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For a short while, it was like the calm before the storm. I filled my day with training by Cain’s side as he taught me to combine both the strength of my vampire skills along with those of my magic, but it didn’t take long for signs of Abel to find the two of us in our little hideaway. The sounds of his wings cutting through the air in the night were quiet, yet I heard them anyway, and I wondered if he was watching us. Even when I looked up into the dark of the night sky, every glimmering light made me suspicious. He was coming to kill me. I knew that. He was dangerous and he wanted revenge and in order to achieve that, he was going to have to cut me down first.
I swallowed nervously, watching the stars twinkle above me. I almost wanted him to come. I wanted to be given the chance to fight. Until that day though, I just walked around as a tense ball of energy and even Cain could see it. Each night, he tied me to his bed and made me come more times than I could count, ensuring that he drained as much of that tension as he could so that I could sleep peacefully by his side.
We spent an inordinate amount of time together and I began to feel closer to him. Originally, I had thought of him as nothing more than a monster, but there was more to him. He was a born leader that was kind as well as firm. He aimed to take over the demon world in order to give them some semblance of order here on Earth. He didn’t want to use that power to kill the human race or to use it for evil; instead he wanted to rule and demand a peaceful coexistence as much as possible. My respect for him grew and my born hatred for his kind started to fade away, bit by bit, all because of him.
A small segment of the vampires that followed him guarded the mansion. All of them were steadfastly loyal to him and had served under him for an incredibly long time. They consisted of men and women alike and every single one of them treated me with the same deference that they gave him.
In every way, I was his equal here. We were partners and together we were preparing for war. A dangerous angel was out there, and he could attack us at any time. He wasn’t going to stop until the two of us were dead, which meant that we had to kill him first.
In that time spent waiting for Abel to strike, I reflected on the person I used to be to the one I was today. It seemed like only yesterday I had the naïve view that every monster was evil and that anyone associated with magic couldn’t be trusted. All of that had been torn away in the past few months. I’d changed. Evil wasn’t something that was entirely black and white. Instead, it was multilayered and required far more understanding than I had ever originally thought. Cain had been the core of all of that.
He had been portrayed as the ultimate villain for centuries. I had been taught to believe that all my life as had much of the world, but now I wasn’t so sure. At the beginning, he’d been harsh and cruel and when I resisted time and time again, he’d broken me in the most thorough of ways. I licked my lips, remembering how he’d held me so sweetly after it was all over, and I knew there was far more to him than the stories and myths of old.
And now I had until the end of time to learn everything there was to learn about him.
He told me much of the history between him and his brother. Abel had come for him time and time again in order to attempt to get his revenge. Lucifer had approached him and offered him untold power if he could take Abel for himself and Cain had agreed, and he had been hopeful that they would never clash again, but that was before the devil knew about me. Lucifer had freed Abel to get to me and turned his back on Cain in the process.
We were going to send Abel back to him, once and for all. Together.
One morning, I walked out onto the balcony outside his bedroom so I could watch the sun rise. The brilliant reds, oranges, and fiery yellows burned through the sky and as I pressed my fingers against the marble railing, I sensed an unfamiliar power, almost as if the Earth was sending us a warning.
I could feel it in the air. Even the lake in the distance seemed to tremble with it. This was the day we had been waiting for. It was time for war. The battle had come to us and today, I was either going to die or I was going to destroy my enemy.
Abel had once been the epitome of good and now he had fallen. He had turned into an agent of the devil, and he was coming for me. After he was through with me, he would rip his brother apart even if it killed him. I understood why he was the way he was, but that wasn’t going to stop me from fighting back.
I took a deep breath and looked up. A twinkling glint in the sky caught my attention and I stopped breathing entirely. I narrowed my eyes and saw white wings, but as I looked closer, I saw that wasn’t quite accurate. These wings were streaked with gray feathers. Some of them were even black. They were no longer pristinely white like I remembered they had been when I had met him for the first time.
He was here. Abel had finally arrived.
The door opened and closed behind me. Cain had walked out onto the balcony too. I wondered if he could feel the danger in the air just like I could. Did he know his brother was here to kill the both of us?
“Don’t worry, my little vampire. Both of us are going to live to survive this day,” he whispered softly in my ear. His lips brushed against my throat, before he pressed a soft kiss on my skin. A shiver raced down my spine and as nervous as I was, my body began to tremble with adrenaline. I was ready for this. We had prepared for the fight against him.
I had trained all my life. Even as a human, I was a formidable fighter. I’d taken out countless numbers of vampires, I’d caged a number of werewolves, and I’d even fought a troll and won. Now I was a vampire. Not only did I have an incredible amount of strength at my disposal now, but I had magic too. If anything, Abel should be afraid of me.
A roar sounded abo
ve our heads, loud and ominous. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. I had Cain by my side, and we were going to destroy this fallen angel together.
The shimmering glimmer grew brighter and brighter. I took a step back, preparing myself to lunge and attack when a ball of fire came hurtling in our direction. I dove out of the way as the burning sphere tumbled toward us. It rolled over the balcony and even the white plaster and stone singed under its power. Cain snarled with anger and threw his own demon’s fire back in return.
The ground started to rumble beneath our feet. The pebbles rattled against the surface and tiny cracks and fissures began to break apart the earth underneath us. Abel flew down toward us and landed in the grass with enough force to make the dirt beneath his feet quake.
He seethed, his shoulders rising and falling with fury. Once a broken bloodied man in a cage, he stared back at me with a vengeful, deranged fire in his eyes. It was as terrifying as it was alarming, and I swallowed my nervousness, instead focusing on the courage I needed to survive the battle against him. His gaze flicked from me to his brother before he began to speak.
“Cain,” he snarled. He even sounded different. It was unnerving.
“Abel,” Cain spat in return. “We meet again.”
“So, it seems you finally found the woman who bears your mark,” he growled.
“I have,” Cain answered.
Abel cocked his head and snarled. The noise was sobering.
“I want you to know something. I’m going to kill her, brother. I’m going to make her scream as I tear her limb from limb, because I know every single cry of agony that escapes her pretty throat is going to shred that cold black heart of yours into pieces. I’m going to rip her head from her shoulders before I come for you. I have had an eternity to dream about the moment that I destroy your life as you took mine so very long ago,” he growled, and Cain cocked his head to the side.
