It was warm in the sun. Well, warmer. The morning light crept into Ann's hiding place every day around eight o’clock. By then, she had already long ago returned from her nightly errands and was ready to pass the daylight hours sleeping as best she could. Since her transformation into, well, whatever she was, she never really felt warm. The sun helped a bit, though. She curled up in a sunbeam like a large white-winged cat and attempted to rest. Her dreams were filled with images of her pink flesh, her blond hair, and her friends, and of regular food. Her waking hours were the time of terror. In the darkness of night, however, the bright white scales were easier to pass off as skin.
Ann had done a piss-poor job of offing herself. While many people dream of sprouting wings and flying away, in her case it had happened. When she had fallen almost ten stories, her wings had emerged, catching the wind and slowing her descent. In the end, she landed in a dumpster. Of course. A fitting end to a depressing life. In reality, Ann Melakh had died that day. She could not stand to look at what she had become. She was covered in white shiny scales. Her fingers were long and narrow and ended in large claws. She had no hair anywhere on her body and was taller now, by more than a foot, with ears that came to a sharp point. She had not brought herself to look at her face in a mirror, but could feel the sharp, pin-like teeth that now lined her jaws. And her eyes! She could not bear to see empty black eyes on her own face. Her tongue, at least, seemed normal. She had not grown the large tentacle-like thing that the demons seemed to use to feed. In fact, one thing she had been surprised and pleased to learn was that she still craved normal food. She would have thought that she would develop a taste for human blood, or babies or puppies or something. Perhaps that came later? Or perhaps she sucked at being a demon as much as she had at being a human. Then there were the wings. Giant bat-like things that jutted out of her shoulder blades. Made of a fleshly membrane, they were incredibly flexible. She found she could wrap them around herself like a cloak or fold them flat against her back.
Her first few days had been a haze of pain as she adapted to the new body. She remembered very little of that time. In her first real recent memory she had already found this place, an abandoned factory off Broad Street. The other homeless folk that lived there gave her plenty of space, which suited her just fine. She had found an old coat which covered her wings, and an old scarf to wrap around as much of her face as possible. At night she almost passed for human.
The night before, she had walked into a 7-11 and stolen some generic brand of canned pork and beans. When the shopkeeper tried to stop her, she simply pulled the scarf down and smiled at him. He gave her no more trouble, and later she had feasted. Now, in the morning sun, she was as content as a snake on a stone. She had wrapped her wings around her and used the coat as a makeshift blanket. Comfy.
Then something poked her.
“Rise and shine, little sister,” said a deep, dry, cracking voice. It sounded familiar. Ann jumped from her resting place and spun to meet the intruder. Her wings spread wide and she bared her teeth.
It was the tall blind homeless man from the street. Now though, the man seemed blurry, as if surrounded by a fine black mist.
“Whoa! Peace little sister. I’m not here for a fight.” This did not make Ann relax one bit. She sensed something about the man.
“Who…what are you?” she stammered.
The man smiled. “Funny, I was going to ask you the very same thing. You can call me Abraham, and I think you know what I am.” A long black tongue slithered out of his mouth to push up his top hat, and then slipped back.
“Demon,” Ann hissed.
“Of a sort, yes, but I am not one of the seven. Oh no, not me, Madam. I am just one of their long forgotten children. Cursed by them, if you will, but no longer bound by them. I am a free agent.”
“A free agent? You mean they don’t control you anymore?”
“No more voices in this head. Well,” the old man shrugged, “fewer.” He leaned on his cane and laughed hard at that. “I bet you see their mark on me now though, don’t you?” He raised his glasses, revealing empty sockets. Ann was repulsed. ”I took out this mark but you can’t hide from those with the sight.”
“The mist that’s all around you, that’s what you’re talking about?”
“Yes, the sight.” Ann looked down at her own hands. She didn’t see anything odd. Well, besides the white scales and claws.
“You see, I hunt the seven. It’s a little side job I do, you know, till my singing career takes off. It’s payback for what they did to me all those years ago.”
“Wait, you hunt demons? Like Miller?”
“Miller? Oh, you mean the Ancient One. He still using that name? He isn’t here, is he?” Abraham glanced around. How could he see?
“No, I don’t think so. I haven’t been in much of a hurry to find him either. I don’t think we’ll get along as well as we have in the past.”
“That’s wise. The Ancient One has no love for us Cursed. I try and stay out of his way.
But you, I think he is going to want to meet you. I think everyone is going to want to meet you.”
“What do you want?” Ann asked.
“Want? Me? Just want to welcome you into the family. You see, I’ve been watching you for a while now. Truth be told, I was asked to kill you.”
“What?” Ann backed away.
“Well, not you exactly, any of the seven that came out of that school. You were the only one I ever found there.”
“Me? I’m not one of the seven. My boyfriend, my ex, he did something to me. Infected me with this…” Ann motioned at the wings on her back.
“Oh no, little sister,” Abraham cut back in. “You were the one. Lilith, the queen of them all. The mother of them all too, if you like.”
“No...” Ann started. “That’s crazy.”
“Oh it’s crazy. I’ll give you that. But it’s also true. I saw her light flickering inside of you as you walked to and fro. Flickering and dying. The most amazing thing.” The old man stepped closer and spread out his arms to the sky above.
“Somehow, you killed it. Somehow you stayed you. And that, little sister, is a first. No one has ever come back from being taken by a demon. A miracle! God be praised!”
Ann didn’t know what to say to that at first. “So I’m not a demon?”
“I don’t know. That’s the fun part.” Abraham smiled and tipped his hat to her. “You are something new. There isn’t any demon mark on you anymore. You are clean. Pure. Which is why it’s taken me so long to find you. To show you…”
Out of the hat Abraham pulled a small, dirty mirror and raised it to Ann’s face. Her own blue eyes stared back at her.
“To welcome you to the family, little sister, and to welcome you to the war.”
End of book 1
Joseph Miller will return in Ancient Enemies
To read more go to:
www.ancientawakening.com
Or follow us at:
https://twitter.com/#!/TheAncientBooks
https://www.facebook.com/TheAncientBooks
Ancient Awakening 2nd Edition by Matthew Bryan Laube
Copyright 2009,2010,2011
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental…at least that’s what they want you to think.
Special thanks to my readers Andy, Joel, Jay, Dad, Mom, Jen, and Chris. Above all, thanks to my wife and editor, Danielle.
Cover Design by Chris Laube.
Additional art by Mauro Balcazar.
“Seven are they” based on translations by R.C. Thompson, published in The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1903.
Print version 5.0
The following chapter is from:
ANCIENT ENEMIES
Matthew Bryan Laube
www.
ancientawakening.com
Chapter 3 - Boys Night Out
Ancient Awakening (The Ancient) Page 38
