NEW DAY - Chapter 10 (PG-13)

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Penina Spinka
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NEW DAY - Chapter 10 (PG-13)

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For readers of this story, I thank you and hope you will comment.

New Day

A Sam Story Told by Francis

Chapter 10


For a moment, I thought I had found friends. I could be myself with them without having to hide my nature. The moment ended when they spread out cautiously, preparing themselves for battle. Sulil backed to the inner wall. I got there first, seized him and held him fast. I’d been a war leader and an adviser in battle often enough to know a battle formation when I saw one. If they had come in response to his summons, he had some kind of power over them. “Who are you?” I asked.

One of the blood drinkers held out his hand to warm the others to keep back. “Better ask what we are, not whom, but I believe you know. We have something in common, Babylonian.” He sniffed the air and his eyes narrowed. “That’s not possible. None of us have survived beyond death that long.”

He hadn’t asked a question, so I asked one of my own. “How did you know me and why do you treat me like an enemy? Why do you obey a human?”

“Your reaction to silver has been reported. Only our kind reacts that way.” I had not known of it myself. Only Miceas had seen and could have reported this. What else did these drinkers know about our kind that I did not? “What are you doing in our city?”

“Trying to understand mysteries. Answer my question first. Why do you obey a human?” The blood drinkers looked to each other but no one replied. “”Why do you prepare for battle? What power does this Syrian have over you?”

The leader of the blood drinkers looked to the others and then jerked his chin to Sulil. “It’s not him. It’s his god Dagon who amplifies his power over us. When he called on us to protect him, we had to come.”

“We had our own gods. They and only they gave us life after death to protect those who deserve protection. You don’t have to obey Sulil.”

“We do. The sorcerer’s god is stronger than we are,” said the one who had spoken to me. “He will put a Persian on the high throne. They will be better for us than the Babylonians. Join us. Add your strength to ours.”

I stopped to consider their request for a moment, wondering if they could be right about the Persians. Haggai said they were barbarians. “No. Babylonians live under a system of just laws. It won’t be better for us under Persian rule. You only think it will. Let us destroy this sorcerer and become allies.” I would never betray King Marduk who had given me his trust. I was sworn to uphold him and defend Babylon.

While my mind was on the others of my kind and only marginally on my captive, I let my grip on Sulil falter. He seized my hand and turned it over to better see my ring. “He wears Marduk’s signet ring!” he shrieked. “He represents the emperor and has come to spy on us. He can prevent our success. Kill him!”

The three rushed toward me. I lifted Sulil over my head and threw him at the drinker on my left, then leapt over the two on the floor to make an end of one or both of the others when the drinker on my right ran straight toward me. I jumped to meet him. In the blur of movement, I did not see the weapon he had drawn. Bronze would not have stopped me for long, but I did not know what a wooden stake could do.

The first gods who walked among men never warned me about the power of wood. Perhaps they didn’t know. If silver had been drawn from stone a thousand years before Babylon rose to power, my people didn’t know of it. When my sire told me about my life to come he did not know both wooden weapons and silver were anathema to our kind. I had sought out wisdom throughout the years, but my ignorance in this caused my defeat. I was helpless.

Sulil had strengthened his power over me with the spell inscribed on the copper bracelet. It remained on my wrist. “Is he dead? Did you kill him?” Sulil asked, standing up and brushing himself off. “He can put an end to all we have worked so hard to do.”

“Yes, he’s dead,” said the speaker. “We will see to the disposal of his body.” I am sure he knew I still lived, but he did not say as much.

Before they could carry me away, Sulil pried the ring off my finger. “No one must know who or what you killed tonight. With King Marduk’s ring to draw upon, I can command the king’s own army against him. With my bracelets to subdue their leaders, they will fight for me. Go now and dispose of our enemy. Don’t forget that Dagon has increased my power over you. Don’t think to defy me.”

They carried me to a nearby bone yard. Where no one could overhear him, the one who had spoken before whispered. “Babylonian, Sulil thinks you are dead. He will tell Persia’s king and commanders the last threat to his plan of invasion is vanquished. Persia will defeat Babylon and then we will come back for you. One of your age can’t die.”

They carried me further until we reached an underground crypt. There, they set me down on a brick slab. Before leaving, their leader said, “Try to sleep and resign yourself to the defeat of your country. A new day is coming and its name is Persia.” I could do nothing but blink while they closed up the entrance with bricks. I couldn’t even turn my head. At last, I closed my eyes. Serali, I thought. Hear me. Set me free, beloved, and I will destroy the world to protect you. Finally, I felt the sun rise over the horizon and surrendered myself to sleep.


# #

When Francis ceased speaking, Sam’s ragged breathing was the only sound in the room. “No,” he said, shakily, choking back a more vehement response. “They dared to do that to you. You were the nearest being they had to a god, and they did that to you.”

“Don’t say that, Sam. Thinking we were gods was always a mistake, even when all my countrymen believed it. We were never more than changed humans, faster and stronger, true, and we don’t age, but we were only an experiment the real gods made. Gods can’t be killed. We can.”

“That’s what Mick said when I first met him.”

“He was right.”

Sam’s voice was harsh as it grated though his clenched teeth. “Forgive me for using the word, but you should have been the other vampires’ king, at least. Why defend Mick when he’s the one who delivered you to Sulil? He betrayed you.” Anguish and frustration deepened his voice. “How could I have been so wrong about him?”

Francis stroked Sam’s hair and back. “You weren’t wrong about Mick. You felt your connection to him that night at the Vanguard Club last January. He’s a good man with an honest heart and he always was.

Miceas didn’t know what would happen. Sulil had just made him wealthy enough to ask for Serali in marriage, and I had just threatened to kill him if he betrayed her. He didn’t know who was his friend and who was his enemy. Miceas was young and led by his emotions, as most young men are, just as Mick was when he married the wrong woman.
“Yes, Miceas betrayed me, but he had not known what Sulil intended. I owe him for my release. I forgave him and I hope you will.”

Sam gripped Francis’s arm and twisted himself around so he could look down at him by the reflection of the city lights through the curtains. “You knew who Mick was when he came to us, didn’t you? That’s why you helped him with his problem, isn’t it?”

“Yes to both questions. Without Miceas, I might have died the true death. At least, I would have suffered longer than I did. He redeemed himself, risking everything he valued to save me. Listen and I’ll tell you what happened as I learned it from Miceas himself, later.”
Read Sam stories by Penina My index: http://www.moonlightaholics.com/viewforum.php?f=560
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LadyAilith
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Re: NEW DAY - Chapter 10 (PG-13)

Post by LadyAilith »

Oh, more please! I just love this story!

LadyAilith :rose:
LadyAilith :rose:
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