by Tanya Simon
“Yes, Master.”
He dropped his hand from her chin and turned away from her. “Good day, my sweet.”
Lilith choked back tears. “Thank you, Master.” She turned and ran out.
24
Once she got home Lilith bathed in milk and rose essence, she smoothed rose scented crème over her silky skin, and dressed in a pair of harem pants and a sheer black blouse. She went back downstairs and arranged the takeout food she had picked up on the table along with china she had purchased that afternoon. She put the wine on the table to breathe and lit candles. She wouldn’t use sex to make his decision for him, but if this were to be their last night together she did want it to be special. She nervously ran her hands over her hair and checked herself in the reflective surface of the oven door. She sighed with relief when she heard Sam’s key turn in the lock.
She smiled as he walked to her and presented her with roses. Lily’s eyes misted as she bent to smell the fragrant blooms. She watched as he shrugged out of his jacket and walked to the stereo. Soon, the mellow tones of a Johnny Mathis tune drifted through the room. Walking to her, he took the flowers and sat them on the sofa, and he pulled her into his arms. They swayed slightly to the music, until Sam noticed her tears.
“Lilith, what is it? Did something happen while you were running your errands today?” He tried to hug her and she pulled away.
“Sam, please sit down.” She gestured to the sofa. “What I’ve got to tell you won’t be easy for either of us.” She began to pace as he sat, staring at her, concern etching his familiar features. “Do you remember Seth and Mystery?” Sam’s eyes clouded over. “Try hard, Sam.”
As the clouds parted, she saw flashes of anger replace them.
“Mystery was right about the murders.”
“How do you know?” The anger was replaced by wariness and it cut Lily to her core.
“I’m one of them.” The wariness became fear. “I am Lilith, the original woman. Are you familiar with the legend?”
Sam managed to shake his head.
“I was created by God for Adam. I was to be subservient to him. I was not willing to be subservient to any human. So, I fled to the banks of what became known as the Red Sea. There Satan sent devils to fulfill my every fantasy and slowly I became one of them. I became a succubus. For the last eight thousand years I have been used to seduce Satan’s enemies and drive them insane or worse, murder them. I was sent by Satan to stop you or slow down the investigation. If I couldn’t slow you down, I was to kill you or drive you insane.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Sam’s Adam’s apple worked up and down.
“No. I love you. I was working against you when I first came. I was ordered to kill Peter and I did. Shortly after that I fell for you and I couldn’t, I wouldn’t do anything to harm you or slow the investigation down.” She crossed to him and sat beside him, closing her eyes and sighing when he didn’t move away from her. “Never, in all the millennia I have roamed this world and the underworld, have I even cared for another soul. Two days after meeting you, I felt sympathy for you, I felt your loneliness and I wanted to make it better. I hadn’t felt anything since I felt anger at God, but pleasure. On the night I looked at Amy’s picture for the first time I realized I was in love with you.”
“I think I fell the night you came to the bar so the first time I saw you wouldn’t be behind Naomi’s desk.” He took her hands in his. “They killed her, didn’t they?”
“Yes.”
“I knew she would never turn on her own. Simon Thomas didn’t commit those murders did he?”
“No. The Roodmasi did. They were sacrifices to Satan. I was told to put on a performance and so was he. We had to make you and everyone else believe he was insane enough to kill a cop in the interrogation room. Cain planned the whole thing. The girls and Naomi were conditioned to give their souls to Satan. After so much torture, they give in to stop the pain.”
“So, now what? How do we stop them?” He leaned in and kissed her. “How do we stay together?”
“I bought us a chance.”
“What chance can we possibly have?” He looked into her eyes. “I’m going to end up like Seth, aren’t I?”
“No! No!” She shook her head furiously. “The Master said if you willingly give him your soul, he’d leave us alone for the rest of your predestined life.” She waited for his answer.
“If I say no?”
“He’ll send demons to kill you, but your soul will still belong to God.” She looked away; she wouldn’t use her part of the bargain to sway him.
“What else!” He cupped her perfect face in his hands. “What happens to you? When this is all over, what happens to you?”
“I won’t let you make your choice based on me!”
“What else, Lily?” She tried to stand and he held her in her seat.
“I will be given to Nergal, a first order demon and his squad of lesser demons for eternity.” She placed her hands on his face. “But you must choose for you, just as I chose for me, eons before you were born.”
He took her hands and pressed his lips to each palm. “I choose you.” He kissed her closed eyes. “I choose us.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head. “I willingly give my soul to your Master.” He opened his eyes and stared into her tear-filled ones. “Now what, my love?”
“Come with me, my love.” Lily took Sam’s hands and pulled him downstairs. Sam’s eyes grew large as he looked at the giant pentagram drawn on the concrete floor.
Lily knelt in the circle and reaching behind her to the shelves on the wall, pulled out a piece of parchment.
“Kneel inside the circle with me Sam.” She pulled him down beside her. She chuckled, as Sam’s eyes got even bigger at the dagger in her hand. “It’s all right.” She lit a red candle. She gently cupped his left elbow in her hand and drew the dagger across his arm. Sam gasped and tried to pull away. “No. Be still!” He froze.
Lily took a quill from the shelves and handed it and the parchment to him. “Write in blood, what I tell you to write.” She grasped his hands. “Word for word, you can’t screw up or we are lost.” She spoke softly now. “Now write.”
Sam took the quill from Lily’s pale hands and dabbed it in the pool of blood gathering beneath his arms.
Lily spoke clearly. “I call upon the True God, Lord Satan and in his presence, I, Samuel Lucas Jefferies.” Sam dabbed the quill in his blood again. “Renounce any and all allegiance to the false god and his pitiful, puppet son. I pledge my allegiance and my soul to the True God, Lord Satan. I do this of my own free will and with a sure mind and heart.” She touched his shoulder and he jumped. “Now sign it.”
Sam signed the document in blood and gathered it up.
“Now.” Lily pulled him to his feet. “Repeat after me.”
“Okay.” Sam’s voice shook.
“Lucifer, Ruler of the Northern Kingdom, I beseech you to come to us, for we wish to make a bargain with your Father. Aguares, Ruler of the Eastern Kingdom, I beseech you to speak upon our behalf with Lord Satan to hear our plea. Belial, Rule of the Southern Kingdom, I beseech you to also aid us in this undertaking. Leviathan, Ruler of the Western Kingdom, please guide us on the course to take to have Lord Satan hear our plea.” Sam shrank back against Lily as the air began to vibrate and she pushed him away. “Lord Satan, I beg of you, please send your son, to collect this pact. I offer you my immortal soul. Please hear me! I plead with you please accept my offering! Nema!” Sam was hoarse when he finished.
He turned when Lily gasped; he stood frozen and gawking at the gorgeous well-muscled, naked man standing in the corner of the room. No human could possibly be that perfect. He had no flaws Sam could see.
“Lucifer.” Lily fought the urge to put herself between Sam and the Devil.
“Lilith.” He answered in a deep, rumbling voice. His brown eyes glowed with sadistic amusement. “Is this the human you were willing to upset Father over?”
“Yes.” Lily said
as she felt the tears come. “Yes.”
“As humans go, he is a fine specimen. I shall petition for the flesh myself.” He chuckled when Sam shrank back.
“Sam, give him the pact.”
Sam stumbled forward, his eyes on Lucifer.
“No!” Lily screamed and lunged for Sam, knocking him to the ground just inside the circle. “You can’t leave the circle!” She glared at Lucifer as she pulled Sam to his feet. His laughter echoed off the walls.
“So, close. He was almost mine.” He smiled a malevolent smile.
“Throw the pact outside of the circle.”
Sam wadded the parchment up and flung it outside the circle. The parchment landed perfectly in Lucifer’s hands.
The room grew very still and quiet, as Lucifer studied the pact.
“All is in order. He will have the rest of his destined life, here, on Earth. Then he will be ordered to Hell.” He rolled the pact up and stuck it under his arm. “We miss you, Lilith, come home soon. Come home before you anger Father and he truly does give you to Nergal or worse, to my brother, Cain.” He blew her a kiss.
Sam stared as Lucifer slowly vanished. When he turned to Lily, she opened her arms to him. He went to her and tried not to shiver as eerie laughter filled the room and applause from thousands of unseen hands sounded in the air.
Lily smiled through her tears at him. “It is done, my love, it is done.” She whispered and buried her face in his shoulder.
Once back upstairs, they sat down to eat the cold Chinese takeout. They held hands as they ate, laughing at the difficulty of getting the food in their mouths with only one hand. Rice was going everywhere.
“I have a question.” Sam said between bites of sweet and sour beef.
“Okay.”
“I thought Lucifer was an only child. And why are there four kingdoms of Hell?”
“Okay, that is a complicated story. Let’s see…” She pushed her hair back and thought for a moment. “When the battle broke out in Heaven, Satan was an angel. He was an archangel and he was second in command. When he saw the battle wasn’t going to go his way, he left Heaven and decided to set up his own Kingdom in Hell. When he left, three other archangels went with him. They were Leviathan, Belial, and Aguares. Originally, Satan ruled Northern Hell and assigned a kingdom to each of his friends. As Satan’s power grew, he tempted his son Lucifer into leaving Heaven. Lucifer took over his father’s kingdom in the north and Satan ascended to the Infernal Throne. Lucifer did not lose his inner grace, so he has a very powerful weapon in his arsenal; he is seldom challenged. The other kingdoms have changed hands a few times before the original ruler, regains control. There is always war or the threat of it. There is constant political maneuvering; Aguares lost her kingdom for almost a millennium to Astaroth. She got it back and now Astaroth is in exile. Mammon took over the west for a few hundred years, and after a bloody battle, Leviathan took it back. Mammon serves under Belial now. And not even Mammon is stupid enough to challenge Belial. Each duke pays tribute to Satan, each duke has minions and armies under him. You with me so far?”
“Yeah.”
“Humans are under the impression any entity they have dealings with from Hell is a demon. That isn’t necessarily true. Sometimes, devils, which would be any of the leaders of the four kingdoms and usually their second or maybe third in command, come up and create mischief or father children. Demons usually come to do the dirty work of the rulers; they possess, they kill. Abigail, Sarah, Seth, and Kim were killed by demons.” She took a sip of wine. “The current leader of the Roodmasi is married to Cain, the original Cain, as in Cain and Abel. He was fathered by Satan, not by Adam.”
“Lucifer said Satan would give you to Nergal or worse Cain. Why is Cain worse?”
“Cain and I have hated each other since around the time of the Byzantine Empire. The battle grew out of me not being willing to give him what I was willing to give every other devil or human. He wanted me sexually and I was so not interested.”
“So, he would get a major kick out of torturing you for eternity?”
“Yep.”
“I will not let that happen.” Sam said fiercely.
“My love, you would not be able to stop it, if it were what the Master ordered.”
“I love you, Lily.” He stopped eating to look at her. “I always will.”
“I know. You just showed me how much.” She leaned over and kissed him. “I will always love you.”
“What do we do now?”
“We find Ryan, Seth’s brother, and we convince him to work with us to stop this. The Roodmasi control most of the major governments of the world, the Ascension is almost here.”
“We will do what we need to do. We stop them. No matter what.” He looked into her eyes.
“No matter what.” She lost herself in his eyes. When she looked in them she wasn’t afraid, she could hope.
Ryan sipped a beer and watched the world come apart on the evening news. Ever since the Roodmasi had taken over the western governments, each day saw new horrors. The eastern governments had formed an alliance because they feared the new governments of the west. The Shah of Iran met almost daily with Japanese and Chinese officials. Civil wars had broken out in some eastern nations as they resisted Roodmasi rule. The United Nations had been disbanded when America and Russia pulled out. Once again the two superpowers were on the brink of war. Overnight all nations either were considered western and therefore, Roodmasi, or as they were calling themselves publicly, The Equalized Nations. Or they were eastern and resisted Equalized rule. Russia was headed toward civil war and so were Turkey, India and Egypt. The world was in total chaos.
The upside was Cain and the Roodmasi had been far too busy to mess with him. Riots were breaking out in the cities of the west between the Equalized and the followers of the Judeo-Christian system of beliefs. Most of the governments of the west had declared martial law and Roodmasi soldiers marched the streets killing the “intolerant”. The daily murder rate had climbed to record highs in all major cities. The slums, ghettos, and high-crime areas of the west were declared lost areas and law enforcement had pulled out leaving the areas to the survival of the meanest.
Ryan fumbled absent-mindedly with his crucifix as he watched the churches of Chicago burn, with the parishioners trapped inside. The Equalized government was stating the GLBT COALITION were responsible, having planned a citywide raid. They claimed it had all happened too fast to stop them. The GLBT COALITION, of course claimed they hadn’t done it. The news anchor, which still dared to wear a cross, apologized for the lack of live footage due to Chicago recalling all news teams due to the danger. A late breaking bulletin informed Ryan the governments of Russia, China, Japan, Egypt, and India had fallen to Equalized guerillas. The news coverage showed the Kremlin burning and the populace of Russia scrambling for cover as the guerilla troops shot into the crowds. It broke to show coverage of guerillas shooting Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and Hindi as they tried to refugee east. The anchor announced they were breaking coverage to go live at the White House and an announcement from Vice President Natasson.
Ryan leaned forward, his eyes narrowing with rage as Cain stepped up to the podium, Raevanne stood off to one side. Tears ran down Ryan’s face when he realized Mystery stood on his other.
“The major governments of the world are now under Equalized rule.” He raised his hand to silence the reporters. “Effective immediately anyone who does not make way for the new regime will be considered a traitor and put to death. Under Equalized rule there will be no organized religion, there will be no religious intolerance, no piety, no martyrs, and no moral majority. Beginning tomorrow all clergy will report to your City Hall. There you will be afforded a chance to publicly denounce your affiliation with the intolerant religions. If you refuse or if you try to run, you will be executed. Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindi religious officials will be executed for they are unlikely to follow Equalized law. Patrols of E-Troops will be dispatch
ed to collect any official who has not reported to City Hall by sunset tomorrow.” He sighed resignedly. “Unfortunately some of you will cling to your intolerant beliefs. However, after this brief period of adjustment, religion will no longer be used to kill those who do not follow a certain set of beliefs. Under Equalized rule the new dogma will be, “And do what you will”. No longer will a small groups’ narrow-minded viewpoint, set the rules to match their morals. Freedom is finally here for those with the strength to grab it! Nature rules again and only the strong, the flexible, the adaptable will survive.” He pulled Raevanne to the podium. “My wife will remain for one hour to answer your questions.” He took Mystery’s hand and she smiled at him, they walked out of sight. Raevanne smiled and began to take questions.
