Chapter 8

Now.

I have tried reaching Josh on every number I know, with no success, if he does not answer soon I will have to make my own way out. I would call Marry but all that would do is worry her, I figure all give it another ten minutes.

Lillian pulls out her phone and looks at the screen, she frowns and puts it away, for a moment I wonder where the hell the phone was in that little dress, even in the dark covered in sewage the dress clings to her in all the right ways.

"Iden whats with the phone how is it working?" She ask

"I don't know if you have this problem but I break things, especially electronics, laptops, cell phones, and so on." I say.

She nods.

"I do that all the time" She says.

"Yeah the strength thing right, anyway I own stock in an electronics engineering company, I told them I am rough on my electronics, told them I have a habit of running over my cell phone, I had them take an iphone and beef the shit out of it, Tungsten cobalt case, waterproof, reinforced screen, enhanced antenna, fuel cell battery. They said it could give me cancer in a year at the level it puts out, I told them don't care." I say, tossing it to her.

She looks it over.

"Hell Idin you could have a market for this stuff with us, I have worn the keys of my laptop four times." She trys to bend it a little, the case hardly flexes.

"Tungsten cobalt, I had my wedding ring made of that, so I wouldn't break it." She tosses it back to me.

The small talk almost makes the situation seem normal, my phone starts to ring, I answer.

"Yes Josh, I know what time it is." I say

"Josh look its an emergency, I need you to get my truck, take it to my storage unit, take the back hoe and bring it, let me think here, you know what use my computer to pull up a schematic of the sewage system." I say

I look around for an engraved number on the pipe, I see it and give it to josh.

"Yes Josh this has to be tonight, the sooner the better, before sunrise."I say

"Whats down there? Well me." I say.

"Yeah Long story you need to hurry, Ill start trying to make a hole on my end." I say and hang up.

"Whose this Josh?" I Lillian ask.

"My Employee." I say.

"Loyal guy, I wouldn't do all the stuff you just asked." She says.

"Yeah ill remember to give him a raise." I say.

I walk over the the farthest part away from us in the tunnel, I look up.

"Lillian you want to help me punch through this?" I ask.

"Idin thats steel, I can't punch through steel." she says.

"Oh right, I forget sometimes." I say.

I position myself and punch upwards, there is a loud clang, I see I have made a tiny dent.

"Holy shit your actually going to try?" Lillian says coming over.

"Didn't I just tell you that Lilith carved a cave with her hands?" I ask

"I thought you embellished for the human." She says

"No the old ones could do that stuff, very strong, the farther removed from Lilith the less the strength, even being as old as your mother wont make up the difference." I say as I strike another blow, making the dent bigger.

"There are legends about the strength of the old ones, Idin how come you never talk about our past? I mean there are some of us how really want to know our history." Lillian says watching in wonder as I punch again.

"Lillian you ever think that its not just history, its not just stories, its my life, a lot of it is painful to me." I say.

She nods.

"I guess." She says.

"Lillian, how would you like to discuss how Micah died with strangers? Better yet, how about a thousand Micahs, how would you like people to than look over your choices and judge them, what if some one decides you could of done more to protect Micah?" I say striking another blow.

"I never thought of it that way Idin, I am sorry" She says.

"Lillian the truth is, you always could of done more, in hindsight I could of done a hell of a lot more, but I didn't, and I live with that, I know that I can only do the best I can, sure I should of seen the gun as being to easy, but I had the hope it was real, so I went on, next time ill be more cautious, or I wont." I say.

Lillian nods.

"sorry Idin." Lillian says.

I am not angry with her, I am angry with myself, Sharon and Jennifer are now in the hands of animals, I have seen what they are capable of, even good people turned like that are capable of great harm.

Lillian is sitting, it has been an hour of punching, I have a small hole now, it is all I need, with my finger acting as a can opener and my strength I tear into the metal making a hole so I can see the dirt above, I wonder how deep down we went.

And I have a thought, please please don't be under a building, I have no desire to claw through a few feet of poured concrete.

Lillian looks up and whistles at the hole I made.

"Remind me not to pick a fight with you." she says.

"Hey you people don't just respect me for my good looks you know." I say.

"Yes thats only part of it, its the modesty that sells it." She says

She gasp as she sees my hands.

"Your hands Iden?" She says.

"Oh don't worry they will be okay." I say.

Before I am even done speaking I feel the shift happen, I wave my hands in front of her.

"All better." I say.

"You know growing up you were always just uncle Idin, who the others all respected, the only male I was raised to respect. I always figured there was a reason, the age thing, but there is really nothing we could ever do to harm you is there?" Lillian says.

I Start pulling down dirt, making the hole deeper.

"Oh I can be hurt, just not in the way you are thinking Lillian, and the Sons are damn near the point where they will see what happens when they hurt me." I say.

Lillian nods in agreement, soon she is moving dirt away from the hole, stacking it in piles, I glance over to see she has removed her dress, she wasn't wearing any underwear under it, well one question answered.

She sees me look at her and blushes.

"You remember when I used to run away?" She asks.

"Yeah, I remember that phase" I say

"I didn't know that, I used to go and bury myself in the dirt, I would hide my clothes so they wouldn't get dirty and bury myself by the old oak tree, you know there was always a bucket of water by that tree, I think it was the gardeners, he must of thought he was going mad with it always disappearing on him." She says

I started to laugh.

"Whats so funny?" She asks.

"Lillian when ever you did that, your mother would ask me to track you down, I always knew where you where, so I would bring a bucket of water for you to wash off before you went home." I say.

"Oh, and I thought I was getting away with something." she says moving more dirt away.

"You did, I never told your mother where your hiding space was." I say

I think keeping secrets for little girls, children often don't think on there actions, what repercussions they will have, most of the time they are harmless, sometimes they are not.

Then.

It has been another week, the damage to the caves has been repaired, the injuries to have healed, we had added a door to Jora and Enores room to prevent the Liliths family from waking them during the night, although Enore had spent most of the nights with Amrita.

Jora is dying, and there is nothing I can do, she is in pain and Lilith has offered to end it, I am surprised when Amrita is the one that approaches me.

"Idin, I wish to be the one to help Jora." She said.

Right help I think.

"Enore speaks of her as a mother, Enore is my friend, it is the least I can do for her and you." She said.

"I really think Lillith or one of the others should do it." I said.

"Idin I owe you my life let me do this for you, I have thought about it Idin and my fangs are smaller than the others it might be less painful." She said.

I flinch at that, I don't want her in pain.

"Okay Amrita, you can do it." I said she nods, and turns to go tell Lilith.

I go to sit with Enore and Jora in the room, I am holding her hand telling her my good byes when Lilith comes in.

"Idin is it true you wish Amrita to do this?" She asked.

I nod, and for a moment I see something in Enore's eyes, perhaps she shouldn't be here for this.

"Okay Idin." Lilith said.

She motions and lets Amrita in, she shuts the door to let us be alone.

"Enore do you want to tell her anything before she does this?" I asked.

Enore shakes her head no.

"I already have done all I can for her." She said looking at Amrita.

Something was going on here, I just didn't know what.

Amrita grabs Enores hand and squeezes it.

She leans over and begins to suckle on Jora's neck, I see her breathing slow, I also notice Amrita release her bite, it looks like she bites down on her lip and places it back on the wound.

"Amrita what are you doing." I said.

Enore jumps up and gets between me and her.

"Please Dad, I cant lose another parent, please don't stop her." She says eyes tearing up, I look at Jora, and think about Lilith what she said, surely Cain was evil, Jora was not.

Amrita stops.

"Its done, Idin you need to keep them out of this room for the next day, Enore go outside act up set, just act like you lost her." Amrita said.

I look between the two of them torn, I don't know what to do, but I see Jora laying gently on the bed and make up my mind.

"Do what she says Enore, Ill guard the door." I said.

Enore leaves silently.

"Amrita what can we expect?" I asked.

"They will try to get in by force, I will make sure Jora does not try to get out, it may be a rough day or so Idin." she said.

"Amrita why did you do this?" I asked.

"Because Idin, I love her and I don't want to see her surfer, Nor do I want you to suffer Idin, she will be one of us and you can be a family with her." She said

I nod slowly.

Now.

I have made much progress, I am almost to the asphalt when I hear the back hoe breaking through, I move back and wait.

"Might want to put that on for a bit." I tell Lillian.

She nods and puts on the soiled dress.

"I am going to want one of those phones Iden."

"No problem Lillian." I say

"Hello down there?" I hear josh yell.

"Yeah we are here" I yell back.

I see a rope drop down, Lillian and I move toward it.

"Ladies first." I say

"You just want to stare at my but." She says.

"I cant deny that." I say.

She climbs the rope swiftly, I am right behind her.

Josh looks at both of us and frowns.

"You two look like shit." Josh says.

I motion for Lillian to grab the side of the back hoe, I grab the other side, we both lift and put it back on the trailer, Josh watches eyes raised.

"Thats why I like working for you boss you meet the most interesting people." Josh says.

Lillian smiles at josh showing him her fangs, Josh smiles and tilts his non existent hat to her.

He gets in the car, as do I and lillian.

"So boss, where to?" He ask.

"The office and fast." I say.

"No offense boss, but you smell like shit." He says.

I take out Sharon's gun to look it over, I eject the clip, sure enough it is the one I gave her, 15 round extended clip, she had emptied it at them, she killed one thats my girl I thought.

"Boss, thats Sharons gun." he says.

"I know Josh" I say.

"She okay boss?" He asks I can hear the concern in his voice.

"Josh I am going to make sure she is, once the suns up this is my town."

Then.

It is a rough few days, at first as Amrita said Lilith tried to get in, they couldn't get past me. Lilith tried to reason with me, it didn't work, she tried to beg, than she tried threatening Amrita, on the second day she conceded.