Hell Bound

PROLOGUE ~ Part I

The tower was silent. 

Except for the occasional moan and a few encouraged words everything was quiet. Outside the tower...everything was in chaos...

Blood splattered on the wall at the foot of the tower. A scream erupted which was cut off abruptly as his sword sunk into the heart of his enemy. With a grimace, he impaled his enemy's corpse to the ground with his bloodied sword then pulled it out. It slid out with a wet sucking sound. Blood pooled and trickled out of the dead man's corpse where his heart had been beating just a moment ago. His lifeless eyes staring unseeingly. 

He surveyed his surrounding. Everywhere, his allies are fighting. At the top of the tower, through the open window, he could hear his mate's cries of pain as she prepared to give birth to their youngling. The number of enemy soldiers are dwindling and what little was left could be handled by his soldiers. With one more glance at the dead enemy at his feet, he turned and fled towards the tower. 

His boot clad feet thundered up the stone staircase, each step holding memories, each one more sweeter than the last. He could hear his mate's cries of pain, and his heart twisted, wanting to take away her pain, but knowing deep down that it would be worth it in the end. He summoned his power one more time and willed open a portal. Without hesitance, the hell's power obeyed him as it would to its master. He stepped through and reemerged at the top of the tower and faced the entrance to his mate's chamber. Through it, he could hear the shaman's wife's encouraging words and her mate's cries. 

Without waiting he strode in. He gave a small nod to the shaman's wife, who had turned her head at the interruption, then she nodded acknowledged his presence, as he strode forward and kneeled beside his mate taking her hand in his, with a expression of utter devotion as he gazed at her and smoothed back her hair from her face which were plastered in clumps to her face with perspiration.

"My love,"He said. 

Her mate looked at him with eyes that were glazed with pain but underneath her pain, he could see his devotion and love returned with as much intensity as his. She squeezed his hand in response to his utterance. He kissed her hand and gave her a few encouraging words. And waited. Waited with bated breath and a clenched heart as the moon rose up higher and higher into the night sky, oblivious to the demon's pain and his mate's cries. 

~~~

Allen gazed at the tower's open window and his heart clenched as he heard her cries. His fists clenched. He wanted to hit something. They had gotten rid of the battalion that had come to destroy his master but he was still vigilant. Vigilant but not oblivious to the pain his master and his mate was going through. But it would be worth it. In the end, it would all be worth it. 

He felt his presence before he heard his approach. He whipped his head around to see the intruder. 

The deceiver looked calm and collected. With his hands clasped behind his back, his black eyes surveyed the blood stained battle ground with a look in his eyes that bordered close to satisfaction. He looked every bit the general who had won his victory against his enemies yet again. 

A small whimper. Then a cry. Not just any cry. A cry caused by a newborn who had taken its fresh gulp of air in the new world it had been introduced to. 

The deceiver's gaze snapped up to the open window. Allen's hand moved to his sword sheathed at his side. But something made him pause. It wasn't anything that the deceiver did but rather the the change in his posture that made him pause. He became...unnaturally rigid. 

The deceiver turned to face him fully. His hands clasped behind his back as he stood with his legs slightly apart. His black cloak whipped around him silently in rhythm to the slight wind that breezed past him.