There are more things ...
Prologue
"Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!" Exclaimed happily Neal Caffrey smacking a loud kiss on the cheek of her friend.
"And this is my gift," he added, placing a bundle of fine beige cloth on the table of the living room of Burke's house, where they met together for a small informal party.
Peter shrugged, considering for someone like him you could not wait to receive the traditional package covered with colored paper and trivial with a bright bow on top!
"Oh, Neal," replied the old lady, looking full of curiosity the singular gift that made the best of oneself next to the cake with whipped cream and strawberries "You didn't have to, but I'm so glad you remembered". She winked at him and, with the air of a little girl on Christmas Day, she began to lift the edges of fabric finish.
"I'm sure that your gift will be more original than that of Peter," she said, sending an amused look to her husband who was standing next to her, in evident embarrassment, playing with his tie.
"Well, I thought you'd like it," he mumbled, looking down on the floor.
"Honey," she twitters, "You know that I love you immensely, otherwise I would never have forgiven you for giving me a food robot ..." She paused for effect, then added, with a smile "... this year too."
Meanwhile, the package had revealed inside another layer of fabric: it was a muslin cotton, impalpable as tissue paper and apparently quite old, Elizabeth removed impatient breathing the slightest hint of mold that exhaled.
When she saw what was hidden inside could not restrain an exclamation of wonder and the others present - in addition to Neal and Peter were Mozzie, Diana Jones and June, more than a dozen friends and colleagues Agency catering - came close to the table, while the cheater gave a look of triumph at the Federal, who was limited giving a hint of a sigh.
On the polished and light surface of wood shone now a magnificent statue of exquisite making, high 20 cm and fully carved in a light green stone, opalescent and traversed by thin veins of gold. It showed a young woman of incredible beauty, completely naked except for a sort of archaic making tiara, settled on long and straight hair that touched even the sinuous hips, her arms at her sides and her legs were slightly apart in a pose rigid, almost hieratic.
Human, beautiful and perfectly human, except for the claws of a rapacious bird had instead of feet settled on the base of the stone, revealing long curved and sharp nails.
The visage of alter features- the slightly aquiline nose, high cheekbones, thin and imperious eyebrows, eyes of cut long and slightly open lips - staring into space with an unreadable expression, such as staring at a point a million miles away, or a million years.
"Neal, but ... but ... it's just wonderful!" Said Elizabeth, turning it over in her hands "It's the most amazing gift I have ever received in my entire life."
While others were exchanging comments full of admiration for the elegance and beauty of that object exotic, June asked with amusement: "Neal, who would it be this busty lady?".
The young man, delighted for success just received, he replied: "It is made of chrysoprase, a semiprecious stone, but very rare, and is Lilith, a demon of the Mesopotamian tradition and then Hebrew: it's said that she has been the wife of Adam before Eve but then she has rebelled not accepting the fact that he wanted to lie with her always and only by staying on top ".
"I swear!" He said, between giggles and smiles malicious bystanders.
"Adam damned her and she, furious, said the name of God so that appeared wings and could fly away, abandoning its own initiative the Garden of Eden before the expulsion of man."
"Because she had not touched the Tree of Knowledge," concluded the cheater, pleased by interest that the story was inspiring "she was not sentenced to death as human beings, but she turned into a demon and has since that moment is associated with the storm , disorder and lust.".
"If I don't mistake" intervened at that point Moz "according to legend Lilith still wanders the earth surrounded by a cortege of devils called jinn or Lilin, and during the full moon, she likes to disturb the dreams of men."
"To disturb?" Then asked Jones "In what meaning?".
The little man laughed and exchanged glances with his friend. He made a grimace, closed his eyes and shaking hands, said: "She seduces, sucks them, uh ... you know what, to kill them. "
"WOW!" Exclaimed in chorus Diana and Jones.
"And tonight the moon is full" June winked with a mischievous smile.
"And you brought this turbulent young lady under my roof?" Joked Peter, who had been apart until this moment and only now approached to the statue, staring at her with attention for the first time.
"Come on, honey! 'Said Elizabeth, placing his gift on the mantelpiece and admiring again how light makes all the exquisite carvings shine.
"It's a wonderful object," she repeated.
Then she put his mouth to the ear and whispered: "I swear that its presence here will not make me come strange idea in mind."
"What a pity!" He grumbled back, his voice equally low.
"So, tell me Neal" said suddenly Jones "But a trinket like that should not be in a museum?
You haven't stolen it at all? ".
The cheater performed in one of his most successful smiles and said, with voice firm and absolutely without even a hesitation: "If it was true, that dates back to the third millennium BC, his place would be at the Louvre next to the Code of Hammurabi! But it is just a nineteenth century copy, I bought it last week from an antique shop in Soho. "
"Do you want to see the receipt?" He added, jokingly but supporting the gaze.
"Should I?" The agent replied, returning his gaze and smile just a little tense.
"Okay, okay, guys said Diana, taking his colleague's arm and pushing him toward the table where the party had been set
up," Come with me, let go to help Elizabeth with the cake. "
Left alone, Mozzie pointed with a nod the statue and nudged his friend.
"Do not tell me it's true ..." he muttered, staring at the image with greed "Mon frere, the lustful doll is worth a fortune."
"I will not tell," replied the other, with an enigmatic smile "And neither you do, it's true? You know I never gave Elizabeth a vulgar imitation from the fleas market".
Part One
"It was a lovely evening, it's true darling?" Elizabeth's cheerful voice came from the kitchen where she was finishing to wash the last dishes, while Peter remitted to place the chairs around the dining room table, the guests were already gone from a little 'and the house was quiet and peaceful back.
"Ah-ah" The Federal just nodded, picking up from the ground and throwing it on the couch. Distracted, went to the mantelpiece and for the second time in the evening stared the gaze of the green statue, it's motionless irises were addressed toward something that seemed to be far beyond him, something incredibly far away, incredibly past, but at the same time seemed to come to him, crossing him like a knife.
Inexplicably, Peter felt as embarrassed and could not move his eyes elsewhere: those eyes did not look like the eyes of the statue of Christopher Columbus in Central Park, or to those dell'Abraham Lincoln bronze stands in Union Square Park ... no, they were different, they seemed to look and see.
A ray of moonlight through the window and hit the statue, making it shine with strange flashes that, in the dim light of the room, had something sinister: it seemed almost phosphorescent, it was as if the light not only touch it but came from his own internal, from the lifeless body of shining green chrysoprase, wrapped in a waving light, alive, almost palpable.
The Federal was crossed by a thrill and for a moment he was afraid, he felt dry the mouth and could not speak. With all his strength he wanted to look away and walk away, but he was chained to a mysterious energy.
He blinked trying to regain control of himself, incredulous for that strange physical phenomenon that unsuccessfully tried to attribute to drinking too much champagne and dim light that filtered into the room. Then, as if he was attracted by a magnet, He goes close to the statue: his face was now a few cm away from the wonder of shiny stone.
At that moment, it happened.
Peter Burke was sure it was late October, that afternoon had even rained a little. '
So why, suddenly, he felt a warm so suffocating that he would gladly have ripped off the jacket if he could move a muscle? Why, however, was paralyzed and could barely breathe, keeping his eyes open?
In front of him there was no more the familiar living room of his house but there was a desert with low dunes as far as the eye can see, washed by the silvery light of the full moon larger and closer than he had ever seen in his life. It was a wide, widest terrace on the top of a huge building of limestone, which dominated from the top endless expanse of sand around him he could see other lower buildings among them spots of dense and lush of vegetation.
Candlesticks turned on and torches made clumps of fire between the cups of painted terracotta and stone dishes, heaps of snow in the mountains and grapes, colouring of reddish flares to the floor polished, the high pillars and wooden planks richly prepared; in the night air still hot was mixing scents of exotic flowers and resins.
He realized he was not alone: a multitude of people, dressed in a way that seemed much strange, shouted and shaked itself as in a frantic orgy. There was who, lying on large pillows placed directly on the ground, drank greedily a dark foamy liquid with low clay engraved cups, who ate colored and fragrant foods that he would never have been able to recognize, who, already drunk, snoring loudly in the dust . It sounded a multitude of voices spoke simultaneously - shouted, laughed, sang, whispered - in different languages but all equally incomprehensible to his ear.
Suddenly, the crowd became quiet for the appearance of a tall and massive man: nevertheless the hot weather, he wore a heavy black cloak thrown over a linen tunic of a dazzling white, had a bit of makeup on her cheeks, thick of fan beard and, through his hair and curled hair, a crown of precious stones.
In unison, everyone - soldiers, dignitaries, ladies elegantly dressed and simple servants - they prostrated their faces in the dust and waited for the royal appearance with a nod that gave them permission to take off.
Then, the sovereign - as such had to be without doubt, understood the policeman - he began to recite what looked like a magic formula in a forgotten language for thousands of years, buried by the sands of time: those solemn syllables, unearthly, first rose to the sky in a murmuring, almost inappreciable, and then rang echoing on the stone, as a sort of mantra that rolled and thundered incessantly.
As a storm that shattered on the rocks, shake violently the forest and howls from the mountain tops.
Suddenly from the crowd came a murmur of surprise and admiration because in the middle of the large open space had appeared out of nowhere, in a whirlwind of fluorescent lights, a young woman: under a blue veil that hid her breasts and her head were distinguished dark eyes, arched eyebrows, the chalcedony that shone with its lobes and the shade of the olive skin. The multicolored silk cloth that covered her shoulders was stopped by the high golden waist richly chased; the iridescent veils that enveloped her and waved around her slim body while she came sinuous near to the king.
Feet Elegant feet, adorned with multicolored rings, left no fingerprints on plates dusted with sand on the floor and her feet did not produce any noise.
Unlike the other she didn't bow down and not even the head: those eyes, that Peter Burke thinks to be black as an abyss and soft like velvet, supported the eyes of the man who had called her with his powerful magic of darkness that were congenial.
Then, with a wonderful circular gesture free herself of the veil, which ended up on the floor, the long black hair with bluish shades, braided into a bizarre way, fell on the chest, shoulders, back and hips.
Next, Lilith began to dance.
Her feet went across from each other at the rate of the flute and a pair of castanets, the arms of mother of pearl shaked sinuous as snakes, as they followed someone who tried relentlessly to escape. With half-closed eyelids, writhing, shaking her hips and shook her breasts with the undulations of a storm, following the echoes of cymbals.
She overturned backwards like a flower bent by the storm, and the precious stones that adorned her ears, wrists and ankles shone with colorful glow. From her feet, the shiny hair, from the hem of her transparent dress squirted sparks that set fire to men: now all the present, soldiers were accustomed to privations of the desert, dissolute nobles, bearded priests or poor dishwashers, all quivering with lust.
Lilith had danced without looking at anyone and suddenly stopped: her eyes sparkling with flashes dark, very black eyebrows, the sweat that filled her alabaster forehead, she turned with a sudden gesture and her eyes cut through the crowds desirous, crossed the bearded king and pinned exactly the viewer more shocked, who had witnessed the whole scene still and without utter a word.
The Federal instinctively stretched out his hand in front of him until it touches the smooth surface of stone, surprised that it was not cold as he had imagined, but, on the contrary, warm and vibrant.
"Peter ...".
The voice of Elizabeth and her gentle touch on the arm suddenly called him back to reality, the policeman retracted his hand in a flash, blinked and swallowed, feeling the dry throat and mouth as impasted. His heart was pounding furiously in his chest and he had to close his hands into fists to avoid revealing the tremor that ran through.
"Are you okay?" Said the young woman with a happy smile.
Peter opened his mouth to answer, but it was still breathless for what he had just seen and could not say anything so she, without waiting for an answer, took his hand and dragged him toward the staircase leading upstairs.
The policeman took a few steps almost in a trance, like a sleepwalker, until the wife took him by the tie and pulled him at herself mischievous, her face slightly flushed. She looked into his eyes and whispered in his ear with a sweet voice: "Let's go in the room: I want to show you, my dear descendant of Adam, that your ancestor was an idiot to drive away Lilith from Paradise."
***
Satchmo awoke with a start when his canine instinct made him straighten the hair on the back and show his teeth in a deaf growl: completely awake, it jumped out of his kennel in the lobby and knuckle up to the living room as attracted by an unknown force.
In the room was apparently everything is in order, however, a ray of silver light shining through the window going to beat exactly on the little green statue, which postponed the flashes coloring of a disturbing phosphorescence.
Suddenly appeared small and trembling lights, unquestionably strange, who gathered around the image carved: if Satchmo had known what were fatuous fires, it would certainly thought that seemed like the fires that at night you can see in the swamps and cemeteries. Appeared out of nowhere as outputs from air and light of the moon, and began to swirl: soon became a shaking light fog and turning on itself, a fire with flashes and sparks, like a condensed accretion of moonbeams.
The presence became every moment more concrete until towards the middle of the room, appeared in place of the column of phosphorescent fog a woman of great beauty: Lilith, the immortal Lady of Lilin - first transparent, translucent and then finally almost solid in spite of its nature of spirit - she looked around and a faint smile pursed her sensual lips.
Satchmo, terrified, gave a shrill yelp that was sufficient for the appearance that turned toward him with a look that almost make explode its poor dog heart: the creature, fluctuating in mid-air, came near its and pierced him with her sharp eyes as flinty arrows, obscure most of the night who had given birth. Lifted just a incorporeal hand and with the palm facing the muzzle of the animal made a slight movement that forced its to retreat and then to take refuge - fast and untidy with his tail between its legs and its head down – in the other side of the house, where it refuged under a furniture whining like a puppy panic stricken.
The Daughter of the dancer, the eternal Queen of all the nights of the full moon smiled as cold as the breath of a tomb and also poisonous.
Waving, vibrating like the flame of a candle yet alive, living in that way unknown and inexplicable, the demon of the storm went up with invisible steps of legs disappeared for thousands of years the stairs of Burke's house and came in silence to the bedroom where Peter and Elizabeth slept deeply, and they were quiet and relaxed and they didn't notice of her presence, that was in the shadows as a tremendous threat to their ordinary lives. The look infinitely ancient and mysterious of Lilith settled on the man lying on his stomach, his face buried in the pillow; she floated beside him and bent, staring at him, so close she can feel his warm and regular breath on those that once immeasurably distant perhaps were living lips.
She raised a bejeweled hand and a imperceptible caress, light as a zephyr, touched his tanned cheek. He seemed to sense that incorporeal contact and shaked himself in his sleep, without waking up, mumbled something unintelligible and turned at the other side.
The presence straightened up, bent her head to the side with a very feminine gesture and without retracting her hand whispered one word: "Baali" (1).
As if she had heard those death syllables for thousands of years, Elizabeth though still asleep, stretched her arm to encircle her husband's body and hugged him.
The spectral beautiful face twisted in a grimace of anger immitigable: Agrat bat Mahlat (2), the one that King Solomon invoked to dance for him, he would not tolerate that affront!
The next morning Peter Burke woke up feeling as if he had not spent the night in a comfortable bed, but in a centrifuge operated at full speed, although the clock would confirm that he had slept for almost all the eight canonical hours, in fact, not only he wasn't relaxed but he also had all the bones ached and he felt his head heavy as a boulder.
Regretfully got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast: as soon as the sleepy eyes fell on the green statue that shone all its splendor for the rays of the first morning sun, he felt a shiver again. He turned simulating indifference and took a sip of coffee in the hope that at least could infuse a burst of energy: nothing to do, for some unfathomable reason, he seemed to feel the gaze of the figure of stone that perforated his back like a knife and that feeling, rather than cause him an adrenaline rush, it seemed to drain all his remaining forces.
He stood up suddenly shooting: It's enough! He was a rational man, with his feet firmly on the ground and had already given too much to the imagination, given that only it could be.
He grabbed the image of Lilith and, without being able to look at it again, put it in a drawer of the cupboard, it was just a toy lifeless - clear - and yet he could not avoid locking, also giving two turns too.
While he's not understanding exactly why he felt so relieved and he smiled for the first time that day and went into the kitchen to call Elizabeth.
"Please, you must help me! I, I think I'm going crazy ... ".
Elizabeth Burke sat down heavily on the couch of Neal's house and put her hands to her face in a gesture of despair. Decisively rejected the glass of water that Mozzie had offered, let him to understand that she needed something more substantial to hope returning quiet.
Indeed, the iced merlot had the effect of bring her back a bit of color on the livid cheeks, but she could not completely placate the unrest that makes her go to June's house in the middle of the afternoon hoping with all her heart to find Neal and Moz.
"So, darling" began the second, sitting next to her, "tell us what's happened?".
She sighed wearily, then took a deep breath and, as she called all the forces remained, began to tell: "This morning I left the house as usual to go to work, but ..." immediately stopped, as if she looked for the right words to describe something that is too far-fetched because the two could lend credit "... first, as I opened the car, a flower vase slipped from a balcony and almost didn't break my head, then in the office my computer decided it was time to fry itself and all my data as a portion of chips and only luckily the electrical discharge didn't turn also me into a pile of ashes. "
"And as if was not enough, when I came here a manhole was added to the conspiracy of inanimate objects against me and opened suddenly, so I risked breaking my neck falling inside it."
The delicate features of Neal twitched into a grimace and his blue eyes narrowed, as he concentrated on the strange events that had made the day of Elizabeth a nightmare; looked Moz, who returned his gaze full of concern and astonishment.
"You called Peter? I know he's been in office even after he left me free, "asked the cheater after a moment of silence.
"N-no," she said, making an abrupt gesture with her hand, "Or rather, yes, once, but he was in a meeting with Hughes and I could not talk to him, moreover, I already know that he does not believe me and would think I'm crazy and that I'm influenced. "
"Why do you say that?" Then asked the little man.
Elizabeth swallowed, lowered the light haunted eyes and said, "Because I'm sure it was not an accident, not any unfortunate events."
"Eh?" Did the two in unison.
"I feel," he continued, "that this morning an evil presence follow me everywhere, and spying on me: I do not know if I can explain it, it's strange... I know it's crazy and unbelievable, but I'm sure I saw out of the corner of one's eye a figure made of shadow stops behind me whenever happened something dangerous. "
"I turn, I look for her gaze, but she disappears immediately and obviously no one else has ever seen her except me."
"Oh my God!" Sobbed the girl, who now trembled like a leaf, "Do you think I'm crazy, right?".
Elizabeth had finally fallen asleep on the couch of Neal, exhausted by too many emotions of the day, the cheater and his friend looked her relaxed, keeping a vigil over her restless sleep and questioning on the incredible events that had threatened her life.
Suddenly they felt clearly a sudden drop of temperature and in the dim light of the room they saw what appeared to be a thin undulating track, like a wisp of smoke, but vibrant and pulsating like a living thing; became more visible and concrete and immediately the two men realized that someone, or rather something, had just entered in the room.
Something certainly not human, made her run a shiver in the back and covered his face with cold sweat: a female presence, first indistinct and then more defined, of perfect beauty and exquisite proportions. A simple form of fog, not colored but perfectly recognizable.
Passed them as if she didn't see them and floated over to the couch where Elizabeth laid and lifted just the hand made of shadow and heavy picture that hung on the wall was removed from the nail. Only the impulse of Neal that caught it prevented the canvas and its thick wooden frame fell exactly on the head of the sleeping girl.
The creature turned to the two men and made no move, just, vanished suddenly as it had appeared.
Neal and Mozzie looked themselves terrified and incredulous: If they had previously doubted what Elizabeth had seen and the explanation she had given for the strange incidents of the morning, now they could come to a different conclusion.
What had just happened to required them to believe the unbelievable: in 2012, in New York, in a quiet autumn evening, they had just seen a ghost.
"Well," esclaimed Moz closing behind the door and putting on the table a hardcover book in what looked like snake skin.
He sat up and wiped the sweat from his face with a handkerchief.
"I spoke with my friend occultist, Michael Leight, do you remember?" Asked to Neal.
"Oh, i did not know he was out of the Northern Westchester (3) ..." said the other, who seemed to have taken full control of himself.
"Do not joke Neal!" said the little man "When I told him what we have seen, Michael almost fainted! He thinks that some malevolent intelligence is plotting against Elizabeth, but obviously could not tell me who it could be, or how to stop it. "
"And the book," asked the cheater indicating the extravagant volume lying on his kitchen table.
"I got it from Michael, this is a manual of exorcism that could, according to him, helping to drive away that creature if we meet it again."
"I do not know, Moz," sighed the other, leaning back in his chair, "Are we really sure that we had no hallucination? We could be wrong. "
The friend shook his head vigorously and said, "No, I do not think: what we saw was real, and my conclusion is supported by the incidents that nearly costed the life of Elizabeth."
He got up, walked over to the other and began to turn the pages of the book.
"Now let's get to work and try to know who was the mysterious appearance and because he wants to hurt her."
"Guys, thanks hospitality, but now I feel much better," said Elizabeth; the repose seemed to have done well, because she looked more quiet and in a good mood even.
She grabbed her bag and went to the door, saying, "I'm going home, otherwise Peter will report me as missing."
"Wait El" Neal stopped her "let me take you, we do not want another flowerpot risks to attempt your life," he added in a tone that must be humorous and instead sounded slightly out of tune.
"If you care ..." she said with a grimace, "But I think I was wrong, maybe it was just a result of fatigue or stress, you know, it's hard to believe that there is around a sort of evil creature who wants to give me the party. "
"Yeah, sure," Neal muttered, "But wait, however, I take the jacket and go with you, just to be cautious."
He had just left the room when a scream coming from the entrance hall made them freeze the blood in the veins and broke Mozzie, who was still studying the strange volume that had lent him Leight.
The two exchanged a look terrified and rushed in the room where there was Elizabeth: they saw her fighting hand to hand with a slim, curvy, woman who tried to hit her with a silver paper knife taken from the desk of Neal. They saw her try to resist with all her strength trying to remove the hand - with fingers incredibly strong despite they were so tapering – threatened her throat.
They saw for the first time clearly the features of the creature, now solid as a person of flesh and blood: in her stern face hovered a terrible smile, scarlet like a fresh wound. There was no doubt it was the same entity that had attack already to Elizabeth's life, only that she was not evanescent, but dramatically strong and determined. For a moment - a long and fatal moment - the two men were paralyzed by horror, until the imploring eyes of the young girls who was succumbing to the deadly enemy didn't get them back to reality: so Neal lunged to the mysterious woman and took her arm, trying to move her away from her victim. With horror the boy realized he had touched something cold and slimy as a snake, something that only contact make him run a shiver of pain along the arm and up to the shoulder.
"Lilitu! Agrat Mahlat bat, " screamed at that point Moz, reading those strange words from the book in his hand.
As soon as the arcane syllables filled the air, the smile vanished from the face of creature; lost the grip and stepped back, as if she was frightened.
"Lilitu" repeated then Moz with more energy, while Elizabeth clung to Neal trying to resume normal breathing.
The beautiful image of a woman, the features alter and beautiful, long silky hair, everything seemed now every second getting more diaphanous, transparent and nuanced, the three heard as a shout of anger, low and hoarse almost came from a forgotten abyss and immediately after the ringing of the cutter that no longer kept by the fatal hand of Lilith, fell on the floor.
***
"Honey, I'm back!" The cheerful voice of Peter Burke passed through the silent house, while the man exceeded the threshold and closed the door behind him, took off his jacket and put his gun on the table and looked around.
He felt better than in the morning, evidently leaving home and concentrate on his work had helped, distracting him from thinking yet on singular events of the previous evening.
So, with a smile walked in the apartment unusually quiet at that time of night, and, after calling his wife again, he realized that it was not yet home.
Strange.
Still stranger, he felt that the statue of Lilith was proudly displayed on the shelf above the fireplace, even though he had bothered to lock it in a drawer that morning, evidently - considered by some disappointment - his wife had put it to the place of honor that had been assigned during the party ...
He shrugged his shoulders and fumbled with the badge to release it from the waistband of his pants where it was hooked.
"Baali".
A voice low and sweet as the purr of a cat that make him jump: it was a voice in love, caressing, a gentle murmur at the same time had the flesh of a woman and the cadence of the heavenly of a murmur of the summer breeze, the rustling of leaves, the flow water of a quiet mountain stream.
"Baali," repeated the voice and the Federal realized with horror that came from a phosphorescent fog, which throbbed and pulsed with rhythmic beat in the middle of his living room.
"Lord and Master, I have come to you to please you."
The man opened his eyes and blinked several times without being able to understand of what was happening a few feet from him, he felt the head empty and he felt a grip of steel that was twisting bowels cutting of the breath.
"W-what?" He mumbled, surprised of how that word was still able to come out of his chest heaving, "Who is it?".
From the bright and sensitive fog there was a laugh, mocking, bitter and sweet like poison, and the policeman realized only at that moment that a heavy smell had suddenly saturated the room: it was the smell of flowers, rose and jasmine, but tinged with a slight sulfureous smell filled his nostrils and sprung, so intense that obscure almost his senses.
When the laughter stopped, Peter - unable to move a muscle and even to shout - saw that the form of fog became every moment more real and solid, until the fake Persian carpet rose up in its place a woman of extraordinary Beauty: Lilith, Queen of the Lilin, as beautiful as ever no mortal woman could be smiling at him, apparently of flesh and blood.
Lilith, beautiful with a beauty from long forgotten to exist in only a distant memory.
Lilith, Lili Ardat, the immortal queen of the moon, risen from the dust of the dead brains of countless lovers, turned into sand from the bodies of those who had adored on the plain of Babylon.
He smiled a slow, reddish charm.
Her eyes cut elongated, shaded by thick and curved lashes, stared at the Federal with an intensity that takes away the breath he still remained in the body. He shook the night of the long hair, as blacks as the raven's wing and twisted in an elaborate hairstyle, from it exhaled more penetrating smell that Peter had heard a few moments ago before filling the room.
"You know who I am, Baali, you evoked me," said the creeping voice like a snake and equally tempting.
"There must be a misunderstanding," said the man at that point, and at the same time he realized just how ridiculous were those words, given the situation, but, in all honesty, it was a miracle not falling into a faint.
"I have evoked none ...".
He looked away, trying to avoid staring at the beautiful nakedness in front of him in all its dazzling splendor.
In response, the creature took a few steps toward him canceling the distance that still separated them and, without taking her eyes off from the policeman said, "You called me from the darkness, from the time without old age that represents my eternal existence. You, your eyes and your hand went through the dust of millennia to come to me. "
"You have succeeded in your aim, Baali, but now there's a price to pay, and believe me, I assure you that it is not too high a price for what you'll receive in return ..." she added mischievously.
"Look, lady," said Peter Burke increasingly upset, stepping back involuntarily "I have not called anyone and I do not pay anything."
Lilith was now very close and rested a hand on his chest, his touch was hot and from the small portion of the skin radiating in the body of the policeman, as fiery sparks of excitement and shivers which crossed him every inch.
Now aware that he was losing control, glanced desperately to the gun that was on the table a few feet from him, he did not know if the lead could or not make something versus the creature in front of him, but it was better to try.
The demon realized his plan, or perhaps read his thought upset, smiled cruelly and instantly instead of the weapon Service Peter saw a pile of sand white and shining, that a sudden wind dispersed.
Suddenly, the Federal had an idea.
"If I called you, I can also send you back where you came from!" He exclaimed, "Go away, I command you."
But his relief lasted only a fraction of a second, because Lilith laughed again: that laughter still low, musical and at the same time terribly seductive.
"You can't send me back, Baali," she said defiantly.
"You can't send me back, the Queen of Zemargad. Now I'm here and I'll take what I've come for. "
Then she added, softer: "You love me more than all earthly women, Baali, it cannot be otherwise, look at me, maybe I'm not cute?".
"I-I'm married and I love my wife ..." he tried again a vigorous defense.
At these words blacks eyes of Lilith sparkled for a moment, lighting of flashes of purple, and from her voluptuous mouth came a murmur that the man did not understand, but which sounded very threatening.
Using both hands, pushed him on the couch and sat astride: Now Peter could not help it to look at her, her dark eyes seemed firebrands of hell, but her lips painted promised paradise.
He felt her bare breasts squashing against his chest, in his nostrils the smell that made him lose his mind, his warmth, the warmth of her skin as perfect as any mortal woman can never have.
Was on the edge of the abyss, but still tried to resist.
"I can do anything you want, Master, all you command me," she whispered, close to his mouth, so that their breath mingled now.
"Everything."
"So that thing was Lilith?" screamed Elizabeth.
"Yeah, I think so," said Moz "I could not be sure, but from the description I read in the book of Michael - a beautiful woman with long hair - I thought it might be her, and when I called her by name and she disappeared, I realized that I was right. "
The girl turned to Neal glared and spoke up: "Neal, tell me it has nothing to do with the statue you gave me. PLEASE Tell me that is just a coincidence ... ".
"Calm down, El," said the cheater, trying to maintain some composure when in reality, if he was scared shitless.
"We must try to understand why this creature has it in for you: What can she ever want?".
Elizabeth thought for a while and then suddenly turned paled and shouted.
"I know! Do not you see? "Shouted angrily at the two, still staring at her shocked "Mozzie, remember what you said me the night of the party? How Lilith wanders at night to haunt the men? ".
Moz and Neal, banned, exchanged still a look and not replied.
"So, it's clear," she insisted, on the edge to go into hysterics "He does not want me, she wants Peter! He tried to kill me because she is jealous and wanted to kill me but now, since she is not successful, she will go to him ... ".
He took the phone with a trembling hand and dialed the number of her husband, praying with all her forces that would hurry to answer; rang a couple of times and then she seemed to hear the response signal, but immediately after the unit was became silent and remained silent despite all attempts to call Neal in the following minutes.
"You cannot resist me, Baali," murmured again Lilith against his lips, now dry, of the federal "No man can."
"Those who loved me are now ashes, bones, dust, but their desires come alive in you, they are powerful, I can hear them ... you do not want to resist." insinuating whispered while her hands through him, she explored him making trembling the very fiber of his soul wavering.
The trill of the phone that the policeman had still hooked to your belt made come back Peter Burke, now groping through the mists of lost civilizations for many eras, in New York in 2012.
Lilith muttered a curse incomprehensible for the inappropriate interruption and stared at the man who tried, with trembling hands, to reach the device and respond.
Now, I have good reason to believe that Agrat bath Mahlat had never seen a cell phone, neither had the idea of the use of that annoying object trilling; point is that the demon of lust couldn't stand to be stopped - much less by an annoying and little metal noise - and then with a glance turned the innocent cell phone in a squirming snake, so that Peter instinctively flung on the floor where the cell regained its original form, ended his short and unhappy existence with a thud.
Then looked back at the Federal with the look of a lion is going to jump at the throat of a gazelle and passing her tongue in her red lips "You want me, Baali, how could it be otherwise?" She sighed, sensual and sweet as honey.
"Why are you doing this?" Murmured the policeman, that was losing control.
"Because I need it," said the Queen of Zemargad, staring at him with the eyes of a black velvet "Because I need you, and you want this."
"Let yourself go, my Lord, you will see, it will be wonderful."
"My husband is there with the whore of Babylon and you tell me to be quiet?" Thundered Elizabeth clinging with all his forces at the door; she had repeatedly tried to open, but for some inexplicable reason, the lock was blocked from inside and she was not successful.
"Peteeer," she called, panic stricken but also full of furious jealousy.
Mozzie and Neal stared themselves didn't know what to do, but Elizabeth turned to the cheater with look murderous: "Neal, if I find out it's your fault, I swear I'll kill him first, then her and finally you."
"Um ... technically, Elizabeth," he replied, in evident embarrassment, "Lilith is a demon, so you cannot kill."
"Do you want to bet?" She said, with a look that made him shiver: wide eyes, cheeks flushed, her lips trembling. Neal could not remember having ever seen much beside herself.
The boy swallowed and looked at the door, relentlessly closed.
"Come on, do something!" She insisted, her eyes misted over with tears and stamping her feet on the ground "At this time that thing could ... they may already have ... Peteeeer."
Neal rushed with all his strength against the door, only to end up getting on his knees and with a painful shoulder.
Elizabeth then snorted, threw herself against the door and knock down it, making the splinters of wood frame spurt inside the apartment, without waiting the two she rushed into the house in a fury, while Moz and Neal exchanged a glance between the shocked, the admired and terrified.
"Remind me I never make El get angry " Neal whispered to his friend.
The other nodded and both, bypassing what was left of the door, followed the girl into the house.
"Hey you! Put down your filthy feet from my husband! "Elizabeth growled as soon as she stepped into the darkened room.
In response Lilith rose up from the couch with a lithe gesture, ran a finger over her lips scarlet and then turned to the enemy, staring her defiantly: jealous, insanely jealous of a mortal despite its demon nature or perhaps precisely because of it.
"I was wrong too many times," she said with a cruel smile, never taking her phosphorescent eyes off from Elizabeth "but my power is increasing and I won't commit other errors."
She took a step toward her, dazzling and terrible as an army set in battle array.
"Damned prehistoric bitch" then said the girl, trying to look beyond Lilith to the couch, where she seemed to see the body lying of Peter, "What have you done to my husband?".
A low laugh reply.
"Nothing that he also wanted" clarified the demon, staring from behind her long and curved lashes with a cold look of deadly hatred "Anyway, I had not yet finished ...". "But bad ..." Elizabeth chewed gall and would gladly jumped at her neck, regardless of the fact that it was a demonic creature that could kill her with a single hand gesture, if Neal and Moz had not intervened standing between the two women.
"Lilith" Neal began holding open in front of him the book of necromancy "Lilith! Return to the darkness of Night Forgotten! Your time has passed, those who worshiped you have become dust millennia ago, you have nothing to do here. "
"So get out, Ardat Lili! Go away and let the living in peace. "
"Do not torment the living, Queen of Zemargad!" He repeated, with firm voice.
Again the diabolical laugh, sweet and deadly as a poison.
Lilith turned to the two men stared at her perplexed: the solemn command, exorcism indicated in the book of Michael Leight this time had failed.
"I have nothing to do here?" Repeated the words of the spell, like singing it, and approached the two looking them every inch with studied intensity.
She bent her head to one side and again caressed her magnificent black hair that shone like her own light, with a gesture terribly seductive; Neal returned his gaze, as paralyzed by that radiant feminine beauty and unable to oppose it even she was malignant.
"What a mistake ..." Lilith said again, her voice low and insinuating, now very close to the two men "On the contrary, I think that here I can find some nice way to occupy eternity."
Neal instinctively took a step toward her, but that just did not expect was that Lilith come nearby as if she had not even seen, and with eyes sparkling with desire, approached still closer to Moz that, for its part , stood motionless and as chained by the otherworldly charm.
"But ..." Neal murmured, stunned.
"Uhm!" Elizabeth snapped, "Look, I understand the interest in men younger than you, but you do not realize you are ridiculous? You may be his great, great, great, great, great, great, great-grandmother. "
Obviously there are topics on which women - mortal and immortal - are equally susceptible, since those words Lilith turned like a snake to Elizabeth and with a shout lashed out at her.
Neal tried to intercept the demonic beauty, but she avoided his grip and slid like a panther to grab Elizabeth, a fraction of a second after clutching her throat with both hands, lifting her a few inches from the floor.
She struggled and tried to remove those claws that were choking, but Lilith was incredibly strong.
Neal then remembered the gun in reserve that Peter kept in a drawer of the sideboard and with a jump grabbed the gun and pointed it at the creature diabolical, not impressed, continued to dig her fingers into the thin neck of Elizabeth, now cyanotic.
"No," shouted Moz "The bullet would go through, you would risk to hit Elizabeth."
Neal threw the gun away angrily and looked around, confused and upset.
It was the end, so?
"I command you, Lilith, Lady of Lilin" Moz tried again, "I know your name and I command you to go away."
The demon looked at him with scorn and tightened, her painted lips were now transfigured into an evil grin of triumph, while the young, close to losing consciousness, had stopped to struggle.
At that moment Neal remembered the words of Elizabeth, he looked around and recognized his last hope: a jump across the room, grabbed the statue of Lilith, lifted it and then hit the marble fireplace shelf. He used all his strength and the statue was beheaded on the first try.
The head rolled on the floor and splinters of green stone flew around while Moz shouted: "It works! It works! Do not stop. "
In fact Lilith, as soon as her image began to break, she immediately let go, so that Elizabeth fell to the floor in a faint, evidently - considered the cheater - the statue was the center of her occult power, the focal point which concentrated her energy and allow her to materialize.
Another crash and the statue was broken in half, and one last shot in the hands of Neal remained a big fragment that had been the basis, the cheater threw it on the floor as if he had become suddenly hot.
The Queen of the full moon, the eternal Lady of Lilin was now disappearing: her features distorted by anger became more rarefied from moment to moment and in a few seconds remained of her a phosphorescent mist which soon dispersed in the semidarkness, carried off by a supernatural wind that after died down.
Nothing in that room, if not the fragments of what had been a wonderful image of chrysoprase scattered on the ground, would have left to imagine the horror of those bourgeois walls had witnessed just before.
Neal and Mozzie ran beside Elizabeth, on her knees with her hands around her throat bruised, breathing heavily trying to regain control of herself.
"Peter ... where's Peter?" He muttered weakly as soon as she could speak.
"Are you sure you do not want to accompany you to the hospital?" Said Neal on the doorstep of Burke's home.
"No, thank you, you've done enough," Elizabeth said coldly.
"And then," he continued dryly, turning to Peter, still a bit 'pale, he was behind her "my husband and I have to discuss some things."
The Federal glanced over the shoulder of his wife at the two as if asking for help, but with an expression on his face now resigned.
The door, already repaired as best they could, wobbled when she closed it with violence without another word.
Neal and Mozzie came down the stairs and before returning home they stopped still for a moment on the sidewalk, what had happened was unbelievable - frightening and incredible - and they had not fully recovered from the shock.
"Damn it, Neal" sighed the little guy staring at the lighted windows of the apartment and straining his ears to catch any noises that came from it, "Sure Mister FBI had a bad time with that creature ... ".
The other shrugged his shoulders and said, "I sincerely believe that the encounter with Lilith is nothing compared to what awaits him now."
The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.
"Yeah," confirmed then Moz.
They walked slowly homeward along the deserted sidewalks, icy air was blowing from the sea, it must have just fallen a drench of rain because the track was wet and a mist drifted around the streetlights giving an ghastly impression.
Mozzie shivered and shook in his jacket.
"Chardonnay?" He said, continuing to walk.
"Chardonnay ..." Neal nodded wearily.
THE END
(1) It is a Semitic word meaning "master," but also means "husband".
(2) Agrat Mahlat bath, Queen of Zemargad, Ardat Lili, etc ... are titles attributed in various esoteric traditions and religious to the figure of Lilith.
(3) The Northern Westchester Hospital is, among other things, a psychiatric clinic in New York.
Note: The title is a quote from the famous phrase that Hamlet tells Horatio ("There are more things in heaven and earth than your philosophy can dream about") in Shakespeare's tragedy, but above all it is a reference to the title of the beautiful homonymous story of Jorge Luis Borges, with whom he, in turn, wanted to mention (even parodying) HP Lovecraft and his horror-fiction books. The name of the occultist Michael Leight is a tribute to the famous character in the story "The horror of Salem" by Henry Kuttner (The Salem Horror, in Weird Tales, May 1937).