The Lilitu

Francine tried to ignore the voice that was nattering from the back seat of the old jeep that carried them along the dusty road, thirty miles south of Baghdad. The voice belonged to Roxanne, a co-worker with the American consulting firm that had hired them both to help organize the maternity ward at a local hospital during the recent baby boom. Most of the time she appreciated Roxanne's company but right now she wanted to enjoy the scenery as they drove towards the ruins of Babylon. The chance to see Bablyon's ruins was, after all, the reason Francine had taken the job.

Francine was single and unattached at forty-three years old. Her work as an international consultant in hospital administration left her little time for a personal life. She liked it that way. She could have had relationships if she'd wanted them. Men liked her. She wasn't tall but she had a voluptuous figure. She was pretty. The pretty clothes that filled her closets at home let her show just how pretty she was. But Francine had trouble keeping a man. If she started to date a man then she did everything she could to make him happy, in every way. One day the man just wouldn't be there anymore. He'd suddenly break up with her or move away. Eventually she gave up and buried herself in her work.

Roxanne was a serial monogamist at twenty eight. Technically, she was an Executive Assistant but her real work involved networking with whatever office became her assignment. She always had stories to tell about her boyfriends. That was what she was doing now, between screams to the driver to slow down. She was always leading men on, taking as much from them as she could, then dumping them when someone or something better came along. It wasn't right but it was fair, since the men she picked did the same thing to their women. For Roxanne it was easy to snare men. She had the perfect waist and hips combined with a covergirl's face, fiery red hair and crystal blue eyes. Even language wasn't a barrier to her as she had learned several European and Middle Eastern dialects while travelling with her parents. Roxanne would get angry if you suggested she had sex with the men, though. She said that she was saving herself for the right man.

Roxanne was good to her girlfriends, though. That was why Francine had agreed to come along on her trip to the ruins of Babylon. From the day they'd met Roxanne had treated Francine as if they'd been best friends forever. Francine smiled at the jokes Roxanne was making about the two men with them now.

"How big do you think they are? Do you think they're circumcized? Do you think the wives would get mad or want to join in? Maybe they know some hot guys in town. You want me to ask them?"

She finally stopped when the driver craned his head around, smiled broadly through a perfect smile and said, "You. Fuck. Off."

The two young men had been assigned by the hospital to protect the women. Although there hadn't been a violent incident in months it was still a violent country. The hospital recommended them. They came from good families and were well known as good men.

It was a hot summer day in October. Temperatures went as high as a hundred and ten Fahrenheit, only cooling to seventy late into the night. Back in the city, the rest of the staff would be sipping lemonade or going to the shops for ice cream under umbrellas. Here, in the flat, open sea of sand, the sunlight showered its burning rays on everyone and everything.

They drove over a long, low mound that was as close to a hill as could be found within a hundred miles. As they passed the crest they had a blowout in the left front tire. The jeep spun out and left the road, then slowly turned on its side and skidded to a stop. Both the satellite cellphone and walkie-talkie were destroyed. There would be no way to get help except to walk back. Roxanne didn't think that she could walk twenty miles and that it would be best to wait for a passing truck. Francine knew that they were on a less-travelled road and that trucks only used this route once or twice a year.

The only agreement that they could reach involved Francine going with one man, while Roxanne would stay at the jeep with the other. Francine resisted the urge to comment on what would happen after she left. The image in her mind involved Roxanne offering to peel her guide like a grape and suck his cock dry if he discovers that there is a way to right the jeep and drive back to the city.

They had walked for about five miles before she had drained her water bottle dry. Even after living eleven months in a desert country she still couldn't resist the heat. The air shimmered around her as the rising air rippled in long thin waves. Thinner than the cooler air back home, it let the sun shine from every grain of sand. Her limbs felt like bags of wet flour. Breathing became a chore. She stopped caring about keeping her body covered, pulling her blouse out of her long loose pants and opening the top buttons. Luckily she's thought to wear a large white scarf over her hair, which was tied back with rubber bands. She discovered a large abandoned car ahead with just a little shade from the late afternoon sun. She headed straight for it and sat down. Her companion didn't bother to argue with her. There was another abandoned car nearby. He went there and sat on his heels, pausing to check for spiders, snakes and insects first.

She stared at the desert with half-closed eyes and fought exhaustion. There seemed to be something moving out there. It looked like an owl was flying low over the horizon towards her. It was huge, almost as big as a man. As it drew closer she realized it wasn't an owl at all but a woman with an owl's wings and clawed feet. She recognized it from her studies. It was something out of Babylonian myth: a lilitu.

Francine was terrified but too exhausted to run. In legend, the lilitu was an evil blood-drinking Babylonian demon. It would haunt the mid-day sun in the desert and descend on lost travellers. She stopped moving, hoping to escape its notice until her companion could shoot the thing. She couldn't see him now. She couldn't tell if he was unaware, was too afraid or had left altogether. The creature noticed her, looked directly at her and arched its wings to land nearby. Francine couldn't see it after it landed and wouldn't risk lifting her head to look. She heard a sound like that of a cabbage being chopped in half, followed by silence. The lilitu reappeared a few seconds later, crawling easily across the hot sand on bare arms and legs.

Francine saw how beautiful the monster was. The feathers of its owl's wings were flawless and clean. Its face was slightly rounded, with beautiful deep wide brown eyes that sparkled with green and amber highlights and sensuous lips that smiled slightly over a neat little chin. Its body was smooth as stone, with muscles on its arms and legs that rippled as it crawled. Its black hair was braided tightly and held under a strange headpiece. Other than that, the lilitu wore nothing.

The creature was looking up and down over her body, trilling in short, soft notes that it blew through pursed lips as if blowing a kiss. When Francine once dared to move her leg, the bird-woman scowled and hissed, showing its sharp, thick nails in clawed hands. It touched Francine's hair with a small, soft hand. Curling its hand so that the talons didn't even scratch her skin, it cut the bands that held her hair in place. As her hair fell down her damp neck and shoulders Francine could smell the desert creature. It was warm and spicy but not like perfume at all. As the lilitu ran its fingers through her hair, Francine she began to feel a little drunk as she inhaled the pleasant musk.

The lilitu began to sniff curiously at Francine's neck and face as it seemed to have discovered that Francine used cologne. After a few curious sniffs at her neck and face, it buried its face under her ear, opening its mouth enough so that Francine could feel its sharp teeth tickling her neck, breathing in Francine's scent. Francine couldn't take any more and fought to get away.

She stopped when the lilitu recoiled, baring her claws again. Francine lay back again. As she made eye contact with the creature, she felt herself fall away into the mysterious deep brown eyes. The lilitu smiled its enigmatic smile and drew its face close to Francine's neck again, stroking her face with its tiny hand while it trilled softly. Francine barely noticed as the lilitu's hand moved down to cup her breast. It held the breast gently but firmly through the white cotton blouse and bra. The gentle warmth of its hand made Francine's nipple grow hard and thick. The lilitu felt Francine's head move to look at the hand on her breast. Lifting its own head and whistling its soft music, it began to tickle the skin above the open collar with the very tips of its claws. Francine giggled. She couldn't believe the sound that came from her throat. Despite her fear she giggled as if she were seven years old. The creature was showing affection. She decided to pretend to be friendly while looking for a chance to escape.

The lilitu continued to tickle her with its claws. Francine laughed as the lilitu played its fingers and claws all over her body. It began to stroke her between the legs with the long hard edge of its wings, alternating left wing to right. As she laughed, Francine watched her legs lift and draw apart.

As it continued to tickle her the desert creature deftly began to cut away the buttons that held Francine's blouse and trousers. By the time the lilitu lifted its head to look into Francine's eyes she knew she was damned. The creature could do anything it wished and Francine had neither the strength or desire to resist it. It opened its wings, coccooning them both against the soft sand. It slid its hands under her shoulders as it pressed its smooth bare lips against hers, exploring the feeling as if for the first time. When Francine pushed her lips against the lilitu's, it parted its lips and slid a long, thin tongue that twisted and stroked the inside of Francine's mouth until she shuddered with pleasure.

Francine felt air against her breasts as she realized her bra had been shorn away. Until that moment she never realized how much she hated wearing bras, particularly since she didn't need them despite her age.

Her boots left her feet the same way. The lilitu kissed and fondled its way down to her ankles then sliced the boots through the socks without touching Francine's skin. It tickled her feet the same as it had done with the rest of her body. Without boots on Francine's feet it was easy for the desert creature to remove Francine's trousers. Her expensive black panties were cut away by supernatural claws that moved too quickly for her eyes to see.

The lilitu flapped its wings to make a gentle breeze in the hot desert as it took a single public hair from Francine's black mound, pulling softly and letting it slide between its little thumb and forefinger. Her pussy lips started to burn.

Francine was startled when the lilitu slipped two fingers into Francine's smoldering pussy until she realized that the talons had retracted, somehow. She was surprized again as she realized that the lilitu was using an ancient technique to stimulate her clitoris, labia and anus at the same time by using three fingers of the same hand, hooked in a special curve, with a rolling motion of the hand that had been lost to history until now. Francine felt the surging of an enormous orgasm build from inside as the lilitu lowered its head and began to suck and lick her juices with its huge snakelike tongue as its wings made soft touches and caresses about her skin.

As Francine's orgasm erupted from inside her it released passions and desires she had buried for years. It tickled her right up her spine, through her brain and down into her toes. She gave a short giggle and opened her eyes, wide and shining. As afterglow set in her vagina became tense while the rest of her relaxed. It needed something.

The lilitu rolled away from Francine. It crawled down to her feet and lay on its back with its legs spread, exposing its swollen mound to Francine. The mound was huge and covered in a thin mat of black curling hair. It was like a tiny breast.

The lilitu spread its legs further, splitting her mound. Inside were two perfect pink lips crowned by a clit so large it could be easily seen. The thought of erotic revenge exploded in Francine's mind and she curled her body towards the lilitu's clit effortlessly. Her jaw and tongue tightened and she licked her chin in anticipation of the sweetness that would satisfy her in ways she'd never felt before. She crawled with evil glee on powerful arms and legs, unwilling to use her clawed feet but instead used her wings for balance.

An ambulance siren cut through the silence of the evening air. Francine woke with a start, not knowing or caring how she came to still have her clothes on or where her guide was. The ambulance stopped just over the next hill. Help was available if she could just get to it. Just as Francine had guessed, Roxanne had convinced her guide to make a superhuman effort to get the jeep to work again, only to have it crash after a short drive. They'd probably called the hospital by hooking the jeep's battery to the walkie-talkie. Francine could only hope that no one was seriously hurt. As she arrived at the jeep she called Roxanne's name. No one answered. The ambulance was there, its lights still burning. The driver's seat was empty, as was the payload. There was still a light from the glow-stick emergency lights they had taken along. The eerie green dim light wasn't needed now that night had fallen and the full moon had risen. As she walked around the wreckage the toe of her boot tripped against something soft, heavy and wet. She looked down to see the body of a man, torn in pieces.

As she turned to run the sound of a bird trilled loudly nearby. It was familiar to her now. She had heard it in her dream. She slowly peered around the hood of the jeep and fought down the urge to scream. There, perched on top of the ambulance, was a lilitu. It had fiery red hair and crystal blue eyes. Its hands were stained with something dark and wet.