answer, 221, before going on. “I'm asking you as the Renuntio Primo to do a reading on everything in that room. I also want you to facilitate our purchase of that vase we saw on the news today. I want you to lay your hands on it at any cost. There's a branch of the sisterhood there that might be able to help you acquire it.”

  ***

  The doctor drove across the desert sand a little slower than he should. The excavation of the hidden city had reached the door they were looking for. The Master had given them strict instructions that it was not to be unsealed without his presence. No one was to enter without the Akhkharu on pain of death. When he threatened, it was the pain, not the death, that the doctor worried about.

  He was in no hurry to see the Master. It was still daylight and he'd be feeding. The doctor shuddered to think about the last time he had interrupted the Akhkharu feeding. The Akhkharu rarely consumed any large amounts of blood, instead allowing his 'children' to slaughter and devour the dozen women brought to them every day. He fed on the physical violence the vampire woman and werewolf inflicted.

  The doctor shook his head. Yes, he had some women tortured in his time, but that was only to break them, bend them, so that their abilities could be put to use. Master was wasting them, mostly women, at an alarming rate. Not just any women either. The Akhkharu preferred women with talent, women with witch backgrounds, the kind the doctor hated to see wasted.

  When the Master had made his ... nutritional needs known, the doctor had questioned his intelligence. The Nephilim protected these women. The doctor had obtained one here and there, never more than one or two a year, and had only started torturing them when he was certain to trap anyone who came to save them. The Akhkharu had laughed at him and his caution.

  “Those who would interfere have gone to the 'heart of independent land', abandoning their family lines in search of their mates. Now that the One is about to be born, they know that the women best suited for conversion will be drawn to her. They are of no concern to me.”

  The doctor had foolishly pushed further, asking, “They'll be attracted to the women in need. You will bring a justice circle. Surely they're of concern to you?”

  The Akhkharu, who refused to give the doctor a name to use other than Master, drug him by his arm outside. It was the middle of the day and though it hurt him to do it, the Akhkharu stood in the sunlight.

  When he had first seen the Master storm through his complex killing guards, completely unaffected by either poison, the doctor had been confused. The Akhkharu poison should have worked on him. It hadn't, therefore this couldn't have been an Akhkharu. Now the doctor knew what this was. It was a newly turned Akhkharu.

  He had more strength than the Nephilim and none of the weaknesses of an Akhkharu. Not yet. Over the months and years to come his body would be rendered unable to handle the sunlight converted by his cells into energy. He would be consumed by that energy in a fiery death if faced by a justice circle, but for now he was safe.

  The place where Master had gripped his arm stung at the memory. It had been a very bad burn. The doctor had no idea what temperature the Akhkharu's body had reached. His wounds had healed mere moments after returning to the shade; the doctor's still hadn't after weeks. If only Master would share his blood with the doctor as he had with his 'children', he could make the serum.

  The doctor would just have to wait until the Akhkharu had become completely corrupted by his brotherly blood ingestion. Then he would try again to take the holy blood. Attracting a newly turned Akhkharu had been unlucky, but if he kept the Master happy, he could take what he wanted before calling the Nephilim to dispose of their betrayer. He would be the hero.

  The doctor cleared his mind of such thoughts as he approached the compound he'd used for years before Master had claim
ed it as his own. He wasn't sure what this Akhkharu's special talents were. Mind reading was certainly in the realm of possibilities.

  The gates had never been replaced or repaired, so the doctor drove right up to the main building and parked the jeep. The doctor dropped to the ground as the sun was just about to set. He took off his sunglasses and traded them out for the normal glasses in his case, as he walked toward the entrance. In the desert, one had always keep track of one's sunshades.

  As soon as he opened the door, he could smell the blood even through the handkerchief he had tied around his face to keep the sand out while he drove. He knew that blood was hard for humans to smell, unless it was in large amounts. The smell was strong so there was a lot of it somewhere in this building.

  He could even smell it over what should have been the more pungent scent. He tried to avoid tripping on the decaying bodies and dismembered limbs of his slaughtered guards, while also trying not to look at them. Master did not want them removed. He thought it served as a warning to those who might want to stop him. They worked.

  The doctor stopped at the door and knocked. He didn't hear any screaming, only voices, so he entered. Master was sitting in his chair, looking very much the picture of health. The young woman sitting opposite him did not look so well. She was completely nude. Her back was splattered with blood, but none of it was hers. The doctor tried not to look at the carnage behind her and crossed over to kneel close to, but not next to, the Akhkharu's chair.

  The woman was reading a newspaper aloud to Master. Her voice was hoarse and the blood soaked pile of papers to her right said why. She had been reading about all the death and murder and war all over the world. The Akhkharu's face looked relaxed and happy as if he were being read a fairytale by his mother. His eyes were closed, but they popped open as she reached the last line.

  The woman was scared, and rightly so. There was no movement behind her, save the Master's children. They were frozen, at an almost imperceivable line on the floor, inches from her chair. She was the only whole and alive human in the room except for the doctor. She looked at him, begging him for help with her eyes. The doctor did not look at her, but kept his eyes down, waiting for Master to acknowledge his presence.

  The Akhkharu very calmly stood and offered his hand to the woman. He helped her stand and then very calmly turned her and pressed her face down over the arm of his chair. He held her there easily with one hand, her struggle completely unnoticed. Her round backside shone in the artificial light. The only part not coated with blood was the very bottom of her where she had shielded it by sitting on it.

  Master ran his free hand over that flesh for a second before piercing her with his spear. “Ah, virgin”, he said, “I do so love breaking the laws of Ereshkigal” He took no notice of her cries as he thrust roughly in and out of her. He continued to pump as he motioned for the doctor to rise.

  “I assume your presence here means you have reached the door.” He pulled one of her arms back, dislocating the shoulder, to bring her wrist to his mouth. He bit down, tearing the delicate skin, but didn't suck, just lapped at it.

  “Yes, Master. All the men have left for the day so that you may have the privacy you require. They think we will start the morning by opening the passage. I can take you there whenever you are...finished here.”

  The doctor started to leave but the Akhkharu motioned that he should wait. Master tensed up and pushed hard into the woman trapped beneath him. Then came a sound from the Akhkharu that any man would recognize. When he was finished with her, Master dropped the woman's arm and slipped from her body. She curled up into a tiny ball at his feet.

  He knelt down and tenderly cupped her face in his enormous hand. “Your body gives me pleasure and I would love to keep you for another night, but I took your maidenhead. To leave you alive would be to leave myself vulnerable.”

  He turned, crossing toward the doctor, and picked up his wrap from the hook on the wall. He waived his hand behind him, releasing his children from whatever was holding them back. He tied his skirt around his waist. The doctor closed the door behind them but not before he heard the woman start to scream.

  Chapter 9

  The drive back across the desert didn't take as long as the one the doctor took to get there. The Akhkharu was with him this time and the doctor thought that the less time alone with the monster the better. Master had insisted on riding in the modern chariot with hidden mechanical horses. It was new moon so he felt peaceful and un-threatened.

  The Akhkharu was about to get what he was looking for. The weapon, which Master had hidden here many thousands of years ago, was just beyond the door that the men had uncovered this afternoon. The doctor was of less importance to the Akhkharu with every mile they drove toward that goal. Discovering the hidden city, especially the worlds most complete ziggurat and all the treasures it held, was making the doctor a very wealthy man. He hoped that his service to the Akhkharu was enough to keep him alive long enough to enjoy those riches.

  The Master's children, now finished with today's last female, caught up with the jeep just as it pulled to a halt in front of a giant pit. Clearing away all of this sand was a tremendous task, but the city that was beneath was worth the effort. The headlights shone bright on the beautiful stone ziggurat, bleached white by the years of sun and then protected by the sand. The temple was to the female goddess Ishtar and was of no importance to the Akhkharu, though it was surely to become another of the wonders of the ancient world. He was more interested in a small building more on the edge of the hidden city.

  The doctor walked, more calmly than he felt, over to the main generator and switched it and the main lights on. The door, showing at the bottom of a hill of sand, lit up. The Akhkharu was at it in a flash, his hands tracing some unseen patterns there. He turned back to smile at the doctor, “This is the door. You have done well.”

  The doctor jumped slightly when he heard the vrykolak growl at him. The children were now flanking him, werewolf to the right, vampire to the left. They were none to happy about the Master's praise of him. They stood in silent threat to him. The Master would only have to show the smallest of disappointment in the doctor and they would, no doubt, kill him in a second. It would only take a second if he was lucky.

  The door exploded into a thousand pieces and the Akhkharu disappeared inside. Damn. That could have been very valuable. There was an unbelievable market for items of this age. Even a stone door could be sold for profit and that one had been ornately carved.

  The doctor did not have much time to lament it's loss before a howl came from deep below the sand. He could practically feel the female vampire smile. The one he called 603 might finally be about to get her vengeance on the doctor. She was very happy about this.

  The Akhkharu burst up through the sand, wrecking the control table and knocking the generator off line. The whole place went dark except the small beams coming from the jeeps headlights. “Empty!”

  With that one word, the doctor's ears began to bleed. 603 leaned in and gently, like a lover, nibbled on the doctors earlobe, licking the tiny trail away. She breathed into his ear and said in what could have been a seductive tone, “Here it comes”.

  Master's glare never left the doctor's face. His eyes glowed red in the dark and flickered as he spoke. “Another entrance was tunneled in from the other direction. Everything was taken.”

  The doctor quickly jumped to his own defense, “It was none of my men, your majesty. I fear and respect you too much to allow them to break your rules.”

  603 grasped his upper arm tightly and pulled him back against her. She tugged his hair with the other hand, exposing his neck. She was clearly about to have her desire.

  “It was her! She wanted me to look bad, to fail you, so that you would let her kill me. You were betrayed by your own children, Master.” The doctor's voice sounded wimpy and less than convincing, but he had very few shots at making it out of this alive and he planned to take every one.

  “No. The
room was raided ages ago, I believe. It smells undisturbed, but everything of value is missing.”

  “Grave robbers, my lord. They desecrate holy places in search of riches. I can help you track the weapon down.” Any promise to raise his value in Master's eyes.

  “There are those who would pay for such seemingly useless items?”

  “Yes, sir. Absolutely. There is a nest of women not far from here that frequently buy up artifacts for their collection. These are women of power, like the ones you need for nourishment, but they are strong. They train and use their abilities.”

  “Followers of Ishtar? Where can these modern gadishtu be found?”

  603 tightened her grip on his hair. Much tighter and she might break his neck by accident. “I can tell you, but promise you won't let her kill me.” He didn't have to gesture to 603. “Or it, either. And that you won't kill me.” The last he said slightly under his breath, as if he was afraid to give the Master any ideas.

  The Akhkharu barely moved, but agreed. The vampire regretfully released her hold and she and the beast backed away. The doctor rubbed his neck as he told him where he could find the Daughters. They would have the vase depicting Ereshkigal's betrayal. The doctor had just sold it to them.

  Pleased, the Akhkharu opened his arms and motioned for the doctor to embrace him. The doctor, thinking himself safe, approached slowly none the less. They hugged, but touching an Akhkharu was very unpleasant to say the least.

  Master spoke softly, as was fitting this contact, “You should know better than to force the hand of so great your superior. I will keep my promise. You will not be killed, but you will not find your life enjoyable. Paion have always been betrayers and I cannot trust you to do differently than your predecessors. I have been deceived by your kind before.”

  He squeezed and a horrible pop could be heard for meters. The doctor felt the most dazzling pain for only a split second and then he felt nothing. The Akhkharu laid him down gently in the sand and then poured insanity into the newly crippled man's brain. “You may live out your long life with this assurance: I will find the weapon. I will find the One. I will kill the baby and it's mother, feasting on their flesh. Then I will destroy all remnants of Paion and Gadishtu. I will feed from the violence of their destruction to become the most powerful creature on earth. Then I will cross the gisig to confront the Igigi. I will kill them and take their place as God of the Universe.”