Chapter Seventeen
Roman thought a moment. “Three?” The Entity was a Nomad, obviously. And she’d just told him Amunet was one as well. That made two.
“When Amunet first came into being, she was born into the form of a human, a little girl. But… she died not long after, and it seemed fate wished to give her another chance as a human. She was reincarnated of course, and in her second form, she was an adult woman. That was when the Entity found her. Together, they made a child.”
She paused. “You should probably know the Entity’s real name is ‘Ahriman,’” she said, “and he has never changed forms because he has never been reincarnated. He and Amunet fell in love at first sight.” Lilith shrugged. “Well, as much in love as those two can possibly manage.”
Roman refrained from making a derisive sound. But Amunet was composed of hatred. The Entity was fear.
“Fear and hatred,” said Lilith. “Sound familiar?”
This entire planet, thought Roman.
“They make quite a pair. He can make you experience your worst fear. And she will make you want to kill it. Not that humans need any help with that.”
Roman shook his head. “You said the Entity has always been in his current form. Why is that?”
“He’s lucked out. In a way. When he is with Amunet, his form becomes more solid, more ‘normal’ looking. He becomes human. He’s just never been killed in that form. However, when they are apart, he becomes immaterial, and hence, un-killable. He’s more of a force or spirit than a person. And that form has always served him well. As you know, he can even possess people in that form.”
“And yet he was able to reproduce.”
Lilith nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. Because as I said, when he is with Amunet, he is whole. Nothing makes hatred more solid than fear, Roman. And vice versa.” She sat back in the vinyl seat of the café and turned to glance out the window. It had begun to rain. It was Seattle, after all.
“They’ve had two children together. One with Amunet’s second human body. A boy. Then Amunet aged and died and was reborn again. And again. And again. And each time, the Entity eventually found her.”
Roman thought about that for a moment. Then he realized he had a lot to think about – because Lilith was telling him a lot. In fact, as Lalura Chantelle, she had known all of this, and she’d kept it to herself. After a momentary pause, he said, “Lilith is a little more forthcoming than Lalura.” It was refreshing, frankly. But it was also irritating that Chantelle hadn’t revealed more when she was alive.
Lilith laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. “Chalk it up to youth,” she shrugged. “When you’re as old as Lalura was, even talking hurts. Forgive her.” Her gaze narrowed. “And give me time. I’ll shut up and let you figure things out for yourselves again before long. The way you’re supposed to.”
Roman digested that and called the waiter over for a tea refill. He knew better than to let it run out.
Lilith continued. “Thousands of years after Amunet’s first form came the time of pharaohs. In that time, Amunet was incarnated in the form of a legendary beauty. As such, she gained the eye of royalty and was wed to the king, who was also a god. Dannai was born to Amunet, but not with the Entity. When Dannai was born, her father was Amun Re.”
Roman nodded. He followed so far.
“After Dannai’s birth, Amun Re overpowered his wife, placing her into a sleep like death to prevent her from being reborn. He would not have been able to do this had she not just given birth. She was weak. He then swept Dannai away and carried her through time, leaving her in my care. As you know, I raised her.”
Roman did know this. However, he had always wondered about the fact that Dannai was so young when Amunet, the ancient goddess, was her birth mother. Now he understood.
“The task of traveling through the barriers of time as he did left him weak as well. Long story short, what little was left of his power, he has given to his grandchildren to protect them. Amun Re is no longer.”
Roman narrowed his gaze and cocked his head to one side. “Does this mean Dannai is an Entity? Rather, a Nomad?”
She shook her head. “Not fully. Amun Re was powerful. As I said, a god. But he was not a Nomad. Amunet married him because the Entity had yet to find her in that life. In her true love’s absence, Amunet chose Amun Re for the power he gave her as queen of Egypt. Between you and me, she also relished the strife she caused between the two god brothers, Amun and Kamun. Kamun Re is no longer either, for what it’s worth. But that’s another story.”
She sipped her tea, then continued. “The difference between gods and Nomads is subtle but important. Dannai has untapped potential to be sure, but she will never match the likes of her mother.”
Roman took a deep breath. “What does this have to do with a third Nomad if it isn’t Dannai? Is it the other child you spoke of? The boy they created with Amunet’s second form?”
“No,” she said shortly and with a pointed look. Lightning flashed outside the window, and thunder rolled low and ominous. Lilith paused for a long time – as if thinking of that boy. Roman felt a tightening in his throat. Then she said, just as tightly, “But I’m getting to it.”
The waitress returned with a fresh pot of steaming tea, and Lilith poured milk into a fresh cup. “Now back to the issue at hand. Fast forward several more millennia.” She looked up at Roman. “To yesterday, to be precise. A former dragon king is due a reward for saving Amunet’s life, not to mention the Entity’s. The two Nomads are reunited at long last, and the Entity has taken on his solid form once more. So what do they decide to do? To celebrate, they create an offspring of their own. Only this time, they choose a body that is already fully grown.”
“Arach.” Roman’s blood turned cold.
Lilith nodded. “And let me tell you, Roman – this love child is a prodigy. He was already powerful as a dragon. Now?” She shook her head, just once. “Where Amunet is hatred and The Entity is fear, Arach is hard, cruel lust.” Lilith ran a hand over her face. “I thought we’d seen the worst of that kind with Gabriel Phelan and his tyrannical reign in the werewolf society. But Phelan was a puppy compared to this man. Arach is going to make anything Gabe did feel like a sweet dream.”
“Why lust?” Roman asked. To his knowledge, Arach had never been particularly fond of women. Not that he was fond of men either. It was simply that Roman knew Arach to be somewhat sexist.
“Think about it for a moment,” Lilith said. “The desire a woman ignites in a man is an automatic and completely natural response, but some men feel weakened by it, as if the woman has some sort of power over them. They can’t stand that a woman might control some aspect of their behavior, especially when they are doing it unintentionally, simply by existing. These men are threatened by that power, and they fear it. Ultimately, they hate it. You’ll find most chauvinists are actually quite attracted to women. And because they are so attracted, they feel the need to destroy what attracts them. On the most harmless level, this destruction can come in the form of lower pay scales, a lack of voting rights, oppressive dressing laws or laws meant to control women’s bodies in general, down to something as seemingly small as the insistence that a woman take a man’s name as if she belongs to him.” She thought for a moment. “On the other end of the spectrum, the destruction is quite a bit more sickening.”
She fell silent, letting that sink in before she said, “It’s rather like the human need to walk across a field of freshly fallen snow. Some people just can’t stand the pure, clean beauty of it. They have to mess it up. Once its beauty is destroyed, so is its power over the beholder.”
Roman closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed them. He already knew what Lilith was telling him. Truly, he did. If living as an apex predator amongst males for thousands of years had taught him anything, it was that women really were the more powerful sex, and men could become very, very ugly because of it. What he hadn’t known very well, it would seem, was Arach.