“Iraq.”
“Sorry?” I looked up at Deliah, my mind having wandered due to a certain surfer’s hand tracing up and down my bare forearm.
“I said the ancient city of Eridu is thought to be in Iraq at a place called Tell Abu Sharain. It’s steeped in Sumerian mythology.” Deliah closed the leatherbound book and laid it gently on her desk.
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been excavated and stripped by now?” Cas asked. He perched on an arm of the ornate sofa, one foot tapping the floor.
“Not completely, no. As I recall, it has had a few excavations done, but it is a massive site. Plus, modern digs just haven’t been possible with all the troubles in the Middle East. Saying that, I believe the earliest known occupation of the site is set at about 6500 BCE. Cain would have been around thousands of years before that, so it’s possible that they just haven’t dug far enough.” Deliah sat down and shot a disapproving look at Cas who just grinned at her.
Fighting a smile, I queried, “So if they haven’t dug down far enough, how are we going to find out if Cain is still buried under the city?”
“We need someone who can sense a life presence,” Deliah replied. “Cas, I was going to ask you to go, but I received a message just before you showed up that Samael has requested your presence in Dis.”
Cas frowned. “Is there a problem?”
“Not exactly, but now that you have convinced him of Shemyaza’s escape, I believe he wants to prepare for all eventualities, and he would like your advice on possible military responses should the worst happen.”
Cas nodded. “I’d be happy to, but should I go to Eridu first or—”
“I can go.” Euriel’s voice sounded quietly from where he stood near the wall. I looked up in surprise. Euriel had seemed even more distant since we got back from Manchester, not even rising to some of Cas’s thinly veiled insults.
Deliah seemed confused as well. “You will go? But don’t you have your own tasks to be getting on with.”
He shrugged, a strangely human gesture for him. “I have reached a point where I need to detach myself and think things over. Ponder what to do next. Perhaps a change in location and something to distract me will be the key to refreshing my mind on my own matters.”
“Well, if you’re sure, that would be very useful,” Deliah answered, still looking a little puzzled.
“If it is Shemyaza that has escaped, and if he seeks to release more of his kind, then it is a matter that affects us all on every plane of existence. If I can help, I will.”
“You’ve changed your tune,” Cas muttered. Sam elbowed him, and he nearly toppled off the side of the sofa. I snorted, trying not to laugh and failing miserably.
“Faith.” Deliah turned her piercing blue eyes on me, and I struggled to straighten my face.
“Yes, Deliah?”
“I think you should go too, and Alexei and Sam as well. If this is the birthplace of Lizpha, then it would stand to reason that this order will have some sort of base nearby. Should our search of Eridu reveal nothing, you might try to locate some of the order’s members and see what you can learn from them.”
“Oh, um, yes, of course. Sure thing.”
Alex picked up his mobile and started tapping away. After a moment or two, he looked up. “Nasiriyah is the closest modern city to the site. I can get us there by midday tomorrow local time if we get going now.”
Deliah nodded. “Do it. And Alexei, I don’t need to warn you to be very careful. If you do run into members of the order, they are likely to be very much older and stronger than you are. Tread carefully.”
*
Pulling my wide brimmed hat off to use as a fan, I collapsed onto a nearby rock. The heat was starting to overwhelm me. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down with incredible strength, heavy and oppressive. Sweat beaded on my forehead and ran in rivulets down my spine. I unscrewed the bottle cap of my container and took a slow drink of water, debating for a moment whether or not it would just be better to tip the contents over my face and into my hair rather than saving it to drink later.
“Are you alright, Faith?”
I looked up to see Euriel walking towards me. I considered throwing my container at him. He stood there in front of me, under the same scorching sun, looking like he’d just stepped out of a Ralph Lauren advert or something. Not a single silver hair was out of place, there were no sweat patches on his pale blue shirt, and not even a speck of dust dared to mar his cream chinos. As he got closer, I realised he wasn’t even sweating. Bastard.
“How do you do that? It’s absolutely baking, and you look like you could just be lounging around on a nice warm summer’s day. Doesn’t the heat get to you at all?” I was whining and I knew it. Hot weather never put me in a great mood, and this was hotter than Hell—I could say that with absolute certainty now, having been there a couple of times.
Euriel laughed. “I don’t really feel the heat that badly, no, sorry.”
“Have you found anything?”
He sat down next to me, and I passed him the bottle. He took a small sip but then handed it back. “Nothing yet. I don’t really know what we’re looking for. I mean, this place is incredible, but to sense something that must be buried hundreds of feet below us? It’s not an easy task.”
I nodded, looking over at the tell that towered seven metres above us—a high mound of earth and stone walls created from the remains of six thousand years of human occupation. Each town and temple complex were built on top of the other one. So many people lived and died here. The guide we had managed to hire had told us there were houses, shops, cemeteries, and temples within the tell from real people going about real lives all those years before. It really was incredible. If we weren’t trying to save the world, then I would have been a lot more interested in the ancient history. As it was, everything was surprisingly way too modern for what we were looking for.
“It’s… I mean, they say it traces back to 6500 BCE, but if Cain’s people were here thousands of years before that, surely they must have found something dating back further?” I mused, trying to get my head around searching for a man who had lived before these ancient buildings even existed.
Euriel shook his head. “I know they haven’t done many excavations, but they’ve done a few, including a big one after World War II and some in 2016, but like Delia said, there’s been so much fighting and chaos in this region for so many years, there have been decades where no real extended work has ever been done.”
He leaned back on his hands, closed his eyes, and tipped his face up into the sun. I studied his profile closely. He looked like one of those marble statues you saw in documentaries about Rome or Athens, perfectly sculpted white marble men of unearthly beauty. I had the strongest urge to gently stroke my fingertips over his face to see if he felt cold like marble or warm from the sun’s rays. His eyes opened, and I jerked my gaze back down to the water bottle in my hands. He didn’t seem to have noticed me staring at him, and the heat hid the flush that spread across my cheeks at the thought of getting caught admiring him.
“I suppose we should be grateful that there has been very little excavation,” he commented, sitting up straight again.
“Why grateful?” I asked.
“Well, think about it. Human archaeologists would be excavating a site ten-thousand-years-old with the professional opinion only humans, which are essentially what you refer to as cavemen, existed back then. Suddenly, you open a doorway into an ancient room below, and before the dust clears, a living man steps out into the sunshine and goes on his merry way. What would you think?”
He grinned at me, and I laughed. “That’s a good point. It would definitely make the papers!”
“Exactly. Anyway, I’ve been all around the tell, and I can’t sense anything. There’s nothing here. I mean, there’s residual energies from all the people that were here over the centuries, but not anything out of the ordinary.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and stared at the ground. I tried to keep my mind on the matter at hand and not let my gaze linger on the taut muscles of his back and shoulders.
“I thought it might be because he’s too deep. But even then, I just can’t imagine that somebody could survive that long down there, even someone with an extended lifespan. The lifespan of humans at the beginning of the Old Testament was several hundred years, some even living to fifteen hundred. But not six or seven thousand. And they still had to eat, drink, sleep, and breathe. I just can’t see how Cain could have survived buried under here. I’m starting to think this is a bit of a wild goose chase.” He straightened up and stretched out his arms with a groan.
“Unless Alex’s theory is right, and Lizpha turned Cain before trapping him down there?” I offered with a sinking feeling that maybe Euriel was right.
He shrugged. “Even vampires have to feed. He would have turned to dust long ago, even as an immortal.”
I leaned back on my hands and looked up at the top of the tell. It really was huge, topped by a large tower that had been a temple to some ancient deity. I sighed.
“Yeah, of course. There really is nothing here,” I said.
Euriel nodded. “I think you’re right. I think our best bet is to go back to the city and do what Delia suggested—try to trace somebody from the order. Maybe they’ll know more than us. They might be able to point us in the right direction or tell us what happened to Cain. There’s no way he could have survived being buried underground this long.”
“Maybe he escaped somehow.”
Euriel looked at me. “Escaped?”
“Yes, I mean, maybe he got out a long time ago. It would explain why you can’t sense anything. Maybe he was never trapped to begin with, he just wanted people to believe he was. He wasn’t exactly somebody to give up, was he? I mean, damn, he got kicked out of his family for murdering his brother and he wandered Earth for years, but he still managed to have a family and he built a city for goodness’ sake. I don’t think he was the type to lie down and die. If there was a way out, he’d have found it.”
“If that’s the case, then he could be anywhere.” Euriel’s eyes widened. “He could be anyone. How are we going to find him?”
I sighed. “We should call Alex at the hotel. He might have another theory or some kind of research we can take into account. I know he was planning on doing some local information digging. Myths, legends, that kind of thing.”
Euriel nodded slowly. “Maybe. Actually, I wonder if we could maybe persuade the guide to bring us back here at night? Then Alex could come with us, and we’ll see what he thinks. He might have some technological contraption that can pick up something I’m missing. It might be a longshot though. I just don’t know.”
I blinked, then smiled. “You don’t know? The great Lord Euriel thwarted by technology. Stop the press! The Heavens must have stopped existing for such a travesty to occur.”
Euriel looked at me, confused, then when he saw the grin on my face, he smiled, recognising the humour. “I never said I knew everything, I just said I’d been around a lot longer than you.”
“I believe,” I teased, slipping off the rock and turning to face him, “that you called me a child.”
I laid my hands on his thighs and leaned forward, poking my tongue out at him in a manner that was intended to be deliberately childish. It didn’t seem to have the desired effect. Euriel’s eyes fixed on my mouth then dropped down, and I realised the cotton shirt I was wearing was revealing quite a lot of my cleavage.
Euriel cleared his throat. “Well, yes, I believe I did say that. And I was in haste. I realised since I’ve gotten to know you that I may have been rather hasty in my judgement of you. You are definitely not a child.”
I smiled and leaned closer, giving him a full, unrestricted view down the front of my shirt. He tensed a little, but all I did was move close to his ear. “That’s good to know. Definitely not a child,” I whispered.
I went to pull back, but only got so far before our eyes met and I hesitated. He lifted his hand and gently traced a finger down the side of my face, his touch burning my skin like ice. I took a deep breath, and his scent flowed through me, fresh and clean, like the wind blowing across the mountains. His amazing eyes were fixed on mine, and I watched as the gold and silver in his irises swirled and flowed like galaxies.
“Faith,” he murmured softly. His eyes dropped to my mouth, and I couldn’t help but bring my fingers up to trace the curve of his lips. I could see by the movement of his chest that he was breathing a little harder than normal, and I knew despite everything, he wanted to kiss me. I wanted to kiss him too. There was some kind of magnetic pull between us that I was sick of fighting against. Whether it was the heat, our proximity, or the time we’d spent together making our way across the desert, this felt inevitable.
I closed my eyes as my lips brushed against his. I felt him tense, and I started to pull away, but he cupped the back of my neck, pulling me in closer, so I did it again. His breath was fast, and his heart raced as I braced my hands on his chest as I slid my lips slowly over his. His lips were warm, and after a moment, he began to mimic my movements. It struck me that aside from the moment where we both nearly died and he had pressed his mouth briefly to mine, that he’d never done this before. If Cas was right and angels weren’t allowed any kind of relationships or physical touch, then he would never have kissed anyone or been kissed.
Warmth spread through my body at the thought. I slid my hands over his shoulders and his settled on my waist. After a moment, he pulled me onto his lap without breaking the kiss, just slowing for a moment to get me into a better position. We continued to take it slowly. He moved tentatively. Not quite sure what to do and not wanting to rush him, I tried to dampen the desire that was rising inside me. I parted my lips a little, sweeping my tongue across his lower lip, and felt his sharp intake of breath.
His arms slid around my waist, pulling me closer, and I moaned quietly as his tongue began to dance with mine. All the feelings I had been trying to ignore flooded through me at his touch, his embrace, and part of me wanted to unbuckle his trousers and sink down onto him, to feel him filling me. Had it been one of the other guys, I would have already been sitting astride them doing just that. Passion burned through us like hellfire, but with Euriel, it seemed slower, steadier. I knew part of it was not wanting to scare him off, not wanting him to stop.
Right now, he was completely lost in the moment. He didn’t know what would come next, he’d never done anything like this before. All he knew was what we were doing, what he was feeling, and he was present for every single second of it. Instead of trying to rush things, I let him take the lead. I wanted him to go at his own pace. He kissed me slowly, deeply. Mindfully. His hands moved over me, never in the same place twice, like he had an urgent need to touch every inch of me but wanted to memorise every sensation. They trailed up and down my bare arms, finding every indentation on my wrists and elbows, stroking gently. They slid over my shoulders and around to my back, pulling me a little closer. I felt like china that he was terrified of breaking. Heat pooled deep inside my belly, and I wanted him so badly.
I needed to touch him, but I was afraid if I did, he’d stop and pull away. Sliding one hand from his shoulder up the nape of his neck and into his hair, I ran my fingers through the silky silver strands. I slowly trailed the other down his back, loving the feel of his muscles under his shirt as he moved to touch me. Just as my fingertips reached the small of his back, he broke the kiss and moved away, still holding me close.
“Well,” he rasped a little shakily. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
I looked down, not quite sure how to react. “Sorry,” I said automatically.
He laid his finger over my lips. “No, don’t. Don’t apologise. I… It was nice.”
“Nice?” I pulled back and looked at him, wondering whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. Maybe he hadn’t felt what I had. I would have called it intense, amazing, mind-blowing. Probably one of the best kisses I’d ever had. Nice hadn’t sprung to mind.
“Really nice.” His smile faded. “I’m not really sure how to describe it.” His eyes dropped from mine, and I could have sworn he was blushing. My heart went out to him, and I tried to make light of it.
“The great Euriel, who has read all the classics and attended operas and plays and concerts of the finest romantic masters in the world, and the best you can do is nice?”
He looked up at me and smiled when he saw my grin. “You have a point. I shall try to do better.”
I leaned into his chest, laying my head against his shoulder as I gazed up at him. “Go on then. I’m waiting.”
I was kidding, but he took a breath and rested his head on top of mine. “It was like it was night, like all around me was dark and cold, desolate and empty, and the touch of your lips on mine was the breaking of the sun in the dawn of the morning of creation, flooding the world with light and warmth and hope.”
I pulled back and stared at him in amazement. “You missed your calling. You should have been a poet or a songwriter. Think you could wangle a career change this late on?” I was kidding again, but in all honesty, I was feeling rather emotional. No one had really said stuff like that to me before, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with it.
“Sadly, we aren’t given much choice in that matter. Or any others.” With the slightest reference to his calling, his cold tone was back, and I watched the stone wall fall over his face. The old Euriel was back, and I missed the new one already.
As much as I wanted to stay on his lap, he released me from his embrace and I slid off. “Well, I guess we’d better get back to the guide if we want to return to the hotel before dark.”
He stood up. “Yes, of course, we’d better get going.” He turned away, heading towards the road where we’d left the guide snoozing in his truck, and I followed, trying to ignore the tight feeling in my heart at how quickly he’d dismissed me.
