Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1) (21 page)

“Yes, mother,” I said teasingly, “and I’ll wash behind my ears, too.”

She just rolled her eyes and disappeared, like she too was made of millions of tiny granules.

I combusted and found myself back in the room that had been designated as mine. Ellie was sitting on a long sofa that was positioned in the center of the room, effectively dividing the room in half. She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but ask, it had been nagging me in the car. “There wasn’t any other reason that you came to get me?” I was hoping against hope that there was another reason, but in the pit of my stomach I was pretty sure I was fighting a losing battle. And I could see in her eyes that she knew the real question I was asking.

“Paul, I love you like a brother, but there’s nothing more to how I feel.” 

I allowed the small amount of hope that welled in my chest to remain silent. “Alright. I can deal with that kiddo.”

She flashed me an annoyed grimace, “I hate it when you call me that.”

“But you make the cutest faces,” I said with a grin that quickly faded. “So, what’s Demetrius got that I don’t?” I knew I didn’t want to hear the answer, but I needed to know.

“You assume too much,” was her only response.

Was I wrong in my assumption that she preferred Demetrius over me? “So you don’t like the sad, brooding type?” I was about to continue, but she hit me square in the face with one of the cushions from the sofa.

“I’m in far too messed up of a place right now to even be thinking about that,” she said as I pulled a feather, that had escaped the cushion, from my mouth. “Metri is just helping me through it. He’s been there before, so it’s easy to be with him.”

“Any of the others could help you out. Well, the prissy one that stormed off – literally – probably wouldn’t be much help, but the others could help, and yet, you don’t seem to be taking their help.”

“It’s not the same with them, Demetrius and I are…” she trailed off and I wondered what she wasn’t telling me, but I wasn’t going to ask.

“Regardless of your reasons,” I said in a warning tone, “Demetrius’ feelings are not that far off from mine.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Thank you for that,” she shook her head like I was the parent giving her a talk about boys.

“Don’t believe me if you don’t want to, but it’s obvious that there’s something there, if not for you, then at least for him.”

She didn’t respond, and I suddenly felt rotten for badgering her about it. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t very gentlemanly of me. I feel like rubbish.”

Her mouth twitched slightly, and I knew that she’d forgiven me already.

“You sure we only fit into the ‘just friends’ category?” I said with a teasing laugh.

She smiled at the distant wall, “I’ll admit that I had a childish crush on you, but that was a long time ago.” She cast a sidelong glance at me. “Come on – I was fifteen, and you were the attractive older guy… and you had a British accent to boot.”

I sighed, looking at the floor. “Oh, how I wish that childish crush still existed.”

She turned to me, but before she could say anything a strange wind-like noise swept through the room.

“We need to go,” Ellie said as she stood.

Apparently the wind meant something different to her; she seemed agitated all of a sudden. I didn’t complain as she took my hand and lead me from the room. The lamps seemed to stare at me as she dragged me through the hallways, back to that long hall.

“Joellen,” Lilith said as we crossed the threshold to the hall, “come here please.”

Lilith took Ellie’s hands and I watched the writhing white tendrils as they transferred from Lilith’s right arm into Ellie’s left and from Ellie’s right to Lilith’s left. A transfer of information was taking place, something that not everyone should know.

Ellie turned to me with a worried expression, and as she crossed back to where I was the wind like noise returned. The others were speaking in a way that I could not hear.

“Carla is coming back,” Ellie said as she took me by the arm and moved me to a nearby chair. “She’s not coming alone, and we don’t know how this is going to turn out. I need you to sit here and not move a muscle.”

I did as I was told without question. I had just gotten the Ellie I knew back, I didn’t want to do anything that would take her away from me again.

We sat in the large hall and waited. I could tell that they were talking, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. Their voices swept about me like wind through a tunnel, the sweeping noise was all that I could discern.

I watched Ellie across the hall as her expression changed. There was some controversy as to what would soon come through the doors. All eyes lingered on the black portals as the gale-like conversation swept about me.

-Joellen-

When the doors finally parted, Carla led the procession. She walked through the doors with a haughty air and didn’t cast a glance in Paul’s direction.

The woman that entered behind Carla moved with a fluid grace. Her eyes, much like Lilith’s, seemed to be glass orbs, but hers were filled with dark grey turbulent waters, like the sea in a storm. Her long white hair, as translucent as Lilith’s, reminded me of a fine silk net, but it trailed behind her as though it was floating in water. I could only assume that this statuesque beauty was Siris, the water spirit.

“Lilith!” she said in a strangely hollow voice, yet the words seemed to trickle from her mouth like a rivulet of water. “Your girl has told me some very interesting things.”

“Siris, my dear friend.” Lilith said as she stepped forward. She did not seem at all surprised by the water demon’s arrival, or by the Naiadu that followed her.

The Naiadu were very similar to us in that they did not lose much of their human appearance, but the three that followed her each had varying amounts of silvery blue green scales sprouting from their skin. The male Naiadu’s arms and back were almost completely scaled, like a shimmering jacket, but with scales wrapping down, across his chest as well. They were starting to creep up his neck and along his jawbone toward the mop of brown hair that seemed to have coral growing from it.

The two females were both slender and oddly small, but their ashy blonde hair fell in long curls down their backs and seemed to have all sorts of oceanic flora in it as well as their own coral. The older girl – I assumed this only because she had more scales – was entirely covered in scales on the left half of her body, and the right half was slowly following suit. The younger girl only had a small patch of scales below her right eye, and then the beginnings of a trail up her right arm.

All three wore thin linen clothes, light cream in color. They reminded me of a ship’s sails as they flowed about their wearers, billowing in the soft wind that Carla was still producing in her ire. The man had dark blue eyes. The younger girl had black eyes, like Paul’s, but they were fluid, ever moving like dark pools of water.

The older girl’s eyes were a fluid turquoise, like the Caribbean, they looked extremely inviting. She retreated to Carla’s side as soon as Siris waved them away, gripping the oldest of the Lilitu’s hand firmly in her own.

“Your girl has told me,” she looked to Paul, “and I can now see that it is true, that you have offered sanctuary to a member of the Asakku?” Her statement came out as a question, and I knew that Lilith heard the underlying deluge of questions.

“Come, my old friend, we will discuss this in a quieter place.” Lilith extended her airy white hand toward the water spirit and they both retreated to Lilith’s chamber.

As soon as the doors shut the lines were clearly drawn in the hall. I retreated next to Paul’s side of that line, everyone else was on the other, and Demetrius was oddly missing from the hall again. I wondered if he knew that his presence would have made things difficult for me. I knew that was possible, but I had a sneaking suspicion that he was abstaining because he knew that he couldn’t support me without taking Paul’s side. I knew that Paul saw him as a rival, and I wondered if Metri had the same misconceptions.

I heard the whispers begin between the Naiadu girl and Carla, and Billy was quickly by the male’s side.  I learned their names through their whispers. The elder girl was Lydia, the younger Jill, and the man was called John. He said it was not his full name, but I wouldn’t waste time trying to determine it now.

“You must admit, Carla, he has not become addicted…” Lydia whispered to her. “Look at his eyes.” Her voice was almost as hollow as Siris, while the other girl’s was more like the trickling of a small brook.

“I do not think that he can be trusted.” Jill whispered in Carla’s other ear. “He may not yet be the addicted monster we all know the other Asakku to be, but he more than likely will become so.”

I turned to Paul, “I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re a monster. You may not want to be a monster, but that’s just who you are going to be.” I crossed my arms and bit my cheek to try to keep from laughing.

But Paul wasn’t in the joking mood I was. “What if they’re right Ellie?” he said in a hushed tone as he put his hand on my shoulder. “I can feel the urge to kill, it’s not easy to control.”

“But you’re fighting it.” I said with genuine hope. “That’s better than most.”

“It’s easier to fight when I’m around you, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep myself from killing.”

I looked back to Carla, her expression was fearful, as though Paul was a ticking time bomb, but with no indicator to tell us when he was going to explode. John looked at me differently now, probably assuming that Paul’s feelings were returned and that was the reason I was siding with him.

“I don’t believe that. We always have a choice.” I spoke to Paul as I looked at Carla. Hadn’t she been wrong about Demetrius? He hadn’t tried to destroy a city, he hadn’t wrought the destruction that Davidov had. “You’re stronger than you think.”

“I hope you’re right,” he replied in an ember-like crackle.

I spoke to Carla this time, “I will not believe that we are entirely governed by those that created us.” The Naiadu looked at me with an odd expression, somehow, it seems, they did not expect me to actually side with Paul. “If that were the case, Demetrius would be governed partially by evil, I have seen nothing that would prove that to me.” I felt Paul’s shoulders slump as Carla shrunk into her chair. “I, too, would be governed in part by that evil, but then, we know how you feel about me.” The last statement, or accusation, came out as a hiss.

“You have the potential for good.” Lydia said, standing and placing herself between us. “The Asakku have never shown that potential.”

“Until now.” I interjected. “Paul has lived among them for the past six months and he has not yet lost his humanity. The simple fact that he came to us seeking our aide should be enough of a demonstration that he does not want to be evil.”

Lydia held up her hands as though she was attempting to broker peace. “I do not think that anyone wants to be evil…”

“Then you are naïve,” I spat at her.

“There are some evils that do not allow for free will. They, like the giant octopus, wrap their tentacles around a soul and constrict until it has no choice to bend to the evil’s will and be devoured.”

“And the Asakku is that kind of evil?” I asked, annoyed by the surety in her words.

“No, the Asakku may not be, but Gallu most certainly is.” Her answer was quiet, as though she did not wish to offend me.

“She is right.” Paul said from behind me. “Gallu is an evil that would devour anyone who attempted to defy her.”

I looked at him, saddened by the resolve in his voice. “But if you are here, she can’t get that strangle hold on you.”

“He cannot stay here.” Carla was livid at the suggestion. “He would bring Gallu and all of her minions down upon us. Harboring this fugitive will be our death sentence.”

“And casting him out would be his.” I was beginning to hate Carla. “Would you condemn him to death over your fear? Are you so simple minded that you wish to destroy anything you don’t understand?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think or how I feel. Siris will soon talk some sense into Mother and then he will have to leave.” Carla slumped back into her chair, crossing her arms in a decidedly stubborn manner.

“I wouldn’t be so sure cousin,” Lydia said quietly from beside her. “Lilith knows the threat her sister poses as well as Siris knows Lamatesh. I do not think that she would take in the Asakku turncoat without considering the threat it posed to you and the rest of her children.”

Nate and Christi were once again at the large round table, though this time the puzzle was gone and they sat on either side of a backgammon board. It was Nate who spoke above everyone else. “Mother has too kind of a heart for her own good. But I do not think it is right for us to think of Paul as a pawn in our game. He is as much one of the players as we all are. To think of him as a game piece is not only rude, but also detrimental to us.”

“How so?” John asked, his voice was like a raging river that crashed against the rocks along its bank.

“A game piece,” Nate explained, holding up a small black disk, “has no mind. It makes no decisions of its own, and therefore does not affect the overall strategic outcome of the game. A player, however, controls his own portion of the game, therefore adding a complex array of diversity to the game’s strategy.”

“What are you babbling about?” Carla asked, annoyed.

“My argument is the same as yours,” he said as he moved one of the pieces on the board. “Are we players, or are we Lilith’s pawns? If we decide that Paul is simply Gallu’s pawn… what does that make us?”

There was a long silence in the hall as four different kinds of lesser demons looked to each other for answers none of us had. Were we pawns or players? Was this even our game?

I doubted that we would ever know the full answer, but I could not let myself believe we were pawns, if we had no choice in this life, what point was there to living it. But we weren’t the living. We had no choice in our deaths; I had to believe that fate wouldn’t intervene in our afterlives. That thought gave me hope.

I looked to Paul and did not see the same hope reflected in his expression. He was not as sure about his position in the world. I put my hand in his and felt his grip tighten around my fingers, but he didn’t look at me. He was lost in thoughts I would never know. Thoughts I would never ask to hear. The sanctuary of the mind was something that my six-month coma had given me more of a respect for.

Carla was the only one in the group whose silence was not pensive. Her face was contorted in anger. The suggestion that she would be equal with an Asakku was less than appetizing to her. I wondered if it was the logic and reason of Nate’s statement that caused her to appear so upset.

The Naiadu were all placidly quiet; they did not seem to be afflicted by the same thoughts that plagued the rest of us. Their expressions were smooth as though their cares had all been carried off to sea.

“You are very calm,” John said, his head tilted to the side as he stared at Paul. “I would think that surrounded by a vast number of demons who have the ability…” he cast a sideways glance at Carla. “and some who are motivated, to kill you, one might seem a little more agitated.”

“I would rather die here, trying to do what’s right, than to return to Gallu, and live a thousand or more years.” Paul’s answer was a growl and I felt him tense slightly.

“Peace, friend, I have no quarrel with you,” he said with an amused smile. “I was merely pointing out the danger you have put yourself in.”

“I know what I have done by coming here,” he said as I felt his tension relax. “I had not expected to last much longer anyway. My only goal as an Asakku was to find out which of the others had killed Ellie, exact my revenge and then allow them to destroy me.” He stood and paced toward the door.

I stared at him; he had said nothing of this before. “That’s not okay.” I said, as he walked back and I punched his shoulder. He winced and I immediately felt sorry, “you should have gotten your facts straight first, before you went about looking for ways to die.” I placed my hand over the place where I had punched him, scrunching my mouth up in an apologetic way.

“I saw your tombstone, what was I supposed to think?” He asked as he rubbed his shoulder.

“Well… you should know that there are possibilities other than death now.” I was incredulous.

He thought for a moment, “I guess that’s true, but you flew off the handle yourself when you found out what I was.”

“I’ll admit I acted before I thought.” I felt a little sheepish about it now.

“Please,” Carla said with a groan. “Why should we believe anything an Asakku says? You who consort with those who have spawned the myths of the vampire, the werewolf, and the demonic minions of Satan, you are guilty by association.”

“And the fact that my association was forced means nothing to you?” He asked calmly.

“Not in the least.” Her resolve was evident on her face as she glowered at Paul.

“I understand that you are prejudiced against me. You did not know me in life, and you only know me by the Asakku’s reputation in the afterlife.” He sighed and sat in the chair that was behind him. “I have no doubt that Ellie would have had the same prejudices had she not known me in life.”

Carla rolled her lavender eyes and turned her head to the side, doing her best to ignore Paul. Earl, who had been sitting silently until now moved from his chair to stand behind her, making his viewpoint clear wordlessly. He would back Carla regardless of what his own opinion was.

Billy and Lizzie sat in the corner with concerned looks on their faces. I could tell that Billy was entirely against the idea of an Asakku residing anywhere near Lizzie. Lizzie, on the other hand, did not seem to be concerned for herself. If I had learned anything about her in the brief time I had been here it was that she hated conflict. She may have been uneasy about Paul’s presence, but if that unease would cause turmoil, she would be the last to express it. The siblings were undecided as to where they stood in this conflict.