Lilith (7 page)

"Pacey, " He said.

I moaned a little in response.

"I love you." His voice was just above a whisper.

I watched his face contort in different emotions, from excitement, to sorrow and fear. Had he really just said that.

"Wow Dean really." I didn't know what else to say, it was stupid, that's not how you should react when someo
ne tells you they love you.

"I-I love you too.”

He smiled and pressed his forehead to mine. I could feel my pulse start to beat faster. Wow...Love. He turned more towards me and pressed his lips to mine. The heat exploded the moment our lips met. In seconds we were up and standing. Dean was pressing my back against the bed and crawling on top of me. His hands were in my hair and running down the sides of my body.

The tray of food crashed to the floor. His hand reached under my shirt and rubbed my bare stomach. A small moan escaped my lips and he broke the kiss. I stared up into his intense face and caught my breath. One solitary tea
r was running down his cheek.

"What's wrong?" I said.

Dean rolled off of me onto his back and covered his face with his arm. "I have to tell you something, something...bad."

I sat up and stared down at him. "
Great, that sounds awesome."

He groaned and uncovered his face. He pushe
d himself up with his elbows. "You know how I told you I moved because of my dad dying."

I nodded and
watched his eyes glaze over.

"That was only part of the reason. We also left
because someone I loved, other than my dad...she....she..."

I waited for those few moments in dread, I just knew his ex was stalking him or something crazy like that damn it. I could tell he wasn't being truthful about his ex when we'd talked about it
weeks ago.
Damn, damn, damn
.

"Pacey, my girlfriend
she was killed. That's why I didn't want to talk about it. Dad died a long time before we moved almost two years ago; it was Tess's death that drove us away. Tess's death." He closed his eyes and laid back down throwing his arm back over his face.

"I'm sorry, do you hate me?"
He said.

I reached
for his arm but couldn't move it.

"No Dean I don't hate you,
but why didn’t you just tell me?"

He sat
up and looked me in the eyes. "I don’t know. But I’m worried whoever killed Tess might have tried to hurt you."

I fought the chill that crept up my spine. Was this all because of Dean, was someone after him? I denied the rightness I felt settle in my belly. It wasn’t his fault it couldn’t be.

"I don't know Dean why would someone kill her and try to kill me…” But even as I tried to deny it, I could feel it was true.

Dean shrugged.
"I don't really know, it’s just weird right."

"
I guess."
Denial.
I mulled it over in my mind trying to figure out how the pieces fit together. Why would someone be stalking Dean?

“I mean were you ever contacted like by a stalker or something?”
I crossed my fingers hoping to God he said no.

Dean chewed on
his cheek, shaking his head. "No it's just, well come on, it can't be a coincidence."

I took a deep breath
of relief.

"
Well if no one contacted you then it’s not the same at all. It’s more like I have a crazy stalker than you do. When your girlfriend died how'd it happen?"

"
She was run off the road, her car flipped a bunch of times, and she died on impact. Why?"

I smiled a little
maybe I wasn’t in denial, coincidences happened all the time, and they didn’t always mean something.
DENIAL.
I ignored the inner voice.

"Dean, seriously, this can't be
connected. I was attacked by...something, and I'm the one that keeps getting crazy messages."

We both jumped when my phone rang. I stared at the
familiar number and smiled. Thank God, I needed the distraction.

"Just a sec
ok, we'll finish in a minute."
Liar.
I opened my phone and smiled into the receiver.

"Of all the crazy ex-boyfriends in the world you just had to be mine." I heard
Weston laugh into the phone.

"Pacey
O’Brien, how's your cute little ass doing?"

I eye
d Dean and cleared my throat. "Pretty effing bad actually. I've been getting crazy stalker texts and then last week someone tried to kill me."

I heard Weston la
ugh he thought I was joking. "Only you babe, only you."

"I'm serious Wes."

He stopped laughing. "No shit?"

"Yea."

"Wow."

"Yea."

"Ahh man, I was just calling to see what the plans were for your birthday. I thought for sure Rhi would have some crazy bash planned."

I sighed in regret, he was rig
ht, Rhi probably did. "Yea Rhi isn't talking to me so much just now, but no I don't know what the plans are."

I glanced at Dean's
narrowed eyes and continued. "Oh I also have a new boy-friend,"

I looked into Dean's face and watched him smile, whew okay so at l
east I was right about that.

"So he just might take me out I guess. You
planning on coming into town?"

Wes chuckled.
"Duh, so you have a new boyfriend. I hope he's at least half as cool as the last one. Word is he was quite the ladies man."

I laughed. "Right, ladies huh, like
your mom and grandma."

"Hey
man, come on don't be harsh."

"Whatever Wes, but Dean's great
…awesome, and so much better at kissing he could give you lessons."

Wes groaned.
"You're just mean. Ok so I guess I'll call when I'm in town I'll probably be there the day before so we can catch up, and I can meet this idiot Dean."

"Sounds good."

"Alright P, I'll talk to you later."

"Ok
bye Wes." I hung up the phone grinning and stopped when I looked at Dean.

"Was that an ex-boyfriend?"
He asked.

I cleared my throat.
"Yea but well we were better friends than lovers you know."

I closed my eyes when I realized I'd said lovers. No guy wants to hear that come out of his
girlfriend’s mouth.

"Really?" Dean sat up
and moved closer towards me.

"Well yea we've been friends since grade school. We decided we might as well try the dating thi
ng but it just wasn't right."

Dean searched my eyes. I hope
d it didn't piss him off. Wes was always going to be in my life, even if it was from a distance.

"
Ok."

I stared at Dean's serious fac
e and punched him in the arm.

"Hey what was that for?"

"For thinking I'd actually do that to you."

"Do what to me?" His voice dropped an octave.
He was grinning shamelessly.

"Uh nothing now." I crossed my arms and stared back at him.
He growled and pushed me down.

"Nothing huh...
you sure about that?"

My breath caught in my throat. He w
as laying on top of me again. I sighed and pulled his face down to mine. I could hear the door open and close from downstairs. My eyes flashed open and I pushed Dean away.

"Dean my dad."

He jumped off of me and reached for his shirt trying to tug it back in place. I smiled a little. I'd pushed it up so that I could run my hands across his tight abs.

"Pacey?"

I groaned when I heard dads voice coming up the stairs.

"Dean, pick up the food." I pointed to the mess on the floor and tried to compose myself. I ran my hands through my messy hair and tried to look normal. Dean moved frantically to pick up the food and sat on the floor. I moved to sit next to him and tried to get my heart to stop beating so quickly. I could hear
my dad’s smile from behind me.

"
What have you two been up too?" My dad asked.

We both looked over our s
houlders at him and I smiled, of course that was what he was doing in the garage. I eyed the item in his hands and laughed. The metal was freshly polished and gleaming in the light.

"Nothing."

Dad frowned and turned away. "Exactly, keep it that way Dean or I'll have to kill you."

De
an looked at me with panic and I smiled. That was my daddy, shot gun in hand to scare the boys.

Chapter
Seven

Lilith

We both expressed a breath of relief. At least my dad hadn't caught us kissing on my bed, God only knew what he would have been capable of under those circumstances. I doubted the shotgun was loaded, but you just never know.

Dean and I finished watching the rest of
Jennifer’s Body ignoring the fact that we'd already missed watching half of it. The movie was funny in an ironic kind of way. I couldn't help but see the small similarities between Needy and Jennifer's relationship with mine and Rhiannon's. Granted we didn't do anything lezy like those two crazy chic’s did. But we had started out friends, and now it seemed like we were becoming enemies.

When Wes had asked about Rhi
I'd felt bad. Ever since I'd started dating Dean I'd been spending most of my time with him. I think I only saw Rhiannon twice in the last week. Although I couldn't really be blamed for the days I'd spent in the hospital, and Rhiannon had only come to visit me the once. But still I was accountable for ditching her for Dean.

I hadn't heard from
any of the Bad Girls either, but then again they did whatever Rhiannon told them to. Which was so freaking similar to how Lexie was with her bobble heads I was really starting to worry.

If
Rhiannon could just let the stuff that happened with Lexie go, maybe, just maybe, our friendship would survive. But if she kept moving forward with this evil obsession and vengeance, eventually, she was going to end up just as twisted and messed up as Lexie was, or used to be. Although, used to be wasn't exactly true yet, all Lexie had proved was that she wasn't the one who’d attacked me, she hadn't yet proved she wasn't the one who screwed up my car.

God I missed my car. I'd
have given just about anything to have the ability to leave my house completely unsupervised. My parents were so overly protective now it was ridiculous. At least today I'd been able to spend most of my time with Dean without them watching our every move.

I walked Dean downstairs and to the door. We were standing on the front step staring at each other quietly. Neither one o
f us really knew what to say.

"So
I'll pick you up tomorrow?" He asked.

I smiled. "Yep."

He leaned forward and kissed me softly on the mouth. I was surprised when he slipped his tongue between my lips and stroked mine seductively. I breathed in the taste of him. The sweet heady flavor was like liquid fire warming me all the way to my toes. I pushed myself closer to him plastering my body against his rock solid one.

It was like being on the front step released us from worrying about taking it too far or moving too quickly. For just a moment under the twinkling stars, we could let ourselves go completely, and fully express the passion and the
love we felt for each other.

Dean pulled back reluctantly. I never thought he'd be the one to do it. You always think
it’s going to be the boys that want things to move forward. And here I was practically raping him on my front door step. Woo Hoo Pacey way to have some self-control.

He smiled
and turned towards his truck.

"Bye?
" I said in an annoyed voice.

He chuckled kind of smugly as he walked away. Great, now I was just a big damn joke stroking his overly confident teenage boy ego. I slammed the front door when I was safely inside. I was kind of offended he
could control himself so well.

I crossed my arms and stomped up the stairs to my bedroom. I wanted to talk to
Rhiannon I missed my best friend. But it was fairly obvious she now hated me. Maybe if I apologized...

I started typing into the phone and then stopped short, not only had
Rhiannon slapped me, but she'd also kind of threatened me. Did I really need to apologize to her. All I'd done was get the boyfriend she'd pushed me into pursuing, and well I was thankful but did I really need to feel guilty?

Rhiannon
was also severely pissed when I didn't call her from the hospital. But it wasn't exactly my fault, I mean I was practically dead when I'd arrived. So no, there was no way I was going to be the one to apologize.

I guess it was
time to find a new friend. I didn't know why but I immediately thought of Lexie. She had said she wanted to be my friend. I snorted a laugh. What was I thinking, I couldn't be friends with Lexie.

I groaned and reached for my computer. All weekend I'd been dying to research mind reading, and being able to hear farther than what was considered "normal". I spent two hours delving through websites like Wikipedia and
Google. I looked up Near Death Experiences, and people describing the light they saw when they died.

I couldn't find one experience that described strange abilities. Whatever I was experiencing, there was no one else out there who had the same thing happen, at least no one willing to talk
about it. Big surprise there.

I almost fell out of my chair when I came across a story about a deity named Lilith. Lilith was a Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind. She was also considered a bearer of disease, illness, and death. Page after page described the different stories a
nd legends that surrounded her.

Lilith appeared as a night demon in Jewish lore, a screech owl in the Bible, and in the Victorian period, Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicted her as the ultimate "femme fa
tale."

In
one version, Lilith, was the deity of light and second sight, and otherworldly abilities. If you were greeted by her in death and able to survive, you would be given the gift of second sight. A gift that could mean anything from seeing the future, to hearing the thoughts of others.

A chill ran down my spine.
Lilith.
Something about her name pulled at my mind. Like a song I couldn’t remember. She felt familiar. Like I’d read about her before, only I knew for a fact that I hadn’t. So I dug deeper, coming across more and more information about Lilith that seemed to somehow fit.

In almost every
religion, Lilith was described as evil. In Luciferianism she was the Queen of the succubi, a demoness in Judaic literature, and a harlot and a wanton in The Deep Sea scrolls. As I scanned a paragraph about Lilith from the Classical German Period a cold hair, raising chill ran down my spine.

In Goethe's 1808 work Faust, he wrote of Lilith's affliction for young men. If she caught sight of a young man, and she wanted him, she would pull him and wrap him within her magical hair
, and never ever let him go.

"Adams wife, his first. Beware of her.

Her beauty's on
e boast is her dangerous hair.

When Lilith wi
nds it tight around young men.

She doesn't soon let go of them again."

As I read the
words, my body erupted in goose bumps. Could something as supernatural and unreal as a demon even exist? And could said demon’s obsession with a young man, Dean,
my
Dean, have led her to kill his last girlfriend, and now try to kill me? It fit together nicely I couldn't deny that. Even the part about how her attack had ultimately led to my gift of second sight when I survived her fit in perfectly.

I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands. I knew it was a woman who was after me, I could feel it the moment Dean had told me about his
girlfriend. And I'd heard her cold evil voice whisper to me the day I'd returned to school.

"I know that you can hear me Pacey
, I'm not done with you yet."
But how, in God's name, was it a freaking demon, and why would she want Dean?

It’s
not like he could go to a store and pick her up somewhere.
.
..
Demons-r-us. Now carrying Lilith the ‘Femme Fatale’.
Which I was pretty sure didn’t exist. I couldn't exactly come out and ask Dean either. That meant I'd have to tell him about the voices, and that I thought I could hear people's thoughts.

Even saying it in my head made me sound crazy, hearing people’s thoughts. And then after I'd told him how crazy I was I'd have to explain how I came to my crazy conclusion; that a demon succubi was after him, and trying to kill
me because I was in her way.

It didn't make any sense. I had to be blowing what was happening to me way out of proportion. I should probably just go back to my doctor and tell him I'd been having weird hallucinations. That made more sense than a flipping demoness. I closed my
computer and got ready for bed.

That night I tossed and turned for hours, I dreamt of a demon with golden hair
trying to devour me and Dean.

Dean
was waiting in the driveway. My whole body shook with fear as I walked out to his truck. He reached over and opened the passenger door from inside. I slid in beside him and tried to smile.

"Hey bab
e, you okay."

I
cleared my throat. "Yep fine."

He narrowed his eyes and raised a brow in
question. Who was I kidding I was a terrible liar. He backed out of the driveway and made his way towards our school. I saw Rhiannon driving in our direction on the way. I guess she was going to pick me up today. My phone vibrated in my pocket.

I
was coming to get you.

I stared at the words on the screen and sighed. How do you tell the best friend you're not even talking to, you're freaking cra
zy.

T
hought we weren't talking, sorry, see you at school.
I locked my phone and looked over at Dean.

"I hope that wasn't another crazy m
essage." His voice was sharp.

"No, just Rhi."

"You're actually talking to her?" His voice sounded disapproving.

"I guess, I don't know, we've been friends for so long, something like this just fades away." I wasn't even worried about
Rhiannon, I was worried about the crazy demoness I was convinced wanted Dean.

Geez, it's thoughts like that
one that made me need to call my doctor. When we pulled into the parking lot at school Rhiannon was close behind us. She got out of her car and walked quickly over to me.

"Hey Butch ca
n I borrow Pacey for a minute?"

He eyed me with co
ncern but nodded his approval. I walked behind Rhi to the sidewalk still completely within sight of Dean.

"I'm sorry."

I stared at her face for a few minutes then laughed. "Wow Rhi, did you actually apologize?"

Her face showed h
er discomfort but she sighed. "Yea, I was a bitch, I shouldn't have hit you, I don't even remember doing it."

I stopped laughing at once and
felt my heart start to race. Part of the stuff I'd read last night said that Lilith could move into women through mirrors. She could control them, then leave them whenever she wanted. Only women who were under high stress or going through a difficult time could be entered. It had made me wonder if she'd ever entered me.

"Okay." I couldn't say anymore, I was
too frightened to move, I just stood there shaking while Rhi stared at me with concern.

"Whoa, are you okay Pacey, you're shaking." She took a step towards me
and I moved back in surprise.

"Pacey?" Dean was at my side in an instant. He stared at
Rhiannon his eyes slit with anger.

"What did you do, did y
ou threaten her?"

Rhiannon
shook her head and turned away. It wasn't her fault I was shaking. I was more afraid of the thing I could see looking out through her light blue eyes. The blackness swirling around the white part of them. I covered my ears when I heard the howling wind start. Lilith was here I could feel it, and she now knew, that I knew the truth.

Ribbons of black were swirling and writhing up
Rhiannon's arms like snakes. The same black cloudy ribbons I had seen in her eyes, I knew no one else could see them. The gift of second sight made me aware of what was really there, beneath the normal, socially safe surface. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the thoughts Lilith was trying to pour into me. The howling was unbearable, as piercing as nails on a chalkboard, my ears wanted to bleed.

"You can't stop me Pacey he will be mine, if I have to go through every female
around you, I will kill you."

I felt a sharp pain erupt in my head and saw a bright shattering light. Even with my eyes closed there was no escaping it, the light was cold, and harsh, and em
pty, just like Lilith's soul.

Dean was shaking me gently trying to get my attention. Slowly the light and the howling faded away. I could feel the nausea rolling in my stomach. I tried to swallow it back do
wn and breathe. Just breathe.

After a few
moments, I opened my eyes and looked into Deans dark turquoise ones. Everything made sense now. I couldn't talk myself out of the quest I now knew I was under. I had to protect him, I had to try to save him without letting him know too much, about what was happening. That was the truly remarkable part of her grip on him. I could never reveal the truth, he'd never believe me, and I'd lose him.