Dark Temptation

by D. S. Molinari

  Finally, he succeeded. Kaliel evaded the guard at the entrance and shot out into the street. Then he heard it. Her moan tore through the air like an arrow that went to nail at full speed in the center of his chest. The sound of that voice made him shudder. Kaliel turned to his right scared. Fear? He’d never felt anything like fear. But now he was petrified while he saw that girl on the floor begging in such sorrow. What did this mean? It wasn’t fear; it was dread of something he didn’t understand. Never before had there been something that made him vulnerable and, at this moment in his history, any small weakness threatened his destruction.

  That face which seemed so familiar was about to be shattered by five of those filthy bloodsuckers. Again, the image of the girl turning towards him with a smile came to his mind. Kaliel shook his head sharply, as if his visions were insects he could scare away. The girl screamed again and this time she pounced on the vampires with more courage than he had shown so far. It no longer mattered if she saw him: he had to intervene. What was the point of remaining anonymous if his objective lost her life? But then something happened: the girl rolled on the floor, stood up almost instantaneously, extended her hand to the vampire and burned her down. The flames of hell opened at the vamp’s feet and devoured her until they left nothing but dust from the bones that had once been human. Her companions fled in terror after that. The girl was no longer in danger.

  Kaliel remained hidden as he watched her. What had all that been? She looked like any mortal but what she had just done wasn’t human. She didn’t look like the kind of girl who would engage in witchcraft or deals with... A demon! That demonic presence was there. In fact, he’d been in that place all the time. Why he hadn’t noticed it before?

  Now that he’d regained consciousness, he had no trouble finding the demon. There, behind the trees. Kaliel passed like a thunderbolt behind the girl without her noticing. The demon fled in the opposite direction and Kaliel went after him.

  While they were crossing the forest with the speed of a lightning, he could see that it was a very strong dark energy, very powerful and ... also familiar. What was happening with him? How many were the things of his past that he could not remember and that now seemed to come back together to torment him?

  “In the name of the Almighty, I order you to stop and reveal your identity!” Kaliel shouted, aware that he could not attack him if he had not done anything first.

  Then, the presence vanished. Kaliel stopped right in that clearing.

  “Despised...” a voice hissed. You no longer have the authority to ask me for that!

  That voice...

  “He let go of your hand, remember?” The demon continued, enjoying every word. “But I will introduce myself because it pleases me!”

  The shadows swirled in front of Kaliel and moved away like veils to reveal that face, owner of that smile that populated his darker thoughts.

  “My name is Baaltazhar. Do you remember me, despised? Or should I call you brother now?”

  It was him! This was the moment he had waited for so long. He would have traveled around the world looking for him but at last it was Baaltazhar who came to him. He would destroy him in such a way that it would erase his name from all the worlds and from all times until God himself forgot that he had created such a despicable being. And then He would forgive him.

  Kaliel tried those words that only those of his kind knew but couldn’t finish pronouncing them. His mouth became paralyzed and his whole body began to faint. Finally, he fell to his knees on the floor as his black wings creaked painfully and his feathers fell in flames at his feet.

  “I told you: He has abandoned you. The words you seek don’t exist in this world and this form is too weak to even think about them...” Baaltazhar enjoyed every word and every step he took towards Kaliel. After a moment of silence he knelt and approached him until his lips brushed his immobilized neck and whispered in his ear: “I’ll stay with Alanis... You: keep on falling”.

  Alanis. Her name sounded even more familiar on the lips of Baaltazhar.

  3

  Light and darkness

  A few light taps on the window plucked Alanis from her dreams. She’d just had a horrible night, full of nightmares that she could not remember. An isolated feeling, an unjustified bad feeling, boarded her as she got out of bed and headed for the window. She drew back the curtains and a pair of blue eyes like the sky rushed at her. Chase had climbed on the tree, and was crouching on the branch that rested right in front of her bedroom window. The boy's perfect smile shone as they met and he approached the sill. Alanis pulled the bars and opened the sheets wide.

  Chase slipped into the room with the stealth of a thief and hugged Ali spinning her. She wondered why he was so happy and couldn’t help but be infected by the same emotion. Her tiny violet silk nightgown curled around her body and she remembered ashamed that she must look terrible. However, Chase didn’t seem to mind and gave her a long kiss, even though Alanis was reluctant to pull her lips apart. Then he pulled her away while he held her in his almost frantic gaze and pulled a red rose from his back.

  “What..?”

  Ali hesitated, unable to wake up so quickly.

  “Today we turn one month...” Chase sounded somewhat disappointed.

  “Oh sure! It's just that you woke me up with a scare... You've ruined my surprise” Ali answered and went to take a small package from inside his desk to give it to Chase.

  The boy opened the wrapper and pulled out a box inside which was a dagger with the handle made of jade.

  “It's the one you wanted” informed Ali, “the one in the antique shop”.

  It’d been several days since Ali had discovered the special interest he had in that object. She’d found a drawing among the papers of Chase's house surrounded by notes in a language she could not identify, and then the fleeting astonishment on his face the day they saw it passing by the shop window. She didn’t want to ask him more then so as not to ruin the surprise but now it seemed like a good time.

  “What's so special about this dagger?” She asked.

  Chase shrugged.

  “Come on; tell me” Ali begged biting her lip mischievously. She’d have to reveal to him that she had been rummaging through his drawers. “I saw your notes and the drawings...”

  He turned with his mouth open, something more amused than outraged. Then he just laughed and glanced quickly at the clock on the bedside table.

  “It's a long story that... I'll tell you after school. Get dressed or it will be late” he said, going to the window. “I'll go to pick you up”.

  Chase winked and left.

  Her father seemed not to have known about her clandestine exit. When Alanis went down to the dining room, she found him very busy burning a pile of papers in the fireplace. Deep circles under his eyes revealed a sleepless night. If it hadn’t been because he had been locked up in his office, he’d have immediately noticed his daughter's absence.

  Suddenly, the memories of the previous night fell on her like lightning. She understood the cause of that bitter taste upon awakening. It had not been a dream as she had insisted on believing. The last glare of the blue-haired vampire appeared with vivacity in her mind. A chill ran down her spine. She was afraid but this time she couldn’t tell his father.

  She neither could tell Jess when she complained about her disappearance from the club last night.

  “Chase wanted to go to another club he knew” she explained that morning during the break.

  “How was it?” Her friend snorted.

  “Pretty boring. We went back home after a few minutes... No! Nothing happened...” she added later, in response to the insinuating look of Jess.

  The morning passed quickly and without her noticing it. Alanis wasn’t completely in this world. The hours slipped away from her perception as she brooded about something that felt loose inside her. Around noon, the coral song of the birds in the courtyard called her scant attention and so she reconnected with the real world. That was t
he problem: what did the real world mean now? She looked out the window and saw the usual trees, the same concrete playground cracked by the years, the children running with their common human capacities and their shrill laughter and wondered how that world, the one that she always knew, could fit in with the new world that opened now before her eyes. A world that had known how to stay out there hidden for so many years. Suddenly she felt that she wasn’t the same either. She watched the hand that had extended to the vampire and had the dreadful impression that it was more what she didn’t know about herself than what she didn’t know about the outside world. A phrase then rose to the surface of her mind: the world is a reflection of ourselves.

  Ten minutes to leave. Chase was supposed to be arriving so Ali watched anxiously towards the street. There was something sinister in the air. She couldn’t identify what part of that common world had changed but some kind of sixth sense alerted her now. It was the trees in particular that inspired her distrust. She felt watched. Minutes later, when she saw Chase appear around the corner, she ran through the playground as if it were a mine field and threw herself into his arms. At first he smiled but then he noticed that something wasn’t right. Still without saying a word, they looked back at the small park in front of the school. Something moved among the trees, confirming Ali's suspicions. A long strand of blue hair peeked through the branches and Ali could feel the wracking fire of the girl's eyes devouring her with murderous appetite. However, she did nothing. Maybe she didn’t want to kill her in broad daylight. Yes, surely that was it.

  “She's watching me...” Alanis whispered insecurely.

  She hoped it was a mistake.

  “Damn!” Chase released. “I know that this will sound crazy but... Do you think you can invoke that fire with your hand again?”

  “You say I should kill her!?” Ali shuddered. “I was not... I don’t know how it happened”.

  “We'd better not go to your house until we're sure she isn’t following us...” suggested Chase.

  “Since when do you know about vampires?” Ali asked as they walked fast folding several streets.

  In the end, they ended up on a lonely and gray street in which she had never been before.

  “A few years ago I came across one of them... I didn’t know what it was until... let's say I had a fight and it bit me. My father took me to a sorcerer because he was afraid I would become a vampire, you know, like in Hollywood movies...” Chase said shortly. “The thing is that this is absurd. Nothing happened to me except that I discovered a fascinating world hidden for ordinary people and I couldn’t stop visiting the sorcerer. I read all the books he had and I memorized everything he said... But I never knew anything like what you did last night...”

  Alanis was surprised to know that new facet of Chase. It wasn’t really new, she told herself, things were still as they had always been, it was she who could now see them as they were.

  “Here”.

  Chase stopped in front of a wooden door with the gray paint skipped and hit it three times.

  “What about here..?”

  “Here lives the sorcerer. He calls himself Sirus”.

  Ali expected to see an old man but, instead, a large man of indeterminate age and very dark skin opened the door. He rudely scrutinized Chase, something Ali had never seen anyone that laid eyes on the charming young man do before. Then the sorcerer registered his harmless companion. Only then did he step aside to let them pass.

  Sirus walked ahead leading them to a room whose walls were covered with dusty books and strange terrifying objects. The man wore white pants, a loose blue shirt and countless gold jewels on his fingers, wrists, neck and ears. With an absolutely neutral expression, he sat down at a low table and told them to do the same.

  “What have brought you to my house?” He said at last. No greetings, welcome or lose time with false courtesy.

  “I know you know that” Chase smiled.

  Sirus didn’t seem to like that challenge hidden in his answer. Anyway, he fixed his eyes on Ali and addressed her:

  “Creatures of the night are behind you, that’s what I see. And you're afraid” he added, reading her like a book; “but it's they who should be afraid…”

  Sirus remained silent for a moment, as if he didn’t want to share what he was reading deep inside Alanis' eyes.

  “She murdered a vampire last night!” Chase hastened to say. He looked more excited to know the truth than Ali. “She didn’t even touch her and the girl burst into flames. It became ashes before our eyes!”

  Sirus cast an indecipherable look at Alanis.

  “It was me?” She doubted. “How is that possible?”

  “It would be impossible. Only the...” Sirus broke off. “Vampires were created by demons. Originally, Lilith was the first wife of Adam but she didn’t want to submit to him and decided to leave Eden, seduced by the demon Asmodeo, also known as Samael”. That name gave Ali goosebumps. “The angels finished with the children that she had given birth to this new and abominable union. However, she refused to cry out to God. Then Samael gave her the solution: that her children would drink demon blood and so they would come back to life and be invincible... Immortals. And so it happened but all her children were cursed creatures that needed to feed on the blood of other beings. Eventually, they are stronger and more powerful than men. Only the children of God can master them”.

  “The Angels?” Ali said.

  “The angels and those who were once angels: the demons. They control them. Vampires are always in control of the demon that created them, the owner of the blood that made them immortal and cursed...”

  “I'm not an angel...” Ali said exasperated. She was beginning to believe that Chase had agreed with Sirus, if that was his name, to play a joke on her. “Not to mention a demon!”

  “Of course not!” exclaimed Sirus amused and laughed. Then he returned to his monotone tone. “Maybe it was your guardian angel...”

  “This is ridiculous!” It was the last thing that Ali said before leaving outraged of the house of that pathetic sorcerer. There was no doubt that they were playing a joke on her. Her father had spent his life warning her about how dangerous the demons were but had never warned her about other equally dangerous beings: the idiots.

  Chase followed her. He still seemed excited about the idea when he came to her.

  “If you are playing a joke this is the time to confess it” she warned him seriously.

  “What are you talking about..? Of course not! But think about it! You didn’t know your mother. Maybe she was...”

  “Don’t you even say it!” Ali interrupted, this time furious.

  “... an angel ...” Chase continued as if he hadn’t heard her.

  Could he be so stupid to imply that her mother had actually been an angel? In that case, she could have descended from heaven and visited her every time she wept for her absence in the dark solitude of her room.

  No. Evangeline Handley had been a simple girl raised in one of the most respected families in London with the most demanding and high Christian values. She had met Ali’s father, Jonathan Elliot on her frequent visits to the church and they had fallen deeply in love. This dark temptation had cost her father to have to leave his position and, apparently, God punished him for it when his beloved Evangeline died in childbirth that brought Alanis Emily Elliot to the world. And that's how they were left alone. Her mother had not been an angel nor a demon. Chase was losing his mind.

  Ali was silent the entire way home. Any further words about her mother threatened her self-control and she feared she would cry like a child.

  Thin drops of rain began to fall from the overcast sky. She left Chase at the door with a cold hug and hastened to take refuge in the peace of her home. Unfortunately, her father didn’t have the same plans.

  “Alanis... Would you like to be ordained for the priesthood and serve in the Church?” her father's question caught her off guard. Would she have to listen to more stupid things on the same day?r />
  “Are you crazy?” Ali spat morosely.

  “Really, it's a very peaceful life and you would dedicate your life to something wonderful...”

  “That's why you left away?” Ali interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

  “You're right...” He sighed sitting on the couch. Ali was surprised that he understood. “I would have felt safer if... Well, anyway. I wanted to talk to you about something very important. Come and sit…”

  That could not be good.

  “I got a very good job offer and I want us to move to Ireland...”

  “No! Of course not!” Ali jumped from the couch with her hands to the sides of the body clenched into fists due to the fury. “Are you going crazy?”

  “Don’t talk to me like that” her father reproached her with a cold look. “We need the money”.

  “I'll get a job!” She offered desperate but knew that her collaboration in a part-time job wouldn’t make a difference. “Or you could go away and leave me here alone...”

  “That's complete madness. Listen, I promise you that you will see your friends... We can come from time to time. I cannot refuse it...”

  “Why!?” Ali cried on the verge of tears.

  “Because I’ve already accepted. We leave next week” sentenced her father.

  “Well, you'll go alone!” Ali said sourly and went up to shut herself in her room ignoring the calls of her father.

  Outside, the rain had turned into a furious storm. It seemed to be night. Ali cried sitting on the bed in the middle of the darkness. She thought about Chase and how to get rid of her father's crazy ideas. Maybe she should run away from home. Suddenly, she saw it again. A faint glint stood out in the gloom and she understood that they were eyes that watched her. Like a cat watching her from the shadows, but not exactly. All the thoughts vanished from her mind and were replaced by a growing fear. She wanted to light her lamp but was unable to move.