Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (52 page)

Amidres’ scoffed. “Youth, think you have it all. Very well. I’ll at least get the door.”

All the while, Cain gritted his teeth and fought against the overwhelming urge to cry out in pain. His muscles were so cramped from sitting so unnaturally that he wondered if his joints or his back might be permanently damaged. At last the torturous journey to the bathroom was over, and Cain was seated on the toilet.

“I will manage from here, thank you,” Al’bah said with a large smile.

“Shout if you need anything,” Amidres’ said as he exited the bathroom.

As soon as the door was closed, Al’bah removed her shirt and brought her wings forth and picked Cain up, cradling him like a small child, “Easy, my love. Relax. I have you in my strength.”

Cain noticed how Al’bah’s wings had folded over his body as before, seeming to melt within his own flesh. The familiar sensation of euphoria came quickly, and it started to combat the savage pain that was everywhere.

“Thank you,” Cain panted. “I am hurt.”

“I know,” Al’bah shushed. She extended her foot and turned on the hot water to the tub faucet and with another deft motion activated the drain plug. “Hot water,” she said happily as she carried Cain effortlessly into the tub. Once in the water, her wings unraveled themselves from Cain’s flesh and were drawn into her torso.

“Al’bah, how strong are you anyway?” Cain said, wincing slightly as the pain started to return.

“I do not know.” Al’bah grabbed the cleanser and washrag. “I am quite strong in spiritual terms, considering that I am over six thousand of your years old. Why? Is it unnatural for humans to be as strong as I?”

“Yes. Even at my prime, I don’t think I could carry myself with the ease you do.”

Al’bah shrugged as she started to scrub Cain’s body and hair. “You will feel better once you are clean. We did not dare to bathe you when you were ill.”

“The second time, too,” Cain grumbled. “Is there significance to being out for five days?”

“I do not know.”

Cain splashed water over his face to get the soap out of his eyes. “But I bet you have an idea; you always do. Walter’s appointment card read for five o’clock. The ordeal at the hotel was five days and here was five days.”

“I know of no significance to the number five as it concerns mortality.”

Cain opened his mouth to ask more questions, but what difference would it make? He nodded and held out his hand for the washrag, wanting to wash himself.

Al’bah handed over the washrag and watched as Cain attempted to clean himself. He quickly miscalculated his motions and ended up with a face full of soap again.

No, not that! Not that!

Cain sneezed, and his body instantly and immediately filled with horrible agony.

He tried to hold in his next sneeze, but a held-in sneeze became a harsh cough, bringing a worse crescendo of pain.

He couldn’t breathe! He couldn’t see!

I’m going to die! This is it! I can’t stop it!

He sneezed again, no longer able to tell his muscles to do anything. Cain choked on the blood in his mouth and thrashed slightly in the tub, making his pain worse. He felt the final sneeze coming, and as always the last one was the worst. Just before he started to take in the breath that would have killed him from the pain, he felt Al’bah blow her breath through his nose.

An immediate sense of calm ran through his body and eliminated the reflex to sneeze. The relief only lasted an instant as the violent spasms that were caused by sneezing bit their savage teeth into Cain’s flesh. 

“Oh God! It hurts! Al’bah! Please!”
 

Al’bah scooted forward and took him into her arms. She positioned his body so that he could relax.
 “Easy, my Bond, my love. Gently now. I am weak, too. I cannot ease your pain permanently without risking my life,” Al’bah whispered into his ear, holding him still against his trembling.

Tears started to pour from his eyes, and his breathing turned into quiet sobbing. His body was wasted; he couldn’t even fight tears or hold back his cries, for the pain it would cause him. They just flowed from his body, so naked and ashamed, revealing the depths of all his weaknesses now that his strength had left him. And yet a small part of him rejoiced in the comfort he received from Al’bah’s tender whispers. The soothing quality of her caress, and the way she could see him be so pathetic and not be judgmental, but so feminine in her care.

“What happens now?” Cain said without thinking, with a trembling voice. Unaware of what his words meant or to whom he was speaking to.

“We let the sun rise and the moon sing. We do our best, and let it stand before judgment,” Al’bah responded, holding Cain all the tighter to her body, bringing a sense of relief, allowing sleep to come.

“And wait,” she said sadly. “And wait for the mercy that was promised.”

Cain trembled and relaxed at last under Al’bah’s gentle kisses upon his neck and head as the warmth carried his consciousness away.

***

After the bath, Cain insisted to shave and dress himself, though Al’bah kept close. “What is wrong?” Al’bah asked as Cain stared into the mirror without blinking.

“Are you kidding me?” Cain said, angry and bewildered at the same time. He turned back to his reflection in the mirror; much of his muscle mass had wasted away. Even Al’bah appeared thinner; her face and eyes had a gaunt, starved look. “I’m about the same size as Charlie,” he grumbled.

Al’bah shook her head. “Cain, be thankful that your body is not permanently damaged. Come, you need to eat.”

Al’bah took Cain’s hand and seated him at the Wellses’ table for breakfast. Though Al’bah seemed happy enough, Cain was slightly uncomfortable, as he noticed Serenna constantly looking to Amidres’ with an expectant look to her face. He had a good idea why she was so anxious, and decided to curb the uncomfortable air around the table.

“Amidres’, I owe you my life,” Cain said, remembering what Serenna had asked him earlier, ready for the questions that she and even he would want answered. “My life, and so much more. You know that we are being hunted, but you have not turned us in. What can I do to repay your kindness?”

Serenna glanced to Cain and Al’bah and back to her husband. The table had grown silent, and Amidres’ leaned back into his chair and looked into Cain’s eyes with a knowing look.

“Saving the life of the innocent should never require repayment,” he said passionately. “Neither should the act of allowing corrupt justice to take place be rewarded.” He drank some tea from his small cup and continued. “But your story is a strange one, an incomplete one.” He set the cup down almost like a gavel. “One that I’d like to know.”

Cain nodded. “That is fair. We—”

“Perhaps tonight, Cain,” Amidres’ said, standing up. “There is plenty for me to do around the property.” Serenna helped him get his coat on and handed him a set of keys and a sack lunch. “I will see you two tonight I—ahem,
we
—will be most anxious to hear your tale.” Amidres’ kissed Serenna and went out the door without another word.

Serenna looked to Al’bah, who had already collected the plates, placed them on the countertop, and had started to wash them. “Al’bah, how many times must I tell you that you are a guest here?” Her protest went unheeded, and Cain suspected that Al’bah had been doing chores all along while he was incapacitated.

Cain initially tried to help out, but both girls immediately closed ranks against any attempt for Cain to do anything but relax, eat, or drink.

“In fact,” Serenna said, taking out the thermometer out and handing it to Cain, “let’s see if that fever went down.” After a moment she read aloud, “Ninety-nine point six…better.” She looked from the thermometer to Cain. “But don’t go outside, Cain. It is colder here due to the elevation, and you are not completely well. If you exert yourself too much, you may get sick and lose your breakfast.”
 

So Cain had little to do but try his best to eat and drink the overabundance that both women tried to put to him. There was a bit of tension between them, but he thought it would be best not to ask about it. Between chores, Al’bah filled Cain in on the gaps of his memory.

The last thing Cain remembered was the day before Al’bah had burned all their possessions. He had no memory of the last day’s walk or the following five days. Upon reaching the house, it was a struggle for the three of them to get Cain inside; they couldn’t lay him on his back and decided to keep him upright next to the fireplace.

Cain was upset over the loss of the money he had saved over the last decade. His anger only abated when Serenna harshly reminded him that it was a miracle he lived through that night. Not even to mention the next five nights.

The first two days and nights were the worst. No one thought Cain would live as he hovered between death and hallucinations; punctuated by the horrifying sound of his thick, wet breathing, or his cries to people that weren’t there, not recognizing Al’bah the times he did call for her, and screaming at horrors imagined.

Slowly, the three of them brought Cain around. And by day three, his hallucinations were calmer, and his breathing slowly got better. He was awake at times and able to move around, but they all thought he had suffered brain damage. He could barely remember anything from his past, and he couldn’t remember anything further than fifteen minutes.

Amidres’ suspected that Cain’s brain might not have been fully conscious, and by the fourth day Cain did little but sleep. It was a struggle to wake him for medicine or liquid food. And when awake, he couldn’t recognize anyone.

After Cain’s backstory was filled in, Serenna started to talk of herself and of Amidres’. The two of them were American citizens living just a few miles from the American-Mexican border. Their homestead was on a ridge inaccessible on three sides. The house itself was carefully camouflaged to all but a bird’s eye view, so they were left alone for the most part.

Amidres’ had a severe distrust of both Mexican and American governments, and he did his best to live “off the grid,” generating his own power, growing or hunting food, and crafting what he needed or selling his works for money to buy the things he could not make.

They had heard about Cain and Al’bah from bounty postings and the radio. However, Amidres’ found several discrepancies that did not make Cain’s case as cut-and-dried as the authorities made it out to be. The details of the story changed slightly several times. But there were other details that made no sense at all: an alert to Virginia, a possible Canadian border crossing, the manhunt’s new focus in Tennessee. It all made one wonder just what was really going on.

Cain looked up to Al’bah. Her chores were done, and she was staring into the fire, sipping a cup of hot tea.

“And, uh, what has Al’bah told you?”
 

“That you both have been framed, and you were walking to avoid detection to cross the border.” She set her own cup of tea down. “She told us that you saved her from slavery. She said that her former master wishes to possess her once more. That her former master has the power and influence to frame you for heinous crimes, with little fear of retribution.”

Cain nodded. “That is true. But I can certainly see how it would be inadequate, given how much attention we have been getting.” Cain turned to Al’bah and waited.

Slowly Al’bah raised her eyes to Cain’s. Her eyes were full of a well-disguised hurt. She knew he was still upset over the loss of all his money and possessions. And try as he might to let it go, he was
pissed
.

She knew this, and although she had apologized for it over and over again, Cain knew that she held some sort of smug gratification for her actions which, he had to admit, had saved his life. “I think I will tell them, Al’bah,” he said, his voice a little harder than he wanted it to be.

Al’bah said nothing as she looked to Serenna and back to Cain, her face now showing a small amount of fear.

“Could we have a moment alone?” Cain asked.

“Of course.” Serenna got up and left the room.

“Al’bah, say something,” Cain said, leaning back into his chair. “I want to know your opinion.”

Al’bah sighed. “I am worried that you are going to tell them the truth. We have no idea how they will react, especially considering that they have no history with you like Charlie did, and they are not caught up in this struggle like Stella was, and still is.”

Cain shrugged. “I have a feeling that they will not be a threat to us, but I can only tell them the truth. I’m certain they won’t believe it, unless you show them.”

“No,” Al’bah said, crossing her arms. “I will agree to tell them the truth, but I am not of the theatre. I will not perform on command.”

Cain had not expected this show of defiance. “Is there something wrong, Al’bah? Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

Al’bah’s eyes changed; they went from stubborn to remorseful. “Cain, I am sorry! How many times must I continue to apologize for burning your money?”

“But what does that have to do with—”

“Anger! I can feel your anger to me! I can feel your blame! It hurts me, Cain! I can barely stand to be near you, now that you are like this! I—oh! It is so painful to be near you.” She closed her eyes and held her hands out. “What was I to do, Cain? You were dying. I know you worked long and hard for your currency. I felt the spiritual energy that surrounded every single piece of paper. You loving, you grieving those bits of paper tear me apart.”