Harvester Page 11

  She looked at him and waited, her expression solemn. No further words were needed, no further enticement could top what she’d already offered. As the seconds ticked by, she cocked her head to the side, and her bright orange eyes seemed to twirl and twirl and twirl. The mournful lament that she claimed as her own music grew louder and louder.

  Toby had been to the beach once. He had stood just past the line where the water met the sand and luxuriated in the feeling of the sand being sucked from under his feet. Kneeling in the tent, with Lily six feet away, naked and waiting, felt much the same. He felt himself slipping away and was as unable to resist her pull as the sand was able to resist the tide.

  Ever so slowly, a bright, sunny smile spread its wings on Lily’s lips. She lifted both arms, her hands open, welcoming.

  Toby fought with everything he had, used every trick he learned throughout his mostly celibate life to defeat the urge within him.

  “You’ve denied yourself for so long, Tobias,” said Lily, and it was as if she spoke directly into his brain, foregoing the air between them. “All those years…the decades during which you refused to allow anyone to get close, during which you refused to allow yourself to even think of a lover.” She beckoned him with both hands, arms still held straight out as if to pull him in. “It was such a needless sacrifice.”

  Toby tried and tried to turn away from her gaze, but it was as if her eyes were magnetic and his own were cast from iron. He commanded his head to turn away, but his muscles refused to obey him. He pushed with his arms, trying to force himself back, to leave the tent, to leave her temptations behind, but his hands didn’t even twitch where they lay on his thighs.

  Lily opened her lips a minuscule amount, and the creepy little elegy grew in volume yet again. The countermelody and the melody continued their eternal dissonance, filling him up from the soles of the feet to the crown of his head. She winked, and Toby began to hear voices buried in the music. They chanted and sang in a strange sounding language that was as unlike anything Toby had ever heard as Lily was as unlike any woman he’d ever known.

  The vocals bombarded him, swirled around his head, infiltrated his ears, and wormed their way into the core of him. He felt…different…unwound, somehow.

  Lily’s eyes flashed as she brought her arms to her sides, and her face and neck flushed as she brought her hands up to cup her breasts. “Oh, please come to me, Tobias.”

  The urgency in her voice rumbled through him like an earthquake, reducing his wall of self-control to rubble. His shirt came off with a mere flick of his wrist, and Lily’s smile turned warm and inviting. He crawled to her on his hands and knees, and he thought it correct to go to her that way.

  She reached for him, and her blood red fingernails trailed across the skin of his chest. For the first time, Toby noticed her nails were filed to sharp points, but he no longer cared about such things.

  She wrapped her arms around him, and he was lost in her scent, the feel of her, the delicious red of her hair. She angled her head, and his lips sought hers.

  16

  Shannon awoke with difficulty as though cotton encapsulated her brain, impinging on her ability to think, to choose, to act. She groaned, and a hand rubbed her shoulder. She cracked open one eyelid and found Benny leaning over her, catching her eye.

  It’s okay, Shan, Benny said in her mind. Rest all you need to.

  She tried to push herself into a seated position but to no avail. She felt horrible—nauseated, woozy, and weak. The demon’s comprehensive attack had taken its toll, and her body demanded more rest.

  “Shouldn’t she go back to the hospital?” asked Benny. “She seems so fragile.”

  Shannon groaned and mumbled her disapproval.

  “No, she’s fine. She’s no doubt exhausted from the long trip from Rochester,” said Kristy. “To assist her healing, she needs rest—peace and quiet—and you can’t get any of that in a hospital.”

  “And you’re sure?”

  Shannon heard the worry in Benny’s voice and wanted to comfort him, to tell him she was okay and would improve by morning. She longed to do all those things but didn’t have the energy.

  “Yes,” said Kristy.

  “If she needs rest—real rest—and the quiet to do it, she should be in our bedroom. Can I move her?”

  As she tried to muster enough power to send her thoughts to him, she descended into unconsciousness once again and dreamed Toby was lost in the desert.

  Chapter 4

  Tuesday

  1

  The odor of broiling meat brought Toby awake. Outside the tent, the sun baked the golden sand, and the desert smelled of flint and dust and sage. He turned his head and pushed himself up on one elbow. Lily knelt in front of the grill, her back turned. A pang of guilt stabbed through him, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Oh, no, motek. Don’t play that silly human game.”

  The warm, heavy air inside the pavilion felt good against his skin. The heat of the sun, mitigated by red silk, relaxed him. What’s done is done, he told himself.

  “Yes, Tobes. That’s right.”

  “This…” He flopped back on the silk cushions and stared at the roof of the tent. “I don’t…” He grimaced. “You…”

  “Relax, vozlyublenny. It isn’t as if you signed a contract in your own blood. Passion…it affects us all.” She lifted four skewers of meat from the grill and placed them on a wooden platter, then turned to face him, holding out the dish for him to choose from. “Plus, I’m gorgeous.”

  “I never asked‍—‍”

  “Shh. There is no need.” She laid the platter on the ground between them. “Eat, Toby. I know you want to, and you know you need to.”

  “And you? Don’t you need to eat?”

  She treated him to a lopsided smile, her eyes as lazy as a cat’s. “All living things must eat.”

  Toby reached for a skewer and ate a morsel of goat meat from it. “I’m not sure that’s an answer.”

  Chuckling, Lily put her arms behind her, locked her elbows, and leaned back. “I eat. Does that satisfy you, kisa?”

  “Just not goat?”

  “No, not goat. I can eat it, but it does nothing for me. I derive my sustenance from other things.”

  The meat soured on Toby’s tongue, and he frowned at the platter between them. “Fear. Degradation. Anger.”

  Lily’s laugh was lilting, but it sounded forced. “Do you eat the same things as monkeys?”

  “No, of course not. But‍—‍”

  “The mazzikim are to me as monkeys are to you. Their needs are not my needs. I could sustain myself on those emotions if it came to it, just as you could sustain yourself on insects and tree bark if you must. Nevertheless, it isn’t what suits me.”

  “And what is it that suits you, Lily?” Toby said in almost a whisper.

  She tipped a wink at him. “That would be telling.”

  Toby pulled another morsel of goat meat from the skewer and popped it into his mouth. He chewed it, studying her face. “No, this is a serious question. One of your monkeys fed on my friends and me. LaBouche fed on both the torture of Scott’s family and what that did to Scott.” He squeezed his eyes shut against his grief. Scott!

  Lily lifted one delicate shoulder and wagged her head side to side. “And should I hold you responsible for something a monkey does?”

  Toby set the skewer of meat back on the platter. “No,” he said. “But maybe the analogy ends there.” He drew his legs up and stood looking down on her, his face a study in gravitas. She returned his gaze but said nothing. “Well, thanks for everything.” Even saying that much made him want to cringe. He turned and strode from the pavilion, his back ramrod straight, and the devilish music seemed to swell from every grain of sand, every dark shadow in the distant rocks with Toby as their focus.

  “Oh, come on, kisa. Don’t be this way.”

  Toby scoffed but stopped walking.

  “Listen to me a moment, will you? Put aside your judgment
s. Come.”

  He peeked over his shoulder and saw her standing in the pavilion’s opening, the play of sunlight on her pale, perfect skin, the obsidian shadows from within the tent at war with the light, her red hair shimmering as if alive. As he looked on, she lifted a hand and held it out to him.

  “Hear me out, Tobycakes. Hear me out, and if at the end you still wish to go, I will return you to New York.”

  Feeling foolish, standing naked in the hot desert sun, he turned and faced her. “Promise?” Even as he said the word, he cursed himself for a fool, for a child believing in daydreams and fairytales. What use is a promise from a demon?

  Lily dropped her arm and looked at him with a frank expression. “I keep my word, Tobias. And, yes, I promise to take you back after you’ve heard me out.” She glanced up at the sky, then returned her gaze to his face. “Now come back into the shade before your…tender parts…get a sunburn.” She allowed her gaze to trail lasciviously down his chest and stomach, lingering on his groin. “That would be a shame, as I have much desire to use them for…other purposes this afternoon.”

  Toby walked toward her, and as he did, she backed farther into the stygian interior. He crossed the threshold and stopped, sun blind. Somewhere in the darkness, Lily began to hum, adding yet another countermelody to the music on the wind. As he heard her voice in the mix, something inside him rolled over.

  Her hand came to rest on his right bicep, as light as a hummingbird. Fingers caressed his left thigh, as cold as marble. Another hand cupped his right buttock, and yet another snaked around his waist. He could still see nothing, not even the grip on his bicep, but he could feel her darting tongue sliding across his chest, slipping up his right side, in his ear.

  And still, the music wailed on.

  2

  Smells of breakfast dragged Shannon into wakefulness. The cotton had cleared from her mind, but the sickening, dull thudding of a horrible headache had replaced it. That only added insult to injury, though. She hurt all over.

  She moaned as she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The clock on Benny’s side of the bed read 8:33 a.m., and the state of her bladder reinforced that she’d slept long enough. She swung her legs out of bed and swayed upright. The wooziness she remembered from the night before touched her momentarily. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head a little—enough to clear it, but not enough to cause massive waves of sweeping pain crashing around her head. After washing herself as best she could in the sink and changing into clean clothes, Shannon followed her nose down to the kitchen.

  “Shan, go back to bed. I’ll bring you a plate,” said Benny.

  “No, I’m okay, Benny. I was exhausted last night—not only from all this‍—‍” She waved one hand at the left side of her body. “‍—‍but because I used my ability to hide the car.”

  “I don’t want you pushing yourself. It’s better to rest and get healed up to one hundred percent than to push it and have to start again.”

  Kristy, Sean, Eddie, Amanda, and Mike sat at the long kitchen table, and Shannon took a seat next to Mike. She took his hand. “Any news?”

  Mike shook his head and gazed into his lap.

  “Shan?” said Benny with a note of exasperation in his voice.

  “Yes, Benny, I heard you, but I’m done with bedrest.”

  “Shannon, listen to‍—‍”

  “Benny?” She said his name without rancor, without reproach, but he blushed, nonetheless. “It’s okay. I’m okay—or at least I will be soon. If you don’t believe me, ask Kristy.” She turned her gaze to Kristy, willing the doctor to lend her support.

  “How about this, Benny: I’ll keep a sharp eye on Shannon, and she will promise to go to bed when I say so.”

  “Shan?” asked Benny.

  “Yes, I promise.”

  “Well… I still don’t like it, but I guess that will suffice.” He turned back to his cooking.

  “I had the strangest dream,” Shannon said. “I dreamed Toby was trapped in the desert somewhere. Way out in the wilderness. It seemed like he had water and maybe a little food, but other than that, he had nothing.”

  Without turning, Benny nodded. “I’ve had similar ‘Toby trapped somewhere’ dreams since Saturday night. The first had him adrift on a golden sea. The next night, I dreamed he stood atop a glacier and couldn’t find a safe way down.” Benny turned and began spooning scrambled eggs on everyone’s plate. “None of the dreams give me a handle on where he is, though. I tried to reach out to him through the dream last night, but something blocked it.”

  “This Lilitu.”

  “That would be my guess.”

  Sean cleared his throat. “Last night, before you, uh… Yes, well, last night I was about to tell you about the incantation we found at the bottom of that old bowl. Would you like to hear it now?”

  “Sure,” said Shannon, resting her head on her crossed arms. “I’m listening, it’s just too bright in here.”

  Sean hesitated, and Shannon imagined him looking at Kristy to see if it was okay to continue. “Yes, okay. This incantation written in Aramaic appears on numerous bowls from Babylon. The incantation starts with the maker’s mark phrase, which out of context seems almost respectful, but reading it in the context of what follows may be mockery or disdain. It says: ‘Hail Lilitu, Bearer of Chaos. Hail Lilitu, Harvester of Sorrow. Hail hag and ghoul, I adjure you by the timelessness of Tiamat, by the power of Shamash, and by the magic of Ea, here is your divorce and writ and letter of separation, sent through the will of Marduk.’ These bowls would be buried upside down below the foundation of the house it was set to protect.”

  “I assume those invoked are Babylonian gods?” asked Mike.

  Sean nodded.

  “What was this Lilitu to inspire such fear?” asked Amanda with a note of wonder in her voice.

  “Yeah, okay. Right, so the mythology surrounding Lilitu is incomplete at best. Some cultures treated her as an individual entity, while others took the name ‘lili’ to mean female night spirits. But what seems consistent across all the various versions is that Lilitu can change her shape. She was said to adopt the form of a beautiful woman to seduce a husband away from his wife, or to take the role and appearance of the husband to seduce the wife. In either case, her goal is always to conceive a child, but once the child is born, Lilitu becomes hostile to the other natural children of the couple. And once that happens, she kills all the children but her own.”

  The harsh sound of Eddie clearing his throat filled the kitchen. Amanda had turned away from Sean a bit and sat staring at the floor. “That sounds a lot like Abby.”

  Sean leaned forward. “Abby?”

  “Yes, she’s made of golden fire, and she has tormented me my whole life. She drove my father to kill my mother and then commit suicide. I’m pretty sure that she went to work on my aunt and uncle after that. I‍—‍”

  “She admitted to killing our unborn child,” said Amanda in a harsh, ringing voice. For a moment, no one moved, no one spoke, and the only sound in the kitchen was from the bacon frying in a pan on the stove. “We needed one of those bowls.” A single tear rolled down her cheek.

  Eddie put his arm around Amanda and pulled her close. “After that, she focused on trying to drive the two of us apart. She wanted us to fight, to physically fight.”

  “But we showed her,” said Amanda in a small voice.

  “We did. We stuck it out, we refused to fight, to argue even. We chose to honor our commitments to each other, and our lives have been better for it.”

  Amanda turned into Eddie’s hug and wrapped her arms around him. “That’s right. No matter what she tried, we stood up to her.”

  “But Amanda’s right. Everything I know about Abby says that incantation should have her name in it rather than Lilitu’s.”

  Sean pulled on his lower lip. “Yes, I can see why you might say that. But the mythology says Lilitu is the mother of the ifrit, succubi, and incubi. That the succubi and incubi imitate her nature.�
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  “Great. All we need is two of Abby,” grumbled Amanda.

  “You said Lilitu was dressed like a slut?” Shannon asked Benny. “A pale-skinned knockout with a sexy dress and boots?”

  Benny nodded.

  “Is she trying to seduce Toby, then? Why would she? He’s not married, he has no children.”

  “Why do any of these demons do anything?” murmured Mike.

  “To eat!” snapped Benny. “They all do these horrible things to get at the kind of food they like best! Herlequin said something to me when he had me in the woods. I was pissed, and I mean insane with it. I refused to play along, and he tried to threaten me. He said something akin to: ‘I like the taste of your fear best, but anger will do.’”

  “And LaBouche…” began Mike. “What he said to Scott.”

  “‘I was only thinking about my own needs, my own wants.’ Something like that,” said Shannon. “And he didn’t mean only fear. He liked taunting Scott, really rubbing his nose in his loss.”

  Sean gasped. “Karl Munnur did the same to me.”

  “Who?” asked Mike.

  “From what Shannon said, Munnur was LaBouche’s identity before he became LaBouche. He dated my mother and used to spend a lot of time with me. He’d bring up my dead father at least three times a week, and I’d catch him looking at me with greed in his eyes.”

  “And what he did to me,” said Kristy. “He demeaned me, degraded me—or rather, he encouraged me to do those things to myself.”

  “He fed on it,” murmured Shannon.

  “Yes,” said Benny. “Each demon we know anything about has expressed a favorite emotion, and it seems the more complex the demon, the more complex the emotion they prefer.” His eyes grew full and round. “What if she feeds off leading good people astray? What if she’s the ultimate temptress?”

  “Then Toby is in real trouble,” said Shannon in a mournful voice. “We have to find a way to help him.”