Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (34 page)

Stella looked up; the boat had stopped, and Cain was now talking to Vincent. She closed her eyes, feeling the soft rocking of the boat and listening to Al’bah’s breath with the swells of the waves, and her own sighs, matching the wind.

“Okay, and what about now? Why were you taken from Cain?”

Al’bah growled, but her fury seemed at last directed at something other than her. “Taint, like most Fallen Angels, believe man is not worthy of the favor the Creator gives them. Taint wishes to have me returned to corruption. This happens when my Bonds to Cain are severed. Taint wishes this: Taint wishes to kill Cain.”

“But, that doesn’t explain why you were at that law firm.”

Al’bah shrugged. “Taint, like all spiritual creatures, cannot interfere directly in this physical realm. So, Taint uses slaves to carry out the will of corruption. This is why I was taken by—” Al’bah gulped and appeared to be terrified. “By man. You have already seen this one. Cain knows him as Walter Stratton.”
 

Stella immediately caught on to her devious doublespeak. “Hmm, you’re not telling me something about this Walter Stratton. First off, you seem terrified by him, and second, you said Cain knows him as Walter…but you don’t? You’re leaving things out—tell me.”

Al’bah shook her head. “No! This is all you need to know. Now uphold your end of the bargain. Why were you with Cain? Why does he not speak to me? What is your place in all this chaos?” Al’bah said.

Stella regarded Al’bah with a heavy sigh. “I won’t tell you unless you stop talking to me like I am a fucking thief!”

Al’bah hissed and bared her teeth. “You
are
a thief! Those clothes in the bag you carry are
mine!”
She pointed to Stella and glared malevolently.
 

“I am
not
a thief, damn you! Cain gave these clothes to me, thanks to all the crap that happened! Thanks to you and your damned former master!”

“Oh.” Al’bah’s demeanor changed immediately; she seemed ashamed of herself again and turned her face away. “I apologize that all this has caused you grief.”

Grief?
Stella forced herself to bite back a scathing remark. Forced herself to not slap Al’bah silly.
This is her fault! Her fault and Cain’s!
she seethed, barely able to control her rage, no longer caring about anything but pounding the both of them. To make both of them pay for ruining her life.

“Please understand, Stella,” Al’bah said, looking over to Cain with a longing that made her feel a horrible lump in her throat. “He is all that keeps me from returning to tortures unimaginable.” Al’bah turned back to Stella, with tears in her eyes. “But I never wished to cause others harm. I cannot imagine what you are going through. But please. Please, do not blame Cain.”

“So, what then? I blame you? How on Earth could this be your fault?”

Al’bah shook her head. “By virtue of actions alone, this is not my fault either. I am caught up in this struggle, as is Cain. I grieve that your path crossed ours, but it is by chance alone that you became involved.”

Stella scoffed, remembering a snippet a veteran once told her:
“Don’t you go trying to make sense of a senseless crime. Sometimes injustice is blind, too.”

She looked up and sighed deeply. “Okay. I’m still pissed off. But, okay.” Stella sighed and stared at Al’bah for several moments.

“Please,” Al’bah said quietly.

“Please what? Oh, right,” Stella said, remembering that Al’bah was waiting to hear her side of the story.

“Well there isn’t much to say, really,” she said quietly. “Cain was framed for holding cocaine. He was questioned and released, and I was assigned to watch him in case he was actually guilty, or protect him if he was innocent. Early this morning as Cain was asleep, I happened to see on TV that we were framed for the murder of three people.”

Stella shrugged. “We ran, and the first place we went was where you were being held.”

Al’bah brightened up and smiled for the first time. “Cain missed me? He sought me out?”

Stella chuckled slightly. “Are you kidding? You better believe it. Hey, how did you two meet anyway?”

“In the place humanity identifies as dreams.”

“Huh, considering everything else, I suppose that makes sense. There is one thing I don’t understand. Why would Walter Stratton offer freedom for me and Cain? What does he want with you?”

Al’bah shrugged. “He is a mystery to me. He is not allied with corruption, and so I suspect his goals are his own.”

“Huh, and what about now? Do you think we are safe?”

Al’bah nodded. “I feel no deception in the one that calls himself Vincent. His allegiance is to the Creator.”

“The Creator? Don’t you mean God?”

“Yes, God,” Al’bah said, nodding. “Vincent has no reason to betray us, his thirst for monetary gain is satisfied.”

“And what about Walter? Any reason why Cain would want to kill him?”

Al’bah growled again. “Though I dislike the idea of taking a life, much good might have resulted from his death.”

 
A shadow suddenly fell upon Stella and she looked up; it was Cain.

“What I am wondering is why I didn’t agree to Walter’s offer in the first place,” he said, startling both of them.

Al’bah flinched at his words and looked terrified.

“You’re an asshole, do you know that?” Stella said as she stood up. “I have half a mind to—”

“What?” Cain said, standing to his full six foot four. “If I had agreed, you would also have your life back.”

“She
loves
you, Cain. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

“Stella,” Cain said, his voice trembling, “go. Vincent has dropped anchor, dinner is ready, and the boat won’t be underway for another five hours.” Stella glared at Cain and touched Al’bah’s shoulder as she left.

The Will of One Who Loves Another

“Fuck ‘em—kill ‘em all. The dead can’t argue with the living!

—Shane Harper

Al’bah watched Stella leave. She stood and turned to Cain, but was unable to look at him directly. The emotions boiling within his soul made her feel uneasy; she did not know how he was going to receive this moment.

“Look at me, Al’bah,” Cain said quietly.

After several long moments of uncomfortable agony, Al’bah was at last able to look at Cain, and she worked up the courage to speak. “My…eyes…see,” she began, her fear growing.

“I don’t care what you think you see,” Cain said, interrupting her. “I am ruined, do you know that? People are dead back there! Dead because of you and I! It was one thing for the city police to think I was a drug dealer, but now they think I murdered people! I can’t go back! I don’t know what I can do! I lost everything!”

Al’bah felt as though she would cry.
No! I must not! He will become more angry.
“Those deaths were not our fault, and besides, you still have me. We still have each other. Do we not?” she said, her voice losing strength with each word, ending up as a whisper by the end. Cain’s anger intensified with each word, and Al’bah felt despair and fear grow within her.

“I take it you’re referring to love, right?”

Al’bah could no longer bear to look at Cain. She nodded. “Yes…love, Cain. Love.”

She sensed no love from him.

“Love?” Cain turned his head to the side of the boat and spat into the water. “Just what is love, anyway? Last I ever knew, people who loved each other didn’t bring ruin to everyone that they cared for! They didn’t make them sacrifice everything they had for—for—”

Cain cupped Al’bah’s chin and gently turned her head toward him. His voice was controlled and calm, but Al’bah would rather have him scream. Rather have him strike her. Anything to not feel his anger burn her senses so fiercely.

“Goddammit, Al’bah!
Why
do you love me, anyway? What the fuck do I have that is so great to offer you? If it were not for your punishments, would I mean anything to you? What if I was to surrender you to Taint? Do you think that you would want to still be my ‘Bond’?”

Cain let go of Al’bah’s face and turned to kick the side of the boat and went on speaking. Al’bah felt his frustration and despair hammering her senses. His anguish tore her apart, and it was all she could do to not rush into his arms to stop his agony, as well as her own.

“Why did I have to have the damn luck to mess with that damn door? In fact, why the hell did I have to have been born in the first place? Or better yet, why did ‘God’ create creatures that were so imperfect that He would send them screaming to eternal punishment!”

Al’bah almost gasped in relief as Cain turned his attention and his rage away from her, and started to scream into the sky.

“For all that has happened to me since that day, I can accept! In fact, I will declare that it was my own fault. But only because I accepted this stupid set of circumstances of my own free will! But what right does anyone have to make a judgment upon me and my damn life when I never asked to have been born in the first place?”

Cain looked at and through Al’bah. “You tell me God is the Creator, and Purity tells me God is merciful and loving. Well, where is He? I don’t see Him setting things straight upon this world! And yet even though I never asked to be born in the first place, I am given an ultimatum! ‘Do as I say’! No. ‘Do as I command,’ or burn in hell for eternity! What kind of fucking justice, mercy, and love is that?” He sank down with his back against the side of the boat.

Al’bah felt Cain’s anger burn out; she did not even realize she was crying until his screaming faded into echoes. Her sobs were soft, almost mistaken for the soft caress of the water upon the boat. She knelt before her Bond, wanting with all her heart to come closer, but his despair was too painful to bear.

Cain sighed deeply and spoke again, but it was soft and full of remorse. “Everything. I’ve lost everything. It’s almost worth it to end it all now. But I can’t, or won’t. All for the sake of not burning in hell forever. Yeah…some nice, loving, merciful, fair deal I have. That
we
all have down here.”

At last, the chaos that had festered in Cain all day was released. It had done all the damage it could, and now he was left heavily wounded. Al’bah felt his soul cry out in agony. And how could she not come to him? How could she not comfort him?

He is my Bond, and he needs me.

Al’bah came to Cain and put her arms around his torso, and placed the side of her face to rest above his trembling heart. “Cain. Do you want to let this go?”

“Let what go?”

Al’bah almost could not speak, she was so afraid.
But I must…I must.
“Do you want to let…me go?” After a moment, she brought her face to his. “I know Taint well enough to ensure you get your life back.” She lowered her eyes. “I will go back, if it means your happiness.”

 
I can do no more; he is my Bond. I love him.

What Makes One Worthy of Love?

“Love isn’t selfish, Cain! You will see! I swear to God, one day you will see!”

—Holly Archer

Cain was stunned, his mind spinning at the implications of what she was saying, of what she offered to him. To have his rage made so absolutely worthless in a blink of an eye was something he could have never expected or prepared for.

For a moment he was aware of nothing but the offer Al’bah laid out before him. Of her, trembling and crying in his arms…it made him feel absolutely disgusted with himself, and how he caused her sorrow…again.

“You—” Cain drew a shaking breath. “You would do that for me? But,
why?
” he wailed, wondering how anyone could ever do something like that for another. And that the offer was for
him
made it worse. Cain was neither arrogant nor ignorant of his own worth. He was the last person that he could imagine someone else would sacrifice so much for.

Al’bah stifled a shaking gasp. She closed her eyes and placed her hands on Cain’s face, though no words came forth from her lips that Cain could make out.

“Because I love you, Cain.”

Al’bah settled once more into his arms and wept softly. After what seemed a long time, she was able to find her voice, her words punctuated with
gentle sobs. “If it will make things right with you, I will return to Taint, and you will have your life back. But, is it what you want, Cain?”

Cain thought about his former life. The endless hours working under the hot sun, the cold and biting wind. The meager pay he slaved for. And the certainty that all life had for him was nothing more.

He also thought about the life thrust upon him. He was caught up in the belly of some sort of monster, being taken to a destination that he never wanted to go. A destination shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. And yet as much as he hated this sense of chaos, he had to admit that he was never so…excited (or scared?) about the future. Whatever it was, the future wasn’t the endless trudge that only led to death and the oblivion he once believed in.