The Scroll of Osiris: An Eva & Lilura Novel

Chapter 12 Lilura

Chapter 12 Lilura

Everyone was already up and dressed by the time I meandered my way out of Eva’s room. They were talking quietly. Tyr noticed me first and gave me a smile, setting a plate of eggs and bacon on the counter in front of me. I climbed on the stool beside Eva.

“You’re finally up. How are you feeling today?” Eva asked, taking another sip from her glass.

“Much better actually,” I said taking a large bite of eggs.

“So what is the next step for us? I asked them all.

“Well, I’m having the killer’s DNA processed through several databases at the local FBI office.” Kodan started.

“How long will that take?” Tyr asked. He ran his hand through his hair.

“It will take as long as it takes.” Kodan snapped. They both straightened and faced each other. The energy in the room got tense.

“Stop the pissing contest. This is not the right time.” Eva scolded. They both backed down, but there was still tension in the air.

“Eva is right. We really need to focus. How about we just review what we know so far. “ I suggested.

“Well, we have two dead vampires, two dead witches, two wolves, and one Fae. The first few victims were poisoned but then the next victims had their throats were slit. Each victim also has had something taken. The fangs from the vampires, the witches had their hands removed. Then the eyes from the werewolves.” Eva explained. Everyone was silent for a bit when Tyr’s eyes widened.

“What is it?” I asked excitedly. Everyone turned their attention to him.

“Just a memory. I will have to look into it.” Tyr said quietly.

“Okay, can we get a little more than that?” Kodan sighed.

“No. I’ll be right back.” Tyr turned and walked out of the kitchen.

“Does he always do that?” Kodan asked, exasperated.

“Yeah, that’s pretty normal.” I acknowledged. I finished my breakfast and washed the dishes. I turned around and saw that Kodan and Eva were exchanging awkward glances. The energy in the room had shifted from tense to something else. Kodan’s eyes had shifted a luminous amber color as he looked at Eva.

Tyr came back into the room shoving his cell phone into his pocket. I wondered who he had called. He gave me a quizzical look as he entered. He was sensitive to energy too, and the lust between Eva and Kodan was a bit overwhelming.

“Should we leave?” I asked Eva, giving Tyr a helpless look. He looked very uncomfortable.

“What? Why?” Eva asked, astonished.

“Because you two look like your about to have s*x in the kitchen,” Tyr observed. He came to stand beside me.

“What? You two are delusional.” Kodan spluttered.

“So nothing has happened between you two?” I retorted. They gave each other another awkward glance.

“We just kissed. Just a little.” Eva admitted.

“That’s what I thought,” I added. I laughed at how awkward this was.

“I really think we should go,” I said.

“We have to work on this investigation.” Eva protested, but Tyr and I were already edging our way to the front door.

“Well we’re going to work on the investigation, and you two are going to finish some unfinished business.” I gestured to the two of them. They both opened their mouths to protest but Tyr and I had already reached the front door and we quickly made our way out. Once in the private elevator, the energy was much more manageable.

“Well, we can go back to the parks and take another look around,” I suggested.

“No. We will go to my place.” Tyr said.

“Why?” I inquired. I didn’t even know where Tyr’s place was. It suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t really know much about Tyr at all.

“I might have something that will help.” He added.

We made our way through the lobby when a guard stopped us.

“Where’s the wolf?” He asked sternly. Tyr stood protectively close behind me.

“He’s still with Eva,” I explained. He still stood in our way.

“Step back.” Tyr snapped at the guard. The guard listened but glared at us as we walked passed.

“So where are we going?” I asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.

“To your house.” He said simply.

It took us an hour to get back to my house.

“I need a shower. I’ve been running for days. It would be nice to have a minute to take care of myself.” I sighed heavily.

“Absolutely. We need to wait until dusk anyway.” He said, I glanced at him questioningly but decided not to press further. He followed me into the house.

We walked back to my bedroom. Tyr sat down on the bed and watched as I undressed quickly.

“You need to slow down Lilura. You can’t keep this up. Eva and Kodan can go for days without stopping. You physically cannot keep going the way you're going.” Tyr said, concerned. I placed my hands angrily on my hips, but remembered I was completely naked and felt ridiculous fighting with Tyr naked. So I opted for huffing in frustration and turning toward the adjoining bathroom.

The bathroom attached to my bedroom was smaller than the shared one. It only had a shower and a small vanity with a sink. I turned on the hot water and set it on the highest setting. I loved the water scorching hot. I stepped in and let the water wash over me. It scorched my bare skin but it warmed my bones. I closed my eyes trying to empty my mind. The curtain being pulled back abruptly startled me and I jumped. Tyr stepped in the shower behind me. I turned to face him. His head stood above the shower curtain and the shower head sprayed on his chest.

He bent his head and kissed me. I pulled him against my body, wrapping my hands in his wet black hair. He pulled away from me.

He reached down and grabbed my shampoo. He lathered it in my hair with his right hand. I leaned my head back in the stream of the water and rinsed out the shampoo. He continued to wash my hair and my body and I returned the favor. We both laughed as he bent to rinse his hair. We finished our shower and stepped out. Tyr wrapped around a towel around his waist and I wrapped one around my body.

As we got back into my room I pulled Tyr against me and kissed him passionately. I grabbed his towel and attempted to pull it off,  but he grabbed my hands to stop me and pulled his lips from mine.

“What?!” I blurted out. I wanted him, and I wanted him now. He smiled at me, but still held my hands.

“We can’t. Not right now. It’s dusk and we don’t want to miss our chance.” He explained. He released my hands and turned away pulling on his clothes.

Our chance for what?” I asked. I picked out clean clothes and put them on.

“To cross over.” He put simply.

“You mean you’re taking me to Tír na nOg!?” I asked excitedly. I lived on the edge of faerie land, but I had actually never crossed the threshold. You could only go into the land of Fae if you were invited or accidentally came across a Trod. Occasionally a Fae of the Unseelie Court would trick an innocent human to follow them into their lands and hold them there for decades, then cruelly releasing them back into the world having not aged but decades had passed here.

“Is it safe?” I continued. Tyr sighed and again ran a hand through his hair. I was beginning to realize it was a nervous tick he had.

“Not really. But I can’t...it’s difficult to not be around you. I feel better if I know where you are and I’m with you. So that’s why I’m taking you with me.” Tyr explained.

“Is this just because of the murders? Or is this a faerie thing I need to get used to?” I asked. I smiled at him but his face was still serious.

“As we get closer, my energy will be tied to how I feel about you. So the closer I am, the more energy I have. That’s the best I can explain.” He said shyly.

“Okay, so expect that we will be spending a lot of time together,” I concluded.

“Yes, in the simplest terms.” He added. I moved toward him and grabbed his face in my hands leaning up to plant a kiss on his lips.

“I can handle that,” I said against his mouth.

—————-

I followed him through the woods at dusk. The moon wasn’t as bright so I had to bring my flashlight to see through the woods. We made our way to the same clearing I had done the tarot reading. That suddenly felt like a lifetime ago. So much happens in so little time. The clearing was dimmer than the last time.

We stopped in the middle of the open field.

“Do you see it?” Tyr pointed to a break in the tree line ahead of us. The darkness between the tree trunks shimmered like the surface of water.

“Yes. Is it a doorway?” I asked. Tyr squeezed my hand.

“Yes, are you ready?” He inquired. I nodded my head excitedly.

He pulled me along with him until we stood in front of the shimmering doorway. Tyr stepped through first and his whole body disappeared except for his hand which was still holding mine. I hesitated only a moment before jumping through.

On the other side of the doorway, I stepped into a room liked I’d never seen. It was barely a room as it appeared to be somewhat outside. It was circled by giant redwood trees and curtains of leafy vines wrapped between the tree trunks. On one side of the room were tall bookcases made of carved tree branches and filled with hundreds of books, some seemed ancient. There were even two shelves taken up by ancient scrolls and manuscripts. There was a giant desk next to the bookcases made also of carved wood and cluttered with papers and open books. There was a giant spear leaning against a tree trunk. On the opposite side was a bed with heavy thick covers tangled about. I turned in circles taking in the room. I realized almost absently that his room was a bit of a mess. There were clothes strewn about and books and paper piled in different areas across the room.

“You’re kind of messy.” I chided. He stood in the middle of the room watching me with a smile, his hands in his pockets.

“Yes, I am.” He admitted shoving a nervous hand through his hair. I walked over to his desk and delicately touched the scribbled on parchment. I didn’t recognize the language.

“What language is this in?” I asked.

“Most of them are in different languages, some are in Fae.” He replied.

“How many languages do you know?” I inquired. Now I looked at the bookshelves which put my collection of books to shame.

“All of them.” He said with a shrug and a small grin.

“Wow, that’s impressive,” I responded.

“I witnessed the birth of some languages.” He added. I had been so caught up in my own small microcosm of life that I had rarely stopped to think about Tyr’s lengthy existence.

“How old are you?” I finally asked. I turned to him and saw that his smile had faded and his dark green eyes were sad.

“Very old.” Was all he said, but it wasn’t enough of an answer.

“Well, how old is very old? Eva is almost 800 years old. Are you older than that?” I pressed. He looked away from me and walked over to his massive bed where he sat down on the edge. Finally, he looked at me with that same sad and distant expression.

“I don’t know my exact age. I don’t even remember how I came into existence. I can’t quantify the years I have lived. I do know that 800 years is like nothing to me. I am older than Eva by many centuries, but that’s the best I can give you for an answer.” He explained.

I understood now the sad expression on his face. He had seen the birth of civilization, witnessed wars, and countless discoveries. My entire lifetime was like a blink of an eye to him. My heart suddenly felt very heavy at the idea. I quickly turned around staring at the bookshelves, my eyes stinging as tears were threatening to break free.

“So why are we here. You said you had an idea.” I said changing the subject. I heard him walk back over to me and stand behind me.

“When Eva was listing all the trophies the killer seemed to be collecting it reminded me of an ancient memory I had about a spell or ritual” he explained. He reached above my head to grab a parchment scroll off a shelf. I watched as he delicately unrolled it and laid it on his massive desk. I leaned over his shoulder to examine it with him.

It was a collection of small script in a language I didn’t understand and diagrams and pictographs of various beings. Tyr started to point to certain images.

“Wolf.” He began pointing to the image of a naked man with the head of a dog.

“Witch.” He continued this time brushing over the image of a blazing woman on her knees, her hands raised to the sky, and her head thrown back in ecstasy.

Next, his hand pointed to a woman and man walking out of a large tree naked and covered in vines growing from their skin. “Fae.” He murmured.

“And vampire? Where is the vampire?” I asked. He stayed quiet for a long moment and then he silently pointed to the last figure on the parchment. In the middle stood a large man with blue skin. He wore a large anointed crown with two scepters in his hands crossed against his chest. Below him were six people kneeling before him, some bowing their heads. A few were tearing at a man's mangled body.

“Vampires.” I finished.

“This is a ritual to raise the first vampire. The instructions state that the conjurer will need the blood of the Fae, the eye of a wolf, the conjuring hand of a witch, and the teeth of his children, in other words, a vampire.” Tyr explained. My heartbeat loudly in my chest.

“Why though? Why would a human want to do this? How would he even come across such a thing?” I thought out loud.

“I don’t know? But it seems to fit the evidence we have uncovered.” Tyr sighed, he stood straight and crossed his arms. This was beyond anything we had prepared for. At worst we thought we were dealing with a serial killer. But a ritual that raised the first vampire was something we never thought about. I rubbed my forehead trying to gain some clarity. I left Tyr’s side and made my way over to an armchair sitting next to the bed and threw myself into it. Tyr followed, kneeling in front of me placing his hands on my knees.

“What do we do Tyr? We have to stop him! But we have no idea who he is or where he is or anything about him!” I cried. The past days events and this new information overwhelmed me and I wanted to sob. Tyr lifted himself up and kissed me. I placed my hands around his face and kissed him back.

“You’re overwhelming yourself Lilura. I can feel your energy building. You need to learn to control it.” He said soothingly. He kissed me on the cheeks and neck. He was right. I could feel the energy pulsing in my veins and hear it humming in my ears. As Tyr kissed me, I could feel the overwhelming stress leave my body and the stress was being replaced by something else. I pulled him closer to me, deepening our kiss. His hands moved up my thighs and gripped them tight. He lifted me into his arms and carried me over to his bed.

We frantically ripped each other’s clothes off. His kisses were like fire as his lips traveled across my body. I tore at his back with my nails. I pushed him onto his back and straddled him. He leaned up, wrapping his arms around me and we moved together. It was different than our first time together. It was slower and we reveled in the feel of each other. We reached our peaks. I cried out as my body convulsed with pleasure. Tyr made a cry of pleasure himself as he found his release. We collapsed together on his bed, still tangled together facing each other. We tried to catch our breath. This close to his face I could see the emerald green of his eyes were flecked with gold. I touched his face lightly with my fingers. I looked into his ageless face that had seen every struggle and triumph of mankind and still only appeared in his late twenties.

“What are you thinking?” I asked him.

“I’m thinking about how much I love you.” He whispered. My heart leaped into my throat at his words. This was the first time any man had ever told me he loved me. However, my mind thought back to how different our experiences in life are and would be. My mood plummeted and I pulled away sitting up. He sat up with me. I looked away from him as tears started to stream down my cheeks. He placed his fingers on my chin and turned my face back to him.

“You’re crying? Why are you crying?” He asked, shocked. I wiped at my tears.

“I love you too. I do. I have never said that to anyone before. But I also realize that I don’t really know you.” I whimpered. More tears flowed and I dashed them away angrily.

“What do you want to know? I will tell you anything.” He said reassuringly.

“I know, I know that comes with time. But that’s the problem Tyr. Time is the problem. You have infinite time, and I have this very short life to live. How can you love me knowing that I’ll age and die before you even get your next wrinkle!” I cried. Falling in love with him was so easy and simple, but now I was overthinking how this works with us.

“Is that what’s upsetting you? Lilura, that doesn’t matter. I will love you no matter what time we have together.” Tyr expressed.

“That’s not the point!” I yelled angrily climbing out of bed. I searched for my clothes and started shoving them on. Tyr quickly followed behind just pulling on his pants.

“I do not understand!?” Tyr yelled back. His hair was wild and there was still sweat around his chest and neck.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t care! I care! It’s not fair! I have this short unremarkable life and I’ll get to spend a few with you, and then what?! Then what!? You’re really going to stand by while I become old and die?!” I screamed, tears were full force now and I couldn’t stop them from coming. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t love him knowing that I had to leave him.

“I’m sorry Lilura, I can't stop you from living. I also won’t stop loving you. We can make this work, it will work.” He pleaded.

“How? How does this work?” I sighed. Tyr said nothing, a bewildered look on his face.

“Maybe… we could stay here? Time stops here, we could stay here forever.” I suggested, desperately. Tyr’s eyes grew wide.

“No.” He breathed.

“No, I won’t let that happen.” He added.

“No!? Why?” I whined.

“Because...because that would be the worst thing I could do to you,” Tyr said. I threw my hands in the air.

“Lilura, you are a mortal. Mortals, they shine brighter than any other creature. They shine that bright because their lives are short. If I kept you here, you’re right, you wouldn’t age, but your soul would. You wouldn’t want to stay here. Please believe me.” Tyr explained. His face was devastated though. He approached me and I let him wrap his arms around me. He was right of course. I couldn’t just hide here forever. I would love him and I would love him however long my life was. I buried my face in his bare chest. He let me cry for a while.

“I’m sorry I freaked out,” I said into his chest.

“This is hard Lilura. But we will figure this out.”  He murmured into my hair.

“We have to tell the others about the ritual,” Tyr added.

“I know. I just need a minute. Can we stay here just a bit longer?” I asked, tears still filling my eyes.

“Of course.” He said wrapping his arms tighter around me.

——————-

When we finally returned to my house only five minutes had passed, but hours had passed in Tyr’s room.

“I need to call Eva. We will probably also need to head back to her apartment.” I said, my eyes were stinging from all the crying but I had calmed down for the most part. Tyr and I hadn’t talked as we made our way back to my house. I dialed Eva.

“Hello?” Eva asked breathlessly.

“Hi. Have you been running?” I asked.

“What? I’m, yeah sure. What’s going on? Any news?” She redirected.

“Well, Tyr found something on an ancient scroll that may point us in a better direction,” I added.

“An ancient scroll, that doesn’t sound promising,” Eva stated.

“Yeah I know, but I think it’s on the right track,” I said.

“Any news on your end?” I asked.

“Um, yeah I think so, but how about you two get to my apartment and we can compare information,” Eva suggested. I agreed, we said goodbye and I hung up.

“We need to go to Eva’s,” I said to Tyr.

“Of course.” He replied. We made our way to my truck and headed back to Eva’s apartment.