Her Billionaire, Her Wolf(65)

“While my strength is formidable, I am still no match for the fallen angel and he eventually forced the answer out of me.

“When next I went to the quarry, Caim had disappeared and in his place stood our father who then exacted the promise from me that I would never affront Caim again.

“It was a bitter thing to swallow, but I had no choice. Only, I know that he will not rest nor be content. Caim’s creation was fraught with so much vile hatred and his birth with the evil murder of the very woman he had so loved, he cannot help but be a monster.

“In what way he might manifest himself, I could not guess until only recently. Yet, I could do nothing.

“Until I found you.”

“So, you’re telling me that this thing...this vampire is what you have me chasing after?” Clement asked.

“No. More precisely, I have discerned that the vampires have begun organizing themselves, moving here and there but their usual random actions were changing.

“The serpent had grown a head to direct the body and that they worked toward some objective became clear to me.

“I had you follow them until I could be sure and allowed you to quaff your thirst for their destruction as the occasions presented themselves.”

Clement shook his head. While the Nephilim told a good story, the answers were still not good enough.

“All right. So here you are, talking all around the subject without getting to the point...as usual.”

The grey eyed man forced his hand away from the easy familiarity of his sword’s pommel, drew a deep breath and tried to calm himself.

“Why does it feel like you have been nudging me into an encounter with my step-brother all along?” he said quietly.

“If I have done so it is because he has done something admirable and unique among the shapes-shifters. He has developed a means of surveilling the vampires. His werewolf spies have infiltrated them thoroughly and it was as I observed his efforts that I first discovered the blood drinkers beginning their own attempts at self organization,” said the Nephilim.

“My enemy must be at the heart of this and I cannot act against him. Not without your aid.”

“Look, I don’t care about whatever personal vendettas you happen to have,” Clement replied, “ What matters right now is that a woman my brother values very highly has been framed for murder and my every instinct tells me that it stinks to high heaven of vampires.”

“What? Do you mean to say that the woman has been taken?” The creature frowned deeply as he considered what he had just heard.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying,” said Clement.

“This is grave news, indeed.

“You must make great haste, human. In my estimation, your sword will be urgently needed, in this very moment even.

“Fly to your sibling’s side because if the vampires have the woman in their power, it is certain that she will be used against him. He will be trapped with no issue in sight should you not arrive in time.”

All trace of a smile had been wiped away from the Nephilim’s visage. There was only a heavy frown in its place as he said, “The game has escalated far more quickly than I had envisaged. I must think on what to do.”

“Ok, good. You do that,” Clement said, his tone grim, “ And while you’re busy thinking, it sounds like I have some vampires to kill.”

He did not wait for the creature to respond. Instead, he stood up and nearly ran across the cemetery grounds, no longer caring if he upset a few gravestones in his passage.

An innocent woman had been caught up in a game between monsters and if he did not hurry, she and his brother both risked their doom.



Daniel, the last child of the Seraphim to walk the earth, watched the grey eyed man rush away and he shook his head.

“I fear, my hard hearted friend, that even you and your skill with the blade shall not suffice,” he murmured before he, too, stood up to leave the calm and peace of the cemetery behind.

As he marched with long strides that became ever longer while his body resumed its natural state, he said, “While I am loathe to do so, perhaps the time has come to appeal to a higher power....”

Except that there was no one to hear his words...unless it was the dead themselves and, for their part, they had nothing to say in kind.



~~~



Whatever was chasing him howled in the distance.

He only grinned, though, and kept running. They had no idea how powerful he had become, how dangerous he was now.

Jackson Woodard ran through the woods and could not help but laugh as he did. He kept thinking that it was just like being a kid all over again.

He dashed right, then left, jumping over logs like a rabbit, then burst into a loping run along a game trail before veering into a thicket of trees once more.