Children of the Fallen (Always Dark Angel Book 3)

by JN Moon

  “I know, that is my fear also, but I don’t see what we can do right now. Look how many he has killed, and how easy it was for him.” I shook my head and sat on the floor next to the fire, desperate that some heat may give me comfort.

  “I will call on my nephilim friends, though they will be angry. We, some of us, have allowed this to happen. It’s my fault. Had I never drunk that vampire’s blood long ago, these children would’ve never been born. I am truly damned, as I live and breathe.”

  Sabian came into his own. “I have lost family by this devil. I am beyond anger and pain.” His face taut, words strained through clenched teeth. “But we have to pull ourselves together. We shall redeem our kin, but it’s imperative that we start thinking clearly. They may not all be dead, and if that’s the case I worry more about his next actions. We know he’ll use the time loop; he stated that. He is not infallible. He bleeds and he revealed his next plan to us. That is what we should concentrate on. And Marcus, you may be right, maybe your actions led to this moment, but we can’t condemn ourselves to Hell. None of us know how our actions will play out. If it wasn’t you, chances are it would’ve been another, and I for one would rather have you as a hybrid than another. So enough of the self-pity. You are a trained warrior. Think about it, how do you deal with an adversary that is stronger, quicker, and more powerful than you?”

  Just then Althea and Damien came in the room. I hadn’t even noticed they were gone.

  Sabian continued, “Whilst you were all busy, Althea, Damien and I met. Thanks to Althea’s quick thinking at his house of horror—she grabbed a shred of material that had Orion’s blood on it. That was after he tore open your face and arm, Marcus. Althea and Damien have performed a spell to hide us from his scrying on us, or in layman’s terms, spying. More than that, using his blood...I will let Althea explain.”

  Althea stepped forward. She continued shaking a little, but cleared her throat and steadied herself by sitting down. “Using Orion’s blood we can relinquish Orion’s power a little. I doubt in all honesty it will be much, but it will be something. I need a little time to think and train Damien. A coven works best with more involved.”

  “Then why don’t we all join and help?”

  Gasps around the room, my jaw dropped as I looked over. Heat rushed into my face and pain scorched through my heart as I saw Anthony answer her, he had slipped through the door without a sound. Tears rolled down my face and I stumbled up and ambled to my friend, hugging him.

  A small smile, his eyes hooded, his pain like ours was evident.

  Althea, assessing the situation quickly, continued, “I like that, Anthony. We will be a coven of eight, more powerful than two. But we must move quickly. I will discuss with Damien what is to be done. Be ready in an hour.”

  Anthony’s face was now as stone, no expression. Making no eye contact, he sank into a chair and stared off into the fire. His eyes were vacant and his head lowered, I couldn’t imagine what he felt. I daren’t think of her.

  As we sat around, Althea asked for silence.

  “I heard of a prophecy, I never believed it until now.” She spoke gravely. “I was told this by my grandmother. I always thought it was a warning as she was a witch also. The prophecy was of the Blood Lord.

  “In our time a creature will arise from the shadows, a creature from the past who reigns terror on the living. He will create many like him and will seek pleasure in killing and ravaging innocents. No power on Earth can stop him. The only one who can stop him is not from any time that we conceive, but from another realm. This creature doesn’t know who he is, but lives in the darkness of life. The Blood Lord will reign for one hundred years and if he is not destroyed, he will destroy all.”

  “It seems to me that The Blood Lord is indeed among us,” Claude whispered. His face was a bloody mess. Purple and black bruises covered his once smooth face and bloody tears stained his porcelain skin. His eyes though were starting to look vacant, like one who has lost all hope.

  The Siren’s Wail

  Anthony

  I couldn’t think of her, not now. If I did that, I would never kill Orion and that was all that mattered to me now. And Nathaniel. I would have to wait until I had the luxury, and it would be a luxury for a time when I confronted my emotions about their loss.

  Now, now was a time of death.

  Breathing deeply, I had to focus. I heard the quietened voices around me, but I shut them out. I didn’t want anyone near me, not even Marcus. Especially not him. He was the closest kin I had left except Jamie, and Jamie was off somewhere with Emidius.

  The magic thing was fine, let’s do it if it weakens the bastard. But his life would be mine for the taking, and I was driven only by the moment that I bled him, mercilessly and painfully by my own hand. And watch as his life disappeared.

  Althea and Damien reappeared and spoke some words. I wasn’t really listening. I was in my own world of indifference. I was glad no one tried to talk to me.

  I heard enough to know what to do, and we stood in a circle like a coven of archaic witches and recited a chant that she told us. As I chanted, fury burnt in my heart, my body stiffening as the power emanated in and through me. My voice grew louder, and she raised a chalice of blood and tipped some on her face. Damien stood back to back with her, incense bellowing and a whirl of wind swept around us, swift and fierce. Althea sipped the blood as our chanting grew and then in turn, within our circle came around to each of us to take a sip.

  That wind or energy continued like a mini tornado scooping around us until finally Damien took the last drop of blood. She bellowed something in Latin, and a great crash like thunder rippled through the room.

  She announced that the ritual was over and I was ready to meet him.

  “He’ll be expecting us. We need to confirm our plan,” Sabian said.

  “Simple,” I replied. “We go there, you distract him, I’ll kill him.”

  As Sabian was about to argue with me, suddenly everything went pitch black, then light again. “Fu...” Sabian was about to yell, and seeing Claude stopped.

  “It’s too late, Orion’s here...”

  I looked out the window before I knew it, and saw nothing, but my instinct told me he was out there searching for us and probably terrorising the mortals.

  Wings beating like thunder and darkness as they flew past the windows, blocking out all light and then the screech. I shivered. It was like the dystopian time we had crossed into. A scream so high pitched like metal dragging on metal, instinctively driving you to cover your ears. What the fuck could we do now?

  Tim, the shifter who had been so humble, now ferociously hurtling himself into the poor unsuspecting 19th century public, and with him Anne. She had been a nurse before becoming vampire, but now she had become a nightmare on Earth. Tim’s face, like his body, an amalgamation of human and jaguar with immense inky, leather-looking wings. He was fierce as I watched him swooping low at humans joined by Anne. Why? They seemed mindless beasts preying on the weak. In the seconds that I watched this, Marcus opened the window and flew out, his black feathered wings opening up as he did so. He swooped under them, and I spotted a glint in the sunshine and realised that he carried a sword.

  Sabian’s face turned white as he watched his charge, Tim, transformed into a demonic beast. He put his hands on the window ledge to steady himself and gasped. He had sworn to be Tim’s protector—to him it was akin to watching his son.

  “I do not want to see Tim get hurt. I want a solution,” he shouted and turned to Althea and Damien. “You do spells, do one now. Tim is only young and came to me for protection. Break his possession, or give me wings, or anything.”

  Damien nodded and Althea, her face painted with worry, talked quietly, looking out of the window.

  “Hurry!” Sabian shouted.

  I jumped out of the window onto the now mainly deserted street below, joined by Claude and Trish, but not Kyle. As they dived down, I grabbed Tim as he swooped at me and held him at arm’s le
ngth. I had no idea where I got this energy.

  “Tim, Tim!” I howled. “It’s me, look at me!” His face held no recognition of me, as if he was in a trance intent on killing. He pawed at my face, his massive claws and his muscular arms grabbing, trying to break my grip, but I took a chance. My skin shredded like tissue as his claws ripped and tore, my arms looking massacred. Holding eye contact, I managed to calm him and suddenly pulled him in and locked onto his neck, draining his blood as fast a vampire can. A last attempt at struggle and for a split second he seemed to register who I was before kicking me off of him and soaring up, screaming then diving at me. Sabian leapt over and grabbed him, but quickly let go as Tim and Anne both plunged towards us, leaving us both running as their talons brushed past us.

  Luke drooped down on Tim like a bomb, smashing Tim to the ground. I saw Althea and Damien looking out, their mouths moving. My face was pleading as I helped Luke, still in dragon form. He whipped his tail around Tim, squeezing his arms to his sides. Tim tried violently to bite on Luke’s tail, but thank God, he couldn’t reach it.

  Whatever Damien and Althea were doing wasn’t working.

  Just then a hoard of coaches arrived and men with shot guns and pistols started jostling out, readying their weapons. Time to go, not that they would kill us, but injure us certainly, and I didn’t want a witch hunt though it was probably too late to avoid that now.

  Your Beating Heart

  Anthony

  We scattered after the archaic artillery arrived and as soon as darkness fell, we met back at the lodgings. Fortunately, being such a bygone age, they had nothing to tie us with our place.

  Luke had carried Tim off. God only knew the repercussions of this spectacle on society. It was like the more we tried to stop Orion or his magic, the worse it became. Not just for us, but for humans.

  “I’m so sorry!” Damien whispered as we found our way in the drawing room, blood soaked.

  Sabian sighed heavily. “You’re not to blame. Anthony, you’ve healed already?”

  “I fed whilst hiding from their little army. I see they’ve put up a curfew and even have a small canon thing... That’ll backfire for sure.”

  “We’re working on a spell to make them forget,” Althea commented. “But I really need a book, something to work from. I know a lot of magic, but not for this situation.”

  Sabian raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring anything!”

  “I brought a couple of small books, but they’re not helping. I’ll go back. That would be best, that’s where I met Luke.”

  “I need to find him.” With that Sabian left swiftly.

  Marcus came stumbling through the door. “I went and got help. They’ll be here tomorrow. They’re really angry about the whole situation, but they’d be more pissed off if I didn’t help. You lot look okay, considering.”

  “I followed Anthony and fed along with Trish,” Claude commented. “Kyle, why didn’t you help?”

  I had noticed that, too, that he held back a lot.

  Kyle’s face looked like a startled animal. He shrugged his shoulders and took himself to the corner of the room, avoiding us. Fear must be holding him back, though a vampire, not unlike Nicolas who was, when I met him, timid to say the least.

  Despondency gripped my belly and cut through my heart. Not wanting to be there with tears welling, I left the room and flew up the stairs to sit beside Rachel’s body. Corpse—that word was too painful.

  Shutting the door, I stood there with my back against it and avoided looking at her. No smell of decay hung in the air, and I wondered if Emidius could restore her. Or Orion. I’d do anything. I noted how withdrawn Damien had been, but he hadn’t known her for long, not like me. We’d been together for years before the blood gift ripped us apart.

  Finally, I pushed myself away and forced myself to look at her, my vision blurred with tears. She looked peaceful. She was a hero. She had tried to save us and though she failed in her bravery, putting her life before ours was so noble that my emotions became wild. I lay beside her. I didn’t want to touch a corpse, but I imagined she was sleeping.

  No one disturbed me, thank God.

  I fell asleep at some point and had the most disturbing dream. She floated above me as she is but diaphanous, her hair moving as if in water. Smiling she spoke, her voice soft and caressing me. “Don’t be upset my love, I am still here, still with you.”

  I reached to touch her and my hand passed through her like a cloud. She laughed lightly.

  “You should not be so upset,” she whispered. Tilting her head as if she didn’t understand and her eyes scrunched. “They say the devil himself wept when he couldn’t return to Heaven. Asmodeus, you always were the untamed one, misunderstood and dangerous.”

  “I don’t understand, but of course I’m upset. I loved you. I will always love you! How can you question that?” I struggled as the tears and sobs splattered through my words.

  Her face, warm eyes, and soft smile looked down on me, and she reached out, whispering so I could barely hear her. “Anthony, I am forbidden to tell you, but let this be my parting gift. You are not a true vampire, you never were. You were not human, that was a lie, a trick to deceive you of yourself and your power. You really think that everything you’ve been through is a coincidence since you’ve been turned?”

  “I don’t understand. Why are saying this? Is that really you or is it Orion possessing your body? Desecrating it?” Anger welled in me.

  Sighing heavily, her face looked on mine with pity. “Dear Anthony, you were never human. You were given those memories, a deception. To keep everyone else safe. Why do you think a demi-god would bestow power to a vampire? Because you’re special? Is that how engrossed your ego is? Think about it. Tyrell and his war? No connection to the chaos that spilled innocent blood on the streets after you were changed? And Nathaniel finding you? And Marcus, do you really think he chose to drink the blood of a vampire? A nephilim warrior for centuries and then he seeks you out? He was sent to control you, since you cannot die. Because you were never human in the first place. But nobody anticipated you being turned into a vampire, no one knew it was possible. Before you.”

  “I don’t understand. Tyrell’s war started before I was made, and Marcus sought Emidius! Who are you? Say I even consider what you’re telling me as true, which I don’t by the way, then tell me this, who the hell am I?”

  “I have. You are one of the seven princes of Hell, Asmodeus. You caused chaos in the world of mortals and so the council decided to put you under a spell to let you believe that you were mortal. Humans have a natural tendency to limit themselves, to lack confidence.” She paused and brushed her hand over my face like a whisper. “You were doing brilliantly. We were all so pleased. I loved you—that was real. Not being mortal myself, I had rarely experienced human emotions, it was exhilarating. For some time even, I was entranced in the spell, and I loved it.”

  Withdrawing her hand, she floated higher, eyes deep with love and her lips curved slightly as if putting my face into her memory before going.

  “No! Don’t go! I don’t believe you. Tell me more!” I didn’t want to know more, but I didn’t want her to leave. I didn’t want to wake from this strange dream.

  “It’s no dream and I’ve told you too much already. Tell no one of this.” Smiling, she sighed. “I was not human, so I am always with you.” Then she slowly disappeared like a cloud rising and fading.

  A single tear fell down my cheek, and I found myself sitting up and awake. I looked over to her body, but as she said, it was gone. I was alone, whatever I was, with a secret that I couldn’t confide in anyone with.

  If she told the truth, and that was a big if, and I was one of the seven princes of Hell, two questions burned most in my mind. Who was she, and what was this counsel she told me of? Marcus no doubt had answers, probably Sabian, too.

  A surge of righteousness coursed through me with the idea that I could be a prince of the damned, tricked and led to
believe that I was so much less, a failed mortal in fact. Wiping the tear from my face, I went to the mirror and stared deeply into my eyes. If I were what she said, there would be more clues, then shrugging my shoulders thinking, maybe the fact that I had survived death when all those around had died was a clue enough. I wanted to know, and I grew determined to find out, somehow.

  But first, to see Orion.

  I stormed downstairs and flung open the door. The others looked over at me, shocked.

  “We need to go, now!” I informed them. “The time for spells and licking our wounds is over. I suggest fire as no creature can live through that, and swords. If I remove his head and his heart, I doubt he’ll live.” Walking over to Claude, I put my hand on his shoulder. His head rested in his hands, the pain and shock of losing his closest friends still raw and with no time to mourn. Warmly I asked, “Claude, you have a sword?”

  “I’ll find one,” he said, his voice low and shaking.

  “So we all attack him together, that is the plan? It didn’t work last time. I think we’re just walking into our death,” Kyle remarked. He was the only one left unscathed, remarkably and he was foolish if he thought I hadn’t noticed that.

  Looking out the window, I wondered where Sabian and Luke were. Turning to the others, I said, “I’m going to go out and try and find Sabian and Luke. Thank God Luke came back. I had thought him a coward.” I didn’t bother using the door now, and I just jumped down out of the window. After earlier, there was little point, but I took care not to let our sanctuary be found out. Standing still outside I listened...

  In the distance, I could hear something so I followed the sound up the tiny city to the park, where there seemed to be a hub of paranormal activity going on there.

  Rachel remained the only thing on my mind. She said she would always be with me. What was she? Part of me wanted to crumble, to crouch into a ball, and weep uncontrollably, but now I breathed deeply and tensed my muscles. I had to keep it together.