Blood Memoir: Blood Red Summer (LEA & Shade)

"Cedric? Hee hee...well, that's nice and all, but I'm pretty sure his name is going to be Orion from this point forward. How is it that you know this boy's name, anyway?" The doppelgänger prodded the unclothed body with the staff of his scythe, ensuring that it was sturdy enough. It seemed to please him even further, and he murmured illegible praises under his breath. The figure in human's clothing behind the phantom remained as still as a statue, his eyes hidden under his ink-colored sunhat. Lucilius continued to ignore the mysterious visitor and answered his new partner's question.

"Cedric was one of my first victims."

This evoked an awkward stare from the cloaked villain, and a silence was carried with it. That was, until Lucilius realized what Orion had assessed. His cheeks grew red with embarrassment, a very rare sight, indeed.

"You fool! I killed him! Nothing more!" The incubus shouted, ready to rip his head off.

"Hehehehee, I knew what you meant. I just wanted to get under your skin!" Orion's eyes exuded a frosty colored mist as he said this, and he adjusted his cloak before interrogating once more.

"So, how is this body going to make any difference?"

"Well, you see...when I failed my first attempt at getting my complete revenge on Mariana, I took the life of the brat she loved so much. It was a pleasure to tear the life right out of the little dupe."

"I see..." Orion replied, beaming. "You're going to use her own emotions for the dead little lad against her, through me...That's pretty low...you know what? I LIKE IT! I LIIIIKE IT!"

"I figured you would."

That's it. He couldn't take it any longer. He had to know who the stranger was.

"Orion, before you take that body as your own, shouldn't you introduce me to your other friend here?"

"Oh! Why, I'm so sorry, it must have slipped my mind! Lucilius, this is Zeke, my new playmate! Isn't that nice? He says he needs me, too! Ah, why must I be cursed by such popularity?!" Orion shook his head vigorously, then threw it back and cackled for the umpteenth time. Lucilius took another momentary look at the middle-aged sentinel, who really should have been roasting with the other mortals in the surrounding flames. But that was it, wasn't it? He couldn't possibly be human. Either way, he wasn't going to get in the way of the fallen's plan. It was coming together so nicely.

"Hey, you there."

Zeke did not answer.

"I know you can hear me. There's no way you or anyone else is taking Orion before I'm done with him, do you understand?" The sounds of faint screams echoed in the vast distance, coupled with the roaring of flames that were fueled not by fresh wood, but by the sins of the damned. The one Orion referred to as Zeke said nothing, but his mouth curved into a bleak smile that exceeded any amount of evil Lucilius had ever seen in physical manifestation other than the one who held dominion over this dark place. Zeke's teeth were as black as the stone beneath their very feet, and they hung like razor-sharp stalagtites from his upper gum, which looked as diseased and purple as a leper's. His cheeks were engraved deeply by his haunting smirk, and lighted not from the Hell around him but the Hell within slid from the tiny gaps in his fangs like the grid of a furnace. When he opened his mouth to speak, a gust of hot air came forth, strong enough for even Lucilius to wonder what this creature actually was.

"Kind sir, I do not think you want to interfere with our doings. We need Orion for our own reasons, and they exceed some petty desire for REVENGE..."

"Yes, yes," Orion said, ending the conversation for now. He was ready for his new body. Slowly, he put his hand to his hood, and quietly slid it down. It was then that Lucilius was positive that Orion wasn't lying, for his face was very similar to the vampire he had caught practically FROLICKING with Mariana, which sent another wave of spanking new anger coursing through him. There were, however, a few differences that kept the incubus from going completely mad. Orion's flesh was bluish, and his cheeks were both missing large chunks of flesh that revealed the sides of his large fangs, but what most clearly set the two apart were their eyes. Even through the solid blue scythe, Lucilius could sense the vampire had crimson eyes, practically burning with vitality. These eyes were as cold and as distant as they came, bereft of all good will or intent. Orion's spectral nose was also partially gone, revealing the twin cavities secreted within. His hair was also thinner than Max's.

"Hehehehe..." Setting the child's palms upwards, the phantasm slid his weapon's long shaft into Cedric's dead fingers, and then he jumped to his feet, grinning maniacally. Lucilius waited impatiently, but it wasn't long before Orion started to disintegrate. He became thousands of tiny blue lights, despicable in their innocent appearance. They swirled gently into Cedric's body like ethereal, azure petals, landing soundlessly onto his chest. When the last had struck, the real show began. The lights exploded into a small pillar of cerulean flame that dug into Cedric like a burning parasite, and his hands flailed spasmodically as his lifeless eyes lit up white. There was a nauseating crack as his left arm bulged and lengthened, the fingers mutating and transforming into some new devilry. The scythe was limply now only in his right hand, the left hand losing it's grip when it first began to grow. When his irises shifted into that hideous shade of blue, there was little hesitation as the boy clutched the huge scythe effortlessly. As he arose, his small lips were curled into a sneer that looked very out of place on a boy so young.

“Eeehehehehe…I’m a big kid now.”

The transformation of his imitation Cedric surprised Lucilius for a few brief seconds, but a malefic grin soon spread across his face. Things were turning out better than he could have hoped. The incubus could practically feel Mariana in his arms, the imagined taste of her flesh filling his mind with anticipation. It had been so long since he had enjoyed someone as wonderfully delicious as she had been. In fact, none of his succeeding victims could compare to the pleasure Mariana had given him, albeit unwillingly, that night, which wasn’t surprising considering the vast majority of his victims were usually hapless street-corner wenches. Lucilius shook his head in disgust. Survival was necessary, but sometimes he wished he could be more selective in his tastes.

The antics of Orion testing out his new body brought Lucilius back to the matter at hand. The doppelganger seemed pleased enough with the young boy’s body Lucilius had constructed. With Orion amusedly distracted for the moment, the incubus focused his emerald eyes back on the strange enigma that was Zeke. Lucilius had absolutely no idea what the oddly-dressed entity was, and he was more than a little perturbed that someone else had come along to claim Orion. Zeke had ceased watching the doppelganger cavort around the immediate area and now had his unnerving eyes settled on Lucilius. The two stared at each other, Orion’s incessant cackling the only sound heard between them. When the silence grated enough on Lucilius’s nerves, he decided to make another attempt at engaging Zeke in conversation.

“Listen, I don’t know what or who you think you are, but I found Orion first, so he’s coming with me before he goes anywhere with the likes of you.”

Zeke’s eyes literally burned beneath the shadowing brim of his sunhat. “You seek to oppose my will? Orion will have no place in whatever paltry schemes you concoct.”

Growling, Lucilius clenched his fists at his sides. “I’m taking him with me, and that’s final!”

Extending his nails into hardened claws, Lucilius summoned green Hellfire to his hand and sent it blazing toward Zeke, who merely stood waiting. The emerald fire slammed directly into his chest, dispersing in a blinding flash, only to be absorbed straight into his body and leaving Zeke perfectly unharmed. Lucilius’s eyes widened in shock, and his voice was suddenly low and very, very dangerous.

“What are you?”

“That knowledge is not important for you, incubus.”

With a snarl of rage, Lucilius sprang forward, his claws ready to tear into that smug face and shred that absurd sunhat apart. By now, the argument had caught Orion’s attention, and the doppelganger had paused to watch, cold blue eyes shifting back and forth between the two creatures warring for the right to claim him. Again, that feeling of popularity washed over him, and he grinned and cackled while leaning easily against his scythe to witness the outcome of this scuffle.

Lucilius was infuriated. Blinded by his frustration at being unable to land any sort of blow on this Zeke and permeated with his desire to use Orion to get Mariana, the incubus fought without his usual deadly finesse. Zeke’s superior body mass was the main source of this frustration; Lucilius’s lean and wiry frame was ideal for moving quickly, but whenever Zeke slammed a fist into him, the incubus went sailing, only to right himself and charge relentlessly back into the fray again. After one such occurrence, Lucilius dashed in at Zeke’s right, claws eager to rip into flesh, but to his astonishment, he suddenly felt a hand grip him by the throat and squeeze. Struggling for air, Lucilius fought against the spots that began dancing before his eyes as oxygen failed to make it all the way to his brain, and he clawed futilely at his captor’s arm. For the first time, the demon felt terror welling up within him. Never before had he been in the victim’s place; the realization that his existence was a thread away from being extinguished consumed him with the sudden wish that he could touch Mariana one more time. Suddenly, however, he found himself dumped onto his knees, his airway now unrestricted, and he voraciously gulped air into his aching lungs. Knowing that he was obviously no match for whatever this creature was, Lucilius decided to try a different tactic.

“Look, you don’t think there’s any way we could come to some…mutual arrangement?”

"Compromise...Is that what you desire , purveyor of filth?”

It took all of Lucilius’s self-control to take that insult without so much as a flinch.

“Yes. You look like a tough customer, but I think we can negotiate something. What exactly do you need him for?”

“WE require him to abstain from reuniting with the original being of which you seek to destroy…Our cause will be vanquished if the two pneuma become present in the same sarx…That is the reality of the situation…Your settling of scores would risk that event’s occurrence.” He interrupted each sentence with a hissing pause, as if giving the words time to sink into Lucilius’s mind. This wasn’t good. Whoever this Zeke fellow kept referring to, along with himself, obviously didn’t usually make these kinds of co-op efforts, and their cause directly violated his own. He would have to be careful of how he bargained. A sudden thought came to mind, and the incubus practically ruined the entire scheme as he voiced it aloud.

“Wait, to keep Orion from reuniting from Maximilian, whom I believe you are referring of, why don’t you just kill the vampire instead? Or both of them, for that matter?”

“Heeey, now…” The small doppelgänger chimed in lazily, his reaper’s blade now adjacent to the throat of the incubus. “So quick to choose my death? Heheh…if only it were that simple.” The impish clone of the late Cedric proclaimed confidently, a malicious gleam skating across the glowing blue of his eyes.

Zeke replied to Lucilius as though nothing had happened.

“An obvious idea, but this one is already eternal, as pneuma is, and if I murdered the vampire, there is a definite chance he could end up here, and rejoin with his counterpart, seeing as soul fragments are drawn to each other…” Lucilius glanced at Orion as the strange creature entered another pause. Fascinatingly, it seemed the spirit within the child was actually paying attention. This was seconds before the ghost jumped on the dual, horizontally-jutting handles of his scythe, and bounced up and down as if it were a pogo-stick. The incubus rolled his eyes and returned his focus on the being with the flame-filled mouth and flesh of man.

"So, as you can see, there isn’t much to say."

Then, Orion used his mind-robbed info to save their argument, and Lucilius was extremely grateful. Not that he totally wouldn’t murder the wretch if he wasn’t about to help him, though.

“From the knowledge I have stolen from Maximilian, there is absolutely no chance that his soul will come to Hell. He has the blessings of one called Arimas, and his soul is destined for anything but perdition!”

In response to this, Zeke’s eyes seemed to grow, and they slowly melted away, revealing two more gazing holes into the fire inside.

“So…it is HIM, after all….I thought it may have been Mephiabep, but no…this one was Arimas’s…You, Incubus…I will agree to this, your quest of retribution will be allowed…but you must accept the fact that I shall come with you. Agreed?”

Lucilius forced his feelings of eager glee to stay hidden inside, while maintaining a cool, calculating look. His plan would go forward, after all. And the only catch was that this Zeke fellow had to tag along? The incubus chuckled inwardly. Of course, Zeke could come with him. It was a rare creature indeed that could overpower Lucilius with hardly any effort at all. The presence of this other being could only aid in the successful execution of the plan. He cared nothing about what Zeke might or might not have in store for the vampire; as long as that lowlife was taken out of the picture, Lucilius could care less. Still preserving his calm outward appearance, Lucilius was silent for a few minutes, feigning consideration.

“Well…I suppose I have no issues with you coming along.”

Zeke displayed his very unnatural teeth once again in a cruel grin. “As if you really have any choice in the matter.”

“Hmph. Whatever you say. Now, I don’t suppose you know where Maximilian and Mariana currently are?”

Orion hopped over to Lucilius, one hand still on his scythe as he bounced up and down and the other hand waving frantically in the air like a schoolchild eager to answer a question posed by a teacher. “Oo! Oo! I know! I know! Pick me! PICK ME!!”

Even Zeke seemed to acquire as close to an annoyed look as he could get with his hellish countenance while Orion danced around Lucilius in this manner for about two minutes. Lucilius was entirely fed up with this behavior and released a snarl as he swiped his claws out at the childish phantom. Orion bounced backward, narrowly avoiding the razor tips and shook a finger at the incubus.

“Uh, uh, uh! You don’t want to damage this body that you worked so hard putting together before it even gets put to use, do you?”

Lucilius retracted his claws and mumbled something unintelligible before asking his question again. “So…where are Maximilian and Mariana?”

This triggered Orion bouncing up and down on his scythe again, waving his free hand in the air. “ME! ME! ME!!!”

Patience snapped in Lucilius, and he roared. “OKAY!! WHAT?!?!”

Orion stopped bouncing and chuckled. “Hehehe. Touchy, touchy, aren’t we? Well, anyways, to the point. When I stole information from Maximilian’s mind, I also managed to get the name of that cozy place the two little lovebirds are staying at.” Lucilius growled at this, and Orion cackled before continuing. “Well, the name of it is Ryiel. That’s all I know, though. You’ll have to come up with a way to get there, of course.”

Lucilius pondered for a moment. “Ryiel…Ryiel…” He’d never heard of such a place before and therefore had no idea of how to go about reaching it.

Zeke spoke up then. “I can get us there.”

Lucilius, still lost in terms of what Zeke essentially was, wasn't exactly surprised that the monster knew it's way around Hell. That aside, he waited feverishly for Zeke to reveal the path to Ryiel. The sooner the better, for it would be all the nearer to the moment where he could wrap his arms around that ungrateful angel, and show her what a REAL good time was like again. In case she forgot. His extended claws clattered minutely as he clicked them together, converting his thoughts of lust into a savage, simple little tune.

"I am pleased that you were able to recover the name, apparition, for without it, this would not have been possible. My plane shift power merely requires the name of the place I visit."

"Aw, SHUCKS! It warn't nothin'," the wicked spirit cried back, obviously not having any change in character since his possession of the boy.

"Yes...It is time to go. There are many places more interesting than this.

Raising his rough-looking hands upwards, Zeke closed his cavernous eye-pits, letting a mental map of the cosmos fill his thoughts. Ghosts of words spoken rippled through the atlas concealed within his mind, and an unseen part of his soul reached out like a finger, flipping through the planets and realms like someone who has lost their place in a book.

“Ryiel…” He murmured, and slowly, the atlas began to flip itself, hunting for a place where such a word was spoken. It came to rest on a distant place, shrouded almost completely in fog. Zeke couldn’t even be sure that it was on a planet. A strange force was keeping his powers from investigating it further, but he didn’t care. He found what he was looking for. A corresponding portal from Hell was quick to arrange. He grinned horribly. This was going to be quite a ball. Changing the aim of his hands, Zeke lunged upwards, into the darkness above.

“Where is he GOING?!” Orion inquired loudly, not talking to anyone in particular. Lucilius also looked a little concerned, but he assured himself that the weird being was not abandoning him to stay here with this…other weird being. He was right to think so, for not a moment later, Zeke was pulled back by gravity. When the figure landed, however, that law of physics seemed completely out of proportion. It was a seismic force that rivaled an earthquake as he landed, forming a gigantic crater and rattling the teeth of both the incubi and his doppelgänger buddy. Hellflames arose like waves in the wake of the tremor, and Zeke looked oddly like an unholy Moses parting the Red Sea. From the edges of the crater came a black aura, and Zeke slowly arose within it, his body frozen in a pose that a mad prophet might take when greeting passerby.

When he was no longer visible, the black light remained, and the two remaining stared at each other a long time.

“Shall we?”

**

Orion gurgled as he rose from the salty, nasty water, ascending weightlessly, the water sliding from his cloak like nothing, leaving it as dry as it was in Hell. Carefully, he focused on the water, landing and balancing himself upon it just right. Whipping Dredgius out without a second thought, he glanced down into the depths below. Zeke had already deployed Lucilius via a spectacular throw so powerful the incubus tore from the sea like a missle, trajectory due north. Orion gathered Zeke knew what he was doing, so the phantom drew his blade back over his shoulder, took a few steps backward, and ran like Hell. It felt good to his youthful bare feet, skirting across the waves like cold, wet flooring. It took over an hour before he caught glance of the island where the girl rested, nestled in front of a large, grey mountain.

**

The laughter of Zeke burbled through the water as he stood at the ocean’s floor, his body somehow generating a steaming fire that preternaturally burned even under the gentle current of the aqua. He had locked onto the mind of the girl already, and his psychokinetic influence spread out of his body like a disease.

And through all of this, Arimas was nowhere in sight.

Beneath one of the trees rooted on the island, Mariana sat gazing at nothing in particular, wandering aimlessly within her thoughts. Glancing briefly to the peak of the single mountain situated nearby, her mouth curved slightly into a worried frown. Max had left her here to ascend the mountain to do some thinking. Meditating, he had said. On what, he had been reluctant to tell her, and she had not pressed the matter. Now, however, some feeling of foreboding was creeping over her, and she could not seem to dispel it. Strangely, she found her mind relentlessly returning to thoughts of Lucilius, though why the incubus occupied her conscious so was beyond her. She shook her head as a wave of sudden drowsiness swept over her. A yawn escaped her lips, and she looked longingly up at the apex of the mountain. Careful to keep her thoughts quiet, Mariana decided it would be best not to disrupt Max’s concentration.

He needs to be alone now. And besides, he can’t possibly be with me all the time.

Yawning again, Mariana curled up against the tree trunk and drifted off into a semi-relaxed sleep. Much to her confusion, the last thing she remembered thinking about before surrendering to unconsciousness was Lucilius.

* * * * * *

Sailing through the air, Lucilius spotted Orion running on top of the water beneath him. The incubus rolled his eyes before sighting an island in the distance. A lone figure appeared snuggled against a tree trunk, and perverse excitement filled him when he made out the wings draped lazily behind the humanoid shape. It was Mariana, and she was very much alone.

Landing gently on a steady branch, Lucilius’s eyes gleamed as he gazed down upon that which he had sought after for so long. Every fiber of his being longed to touch her. The steady rise and fall of her chest held him captivated, and he was just about to slink out of the tree and take her in his arms when a small groan emanated from her stirring body.

* * * * * *

Sleep left Mariana rather abruptly, and she slowly opened her eyes…

What?!

Instead of awakening in the now-familiar realm of Ryiel, Mariana found herself curled up against a pew in the middle aisle of Lochlynn’s church. The quiet of night blanketed the church, and the village outside was fast asleep.

What in the world am I doing here?

She looked down and saw with a shock that her body was no longer as it had been when she had fallen asleep. She was wearing her blue dress and silver robes again, and the Argentsigna pulsed gently inside her, rather than from around her neck. Her skin was no longer pale; her hair had returned to its lighter navy blue shade. Running her tongue over her teeth, she clearly felt the absence of fangs. In a sudden panic, she stretched her wings over her shoulders, and her eyes nearly fell out of her head when she was faced with perfectly white feathers.

What’s going on?! Why aren’t my wings…?

She trailed off in her thoughts, suddenly unable to recall what her wings should be and why they should be that way. There was something else that tugged at her memory. Something that happened this very night. There should have been…something on the altar. Something horrible and heart-breaking. She had just gotten… No, that wasn’t right. What did just happen to her? Had anything just happened to her? She couldn’t stop thinking that something awful had just happened to her, but…there was no visible evidence that anything had. It was as if memories she thought she had were rapidly being erased. And then her thoughts completely changed gears.

Where is…? Where…?

There was someone very important that lingered at the edge of her consciousness, but she could not seem to recall who it was. She had never met anyone before that generated these feelings of… Shaking her head, Mariana tried to sort out the confused and jumbled thoughts that swarmed inside her head, but she couldn’t help but keep thinking there was someone she should know. There was something…that had happened…a confession of…what? Unconsciously, the angel slid a hand to her neck, not fully understanding why she did.

Ruby eyes…

A voice broke through to her, causing her to raise her eyes to its source. “Miss Mariana!”

Little Cedric peeked out from behind the altar, a playful grin on his face. That strange feeling swept through her again. Something about this wasn’t right, but she was unable to pin down what was wrong. Perhaps…everything she thought she knew…had merely been some sort of weird dream. She tried to shake off any inhibitions that still lingered and smiled at Cedric.

“Well, come over here and give me a hug, Cedric.”

* * * * * *

From his perch in the tree, Lucilius watched Mariana, about as equally confused as she was. What was going on? This wasn’t part of his plan! His eyes latched onto Orion, who had reached the island by now and was gleefully stroking his scythe. At Mariana’s own invitation, the apparition hurtled toward her, the bluish blade of his weapon glinting hungrily. With a cry of outrage, Lucilius launched himself to intercept Orion.

“No, you fool! I don’t want her dead!”

Orion was in mid-swing, scythe angling for Mariana’s slender neck, when the shaft of the weapon suddenly came up against the iron-like grip of Lucilius. Snarling, Lucilius pushed the weapon backward, but to his astonishment, Orion displayed an incredible surge of strength the incubus wouldn’t have expected from the phantom. The scythe blade dug into Lucilius’s shoulder, drawing blood, before Orion was forced into the ground by the infuriated incubus.

“I didn’t say I wanted to KILL her!!”

With a low growl, Lucilius arose to his full height and turned around to face Mariana.

* * * * * *

Just before Cedric had reached her, the illusion was violently shattered by a sickeningly familiar voice. In an instant, Mariana was back in Ryiel and once again in possession of her new body. All the memories she had thought she’d lost were restored. The Argentsigna was still intact, and Max was still firmly etched in her mind. She shook her head and looked to see what was happening. While there were two figures present, only one caught her attention and held it unwaveringly. Her heartbeat began to race, her body tensing, as he straightened to his full height and turned to face her. Those emerald eyes were unchanged, even after all these centuries. He spoke to her in that voice she remembered so well, that voice that had haunted her for so long.

“It’s been a while, Mariana.”

Mariana felt her voice catch in her throat as she whispered the name of the one she had hoped never to see again.

“Lucilius…”

The crack of Orion’s tiny neck popping resonated behind Lucilius, not hearing as he stared intently at his prize, the one thing that he lusted for, day and night for what once seemed an infinity in length. He had to take her, and now. That was before the claws of the cloaked, lying figure clutched his right ankle with it’s disfigured arm, digging it’s claws into the flesh of his leg.

“I must…slaughter all that is precious to him…His stench is on her…”
These fevered words were followed by the banshee-like screech of Orion’s second voice, and his quick rise to his feet. Keeping his madness-stricken face hidden inside of his cloak, the phantom walked beside Lucilius, his scythe propped at his side, towering over him. He shivered visibly as he tried to restrain his mad urges, and his eyes skittered back and forth between the vampire angel and Lucilius.

“Come to me, you pitiful hag. I shall enslave your flesh, and break your spirit.” He said this calmly, and his invisible pheromones wafted from him, calling to her in their silent, siren-like hypnosis. Mariana felt herself pulled violently from her feet by wretched, invisible will, praying to her God to let this nightmare end.

**

Max sat somberly on the bluish grass of the mountainside plateau, facing away from the island and off into the endless sea of fog. He had been lost in reflection for hours, his thoughts thick with two ominous figures: the ruthless Nediryo and the insane Orion. Both wrought disorder, death, and pain where ever they went, only the Rep’tal King’s method was oh-so-much stealthier. Hiring other people to take the blood upon their hands, while misleading and manipulating the ones who would never go along with such sinister plots willingly.

But, he was done thinking of such things for now. Mariana might be worried that he’s taking so long. Maximilian loved her to death, but at times, she seemed rather insecure, which was a common trait of someone who has experienced trauma. Getting slowly to his feet, and dusting off the knees of his leather pants, the founder of the Heruka family name ran a finger through his long hair.

It was then that a discordant wave of negative emotion crept through his body like a shock, raising the hairs on the back of his neck and causing his pupils to grow in size. Something was wrong. He tapped into his telepathic link with her, listening hard for any sort of message.

He received only two words as the fruits of his perserverence:

He’s here.

An image of emerald light flashed before the vampire’s eyes. That was the only encouragement he needed as he twisted immediately around, flinging himself into the air, and rocketed over to the other side of the mountain, where the first thing to enter his view was the little island where he and Mariana had lain together just a night ago. Two menacing figures were added to the equation, and Max himself was removed, but he wouldn’t be for long. Just as he reached the island, a disquieting calm fell over everything, and Max wasn’t sure, but on the other side of the tree, it sounded like Mariana was crying.

Struggling to retain control of her mind, Mariana was fully aware of Lucilius’s potent influence infiltrating what seemed like every pore of her body. And those eyes bored into her hers relentlessly, refusing to allow her to look away. Everything had happened so fast. It seemed like mere minutes ago she had been content against the tree, and now she was suddenly faced with her worst fear. She hadn’t even had time to resist, and as a result, she was now firmly in his invisible grasp. To her complete dismay and horror, the incubus willed her toward him, his eyes glittering eagerly, and Mariana felt as though she were being physically touched as he appraised her new body with a low chuckle.

“You’ve certainly changed quite a bit since last time, haven’t you? Mmmm…but you look even more delicious than you did before, if that’s even possible.”

Her body had stopped now, right in front of Lucilius, and he put both of his hands to the sides of her face, releasing a satisfied sigh while lightly stroking her cheeks.

“You are real. I doubted for a little bit. Did you miss me?” This was accompanied by a mocking grin.

Mariana’s violet stare hardened, filled with vehemence, and she found herself able to speak, her body quivering with hatred. “Leave me alone, Lucilius. My heart never did and never will belong to you.”

The only visible sign Lucilius gave to show Mariana’s words had affected him was a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “We’ll see about that, won’t we? I can just as easily taint this new body of yours.”

To both her and Lucilius’s surprise, a fierceness came over the vampire angel, resulting in bared fangs. “No. You won’t be doing anything of the sort with me.”

Lucilius laughed at this, clearly amused by her attempt at intimidating him. “Look at yourself, Mariana! Look at what you’ve become! You’ve escaped my taint, true, but what have you lost in the process? Despite what you may think, you’re no angel anymore. In fact…” He slid an arm around her supple waist and drew her to him. “…you’ve fallen quite a ways, haven’t you?” He traced a finger down her jaw to her throat and then stopped before her chest, right on top of the Argentsigna. Playing the crystal in his fingers gently, Lucilius continued. “And yet you still have this…”

Mariana’s eyes widened. “Don’t… Stop touching it.”

Laughing again, Lucilius obliged her and instead moved his hand to her chest. “You’d rather have my hand here, then? Oh, I know you do.” He squeezed gently and tightened his hold on her waist. “What a pair the two of us make, Mariana. Why, you’re about on the same level as I am now. I, among the ranks of the demonic, and you, among the ranks of the undead.”

Her pulse and breathing quickened as Mariana fought the tide of seductive pheromones emanating from Lucilius. His last words had stung her badly. “No…no…you’re wrong. I’m…” Her confusion was amplified tenfold by his physical presence and his glowing eyes, and it took great effort for her to piece words together into a coherent thought. “I’ll never be what you are, a…a monster. A cold-hearted, ruthless monster.”

Before Lucilius could form some sort of reply to this, a cackle from the cloaked Orion drew both the incubus’s and the vampire angel’s attentions. “Hehehehe. You have no idea what that lover of yours used to be like, do you? He hasn’t told you much about his past, has he?” More chuckling ensued.

Mariana eyed the strange creature, grateful as least that Lucilius was distracted from her for the moment. “No…he hasn’t… But that doesn’t matter to me. What matters is what he’s like now.” She ran her eyes up and down him again. “Who are you? How would you know anything about Max’s past?”

The cloaked entity cackled again, his fingers tightly gripping the shaft of his scythe as if he were restraining himself. “Oh, I know all about him. Everything. But who I am isn’t that important to you at the moment. You might take an interest in my current host, though.”

With that, he lowered his hood, revealing to Mariana a face straight out of her nightmares, and she suddenly found that she could hardly breathe. Cedric looked back at her, albeit a very twisted form of Cedric. His mouth was curved into an insane grin, and his eyes shone like cold blue ice. Gasping for air, Mariana felt her sanity being pushed over the edge. That face was imprinted on her brain now, no matter if she looked away or not. By now, Lucilius had turned his attention back to her, triumph radiating from him. Mariana’s head limply fell forward onto his chest as she fought to stave off unconsciousness. Grinning, Lucilius pulled her against him and bent his head down suckle the yielding flesh of her neck. The vampire angel’s body shook with sobs, rivers of tears streaming down her face.

Max…

Mariana…

Max’s fist crunched into the bark of his tree. His ruby eyes were livid flames behind the veils of his sunglasses. In the mind behind those eyes, a strategy was being crafted meticulously, heightened by the pure, unmitigated anger that was seething within him.

**

A small crack, like that of a branch snapping, reached Orion’s prepubescent ears and reverberated. He smiled almost instantly, knowing the sound had no chance of coming from the three who stood by the shore here: Lucilius was enjoying his little love slave, and he himself was standing entirely still. Shifting his gaze to the large tree where the girl had originally leaned, Orion knew exactly where to strike. With a buzz of energy, Orion’s blade detached from his scythe, and a ropelike stream of energy branched from the staff to it’s sickle, which was blazing at an inconceivable velocity. There was a sound like the shatter of bone as the sickle split the tree horizontally, before recoiling back to the cloaked boy. Orion carefully inspected his weapon, and scowled when no stain of blood was present.

There was a brief thunder of shaking leaves as the tree’s upper half fell to rest upon the blue grass. One of the leaves broke free, and floated gently and naturally to Lucilius. Too busy with touching Mariana, Lucilius paid no heed until it skittered across his hand. Setting his lustful thoughts aside, he noticed he was bleeding. A long, thin cut had formed on the back of his fist, and he calmly placed his vision on the fallen tree. Every leaf was now a faded brown, and they were rustling.

Shht Shht, shht shht… FWWWIP!

The foliage tore from the tips of the branches like a flock of startled birds, headed directly at the three figures. Lucilius reached inside the sleeve of his robe, while Orion’s mouth began to steam with blue light. Obviously, he already had a plan for this situation.

“Orion, you’ve encountered this move before, correct?”

“Oh, yes yes YES! I’ve definitely seen THIS before!” Jumping at the congregation of foliage, he swung his scythe in a blur of precision and expert timing. He laughed in satisfaction, but it was cut short as the diced leaves continued their flight, blowing past him and stabbing into the earth before Lucilius, opposite Mariana. Piling up on top of each other like a tower of cards, they eventually came to a rigid stop in the shape of a flat rectangle. Lucilius did not breathe as he stared at it, and sent his hand into his robes to reveal something that glittered jade. Just as he did, the leaf-door rifted open, and Max stepped out of what looked like nowhere, brandishing a double-bladed sword.

Mariana’s relief at the sight of Max was short-lived, for no sooner had he emerged from that curious door of leaves, than he had slashed his blade straight for Lucilius’s chest. The incubus raised an eyebrow and grinned, catching Sanguithan in his now-elongated claws. For a moment, everything except the two of them seemed to freeze as they both struggled to gain the upper hand. Lucilius somehow managed to summon enough breath to speak, his eyes burning with a fury so intense it almost could have melted steel.

“So. We finally meet face to face, vampire. You think you can touch what doesn’t belong to you?”

Max’s expression was set in a calm, grim determination, and he continued forcing his blade against the incubus’s claws. “What doesn’t belong to me? She certainly doesn’t belong to you, so I don’t think you have a right to say who can or can’t touch her.”

With a snarl, Lucilius poured every ounce of his strength, suddenly aided by the added power of the shining jade object only half visible in his hand, into a powerful shove that drove Max backward several feet straight towards none other than Orion. Lucilius chuckled.

“Why don’t you play with him for awhile? If Orion’s feeling nice today, he might even allow you to watch me take Mariana.”

Pushing all other thoughts from his mind, Lucilius turned his attention back to Mariana. This time, however, she was ready for the inevitable cloud of pheromones that she instinctively knew surrounded her. Instead, she was able to focus on the emerald crystal clutched gently in Lucilius’s hand. The Argentsigna’s steady, rhythmic pulsing confirmed her suspicions about the crystal when it responded with green pulses of its own. She knew what that was…

“What…what are you doing with that?”

Lucilius fully revealed the pulsating emerald. “This?” He grinned. “I think you know very well what this is, don’t you?”

“The Viridasigna…” Mariana’s breath suddenly caught in her throat. Not only had Lucilius shamed her, but he had also seen fit to snatch existence away from the only real friend she had had among the Seal Guardians. “You…you killed Reyas! And took it from him, didn’t you?”

Lucilius laughed out loud at this. “Killed him? Well, you might say he’s dead.”

Mariana’s eyes widened in horror as she processed what he was implying. What could Reyas have done invoke the displeasure of Jehovah? “No… You’re…you’re not…”

Taking a few swift steps toward her, Lucilius painfully grasped her upper arms, his grin quickly fading. “Yes. I am Reyas.”

Quivering, the vampire angel shook her head slowly. Disbelief was clearly etched into her face. “This is another of your lies. You can’t be…Reyas. It’s not possible.”

Lucilius dug his claws into Mariana’s arms. “And how is it not possible? No. Don’t even bother attempting to answer that. I’ll tell you how it’s possible, Mariana. Do you remember that I expressed my feelings for you? Do you remember how you trampled on those feelings? Cast them aside in favor of your duty? Of this?!” He gripped the Argentsigna, practically thrusting it into Mariana’s face. She winced, both at the pain still shooting through her arms and at Lucilius’s touch on the seal. The incubus released his hold on the crystal and held up the Viridasigna. “Do you see this? This was my duty. And I know you know what it does. When you rejected me and went to Earth, I went completely mad. I was so enraged that I corrupted my charge to the point where it no longer functioned as a seal. And thus, I was thrown from Paradise and became what you see before you. It was you, Mariana! You! I fell because of you!”

Her shaking intensified, and Mariana moved her head back and forth vigorously. “No! No, it’s…it’s not my fault!” Pushing back the tears, she took several backward steps. This could not be happening to her. “You’re…you’re lying to me. You must be! Reyas wouldn’t…he wouldn’t…” She wrapped her arms around herself, no longer able to restrain the flow of tears, and looked, frightened, at Lucilius. The realization had forcefully struck her, and she sank to her knees, her voice barely above a murmur. “It is my fault, isn’t it? If I hadn’t been so cold…” Even while she replayed her last encounter with Reyas before her departure for Earth in her head, another thought crept over her. “You followed me…to Earth. And you seduced me…only because you…”

Before she could say another word, Lucilius vanished and reformed behind her, grabbing her around her waist with one arm and her chest with the other, and pulled her to her feet. He moved his head down next to hers, whispering into her ear. “I have to have you, Mariana. It would be better for you if you were willing. Don’t make me use compulsion again, but if you won’t cooperate, you leave me no choice.”

Mariana wavered, caught in an inner struggle and suddenly doubting herself. “But…why? Why did you…” She winced when Lucilius licked at her ear. “…Why did you feel like you had to…rape me?”

“I told you. I went mad. The only thing I could think about was you, and when I fell and became this, it only drove me to seek you out. After I had you, everything else paled in comparison…” He inhaled the scent of her hair and ran his hands over her stomach. “Mariana…I need you. Without you, I’ll fade and…so will every last trace of Reyas along with me.”

Closing her eyes, Mariana winced again and swallowed. “You…need me? You’ll fade?” All she had to do was refuse, and she would be rid of him. And yet, something told her that he wouldn’t leave her alone so easily.

No. Stop it. Why am I even entertaining such thoughts? He…doesn’t deserve my help in the least, especially that sort of “help”. But Reyas…

As though Lucilius could sense her indecision, he pulled her tighter against him, running his fingers all over her chest and licking at her ear again. His eyes glowed as he whispered to her. “Yes…Reyas… You can help him.”

Mariana shook her head, coming to her senses. “No! Stop playing with my mind…Lucilius. You may have been Reyas before, but any shred of the angel I knew is gone now. You’re nothing but a sick and twisted demon that doesn’t deserve to live.”

Lucilius snarled, sinking his claws into her stomach and squeezing her body painfully. Mariana grimaced and struggled vainly in his grasp. It felt as though her entire world had crashed down around her. Again. She had just had the fleeting wish that her new body had also come with the ability to teleport when a very recent memory surfaced. Her new body…

I saw Max's blood become crystal...is that something I can also do?

Why, yes. Only yours works a little differently. His can create sharp shapes, like blades and such, while yours is, like yourself, more delicate-looking and peaceable, a defensive shield against the bleak powers of darkness, those that may seek to violate you...

A trickle of midnight blue blood traced its way down her stomach, forced out of her body by Lucilius’s claws, and Mariana concentrated on it, willing more of the liquid to flow and solidify into a spherical crystal shield to surround her and push the lustful incubus off her. He stumbled several paces backward in surprise, and Mariana wasted no time. Making use of what precious little time she had, the vampire angel removed the Argentsigna from around her neck and draped a wing over her shoulder. In mere moments, Ashriel was in her hand, and Mariana willed her shield to liquefy and enter her stomach again. Lucilius effectively hid his anger at being repelled, and his eyes glimmered they ran across the sword.

“So, it seems you’ve grown more than one set of new teeth. You really think you can stop me from taking you again?”

“We’ll find out, won’t we?” Mariana kept a semi-vigilant eye on Lucilius as she attempted to search for Max.

Are you alright?

A hushed panic swarmed into Max’s mind like an angry hornet, one that buzzed agonizingly in warning that his life could end at any second. The truth was obvious now. It was Orion behind him, in the vessel of a young boy, ready to spill his blood with that ungodly scythe, Dredgius, which had been the first clue to his identity. The second had been the sick incubus’s use of the doppelgänger’s name, which would haunt him until the ends of eternity.

“Orion…so the time is now. I hope you’re not expecting victory, because I wouldn’t want to LET YOU DOWN!” The scythe came at his back stealthily, but as it began to rip through him, the child’s face grew angry as he was already dematerializing. It hadn’t hit him at all.

When Max appeared again, his brow was wrinkled with confusion. Orion was gone. Twisting his head to the side, he scanned the area to his left for sign of the heartless phantom. He saw nothing.

“HE WENT THATAWAY!” Orion jeered from atop Max’s shoulder, and his scythe came down in a deadly arc. Only the very tip of Jenorath had been able to catch the haunted metal, and the two opposing forces screeched at they resisted each other. Two ghostly blades locked in both spiritual and physical combat. Within a minute flash, the struggle ended. Orion had vanished again.

“OR WAS IT THAT WAY?!” Just as the vampire predicted, his ghost swung at him from the exact opposite direction as before. He didn’t even need to look at his blade as he guided it. Shortly after they struggled again, Orion disappeared once more.

“You’re getting predictable! What did you learn in Hell? Arts & Crafts?”

“BOTH WAYS ARE GOOD WAYS…” This made Maximilian’s eyes grow wide, and he was at a loss for what to do as he waited for the apparition to take form. At the last second, he heeded his surroundings intensely, and the fluttering din of a descending cloak made birth overhead. Taking the broad end of his weapon in hand, he raised it upwards. Sure enough, the curved edge of Dredgius came within inches of his face, but his sword was held firmly enough to keep the weapon from dealing a fatal blow.

It was Max’s turn for fun. Concentrating on his improved strength, the vampire forced his legs to move backward and up, forcing Orion to slam into the dirt. With a grim expression of loathing, directed solely at the wretched child, Max dispelled his enchanted weapon, and cracked his knuckles. As his shirt melted away, revealed a slender yet sinewy chest, it had become very clear to him that this fight had to end, and soon: if he didn’t do something, he wasn’t sure Mariana could hold her own against Lucilius forever, but if he ran to her now, he was certain that Orion would behead him so fast it would leave Mariana alone with two maniacs that felt no fear, and one of them happened to be a rapist.

Hold on, Mariana….

Seeing that Max was otherwise preoccupied for the moment, Mariana attempted to send reassurance through the bond.

I’ll be fine.

When she focused her full attention back to Lucilius, he was no longer there. Panicking, Mariana spun around only to have Ashriel’s blade met by long, black claws. The incubus leaned into the lock, staring straight into her violet eyes. Faltering, she tried to look away, closing her eyes against the green that threatened to invade her mind, but in doing so, she let her guard slip slightly, allowing Lucilius to latch a hand around her sword-arm wrist.

“Stop resisting, and just resign yourself to the fact that you belong to me.”

He grabbed her chin with his free hand, forcing her eyes back to his, and Mariana fought the hypnotic sensation drilling its way into her brain. She would not allow Lucilius to take over her again. With a surge of strength that surprised the both of them, Mariana broke one arm free from the incubus’s grasp and sent a focused beam of lunar energy into his chest. A pained roar rattled from Lucilius’s throat as he flew backward into the nearby shallows of the island. With vehemence blazing in his eyes, he splashed back to shore, the faint traces of blood flying off his lithe frame. Mariana glanced down at her arm in amazement. She’d never possessed physical strength like that before.

“You’re not used to it, are you?”

With a start, Mariana whirled to find Lucilius behind her yet again. “Stop doing that!”

Lucilius grinned and grabbed her wrists once more. “Doing what? Does it frighten you, my little angel whore?”

Fury filled Mariana’s face as she spread her wings and beat them in an attempt to dislodge herself from Lucilius’s grasp. “Let go of me! I don’t belong to you!” She tore away from him and put distance between them as she ascended several yards into the air.

“Running away now, are you? I think I have scared you!”

Rage boiled over inside Mariana. The sight of the hated incubus laughing at her below caused something within her to snap. For 600 years, she had been a meek and dejected individual, imprisoned by her feelings of worthlessness. And now, the object of her torment was beneath her. She hadn’t been able to defeat him on that night so long ago, but…she was different now… Her eyes narrowed, and she suddenly reverted Ashriel back to the Argentsigna and placed it around her neck. She wouldn’t need it at the moment. Without the slightest hesitation, Mariana folded her wings tightly against her back and dropped like a rock toward Lucilius. The force of her fall bowled him to the ground, and she gripped his shoulders immediately before sinking her fangs into his neck.

The incubus hurled curses at her while trying to detach the vampire angel from his neck. Having forgone any sort of pain-dulling hypnosis, Mariana was fully aware that Lucilius was experiencing every iota of pain she was capable of inflicting upon him. When the first flows of his blood entered her mouth, she couldn’t help but notice the strange taste that accompanied them. But she cared about nothing else other than draining and finishing him once and for all. It wasn’t until a familiar feeling lanced through her that she brought her head up and stumbled off Lucilius.

The incubus breathed heavily, wincing as he sealed the bite wound to prevent anymore fluid from leaving his body. And then, he began laughing weakly as he turned his head to look in Mariana’s direction. “That…was a mistake.” He stood to his feet, slowly but steadily replenishing his strength.

No…I really did…make a mistake. The taint…

She immediately felt the influence of the taint coursing through her body, and she fearfully pulled a wing over her shoulder. The noticeable black patches were appearing, and her eyes widened in horror.

NO! Not again!

But just as soon as the discolorations had appeared, they disappeared, absorbed into the midnight blue of Mariana’s feathers. In utter shock, she watched as the last vestige of the demonic influence was erased, and she felt something different, some new power residing inside her. Closing her eyes, Mariana concentrated on this new sensation, exploring it in order to discover just what it was. A strange feeling she’d never experienced before swept through her, and she opened her eyes to find herself in an entirely different location than she had previously occupied. Lucilius was now to her left instead of her right. Realization dawned upon her, but it was Lucilius who voiced her surprise for her.

“You can…teleport, now?!”

Mariana blinked a few times, still digesting what she was now capable of, before summoning Ashriel to her hand again and facing her adversary with a newfound gleam in her eyes. “It looks like the playing field is slightly more even now, isn't it?”

I'll be fine.

The gentle determination of Mariana's voice caressed his mind like a cool wave on a desolate shore. As though she had somehow imprinted her emotions upon his, Max felt a rush of courage build up inside of him. He would not fear his ghost; despite what horrific things it could do to ruin his life, just as it had long ago. The simple reason he was not to fear it was the same reason he was fighting: he wouldn't allow it to happen.

Stepping towards the small, yet inherently malevolent creature, Max brought down his fist. His blow would have struck the fiend directly in the back had it been successful, but all he had collided with was a small foot. Orion had moved quickly, using his phantasmal energy to lift him upwards, allowing his foot to cancel the strike prematurely. With a spastic gyration of the midsection, the doppelgänger forced his opponent backward, nearly making him fall on his back.

Landing nimbly on his toes, the juvenile screeched with laughter at the very source of his origin with that freakishly dual voice of both banshee and humanoid manner.

Withholding every last bit of his bravery, Max willed a sort of morphing of his appearance. His irises, crimson as they were, spread throughout the entirety of his eyes like spilled ink upon paper. His teeth softened, as they grew more rigid and thin, like thick white needles, and finally, his nails expanded a full inch while his hair stretched into an even greater extent. The solidification of this vampiric transformation was granted by a general thickness of the muscles.

“Maxy, I know that trick. It’s not going to make much of a difference without a head to control it all!” As soon as these words escaped the child’s mouth, he felt a sudden force knock him from his feet. Not even moving a bit from his present location, Max had utilized undead vigor to carry his punch out of his own knuckles, and into his enemy’s chest. Not hestitating in the slightest, the vampire lunged at his foe, spawning Jenorath in his palm as he prepared to deal the finishing strike.

CLING! Just as quickly as Jenorath had taken form in his hand, Dredgius had generated deftly in his nemesis’s grip, and negated the otherwise definite deathblow.

“If it were that easy, I wouldn’t have survived one second against that inquisitive hag, Valdaria. If it comforts you any, though, when you’re dead, I’m going to prettify your corpse with my excrement! Keehehehe.”

“Shut that rotten mouth of yours. The stench of the trash that spews from it is unbearable.”

"I'll rape you yet, wench!"

Lucilius growled, flexing his claws as the last effects of having his blood rapidly drained faded. If he hadn't been completely furious before, he certainly was now. Mariana eyed him calmly, a new sense of confidence flooding her being. Perhaps, at last, she could finally erase this incubus from her memory. Perhaps, at last, she could finally be free.

"I told you before, Lucilius," she said with cold determination. "You won't be doing anything of the sort with me."

The incubus roared. "We'll see about that!" He vanished, but instead of appearing behind Mariana, he reformed inches in front of her and seized her, violently pulling her against himself. Mariana maintained her calm demeanor, even in Lucilius's arms, and disappeared from view herself, leaving her enemy holding nothing but air.

"How do you like being on the opposite end of things, Lucilius?"

Snarling as blood flowed from a deep gash scored by Ashriel in his upper arm, the demon whirled around only to find Mariana gone again. Hearing a barely audible noise behind him, he, too, dematerialized, just in time to avoid the slicing blade of Mariana's sword that more than likely would have cut him in twain. Lucilius reappeared, but to the angel's surprise, he was laughing.

"You have some spark, certainly. It'll make it all the more pleasurable for me when I break you again."

Black blood still spilled from the wound inflicted by Ashriel, and Lucilius allowed it to flow freely, spilling onto the ground and forming a pool. Mariana tensed and watched warily as he submerged his hand into the pool, revealing it to be deeper than it actually seemed. When he straightened back up again, he was in possession of a formidable-looking sword. The entire weapon was a solid, polished black, except for the demonic symbols etched into the blade in emerald green. The blade was a jagged, irregular shape, and the hilt wasn't symmetrical, either, as it sort of wrapped around the base of the blade in an oblong, almost circular shape. Despite the awkwardness the weapon displayed, Lucilius appeared to have no trouble balancing it in his hand.

"Do you remember Retribution, Mariana? Here it is...in fallen form." He grinned.

Mariana ran her eyes over the sword. "It's just as twisted as you are."

This elicited a malefic chuckle from Lucilius. "I know there's fear inside you even now. Don't think you've beaten me yet."

His breathing solid and not showing a bit of exasperation, Max backed away from his doppelganger. He knew full well that he couldn’t overpower his nemesis in terms of direct combat: Orion knew his simplest tactics of swordplay too well, and the apparition’s own possession of a specter blade and equal strength didn’t make it any simpler. Even though the vampire had undergone rebirth, his double’s spirit seemed to have somehow gained more might while in this child’s body, he was sure it had nothing to do with Cedric. There was a slight difference in the sensation Orion exuded as he neared him, something alien and more cogent lurked about him. He hadn’t shown the proof of this feeling yet, but Max was sure it would come in time, and he would need a card up his sleeve as well…or maybe just a leaf.

“Thinking, Maxy? Need a break, Maxy?! I can fight until this body’s finger’s are worn to bone! I CAN’T JUST WAIT AROUND FOREVER!” There was a nauseating sound of ripping flesh, and the phantom within the child revealed how much his left hand had changed. It had grown even more lengthy and distorted, the long, blue-tinged fingers each as sharp-edged as the scythe he wielded in his other hand.

Like any logical lover’s mind would, Max exchanged his focus of Orion with that of his dearest one. His darling was fighting her worst nightmare, and even though she had assured him of her safety, he was worried still. To Max, despite her current condition, Mariana was and always would be Life. Without her, he would not be truly alive ever again. Losing her wasn’t an option. As cunning as he was, Max had no real plan at this point, but Gods knew he was trying.

As he thought, the sudden realization of Arimas’s absence became apparent. However, Max’s faith waned none. Arimas had granted him a great gift, all because of that same conviction. A little anger came, though, for the simple reason that his God wasn’t even offering any help at all. All of this speculation was promptly ended as the sharp blue blur of Orion harvesting blade was lobbed at him, like some savage replacement of a lasso that was meant to take the prey in dead rather than living. Max jumped back, but he misjudged the length of the energy lash, and it tore through his black shirt, revealing a thin red graze. Slowly, the blood dripped from the wound, but the vampire paid it no heed, aside from his nostrils taking in the entoxicating aroma to enhance his concentration.

“Fear? …Yes, I’m very much afraid…but not of you.”

The words hit Lucilius like a hard slap to the face. He growled. “Then, what are you afraid of?”

Instead of answering, Mariana shot forward, her blade poised to stab the life out of the incubus. Lucilius easily knocked Ashriel aside with his own weapon and lacerated Mariana’s shoulder with a claw. She winced and flew to the side, touching two fingers to her bleeding shoulder and sealing the wound with a small trickle of lunar energy. Despite her new-found strength and confidence, Lucilius was proving to be no pushover. Mariana knew that if she didn’t finish this soon, Lucilius might outlast her and take her again.

“Tell me what it is you’re afraid of! Now!”

Lucilius’s blade slashed in at her right side, and Mariana barely had enough time to prevent it from connecting with its mark. Retreating farther away from him, she made sure to maintain a defensive position with Ashriel. However, her thoughts persistently returned to her greatest love; she couldn’t help but worry about him. She still didn’t really have much of a clue as to what that other creature was other than the fact that he seemed to be occupying Cedric’s body. In fact…Mariana began to wonder just how he had come into possession of the little boy. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cedric was dead; those images that had haunted her dreams for so long after the disaster were too real to be dismissed as merely some false reality. Something tugged at her memory, insisting there was something wrong about the situation. Lucilius had said its name.

Orion…

She gasped. Max and Arimas had talked about this Orion and the scythe that he carried. “…a weapon that has spilled blood…and ultimately ended the life of a loved one.” Even with that remembrance, Mariana still sensed there was something more to Orion than that, but she was given no time to ponder further on the matter before Lucilius appeared right in front of her and grasped her by the throat and pulled her off the ground, causing Ashriel to slip from her hand and drop uselessly to the ground several feet away. Spots danced before her eyes, and she felt the painful entry of Lucilius’s claws into her neck. The incubus pulled her to him, staring her directly in the eyes, and his warm breath slid over her face.

“Tell me…what I want to know.”

Having been caught off-guard, Mariana felt words unbidden escape her lips. “I…I’m afraid of losing…” She shook her head, but Lucilius squeezed her throat, forcing her head back to him.

“Finish!”

Mariana hesitated. The last thing she wanted to do was tell Lucilius anything. Her hands ached for the reassuring feel of Ashriel as black started to creep into the edges of her vision.

Max…I love you…

She didn’t realize she had also whispered those words aloud until Lucilius threw her body down onto the ground in complete fury. She landed in a disheveled heap, her circulation slowly returning to a normal state. Dimly, she saw Lucilius shaking in outrage as he turned away from her.

“That’s it, is it? I’ll derive such satisfaction from tearing out whatever sort of life is in him and forcing you to watch it all. Perhaps then you’ll realize there is no way you can escape me. There is no one else you can run to. I’m the only one who can fill that void in your existence. So, watch, Mariana. Watch me tear him apart like I did that brat. Don’t you dare take your eyes away from the death of your pathetic lover!”

Shining grimly, Dredgius was held expertly in the hand of the cloaked form of the boy that was not a boy. Opening his mouth, Orion slid his blue, vein-coated tongue outward, curving it wetly to skim across his pale cheek. The doppelgänger was attempting it’s own twisted version of thought, completely unwary of how hideous the gesture was. Max’s face contorted into a grimace as he awaited his enemy’s next move.

He was so disgusted, that he almost didn’t hear Lucilius lightly land on the grass behind him due to a sudden teleportation. Almost. Delivering a backward swing of his sword, he caused the incubus to jump backward, which gave him enough time to teleport with his own power to a spot away from both foes. However, this only cornered him. He was on the southeast corner of the island. North of him, Lucilius now stood, and to the west stood Orion.

“Saw it fit to join me in the kill, Lucilius?”

“Silence, phantom. I’m picturing how he’s going to look with his insides hanging out of him.”

“Where’s the fun in picturing it? MAKE IT HAPPEN.”

Lucilius, after this point, became so enamored at the thought of killing the damn vampire who had put his hands on his angel that he forgot that Orion wanted to kill her. In the mind of the incubus, who was used to obedience among others while in the depths of hell, he had silently told Orion to guard Mariana. That was a grave mistake to make, because as soon as Lucilius came forth to attack Max once more, Orion dissolved into thin air.


Slowly rising to her feet, Mariana saw Lucilius approach Max at the other side of the small battleground, and clutched Ashriel with fiery indignation. He would not kill Max, and she would make sure—

The strong clink of a metal scythe striking the ground behind the angel brought her to attention, and a bead of sweat ran down the side of her face as she heard a distorted voice say something very familiar.

“Miss Mariana! Miss Mariana!”

Mariana turned around slowly, her expression an odd mixture of pain, sadness, and fury. Orion stood there, the blade of his scythe resting gently on the ground, and he grinned mockingly at her. Clenching Ashriel’s hilt tightly, Mariana glared at the phantom. After cackling for a bit, Orion’s grin widened, and his voice took on a tone to match his expression.

“Aw, Miss Mariana doesn’t want to give her DEAREST little Cedric A HUG?!”

“Stop it!” Mariana protested. “I refuse to let you continue existing!”

Orion leered. “Hehehehe, if you think you can find the will to damage this body, go right ahead, for whatever good it will do you.”

Mariana tensed but then hesitated. Even as convoluted as his body was, Mariana could still see Cedric there, the little boy that she had loved almost as if he were her own child. She couldn’t…hurt him… She closed her eyes in quiet contemplation. The faint rustling of a cloak was the only thing that saved her from a quick death. The ringing of metal colliding resounded as the silvery blade of Ashriel met the bluish blade of Dredgius, and Mariana suddenly found herself on her back, struggling with every ounce of her strength to keep Orion’s weapon away from her throat. The childish phantom was on Mariana’s stomach, cold eyes gleaming as he sensed the kill was at hand.

“Heeheehee!! POOR MISS MARIANA IS GONNA DIE BY LITTLE CEDRIC’S HAND! I find that DELICIOUSLY ironic, DON’T YOU?!”

“I won’t die here, that’s for certain.”

Mariana faded abruptly from beneath Orion, causing him to land flat on his face in the dirt. He suddenly felt pain as several lances of moonlight energy slammed into his now-unprotected back. Leaping to his feet and whirling around, the doppelgänger cackled at Mariana.

“Oooo…nice save, there, wench. Hehehehe, too bad all you can do is run away from me!”

Her gaze hardening, Mariana eyed Orion up and down, still trying to figure out what it was that she felt she was missing about him. There was something…oddly familiar about that voice.

“What are you? What do you hope to gain from helping Lucilius?”

Orion chuckled. “Helping him? HAH! The only one I’m helping is me! Heeheeheee!! What do I hope to gain from all this? Hehe, to make his life as miserable as possible, that’s what!”

“You mean Max…? But why? What has he done to you to make you hate him so much? How do you even know him?”

Orion gripped the shaft of his scythe tightly, and his eyes glowed. The next words that came from his mouth were completely different from any Mariana had heard him utter thus far. “So many questions, hmm? You’re an inquisitive one, aren’t you?”

She froze, transfixed by the sound, and her face became a mask of shocked disbelief. It had been just like…

“Sound familiar, does it?”

This was almost too much for Mariana to take. “Just what are you saying?”

“Oh, just that I’m his doppelgänger, his ghost, a piece of him. How else can I say it? I hope you don’t need me to spell it out for you.”

When the form of Lucilius charged him once more and at last, Max couldn’t have been more pleased. Smoothly twisting his sinewy yet thin frame, the vampire held his ground, his reflective blade close to his face, mirroring his right eye. He had been waiting to fill this demon’s miserable body with so much agony that it matched evenly with the desolate, no doubt lasting effects that had been placed upon Mariana.

Now he had his chance, and the renewed indignation, which he felt toward this lustful monstrosity, tore through him like a rabid dog. With a gentle numbness, he released his hold over that savage animal, that feral beast called Vengeance that can only be held for so long before it begins to rip you to shreds from the inside. Max had several of these hounds locked inside of him, and ironically enough, the last to be formed was the first to be freed.

“I will have to thank you, vampire!” The blades thundered as they smashed together. “…After all, she’ll be twice as crushed as before when the burden of your death is upon her head! She’ll blame herself, for loving you, and the entire time, I’ll be the one licking those tears from her cheeks as she lies naked upon the charred rocks of Hades, surrounded by pillars of flame rising to heighten our passion!”

“That’s a real laugh, Lucilius. She would never freely consider any passion for you, and without willing flesh, the passion is that of a lie. A cold, bitter deception.”

“She’s willingly done it before, vampire, and she’ll come to love me again.”

“She only did it because of trickery and lies that tickled her fancy. She had been looking for someone to love, and you, sick dog, took advantage of her with those ungodly powers. My ears are much keener than you think. I know exactly who and what you were, just to let you know.”

“Silence. Your words carry no value with me, nightwalker. I have no regrets for my actions. I need none and carry none on my sleeve.”

He had gotten under Lucilius’s skin, and it was easy to tell; his brow was more heavily wrinkled than before, and his nose was twitching. The entire time they had been speaking, the clashing of sword steel had served as punctuation, giving the strong reminder that each sentence could be the last, with one wrong move.

“Schism!” With a flash of purple light, the vampire’s sword transmuted into it’s second form, and as Lucilius was distracted by it, he was given the gift of a high kick to the beginning of his sturdy right shoulder, a movement Maximilian had managed by pivoting his body, enough to draw back a limber leg, before swinging it gracefully upwards, allowing it to slam into the area near the incubus’s pale neck. Spasming a bit at the powerful impact, the fallen angel was a second more vulnerable, his sword hand shaking visibly from shock and pain. Max’s free hand then delivered a punch to his stomach that moved in a sort of fluid physical poetry; when Max punched, a spray of blood from the unclean mouth was an instant reward, and Max savored the pain he was inflicting.

A numb sort of feeling crept over Mariana, infiltrating every minute cell of her body, every nerve ending, and even every piece of her soul. The deranged creature before her couldn’t possibly be any part of Max; he was as opposite from her vampiric lover as east is from west. And yet, somehow, she could sense that Orion was telling the absolute truth. Before she could even open her mouth to speak again, the doppelgänger darted forward with amazing alacrity. Mariana barely had time to hastily create a sapphire shield around herself to halt the menacing blade of Dredgius.

Repeatedly, Orion slammed his blade into the crystalline barrier in complete frustration, for the obstacle refused to shatter. He scraped his weapon along Mariana’s stoic, unyielding protection, the harsh sound not unlike nails on a chalkboard. Relentlessly, her oppressor attempted to find a way to get to the prey he so desired to destroy. Like a diving eagle on the attack, the cloaked monstrosity flitted everywhere around the shield, his scythe blade seeking a weak point in the defense. Mariana watched him vainly hack away, but she knew in the back of her mind that her protection wouldn’t hold forever. Eventually, she would have to rely on Ashriel and her own reflexes to avoid a swift beheading.

“What is it you want with me, doppelgänger, if that is indeed what you are? I have nothing to give you, and I’ve only just met you. So, I don’t believe I’ve had enough time to do anything to you that would warrant you developing a grievance against me.”

Even while he answered her, the phantom’s assault against her shield never once ceased, and he seemed to punctuate every pause in his speech with the screeching of his blade against the blue blood crystal. “Foolish—” CRACK! “ignorant—” SHING! “wretch!” SCREECH! “Of course, you haven’t done anything to me…except exist in the first place!”

“What do you mean? What does my existence have to do with you at all?”

“You’ve been with him, haven’t you? Surely even someone as dense as you seem to be can see that he…” He practically spat the next words. “…cherishes you. And I can’t stand that!”

It was then that several things happened at once, almost as if they were being played in slow motion. At last, Orion’s persistence paid off as a blow from Dredgius cracked and then shattered Mariana’s shield, which she immediately willed back into her body with the faint traces of a grimace skirting across her face. She drew Ashriel, but was utterly taken by surprise by what happened next. The same look of shock briefly flashed over Orion’s countenance as the strange marks of gray that covered his body seemed to light up and lash out at Mariana. Pain shot through her body, and she was flung to the ground. Leaping back up immediately to face her adversary, Mariana noticed the look of confusion on his face that she knew, most assuredly, mirrored her own. And for the next several seconds, the two just stood across from each other, trying to figure out what had happened.