Nightfall (Nightfall Book 1)

Arkemoz groaned as he woke up, feeling dizzy and confused. He forced his eyes open, relieved that the blindfold was gone and that he could see again, but what he could see only added to his confusion. He was lying on a not-very-comfortable cot in an otherwise empty room with gray walls. It was fairly small as well, with the cot practically as wide as the room itself.

He pulled himself up to a sitting position, his head spinning. He closed his eyes for a moment, stretching his tail which he had been lying on, and wincing. Once his dizziness lessened, he opened his eyes again, looking down at his hands. The cuffs that were keeping him weak were still firmly clamped around his wrists, but they had been separated, with the remains of the small chain that had been keeping them connected hanging off both of them.

Why would those creatures do that? They had alluded to someone having a greater plan for him, but Arkemoz hadn’t managed to learn much more since them draining his blood had made it incredibly difficult to even listen to them. And then at some point, he must have lost consciousness, which was a completely foreign concept to him.

He was sure he had yet to experience most of humanity’s inconveniences, but he was already questioning how humans managed being alive. They slept every night, didn’t they? He’d only done it once on accident after closing his eyes for a moment while tired, and it had been enough for him. How could they deal with this disorientation daily?

He rose to his feet, steading himself with a hand against the wall as he tried not to fall back on the cot. His legs were incredibly weak, barely keeping him standing. He must have lost a lot of blood, it seemed, because this certainly couldn’t be a side effect of sleeping.

Stumbling forward, he stretched his back and shoulders, groaning at how sore his whole body felt. And how strange he felt all around. He quickly realized why when he looked down at himself.

He was only wearing the pants and t-shirt he’d stolen when he’d gotten to Earth, and despite never wearing clothes before coming here, it made him feel uncomfortable. Oh, now he remembered—those creatures had taken his coat away to give themselves easy access to his arms and blood. It made him feel naked. And furious.

It was ridiculous to feel vulnerable because he wasn’t wearing a piece of fabric over his body, but he did. His newly far too human skin was very susceptible to damage. In Hell, he could punch a hole through a rock wall with no problems, but here, if he tried to do the same, his hand would end up bleeding, with the bones most likely damaged, too.

Taking a few more careful steps forward, he finally reached the metal door. There was no handle, or anything he could try to use to open the door, but he wouldn’t let that discourage him just yet. Taking a step back, Arkemoz gritted his teeth, and then slammed his shoulder into the door.

Gasping as pain stabbed through his whole arm, he almost fell as he stumbled back, but the door stayed firmly closed. He glared at it fiercely, his scowl only growing harsher when someone banged on the door.

“Stop that, or we’ll come in there and make you,” a muffled, female voice reprimanded him, making Arkemoz grind his teeth. Good, maybe he could use that. He was weak right now due to the cuffs, but if he managed to fight off this dizziness completely, maybe he could escape after they, whoever was outside, opened the door.

He was about to hit the door again, this time preparing to kick it, hoping that would hurt less than slamming his shoulder into it, but suddenly there were more voices outside. And they weren’t talking to him.

“He just hit the door,” the voice from earlier said, sounding rather bored. Arkemoz scowled.

“Great,” said another woman, with fake enthusiasm. “Is he okay?”

“I have no idea. Just be careful in there.”

“You sure we both have to go in there?” another voice, a man’s this time, said.

“I told you. We’re both going. You don’t know how strong he is.” And then the door started to open.

Arkemoz immediately backed off toward the bed, raising both his fists and his tail. He wasn’t feeling up to fighting yet, but that didn’t matter. They were going to open the door now, and he needed to act fast if he wanted to get away.

As the door swung open fully, Arkemoz charged, trying to tackle the first person who came in to surprise them for long enough to get an opportunity to run.

But his plan failed immediately. Before he could even tackle them, he found himself getting pushed back to the cot, as far from the door as he could be. His tail raised threateningly, Arkemoz glared up at the tall, muscular man who was now in his way, but immediately looked behind him when he heard the door close.

Huffing angrily, Arkemoz backed off into a corner, trying to protect as much of himself with his fists and tail as he could, pulling himself to his full height.

“Hey, we’re not gonna hurt you,” the man said, his eyes wide as he raised his hands. Arkemoz had no idea what that gesture meant, but he wasn’t letting down his guard.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” the woman added. She was still taller than Arkemoz, but he felt he had a better chance of beating her in a fight than the man. Or whatever they were. They felt different. Definitely not human. But also different from the creatures that had taken him captive.

Arkemoz looked from the man to the woman again and again, waiting for them to attack him as his heart continued to beat erratically, but they didn’t do anything aside from keeping their hands up. It was probably meant to show him they weren’t a threat, but Arkemoz wasn’t just going to believe that.

Narrowing his eyes at them, he finally spoke. “Who are you? What do you want with me?”

The man took a step forward, to which Arkemoz reacted by pressing himself against the wall further. “Okay, look. Remember those assholes who took you?”

Arkemoz glared at him, and the man snorted. “Yeah, okay, well, we killed them, okay? They’re dead. We rescued you.”

Arkemoz huffed and raised his hands up higher, showing off the cuffs. The man and the woman exchanged a look, clearly getting what he was trying to say. Good.

“Ah, yeah, that.” The man ran a hand through his dark, neck-length hair. “We don’t know how to get those off.” Then his index finger flew up. “But—but we broke the chain, so they’re way less annoying, right? We’re looking into how to take them off.”

Against his better judgment, Arkemoz lowered his fists and stepped a bit away from the wall. The man didn’t seem to be lying, but Arkemoz wasn’t great at recognizing when creatures from Earth lied, so he wouldn’t give that much weight.

He folded his arms, keeping his tail poised to strike. “You still haven’t answered either of my questions.”

The woman sighed in relief, gesturing to herself, then at her companion. “My name’s Denise. This is James. We work for Aegis.”

Was he supposed to know what Aegis was? His confusion must have been obvious enough for both of them to notice because they looked at each other again.

“You’ve not been here for long, have you?” James asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Arkemoz immediately scowled again. It hadn’t sounded like he was being talked down to, but Arkemoz still felt a need to get defensive.

“Basically, Aegis protects supernatural beings, protects humans from supernatural beings, stuff like that,” Denise explained. Arkemoz nodded slowly. That made sense. They had something like that in Hell to protect demons from other demons, but generally, the only time they did anything was when there was the possibility of murder. Although, Arkemoz supposed that might have been his case.

“What were those creatures?”

The two exchanged another look. “Vampires.”

Arkemoz’s eyes widened. Oh yes, he’d heard of those. He knew very little about them, but he knew he’d read about them.

“Um, Denise, seeing as our friend here isn’t a threat, could you maybe….”

Arkemoz swallowed as James gestured to the door. Was he telling her to leave? Why? Logically, he knew that having only one enemy to deal with would be easier, but surely James knew this too.

Denise raised an eyebrow at James but shrugged and walked over to the door to knock on it without a single comment. As the door opened and she walked out, Arkemoz considered trying to run again, but he knew James wouldn’t let him, so what was the point in trying? He still felt like he’d wasted an opportunity when he saw the door close, though.

But then James did something Arkemoz hadn’t been expecting, completely distracting him from his previous thoughts. He sat down on the cot and patted the space next to him. “Come on, let’s talk.”

Arkemoz didn’t move an inch.

“Oh, come on, don’t make me strain my neck.”

“You’re the one who sat down over there,” Arkemoz muttered loudly enough for James to hear it. He did end up walking to the center of the room to face him, though he wasn’t even sure why. He found himself completely taken aback when James smiled at him warmly, which made Arkemoz drop his gaze immediately, keeping his hands stubbornly folded over his chest.

He had no idea why he’d reacted this way either. This wasn’t how demons smiled, so he had no frame of reference for what was normal and what wasn’t. He’d certainly not reacted to any of the humans he’d spoken with like this, but then again, none of them had smiled at him.

“All right, beautiful, mind telling me your name?”

Arkemoz felt his face heat up, once again having no idea if that was normal and what it actually meant. “Beautiful?”

James grinned. “Well, you are. But that’s not your name, is it? That would have been a damned good guess.”

His cheeks burned hotter as he could feel his tail twisting in on itself. “N-no.” Arkemoz cleared his throat, annoyed with himself. Demons didn’t stutter. “No, it’s not. It’s Arkemoz.”

James gave him a wide grin this time, which made Arkemoz feel even more confused by his own reactions. “Arkemoz, huh? Mind if I call you Arkie?”

“Yes. Very much.”

“Right, so what do you know about vampires, Arkie?” James crossed his legs at the ankles, completely ignoring Arkemoz’s glare. In fact, he just kept smiling at him pleasantly as Arkemoz’s tail flicked from one side to the other in irritation. He had to take a moment to remark on how many emotions this man kept making him feel. It was very strange, but then again, this was the first time he’d had a proper conversation with someone on this planet. Perhaps it was normal here.

“They drink blood.” Arkemoz couldn’t help but flinch when he instinctively touched the still-healing bite on his neck. “And…they can’t tolerate sunlight?”

James hummed thoughtfully, making the demon feel like he was being judged for his lack of knowledge.

“What?”

James waved his hand. “No, nothing, it’s just that I thought you demons were more informed.”

Arkemoz scowled, not even realizing he’d taken a step toward James. “It’s not my fault all of our information about Earth is at least a few hundred years old, probably more.”

Since their eternal war with the angels had moved to other planets, there was no need to keep any information about Earth up to date, but Arkemoz certainly hadn’t been expecting the information to be this out of date. It was as if human society had changed completely within the last few centuries, and no one had bothered coming here to investigate what had changed.

“Relax, Arkie, I’m not criticizing. It’s just that the one demon I know is running, like, half of Aegis. So, ya know, she’s really informed.”

Arkemoz’s eyes widened. Another demon? He didn’t know about anyone working for this organization, but then again, he hadn’t even known of this organization until now. And some of the demons who had allegedly stayed on Earth had been here for centuries as well….

“Who is it?”

“Her name’s Azralis. She’s a real hard-ass.”

Arkemoz didn’t actually know what that meant, but he knew Azralis. Not very well, but he did know of her, mostly because she’d left Hell, which was considered shameful and didn’t happen often, but he also knew her because she was from the same clan as him.

“Azralis is my sister.”

James’ eyebrows flew up. “What, seriously?”

Arkemoz frowned in confusion. What was so surprising about this? But before he could ask, he realized the reason by himself. Humans weren’t immortal so they most likely had fewer brothers and sisters. He would need to remember that. “I have hundreds of siblings.”

“Okay, that, um….” James scratched his neck. “That sounds awful, not gonna lie. But anyway, my point is that, well, most of the people working for Aegis are vampires.”

Arkemoz automatically raised his tail again, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. James sprung up, shaking his head as Arkemoz took a step back.

“No, no, we don’t drink blood, okay? Or hurt anyone. Except for the bad guys.”

Arkemoz didn’t feel comforted by this information at all. So this man was a vampire as well. But why did he feel so different compared to the ones who had captured him? Was it simply the difference in diet?

“How can I know you’re not lying?”

James sighed, nodding. “Okay, I’ll prove it to you.”

Arkemoz kept his distance as James walked past him towards the door and knocked on it, telling the people on the other side to open it.

“Lemme show you around, Arkie.”