Tears of Blood (6 page)

"Hannah, are you
listening?"

Sorry, Grandfather," Annie
said, her cheeks tingling with heat. "But please call me Annie."

"I did. Three times. Are you
finally paying attention?"

"Yes, Grandfather," she
replied, making a show of meekness.

"Good. Tell me the origin of
the nephilim."

Annie opened the Bible on her desk
and turned to Genesis. She found the passage and began to read.

Chapter 11

"Medic! Medic!" Mr.
Smith raced into the compound, clutching a bundle of limp, dangling limbs close
to his chest. One foot hung at a strange angle and little drops of blood
sprinkled the hallway floor behind him.

Lucien, who had just been meandering
past the front door, nearly got bowled over by the rushing cleric. He jumped
out of the way.

"Smith, what happened,"
he shouted. Then his mind pieced together what he was seeing. Frizzy brown
hair. Long denim skirt. "What happened to Annie?"

Mr. Smith didn’t even slow
down. Lucien trailed him to the clinic. Smith set the girl gently on the bed.

Lucien was no medic, but he could
see the girl had been through something. Her right ankle was clearly broken.
There was a deep gash across her belly, another at her hairline. Blood flowed
freely from the two wounds.

"What happened?" he
asked again.

"Medic! Nurse! Someone, come
on!"

At the sound of Smith’s
shouting, two women and a man rushed into the room. They took in the sight of
the battered girl ,whose blood stained the white sheets redder with every
passing moment.

"What happened?" the
medic asked, hurrying to the sink embedded along the exterior wall of the white
cinder block room. Beside him, the nurses pulled on gloves and scooped up
cloths. One raced to Annie and pressed down hard on the abdominal laceration.
"It’s not that deep," she murmured.

"Smith, why is Annie here?
Isn’t she out of town with her parents?"

"She was. I don’t know
what happened. One minute I was in my study, and the next, that boy appeared,
holding her. I have no idea what went on."

Lucien’s head shot up. His
eyes widened. Josiah. He’d been on vacation with Annie and her parents in
Virginia. How on earth had they appeared here, suddenly? Josiah didn’t
know how to relocate, did he? Was he even capable of it?

And if he’d appeared suddenly,
clutching a wounded and bleeding Annie, something terrible must have happened!

Lucien didn’t waste time
running through the compound. He simply relocated to Mr. Smith’s study.

At first, the room appeared empty.
No one was sitting in the leather recliner by the window, or the blue rolling
chair at the scarred mahogany desk. He was about to leave when a small sound
captured his attention.

He followed the quiet sob to the
corner, where his fourteen-year-old son was huddled, arms around his knees,
tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t just crying, he could barely
breathe with the force of his sobs as he slowly rocked back and forth.

"Josiah?"

The boy looked up. Blood was smeared
on his face.

"Father!" He leaped from
his curled up position and threw himself against Lucien’s chest. Lucien
embraced him.

"What happened, son? Are you
hurt? What happened to Annie?"

"They came. In the night.
Don’t know why. Killed... oh God... killed them all."

Lucien’s alarm grew. He
grasped Josiah’s arms in his hands and gently set him back a bit, looking
into his eyes. "Who was killed?"

"Everyone! Annie’s mom
and dad, Jake. The succubae... they came."

A sensation of dread flared in the
pit of Lucien’s stomach. "Did they hurt you?"

Josiah shook his head.
"We..." he gasped. Sobbed again. "We were outside. Annie and
I. We were looking at con... con... at the stars. Heard a sound... ran
inside... There were four of them. They were... oh God. Their claws... they
were laughing... ‘one less cleric and his spawn,’ they said.... I
was frozen..." He broke into more shattered sobs. This time it took
several minutes for him to calm down enough to speak. "Annie rushed them,
and they cut her up. Knocked her down. They... I... I don’t know what
happened then. I just... I just ran after her. Pushed one away. Grabbed her. I
heard one say, ‘demon eyes!’ Then I was here."

"Oh no!" Lucien hugged
his son tight again.

"Is Annie okay?"

"Yes, son. She’s okay.
The belly wound isn’t that bad, and the others are fixable. You saved
her, Josiah."

Josiah, it was clear, had no
interest in being congratulated. He let go of his attempts to speak and just
dissolved into hysterics. And rightly so. He’d just seen a whole family
murdered. And now they had a worse problem. Those succubae knew there was a boy
with demon eyes somewhere out there in the world. Josiah would not be a secret
for much longer.

***

Clash! Clang!
Scrape!
The
sound of sword on sword rang through the courtyard. Josiah met Peter’s
thrust with his sword, and then turned rapidly, sliding his blade out from
underneath before the brute strength of his eighteen-year-old opponent could
crush him down. It had taken years, but Josiah had finally accepted  he had
to use stealth and dexterity against Peter. Though at sixteen, he had finally
grown, and was experiencing puberty, he was still small for his age, much
slighter than the other boys. But once he made peace with his size, he’d
found ways to use it to his advantage. At least he’d finally caught up
with Annie, who apparently was done growing. As he whirled to avoid another
slash with the blunted practice sword, he caught sight of her, standing by the
wall, watching.

She’d grown tall and beautiful
in the last three years. So beautiful it hurt to look at her. Her light brown
hair bounced in a nimbus of curls around her shoulders. Her brown eyes sparkled
in the light, as did her straight white teeth. Seeing her, Josiah wanted to
show off. He wanted to meet Peter’s attack head-on and drive the bully
away. But he knew from experience that the moment this kind of thinking took
over, he would be finished.

Resisting the urge to rush his
opponent, Josiah feinted, and when Peter reacted, he made a lightning-swift
movement, changing his direction and hitting the bigger boy on the ribs with
bruising force.

Peter cursed and swung wildly, which
opened him to a hit on the shoulder. Josiah dropped his practice sword between
his opponent’s legs. A deft twist and Peter lay sprawled on the ground
before him. The bigger boy laughed.

"You’ve learned some new
tricks, shrimp. Not bad. But you’ll never be a real man. By the time you
reach adult size, it will be too late."

Knowing better than to rise to the
bait, Josiah stretched out his hand. The rules of manners had been drilled into
all the children.

In a move faster than it seemed
possible such a bulky boy should be able to do, Peter reversed their positions,
throwing Josiah to the ground and placing a size fifteen sneaker on his throat.
He pressed down just a little, enough to restrict Josiah’s airway
slightly.

"Too trusting," Peter
tutted. "Too bad for you, shrimp. By the time you grow up, I’ll
have your pretty Annie all to myself. Just imagine it, you little worm.
You’ll be celebrating your twentieth birthday and I’ll be screwing
your girl." Peter laughed. He let just a hint more weight press down on
Josiah’s throat.

And then, without warning, Peter was
flying across the courtyard, landing in a heap.

"I have something to say about
that, you disgusting toad," Annie snarled. "Josiah, are you all
right?" She knelt beside him.

Josiah blinked, wondering what had
happened. It slowly dawned on him that Annie must have knocked Peter away from
him. He ground his teeth. Even a girl was tougher and stronger than him.

"I’m fine," he
snarled, twitching her hand off his shoulder. "I don’t need any
help."

He hauled himself to his feet and
stalked away, back towards the compound. He’d had enough practice for one
day.

***

"Father?"

Lucien looked up from the report he
was writing.

"Do you have a minute?"
Josiah stepped into the council chamber, massaging his throat. His voice
sounded hoarse.

"Of course, son," Lucien
replied, shoving back the chair next to him. Josiah sat. "What’s on
your mind?"

"I... I think I’m in love."

Lucien nodded. "Annie is a
very special girl. I’m not surprised."

Josiah blushed, but didn’t
deny it. "Do you think we’ll ever be... together?"

Lucien considered for a moment.
"I don’t see why not."

"Mr. Smith hates me."
Josiah said darkly.

Lucien smiled. Teens were so
dramatic. "I don’t think he does. Most likely he’s concerned
for his granddaughter is all. She’s his last living relative. After he
lost his wife to cancer all those years ago, and then Pearl and her husband, and
Annie’s younger brother in that succubus attack, well it’s not
surprising he’s protective of Annie."

"It’s more than that,
Father. He really does hate me. I can feel it."

"Son, I’ve known him for
so long. Long before he was called mister. by anyone. Back when he was Moses
Smith, minor cleric. He was my sidekick, you know."

Josiah raised one dark eyebrow.
"But he’s so old."

"But don’t forget, son.
He’s human. He has a human lifespan. He may seem old now, but I can
clearly remember when he was born. He fought by my side in his twenties and
thirties."

"How old are you,
Father?" Josiah asked hesitantly.

"I don’t exactly
know," he replied. "It’s hard to measure in human years. I
was a young  naphil when the Flood occurred."

Josiah’s eyes widened.
"Do you remember it? What was it like? Did you lose many friends?"

"Slow down, Josiah,"
Lucien said, laughing. "No, I didn’t lose any friends. The people
who lived back then were... horrible. Every bit as bad as the Scriptures say.
They make some of the succubae look like little lambs. Believe me, son, the
Creator was right to wipe them out."

"But what was the flood like?
Can’t nephilim drown?"

"Of course we can. But to be
honest... I don’t know how we survived it." He saw his son was
about to interrupt with a barrage of questions and held up his hand. "The
flood was not meant for us. We were told that in advance. We protected Noah and
his family. We brought the animals. And then, when the first drops of rain
began to fall, we all went to sleep. When we woke up, the world was completely
different. So I have no idea what happened to us in between, but it was
obviously divine protection."

Josiah’s mouth hung open.
Clearly this information was more than he could comprehend. Well, truthfully
neither could Lucien.

"But, Father, how did the
succubae survive? They were alive then, right?"

"Yes, son, they were. There
weren’t as many. Lilith has been breeding for thousands of years since
then. As for how they survived, I’m not sure of that either. Except...
I’ve always had the theory that the hive is not exactly on earth. And
before you ask, I don’t know where it is either. If we knew, we would
have assaulted it centuries ago, before the numbers of succubae and drones grew
so great. But we’ve never been able to find them."

Josiah nodded. "Doesn’t
it bother you, all the things you don’t know?"

"Sometimes," Lucien
replied, "but I trust in the divine plan. The Creator has never led us
astray. Even our mistakes can be used for good. Never doubt that, Josiah. No
matter what happens, the Creator’s plan has not faltered. It twists and
turns along the paths we take, and still comes out just the way He intended.
Have faith, son."

"If I could be with Annie, I
would never doubt again. Can you even imagine, Father, what it’s like to
be so very in love?"

A wave of sorrow washed over Lucien.
"I don’t have to imagine, Josiah. I know."

"You do?" the teen
regarded him with wide green eyes which seemed to burn into the depths of his
soul.

"Of course. Where do you think
you came from? I would never have broken my vows for lust or curiosity. I loved
your mother. I love her still."

"Then where is she?" the
child asked bitterly. "Why has she never come to me? Did she not love you
back? Or was it me she didn’t want?"

"Stop that, Josiah,"
Lucien growled, his grief making his tone gruff and harsh. "She loved me.
And she loved you too. She would never have left you."