X.
Staring into the eyes of someone who was more than 4,000 years old was rather extraordinary. In looking at him, I could only say that he was so far removed from being human, and even from being a regular vampire, that it simply took your breath away, whether you breathed or not. He was… beyond everything and everyone I knew or had seen who was vampire. I did not think even for a minute that he had ever been human. And he was much more ancient than four thousand years old, I somehow knew. He wasn't Sumerian, whatever Ocella had been told or believed. He was something… else.
He looked ever so slightly disconcerted.
"You know my name?"
"I know your tattoo. It was described to me by a Roman Legionnaire vampire. He met you around 150 B.C."
"Ah, that one. And you have met him?"
"Met him and killed him. I have seen it," spat the Pythoness. "If she's culling the tribe, she's certainly doing a good job on selecting which to take. Thus far."
I had been too focused on Naram-Shari to pay much attention to the Pythoness. At the moment she seemed like the least of my problems since she was like a match lit next to a blowtorch when compared to the man in front of me. But as the fact that she knew I'd killed Ocella sank in, I was more than a little unsettled. It didn't seem to bother either of them in the least that I had killed Ocella, however, which was so puzzling. I didn't know what to make of either of them but especially not him. He was clearly sort of like a vampire and yet, so very ancient and powerful. The energy I felt from him wasn't vampire-like. It was something else. I couldn't quite read his thoughts, because I was sort of afraid to try to. I was afraid the Pythoness would sense it, or maybe he would himself. From the little I could feel, his thought patterns were unlike anything that I'd ever encountered and bore only a slight similarity to that of a vampire's. His whole energy was raw, like a force of nature or something. Then, suddenly, it hit me.
"You're a shedu. One of the original shedu," I whispered.
It wasn't even a question.
He stared, expressionless, at me.
"I am shedu. But what do you know of this? How do you know of this?"
"I have read about the shedu. They were the guardians of the gods."
He looked at me with eyes that were like burning flames. They were so frightening that a chill ran up my spine. Eyes that said I was the merest speck of dust compared to him. I found myself fingering my talisman for comfort. I was simultaneously intrigued and very, very afraid.
"We are the guardians of the gods."
At this, he grabbed my shirt, pulling it up and tugged the waistband on my slacks down from my left hip and examined my tattoo. He'd even known where I put it? Was he in fact reading my thoughts? He studied it and made a "hmm" sound as if surprised.
"This is different from mine," he said, almost to himself.
"Mine is from the later forms of the glyphs. Yours is… the original form of them. It was my model for this one. I changed it a bit, though."
He looked at me and slowly a smile crossed his lips.
"So you did. Very clever. You have done this with the others in your line?" he asked. "She will not hear us," he said, when he felt my sense of alarm, after waving his hand through the air. The Pythoness appeared to be in a sort of suspended animation as did the guardians in the room with her.
"Yes," I said quietly. "Just my family." How did he know?
He ran his finger over the tattoo and I felt the magic in it sizzle. I flinched at his touch, which was warmer than a vampire's. He really frightened me. But not enough so that I wouldn't ask him what was now foremost in my mind.
"If you are a shedu, then perhaps you know the truth about the sunlight."
"The sunlight?" He looked puzzled as he leaned back to look me in the eyes.
"Was it also a curse? A curse like the silver was?"
He looked almost sadly at me, as if understanding something more than what I asked.
"It is magic. But it is not a curse, little one. We are meant to be of the night. We serve Ereshkigal. She is the night. There maybe magic to offset it, but we were meant to be this way. The night, the moon and stars. These are ours. They are hers and she gave them to me, to give to you. I am your original creator. I made the first vampires."
I suddenly felt crestfallen.
"So it was not a punishment?" I whispered.
"Punishment? It is our gift. The night, the moon and the stars… We were not born cursed. Our actions as Lilitu made us a cursed race. But this undoes that curse. Does it not?" he said, as he stroked across his own tattoo. "It has, even on you. What matter if we see only the moon and stars? They are beautiful. They remind us of our origins. They came here, as did the Fae, as did so many others. Our origin is elsewhere."
I looked down and said softly,
"So there is no remedy for it then… no easy fix, the way there is for the silver?"
"Easy? This," he said pointing to my hip, "was not an easy thing. Few have done this on their own. As for the sunlight? We are borne of magic. There is always other magic. You need only to look for it. But what does the sunshine matter? How is it different from the moonlight? Most own both and most waste some of them both. We waste nothing of our night. And for you… for us… the question is whether it would upset the balance here to change things further. If we take the daylight back, what would we do with it? We have done much that is wrong with the night." He paused as he turned toward the door, then back to me. He looked me in the eyes and said, "You are dangerous? You are so fragile, so young and yet you are considered dangerous?" he said in an amused tone as he turned sharply toward the door to the suite. He planted himself somewhat in front of me and glanced over at the Pythoness, releasing her. "These modern ones are still too often little better than fools," he remarked bitterly.
Abruptly, the door he faced opened and Nan Flanagan entered, followed by Eric, who shoved one of the guards at the door out of his way. Andor hovered in the doorway behind him, holding onto one of the guards. The Pythoness signaled that it was fine and Andor released him.
Naram-Shari stared at them, and he seemed to hold me fast somehow. I felt like I couldn't move and I probably couldn't even speak. I felt a shiver run up my spine. I'd never felt, even with contact with Niall, or with Bert and Branwen, anything that felt like him. He unsettled me very deeply. Because I was certain he was in my head or something.
"There's something wrong with her, something rogue about her," said Nan Flanagan to the Pythoness as she'd burst into the room. "I don't care what Northman says. He's obviously not unbiased. She's a danger to us!"
It was almost like she didn't even see Naram-Shari at first. Eric did, however, and right away. He had started to reply to Nan's comment but stopped in his tracks when he saw him. I had a sense that he felt Naram-Shari controlling me. He looked cautiously at Naram–Shari, then his eyes rested on me as if clearly sensing something was different and very wrong. I felt almost as if he reached out to me mentally and ran into a glass door or an invisible barrier. He looked quite unsettled by it.
"She's dangerous and a risk to all of us," continued Nan. "If Northman and his child can't control her then we're going to have to get rid of her. I can't have someone in her position, practically the Queen of a state, running rogue and killing 2,000 year old vampires as if it's nothing. Who knows what else she can do if she can do that? And Northman won't even let me near her to find out. If I can't question her, I'm getting rid of her."
As I opened my mouth slightly, as if to speak, Naram-Shari seemed to grab onto me mentally and the next thing I knew he was behind me, with a knife at my throat. I saw Eric's eyes go wide and Andor, in the doorway behind him, was also wide-eyed.
"So this little one is a threat to you, and to all of us?" he said with the knife at my throat.
Nan turned and really saw him, sensing the power from him, and froze. Her eyes went wide with fear and she actually blanched.
"I think not," he said in a dark tone.
Before I could even react, he flipped the sharp edge of the knife away from my throat and sliced open his wrist then pressed it against my mouth. Eric lunged at him but Naram-Shari swiped his free hand, the one with the knife, through the air and Eric was repelled, as if tossed aside by an invisible force. I cried out but Naram-Shari only took the opportunity to force his wrist into my mouth. I almost automatically locked my fangs onto it, as I tasted blood unlike anything I'd ever tasted. After several more moments, I felt my jaw release and in one clean move, he swept it from my mouth to the back of my head. Then, pushing my head to my shoulder, he spoke words in a language unknown to me, ending in the phrase,
"In the name of Ereshkigal, I bind you," and sank his teeth deep into my neck. I cried out and instantly felt as if I had been caught in some invisible net, an even stronger hold on me than I'd felt before. I was unable to move, to escape as he drew deeply of my blood and bound me to him.
I watched helplessly, as Eric threw back his head and roared in anger.
Tears streamed down my face by the time he released his bite hold on my neck. Not from the pain of the bite, but what I felt he had done with it. I'd felt a surge of energy flow through me having had his blood. But this? It was like being plugged into a high voltage electrical socket. My teeth literally chattered for a moment. I felt energy funnel through me and it left my head throbbing and my ears ringing.
Meanwhile, as I looked over at him, I could see that Eric was filled with fury but I felt him almost as if he was muted. It was like someone had turned the volume way, way down. All I felt and all I heard in my mind was Naram-Shari. Eric started to speak but Naram-Shari, pushed him backwards with another swipe of his hand through the air. Andor pulled him to standing.
With his forearm wrapped around my neck and grasping my shoulder in his hand, Naram-Shari turned us to face Nan and said in a voice seething with menace,
"She is bound to me. Harm her, and I will destroy you. Slowly and with much suffering."
Nan now looked riveted, and… very afraid. I couldn't see his face, since he was behind me, but clearly, he wasn't looking like he had before since she was even more frightened than she had been when she first saw him.
"What are you?"
"I am shedu. I am your creator and your destroyer. Cross me and I will be your interminably painful final death. You will beg me to end your suffering, if you disobey," he hissed. He turned to the Pythoness and said, "She is mine and under our protection."
"Our?" queried the Pythoness, tilting her head at a slight angle.
"Our."
Stepping from the shadows was a petite woman with dark, finely braided hair, kohl rimmed brown eyes and a soft and carefully draped white dress.
"She belongs to Nanshe," she said, to farther clarify.
What the hell? There was just way too much claiming of me going around for my liking. There was only one person in the room who I belonged to and he was the one getting slapped around, much to my worry. Meanwhile, I hadn't felt so incapable of moving since I'd been caught by Neave and Lochlan fifteen years before. And this was even worse, actually, because he was in my head. Part of me was terrified and part of me just wanted to fight. Gritting my teeth against the discomfort of the vise-like grip on my mind, I still managed to choke out,
"I belong to Eric." My head throbbed as I spoke.
Naram-Shari released his physical hold on me just slightly and putting his knife back at his waist, turned my face to his, and looked down at me with great amusement. He smiled, fangs still down, traces of my blood still on his lips. He glanced over at the woman and said, chuckling,
"She tries to resist me! She is as Nanshe has said. And," he licked his lips, "so delicious, even cold. You are lucky he was so old or he would have likely drained you long ago, before you were made, little one," he murmured close to my ear, nodding toward Eric.
Eric snarled and Andor grabbed onto him.
"Be silent," barked the woman, at Eric.
"She is mine," Eric bellowed angrily. "By law and by blood!"
Andor murmured something to Eric in a low voice in Norse, I couldn't make out what it was. Urging him to be careful, no doubt. He'd held Eric by his arm from behind but now stepped to his side.
"No, Viking, now she is claimed by Nanshe," insisted the woman.
Gritting my teeth, I struggled to get out the words,
"Who the hell is Nanshe? What does Nanshe want with me?"
The woman hissed and bared her fangs at me and Andor gave me a warning look that seemed to say that I was not helping our situation.
"The goddess Nanshe is known by many names. She is a goddess of the sea, justice, prophecy, fertility. She claims you, mother of her blood."
She didn't exactly look as if she thought I was worthy of the claim, from the expression on her face. My brain scrambled, trying to process the information. Mother of her blood? What the hell did that mean?
"Who are you and where are you from," I asked the woman, continuing to struggle to speak. My head just hurt so much. "What right do you have to go claiming me for anyone apart from my husband?"
I felt this further stirring of pleasure from Naram-Shari. His arm still around my neck and shoulders, he dropped his head forward in laughter. I felt genuine amusement from him. He seemed to release something in my mind, easing it up just a bit and the pain in my head lessened.
"I am Ninshabur of Ur, the Lady of Evening. I serve Nanshe, daughter of Enki, and her sisters, Inanna and Ereshkigal. I claim you for Nanshe because you are hers and because Naram has bound you to protect you."
Because I am hers? Like it had already been a done deal or something? Then, suddenly, something in my mind clicked. I had read a little about Ur in Mattias's library. Enki, one of the primordial beings or original seven 'gods', was the Sumerian god of the sea. Nanshe was the sea god's daughter… 'The goddess Nanshe is known by many names...' Long ago, I'd heard Bertram Gower saying to Salome, 'I am descended from the likes of which walked this earth long before your kind was even known…' The Sumerian legends said these primordial gods, who'd come from who knows where, had created the shedu as their guardians here on earth, from the four elements. Vampires were the descendants of the night shedu. Perhaps Llŷr was just the Welsh representation of this primordial god of the sea, which meant his daughter would be…
"Branwen?" I asked, breathlessly, feeling the talisman resting heavily on my chest.
"Her other names are of no importance and reflect only where she currently chooses to inhabit verdant lands. Nanshe claims this one as hers and has for some time. To harm her, or even to harm any of her interests," and here she glanced over briefly at Eric and Andor, "is punishable. This is my decree and you will long remember it," she said, finally resting her eyes specifically on Nan Flanagan. As she spoke to Nan she bared razor-like teeth, and her eyes illuminated in blue flames that filled the entire orb of her eyes, obscuring even the whites of her eyes. They were just… flames.
Though her threat sounded kind of vague, her eyes, those teeth and something in the way it was issued made it seem truly fearsome. Maybe even worse than the feeling I'd gotten from Naram-Shari. I didn't think she'd even have trouble eating dead people, frankly… Her energy was very different from that of the man behind me.
Ninshabur turned to Eric and Andor and said, in an only slightly less warning tone,
"You will not interfere with us. She will not be harmed."
"We are finished here," Naram-Shari said. Then, shifting his arm to my waist, he drew me toward the other door in the suite, with Ninshabur following close after. But I didn't want to go anywhere with them! I tried to struggle against him but his grip on my mind, let alone my body, was just too strong. As I struggled, briefly crying out crossing the threshold into the other room, I just managed to glance back at Eric and felt a jolt of panic as I took in the look on his face.
It was the first time I'd ever seen Eric truly afraid.
He was afraid for me.
He lunged at the door as it closed and Naram-Shari turned back toward it with a very dark look, his eyes bursting fully into flames just as hers had. I heard Andor struggling, arguing with Eric on the other side.
I grabbed onto his arm and looked Naram-Shari in his fierce eyes.
"No! I'll do whatever you want, go wherever you want. Just don't hurt him. Please. Leave them alone, both of them. Please… Don't hurt them."
Ninshabur snapped her fingers to garner his attention and the air swirled around us, smelling of smoke and salty sea air. He wrapped his arms around me and, just as Eric kicked open the door, we disappeared in a swirl of sea-swept wind and fire.