Ishtar Rising

by Natalie Gibson

  She pressed his face against her neck so that they mirrored each other's position. He obligingly kissed her neck, but once he was there the kiss became more passionate than obligatory. She was painfully aware that he was careful not to let his teeth touch her skin. She wanted him to bite her and she said so softly. She was so caught up in the sensations of the vitala pressed against her that she didn't feel her own incisors lengthen.

  When she put her teeth on him, where her flat omnivore teeth would have just scraped, her carnivore teeth sliced right through. A line of blood welled up and she couldn't help but taste it. Without thinking, she opened wide and clamped down, piercing his neck in two places. His blood was delicious as it pumped into her mouth. She took three draws from it before she could pull away. The punctures healed up almost instantly, slightly faster than her teeth went back to normal.

  She shrugged mentally. This was the way of it now. She continued to nuzzle his neck. “Take what you need, Hurrit. I want this,” she said against his scrumptious skin. His name came out of her blood drunk mouth as a purr.

  He made a guttural noise and an audible crack and crumble made her eyes snap open. She must have released her hold on him because as soon as he could, he stepped back. She felt the loss of him immediately and held her arms out to him. “It's okay, Hurrit. I understand the hunger and I'll heal, right?”

  He shook his head no, keeping his eyes down. His breathing was ragged and he swallowed a few times before speaking. “Feeding you is one thing, but taking blood from my queen is quite another.”

  “Are you afraid of what Oren will say? I want you to. He doesn't own me.” She wished it wasn't so begging, the way her voice sounded.

  He clutched his fists, hanging down at his sides. Little pebbles fell from them to bounce onto the floor. Marble pebbles. Her counter-top. Again he shook his head no, but this time he held up his hand. “Please stop telling me that you want this.” He took a few more deep breaths. “I want to but I won't until the time when you understand the true value of what you offer. It is not a thing to be given lightly. You don't know the power of your blood. Or what it will do to you to that to me.” He seemed more in control of himself now. “And, you completely misunderstand Sarrum Arakiel's claim on you. He does not believe you belong to him and though he loves you and will serve you for all eternity, he would never move to stop you from having anything or anyone you wanted. His was a much more permissive culture than you or I were raised in. Though he will never be with anyone but you, he would not, could not, bar you from it.”

  “Wait, are we talking about blood or sex?”

  He raised his head to look at her for the first time since before their bodies touched. “They are the same thing.”

  “To a vampire, maybe,” she argued.

  “Vitala take prana more easily from blood, but we can absorb what we need from sex as well. All children of the light feed like Nephilim because we are their children. Each of us have our preferences.”

  Oren had been 'feeding' her and from her since the second he'd changed her. That's why she wasn't hungry. His blood. His sex. “So why are your eyes ... like that, and not like Oren's?” Now that his gaze was on her again, she found herself distracted by the black hole like pull of them.

  “These are the eyes of the vitala. They help me attract...” He struggled over the next word and settled on, “...donors. Only Nephilim have opal eyes like yours. They and their Sinnis', apparently.”

  Kay's mouth dropped open. How had she gone so long without looking in a mirror? She had opal eyes like Oren now!? She dashed by Hurrit and down the hall to the bathroom. She stared at her reflection and then got close, really close for an examination. Her eyes were multicolored just like Oren's. They reflected light like they had facets cut into their depths. “Wow.”

  “Wow indeed.”

  Kay hadn't seen Hurrit follow her. He wasn't in the mirror. She turned and there he was. She turned back to the mirror and he disappeared again.

  He explained quickly, “Old mirrors were backed in silver nitrate. This one must be. Vitala don't reflect in silver backed. Luckily most modern mirrors are backed with aluminum. You are quite lovely. The green hair suits you. I can see why Sarrum Arakiel chose it.”

  “He didn't choose it. My hair has been green for years. It is a pain to bleach and dye but I do it because I like it.” She leaned in again, this time focusing on her hairline. the roots were green. It was as if it were naturally growing green from her head.

  “When he reformed your body after the blood exchange he locked in your image as your true form. He could have chosen any color, length or texture he wanted.”

  “It's like this forever?”

  “It is. Sarrum Arakiel can change it for you anytime you wish, but this will always be your base natural form.”

  Kay stifled a shriek. No more bleaching and dying for this girl. Hell yea. She turned to face Hurrit. Running her fingers through his jet black hair she asked, “So this is the base form that he chose when he made you?”

  “No. This is what I looked like when he made me. Making a vitala is a simple blood exchange. There is an extra step when making a Sinnis, one I nor anyone else could have survived. You are something all together different. That's why I asked you how I smelled. I wanted to see if you reacted like a human or a vitala.”

  Hurrit had drifted forward toward her as he spoke. She closed her eyes against the onslaught of his energy into her personal space. “And?”

  “It was odd. You are entirely human in your reaction to my eyes and teeth but you desired my blood like a vitala. Your face did not undergo the change that a vitala's does at your hunger. You are like the Sarrum.” He took a deep breath, obviously noting the similarities between the scent of her blood and Oren's.

  “You need to fucking feed. I can feel your hunger, like a living thing in the room with us.”

  “That is a more accurate description than you know. At my age, I only need a drop to regain my control and normal appearance, but it is just you and me for miles.” He shrugged. “It's not like I can go into town looking like this.”

  He smiled at her. Those teeth! “No, I guess not.” She returned his smile. Then she had an idea. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall back into the kitchen. There were two giant man hand sized chunks taken out of the marble counter top's edge. The snap and crumble sound that had broken the trance Hurrit's blood had her in had been him breaking the marble. She scooped up a basket full of blackberries from under the cabinet that she'd picked with Oren. She turned back to Hurrit with the question on her face.

  “You can put those eyebrows of yours down now. Normal food isn't going to do anything for me.”

  “But you can eat, right? Oren eats sometimes.”

  “Yes, I can digest but it doesn't nourish m...” She stuffed a blackberry in his mouth, cutting off his sentence.

  “Good thing this isn't normal food.” Kay grinned as Hurrit took the basket from her hand. He stuffed every one into his mouth before the black began to recede back into his pupil, revealing his whites. His teeth were stained but the normal flat human kind when he smiled at her in amazement.

  “You fertilized with human blood.” It wasn't a question. He knew about earth witches and felt foolish for not thinking of this sooner. They wouldn't stave off his need to feed for long but the fruit took the edge off.

  “My own. I was a kid when I tried it the first time but I made offerings for every plant in my orchard at least once a year after that.”

  Hurrit nodded his head. He remembered. That was the year that Ki had last spoken to him. She had asked him to make another child of light to watch over a girl who had no one. He was glad Sarrum Arakiel had taught him to hear the mother so that he could carry out her wishes. Tara Kay, his Sarrum Sinnis, his queen, had been that little girl that needed her own guardian vitala.

  “I tasted it right after Oren converted me. I had never been able to taste the blood in them until then. I didn't even know what
I was tasting until just now when I started thinking about it. I'm glad it works for you though I am a little sorry that you won't hunger for me as much.”

  Hurrit cursed the gods silently. She was more of a temptation and he could have imagined. He was going to need a lot more fruit before this was all over. They both needed to get their bloodlust under control.

  Chapter 5

  Ini-herit Belial Maru.

  Nathalia spoke to him mind to mind in that split second when she and Eiran were between tabalu and being fully formed. She wasn't sure how she'd be received. Each Nephilim seemed to react to her differently. She never knew what to expect but she didn't expect full on assault.

  She barely dodged the downswing of a Nephilim who seemed intent on splitting her skull. Eiran took her place in the fray. The clang of his metal against another's was startling in the quiet still of the desert. Eiran was much faster than she at pulling the metals in the body and localizing them into a sword. By the time she had her arm reformed into a short sword, the fight was over.

  “My apologies. I reacted before thinking.” Ini-herit's voice was soft and repentant. He had realized a moment too late that the voice in his head couldn't be from an Akhkharu. The betrayers could no longer tabalu and the sun was still an hour from the horizon. Even in it's low position, Ud would burn an Akhkharu in a matter of minutes. “It has been decades since I have even thought my name, centuries since I've heard it from another. My ability is uncontrollable, unconscious, and I have been told it makes my blood irresistible.”

  Ini-herit paused as if to give them a chance to test his statement. Nathalia looked at him. He was nude, except his birthright necklace, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His skin was golden and he glowed more fiercely than any Nephilim or human she'd ever laid eyes on. His wings were tucked behind him but she could see that they too were golden and not just from the sun. They reflected light as if they were embedded with flecks of gold leaf. His face was regal, large black eyes toped a long thin nose and generous mouth. She could almost imagine him as an Egyptian carving, so broad and straight were his shoulders when compared to his narrow waist and hips. All he was missing was the Kohl around around the eyes and a staff with an ankh. He was completely hair free, his head the same color as the rest of him. His entire body had a glossy sheen to it that made Nathalia itch to pierce his skin with her teeth.

  I am Nathalia Ereshkigal, of the Kafziel family line, chosen warrior of the Shinar, and the living DakuAhu. My hunger and that of my mate are sated and yet we still feel the pull of your blood.

  “Keeper of the Betrayers,” he said in greeting, “it is good to see you again. You are a Sinnis to this Kafziel Maru, who fights so well?”

  Nathalia nodded, smiling proudly at his compliment to her mate. She wondered how Ini-herit knew Eiran when he barely left the betrayers' prison.

  “Then they are true, the whispers on the wind. The time of the Sinnis is upon us.” He knelt at her feet, offering her his neck, as Eiran had done so long ago. He expected her to kill him, just as Eiran had. “Thank Ud and Ki that my running is over. I am weary. Let the end come silently and the peace after, swiftly.”

  Ini-herit was no Akhkharu. He had no succumbed to the call of brother's blood. I am not here for your life. It will not be collected today. She helped him to his feet, though he shied away from her as soon as he was upright. Old habits died hard. I need your help.

  “What would the First have of one such as I? You need only speak your will to see it done.”

  I live in a growing group of women with power and one recently joined us who has now fallen ill. We can find no reason for it. She and her mother came to us from Ethiopia and they can call people to themselves, even over great distances. The girl is extremely talented, able to call people she's never met. She even has memories of encounters with what is clearly a Nephilim. I am only wondering if her illness might be linked to her being an unclaimed Sinnis.

  “You speak of Minali. Yes, I know her. I confess, when I found her, hope was restored in me that somehow my bloodline had not died out.” He unconsciously fingered the stone on his neck at the mention of his bloodline. “We share a similar ability. I too draw people to me, even when I wish I would not. I have been with both women, and though they attract me, neither is my Sinnis. I do not know how they come by their abilities but it is not from my maternal line. Not only did I fail to protect the daughters' daughters of my mother, but I had a hand in their lines deterioration and destruction.”

  Nathalia itched to plunge her sword hand into him at that last admission. To feel the warmth of his blood, to watch as the thread of life torn from his body and... No. She couldn't. She had promised him that his life would not be collected today and she wouldn't break her word minutes from making it. Minali needed him. She was concerned only with Minali. For now. Ini-herit might meet his end on the end of her sword one day. Minali's coven was decimated by an Akhkharu and his abominations. She felt it was her fault. After your last visit, she called for you, longed for you.

  Ini-herit smiled. “I felt her draw. It was hard to resist. She is quite talented.”

  Why didn't you go to her? Ereshkigal's law said nothing against finding comfort in the arms of humans.

  His smile disappeared. “Wherever I go a trail of murder and destruction follow.”

  Nathalia was confused. Minali may have thought she brought the Akhkharu that murdered everyone in her community, but Nathalia knew the Akhkharu was after the DakuAhu, the 'Kill-Brother. It was a weapon made by her in a past life, out of the bone of a Shinar, bathed in the blood of an unclaimed Sinnis. Was she wrong too? Did Ini-herit have something to do with the arrival of the Akhkharu?

  Her thoughts must have been clear as writing on her face, or she could have been accidentally broadcasting them. Ini-herit answered her unspoken questions. “I did not lead any evil to Minali, but because of my visits to her another place far away was destroyed. Ages ago, when it became apparent that my bloodline, my possibility of love and happiness, were destroyed, I wanted to die. I was angry and ashamed. I fed on the blood of a fellow Nephilim and allowed others to feed on mine. I became Akhkharu. Thank the Great Mother that it was not long before I fell to a Justice Circle. I was many years imprisoned. Many who had tasted my blood never felt the burning justice of Ud's light. When I was released, they gave chase. My brother from another mother is often with them. Every night I fly from them, just fast enough that they cannot stop to harm others or they risk losing me. Every day I sleep with U'd light to protect and energize me. When I must, I visit humans, feed from them as I did with Minali, but it comes at a great cost.”

  How do you do it, without bringing an army of darkness with you?

  “I lead the hungry pack to as desolate a place as I can find, as unpopulated as possible. Then I tabalu away. They cannot follow and to show their displeasure, they kill everything they can. I do not tabalu often for fear of their recourse. When I went to Minali, confirming, once she was fully mature, that she was not my Sinnis, I left them in the wilderness of North America.”

  The bear attacks in Canada last year?

  Ini-herit nodded solemnly. ”Many more died that night than were reported.”

  Of course, thought Nathalia. The Canadian government wouldn't have wanted a panic. It had happened in the peak of tourist season. That night, with Minali. Was she... Did her... Would you have recognized if a woman you were with were the Sinnis of another, unclaimed?

  Ini-herit thought about it for a moment. “I am unsure.”

  “A Sinnis is only recognizable by her Nephilim.” Eiran's voice startled them both. As always, his stoic countenance had lulled their awareness of his presence. No one could stand silent watch like Eiran. In the mother's tomb where they met, Nathalia had thought he was a marble carving for hours before he'd finally moved.

  Nathalia accepted Eiran's assessment. He was the only known Nephilim to have ever slept with another's unclaimed Sinnis. He had married Nathalia in her p
revious life as Ereshkigal, not knowing that she was really his brother's unclaimed Sinnis. She moved on to her next line of questioning. Have you ever been drained of your powers, only to fall ill physically once they are drained?

  Ini-herit shook his head. “Sadly, no. I long for a day without my ability, even if it brought my death from illness. It would mean the hunting pack would not be compelled to follow me. Minali's condition has nothing to do with her power to call.” Then he hissed, looking around frantically.

  It was too late. The sun had set while they talked. The hunting pack made of Akhkharu and their beastly children of darkness were upon them. Ini-herit spread his golden wings, bending his knees slightly in preparation of vertical takeoff. Almost as an afterthought he said, “Don't fear. They will follow me away from here. There is nothing as tempting to them as me.”

  Nathalia put a hand on his wingtip and he froze. There wasn't anything as tempting before. Now there is: my blood. She took her sword hand and let it fall on each of her shoulders, making deep cuts there. The wounds bled down her chest and back before closing up. She spread it around, painting her skin, keeping any rivulets from reaching the ground.

  He took a step towards her, his eyes locked to the red. Nathalia quickly called on Ki to bind him. He pulled, leaning forward, getting as close to her as possible, barely acknowledging that he was immobilized.

  I could kill him now, Nathalia thought. He might not even notice. His prana would warm her birthright and thrill her blood. No. He might be able to help Minali. They will come to me and I will end them. I need you to go to Minali. We need her ability, your ability, to help gather the Nephilim and their Sinnis.

  She broadcasted the Daughters' compound location to him at the same time, notifying Christy that a new Nephilim would need entrance. Tabalu. The shield will allow you through.

  “You have a shield maker?” Ini-herit asked, clearly excited.