Page 79 of Sacrifice
Eve said nothing, but Michaels cleared his throat. “I believe so, Majesty,” he said.
Shamash nodded, a slow smile forming on his lips. “Do you know who you are, child?”
Eve looked back at him. She wasn’t entirely sure about that anymore.
“We are family, you and I,” Shamash said, not waiting for her to answer. “My sister, Ishtar, I feel her essence in your being.” One hand dropped to finger the star embedded in Eve’s chest. “Yes.”
At Shamash’s touch the star glowed brilliantly white and, while Michaels flinched away, Eve found herself quite calm, observing this most peculiar of phenomena with polite interest.
“I, I’m her, I think,” she said in a faltering voice. “Ishtar reincarnated.”
Shamash laughed, a sound that was rich and rolling. “You have her essence, child. I see that, but my sister lives.” He looked at her kindly, “It is not possible to be the reincarnation of one who cannot die.”
Eve glanced at Michaels.
“But Lucien, he told me. The story of Ishtar and Elham. About how she sacrificed herself to free him from the underworld, how she traded her power to visit the earth so that he could live.”
“I am familiar with the story.”
“Then you know.”
“I know my sister visits the echo of a man she once loved four times a millennium. It is a curse with occasional happy outcomes.” He touched Eve’s cheek again. “You, for instance, although I should not say it. The Council would turn against me in a heartbeat. Your very existence is a crime.” He sighed. “But blood is thicker than water and my entertainments have grown dreary.” He patted her shoulder and returned to the throne to sit down.
Eve’s face fell into confusion. “No. Lucien is the reincarnation of Elham, and I am the reincarnation of Ishtar. That’s what it’s all been about. The planets aligned. It was my chance to set him free.” The reasoning had come to her so readily, as if it had lain on the surface of her consciousness, butnow the words had been spoken she didn’t feel so certain. It was as if a filter through which she’d seen the world had been removed.
Shamash widened his eyes to emphasize his words. “My sister visits Elham’s descendant as we speak. She inhabits the body of a mortal for the duration of the transit—it is the pale imitation of a life together that she chose over Elhams eternal damnation. Looking at you, it would seem that past visits have borne a Nephilim.”
Eve squinted at him.
“My sister’s essence can pass down the female line, where the first-born is a girl. It can peter-out quickly or last for centuries.” He smiled at her, amused, “You must be third generation, perhaps fourth. It’s quite remarkable.”
“Nephilim?”
“A Demi-god. The product of a union between a god and a mortal. The talisman,” he motioned to the star embedded in Eve’s chest, “My sister would have bestowed it on the child.”
“It has been in my family for generations.”
Shamash raised his hands in a shrug. “And there we have it.”
“Grandma Aliyah was a Demi-god?” Eve shook her head at the possibility. “That would mean Granny Joan was too. And Mum!” Eve started to laugh. “My mother is the meekest, mildest person I’ve ever met. This is ridiculous.”
“The planets play their part. Without a celestial link, connections fade. Mortals don’t expect to have power and, for most, it would never come to fruition without intervention. A brush with death, for instance, can be a trigger. The underworld will take any chance it can to claim a Nephilim for their own. As I’m sure you’ve realized by now, the transit of Venus across the sun brings my sister’s descendants to their full potential. Right now, you shine like a beacon.”
“When the stars align.” Eve drifted off into her thoughts and remembered Lucien saying the words.
Michaels drew himself up to speak. “If I might help explain, Majesty?”
Shamash waved him on.
“Lucien first saw you when you tried to kill yourself. Once drawn to you, he spotted more in your aura than he ever could have dreamed. The distant echo of a god. He protected his find with a shield so that I couldn’t see you too. Lucien knew that I never would have allowed him to keep you close if I’d known what you are. He’s been planning to use you from the start.”
Eve shook her head. It couldn’t be right. “Lucien loves me. We are lovers through time.” The words were quiet and automatic, although now she did not feel so certain.
“Lucien has used you as a tool to set himself free. He is a reaver, Eve, a fallen angel in my dominion. He has used you. Lucien is a virtuoso of lies, a confidence trickster, a master of glamours and deception. Think about what you know. Remember what you’ve seen.”
Flashes of memory came and went in Eve’s mind’s eye. The shop assistant in Tiffany brought to confused tears, blood dripping from his nose; Lucien’s rage when she’d accidentally activated the demon bowl and pinned the porter to the floor; his delight at obtaining the Venus blade from Madam Laveau.
The Hellfire Club had been a trip on its own. Never in her wildest dreams would she have allowed anyone to lift her dress to finger her in the middle of a packed dance floor. She remembered him fucking her over his car, and the adrenalin spiked fear as he’d held her down; the sensation of carving the rune into his chest as she sat astride him, wild and powerful, aching for his cock. The sex they’d had was like a fever dream. She’d become someone she didn’t recognize.
