The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy)

  Jeb Savage, the lead guitarist, was the son of the American politician Bob Savage, who was set to run for the Republicans in the forthcoming American presidential election. Jeb and Killian had been best friends since junior high and had endured many public debacles together. Jeb and Co-co had been an item since the band formed three years before.

  The drummer, Steve Marx, was nicknamed ‘Wildcat’ for two reasons. The first was that it described his general personality and behaviour to a T. The second reason was that, as the son of the English multimedia magnate James Marx, none of Wildcat’s outrageous exploits ever made it into the tabloids or TV news. His father had a strong monopoly on and extensive influence over the European press, and thus the infamous drummer loved to emphasise the fact that, just like a wildcat, he was a protected species in Europe.

  I stood back as Killian greeted his best friends warmly and they responded with an equal amount of enthusiasm. I knew the band members by sight—their faces were as familiar to the world as those of their powerful parents. But upon this personal viewing, I learned much more about them than the press ever had. Obviously Killian didn’t realise that his close-knit group of rebellious rockers had already joined the ranks of the Nefilim and were his true friends no longer.

  I needed to get the band alone if I wished to expose these impostors for who they were. My reasoning was, the faster I took Killian into my confidence, the faster I could discover how much he really knew. He was surrounded by his enemies, who would lead him straight to the same damning fate that had befallen them. And if, as I suspected, Mathu’s soul mind was buried in Killian’s psyche somewhere, I might lose my prince to the ranks of the fallen if I didn’t take action soon.

  ‘Rrraaaw,’ purred Wildcat as he turned his attention to me. ‘Who’s the giant chicky-babe?’ He approached me, confident that I’d be flattered by his interest. ‘You’ve been window-shopping in Milan again, haven’t you, Kill, my boy?’ The big, brawny skinhead circled me, looking me up and down.

  ‘Not at all,’ Killian replied, assuring me in an aside that he never hunted for girlfriends on the catwalk—his friend was just trying to make him look bad. ‘Tamar’s the daughter of the linguist on my excavation project, and she’s just co-authored a novel about the Grail bloodline.’

  Killian’s tone was one of pride, but the news had a different effect on the impostors, who suddenly regarded me in a more threatening light. Why should they see me as a threat, unless they knew the truth about who my mother really was, and who I was?

  ‘So this one has a brain too.’ Wildcat finally looked me in the eyes. ‘Is that what you’re implying?’

  Time I spoke up for myself. ‘I could pretend to be blonde,’ I said, ‘if you’d find that less threatening.’ I stared the man down—he was no doubt used to being the tallest in the room—and everyone had a laugh at his expense.

  ‘Cute outfit,’ he said sarcastically as he withdrew towards his friends.

  ‘Ah, don’t mind him.’ Killian waved off his friend’s behaviour. ‘He’s very moody.’ He took a deep drag on the joint Co-co had shoved in his hand, then passed it to me.

  I had never smoked dope before, but as one of Amenti’s staff I was immune to the effects. To appear social, I accepted, dragged far more deeply than Killian had and passed it back to him. My human half was inclined to cough and splutter at this point, but the goddess in me maintained a cool, calm reserve and exhaled the stream of smoke without blinking an eyelid.

  ‘Holy shit, girl,’ Killian grinned, ‘you are a kindred spirit.’

  I smiled in return, with one eye on his friends who had huddled together to converse. ‘Now, how about a drink?’ I said.

  ‘What’s your poison, mademoiselle?’

  ‘Don’t bother,’ Wildcat cut in, ‘we’re leaving.’

  ‘We’re blowing off the gig?’ Killian said. I knew they did this often. Daddy’s Bitch never charged for an appearance, so they were never obliged to perform.

  ‘We made an appearance, the press got photos, it’s enough!’ Wildcat reasoned, and Killian ran with it.

  He put an arm around me to ensure we didn’t get separated during the exit—when people saw the band leaving before performance time, there was bound to be an outcry. I arched my back a little, aware of the weapon shoved down the waistband of my skirt.

  ‘So where are we going?’ Killian asked them.

  ‘Out of town.’ Wildcat grinned and raised his brows a few times to heighten the mystery, then turned to barge a path for the band out of the club.

  The leather-clad Co-co brought up the rear. Daddy’s Bitch didn’t need hired security; everyone had learned not to mess with her.

  ‘Band only,’ Wildcat said, and pushed aside the members of his entourage who tried to accompany us.

  ‘Why does she get to go?’ one of the band’s die-hard groupies protested.

  ‘She’s a goddess,’ Wildcat retorted, taunting me with a wink as he kept us moving.

  If I willed it, I could read the thoughts of any soul on Earth, except those with Orme addiction. The golden shield it formed around the light-body was as solid as the Orme-based steel structures the Ancients built to house their greatest treasures. There was no way I could penetrate the barrier around Killian’s friends’ minds. I was going unknowing into whatever event they’d planned.

  The other band members travelled in Wildcat’s black SUV and we followed in Killian’s Porsche. I was glad that we weren’t all travelling together, as being in their proximity made my skin crawl.

  You may think I should have felt some pity and compassion for my fallen kindred, but Kali had many bad memories from her time as one of the Nefilim incarnate: she had been widely ridiculed and ostracised for her humanitarianism. What was more, these souls had given the Anunnaki a bad reputation in this universe and the next. It was my job to save them from themselves, but once they returned to their soul group, they would make amends for the pain and humiliation they had caused the Anunnaki, and Kali personally.

  ‘Where do you think we’re going?’ I asked Killian.

  ‘I’m sorry, this hasn’t been much of a date so far,’ he said. ‘I guess I should have taken you to dinner before we hit the club. You must be starving!’

  Now that he mentioned it, I was hungry, but as an Amenti staff member, food was no longer essential for me; I could live on cosmic light and water alone.

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ I said, ‘just curious.’

  ‘My friends must seem precocious. I know our reputation precedes us, but I assure you they’re really quite harmless.’

  Killian sounded sincere, but he was so very wrong. His impression may well have been the case once, but not any more.

  We followed a provincial road that was winding its way through a forest when the SUV in front turned off into an abandoned picnic area.

  The dark atmosphere of the place washed over me in alarming waves that chilled me to the core with their low frequency. The forest was dying here, for the vibratory frequency of the area was not conducive to growth. There were ley line crossings of light and darkness all over the Earth grid that led into the Otherworld, and this was one of the latter.

  ‘What the hell are they up to?’ Killian didn’t know whether to be amused or bemused.

  Wildcat stopped his vehicle and the band members climbed out and approached our car before we’d even shut our engine off. Co-co knocked on the window on Killian’s side and he wound it down.

  ‘What’s the buzz?’ he asked, curious about the remote location.

  ‘We just need to have a little chat with your girlfriend.’ Co-co pressed her fingers into the pressure points in Killian’s neck and he passed out.

  ‘Come on, princess, let’s see what you’re really made of.’ Wildcat opened my door and, grabbing hold of my hair, dragged me out.

  Fortunately this left both my hands free. I drew my weapon and fired point-blank into his gut. He went flying across the clearing and landed flat on his back, squirming to escape
the light now spreading through his body.

  ‘That’s “Your Highness” to you,’ I corrected.

  ‘You Kianist bitch!’ he yelled. ‘What have you done to me?’

  Under the heightening sonic pressure, the impostor could no longer maintain his false human form and his deformed Nefilim body unfurled from it. His cursing and cries of anguish caused a storm to form overhead, the lightning and thunder clashing in response to their master’s protests.

  ‘Ishkur,’ I said, recognising him now as one of the sons of the leader of the fallen.

  Ishkur had once been in charge of the weather on Earth—a storm god. Now he stole his power from the dark arts in order to command the elements, forcing nature spirits to do his bidding lest he banish them into density.

  Thunder shook the Earth and several bolts of lightning shot from the sky towards me. I raised my hands and demanded they yield.

  ‘In-a-vho-ki, Ne-ta or-um!’ The oldest language on Earth spilled from my mouth—the language of the Anunnaki, once known as Anuhazi. I invoke you by divine loving command to return to the light was the English translation of what I’d said, and with my permission the storm quickly dispersed.

  ‘Holy shit, it is her.’ Co-co was suddenly less confident of gaining the upper hand.

  ‘I told you this was a bad idea,’ Jeb said, sounding rather calm considering his friend was now convulsing and spewing black muck.

  I turned the gun on Co-co, knowing that she was the noted warrior of the two. The karate queen proved far more nimble than expected, for as I fired she cartwheeled to avoid the bullet. Before I got a second shot away, the gun flew from my hands into Jeb’s and he turned it on me.

  ‘That weapon has no effect on me,’ I informed him.

  ‘How about this?’

  I turned to see Co-co’s heel on a collision course with my face.

  I used my will to slow time to a crawling pace, then grabbed Co-co’s extended foot, twisted it and thrust her away. I turned my focus to retrieving my weapon, only to find Jeb mysteriously absent, my weapon gone with him. I released time to search for my missing target, but Co-co recovered more quickly than anticipated and rose to come after me. I turned to confront her.

  ‘Stop right there, both of you.’

  The sight of Killian with a handgun aimed at us across the roof of his car brought the confrontation to a standstill.

  ‘What have you done to my friends?’ he demanded.

  ‘These aren’t your friends,’ I said, motioning to Wildcat’s alien form, still wriggling on the ground.

  ‘I realise that,’ he assured me, coming out from behind the car to better aim his gun and his questions at Co-co. ‘What have you done with my friends? My parents!’

  ‘It won’t matter soon,’ Co-co said with a smile.

  Killian cracked. The bullet from his pistol blew a huge hole in the girl’s head, demolishing half her face in the process, and yet she didn’t fall.

  ‘What the…?’ Killian gasped, as she reconstituted before his eyes.

  ‘You can’t kill a creature that’s already damned. Isn’t that right, Ereshkigal?’ I used her oldest name, the one I had known her by, and she was shocked that I recognised her.

  ‘Ereshkigal!’ Killian knew the name too. ‘How could you recognise the ancient Sumarian, goddess of the dead…’ His words trailed off in shock. ‘Who are you, Tamar?’

  Co-co laughed. ‘You don’t even know that you are dating the Destructor.’

  ‘What?’ Killian distanced himself from me, lowering the gun now he realised it was useless.

  ‘I have come for the fallen ones; humans have nothing to fear from me,’ I assured him and returned my attention to Co-co. ‘I can save you from the inevitable fate that has driven you to steal a human form.’

  ‘Nothing can save us!’ Co-co hissed.

  ‘Spoken like a true goddess of doom,’ I teased her. ‘Then explain how I have returned to life.’

  ‘You are a human myth, designed to trick the Nefilim into conspiring in their own demise.’

  ‘You wish,’ I said, and pointed to Ishkur whose horrid physical form was changing into the glorious astral presence of his former Anunnaki soul mind.

  ‘Ishkur?’ Co-co could barely believe her eyes as she gazed at the splendid astral being—he looked like an angel. It had been so long since she had seen any of the Nefilim appear thus, tears sprang to her eyes. ‘Is he dead?’ she asked, as he floated before her, all evidence of his addiction gone.

  ‘He certainly is,’ I said with a smile, and Co-co gasped, realising that perhaps she did not have to be damned anymore.

  Ishkur looked down at himself and wept for joy. I am free! he cried out in relief to the night. My senses have returned; I can feel!

  ‘It is a trick.’ Co-co backed away.

  ‘The righteous do not lie; we are not deceitful or spiteful, or we would not be the righteous,’ I said, hoping to vanquish her doubt. But with every step I took towards her, Co-co stepped further back towards the negative epicentre of this dark place. Clearly, aeons of fear and hatred would not allow her to believe me.

  ‘My orders are to kill you,’ she said.

  ‘I cannot be killed,’ I told her. ‘And whether you want it or not, I will save your soul.’

  Co-co’s inner conflict brought her to a standstill, and she dropped to her knees. ‘Take me, great mother…’

  ‘Stay away from her!’

  Jeb stood in the middle of the clearing, a mass of moving shadows at his back. His human guise cast aside, he was revealed as the Lord of the Underworld, once known as Erragal, and he was here to retrieve his mate.

  The Underworld was the lowest astral level of the earthly plane, not to be confused with the Inner Earth territories of the physical world frequented by humans, or the Otherworld, or higher astral realms, frequented by the Anu. Just like its higher-dimensional counterpart, the Underworld granted access to the physical world whilst also providing an escape from it. Due to the diminishing beauty of their appearance, and their growing alliance with the Dracon, most of the Nefilim’s major bases were, as the name Underworld suggested, subterranean.

  I willed time to stop, but to no effect.

  Erragal laughed. ‘You now stand within my sphere of influence.’

  Co-co rose and grinned, having successfully lured me into range of the dark porthole. Yet I could have sworn that her plea to be saved had been heartfelt. She joined her partner.

  ‘There is not enough cosmic light within this ley line crossing to support your power, so do not attempt to enforce your will here,’ Erragal warned, the shadows seething behind him. ‘We all have ghosts we’d rather leave buried, princess, even you.’

  I had assumed that the goddess in me had no fear, but even Kali shuddered at the thought of confronting Pintar again—the Dracon that had raped her in her previous incarnation—and I knew that Erragal had the black magic to make that reunion happen.

  ‘Bring forth her demon admirer, baby,’ Co-co implored her lover as she wrapped herself around him from behind. ‘This one looks like she could use a good fuck.’

  I glanced back to Killian, who looked completely shocked by what he was witnessing. It was typical of the Nefilim to take pleasure in stirring painful memories in others.

  ‘Why not?’ Erragal smirked and closed his eyes to summon my old adversary.

  As he did, I drew upon all the light within me and began to sing. Killian and the ghostly Ishkur were enchanted by my voice, but those who stood against me found it agonising.

  I motioned Killian to the car, still singing as we climbed inside. He started the engine and tore off up the road.

  ‘That was incredible,’ he said with great enthusiasm. ‘I’m so very pleased you didn’t get to hear me strangle a tune.’

  You have a good voice too, Ishkur’s ghost commented from the back seat.

  When Killian spied him in the rear-vision mirror, he nearly crashed the car. ‘What’s he doing here?’ he said angrily. ?
??He killed my friend!’

  Sadly, I have killed many, many humans, Ishkur confessed with regret. But I can help save you.

  ‘You’ve done all you’re going to be doing on this Earth, Ishkur,’ I advised him. ‘It’s straight to the Hall of Amorea for you, my friend…’ I turned in my seat to view him, ‘…as soon as you tell me whose form Enlil is hiding out in at present.’

  Enlil? Ishkur seemed perplexed by the question.

  ‘You know, Ill, your lord and master?’ I was prepared to probe his mind if need be, although, having been reborn, Ishkur no longer had the capacity to lie or withhold information.

  I know who Ill is, he assured me, but he does not have a human form at present. The demi-god looked at Killian. He is still awaiting delivery.

  ‘What!’ Killian freaked at the implication and would probably have pulled the car over to the side of the road if he wasn’t already running for his life.

  ‘Is that where you were taking us tonight?’ I asked.

  Well, yes. Ishkur shrugged, as if the notion was elementary. We hoped to present our lord with his chosen form as well as the long-awaited human incarnation of Kali.

  ‘Co-co called you the Destructor!’ Killian said, completely bewildered.

  As he was clearly incapable of steering the car, I employed my psychokinetic powers to take control of the wheel.

  ‘Only so far as demons are concerned,’ I assured him again, as he looked stunned by his car’s new automatic pilot function. ‘Do you have any demons you need to be rid of?’ I added, joking, and he finally cracked a smile.

  ‘Quite a few, as it turns out.’ He looked at Ishkur warily.

  I also returned my attention to Ishkur, for my interrogation was not done. ‘Where is the control centre for your frequency fence?’

  ‘What’s that?’ Killian was curious, but I hushed him and stayed focused on my subject.

  That project is highly confidential and I am not directly involved, Ishkur advised me sadly. Only Erragal, Suen or Ill himself could tell you.