Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (12 page)

“Here,” she said, thrusting him his change. “Thirty-eight dollars and your receipt.” She also handed back the money clip and said with a different tone to her voice, “What kinda guy walks around with a thousand dollars in his pocket?”

Cain opened his mouth to give an answer when Al’bah snapped her head toward the cashier and screamed, her eyes full of murderous intent.

“
He is mine!
”

Cain gathered the bags and left the store as quickly as he could, deciding to leave the thirty-eight dollars behind before the cashier could recover and wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.

Playful, grateful, and jealous to boot!
he thought to himself, wondering what other strange quirks he would observe today.

As they passed the food court, the smells from the various foods captivated Cain’s attention and appetite. He looked over the selections and decided he was too hungry to care about Al’bah’s strange behavior anymore. He wanted to have a roast beef sandwich, he wanted to let go of all these bags for a moment, and he wanted to get off his aching feet.

“Al’bah?” Cain looked over at her admiring a shoe she picked out. “You hungry?”

“Huh?” Al’bah looked up. “Oh! Well, um…yes, but perhaps I can cook for you when we get back?”

“You can cook? Why on Earth would you ever have a need to cook?”

Al’bah glanced uncomfortably at the mob seated at the tables, eating food from the various providers. “Cain, I may not have cooked before, but this does not mean I do not know how. Cooking and food is
life.
Physical creatures may need to learn such things, but spiritual creatures are created with such knowledge. Besides, this place makes me so uncomfortable—it is a sickly perversion of communion. There is no harmony here, just chaos.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he grumbled. “I had to pull you away from your grand observations before, but
now
you want to leave? You weren’t so uncomfortable earlier, and besides, I don’t have much food at home anyway.”

“There were not as many people here earlier, and they were not engaged in this…this…oh! Cain, can we go, please?”

Cain stared at Al’bah, who had since dismissed her shoe. She looked uncomfortable, almost panicked, desperate to leave at all costs. His attention then turned to the mob seated at the center of the food court. There they were, the usual slop and the usual slobs, all sitting and eating. But once he looked and really observed the scene before him, he felt repulsed by it as well. There was no specific reason, but the place felt
wrong
to him. “Fine, okay. Let’s go.” He sighed.

Right, now I need to get groceries! What a day this turned out to be,
Cain thought as he pulled out of the parking lot and started to think about where he could pick up some food.
Well, there is Walmart. It’s not too far off and—

“Big, big, biiiiiiig human,” Al’bah chortled, pointing at the cop who glared at them both.

NO! No way, I am NOT taking her to Walmart!

He noticed a small market and pulled in, hoping they had what Al’bah had in mind to cook. “Okay, let’s try to make this quick,” Cain muttered as they walked in.

“Aaah! I know that smell!” Al’bah exclaimed as soon as she entered the doors.

Thankfully, the grocery run was as short as the clothing run was long. “Roast beef, potato, flour, egg, salt and spice, milk and honey, and various green of the Earth,” Al’bah said happily as she set the basket down at the checkout.

“Well look at you! Aren’t you the most beautiful young lady,” the checkout cashier said, an elderly woman that was perhaps in
Webster’s
as the picture definition of “grandmother.” “You don’t see too many your age that are willing to cook for the one you love.”

“He is mine,” Al’bah said quietly, with an uncertain look on her face.

“Well now, of
course
he is!” The lady beamed. “You take care of him now, you hear?”

Cain smirked, seeing Al’bah feel just a small amount of the immense awkwardness that plagued him all day.

Afterward, while driving home, Cain shot a glance at Al’bah looking out at the window on her side, her knees drawn up to her chin, humming slightly. He turned his attention back to the road and all the money he spent on clothes. He sighed, trying to forget all the annoying quirks he had to endure about Al’bah, when he felt her shift toward him.

“Cain, I thank you again for all those clothes,” Al’bah said while caressing his body. “And I am sorry. I know I caused you undue stresses. I quite forget myself when I am surrounded by something new, and I did not mean to bring excessive attention to us, to you.”

Cain scoffed. “The way you were acting, one would think that it was your first time shopping! That it was your first time around people! That it was—I, um…”

Al’bah giggled; it was an infectious laughter that made it hard to stay upset with her. “Well it was! I have been through a lot of firsts today and yesterday. My first time being in flesh form, driving in a car, shopping, wearing clothes, and seeing so many humans.” Al’bah sighed and pressed her hand against the glass window. “To be quite honest, even when I did not have a form unto flesh, I never could imagine what it would be like to have two arms, two legs, hands, and fingers. To imagine what it would be like to be almost human.”

“What? When I first saw you, you did have two arms and two legs. You looked as you do now!”

Al’bah giggled again. “Cain, what you saw was my spiritual form, in a way your mind could comprehend it. The same went for my tormentors, Law and even Taint.” She sighed deeply. “In truth, I have never known a human until I met you, nor even seen one in person.” She leaned over and started to caress Cain’s torso; her hands slowly started to drift downward, almost in response to Cain’s desire. “I must say, though, the Creator’s favor is definitely seen in the creation that is known as human.”

“Al’bah, not now, I’m driving,” Cain said, trying to switch lanes.

“Then drive,” she whispered. “I have need for your touch, Cain. Your stresses, your chaotic emotions. These I will take, and give you my affection in return.”

“Al’bah, we might crash. We could get hurt.”

Al’bah looked up and smiled mysteriously. “I trust you, Cain.”

***

Once back in the apartment, Al’bah immediately set to preparing a meal. It was uncanny how quickly and efficiently she worked. She seasoned the roast beef while the vegetables were soaked in water. She made bread dough while the beef cooked, adding them within a perfect time frame to finish baking when the roast did.

Cain was cleaning and oiling his leather boots when a delicious smell caught his attention. There, the braised roast beef and several steaming loaves of bread sat upon the counter, with Al’bah wafting the scent toward him with her wings, her face full of playful mischief.

“Is it time to eat?”

Al’bah giggled again. “Not yet. I just wanted to tease you a little.”

Cain’s stomach roared in protest. “That is not funny,” he grumbled as he returned back to his boots, his concentration diminished severely now.

It didn’t take long before the entire apartment smelled delicious, lending a genuine sense of what
home
might feel like. It was an odd sensation that Cain noticed as he returned from the bathroom closet to get some more oil.

No, it’s not just the smell of good food.

Indeed, there was something different about his apartment. Even though nothing changed in the way of décor or repair, Cain felt a sense of calm and happiness radiate everywhere.

Al’bah looked up from the steaming vegetables and smiled.

“Losing my mind,” Cain muttered, not realizing he was staring. He tried to return to his boots, but he found himself looking at Al’bah every time his concentration wavered.

Cain slowly noticed that Al’bah was whispering in a strange language. He looked up from his leather boots and watched her for a moment. She was working with ingredients that appeared to be a mixture for another batch of bread dough. The way Al’bah spoke as she handled the ingredients was interesting. It was almost like prayer.

“What is that you are saying?”

“Sha-yu-yah? Oh, I was preparing the dough for tomorrow’s bread.”

“I know what you are doing, I asked what you were saying,” Cain said as he finished oiling his leather boots. “You were talking strangely. Is it your native language?”

Al’bah wiped her hands on a cloth. With a large smile, she half danced around the kitchen counter to sit next to Cain on the couch. “My native language? Yes. My speech is one with my actions. I give reverence to what I do, and that is making the bread.”

“So, you are speaking what you are doing?”

“Yes! But it is so much more than that. Shall I try to speak the reverence in your tongue?”

Cain let out a relieved breath. “Yes. You have no idea how unsatisfying it can be to listen to a language that you don’t know.”

Al’bah laughed and kissed Cain deeply. She stood up, returning to the dough mixture. “I shall start from the beginning.” She held up her hands above the flour bag as she had done in the beginning. “I give reverence to the ground that was broken to accept the seed. To the seed that was broken to spring forth new life, and to the plant that bore the wheat.”

Al’bah reached into the bag and retrieved some flour. “I give reverence to the wheat that was broken into dust.” She mixed the flour in a bowl and held out an egg. “I give reverence to the egg that is broken to Bind my efforts and the water that blends parts that are many, to become one. I give reverence to the salt of the Earth.” Al’bah kneaded the dough with strong motions and added a packet of ready-rise yeast to the mixture. “And life, that ultimately returns to dust.”

Cain nodded. “Thanks for sharing that with me,” he said, trying not to smile.

She smiled at him with a knowing look and opened the oven. Al’bah sighed, taking the small loaves out of the oven that baked faster than a single loaf could. “Bread, so essential to a meal. Every meal.” She whispered to the fragrant loaves with her eyes closed.

 
“Why baked bread?” Cain asked. “I have sliced bread, you know.”

Al’bah opened her eyes and looked at the package that Cain mentioned. She took one of the slices from it and tested its heft and scent, and at last, she touched her tongue to it. “Foul!” Al’bah cried as she tossed the slice to Cain. “That, whatever that is, is not bread. I can smell and I can taste mold, rot, unnatural substances, and all manner of filth all over it. I sure hope you have not been eating that.”

 ”Um, not really,” Cain said while he threw away the loaf which looked perfectly good. Even the expiration date was still a week away.

“Disgusting,” Al’bah said, shaking her head. “I know that it may look well, but it is a deception of sorts. Here, try this.” She set the bread down and broke off a piece from her first batch that was baked with the roast. “Bread, broken to nourish. To give life. From the life that was given to the Earth by the Creator,” she said and fed it to Cain.

“Delicious, yes?”

Cain grinned at Al’bah’s happy face as he chewed.

It was.

Setting the Trap

“Justice is all I care about.”

—Stella Fullson

“Mister Stratton, what can I do for you?”

“Chief Turnovits,” Walter acknowledged, taking his hand in a firm shake. “It has been a while since we have seen each other.” He sighed and looked around the sumptuous office that still could appear so Spartan and all business. A simple wood desk acquired at Goodwill with matching chairs bought on his own payroll, recycled carpet donated from the country club. And most impressive was his small personal library, again purchased on his own. “Last time we met, you were a captain. Now look at you, chief of police.”

Chief Turnovits shrugged, but his bearing spoke volumes of being nervous. His glance jittered between the window and the door. “Yes, well, my promotion was years ago. I recall you being there, actually.”

Walter nodded and gestured to the chair opposite his desk. “But I didn’t get the chance to congratulate you. May I?”