Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (47 page)

“Indeed! You cannot claim ignorance of his illness! You neglected to tell him what he needed to know!”

“He touched a desire that was not you! He does not love you!”

Al’bah’s eyes took on a yellow then red glow. Venom dripped from her mouth, and her hands elongated into wicked instruments of pain and death. “
MINE!
”
she screeched. “He is mine, and you will not have him!”

She whirled around and pierced one of the monstrosities that tried to sneak behind her. The thing shrieked and attempted to dislodge itself from Al’bah’s wicked claws.

“
Die!
” Al’bah shrieked and swung her other hand, mortally wounding the creature’s makeshift physical form.

Again Al’bah whirled around and caught one of the creatures’ arms in her fanged mouth. She quickly injected a lethal dose of venom in the thing and pushed it away.

The creature screamed and writhed in agony upon the floor, while the other was already comatose from the loss of physical essence.

Al’bah spat and glared at the remaining creatures that were joined by seven more.

Al’bah snarled and
changed
again.

Two pairs of skeletal arms sprouted from her head, and four more pairs from her body. Three barbed tails whipped forth from her body of their own accord, and her hair started to coalesce into black vipers with burning green eyes.

The skeletal arms on her body were quickly enveloped by flesh and grew claws of their own. The black vipers hissed at the creatures and bared their fangs. All the while the three tails seemed to taunt the creatures, daring them to try to come closer.

“This Succubus is strong. Her connection to this mortal strengthens her. Combat will not be easy.”

“This Succubus does not steal the strength from the mortal. She receives only. Her strength will be limited.”

The shadows drew nearer, feeling confident in their numbers.

“So foolish are the legions of hell,” she said smugly as the arms on her head grasped the vipers and started to toss them toward the creatures.

Immediately the majority of the creatures fell upon the ground, but as fast as they fell, others took their place.

“And so singular is this Succubus, who is even more a fool!” one of the shadows said as it came forward, seeming to embrace its death.

Al’bah’s motions became a violent blur. Her tails whipped through the air in a never-ending high-pitched whine. Her five pairs of arms brought multiple deaths with each motion, while the vipers in her hair kept bringing down the innumerable legions that only had one goal: Cain.

For a long time it seemed as though Al’bah would win, but it became apparent that the shadows were only toying with her. Their numbers were vast, and her spiritual energies were becoming exhausted.

Her vipers were first to go as they flattened and became hair once more.

“The Succubus tires, it will not be long now.”

Her three tails were then caught and held fast.

“No!” Al’bah wailed as the shadows pressed forward in a sudden upheaval and held her arms.

“Good, now seal her form!”

In a terrifying sense of déjà vu, Al’bah’s thoughts were brought back to the very beginnings of her torments from Taint’s hand.

“Cain, please wake!” Al’bah begged.

The legions laughed as Al’bah reverted back to the form that pleased Cain the most. They laughed as they started to tug, pull, and tear her clothes apart.

“Where are her wings?”

“Bring her wings out! Tear them apart!”

“Tear them apart; they are the last barrier between us and the mortal!”

Al’bah cried out; she was so tired, she could not fight anymore. She felt their presences invade and violate her being, seeking her wings. They reached deep within for them, and it would only be a matter of time before—

“Hold! Another presence approaches!”

“Flee! We are no match!”

The shadows departed, and a great sense of peace filled the room. The darkness changed from an empty, foreboding nothingness into a soft anti-glow.

Al’bah felt her strength return, and she turned back to her Bond and wept. “Cain, wake…wake…wake. You are hungry. I am hungry. Wake…”

“He is weak, Cain’s Al’bah. Unless you get him sustenance, he will die.”

“No!” Al’bah wailed. “It cannot end this way! It was my fault. I must do something!”

“Then why do you not go retrieve sustenance for your Bond, and for yourself? Are you so afraid to face this world without him that you will allow him to die?”

Al’bah threw herself upon Cain’s body and squeezed him as tightly as she could without harming him. “He is mine,” she said with a voice so overcome with passion and so profoundly different than her howls of jealousy. “I would do anything for him. I would die for him.”

“Then there is nothing left to say.”

After a few moments Al’bah looked up and started to dig through Cain’s duffel.

***

“Yes, can I help you?”

Al’bah nodded. “I need food. I need broth from flesh,” she said timidly. Against all her fears and insecurities, Al’bah needed to get Cain food. She needed food. She could either watch Cain die of starvation, or she could try.

“Broth? Uh, do you mean soup?”

“I need food,” Al’bah whimpered, holding out several hundred dollars to the waitress. “I need broth from flesh,” she said again.

The waitress plucked just one of the many hundred-dollar bills from Al’bah’s trembling hand. “Um, how much?”

“Please!” Al’bah cried. “I do not have any awareness of the specifics, I cannot carry much. Please!”
 

***

“Easy, Cain. Easy,” Al’bah murmured. “This soup will help your strength return.”

Cain accepted Al’bah’s tender spoon-feeding. His body was still in tremendous agony, but he forced himself to stay awake. “How long?” he panted between gulps.

“This is the fifth day of your illness,” Al’bah said, holding out another spoonful. “Eat, Cain. You must eat.”

Cain held up his hand. “I am full.” He sighed.

Al’bah placed the food away and threw herself into his arms, and wept. “Oh, Cain. I am sorry,” Al’bah whispered.

“For what?”

Al’bah looked up. “Cain, you cannot touch another whom you once desired, or do desire.”

Cain stared for a full minute into Al’bah’s eyes. “You mean that this happened because I touched another woman?”
 

Al’bah shook her head. “No, if that was the truth, you would have been struck ill long before now. You were able to touch Stella.”

Cain wracked his brain. Yes, he had touched Stella before. It didn’t do anything to him. So that would mean—

“Al’bah, I am sorry. I didn’t know I—”

Al’bah placed her hand on Cain’s lips. “I am fully aware of the sinful nature of man. My own nature is Demono, Cain. I hold no animosity to you.” She picked up a Styrofoam cup with a straw. “You need the sugar in this,” she said as she held it to Cain.

Blech! The soda is flat!
Cain grimaced but drank anyway. “You seem to know a little about this. Why did this happen with Cynthi—” Cain cried out, unable to get the rest of the name out.

Al’bah unfurled her wings and fluttered them to bring a soothing current to Cain’s body. “Because she once shared a Bond with your heart. The stronger your desire, new or old, the stronger the punishment.”

“Punishment! What the hell! Why didn’t you tell me this before now?” Cain groaned.

“Because I was afraid, Cain. As far as I knew, you declared me to be
everything
to you, and I thought that I was! When you told me that it was not true, I…”

Al’bah’s head dropped, and she sobbed. “I was afraid you would reject me! I was afraid.” She rolled over to stand on the floor, and continued speaking while pacing the room, wringing her hands. “Then you said you wanted me by your side, you said that you cared for me. I wanted to tell you, but I could not.”

Cain sighed. “You also said that you wouldn’t seek to control me. What about that?”

Al’bah nodded. “I do not wish control over you, and I will gladly accept punishment from you. It is by my own carelessness that you almost died.
Nothing
Taint ever did to me could compare to the pain I would feel if you did not wake.”

Cain shook his head. “Perhaps it is only fitting that this happened to me. I caused Cynthia much harm.”

“No!” Al’bah growled. “No! You are not responsible for the foolishness of that one! If there was anything I learned of you, and your relationship with that one, you were always honest.”

Cain sighed deeply. “Come here. You pacing like that makes me nervous.”

Al’bah shook her head as she wiped her eyes. “Cain. There is one more thing you must know,” Al’bah said as her lip quivered.

“What? More bad news?”

“No. Not for you, anyway. If you truly see with the eyes of love upon another, and they to you, the effect of touch will be reversed, and upon me.”

A realization that was supreme fell upon Cain. “So that’s why you are so jealous!”

Al’bah nodded. “Free will is the divine will of the Creator. For the spiritual, Bonds are meant to be forever. Bonds are meant to be a unifying force. It was never meant to be a form of slavery. That is why a human Binding itself to a Son of God was so rare. And why a human Binding itself to a Demono never happened until now.”

Al’bah wiped her eyes. “Bond. The root word of ‘Bondage,’ it was a cruel irony. It is said some of the sons of God that married mortal women in the times of Noah were driven to madness. The wives they took fell out of love with the Angels they married. And so the sons of God were torn apart by their Bonds being severed by the wickedness of humanity.”

Cain felt as though he could at last now understand Al’bah. Or at least a small part. “But why so much agony? Why so much torture?”

Al’bah laughed sadly. “Oh, Cain. Imagine the pain of being severed from God! Imagine the unfaithful to God! The Bonds two beings share, are meant to represent the Bond everything shares with God! There is great joy in this union. And if it is ever severed, there is great suffering.”

“Aren’t you severed from God?”

“No, I am not one with God. I am separated. You are separated, but you and yours have a clear way to salvation.” Al’bah lowered her head and wiped her eyes and nose. She looked so broken. Cain had never seen anyone so broken up over hurting the one they loved. Except maybe for Charlie, but he was a different case altogether.

“Al’bah.”

Al’bah looked up; her blue-violet eyes clashed with the pink hue of her sclera. Using all the strength he had, Cain reached out with his arms. “Come here.”

Al’bah settled once more into Cain’s arms, sniffing and wiping her eyes every so often.

“Perhaps now I can start asking you questions about our Bond, and about you?” Cain said as he started to drift to sleep.

Al’bah nodded. “I agree.”

“Anything else that I should know, Al’bah, before I”—he gave a big yawn—“sleep?”

“Yes. I love you, Cain.”

Unified Dream

“Thus, ever I stand against the press of corruption.”

—Purity

Cain slowly became aware that he was staring at Al’bah.

“I am afraid I do not have pancakes, Cain,” Al’bah said with an amused look on her face.

“What? Pancakes?” Cain sputtered.

Al’bah’s face brightened. “Aaah, you are aware! I thought that it would not be possible with you being so ill.”

“Aware? What are you…”

Cain looked around; he was standing upon a beach of some sort. It was a surreal scene, one that Cain couldn’t even begin to describe. The scenery seemed to
shift
and
change
as his attention was drawn to the peculiarities of his surroundings.

It was a beach he was standing on, but it was the sky at the same time. The sands became the grains of cloud and wind. The ocean waves lapped at the shore, but it wasn’t water; it was fire, but the fire wasn’t hot. The fire was…it was tame somehow.

Cain could see a surface of sorts upon the waves of fire. The threshold of his peripheral vision seemed to be able to see the
true
scene, but every time he
looked
for it, it
shifted
again. Almost as if the scenery knew he couldn’t comprehend.

Cain noticed that the moon, no larger than a basketball, revolved around Al’bah. Cain was actually able to grasp it, sneezing as the dust tickled his nose. “Is this a dream?” Cain asked, breathless from the beauty that surrounded him.

Al’bah took the moon back from Cain. “I believe that I am the moon, Cain, and you are the sun. And yes, this is a dream. Do you not remember the first time we met? We met in the realm of spirituality. The interface you used was a dream, but for me, it was reality.”