Heavenly Blood

8 - Alec

There was only one name on my mind. Dravon. Ever since I had first seen Alice again I pictured that night. His long white fingers wrapping around her rich red hair. His nose running along her slender neck, playing with his prey...

Before time, a law was pasted making angels and vampires enemies. The law also stated that any one angel who fraternises with any one vampire will be punished as the rulers see fit. Since God creates life and does not take it the job fell only to the vampires or more specifically Dravon. Dravon the leader of vampires, only being so as he killed any and all who threatened him. He enjoyed watching people suffer. He got off on it. I had known enough people die by Draven's hand for much less than sleeping with our mortal enemy. Draven was merciless.

As to Dravon's life there were only ghost stories. Legend has it Draven was the first human like animal to walk the earth. Because God wanted nothing to be killed he designed Draven to only drink blood so he didn't kill animals, only weakened it. The problem was Draven evolved. His body responded to blood as giving life. He liked the taste of blood too much. He liked the taste of life. He liked seeing the animal suffer and die slowly and painfully, often in inhuman ways that most couldn't even imagine, or so the legend went. Evolution allowed him speed and sharper fangs and a better gag reflex to swallow more blood. It is even suggested that the real reason Eve ate the forbidden fruit was because Draven drank her blood and in her weakness she forgot she wasn't allowed to. Draven's bite, before the development of pure venom, also made her hungry and thirsty and cold and depressed. Eve had no control over her body. The tree of the forbidden fruit was the closest one to her.

This was the man who had chased us for over a millennium. He was the one who would be our undoing if he got the chance. I never flattered myself to think that I was the only vampire to go against the rulers and fall in love with an Angel, but I was confident that we were the only couple to evade his detection and slip away for as long as we had. And, god if I could I would pray, that it stays that way. But praying would do nothing. God was as uncaring as the rest of them, only difference was humanity was brainwashed to believe in his benevolence.

I couldn't see her go through that again. She had shown no fear, no pain, except in her eyes. They had been screaming and so had I. The only reason I was alive now was because it was more painful to watch without her knowing even my name, knowing I had to resist, than to have her die. By the time Dravon got the upper hand on me, she was gone and I was permanently scarred. A twisted knot of flesh personally done by Dravon himself marred my thigh. He had scratched and biting me, purposely inflicting the most agonising pain I have ever experienced while reminding me of my immortality.

"If you were man this would be your femoral artery. You would be dead. But you are not. You are one of us. Just like me."

Those words burned into my mind. At the time I had hissed that I was never like him, never could be like him. And then I saw Alice again. Just a picture from Max to tell me she was protecting her was all it took for me to spiral downwards and I saw I was like him, just like him. The amount of times I had nearly killed the one woman I loved, sometimes accidentally, often in a rage. I pulled on my bottom lip with my thumb. Jesus. It was so fucked up.

"Alec!"

I was dragged into the real world by Max's voice screaming my name. Leaping from the bed, I ran into her bedroom to see a swish of red whip out the window. Glass and plastic crashing to the floor, the French doors destroyed. Alice's bed was empty. I grabbed Max and shook her, her face frozen in shock. She pushed me away towards the rubble, screaming to look out. I frantically searched every way before looking to the patio below, sighing in relief to not see a body. I turned back to Max to see Angelic gold blood in shards of the glass and my breath caught, a deep burning hunger sparking within. I torn away only for my eyes to fall on something else. A single feather. I picked it up. My jaw tensed. I knew what it was.

"Max! What happened," I thundered.

"I don't fucking know!" She screamed, "One minute I was asleep, the next my spirit woke me up to find Alice with....with..."

"Jesus! She got her wings didn't she?" Max didn't reply, "Maxine don't you fucking lie. I know this fucking wing like I know...."

"Like you know what? The back of you hand? The hands you just couldn't for three days keep to yourself..."

"Don't you dare!" I spat, "You were the one insisting I accompany you everywhere..."

"What the hell happened!"

I swore under my breath. My parents had decided to join us, there eyes flickering between the two of us, the doors and Alice's bed. Then back to me. My father snatched the feather from my hand. My mum looked like she was about to faint. They both knew who it belonged to.

"What the fuck happened," My dad shouted again.

"Alice found her wings..."

"Don't stop now Max!" I spat, "She erased Alice's memory of her being an Angel and..."

"We know!" Mum shot back, "We told her to do it."

"What?" I screamed, "No fucking wonder she ran away. Nobody told her what she really was. Jesus, probably for the last five years she's has felt like her mind was fracturing..."

"Alec this is your fault not..."

"It wouldn't be my fault if someone had fucking told me! You all just assumed I can mind read."

"No. We assumed Max was competent enough to keep you apart," Dad shouted. Max looked like she was going to protest, "Enough. Max you fucked up as well. But Alec this is on you. If you two don't get her back in twenty four hours, the vampires will. She's cut herself badly so shouldn't be able to get very far but she probably can't retract her wings to heal so fucking find her. Or I'm contacting the Host."

"Dad. You can't..." Max pleaded.

"Then find her. If you two can't find her then she is safer strapped to a board in an induced coma," they went to leave, "or dead."

Before anymore was said, I was gone. I couldn't lose her again. The presence of vampires in Cornwall had significantly increased in the last three years, due to me and the need for Dravon to remind me I was at his mercy (like I needed the reminder). They would not hesitate to make a group meal of a weakened and frightened Angel. Drops of her blood within that room had worked me into a frenzy, let alone a whole accumulating pool.

And that was when I smelt it. The scent that so many vampires would kill to even whiff. The nectar that some got off to. Her. The corner of River Street in Truro was where I finally found her, a long scratch diagonally across her forearm was the first thing I notice followed by a large gouge in her left wing. That was clearly self defence, not inflicted by simple glass. She hadn't noticed me yet. I mustered all the resistance I had within to approach her. I knew what needed to be done to help her, and I knew she would never make it back to my parents place. She was too weak and pale. Plus, vampires were probably swarming the place in case she did return.

"Alice."

Her head rolled as she raised it to look at me. Her face was dirty and tear stained with blood smearing her cheek. I knelt down next to her, her lip trembled as I slowly cupped her hands before slowly tracing her forearms, turning over the left one to assess the damage. It was a large scratch but not as deep as it could have been. I ripped up my top and wrapped it around her arm, partly to reducing the blood loss and partly to try and mask the drug like scent of her blood. There was nothing I could do about the wing.

"Alice. Do you know how to retract your wings?" I whispered softly to her. She timidly shook her head, "Ok. We will get you home and..."

"No," she whispered, barely audible. She swallowed, "I don't want to see her."

I sighed, assuming her referred to Max, "I meant my house. Is that ok?" She nodded, "Am I ok to carry you?"

"Why?"

"Alice you are too weak to stand. Let me help you. You have lost a lot of blood," I replied.

She nodded. I gently brushed one of her wings, lifting it up slightly in order to get underneath her. I cupped her knees and looped around her back, lifting her from the ground and simultaneously thankful for the thin mask of nightfall that was left to hide our presence. Her head slumped against my shoulder, her heart pace felt weak. I wasn't ready to explain that I was a vampire just yet, so was grateful for the fact as now I could run.