by Lila Huff
“The first thing you need to know is that, though you won’t die, you can be killed – though not easily - and there are forces out there who want you dead.” I could see in her expression that the people who wanted me dead were a serious threat. The light of her face had dimmed as she spoke. “The monster that attacked you was sent by one of those who can still kill you.”
I nodded, “Demetrius said that he was called Hephaestus.”
“Yes, Hephaestus is one of the Asakku, but he goes by Jack more often than not.” She paused, her face darkening with sadness. “My sister, Gallu, is the Asakku’s master. She seeks to bring chaos to the human world and, unfortunately, I and my following are the only ones who stand a chance of stopping her.”
“Asakku?” The word sounded so strange to me and I spoke it in an attempt to grasp the full meaning of the word.
“They are a menacing force; Hephaestus is the oldest of Gallu’s warriors. He is the oldest, and strongest of her small army. He is also the most clever. That is perhaps why he is still alive.” She saw my lack of comprehension and clarified. “The Asakku’s greatest weakness is their penchant for violence. Most do not last for very long. They are formidable against their opponents, but they are not meant to survive in a pack environment. Hephaestus’s ability to have survived for ten and a half centuries is something that makes him the most feared of all of his kind.”
“He’s over a thousand years old?” the man who had attacked me in the alleyway had not seemed more than nineteen or twenty.
“Yes, he was born in the human year, 966 A.D.” She said it so calmly, would I see one thousand?
I wrapped my head around the idea for a moment before I spoke again. “Why did he come after me?”
“I don’t know, it may have simply been because you were there,” she said, shaking her head apologetically. “It may be because Gallu saw something in the future that made her find your death necessary.”
“She sees the future?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.
“Well, no. But one of my kind can, though she does not like Gallu, and it is possible that she saw something that Gallu didn’t want to come to fruition, I can only guess that Mam’s brother told Gallu.” And then as though she felt the need to allay my fears, she added, “you could have needed to remain human to be a threat to her.”
I wondered: How could a human be a threat to her? I was about to ask when she continued.
“Gallu has done some very strange things in response to her paranoia. I and my following are, unfortunately, unable to prevent all of her evil deeds from coming to fruition.”
“Demetrius said that he came to you in much the same way.”
“Yes, Hephaestus tried to take him as well. In his case it was because Gallu wanted him to join the Asakku, it was something Mam had foreseen, but Gallu managed to botch things for us and he has been with us ever since.” He face brightened marginally. “You make him happy you know.”
Her words caught me by surprise and I couldn’t fight back the blush that I felt heat my cheeks. “I made him very sad,” I said quietly, remembering the face that I had seen for so many months in the back of my mind, the pain that I had inflicted on him.
“Regardless. He is happy now.” She patted my knee in a very motherly way and I had to smile. “I am sorry that Adam didn’t arrive in time to save your life. But you must understand that once you are bitten by the Asakku you have only three choices. You die and are sent to the fiery pit of Tartarus, or Hell, whichever you prefer to call it. You become an Asakku and all of the goodness in you is taken from you, you are more or less a husk of who you used to be,” she sighed. I was causing so much sadness and I wanted desperately to stop it. “The only other option was to turn you again. You are one of the few Lilakku. Like Demetrius you were changed by both Asakku and Lilitu. I am sorry that that was the only choice that was available to us.”
“Don’t be sorry. Now that I understand the choices I am very glad that you made the decision you did. I would prefer this existence to an eternity in Hell, or to being a demon’s minion.”
She smiled when I said the word demon. “I would not be so hard on those that are called demons by the human race. They have often called me the same thing.”
I looked at her slightly disbelieving, but the absent smile that crossed her face was proof enough that what she said was true.
“What is a demon anyway?” She asked. “The human dictionary says that a demon is ‘a supposed ghost or sprit regarded as evil.’ But I would beg to speculate that there are some things that are claimed to be evil that are simply misunderstood, like spiders.” She smiled at me knowingly.
My hallucination of the spiders came to me again and I thought about trying to say that I understood spiders, but I knew it would make little difference. I did not understand Lilith, but I didn’t see how anyone could mistake the woman before me for an evil being?
As if she were answering my question she said, “Some earlier cultures thought of me and my kind as wind demons. I prefer the term wind spirit.” The smile on her face was small, but the emotion behind it seemed to flood out toward me.
“You said there are others of your kind?” I asked, curious now, “like you and Gallu?”
“Yes,” she smiled wider now. “The Ennead.”
She said it as though the word should explain everything to me. The only thing that I received from it was that there were nine of them.
“Gallu, my sister, is a fire spirit. Siris and Lamashtu, sisters also, are water and earth spirits respectively, Anu and his mate Nyx are the spirits of the Sun and Moon. And Mamitu, Sulak and Namtar are the spirits of the Future, Past and Present.” She finished with the names of the other eight spirits and added, “We each have our counterpart, the one that keeps the other in check. Mam, Sul and Nam keep each other in line. If we did not, the world would be thrown into chaos in an instant.”
“What about Adam? Is he not also a part of the Ennead?” I asked, I had thought that he would have been one of the Ennead, but as usual I was wrong again.
“No, Adam is my mate, he was at one time human, but I changed him.” Her voice was almost sad again.
“Why does the change make you sad?” I looked at her lowered head and her sunken shoulders, even in this grotesque posture she seemed every bit as angelic as she had from the first moment that I had seen her.
“I take no pleasure from altering a mortal’s life.” She sighed. “Unlike my sister I understand that your kind was meant for something more, a different kind of existence; in many ways a better kind of existence. She sees your kind as little more than a pool of prospective pets.”
I thought for a moment, my head easily processed the information she had given me, but there were so many more questions that sprouted in my mind and I couldn’t decide which to ask first. I decided to start with as basic of a question as I could think of. “What does being a Lilakku mean?”
“Besides that you are an immortal who is tied to no one?” she asked, and I gathered that there was more of a reason for the Lilitu’s desire to stay than simple enjoyment of Mother and Father’s company. “The Lilitu can use the forces of the wind. The Asakku, the forces of fire. Siris’s followers, the Naiadu, control water and Lamashtu’s Utukku can summon the forces of the earth. As a Lilakku, Demetrius can use all four of these elements simply by willing them to do so. You should be able to do the same. I’m not sure why you are able to use all four, logically you should only be able to use the two, but by some strange happenstance, it would seem that the cosmos has gifted your kind with exceptional amounts of luck.”
My face must have held a look befitting all of the skepticism that I felt. Because she smiled at me and the entire room was filled with a swirling vortex of wind around us.
As it died down she smiled at me and said, “you try.”
I looked at her slightly skeptical but I willed the wind to do exactly as she had done and the wind moved about the room in exactly the same way.
&nb
sp; “Very good. Try one of the other elements.” Her smile was intrigued, as though she hadn’t been completely sure that I would be able to perform the first task.
I thought about what she said I could work with and I held out my hand with my palm up. Fire…
As soon as the thought left my mind a flickering flame rose up from an inch above my palm. Water…
The flame was replaced by a perfect sphere of water. It undulated as it was suspended in the air above my hand.
“Very good.” She said approvingly and I looked away from the water to her. It remained floating in the air, even as I took my hand away. “I don’t think Demetrius was able to do that on his first try. You have a remarkable amount of concentration.”
“Thank you.” I said and I looked toward the table and the ball of water glided to it and upon reaching it the sphere broke into four smaller spheres and each fell into one of the four goblets that were set at the table.
“Amazing.” She was still gazing at the goblets. “And to think that they were worried about you.”
“They were worried about me?” I asked, confused by who they were and why they would be worried.
“Yes, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.” I couldn’t help but feel concerned as she spoke. “You can do anything you want with the four lesser elements.”
It was a remarkable gift. I would not deny that. But I was oddly aware of just how much I could do, so I was more concerned with whomever it was that was worried about me.
Lilith spoke in a strange, airy voice and I could not hear the words, though she spoke in a normal volume and was mere feet from me. Before she finished speaking Adam and Demetrius found their way back into the room.
“How is our guest?” Adam asked in a jovial tone.
“Remarkable,” she said with a quiet authority. “And inquisitive as ever. It may take a decade or two to get the questions that she has formed in the past six months answered.”
“That sounds about right,” Demetrius said with a laugh, and I couldn’t fault any of them, for their laughs were not derisive, but joyous.
I smiled at the three people with me. It had been a very long time since I had felt this safe. Since I had felt as though I was part of a real family.
“Can I ask you to do something?” Lilith looked at me with an unsure glance. “I wouldn’t force you to do it. But it would help us.”
“What is it?” I was wary, yet curious. What would they want form me?
“May we share the memory of your attack?” Her mouth turned down sympathetically.
What did that mean? I was confused, but I didn’t think it wise to deny my host something so trivial as this. I nodded.
Smiling she took my hand, and reached for Demetrius with her other. “I want you to think back to the day that you were attacked.” She said quietly as Demetrius took my other hand. “Close your eyes if it will help.”
I closed my eyes and thought back to the cool June morning.
6. Shadow
-Paul-
This was officially boring.
I had never done so much walking before in my life, not that it really mattered, I didn’t feel any strain or anything… I was just ready to have this over with. We were still in a fairly crowded part of London, and I had no clue how we were going to find whoever it was they were looking for.
There were strange smells in the air, and I was beginning to feel mad, though I couldn’t account for it. It was like I had suddenly been pumped full of adrenaline, I was so on edge. I could feel my arms shaking and hoped that the people we passed would assume it was just from the cold.
“Paul?” A girl’s voice called out from behind me. “Is that you, Paul?”
I froze in place, if I had a heart anymore, it would have stopped beating for the full minute before I turned to face the girl who called my name. The other three stood staring straight ahead, their hoods covering their glowing red eyes from those around us.
And I turned to face the small blonde girl who called me by name. I let out a small sigh of relief when I saw that it was only Julie. A girl I had gone to school with.
Something in me wanted to lash out, irrationally, and slap her across the face, but I turned back in the direction that we were heading. I forced my thoughts to understand that I was deciding to just walk away, but she followed us.
“Paul, don’t be like that, it’s me Julie.” She called after us. “Stop!”
I felt the hand on my shoulder and in a split second I had turned to her, grabbing her arm and snarling in her face with bared fangs. Every impulse that I had compelled me to sink my teeth into her throat, to tear her limb from limb, but there were people less than a hundred feet away and I pushed her away. I heard the sobs as we walked into the dark of the street.
“You did the right thing.” Jack said as we walked.
Sasha laughed, “You’re quite tame, aren’t you.”
Carlo turned, walking backwards, “Yeah, Mike would have killed her, and that would have been a fun thing to deal with Gallu about.”
“Mike’s always been the runt of the pack…” Sasha said with a growl. “We should cut him out like the canker he is.”
“We don’t do anything with respect to Miguel until Gallu says.” Jack said in a low voice.
I was still disturbed by my behavior toward Julie. She wasn’t worth my time, but I would have never thought of hurting her. I couldn’t think and so I quoted a bumper sticker I had once read, “Some people are only alive because it’s against the law to kill them.”
My statement was met with two snorts and a laugh. “Gallu is definitely the only reason that Mike is still alive.” Carlo said through clenched teeth and then abruptly stopped. “Your girlfriend sent out the hounds.”
I would have asked what he meant if I hadn’t heard their angry voices approaching from behind. I winced as whoever was driving scrapped the curb. I turned to the car that was just rounding the corner a block down and was instantly infuriated that the driver didn’t know how to drive his car.
The gigantic car that drove towards us was a master of American engineering. I hadn’t seen one in London before, and I was sad that this was the state that I had to see it in now.
“A 1961 Cadillac sedan DeVille…” I said as the car approached. “The only thing I didn’t like about the car was that its owner had decided to paint it a God-awful Pink. I had never seen the appeal of a “pink Cadillac” and I wasn’t impressed now.
“How do you know that?” Sasha asked flatly. “The year I mean.”
“Subtle differences,” I replied off hand. It was the sound of engine that told me, but the tail lamps would have been an indicator too.
They pulled up to the curb, scraping the car’s rims again and I clenched my fists. Even in that grotesque shade of pink the car was a classic. The driver got out of the unfamiliar left-hand drive car and stumbled on the curb. I don’t know if they had been informed of the size of my companions and I, but there was little they could do about it now. One of them held a cricket bat securely in his hand, while the others had their hands balled into tight fists.
I looked to the others. Carlo had a sadistic smile on his face, and Sasha licked his lips, but Jack seemed less pleased about the five inebriated louts that stood on the opposite curb. “Don’t kill them.” Jack said quietly so that the approaching ruffians couldn’t hear.
Carlo and Sasha practically flew into the street. Sasha grabbed two of the men and I heard the humerus of the one in his left hand as it snapped clean in half his arm contorting above his elbow, and I saw the other’s skin depress at the base of his neck where Sasha’s elbow shattered his clavicle.
Carlo had already sent one of his three to the ground, screaming bloody murder about the bloody stub that had once been his nose. He held one down with a firmly placed foot on his throat and the other he suspended in the air with one hand around his neck while he broke the three bones of each arm and then the lower bones of his legs. It was a strange double crack a
s he squeezed the trousered leg until both the tibia and fibula snapped nearly simultaneously.
Sasha picked up the cricket bat that the one with the busted nose had been carrying, and tapped the bloodied man on the back of the head with it. “It’s not wise to start something you can’t finish, laddie.” He said in English with a strange, almost Irish, accent, and swung backwards before letting the full force of his the bat connect with the man’s face.
He whistled as he walked back to where Jack and I stood, Carlo was still toying with the last one. “That was fun.”
“A little one sided don’t you think?” But even as the question left my mouth I wished that I could have been in the fray with them. It had been all that I could do to restrain myself… there was some primal urge that seemed to be wanting to surface.
Carlo arrived with a souvenir, one of them had been wearing a thick platinum ring, “Have we become muggers now too?” I asked, with a laugh.
“He won’t be needing this anymore.” Carlo said with a smile that faded when he saw Jack’s disapproving scowl. “What… I didn’t kill him. He’s just going to need an amputation if the ambulance doesn’t get here soon.”
Sasha interrupted… “did you like my English accent? It was ‘spot on’ wasn’t it?” He hit Carlo with the bat. It splintered as it connected with his head, but the Italian just turned to his Russian friend with a smile. “You were off by an island.”
“You’re heads not that big.” Sasha broke into a hissing laugh.
Carlo just leered at him. “The accent you idiot, you were on the wrong island.”
I just shook my head. This was a very strange world I had fallen into.
“Let’s go. We shouldn’t have wasted time with that,” Jack said gruffly and we continued on.
Carlo and Sasha may not have yet transformed into their animal-headed, more demonic-looking forms, but they were already acting very animal-like. They slunk through the dark streets of early morning London, seeking out the humans who were meant to die. It was as though they had let their animal sides take over. There was something primal about them, and I found myself – inexplicably – envying them.
