Nightfall (Nightfall Book 1)

Arkemoz was still shocked by the revelation that to open an angels’ portal, one simply needed the sword of one. He certainly hadn’t known this, and he didn’t think demons in general knew it, despite how simple it was. But then, getting their hands on an angel’s sword was so much trouble that this information changed very little.

“Is everyone ready?”

Arkemoz blinked at Black’s voice breaking through his thoughts, annoyed with himself for focusing on the portal instead of the mission at hand. He gripped his stake, giving James a brief look. The vampire looked very serious for once, which both served to make the demon feel inspired and worried.

But then he should feel worried—Arkemoz had never faced an angel, nor had he ever seen one. He had heard a lot about them, though, and those stories only made his heart beat faster.

“I repeat, the primary mission is to rescue Azralis. If you can avoid a fight, do it.”

Arkemoz gave a nod, even though Black wasn’t looking directly at him right now, instead scanning his eyes over the entire group of vampires that was gathered in front of the cabin. Not fighting angels would be beneficial for everyone, though somehow, he doubted they’d get that lucky.

“Good, then let’s do this.”

Arkemoz was almost shocked to see Black simply turn around and walk into the portal without a second of hesitation, but it did help him push away some of his fear. And anger quickly took over once he repeated to himself why they were doing this. These angels invaded Earth for no reason, had been capturing demons, had attempted to capture him….

It was time to make them pay.

As he reached the portal, several Aegis members disappearing into it before him, for a second he hesitated, wondering if the portal would even let a demon pass through since it was angelic magic, but then he quickly pushed those concerns aside. Azralis must have gone through it if she’d been brought here, and there would be no point in taking her alive if the portal would kill her.

With that he took the final step without looking back, walking into the golden light, mindful not to trip over the sword still stuck in the ground. A second later he blinked, surprised that there was no discomfort, no force trying to throw him forward, as he found himself in a large room with a circular ceiling high above.

At first he thought the light of the portal was making it look gold, but he soon realized that the walls were actually a light shade of gold themselves, the surface smooth and unnaturally perfect. The only thing that wasn’t gold was the floor, which was silver instead, and rough enough that it could be walked on without problem as Arkemoz soon found out as he got out of the way of the vampires coming in.

Arkemoz swallowed, running his eyes over the entire room. None of the fights he’d been a part of made him feel like he felt now—this was the territory of his mortal enemies, and just being here was incredibly dangerous.

It was a bit ironic that he’d come to Earth in the first place to avoid being in places like this, yet here he was, of his own free will. But at least he wasn’t here alone, he thought to himself as he looked at James again, who was currently staring at their surroundings with wide eyes.

Finally, the last person came through the portal—the red-haired Aegis leader—holding the angel sword. The portal stayed open, however, which made sense, even though they had had no way of knowing it would work. Arkemoz wished he could supply information about this, but despite his people dealing with angels for so long no one even remembered what it was like before the War, they didn’t actually know much about angelic magic or technology.

But then, demons had mostly been trying to exterminate them, not understand them, much like the angels did to them.

“Have you seen anything like this before?” James asked him in a whisper as he leaned closer to him. Arkemoz shook his head. Hopefully this place wasn’t going to be too big, though, or navigating it was going to be impossible if all of it was this featureless.

“All right, let’s go find Azralis,” Black said relatively quietly, but in the tense silence of the alien room it was almost loud. “Stick together.”

Arkemoz set his jaw, clenching his hand around his stake so hard it almost hurt. He wasn’t sure why he was clinging onto the weapon so much, seeing as it could help him fight vampires only, but it did bring a small comfort to him.

He was very glad that they weren’t going to split up since that would be a very unwise idea. This way they should hopefully be able to spot danger before it hit them, but still Arkemoz occasionally threw a glance behind them. The fact that angels could fly and pass through walls, and therefore could suddenly appear behind them made him all the more jumpy, but he tried to comfort himself with the fact that angels were also arrogant, and tended to want to face their enemies head on to prove they could.

And yet these ones got vampires to serve them, more than likely simply by offering them demon blood in return.

Arkemoz gritted his teeth as his anger burned away his fear once more. Good, he was going to need it.

They walked outside the first room into a relatively narrow corridor that had the shape of a round tunnel, their footsteps the only sound that could be heard. Their reflections danced on the polished gold walls as they went, making Arkemoz all the more jumpy. It looked almost too real, as if there was a mirror instead.

They proceeded to enter another room, just as large as the last, but it didn’t seem that way at first because most of it was taken up by a…well, Arkemoz was actually not sure what it was. It was definitely an angelic machine, a massive, round device with tubes coming out of it and going into the floor beneath them.

Arkemoz frowned at it, tilting his head as they approached it. No one really seemed to be paying much attention to it aside from checking for enemies possibly hiding behind it, but the demon couldn’t look away. This seemed familiar to him. He had seen drawings of machines like this in books, but he couldn’t remember details about them.

Dammit, why hadn’t he paid more attention? He had done that on purpose of course—to make himself as distant from the War as possible, but it could have been very useful right now.

But there was another problem, which he noticed when he realized they’d stopped in the middle of the room. There were two corridors leading out from this one, which meant they would have to choose which one to go through.

Since they had no way of knowing how large this place was, it would be difficult to choose, but given that they’d not run into anyone yet, perhaps they could afford the risk of spending more time here than anticipated.

But then, after the Aegis leaders discussed something in hushed tones for a second, Black voiced an option Arkemoz hadn’t even thought to consider. “Let’s split up.”

Arkemoz stared at him in disbelief. That was a very stupid idea. Yes, there were quite a few of them, and splitting up would let them cover much more ground, but at what cost? They didn’t even have one sword for each group. It took multiple demons to even have a chance at defeating an angel, and that was with weapons that could be used against them—how well could vampires possibly stand their ground in these numbers?

But while no one looked particularly happy about this, no protests followed. Arkemoz looked over the vampires standing around him, frowning. Did they really not see the problem with this, or did they think they could take on an angel weaponless? They weren’t working for Aegis voluntarily, as far as Arkemoz understood it, so why were they going along with this?

“Radio for help if needed,” Black told the other leaders, not sounding very happy either, despite being the one to suggest this. “Or if you find anything.”

Arkemoz had no idea what radio was, but that wasn’t his problem, he supposed. He should be focusing on the fact that they were about to do a very unwise thing, but somehow he couldn’t seem to get himself to say anything as his throat closed up. It really reminded him of how he’d felt in Hell whenever something he didn’t agree with had been said, and he hated that he was feeling this way now.

He tensed up when he felt a hand pat his back, only to see James grimacing at him with sympathy, which let him relax a bit once more. Arkemoz hadn’t noticed that he’d shown his displeasure with the situation so blatantly that James would pick up on it.

Still, he said nothing, only swallowing as they got moving once more, following behind Black as he chose the corridor on the right. It was still ominously quiet, aside from a sort of a low humming that Arkemoz had only noticed now. Probably more angelic machines, if he were to guess.

This corridor was much longer than the first one, and it seemed to wind itself around. It happened so much in fact that after a while Arkemoz was starting to wonder if they were actually stuck going around in a circle when suddenly, as they took another turn, the corridor came to an end.

There was nothing but a golden wall at the end, the metal making it up as smooth as the walls, but it did look somehow different, though he couldn’t tell why exactly from the distance. As everyone came to a halt in their surprise, Arkemoz found himself reaching the front of their group as he walked closer to the wall, frowning at it curiously.

And finally, he figured out what had seemed different about it—there were vertical lines running over it, curving as they went up and converging at the very top. But they weren’t just lines—they were formed out of angelic writing.

Arkemoz’s eyes widened. This was a door, not a wall, even though it definitely looked like one. And the only reason he could tell was because he finally managed to remember something useful about angels. He had seen doors like this in drawings, and he had heard them talked about, mostly because of all of the angel’s techno-magical engineering, these were one of the things that demons had figured out how to operate.

Now if only he could remember how this worked.

He put his hand on the door, fairly certain that was how the controls were summoned, only to yelp and yank his hand back as pain stabbed through his palm. James was immediately at his side, checking his hand before Arkemoz barely had the chance to do so himself. There was no injury, and the pain was already almost gone, but James holding his hand was pleasant, so he let him fuss over him.

He didn’t remember anyone mentioning this.

“Jesus, Arkie, you have to be more careful,” James berated him, making Arkemoz scowl at him. But he ignored it beyond it that. They didn’t have time to bicker.

“This is a door,” the demon glared at the object, pointing his finger at it. “But I’m not sure how to open it.”

“Are you certain?” Black asked as he appeared behind them. Arkemoz resisted the urge to flinch. He kept forgetting how fast vampires could be.

“Yes, definitely.”

Arkemoz turned back to the door. He was sure there should be controls of some kind here through which the door could be opened. But if he couldn’t even touch it….

He blinked when he saw James reach out. Before he could stop him, the vampire was touching the metal, but instead of flinching away like Arkemoz had, James kept his hand where it was as the door hummed. A triangular panel appeared right above James’ hand, suddenly protruding from the door as if it had always been there.

“Well, that did something,” James muttered, sounding a bit concerned. Of all the things they currently had to worry about, Arkemoz didn’t think this was a priority, but he decided not to comment on any of that and instead peered closer.

He had thought there would be symbols to press, but instead there was simply a metal plate. Was that a new development, or did these angels change it to perhaps allow their vampires to control it?

Unfortunately, Arkemoz didn’t get more time to ponder that as a cry was heard behind them, echoing in the narrow corridor and making everyone turn around. Arkemoz’s eyes widened when he saw the group of maybe a dozen vampires rushing at them at full speed, already about to reach them.

The demon barely had the time to raise his stake before they were on them, naturally three of them avoiding the group of Aegis vampires and coming at him immediately. Arkemoz glared at them, dodging as the first to lunged at him, the sound of yelling filling the corridor.

He grunted as he failed to avoid the next one, wincing at the way the female vampire grabbed his arm roughly, but it was only a second before James dragged her off him, throwing her into a wall with more force than Arkemoz was used to seeing.

The demon jumped back as yet another vampire tried to attack him, using the split second he got from that to slam his fist in the vampire’s face, feeling the bones in his cheek break under his knuckles. The vampire stumbled back, finished off the next second by an Aegis vampire from behind.

Arkemoz barely got the time to see him die, though, as yet another attacked him, grabbing him too quickly to react and slamming his back into the door. The demon cried out on impact, but he was somewhat relieved that his clothes offered enough protection from whatever defensive mechanism the doors had that they didn’t hurt him over them.

Before the demon or his attacker could do anything, though, James was dragging the vampire away, grabbing him by his hair and ramming his head into the door. And then he did it again. And again.

Arkemoz was about to step in and kill the vampire, seeing as James was clearly not going to do it as quickly as he should, but then James slammed the vampire in the door for the fourth time, directly into the panel.

The demon’s eyes widened as the panel and symbols on the door lit up with a red light, and after making a loud hum, the door began to go up, slowly disappearing into the ceiling.

“Oh, that works,” James muttered, finally killing their enemy off with a quick stab through the chest. And finally Arkemoz could see what had made the door open. There was blood smeared all over it, including the control panel that was now above him.

So the angels really must have changed the door mechanism to accommodate their vampires. But he hadn’t even thought to consider that it could be as simple as using blood on its own. It felt almost crude, especially for a species that didn’t have blood in the usual sense.

There was still battle raging behind him—the demon would have to be deaf not to know that—and yet all Arkemoz could do was stare at the door, waiting with his heart clenching for it to get out of the way enough to peer into the room behind it.

And when it finally did, he couldn’t help but gape at the sight in front of him.

Azralis was there, chained up on a platform high up in the middle of the huge room, held there by some kind of contraption made of metal tubes and plates. Even from the distance Arkemoz could tell that she was unconscious, hanging limp from the chains keeping her arms up, but the thing that he was focusing on was the fact that she was in her true form, her now obsidian skin a stark contrast against the golden thing holding her.

He had originally recognized her by intuition, not visage. It was very difficult to force a demon to remove their disguises, with some—like Arkemoz—barely being having the ability to do it themselves. What had those angels done to her?

“Useless vampires…” someone muttered from within the room, making Arkemoz look down to the dark-haired man standing under the platform in front of what looked like another control panel. But no, Arkemoz wouldn’t be fooled for even a second. That was no man—it was an angel.

He was well disguised, but when Arkemoz properly looked at him, he could see white-gold light radiating around him like an aura, stretching out from his back into outlines of two pairs of wings.

This was one of his mortal enemies, a member of a species that had murdered likely hundreds of his clan members, and countless of his fellow demons, standing there, right in front of him. In that moment, Arkemoz could only stand there, frozen, unable to take in anything other than the angel, stuck between rage and crippling fear as the angel looked over his shoulder, glaring right at him.

“More demon filth, I see,” he continued with a strange lack of emotion in his voice for those words as he looked back at whatever he was doing. Arkemoz gritted his teeth. He couldn’t just run at him—that would be suicide—but oh how he wanted to. He longed for nothing more that to stab the sword Qironin had given them through the angel’s heart.

But they didn’t have the sword, did they? The other group did. Arkemoz swallowed. They could only hope they would make it here soon.

“An angel, I presume?” Black said as he walked from behind Arkemoz in front of him. The demon blinked, finally able to tear his eyes away from the angel. He briefly looked behind him, only to see that there were only seven vampires left in total, but they were all with Aegis. Arkemoz wasn’t sure if that would be enough, though. From everything he’d heard about angels….

“You’re too late,” the angel replied, his tone perfectly neutral. He still didn’t bother to turn around. Arkemoz couldn’t tell what he was doing, especially not with Black partly obstructing his view, but whatever it was, it was definitely not good.

Was he saying Azralis was dead? Because even from here Arkemoz could sense that wasn’t the case.

“You’re outnumbered,” Black said, ignoring the previous remark as he stepped into the room. Arkemoz winced. They didn’t have a weapon useful against an angel. He could see the angel himself had a sword hanging at his side, likely from a belt the demon couldn’t see under the shirt the angel was wearing, but managing to take the weapon from him would be next to impossible.

“I doubt that matters,” the angel replied, his tone still very matter of fact, as if he beyond a shadow of a doubt believed everything he said to be factual. “In fact, why don’t you wait for the rest of your group? I have to finish something.”

Despite how terrified he was, Arkemoz wanted to charge at him and stab his stake through him, even though he knew that wouldn’t do anything. The sheer arrogance in everything the angel said was infuriating to him. And clearly James noticed because the next second he grabbed the demon’s shoulder tightly.

Of course Arkemoz could just rip out of his grip very easily, but somehow it grounded him enough to stop him.

Black took a few steps forward, as did the other vampires, advancing into the room in a half circle in an attempt to surround the angel. But Arkemoz was staying rooted to the spot just outside, feeling as if the moment he moved, the angel would kill everyone.

Denise was looking back at him and James, worry clear on her face, but Arkemoz could barely see her. All he could look at was the angel, who was still doing something with his back to them. He needed to move. This was their one chance at attacking him.

But just as Arkemoz was about to finally join the others, something happened. There was a loud rumble, followed by metallic screech as the platform holding Azralis lit up with white light. Arkemoz threw a hand over his eyes, wincing at how bright and piercing it was, but almost immediately the glow faded.

At least that was what he’d thought until he looked at Azralis once more. Arkemoz stared at the platform, horror squeezing his heart as the instead of the light, now there was black smoke, going up from Azralis’ arms and into the tubes surrounding her.

But it wasn’t just that—the entire room seemed to have gone dark, the gold, vibrant walls dull and almost gray now, and the ceiling completely black. It didn’t even look like there was any ceiling at all anymore, but rather a void opening up above them.

A boom filled the air as even more of that smoke was pulled from Azralis, the room becoming even darker. But with it, Arkemoz could see the angel and his glowing aura better. And that was all he needed to see.

Filled with rage at whatever the angel was doing to his sister, and full of determination to put a stop to it, Arkemoz charged forward as fast as his legs would allow, dashing for the angel. He didn’t have the time to question what exactly he was going to do once he reached him. All he could think about was ripping the angel apart, no matter the cost.

He very nearly made it, already practically within reach of the angel’s sword when the creature turned around, punching him and throwing him back. Arkemoz groaned as he rolled over, immediately getting up to his knees to attack again when—

Arkemoz blinked, staring down at his hands in shock. They weren’t the hands he had gotten somewhat used to—no, they were claws. His dark skin stood out prominently against the dull gold floor he was leaning against.

Had he changed on instinct at meeting one of his mortal enemies? Was that even possible? Or had the angel somehow done it to him? He had very little control over the shapes his body took.

Arkemoz gritted his teeth, briefly running his tongue over the insides of his now sharp fangs. It didn’t matter. He was much stronger in his true form, and therefore he would be more of a match to the angel. He still wasn’t enough, but with everyone else, maybe they stood a chance.

The demon got up, immediately looking down as the tips of the claws on his bare feet clicked against the metal floor. He must have unwittingly ripped apart his shoes when he’d run to the angel, but maybe now he would be fast enough. He was a bit surprised he could still fit the rest of his clothes, but he supposed that was a good thing.

“Arkie!” he heard James yell at him in a shocked voice. Arkemoz’s lower pair of eyes briefly snapped over to the concerned-looking vampire, while his other two stayed firmly on the angel who was now brandishing his sword at the vampires surrounding him. Arkemoz had missed having six eyes.

Something inside of him twisted just a little at the fear in James eyes, but Arkemoz quickly looked away. It didn’t matter what James thought of him when the demon looked like this—the only thing that mattered was stopping the angel.

He charged at him once more, claws raised, and fangs bared. In less than a second, Arkemoz was jumping over the circle of vampires surrounding the angel, ready to very literally tear him apart, but just as he was about to hit, the angel swung his sword. The demon barely managed to duck in time before the golden blade was flying through the air, about to cut him in half.

He watched the angel swing the sword back around, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to get out of the way fast enough, but before it could hit him, the Aegis vampires finally struck, with Black leading the charge. They stabbed at the angel with their stakes, even though it wouldn’t hurt him much, drawing the being away from Arkemoz.

The demon shook his head, preparing to strike again. He needed to get the angel’s sword—it was the only way. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the angel kill a vampire by decapitating her. He wanted to run there and try to stab his claws through him again, but he needed to be smart about this.

Running around, Arkemoz did his best to ignore the sounds of battle surrounding him, all of his eyes firmly locked on the weapon the angel was currently trying to murder the vampires with, their superior speed the only thing keeping them alive.

In fact, the angel didn’t seem to be keeping up too well, the number of vampires being too much for him to react to all at once as he took rapid turns and twists, trying to hit some of them with the sword. Arkemoz wasn’t sure why he wasn’t using his ability to become ethereal, but it was definitely a good thing.

Once Arkemoz was behind the angel, he waited for a gap between the vampires to appear before rushing forward, grabbing the angel’s arm and without thinking sinking his fangs into it. But instead of letting go of the sword, the angel merely grunted in pain before slamming his fist into Arkemoz’s face.

The demon fell back with a cry, clutching his face as overwhelming pain stabbed through his cheek. A second later it was already fading, but before Arkemoz could pull himself together enough to get up again, a huge gust of wind threw him and all of the vampires back.

Arkemoz grunted as his back hit the wall, and then again when he was forced up by his horn a second later. His hands found the angel’s wrist, sinking his claws into it as hard as he could to get the angel to let him go, but the being just grabbed him by his throat instead, pushing him harshly against the wall.

The demon choked, intent on trying to get out of the angel’s grip with all his might, but then he froze as he noticed the white plumage behind the angel. The huge wings stuck out over his shoulders and above his head so much that it was impossible not to notice them, let alone with the glow that was coming off of them.

It was hard to look at, but Arkemoz couldn’t tear his eyes away. He was absolutely shocked that this angel had made his wings physical. Because now all Arkemoz would try to do was to break them.

“Disgusting beast,” the angel said, wrinkling his nose in distaste as he squeezed the demon’s throat harder. Arkemoz choked, already seeing black spots in his vision, but before he could start losing consciousness, the angel suddenly let him go, crying out in pain as James grabbed his wing.

Arkemoz fell forward, catching himself with his hands at the very last second. He only gave himself a second to shake off his drowsiness before dragging himself to his feet once more, ready to rejoin the fight. But he froze as soon as he saw the horrible sight in front of him.

The angel was swinging his sword, right in the direction of James who was lying on the ground. Arkemoz didn’t even think before rushing forward, faster than he ever had before, grabbing the angels wrist just before the blade made impact.

He clutched at the hilt, pulling at the sword with all of his might, but the angel kicked him in the stomach, sending Arkemoz stumbling back and doubling over. He was sure the angel would have killed him by now if demons weren’t useful for whatever he’d done with Azralis, but that was a good thing.

The sound of gunshots filled the room as Denise shot at the angel from afar. All it did was draw the being’s attention, but that was good enough for Arkemoz. He locked eyes with James for a split second, looking at the sword. The vampire nodded, already closing the distance between him and the angel, and Arkemoz did the same.

They both grabbed the hilt of the sword at once as Denise continued to shoot. They pulled at once, finally managing to wrench it free from the angel’s grasp. That was when the surviving rest of their group joined the attack all at once, using the last of their strength to distract the angel.

This was their one chance. Arkemoz didn’t have to give James any signals—the vampire was on the same page as him. Together they turned the sword against its owner, and in one smooth movement stabbed the blade through the angel’s chest.

An expression of disbelief finally broke the angel’s arrogant exterior, but only for a second before his form turned into a ball of translucent light. And a moment later, the light dissipated, fading away into nothingness as if the angel hadn’t been real in the first place, the sword hitting the floor with a loud clang.

Arkemoz fell to his knees as a sudden, overwhelming exhaustion hit him, breathing hard as he closed his eyes for a moment. He shook his head. No, he couldn’t rest yet. Azralis was still in danger, and whatever was being done to her, they had to stop it.

But before he could manage to get himself up again, the other group of Aegis vampires appeared, rushing to the machine. Arkemoz was too relieved at that moment to even bother being annoyed that they’d come only now.

He still was about to go help them when James plopped down on the ground next to him, hugging him almost too tightly.

“We did it, Arkie,” he said, letting out a shaky laugh as he buried his face in Arkemoz’s shoulder. The demon wrapped his tail around James’ waist in turn. “We did it.”

Arkemoz was about to reaffirm that—he couldn’t believe they’d just managed to kill an angel—but then he decided against speaking right now. He didn’t have lips in this form, and he didn’t even know if his vocal cords were similar enough to his semi human ones to even produce the right sounds.

He looked up as the vampires freed Azralis from the device, still unconscious but alive. The darkness in the room stayed, but Arkemoz wasn’t going to even bother worrying about that. He felt too tired to do it as the rest of his built-up tension left his body.

They’d really done it.

“So,” James said quietly as he pulled away a bit, studying the demon’s face closely. Arkemoz had to fight with himself not to look away at the scrutiny. “This is what you really look like, huh?”

Arkemoz said nothing, merely letting out a sigh. He didn’t want James to see him like this, but it was too late to avoid it. At least the vampire hadn’t sounded disgusted so far, but Arkemoz would do his best to try to turn back as soon as he got some of his strength back. He didn’t want to be on Earth stuck like this. The horns and tail had been difficult enough to disguise.

He swallowed thickly at the thought.

“Let’s get out of here, Arkie. This place makes my skin crawl.”

Arkemoz nodded, letting James help him to his feet. He wasn’t sure why he was so tired, but he was sure it would wear off soon. It felt good after so many setbacks and having to constantly defend themselves, they’d finally attacked their enemy and actually won.

There was something cathartic about killing an angel, especially one threatening Arkemoz’s clan. He didn’t regret not joining the War, but he was certainly glad to be the one who had killed him.

Arkemoz tried to ignore the way his claws clicked against the floor whenever he took a step, the sound overly loud in the empty rooms and corridors, despite the noise of talking all around them. He could see Denise studying him as she’d silently joined them, walking right next to James.

In a likely vain attempt at appearing more normal, Arkemoz shut his lower eyes, only keeping one pair open, staring at the floor the entire time. Was this what feeling self-conscious was like? It was awful.

Arkemoz sighed in relief as they reached the portal, which was still open, and stepped through it. The change of air was immediate, and very welcome. He took a moment to close even his remaining pair of eyes and breathed it in, his now superior senses almost overwhelmed by the amount of smells he could pick up on compared to the place they’d just left.

“Something’s wrong.”

All of Arkemoz’s eyes snapped open, looking over at Denise who was now rushing out of the cabin. The demon was about to follow when he frowned, looking around. His vision was better like this, but the shadows in the cabin seemed to be much darker than it should be. They hadn’t been at that base nearly long enough for it to get this dark.

He followed James as the vampire walked outside as well. And then Arkemoz looked up. Shock and fear seized his heart as he ran his eyes over the pitch-black, starless sky. It was partially obstructed by treetops, but he could see it too well, anyway.

Was that what the angels needed demons for? Some kind of spell to block out the sun for their vampires? Arkemoz ran up the hill to get a better look, gritting his teeth when at the very horizon he spotted the last remains of the natural evening sky, slowly being covered up completely by the thick black smoke above.

“What the hell?” James whispered in disbelief next to him as he caught up, staring up at the sky with a mix of confusion and horror. “How did they…?”

It seemed Arkemoz had been too hasty to call this a win, after all. The angels’ plan had been successful, and they’d done what they’d wanted to achieve by kidnapping demons. That angel had been right—they had been too late.

But strangely Arkemoz didn’t feel defeated, despite this. Quite the contrary, he was filled with a righteous and vengeful anger. After killing an angel, he was more than ready to take on the rest of them, no matter how many there were or what they wanted to do on Earth. They would undo this spell and eradicate both them and their vampire servants. He wouldn’t let them win.

Killing one angel and saving Azralis was only the first step in putting a stop to whatever the angels wanted to achieve with this, and Arkemoz was determined to see it through to the end. No matter the cost. He wasn’t about to let these angels ruin the Earth after he’d grown to start to like it.

This was far from over.