by Tanya Simon
“They were only important because they stood between you and me. The witch will be safe as long as she doesn’t try to interfere. Ryan also will be safe as long as he doesn’t try to come after you. Seth is not important enough to bother with, since you no longer love him. And mortal cops have never been a threat to us, without you to lead them to us, they are of no concern.”
Mystery went back to the bed and sat. Cain followed and sat down next to her taking her hands. “Come to us.” He whispered in her ear
“Yes.” Mystery whispered.
She could feel all of demon-kind rejoicing. Cain took her hand and placed it against his heart. “Say the words. Say what is in your heart.”
Mystery closed her eyes, “Satan loves me, and to him I go.” She gasped as an intense feeling of completion and peace filled her. She marveled as tears ran freely down her cheeks. “Natas Sevil!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Cain gripped her hands. “Look inside yourself and picture the aerie.” He chuckled at her quizzical expression. “Now that you are Roodmasi, you know the location, as it is only known to your people.” He kissed her hands. “Picture your mother sitting in her chamber waiting to hear from me.” Mystery closed her eyes. “Now wish to be with her.”
They disappeared and demon-kind wept with joy.
Raevanne sat in front of her vanity brushing her hair and worrying. Today was the last time Cain would try to convince Mystery to come home. If he failed today, the Master would demand her destruction, and Cain would be shattered but he would comply with his father’s wishes. Tears gathered in her eyes making them twinkle like emeralds, she just couldn’t lose her child. Bowing her head, she prayed to the Master to make her daughter come home.
Raevanne wiped hastily at her cheeks as the air began to tremble. It wouldn’t do for Cain to see her tears, he may not understand, he might suspect her loyalties were as divided as they were.
“Raevanne, my love.” Cain’s presence filled the room.
Raevanne whirled around and gasped, standing next to her husband, looking lost, was their child. She jumped up and folded her into a mother’s arms. Both women hugged and cried, the mother whispering words of love, the daughter muttering words of forgiveness.
“Oh Cain, we must celebrate!” Her eyes now twinkled with excitement. “Her grandfather will want to attend.” Raevanne’s excited chatter died as she felt Mystery shiver. She cupped her daughter’s pale face in her hands.
“My daughter, it will be different for you now, you are one of us. He will only be one more person who loves you. He will simply be your grandfather.” She squeezed Mystery’s hand reassuringly.
“Cain, my love?” she turned pleading eyes to him, “Can I have a few minutes alone with our child?”
Cain smiled, “I’ll go tell Father and prepare for the celebration.” He bent to kiss Mystery’s cheek. “Welcome, my daughter, welcome!” He turned and walked out of the chamber.
“Let’s get you ready for the celebration.” Raevanne bounced up. “I think an emerald green cloak to match your eyes will be perfect.”
Mystery sat and allowed Raevanne to brush her ebony locks until they shone. Raevanne draped the cloak around Mystery’s shoulders admiring the way the candlelight reflected on her daughter’s bare skin. Raevanne planted a kiss on Mystery’s head and hugged her slim shoulders.
Cain was pleased to find both sets of green eyes glowing with happiness and excitement when he returned to the chamber a couple of hours later. He grasped his daughter’s hands and pulled her to him. Her eyes lit with joy as she kissed his cheek.
“Come, my women, let the celebration begin!” He took Raevanne’s hand and pulled both women from the chamber.
Mystery gaped in awe at all of the cloaked figures dancing in the light of hundreds upon hundreds of candles. They roared in happiness as she descended the stairs. Cain chuckled and led her to the altar. Once there he shrugged the cloak from her shoulders and lowered her to the altar. He bent to kiss her brow and murmured comforting words to her.
Silence descended as the air began to tremble. One by one the cloaked figures dropped their cloaks and fell to their knees. Raevanne and Cain removed their cloaks and joining hands lowered themselves to their knees, faces beaming with pride.
A tall muscular nude man began to walk through the kneeling figures to Cain and Raevanne. He kissed Cain’s lowered head as Raevanne kissed his feet.
“Rise my children.” He said in a deep rich voice. He smiled as shouts of joy filled the air. “Cain, my son, show me my grandchild.”
Cain led the man to the altar, and soothed Mystery as his father looked her over.
“She’s exquisite.” He closed his eyes and the other members of the coven began to chant, when he opened them again they were glowing red.
Mystery looked up at the man who was her grandfather and evil incarnate, and shuddered, formless pleas drifted through her mind.
“Don’t be afraid, my child.” He straddled her. “Relax and enjoy.”
Mystery felt her body relax and her fear drift away. She smiled up at Satan and spread her legs. He bent and nipped her lip. Mystery moaned as she was thoroughly and completely filled. With each thrust the chanting grew louder. Mystery was shook to her core with an explosive release. Satan thrust so hard that the altar felt as though it moved beneath them. He rained little bites all over Mystery’s pale skin, leaving welts in his wake. Mystery’s moans turned to screams as his shaft began to grow with each thrust. When she thought she would be ripped apart, he threw back his head and roared, drowning out the fevered chanting. Mystery could only whimper as his cold, dead semen filled her, extinguishing all the light in her soul.
When her grandfather had left and the other coven members had gone back to their activities, Cain lifted a weeping Mystery into his arms; he took her up a set of stairs and into a grand chamber. She barely noticed the rich furnishings; she turned her face into the warmth of her father’s chest and closed her eyes. She cried out as Cain lowered her into a heated bath, the little bites all over her body stinging.
“Juliet, your lady’s maid, will be here momentarily to assist you with your bath. After you have let her tend your wounds, think of me. I will come to you and we can talk about why what happened had to happen. If you would like we can go and see Jeremiah.”
At Jeremiah’s name Mystery perked up. She looked at her father’s face; she saw genuine remorse there.
“Okay, Father.” she adjusted herself in the tub and gritted her teeth against the pain.
“I love you, Mystery.” He turned to leave the room.
“I love you, Father.” He smiled as he walked out and an older looking brunette woman came in.
“I am Juliet. I will serve you. If you need anything at all, Princess, please don’t hesitate to ask me.” She bent and began to wash Mystery’s aching body, tenderly.
“Thank you. First thing you can do for me is call me Mystery.” She winced as the soapy rag Juliet used cleaned the bites.
“Mystery it is.” Juliet smiled.
Juliet was brushing out her hair when Mystery called for her father; he came into the room with her mother right behind him.
“Juliet please leave us.” He waited until the maid had left. “Your mother had no idea of what your grandfather had planned. I had no idea, until I went to tell him you were home.”
“Okay.” Mystery picked up the brush and finished brushing her own hair.
“He believes the child you are carrying will be very important in the coming wars. He knew your fear if you had known his plans would have kept you from being able to endure the conception.”
“Why did I feel dead inside after he was done?”
“He is Lord of the Dead. His darkness temporarily drowned out your light. You should be feeling more like yourself now.”
“Why does all of this exist? Who are the Roodmasi? And how is it you were born to Eve, right after The Fall and you are still alive?” Mystery turned around so she wa
s looking in her father’s eyes. “I need to understand. I need the rest of the picture.”
Cain paced for a minute before he sat down on her bed. He motioned for her to come and sit beside him. When she was settled next to him. He took one of her fragile hands in his big, callused hands. He looked out into the room and his eyes went unfocused as he looked back through time.
“Father engineered The Fall, bribing the angels who guarded the entry way with pleasure and promises of power. Once Adam and Mother had eaten what they were not supposed to, he knew they would be kicked out of The Garden and when Mother was feeling put out with God, he seduced her and I was the product.” Cain stood and began to pace again.
“So, did he ask you to kill your brother?” Mystery asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes. He knew I would be marked and no man would be able to extinguish my life and I would be free to walk the Earth for all time.”
“How did Grandfather know for certain that God would not kill you and call it a day?”
“I asked him that myself once. He told me that God’s history up to that point was telling.”
“God’s history?”
“Yes. When the battle happened in Heaven, God had the angels who had fought against him thrown from Heaven. When Adam and Mother did what they should not have, he expelled them from paradise, instead of smiting them and starting anew. So, Father figured, my punishment would be to have my life elongated, and to know I would spend eternity away from those I knew and loved. It was the worst thing God could do to me, aside from take my life.”
“So, Grandfather bet everything, your life, his plans on percentages?”
“Yes. And it worked.” Cain raised his eyebrow. “I did not appreciate him betting on my life, but I did not question my father. I hesitated as long as I could because I loved Abel. He was simple, kind and good in a way I never could be. But, as I have done for eight thousand years, I obeyed and I slew him.” Cain looked up, his beautiful face twisted in agony. “God punished me by marking me.” He pulled up his sleeve and showed her a branded symbol burned into his upper left forearm. “He banished me from my home and sent me to wander the Earth for all time. This was exactly what your Grandfather had planned.” He looked up and smiled wistfully at her. “I thought at the time, his plan would not work. God would see what he was up to and smite me. However years, followed by centuries, stretching into millennia passed and I thrived.” Cain sat next to Mystery again. “I have not questioned Father’s workings since.”
“So, just like with Abel, if I had not come home, you would have killed me?”
“Yes. I do not know if I could have survived killing you. I love you, as I have not loved any of my other children. It would have destroyed your mother and I love her more than I have loved any other Shivana who I married.” He kissed her forehead. He smiled when she squeezed his hand.
Mystery stood and began to pace herself, as she tried to take in the scope of who and what she was a part of. “You have married into the Roodmasi before Mother?”
“Many times. Father calls me back home, when he feels I have been with the humans long enough. He sends me back, when he sees the opportunity to produce a Shivana or Shivant, the male version, of particular power.” He smiled to himself. “I am actually your Mother’s great, great grandfather.”
“So the Roodmasi have existed since The Fall?”
“Shortly after it. I went to Nod, and found those willing to follow Father under his true name and not the names they had been worshipping him under. The followers grew and Father would come from time to time to enforce their belief in him.”
“If he can come to this plane by himself, why is the ascension necessary?”
“After The Christ died on the Rood, he went to Acheron and stole the keys not only to life and death, but to the passageway Father used to ascend to this plane. Father can only be summoned now, for a short time, within a consecrated circle of power.” He took her hand and brought her back to sit beside him. “I am the only one who can summon him and I can only hold it for a short period of time.” He made sure she looked at him. “With your power, added to mine and the Roodmasi’s; Father can ascend to this plane permanently.”
Mystery pulled away and stood. “So, you lied to me about the world not ending because I came home?” Tears gathered in her eyes.
“No!” Cain went to her and pulled her into his arms. She resisted and finally collapsed against him. “This is in the Bible. There will be a thousand years of Father’s reign. The thousand years of his reign would have begun with or without you it is predestined. When it ends, the battle written about in Revelation will come to pass. Understandably, the Roodmasi, believe in a different outcome than the Bible’s.” He relaxed when she chuckled. “The Feast we will celebrate in a few days time, is called Roodmas, it is our biggest celebration, because it is when The Christ died. There are other Feast Days which correspond to failures for the opposing viewpoint.”
“So, I will become Shivana eventually?”
“Yes. When Raevanne, is called home to Father, you will assume her place as the next Shivana. I will be called home and when the time is at hand for the battle, I will again join the Roodmasi and marry the Shivana, producing another warrior for the coming battle.”
“So… It won’t be me?”
Cain laughed. “No, my daughter, it won’t be you. You will be called home to be with me in Acheron, long before those far away days.”
“I cannot say Grandfather does not scare me, senseless, but I already feel love for you and for my mother. I will try hard to be worthy of my people by the time I am Shivana. Please, be patient, this is overwhelmingly different to everything I was raised to believe and to the life I led before I came here.”
“You are home. We can be patient now.” He stood and twirled her around. “My daughter is home!” His blue eyes glowed with joy.
“I am home to stay.” Mystery smiled at her father and kissed his cheek. “Please, can I see Jeremiah now?”
They both turned when Raevanne came all the way into the chamber, she had watched from the door, enjoying the adult version of her daughter, demanding answers from her father, just as she had when she was a toddler. Raevanne’s eyes were full of tears. Mystery ran to her and they embraced. Raevanne looked over her daughter’s head and mouthed, “Thank you.” To her husband, he mouthed, “You’re welcome.” They both smiled.
“Of course, you can see your child now.” Raevanne put her arm around Mystery’s shoulders and pulled her from the room. “He can be moved into your chamber tonight if you would like.”
“Yes. Please”
“Daughter. I am sorry, I wanted you to have nothing but joy, on this your first day with us.” Cain was sincerely contrite.
“I know, Father.” Mystery kissed his cheek, as her mother opened the door to another chamber. Mystery ran forward and snatched up her son. Tears ran down her face as he gripped her hair and smiled at her. “He still remembers me!”
“Of course he does.” Raevanne stepped forward and brushed her daughter’s hair out of her face. “You are his mother.”
“Your mother and I will leave you to play with your son. Good night, Mystery and welcome.”
“Good Night.” She was so absorbed in her son she didn’t even hear them leave.
20
That night, Seth shuffled the boxes he was carrying around so he could reach into his pocket for his keys. He had tried ringing and no one had answered. When he found them he unlocked the door and pushed it open. The house was unnaturally quiet. Seth made his way into the living room and put the boxes down. He walked back to the kitchen and finding it empty he helped himself to some juice.
“Mystery, Ryan? Is anybody here?” The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
Seth wandered upstairs, not wanting to see the bedroom, but knowing he had to get his stuff out of the closet. The bed was slightly rumpled and he found Mystery’s white robe lying in a fluffy heap on the floor. He sat
as he picked it up. Mystery’s scent filled his senses as he held it to his cheek.
He jumped as a vase fell off Mystery’s vanity. “Who’s there?” He shouted into the semi-darkness.
“Nobody but us ghosts.” Said a gravelly voice.
Seth’s eyes dilated with fear as the room filled with a horrible stench. He could only stare in return at the beady yellow eyes, which stared out of the shadows at him. Seth’s shoulders drooped with acceptance of his fate. The yellow eyes slowly grew into a human form. A naked man stepped forward.
“Mystery’s gone to the Roodmasi?” Seth heard himself say.
“Yes.” The man replied in a gravelly voice.
