Sin of the Saints (Between Delusion and Sobriety Duet #2)

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Bellcolor

I ’m hurled onto the pristine marble floor. I open my eyes, and beyond the blurriness a painting on the ceiling of the hall is revealed to me – the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. A serpent twines around the trunk of the Tree, its upper body that of a woman.

“Lilith,” my lips voicelessly whisper her name.

“Tell me what she’s thinking!” Libretto’s voice echoes between the stone walls.

“I’ve already told you, Libretto, I haven’t been able to access her thoughts since the day she sent Liam to the creator.” That’s my father, or my former father, Othello Fermi. But I know he’s lying. He’s lying to the head of the Council for me, and I don’t know why.

“Three years! Three years have passed and still she won’t give in!” Libretto’s voice thunders.

No… can it have been three years?

“It’s those damned angels.” I hear his footsteps as he paces the room.

“She’s tasted the blood of two angels, Senoy and Semangelof.” That’s Alfredo. I recognize his voice.

“Her power increased because she fed on them, it’s their blood, the three cursed ones whose souls we stole.” More footsteps. Footsteps here and there. Behind my head, to my right, beneath me. He’s fucking everywhere.

Finally he stops and I can smell his stench approaching.

I contort my face and press my lips together with the last of my strength. Get away from me! I scream deep within me. My father winces next to me, but says nothing. Why won’t he say anything? Save me from the monsters, Daddy, I plead in my thoughts, but he doesn’t move.

“We shall awaken Lilith today. Simon, you know what to do,” Libretto says in a bloodcurdling tone.

I shiver uncontrollably when I realize what he means.

Without the ability to move, to breathe, no voice and no ability to answer.

They want Lilith, not me.

The day it all started, I wanted to die. I can’t help thinking that I succeeded in my task. Who am I today? There’s nothing left of the girl I once knew. I wasn’t alive then, and I’m not alive now either. They’ve turned me into nothing more than a blur. A lifeless corpse sprawled on their horrendously expensive marble. Fuck them. Fuck them and all the damned demons. I’m ready to go to Hell. I deserve that.

Only Bar’s name floats through my thoughts, and my heart twinges. He brought me to life, stirred my still heart, my haunted soul. He awoke in me a desire to keep fighting to stay in the lands of Adam. And I committed the sin of Gluttony, not being able to stop myself as soon as I tasted his blood, until I brought him to his end.

Had he managed to survive after what I did to him? And what exactly was the curse Libretto had placed on him? My father had said that Bar kept returning to the realm of Man for Lilith. But now I’ve lost all hope of salvation.

The snake curls around the tree above me, at the top of the hall, and it feels like his grip is tightening around my heart.

Lilith, what do you want?

“The Shining One.” I hear her voice as a low bass vibrating within me.

The Shining One… my lips move soundlessly and my gaze focuses on the ceiling painting. My father tenses next to me and hushes me, the snake continues to curl around the trunk of the Tree and I feel like I’m losing my mind.

“No, no!” I hear the desperation in the pleas that filter into the hall.

“It’s your calling, you cannot flee from it!” Libretto calls, followed by the sound of a slap tearing through the tension in the room.

“I’m at the top of the class in martial arts, I’ll be of great use to him! I’m valuable!” he continues to plead.

“Your only value is your blood, Sansenoy! You’re nothing more than food for us. That’s why you were brought to the lands of Adam. The sooner you accept that, the quicker this will end!”

“No, no, no! I apologize for my heresy against her. Please, forgive me!” It’s pointless. His pleas are as empty as the heart of the one sealing his fate. And the fates of all those present. Except me. I’ll forever refuse to grant him what he desires.

“This isn’t a damn church!” Libretto slaps him again, and my veins cramp as the sweet smell of blood reaches my nose.

“Take him, Belle. Take him and call to the Shining One.” Lilith’s voice again awakens within me, and my fangs elongate in immediate response.

“She’s waking up…” I hear whispers around me.

“Sansensansem…” The chant moves through the space, sliding through the still air in the hall. It encircles me, driving me to rise. I manage to flip onto my belly, reaching out to the source of the chant, drawing my body across the marble.

Pull, drag, pull, drag.

“No!” My eyes are fixed upon Evan’s terrified expression.

Pull, drag, pull, drag.

“Damn you! Damn you to Hell!” He spits on my face. I move my tongue over my lips, licking up his saliva and smiling.

Libretto holds him on one side, my father on the other. They push Evan down to his knees while he rages and tries to free himself of their grip. They’re making it easier for me to reach what my body desires most of all. With difficulty I rise up to my knees, unable to stabilize myself as I collapse onto Evan. His body tenses and I can feel the specific moment he accepts his fate. His muscles unclench, his shoulders slump, and his head drops onto my right shoulder just as mine lies on his.

“No,” I whisper to him, my voice hoarse and stinging my throat. “I’m her… the mother of all the damned ones.” I fix my fangs in the delicate skin of his neck and my body pulses with intoxicating pain as it regains its strength.

Strong and swift.

A tempest awakens around me, shoving Libretto and my father backwards. Thunder shakes the walls of the castle. Maybe all the accursed lands of Adam. A ceaseless flow pours down my throat. My skin tingles, my stomach turns, my eyes widen as they stare at the image of Lilith winding around the Tree on the ceiling.

Memories rise up within me, one after another, and my head spins with her pain, her longing, the hidden passions of her heart, her false loves, her breaking in the infinite cycle of death and rebirth, death and rebirth.

And hope.

Hope for redemption.

“From dust you came, but you will never return to dust,” her voice whispers inside me.

My back tingles, at first like an ember come to life, then the burning grows so strong that I think I’ll catch fire any second now. A sharp, splitting pain tears my skin, and I let out a deep-throated shriek.

“Now!” I hear Libretto’s command. Evan crumbles to ash at my touch and I feel something bursting behind my back, sending out powerful gusts of wind. “Damn it, I said now!” Libretto screams.

The ashes blow away beneath my hands, and I move my mouth away before I inhale any of it. A shockwave, and another. The ash circles in the cyclones raging through the hall. I open my eyes and they’re burning, as though stung by the heat of Hell itself. An indescribable power flows through my veins and I make fists, plunging my long talons into the palms of my hands, but my skin won’t break. It glows with a red aura, as though containing within it all the blood I drank to the point of intoxication.

Suddenly cold metal closes around my neck. Click. The locking sound interrupts the ecstasy I was drawn into. I reach for my neck and feel a metal collar. I tug at it, but it won’t open.

“Fight!” I hear Lilith command me from within. She guides me to raise my hand towards Libretto, but nothing happens. I rock my head wildly and hear the chimes of a bell. Every chime hits me in the guts with shocking force, and I fall to my knees.

“What’s this? What have you done to me?” I grind my teeth, trying to overcome the pain.

“Doesn’t that bring back old memories?” A dark laugh rolls out from the direction of Libretto.

The nightmare . Recurring flashes strike me and my stomach turns. I want to throw up, but nothing comes out when I open my mouth, even though my gag reflex hits my throat again and again.

“Although I must say, the wings are a nice touch.” Wings? “Lilith,” he caresses my neck, moves on to my jaw and then forces me to look at him.

I maniacally burst into laughter, like the madwoman I’ve become. Fucking crazy Fermi in all her glory.

His brow wrinkles angrily.

I smile at him, which further incites his rage. “Guess again, old man.” His pupils are so narrow, and his irises are almost completely white.

“No!” He slaps my cheek so powerfully that it feels like my brain’s been jostled out of its position in my skull.

Fuck.

“That’s enough!” my father intervenes, but Libretto strikes him and he’s shoved back.

“Where are you, Lilith?” he makes a fist and approaches me until his face is close to mine.

“She’s right here,” I answer with a smile. She’s inside me. I feel her like a terrible flame filling my veins, my entire being. “But I’m here too, unfortunately for you.” Laughter bursts from within me. “And I’m not going anywhere. You see, Libretto, I am Lilith!”

“No!” He slaps me again, and my body hits the marble floor. I hear the bell chime again, and I curl up in paralyzing pain.

And still I can’t stop the laughter. All this time I thought that as soon as Lilith awakened I’d evaporate from this world. But no, Lilith isn’t some foreign entity seeking to make me vanish, she exists within me. She’s the real me.

Libretto swings his hand, his long and razor-sharp talons tearing my faded black dress. My skin, glowing red, remains unharmed. Impervious, impenetrable.

“This can’t be,” he gasps. “The sacred bell should strip you of your powers.”

“It only stripped her of her demonic powers.” My father approaches again, an ugly bruise on his face where Libretto struck him. “Not her divine powers.”

“No!” Libretto roars up to the skies, to the one who’s bestowed his powers unto me. But why? The question remains a mystery. “Take her away from here before I burn the whole place down!” he commands, tearing at his hair and screaming as though he’s lost his mind.

Hands pull me back. I try to fight, but my strength isn’t enough to repel them.

“This isn’t over! I’ve sworn revenge, and I intend to keep my oath! Remember my words, Ashmedai!”

Libretto’s gaze flashes to me and he goes stone-still.

Yes, I know who you are. I narrow my eyes, and I think I see him smile before I’m dragged out of the hall.