Seconds, minutes pass, and neither of us utter a word, just staring at one another.
This time is unlike the others.
The location is the same reflective vision of outer space I'm used to... an in-between place, but now there are items set sparingly throughout, as far as my eyes can see. A chair here, a table there. Nothing important enough to stand out to me other than to confirm that this is a place where he dwells.
This man... this god.
His eyes are like the calm before the storm, the unbelievably tranquil center of a destructive force. They are as black as the clothes he wears, body stiff with authority. They are etched in a strong face, near a straightly-bridged nose and notably thick brows. Surrounding the midnight depths are lashes dark enough to appear like liner, to project the wickedness within him onto whoever is within distance.
I am the only such person.
He unclasps his hands, placing his arms at his sides, which draws my eyes to his elegant wear, strange fabrics of the past. Satin and velvet, regal but not flamboyant. Almost every inch of him is concealed. Even his hands wear gloves.
He is what I'd expect a god would look like, if the god were a deliverer of sin and debauchery. Just looking at him, the handsome face that's not altogether young, I can see the mischief in his expression, which is currently appraising me just as closely.
A man in his middle years, his hair is jet back mostly, apart from streaks of white that are pushed back past his shoulders, streaks that only draw the danger from his features even more. There is nothing I can see on his exterior that garners me to think any good of him.
Considering what he just put me through, I know I will make it hard to see any good in him. Tellingly, he takes one step forward, clenching fists at his sides before quickly releasing the tension, a clear nervous tick I have no trouble spotting, even if I am disoriented.
"You cannot comprehend how impatient I've been for this day."
I rub at my face, still able to recall how numb I just was. "Considering you just tortured me to get me here, I think I can."
"You are a stubborn woman," he declares, smiling while he says it. "I truly wish I didn't need to resort to summoning, but it became clear you wouldn't come on your own accord, not with him so close."
"What the fuck was that anyway? What did you do to me?"
He stiffens further when I realize I can move freely here, and take a few steps towards him. "A god's equivalent of a psychic's attack. I paralyzed you with energy. Drained yours."
"I see," I whisper, flexing my fingers. "Well, thank you."
That catches him off guard. He's now close enough that he must gaze down at me, standing almost a half a foot above me. It's frightening, his height. "You'd thank me for that?"
"Yes."
My hand slams into his throat in a tight-vice grip, and the pleasantness falls from my face while my nails sink through his flesh. It shocks me to draw blood from him, the same onyx color as my own. However, instead of grimacing, his mouth begins to rise on one side, enjoying my rage. My eyes become distracted by the scar that covers half his face, sunken above his brow all the way down to his cheek, a soft healed shade now.
I lean close to him, hissing through my teeth. "I'll thank you for that because you just made it so easy to hate you. I bend to no man, human or god."
"I know that," he says. "You wouldn't anyways. I wouldn't desire a meek woman."
My nails drag across his flesh before I back off him, opening the skin in a vicious scratch. At that, he does grimace. Reaching into his jacket, he removes a folded handkerchief and pats away the blood calmly.
"I will fucking kill you," I snap, too enraged to consider my lacking hand in matters. I'm currently standing in God-knows-where with God-knows who. He tucks the stained cloth back into his jacket, pinning me with understanding eyes.
"I am not your enemy, Cassandra. I am your greatest ally."
"The fuck you are."
He smirks, clearly enjoying my sailor's mouth. "You think he is?"
He makes it known he doesn't desire an answer when he retreats a bit, extending an arm out. My scowl deepens with annoyance.
"Walk a while with me."
"What for?"
"I think you'll want to hear what I have to say."
I stride toward him, my bare feet drifting over the majestic floor resembling water. He holds out his elbow for me to grab, but I leave him hanging, regarding him with distaste.
He understands my harshness and drops his arm. "Cassandra, I'm sorry. I let my impatience get the better of me."
"You're not forgiven."
The silence grows between us until he smiles, gently. "You will not understand yet."
"Understand what?"
"How the darkness takes over, and you lose yourself to it. It's power is unmatched."
I scoff sarcastically. "So you're saying the deep dark demon inside of you took over and you had zero control over your actions?"
"It fed off of my emotions, off of what I desired and what I was being denied. When that happens, it's damn near impossible to quell it."
"Will that happen to me?"
"You've already experienced glimpses of it. Like in Egypt, in the underground... with that vampire. You surfaced memories he'd forced himself to repress because he spoke ill of your mate."
While a twinge of guilt seeps through me at the reminder, poking at an open wound, I refuse to show him that, instead biting back, "Have you honestly been watching me day and night?"
"Actually, no. As much as I'd like to, I'm quite busy."
"So how do you know so much?"
"I have eyes and ears everywhere."
"That's not creepy at all."
He chuckles. "We are the definition of creepy, my dear. We are the definition of all things wicked and evil, even if we do not deserve the title."
"So, you're... like me?"
He smirks. "Well, considering I've been like this longer, I'd say you're like me."
"Point taken."
We've been strolling through nothing for a while now and oddly enough, I'm not overwhelmed by the surroundings. Infinite universe hangs at all sides of me and I am calm. I'm ill-prepared to ask for answers from this man, but I know that's why I'm here.
"Where are we?"
"We are in between heaven and hell."
Heaven.
Hell.
I gulp, just gazing at him, trying to process what he's said to me. Even after I was changed, and came to understand that while I hadn't known it before, there is an afterlife, I never allowed myself to wonder any further about it. This revelation is difficult to comprehend.
"I'm guessing you were what the humans call an atheist before," he says.
"God was never there for me. Why would I expect to go to a place in the clouds where it's impossible to cry? Sounded like some made up fantasy humans made up because they are scared of death."
"I assure you it is not so dream-like, but it is real, and it is lovely."
I almost fear to ask. "And hell?"
"It is a place for sinners. It conforms to the person entering it."
"What does that mean?"
"I shall tell you of that later... I'd like to show you my home first."
I look dubiously at the area around us. "There's nothing here."
"Just step a little further."
"I'm not sure if I should be following you at all, if I'm being honest," I admit hesitantly.
"Will you really deny knowledge?"
"I suspect you'd just drag me there if I tried to get away, right?"
His features pinch with disapproval. "You assume I desire to hurt you. It's, in fact, the very opposite."
He wants me to budge by using sweet words, tactics to provoke trust. I am not so easily swayed. "The knowledge you want to give me I'd gage comes at a price?"
"Why must it come at a price?"
"Because kindness almost always does."
He looks down, bracing himself. It's an oddly human moment. "I wish to introduce you to yourself, to who you are meant to be."
"And who is that?"
"Cassandra..."
"Who is that? Tell me," I demand.
"My mate."
Startled, my neck swings to his face, my eyes wide with disbelief. "Excuse me?"
His arms rise placating, expecting a scene. "Just... hear me out."
I'm already backing up. He follows.
"Cassandra."
"You're out of your goddamn mind!"
"I'm sure you've wondered why darkness has been attracted to you from birth, why vampires fall to your feet."
My feet cannot carry me fast enough in the direction I came. "Because I'm a goddess!"
"It's more than that! You were created with a purpose... for a purpose. It wasn't just to bring the end of days." He's suddenly right in front of me, but I swerve out of his way. "You are meant to rule. Not from earth. That was never the plan."
I chuckle, quickly becoming frantic when I find I cannot get free of this place. "What plan?"
"It's too hard to explain while you're running from me."
"I don't even know who the fuck you are, man."
"I am your king."
My feet screech to a stop. I whirl on him, enraged, growling in his face. "You are not my king. You are nothing to me."
"The vampire was always meant to protect you, but he took something that wasn't his. Your soul. It was never meant for him... It was mine."
Horrified, I gawk at him, becoming sick with fear. "You're a liar."
"It's the truth. You already have my soul. You have it because I gave it before you were even materialized." He seizes my arms passionately. "I have longed millenniums for a companion of my equal. You are the product of that longing, made in my image of perfection. It's why anyone that's embraced their inner darkness cannot keep themselves from you, why the good of the world repel you. Because you are a perfect thing."
I tear myself from his grasp, appalled. "I am no one's prize!"
"I'm not trying to make it seem like you are. Maybe my words are wrong, maybe I'm not prepared to face you, this dream I've yearned for more years than I can count... I'm just trying to tell the truth, to implore you to understand the ways of the universe and how they've been wronged."
"Wronged?"
"He bound himself to you and it disrupted everything. He sacrificed himself, and the light won when it should have lost."
I stare at him, hardly able to speak. My mind is whirling. "So... this is why you persuaded me to resurrect him... because you knew I'd unleash everything by taking him back..."
I shouldn't feel betrayed, but I do. I should have known there would be motives.
He frowns, clearly desperate to make me understand. "I did what I had to do to see that the universes order wasn't disrupted. Last thing I wanted was that man brought back into your life, but I knew there was no other way."
"His name is Elijah de Ricci. How about you cut the bullshit? I know you know that."
"His name is inconsequential."
"Yeah, let me stop you there," I snap, a vicious cut in the words. "All you're speaking is words. I could give two fucks if they're true. Whether or not I was made for you is fucking inconsequential. I am not yours, nor will I ever be. He is my mate. He is my king, and there isn't a single thing you could do to change that."
He is so close to my face that his nose nearly presses to mine.
"There are a great many things I could do about that, my love. Only reason I haven't is because I wish to gain your love without stripping you of your soul as well."
"You can kill him," I gasp. "You can kill me. It will make no difference. Our love cannot be taken from us."
"This is afterlife, Cassandra. And I am the master here. Anything can be taken from you."
His smolder darkens at my silence, and I wonder if Elijah can sense the terror in me.
"I don't intend to harm you that way, Cassandra," he whispers. "It would destroy me to do that to you. I am not as cruel as you believe me to be."
My eyes slim, restrained. "I think you are a liar. I think it's what you do best."
"Many believe I enjoy villainy, but I am not so one-dimensional. I am not so easy to understand."
I inch backward, slowly. "Many... believe this?"
He nods, head crooked, a sly smile warming his mouth. "Have you guessed it yet?"
Overwhelmed, I try to think, try to piece through what he's trying to tell me.
"I'll ask you again, Cassandra. Who are you?"
"I'm... I'm..."
Oh god.
He smiles wider. "You're what?"
It leaves me breathlessly. "The mother of darkness."
"And as your mate, that makes me...?"
"The father."
He disappears and my mouth drops when I feel him suddenly behind me, his gloved hand grazing my bare arm. I look down, dizzily, seeing lace and satin under his fingers—a gown. With one touch, he's changed my appearance. The leather armor I'm so used to is gone.
I choke, spinning around. He's right there.
"You know who I am. I think you've always known."
"No," I groan.
"Say it."
I shake my head as his fingers drift around my neck, strong but gentle, forcing my eyes to him. My skin crawls at the energy he seeps through his own skin into mine, a palpable energy so familiar to my own.
Leaning close, he taunts me with might.
"I am the Grim Reaper... the Father of Lies... the Angel of the Bottomless Pit."
"Stop," I choke out, knowing where this leads.
I always heard him referred as an angel... a fallen angel. Not this. Not this.
"They've plagued me with so many more names... Ruler of the underworld, Lucifer, the Angel of Death."
His dark eyes drift over my features, drinking me in with greed. I crane myself away from him, but to no avail. He's caught me.
"You wanted to know. Now you do. Who am I, Cassandra?"
Reluctantly, I exhale it, understanding my future upon the release.
"Satan."