"How old are you?" Chloe asked, distracting her.
Amber leant her head back soaking in the last of the sunlight. "I'm not sure. As soon as I was created I was frozen in amber. That's why people call me Amber. I was trapped there for probably a couple of hundred years." Clark got the feeling there was something else she wasn't telling them.
"Are you immortal?"
She turned her head and looked at Chloe lazily. "You could say that. You would not believe the things I've seen in my life."
"I can imagine. To us, they're history, but to you, they're memories." Clark trailed off, trying to get her to reveal some more.
"I've travelled the world, survived wars, stopped some of them single handed. And I might have started a few."
"You started some wars?" Pete asked trying to look disapproving and failing miserably.
"Not intentionally. It's no wonder he rejected me."
"Who?" Clark asked gently.
"It doesn't matter." She said with reserve, turning her face away from them as if troubled by a bad memory. "I have to go." She said quickly and then zoomed off.
"Strange girl." Bart said watching the blur vanish in the direction of the town.
"She's hiding." Chloe said looking very sorry for Amber.
"I feel like she wants to get close to us, but something's not letting her. Should we trust her?" Clark asked the group turning to them as they perched on the truck.
"Let's see if we can find out some more about her. Anyone else notice how shifty she got when we started prying into her past?" Chloe said.
They all agreed that they had.
"Anyone want to go to the Talon for some coffee? Give Clark a chance to stare at Lana some more as she serves us coffee." Pete said clapping Clark on the back and not noticing the hurt look Chloe flashed Clark as he said it.
Ten minutes later Chloe parked her car and the four of them wandered into the coffee house laughing at something Bart had said.
Lana was handing a cup to Lex Luther as they entered and they noticed Amber sitting at the counter eating a cookie and looking as though something very serious was eating her.
"Hey Lex." Clark said going up to the counter. "How's it going?"
"Cant' complain." Lex grinned. "Got a special delivery this morning which you might like to see."
"What is it?"
"An early complete version of the bible, with all the books the Vatican hid. It's beautifully illustrated." He leant a little closer to Clark. "And there are some more symbols."
"Why would an early version of the bible have those?" Clark vaguely noticed that Amber had shifted at the mention of the bible.
"I don't know. On the cover is a very strange one." Lex trailed off noticing a tattoo on the back of Amber's left hand as she held out some money for coffee from Lana. She seemed to sense his gaze and covered it. "Clark, that girl has the same symbol."
"Who? Amber?"
"You know her?"
"We just met."
"Clark, are you going to order anything, or are you just going to stand there?" Lana asked shortly, glaring at him playfully.
Amber sniggered. Lex tried not to.
"Four coffees please." He said meekly, blushing a little.
'She's just waiting for you to ask her out, you know.' Clark heard Amber's voice whisper in his mind. 'She wants you.'
"Thanks Lana." Amber got up and leant closer to Clark as she passed. "I don't need to be telepathic to see that she digs you. Do everyone a favour and ask her out. Trust me, you'll be much happier for it." she hissed in his ear. She looked at Lex coldly and then swept out of the Talon.
Clark went back to the group and vaguely noticed that Lex had followed Amber out.
"Lex Luther?" Amber said turning to face him with ten feet between them in the empty street.
"You know me?"
"I know you have something of mine. And I want it back." She said coldly.
"What do I have of yours?"
"My bible."
"That's yours?"
"I can tell you what the symbols mean, and so can Clark. He's been able to read them for months."
"How can he read them?"
"Are you going to tell him, Amber? Are you going to reveal Clark's secret?" a female voice said from Amber's shoulder.
The woman was as tall as Amber, but with jet black hair and black eyes. They looked similar. She wore a dress that seemed to be made of black cobwebs. She wore a vast amount of black eye makeup and her lips matched her eyes.
"Lilith, I would know you anywhere. The stench of Purgatory lingers in your veins." Amber didn't even bother to turn.
"You try living there year in year out."
"Purgatory?" Lex looked very confused.
The doors to the Talon opened and Clark, Bart, Chloe, Pete and Lana came out to watch the scene.
"Can you not guess, Lex? That bible is my story."
"Our story." Lilith insisted.
"You called her Lilith. Wasn't that the name of Adam's first wife?"
"Very good Luther. But shall I reveal who the second wife of Adam is?" Lilith sneered at Amber who turned to face her.
"You tell them that, and I'll tell him." Amber threatened. "Remember, we were sworn under the tree."
"Everyone knows that Eve was his second wife." Chloe put in.
"No, she was his third. She was his second." Lilith pointed at Amber, who groaned.
"Amber? Is this true?"
"Yes Clark, it's true. God had a little trouble creating woman. First he made her too evil…in fact he made the mother of Satan." Amber glared at Lilith.
"If I'm his mother, you're his aunt." Lilith teased. "Besides, I'm not nearly as evil as he is."
Amber turned back to the group. "God condemned his creation. She is the mother of evil and the ruler of Purgatory. His next attempt was me. He tipped the scale the wrong way however and made me too good. He then froze me in amber and hid me in the Tree of Knowledge. I still have the amber…what's left of it." she indicated her amber necklace with the strand of red kryptonite. "Then he made Eve. And then he got it right, he found the balance of both of us and made it human. A good woman, with a strand of evil. There, now you know my story. I am as old as time, but not quite as old as her." Amber smirked at Lilith.
"I'm not that much older than you, sister."