Chapter 2 - Samael

Cassandra hovers over next to her portal, watching the scene unfold with excitement in her bright blue eyes. I’m in a standoff of sorts; desperate to protect my girl, but forced to leave her vulnerable while I fight off at least three dozen vampires.

I know it will be easy to kill them, but I also know that once they’re all dead, Aurora will be gone. Bending down, I place a kiss on her forehead and move my lips to her ear, “I am so sorry I let this happen, my love. I promise I won’t rest until you’re safe.”

I pick up a rock from the ground and throw it straight at Gwendolyn; it’s a blur as it speeds through the air, aiming right for her heart. One of the vampires by her side puts himself in front of her just in time, and the rock goes through him. It hits Gwendolyn, bouncing off her chest painlessly, and the vampire who took the hit for her falls to the ground with a hole in his chest, which slowly starts to heal.

Gwendolyn narrows her black eyes at me and charges at Aurora, while at the same time four more vampires break free from the circle and rush me; three of them hold my arms back and the other puts his hands on either side of my head and twists with all his strength. But it’s not enough; I stare him down as he attempts to break my neck. Ripping my arms free from the vampires behind me, I easily snap his instead; his hands slip from my head, and he falls to the ground with a thud.

I turn around, facing the other three; In one fluid motion, I kick the one in the middle, sending him flying into the burning manor, and tear the hearts from the chests of the other two. Then I barrel through the rest of the advancing vampires toward Gwendolyn, who is at Aurora’s side, and punch her across the face.

It barely causes her to stumble. I might not have used my full strength or speed to hit her, but that still should have taken her down. I pull my fist back to punch her again, but my arm is stopped by multiple clawed hands pulling me away from her.

I’m stronger than all of them combined, but it still takes a moment to get myself free; I slash the claws on my free hand around wildly, causing blood to spurt from the ones I manage to hit.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Gwendolyn waving her hands over Aurora’s body, which begins to float along at her side, following her towards Cassandra’s portal.

I let out a roar, extending my wings, which are powerful enough to force the vampires around me to scatter, and chase after Gwendolyn. There are two vampires standing with Cassandra, guarding her portal; one of them charges at me, but I catch him by his throat and squeeze; my claws tear into his flesh and his head fully detaches from his body.

The other vampires’ eyes widen in fear, and he sprints through the portal, Cassandra yells after him in anger, but he’s already gone. The rest of the vampires catch up to us, and I find myself fighting desperately, not even caring if I kill them, just causing enough damage to slow them down. Gwendolyn has reached Cassandra; she didn’t run, she didn’t even once seem worried as she casually made her way to the portal. She acts as if I’m no threat to her at all.

Aurora still floats by her side, and she and Cassandra pause to look back, watching me fight through the dwindling number of vampires attacking me.

“I WILL KILL YOU BOTH!” I roar at them, impaling a vampire on my clawed hand, and kicking him to the ground. “Do you hear me, Cassandra? You will beg me for mercy!” My fist punches another vampire across the face with so much speed, his head does a full spin, his neck cracking loudly. Another launches himself in the air; before he can land in front of me, I grab a hold of one of his wings and, using his own momentum, I swing him directly into the roaring fire. I sink my fangs into the throat of the nearest vampire, ripping into him and tearing off a chunk of his flesh. Blood pours from my mouth, and I spit some onto the ground. Glancing up, I watch in horror as Cassandra shoves Gwendolyn and Aurora through her portal.

My rage reaches a crescendo, my wings extend, and I fly out of reach of the remaining vampires, and barrel toward Cassandra; she raises her hands shooting water from her palms; it turns to ice when it hits me, freezing me in midair.

She smirks up at me, “I hope you enjoyed your time with her, because at dawn, I will drain her of all her blood. She will be nothing but a power source for me, and once I have Lothar’s kingdom, Cassian and I will come for yours.” She laughs, “you really should have just agreed to ally with me, we could have come to some agreement over Aurora, but now you’ll never see her again.”

Fury consumes my mind, and I my wings begin to vibrate, causing the ice to crack. 

Cassandra’s eyes widen, “How-?” She shakes her head, shoots me a glare, and disappears through her portal of roaring waves.

I break through the ice and fall to the ground, not even bothering to catch myself. The remaining vampires circle me, cracking their necks, stretching their fingers, and some even pick up the blades that were wielded by Cassian’s men.

“I gave you a chance.” My voice is hoarse, anguished, “and now, because of you fucking traitors, my queen is gone.” The word goes through my head over and over again. Gone… she’s gone.

I kill them all swiftly, not even caring to torture them first, then stand amongst the sea of human and vampire bodies, covered in blood and shaking with pure rage and adrenaline. I have no idea where Cassandra took her, I don’t understand how Gwendolyn is so strong, and now I know Aurora was right; Cassandra promised Cassian that she would help him kill me.

I pick up one of the black swords, and as soon as I touch it, I can feel its corruption seeping through me. It fills me with power, similar to how Aurora’s blood makes me feel, but even more volatile. Wrapping my shirt around the hilts, I take two swords with me, leaving the rest scattered around the bloody scene.

I don’t waste another moment, extending my wings, I take off into the sky, flying through the smoke from the burning manor and into the clouds.

I don’t even bother concealing myself from the humans, I fly straight to the front door of my safe house, and speed into the kitchen where everyone is sitting around the table, laughing, and drinking.

The room goes silent when I appear, dripping blood, and shaking with unrestrained rage.

Kieran stands up quickly, “My King, what happened? Where is Queen Aurora?”

“We have to leave, now.”

Adrian and Dimitri stare at me stupidly, and Inez’s eyes are wide as she glances at the weapons in my hand. I throw them onto the table, where they glint ominously in the dim candlelight, “we were ambushed by Cassian and his men, wielding those weapons.”

Dimitri reaches his hand out, “Don’t touch them!” I hiss at him, “they are infused with void magic.”

“Samael what happened?” Adrian stares at the deadly weapons, concern etched between his eyes.

“Yeah, boss, where’s Aurora?” Dimitri asks, looking past me into the hallway.

I grit my teeth, and my wings twitch impatiently, “Cassandra and Gwendolyn took her. Which is why we have to leave, I need to get back to Adelaide, she should be able to find them.”

None of them move, they all stare at me in shock. “NOW!” I roar. Adrian and Dimitri leave immediately, speeding out the way I came in. Kieran scoops up Inez, who squeals in surprise, and follows behind them.

I pick up the weapons off the table, wrapping them in my shirt again, and speed out of the house, soaring into the sky and passing the others in a blur.

Even flying at my top speed, it takes too long to get back to Solana’s. I’ve been flying for hours, and I’m so far ahead of the others, I can’t see any sign of them when I look back. I don’t wait for them though; as soon as I reach The City of Eternal Flame, I go straight to the portal room, where a frazzled Tillie tries to get me to wait for her to summon Solana before opening me a portal to Dema Mortem.

I let her, because Solana could possibly know where Cassandra and Gwendolyn might hide Aurora; she’s known them both since childhood, she will be a useful ally in getting her back.

Tillie leads Solana through a portal on my left, and I immediately inform her of what happened. She doesn’t hesitate, she waves her hands, opening a portal and insists on accompanying me back to my castle. She also instructs Tillie to send along the guys and Inez when they arrive.

We step through the portal, exiting into my throne room where Adelaide, Seth, Emmeline, and around half a dozen of my guards are waiting for us. Good. That means Adelaide already knows and is prepared to go get Aurora back.

“Adelaide,” I breathe out a sigh of relief, “we don’t have any time to lose, tell me what you know, what did you see?”

Adelaide looks at me wearily, “all I know is that she will be back by tomorrow afternoon.”

I pause, confused, “so, you don’t know what happened?”

“No,” she gestures to the table behind my throne, “why don’t you tell me?”

I narrow my eyes at her, “we have to go! I’m not leaving Aurora in the hands of that bitch until tomorrow.”

“Samael, I saw it, she will return, and she will need you here when she does. Please don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.” Her words are calm, but they set me off.

“You want me to just sit around while my queen is out there about to have her blood drained!” I sneer at her, “no fucking chance Adelaide. Tell me what else you saw.”

She sighs, and I sense my guards move closer. “I saw exactly this; you, unable to accept that Aurora can take care of herself and come back to you.”

“This isn’t about whether I think she can handle herself or not! I know that she can, but I also refuse to allow those witches any chance to hurt her!” I roar, flipping the table, and slamming it to the floor where it breaks into pieces.

I flinch at Adelaide’s intake of breath, “witches?” she questions with a hint of fear.

“Yes. Cassandra, and Gwendolyn, who, by the way, is consumed by the void. Adelaide, her eyes have turned completely black.”

Adelaide’s eyes widen, “I-I didn’t see her… she wasn’t there at all in my visions.”

Another roar escapes me; she can’t see Gwendolyn, so I can’t trust she’s right that Aurora will be back tomorrow. Red hot rage burns through me, “it’s all my fucking fault! I should have taken her and flew away as soon as I saw Cassian.”

I pick up a chair and throw it across the room; it crashes through the window, shattering the glass and plummeting to the ground. At that moment, a portal opens and Adrian, Dimitri, Kieran, and Inez exit, all looking around at the mess of broken furniture.

“About time,” Adelaide huffs. “A little help please?”

I growl at her, “Help with what Adelaide? What the fuck do you think you’re going to do?”

“Exactly what needs to be done in order to stop you from making a huge mistake. I’ve Seen it, Samael. Aurora will be back soon and she will need you here. Please trust me.” She nods to the bag on the floor next to my throne, “Boys, take one each.”

Kieran passes Adrian and Dimitri syringes from the bag. I laugh darkly, “That much lightsbane won’t have any effect on me Adelaide, you know that.”

“They’re not the only ones with it,” she says, looking at the six guards she’s gathered here; they each hold a syringe in their hands as well.

I stare at her in disbelief, “This? Now? Have you lost your mind?”

“Will you stay here and wait for Aurora to return?”

Just the thought of doing nothing while Aurora is goddess knows where, and I have no idea if she is hurt or scared, enrages me, and my wings twitch threateningly.

“That’s what I thought,” Adelaide says grimly. “This plan was put in place for exactly these kinds of situations. You know I’ve had to do this to your father once.” 

“My father was on a murderous rampage and needed to be stopped! All I’m trying to do is save Aurora and you’re doing this? Are you out of your fucking mind, Adelaide!?” 

Adelaide actually looks regretful, “Perhaps, but I cannot simply ignore my visions, you know that.” 

She nods at my men and for the third time today, I find myself surrounded, only this time, I don’t want to kill any of them. Seth makes his way to my side, clapping me on the back, I nod at him, thankful to at least have his support.

My guards look at me apologetically as they move closer to me, Kieran stays back slightly, while Adrian and Dimitri take a tentative step forward. I shake my head at them, and they both have the decency to look ashamed.

One of my guards, Niles, rushes forward, raising the syringe; I knock him back with the palm of my hand, sending him flying into the wall of bookcases. When I turn around, Seth is in front of me, plunging a syringe of lightsbane directly into my heart.

The effect is instantaneous; pain radiates from the place it was injected, flowing through my body in excruciating waves. I glare at my best friend and snap his neck quickly; he falls to the ground, unconscious, where he’ll stay until the bone heals itself.

“Who else?” I growl. “COME ON! Take your best fucking shot!” My own guards come at me with raised syringes, and I let out a roar of frustration. I don’t want to hurt them, but that doesn’t stop me from breaking the arm of my guard, Leo; he screams in pain. Kieran charges at me, sinking his syringe into my arm, causing more pain to shoot through me, but I keep fighting.

After getting injected twice more, the pain causes me to stumble; giving Adrian and Dimitri an easy opportunity to pierce me with their needles. They inject the lightsbane at the same time, and black dots begin to cloud my vision. I swing my clawed hand around, slashing Adrian across the chest, and grab Dimitri’s shirt, pulling him close with a grunt of pain. I punch him across the face, knocking him to the floor, where he spits out a mouthful of blood.

My preoccupation with the two vampires I thought I could trust, leaves me open for the rest of my guards to plunge their syringes into my flesh. I fall to my knees, the effects finally overtaking my rage and weakening me enough to keep me from fighting back.

Adelaide kneels beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder, “You’d have torn this place apart without the lightsbane, and then you would have gone looking for Aurora, and she would have fought her way back to you, only to find you not here waiting for her when she returned.” 

Each of my guards pull out another syringe, and Adelaide lowers her voice to a whisper, “I need you to trust me, Samael. You need to be here for her. You’ll understand when you wake, I promise.” 

I just glare at her, but I don’t fight when six needles pierce into me at once, and the lightsbane courses through my veins, consuming me in agony like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I feel myself falling, but everything goes dark before I hit the floor.