;)
* * *
[Now]
Two weeks.
Two weeks, and she still hadn't come to me.
Two weeks, and she was unquestionably screwing with me.
Currently, Faith was picking the pocket of business men for cash. More money than she had already gotten, that is. She had this new swagger about her. She seemed to sway her hips a little more, own her body. She was even wearing a new outfit and makeup. If I wasn't in a foul mood, I'd say she looked hot as hell. But the beast was pissy and seriously needed a back rub.
Her long black hair was slicked back in a pony tail, blue eyes shadowed and outlined with grey and black makeup. She wore tight leather pants, a dark tank top that sunk much too far past her cleavage, a worn out motorcycle leather jacket with a skull on the back, and black boots that almost went up to her thighs.
How original, baby. Wear as much leather as you want, you're not fooling anyone.
I know what you're thinking. Faith bought those clothes because they remind her of me. Please. She stopped being that sentimental a while ago. The little traitor wanted a war. She wanted to dig those claws of hers right under my skin and pull until I flipped a switch and snapped. She was testing me, showing me up, by proving not only what a woman can do to a man, but the power that she has over them. Maybe she was even trying to prove the power she had over me. Little brat.
Power. Over me? Please...
I was constantly one step ahead of her.
Until the end.
* * *
It was a few nights after Faith had left me. I called Devin and told him what happened. I had convinced myself that the reason I had let Faith go was because I wanted to test her loyalty to me. Truthfully, I had no idea why I had let her go and Devin instantly caught onto that. At first, he was beyond angry, spurting out curses at me in multiple different languages and telling me how disappointed he was that I had let her go. At one point, I had the hold the phone a good two feet away from me because he was screaming so loud. He hung up minutes later. I didn't really blame him.
Devin called back and an hour later, apologized for calling me a "whipped bastard who enjoys kneeling naked for the Elders in his free time" and, well, he went into a little bit more detail about what I like to do on my knees.
Devin was once tight on Gabriel's trail and then lost him entirely. Gabriel might have recently fallen and been bleeding to death from the wounds on his back, but he was still near impossible to track. Always was. For a moment, I thought that Devin was ready to give up on finding his brother.
We talked for a while about Shabriri, the once white-haired, blind prisoner who I had stored in a secret, dark place where nobody could find him. He was turned human by Faith's powers. I had visited his chamber that day and asked him many questions, mostly about Ace, the Warlock who practiced dark magic like my mother, who's life had I saved from Shabriri's hands. Although Ace had lost his vision to Shabriri, his debt to me was quite enormous.
Ah, life. There's such a huge price to pay when I spare it. Isn't there? Ask a treacherous little sassy woman named Faith Williams, she'll completely understand. Devil's horns, that woman makes my blood boil over.
Anyways, I didn't want to kill Shabriri just yet. I wanted to observe him. See what exactly Faith's power had done to him, make him believe that I will show him mercy, and then slaughter him senselessly.
Yes, that seemed like a very good plan.
I must have fallen asleep after that little call to Devin. That doesn't happen often, believe me, but when it does, I have night terrors. How poetic. An ancient, ruthless killer having night terrors.
So I jolted awake during the middle of the night in a cold sweat, briefly gasping for air and then cursing the night and the Heavens with my middle finger. Admittedly, my eyes swept the empty spot of my bed as if expecting Faith to be lying there. What was this, The Notebook? Why the fuck was I checking if she was next to me in the bed when clearly she had left me nights before?! Honestly, Faith had only slept with me like one time, and we literally only slept. Well, at least... I did. And there was no sex.
Never sex.
Not with her.
Ever.
Period.
End of story.
She's so unbelievably sexy. I hit myself in the forehead, knocking that devilish thought back into the dark corners of my mind. I cursed the night and the Heavens again with both middle fingers. I was constantly aware of how striking Faith was, how perky she was in all the right areas and how firm her--
I smacked myself in the head again. I didn't need those damn knawing thoughts when she wasn't even around! God damn it all!
Growling, I sprung upright in the bed, hands fisted in my sheets, eyes focusing easily in the darkness, peeling away the shadows of the night. Searching like my surroundings like the predator I was.
I froze.
Something was in the room with me. I tore off the covers of my legs and stalked each wall of the room like a territorial Panther, a low growl seeping through my lips. Finally, I came to the large, shadowy mirror over a old, wide wooden dresser that was had been freshly polished earlier in the day by maids, and peeled back my lips at my reflection.
I flicked on a lamp, staring at myself in the reflective surface.
"Reveal yourself, spirit," I hissed. "You were supposed to meet me hours ago."
The reflection of myself grinned at me. "Hello, Dark Prince. I am sorry I am late," it hissed.
"Let's cut to the chase. I did what you told me to do," I said, eye slightly twitching with rage. "I scared off the girl, she won't be coming back to me anytime soon. You will tell my father that I fell for your tricks, he must not know that your species cannot sway me. That we are allies. After you have sent him that message, you will tell your brothers and your sisters that the Elders are coming. I am fated to call to them seven days before Faith Williams' death, and a war will against good and evil begin once again. Evil will win, but I need your help"
The spirit became fascinated "Of course, Master. But what if this fate is not true?"
"The warlock Ace has already predicted it. Nobody can escape a fate that strong. Not even I."
"What about your mother?" the spirit hissed, raising my dark eyebrow.
My voice was cold, distant, foreign. "My mother is dead. She's been dead for thousands of years."
"So the girl has not told you? Do not tell me she is keeping secrets from you? The Angel of Death? Oh, I have hit a nerve." The spirit flashed a grin along my reflection, throwing back his head and snickering. "The girl, does she keep secrets from you often? She might not even be a virgin. Perhaps, I could find out...."
Something snapped within me and I lunged at the mirror with a roar, reaching into it and gripping the spirit by the throat. I knew that reaching into the Unknown was dangerous, even for someone who was able to walk through it like myself, but I didn't really give a crap at the moment. "If you taunt me, spirit, so help me God, I will come in there and I will torch you to ashes. What exactly is Faith Williams not telling me?!" I snarled.
The spirit continued to laugh, "Your mother, Phoebe, she has been trapped in the Unknown, she can only be freed by a good soul. She has watched you, there are rumors that she is trying to escape to destroy you. Just the other day, she attempted to lure Faith into the Unknown."
"Lies! My mother is dead!" I gripped the spirit's neck harder until it's eyes went wide with horror. "I can destroy you from here with my bare hands. I am the only one that can do this, I will kill you without thinking twice. Remember that. I will have you burn in a world so hot that your soul will cry out my name. Do not lie to me, spirit. Do not. Lie to me, slave."
"I am not lying, Master!" the evil spirit wheezed out. It was strange at first, strangling myself in the mirror. I kinda liked it. "Malphas trapped her soul in the Unknown, just like he wanted me to trap yours and prevent you from breaking your curse. I have seen your mother with my own eyes. She lives, and she is against you, plus she is more powerful than ever. But even she, the most powerful black witch, cannot break through the portal. She is not a walker anymore. She wanted me to tell you of her, but I thought you already knew. I thought that Faith Williams had told you."
"You imbecile! She could be luring in Faith as we speak!" I roared.
" You know what will happen...if the girl is dragged into the Unknown and...your....mother.... hides her from--" I realized I was squeezing its throat so tightly that it could no longer speak, and lessened my hold, "you." it finished in a gasp.
I stiffened, releasing the spirits throat. "No," I whispered. I knew exactly what would happen if Faith's body and soul was trapped in the Unknown, and I won't let it happen.
"I will send Batibat to watch over Faith Williams again," I said, my voice a bit frantically. A took a deep breath. My nostrils flared. I put a damper on my emotions until they were nonexistent. "Batibat will block her from the Unknown. Then when Faith comes back to me, I will personally cut her off from the portal entirely with magic. I will punish her. She will too afraid to ever go against me or lie. I will find a binding spell, I'll mark her with a tattoo, I'll get anything I can get my hands on to keep her in this relm. Whatever this spirit is, where it is my mother or not, I want it separated from my mother at all times. She will never speak through the portal again. Ever. I will not have it!"
The spirit went silent, looking at the top of my head.
I turned around. The room was empty. What the hell was it looking at? "There's something else that you're not telling me," I concluded, returning my heated eyes to the mirror. "Are you honestly keeping more secrets? Look me in the eye, slave, stop looking at my head!"
"Your hair, Master," the evil spirit said, confused. "It is.... changing color before my eyes."
* * * *
I blinked once, escaping my vortex of thoughts and coming back to the present. I stared down into the alley below with flickering lights, at the woman in leather who had left me rendered me speechless and left me alone weeks before. Who had once again looked me in the eye, fighting every instinct to run away, and stood up to me with that sassy tongue of hers. Before Faith Williams, I'd slit the throat of anyone who disrespected me and damn them straight to hell.
She knew that I would watch her every move like a hawk. What choice did even I have? The whole damn city was flooded with demons, and Peace Makers were popping up in the newspapers, killing dozens by the week.
"But you know for certain she will be alive in two months. There's another reason why you are watching her," Ahrimad teased in a hiss.
"Silence," I growled in return.
Faith was still talking to that man before, convincing him to give her cash to stay another night at a nearby motel.
Her voice, I decided, was what had manipulated most of the men she had taken advantage of over the past fourteen days. Odd, it was definitely a new trick of hers that I hadn't seen before. A reaper trick. She had taught herself to lower her voice until it became the right amount of gravelly and seductive, like a lonely man's late-night call to professional lover. This voice of hers, it worked. Every. Damn. Time. Fooling men into buying her meals by sexing them up with her voice and exposing her cleavage.
Disgusting. She was practically riding that man like a cowboy.
"That little conniving...slut."
"Don't you mean your slut, master?"
"Exactly! She's mine!" I hissed in return, then quickly slammed my jaw shut. "Used to be mine, that is. Damn it! I don't know what you're trying to do, but I'm not in the mood so keep your wise ass comments to yourself."
"You stumble after her like a lustful teenager. Perhaps you should apologize and she will give you that, what did you call it? A lap dance? "
My gaze dropped back down to the alley where Faith was still talking to the business man, twirling her pony tail and moistening her lips. She was changing. Maturing. She wasn't a little girl anymore. She knew how to fight with me. At least, verbally. Admittedly, I loved when she got angry and I ticked her off on purpose. I loved the way her cheeks got warm and her eyes turned to flames when she became angry.
Immediately, I started to picture her in her most furious state yet, gripping me by the shirt and throwing me into a chair, then straddling me with her longs legs in that tight leather outfit, moving her hips against mine to the beat of a slow, intimate song.
Heat stirred within my gut and traveled lower until I extremely regretted wearing tight leather pants. I let out a low moan that morphed into a terrorizing growl. "Ahrimad, so help me God you will pay for the image you just gave me."
Ahrimad chuckled. "I will be silent."
I tightened my grip on my scythe, looming further over the towering building into the dark alley, my wings outstretched behind me, keeping me at balance.
Whatever Faith had just said, she had hit it out of the park. The man stumbled forward a little, holding out a wad of cash to her, his eyes filled with lust. I wanted to rip his eyes out and crush them in my bare hands right in front of her.
Damn her.
Faith slid her hand slowly up and down the suited man's chest, fluttering those long, sexy lashes up at him. Ok, now her seducing game was getting absolutely ridiculous. I could seduce a man better than that, underwater with no limbs! How is this little show even working? Is this scum-for-brains really that desperate? Oh god, what was she doing now? Is she taking lint off of his shirt? How sexy...heavy sarcasm! She always did that to my dress shirt... I briefly looked down at my cloak, plucking a piece of lint off of it and snorting. Honestly, does she expect a roll of pennies or Woodrow Wilson's?
She'd given me the look she was given the man right now. I had fell for it many times. It was a more mature, sensual version of that puppy dog look she professionally used as a child. The damn woman, it had to be the dreams. Ever since she had become a half-demon, she was getting back all of the memories I had took from her. Maybe she was learning from them, unraveling me from the inside out. Soon, she would have a bunch of bogus ideas about me that weren't true. Or worse, she'd start thinking that she had me wrapped around her finger like she did as child. The thought of that made me laugh out loud. That wouldn't ever happen again. Ever.
I started to think about what the warlock Ace had told Faith and I, about Faith destroying me. That got me really paranoid. What if she sided with my father, after everything we had been through? What if she did go against me?
Bring it.
Faith stuffed the wad of case from the business man in her boot, leaning against the wall right below me, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering. She was out in the open and the beast was watching her. So vulnerable and naive she was. Maybe Faith Williams really didn't know that I was watching her all of this time. Good. I'd keep it that way. She'd need me some day in the future
Maybe all she needed was a little...push towards me.
Yes, I push. Something to frighten her. Get her on her toes and running towards me. My arms would be wide open. Faith didn't have the faintest clue what I was truly capable of. I'd forgive her. Kiss her. Hold her. But it would all be pretend. Ah, my favorite game of them all. A grin behind a grimace. A frown behind a pout. It was far too easy for me to pretend.
The more she trusted me, the easier it would be to destroy her.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
In the distance, there was a crack of a bullet and a scream. Faith turned her head sharply at the noise, curling into a tighter ball and gripping her stomach. I grinned like a predator. She had no idea what she was up against. I controlled the darkest, strongest force known in the universe. Death. And so the city was dying just like she would and nothing could stop it. From where I stood, I could see it's plague spreading rapidly, consuming, destroying like a massive shadow blanketing over the world.... until finally, after waiting for far, far too long, I finally got what I wanted...
Obliteration.
I looked up at the Heavens and winked, hoping someone up there was watching. I knew there was. There had to be. After all, I was His golden boy. But not for long. Not for long at all...
"I win," I whispered to the night.
* * *
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