* * * *
Tamara screamed as Subie delivered a second kick to Sam’s inert body. What was she doing? She was supposed to be their friend.
But that same friend had opened the door and let the three that had hurt Adrian and Alex into their room. The same three that had tortured Subie and thrown Sam like a sack of millet. She had stood by and let them take Tamara away. They’d done something to her and she’d passed out, only to wake up here with Sam’s naked boss tied up at her feet. Tamara’s arms were tied behind her around a wooden post as big around as her thigh.
Then Sam had showed up. She knew he would make everything right. Sam was her savior. Her rock. He was the one thing in this world she knew she could rely on.
She hadn’t had time to warn him about Subie’s betrayal. Tamara watched in horror as Subie struck Brock in the back of the head, and then shot that asshole, Jenkins. What was he doing there anyhow?. She didn’t really care about the cop, but Brock was a different story. He'd been her friend too.
“Bring him over here,” the three robed figures ordered Subie. The other woman bent over and grabbed the back of Sam’s shirt. With a strength her little form shouldn’t possess, she picked him up and carried Tamara’s lover over to them.
Subie was careful to step in the path cleared of the slippery substance left after the tank had been emptied. Tamara could only see half the design made on the floor, but she knew it was an upside-down pentacle.
“He needs to be awake,” the three growled as Subie deposited Sam at their feet.
“He’ll wake up soon enough,” Subie laughed.
Latoya huddled closer to Tamara as Subie walked up to her. Subie sniffed Tamara a few times, and then smiled. “Your smell is so distinctive. I can’t wait to see what happens when this is over.”
“Why are you doing this?” Tamara asked again. Her heart raced as Subie laughed. “I thought you were my friend.”
“The woman you knew as Subie is locked away,” she said. “She was weak. She gave up while we were playing with her. Now it’s just me!” Her laugh made Tamara’s skin crawl.
Tamara had no idea what that was supposed to mean. How could Subie be dead, and yet right in front of her?
Sam groaned and lifted his head.
“Latoya?” he asked, seeing his boss first. A flash of jealousy coursed through Tamara. Why would he say her name first? “Tamara!” he gasped next. He tried to turn and look at her, but Subie’s foot on his back held him down. “What are you going to do to her?”
One of the three robed figures, the woman Tamara thought but couldn’t be sure with that robe on, untied Latoya. She tried to fight as she was dragged away. Tamara had seen how strong the robed woman was. Sam’s boss didn’t stand a chance.
The other two walked away. One stood at a point of the star Tamara could see, while the other moved to some point beyond her vision.
“We need a sacrifice,” Subie laughed. “Tamara here, makes the perfect one.”
The three robed figures started humming.
“Oh, looks like it’s time,” Subie grinned. “I’d like to say it’s been fun knowing you, but mortals can be so boring.”
Subie walked away to stand at the remaining point within Tamara’s view. Brock was still unconscious. Subie chuckled as she drew near him.
“Wait,” Sam said, trying to pull himself up. He held the side of his head where Subie had kicked him. Tamara could see blood trickling between his fingers. The humming continued, but Subie looked interested. “Take me instead.”
“Sam, no!” Tamara cried. She couldn’t imagine life without him. “You can’t!” She needed him.
“Shhh,” he whispered to her. “I love you, Tamara. You’ve got your life ahead of you. I’m a broken down old man. I lost more than my leg in the war but you gave that back to me. If they'll let you go I can give you some of that back.”
Tears blurred her vision as he spoke. He loved her!
“You’re man enough for me,” she told him. “I love you, Sam. There has to be another way. Don’t do this!” A sob broke free from her chest, stopping her from saying anything else.
He kissed her. His facial hair dug into her cheeks, but she relished the feeling. He loved her!
The kiss ended too soon. Her face felt naked where his warmth had been.
“Sam. No,” she whispered, unable to draw in enough breath to speak.
“Do we have a deal?” Sam asked, turning away.
Tamara couldn’t breathe. Something heavy pressed against her chest as she watched Subie look at her watch. Time slowed as her lungs began to burn, demanding air. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Sam in front of her. Subie slowly lifted the hand with the gun in it, pointing it at Tamara. No, not at Tamara, at Sam!
“Sam!” she screamed.
Subie grinned, a feral look in her eyes. “Done,” she said and pulled the trigger.
Searing agony forced a scream to break past Tamara’s lips. Pain unlike any she’d ever experienced before sliced at her veins. Her skin was flayed from bone, her mind scoured away. She tried to mentally run from the agony, but it followed her. Relentless. There was no escape. No way to get away from what was coming. She couldn’t run from herself.
Time lost all meaning, as her torture continued. Every nerve ending in her body cried out, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Finally something changed. It was subtle at first, but it was enough that she noticed it. Images came next. She saw a young woman, wasted and sick, tortured in some nameless and timeless space. Tortured into submitting to her plan. Her plan to win her father’s favor.
As memories returned, so too did her sense of self. She laughed. She had done it! Her gamble had paid off.
“T-Tamara?” Latoya asked from behind her.
Tamara? No, she wasn’t Tamara. Her name was Tam’rah! A worthy name for the daughter of Satan.
“Mistress?” one of her subjects asked. It took Tam’rah a moment to recall the name of the person the body once belonged to.
“Untie me, Subie,” she commanded. Her voice was no longer that of the frightened woman without her memories. The demon inside the other woman forced Subie’s body to comply. She was strong enough, now that she was awake, that she could have broken the bonds on her own, but she needed to assert her dominance. Even on a weak minion like the one in Subie.
Tam’rah glanced down at the body at her feet. Sam Mendez had been the perfect patsy to her plan. Blood pooled beneath him from the hole in his chest. As the blood, blood from the heart of the man that had foolishly fallen in love with her, pooled out, it began to darken and boil. It ate away at the physical world, opening a way into the spiritual one.
“Tamara?” an annoying voice asked again.
She turned to see the woman that had once been Sam’s boss. Latoya was naked and covered in glorious script. Script written in the language of demons. The words glowed to Tam’rah’s eyes. They were words exalting her arrival and rebirth here in the mortal world. A world that would soon belong to her.
“Release her,” she commanded Subie. She could have given the command to the single demon controlling the other three bodies, but that work was beneath him.
“Tamara, I don’t know what’s going on,” Latoya said as her hands were freed. “But we need to get out of here.”
“My name is Tam’rah!” she bellowed at the mortal. “Tamara never existed. I will let you live, but you must spread the news of my arrival here on Earth. Tell your people that a new queen has arrived.” Her eyes landed on the other mortal still in the room. He was slowly getting to his feet, one of those silly weapons mortals used to kill each other in his hands.
“What the fuck did you do?” he demanded. His hand lifted the pistol and pointed it at her. “What did you do to my girlfriend, and what did you do to Sam?” He didn’t wait for a response before squeezing the trigger.
The little toy went off again and again, until it clicked empty. Tam’rah looked down at her body and saw th
e last of the holes closing. Such simple things couldn’t harm her.
She turned her back on him and faced Latoya. “Take that man, and leave before I change my mind. Tell the world that I have come. Prepare to be ruled by your true masters.”
Tam’rah cackled as the tiny black woman followed her orders, taking the stunned man with her. They stopped long enough to grab the other dead man. A bright light fell from around the dead man’s neck, making Tam’rah hiss. He had brought a holy artifact in here? To her awakening?
Her anger at the audacity of the dead man manifested as his body went up in flames. The cross he’d worn had to be destroyed. Fire was the only thing strong enough to destroy a religious artifact of the enemy. The other two mortals fled in terror, returning some of Tam’rah’s joy.
“Couldn’t we have kept the one, mistress? He had been some fun, at least,” Subie asked.
Tam’rah glared at her. Was her mortal body interfering with the minor demon’s proper sensibilities?
“Mistress, some of our brethren are arriving,” Samael intoned from the three mouths he controlled.
Tam’rah turned to the open portal that Sam's sacrifice had fueled and greeted her army.