"Mother said you will be difficult, but I never thought you would be so foolish as to fight back," she said just as she made a gesture with her right hand that sent me hurtling towards the wall to her right. I smashed back-first at the wall at high speed. The pain was excruciating. I thought I must've broken my spine or pelvis. I managed to get up right before she sent me hurtling towards the souvenir cabinet along the opposite wall. This time I couldn't get up as the smashed cabinet was holding me in place. The Half-Lilin Chapter 9 by Shin Eris

From last chapter:

The voice sounded louder, more annoyed this time. “Look, I've had enough of your crap. You make money from ME making money! Discuss a better deal or I'll find someone else to do your job. Got that?”

I crept slowly and silently through the hallway. I intended to jump onto this gutsy thief who broke into my house, used my phone and argued with someone else using the phone in my living room while watching The Simpsons.

I was peeking in through the doorway to determine her position when I saw something that made my blood turn cold.

Chapter 9

 

It was a demon! A demon was sitting with her legs stretched out on my couch, watching a rerun of The Simpsons on my tube! A demon that looked just like me, save that her wings were more reddish in colour and her horns curved down and forward instead of swirling to the sides like mine. She also had hair that appeared to be long and blonde, unlike mine, not to mention the fact she was also smaller than me, and—sad as I was to admit it—cuter than me in my lilin form..

I was staring agape from my vantage point in the doorway when she turned and looked straight at me.

"How long do you intend to stand there?" she asked.

When I didn't make any response, she got up from the couch and walked towards me. I slowly inched back.

She paused, and put both her hands on her hips. Smiling sweetly, she said, "You come here right now or I swear you will regret it. I don't have time to play around with you."

When I didn't do what she asked me to do, she made a little gesture with her right hand and I felt myself wrenched forward through the open doorway, landing on the floor right in front of her.

She raised my face with the tip of her boot under my chin and said, "I can be mean, sister, so don't piss me off."

At that point, my very numb and confused mind finally recovered from the shock and I immediately rolled away from her. She watched amused as I got to my feet. We spent the next few minutes or so just staring at each other.

When she didn't say anything, I asked, "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

She kept looking at me, smiling sweetly like a little girl scout selling cookies. If not because she had such a pretty face, I thought I might've struck it in annoyance. Funny, her face reminded me of someone, but who?

Finally she said, "My name is Shaina. You are Ilyse, daughter of Sarai?"

For some reason I got really pissed off at hearing that.

"My name is Patrick, and I'm not a daughter of anyone."

She chuckled, "Oh yes, I got the correct person all right. Mother did say that you are in denial. As for why I'm here, let's just say that you owe me and I intend to cash in the favour."

"What favour? I've never even met you before!"

"What favour?" she asked as she walked closer, her wings seemed to expand behind her, "What favour, you ask?"

She was really getting too darn close now and it really made me nervous. I didn't know where to look. Do I look at her face? No, those pouty lips just begged to be kissed. Do I look at her neck? No, that neck looked so long and pale and clean that I felt like... biting it? Do I look at her breasts? No, totally bad idea, hers appeared to be about 2 cup size larger than mine--I mean my breasts in demon form, of course. I couldn't look sideways, because I didn't want to show weakness in front of her, so I decided to fix my eyes on hers. At least she didn't have that one thousand years of torment in her eyes like Mother did.

She stopped in front of me as her face closed in on mine. She didn't look pissed or annoyed, in fact, she looked like she was about to giggle, "You owed me one, because I had to give up my only contract to your little sister.

"Do you know how hard it was for me to get that one contract? I had to spend months just to finalize the deal. Do you know how many job opportunities I've missed?!" she said, her voice rising with every word spoken, her pretty face still making that sweet smile, except that this time her eyes were closed tight.

I was incredulous. I was confused. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about. "I have no idea what you're talking about. And what in bloody hell is a contract!?"

"Of course you have no idea," she finally dropped her smile, "It was Mother who gave that order. But that doesn't mean that you can walk away scot-free. I'm holding you directly responsible for me losing my contract!"

"What the hell is a contract!?" I asked again, almost shouting.

She frowned, "Sarai never told you about contracts?"

I shook my head no.

"What's the point of having a talented mother when she never told her daughter a single thing?"

I kept silent as my hands positioned against her flat stomach, discretely trying to push her away. It was proven futile when her tail came up and slapped my hands away. I think she must've broken my wrist.

Her sweet smile came back as she said, "A contract is a binding agreement between a Lili and a human. The human gets whatever he wants in exchange for the Lili receiving the human’s soul when they die. An agreement cannot be amended, but can be replaced. Until their deaths, we are bound to honour the words of the agreement."

"What do they normally ask for?"

"You're human, you should know. The most common are money, a harem of bimbos, magical powers...," then her tone changed, "That particular contract forced me to become his personal slave until the day he died. I have never been so degraded. I, who was the idol for teenage girls around the world, was reduced to a mere sex slave who performed for him and his degenerate friends and being loaned around like a lowly whore!"

"I must say that I didn't regret arranging for him to be hit by that particular trailer. It was so satisfying to see his face being smashed when the trailer’s brakes suddenly stopped working," she said with a grin.

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked as she stepped back and sat on the couch.

She grinned, "You are going to help me get a new contract."

"What?"

"No one can resist the idea of having two Lilim as personal slaves... or toys... or servants. Of course, we'll make the contract very vague in that regard. I don't want to have to share the contract with you once he's dead."

She gestured for me to come to her, though this time I didn't feel any magical pull, "I've never seen you in your lilin form, but Mother said that it didn't differ much from your human form, unlike your mother. From what I can see, I think both of us together would look irresistible."

"Why did you give your contract to my sister?" I asked as I sat down as far away as I could, which wasn't really far enough.

"I've told you, Mother told me to do so. Why she picked me, who had only one contract, instead of the others, who have accumulated hundreds of contracts over the years, is beyond my understanding."

She paused, looked at me, then continued, "I supposed it had something to do with protecting your sister from your own powers. From what I've heard, your control of your own power is as raw and immature as Sarai’s when she was young, despite the fact that you're a bicorne, a two-horns, like me."

"What's a two-horn?"

"Two-horn?" she pointed to one of her horns, "One horn", then pointed to the other, "Two horns. Or have you forgotten how to count?"

I was annoyed. Why was it that everyone from the supernatural side looked down on me? "How was it possible for you to taunt me with a smiling face?"

"My human self is an actress, dear sister. Times like these, I normally spend either practicing my lines or sleeping. Right now, I'm practicing, because there's no other time to do that. I’ve told my manager to give me some breathing space, but so far, she doesn't seem to be listening. I'm too busy to even feed properly, which really sucks. I could use some extra energy," she said as she made a slight frown, which was immediately replaced with her trademark winning smile.

I was really curious about this contract thing. If it involved torture, maybe I could make a contract with Chris, since the geas ensured that I couldn't run from him anyway. I loved the idea of torturing his soul, he had tortured mine long enough.

"So, what does this contract of yours do?"

She huffed, her smile losing form, "Before I passed it over to your sister, nothing. I have to give it an attribute or property that will be beneficial to me. You mother, Sarai, made a lot of guardian-type artifacts with her contracts. I supposed because it was hard for her to control her own powers. Anyway, I hadn’t exactly decided what to do with that contract before Mother made that decision for me."

She paused, laughed at a certain scene in the show and continued, "Now it's set to disperse all pure ether, diffuse some ether-based spells as well as resist hypnosis. I'm not sure if you've learned how to do that yet, but she would probably need it soon."

"That's interesting. So basically it means our magic can't harm her? I could use something like that."

This time there was a hint of a sneer behind her smile. "Your magic can't harm her. Mine still can, because that contract is still mine. Mother told me to give it to her, but she didn't say anything about relinquishing my claim on it."

"Since she asked you to do that, can't you just ask her for another one?"

"Because... it's easier to bully the new ones than to ask Mother for something," she said, in a tone which made it sound like common sense.

"Figures," I said dryly, "When did you give it to Little Tell anyway? I don't remember seeing any kind of parchment tucked around her."

"At tonight's party. I forgot to remove the taint of lust from it, but it was still pretty interesting. And it's not a parchment, it's a pendant."

"Taint of lust?" I asked as I pondered the significance of that phrase with tonight's events, "Wait, you're saying that you're the reason that my sister suddenly turned gay?!"

She grinned this time, instead of the sweet smile she had sported since the beginning, "Such a delightful lesbian your sister turned out to be. I should know, I watched them make out in the upstairs washroom. They didn't even know I was watching, too caught up with their snogging, I'm sure.”

She grinned, her eyes showing a real mirth, unlike before, “I must say, I'm very proud of my contract. He was useless in life, but very hardworking in death. By the way, I heard this disgustingly sweet confession in the garden during the party. It made me want to puke."

Something clicked into place. "You were the woman in the purple dress!"

"Of course, I thought it was fairly obvious. Who else in there would be able to cast the specific warding spell that kept you two alone for half an hour?"

"That was you?" she nodded, "How dare you! No wonder not a single person came out from the hall..." I paused, "But you were a brunette!"

"A disguise. I couldn't risk people recognizing me. Besides, it was not brunette, it was coal black. The lighting made it look lighter."

She got up from the couch right before I was about to ask another question, "Enough questions. I've already wasted a lot of my precious time waiting for you to come back. Now we're going to get me another contract as well as a nice meal, so get out of that skin."

I sat still on the couch, looking straight into her eyes, "What if I don't want to?"

One of her eyebrows ticked. "Excuse me?"

I looked up defiantly, "What if I don't want to go out and feed? Besides, I don't know how."

She lost her smile totally this time. "You don't know how? What the hell do you mean you don't know how? Just concentrate on something in this room and jump towards it without moving your body. Gosh! Every one of us knows that by instinct. And for your information, you won't be the one doing the feeding, I will. It's been months since I last fed."

"The thing is, I don't want to be a Lili. I don't want to go out and do anything sexual with any guy. So you can just turn around and leave me alone," I said, proud of my own courage to stand up against her.

She jumped up on top of me, encircled her fingers around my neck and started choking me, "I don't think you understand what is going on here. You don't get to choose. You do what I tell you to do."

I was struggling to push her away as my air supply was cut by her strong iron grip when she said, "Since you don't want to get out of this form, I'll help you with it."

She let go of my neck and attempted to turn me over when I kicked her with both legs. She staggered a step backwards, obviously surprised by my unexpected reaction. I quickly got up from the sofa and scrambled to my feet.

"Mother said you would be difficult, but I never thought you would be so foolish as to fight back," she said just as she made a gesture with her right hand that sent me hurtling towards the wall to her right.

I smashed back-first into the wall at high speed. The pain was excruciating, and I thought I must've broken my spine or pelvis. I managed to get up right before she sent me hurtling towards the souvenir cabinet along the opposite wall. This time I couldn't get up as the smashed cabinet held me in place.

She pointed a forefinger at my chest, and a pillar of non-light, of darkness, connected from her finger to my heart. At first, nothing happened, and I was wondering what she was doing. A few moments after, I had a creeping sensation. I felt an overwhelming lust, a powerful desire, a desire to sate my hunger. My mind became cloudy as I replayed all those times I fed and how much I enjoyed it, how much stronger I felt and how much power I experienced as I sucked them dry. Oh the feeling of having their aura enter every pores of my skin, how my steaming holes consumed their essence into my body and how their breaths fulfilled me. It was amazing! How could I be so foolish as to decide against indulging in such tasty pleasures?

Great Mother, I want to feed again!

Come out now. Let's go out and feed, little sister. I'll even share some of mine with you.

I looked at her through my fog-filled mind. I was feeling grateful and love for her willingness to share her meal with me. I felt like hugging her for her generosity, and not above kissing her in gratitude.

But that's just the thing, I don't want to share!

I felt a tingle on my back as I leapt at her. She looked surprised, and the disruption was enough to cut off the flow of the corruption line to my heart. I was closing in on her as she panicked and casted a warding spell in hastiness. I briefly wondered what the point of such an action was. Warding spells took a long time to cast, and I could push her to the floor in half the time it took for her to complete her spell.

Just as my fingers almost touched her, she blinked away. My senses immediately notified me that she was several feet behind me, attempting to continue the spell. If she managed to finish casting, she might be able to keep me trapped long enough for her to go after that meal. Well, I couldn't just let that happen. I would feed, and nothing she could do was going to stop me!

I closed in on her again. This time, I knew her spell was almost done and she wouldn't take her attention away for another blink. I also knew I was out of time. In a few more seconds, her warding spell would be complete and she would be untouchable. Almost without thinking, I stretched my right arm in front of me, pointed my palm at her, and did the only thing I could.

I blasted her with a stream of pure energy.

Her screams were cut short as the ethereal stream devoured her. The only thing left in her place was a layer of grey dust and the familiar smell of rotten eggs. I grinned, feeling my fangs poking my lips as I thought that I would have the meal all for myself. My tail was dancing wildly in anticipation at the delicious supper I'd be having.

I was about to fly out the window when my fog-filled brain suddenly cleared and I was hit by the guilt-train. I was feeling sick. Sick at what I had done towards another Lili and sick at what I had been thinking when I did the deed. It was then that I noticed the shifting weights on my back and the movement of my tail behind me.

I made a dash for my bedroom. It was pretty hard with a pair of large wings bouncing around behind me and getting stuck on things as I passed by them. Whenever I ran pass a narrow passage, my wings got stuck to the sides. Whenever I bent over, my wings unfurled and ended up knocking things over. It ended with me being so annoyed that I wailed in frustration. Then I grabbed the nearest object (a small flowerpot) and threw it at random, all the while my wings unfurled and knocked over several more objects.

The flowerpot connected with the sugar container on my kitchen counter and exploded. I was dumbstruck as I watched it burn with an almost invisible blue flame on my marble counter top. A flowerpot wasn't supposed to explode, and sugar wasn't supposed to burn on its own.

I thought that was the limit and tried to calm myself as I walked slowly towards my bedroom. My eyes were already wet with barely controlled tears and I was trying hard not to weep. This time, apart from knocking some other small objects, I didn't have much more difficulty in navigating the suddenly cramped space in my house, though it still took me much longer than normal. I immediately opened my closet once I arrived, where a full-length mirror had been built into the inside door. As I looked into it, I felt sicker than before.

I had a pair of large wings all right, and a constantly moving tail. My shirt was torn, probably by the sudden growth of my wings. Apart from those though, I was still Patrick. My horns weren't there, my boobs didn't form, and my hair was still short. I looked like a demonized human, like a demon Patrick, not at all like my alter ego Ilyse, the succubus. Even the fangs that previously poked my lips were gone.

That was when I noticed cracks and wrinkles on my skin. I looked closer at my hands and I saw the cracks and wrinkles spread quickly as if it was a plague. Where the skin cracked, tiny wounds appeared, and some even bled.

I took a step back, wondering if this was my punishment for killing another Lili. I fell to the floor in a heap, crying my heart out as the pain on my skin and wings turned dull.

As I began to lose consciousness, I thought back to all the people who had shaped my life. My dad--who was always grumpy, Little Tell--who was always in trouble, Chris--who was always cruel, and mom--who was always kind. I missed the old dad, the one who was friendly with everyone. I recalled the day when Little Tell got her nickname as she told mom that I skipped school for a smoke. Chris, how I wished we could be friends like before that stupid oath. And mom, I wanted to see mom again.

Is this what dying feels like? If it is, I don't like it at all.

With the last shred of consciousness, I silently called, "Save me! Anyone? Please?”

“MOM, HELP ME!”