The Lilitu (Lilitu Trilogy Book 1)

By Toby Tate

It’s been one month since the beast once known as Lilith MacIntyre and her unborn child have been taken to a secret facility in Connecticut. CIA operative Gabrielle “Gabe” Lincoln is now tracking the others involved in Lilith’s organization. She soon finds most of them are Lilitu, a race of beings as old as time who may have once dominated the galaxy itself.

When the Lilitu realize that Gabe has been following them, they capture her and infect her with a mind-controlling parasite. They take her to an off-the-grid shack in the middle of the Australian outback and use her knowledge to their own advantage as they prepare for the final assault upon humanity.

Unless Gabe can be shaken from her zombie-like state and stop the Lilitu from advancing their agenda, mankind may soon be facing not only the loss of its place as the planet’s dominant species, but its utter annihilation.

“This novella packs one hell of a punch!” —TT Zuma, Horror World

• Language: English
• Publisher: Permuted
• Release date: Sep 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781618686541

Toby Tate

Toby Tate has been a writer since about the age of 12, when he first began writing short stories and publishing his own movie monster magazine. He is a freelance journalist and writer with dozens of pieces published on sites like eHow.com as well as in The Pedestal Magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Scary Monsters Magazine and more.An Air Force brat who never lived in one place more than two years, Toby joined the U.S. Navy soon after high school and ended up on the east coast. Toby has since worked as a cab driver, a pizza delivery man, a phone solicitor, a shipyard technician, a government contractor, a retail music salesman, a bookseller, a cell phone salesman, a recording studio engineer, a graphic designer and a newspaper reporter.Toby's first novel, DIABLERO, a supernatural thriller, was published by Nightbird Publishing in Oct. 2010. A songwriter and musician, Toby lives near the Great Dismal Swamp in northeastern North Carolina.Toby is currently at work on his next novel, a horror/techothriller.

Book preview

THE LILITU

The Lilitu Trilogy Book One

Toby Tate

A PERMUTED PRESS BOOK

Published at Smashwords

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-61868-541

THE LILITU

The Lilitu Trilogy Book One

© 2015 by Toby Tate

All Rights Reserved

Cover art by Christian Bentulan

This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Permuted Press

109 International Drive, Suite 300

Franklin, TN 37067

http://permutedpress.com

Acknowledgments

Thanks and love beyond measure to God, my wife, Laura, and daughter, Zoe, the lights of my life and my inspiration.

For immeasurable assistance in the Land Down Under, special thanks to Jessica Lay, Joanna Dale, Kerry Cummings Weaver, Leigh Penick Kott; From the Absolute Write Water Cooler Forum: Cath, Helix, Albedo, LA*78, Jaymz Connelly, Cathy C., Racey, Rufus Coppertop.

Thanks especially to my first readers: Tina Beck, Shelley Milligan, Eric Escalera, Andi Hunt and Kimberly Waddell.

As always, I want to thank my amazing literary agent, MacKenzie Fraser-Bub at Trident Media Group, for her guidance and encouragement; Michael Wilson, President of Permuted Press, for giving this unknown author a chance at superstardom; and Hannah Yancey, managing editor at Permuted Press and a fabulous human being, for making the stars align.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

About the Author

Chapter one

Thick, white liquid was leaking from every pore of Gabrielle Lincoln’s body, but she dared not scream, because the noise would bring them. She felt no pain, only revulsion as she tried to steady her breathing, slow it to a normal cadence. She tore off her shirt, then stripped off her pants, and stared down at the flesh of her abdomen as the milky substance continued to ooze from her skin. It suddenly rose up in her throat and sprayed from her mouth like a geyser as she heaved and gasped for breath, and finally caught one, desperately sucking air into her tortured lungs. She knew what was happening—the thing that had controlled her mind was leaving her body. That knowledge, however, didn’t make it any less terrifying. But she knew that once it was gone, it wouldn’t be back.

She felt herself beginning to lose consciousness, multi-colored stars filling her vision as she fought the overwhelming urge to tumble face first out the door and into the dirt. But she knew she couldn’t afford to lose it now. She had to force herself to remain focused throughout the ordeal, and then make her way out into the desert. That presented another problem—the temperatures in the bush, or the outback as it was known to most, could reach over one hundred degrees. From what she could tell from the heat, it was around mid-January, which for Australia meant the middle of summer. The small outhouse in which she was now hiding was like an oven. Ironically, the liquid seeping from her body also acted as a temporary coolant.

In seconds, and much to her relief, the flow stopped, the last few drops sliding down her leg to join the others, like metal attracted to a magnet. She was mesmerized by the white puddle and its dance-like movements, watching as it silently undulated and morphed into something like a headless snake. Then the liquid snake thing split itself into multi tentacles, like an upside-down jelly fish, each appendage grasping at the air, searching in vain for a new host. She stepped up on the plastic lid of the toilet and waited, wiping saliva from her mouth with the back of a hand. The liquid began to change into a gas, steam rising from it, the tentacles becoming smaller and smaller as the thing flipped wildly around the space in its final death throes, finally evaporating into nothing.

Gabe released a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding, and stepped down off the toilet. She grabbed her clothes, now completely dry, and slipped them on—a pair of blue jeans, a pink t-shirt, a pair of Adidas sneakers and a ball cap with a Wallabies logo on the front. She held up the t-shirt—in big block letters it read, I’m just a little f-ing ray of sunshine. She didn’t remember buying the shirt, and in fact, probably hadn’t, since she hated wearing the color pink. It was likely a joke instigated by the men who had been holding her captive, and doing God only knew what else to her. Luckily, the memories of that were gone forever. Unfortunately, the things she had been doing since they had brought her here were gone with them. There was no telling how they had used her. As a CIA operative, she could have revealed national secrets that would do untold damage to the United States.

But perhaps that had been the catalyst of her salvation—they had pushed her a little too far, asked a little too much, and then the light inside of her had snapped on, driving out the darkness, and the creature along with it.

At least, that hypothesis made sense for now. Whatever the reason, it was gone, and soon she would be gone, as well.

She tied her long, brown hair up in a bun and then pulled the ball cap over it. She prayed that it wasn’t that time of the month—she had no idea where her birth control pills were or if she had even been taking them. She would have to remedy that once she got to civilization.

She wondered how many people were here at the compound. She couldn’t remember anything from the day she had been infected up until just a few minutes ago, except maybe for bits and pieces. But she couldn’t be sure what was true memory and what was dream memory. It was all mixed up together inside her brain like subway commuters at rush hour.

Gabe gently pushed the wooden door open and peeked out through the crack—nobody around, at least that she could see. She pushed it open further and stepped outside, and then quietly closed it behind her.

She turned and flinched when she saw a man she didn’t recognize staring down at her.

Well, that took long enough, he said.

Chapter two

The guy was at least six-two, with arms as big as her thighs and a nose that looked like it had been broken a few times. She had no clue what his name was. The first thing that came to mind was Sasquatch.