The Devil's Playthings (22 page)

She spent hours at whiteboards with black markers,
and
created yet another engine that would run without fossil fuels, this one on methane gas. She knew that the car makers would not implement it. She knew the reasons as well.
She knew that no one would listen to her.

“I warned you the burden of knowing everything,” he
finally interrupted her thoughts after several months of silence
. “Humans, they have their excuses, their weaknesses. Greed, lust, apathy; it is the human nature. You can’t change them.”

“Did you try,” she asked without turning toward him. “Is that what made you bitter?”

“Utopia can’t be reached on Earth.” He sighed heavily, and turned her to face him. “At least now I have you. I have someone who understands. Do you see why we need to take over? Do you see why I have to impose my will on them? They are like ignorant children. They need a firm hand.”

“It just makes me burn every time I think about it.” Her normally soft voice became a low growl. And her soft white skin became a deep red. “It makes me hate them.”

“Do you see why it has to be this way?” Her skin became hotter as she nodded. “Do you see why we have to rule them?” A small flame danced on her skin, and grew to
flow
from the back of her hand up her arm. He was enthralled knowing the fire came from her sheer emotion, but he didn’t want it to engulf her and burn the apartment down.

He removed his shirt and used it to try to smother the flame.
“Emma, you have to calm down, or you’ll catch fire to the city.”

“Let it burn,” she growled.

“Emma, get a grip. If you don’t stop, I’ll fly you to Antarctica and dump you in the ice and leave you there,” he said as he shook her.

Just the thought of it made her cold, and suddenly she wasn’t burning any more. She had to laugh as she looked down at her pure white skin.

The Doctor

After several more years of merely existing in their apartment, she decided to rejoin humanity to see if anything had changed.
She showered and dressed,
just like a normal human, and took a walk through the park.

She watched the birds as they flew away from her. People avoided her or ignored her. Children cried when they saw her. She w
as like him now.
S
he was something to be feared.
She walked toward the reservoir and looked out over the water, wondering if she could drown herself.

In one moment he was behind her. She turned toward him like a compass turns toward the north, and he ran past her in jogging clothes.

“Luc?” She called out but he had ear
buds in his ears and couldn’t hear her. Thankfully she
’d worn tennis shoes and
, superhumanly, she ran past him several yards and waited. “Luc?”

He could see that she spoke to him, but couldn’t hear what he said. He slowed down and removed the earbuds, and smiled at her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

It wasn’t Luc. He was older, as if
Luc had aged normally, about 15
years older than he was when she first met him. His skin was still flawless, no lines, but it was taunt against his cheeks. His hair turned grey at his temples, and he had laugh lines around his mouth.

She could see the muscle tone in his arm
s and legs. H
e was obviously an avid jogger. His heart pounded loud and strong. He was healthy. He didn’t even breathe heavily, he was a non-smoker.
And his scent was different; he smelled of sweat and blood and antibacterial lotion and musk.
She could even smell his pheromones; they overpowered every thought she had. She stood silently, gazing at him as if he were a statue in a museum.

S
he wanted him, more than she ever wanted Luc.
And his eyes; she lost herself in dark, deep black eyes. “Do I know you?”

She became dizzy with awareness,
as if she’d just awoken from a
fifteen
year long slumber. She
grabbed the bench that sat next to her. It wasn’t Luc. It was his human counterpart, the man whom Luc looked like. She took a deep breath, trying to find some stability as the earth tilted and she felt gravity release her.
But she only drew in his scent more.

“Are you okay? I’m a doctor,” he said as he took a step toward her.
He
laid
a hand on her cheek and she saw their past, or what could have been. She saw it as clearly as if it had happened, even though she knew it never would.

A stranger found her in the alley that night and called 911. An ambulance came and took her to the nearest hospital where
Lee Kim
was a first year resident. She was in a drug induced
coma
, but when he pulled her eye open to shine the light against it she saw him. He was a young and handsome Asian man, sweet looking in a way that humans shouldn’t be allowed. But his eyes were narrow and his mouth was drawn as he surveyed her body. She was so malnourished and dehydrated, so fragile. In a country like the US a beautiful young girl should not end up like that. He instructed the orderlies to take her to the nearest ER, and ordered her stomach be pumped and a
n
IV be attached to her arm to restore some of the fluids she’d lost.

She was so young to try to take her own life. He knew he had other patients, but he continued to return to her room, until she was awake and alert. “You need to eat,” he reminded her, and when she refused he tried to feed her. “Open up for the train,” he teased her, and she gave in and ate for him.

The hospital administrator pulled him aside and told him he needed to release the young girl, that she had no insurance, no job, and no way to pay the hospital. He knew she was not strong enough to leave, so he offered to pay her bill to be allowed to keep her another few days. She was so shy, but soon she opened up to him when he told her he was a doctor and had heard everything.

She had nothing, no where to go, and no hope of anything normal.
He offered her a place to stay, he had an extra bedroom his last roommate, another r
esident who had moved on to a different
hospital, had just left open. With the help of a priest who volunteered for a suicide prevention group, Father Peter, she shared her story. He counseled her, instructed her, and brought her to Jesus.

It would be hard for him to pay the rent by himself, but he thought it would be worth it to give this young, beautiful girl a place to stay. And under his care she blossomed. Her shyness faded, and she grew stronger every day. Soon she got her GED and enrolled in college with grants and student loans. He encouraged her and helped her with her studies. She excelled in science, and instead of becoming a doctor like he wanted she studied physics. She converted to Catholicism, Father Peter himself baptizing her.

And they fell in love. The deep physical attraction she had for him was only a portion of what he felt for her, and their young bodies could not resist the beautiful sexual experiences that awaited them.

He asked her to marry him with the biggest diamond she’d ever seen when he finished his residency, and after she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in physics they married. He became one of the leading heart doctors in New York
, she continued until she earned
her doctorate, and she taught at NY Polytechnics.

They had
a beautiful baby, a son, and lived a happy life
. They were there at the Vatican
when Father Peter became Pope Innocence
.
T
heir son was the first Asian-American president. He ushered in a new era in the country, along with Pope Innocence’s help, and gave hope to a desperate people who suffered a long economic and moral downslide. Lee
died in his sleep at 86.
She wasn’t long
for this world after that.
She passed away soon after, happily knowing she would join him.

A lifetime flashed before her eyes in those few seconds he touched her. “You’re very warm,” he commented, breaking her connection to the alternate reality. “Are you ill?”
His heart beat faster when he touched her, she could feel he had the same reaction to her.

“Are you married,” she asked as she stared pointedly at his left hand, but he wore no ring.

“No, I never found the right woman,” he shrugged and removed his hand
from her cheek. “You’re really
very hot
.
I think you may be running a fever.”

She knew now what Luc used to feel when they would touch and he grew hot. Her desire was taking over. Soon she wouldn’t be able to control it. And she fear
ed at any time her eyes would become
bright red. She pulled h
er sunglasses down to hide them
, hoping he wouldn’t see.

“How about you, you’re not married?
” He smiled slyly when he saw her reaction, as if the question scared her.
“
No one to take care of you if you go home
, I meant.
Perhaps you should come with me to the hospital, I could take care of you there,” he suggested, and she looked over his shoulder to see Luc standing on the sidewalk several feet away.

“No, no thanks, I’ll head home,” she said, and when she looked up again Luc was gone. She
silently ran back to the apartment. It was too much for her to process. It was more than she could take.
She thought she’d been
in
despair before, but it was nothing compared to knowing what she could have had, and what Luc took from her.

She broke down in a way she’d never done, not even that night in the alley when she begged for God to take her
life
felt anything like
the agony she experienced
. She was a desolate, barren wasteland, without savior, without salvation, without redemption. Her life was meaningless.

She climbed up to the top of the apartment building, standing on the edge looking over the 10 floors to the sidewalk below. If she waited long enough no one would be walking past, and she could jump.

“So now you know,” Luc said from behind her. His voice had a confidence that Lee’s lacked. “And you’re going to jump? Do you think they will take you to Lee’s hospital and he’ll find you there? Do you think he’ll nurse you back to health?” Luc laughed that maniacal laugh she’d grown to despise like nails on a chalkboard.

“
If you
jump you will
just
get up and walk away. You won’t have a scratch on you.
But you might bust the sidewalk.
”
She inched closer, feeling the wind blowing against her. She opened her arms, spread them wide, and jumped. And she fell for several moments before she heard the huge leathery wings behind her, and he grabbed her
out of the air
, the grey cracked talons around her arms.

She had the same feeling the first time they made love, the feeling of falling and
flying at the same time. And h
e pulled her higher as she opened her eyes and saw the world grow
small below her. T
hen suddenly she was dropped several feet onto the roof of their building. He transformed in front of her
.

But he did not take the shape of Lee Kim. Now that she knew him he could no longer use that form to tempt her. He became her other obsession; he became Samael. His skin was white as snow, his hair was long and black as night, and his eyes were silver. He was even more beautiful than Lee Kim, but still not human.

No wonder she fell for him so quickly. No wonder she had the clashing emotions of fear and desire every time he touched her. Somewhere in her subconscious she had been waiting for Lee her entire life, and Luc plucked her away from him.