2. Darkness in the Blood Master copy MS 5 (16 page)

Dr. Christian spoke. “This image depicts a little-known abomination referred to in the Christian Bible as the Nephilim, or children of women and angels.” He sneered. “Looks helpless, doesn’t she? However, the Bible and many other cultures make it quite clear that she and others like her were nothing more than monsters with freakish powers. This woman is the real reason humankind was almost wiped off the face of the earth in the event known as the Great Flood.”

Blood roared and crashed in my ears. The universe became a slowly closing tunnel with dark edges.

“Before the Great Flood, which, incidentally, has been reported in the mythology of almost every major ancient civilization, angels walked the earth and procreated with human women.” He looked as if he wanted to brush himself off as soon as he spoke the words. My dark tunnel of a universe got a little darker and smaller. “Their offspring were born with the celestial gifts of their fathers. Gifts no human should have. Gifts that they later used to challenge Heaven itself.”

Amberlyn was trying to tell me something. I felt her hand, warm against my icy spine. I felt frozen and sick, lost in a dark nightmare wasteland.

Why hadn’t they told me? Either of my angels, Ethan or Asheroth? Surely they knew. But they would have told me if they did. Ethan would have for sure. Maybe he wasn’t that old. Maybe he wasn’t around back then.

Why wouldn’t he tell me if he knew?

Dr. Christian bent and retrieved the red leather bound book. “From Genesis Six: The sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons.”

Beads of sweat coalesced on my forehead. “Angel sex,” I heard a guy whisper from two rows away. “Wicked kinky. Is he gonna show us pictures of that?”

I silently wished the plague would consume him.

Images slid across the screen in a slick sickening Power Point procession:

Paintings of Nephilim and humans with families and homes and villages, and those villages were burning, wings shaped of Light and Dark in the midst of destruction and death, while battle raged and bodies lay on the ground. Beautiful humans destroying villages, killing angels. Fighting back.

Chaos. Destruction. War.

Dr. Christian continued while the class hung on his every word. “These abominations turned their powers against Heaven itself. And so the whole world suffered; you know the story of Noah. Almost all humankind was destroyed in an attempt to stop these Nephilim with their terrible powers.”

The portraits flashed by in the darkness. With each one, my horror grew; I felt a fear so deep and primal I wanted to beg for comfort. I wanted my dead parents back, I wanted my Gran. I needed her to tell me there were no such things as monsters, and that even if there were, they could never, ever be me. 

 “Such was the Nephilim and their children’s rebellion against Heaven,” a cold voice intoned from far away. “Their punishment was swift and merciless, as you can tell. Memorize these portraits. I’ve prepared a packet of them for you to take home. Memorize them so well you can name their title and composer for the test on Monday. Does anyone have any questions?” Dr. Christian asked.

If anyone had any, they were lost to me as I laid my head against the cool hard surface and focused on not passing out. Papers rattled around me. I refused to take one of his damned packets. I wouldn’t be taking that test. I was dropping this class as soon as I could. Hesitant fingers stroked my hair, pushing it back from my forehead.

“Caspia?” Amberlyn sounded as if she spoke from underwater. “Can you hear me?” More rattling papers. “I got your packet for you. It’s in your knapsack. Talk to me, hon.”

“Can’t,” I managed. Cold. I was so cold. I kept picturing the dark haired woman, pleading for her life before an angel with a flaming sword. An angel with wings like planes of Light, not feathers. An angel like Ethan had been, not that long ago.

I had dark hair. I could make Shadows like the woman in the painting.

Why hadn’t Ethan told me?

Is this what Asheroth meant about war coming to Whitfield? Was it happening again? I clung to my desk as waves of nausea and fear and sorrow rocked me.

“Are you unwell, Miss Chastain? I was so very looking forward to talking with you in my office. Remember?” His voice rolled over me like a cold fog that deepened into a kind of spreading numbness until all I could do was lay there like a beached jellyfish. “Gather her things, Amberlyn. It’s time she came with me anyway.”

Numb. Freezing. I couldn’t move. I must move. I hated this man. He was going to take me. He knew about Nephilim, he called us abominations, Nephilim descendents were disappearing, and he was going to take me. Realization, when it hit me, was the coldest sensation yet.

Oh, Ethan. Why did you have to fall in love with someone who was so very, very stupid?

Why had I not known?

Why had he waited so long?

“Take her where, Dr. Christian?” Amberlyn sounded like a zombified version of herself. I wanted to scream at her, to plead with her, but I couldn’t. No parts of me worked except the silent ones, the places in my brain shrieking soundlessly with fear and rage. “I don’t think she’s feeling very well.”

“She’s fine, Amberlyn.” His voice was very soft, very convincing. “We’ll just have a nice little talk here for a moment, then. I can make certain no one disturbs us.” 

“Oh…kay,” Amberlyn agreed in a puzzled monotone, but to me, it was the sound of a trap snapping shut.

Then he laid his hand across my neck, and ancient Shadows stirred the darkness in my blood.

Almost as if he could hear my fears, Dr. Christian patted me absently. “An associate of mine has been waiting to meet you for a very long time, Caspia. He’ll be so pleased when I bring you to him.”

Chapter Sixteen:

The Devil You Know

I don’t think Dr. Christian had ever touched me. Not skin on skin, anyway. But when he slid his palm across the sensitive nerve endings of my neck, it was as if the two of us stood alone together in a very dark room. I could feel him, a dark energy, invading me, testing me.

I was still pinned to my desk.

I didn’t know it was possible to sob in my head, but it was, and I did.

“What did you think of today’s lesson?” he asked out loud.

“What?” Amberlyn sounded startled. “Oh, um, it was kind of intense. Evil half-breeds trying to bring down Heaven.” She laughed nervously. “Dr. Christian? Is Caspia going to be ok?”

No!
I thought furiously.

His thumb pressed down hard on the tendons at the base of my neck. If I’d been able, I would have whimpered. It hurt. When I tried again to reach for the Shadows, they slipped just out of my reach, as if a net of numbing power had slipped under my skin. “I’m going to release you,” he said calmly, almost politely, as if we were sitting down to tea. “Just enough to talk.” His hand slipped from my neck and I could move again. I sat up so quickly all the blood rushed to my head. I ignored it, though, and tried to push myself to my feet and run.

I couldn’t. My body stayed glued firmly to my desk. He shook his perfect blond head in mock disappointment. “Surely you didn’t think me that stupid?”

“What are you?” I asked when I discovered my vocal cords could work again. “A demon?”

His blue eyes narrowed. “To be a demon, one must first be an angel. No, I am nothing like that. Nothing immortal or,” his perfect lips twisted on the word, “unnatural. All you need to know is that I am powerful, and that the entity that wants you shares a common enemy with me.” He lounged backwards in the tiny auditorium chair like it was a plush sofa. A brief flash of too-white teeth disturbed me. I wondered if it was meant to pass for a smile. “He wants me to talk to you, Caspia.”

“Why?” I watched as Amberlyn slipped quietly into a chair next to Dr. Christian. She sat with her hands folded in her lap, staring off into space. “What’s the point?”

“Did you expect me to hit you over the head and drag you away?” Dr. Christian leaned forward. His eyes narrowed, transforming his whole face into something sharp and hungry. “I am actually trying to reason with you, you stupid girl. He remains convinced you will come to him of your own free will, if you just hear the right argument.” My shock must have been plain, because Dr. Christian snorted and leaned away. “Yes, exactly. I agree with you about this little conversation. It was a lost cause before it began, but Belial is not someone you say no to.”

“Belial?” I rolled the name on my tongue, memorizing it.

“Yes.” His eyes were blue fire. “Belial. I’ll spell it if you need me to. Belial. A Rebel angel.”

“A demon, you mean,” I challenged.

He lounged backwards again. His expensive Italian leather shoe came perilously close to kicking Amberlyn. She didn’t seem to notice. “I told him this would be pointless.”

“Don’t you hurt her,” I warned. I put as much venom into my voice as I could, since I couldn’t actually stop him at the moment.

He barely glanced at the perfectly still Amberlyn. “I won’t hurt her,” he said impatiently. “I can’t. The Compact between Light and Dark forbids it.”

I waited for his words to make sense. They didn’t. “The what?” I asked.

He looked as if I’d given him a present. “They haven’t told you? It’s only Whitfield’s most important supernatural law. And they don’t trust you with it?” I didn’t let him see my curiosity or my disappointment. Because no, no one had told me. I’d heard Cassandra mention something about it in passing, but that was all. He smiled, drumming his long fingers on my desk. “Simple, really. It’s an oath not to harm mortals and innocents. It’s what allows us to live together in relative peace. We can neither harm those citizens who don’t know of our existence, nor engage in attacks on each other that would hurt them or the town.” His long tapping fingers moved to my immobile arms. One of them caressed the back of my hand. Immediately, a frisson of cold power pulsed through me.

“But look what you’ve done to Amberlyn,” I protested. “And you’re going to harm me, I’m pretty damn sure, if you’re going to hand me over to a demon and the Dark Realms.”   

“Amberlyn hasn’t been harmed,” he corrected smoothly. I watched as he turned to her and pulled gently on one of her springy loose curls. She just sat and stared off into the distance. “She won’t remember any of this. As for you, I won’t be doing any of the hurting. I’m merely delivering you out of the city limits. And even if I were to develop a desire to,” he smiled again, like an eager, hungry cat, “hurt you, the Compact doesn’t prohibit that. All kinds of supernaturals live here, some of us with long histories of animosity towards each other, both personal and otherwise. Naturally, tensions erupt between us sometimes. As long as the town in general, and innocents in specific aren’t caught up in the cross fire, this rarely becomes a problem.”

“So you’re telling me,” I said slowly, trying to wrap my head around this new information, “that my whole life, supernatural mini wars have been going on all around me, and I haven’t even know about it?” I heard my voice climb at the end, surprising even me. Why hadn’t someone told me?

“You are right to feel anger,” Dr. Christian said in an eerie echo of my own thoughts. “It would have taken so little to enlighten you. One sentence. Perhaps two. And yet, none of your so-called friends or protectors saw fit to do so. What else are they keeping from you, Caspia?” I dropped my eyes to my frozen arms. I wouldn’t think of that now. I would think about getting away from this man, and then I would see about getting some questions answered. “Perhaps they’ve even been lying about Belial, the war, and the Dark Realms,” he said softly.

“Now that I just can’t believe,” I snapped. “I’ve seen the evidence for myself. He’s kidnapping gifted children, for God’s sake. What kind of monster does that?”

“One who wants to keep them safe,” Dr. Christian answered softly. “Not everyone can live here, in this sheltered valley, Caspia. Belial may be taking them, but other forces are killing them. Which is better? And since he’s forbidden from coming here himself, what other choice does he have, really?” He shrugged, an elegant gesture that looked oddly out of place on him. “If the Guardians hadn’t banned him, specifically…”

“Wait, what?” I interrupted. Again, something Cassandra had mentioned but not expounded on. Ok, to be fair, we’d had a lot of wine by then, but someone should have told me. “What Guardians?”

“How can you continue to put your faith in a group of people who don’t even inform you about their basic governing structure?” I shifted against my invisible bonds. “Guardians are powerful members of the different groups that live here. Belial and other rebel angels are just one of the many kinds of creatures that the Whitfield Guardians have deemed undesirable,” he said the word with a sneer, “and decided to ban. So you see that the council has left him little choice.”

“And this is supposed to make me decide to pity him, somehow?” I looked at Amberlyn. She remained seated just like a puppet.

“No,” he sighed. “I never expected it to. I merely promised him I would try to convince you first. He thinks you will change your mind.” Dr. Christian’s look of disgust let me know what he thought of that possibility. “It’s for the best, Caspia. The longer you stay, the harder he will try to extract you, and the more people will be hurt. It’s only a matter of time before you turn yourself over, if not exactly willingly, then because you’ll be desperate to stop the damage to the town and the people you claim to love.” He slid from his chair with leonine grace. “All you ever have to do is step one little toe outside the city limits,” he whispered into my ear. “Just even slightly, and he’ll know. He’s watching for you, oh so closely. It’s only a matter of time.”

His hand touched my neck, and I went completely limp again. His voice was soft and wet directly in my ear. Impossibly, disgustingly, he lifted me up in his arms. “You’ve always been so well guarded. He’s been very patient with me, waiting for me to bring you to him.” I found myself crushed against his expensive suit and smothered with his designer cologne. My eyes were barely open slits. “Come along, Amberlyn,” he said to my docile best friend. “You may come with us now.” She got up and trailed us obediently, carrying both our books.