The Entropy Vampires

By

Darren S. Kaufman

 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

– Hamlet

 

Provability is a weaker notion than truth.

– Douglas Hofstadter. Godel, Escher, Bach. An eternal golden braid.

 

 

 

 

 

The Entropy Vampires

By

Darren Kaufman

 

Chapter 1 Present Day
At night the sea is a beautiful, evil woman moaning and beckoning with swells and undulations, with her hollows, her places in between and with her dark troughs that lead to the black, silky moistness below. The sea is an inky, velvety hymen that is pierced and sealed after each penetration. A harlot with eternal virginity. Below this water’s surface a beautiful, woman-like predator swims with the agility of a snake. She can see the glow from the lights of the large cruise ship. Tonight she will feed.
Bezjab, a descendant of the Watchers and a Nefillim priestess, dives deep beneath the waves, her powerful arms and legs propelling her effortlessly into the black depths. The marrowless bones of those previously allured by her and then killed by her, sleep upon the alluvial pillow of the ocean bottom, their final resting place. They are her trophies. She hovers above the ocean floor touching the bones with her fingertips, swimming among them, counting them while remembering, savoring each kill, the taste of the blood and the feeling of being suffused with the life force and consciousness of her dying prey. The memory arouses her and she unashamedly opens her legs and pleasures herself. Her orgasm is powerful and in the deep water her shrieks are heard for miles. Even the sharks give her wide berth. She is of a race of demons, the children of fallen angels, The Watchers, who somehow survived the Flood of God’s wrath, and who, over many generations, have thrived as predators in the oceans and, more recently, upon the land. The females of her kind are beautiful beyond description. They are the Sirens, the mermaids of sea lore. But Bezjab has a singular beauty even among the other female demons. And this makes her particularly deadly.
Henry Johnson stands upon the balcony of his cabin, high above the waves lapping gently against the large ship as it makes its way through the warm Caribbean water. The divorce had been particularly nasty and he had been working sixteen-hour days simply to pay the sizable alimony that had been awarded to his ex-wife. She had moved far away taking his two young children with her. His life had become a blur of work, alcohol, hangovers and more work. Finally, on the cusp of a nervous breakdown, he had booked passage on this Caribbean cruise. Fuck the alimony. If he ended up in a mental hospital he wouldn’t be able to pay it anyway. He would worry about the credit card bill when he got home. For now, he intended to drink and fuck and eat and sleep for a week.
The ice in his glass clinks gently against the tumbler like wind chimes as the warm, gentle breeze caresses his sunburned face and bare chest. The Scotch burns his throat slightly, but pleasurably, and he can feel his face flush slightly and the relaxing buzzing in his head as the alcohol is absorbed into his blood.
Bezjab’s head silently emerges from beneath the water. At three AM most of the cabin lights are out. She can clearly see Henry Johnson’s form silhouetted against the lights from his room. She can feel the heat of his life force and can smell the iron in his blood. Noiselessly, like a tiger silently approaching its prey on soft sand, she swims closer to the ship. When the moment is right she will reveal herself to him.
For a brief moment he is surprised to see a woman standing upon the water below his balcony keeping pace with the ship. She is incredibly, indescribably alluring. He cannot look away. In the moonlight he can see the outline of her naked sinewy body, her long wavy hair cascading down to her buttocks. Her eyes are luminous and locked with his. He is instantly and completely under her spell. This is her favorite part of the hunt, the anticipation of the kill. He is completely powerless, an insect caught in her ancient, noetic web. She continues to slowly swim towards the ship keeping her glowing eyes locked with his, filling his consciousness with a morphine-like energy, like a spider’s venom, paralyzing her prey. He is completely mesmerized. His mind, his reason, is melting. She beckons to him. The ocean beckons to him. She is so beautiful. He cannot look away. She moistens her lips with the flick of her serpentine tongue. Her lips part as she touches herself between her muscular thighs and slowly squeezes and touches her large breasts, her nipples hard and erect in the gray moonlight. She begins to moan and dance erotically upon the water. The luminescence of her eyes are extinguished as her pupils dilate completely leaving her eyes as black as coal. The pace of her moving hand quickens and her moaning harmonizes with the howling of the now increasing wind. She enters herself with her fingers and lets her head fall back, her ink black hair undulating beneath the surface like a jellyfish. Her fingers plunge deeply, violently into her soft moistness and blood begins to trickle down her inner thighs as she tears into her own delicate flesh. She removes her hand from between her legs. It is covered with thick, maroon, clot-laden blood which she licks greedily from her delicate, talon-tipped fingers, inserting each finger into her moist, dark mouth and sucking the virginal blood from each finger like a wolf sucking the marrow from the shattered ribs of its lacerated prey. She slowly lies back upon the dark water, as if it was a bed, and opens her legs, gently swaying her hips. Her nether lips are widely parted and the clotted blood is caked upon the triangular patch of black hair.
No one sees Henry Johnson as he climbs up upon the balcony railing and dives headlong into the sea. For an instant, the spell is broken and he feels the horror of the plummet to the lonely, onyx black waters below. He can no longer see the woman, but he hears the sound of a woman laughing. The sound of his body hitting the water is not heard above the din of the howling wind and the parting of the waves by the ship’s keel. The water caresses him, gently at first, like an insect being touched by the delicate tendrils of a Venus flytrap. The force of the impact of striking the ocean surface has left him dazed. Mercifully, he does not feel the talons that dig deeply into the flesh of his neck as Bezjab tears out his throat exposing the sinew and arteries and veins. The blood spurts out from his torn, gaping wound filling the water with blood. Hungrily, Bezjab drinks his blood, gulping it down as it fills her mouth. She drags him beneath the water. He is helpless and dying. Sharks begin to circle them both, drawn by the smell of the sanguine feast and the churning of the water by Henry Johnson as he struggles, now feebly, against the powerful woman. Bezjab glares at the sharks with her black eyes and then swims towards the bottom with her kill, clutching the now lifeless body by his scalp. The sharks quickly swim away like timid children, their dead eyes unwilling to meet her gaze. The demons had established their place among the hierarchy of the ocean’s predators many generations ago. The sharks disappear into the shadows of the deep ocean, insatiate, the smell of blood thick upon their gills and empty bellies.
As she swims deeper and deeper Bezjab continues to feast upon her victim. By the time that she reaches her lair at the ocean floor, his body has been completely stripped of muscle, hair, fat, flesh, sinew and blood. She places his eyeless skull and white bones upon the sand, intoxicated by the energy that she has drained from him. She has consumed his life force and his consciousness. They will never know what has become of him. Bezjab smiles and stretches and arches her back like a cat after a satisfying meal. She hovers in the deep.
“They are sheep”, she thinks to herself. “They know nothing. They think that they are safe, protected by science and reason. They do not believe in demons. Their faith is weak. They do not believe in anything beyond themselves. They are my food. When I am hungry, I eat their flesh and drink their blood. When I need to make a child I let them fill me with their seed and then I kill them and devour them, their energy, their consciousness”. Bezjab throws her head back and laughs. In her state of postprandial satiety she does not sense the woman who swims silently above and behind her.
The small knife pierces Bezjab’s chest just below her left breast and is then quickly withdrawn in one well-practiced motion. She is dead instantly and her now opaque, sightless eyes stare out blankly into the blackness. A cumulonimbus cloud of her own blood obscures her floating corpse. Eve sheaths the small obsidian blade and swims away powerfully just as the sharks return and begin tearing apart Bezjab’s lifeless body. Demon flesh is a rare treat for the sharks and they devour her quickly.
Eve silently climbs aboard the cruise ship. She is unseen and unheard. Like a panther she pads down the empty deck and settles into the hot tub. To all outward appearances, she is just another tourist dozing after a night of partying and drinking. Although she is still alert and on guard, she lets herself enjoy the womb-like warmth of the bubbling tub. It has been a long day. The man could not be saved. He was a casualty in a war that has been raging since antiquity. Good vs evil. But Bezjab is dead now. The other demons will notice her absence and will seek revenge. Since Bezjab was a princess even the Watchers themselves will be angered.
A man walks unsteadily down the deck and then staggers and slips into the hot tub across from Eve. He is a tall, handsome young man, about thirty years old with an athletic build. His face makes him look younger than his age, with light brown eyes and a prominent but well formed nose. She sizes him up quickly and determines that he is not a threat. He looks at her briefly. His mouth moves as if he is going to say something but his head falls forward and he begins to snore. She can smell the alcohol even though she is on the other side of the tub. Good, that will make things easier, she thinks to herself. It has been a very long and active day, and Eve will need to feed upon his entropy. It has been too long since she has fed, but that couldn’t be helped. She could not reveal herself earlier. The demons and the Watchers can sense her presence when she feeds, and that could not be risked. But since Bezjab was the only demon who hunted in these waters she will now be able to feed, albeit quickly, and leave the area before they can get to her.
Eve stands up. The steam from the warm water rises seductively from her wet skin. At first glance, she looks almost delicate. She is slender, but upon closer inspection, her arms and legs are sinewy with well-defined muscles. Her stomach is lean and taut. She is short, maybe five foot two, but her long legs make her look taller. Despite her athletic features, her hips are wide and her breasts, although not large, are larger than they should be for her build, making them appear alluringly prominent. She gives off an aura of both fecundity and power. Despite the beauty and seductiveness of her body, it is her face that you actually first notice and are drawn to. Her facial features are a mixture of Latin and something else, possibly Mediterranean, with her skin just dark enough to suggest the aforementioned ethnicity. Her eyes are deeply brown, almost black, with flecks of amber when the light strikes them. By simply parting her lips and tilting her head she can capture the gaze of any man and can just as easily intimidate him just by furrowing her brow and intensifying her gaze. A quick smile immediately brightens her face giving her a “girl next door” quality that makes her inner strength invisible.
She needs to feed now, and quickly, so she parts her lips and gently splashes water onto the man’s face to awaken him. Even in his inebriated state he is immediately drawn to her angelic beauty. She looks him straight in the eye as she removes her bathing suit and crosses the hot tub, stopping when she is standing directly over him. He begins to stand up but she pushes him back down firmly and with a strength that he did not expect. With a furrowed brow and a deep gaze she stares into his eyes intently. He is instantly hypnotized. With her thoughts she has him quickly remove his bathing suit. Straddling him, she quickly puts him inside of her and allows the full force of her exotic beauty to enter his consciousness. He comes inside of her immediately. She presses his head forward with her powerful arms and seals her lips upon his lips forcing her swollen, large tongue deeply into his mouth to complete the connection. His entropy flows into her. The bubbling hot water of the hot tub becomes cool and a thin layer of ice forms upon the surface. She removes him from her and gently kisses his lips and strokes his face. She loves humans. She would die protecting them if necessary. Eve is an Entropy Vampire. She feeds on the entropy of humans. This actually makes her human “prey” stronger after she feeds on them.
Eve carefully picks up the man and places him, sleeping, in a lounge chair. Bending forward, she kisses him gently on his forehead, and then climbs over the deck railing and dives silently back into the sea.

 

Chapter 2

Michael listens to the sound of the waves and the wind outside of his cabin. He has had way too much to drink these last few days, but the hangover has finally lifted. The late night work out in the cruise ship’s gym and the big dinner have left him feeling strong and refreshed, at least for the moment. But, he knows that soon the pain will return. It always does. The tears will begin to fill his eyes and the sadness, the guilt and the anger will return. He lies down on the bed and closes his eyes. He falls asleep quickly but he sleeps fitfully, tossing and turning. The dream is always the same. She is dead. They killed her. He awakens with a start, drenched in sweat. But it was not a dream. She is really gone. They killed her and he couldn’t stop them. They were too strong. He had tried and was almost killed himself.
“I will find you and I will kill you”, he says aloud into the darkness of his cabin. He gently pats the sheath with the small obsidian blade that is clipped to his belt at the small of his back, and then drifts back to sleep.

Chapter 3

Eve quickly and silently climbs the rope ladder that Derby O’Malley has placed in the water. As soon as she is aboard he pulls the ladder out of the water, tosses her a thick dry towel, and then gets behind the controls of the powerful, black cigarette boat. He pushes the throttle all the way forward causing it to rear up and fly across the waves with its bow high above the water. Speed is important. The demons, and possibly some of the Watchers themselves, will be coming after them. And soon.
Derby expertly guides the speedboat over the large waves. He is dressed completely in black: black tee shirt, black pants, black baseball hat and a black nylon jacket. A Glock 9 mm is strapped to his belt and a Walther PPK hangs from a shoulder holster under his jacket. In its sheath at the small of his back is a Bowie knife with an obsidian blade. All of his bullets are obsidian-tipped. A steel knife and standard issue bullets can wound a demon or Watcher but not kill it. However, a wound inflicted with obsidian is particularly damaging to them. The Mayans had known this, but even armed with this knowledge they had been slaughtered by the demons and the Watchers, and their civilization had disappeared into history.
Eve dries herself off and changes quickly into dry clothes.
“We are going to have to go back Derby”.
He glances quickly towards her and then, just as quickly, looks straight ahead. He is driving the speedboat at an unsafe, but necessary speed. An unnoticed wave could kill them both. Also, the demons would be there soon. The situation is very dangerous. It was Derby’s job to protect Eve and he did not like the risks that they had taken with this operation. But when the opportunity to kill Bezjab had presented itself they took it. Bezjab had grown arrogant and overconfident. Years ago Eve could never have gotten so close to her undetected.
Eve and Derby stand side-by-side and silent at the helm of the speedboat with just the sound of the wind and the waves pounding the hull of the boat each time it lands upon the choppy water. Eve watches Derby as his eyes dart back and forth scanning the ocean for any threats, anything that might endanger Eve. His family had been Protectors since biblical times. Derby was in his fifties. He was a bit overweight, but he was incredibly powerful. Despite his girth he was very fast and agile. More importantly, he was fearless and deadly. He would die protecting Eve or any Entropy Vampire if he had to. He would do it without thinking, without hesitation.
Derby cuts the engine as they near the beach. In the dim moonlight he can make out the faint outline of the dock. As the boat nudges against the moorings he secures it. They quickly climb out of the boat, sprint down the boardwalk and get into the car that Derby has parked nearby. He drives in the darkness without headlights until they are about a mile from the dock and he is sure that they weren’t being followed.
“Now what’s this shit about going back Eve. You just fucking killed Bezjab. Everyone is going to be looking for us. Shit, the fucking Watchers themselves are probably going to come looking for us. We have to keep our heads down girlfriend. I have to get you out of here”.
Eve stares straight ahead.
“There is a Knower on the ship Derby”.
Derby casts her a quick glance. They both sit in silence as Derby drives.
“Are you sure”?
“Yes. Positive. Just as I jumped off the cruise ship I felt his presence.”
“Fuck. Is he a trained Knower? Did he pop his cherry yet”?
Eve hated it when Derby referred to the indoctrination rituals and training of a Knower with the colloquialism of losing virginity, which was why he always said it.
“He’s a virgin”, Eve continued the metaphor.
“Shit. He’s a sitting duck. If they sense him, he’s dead”.
“I know. We have to go back for him. We need to plan this”.
“OK. I’ll set it up. The cruise ship will be docking in Nassau tomorrow morning. I’ll get you there tonight. Have you fed”?
“I fed on the ship and I can feed again tonight in the Bahamas. I’ll be fine”.
“You’re a crazy girl Eve”.
She looked into his pale blue eyes and put her hand on the large, friendly face. He smiled from ear to ear, for a moment allowing his countenance to betray his deep fatherly love for Eve. Despite the shaven head, the bulbous nose and the gray stubble of beard, when he smiled he always gave off the happy aura of a little boy on the first day of summer.

Chapter 4 One year earlier
From his adjoining study, Dr.Shem Levi watched his son Michael as he slept on the well worn but comfortable couch in the living room of his small apartment. The sun had not yet come up and he was enjoying the predawn tranquility. Even at this early hour the sounds of the city still intruded upon the quietude. A siren wailed not too far off in the distance. Entropy never slept. Like the pounding of the surf it constantly erodes the rocks and the soil upon which we dwell. Was it futile to oppose the forces of decay, degeneration and destruction?
Dr.Levi returned his attention to the leather bound journal on his desk. He had scanned copies of all of his journals, all 24 volumes, into his computer, and had also made several back up copies on five other flash drives. He had given his son Michael one of the flash drives for safekeeping and another to his daughter Emmie (short for Emzara). He kept one with him at all times and had stored another in a safe deposit box in an account known only to Michael, Emmie and himself. And, of course, Harrison Kiffel, who also had a copy of the journals. Harrison, “Harry”, was a Protector. The Kiffel family had been the Protectors of Shem Levi’s family for many generations. Dr.Levi had tried to trace the genealogy of Harry’s family, but beyond his great grandfather all recorded traces of his family’s history had disappeared. Harry had told Shem that he was a direct descendant of Joshua, Moses’ successor, as were all Protectors. Even in the Bible there is no mention made of Joshua’s descendants. This was for their protection and the protection of those whom they protected.
Dr.Shem Levi was a Knower of the Truth, or simply, a “Knower” as they had come to be called. By occupation he was an archeologist and a writer, and his family had accompanied him on many of his expeditions around the world. Although his son Michael shared his love of archeology he was even more fascinated by the study of medicine. When traveling to the third world he was always appalled by the lack of basic medical care. Moreover, he was completely fascinated by the stories of the shamans and medicine men of the civilizations that his father studied. Ultimately, he had gone to medical school and was now working in a free clinic on the lower east side of Manhattan. For several months a year he went abroad with Doctors Without Borders and worked in remote, underserved areas around the world. He had just returned from a trip to Central America. As was their custom, Michael and his father had sat up and talked late into the evening, their conversation fuelled by several cups of Shem’s strong black coffee. Shem smiled to himself as he watched Michael sleep. He himself did not need much sleep, and he had awakened early, as was his custom, to read and work in his study. He and his son were very close. Shem’s wife, Naamah, had died giving birth to their daughter Emmie. At least that was the story that Shem had told his children. Naamah was an Entropy Vampire. With the births of Michael and Emmie her work in this world was completed. She was needed in another world. Shem had always understood that some day she would have to leave and he accepted that. He had held his tears back until Naamah had left. He never spoke of the dark months he suffered after her departure. He could still recall, would never forget, the image of Naamah, the strength in her eyes as her body began to glow and then simply disappeared. He had heard her whisper his name in his ear, in the darkness. And then she was gone. Sometimes, in that state between wakefulness and dream he could still hear his name being whispered. Since Emma’s murder this had been occurring more frequently.
Michael shifted slightly on the couch and then resumed snoring loudly. Shem stood up from his chair and padded quietly into the living room to stand beside his son’s sleeping form. He gently stroked his hair and smiled. Michael had grown into a fine young man. He was now twenty-nine years old. His face was framed by long brown hair that covered his ears and reached down to the bottom of his neck. His nose was aquiline but not too large for his face. His skin was light despite the time that he has spent in the sun. His eyes were closed gently and peaceful, the lids obscuring the bright green eyes that he had inherited from his mother. Two days growth of beard covered his young face. He slept shirtless and Shem could see the large well-formed muscles of his shoulders, chest and arms. His callused hands were more like those of a laborer than a physician. When he was abroad he liked to help the villagers that he treated with their physical labor when time permitted. This served two purposes: it allowed him to develop a very close rapport with them and allowed him to very quickly earn their respect. It also kept him in very good physical condition. Shem could also see the heavily callused and enlarged knuckles of his son’s hands. When he was very young Harry had insisted on taking Michael to a small Okinawan karate dojo that was run by a short, squat Okinawan sensei, Sensei Omei. Although Michael had become an extremely proficient martial artist he was a gentle young man by nature, and always had been. He had never fought while he was in school. Moreover, he had always walked away from fights. Not out of fear of injury, but because he was afraid that he might seriously hurt someone else. Sensei Omei had told him that if he ever heard that he had been in a fight in school that he would punish him severely and no longer teach him. The admonishment had been very effective. Michael had adhered to the precept of Okinawan Karate-do, “Karate ni sente nashi”. There is no first attack in Karate. However, since the murder of his sister Emma several months prior, and over the protests of his father, Michael had heavily conditioned his hands and could easily shatter boards and bricks with his fists. He had never let his training lapse and he had continued to diligently train and study several styles of martial art. But he had changed. There was anger inside of him. A week earlier Michael and Shem had gone out at night to get a cup of coffee at a nearby café. While they were walking a group of four college students, a bit drunk and probably returning from a party, fell in behind them. Michael and Shem were walking somewhat slowly, talking as they walked. As the group of students overtook them they knocked into Shem causing him to stumble and fall. One of the group, a large man, maybe nineteen or twenty years old, began to laugh. “Hey old man, can’t you fucking walk? You better help that old fuck up asshole before he shits on himself!” The group laughed collectively. The large young man walked up to Michael and poked him in the chest. “Next time get the fuck out of my way!” Normally, Michael would have grabbed his finger and put him an arm lock and made him apologize, and that would have been the end of it. But Michael felt the anger rise inside of him. Everything began to turn red. He didn’t see a group of drunken college students. Instead, he saw the two large men and two young women who had attacked him and his sister Emma last October on her thirtieth birthday. The scene around him melted. He was standing with his sister Emma again, surrounded by these four strange people who had accosted them for no reason. He was having a flashback but it was so real. Was it real? He pushed his sister Emma behind him, keeping himself between the attackers and Emma. They were surrounded and there was nowhere to run. The street was dark and empty. Instinctively, he reached to the small of his back and unsheathed the small obsidian knife that his father had given to him a few years ago. “Keep this knife with you at all times. Someday I will tell you more, but for now just remember to keep this with you. Someday you will need it. You will know when that is. Harry is going to teach you how to use it. Make sure that you practice everything that he teaches you until you can do it without thinking.”
In one, well practiced, fluid move, Michael had unsheathed the small black blade and buried it up to the hilt into the chest of the nearest attacker, killing him instantly. He immediately withdrew the blade and turned it around in his hand so that the handle of the blade was in his palm with the blade along his forearm, he slashed at the throat of a second attacker who had now stepped forward, trying to grab Emma. At first it looked as if Michael’s slashing strike had missed, until a thin, crimson line appeared upon the attacker’s throat, followed by a gurgling cataract of blood spilling down his chest. He too fell to the ground, dead. The remaining two attackers looked at each other for a moment. They were women. At first, Michael thought that they would back off. Maybe they were just the girlfriends of the two attackers. They eyed Michael closely and seemed to be sniffing the air as if they recognized a familiar scent. Both of the women were disturbingly beautiful, each with long black hair and voluptuous bodies. Each had eyes that seemed to glow like the green luminescence of the eyes of a cat. Their attack was vicious. Their level of skill was obviously far beyond that of the two men that Michael had just killed. They attacked simultaneously, obviously intent on attacking Emma . “Why?” he thought. Emma had stepped forward, from behind Michael. He could see a small, obsidian knife held expertly in her hand. He was puzzled for a moment. “Why did she have a knife also?” He saw Emma stab towards one of the female attackers and had to turn his own attention back towards the remaining attacker who was now launching herself towards him. She was laughing. He did not see the blow that connected with his head. Everything was going black. He could feel her hot breath in his ear. “I am Bezjab” she had said. “I am going to feast upon your flesh.” He knew that he was going to die. He could dimly hear the sound of Emma fighting with her attacker. And then there was silence. With his last ounce of strength he fought to open his eyes. Emma was lying next to him. Her throat had been ripped out. She was dead. Her eyes were open, staring directly into Michael’s. He screamed. The last thing he remembered was Harry carrying him to a car.
As if awakening from a nightmare Michael blinked his eyes and could once again see the four drunken men standing in front of him. “Hey bitch, did you hear what I said? Are you stupid? What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you going to cry?” The large student poked Michael in the chest again. Michael punched him squarely in solar plexus. He instantly crumpled to the ground, unable to breath. Before Shem could stop him Michael had quickly moved through the entire group. By the time Shem had gotten to his feet all four of the students were on the ground writhing in pain. Michael then went back to his original attacker and began punching him in the face and body as hard as he could until he could no longer lift his arms. Shem pulled him away. “Let me kill him Dad, let me kill him! They killed Emma! I have to kill them!” Shem held Michael against him. Soon Michael would turn thirty.
Shem returned to his study. As he leafed through his notes he remembered the day that he had begun Michael’s training as a Knower of the Truth. He did not reveal to Michael that he too was a Knower, or that his mother was an Entropy Vampire. That full revelation would not occur until his thirtieth birthday. As long as he remained ignorant of the fact that he was a Knower they would not be able to sense him. But once aware of the Truth, and, once he shared entropy with another Entropy Vampire, they would be able to sense him. To track him. It was important that he be fully prepared prior to that so that he could protect himself. Michael had just turned twenty-one and it was time to start building his knowledge base.
“Michael, pull up a chair and come sit next to me”, Shem had begun. “I have something very important to teach you. It will remain between you and I. You must not tell anyone else. Do you understand”? Michael shook his head affirmatively. Shem continued”.
“I know that you are very familiar with the Bible and also with other non-canonical writings like the Book of Enoch. There are other things that are not generally known. You will not find them in any of your reading. Very few people know of them. It is time that you begin learning of these things. Pay very close attention. Someday, it will be very important for you to know these things. Let’s start by reminding you of the passage from Genesis 6:1-8:

‘ And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose. And the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at His heart. And the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and creeping thing, and fowl of the air, for it repenteth Me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord’.
Michael, what this passage from Genesis describes is how a group of rebel angels conspired to leave Heaven and go to earth to take human women as wives and have children with them. These rebel angels were the Watchers and their children became demons, the Nefillim. This story is more fully developed in the Book of the Watchers in the first Book of Enoch. I will leave it to you to go back and read this carefully. Recall that God became angered when he saw how wicked man had become. The great flood was supposed to have destroyed every living thing, save Noah and his family, and the animals that he brought with him and his family onto the ark. In addition, as described in the First Book of Enoch, God sent his angels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael to capture and send the Watchers to ‘an abyss of fire’ for eternity. After that was accomplished, the Watchers were no longer mentioned. However, there was a legend that the leader of the Watchers, Semjaza, was able to escape along with some of his children, the Nefillim, and return to the earth, where he took several human women hostage and then took refuge in an underwater cavern where he and his children and the hostages survived the Great Flood. There are obscure references found in Kabbalistic literature that make mention of a ‘Fallen One’ who escaped God’s wrath and ‘gave birth to a nation that grew beneath the waters’. Archeologists have searched for, but have never found, the actual written source of this legend, but it is said that this Book of Semjaza is still hidden in the caves at Qumran. Apparently the rabbis were quite upset about this concept. After all, how could any being escape God’s wrath. The rabbis ultimately invoked one of the Kabbalah’s concepts of creation called Tzimtzum. Tzimtzum means the contraction of Ein Sof, God’s infinity prior to creation, which then created the empty space necessary for the creation of the world. Mathematically, you can envision this as God becoming less infinite, but still infinite. Remember that Georg Cantor was able to demonstrate that some infinite sets are actually larger than other infinite sets. The concept of Tzimtzum provides a framework for free will and sets limits on a deterministic universe. So basically, Semjaza exploited this principle and was able to escape even though it seemed that his fate should have been sealed.
It is said that Semjaza and his family survived by attacking ships, plundering the supplies, and killing and drinking the blood of the sailors. There is a reference to the Nefillim drinking blood before the Great Flood, in the first book of Enoch:

“And they began to sin against birds, and beasts and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drank the blood.”

Apparently they continued this practice in their new undersea world. Over time, the offspring of Semjaza evolved into a race of vampire-like creatures. They were able to drain the life energy, referred to as Qi or Prana, as well as the very consciousness of their victims by drinking their blood. Unlike the vampires of modern lore, they were not afflicted by exposure to sunlight. However, they did tend to hunt mostly at night since fewer sailors would be on watch during the night and early morning, making it easier to climb aboard ships without being detected. Some of the Nefillim, eventually returned to the land. It is said that they were responsible for the destruction of the Mayan civilization. Recall that the Mayans would leave blood sacrifices for their “gods”, who in retrospect were the Nefillim. But the Nefillim were not satisfied. They wanted to kill all of the male warriors and take the Mayan women as wives. Mayan history describes a warrior, Yum-Tago, who killed “a giant” with an obsidian blade in hand-to-hand combat. Despite the discovery that these “giants” could be killed with obsidian weapons they were still no match for the Nefillim. Their civilization was destroyed”.
Shem continued, “Now pay careful attention to what I am going to tell you now. You can never utter this to anyone. Anyone. Do you understand Michael”?
“Yes Dad, I understand”.
“There is a section of The Book of Ezekiel that was not included in the canonized Bible. It is referred to as ‘Ezekiel’s Eighth Vision’. The prose is written in a different style than the rest of the Book of Ezekiel. It is very technical in some sections, almost scientific. The parchment itself, and its translation and exegesis have been in our family for a very long time. Beside myself, only Harry knows of its existence. Now you know. When your sister is old enough, I will tell her of it. You will tell no one else. The knowledge contained in it is very powerful. It provides a new paradigm for science. In the wrong hands this information could be devastating”. Michael sat without moving. He was staring intently at his father.
“Ezekiel had an eighth vision. In that vision, the truth regarding the ultimate structure of reality, of the universe, was revealed to him. The language used in the primary source is extremely difficult to translate. It was written in Aramaic and some license was needed to translate the concepts described into terms that reconcile with our understanding of modern science. Let me summarize for you.
The Nefillim discovered a portal that leads to other worlds beyond our world. Other realities. Recall that there is a concept called modal realism, i.e., that there are many possible worlds and that they all exist. However, the classical teaching is that these worlds are spatio-temporally separated and that there is no cause and effect relationship between these worlds. What happens in one world should not affect what happens in any other possible world. However, as described in Ezekiel’s vision, these worlds are in fact connected and one can move from one world to another if the portals between the worlds can be found. The Nefillim had found such a portal beneath the sea in their undersea city. In addition, it turns out that energy and entropy are shared between the worlds. Recall that entropy is a concept from thermodynamics. It gives a measure of the randomness or disorder of a physical system. In a closed system entropy will increase over time. For instance, if you place an ice cube on a table in a warm room it will melt. The molecules in the ice will move from a more organized, less random, less chaotic state, i.e., a solid, into a less organized, more chaotic state, namely a liquid. Conversely, if you spill some water on a table in a warm room you would not expect it to spontaneously form an ice cube. Entropy does not decrease on it’s own in a closed system. That would violate the second law of thermodynamics. However, we used to think that the ultimate closed system was our universe. But, as I said, it turns out that there are many universes, many possible worlds. If they were not connected then the second law of thermodynamics would hold for each individual world. However, since these worlds are connected and can exchange energy and entropy, it turns out that the second law of thermodynamics can be violated in an individual world, as long as the total entropy of the sum of all of the universes, the Multiverse, increases. Examples of violations of the second law of thermodynamics are described quite clearly in the Bible. The story of the burning bush describes a bush that burns but is not consumed. Its entropy does not increase despite the flames. The story of Hanukkah tells of a single day’s supply of oil burning for eight days, a clear example of a smaller change in entropy than would have been predicted by limiting the second law of thermodynamics solely to one universe. So what does this have to do with anything? What does this have to do with the Watchers and the Nefillim? Well, as described in Ezekiel’s Eighth Vision, God revealed to Ezekiel that when he became aware of the fact that Semjaza had survived and had created a nation of his descendants he summoned the angel Michael. God realized that Semjaza had discovered a great Truth which could give him great power. By moving between the worlds Semjaza and the Nefillim would have access to almost unlimited energy. Moreover, they could easily destroy many worlds, plunging them into chaos, increasing their entropy.
God commanded Michael to leave the First Estate of Heaven, and to return to the earth and take a wife, and to form his own nation. In the First Book of Enoch it is said:

‘Michael, one of the holy angels, set over the virtues of mankind and over chaos’.

His children would have the power to diminish entropy upon the earth, or in whichever world that they resided. The angel Michael’s children are referred to in the lost section of the Book of Ezekiel as the ‘Ben Malakhim’ or ‘from the angels’. However, they are also referred to by another name that, translated into modern terms can be rendered as, ‘The Entropy Vampires’, or ‘The Ones Who Drink Chaos’.
Through a sexual union with a human an Entropy Vampire can reduce that human’s entropy, which actually increases their life force or Qi. By reducing the entropy of an individual human the entropy of their world is concomitantly reduced as well. Kabbalah refers to this healing of the world as Tikkun. It turns out that the Kabbalistic conception of creation is quite accurate.
One would think that by feeding on entropy that Entropy Vampires would injure themselves, since an increase in entropy is associated with decay, disintegration. This is where the power of God comes into play. Although the Watchers and the Nefillim can move between worlds and drain energy, they are completely subject to the physical laws of any given world, whereas God can alter physical law at His whim. In the missing section of the Book of Ezekiel that I am describing God actually altered one of the fundamental properties of matter. When translated into the equations of modern thermodynamics, what God did, it appears, was to change the sign of one of the terms in something called the Gibbs free energy equation. According to that equation, the change in what is called free energy, the energy available to perform work, for a given physical system is equal to the heat exchanged with the system, called enthalpy, minus any increase in entropy multiplied by the temperature. In modern scientific terms, what God did was to change that equation for Entropy Vampires. For them, the change in free energy is equal to enthalpy plus the change in entropy multiplied by the temperature. The free energy of an Entropy Vampire is increased by an increase in entropy. During the sexual union of an Entropy Vampire with a human, the energy of the human is increased, and the energy of the Entropy Vampire is also increased. This would appear to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But it is God’s Law and he changed it for the Entropy Vampires. The missing portion of the Book of Ezekiel describes the ultimate battle between good and evil. However, there is also reference made to the book of Job and we are reminded that all things, both good and evil were created by G-d. The answer to how this can be, and how bad things can happen to the good, how evil at times appears to go unpunished, is left unanswered, just as in the Book of Job. We are thus reminded in this portion of the Book of Ezekiel that both good and evil exist and were both created by G-d. This is, and will remain, beyond our understanding.   It is further explained that The Watchers and the Nefillim drain energy by feeding on the blood of humans. They increase entropy. They increase the chaos of the worlds that they inhabit. The Entropy Vampires decrease entropy. They decrease chaos. The Watchers and the Nefillim are evil. The Entropy Vampires are good. Yet we are all part of the same fabric. This is a civil war.
Among the Entropy Vampires are a small group referred to as the Knowers of the Truth. They are born with an extremely high level of Qi. They can feed on entropy but they don’t need to feed in order to survive. The other Entropy Vampires must regularly feed on entropy in order to survive. The high energy of the Knowers, as they are called, is apparently necessary to balance the ultimate equation for the energetics of the Multiverse. They are the living embodiment of a physical constant needed for the continued existence of all reality. Because of their crucial importance Knowers are highly protected. Since biblical times, children who have been identified as Knowers are closely guarded by members of a tribe of warriors directly descended from Joshua called The Protectors. The identities of the Knowers and the Protectors are never disclosed. A Knower child does not attain his or her full powers until they are thirty years of age. Until this occurs, the demons cannot detect them. Once they have reached their adult level of power they can still keep themselves hidden from the demons most of the time. However,  when they exchange entropy they can be sensed by the demons.”
Shem recalled that he had gently patted Michael’s hand after the long dissertation and tried to ally his anxiety by reassuring him, “after all, this is all just legend. Just a bunch of stories that archeologists sit and talk about over a glass of Scotch”. But Michael did not leave the table for over an hour. That night he dreamed of demons and of making love with a beautiful Entropy Vampire. Something within him began to stir.

_______________________________________________-
Chapter 5 10th Century A.D.

Yum-Tago was a Mayan prince, the son of Yum-Oksa, the King of the tribe and the Elder of the Elders. He looked out upon the rooftops of the huts of his jungle village. The people of his tribe had left the main city many generations ago and had lived quietly in the jungle by hunting, fishing and growing corn and other crops. They lived deep within the jungle canopy and did not have much contact with other tribes save two other equally peaceful tribes with whom they frequently traded. The tribes would also meet several times per year for festivals, which allowed the young people to meet and maintain a healthy genetic diversity. Internecine warfare was unheard of and would have been counterproductive. The concept of conquest to acquire riches or territory was completely unknown to them. Sometimes, disputes would arise regarding hunting and fishing rights in areas where one tribe’s hunting grounds bordered another’s, especially since the precise borders were vague and based upon very ancient memories passed down orally from generation to generation. When such disputes arose they were almost always settled peacefully and directly by the parties involved. If an amicable solution could not be reached immediately, the elders of the tribes involved would settle the matter quickly and definitively. There was no appeals process and failure to comply with the decision of the Elders was unheard of.
Recently, some small children had gone missing from his village and one of the neighboring villages. It was thought that a jaguar had somehow come into the village at night and taken the children. The parents were keeping their children close by and never let them out of their sight. At night, the children were now sleeping next to their parents. Three groups of five male warriors kept an around the clock watch working in shifts. The day before, however, a hunting party had returned early from what was supposed to have been a two week long foray deep into the jungle. They had returned after only five days. Four warriors had initially set out but only two had returned, battered and gaunt. Yum-Tago knew both of these warriors very well. They had known each other since childhood. They were brave and able hunters who knew every inch of the jungle and every creature in it. They told Yum-Tago about how they had been attacked by two female warriors. They admitted that they did not recognize these women and should have been more careful. But their beauty captivated them, as if under a spell, and they let them come up to them. That was when they were attacked. To of their party were killed but they were able to escape into the jungle. One of the surviving warriors had turned briefly before continuing to flee. He saw the women drinking the blood from the torn throats of their compatriots. He turned and kept running until he reached the village. Yum-Tago instructed the warriors to say nothing of what they had seen to prevent a panic and sent them back to their huts.
Yum-Tago sat thinking. His father had told him of the legend of the People Who Eat Souls. This legend was only passed from a king to his son and was not shared with the people. Yum-Tago remembered the time, when, as a young boy of thirteen, his father had taken him alone to a cave far from the village. That evening his father had gently roused him from his sleep and told him to bring his obsidian knife with him. They had walked in the pitch-blackness for over two hours before reaching the almost completely hidden mouth of the small cave which was obscured by a small but powerful waterfall. The cave led into a small tunnel and then into a larger cave. Yum-Oksa lit a small fire and bade his son to sit beside him in front of the flames. Shadows danced silently upon the walls of the cave. In the orange glow of the fire Yum-Tago could see the drawings upon the walls and writing in a strange language. His father proceeded to tell him of the legend of the People Who Eat Souls, an evil tribe that dwelled deep in the jungle and captured unwary hunters and children and killed them in order to drink their blood and steal their souls. The drawings on the wall depicted scenes of killing and drinking blood. Yum-Tago drew closer to his father. A chill crept down his neck and spine like he had experienced the first time that he had hunted alone. But that was different. His father had taught him how to hunt and when the time had come to hunt on his own he reflexively did all of the things that his father had taught him. He had killed the wild boar cleanly with one arrow. But how could he hunt something so awful. His father went on to tell him the story of the Watchers and their fall from Heaven, albeit in terms and characters from his own Mayan mythology. Finally, Yum-Oksa told his son to unsheathe his obsidian hunting knife. He explained to him that he could kill the members of the evil tribe by piercing their heart with an obsidian blade. He also went on to explain that the writing on the walls of the cave had been put there many generations ago by an ancient people. He called these people the People of the Book (Yum-Oksa had no way of knowing that the writing was in Aramaic). It explained the history of the evil tribe and how to defeat them. Yum-Oksa told his son of the time that he had come face-to-face with one of them as a young man while hunting alone in the jungle. They had fought savagely, but Yum-Oksa, who was a powerful warrior in his youth, had managed to kill the demon with a thrust of his obsidian knife into its heart. He had never encountered one again. It had been his belief that by killing the demon he had driven the others off.
Yum-Tago now sat and meditated upon the current situation. The demons, it appeared, had returned. It was time to share the legend with the people of the village. They were going to have to do battle with the demons. They would be fighting for their lives.

_____________________________________________________-

The group of archeology grad students and their professor, Dr.Conrad Hutchinson, stood transfixed inside the small cave. At first, they hadn’t noticed the small mouth of the cave from the trail that they had been walking on. Because of the oppressive heat a few of the students had walked off the trail towards the sound of the waterfall. Even standing directly in front of the waterfall the mouth of the cave was not immediately visible until they actually stood beneath the falling water. Upon entering the cave they followed a short but winding tunnel into a larger cave. Using the flashlights that they took from their packs they were amazed by the unexpected finding of drawings upon the walls and what appeared to be Hebrew characters. They excitedly brought Dr.Hutchinson and the rest of the group to the cave. Even Dr.Hutchinson, an expert on Mayan history and a very experienced archeologist with many field excursions into the jungles of the Yucatan was at a complete loss for words. The drawings were quite advanced. They were not just basic drawings and stick figures, but were detailed three-dimensional drawings with perspective and vivid coloration. The scenes in the painting were horrific. Large, human-like creatures were tearing out the throats and drinking the blood of Mayan warriors, women and children. Dr.Hutchinson quickly read the Aramaic characters. As a young doctoral student he had spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East. Besides his expertise in Mayan history and language he was also fluent in Hebrew and Aramaic. He traced one particular written passage with his finger and read it aloud to himself. “The obsidian blade must pierce the demon’s heart with the warriors hand still upon the hilt to extinguish the flame of evil”. Dr.Hutchinson, nor his students, heard the silent footsteps as the two beautiful women entered the cave and walked towards them.
The disappearance of Dr.Hutchinson and his students remains a mystery to this day. No trace of them was found.

______________________________________________

Michael woke up early and walked out onto the balcony of his cabin with a cup of hot, black coffee. The morning chill felt good against his bare chest. He placed the steaming cup of coffee upon the small table that stood between the two chairs on the balcony, and stretched his arms vigorously, breathing deeply. He dropped down onto the hard floor and did two hundred pushups on his knuckles, as was his custom every morning. He retrieved the cup of coffee and slowly sipped it while he watched the sun come up over the Bahamas. For a moment, he forgot why he was there. How he had secretly slipped away and booked passage on this cruise so that he could be alone. Since his sister’s murder he had felt himself slowly slipping away. His work had been affected. He would go out every night and sit in a bar drinking wine and
Scotch. More often than not he would have no memory of how he had gotten home or what he had done the night before. More often than not he would end up in a fight at the slightest, perceived provocation. He had been arrested several times but Harry had always taken care of it and so far there had been no legal ramifications from his bad behavior. His father had tried unsuccessfully to make him see that he needed to make some significant changes. Maybe get some counseling, see a therapist or a psychiatrist. But this just made him become more distant. The drinking became worse and the bar fights more brutal. One morning he had awakened to find himself in bed with a young woman that he did not recognize. His knuckles were sore and abraded and covered in dried, scabbed blood. His nose was broken and there was dried, caked blood in his nostrils. He had sat up in bed to see two empty bottles of Johnny Walker Black and 4 empty bottles of Tempranillo scattered on the floor. The hangover was so severe that he could hardly open his eyes. He didn’t know what day it was. He staggered out of bed and surveyed the apartment to see where the bathroom was. On unsteady feet he groped his way into the bathroom where he relieved himself, holding onto the wall so that he wouldn’t fall over. He looked into the mirror to see his unshaven, pale face, his red, rheumy, moist eyes looking back at him accusingly. There was a mirror behind him as well, and he could see the large tattoo on his left shoulder blade of the Angel Michael holding a large sword in his right hand, with the name Michael, inscribed in Hebrew, on the sword’s blade. In the Angel’s left hand was the head of a large, slayed dragon. “Who is like God”, Michael said softly to himself in the mirror. He quickly dressed and left, leaving the unnamed woman still sleeping in her bed. He hailed a taxi and, from his cell phone, he called and booked a room on a cruise to the Bahamas and had the taxi take him to a hotel in Bayonne, New Jersey. He bought himself some clothes, new shoes, toiletries, and left on the cruise the next morning. He did not tell anyone about his plans. Even Harry had lost track of him. Michael had decided to be alone for his thirtieth birthday.

 

Eve approached the small desk at the entrance to the cruise ship. The ship had docked in the Bahamas. She had spent the night at a small motel, not far from the docks. Derby had contacted her late in the evening and they had gone over their plan to extract Michael from the cruise ship. The situation was becoming complicated. Once it had been discovered that Bezjab had been killed, several Nefellim had moved into the area. However, because Bezjab had been a princess, Semjaza himself, the Watcher, had decided to leave his ocean bottom dwelling, and join in the hunt for whomever had killed Bezjab. In addition, there was additional intelligence that the Nefillim had felt the presence of a Knower on the cruise ship. Even though Michael was not yet thirty, his Qi was so strong that they had already begun to sense him. It was imperative that Michael be found and removed from the ship and taken to safety. But first Derby and Eve needed to find him. Eve had only sensed him briefly when she was on the ship.
The short, Indian man in the white and blue uniform of the cruise ship staff looked up to see the extremely beautiful woman who had just walked down the gangplank towards him.
“Good morning young lady. Can I see your sea pass please?”
Eve handed over the forged, plastic sea pass that Derby had had prepared for her last night.
“Thank you. Enjoy your day ma’am”.
Eve calmly walked aboard the ship. She was dressed like a typical American tourist, with a wide brimmed hat, white shorts and a turquoise tank top that was emblazoned with “Drink like a fish” with a picture of a large fish drinking from a bottle of rum. The shirt clung vividly to her. She could sense Michael’s presence. But the feeling was weak. He was somewhere on the ship, but not close to where she was. She walked down the lushly carpeted hallway and then through the large, smoke-filled noisy casino until she came to a bank of elevators. When the elevator arrived, she held the door open and waited until an elderly man slowly exited. He smiled at her and thanked her. Eve let her hand briefly, gently, touch the hand of the old man. For a moment he stood up a bit straighter. He looked at her strangely. Eve smiled back and walked inside the elevator. As the doors closed in front of her she could see the old man running up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
She would start at the top floor and work her way down. She could sense the Knower. He was getting closer. Hopefully the Nefillim had not yet boarded the ship. She exited the elevator near the gym. Michael was straining against a stack of heavy weights on the bench press near the entrance to the gym. She had found him. That was too easy, she thought. If the Nefillim get aboard the ship they will track him easily. His Qi is very strong and he has not yet been trained. He does not know how to hide his Qi. He has not yet even been made aware that he is a Knower. She left her hat on the floor behind her and walked up to Michael.
Michael finished his set and then, with a louder thud than he had intended, dropped the weights and sat up.
“Mind if I work in with you”? Eve asked. Michael took his towel and wiped his sweat-drenched face before looking up at her. For a moment he was at a complete loss for words. He could not take his eyes off of her.
“Of, ….of course”, he managed to stammer out.
He stood up and moved off to the side.
“Do you want me to spot you?” he asked.
“If you want to. But I’m pretty strong. I don’t think I’ll drop it”, she laughed.
Eve added an extra fifty pounds to what Michael had just lifted and began pressing the weight above her chest without difficulty. She stopped after twenty repetitions. Michael had only been able to complete eight repetitions with fifty pounds less.
“How can you do that?” Michael was incredulous. “If I didn’t see it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it”.
“My name is Eve”.
“Michael”.
“Have you eaten lunch yet?”
“I was going to have lunch after my work out. Would you care to join me?”
“I’m hungry now. Let’s go”.
“Well, I didn’t work my back yet. It’ll take another half hour or so. Can you wait?”
“No. Let’s eat now”. Eve looked deeply into his eyes. He was not as easily hypnotized as a human, but since he didn’t know that he was a Knower yet, and since he hadn’t been mated with nor achieved his full powers, she could still control him. Michael got up and walked out of the gym with Eve.
“We are going back to your room”.
“Ok”.
“What room are you in?”
“972”.”
That was good, Eve thought. It placed them mid ship, high enough off of the water so that she could detect the Nefillim if they tried to climb up to his balcony, but close enough to the water so that they could dive into the water from the balcony if necessary.
They exited the elevator and walked quickly to Michael’s room. Eve told Michael to wait at the door. She went in quickly and checked the bathroom and the closet, then the balcony. It was empty.
“Ok Michael. You can come in”.
Michael was still semi-hypnotized when he sat down on the bed. Eve allowed the hypnotic state to fade. Michael shook his head and rubbed his eyes.
”What the……”.
Eve put her finger to his lips. “I know that you have a lot of questions. Let me explain”.
“How did I get here? I remember that I was at the gym and I remember that you walked up to me. Now I’m here. I don’t understand. Michael reached for his knife.
“You won’t need that Michael. I am a friend”.
He paused, his hand on the knife at his back. He eased it slightly out of its sheath.
“Look into my eyes Michael”. She was going to have to hypnotize him again. There wasn’t enough time to sit and have a long discussion about the current situation. Somehow, Michael had to become a full-fledged Knower and have his powers begin to emerge immediately. If the Nefillim attacked them she wouldn’t be able to take them on by herself. Michael was going to have to help.
Michael pushed his knife back into the sheath. He felt paralyzed. He was lost in the depths of her eyes. At first, all that he could see were her dark brown irises. Then, he became aware of the sound of her breathing. He could hear the beating of her heart, could see the gentle rising and falling of her breasts. It was as if she was a missing piece of him. For the first time in his life he felt pure peace. Completeness. For the first time since his sister had been killed he felt safe with another person.
“I could have easily killed you if I had wanted to Michael. I am here to help you. You are in grave danger. Very soon there will be ‘beings’ coming aboard this ship to kill you. I need to get you off of the ship and to a safe place”.
Michael simply nodded. He was fully under her spell.
“Michael, how old are you?”
“I turned thirty this morning. Today is my birthday”.
“Where is your family? It doesn’t make sense that they are not with you on your thirtieth birthday. That is very dangerous”.
“I didn’t tell them that I was leaving. My sister was murdered in October. I have been pretty fucked up. I needed to get away so I booked a spot on this cruise and left. No one knows where I am”.
“What is your full name Michael?”
“I am Michael Levi. My father is Dr.Shem Levi”.
“Who was your mother?”
“Her name was Naamah. She died giving birth to me”.
“You said that your sister was murdered. What was her name?”
“We called her Emma. Her name was Emzara”.
“What exactly happened Michael”.
Despite his hypnotized state Michael became very emotional. He tried to speak but he was stammering. The feeling of peace was fading. His anger began to rise. Eve could see his fists clench, the tightening of his jaw muscles.
“They killed her. I tried to protect her but I couldn’t”.
“Who killer her Michael?”
“There were four of them, two men and two women. I was able to kill the two men with my knife, but the two women were actually stronger than the men. Somehow, one of the women was able to knock me unconscious. When I woke up, my sister was lying next to me dead. Then a friend of my father’s, Harry, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and took me home.”
“Did any of your attackers say anything to you?”
“She whispered in my ear, I think. I’m not sure if I dreamed it or if it was for real. She said that her name was Bezjab, or something like that. That’s all that I can remember”.
Eve broke off the trance. It was time to make Michael a Knower. She needed to get him off of the ship and back under the protection of his family and his Protector. Michael rubbed his temples and looked up at Eve.
“Do you remember what I have just told you?”
“Yes. This is pretty incredible stuff. My father had told me about the Nefillim, Ezekiel’s Eighth Vision, The Book of Enoch. But he is an archeologist and I just figured that this was all just mythology. What are you telling me?”
“Michael, you are what is called an Entropy Vampire. Your mother was an Entropy Vampire. She did not die. She returned to another world when her work in this world was completed. Your father is a Knower of the Truth, a powerful Entropy Vampire. You are also a Knower. You have just turned thirty. Entropy Vampires attain their full powers on their thirtieth birthday. If you had been at home with your father he would have guided you through the process. In addition, your father would have introduced you to a female Entropy Vampire so that you could mate and finalize your transformation into a Knower. I assume that he has made sure that you are a proficient fighter, and that you are an expert with your obsidian blade?”
“Yes. I can fight. Harry, my father’s friend, has trained me in the use of my knife since I was a boy. Like I told you, I killed two men with it already”.
“They were not men. They were Nefillim. You know the legends, so you know what they are. It is unusual that you were able to kill them before you attained your full powers. You are a very strong Knower. I can feel it. Unfortunately, the Nefillim will be able to sense your energy, your Qi. You are like a bright flame on a dark night. You will be easy to find unless you learn how to cloak your energy”.
“How can I do that”.
“I assume that your Protector and your father have taught you to meditate”.
“Yes. I meditate every day. Or at least I did until everything happened with my sister”.
“You need to direct your thoughts towards the image of the tetragrammaton, God’s name written in Hebrew. Meditate upon that image. You will be protected. You must perform this meditation every day. Also, if you feel threatened, or sense the Nefillim, you must be able to form the mental image of the tetragrammaton. It will confuse their senses and make it difficult for them to track you. The tetragrammaton’s image is very powerful. It is not just letters. All of reality, all of the worlds were created from the Hebrew alphabet. We’ll talk more about this later. Right now we have some work to do”.
“What do you mean?”
“I need to make you a full Knower”.
“How do you do that”?
______________________________________________

Eve pushed Michael down onto the bed and pulled her tank top up over her head revealing her firm breasts with their large, dark, erect nipples. She had never been with a Knower before and she felt herself becoming more aroused than she had ever been. Her heart was beating uncharacteristically fast and she felt a little short of breath. As opposed to when she fed, she would not be in control during the “connection”. Michael was a much more powerful Entropy Vampire than she, although he didn’t yet know it. It was said that the ecstasy that was experienced when making love with a Knower was indescribable. Eve had spoken with an Entropy Vampire who had been with a Knower and she had said that she lost consciousness during her orgasm. In addition, once an entropy Vampire has been with a Knower, their own powers are greatly increased. Whether or not pregnancy would result depended upon the energy and entropy balance of the Multiverse, since the child would be a Knower and his or her Qi would need to be in balance with the energetics of the Multiverse.
The lights in the cabin were off and Michael could feel the boat gently swaying. Eve removed her pants and her underwear and then removed Michael’s clothes as she bade him to stay still, speaking with her eyes. She was acting differently. Not quite as confident as she had been earlier. Almost submissive. She straddled him and put him inside of her. For a moment, she was surprised that he did not ejaculate inside of her immediately, forgetting for a moment that she was not feeding on his entropy, and that he was not a human. He was a Knower. Gently, at first, they met each other’s thrusts, the pleasure of the friction between their nether flesh was almost painful. Eve lowered her face to Michael’s and let her tongue intertwine deeply with his. Their lovemaking became more passionate, almost violent. They were both very powerful physically. Michael’s Qi erupted like a volcano as the entropy in his spirit flowed into Eve, which, in turn, made her spirit even stronger. Her skin became faintly luminescent in the darkness, and the faint golden light soon encircled them both. Eve was thrusting her pelvis as forcefully as she could against Michael and he could feel himself deeply inside of her. They both opened their eyes and looked at each other. Without taking their eyes off of each other, without closing their eyes, they both climaxed simultaneously. Michael felt as if every molecule in his body was flowing into Eve, and Eve could feel his spirit, his heat, and his seed fill her belly. She lost consciousness. Bathed in each other’s warm, salty sweat they slept in an entangled embrace. Outside the cabin the warm Caribbean water lapped gently against the docked ship. All was quiet. Before he allowed himself to drift off to sleep Michael meditated upon the image of God’s name. They slept.

____________________________________________________

The three Nefillim female demons swam silently beneath the cruise ship. The energy from the Knower had suddenly disappeared. Perhaps they were mistaken and there wasn’t a Knower aboard. But Semjaza himself had commanded them to find the Knower and bring him to him alive, if possible, dead if necessary. He had also told them that if they returned without the Knower he would kill all three of them himself, painfully and slowly. They silently came to the surface and treaded water effortlessly, their beautiful faces rising and falling gently with the waves.
“We will split up and search the ship”, said Hezgar, the oldest and the leader of the group. The other two young demons nodded affirmatively. They plunged beneath the water, and then surfaced. Hezgar silently climbed aboard the ship near its center, the other two boarded at the bow and stern, respectively.
Eve awoke with a start.
“Michael, they are here. Get dressed. Time to go”.
Michael, without questioning Eve further, quickly dressed and followed Eve out of the cabin.
“I can sense three of them. It’s better that we fight them here on the ship. They have an advantage over us in the water in open combat. I have killed Nefillim in the water, but only by being able to sneak up on them when they are distracted. We are better off taking them on here. Once we kill them we can leave the ship and my Protector, Derby, can bring us to a safe place. Derby has sent two Protectors onto the ship already. They have been keeping an on eye on our cabin. We need to choose the ground that we are going to fight on. I want to draw the demons to level four of the ship where the muster stations are. If necessary, we can deploy one of the lifeboats and head further down the coast. Derby can pick us up in his speedboat. This way we don’t have to enter the water. There may be other Nefillim waiting for us beneath the waves. Derby has several more Protectors with him in another boat in case something happens to him. Alternatively, we can exit the ship via the gangplank, but we’ll have to knock out the guard stationed there, which shouldn’t be too difficult. Are you ready Michael?”
“Yes”, he answered through a tight jaw. These were the ones who had killed Emma.
Reading his mind Eve said, “Michael, let your anger go. You can’t fight them with anger. They are very powerful, very skilled fighters. If they sense that you are angry they will use that against you. You are a Knower now. You have your full powers. Although you have only now been made aware of it, you have been prepared for this moment since you were born. This fight is of an importance that transcends your personal loss. Good and evil is not a theoretical concept. The Bible and the non-canonized writings are actually scientific truths, shrouded in metaphor. All of reality, the existence of every world, is determined by the mathematics, the energetics, of good and evil. We must prevail tonight. We must. This is about Tikkun. The healing of the Worlds”.
Michael and Eve waited silently in the darkness beneath the lifeboats. The shadowy, stealthy forms of the Nefillim became visible in the faint moonlight. Instinctively, Michael tightened his grip on the small but heavy obsidian knife in his hand. There was no sense in using firearms, Eve had told him. True, obsidian bullets could damage the Nefillim, but the demons could easily absorb several direct hits, even at close range, from a gun with obsidian bullets. She had seen a Protector empty a clip of obsidian bullets into a demon. The demon had still gotten close enough to plunge its own small sword into the Protector, killing him instantly. Although the demon was seriously wounded it was still strong enough to escape and ultimately survived its wounds. The obsidian knife, since it was held in the hand of the Entropy Vampire, allowed the Entropy Vampire’s energy to flow into the demon’s heart when it was pierced by the blade; a killing blow. The Nefillim, in turn, also did not carry firearms. They could certainly kill the Protectors with guns and standard bullets, but not a Knower or an Entropy Vampire. Moreover, they were so fast and so skilled with their swords, which were made of platinum, and were similar in appearance to a Japanese short-sword or wakazashi, that they had no use for firearms.
Michael briefly closed his eyes and meditated upon the image of the Tetragrammaton to ensure that his energy would remain undetected by the demons. Eve touched his hand softly, but firmly, snapping his mind back into focus. The demons were spreading out to search the area. They sniffed the air like bloodhounds, their beautiful, seductive faces camouflaging their vile inner workings. Michael held his breath as Hezgar walked right by him. She suddenly whirled around and he felt the whoosh of air as her sword passed in front of his face, missing him by millimeters. Without thinking Michael leapt forward from the shadows and slashed forward with his blade. He felt it cut through Hezgar’s right upper arm. She brought her blade straight up in an attempt to cut Michael’s leg, but he had already jumped back and the sword-strike missed. Meanwhile, Eve had already attacked one of the demons and Michael could hear the sound of the singing of the Nefillim’s sword as she tried to cut down Eve. From up above came the sound of gunfire. The Protector’s had opened fire on the Nefillim. They wouldn’t be able to kill the demons with their guns, but the gunfire would at least cause a distraction and at least some degree of injury to the demons. The gunfire had become intense. Even with the silencers there was enough noise now being made to cause an alarm to be raised in the ship. They would have to end this quickly. The demons would not hesitate to kill any humans who tried to interfere. The preservation of human life was paramount above all to the Entropy Vampires.
Michael and Hezgar circled each other in the dim light. Her eyes glowed in the darkness. Her mouth was half open in a snarl, exposing the two large fangs of the vampire demon. She launched herself forward, slashing wildly with her short sword, shrieking loudly like an attacking bird of prey. There was no time for thought. Michael had to rely on his training and his instincts. For a brief moment he envisioned the Tetragrammaton. Hezgar, for just an instant, became confused. In the space of that instant Michael, instead of retreating from Hezgar’s slashes, stepped inside of her defenses. Instinctively, Hezgar covered her heart with her free hand, but Michael drove his blade through her hand and deeply into her chest, piercing her heart. Hezgar slumped against him. Michael quickly removed his blade from her and her body fell limply to the ground. Without hesitation he whirled around to check on Eve. She was leaning against a wall, her hand trying to stop the bleeding from a deep laceration in her left upper arm. A large circle of blood soaked her shirt over her abdomen. She had lost a lot of blood and was very pale. At her feet lay the decapitated bodies of the other two demons. As Michael ran towards Eve her eyes rolled back and she slumped to the ground.

Eve’s eyes fluttered open. Everything was blurry. She tried blinking her eyes, but she was unable to focus her vision. The voices were familiar. Michael and Derby. Yes. She recognized the voices. Another voice. Not familiar. She tried to sit up but her efforts were immediately met with a searing pain in her abdomen and left arm causing her to gasp.
“Don’t try to get up Eve,” Michael said to her gently. He was at her bedside. He stroked her hair and knelt down to kiss her forehead. “You lost a lot of blood, but your abdominal wound did not penetrate the abdominal muscles. There was no internal injury. You also have a deep cut in your left arm, but no muscles, tendons or nerves were injured. I sutured you up and gave you some intravenous fluids. Derby was able to set up quite a little emergency room with all of the equipment that I needed. You’ll be fine, but you are going to have to get some rest”.
“Michael, where are we?” Eve whispered through parched lips.
“We are in a safe house in Nassau”, Derby answered for him. “We are safe. No one will find us here. Even if they did, this safe house is well protected. They know that we are here on the island, but our exact location will not be found. I will not let anything happen to you”. Michael could see the consternation in Derby’s face. The meaning of his life was to protect Eve. Although it couldn’t be helped, seeing Eve injured, so weak, made him feel like he had failed her.
“Derby hasn’t slept in two days. That is how long you have been unconscious. After you were injured he led the rescue mission that got you off of the cruise ship. There were also several Protectors that were seriously injured. He and his crew were able to get everyone evacuated safely. Everyone survived. Through his contacts he was able to square things with the local authorities and the authorities on the cruise ship. They became much less inquisitive when they were given some money. In any event, it seems that Derby has protected us very well. We are in his debt”.
Derby looked up at Michael. They both briefly nodded to each other. Michael’s words were very important to him. He had suffered no loss of face. Derby stood up a bit straighter. Walking to Eve’s bedside he knelt down and gently kissed her cheek and then strode quickly to the door. “I will check our defenses”. He left the room.
“Michael, who else is with us”, Eve asked weakly.
“My father, Shem Levi, is here. Derby had him flown out to us as soon as it was safe”.
Shem Levi walked to Eve’s bedside and gently took her right hand in his.
“It is a privilege to meet you Eve. You are very brave. I will pray for your fast recovery. We will speak later. For now, you need to rest and to heal. I will excuse myself. Again, it is a delight to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you better”. He glanced up a Michael. His initial anger with Michael’s disappearance, the anxiety of not knowing where he was on his crucial thirtieth birthday, had dissipated. He could sense that Michael had received his powers as a Knower, and Eve was a strong, beautiful woman. A very suitable mate for his son. But there were pressing matters that he needed to discuss with Michael. “Michael, I will be in my room. We need to speak”. He held Michael’s gaze for a moment to make it clear that they needed to speak urgently. Michael nodded to him as he left the room.
“Michael, I need to share entropy. It will help me to heal. I wish we could share entropy like we did the other day, but I think that will have to wait a bit”, she managed a soft chuckle, but winced at the effort. “Anyway, take out your blade and press it, with the palm of your hand, against my heart. We will be able to exchange enough entropy this way to help me to heal”. As Michael did as he was asked, Eve felt her vision clear. Her wounds began to heal beneath her bandages and she was able to sit up in her bed. “Send Derby in. I want to speak to him. Go speak to your father”. Michael walked to her bedside and propped up a pillow behind her head. He gently stroked her cheek with the back of his callused hand, and then wordlessly, turned and left the room. He found Derby sitting alone at the kitchen table sipping a steaming cup of coffee. “The defenses are intact Michael. Everything is secure.”
“I have no doubt. Thank you Derby. I meant what I said earlier. We owe you our lives. Eve wants to speak with you. ” Before Derby could answer, Michael headed down the hall to speak with his father.
“Michael, sit down and listen carefully”. Shem was very somber. “First of all, about your little stunt, disappearing onto that cruise ship”. Michael started to speak but Shem put his hand up and looked fiercely into his eyes. “What I was about to say was that the matter is forgotten and forgiven. There is no need to speak of it any further. There are other, more pressing matters.” Shem stood up and paced back and forth, deep in thought. Michael knew from long experience not to disturb him and to wait until he continued speaking. “Michael, you are a Knower now. There are many things for you yet to learn, but your training has been rigorous, and I am sure that there are some things that are falling into place for you now. Many more things will become clear to you with time and experience. You have already had a rather precocious indoctrination and you have performed with great honor and courage. I am very proud.” Shem walked over to Michael and embraced him tightly. For a moment, at least, he allowed himself to simply be a father, the father of a man who had just survived combat and a father who had recently buried his daughter. The realization of how close he had come to losing his only remaining child brought tears to his eyes for a moment. He regained his composure and stood back from Michael. “I am glad that you are ok Michael”. Michael smiled back at him.
“Michael, I am afraid that a great battle looms before us; a battle that will determine the balance between good and evil for many generations. We have always been able to keep the fallen angels and the nefillim in check, but it seems that an attack upon our world, in great force, is imminent. Have you heard of Yenne Velt?”
“Is that Yiddish?”
“Yes, it is Yiddish for “Other World”. In general, it refers to anything that is occult or mystical, but in the strict sense, the sense of which I am currently speaking, it refers specifically to another world that exists side by side with our own, in which the demoness Lilith dwells. The mythology states that she lives in this world with the demon Asmodeus where they procreate endlessly and from where they send chaos, another word for entropy, into our world. We have seen, internationally, significant increases in social and political upheavals, societal entropy if you will, over the last decade. Yet, we have not been able to trace the location of the base of operation from which this is being coordinated. As you know, Semjaza and his demonic offspring, the Nefillim, were able to survive by hiding under the ocean. We do not believe that they are able to stockpile adequate supplies or house the manpower that would be needed to create this degree of societal entropy in an undersea location. As you further know, they do have access to portals to other worlds. We have, however, pursued them diligently. Unfortunately, we have not been able to eradicate them, but we have, at least we thought that we had, prevented them from establishing any large presence in any particular world that would allow them to develop their army on a large scale. It seems that we were mistaken. Our greatest fear, the existence of the Venne Velt of Lilith, has been realized. Semjaza, Lilith, and the Nefillim must have been able to develop their demonic army to a very large scale in a secure location: the Venne Velt. Our models predict that the leader of this army on the ground when it attacks will most likely be Azazel, the demonic son of Semjaza and Lilith. If they have found a way to transport large numbers of soldiers and supplies quickly through the portal to the Venne Velt, they will be able to attack us without warning. There is no way for us to accurately monitor them until they actually cross the portal. We have put all of our forces on the highest alert. But when they attack, they will be attacking with a concentrated force. We have had to disperse our forces since we do not know where they will enter our world. There are many Entropy Vampires and Knowers searching the many other worlds to which we have portals, and searching for any new portals to new worlds, but we have not found the Yenne Velt. We are, in a nutshell, in the unfortunate position of having to defend ourselves everywhere. There is simply inadequate manpower to do this effectively. Our only hope lies in either being able to detect them when they start coming across the portal and to mobilize rapidly, or to somehow locate the portal into the Yenne Velt. However, even if we do locate the portal into the Yenne Velt, it will take time to mobilize our forces. If our mobilization is detected, which is likely, they will likely attack immediately, and very likely prevail. Moreover, it is possible that they have more than one portal into this world. If that is the case, and we mobilize to defend one portal, they will simply attack the other. We must try to destroy them, or at least drastically reduce their capabilities within the Yenne Velt itself. The situation is very dangerous.” A loud knock at the door interrupted the conversation. The hour was late and Shem had given instructs to Derby that they not be disturbed unless an urgent matter arose. “Enter”, said Shem, his voice betraying his concern. Derby entered the room and hastily closed the door behind him. He was out of breath and was trying to take a moment to appear calm.
“Shem, we have captioned two demons. They crossed our northern security perimeter about an hour ago, but we did not believe that they knew our location so we tracked them on the infrared camera network that we have in place. There are several patrols of demons looking for us. We were not concerned. We are very well hidden. However, they came within one hundred yards of one of our outposts. I felt that this was most likely happenstance and that they were unaware of our location, but I couldn’t take a chance and made the decision to send out a team of Protectors to eliminate them.”
“And……” ,asked Shem.
“We did not kill them.”
“Derby! Is our location revealed?”
“No. We have captured them both. One is severely wounded and will likely not survive. We have him in the detention center underground and our physicians are tending to him. However, the other demon, although also with serious wounds, is expected to survive. He is awake but, at least for the moment, unwilling to speak to us. We found this photograph on him.”
Shem took the wrinkled photograph from Derby and carefully smoothed it out onto his desktop. Michael stood beside Shem as the two of them studied it carefully for a few moments.
“What is it? It just looks like a photo of the night sky. There are just some stars. Do you think that this is of use to us?” asked Derby.
“Michael, what do you make of this?” asked Shem.
“Dad, look carefully at the photo. There is the big dipper, the little dipper. These stars over here that kind of wrap around form the constellation Draco. But it doesn’t look right.”
What do you mean Michael?” Shem studied the photo carefully as Michael walked to the computer on Shem’s desk and began typing on the keyboard.
“Yes. I was right. Take a look at this,” said Michael as he peered intently at the images on the computer screen. “Here is a photo of the night sky as it should be. Polaris, the North Star, is here, part of Ursa Minor. Here is Ursa Major. See how if you follow these two stars they point to the North Star? But in this photo, that was taken from the demon, the pole star appears to be one of the stars in the constellation Draco. Let’s see. Which star is it?” Michael brought up an image of the constellation Draco with all of the stars in it labeled. “Yes, here it is. In the photo that we took from the demon the pole star is Thuban, one of the stars in the dragon’s tail. According to what I am reading here, Thuban was actually the pole star 4500 years ago. But this photograph, if authentic, is not possible. How could this demon have a photograph of the night sky from 4500 years ago?”
Shem and Michael both looked at each other as the answer quickly became apparent to them both.
“Yes Michael. I understand now. This photograph was taken in the Yenne Velt. If only we could use this information to find the location of the portal into this other world. We would be able to mount a surprise attack on them.”
“Dad, are you still in contact with your friend Uri Gadol?”
“Yes, of course. We have known each other since childhood. He is living in Israel now. He retired about two years ago. Why do you ask?”
“I wonder if there is a way that he could take the differences in the star positions in this photo, and use it to find out exactly where the photo was taken?”
“Derby, send out a team to find Uri. Immediately. I will give you his last known address. Do not discuss anything over the phone or on the computer. Do not try to contact him. If they know that you are looking for him they may try to harm him. Make sure that whomever you send understands that they cannot be followed. Uri is probably one of only two or three people on the earth who understand the mathematics that we need to locate the nefillim’s stronghold. He is also quite a Biblical scholar and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the canonized and non-canonical writings. His family is a Scholar family, humans of great intellect who have served as advisors to us for thousands of years. Many of the great rabbis were Scholars.”
“I will have him brought here safely and undetected Shem. I will send my son Aaron. There will be no mistakes.” Derby quickly left the room.
“Michael, it seems that G-d is watching over us. Get some rest. We have much to do. Join me tomorrow morning for breakfast at five. Baruch Ashem.” Micheal embraced his father. “Baruch Ashem, Dad. Sleep well. I love you.”
After Michael left the room, Shem studied the photographs carefully. “We will find you”, he said to himself. “And, we will destroy you. Finally”. He said his evening prayers and was soon in a deep sleep.
Upon leaving his father’s room, Michael went to check on Eve. She was propped up on her pillows sleeping peacefully. At Michael’s approach her eyes opened quickly. For a moment, until she remembered where she was, she tensed and began to sit up.
“Relax, it’s just me. You are safe.”
“Sorry Michael. I was disoriented for a moment. I’m feeling much better. In fact, I think that I’m up to sharing a little entropy. Just to help me heal better, you understand,” she said with a smile.
Michael undressed and slipped beneath the blankets. Their lovemaking was slow and gentle. Afterwards, they both quickly fell into a deep sleep, entwined in each other’s embrace.
The next few days were spent monitoring the movements of the demon patrols trying to locate them. It seemed that most of the demons had left the island and had returned to their undersea base somewhere in the Caribbean. It was very difficult to track them in the ocean. The sea was their world and the Entropy Vampires and Protectors had learned to give them wide berth beneath the sea.
Eve and Michael were training vigorously in the small gym. Despite the protective gear that they were wearing, the punches and kicks still stung. They were careful not to injure each other while at the same time, making sure that any defensive opening was exploited and punished. Their training was interrupted by Derby.
“Michael, Aaron has returned. Uri is with him. They are in your father’s room. They want you and Eve up there immediately.” Michael and Eve quickly removed their protective gear and toweled off the sweat from their faces. Derby held the door for them as they quickly jogged down the hall to Shem’s room. Aaron was standing outside of the room. He had an Uzi hanging from his left shoulder. He tensed at the sound of the approaching footsteps, but his stoic face eased into a broad smile when he saw Eve. They had literally grown up together and were like brother and sister.
“Well, you look much better than when we brought you in here.”
“Yeah, I took a little beating,” she joked.
“Seriously Eve, I’m glad you’re ok. You guys had better get in there. Michael’s father and Uri are anxious to speak to you.” Eve kissed Aaron’s cheek and went into the room. Michael stopped to shake Aaron’s hand. “Thank G-d for your safe return Aaron. Well done. ” Aaron nodded but his beaming smile betrayed his pride. He stepped aside to let Michael enter the room and then quickly closed the door. He resumed his vigilant posture and, with a well- practiced move, repositioned the Uzi on his shoulder.
“I have updated Uri about the situation”, Shem began. He believes that by applying projective geometry and tensor analysis that he can convert the spacetime coordinates of the location from where the photo was taken to a set of spacetime coordinates in our world.”
“That is correct Shem.” Uri was sitting at Shem’s desk making calculations with a slide rule and writing furiously on a notepad. He did not want to use the computer to do the calculations. It was too risky. If the nefillim could somehow hack into their computer system they might be able to recognize that the location of the Yenne Velt had been discovered. “In fact, if my preliminary calculations are correct, it would appear that the portal to the Yenne Velt is here”. Uri pointed to Mount Hermon on the map that was spread out on the table. Everyone was silent as Uri continued with his calculations. “Yes. Of course. The portal is located at the summit of Mount Hermon, referred to in the Book of Enoch as Ardis. You will recall that the summit of Mount Hermon is where the fallen angels landed upon earth. It is written in the Book of Enoch 6:6-7, and I quote, ‘ And they descended on Ardis, which is the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn on it and bound themselves mutually by a curse.’ It all makes sense”. Uri placed his slide rule and lead pencil on the table and stood up, stretching his arms and neck. He had been hunched over doing intense calculations and it felt good to stretch and move his limbs.
“Derby, haven’t we searched this area previously?”
“Yes Shem. It was the obvious place to look. We searched every location mentioned in the Bible, the Book of Enoch and, in fact, all of the writings, canon and non-canonical. We searched Mount Hermon and Mount Azazel quite carefully. No portal was found. It is possible that they have found a way to hide the entrance to the portal. That being said, we have our people in place in the area of Mount Hermon and they do not report seeing any unusual movment in that area. The nefillim that they are tracking have remained in this world. None of them have gone off the grid. We have not seen any evidence of any nefillim passing through a portal on Mount Hermon.”
Uri spoke as he rubbed the soreness out of his neck. “They most likely have instructions to avoid the portal. They know that they are being watched. This suggests that they are not entering Yenne Velt directly from our world. They must be entering from another world or worlds. But there must be a direct portal into Yenne Velt on Mount Hermon. I am sure of it. This was where the nefillim originally came to our world. The portal there must be different from the ones that we have previously encountered. In fact, the star pattern in the photo suggests that it is from a spacetime location that is approximately 4500 years ago, when Thuban was the pole star instead of Polaris. The nefillim do not like to travel back in time. We know that. It is much easier for them to pass through portals into worlds in which the time coordinate either stays the same or is in the future. As you all know, this is because of the increase in entropy with time. When they go back in time there is a reduction in entropy, a reduction in disorder and chaos. That is harmful to the nefillim. But for something this important it looks like they decided to take the risk and pass through a portal that takes them back in time. Since the Yenne Velt was so well hidden, it afforded them enough time to recover from any injuries that they sustained while making the passage. I would recommend that you rescan the area and reset the parameters on your scanners to only look for portals with negative time coordinates.”
Derby exited the room without speaking. There was no time to waste.
“Dad, we need to get a small team into Yenne Velt. If we try to move in force we will be detected. If Eve and I can get in, we can destroy their supplies and kill Azazel. We will also be able to locate any back door portals into Yenne Velt so that we can attack them in a pincer from two worlds.”
Uri looked at Shem. He could see his friend’s conflict upon his face. The plan made perfect sense. It also involved sending his son, his only remaining child, into Armageddon. Shem answered Michael without taking his eyes off of Uri. “Michael, may G-d watch over you and Eve. I look forward to seeing you upon your return. I will pray for you both.” Shem quickly excused himself, but Michael could see the tears rolling down his cheeks. When Shem left the room Aaron followed him down the hall, protectively. He had never seen a Knower, particularly of Shem’s stature, shed tears in public. He shuddered and unconsciously fingered the safety on his Uzi.

Derby made sure that Michael and Eve’s gear was packed. He double and triple checked it himself, knowing that Michael and Eve would each do their own double and triple check as well. It was imperative that they now be moved as close to Mount Hermon as possible without detection. When the portal in the Yenne Velt was found, and Derby was confident that it would be located soon, Michael and Eve would need to be able to get there quickly. After consulting with Uri, Derby had Michael and Eve moved to the Israeli settlement, Neve Ativ, which is located on the slopes of Mount Hermon, not far from the Mount Hermon ski resort. They would be staying in the home of Daniel Yalom, Uri’s second cousin, and a Scholar himself. Michael and Eve were both fluent in Hebrew, which they spoke without an accent. To all outward appearances they were simply family members visiting Daniel. They would not be able to bring additional protectors. Derby, whose Hebrew was fluent, but heavily accented also needed to remain behind in order to avoid attracting unnecessary attention. Daniel’s family had two Protectors, Ari and Shalom, who would provide additional security for the mission. When the exact location of the portal was ascertained Ari and Shalom, who were intimately familiar with all of the terrain on Mount Hermon, would bring them there and make sure that no one tried to follow them through the portal to warn the nefillim.
When Michael and Eve arrived in front of Daniel’s home it was already evening. In the moonlight they could make out the outlines of a small, but sturdy and comfortable looking wooden house. Daniel, who had met them at Ben Gurion Airport and driven them to his home, quickly cut the motor and opened the passenger door for Eve. Although a Scholar, physically, Daniel looked more like a Protector. In fact, when he was younger he had assumed that this would be his role. Notwithstanding his physical prowess, his intellectual abilities had proven even more powerful and it was decided that he would become a Scholar. He was tall, at least six foot two, and powerfully built. He was a natural athlete and still played soccer avidly when his schedule allowed. He was quite an accomplished martial artist and had taught Krav Maga when he served in the Israel Defense Forces. He was dark-skinned with dark brown eyes and thick eyebrows. His nose was not small, but smaller than one would expect given his other heavily Semitic features, a source of many jokes from his friends and family.
“Daniel, are you certain that Eve and I have not been detected by the nefillim or there agents?” asked Michael as he devoured his falafel laffa. The trip had been long and tense. He had had no appetite on the El Al flight to Tel Aviv but now, with the trip behind them and the exposure to the crisp mountain air, he was suddenly ravenous. In addition, the food was delicious. Daniel wiped his hands and carefully placed his napkin on the empty plate in front of him.
“We can’t be 100% certain, of course, but Ari and Shalom have swept the area around here carefully. Also, there is no suspicious activity on our cameras or other sensors.
“Good. There isn’t much to do now but wait and stay alert. “
Daniel’s wife Sarah walked quietly, almost silently, into the dining room, her stealth the result of having served many such dinners over the last ten years with Daniel. She was strongly, but gracefully, built, and much shorter than her husband, maybe five foot three. Her green eyes were very alert and contrasted nicely with her dark skin. Seeing her at this moment serving food and wearing an apron over her dress, one would not suspect that she had served in a combat unit when she served in the Israel Defense Forces. She had met Daniel during her Krav Maga training. During one of the training sessions she had given Daniel a black eye. They fell in love not long after.
Sarah replaced Michael’s empty plate with another plate full of hummus, tahini, pita bread and falafel, which Michael immediately dug into. Sarah smiled at Eve over the top of Michael’s head. “He has a strong appetite Eve. That is a good thing for a man”. Sarah had never met an Entropy Vampire. To have two of them in her home, at her table, was a great honor for her. She did not know the details of why they were there, but she had been married to Daniel for long enough to know that their presence heralded events that would be out of the ordinary. She had taken to them both almost immediately. There was an aura of goodness about them that made her feel secure. Even though Eve was her age, and despite the fact that Eve, as an Entropy Vampire, could certainly take care of herself, Sarah treated her as if she was her younger sister on her first trip away from home.
“Eve, can I get you another plate of food?”
“I wish I could eat more Sarah. Everything was wonderful. And your home is beautiful. Thank you for your help”.
Sarah smiled demurely and left the room. Michael and Eve returned their attention to Daniel.
“How will you get us to the portal when it is located?” Eve asked.
“That depends on exactly where it is. If the portal is near the summit that could be tricky. But we will get you there. We will have to hike up the mountain under cover of night. I have winter camouflage gear for both of you, in case that becomes necessary. If it is near the ski resort that would simplify things. If that’s the case you can pose as an Israeli couple on vacation and blend in. If the portal is not to far from the trails you can ski down to it and hike the rest of the way. We’ll see. Anyway, I would suggest that the two of you get some sleep. We don’t know when this operation is going to happen and when it does no one is going to get much sleep”.
Michael finished the last few morsels of falafel on his plate and pushed back from the table.
“Sounds like a plan Daniel. You get some rest too”.
Sarah reentered the room and stood next to Daniel as Michael and Eve walked hand in hand to the guest room that had been prepared for them. Although Sarah had been raised in a religious household she had no objection to Michael and Eve, who were unmarried, sleeping together in the same room in their home. Daniel had explained to her the unique needs of the Entropy Vampires.

Michael slept fitfully. The dream was very vivid. Too vivid. Kafkaesque. Emma was leading him down a narrow hallway lined with an infinite number of doorways. It was very dark, save for a faint crimson glow. Around Emma’s face was a sky blue aura. She was smiling and Michael could feel her gentle, warm hand in his. It felt good to see her again. He didn’t know where she was taking him but he trusted her completely and blindly followed. She stopped in front of one of the doorways. At first the doorway was the same as all of the others, a black, wooden door with a plain, silver doorknob. However, as they stood in front of it black smoke began to rise from the small gap between the bottom of the door and the dirt-covered floor. The smoke became thicker and tendrils of flame licked out from beneath the door as well. Michael began to cough as the smoke became denser and he was having trouble breathing. He tightened his grip on Emma’s hand and started to lead her back the way that they had come, but Emma pulled him back firmly. When Michael turned to look at her she was smiling and the sky blue aura around her face now completely enveloped her. She bent forward and kissed his forehead. Suddenly, she grasped the silver doorknob, which was now white hot, and opened the door. Michael could smell the seared flesh of her hand, but Emma’s smile never wavered. She released his hand and pointed to the now open doorway. He stepped inside. The smoke was now gone. It was cold. Shivering, he found himself near the summit of a snow-covered mountain. Snow was falling. In the distance, about fifty yards above him at the mountain’s summit were piles of roughly shaped, large, gray stones, the remains of an ancient temple. When he turned back towards the doorway, it, and Emma, were gone.
Michael woke up abruptly. It was still dark. Eve was sleeping soundly beside him. There was a firm knock at the bedroom door. It was Daniel.
“Michael, Eve. We think we found the portal. Time to go”.
Eve was awake instantly and dressing before Daniel finished speaking, as was Michael. Despite all of their preparation and skill, their mood was tense. Tracking nefillim through a portal into another world was rarely done and was very dangerous. Attacking Azazel, and possibly Liluth and Asmodeus as well, in their own world, had never been attempted.
“Michael, where to you think the portal is?”
“I know exactly where it is Eve. I just saw it in my dream. We are going to Qasr Antar at the summit of Mount Hermon. That is where the Watchers, the fallen angels, led by Semjaza, made their oath to each other to come to earth and seduce human women. The portal is there”.
Daniel was waiting for them as soon as they came out of their room. “Your gear is ready for you”, he said, motioning with his head to the pile of light colored camouflage uniforms and knapsacks. We are going to be doing some hiking tonight”.
“We are going to Qasr Antar, correct?”
Daniel looked up a Michael. “Yes, but how did…”
“Let’s not waste any time. I know exactly where the portal is. Let’s get this done”.
Michael and Eve quickly donned their uniforms and climbed onto the snowmobiles that Ari and Shalom had readied for them before they themselves had left moments earlier. They would make sure that the way was clear and would remain outside of the portal to make sure that no followed them in, and to make sure that, if necessary, Michael and Eve could exit back through the portal. Daniel remained at his home where a communications center had been put together in his small basement. Less than a half hour earlier Uri and sent him the encrypted coordinates of the portal. When Michael and Eve left he sent a brief, encrypted message to Shem and Uri. “Shalom Aleichem”, peace be unto you. It was the signal that the operation had begun. Daniel prayed silently.
_______________________________________________
Michael and Eve dismounted from their snowmobiles a few miles below the summit. They would have to go the rest of the way on foot. They knew that Ari and Shalom were up ahead, but they could neither see nor hear them. That was good. If they couldn’t detect them it was unlikely that the nefillim or their agents could. A light snow was falling and they were intermittently buffeted by strong gusts of searing cold wind. Within a few hours they were able to see the summit and Qasr Antar. Instinctively, Michael and Eve quietly dropped to the ground behind a row of small trees. The rest of the way to the summit was bare of vegetation. They would be completely exposed for the rest of the climb. Unseen and unheard, Ari and Shalom had taken up a position not far from where Michael and Eve now lay hidden. If they were attacked as they approached the portal it would be up to Ari and Shalom to create enough of a diversion to allow Michael and Eve to get through the portal. Their orders had been to ensure that they accessed the portal at all costs. Ari unconsciously touched the small mezuzah that he wore around his neck and quickly recited the Shema, the most important prayer in Judaism, a prayer that is said, if possible, before you die.
Michael and Eve faced each other and held each other’s gaze for just a brief moment. And then, without the need for words, they both rose and ran as fast as they could for the opening in the rocks formed by the three largest hewn stones, the exact spot where Semjaza had first fallen to earth; the portal.
The three nefillim were completely hidden beneath the snow, just in front of the portal. When Michael and Eve were close they exploded upwards creating a geyser-like plume of snow and ice. Thinking that they had taken Michael and Eve by surprise they immediately attacked to capitalize on their purported ambush. But Ari and Shalom had already detected them when they had first reached the summit. They directed a fusillade of obsidian bullets into all three Nefillim who, overconfident, had not bothered to maintain an adequate interval between them. Although the obsidian bullets were not fatal to them they were severely injured and Michael and Eve quickly dispatched them without breaking their stride. Ari waved them forward towards the portal while Shalom remained vigilant, making sure no other nefillim appeared. It appeared that they had only left a small guard at the portal, partly because they didn’t want to attract attention to it, and possibly out of arrogance, a common trait among the nefillim. When Shalom glanced back quickly over his shoulder to check on Michael and Eve, they were gone. They had passed through the portal.

The Multiverse is a labyrinth, a warren of portals and corridors and worlds that are each thermodynamically and spatio-temporally connected. What happens in one world can have a measurable effect in another world or worlds. Entering and passing through a portal has been described as similar to the sensation of diving into a pool of ice-cold water, or at least that was what had been told to Michael. As it turns out, the description had been accurate. Michael and Eve found themselves shivering on the ground inside of what looked like a large, dark cave. The ground was covered with black ashes and small fires burned on the walls and floor. Sulfurous fumes stung their nostrils. In the distance they could see the silhouettes of several small buildings against the faint glow cast from numerous small fires. It looked like a scene from the fictional city of Carcosa. Michael and Eve quickly shed and hid their light colored outer garments so that they were now clothed completely in black, much better suited to their current surroundings. The task now was to locate where the Nefillim were storing their supplies, where the main barracks was, and to find the other portals that the Nefillim were using to access the Yenne Velt. They also needed to find Azazel and kill him. At the moment they were completely on their own. By now Ari and Shalom would have sent the message to Uri and Shem that they had entered the portal, and that the portal had turned out to be lightly guarded. They would be mobilizing Protectors and Entropy Vampires to Mount Hermon, but that would take time and would have to be done carefully to avoid attracting attention, which would jeopardize Michael and Eve. For now, their greatest asset was that they had been able to enter the portal without raising a general alarm. As far as they could tell they had entered the Yenne Velt undetected. They had to assume that they would remain on their own for this mission.
Michael and Eve quickly and silently exited the cave, melting into the pitch-blackness. The entropy levels in the Yenne Velt were so high that they both felt extremely energized, something that they had anticipated and welcomed. Their eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. From their hidden position they scanned their surroundings. About two hundred yards in front of them there was a fairly wide river, about a mile across. The bank on their side of the river was desolate. Scanning their field of vision from left to right they saw that lining most of the opposite bank of the river were a number of small buildings. At the far right of their field of view was a single, large, castle-like building with what appeared to be a watchtower at its peak. Further inland were several steep mountains, the summits of which were partially obscured by thick clouds. The sky was black and moonless. Long columns of soldiers were marching down from the summit of the nearest mountain and into the castle. A second portal must be located at the summit of that mountain. The castle was apparently the Nefillim’s command center. Azazel would certainly be there. There was no way to know if Semjaza himself was there as well. Liluth and Asmodeus must be there.

 

At first Michael and Eve were puzzled by the absence of sentries to guard the riverbanks, but quickly realized that the river was, in fact, guarded, but the sentries were stationed below the water. This posed a significant problem. The Nefillim had a distinct advantage in the water. In addition, since the water was pitch-black there was no way to tell how many guards were stationed beneath the surface, nor where they were until they actually entered the water themselves. Michael and Eve conferred quickly and quietly. One option was to separate and hope that at least one of them could get through if the other was discovered and killed. However, this option was quickly discarded. Either one of them alone stood no chance of completing the mission. The second option, which they opted to implement, was to simply enter the water as quietly as possible and confront any sentries that tried to stop them. They reasoned that given the arrogance of the Nephilim, and the fact that they considered humans and Entropy Vampires to be weak, that, just as they had done at the entrance to the portal, there would be only a few sentries, and likely not their best warriors. Silently, Michael and Eve made their way to the water’s edge and slipped below the surface. They saw the underwater sentry post when they had made it  about half way across. The two Nefillim didn’t see them at first, but sound is amplified underwater so despite their best efforts to swim as silently as possible, the Nefillim, whose ability to hear sound underwater had become highly developed over the milenia, were able to detect them and began swimming rapidly towards them. With no other option Michael and Eve dove beneath the surface and swam towards the Nephilim. If either of the sentries survived they would create a general alarm and the mission would be a failure. Typically, an Entropy Vampire, when confronted by the Nefillim in the water would try to flee, so Michael and Eve’s decision to actually swim towards them seemed to confuse the Nefillim at first, which created a momentary, but crucial distraction. One of the Nefillim, the smaller of the two, turned to swim towards the far bank of the river to try to raise an alarm while the other one continued to swim towards Michael and Eve. Eve swam after the smaller sentry and was able to overtake him. Michael was only able to see Eve withdraw her obsidian knife from its sheath before having to turn away to fend off the initial blow from the second, larger sentry who was heavily muscled but somewhat slow and surprisingly clumsy in the water. That being said, Michael needed to be very careful. The platinum sword being wielded by his opponent could, given his strength, easily sever a limb with one blow. Michael dodged a sweeping strike that was aimed at his torso and then swam as close as he could get to the Nephil and slashed the top of his thigh where the artery to the leg should be. Blood began spurting into the water and Michael quickly followed up with a direct thrust of his blade into his opponent’s heart, killing him instantly. He immediately directed his attention to where he had last seen Eve confront the other sentry but there was no trace of them. It was then that he noticed the body of the Nephil that he had slain begin to rise towards the surface. He grabbed one of its now limp arms and brought it to the bottom of the river where he wedged it below some large rocks. It was then that he saw Eve doing the same thing with the body of the other Nephil. With that task completed they both swam to the far bank of the river, emerged silently from the water and quickly hid themselves behind a pile of stones and rubble. About fifty yards directly in front of them was a small, stone building, two stories high. There were five more buildings, similar in structure, each separated by approximately one hundred hundred yards. There were no lights on in any of the windows and no movement could be seen near any of them. About a half mile to their right stood the castle. All appeared to be quiet. Michael and Eve moved cautiously, moving from building to building and then made their way towards the castle itself. They stopped about twenty yards away from an arched doorway that led directly into the castle. It was  guarded by three Nefillim. A bonfire blazed nearby casting shadows against the stone walls. Staying in the shadows, Michael and Eve circled behind the guards and quickly dispatched them. When they were certain that no alarm had been raised they entered the castle. They followed a  long, narrow hallway with dingy, stone walls until it ended, leading into a small vestibule, in the center of which was a fire pit with red, glowing coals. At the opposite end of the vestibule there was an entrance that led into another long narrow hallway, but it was dark and they could not see more than a few feet into it. There was no choice but to continue to move forward, deeper into the castle. They needed to find the portal, and, if possible, kill Azazel or even Semjaza himself, if they could be found.

“Eve, do you hear that?”

Eve nodded. They both froze. The almost imperceptible sound of footsteps approaching from behind grew louder.

 

________________________________________________________________

 

Shem sat at his desk rubbing his temples, deep in thought. The message had been received from Daniel: “Watched from Nebo”. Eve and Michael had crossed the portal. No additional communications could be risked. Should he send  additional Protectors and Entropy Vampires through the portal or would this arouse the suspicions of the Nefillim? Derby and Uri stood silently behind him.

“Gentleman, what are your recommendations? Do we send additional forces through the portal and risk detection?”

“Shem, in my opinion we need to risk it. From what I can see, we have secured the portal on Mount Hermon. Our people are good. I am confident that we can get another team through the portal undetected”, Derby said as he began pacing floor, a nervous habit.

“What do you think Uri?”

“I agree with Derby, Shem. We can exponentially increase the chances of success of the mission if we can get additional teams in. I am just as confident as Derby in the ability of our people to achieve this without being detected”.

“Ok. Set it up. Derby, I want you to go in with the team. I want you there”.

Derby didn’t even try to suppress his smile. “I will be there Shem”.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________-

 

Michael and Eve pressed their bodies flush against the dank, stone walls and melted into the darkness. Knives drawn they waited for whatever was approaching. As they controlled their breathing they meditated upon the image of the Tetragrammaton. The faint images of two men approaching became clearer.

“Aaron, Derby?”

“Michael? Thank G-d”.

“What are you-?”

“No time to explain”, Derby whispered. “Shem sent us in to help”.

“Do you know where the other portal into our world is?”, Eve asked.

“No. But there are four of us now, and another team is being prepared to help us as well. We haven’t seen that many Nefillim which is surprising if they are planning to send a large force into our world, unless they are sequestered in some type of staging area inside the castle”. Derby scanned the darkness as he spoke.

“Is it possible that, in fact, they never planned to attack with a large force? They have tried that in the past and failed. Remember the writings in the War Scrolls”. Michael continued, “It is possible that they have another strategy in mind altogether”.

“Either way Michael, we need to locate their exit portal into our world and destroy it”, whispered Aaron.

“Ok.  Let’s continue down this passageway and see where it leads. The important thing is that we remain undetected for now”.

Derby and Aaron nodded their heads. Michael and Eve headed into the dark hallway. Derby and Aaron waited a full minute and then followed. They continued to make their way into the darkness. Suddenly, Michael and Eve stopped. Derby and Aaron froze, then slowly made their way up to them.

“Michael, what is it?” asked Aaron.

Aaron peered into the darkness. Up ahead he could make out a faint, flickering red glow. They continued to move forward, stopping just before the point where the hallway ended and opened into a large room. Michael signalled for Derby and Aaron to stay put as he and Eve entered the room. Standing in front of a small fire was Semjaza.

” I have been expecting you Michael”. Semjaza stood and faced Michael. Eve started to slowly circle behind him. Derby and Aaron entered the room.

“Do you think me a fool Michael?” continued Semjaza. “I let you find the portal on Mount Hermon and left it only lightly guarded, just as I left the river leading to this castle with only two sentries. I needed for you go bring Eve here. She killed Bezjab and I intend to make her pay for that with my own hands. Then I shall kill the rest of you”. With that, he wheeled and turned to face Eve. Semjaza was very tall, at least eight feet. His face was reptilian, with large yellow eyes that did not blink. His skin had large, maroon-colored scales. The muscles of his arms and legs bulged. His hands and feet were large and the fingers and toes were tipped with large, curved talons. Attached to his upper back were black, leathery wings which he now unfurled making him appear even larger and more foreboding.

“Semjaza, I am going to kill you, and then I shall find Liluth and Asmodeus and kill them as well. You will all pay for my sister’s death”.

“Michael, you and your father are both fools! Liluth and Asmodeus have already crossed over into your world. After I kill all of you I shall disappear into the Multiverse while Liluth and Asmodeus wreak havoc on your world. There is no need for me to try to move my armies into your world. They will create an army right in your world.  This time we shall destroy the Sons of Light!”

Derby and Aaron opened fire on Semjaza but the obsidian-tipped bullets did not do much damage. He brushed away the bullets as if they were mosquitoes. However, the gunfire did create a brief distraction, allowing  Eve to get close to him. Eve plunged her obsidian blade deep into Semjaza’s left thigh causing him to shriek in pain. She removed the blade and plunged it into his right thigh and then retreated. Blood poured from the wound, but he remained standing. Michael moved in and slashed powerfully at his left arm, severing it at the elbow. Semjaza backhanded Michael, knocking him to the floor, stunning him. For a moment Michael thought that he was going to lose consciousness, but he staggered to his feet. His vision began to clear. Semjaza hurled himself towards Michael who was still recovering from the powerful blow. Derby ran towards Semjaza and emptied an entire clip of obsidian bullets directly into Semjaza’s chest, stopping his advance towards Michael. Without stopping Derby drew his obsidian Bowie knife and buried it into Semjaza’s abdomen. This gave Michael enough time to recover and move back out of harms way. Semjaza grabbed Derby by the throat, crushing it instantly. Derby slumped to the ground dead. Aaron emptied his Uzi into Semjaza.

“Aaron, get back!”. Eve threw herself on Semjaza’s back, between his unfurled wings and began stagging his back, shoulders and head with as much strength as she could muster. The image of Derby dying before her very eyes fueled her rage. She was no longer concerned for her safety. She kept plunging in her blade and withdrawing it until her arms began to tire. Semjaza reached behind himself and was able to grab a hold of one of Eve’s legs. He threw her across the room and into the hard, stone wall. She fell to the floor and her body did not move. Aaron reloaded and emptied another clip into Semjaza with little effect. Semjaza set upon him with a speed that defied his large size. Aaron drew his obsidian Bowie knife and buried it into Semjaza’s right shoulder, but Semjaza was unfazed. He plunged his talons into Aaron’s chest. He fell dead. Semjaza now turned to Michael.

“Now it is your turn to die Michael”.

Michael and Semjaza slowly circled each other. Despite his bravado, Semjaza remained wary of Michael. He could sense his power. He was not like the other Entropy Vampires that he had fought with in the past. He was much more powerful. The blow that he had struck Michael with should have killed him, but it had only stunned him.

Michael was also being cautious. Semjaza, despite his wounds, was extremely powerful. He was the leader of the Nefillim. He had survived the Flood. Killing him would be difficult.

 

Michael circled to Semjaza’s left, injured side. Blood still spilled from the bloody stump of Semjaza’s left arm. The wounds inflicted by Eve to his thighs seemed to have slowed him down and he seemed to be in pain when he moved. Michael had the advantage of speed, but needed to respect Semjaza’s significant advantage with regards to strength. A single blow from Semjaza could finish him. Unexpectedly, Michael leaped forward and was able to plunge his blade into Semjaza’s chest, but he missed his heart. He withdrew the blade and quickly retreated. He then attacked again but Semjaza anticipated Michael’s lunge towards him. He struck Michael directly in his solar plexus sending him flying through across the room. He landed hard against the dirt floor. Instinctively, he rolled to his left and Semjaza stomped the ground where he has first landed, narrowly avoiding the killing blow. He stood on shaky legs and retreated to the far corner of the room, far from the exit into the hallway. He was trapped.  Michael knew that he was going to lose consciousness. He slumped to the floor. As his vision began to fade he focused all of his energy on the image of the Tetragrammaton. Semjaza stood above him and brought his hand back to deliver the killing blow.  As he lost consciousness he saw a faint, golden light appear behind Semjaza, and then the image of a woman. He lost consciousness.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

Michael’s eyes fluttered open. He tried to sit up but his efforts were met with blinding pain so he fell back into the bed. The room was spinning.

“Michael, you are awake, thank G-d!”. Shem and Eve rushed to his side. Eve’s left arm was in a cast and her face was heavily bruised.

 

Michael forced himself to sit up. The spinning worsened and then subsided. “How did I get- what about Semjaza!”. Michael tried to get out of bed but Shem gently pushed him back.

“Michael, Semjaza is dead”. Shem pulled up a chair and sat at Michael’s bedside. “Do you remember what happened?”.

“I blacked out. But just before I did I remember seeing a golden light, and then the image of a woman. She seemed very familiar”.

“Michael, that was your mother, Naamah. Somehow, she sensed that you were in danger and was able to find you. I

don’t know how. I dreamt of her last night and she told me. She saved your life. She killed Semjaza”.

“But how did you get me out of the Venne Velt? I don’t remember everything that happened”.

 

Shem and Eve looked at each other. Michael, I am very sorry, Derby and Aaron were killed. We sent in an additional Protector team shortly after Derby and Aaron went it. It was that team that brought you and Eve out. They said that they were not able to detect any trace of Liluth or Asmodeus”.

 

“Semjaza told me that they had already crossed over into our world. Rather than move an entire army across the portal into our world, which would have taken some time and would have been logistically very difficult, Semjaza had Liluth and Asmodeus cross over into our world where they could create demons and form an army de novo right in our world. We must find them!”.

Shem gently patted Michael’s arm. “We will. But for now, you must rest and heal. I will leave you and Eve alone. Call me if you need anything. There are two Protectors right outside”. Shem stroked Michael’s hair and then stood and, on tired legs, slowly walked out of the room.

 

Eve slipped into bed beside Michael. Without speaking she removed his pajama pants and gently straddled him. Despite the pain brought on with his every movement and Eve’s weight on top of him, he did not stop her. He needed her entropy. Even more than that, he needed the her warmth, her love. He needed to feel his soul intertwine with hers. He felt so alone. He had faced the most potent evil imaginable and had come close to dying. Somehow he had survived.  She gently guided him inside of her and tenderly rocked back and forth, moving him more deeply inside of her with each thrust until she heard him moan deeply and felt the warmth of his seed inside of her. In that instant, she could feel the new life force inside of her.

 

____________________________________________________________

 

Liluth looked out of the window of her upper east side apartment. She rather liked living in Manhattan, as did Asmodeus. No one suspected that she and her “husband” were creating an army of demons intent upon destroying this world. In the five years since they had left the Venne Velt they had had over one thousand children all of whom were born fully mature as adults given the accelerated physical development of demon offspring. They were all employed by an import-export company owned by Liluth and Asmodeus allowing them to travel and set up offices all around the world. When the time was right, they would try once again to destroy this world.

 

On the other side of the world, Michael and Eve walked along the beach in Tel Aviv with their five year old son, Isaac. It was July and Michael made sure that Isaac didn’t step on any of the numerous jellyfish that had become stranded on the hot sand. It was the end of the day and the sun was setting. Michael, Eve and Isaac held hands and sat down in the soft, wet sand at the water’s edge and let the warm Mediterranean water wash over their feet and legs as the sun sank below the horizon, yielding the sky to the darkness and the lesser light.

 

 

 

.