Al’bah placed her head above his chest, still looking at Cynthia. “I care for Cain, I love him. I would want nothing more for him to be a Christian as you are. If that means anything, leave, and tell no one what happened here.”
Cynthia closed the door and stifled a shaking gasp as she walked to Charlie’s car.
What was that all about? And a Succubus? What the hell was going on? What was Cain caught up into that the police would be after him? And where was Charlie?
“Charlie would never even let me drive this thing, and now it’s mine,” she muttered as she pulled up to the gap-toothed mechanic. “It seems that this time, prayer did help me. Do what you wish with the car. I wish you well and will be praying for you too.”
She quickly loaded up her bags and pulled off the maneuver she watched Charlie execute with such grace, a smoking peel-out that would tip over any other vehicle, but Charlie was a true gearhead, and the car held, faced north, and was off.
Chapter 54
Al’bah’s Fury, Cain’s Punishment
“I’m warning you, Charlie. If you keep eating bread and cheese like that, your bowels will regret it more than my nose.”
—Stella Tsukada
“And so I said—” The front-desk representative to the hotel noticed a beautiful woman waiting. “Just a moment. May I help you?”
“Room 104. We were supposed to depart today, but I need to extend our duration.”
The man shrugged and pulled out his ledger. “How much longer?”
“A month.”
The man looked up and closed the ledger. “A month? Do you have any idea how much that’s gonna be, missy?”
The lady held out several hundred dollars.
“Oh, I guess you do.” He pulled out his ledger again and accepted the money.
***
“Wake, Cain. Please. Wake,” a voice said.
The senseless darkness burst into stars as Cain became aware that his body was wracked with agony. He cried out and desperately tried to bury his consciousness back into the blackness of the void.
“No! No, Cain, I will not let you sleep again. You must wake, you are dying!”
“Al’bah, please!” Cain begged. “I can’t stand it.”
“Cain, please! Wake! Stand up! Your body is dying! I am dying!”
Suddenly Cain sensed another force within him fight against the pain. His resolve battled against the crushing agony that felt as though his muscles were being torn to shreds.
The blackness that was punctuated by starburst slowly turned red. Cain fought for every inch he stepped away from death’s door. He reached out and opened his eyes. Al’bah filled his vision, and his hands were filled by hers.
“Al’bah! Help me!” Cain cried out.
“Here! Here!” Al’bah gasped.
Water?
Water! Did Cain ever drink water in his life? Did he ever let life-giving water pass his lips? “More!” After a small moment, more water touched his lips. Cain barely had the strength to lift his arms. Al’bah had to help him drink.
Slowly the hell of thirst slacked off, and an overwhelming flood of senseless bawling escaped Cain’s body. They were cries of misery, of agony. They were the vocalizations of pain and fury. It was the fullness of betrayal and of shame.
***
Al’bah was horrified; Cain was losing his hold on the physical realm. Humanity always had a barrier of a sort against the spiritual, but Cain’s barriers were weak now that he was so close to death; the spiritual were pressing upon that barrier. She sensed the legions of hell beginning to take notice of him. She could sense that they were waiting. They wanted his body; they wanted his power. Cain’s soul was not saved, and they wanted that, too.
“MINE!” Al’bah shrieked to the invading darkness. She hissed, feeling her body transform in response to her rage. She extended her own spiritual power across the small hotel room she and Cynthia placed him in. They would have to kill her first, before they touched Cain.
Why did I not tell him? she wailed in her head as several red eyes started to stare at her from the shadows. Why was I so afraid?
Since his illness, Cain had drifted in and out of consciousness. Each time he woke, he would scream in agony and beg to be released into sleep. Each time it was harder to get him to wake. For the moment, Cain’s body was in no longer in immediate danger of dying, but his mind was being assaulted by the whispering shadows.
“HE IS MINE!” she screeched at the presences she felt around her.
“This one is defended.”
“They both are not long for this world. They are Bonded.”
“What foolishness! The mortal had no idea!”
“That is because the Succubus kept him ignorant! The Succubus blinded her eyes to the truth! Give him to us! If you loved him, he would not be ill.”
“Indeed! You cannot claim ignorance of his illness! You neglected to tell him what he needed to know!”
“He touched a desire that was not you! He does not love you!”
Al’bah’s eyes took on a yellow then red glow. Venom dripped from her mouth, and her hands elongated into wicked instruments of pain and death. “MINE!” she screeched. “He is mine, and you will not have him!”
She whirled around and pierced one of the monstrosities that tried to sneak behind her. The thing shrieked and attempted to dislodge itself from Al’bah’s wicked claws.
“Die!” Al’bah shrieked and swung her other hand, mortally wounding the creature’s makeshift physical form.
Again Al’bah whirled around and caught one of the creatures’ arms in her fanged mouth. She quickly injected a lethal dose of venom in the thing and pushed it away.
The creature screamed and writhed in agony upon the floor, while the other was already comatose from the loss of physical essence.
Al’bah spat and glared at the remaining creatures that were joined by seven more.
Al’bah snarled and changed again.
Two pairs of skeletal arms sprouted from her head, and four more pairs from her body. Three barbed tails whipped forth from her body of their own accord, and her hair started to coalesce into black vipers with burning green eyes.
The skeletal arms on her body were quickly enveloped by flesh and grew claws of their own. The black vipers hissed at the creatures and bared their fangs. All the while the three tails seemed to taunt the creatures, daring them to try to come closer.
“This Succubus is strong. Her connection to this mortal strengthens her. Combat will not be easy.”
“This Succubus does not steal the strength from the mortal. She receives only. Her strength will be limited.”
The shadows drew nearer, feeling confident in their numbers.
“So foolish are the legions of hell,” she said smugly as the arms on her head grasped the vipers and started to toss them toward the creatures.
Immediately the majority of the creatures fell upon the ground, but as fast as they fell, others took their place.
“And so singular is this Succubus, who is even more a fool!” one of the shadows said as it came forward, seeming to embrace its death.
Al’bah’s motions became a violent blur. Her tails whipped through the air in a never-ending high-pitched whine. Her five pairs of arms brought multiple deaths with each motion, while the vipers in her hair kept bringing down the innumerable legions that only had one goal: Cain.
For a long time it seemed as though Al’bah would win, but it became apparent that the shadows were only toying with her. Their numbers were vast, and her spiritual energies were becoming exhausted.
Her vipers were first to go as they flattened and became hair once more.
“The Succubus tires, it will not be long now.”
Her three tails were then caught and held fast.
“No!” Al’bah wailed as the shadows pressed forward in a sudden upheaval and held her arms.
“Good, now seal her form!”
In a terrifying sense of déjà vu, Al’bah’s
thoughts were brought back to the very beginnings of her torments from Taint’s hand.
“Cain, please wake!” Al’bah begged.
The legions laughed as Al’bah reverted back to the form that pleased Cain the most. They laughed as they started to tug, pull, and tear her clothes apart.
“Where are her wings?”
“Bring her wings out! Tear them apart!”
“Tear them apart; they are the last barrier between us and the mortal!”
Al’bah cried out; she was so tired, she could not fight anymore. She felt their presences invade and violate her being, seeking her wings. They reached deep within for them, and it would only be a matter of time before—
“Hold! Another presence approaches!”
“Flee! We are no match!”
The shadows departed, and a great sense of peace filled the room. The darkness changed from an empty, foreboding nothingness into a soft anti-glow.
Al’bah felt her strength return, and she turned back to her Bond and wept. “Cain, wake…wake…wake. You are hungry. I am hungry. Wake…”
“He is weak, Cain’s Al’bah. Unless you get him sustenance, he will die.”
“No!” Al’bah wailed. “It cannot end this way! It was my fault. I must do something!”
“Then why do you not go retrieve sustenance for your Bond, and for yourself? Are you so afraid to face this world without him that you will allow him to die?”
Al’bah threw herself upon Cain’s body and squeezed him as tightly as she could without harming him. “He is mine,” she said with a voice so overcome with passion and so profoundly different than her howls of jealousy. “I would do anything for him. I would die for him.”
“Then there is nothing left to say.”
After a few moments Al’bah looked up and started to dig through Cain’s duffel.
***
“Yes, can I help you?”
Al’bah nodded. “I need food. I need broth from flesh,” she said timidly. Against all her fears and insecurities, Al’bah needed to get Cain food. She needed food. She could either watch Cain die of starvation, or she could try.
“Broth? Uh, do you mean soup?”
“I need food,” Al’bah whimpered, holding out several hundred dollars to the waitress. “I need broth from flesh,” she said again.
The waitress plucked just one of the many hundred-dollar bills from Al’bah’s trembling hand. “Um, how much?”
“Please!” Al’bah cried. “I do not have any awareness of the specifics, I cannot carry much. Please!”
***
“Easy, Cain. Easy,” Al’bah murmured. “This soup will help your strength return.”
Cain accepted Al’bah’s tender spoon-feeding. His body was still in tremendous agony, but he forced himself to stay awake. “How long?” he panted between gulps.
“This is the fifth day of your illness,” Al’bah said, holding out another spoonful. “Eat, Cain. You must eat.”
Cain held up his hand. “I am full.” He sighed.
Al’bah placed the food away and threw herself into his arms, and wept. “Oh, Cain. I am sorry,” Al’bah whispered.
“For what?”
Al’bah looked up. “Cain, you cannot touch another whom you once desired, or do desire.”
Cain stared for a full minute into Al’bah’s eyes. “You mean that this happened because I touched another woman?”
Al’bah shook her head. “No, if that was the truth, you would have been struck ill long before now. You were able to touch Stella.”
Cain wracked his brain. Yes, he had touched Stella before. It didn’t do anything to him. So that would mean—
“Al’bah, I am sorry. I didn’t know I—”
Al’bah placed her hand on Cain’s lips. “I am fully aware of the sinful nature of man. My own nature is Demono, Cain. I hold no animosity to you.” She picked up a Styrofoam cup with a straw. “You need the sugar in this,” she said as she held it to Cain.
Blech! The soda is flat! Cain grimaced but drank anyway. “You seem to know a little about this. Why did this happen with Cynthi—” Cain cried out, unable to get the rest of the name out.
Al’bah unfurled her wings and fluttered them to bring a soothing current to Cain’s body. “Because she once shared a Bond with your heart. The stronger your desire, new or old, the stronger the punishment.”
“Punishment! What the hell! Why didn’t you tell me this before now?” Cain groaned.
“Because I was afraid, Cain. As far as I knew, you declared me to be everything to you, and I thought that I was! When you told me that it was not true, I…”
Al’bah’s head dropped, and she sobbed. “I was afraid you would reject me! I was afraid.” She rolled over to stand on the floor, and continued speaking while pacing the room, wringing her hands. “Then you said you wanted me by your side, you said that you cared for me. I wanted to tell you, but I could not.”
Cain sighed. “You also said that you wouldn’t seek to control me. What about that?”
Al’bah nodded. “I do not wish control over you, and I will gladly accept punishment from you. It is by my own carelessness that you almost died. Nothing Taint ever did to me could compare to the pain I would feel if you did not wake.”
Cain shook his head. “Perhaps it is only fitting that this happened to me. I caused Cynthia much harm.”
“No!” Al’bah growled. “No! You are not responsible for the foolishness of that one! If there was anything I learned of you, and your relationship with that one, you were always honest.”
Cain sighed deeply. “Come here. You pacing like that makes me nervous.”
Al’bah shook her head as she wiped her eyes. “Cain. There is one more thing you must know,” Al’bah said as her lip quivered.
“What? More bad news?”
“No. Not for you, anyway. If you truly see with the eyes of love upon another, and they to you, the effect of touch will be reversed, and upon me.”
A realization that was supreme fell upon Cain. “So that’s why you are so jealous!”
Al’bah nodded. “Free will is the divine will of the Creator. For the spiritual, Bonds are meant to be forever. Bonds are meant to be a unifying force. It was never meant to be a form of slavery. That is why a human Binding itself to a Son of God was so rare. And why a human Binding itself to a Demono never happened until now.”
Al’bah wiped her eyes. “Bond. The root word of ‘Bondage,’ it was a cruel irony. It is said some of the sons of God that married mortal women in the times of Noah were driven to madness. The wives they took fell out of love with the Angels they married. And so the sons of God were torn apart by their Bonds being severed by the wickedness of humanity.”
Cain felt as though he could at last now understand Al’bah. Or at least a small part. “But why so much agony? Why so much torture?”
Al’bah laughed sadly. “Oh, Cain. Imagine the pain of being severed from God! Imagine the unfaithful to God! The Bonds two beings share, are meant to represent the Bond everything shares with God! There is great joy in this union. And if it is ever severed, there is great suffering.”
“Aren’t you severed from God?”
“No, I am not one with God. I am separated. You are separated, but you and yours have a clear way to salvation.” Al’bah lowered her head and wiped her eyes and nose. She looked so broken. Cain had never seen anyone so broken up over hurting the one they loved. Except maybe for Charlie, but he was a different case altogether.
“Al’bah.”
Al’bah looked up; her blue-violet eyes clashed with the pink hue of her sclera. Using all the strength he had, Cain reached out with his arms. “Come here.”
Al’bah settled once more into Cain’s arms, sniffing and wiping her eyes every so often.
“Perhaps now I can start asking you questions about our Bond, and about you?” Cain said as he started to drift to sleep.
Al’bah nodded. “I agree.”
“Anything else that I s
hould know, Al’bah, before I”—he gave a big yawn—“sleep?”
“Yes. I love you, Cain.”
Chapter 55
Unified Dream
“Thus, ever I stand against the press of corruption.”
—Purity
Cain slowly became aware that he was staring at Al’bah.
“I am afraid I do not have pancakes, Cain,” Al’bah said with an amused look on her face.
“What? Pancakes?” Cain sputtered.
Al’bah’s face brightened. “Aaah, you are aware! I thought that it would not be possible with you being so ill.”
“Aware? What are you…”
Cain looked around; he was standing upon a beach of some sort. It was a surreal scene, one that Cain couldn’t even begin to describe. The scenery seemed to shift and change as his attention was drawn to the peculiarities of his surroundings.
It was a beach he was standing on, but it was the sky at the same time. The sands became the grains of cloud and wind. The ocean waves lapped at the shore, but it wasn’t water; it was fire, but the fire wasn’t hot. The fire was…it was tame somehow.
Cain could see a surface of sorts upon the waves of fire. The threshold of his peripheral vision seemed to be able to see the true scene, but every time he looked for it, it shifted again. Almost as if the scenery knew he couldn’t comprehend.
Cain noticed that the moon, no larger than a basketball, revolved around Al’bah. Cain was actually able to grasp it, sneezing as the dust tickled his nose. “Is this a dream?” Cain asked, breathless from the beauty that surrounded him.
Al’bah took the moon back from Cain. “I believe that I am the moon, Cain, and you are the sun. And yes, this is a dream. Do you not remember the first time we met? We met in the realm of spirituality. The interface you used was a dream, but for me, it was reality.”
Cain snapped his attention back to Al’bah. “This is real?”
Succubus Tear (Triune promise) Page 32
