Legacy of the Watchers Series Boxed Set: Books 1-3 by Madore Nancy

Author:Madore, Nancy [Madore, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2014-09-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Kiriath Arba

15th Century, BC

They had all died and returned as ordinary men—some several times over. Their descendants, who generally became smaller with each consecutive generation, now towered over them. The giants were facing extinction. Some day they would be no more. Only their souls would live on.

Some of them didn’t return right away. Asmodeous was one of these. He died before Ornias—an angry, bitter man. At first Ornias thought he might be having trouble getting through the barrier between the living and the dead. But then, as time went on, he began to wonder if Asmodeous really wanted to come back. He was such a proud man. Perhaps he couldn’t bring himself to exist in the inferior bodies of the sons of men. But then, one day, Ornias realized that Asmodeous had returned—just not in a body. And yet, even without the body, Ornias knew it was Asmodeous. He recognized his fury.

A rumor had arisen of an entirely new demonic phenomenon that accosted women in their beds. It didn’t attack all women, but appeared to be singling out young virgins on the eve of their wedding. The demon would seduce the young brides-to-be in their sleep, somehow infiltrating their pure, unadulterated flesh and leaving them dazed—and deflowered—in the morning.

Ornias paid little attention to the rumor at first, figuring it must have gotten its start in the frightened mind of a compromised young woman who couldn’t think of any other way to explain her condition. Knowing the hysterical nature of the sons of men, it wasn’t surprising that others would start making the same claim. But then one of Ornias’ wives was visited by the demon. This was a woman well past her prime, and not the kind to succumb to mass hysteria. It was, in fact, the calm, levelheaded manner in which she described the incident that convinced Ornias that she was speaking the truth. She told him everything the demon did to her during the night—and all while Ornias slept beside her! Ornias listened with interest. The demon had pleasured his wife repeatedly throughout the night—though he didn’t penetrate her, as he had the other women. It seemed almost as if it was an affront to Ornias himself, rather than an attack on his hapless wife. The message the demon whispered in his wife’s ear before it left seemed to confirm this—“Tell Ornias it’s not so bad on this side,” it said.

Of course, it could have been any of the missing djinn from Ornias’ past. But somehow Ornias knew that it was Asmodeous. He supposed this bizarre ritual of robbing young husbands of their brides’ virginity was his way of coming to terms with the loss of his own love. Ornias realized then that Asmodeous could take a body any time he liked. For the moment, he preferred things the way they were.

Meanwhile, others had drawn the same conclusion as Ornias. Perhaps Asmodeous was leaving little hints with his other victims as well. He was quickly earning the reputation of an angry, malevolent demon—the ‘demon of lust.

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