Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (9 page)

Cain narrowed his eyes. “I don’t seek glory.”

Al’bah shrugged. “What do you seek, then?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. What do you seek, Al’bah?”

Al’bah lowered her eyes. “Restoration,” she whispered.

“Restoration?”

Al’bah nodded. “Yes, I wish to be restored back to God.”

Cain had to consciously resist the almost reflex response to spout his arguments against God. He remained quiet, but his thoughts were a torrential rainstorm within his mind.
How can I not even believe what is right in front of me?
he thought to himself.

“Al’bah, how do you know there is a God?”

“I know, because I can feel it.”

Cain sighed, expecting an answer more profound than what most Christians had ever professed to him. “Care to explain it a little better than that? I mean, uh…well, it’s just that feelings are sometimes misleading.”

Al’bah stared at him for a long time. Her eyes were windows into a vision that hinted at one so desperate to speak, but so unable to describe. “I wish I could tell you how I know, Cain, but I cannot.”

“Why?”

“Because humanity has such a weak grasp on the concept of communication. For humanity, for you, words describe. Words tell.” Al’bah sighed deeply. “But for me and for those like me, words
are
. Words carry power—power that can make and unmake so much.”

Cain shook his head. “I don’t believe it. Language doesn’t have that kind of power, and the gibberish you and Law spoke to each other didn’t seem that complex, or that profound.”

“Oh, really?” Al'bah stood, and the air of authority returned. “It is written that God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and existence obeyed. As for my conversation with Law, perhaps I can repeat my words and his, and see what you think once they are directed toward you.”

Cain stood as well and locked his eyes into Al’bah’s. “Fine, do it.”

“Cren-Tak-Shu-Bai-Teem-Cain.”

Cain’s knees buckled, all strength drained from his body, and if it weren't for Al’bah, he would have fallen to the ground. Each word—no, each sound—communicated so much meaning. Books, libraries, and the entire worth and meaning of
lifetimes
were conveyed with such simplistic sounds.

“Cren…”
Visions of horrible torture flashed across all his senses, visions, feelings, thoughts, music, screams, and laughter.

“Tak…”
Destiny, pure destiny, perfused his awareness. The sense of legends and fate filled him with a motivation and resolve normally reserved for the best of heroes—courage in its truest form.

“
Shu…” Change, so swift, so complete. The change that remakes a person, country, nations, a world.

“Bai…”
Fear, a fear so complete and consuming, but it was more than fear. It was an untranslatable emotion for human senses.

“
Teem…” Acceptance, but an acceptance far beyond anything he could ever describe. The acceptance one acknowledges upon the moment of death—no, worse than death. The acceptance a damned soul might have?

“Cain,” Cain said softly and resumed his stance. “Me.”

Al'bah nodded and took in another breath.

“No, don’t. I—I understand,” Cain said as he sat back down on the couch, glad that Al’bah did not repeat Law’s response to her…statement? Plea? Blessing? He had no words to categorize the complexity of her language. They sat together uncomfortably for a few moments, neither seeming to know how to continue. Then Al’bah placed her hand on Cain’s chest and waited for him to look upon her.

“Close your eyes, Cain.” Al’bah touched his hand. “Now tell me, Cain. Do you have a hand?”

“What? Of course I do.” Cain snorted.

“How do you know? You cannot see your hand, can you not?”

He opened his eyes. “I know, because I can feel it.”

Al’bah nodded and continued to nod as Cain slowly realized the point Al’bah was trying to bring him to.

“No, no! I refuse to believe it’s that simple! You couldn’t possibly know…I—shit, I hate this.”

Al’bah shrugged. “I told you my words would not satisfy you. Words are not the means by which faith is explained, or birthed. What hope does knowledge and the spheres of science have? To understand, to explain the creation of all…from nothing?” Al’bah closed her eyes and placed her hands over her heart. “There is faith, or there is not faith. There is God, or there is not God.”

Al’bah opened her eyes and gestured around the apartment. “The place where the world and its knowledge ends, is the place where the wonderment of Faith begins.” She took Cain’s hands into her own and placed them over her chest to feel her heartbeat. “And where they meet, is where you will find me. And I—I am a Succubus…created, not birthed. I know my Maker, and give Him my praise, and acknowledge Him as God.”

Cain felt a hint of the previous energy from Al’bah’s words, and he wished he could dismiss her claims and her as delusional. He got up with an exasperated sigh. He had to step away for a moment, as his frustrations were at the limit. He didn’t know what to make of the last eighteen hours. His hand was healed overnight from a cut and paralysis. He agreed to some sort of contract within a dream and was now “Bonded” to a Succubus from hell who revered God.

All this summed up a problem he didn’t like; there wasn’t any rational way to explain the unusual events of the last eighteen hours, except admitting that his world view was wrong, that he was wrong.

Feeling a familiar urge, he went to the bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” he said over his shoulder. Cain was so full of his thoughts that he was startled out of his wits by Al’bah’s cry.

“Oh! Cain!” she squealed. “That water is sacred!
You must not do that!
”

***

After Cain was done laughing harder than he had in a long time to Al’bah’s expression of panic, he had to explain a particular detail of the physical side of existence (namely, taking a whiz) before Al’bah would at last calm down.

“Such a relief!” Al’bah said happily. “I had thought such water was sacred.”

Cain nodded, wishing he could share her relief. Her presence in his life was something that he just wasn’t ready for. Indeed, he wondered how Al’bah’s presence and knowledge might change his consciousness. Especially considering she already shattered the foundation of his worldview. Here in his living room was something more than just some sort of extraordinary alien. Al’bah declared herself to be a Demon. And since she was real, the place where she came from would also be real.

“You are troubled,” Al’bah said, looking concerned. “I can feel it.”

“I am troubled,” he admitted, not really liking the way she could sense his emotions. “You being here, being real, is something I am not prepared for. I don’t know how to react to this. I don’t even know how to keep you a secret. People will eventually find out about you, and soon after, the world.”

Al’bah smiled and shook her head softly. “This will not happen so easily. You and I are Bonded. We are connected. You will find yourself unable to reveal my nature carelessly.”

“What’s going to stop me?”

“You,” Al’bah replied. “I do not hold any power over you that you have not given willingly to me. Even so, why would I want to control you?” She scooted closer to Cain and caressed his face. “Do you not know, you are above even the Angels? How much higher does that make you above the Demono?”

“Demono? Don’t you mean Demon?”

Al’bah frowned slightly. “To answer the questions you asked of me earlier about me being a Succubus, a Demon, and evil. And the question you ask now, I answer: I am, in fact, not a Demon. I am Demono.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Demono, in its most simplistic translation, would literally mean ‘not one.’ Which is to say, my race and I are not one with God. I am unsure what ‘Demon’ means for your language. But the translation for ‘Demon’ in my language identifies and labels a race literally as ‘not man.’ And both are separate from the Fallen Angels,
whom Taint is among their number.”

“Whoa, wait a second. The Bible doesn’t mention
anything
that you’re talking about,” Cain said as he scooted from Al’bah. “In fact, the Bible doesn’t mention anything about our Bond, Succubi, or—” Cain stopped talking, as Al’bah was nodding to everything he said with a soft smile.

“That is true. The Bible does not mention
anything
about all this,” she said as she maneuvered into his lap and caressed his body with hers. Lips, hands, arms, legs, and wings all seemed to touch him. “No mention to confirm—or deny,” she moaned softly.

Jealousy Becomes Al’bah

“You act like I tricked you, like I deceived you. I told you from the beginning that if you want love, to stay away.”

—Cain Lamentson

“Hold up, I need a second,” Cain said as he scooted away from Al’bah. Her hands were becoming hungrier the more she caressed his body. He had a nagging feeling that Al’bah was feeding him information slowly for a reason. Almost like she was hiding something, perhaps ashamed of what she might reveal.

He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, trying to digest the information she had told him. It was all so overwhelming. He didn’t even know what to ask Al’bah. Every question he had asked, and every answer received, needed so much explanation. To understand what he
really
asked, and to know what Al’bah
really
meant by her answers. She shifted on the couch and slid behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his torso.

“Perhaps your questions and my answers could be a daily thing? I would not want to miss out on living while getting to know you, and you getting to know me.”

He was about to shake Al’bah off, as she obviously didn’t understand what he meant when he asked for a moment. But Al’bah’s hands and body remained motionless. In fact, he felt a calming influence from the still contact their bodies shared.

Cain glanced at the time on his cell. Indeed the day was getting along, and he hadn’t even left the house yet. “Yes, that would be best. Maybe we can get you some clothes at the mall. We can talk more tonight,” he said, deciding to observe her closely. He had always been a keen judge of character, and felt certain watching her interact with the world would give him a more genuine feel of who she was.

Al’bah sniffed, pulling a pouty face and looked at her perfect form. “Why do I need clothes? Do you not like me as I am? Why do you want to cover my body?”

Cain had to make a conscious effort not to roll his eyes. “Al’bah, I don’t know how things are where you are from. But here, everyone wears clothes, okay?”

Al’bah, on the other hand, made no attempt to hide rolling her eyes, and she sighed comically in exasperation. “Very well.”

He led Al’bah to his bedroom and got the smallest pair of pants and shirt he had and offered them to her. “Try these on.” With a little assistance, Al’bah finally got the two articles of clothes on. She looked down at her body and then up to Cain with an awkward look on her face.

“What is it?”

“I do not like the way this feels.” Al’bah pouted.

Cain sighed and turned back to his closet.

Dressing Al’bah proved to be quite an undertaking. First she kept trying to rekindle his desires and lusts back into passion. Then, she didn’t like the way his clothes fit and wanted to try on everything he had. Which wouldn’t have been too bad, but she had to inhale his scent on every scrap of cloth. And sometimes her wings would come out from her body. Cain could swear she was getting her wings stuck on purpose, to have him help her, to have him touch her. His impatience fought a losing battle against his amusement of Al’bah’s antics. He even caught himself grinning a few times in the mirror.

“I still do not like the way this feels.”

“Well, there isn’t anything left.”

Al’bah slowly reached out and started to caress Cain’s shirt. She leaned in, placing her cheek against his chest and bundling the cloth to her nose, inhaling deeply. She sighed, letting out her breath in a strange vocalization, and eased back, biting her lower lip and looking up at him with pleading eyes.