“Do it,” I spat. “Kill me. I would rather die…than be a part of this.” I mentioned his lie, how he wanted to deceive Kass. She wasn’t his Kass, she wasn’t my Kass. She was from a different world, and if she remained here, this world’s darkness would catch up to her. She wouldn’t stay so innocent.
“You have no idea what awaits you in Hell, do you?” Gabriel questioned, already knowing the answer. Who better knew Hell than its ruler? “Once I have your soul, you will regret this decision.” His grip on my heart tightened, causing me to tremble uncontrollably.
I whispered in between ungodly coughs, “She will find out…you can’t hide yourself forever.”
“I don’t plan to” was what Gabriel said next, and it dawned on me that perhaps he wanted to keep up the lie long enough to sway her to his side, to make her feel something for him. Surely, though, he wouldn’t risk taking her with him to the Underworld, to Hell? He was its ruler, but Kass would never be its queen.
Gabriel’s hand was ready to yank out my heart, to kill me and take my soul, forcing me to his domain, but I watched him pause. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe he was undergoing a change of heart; but I saw his mind racing. I saw the wheels turning in his head. Why was he hesitant? Why did he not simply do it and get it over with? Finish this last scene in my life? I was more than ready.
And that’s when my supernatural hearing heard it: the moaning. The drooling. Feet shuffling in a mass of bodies. They were headed in our direction. Something wasn’t right.
Gabriel must’ve sensed them too, for he sharply yanked his hand away from heart and out of my stomach. His hand dripped my blood, dropping to the grass, akin to how I immediately collapsed, coughing and retching.
It took me a minute to get to my feet, my muscles twitching, the spasms irregular. Holding a hand to my wound, my heart ached. It felt like his hand was still there, threatening to end my life. It was a threat I wished would’ve come true. I would heal soon enough.
“Lesser Vampires,” I said, wincing. “Moving as one? They would not attack us…” I sent Gabriel a glare. “Not you.”
He was sullen, not even bothering to meet my gaze. “Sometimes,” he mused, “even dogs need to be reminded who their masters are. Or in this case…” The fire burning behind his gaze erupted, burning away at his flesh as he morphed into the creature his human face hid. “Master.”
The horde emerged over the nearby hill, and I saw just how large their numbers were. When their yellow, demonic eyes saw us, their inept shuffling halted instantly, and they transformed into a fast, deadly company. Over thirty surrounded us, and none seemed to know that they surrounded the being who held their souls.
“This isn’t right,” I said, dodging a rolling Vampire. “They’d never move in a group like this.” I followed Gabriel’s lead, shoving my hand through their bodies and yanking out their hearts in rapid succession. Fires engulfed the dead ones. One after the other, I went through them as fast as I could until I heard the sounds of harsh breathing behind a metal mask.
Hearing that stopped me cold.
It couldn’t be…could it?
Gabriel’s true form held out his long, clawed hand, stopping the horde that surrounded us from attacking. He must have sensed him too. His horned head turned to me, the fire burning in his eyes darkening as he spoke in an otherworldly voice, “Taking your soul would be far too easy. No, I want you to suffer. I want you to know true pain, to lose the only thing you ever cared about.”
His grey arm lifted, his hand disappearing in a cloud of invisibility. Though I wasn’t there, I knew where his arm was, where the veil broke and he sought to take the one thing that was ever truly good in this world.
My brother.
“No,” I shouted at the Devil, lunging for him, tackling him to the ground and catching him off-guard. His arm, wherever it emerged, was taken out of the mystical cloud. I knew I couldn’t keep him occupied for long, and I dared not forget the crowd of Vampires watching us with blank expressions. The only thing on my mind was saving my brother’s soul.
If anyone deserved to move on, it was him.
He was always the better brother, the morally righteous one.
I just hoped to keep Gabriel occupied long enough that Raphael could do what he was made to do.
Save Kirk’s soul.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Kass
“Why won’t you tell me anything about the King?” If I said I was annoyed, it’d be the year’s worst understatement. Raphael was doing his best to ignore me and my countless questions, just as I was doing my best to try and forget the kiss between Gabriel and me.
The worst part was…it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
A part of me liked it.
Bad, bad Kass.
“And why does he call himself the King? Could’ve been the Dictator, or the President…but the King? Seems a little old-fashioned, don’t you think?” I ran my fingers along the spine of an old book about Demons. I remembered being forced to read it and then quizzed on it while sparring with Raphael.
“He is an old soul,” Raphael spoke slowly, looking to me. “Older than you think.”
Eyebrows coming together, I put two and two together. “You know him, don’t you? I know him, too. What is his name?”
Raphael appeared as if he was about to answer, but something changed in his expression. He drew his curved dagger, quickly handing it to me as he said, “Remain here. We are no longer alone.” And then he disappeared in a blue rift.
I waited there a few moments, realizing that I was me, after all, and I never did the smart thing. I’d rather be in the thick of the fight than cowering in a hidden room. Gripping the metal tightly, I heard loud thumping as I entered the great hall of the church.
The doors were broken down, wood splintering everywhere. I knew the Demons standing on the opposite side: Nightwalkers. With their venom-dripping fangs and their rotting, gross flesh. Gabriel and I had fought countless Nightwalkers. They were easy pickings.
Although, I soon saw as their bodies ran into the church, not quite as many at once before.
Three Nightwalkers lunged at me; I leapt to the side, expertly impaling their hearts with Raphael’s dagger. I was quick to yank the metal from their hearts before they burst into flames. Too often I lost stakes and other weapons to the eternal orange fires that devoured them once they were purified.
As I fought another pair in front of me, I heard one coming up from behind. Just as I turned, though, an arrow was shot from the rafters, piercing its heart. Raphael stood above me, above the group of Nightwalkers, with John’s bow, shooting at an inhuman pace. Almost as fast as a Nightwalker, I realized.
Don’t tell me he was made into a Daywalker or something after this world’s Kass died. Just…don’t. I didn’t need any more on my plate.
I remembered something. “Crap,” I yelled over the masse of Demons.
“What?” Raphael called back, clueless as he continued to fire, though he was losing arrows fast.
“Gabriel and John are out there.” I ran through the crowd of Nightwalkers without waiting for Raphael’s reply. Those two could take care of themselves, I knew, but I had to make sure they were both all right. Yes, even John.
Old feelings died hard, if they ever really died at all.
I stabbed Nightwalker after Nightwalker as I ran, attacking only those that were close enough. I was confident that Raphael would finish the rest. So far, I’d put their numbers in the fifties. But the moment I ran outside in the dim moonlight, I saw their numbers were much greater than that.
Fighting my way through the horde, I called for Gabriel and John, but heard no answer. Nightwalker after Nightwalker, I staked them with Raphael’s blade. I didn’t think twice when I came across a bare chest whose flesh looked nothing like old, sagging Nightwalker skin. The dagger was in its chest, cutting through its heart. Yet it did not burst into flames.
I heard a growl rumble from its chest, and with my hand still on the da
gger’s hilt, I was slow to look upward. The metal mask the man wore was just like the one I dreamt of, the one that haunted my recent visions. In a swift movement, the man grabbed my neck, squeezing as he lifted me off the ground, the dagger still implanted in his chest, his heart.
In all my life, I’d only met one other being that could take something to the heart and live. Red Eyes, who I now knew as Crixis. But this, whoever he was, wasn’t Crixis. He didn’t have as wide a frame, nor as powerful a walk, even if his grip was as strong as iron.
No, this was someone else.
My vision blurred, my consciousness starting to fall away. The being threw me against the wall of the church, and as my back collided with the stone, I noticed that the Nightwalkers weren’t interfering. Those that weren’t fighting Raphael in the church merely watched. I blinked, trying to regain my senses, to get up, to fight, but being choked wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
I felt like passing out.
The man yanked the dagger from his chest, dropping it on the grass. The mask covered his entire face, save for a tiny hole in the mouth and two for the nose and eyes. His breathing behind it was erratic but powerful. I was very sluggish in standing, shaking away the blurriness. My head pounded, and I was so out of it I didn’t see the warning signs.
His stomach was caving in on itself. He was thinner than he should’ve been. He was hungry.
And he wanted to eat me.
He reached for me, holding my shoulders. In an unavoidable headbutt, his metal mask met my forehead, blood trickled from my hairline. Did that hurt. I punched him in his gut, but my usual strength was practically gone. I saw double and had a migraine the size of Texas.
I didn’t want to think of the bruising that would result on my back or my face.
He pushed me against the wall of the church, headbutting me again. Bringing his hands to his face, his fingertips pried beneath the mask, and he used his supreme strength to tear it off. The mask must have been melded to his skin, for the top layer tore off. His lips, his eyelids, most of his nose. All that remained was blood and muscles and tendons.
It was a disgusting sight. It made me want to vomit.
He hit me with his mask, knocking me to the floor and pouncing on me like an animal. His tongue licked his lipless mouth, his teeth those of a Daywalker. I bared my own teeth, grabbing his neck with both my hands, trying to stop his descent toward me. I wasn’t strong enough.
Soon, his teeth were near my pulsating veins. They broke the skin easily, tearing through like I was nothing but tissue paper. The pain that erupted was unbearable. I remembered being bitten by John. That lasted but a moment, and he somehow regained his senses the instant he tasted by blood. This one, though, I feared he did not have any senses to return to.
He was mad, and he drank me hungrily, as if he hadn’t had a meal in ages.
A blackened, strong hand came from nowhere, out of a cloud of fiery mist. It grabbed the Daywalker, pulling him off me. I immediately pressed a hand to my neck, slowing the blood flow. I was woozy, tired. Too tired to question the black hand or the fact that it disappeared as quickly as it came.
Raphael rift-walked behind the bloody Daywalker, his hand glowing an iridescent blue as he shoved it in his chest. Whatever his dagger could not do, Raphael succeeded. In a bright teal flash, the Daywalker burned away, fading from sight.
“What was that?” I whispered, though my words did not come out as clear as I thought they did. “What did you do? Actually, save it for later. We have to find John and Gabriel.”
The crowd of Nightwalkers was gone in a flash, and I had an uneasy feeling as to where they went.
Raphael was quiet as we ran over the hill, finding John alone. He clutched his stomach, beaten and bloodied.
“Are you all right?” I questioned, still holding onto my neck.
John managed to nod once, looking to Raphael, who nodded the affirmative in return. “Good. If anyone deserved to move on from this, it was Kirk.”
The metal-masked man…was Kirk Rain? John’s brother? This world was so many different ways of twisted, yet I had to find Gabriel before it was too late. I would ask Raphael about his powers later, along with saying my apologies to John.
As if knowing my question, John pointed. “He took the horde that way.”
How Gabriel was able to take the horde by himself worried me. He was only one person after all. There was no way he could handle them all by himself. I took off running, stumbling a bit, even though unconsciousness was calling me.
I had to find him.
As I came upon the field of Nightwalkers, I stopped. Gabriel was nowhere in sight.
But the Devil was.
Chapter Twenty-Three – The Prince
I had them enthralled. The remaining lesser Vampires that hadn’t already met their true death. It was not difficult to enthrall them once they saw who I was. I already had their souls marked for my realm, yet throughout the past years I let them linger and multiply on this world. I lost the will to keep balance.
But the balance would be restored. I would see to it.
I stood in the center of the field, surrounded by countless Demons whose mouths dripped venom that would turn any human into one of their kind. A time long past came to me, and I remembered the zombie movies I forced Michael and Kass to watch with me. My grey lips smirked, but the smirk fell away the moment I heard her footsteps.
Kass came from behind me, slowly coming nearer, cautiously glancing to the frozen Vampires. Nightwalkers, we called them. A childish nickname that stuck. Nightwalkers, Daywalkers…I didn’t doubt that we’d give nicknames to every Demon if we would’ve been given the chance.
Or the time.
“Where is Gabriel?” Kass spoke, her voice soft, wavering.
I sluggishly turned to her, studying her. She was wounded, holding a hand to her neck. I knew what had happened. The older brother had freed himself from his metal shackles. Or, more correctly, his mask. Raphael had gotten to him before I could take his soul.
Alas, maybe that was a good thing. I didn’t truly want Kirk’s soul. I wanted John’s. I never liked him. But it was for merely selfish reasons. He angered me by finding a loophole in my compulsion. I didn’t want Kass to leave. I wanted her to stay.
“Where is Gabriel?” she questioned again, her small body swaying from blood loss and whatever other injuries she sustained.
“The Gabriel you know died the day he lost you,” I answered honestly, my voice the very opposite of hers: willful, proud, confident.
Kass rolled her eyes, and I knew her well enough that she thought I was simply being dramatic. “Don’t try that. I was just with him. I…” Her feet stumbled, and she practically fell.
I held up a hand, waving it in front of her. Out of everyone, she was the only one I didn’t wish to see hurt and bloodied. Her wounds mended, and she measuredly released the pressure she was applying to her neck, realizing that I healed her.
Giving her my back, I took a single step away, lifting my horned head to the sky. “We will go to the Witch, though I cannot promise that she will help us.”
Kass then did something no one ever dared do: interrupt the Devil. “How do you know about our plan?”
The second I met gazes with her, I suspected she already knew. But she refused to say it. It was up to me.
“I was there,” I whispered.
“You were…” Kass shook her head. “I think I would’ve known if you were there.”
“But I was. You refuse to see it. Let me lift the veil.”
At that moment, I decided to collect the Nightwalkers’ souls at once. The lesser Vampires simultaneously lifted their heads, mouths dropping to reveal their fangs. Dark red fire enveloped each of them as I called them to my realm, their worldly bodies burning up in my fires.
Now it was just her and I, as it always was and how it should have been.
As the fires burned around her, Kass shielded her eyes, and by the time she lowered her arm, I was no
longer eight feet tall. My flesh no longer grey and the horns on my head disappeared.
The expression on her face twisted as she saw me. “What?” Kass backed away, shaking her head vehemently. “How?” After a few more steps between us, she stopped, glaring at me, hard. It was her famous death glare, although it had never felt more real. “No.” She said it to convince herself. “No. I don’t believe this.” Her weakened voice had grown into raw strength, her fists clenching at her sides.
“It is the truth,” I told her.
Now she was furious. “The truth? You want to talk to me about the truth?” Kass lunged forward, hitting me on the arm. “Then tell me: was it ever Gabriel? Or was it always you?”
I sighed. “You misunderstand. I am Gabriel.”
Kass punched me hard, in the stomach. Of course, it did not hurt one bit, but I didn’t move to stop her, either. “No, you’re not Gabriel. Gabriel would never have lied to me.” She hit me again. “Tricked me.” Another blow to the gut. “Deceived me like it was nothing. Was it a game to you? Bringing me to the house, telling me all those things…falling to your knees.” She shut her eyes, muttering harshly, “Kissing me?” She lifted both fists in the air. “Come on. Fight me. I feel fine. I’m ready to go toe-to-toe with the Devil!”
She wanted to fight me, but I was tired of fighting. Every time she lunged, I sidestepped. After another moment, I misdirected her punch, grabbing her wrists. I spun her, holding her back to me, my grip inescapable.
“No,” Kass whispered, struggling pointlessly. “Let me go.” She tried backwards headbutting me, but only managed to hit my chest. Such was the height difference between us. “Let me go,” she said again as we sunk to the grass.
I couldn’t say if it were her knees or mine that gave out first. All I knew was that in the next moment, we were hunched on the ground. Kass’s escape attempts faded when she realized my grip on her wrists was not one she could get away from.
The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7 Page 59