Nightfall (Nightfall Book 1)

The sounds of fighting and yelling were all around them. Arkemoz grunted as someone immediately collided with him. But despite it being so dark, he could actually see a bit better here. And he could very well see the hungry grin on the face of his attacker. Clearly, this hadn’t been an accident.

Arkemoz wanted to pull out his stake and fight immediately, but he found himself being grabbed by his wrist and pulled back by James. The demon wanted to argue, but he couldn’t say anything when he saw the way the five vampires close to them in the hallways were giving him the same look. And there could have been more, but that was as far as he could see.

But all of these people were with Aegis, weren’t they? Arkemoz could see those bracelets on their wrists. What was going on here?

Red lights suddenly came alive around them, casting long, ominous shadows. But at least now Arkemoz could see much better. The only problem was that now that he could see the entire room, it was clear that these vampires weren’t the only ones willing to attack them. But some of the Aegis members were fighting back, and they didn’t seem to be losing. There was at least another ten vampires in the room. They could fight this.

Arkemoz reached for his stake.

“Just give us the demon, Adley,” one of the vampires said—a tall, older-looking man, “and we might pretend you got away from us.”

“Sparing my life? Oh, you shouldn’t have.”

Arkemoz didn’t have to look to know James had pulled out his own stake as well.

“Oh, no one said anything about killing you,” the vampire replied. Arkemoz scowled, but this time in confusion. What was that supposed to mean? If that was a threat, it wasn’t very effective. “But if you insist.”

And then they were on them. At least that was what Arkemoz thought until all five of them attacked only him at once. Gritting his teeth, the demon backed away as much as he could, using his tail to slash at them while almost blindly lashing out with his stake.

That worked to keep them away for a second, but the next time he tried striking with his tail, one of them grabbed it and squeezed harshly, making Arkemoz cry out. He desperately tried to pull his tail away from the iron grip of the female vampire holding it, but he still kept trying to stab the others with his stake.

Thankfully, the next second James and Denise attacked them from behind, Denise managing to turn the one gripping his tail to dust with her bullets as the deafening sound of gunshots filled the room.

Arkemoz used the momentary confusion to stab his tail in the eye of the vampire closest to him, making him cry out as his hands flew up to shield his face, and the next second James used the opportunity to kill him by stabbing him through the chest from behind.

Denise’s gun clattered to the ground as the vampire who had spoken to them disarmed her, but Arkemoz didn’t get to help her as he was slammed against the wall by another vampire, sending pain throughout his whole, stupidly human spine.

Arkemoz didn’t let that stop him for long enough for the vampire to do anything else, though, and he slashed at him with his tail, slamming his forehead into his attacker’s and making him stumble back.

Yet another vampire made a grab for him, but James stopped her before she could reach him, dragging her back, and letting Arkemoz continue fighting the vampire who had attacked him last, attempting to stab him with the stake.

Only managing to graze his arm, Arkemoz backed off against the wall again, his tail raised and ready to strike, which he had to do the next second as the vampire attacked again. Arkemoz barely managed to avoid having it caught again as he cut the vampire’s chest with the sharp tip, splatters of blood hitting his face.

The vampire stumbled back, glaring at him and about to attack again, but just as Arkemoz braced himself for his back and head colliding with the wall, the vampire turned to ash with a cry, revealing Denise behind him. She had a cut along her cheek, and she was holding her shoulder.

The smell of blood was in the air, Arkemoz noted as his head turned to James as if by instinct, noticing that the vampire’s arm was bleeding. And he was keeping a hnad on his chest, which was most likely bleeding as well.

Arkemoz grimaced, feeling more than a little worried about James, even though he rationally knew the vampire would be fine in a little while. He at least related to the fact that he was in pain, because Arkemoz’s back still hurt.

“What the fuck was that?” Denise asked, her voice disbelieving and huffing. It seemed the other vampires had finished their own fights, having won, though now there were only two survivors. And both of the women looked very freaked out.

“Why would they…. How….”

Denise immediately marched to the pair, still holding her shoulder. “Did you know them?”

The blond woman was rubbing the shorter, black-haired one’s back as she nodded. She seemed to be handling it better than her companion, though she was clearly still unsettled. “Yes, Brandon was our coworker. We went on missions a lot. And he just…tried to kill us for no reason.”

Arkemoz looked over at James, pleased to see that the vampire already looked like he was doing better. But James was also watching him now, looking him up and down as if trying to assess that he was also okay. Arkemoz raised his tail and ran his eyes over it. There was still some dull pain in it, but nothing serious. He just gave James a firm nod to assure him that he was fine and then walked over to Denise, eager to know as much as he could about the situation.

“And the others?” Denise now had her hand in her short hair. “Did you know them?”

The other woman grimaced. “Not well, but I know they worked for Aegis for a while now.”

“Why would they do this?” the dark-haired one muttered, now glaring at the ground where one of the silver bracelets lied in a pile of ash.

Arkemoz was getting the feeling that they were all thinking the same thing. He looked over at James who had also come closer, looking grim. These people had wanted to take Arkemoz, so the only logical conclusion was that they had been working for the angels. But that begged the question just how many members of Aegis were actually traitors, and that was a very disturbing thing to think about.

“We can figure this out later. Right now, I suggest we go check if these were all of them, or if there are more vamps to fight off. And get the lights back on.”

Arkemoz nodded, agreeing with James. They could draw conclusions later.

But then he felt his heart clench with dread as something dawned on him. These people had wanted a demon. But Arkemoz wasn’t the only demon here.

“We need to go find Azralis. Immediately.”

The four vampires gave him the same look of horror before Denise made her way to the door at a superhuman speed, only to find it locked. Or was it barricaded? Arkemoz joined her when he saw her push against the wooden door, but it wouldn’t budge. He tried slamming his fist into it, but only managed to make his knuckles throb as he clutched his hand in pain. He could make a hole in a rock wall like this—what was this door made of?

“Guess we’re not getting through here,” Denise said, giving Arkemoz a look of concern.

“Yeah, come on, this way,” said the blond vampire, already opening the door on the other side of the room. All of them quickly made their way to the next corridor, cautiously looking around the dark, blood-red space. Arkemoz truly hoped that the way around wouldn’t take too long to walk through because the longer they took, the less probable it was that Azralis was okay.

Arkemoz never actually saw her fight, but he had heard that she was very good at it. But that wouldn’t matter here nearly as much as it would in a fight with angels. The angels Arkemoz knew wouldn’t use spells to weaken their enemy. No, they would fight them at full strength to show that they could. And demons in general hadn’t been prepared for this kind of fight. No matter how good and strong Azralis was, if enough vampires attacked her, she wouldn’t be able to fight them off without them managing to put those enchanted handcuffs on her. And then it would be over.

These thoughts were bringing back Arkemoz’s memories of his own kidnapping, and it made him grit his teeth. He didn’t want another member of his species to have to go through that, no matter what they thought of him. He and Azralis had never really spoken before, but he could tell what her opinion of him was already, but that didn’t matter. Though he had pictured finally meeting another demon on Earth very differently.

The farther they went, the more ominous the atmosphere became, and the more on edge Arkemoz felt. And he could tell the others weren’t exactly at peace either. It was too quiet, and it was making Arkemoz jumpy. The only thing around them were the ever-present red lights and darkness, and the occasional pile of ashes, which was either good or bad, and they had no way of knowing.

But the fact that these people were supposed to work together and had apparently turned against each other was disturbing enough to let him consider this as bad either way.

Arkemoz almost jumped when they finally heard distant talking in the infuriatingly quiet building. They all exchanged a look before making their way towards the sounds as quietly as they could, picking up the pace when they realized the people talking were humans. Arkemoz assumed these must have been magic users, at the very least.

“Stop!” one of them yelled—a tall, thin man with glasses—pointing a gun at them. Presumably one with wooden bullets. “Are you going to try to kill us like these ones?”

Everyone looked down at the ashes on the ground when the man pointed to them with his free hand.

James sighed. “No, we’re not. We got attacked too.”

“Okay, so it’s not all vampires, then. That’s good,” the woman next to the man said, sounding relieved, while the man gaped at her.

“We can’t just trust their word, Amanda!”

“You’re gonna have to,” Denise said grimly. “We have no way of proving anything. But we need to get to Azralis’ office. These vampires want demons. We can’t let them have them.”

The man narrowed his eyes at them, though that did nothing to hide his obvious nervousness. The woman just looked concerned, but she said nothing, giving them a nod.

“Just go hide until this blows over. Before you become someone’s dinner,” James told them as he walked past them, receiving a rather offended look from the man. Arkemoz followed, his teeth gritted as he gripped the handle of his stake harder. He could hear the man muttering something about never having trusted vampires, but everyone seemed to ignore that as they entered yet another corridor.

But at least Arkemoz could tell this one was looping back around, which hopefully meant they would be able to get back to Azralis soon. The five of them were practically running now, though it was obviously not a good idea given the noise they were making.

“How can we know if we can trust anyone now?” the black-haired vampire asked quietly, clearly meaning it more as a rhetorical question than one she actually wanted an answer to.

It was a good question, though. And the obvious answer was that they could trust no one. Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about what that really meant, Arkemoz looked over at James.

James had been complaining about not liking Aegis since the start, and he’d also been suspiciously nice to him this entire time….

No, he trusted James. And Denise. And besides, this made no sense when he thought about it further. These angels were clearly only interested in capturing demons. Arkemoz doubted they wanted information from them because the vampires hadn’t asked for any during that whole ordeal, and James and Denise had saved him from them.

They’d had ample opportunity to try to overpower and capture him again as well, and they’d done nothing to even make him suspicious they might. But the fact that not all of Aegis’ people were against them made this incredibly confusing. This wasn’t something he was used to from Hell—no one ever betrayed anyone because they had a common enemy, and nothing about it was complicated.

As they finally turned the last corner, about to finally reach the office, they all stopped when they came face to face with at least ten vampires. And it wasn’t hard to tell that they weren’t on their side, given them all holding stakes, poised to strike. Arkemoz adjusted his grip on his own stake, looking from one to the other. They all had their eyes on him, and he really hated how intimidated that made him feel.

Annoyed with himself, he gritted his teeth, his tail raised even though he was aware they probably knew how to use it against him. He wasn’t going to let that stop him from using it.

“See? I told you it was worth it waiting around,” the vampire in the front said, grinning at the man on her right, who just rolled his eyes.

“Fine, let’s just grab him and drink his blood already,” the man complained, staring at Arkemoz’s neck. The demon glared. As if he was going to let them do that. Certainly not without a fight. Though he hated to think about that. It was five against ten, and there could be more vampires in the back who Arkemoz couldn’t see.

“And grab Adley, too. The angels will like that,” the woman ordered as vampires dashed towards them, far too fast for Arkemoz to manage to dodge. He grunted as he was thrown against the wall, falling to his hands and knees. There were five of them grinning down at him, clearly intending on sinking their fangs into him. But before they could Arkemoz sprang to his feet and lashed out with his tail at the one closest to him, grabbing him with it and using him as a shield the same moment as the other four attacked.

Arkemoz grinned as the vampire cried out, but his victorious glee didn’t last for long because to his shock, the vampire turned to dust a second later. And his allies didn’t seem to care at all that they’d just killed one of their own.

He grunted as two of them grabbed him by his arms and crashed him into the wall hard enough for him to let out a pained groan. Trying to push them off, he lashed out with his tail again, only managing to get one of the vampires holding him stuck against the wall to back off for a second before a third one grabbed the tail and slammed it against the wall as well. Arkemoz gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as pain stabbed through his entire tail. He tried to get it out of the bruising grip, but he only managed to make the vampire struggle to hold it down.

“Damn, this stupid tail is strong,” the guy muttered, his grip tightening and making Arkemoz gasp, only for that to turn into a cry as one of them sunk her teeth into his neck without further ado. Arkemoz trashed in the steel grip they had on him, actually managing to throw them off a little, but there were just too many of them. For any vampire he managed to push away, another two pushed back.

He forced himself not to make a sound as another one bit the other side of his neck. Arkemoz could feel the fangs sinking into his flesh with a horrible clarity, his eyes stinging as agony rippled through his whole body as the other two vampires joined in, pushing his coat off enough to bite his arms. Arkemoz could feel himself getting weaker as they drained his blood, his strength waning until he could barely stand upright, let alone try to fight them off.

He barely noticed that one of the vampires had moved away, only realizing it when Arkemoz heard the clinking of metal against metal. He dragged his eyes up to see a pair of the same cuffs that had been used to capture him the first time. The sight awakened the need to fight in him again, but he was too weak to manage it. He didn’t let that stop him however—he wanted few things as little as he wanted those shackles around his wrists again.

“Congrats,” the vampire said, showing off his black, bloodstained teeth, “you’re gonna become just the most delicious blood slave.”

Arkemoz gritted his teeth, making a weak attempt at getting the three vampires off of him, only to flinch and freeze as they all one by one turned to ash. With nothing holding him back anymore, he fell to his knees, breathing heavily and trying not to make a sound as his wounds screamed in pain.

Despite this, he forced himself to look up at the sounds of fighting that he must have been filtering out this whole time, only to see Qironin, one stake in each hand, effortlessly killing the remaining three vampires. He must have killed the four that had drained him, then. Arkemoz gritted his teeth in anger as he tried to stand up and didn’t even make it to one knee before falling forward again.

“Arkie!”

Arkemoz groaned as strong hands grabbed him under his arms and pulled him into a sitting position. Even before looking, he knew this was James. Arkemoz closed his eyes for a second, letting the vampire fuss over him, too tired to fight it. And it still felt nice to have someone care so much.

“Are you okay?” Arkemoz tried not to wince as James looked over the bites a bit too roughly. “Ah, shit, what the hell am I saying? Of course you’re not. I’m so sorry. There were just too many of them.”

James kept going on like this, Arkemoz feeling too tired to push him away. He was going to be okay soon. He would just need some time to heal, which they unfortunately didn’t have. At least the amount of blood escaping his wounds had lessened considerably already. He needed to get up.

James seemed to pick up on this very quickly and he surprisingly didn’t argue when he saw Arkemoz make an attempt to get up onto his feet. The vampire just put and arm over his back and helped him stand up, holding him steady. He was still giving him worried and guilty looks though, as if this had somehow been his fault.

Arkemoz quickly took a look around, noting that shockingly everyone had survived the attack. Though in hindsight, it had probably seemed to take much longer for him than it actually had. He couldn’t help but notice all the cuts and bruises on James’ face, however. Not when he was standing right next to him. It was a new experience to feel rage at the sight of an injured person. Was this how James felt right now?

“Where were you?” James’s question sounded more than a little like an accusation. Qironin’s usually pleasant expression was gone, replaced with one of anger and seriousness. There was even a hint of fear. Why would someone as strong as Qironin be scared by what had happened?

“I was trying to get through the door to reach Azralis. They sealed it with magic. But she’s not here. I only just managed to get through to help you. Now come on, we need to go after them!”

James gave Arkemoz a worried look. A questioning look. As if he was willing to let these vampires have their way if Arkemoz wasn’t feeling up to chasing them down. But the demon just gave a nod, feeling some of his strength already returning as he picked his stake off the ground.

They ran—or in Arkemoz’s case made an attempt to run—behind Qironin, who was leading them the Demon Queen knew where. But Arkemoz didn’t argue or question anything, trusting that Qironin knew what he was doing, and just focused on trying to move as fast as he could with his injuries stinging with every step. There were the sounds of shouting and fighting in the distance, but he paid no attention to that.

The place was so dark, and every room looked so similar that only at the last moment did Arkemoz realize where exactly they were going, right when they were standing in front of a door. This was the portal room. Arkemoz watched as Qironin reached for the handle, only to grumble something under his breath as the handle refused to move.

And then to Arkemoz’s shock, before anyone could do or say anything, the man used the sharp tip of his stake to cut the skin of his palm. He proceeded to use the blood that poured out of the wound to quickly paint symbols on the door before pressing his hand against and saying a word in a language that sounded familiar, yet Arkemoz had no idea what it was or what it meant.

The blood on the door lit up with yellow light, glowing for just a moment before the door flew open by itself, just in time to reveal the most horrible sight—the portal closing. And as its light went out, so did Arkemoz’s hope of catching up to the vampires who had captured Azralis.

They were trapped.