Chapter 13 – Blood Bond

Lexi and Shoryu emerged from the dark portal and stepped into Azazel’s living room.  Rachel, Faye and Azazel were there waiting for them.  Both Rachel and Faye jumped up simultaneously and started to ask rapid fire questions.  Azazel remained seated.

Lexi politely brushed by the two girls as best as she could and made her way to the loveseat sofa.  She gratefully sank into its soft luxuriousness and smiled when Shoryu released the Omega Guyver armor and sat down beside her.

“I take it that it went well?” asked Azazel with a small smile.

Lexi nodded tiredly and said, “Yes, it was touch and go for a little bit, but it ended well.”

“What about Lilith?” demanded Rachel.

“Lilith is dead,” said Lexi flatly.

“Yes!” crowed Rachel with delight.

Faye frowned but did not say anything.  Azazel looked inquisitive and tilted his head as if to invite Lexi to go into more detail.

Lexi sighed and leaned back into the love seat.  “I am sorry Azazel.  I know that you wanted me to spare Lilith if I could.  She did not give me much of a choice.  Shoryu had opened a gate and we had to prevent her from going through.”

“Tell me more,” said the Dark Angel.

Lexi took a deep breath and told the story.  She described the Lilin realm as best as she could.  She tried not to cringe as she described the market that sold humans as food.  As she recounted her conversation with Lilith regarding her origins, her face took on a faraway look.  Inwardly, she wondered now how much of what Lilith said was true.  Was Lilith in fact the ultimate progenitor of the vampires and the lycans?  Or was it all a fancy lie designed to keep her busy while Shoryu opened a gate?

When she got to the part where Shoryu killed Afrael, Azazel leaned forward in an unconscious attempt to hear everything.  At this point, he raised a hand to interrupt Lexi.  “Thank Shoryu for allowing my son to begin a fresh life.”

Shoryu inclined his head and said, “I don’t think I had much of a part though.  If Afrael had not dropped his shields at that moment, I don’t think I would have done him much harm.  He was as strong as a Zoalord.”

“Stronger,” said Azazel absentmindedly.  He turned back to Lexi and said, “I was wrong before.  You, not Shoryu, are the true Gatekeeper.”

“I do not understand,” said Lexi.

“Shoryu merely opened the gate, but it was you who prevented Lilith from going through.”

That made sense to Lexi, but she shrugged and continued her story.  She described her fight with Lilith and ended by saying, “I must thank you once again for Yabu Kiru, Azazel.  Thanks to it and my Amakakeru Ryu No Hirameki, I am alive now and Lilith lies decapitated in her domain.”

Rachel clapped her hands together delightedly.  “You cut off the bitch’s head?”

Lexi gave her a small smile and nodded.  Azazel had a thoughtful expression though.  “You say you cut off Lilith’s head?  Did you inflict any other wounds upon Lilith?”

Lexi thought for a second and then said, “I believe Shoryu hit her with a laser beam.”

Azazel nodded gravely but all he said was, “Interesting.”

Lexi narrowed eyes and stared at the Dark Angel shrewdly.  However, Azazel’s expression was closed and she did not think that he would answer any questions about this particular topic.

Suddenly, she felt a weakness in her body and her head began to spin.  Shoryu noticed right away and said, “Are you alright?”

Lexi nodded weakly and said, “I think I need to feed.”

Shoryu perked up at the comment.  “Here, or would you like to go upstairs?”

“Are you sure?” asked Faye with concern written on her face.  “I can conjure up some cloned blood for you or Azazel could pull it from any number of hospitals in our area.”

“Thank you Faye, but I do not think that will be necessary,” said Lexi.  She looked Shoryu directly in his eyes and said, “Only your blood will do, my love.  Your blood has changed me – evolved me.  I am now stronger, faster and have incredible new abilities at my command.  I can stand in the sun and I can enjoy the warmth of your caresses.  The only drawback is that I still need blood.  Not just any blood.  I need your blood.”

“I kind of expected that Lexi,” said Shoryu with understanding in his voice.  “Ever since you spit out the rabbit blood in the cave, I already started to suspect it.  However, when you used the link that now exists between us to slip into a combat trance against Lilith, I knew it for sure.”  Shoryu rolled up his sleeve and offered his arm to Lexi.  “My blood is yours whenever you need it.”

Lexi leaned in and kissed Shoryu passionately.  She put a hand on his arm though and pushed it down.  “Not here my love!”  She gestured with her head towards the stairs and then glanced at Azazel.

Azazel smiled broadly and said, “I will have Faye or Rachel put a spell of silencing on your room.  When you are ready I would like to call in that favor, Madam Vampire.”

Lexi gave him a grateful grin and then prodded Shoryu into action.  “Let’s go!  I am going to make you exhausted and satisfied!”

Shoryu blushed but allowed himself to be prodded upstairs amidst raucous laughter and catcalls from Rachel and Faye.

As Lexi closed the door in the room that she shared with Shoryu, she wondered in the back of her mind what sort of request the Dark Angel would make of her.

---

Shoryu dreamt.  This time though, his dreams were random images that flitted to and fro in a mixed up jumbled pattern.  Some of the dreams seemed fixated upon his most recent activities with Lexi and as Lexi walked down the corridor of dreams, she blushed as she watched the activities through his eyes.

She and Lilith really were very much alike after all, reflected Lexi.  Lilith had the ability to into the dreams of others.  Once shown the way, Lexi found that she too could enter dreams.  Of course, the only dreams she wanted to enter was Shoryu’s, but there was no telling how useful this ability would be in the future.

“Men do seem to have a one track mind, do they not?”

Lexi turned at the sound of the voice.  Something, some instinct perhaps had warned her, so she was not all that surprised to see the other person who had entered Shoryu’s dreams.  “He is young.  It is normal for young men to be fixated.  You should know that Lilith.”

The other woman smiled broadly.  “I see that I did not fool you for very long, little one.”

“No, you did not,” said Lexi firmly.  “I bear you no ill will Lilith for no harm came to Shoryu or me, but if you ever try to come between Shoryu and I again, I will kill you for real.  I know I have the ability to.”

“Tut, tut!  No need for the threats!”  Lilith started to walk down the corridor of dreams and Lexi fell into step with her.  “I got what I wanted.”

Lexi glanced sideways at Lilith and said, “Oh really?  You got everything that you wanted?”

Lilith chuckled and said, “Maybe not everything.  It is all about priorities after all.”

Lexi arched an eyebrow.  “Priorities?”

“Yes.  For example, my primary priority was to have a gate opened to a dimension.  Any dimension really.  Once there, I would have found a way to bring my children over and made that dimension our new home.”

Lexi didn’t quite shiver at Lilith’s matter of fact tone.  Lilith was talking about the enslavement of an entire world, but she was saying it so very casually.  “What about the people in that dimension?  Would they just become food for the Lilin?”

Lilith shrugged her shoulders.  “My Lilin are flawed Alexandra.  They need blood to survive.  How is that any different than you?”

“The vampires in my dimension strictly controlled their interactions with the humans,” said Lexi hotly.

“I was not talking about the other vampires, my dear.  I was talking about you in particular.”

“Me?”

“Suppose, for a moment, that you had children.  You love your children but they need blood to survive.  Not just any blood either.  What if they could only survive on human blood?”

That startled Lexi and struck surprisingly close to home.  “The Lilin can only live on human blood?”

Lilith nodded.  “It is not their fault.  I instilled that in them with the anger and hatred I felt when I left Eden.  At first, it worked to my advantage when I assaulted and destroyed Eden, but later, when I tried to correct my mistake, all my attempts failed.  Unlike you, the Lilin are at an evolutionary dead end.  They cannot evolve further than they already have.  The most I can do to prevent them from feeding on the human race in general is to raise a small sub-species for food the way that humans would raise cattle.  I keep these food humans dumb and stupid on purpose.”

“Whatever happened to you to instill such hatred?”

“I refused to be on the bottom during sex!” said Lilith with a broad grin.  When she saw the expression on Lexi’s face, she laughed and said, “Just kidding!”

Lexi laughed but did not ask the question again.  “So, what was your next priority?”

Lilith said, “Well, if I could not make Shoryu open a gate, or if I could not convince you to let me go through, then my next objective was to have my soul released temporarily.”

Lexi smiled at first as she imagined the type of convincing Lilith had tried during their confrontation.  Then she did a double-take.  “Have your soul released?  What does that mean?”

“I can travel dimensions through the dreams of mortals,” said Lilith.  “However, if I actually want to visit one, I have to either ask God – which the last time I checked was not answering my calls.  Or, I can ask Satan – been there, done that and He never honors his deals anyway.  Or, I can go through the Abyss.”  Lilith shuddered and said, “I’ll leave that one to your imagination.  I have already been through the Nexus and I do not think Azazel would fall for the same trick twice.  The only other way left to me is to go as a wandering soul.”

“Why?” asked Lexi in a perplexed tone.  She could not think of any good reason to risk death the way Lilith had.  “What was so important to you anyway?”

“My son,” said Lilith simply.  “My son was dead.”

“Really?”  Lexi had figured that Marcus was dead; thanks to the splitting headache she had received while running from the lycans, but had not expected Alexander Corvinus to be dead as well.  He was always just a legend to her.

Lilith wiped away a tear and said, “My son died trying to right the wrongs that he felt was his to fix.  I could not have been prouder of him.  With the help of some locals that I possessed, I salvaged what little of his body that I could and gave him a proper burial and memorial.  I buried him on a tiny little island, in the middle of nowhere, next to the graves of his sons Marcus and William.  I think he would have liked that.”

Lexi was silent for a moment as she digested this and said, “I am sorry for your loss. But could you not have done all that without all the subterfuge?”

“If I had approached you and said, ‘Please cut off my head with a magical sword that had been dipped in the Abyss so that my soul can be free to visit my son,’ would you have believed me?”

“Good point.”

“Besides, my primary goal was to find a home for my Lilin and I am more prone to manipulate than beg.”  Lilith sniffed and shrugged.  “It is just my nature.”

“It was a very good plan and you had fooled me completely.”

“Thank you,” said Lilith.  “So, have you decided what you will do now?”

“Yes,” said Lexi.  “Azazel has invited Shoryu and I to stay with him.  As the Celestial war ramps up in intensity, he would like me to stay and guide Rachel.”

“He wants you two to be surrogate parents you mean,” said Lilith archly.

“Perhaps,” said Lexi.

“There is no ‘perhaps’ about it,” said Lilith with conviction.  “Azazel is trying to distance himself from the parental role so that he can properly woo the young Rachel when she reaches adulthood.”

“In that case,” said Lexi with firmness in her voice, “He better not hurt her, or else I will take Yabu Kiru and cut off something precious!”

Lilith laughed but Lexi said, “Why do you laugh grandmother?  You have as much a stake in Rachel’s happiness as I do!”

Lilith suddenly choked and Lexi chuckled in delight.  “What did you just call me?  And why do I care if that Nephilim is happy or not?”

Lexi smiled sweetly and said, “What else should I call you?  You are the progenitor of my species; therefore, you are my grandmother.”

Lilith conjured up a hand mirror and examined her face in it.  “Surely I do not look that old, do I?”

Lexi impulsively hugged Lilith to her and said, “You do not look a day over five thousand!”

Lilith grinned and said, “Now tell me why I should be concerned about Rachel’s happiness.  The last time I checked, she hated me – for good reason too!”

“Simple.  If I am to be Rachel’s surrogate mother, then by extension, that makes you her surrogate great grandmother!”

Lilith laughed long and hard.  When she finally got control of herself she said, “When they finally get married again, that would make Az my great grandson-in-law!”  Lilith wiped tears from her face and said, “I like you Alexandra!”

Lexi stopped walking and turned to face Lilith.  “I think that I like you too Lilith.  I hope that we will not be enemies again in the future.”

Lilith shrugged nonchalantly.  “Who knows what the future may hold.  Like yourself, I am a free agent in this war and I come and go as I please!”  Lilith’s image started to waver and melt and she raised a hand in farewell.

A sudden thought occurred to Lexi and she shouted, “Wait a minute!  Was any of what you just told me true or just part of another ploy?”

Lilith grinned enigmatically and said, “Who knows?  We have a blood bond, you and I.  Just remember, blood is thicker than water!”  Lilith’s image disappeared and Lexi was left alone in the corridor of dreams.

Lexi glanced around her one more time at Shoryu’s dreams and then closed her eyes.  When she opened them next, she was back in bed beside Shoryu.  The cover had been brushed off his body so she carefully pulled it back over the two of them.  Then she spooned his body with hers, closed her eyes and went to sleep.