Love as a Form of Binding Ch. 20

She turned to Lily," They might look like children, but they have been lovers for a long time now. Sweet or not, they are deadly when they wish to be. We have been attacked on the road many times, though not lately. Sometimes, we only smile to each other and our children do the work."

Lily watched a little more, completely charmed. "If these are what you make with humans," she smiled, "I think that you ought to make some just between you. My sister and brother are still as beautiful as they ever were."

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What followed was a strange sort of meeting and conference for the purpose of meeting the newcomers.

"I never had the thought of anything like this one night happening to me," Lily said, "and I have carried a pain in me that has long been covered over in callouses."

She shrugged, "So I must beg forgiveness from many who know me here for never telling of this, but there is now something which you must know."

She sipped her mug of tea as she held up her hand for a moment.

"Long ago, there was a land where we three were born. It lies in dust now, Irdu?" She turned to the man, who now looked to have grown, just as the woman had, now that they were free of the moth-eaten disguises which they'd worn.

He nodded, "The mountain where we were spawned had been worn away by the winds so that the soft sandstone itself blows in the wind and there is nothing left, Lilitu."

She nodded and looked at the other major players in this, "Most here know me only as Mother, and some know me as Lily. I have been misrepresented and mistakenly accused and ascribed to have been many places and done many things. Many of my supposed doings have surprised me to hear of them. A corruption of my birth name and I read that I was someone's wife and he was displeased with me. For the most part, I couldn't have cared less, but now, ..."

She looked over at the newcomers there and smiled, "This is as good a time as any to set a few things straight. At the heart, though not quite at the beginning, it can be said that I am an air demon, a bringer of storms. But I was not that when I came to be spawned again in Akkadia. My mother was Ninlil and I learned at her hand. My father was Enlil, while he lived.

This is my second chance at a life as it is also Racephet's. Because I'd lived before, I guess that I was always a willful girl and my father took me to the marriage market when I was not yet of age and tried to have me sold to a wealthy man.

Imagine the shock that I would have been the first time that a human man tried to beat his young wife.

As I recall it all, the incident resulted in three things; I grew upset and it became worse when my first woman's blood flowed in that place. My father called out that it was proof of my desirability, so the second thing happened – I slew for the first time in rage for what was being done and for what he'd done to my mother long before. It is not a marriage when one is only forced to be bred.

I wanted none of it or the market and knew only that I wanted a lilu – a young demon with whom I was smitten. He heard my cries and came then to take me away from there and the market ran with fool's blood before we were done. But there was one whom we could not kill. There was a powerful one there in the market who wanted me and kept raising his bid – even as we slaughtered everyone. When I told him that I would not be sold to him as a wife, he cursed me and my family. It has kept my siblings and I far from each other for longer than human people have kept records.

Until tonight; for we three have finally freed ourselves of it. I lived with the demon for a time and I spawned Tisiphone. You know him as Racephet and I love him still.

My name, the whole thing, is Vardat Līlīṯu, though I am Lilitu to my family and that – again, for the record - is Akkadian, not anything else - not anything which some scholar somewhere copied down from one clay tablet to another and not borrowed by any other later culture or human religion. I have a brother and a sister as I said, and they have come here this night. He is Irdu lili there, and my sister is Ardat lili.

Ardat sought the mage who cursed us and slew him, though it cost her many lifetimes of wandering until Irdu found her. Together, they sought me. Sad to say that it took this long.

All of us are air demons and all of us have been worshiped in our time.

For a long time, my siblings believed that they were to be what their worshipers' thoughts of them were. I ignored my own and was what I always was – as our mother taught us. Ardat and Irdu became other things, a succubus and an incubus, specifically, because the focus of the ones who prayed to them changed. They are those things no longer and have not been for a long time.

They have two children; the girl Isis and the boy Aram - both of them cambions who were spawned with humans and then not wanted. Their young appear as children, but they are far older than that.

Still, the young ones are sensitive and bear their family's heritage so there is ability there. What that means is that they look like us, wings and all, as you see them. I'm thrilled to have a niece and a nephew, and the only thing that bothers me is the timing, because we'll all be busy soon. "

She looked over to the younger pair, "But sometime in it, I make you the promise that you'll get to know your family."

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"What are these things?" Aram asked as Zele and Maezou led them to the hot pool. He was referring to the large slayer demons that they seemed to pass an unending stream of as they walked.

"And where are you taking us, Maezou?" Isis wanted to know.

Maezou had to grin a little, "I'm taking you to a hot pool that's heated from down below. We found it here and it's a good place for my new cousins to get warm in, after trudging for what must have been ages.

And those things are demons. Some of them can even understand you. There are thousands here now and they're friendly."

"Thousands like in fifteen hundred or two thousand?" He asked, "I think I've seen that many just on the way over here. They're everywhere I look."

"More than ninety-four, if you need to know that." Maezou said.

"Hundred?" he asked looking up.

"Thousand," Zele smiled and he fell silent.

"We didn't walk all the way," Isis said, "We got to fly a little now and then. It just felt like we walked all the way."

They reached the pool and began to bathe. Maezou wanted to ask about things and the pair inquired about what they'd heard – that there was to be some large fight at any time. Maezou explained in a concise way and then she asked about them.

"Why do you make this choice for the way that you look?"

"Easy to hide when you're smaller," Aram said as he reached out to touch Maezou's breast lightly once. He was a little in awe of her and he said so, "And most humans would never have the thought to harm a child. There are advantages, though I'm pretty sick of looking that way right now."

"We chose to stop at a certain size and what would have gone to further development in a physical way," Isis smiled and then chuckled a little, "well, Aram and I love each other. We decided that we would always be together when we really were demon children. We just channeled everything into what the other one liked in our bodies and after that, everything went into hidden strengths. That's why we look so alike."

She crept out of the pool as the small demon and looking Maezou's sister right in the eyes, she smiled softly and slipped her arms around the dark one's neck to nuzzle her cheek against Zele's surprised face. An instant later, Zele sighed as they shared a kiss.

Isis ended the kiss and looked back at Maezou, "See? There are advantages, as my Aram always says."

Zele put her arms around Isis and grinned, " Zele already likes her new cousins. A very nice kiss. Thank you, cousin."

Isis chuckled at herself, "For us, it's easy to charm almost anyone and only a thought to get them into bed, but Zele, I could fall for you as easily as you might fall for me. You're both so beautiful."

Maezou sat smiling in spite of herself – until she suddenly noticed that Aram sat in her lap and was bringing her hand toward his own genitals. She stared at his upturned face and she saw his little horns and the way that he could almost beg her and yet say nothing.

She laughed a little, "And I thought I was beguiling. I can't hold a candle to you two."

"Then don't even try," Aram whispered as she looked into the soft eyes of the most beautiful boy-demon that she'd ever laid eyes on. He reached for her neck and she felt his fingers in her hair. The next thing that she knew, she bent her head down and they were sharing their own kiss as she caressed him.

As though they'd only been trying to make a point – to a partial degree, they admitted – the pair gently pulled out of the embraces of the sisters and began to make love with each other.

"We like you a lot," Aram smiled as he held Isis and she kissed his throat, "But we've just met. With the lord Tobias' permission, we'd like nothing better than to go further with our incredible cousins. But now ... with some big deal about to happen, we think it's better to just wait a little. We've found out what we wanted to know and we'll fight for you, since we're not strangers now.

Zele moved over to hug Maezou from behind as they watched the beautiful pair of demons fuck. It was something that they'd seen and known for all of their long lives, but to see these two was, ... well it was inspiring.

They were tired by their own admission, and yet though it was quiet, there was a gentle intensity there which left no doubt in the sisters that the while the two would be happy to make love with anyone they fancied – and there was something intimated about a desired relationship with them and Toby, this pair's main focus was in loving each other.

"You're right, I think," Isis smiled lazily to Zele when she asked if that was what she felt. "Aram and me, we don't care what's between anybody's legs, as long as we're appreciated and we want them. I already know that Aram feels the same way that I do. We could love you – all three of you and be happy. Aram likes men almost as much as I do, though I think that he's a little more choosy than me."

Aram nodded and she grinned as she held his head to keep his mouth on her nipple, "but for some people, there's a danger. Most especially for humans. Some loves can be hopeless, and humans tend to fall victim to that most often. We try to stay clear of them for that reason. Both of us have left unhappy humans behind, and when you hear afterwards that you were the reason for a broken-hearted person to take their own life, well, that's all the reason we need to stay away."

It wasn't long before they just looked drowsy, as nice as it felt to get warm and clean again. "Come on," the red-haired demon smiled, "We'll show you where you can sleep before you fall over. You look really beat now."

"Kay," Aram said quietly.

"Thanks," Isis mumbled.

They got to their feet and walked off, one sister each leading a tired and small demon with her arm around their young shoulders.

They took them to a chamber with a couple of beds in it, thinking to offer one to each.

"No, we just need one, "Isis groaned as she flopped onto a bed, "We can fit in one bed and we always sleep together anyway. We pretty much always have."

Maezou had to think about it for a second and then she shrugged as Aram crawled after Isis.

"We're like nearly a thousand years old," he said, "but I could get used to sleeping in a bed like this. Thanks, Maezou. Sorry if I'm sounding weird. We're not used to having beautiful cousins."

"Or beds," Isis moaned pleasantly.

He crawled up the bed as though he was at the end of his endurance, and then he eased himself down to lie against Isis, who put her arm around him in a gentle hug without opening her eyes.

"Or beds," he said, "My father said that you'd be giving us something to do tomorrow."

"Yeah," she smiled, taken with the way that they were here, "I heard that you two are good with blades. I'll explain it all in the morning, but I need you guys to protect some friends of mine. We could put a couple of slayers in there with them, but it's a small house and the people aren't large themselves. They'd feel like they were in jail or something. With you there, it ought to feel a lot better for everybody and you can meet them too."

"Kay," Isis sighed.

"Deal," Aram groaned.

"Good night then, " Maezou smiled, "I'm really glad to meet you."

"Zele thinks that she has maybe met her matches in her cousins," the dark female said thoughtfully as she kissed the pair and stepped aside for Maezou.

"I dunno, Zele, "Aram groaned as he hugged Isis, "I'm not sure if anybody could resist you guys."

It caused a little quiet laughter for a moment until Maezou stepped over and kissed them both on the cheek before she stepped back to leave.

"What were the kisses for?" Aran asked and she smiled, "We're not used to having beautiful cousins either."

With that, they were gone.

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Tereth and Gortruk stood before the one called Mother and waited. After hearing their report, she'd sent for the Appolyon and his general needing a solution or at least a workaround to an issue.

They'd gone to test Tereth's wings that morning to see if he'd have the speed that Mother had told them that he'd likely desperately need- especially at lower altitudes, and as planned, it had taken them over the small island of Staffa. The fog had been thick lower down, but that hadn't been a factor to them, not really.

Well it hadn't been at first.

All that they'd needed was the airspace around it for what they'd wanted to do. Mother had told them that the island was uninhabited and was to be a staging area for some of the legions, so the other thing, the last thing that they were to do was to ascertain the overall layout and suitability for their purpose.

That had been the trouble. It was not uninhabited.

None of them knew why, but there were a pair of archeology students from the University of Edinburgh on the island originally. They'd been there for four months and were to look for signs of human habitation long ago as a general survey. No one thought that they'd find much of anything, since the island had no known supply of fresh water. That had been the accepted theory, anyway.

While their professor, like many before him, had originally bought the tale, he also knew that the island had been used for a few centuries to keep sheep on, safe from predation, since other than birds and a few rodent types, nothing lived there. And sheep need to drink.

It might be possible for a ewe to glean enough from the moisture on the grass as dew, but what about a large flock? Nobody was going to make the trip there to drop off and recover just one sheep. That was why he'd wanted to place a few students there to look. It had been a good year for funding and he was a little flush, so why not?

But rather than the five or six that he'd had in mind for this little side project, he'd needed to scale this back to just two who had volunteered. It made a little sense. The rocky shore and the waves created a multitude of hazards for insertion and resupply. It would have been a worrisome thing to him to have to rely on a means for that from the sea. But two people have far fewer needs than six and it actually didn't work out too badly to do it by commercial helicopter once the food and supply savings were factored in to offset the cost.

But one of the students, the American male, had come down with appendicitis the week before and had been airlifted out to hospital. He'd be fine and said that he was eager to return to finish the half-year-long study. In the meantime however, the female student had made serious progress of a sort, not having to deal with the young man's awkward and constant attempts at relationship-building any longer. No one said anything of it, but the man was smitten with her and it wasn't mutual and the constant hovering had driven her to distraction.

It had only gotten a little better when she'd hit him.

Now, without him there for the past week and a half, she was making progress by leaps and bounds.

It caused the professor some trouble. On the one hand, he'd have loved to allow the woman to continue. But there were safety aspects, so he couldn't allow her to continue alone. That was why he'd radioed her to prepare for extraction. He was going to put this on hold until the next year.

Things had gone pretty much to hell after that. The young man had experience at camping in remote areas, but not in anything like the Hebrides Islands. The girl was an Orcadian, as she'd pointed out repeatedly. Her view was that if there was anyone on his staff who could handle and indeed flourish on a cold rock off the coast of Scotland, it was her.

But that wouldn't allow the professor to sleep one bit better. From the Orkneys or not, she was somebody's little darling and if anything happened to her while she was out there alone, his cherished career was toast, and rightly so, he considered.

As the two demons had rocketed past overhead, Tereth always pulling out in front easily, they'd spotted a helicopter trying to land in nearly impossible visibility near to the fairly flat ground on the large plateau which dominated the island. The pilot made four attempts and had to abort, the crew stating flatly that the young woman was in danger of their tailrotor even if they'd been successful and that they had no intentions of dying for it either. So they'd gone to Plan B and dropped off supplies for her, saying that they'd be back for another attempt as soon as possible the following day or maybe the next, depending on when the fog lifted.

The student had wanted to justify her position to them as well, but their fuel state was the thing which had closed off the discussions and the helicopter pulled out of the mist and turned for the mainland.

Not one of the demons knew of these reasons. All that was known was that the presence of even one frail human on that island even now was unwanted and there was no time to seek for an alternate island which was uninhabited and of a sufficient size to be suitable for their needs.

Brinack and Kerry saw it that way too.

"I need someone to remain in our old hiding place," the general said, "I have a feeling that if not now, it will be known soon that we hid there while waiting for the now-missing Appolyon, and there are still old enemies – one in particular who cannot let the matter rest. I need one to stay there and hide for a little time and to let us know if he comes then."

"I know the one, Brin, " Kerry said quietly, "I have the same score to settle with that old lord."

Brinack nodded and turned to the legate of the scouts, "Give me one. One scout only. And let it be my nephew Ulfr, if you have nothing against it. He is just barely old enough for the duty, a good learner from your telling to me, but this fight is nothing for a young slayer's test. It will be test enough for the veterans, I think. I want him nowhere near the fray. He will take the human to our old place. Once there, he will keep her safe until this is over, one way or the other, and if the hated one comes, we will go. She will be safer there regardless, if she can be still for a time, and then Ulfr can bring her back."

The legate nodded and bowed, speaking his agreement. An instant later, the call went out.

Ulfr was only two decades and a bit old, if one looked at it from the view of how time was measured here. He was painfully aware of his tender age here and cursed his luck. He was also painfully aware that his name was NOT demonic in the least, and it had caused him to become a bit of a scapegoat and the butt of many jibes and much laughter among his peers. Perhaps goaded by it, Ulfr drove himself in all things to excel. Once he'd begun his learning while still small, his parents had always made it clear in a gentle way that he'd likely be placed in one of the two new legions with the other young slayers.