by Lila Huff
She glanced back once again and her anger turned to fear as she noted that it was not me. I felt the fear grow in my own chest as she continued down the street, abating slightly as she crossed the lane and believed that he did not follow her, until it finally consumed every fiber of her being in the alley way.
I opened my eyes when the flash of red light filled my vision, and I could no longer argue that Jack was in any way innocent of his crime. I now saw that Gallu and the Asakku had not saved me from my death, but caused it. How could I have been so naïve?
“They are not as philanthropic as they would have you believe.” Ellie’s tone was icy.
In passing, their comments and behavior had seemed normal because I had nothing to base them on, but Ellie was correct. There was no charity in their work; they were not the hands of fate. They were the hands of unjust murderers. A crime syndicate of the undead, and Gallu was the godfather. I had been close to the mark when I had first guessed she was a mob boss.
“Might as well start calling me Guido,” I said with a sigh and rubbed my temples with the thumb and middle finger of my left hand, covering my eyes. It was better that I not see the look of disapproval on Ellie’s face.
“Do you think you’re one of them?” Her voice sounded far away, but I was too much of a coward to remove my hand to look at her.
“I can’t change what I am.” It was hard for me to hear those words leave my clenched teeth. “I didn’t choose this afterlife, but I am powerless to change what I have become.”
“I don’t think it’s as final as you assume.” The distance in her voice was pitched with anger.
“I only see one way out Ellie, and I’m considering asking the big one if he’ll help me with it. He seemed eager enough before.”
I felt a cold hand pull my own away from my eyes and found myself staring into the black pool of stars that had once been Ellie’s eyes. “You are not going to commit suicide, and Earl won’t help you. I won’t let him.”
“Technically I can’t commit suicide. I’m already dead, remember?” I said with a half-hearted laugh. “But I don’t want to hurt people.”
“You don’t have to.” Her brow creased. “You are not a monster.”
“No,” I agreed, “I’m an Asakku, and that’s worse.” I could feel the anger starting to build again, but this time my anger was completely focused on those who had made me.
Ellie turned from me, despair spreading across her face. “You don’t have to be like the Asakku.”
“I’m not like you Ellie. You were taken by the Lilitu. Evil hasn’t replaced the blood that once flowed in your veins.” I could feel malice pumping in my veins now.
“You don’t have to be evil,” she said in a tone so icy it made me shiver. “Everyone has a choice.”
She didn’t understand. I could feel it; that urge to kill – to do harm – lurked under my skin; it coursed through me. The amount of control it took to not ransack the streets of London was like the skin of a bubble. Thin, permeable. The tiniest error and I would lose my grip on my humanity. “Pop” I said quietly… did I have a right to my humanity anymore?
“I don’t,” my teeth clenched together again. “You cannot understand.”
“Paul, you don’t know me.” She threw up her arms in exasperation, “I don’t know me anymore.”
“Ellie,” I said with a sigh, the killer instinct inside of me was much easier to control when I was worried about her, and at the moment I was worried about her perception of me.
She thought this was just an infatuation, but I knew it wasn’t. I had hung on every word that my mother had said when she had told me anything that had occurred in the Ellerbee family, in the hopes that I might hear her name. It had, I was willing to admit, become more or less of an obsession for me, but I wasn’t on the verge of becoming a stalker.
“I want to know you. Don’t you see that?” I asked, feeling as exasperated as she sounded.
“You forget that I’ve felt what you felt Paul.” Her tone was guarded, unsure. “And what you want isn’t something I can give you.” I reached toward her and she disappeared with a faint breeze, like a bubble bursting.
The unfortunate side effect of my circumstances made it impossible for me to simply follow her, and so I turned for the door and went to seek her out.
The hallway was the same – macabre as ever and dim. I closed my eyes for a brief moment and I could feel her. I turned to my left, but I wasn’t able to go toward where I felt she would be.
Demetrius was leaning against the wall, looking as sad as ever. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
“I didn’t realize I needed a chaperone.” I said with a slight growl, Ellie was gone now, so I no longer felt in control of my anger.
“You don’t, I was just waiting for Jo.” He stood up and looked behind me. “But I see she’s not here anymore, so I’ll quit bothering you.” He turned to go.
I felt the urge to let him turn his back and then pounce. “Wait,” I called after him. If he was a louse I didn’t want him near Ellie, but I wouldn’t kill him. “What’s your deal?”
“My deal?” he asked, “you’ll have to forgive an old man, but I am not familiar with that colloquialism.”
“Why are you so interested in Ellie?” I asked, feeling a bit silly for having to say it aloud.
“Why are you?” he looked at me contemptuously. “Jo has something that I have never encountered in all my years. But I won’t try to force her to love me.”
I could tell that his last remark was meant as a jab at me. But I didn’t want, or need the reminder. He was already rounding the corner at the end of the hall and I had no desire to speak to him, or anyone else for that matter.
I felt the heat rising in my face and combusted.
I found myself in the parking garage where Carlo and I had left the Cadillac, but the floor was empty, the flickering light of the fluorescents illuminated the empty space where the car should have been. They had stolen my car. I felt the heat rising in my veins. But I calmed myself with the knowledge that it wasn’t really my car to begin with… but if I didn’t care about stolen property…
The garage I snuffed myself in smelled of oil and old leather. It was somehow calming. There were several cars parked in the open space, all of which were in pristine condition, but I barely glanced at them seeking out the one I was looking for. Then I saw it.
The teardrop fenders that swept back toward the suicide-style doors that were set into the two passenger cab at an angle, and the split-pane window that sparkled in the dim light of the overhead fluorescents.
The careless owner left the keys to his priceless collection hanging on a pegboard at the back of the garage. All were hung on hooks beneath a label.
“Guess he never expected anyone to get in.” I looked around me. “It’s not like this is Fort Knox or anything.”
I quickly grabbed the keys under the label that read Talbot and returned to the car. She purred when I started her and I hit the button on the garage door opener that sat on the passenger seat.
“It’s almost like they want me to steal it,” I laughed.
I pulled out of the garage and onto a city street. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew I wasn’t in England. People were driving on the wrong side of the road.
“Stealing a car isn’t a good way to prove you’re not evil, strictly speaking.” Ellie said from the seat next to me, a small smile coming to her lips. “Or did you take the car because if you didn’t, a litter of kittens would be killed?”
“Strictly speaking? No.” I laughed, “But I am going to put it back.”
“So, why this car?” She asked, running her hand over the flat dashboard. “It’s definitely unique.” Her face contorted slightly with the last word.
“It’s most certainly unique,” I said, gripping the leather of the steering wheel a little tighter. “There were only sixteen of these babies made. It’s a four-speed manual, front engine, rear wheel drive piece of art. It may only have a four liter i
nline six, but it’s divinity on wheels.”
She looked at me with glazed over eyes.
“A nineteen thirty-seven Talbot Lago TC150-C-SS.” There was still no recognition in her face, or perhaps it was interest her expression was lacking.
“I’m not really into cars,” she said in an odd monotone. “Especially the antiques.”
“The antiques are the best though,” I argued. “Car manufacturers don’t do it right anymore.”
“That’s all well and good, but you’ve still stolen a car,” she said, looking out the window. “And you went to Paris to do it.”
“How do you know it’s Paris?” I asked, amused by her annoyance.
She just pointed out of her window and I leaned over and looked up to the Eiffel Tower. Brightly lit against the black backdrop of the night sky, it was like a glowing arrow to the heavens. If only I could follow it.
“I guess that’s a good indicator,” I agreed, and sat back in the seat.
We drove on in silence for a few moments before she asked, “so, are you going to tell me why you got the whim to steal a car? We already know why you chose this car… mechanical art and what not, but why steal a car at all?”
“If you tell me why you came to look for me first,” I answered smugly, my jaw set. She was treating me like a child again.
“I came to look for you because Lilith felt you leave and knows that the Asakku will try to take you back. I’m here to protect you,” she answered flatly, staring straight out the window.
I ground my teeth, she needed to protect me? That was laughable. “I stole this car because I needed to clear my head. Driving tends to do that for me, and I figured, why not do it in style.”
“So you stole a three and a half million dollar car?” she asked.
I looked at her and saw the smile she was trying to hide. “I thought cars weren’t really your thing.”
“No, not generally, but I was at an auction in Scottsdale, Arizona where one of these went for that much and, as you know, memory loss is not something we will ever have to fear.” Her smile spread across her face, and I couldn’t help but smile too, though I didn’t know what she was talking about. I was having memory lapses left and right.
“Let’s take the car back, okay?” She suggested, and my smile immediately faded.
“Well, there’s the trick,” I said, nervously tapping the wheel. “I wasn’t paying attention for the past few miles… so I don’t exactly know how to get back.”
She sighed, “hold on.” And taking my hand in hers and placing her other on the dashboard, she closed her eyes.
It felt as though I was suddenly caught up in a wind storm and my skin, having somehow become brittle, broke apart into small granules. Then I returned to myself, those granules reforming me like pieces of a puzzle interconnecting. We were back in the garage, parked in the exact spot the car had been in when I had found it.
“Put the keys back,” Ellie said as she got out of the cab.
“Yes, mother,” I said teasingly, “and I’ll wash behind my ears, too.”
She just rolled her eyes and disappeared, like she too was made of millions of tiny granules.
I combusted and found myself back in the room that had been designated as mine. Ellie was sitting on a long sofa that was positioned in the center of the room, effectively dividing the room in half. She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but ask, it had been nagging me in the car. “There wasn’t any other reason that you came to get me?” I was hoping against hope that there was another reason, but in the pit of my stomach I was pretty sure I was fighting a losing battle. And I could see in her eyes that she knew the real question I was asking.
“Paul, I love you like a brother, but there’s nothing more to how I feel.”
I allowed the small amount of hope that welled in my chest to remain silent. “Alright. I can deal with that kiddo.”
She flashed me an annoyed grimace, “I hate it when you call me that.”
“But you make the cutest faces,” I said with a grin that quickly faded. “So, what’s Demetrius got that I don’t?” I knew I didn’t want to hear the answer, but I needed to know.
“You assume too much,” was her only response.
Was I wrong in my assumption that she preferred Demetrius over me? “So you don’t like the sad, brooding type?” I was about to continue, but she hit me square in the face with one of the cushions from the sofa.
“I’m in far too messed up of a place right now to even be thinking about that,” she said as I pulled a feather, that had escaped the cushion, from my mouth. “Metri is just helping me through it. He’s been there before, so it’s easy to be with him.”
“Any of the others could help you out. Well, the prissy one that stormed off – literally – probably wouldn’t be much help, but the others could help, and yet, you don’t seem to be taking their help.”
“It’s not the same with them, Demetrius and I are…” she trailed off and I wondered what she wasn’t telling me, but I wasn’t going to ask.
“Regardless of your reasons,” I said in a warning tone, “Demetrius’ feelings are not that far off from mine.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Thank you for that,” she shook her head like I was the parent giving her a talk about boys.
“Don’t believe me if you don’t want to, but it’s obvious that there’s something there, if not for you, then at least for him.”
She didn’t respond, and I suddenly felt rotten for badgering her about it. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t very gentlemanly of me. I feel like rubbish.”
Her mouth twitched slightly, and I knew that she’d forgiven me already.
“You sure we only fit into the ‘just friends’ category?” I said with a teasing laugh.
She smiled at the distant wall, “I’ll admit that I had a childish crush on you, but that was a long time ago.” She cast a sidelong glance at me. “Come on – I was fifteen, and you were the attractive older guy… and you had a British accent to boot.”
I sighed, looking at the floor. “Oh, how I wish that childish crush still existed.”
She turned to me, but before she could say anything a strange wind-like noise swept through the room.
“We need to go,” Ellie said as she stood.
Apparently the wind meant something different to her; she seemed agitated all of a sudden. I didn’t complain as she took my hand and lead me from the room. The lamps seemed to stare at me as she dragged me through the hallways, back to that long hall.
“Joellen,” Lilith said as we crossed the threshold to the hall, “come here please.”
Lilith took Ellie’s hands and I watched the writhing white tendrils as they transferred from Lilith’s right arm into Ellie’s left and from Ellie’s right to Lilith’s left. A transfer of information was taking place, something that not everyone should know.
Ellie turned to me with a worried expression, and as she crossed back to where I was the wind like noise returned. The others were speaking in a way that I could not hear.
“Carla is coming back,” Ellie said as she took me by the arm and moved me to a nearby chair. “She’s not coming alone, and we don’t know how this is going to turn out. I need you to sit here and not move a muscle.”
I did as I was told without question. I had just gotten the Ellie I knew back, I didn’t want to do anything that would take her away from me again.
We sat in the large hall and waited. I could tell that they were talking, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. Their voices swept about me like wind through a tunnel, the sweeping noise was all that I could discern.
I watched Ellie across the hall as her expression changed. There was some controversy as to what would soon come through the doors. All eyes lingered on the black portals as the gale-like conversation swept about me.
17. Siris
-Joellen-
When the doors finally parted, Carla led the procession. She walked through the doors with a haughty air and didn’t c
ast a glance in Paul’s direction.
The woman that entered behind Carla moved with a fluid grace. Her eyes, much like Lilith’s, seemed to be glass orbs, but hers were filled with dark grey turbulent waters, like the sea in a storm. Her long white hair, as translucent as Lilith’s, reminded me of a fine silk net, but it trailed behind her as though it was floating in water. I could only assume that this statuesque beauty was Siris, the water spirit.
“Lilith!” she said in a strangely hollow voice, yet the words seemed to trickle from her mouth like a rivulet of water. “Your girl has told me some very interesting things.”
“Siris, my dear friend.” Lilith said as she stepped forward. She did not seem at all surprised by the water demon’s arrival, or by the Naiadu that followed her.
The Naiadu were very similar to us in that they did not lose much of their human appearance, but the three that followed her each had varying amounts of silvery blue green scales sprouting from their skin. The male Naiadu’s arms and back were almost completely scaled, like a shimmering jacket, but with scales wrapping down, across his chest as well. They were starting to creep up his neck and along his jawbone toward the mop of brown hair that seemed to have coral growing from it.
The two females were both slender and oddly small, but their ashy blonde hair fell in long curls down their backs and seemed to have all sorts of oceanic flora in it as well as their own coral. The older girl – I assumed this only because she had more scales – was entirely covered in scales on the left half of her body, and the right half was slowly following suit. The younger girl only had a small patch of scales below her right eye, and then the beginnings of a trail up her right arm.
All three wore thin linen clothes, light cream in color. They reminded me of a ship’s sails as they flowed about their wearers, billowing in the soft wind that Carla was still producing in her ire. The man had dark blue eyes. The younger girl had black eyes, like Paul’s, but they were fluid, ever moving like dark pools of water.
The older girl’s eyes were a fluid turquoise, like the Caribbean, they looked extremely inviting. She retreated to Carla’s side as soon as Siris waved them away, gripping the oldest of the Lilitu’s hand firmly in her own.
