"I take it you have tried."
"Once, a long time ago. Not intentionally of course. I'm not suicidal. I remember feeling sad, depressed. I kept asking myself what good is love if it wasn't real, so I decided to isolate myself from humanity thinking I could just give it up. I moved as far away from people as I could and then I found out I needed them more than they needed me. Within weeks I became so sick I thought I was going to die. Then this old woman found me. She told me she understood my needs. Some of her people carried me to a nearby village. Then they just disappeared. I never got to thank them."
"So what caused this sickness?"
"Starvation, dependency. It appears love is like a drug. Without my fix, I have horrible withdrawal symptoms. A cruel twist, don't you think?"
"Perhaps. Then again, you give something in return? Those people affected by your power may never have experienced the emotion before meeting you."
Cammie laughed.
"Now that sounds sadder than my story."
"I am just giving you another perspective. Think about it."
"Maybe I will."
"Good. Can I ask you something?"
"You can ask?" said Cammie, her amber eyes twinkling brightly.
"Why did you tell me all of this? You could have said you had some animal magnetism or something."
"You would never have believed that. I knew when we shook hands you felt the attraction and so did that darkness inside of you."
Temporarily startled, Yemaya wasn't sure how to respond. She hadn't felt it stirring and wondered how Cammie know about it?
"How did..."
"I’ve seen it before in others. Yours is stronger, though. It must be hard to keep under control."
"At times. Thankfully, I have someone who helps me."
"Ah yes... Dakota. The two of you make a formidable team."
"Yes, we do."
"I envy you. It must be wonderful to know such love. I would give all of my future lives for what you have."
"I know what you mean. I cannot imagine a future without her."
"Well, I hope you and Dakota have a long life together."
"Thanks." Looking at her watch, Yemaya took a final drink and then pushed her chair back. "Speaking of which, I had better get back to her. She needs to understand what happened."
"Will she be alright?"
"She has no choice," Yemaya replied confidently. "I will make sure of it."
"I believe you will."
Standing, Yemaya stared down at the Cambion and thought how young and innocent she was. For all of the lives she had lived, all of the people who had loved her, she had never experienced real love. As if the thought conjured up a vision, Kali appeared next to her, wiping her hands on a towel.
"Are you leaving, now?" she asked hopefully, still refusing to make eye contact.
"Yes. Did you want something?"
"No, just making sure," grumbled the brooding bartender before walking away.
"Kali. Wait a minute."
Reluctantly, Kali stopped and waited for Yemaya to reach her. For the first time, she looked up. Stunned, the Illusionist hesitated a moment and then continued on. She had never seen eyes flaming so brightly. By the time she reached the bartender, Kali had lowered her gaze and was playing with the towel in her hands.
"What do you want?" she muttered, almost childishly.
"Just to give you a word of advice. You need to tell Cammie the truth."
"Truth? What truth?"
"You know what I mean. Until you confront her, you will never know what is possible."
When Kali didn't reply, Yemaya shrugged and left. Climbing into her taxi, she turned to look back as it drove away. The bartender was holding the door open and staring at her. Even at a distance, her lavender eyes glowed unnaturally bright. Her nod was barely discernible before she disappeared back into the building.
"An amazing color." thought Yemaya.
CHAPTER 14
LONNIE SANDERS was tired. The trauma center had been going non-stop all evening. After sending the last patient, a suspected SARS victim, to isolation, she decided to catch a breath of fresh air during the lull. Her pager would let her know if anything else came in.
Grabbing her coat, a Snickers bar and a cup of coffee, she told Joey she was going for a walk.
"Page me if anything happens. I'll just be outside."
"Sure Doc."
The night air was cool. Taking a deep breath, she walked around the corner of the building into a dark secluded spot. Normally, a spotlight lit the area but it had burnt out several nights earlier and maintenance hadn't replaced it. Leaning against the wall, she sipped the coffee and bit a chunk of candy, chewing slowly. Tonight was unusually busy... car accidents, two shootings, a stabbing and the potentially deadly SARS case kept everyone scrambling. Two more hours and she'd be off, if nothing else happened. As if her thoughts conjured up a vision, she heard a slight moan coming from the darkness. Startled, she looked around trying to locate the source. Another moan to her left caught her attention. Cautiously, she walked toward the noise. Her toe hit something solid and she knelt down to investigate. Discovering a body, she grabbed her two-way and called for help. Within seconds Joey and two nurses rushed around the corner carrying a stretcher and a flashlight. The light beam flashed over the body of a young woman wrapped in a bloody sheet.
"She's alive. Get her inside. NOW!" ordered Lonnie.
Gently, the four lifted the woman onto the stretcher and carried her into an examination room. As the nurses began cutting away the sheet, Lonnie ordered Joey to bring in IVs, pans of warm water and plenty of gauze and to get the lab to type her blood in case she needed a transfusion. Although the sheet was saturated from the blood, Lonnie knew it might not be as bad as it looked. Locating the source was more important. Everyone worked furiously trying to clean the girl's body enough for Dr. Sanders to make a thorough examination.
Checking the unconscious woman's eyes for a response she nodded her approval.
"Good. Okay, people, let's see what happened here. Where's the blood coming from?" she demanded, running her hands along the girl's body searching for any signs of injuries. Bruises around the wrists indicated a form of bondage. There were also several deep scratches around her breasts. "Does she have any i.d.?" Lonnie asked, knowing it was a stupid question.
"None," Joey replied.
"Doc, this woman's had an abortion or been raped or something." said one of the nurses as she cleaned the thighs.
Lonnie shifted down to exam the pelvic area. It was the obvious source of the majority of bleeding although the flow seemed to have stopped.
"Call the O.R. and tell them we need it stat. See if Dr. Langley is still here. She's the best gyno in the hospital."
Joey, who had been standing to the side, picked up the phone to make the arrangements.
"Dr. Langley will meet you in ten minutes in O.R. 3, Dr. Sanders."
"Good, get her prepped. I'm going to clean up. I'll meet you there."
Four hours later, Joey wheeled the Jane Doe to post op for observation. Dr. Sanders and Dr. Langley followed several feet behind.
"I don't know what happened to that girl but I've never seen anything quite like it," Lonnie said pulling her face mask down.
"Wish I could say the same." Annie Langley replied. "This isn't as unusual as you think. Sometimes it's just rough sex gone wrong. Other times it's some sadistic bastard looking for a way to get his rocks off. This is one of the worse cases of abuse I've seen, though. This girl was so torn up inside, I had to remove everything and try to reconstruct the entire vaginal area. She'll never have kids."
"You think it was someone she knew or a stranger?"
"Don't know, but it wasn't voluntary. The bruises around her wrists show she was restrained. And those around her ankles were made by hands... big hands. Someone held her legs while she was being raped."
"Well, there's no chance of finding semen or anything with all that blood and body fluid.
" Lonnie said.
"Yeah, from the looks of the injuries, it wasn't a penis that did all that damage. The creep took a great deal of pleasure torturing this girl. Now that makes him or her a very sick puppy."
"Her? You think a woman could do this?"
"I would hope not, Lonnie, but I don't discount anyone. In my line of medicine, I've seen some pretty horrific things done by women."
"I guess. Look, Anne, thanks for staying after and helping me with this."
"Anytime, kiddo. I'll check in on her when I come in later today, but I think she'll be fine. Call me if her condition worsens though."
"Will do. I'll just get her settled and file a report with the police."
* * *
Ivan watched the ER entrance, monitoring the people going in and out. More than fifteen minutes passed with no activity. Picking up the girl, he carried her to a dark secluded spot near the entrance. Hopefully, someone would come out and find her soon. For sure, he didn't want to make any calls to the hospital.
Once back in his car, he lit a cigarette drawing the smoke deep into his lungs. Ivan rarely smoked. Now it was only a matter of waiting to see if anyone would find her. After ten minutes, he was about to give up hope when a woman left the building and walked toward the darkened area. Within minutes several people rushed out the door to where she had disappeared.
"Now all I have to do is keep this from Catrina." he muttered, throwing the cigarette out the window. Without turning his lights on, he slowly pulled away from the curb and drove away.
CHAPTER 15
THE DARK ONE watched in fascination. The two mortals torturing the young woman were deriving an unnatural pleasure from their actions.
"I will never understand this craving mortals have for such pleasures of the flesh, old friend," Intunecat said to Curaco, his raven. "It's their greatest weakness."
Waving his hand, the images vanished.
"Fly to the Earth Mother and request her presence at the Eternal Flame. I'll be waiting."
Curaco vanished from the blackness and reappeared in the light, large wings flapping slowly as he traveled the spirit world.
Mari arrived at the fire only moments after Intunecat.
"You sent for me?"
"Yes. Have you felt anything unusual this night?" he asked.
"No. Should I?"
"Maybe not. As I said, you have been away from your people a long time. Watch!" he ordered, waving his hand in front of the flame.
Mari watched a replay of the scene Intunecat had seen earlier.
"Is she not one of your people?"
"Yes, she is," Mari replied quietly, looking away for an instant. The dark spirit said nothing. Mari was angry... a rare event. Her quiet response, the icy look in her pale eyes fascinated him. Never had he seen anything so beautiful. For the first time, he felt a stirring deep within him, an emotion he couldn't quite understand. How wonderful it must be to love someone so completely, he thought. Shaking his hooded head, he waited patiently for her to speak.
"When did this happen?" demanded Mari, returning her gaze to the images in the flame.
"This night."
"Yemaya must be told. She's the only one who can help this child until I think of something."
"Yes, but these mortals want her also. Do you think it wise to include her? She’ll let her emotions guide her. I won’t allow that."
"You won't allow it? Who are you to decide the fate of my daughter?"
"I'm the only one who isn't affected by emotion, my dear. Even now you seethe with anger over this child. What will you do if it's your own blood under this creature's control? Spirits have very little power in the mortal world except when they take mortal form and then we are all vulnerable. Would you risk your realm for the life of one person?"
"For her, I would risk it all," Mari declared, truthfully.
"That is precisely my point. I said you would let your emotions rule. That's why you need me."
"And me," said Maopa, appearing by Mari's side. "He be right, yah knowed. As much as I hates tah side with this un, now ain't the time for chargin in. Even you ken be kilt ifn yah ain't careful and then all be lost for both them and us'en."
"So what am I to do? Nothing?"
"No, this chile needs you more'n Yemaya. We'll go to her. She'll need us till yah kin can get tah her."
"And I'll make sure Yemaya's life-mate knows what's happening," offered Intunecat.
"I don't want you near Yemaya or Dakota,"
"A truce, Mari. Now isn't the time for us to battle over them. We can save that for the future. I promise to be only the messenger."
"Very well," She agreed, reluctantly. "I’ll hold you to your word, Intunecat."
Taking Maopa's hand, the two women vanished.
* * *
Lonnie was sitting at the nurse's desk writing her report on Jane Doe. She had already given a police report to Officer Finley. It would be up to him to contact her family. Momentarily distracted by a warm breeze ruffling the lose papers around her, she looked up and glanced around trying to locate the source. Definitely it hadn't come from the ER doors since the temperature outside was below freezing. Seeing no one around, she went back to making notes on the patient's chart.
"Please excuse the intrusion. I'm here to see my niece."
Lonnie shivered. The voice was low and sultry. Looking up, she saw two women, one very tall and slender with pale blue eyes the color of frozen ice but warm like a gentle flame. Her long black hair hung loosely around her shoulders. Beside her stood a smaller, blonde haired woman with Twinkling dark green eyes.
"What room is she in?" Lonnie asked.
"Now that be the..." Mari nudged Maopa with her elbow.
"We're not sure, miss. The authorities just informed us that she was brought here. Her name is Sasha. She's twenty-two and was an... an assault victim."
"Oh, our Jane Doe. Do you mind if I ask your names?"
"My name is Yemaya and this is my partner, Dakota. Sasha was meeting us for dinner, but never showed up. After a few hours, we decided to call the hospitals and authorities to see if she was in an accident. We just found out she was here."
"And we be a wantin to see her," piped in Dakota.
Lonnie stared at the strange speaking woman. Now that's as backwoods as it gets, she thought.
"I see. Well, Jane... Sasha is in room 403. She hasn't regained consciousness yet. I don't know how much the police have told you but she's suffered some serious injuries and not all physical, I'm afraid. I wish I could say we were able to correct all of the physical damage but we couldn't."
The two women listened as Lonnie explained the extent of Sasha's injuries and the final prognosis. She'd never have kids and quite possibly would suffer severe psychological trauma for a long time. When Lonnie finished, she escorted them to Sasha's room. With the oxygen tube under her nose and the IV in her arm, the girl looked frail and vulnerable.
"Any idea when she might wake up?"
"Not really. These cases are hard to tell. Maybe in a few hours or it might be days or weeks. Everything depends on her and her will."
"Well, thank you, doctor. If you don't mind, we'll sit with her awhile."
Lonnie left them alone with the unconscious woman.
* * *
Sasha was lost. The darkness was impenetrable and cold. Panicking, she struggled to find a way out. About to give up hope, she felt a warm voice calling to her. A spec of light appeared to her right.
"Sasha, it's me! Yemaya. I have you now. Just follow the light."
"Mistress?"
"Yes, Sasha. I've come to take you home. Andrei is waiting for you. He misses you."
"I hurt so bad." cried Sasha.
"I know. The pain will go away soon, but now you must come to me. I can't help you until you do."
"I'm trying, Mistress. She hurt me so bad. I'm afraid."
"There's nothing to fear, Sasha. She can't harm you now. I promise. It's time to come home."
Sasha f
ollowed the voice, as it wrapped itself warmly around her, leading her toward consciousness. She struggled desperately to open her eyes. The room was dimly lit. When she finally focused on the two people standing by her bed, she immediately recognized Yemaya. The other woman was a stranger.
Lilith - TI3 Page 10
