Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1) (20 page)

Lilith appeared at the other end of the room in a shimmer of vapor. “Joellen,” She said as she held out her hand to me.

I nodded to her and held out my hand. As I felt the effervescent tingle of her touch, I closed my eyes and focused only on Paul’s last six months. His time with the Asakku, and I succeeded in keeping the thoughts that centered on me from her. I don’t know why, but I somehow felt that it was necessary to do so. There were thoughts in my own mind that I didn’t need being shared with her.

“Thank you,” she said, her brow creased in confusion. “Demetrius, will you go get Paul for us?” She cast a sidelong glance at me and then turned back to Metri. “there’s no need to fear him.”

I watched Metri go with mixed feelings. I didn’t really think I wanted them talking. If Paul was right, I didn’t want his presumptions to give Metri false hope. But I didn’t have much time to dwell on those misgivings. Earl drew my attention almost as soon as the door had shut behind Demetrius.

“You need to know how to kill an Asakku,” Earl said as he crossed the hall toward me, his arms resolutely folded across his chest.

I rolled my eyes at him. “I am not going to kill Paul.”

Earl stopped mere inches from me and shook his head, “I’m not asking you to, but the Asakku are not going to be happy about his defection. They’ll want him back and they’ll be willing to kill you to get to him.”

I started to say something, but Earl continued, cutting me off, his dark blue-rimmed irises glancing sideways at me. “We know they can’t kill you, but they don’t, and they will try.”

“Mark your words,” I said sarcastically.

“Yes,”  he turned toward me and stood as though he were about to lecture a class. With his hands clasped behind his back he began, “because you have the Lilitu powers, dispatching an Asakku will be easy.”

I raised my eyebrow, my skepticism wasn’t lessening. “Easy?” I asked.

Earl’s mouth turned down in a small frown. “Yes, stop interrupting.”

“Sorry,” I said, my mouth twitching up into a half-smile for less than a second.

“Billy, come here,” he said, motioning with one hand to where Billy and Lizzie were, “this will be easier to do to Billy than an Asakku.”

“That’s partially because I’m holding still,” Billy said with a grin as he stopped in front of me.

“And partially because as a Lilitu, he’s not affected by our power as much.” Earl, who was standing behind Billy, suddenly thrust his hand into Billy’s back; it came out of his chest and then pulled it back out again. “Each Asakku has a flame where their heart used to be. To kill them you must extinguish that flame.”

“They’re still able to function until that flame is put out, so even after you’ve removed it from their chest cavity, they’re still going to be fighting you,” Billy added as he walked back to where Lizzie sat, she was watching with a tired expression.

“You can also kill them,” Earl continued. “by placing your hand in line with where their heart was, and forcing a burst of air through them, this should snuff their flame, but it is not as effective.”

I thought for a moment. “So, how does one kill a Lilitu?”

“Forgive me if I don’t feel comfortable telling you that,” Earl said as he turned his back and walked away. “But if you ever want an actual demonstration, I can show you with Paul’s help.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said while giving him an evil glare.

The doors reopened. I watched as Metri let Paul in, and gave me a sad smile before he shut the doors again, leaving Paul inside and him out.

I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t go after him now. Paul’s sentence was looming. He walked to the center of the hall, where Lilith was waiting for him, the essence of grace and beauty, and stopped several feet from her, ignoring the others in the hall.

“Knowing what I now know, I am willing to offer you sanctuary here Paul,” Lilith began to say.

“THIS. IS. REDICULOUS!” Carla shrieked from her corner of the room. “I cannot believe you are allowing this! First you let the half-breed stay when you know she could destroy us all, and now you are harboring an Asakku!”

Lilith’s face remained smooth and her eyes did not darken with effected gales. But Carla was infuriated beyond reason. A tornado like whirlwind swept up about her and she was gone. I expected Earl to go after her, but he turned from where she had been and looked at the floor, a sad determination covering his face.

Lilith seemed to ignore Carla’s outburst and sudden departure as well. “As long as you are here, Paul, you shall not be harmed by anyone who resides under this roof.”

Paul bowed slightly, “thank you for your understanding. Your sister would not have shown the same compassion.”

“You must understand,” Earl said from the corner. “We will not harm you, but our trust is something you will have to earn.”

-Paul-

Ellie stood, looking up into the night sky, on the terrace of the room they had given me. Zephyr gave an unparalleled view of the stars, and the gibbous moon seemed close enough that I could reach out and touch it. Her skin shimmered in the moonlight. Silver-blue patterns wound their way across her skin, glinting like a light dusting of morning dew.

“How did fate choose us?” She asked as she turned away from the stars. “Were we terrible people in some other life?”

“I don’t think this was our intended fate, Ellie.” I replied with a sigh, looking to the stars now to escape her sorrowful expression. “Jack made our intended fates forfeit with a single bite each.”

“I have imagined killing him many times over.” Ellie’s words were wistful.

“I don’t know that I would say it was necessarily Jack’s fault. He was acting as a soldier, fulfilling orders.” I wouldn’t have gone so far as to remove all blame from my former mentor, but I didn’t feel that he should shoulder all of it.

Ellie’s face told me that she felt he should. “Paul, he stalked me for three blocks and then took away my life, and my chance at death.” She seemed hurt by any thought that he was even partially innocent. “And he did the same for one of my best friends.” She gave me a reproachful look.

“I’m not saying he’s a saint. His crimes are terrible,” I said, “but I do not think that we should discount the fact that Gallu forces them to do these things.” I knew that she wouldn’t back down from her position, but I was stubborn enough to continue to fight her on it.

“I have seen what you have been through these past six months, Paul.” She said with a sneer. “But, I wonder if you might think differently if you knew what I went through that night.”

“Ellie…” She cut me off, raising her hand to cover my mouth.

“Close your eyes.” Her words were a bit more forceful than I was used to, but I did as she said, feeling her take my hand.

This memory was much more organized than my own, I found myself looking back at my former self on my parent’s threshold. I felt the anger she had felt, and the hurt. I was with her as she walked down the streets, her agitation lessening, until she turned and saw me – or the man that she thought to be me – when her anger flared like the fire within me often did.

She glanced back once again and her anger turned to fear as she noted that it was not me. I felt the fear grow in my own chest as she continued down the street, abating slightly as she crossed the lane and believed that he did not follow her, until it finally consumed every fiber of her being in the alley way.

I opened my eyes when the flash of red light filled my vision, and I could no longer argue that Jack was in any way innocent of his crime. I now saw that Gallu and the Asakku had not saved me from my death, but caused it. How could I have been so naïve?

“They are not as philanthropic as they would have you believe.” Ellie’s tone was icy.

In passing, their comments and behavior had seemed normal because I had nothing to base them on, but Ellie was correct. There was no charity in their work; they were not the hands of fate. They were the hands of unjust murderers. A crime syndicate of the undead, and Gallu was the godfather. I had been close to the mark when I had first guessed she was a mob boss.

“Might as well start calling me Guido,” I said with a sigh and rubbed my temples with the thumb and middle finger of my left hand, covering my eyes. It was better that I not see the look of disapproval on Ellie’s face.

“Do you think you’re one of them?” Her voice sounded far away, but I was too much of a coward to remove my hand to look at her.

“I can’t change what I am.” It was hard for me to hear those words leave my clenched teeth. “I didn’t choose this afterlife, but I am powerless to change what I have become.”

“I don’t think it’s as final as you assume.” The distance in her voice was pitched with anger.

“I only see one way out Ellie, and I’m considering asking the big one if he’ll help me with it. He seemed eager enough before.”

I felt a cold hand pull my own away from my eyes and found myself staring into the black pool of stars that had once been Ellie’s eyes. “You are not going to commit suicide, and Earl won’t help you. I won’t let him.”

“Technically I can’t commit suicide. I’m already dead, remember?” I said with a half- hearted laugh. “But I don’t want to hurt people.”

“You don’t have to.” Her brow creased. “You are not a monster.”

“No,” I agreed, “I’m an Asakku, and that’s worse.” I could feel the anger starting to build again, but this time my anger was completely focused on those who had made me.

Ellie turned from me, despair spreading across her face. “You don’t have to be like the Asakku.”

“I’m not like you Ellie. You were taken by the Lilitu. Evil hasn’t replaced the blood that once flowed in your veins.” I could feel malice pumping in my veins now.

“You don’t have to be evil,” she said in a tone so icy it made me shiver. “Everyone has a choice.”

She didn’t understand. I could feel it; that urge to kill – to do harm – lurked under my skin; it coursed through me. The amount of control it took to not ransack the streets of London was like the skin of a bubble. Thin, permeable. The tiniest error and I would lose my grip on my humanity. “Pop” I said quietly… did I have a right to my humanity anymore?

“I don’t,” my teeth clenched together again. “You cannot understand.”

“Paul, you don’t know me.” She threw up her arms in exasperation, “
I
don’t know me anymore.”

“Ellie,” I said with a sigh, the killer instinct inside of me was much easier to control when I was worried about her, and at the moment I was worried about her perception of me.

She thought this was just an infatuation, but I knew it wasn’t. I had hung on every word that my mother had said when she had told me anything that had occurred in the Ellerbee family, in the hopes that I might hear her name. It had, I was willing to admit, become more or less of an obsession for me, but I wasn’t on the verge of becoming a stalker.

“I want to know you. Don’t you see that?” I asked, feeling as exasperated as she sounded.

“You forget that I’ve felt what you felt Paul.” Her tone was guarded, unsure. “And what you want isn’t something I can give you.” I reached toward her and she disappeared with a faint breeze, like a bubble bursting.

The unfortunate side effect of my circumstances made it impossible for me to simply follow her, and so I turned for the door and went to seek her out.

The hallway was the same – macabre as ever and dim. I closed my eyes for a brief moment and I could feel her. I turned to my left, but I wasn’t able to go toward where I felt she would be.

Demetrius was leaning against the wall, looking as sad as ever. “Going somewhere?” he asked.

“I didn’t realize I needed a chaperone.” I said with a slight growl, Ellie was gone now, so I no longer felt in control of my anger.

“You don’t, I was just waiting for Jo.” He stood up and looked behind me. “But I see she’s not here anymore, so I’ll quit bothering you.” He turned to go.

I felt the urge to let him turn his back and then pounce. “Wait,” I called after him. If he was a louse I didn’t want him near Ellie, but I wouldn’t kill him. “What’s your deal?”

“My deal?” he asked, “you’ll have to forgive an old man, but I am not familiar with that colloquialism.”

“Why are you so interested in Ellie?” I asked, feeling a bit silly for having to say it aloud.

“Why are you?” he looked at me contemptuously. “Jo has something that I have never encountered in all my years. But I won’t try to force her to love me.”

I could tell that his last remark was meant as a jab at me. But I didn’t want, or need the reminder. He was already rounding the corner at the end of the hall and I had no desire to speak to him, or anyone else for that matter.

I felt the heat rising in my face and combusted.

I found myself in the parking garage where Carlo and I had left the Cadillac, but the floor was empty, the flickering light of the fluorescents illuminated the empty space where the car should have been. They had stolen my car. I felt the heat rising in my veins. But I calmed myself with the knowledge that it wasn’t really my car to begin with… but if I didn’t care about stolen property…

The garage I snuffed myself in smelled of oil and old leather. It was somehow calming. There were several cars parked in the open space, all of which were in pristine condition, but I barely glanced at them seeking out the one I was looking for. Then I saw it.

The teardrop fenders that swept back toward the suicide-style doors that were set into the two passenger cab at an angle, and the split-pane window that sparkled in the dim light of the overhead fluorescents.

The careless owner left the keys to his priceless collection hanging on a pegboard at the back of the garage. All were hung on hooks beneath a label.

“Guess he never expected anyone to get in.” I looked around me. “It’s not like this is Fort Knox or anything.”

I quickly grabbed the keys under the label that read Talbot and returned to the car. She purred when I started her and I hit the button on the garage door opener that sat on the passenger seat.

“It’s almost like they want me to steal it,” I laughed.

I pulled out of the garage and onto a city street. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew I wasn’t in England. People were driving on the wrong side of the road.

“Stealing a car isn’t a good way to prove you’re not evil, strictly speaking.” Ellie said from the seat next to me, a small smile coming to her lips. “Or did you take the car because if you didn’t, a litter of kittens would be killed?”

“Strictly speaking? No.” I laughed, “But I am going to put it back.”

“So, why this car?” She asked, running her hand over the flat dashboard. “It’s definitely unique.” Her face contorted slightly with the last word.

“It’s most certainly unique,” I said, gripping the leather of the steering wheel a little tighter. “There were only sixteen of these babies made. It’s a four-speed manual, front engine, rear wheel drive piece of art. It may only have a four liter inline six, but it’s divinity on wheels.”

She looked at me with glazed over eyes.

“A nineteen thirty-seven Talbot Lago TC150-C-SS.” There was still no recognition in her face, or perhaps it was interest her expression was lacking.

“I’m not really into cars,” she said in an odd monotone. “Especially the antiques.”

“The antiques are the best though,” I argued. “Car manufacturers don’t do it right anymore.”

“That’s all well and good, but you’ve still stolen a car,” she said, looking out the window. “And you went to Paris to do it.”

“How do you know it’s Paris?” I asked, amused by her annoyance.

She just pointed out of her window and I leaned over and looked up to the Eiffel Tower. Brightly lit against the black backdrop of the night sky, it was like a glowing arrow to the heavens. If only I could follow it.

“I guess that’s a good indicator,” I agreed, and sat back in the seat.

We drove on in silence for a few moments before she asked, “so, are you going to tell me why you got the whim to steal a car? We already know why you chose this car… mechanical art and what not, but why steal a car at all?”

“If you tell me why you came to look for me first,” I answered smugly, my jaw set. She was treating me like a child again.

“I came to look for you because Lilith felt you leave and knows that the Asakku will try to take you back. I’m here to protect you,” she answered flatly, staring straight out the window.

I ground my teeth,
she
needed to protect
me
? That was laughable. “I stole this car because I needed to clear my head. Driving tends to do that for me, and I figured, why not do it in style.”

“So you stole a three and a half million dollar car?” she asked.

I looked at her and saw the smile she was trying to hide. “I thought cars weren’t really your thing.”

“No, not generally, but I was at an auction in Scottsdale, Arizona where one of these went  for that much and, as you know, memory loss is not something we will ever have to fear.” Her smile spread across her face, and I couldn’t help but smile too, though I didn’t know what she was talking about. I was having memory lapses left and right.

“Let’s take the car back, okay?” She suggested, and my smile immediately faded.

“Well, there’s the trick,” I said, nervously tapping the wheel. “I wasn’t paying attention for the past few miles… so I don’t exactly know how to get back.”

She sighed, “hold on.” And taking my hand in hers and placing her other on the dashboard, she closed her eyes.

It felt as though I was suddenly caught up in a wind storm and my skin, having somehow become brittle, broke apart into small granules. Then I returned to myself, those granules reforming me like pieces of a puzzle interconnecting. We were back in the garage, parked in the exact spot the car had been in when I had found it.

“Put the keys back,” Ellie said as she got out of the cab.