Ishtar Anomaly

by Natalie Gibson

  Had they taken it knowing it's potential or thinking it was already the cursed DakuAhu? If the former, then they would be gunning for unclaimed Sinnis. If the latter, she might have time to reclaim it. Everyone could live through it's cut as long as it never tasted pre-converted Sinnis blood. Until then, it was just a dagger, capable of doing the damage a dagger could do. On a Nephilim, that was nearly nothing.

  SOFE knew about the DakuAhu's ability to slice through the veil between this world and the next. That was how the unfinished weapon had ended up here. Michael, her childhood tormentor and the murderer of her parents, had brought it here last year. He was also the chosen of the Shinar. They gave him the weapon along with instructions on how to fashion it into something that could set them free. He had brought it here for her blood. The Shinar had known she was Eiran's Sinnis. Maybe the men were SOFE but Nathalia doubted it. They hadn't used magic and there wasn't a woman among them. Even with the SOFE, women held most of the power.

  The Paion Fellowship did not care about releasing the gods of old, the Shinar. They would only want blood and power. The men had taken Nanae Raphael Maru's blood. It could have been the Paion. The 'kill-brother' was the only weapon capable of killing a Nephilim. It was obvious why they would want it.

  Common sense made it obvious that the men were Paion. Nathalia had reached for their minds but they had some sort of barrier her thoughts could not penetrate. She'd never felt that before.

  I have. Eiran let his thoughts settle into her mind. She'd been broadcasting hers to him unknowingly. Their near constant contact made it almost impossible to hide feelings and thoughts from one another, especially if one of them was really concentrating on something important. The Paion were not always our enemy. Together we tried to find ways to use our abilities for the good of humankind. They betrayed us.

  How? Nathalia asked silently.

  They secretly tested our blood, trying to achieve a mixture that would give them eternal live but with none of the side effects that consuming our blood gives.

  No, Nathalia shook her head, I mean how do they block me from their minds?

  Eiran took a deep breath then spoke aloud. “I taught them. They were working with us and needed to be exempt from our taboos. They strengthened their resistance over the years. They are immune to most of our abilities, especially the ones to do with the mind. Now they seem to be focused on becoming impervious to us physically also. They will likely be able to do it if they ever get more of the Healer's blood.”

  ***

  “Nathalia tells me we owe you a debt of gratitude for this afternoon. You protected our little ones. Thank you.” Maeve and Nathalia sat on the two biggest rocks in the sacred ficus grove. They had been waiting for Christy. Nathalia said the girl would come back to where it had happened. She had seen the look of wonder and confusion on Christy's face when the teen's power had manifested. There was nothing in the books about this type ability. They needed to know what happened.

  “Nathalia already told me what she saw from the rooftop but we were hoping you could fill in some details. How did you make the protective bubble?”

  Nathalia spoke to Christy without moving her lips. Perhaps a demonstration would help ease Christy's apprehension. You know the Daughter's have abilities. We are only curious because we want to help you develop yours. There is nothing to be scared of.

  “I don't know how I did it.” Christy cleared her throat and tucked her hair behind her ear. It must have been a nervous tick since the hair was already tucked. “I just got scared and I shouted something stupid and the wall was up.”

  Why don't you close your eyes and try to tell us everything you felt, heard, saw, did and said. Don't edit anything out, just tell us and let us decide what's important.

  Christy trusted Nathalia and Maeve both. Last year Maeve had helped save her physically and Nathalia had put her fragmented mind back together. “I was playing with the babies right over there. We had our shoes off, feeling the thick, soft, cool grass. They were fascinated by the ring of tiny mushrooms in the clearing. I was having trouble keeping them all from tasting them. Kids put everything in their mouths but I don't know anything about mushrooms and was worried they might be poisonous. So I distracted them with a story about faery rings that my grandma used to tell me as a kid. Do you want to hear that?”

  “Maybe. Later. Keep going.”

  “I was scared as soon as I saw those men. They moved like in an army movie. You know, kinda crouched down, but fast. They had guns but they were all pointed down, toward the ground. I was scared but not really worried because no soldier would hurt a girl with a bunch of babies, right? I guess I was wrong because as they passed that one pointed a gun at me and the babies. I got mad. Like really mad. Madder than I've ever been. I mean, how dare he threaten those precious innocent babies! They didn't even know enough to be scared, for goddess sakes.”

  Maeve and Nathalia shared a grin at the girls use of the most common Daughter's phrases. Christy had spent a lot of time with them all and couldn't help but pick up some of their habits. Her eyes were still closed so their moment didn't distract her from the recount.

  “I heard, no, I felt... It was like I had a sudden flash of a memory I didn't know I had. I guess I was thinking of her since I had just been telling her story. I remembered Gramma saying this so I said it. Shouted it really.” Her cheeks reddened a little.

  Go on.

  Christy opened her eyes. “It's embarrassing. It sounds so stupid. I said, 'Key-ya-way will not allow you to hurt her children'. As soon as I said it I could feel them. I just grabbed some and the bubble popped up.”

  “What did you feel, Christy? What did you grab?”

  “The power lines. They run underground all over this place. I don't know what they are but it feels good, you know, in my body, when I use them.” She reddened further.

  Christy, this is amazing. You did something we've never heard of.

  “You don't feel them?” she asked.

  Maeve and Nathalia shook their heads. Can you make another bubble?

  Christy nodded. “I was worried I was doing something wrong. You know, like against your religion. Something sac-religious, like using holy water to make pasta or something. It's okay for me to pull from the lines?”

  “Like Nathalia said, we've never heard of what you're doing. We don't know anything about this, but if your ability to pull from these lines is used for good, then who are we to tell you to stop? You'll have to be your own mentor but maybe we can find someone to help.”

  Christy let out a breath. “Whew. I'm glad to hear you say that because I've been using the power all day. It just feels really good and I'm trying to figure out what the heck it is.” Her shoulders relaxed. “Do you want to see?”

  Christy didn't wait for their answer before getting started. She walked over to the mushroom circle she had used earlier and stepped inside. “I need a circle and I have to be inside the circle. I can't bring one up from the outside. I have to say the silly words but I think that with practice I might be able to do it by just saying the words in my head.” Without any further adieu, Christy whispered, “Key-ya-way will not allow you to hurt her children”, and the bubble popped up around her.

  Nathalia and Maeve stood up in a start. They recovered quickly and approached Christy to examine her work. The sphere didn't have the shimmering iridescence of an actual bubble. It was more like it was tightly woven out of a million individual strands of the finest golden hair.

  “I can't do it without the flick of my wrist but I think it's because it helps me visualize the power being pulled from the lines and thrown up around me.” The hand movement had been the same as the one when Nathalia saw her do it the first time, but it was a little more relaxed.

  “I've got a superpower.” Christy said in a sort of proud disbelief.

  Yes you do. Maeve and Nathalia agreed. Can you control the sphere? Move it, expand it?

  “No. I can make a bigger one if you give me a bigger
circle, but I can't change it once it's set.” Her voice didn't sound any different coming from inside the sphere.

  “So it's limited to the circle you use to make it. Once it's up, can you walk away and leave it? If you forget about it, will it stay up?”

  “If I touch it, the power is sucked back into the line. I don't know what would happen if I fell asleep but it doesn't take any effort or concentration to keep it up, so maybe it would stay up. You can come in now, if you want.”

  Maeve and Nathalia looked at each other and Christy continued to babble on about how she discovered that people could pass through if she wanted them to but not if she didn't. Maeve reached out to touch the glowing orb and her hand went right through. Both women stepped forward and into the circle. They recognized the touch of that power. This was the golden power collected by the Capacitors from the couples made by Vinculum like Maeve. “Do these lines go in any particular direction?”

  “You really can't see them? They flow from all over toward the main building. They run underground and pool in what looks like an underground cave beneath the sanctuary.”

  She confirmed what they suspected. Christy was accessing the communal power before it was collected. It shouldn't be possible, but she was doing it. Only Sisters of the Primo level could access that power. They were shown how after taking their final vows to the Sisterhood. Hell, non Primos didn't even know the Capacitors existed, much less that they collected power for communal use.

  From inside the sphere looking out, the world appeared normal. They weren't looking through a golden shade. Nathalia stepped back out. The sphere was gone.

  Christy answered their unspoken question with a grin. “It's still there. I can make it invisible too.”

  ***

  “I'm sorry I was acting so weird after the attack.” Israel stuffed his last bite of tiramisu into his mouth. He was nervous and trying hard not to show it. He had spent the whole meal working up the nerve to start this conversation. The salad and lasagna had been homemade by him but he had bought the three tiramisu servings at his favorite Italian restaurant. The drive there and back had been just what he needed to clear his head.

  “I understand. You saw my true nature and it is frightening to most humans. Interacting with us can be nerve wracking.” Nanae blew the man's behavior off as perfectly normal in the circumstances. He was only halfway through his dessert. Since he had fed on Israel so recently and both Camilla and Izzy had promised him either blood or sex after dinner, Nanae had indulged in eating. He was really savoring the coffee flavored sweet.

  Camilla did a one shoulder shrug and gave him a smirk that managed to look like a genuine smile. “I thought you were weirded out by the blowjob.” Her square of cocoa dusted pastry layered with whipped raw egg mixture remained untouched in front of her. It wasn't that she didn't like tiramisu. It was her favorite dessert. The fact that Izzy served it to them showed how much he knew about Camilla and how little he knew about things a pregnant woman shouldn't eat.

  “No, it wasn't the blowjob. Not exactly. It was great but it scared me. I saw today that you are so clearly NOT entirely human. I've had this planned since our first week together. I was so sure from that early on but our afternoon in the storage rooms changed something. It made me uncertain. I don't know the protocol concerning relationships with Nephilim. I had to get some space to figure out if I was really feeling what I thought I was or if Nanae had overwritten my feelings with an illusion meant to make feeding from me easier.”

  “Izzy!” Camilla exclaimed. She clearly thought he shouldn't have said that.

  “I would not make a person feel something they did not, even if I could. I sometimes block the memory of my feedings if a person has difficulty dealing with it but I never make someone feel something unnatural.”

  Camilla patted Nanae's hand in a kind of 'of course you wouldn't' sort of way, as it lay resting on the table. Israel got up from the third chair he'd bought weeks ago so that they could sit together in his kitchen. He cleared the dishes so that he could use it as an excuse to escape their gaze and still say what he had to.

  “It doesn't feel unnatural but it isn't normal. That's good for me. I'm not completely normal. I'm a bisexual switch, dominant with my female partners, submissive with my male partners.”

  Camilla, with only a little help from Nanae, stood and joined Izzy at the sink. She winked at him and gestured that he should join Nanae back at the table while she did the dishes. He didn't want her to take over but he thought the denial of her offer might break his tenuous stride. Izzy sat down in Camilla's vacated seat next to Nanae. If she wanted to Camilla could turn and see their faces at the same time that way.

  “You're so dominant you're practically predatory, Nanae. Camilla, you're so submissive I can make you climax just by telling you to. It's so obvious that we're perfectly suited. I've been in love with both women and men, or I thought I had. What I felt before is pale in comparison to what I feel for you two.” He took a deep breath. “What I feel is new and unique and it's all mixed together. I don't just love each of you. I love you both, together. I need you both. I want you to move in with me. I want to live together as a family.”

  Israel paused to let that sink in. He'd been acting weird because he was proposing. Camilla turned to look at him and her eyes shone with tears unshed. Nanae looked less effected. He had gone completely still. He was stiff as stone. The table may have creaked under the pressure of one of his arms.

  Izzy, unsure about what the reaction meant, rushed on before he lost his composure. “I don't know about your culture, Nanae but around here, polygamy is illegal or I'd ask you both to marry me. I don't care if people think what I want is wrong or immoral. I only care about what you think and the home we can make for our child. Obviously you're both not totally opposed to the idea of us being together, but I know it might take some getting used to: thinking of me more than just a sexual partner.”

  Camilla did what she never did: she interrupted. “I can't speak for Nanae, but I don't think of you that way. What you said is beautiful and blunt and I loved it, but it's not my call to make.”

  Nanae, the dominant, the immortal, would decide. It was as it should be with the three of them, but Israel worried about the Nephilim's silence. Was there anger, fear or love behind his stoic visage? Was it a little of all three emotions? Izzy waited as Nanae came slowly back to life. The giant slowly turned his body to face him. His saucer sized hands pulled at Izzy, starting on his pant legs and then his hips, waist, shirt, arms and lastly his neck.

  Izzy let himself be tugged into position and was rewarded with the hardest most passionate kiss he'd ever experienced. Nanae's lips were soft but he pressed so hard that Izzy could feel the teeth behind them. They used teeth and lips but little tongue. Nanae scraped and pulled, the intensity of the kiss mirrored in his clasping grip on Israel's body. A growl escaped Nanae and the sound pulled a moan from Izzy. The chair squeaked on the linoleum as Nanae pushed himself back and stood quick enough to be eery to the two humans in the room.

  “Is that a yes?” Israel said in a breathy voice that revealed just how much the kiss had affected him.

  Nanae said nothing. He licked the blood from his lips slowly as he backed up against the kitchen wall. He must have pierced Israel's skin during the kiss but Izzy hadn't noticed. Not that he would have minded if he had noticed. Izzy stood and backed out of the kitchen into the tiny space they called the 'hall' of his apartment. As he watched Camilla crossed to stand next to Nanae. Her face looked worried but determined when she slipped her tiny hand into the giant's and squeezed. Nanae''s arms hung limp at his sides and he didn't squeeze her hand back. His chest heaved with the effort of breathing. Camilla's eyes pleaded with Izzy but he didn't understand what she wanted.

  “I want to spend my life with you both. I know we can make this work. We can take care of each other. Maybe with both Camilla and me to feed and love you, we can help you control the beast Camilla said lives inside you. Maybe toge
ther we can be enough to keep you from eating up the world. Maybe even enough to bury it deep inside forever. I know I've hit you with a lot all at once. I'll go and give you time to talk about it and decide.”

  Israel turned and headed through the living room to the door. The place was one of the largest in the boys annex but it was still small. A mere dozen steps got him to the entrance. He opened the door but it slammed back shut before he could get through. He could see Nanae's arms on either side, pinning him in place but not pressing him there. They weren't touching but Izzy could feel Nanae's hot breath on the back of his neck. Izzy stayed facing the door. He had hoped it wouldn't go this way but the fear had been in the back of his mind. Nanae was mad that the smaller man had beat him to the punch. “I know as the submissive male I shouldn't have come to you like this but we're kind of in uncharted territory. I didn't know what the proper etiquette for declaring my love was. Just think about it and answer me later.”

  “No, we deal with this right now.” Nanae growled more than said the words. “You love us, want the three of us to live together and to make a permanent family bond?”

  “The four of us. Baby makes four.”

  Nanae gripped Izzy's shoulder painfully and spun him around to look in his eyes. “There are five of us, actually. It's just that you only want four. I am not welcome.”

  Chapter 6

  Izzy stared into the eyes of a stranger. It was Nanae's body and face but the eyes were completely different. Flames burned and in their depths, Izzy thought he could see the figure of a man huddled.

  “Izzy, let me introduce Nanae's hunger beast. It wants to scare you; don't let it.” Camilla eased herself down onto the couch. She was clearly worried but not going anywhere. She picked up a magazine off the coffee table and started thumbing through it.