Ishtar Anomaly

by Natalie Gibson

  The alarm sounded in Nathalia's room and Christy knew Nathalia wouldn't ignore it. She hadn't thought before triggering it. Maybe she had just had a nightmare. They were more rare since coming to live here but she still had them occasionally.

  Pain, both sharply localized to her chest and dully affecting her whole body, smashed into her. She screamed. It was gone in the instant it took Nathalia and her Guardian to appear in her room. A split second later Libby and Leonard burst through her door. The librarian came to sit on the bed beside her and Nathalia asked one question. The word “Where?” came through.

  Christy pointed to her right. The pain had come from that direction. Someone or something was trying to get through the shield. The pain came again but this time she kept herself from screaming. The pain wasn't as bad the second time since she knew how quickly it would end. This time she recognized that it wasn't actual pain. More like visions of pain, impressions that someone wanted to hurt her. She saw herself being tortured, cut, bled. Nathalia and the Guardian disappeared.

  ***

  The clearing was empty.

  It shouldn't have been. At least the two left behind should be waiting on them, if not the whole three pairs. Having lost his gun, Fox drew his dart gun. It only worked on Nephilim but no humans could take down six of his men, so the chances were good that the tranqs would be effective. Morgan slipped the safety off his rifle. Both of them swung towards a rustle just as four men stumbled out of the bushes.

  Two more came out to their left. That was everybody. Fox and Morgan ran past the men, taking the lead, and the six others followed. They weren't being quiet. They were shuffling, stumbling, bumbling drunks. Fox was going to reprimand and punish everyone of them for drinking while working. They knew better than that. Fox looked back in time to see Johnny catch up with Morgan.

  Johnny wasn't right. His arms were missing. Missing. Now that they were close to the street, his face was lit up. It was pale. His eyes were completely white, like cataracts had completely taken over in a matter of minutes.

  Johnny crashed into Morgan. He had no arms so the take down wasn't as effective as it should have been. Morgan tripped and fell. Johnny latched onto Morgan's boot with his teeth. Morgan, looking down and then behind him, freaked. His buddies were zombies, that much was clear now. He pulled his foot and when that didn't work he kicked Johnny with his free foot. Johnny was impervious to pain and retained his hold on Morgan's boot. Morgan fired his M16 at point blank range into Johnny's head, while pushing off with his trapped foot. He blew off the top of Johnny's head and kicked him hard enough to break his jaw. Morgan pulled himself up only to be tackled by two other men.

  Fox watched the dog pile with a mixture of fascination and horror. Morgan screamed as they ate him alive. His gun went off a few more times and then, after a horrible crunching noise, Morgan went silent. Fox should have been running while the zombies were feeding. Now it was too late. They finished but, instead of coming after Fox, turned and sauntered back the way they'd come. Fox stared after them.

  Needing to get back to Brian, Fox turned and ran into a brick wall. A hairy fleshy brick wall. Fox shot three tranq darts rapid fire into the beast's stomach. They had no effect. The beast laughed, the sound like a cheese grater to the man's skin. Each chuckle clawed at his consciousness. Fox took two steps back. He only had tranquilizers for Nephilim; they'd never thought Akhkharu would wonder this close to so many Guardians.

  Fox, aware that Morgan was making noise and moving behind him, had no where to go, no backup to help. He looked up to the monster's face. He'd never been this close to a betrayer; no one had and lived to tell about it. It was tall and hairy. It's complexion could only be described as ruddy and it's torso was bloated, both probably the result of feasting on the blood of six men in the last half hour. Large bat-like wings, tattered and torn, at least twelve foot in wing-span, extended from behind it's shoulders. It's face was distorted, jaw and lips elongated into a muzzle, teeth stained brown. Most disturbing was it's eyeballs. They were totally red, lid to lid and corner to corner. No pupil or iris, they were completely alien with their slight glow.

  Fox broke eye contact with the monster only when he felt a tug on his pant leg. He spun around to face the prostrate Morgan who was trying to pull up to gnaw on his flesh. Morgan seemed completely unaware or at least unconcerned that his skull was cracked open and his brain at least half missing. Fox stomped on the zombie's hand, ignoring the sound of breaking bones, and fired his tranq gun at it's destroyed face. Morgan's eye exploded but the violence didn't stop him. Not panicking, Fox stomped on Morgan's head and face until it no longer posed a threat.

  The painful laughter came again before the words, though in English, they had an odd accent and cadence. It sounded more like a lion speaking through a roar. “Your heart is the blackest I've seen. Come. If you survive until Annu is full, I will give you eternal life and the strength to act out every evil desire within it.”

  ***

  Nanae approached the strange scene at the edge of the shield though he did not want to. He carried Camilla closer because that was what she wanted. She could feel, as could he, that the men on the other side of the shield were ill. She would never say so, but he knew she needed to see if she could help.

  That was what made a good Dominant. It wasn't about doing what he wanted all the time. It was about control. It was about being empathetic to what his submissive wanted and needed. It was about giving, without her having to ask. If she had to ask, he was failing.

  So, they moved to stand next to Nathalia and Kafziel. Camilla wanted to and Nanae had gauged the risk low enough to allow it. The danger, such as it was, could not get to them as long as they stayed inside the sphere. The young witch with the rare ability and intimate knowledge of Kiyahweh had seen to that. Nanae, like all the Nephilim, still had trouble believing that Ki had allowed herself to be joined to Yahweh. The former was their mother, the latter their enemy, killer of humans.

  Morning, Nathalia greeted them with a nod. Or at least I hope it's near morning. We will let the sun deal with the zambie. They must be children of darkness; no Nephilim would allow such abominations to remain.

  So that's a zambie, Camilla thought. Thank goddess Izzy hadn't turned out as Nanae feared. They were worse than she'd imagined. Their eyes were totally white, iris and pupil hidden, like a cataract sufferer. Their bodies should not be moving; one of the men had no arms. Another had chewed off his own lips and cheeks from the inside out. No matter what their damage, they moved forward, coming against the invisible barrier. It caused them pain and yet they subjected themselves again and again. Plainly, their brains weren't working properly. They had no life of their own – only that which the donor creator had given them. They continued 'attacking' the wall to no avail. Then Camilla realized that the three Nephilim with her were not in their natural un-camouflaged forms. “Where are your wings?” she asked.

  The zambie aren't attacking us. Not really. They are just hungry and attracted to the nearest and biggest source of prana around. If a tiger got out of the zoo and came looking for a meal, it would be the same. The attack has to be intentional, intelligent and directly aimed at Nephilim to force our natural forms from hiding. Zambie are too mindless to trigger our defense mechanisms.

  Camilla looked at the zambie through her ability and realized there might be something that she could do for these wretched creatures. Could she heal someone who was already dead? She'd never tried anything like this before but it seemed within the realm of possibilities. She'd worked all night with the Capacitors so she wasn't fully charged but she certainly wasn't drained either. Now that Izzy was Lilitu and needed sex to survive, Camilla was constantly charged and she could always pull from the ambient power around her if there was any. She put out some feelers and found plenty. Evidently, Nathalia and Kafziel had an active and satisfying love life as well.

  “Can you heal the zambie?” she asked Nanae.

  He shook his head. “No one can, my bea
uty. Only Ud and Ki can give them peace.” He paused and turned to look at her. “At least no one before.” Nanae had been healing for over 8000 years and never had he come across anyone with Camilla's exact talent. It was more limited in some ways but more useful in others, like the way she undid the petrification of the Capacitors.

  It was unlike healing a living person. It could not just happen naturally because of proximity. Camilla concentrated. They couldn't have been killed and made very long ago. The animating Akhkharu blood was still localized in their stomachs. The easiest way to remove something from the body that resided in the stomach was puking.

  The zambie began to spew all at the same time. Dark thick red blood poured out of their mouths onto the ground. The grass and dirt singed where ever the tainted blood touched it. The sun would take care of the blood as soon as it rose over the horizon. The zambie didn't notice their new affliction. They continued their attack on the wall.

  Camilla concentrated again on locating what didn't belong inside them. She opened her eyes a little shocked at her discovery. Life. Life was what didn't belong within these dead humans. The blood was mostly gone but the Akhkharu's prana had leached into the area surrounding the stomachs. It was the prana that she had to remove. With no thought to her well being, Camilla began immediately. Touching them would have made her work easier but that was clearly out of the question. Zambie would love to get their hands, and jaws, on a pregnant woman.

  She was completely unprepared for the sensation of having Akhkharu prana inside her body and mind. Not unlike what the Akhkharu blood had done to the ground, the Akhkharu prana burned. Stars whited out her vision as the heat reached her head and eyes. She could feel the Hunger with a capital H like a living thing taking up residence. It was the beast she felt and it was only a fraction of what Nanae must feel all the time. She wondered if this was what Izzy felt. She wanted. She was made of hunger. It was seductive, heavy even. Her body was no longer her own.

  The two Nephilim and one Sinnis stared in wonder as the zambie dropped one by one. It hadn't taken the healer more than a minute to reduce them to corpses. Camilla had succeeded where none had before. Sure, they could kill zambie, allowing the sun or fire to rid the world of their bodies, but she could undo the change. Camilla Lovejoy was a blessing for humankind and Nephilim alike. Nathalia, the First, turned to say as much just as Camilla lunged for her.

  Camilla had given the zambie back their humanity and the release of death but she had taken the corruption into herself. That was evident by her completely white eyes and her focus on Nathalia. She had Kafziel's prana added to her own and as a woman she already had more than a man. To the zambie, and now Camilla, she seemed like a delectable temptation.

  However miraculous Camilla's achievement, she was still just human and moved at human speed. Nathalia jumped away easily with her Nephilim strength and speed. With no thought to anything after getting to the prana source, Camilla hadn't planned her landing and started to fall through the empty space vacated by Nathalia. Nanae caught her, saving her from the impending impact with the ground. Camilla lashed out at him, closing her teeth around the fleshy part of his palm.

  Nathalia called out a warning in Nanae's head just as he pulled the metal from his body and localized it to the skin under Camilla's mostly flat omnivorous teeth, She can't taste your blood! Lilitu cannot give birth.

  Nathalia put up her hands in surrender and apology when Nanae showed her his solution to the problem. “I would never endanger her ability to procreate. It is my sole purpose in my remaining time: to allow her to carry as many as she desires. I must get her home now where I can feed her hunger until the corrupted prana passes.”

  Nathalia watched Nanae carry off the struggling temporarily zambie infected healer and wondered if Camilla could be the third sister. Nathalia was Ereshkigal but she was also Atropos or Morta. She was the one to slice through the thread of life, ending whatever life the allotter decided. Baby Genevieve would grow to be the measurer, the sister to decide how long a person's thread of life would be. The third sister was still a mystery. She would be the one to spin the thread of life, determining all births and survivals. She would embody the great mother. She would also be a Sinnis first so it didn't really merit further thought since Nathalia was not only the First but still the only converted and from what Nanae had said, Camilla wouldn't be converted anytime soon.

  ***

  Israel could feel that something was wrong even before Nanae and Camilla came in. They were both horny but that wasn't uncommon when they came in from work. It's that the desire was off, a little unnatural. They weren't horny but hungry. The hunger was not something the stir-fry he'd been planning for their dinner would satisfy.

  He stepped into the hall just as they burst in the front door. Nanae carried Camilla in, her back pressed against his chest, her feet dangling. She struggled against him, kicking. One arm was just above her pregnant belly pinning her arms to her sides. It forced her breasts up over the top of her dress much like a corset would. Izzy found his own arousal mounting at the sight until his eyes traveled up to Nanae's other hand. The skin was shiny and metallic looking and it was clamped over her mouth, which would normally turn Izzy on too, but just over his thumb, Camilla's eyes stared blankly back. The normally vibrant green irises with yellow flames around the pupil were doused with a milky white.

  “What happened? What's wrong?”

  “She healed zambie.”

  How does a person heal something that's dead, Izzy wondered. His face must have given away his doubts because Nanae continued. “She removed that which doesn't belong. Life. None has ever done such a thing, not in all my years. She took that misplaced prana into herself and I am not sure what to do for her. She's hungry but cannot be free to bite anyone, especially not you or I, and I am loathe to provide her prana in the other way while she is in this state.”

  No one wanted to fuck a zombie, no matter how sexy they looked. And she did look sexy, being bound by the much larger, much stronger male. “Don't worry. She has to filter whatever she takes from her patients through her own body but the effects are always short lived. We just have to keep her from hurting herself or anyone else until the zambie traits pass.”

  Camilla struggled with renewed fervor.

  “Calm down, Camilla. Don't make us gag you.” As soon as the words were out of Izzy's mouth, a little of her color shone through the cataract lenses. “Did you smell that, Nanae?”

  “Indeed. It seems our little beauty is aroused by your suggestion.”

  “Is that right? How would you like it if we bound and gaged you, Sunshine? You would be totally at our disposal, to do with whatever we like. You'd be totally helpless, a warm body for us to play out our desires with.” Israel approached them slowly as he talked. His heightened senses told him that what he described was exactly what Camilla wanted. He brought his face close to hers. The alien whiteness was receding quickly from her eyes. The green was darker than ever and the yellow sparked and spit golden like a fire ring of a camping trip on a moonless night.

  “Is that what you want, my beauty?” Nanae asked because though he could not see her hungry eyes, he could feel and smell her desire for what Izzy proposed.

  Camilla's senses came back to her in a rush. This is exactly what she wanted. Their lovemaking had become too soft and sensitive as her pregnancy had advanced. A wave of liquid lust washed over her as she shook her head no. She didn't want to give them control; she wanted them to take it.

  Israel slid one hand up between her knees. She kicked at him so he grabbed her tiny ankles, encircling them, immobilizing them, clamping them together. His other hand continued it's path until it found that hollow space where her upper thighs didn't quite meet. He rubbed back and forth against the soft but soaked material of her panties. He traced her cleft from clit to cheeks. “I understand. Your pussy speaks loud enough for us. Bring her back to the bedroom.”

  Izzy ran so fast that Camilla didn't see any more than a b
lur where he had been standing. He was already waiting when Nanae made it into their love nest. A black leather suitcase lay on the bed in front of him. It opened with a snap when he put in the proper combination. Camilla couldn't see inside from her angle but she knew what it held. Israel and she had been occasional lovers for some time before Nanae had come along.

  Nanae joined him on the far side of the bed, bringing Camilla along. Israel pulled out a few items, laying them on the bed. He carefully considered one last item, choosing it before sliding the closed suitcase back under the bed. He grabbed a hairbrush off of the nightstand. “Nanae's going to let go of your mouth in a second but I don't want any biting. In fact, I don't want you to move if I don't say it's okay ahead of time.”

  Nanae dropped his hand once Israel gave him the okay. The Nephilim had not dominated so throughly in a long time and the idea of their coming role-play was bringing up fond memories and erotic expectations. He wrapped his giant hand around her thin neck, squeezing gently and thumbing her pulse as Israel took to brushing her hair. He pulled mass of thick blond that he derived her nickname from, up and wound it into a tight bun using a elastic band and stick to hold it in place. He couldn't have it getting in their way.

  Camilla smiled at him the whole time. Israel looked stern as he buckled on the wrist restraints. They were leather lined with fake fur and had a bar hanging from between chains on either side of the cuff. They were designed so that the wearer could grip the bar, one in each hand and be suspended without the stress on the joints and pain that accompanied being hung the usual way.