by Jon F. Merz
“Because I’m usually dealing with assholes who need to be put down,” I said. “You know, people who go around leaving carved up bodies in hotels across the city. Ring any bells?”
“Perhaps,” said Lilith. “But they served a purpose. They served my purpose.”
“Which is?”
She smiled. “To live forever. To always be beautiful.”
“Five hundred years isn’t enough? I don’t know about you, but when my times comes, I’m probably going to be looking forward to it.”
Lilith dragged her tongue across one of my nipples and then brought her face up to mine. “How old do you think I am? Do I look five hundred years old to you, Lawson?”
“You don’t look a day over a hundred and forty.”
She nodded. “And that then is the power of my magic. That is the power I am able to wield to bring about the future I desire.”
“What-you’re not a buck forty?”
“I am older than any who have ever walked this earth,” she said. “I am timeless. Without end. As long as I can sustain myself, I have the ability to live forever. Immune to the horrors of disease, safe from the things that would kill others. I can stay among the living for as long as I desire. To see all that has come before and all that ever will be.”
“That’s not possible,” I said. “I’ve dealt with magic before. There isn’t anything that a vampire mage can do to prolong life forever.”
Lilith laughed again. “This is not vampire magic, Lawson. This is far, far older than anything so young as what you refer to as magic. My power comes from far back before fantasy and reality ever separated. As I come from the same time.” She smiled. “Do you want to know how old I am? Do you?”
“May as well tell me since I seem to be a captive audience.”
“I was there when Adam and I were both made by the almighty himself. I was there when the world was born from the whim of a deity who made the world as fresh as the spring dew we walked upon in the Garden of Eden. I tread the first steps when there were but two mortals in this world. I am ageless. I am forever. I am Lilith: first wife of Adam.”
She stopped and stood before me. “But I am also far more.”
And then as I watched, she transformed, morphing into some sort of scaled creature with brilliant red eyes. Her skin glowed a crimson red and her hands changed into claws. Wings erupted out of her back, spanned by opaque flesh and fluttered in the air of the basement. Her teeth elongated into massive fangs.
And then in an instant, she was back as the Lilith I knew her as.
“So, the translation of your name is accurate,” I said. “Night hag.”
“I prefer demon,” said Lilith. “I was cast down from high to walk beside Adam and be his mortal bride. But I still had friends. I still had lovers.”
“Samael,” I said.
Lilith looked pleasantly surprised. “So, you’re not as dumb as you pretend to be.”
“I had some help,” I said. “And that’s why you refused to stay with Adam. That must have pissed off God a whole helluva lot.”
Lilith’s demeanor contorted into what I can only describe as a resting-bitch-face-on-steroids. Clearly, talking God with her wasn’t the best way to continue to conversation.
“I was punished for leaving Adam.”
“How so?”
“He took my beauty from me. He stole the only thing I had: my looks. I was cursed to walk among the mortals looking like some hideous creature that none would ever love. I spent years lonely and abandoned, without the touch of a man. Until I found one man, a poor blind beggar who loved me like no other. He cared not for my looks, but for my heart. And as he loved me, I started to change. I became beautiful again. The ugliness I had been cursed with fell away. From there, every man desired me if I willed it. I could make them fall in love with me. Not always easily, but with enough seduction, every man falls eventually. It’s just a matter of finding out what drives them crazy.”
“Some of us are immune to that.”
Lilith laughed now. “Oh, are you really, Lawson? You think you’re immune to my wiles? You presented a bit of a challenge, but I’ve walked this planet forever and I’ve known men like you before. It was simply a matter of remembering how to seduce you properly. What you find irresistible and then giving that to you without making it appear so. And you fell. Oh, you fell so easily. You were like putty in my hands to be molded into exactly what I wanted.”
“Bullshit,” I said.
“Well, you tell me if I’m right,” said Lilith. “You tell me how you found yourself thinking about me, trying your best to figure out what I was up to. Men like you crave a puzzle, something to ponder over at night. Something to turn over and over again trying to figure out what my angle is. If I’d been upfront with you, it would never have worked. But by giving you a little and then taking it away again, I drove you crazy. You had nothing concrete and that became your obsession. You couldn’t rest without knowing if I liked you or not. You thought I did because of the little things I’d toss to you here and there, but you never knew for sure until I suspected you were completely on my hook. It was only then that I brought you here to make love. And to complete my final acquisition.”
“So now I’m a museum piece?”
“Oh no,” said Lilith. “You’re my final sacrifice for this time period.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Every five hundred years I sacrifice three men who adore me to the old gods. It is they who imbued me with the power to live forever. It is they who came to me and showed me the old dark magic when I was cast aside by the new God. And it is to them that I owe my allegiance and undying devotion.”
“Too many gods,” I said. “So Cousins and Amalfi were your first two?”
Lilith nodded. “And they were both delicious men. Cousins was so ripe for the taking and yet still a strong man, just one who had been beaten down by an unloving wife. And Amalfi was powerful and yet craved the attention I gave him. He thrived on my adoration for him and gave it back to me tenfold. They both enabled me to find my third. To find my Fixer.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“Of course,” said Lilith. “I’ve been walking among you for years and years.”
“Are you a vampire?”
“I’m a demon,” said Lilith. “I can walk among any I choose. It became easier to pass myself off as one of your kind because you live far longer than humans. Among them, I would have needed to change my identity every seventy years. With your kind, I can live peacefully for hundreds of years before needing to do that again.”
“Good to know my people could be of such service to you.”
“Don’t be hurt by my use of your kind. I have found you all to be quite enjoyable to be around. And I don’t mind drinking human blood - I do so enjoy it.”
“So every five hundred years, you kill three and in exchange you get to keep living?”
“Yes.”
Which is why we didn’t have any records relating to similar deaths in the past, I decided. Lilith had been operational for a very long time, long before the Council got its shit together back in the day. And five hundred years ago, the very first Fixers had their hand full just keeping up with the changing world. Three deaths might not even have been noticed.
“And five hundred years from tonight, you’ll do the same thing?”
“It doesn’t have to be the exact night,” said Lilith. “Just within the same time span. I’d explain it to you but you don’t seem like the type who would appreciate the intricacies of such ancient magic.”
“I don’t have any use for it,” I said. “And dealing with magic always pisses me off.”
Lilith laughed. “I’m going to miss talking to you. I am going to miss you when you are no longer in my life.” She shrugged. “I’ll pretend I don’t, of course. But I will. And late at night when I’m all alone, I’ll drift off to sleep pleasuring myself thinking about you.”
“I’m sure you
’re not the first woman to do that,” I said. “I’m like the gift that keeps on giving, even if you can’t stand me. You’ll never forget me.”
Lilith kissed me again. “No, Lawson. I never will.” She stepped back. “I’m sure that will be some consolation for you.”
“For sure,” I said. “Everyone likes to think of themselves as masturbation material. It’s a nice ego stroke.”
She sighed. “Alas, we have reached the moment when I must regrettably proceed with tonight’s schedule of events.”
“We’re going another round in the living room?”
Lilith smirked. “I wouldn’t mind that, I’ll be honest.”
“Considering you’re the first demon I’ve ever slept with, I’d be willing to give it another go.”
Manny frowned on the peripheral of my vision. I nodded at him. “So, what’s Mini Me’s role in all of this? Is he like your Renfield or something?”
Lilith paused and then she smiled. “Ah yes, the reference to the human who served Dracula. Very cute. I get it.”
“Well, is he?”
“No, I took him as my husband in exchange for the comfort and security he provides.”
“Obviously sex isn’t one of the benefits to shacking up with him, though, is it?”
Lilith frowned. “Manny wasn’t able to satisfy me. He lacks…certain things.”
“Up periscope.” I nodded at Manny. “Don’t worry about it, dude. Lots of guys your age can’t get it up anymore. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Then I laughed. “Actually, it’s pretty pathetic. I can’t lie.”
Manny’s face turned a dark shade of red that made him look like a drunken dwarf. “Can we kill him now, my queen? Can we please?”
Lilith looked at me and sighed. “Very well then. I see there’s no point in dragging this out any longer. Prepare him.”
38
Manny came over and checked the straps holding me. He was wearing some sort of nasty cologne that caught in my throat. “Is that the new scent by Viagra?”He kneed me in the balls, which wasn’t very nice at all. Satisfied I wasn’t going anywhere, he stepped away but looked me up and down. “I am so going to enjoy watching her cut you open. It’s different for the third, you know.”
“Is it?”
He nodded. “Unlike the first two who were already dead when she did her excavating, you’ll be alive for the entire thing. That is, until the pain gets to be too much and you pass out. But if that happens, she’s promised me the opportunity to try to revive you as much as possible so you can feel every exquisite cut she makes into your body.”
I sighed. “You know, they make heel inserts now that could give you up to an extra two inches of height. Might help with all that insecurity you’re carrying around.”
“Fuck you, Lawson.”
“You wish you could fuck as well as I do, pal. But don’t worry - you keep popping those blue pills and I’m sure one day you’ll rediscover your Vienna sausage. You might even remember how to use it properly.” I looked him over. “Then again, probably not. You don’t strike me as a student of sex. You’re probably just one of those boring, stick-it-in-and-hope-I-don’t-come-too-quick types. What do you think about? Baseball? Football?”
He started forward again but Lilith called him off. She moved between us and shook her head as she approached me. “I’d like to ask you to stop getting him all worked up.”
“Isn’t that the real problem here? The fact that he can’t get worked up?” I smiled. “I was just trying to help.”
She ran her fingers along my chest. “I’m going to miss you.”
“We went over this already. Whatever you’re going to do, get on with it.”
Lilith started to turn but I called her back.
“Just to let you know: you might well kill me, but there will be others who come after you. My Control knows about you. My friends do, too. So enjoy this night because I guarantee you won’t live to see another.”
“They can’t kill me,” said Lilith. “I’m invulnerable, remember?”
“That just means no one has found a way to kill you yet.”
“And they won’t have time to,” said Lilith. “You see, once this process is complete, I will assume a new form. So if your friends or your boss comes looking for me, they won’t find me at all. Shame, isn’t it? All that bravado you just spewed for no good reason.”
“You’re a horrible woman,” I said.
She blanched. “You don’t believe that at all.” She walked away and I saw Manny strapping on some type of thick apron like the kind used in a butcher’s shop.
That wasn’t good.
I tried flexing my wrists against the straps but they were tied too tightly. I was tired and even though I’d had a nice shot of juice in Lilith’s meal, I’d used up a lot of that energy screwing her lights out. And now I was up shit’s creek.
Nice job, Lawson.
Lilith came walking back toward me. “Have you figured out the contraption you’re attached to yet?”
I turned my head. “Looks like a table top.”
Lilith grabbed one edge of it and pulled down on it. Instantly, the table top started spinning, sending me around and around until I was pretty dizzy. After a minute of rotating around, it slowed and finally came to a rest with me upside down.
Lilith looked down at me. “Fun, isn’t it?”
“Hey, given my current position, how about a little something for the road? You know, one quick blow?”
Lilith turned the table until I was upright again. I sighed. “I figured it didn’t hurt to ask.”
“Once I start the process of cutting you open, it will take hours. And you will experience pain like you’ve never felt before.”
“Why don’t you just use magic on me to kill me and be done with it?”
“Because in order to make this magic work, I must first consecrate an area with blood.” She turned and gestured to the room. “This area.” She looked back. “And your blood.”
“Well, I didn’t think Manny was gonna give any up, the selfish prick.”
Lilith adjusted her robe a bit and clapped her hands. Manny appeared behind her like a good little henchmen and handed her something that looked like one of the scalpels I’d found in Eva’s basement. But these were far longer and looked a whole helluva lot sharper.
“I hope those have been properly sterilized,” I said. “I don’t want to get any nasty infections.”
Lilith moved closer. My heart thundered in my chest and I had no clue how the hell I was going to get out of this. “It’s time, Lawson. Have you prepared yourself?”
“Not really, actually. You mind untying me so I can go take a quick whiz? I’ve got a lot inside and I’d hate to dilute my blood with piss.”
“Such things are to be expected,” said Lilith. “Your bodies, after all, cannot possibly control themselves once the pain becomes too intense and things begin to shut down.” She smiled and kissed me one last time. “Now, let us begin.”
She spun the wheel I was strapped to. Hard. I went flying around and around, so fast that I didn’t even notice the first cut she made across my collar bones and the tops of my thighs until I smelled blood in the air. The blade on her scalpels must have been insanely sharp.
As soon as I smelled the blood, I felt the pain. My heart pounded in my chest. I saw Manny’s gleeful smug expression and it fired an anger in my soul. I wanted to kill that little midget fucker by any way possible.
But then Lilith made another cut and I cried out in agony as her blade cut low across my abdomen, drawing a big circle around my navel.
Her cuts weren’t deep.
Yet.
But they hurt like hell.
She was speaking now, too. Some sort of guttural sounding language I couldn’t even place. Probably some Garden of Eden slang that no one on the planet knew except her. Her voice droned on and on, rising and falling the way I’d heard other incantations sound in the past. I shut her voice out and concentrated on keeping my
sense of balance despite being spun around.
The wheel started to slow and Lilith made another cut, this time at my shoulders and hips. I felt like I was being marked up for slaughter, which I kinda was. It seemed likely that Lilith was marking her key entry points in my body and once she’d consecrated the area with my blood, she’d begin her work in earnest.
Spectacular.
The wheel slowed so Manny came over and gave it another nice tug that sent me spinning around super fast again. Whoever had oiled the wheel so it spun without any friction had done a good job.
Lilith made another cut, higher up on my arms and I cried out again. This one was right by the base of my elbow where the skin was thin and covered a lot of nerves. I felt those cuts badly and my breathing was now coming in short shallow gasps. Sweat ran down my body as I tried to figure out a way to break free.
“Again,” said Lilith then. “Spin it again. The next cuts will draw blood faster.”
Manny tugged the wheel again and I went zipping around again. Lilith spoke to me now, her voice was soft and low as if we were still lovers.
“Tell me how much you love me, Lawson. Confess your love for me. You know it’s true. You know you felt it within your heart. I touched something inside of you. I made you thrill to the chase. I made you desire me more than any other woman you’ve ever loved.”
She made another quick cut up on the inside of my forearms. I cried out.
“Tell me that which your heart knows to be true. You adore me, Lawson. Say it. Say it now.”
She looked at Manny. “Again.”
Manny jerked the wheel around again, but it wasn’t as smooth this time because he leaned into it funny. I felt the rhythm go off slightly even in my dizzy state.
And when Lilith made her cut up near my wrist, the scalpel bit into the ropes holding me there. Not much, but I felt them give a little. I still cried out as her blades bit into my flesh. Blood ran down all over my body now, mixing with sweat.
I was gasping for air. Every nerve I had was on fire and I felt like I was breathing in a forge and my lungs simply couldn’t get enough oxygen.
