Astera hissed in displeasure as dust blew into her face. She surveyed the wreck, her nose tipped up distastefully. The entire front of the house was destroyed; only a few things were recognizable among the debris. Astera could see the piano struggling to stand under a pile of drywall; it's keys sticking out like crooked yellow teeth. Glass littered the ground like minute jewels, and little fires dotted the debris like smoke signals on deserted islands.

If it weren't for her keen eyesight, Astera might have missed the lovely Chinese girl struggling to shift her way out from under a pile of burning debris.

"Astera," Wei croaked as Astera easily pulled her out, "Where is my family?"

"I don't know." Astera told her, her voice uncharacteristically gentle. "I'm sure they're fine. Are you hurt? Why can't you shift?"

"My legs." Wei's voice was hoarse. "I think they're both broken."

Astera cursed under her breath. "Let's get you out of here."

"But Lei -"

"I'm sure she's fine, let's worry about you right now."

Wei weighed barely anything in Astera's arms, and the vampire wrinkled her nose at the grotesque angles her legs had taken. "Do you know who did this?"

"There were men standing outside, all wearing black. I think they're the same as before."

Astera picked her way through the wreckage, making her way to the back of the house. Remarkably, the back section seemed to be standing just fine. "How many were there?"

"I don't know." Wei sounded anxious. "Fifteen? Ten? Twenty? I saw the grenade and I wasn't thinking logically -"

"Shh now." Astera told her. She could tell the girl was ready to blame herself.

"I should have seen them coming -"

"Shh, I said!"

"Astera?"

She tensed at the new voice. It came from the shadows in the kitchen. It took her eyes only a second to adjust.

"Nigel." She nodded at him and passed Wei into his arms. "She's hurt, be careful. Who else is with you?"

"We have almost everyone, but Sergei hasn't shown up -"

Wei whimpered at this.

"- neither has Jannosh, Myrnah, Lilah or Apollo."

"Tether?"

"I'm here." His voice was resilient in the dark. Lei darted forward to comfort her sister.

"Why are we not looking for the others? If they're alive, we need to reach them." Astera was vaguely annoyed they were all just standing there. Was she supposed to do everything around here?

"Things don't smell right." Tether, as always, was oblivious to Astera's irritation. "They haven't said or done anything since the explosion."

Now that he mentioned it, Astera finally noticed. It was too quiet; there were no shouts, no gunfire, no nothing. Even the rain had stopped. It made Astera's skin prickle - something was definitely wrong.

"Where are you going?" Tether took a step forward when she turned around.

"To find my brother." Astera tossed the words over her shoulder. "He's probably buried somewhere, his room was right where the bomb hit."

"Is Astera Ambrosia actually worried for her brother?" Tether sounded amazed as he leaned against the doorway of the kitchen. "I thought I would never see the day."

Astera whipped around to offer him one of her usual venomous looks. Her love looked like a sentinel in that doorway, his eyes hidden in shadow as he watched her. Behind him, the rest of the shifters watched like silent children.

"Of course I'm worried." She told him. "He's my brother. But not too much; unfortunately for us, we don't get the option of dying like you all do."

Then she turned around again and started digging around for her accursed brother.

---

My breath was shallow, but my heart was beating like the thunderous steps of a giant. His nose skimmed over the skin of my throat, and I cursed the wild pulse that roared there like a river.

"Are you going to kill me or what?" I snapped.

"Why, my dear Lilah." He crooned against my skin. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you craved death."

I fought the urge to shudder as his lips brushed my skin.

I'd woken up immediately at the blast. For a couple minutes, everything was just a roar of crumbling and thudding, and I'd sat in bed terrified as I waited for it to stop. My room was unaffected for some reason, but tremors had shook my bed frame and scared the hell out of me. It wasn't until an eerie silence had fallen did I see Abaddon's silhouette in my window.

He had me against the wall now, breathing me in like I was the elixir to immortality or something. I guess for him, I kinda was.

"What do you want from me?" I was pretty surprised at how strong my voice was. Wasn't I supposed to have fainted by now? That's what everyone else in the movies did when the big bad vampire had them. Then again, I thought dryly, if this was a movie I'd be dead already - I had in fact been living with a vampire for weeks now.

"Hmmm." Abaddon breathed deeply again. "What are you willing to offer me, my sweet?"

"Don't call me that." I snapped.

Abaddon chuckled and finally leaned away from me. "Oh my. I'd forgotten how amusing you humans really are."

"I get that you want me." I snarled, suddenly angry at the vague contentment on the vampire's face. "But why did you have to blow the damn house up? Like, was that even neccessary?"

Abaddon looked at me in surprise. "You're mistaken, child. That wasn't my doing; I saw those foolish men stalking toward the house and simply took my chance. Explosions are not my style at all - too messy. I have to go hunt through the rubble if I want to eat at all."

My stomach tightened at the thought of him sifting through debris for parts of bodies, but I ignored it. "What do you mean, 'took your chance?'"

He shrugged and began pacing around the room; I watched him pick up my hairbrush and sniff it. "I've been waiting for the perfect chance to speak to you."

"Speak to me?" I repeated dumbly.

"Yes." Abaddon put down my hairbrush and continued pacing. The weak moonlight made him look like a ghost. "Contrary to what you think, I'm not here to kill you. If that was the case, you'd be dead already, Lilah."

His black eyes met mine from across the room, and I couldn't stop the goosebumps that riddled my skin at his icy gaze. He sounded eerily like Astera, but I found myself wishing she was here instead of him.

"No, I came here hoping I could persuade you to leave this place." He continued his pacing.

I stared at him from where I was standing against the wall. "What?"

"Leave my son." Abaddon's voice was quiet. "And never come back."

I was silent. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

Just the thought of leaving Apollo hurt. I couldn't imagine living without him, not for a second. It felt so good to be loved and wanted and appreciated - there was no way I could go back to living alone and isolated again.

Well, unless someone made me go back.

Abaddon was still, his back to me. "I was afraid you would say that. Is there any way I could convince you otherwise?"

I stared at the back of his head, confused out of my mind. If he wanted me to leave Apollo so bad, why didn't he just make me? Why didn't he just pick me up and take me far away, maybe chain me to a tower so I couldn't find my way back?

"Why?" I asked. "Why do you want me to leave him so bad?"

It was silent for a long time before he answered.

"I don't want him to feel pain."

The words triggered something in my memory. A story Apollo had told me, a story about his terrible past. A story about a mother killed by her husband, a husband who claimed -

"Oh my gosh." I gasped as the realization hit me. "You meant it, didn't you? When you said you wanted to spare them pain by taking them away? You never meant to kill Callidora!"

I was excited, but it was dampened when Abaddon let out a throaty chuckle. It was a hard sound. "Is that what my son told you? That it was just a ruse to kill her, to drink her blood? That I am an unfeeling monster, a fiend with an empty chamber where my heart should be, a figure of death wherever he walks?"

He was suddenly directly in front of me again; I inhaled sharply at his sudden proximity to me.

His eyes were black pools of ink as they bored into mine. "My son is right, foolish girl - I am all of those things and more."

We stared each other down for a long moment of time.

"Why do you care if he gets hurt then?" I asked softly.

Abaddon stared at me for a moment longer, then he was suddenly at the window, his hands clenching the sill tightly.

"I did mean to kill her." He whispered. "It was always my plan. But it wasn't just because I was hungry or bored of her. My wife was growing old, and the thought of watching her die with age scared me more than anything else in the world."

"I'd been alive a long time, Lilah. The world no longer seemed beautiful to me anymore, and that's what made me so dark. This world is lit up by the light of a star, and I can't even dwell in that light. I was scum, I was filth, and I loved what it made me."

The moonlight silvered his profile, and he looked eerily like Apollo.

"When I came across Callidora, I was beyond gleeful. She was the most beautiful thing that I'd laid eyes on in centuries, and I lusted after her like every other man did. She was a prize, an ornament. Something I could show off to other vampires."

"What I didn't expect was how wise and insightful she was. She showed me how to look for the beautiful things in life again, and she told me how to find light in my exiled world of darkness. I left her because I was afraid she would transform me from the ruthless fiend I had molded myself into, but it was already too late."

Abaddon turned to meet my eyes again. "I had lost my touch, and I was terrified the people of the dark world would find out. So I left her with our children, our children that I was alarmingly partial to, and murdered cities and cities of people. I became a doctor and tortured multitudes, I raped young woman, I kidnapped small children and sucked them dry. I did it to redeem myself, but it wouldn't work."

"Finally, I came back to her. I found her with lines on her face and tired eyes, and she was still beautiful. I was suddenly repulsed at the thought of her growing older; at the thought of her being old and wrinkly and disgusting! I was afraid to find her, years later, and say this - this! - is what ruined me? This was my downfall? It angered me, and so I killed her. I killed her, and her blood tasted so good on my lips."

He fell silent as he stared out into the night. I wondered what he was seeing in those black eyes of his; a dancing, lively Callidora? Or did he see her now, dead and still on the floor?

"Did killing her fix you?" I asked coldly.

"Not at all." His voice was hoarse. "She'd gotten under my skin, and she influences me still. I'm not as destructive and lethal as I had been before I met her; Callidora had been my fatal flaw."

"Did you love her?"

He didn't answer me.

I took a deep breath. "So you think I'm Apollo's fatal flaw."

Abaddon was beside me again, leaning against the wall and looking me straight in the eye. "I don't want him to make the same mistakes I did."

I hesitated, then reached out and touched his arm. He jumped back as if I'd scalded him.

My hand hung in the air between us. "Maybe it isn't a mistake, Abaddon. Maybe you're the one who made the mistake when you resisted her."

He was silent. We stared at each other, and the silence went uninterrupted for a very long time.

I jumped when a noise disrupted the night. In shock, I realized it was Ted Roscoe's voice coming from outside, through a megaphone. He seemed so far away, after all this talk about Callidora and her untimely murder all those years ago.

"Apollo Ambrosia." His voice was just as oily as always. "I've given you an hour to collect your bearings. Give me Lilah Winters, or me and my men will come in and grab her ourselves. You have twenty minutes."

It was silent again.

Abaddon looked at me. "So there's no way you'll leave." it was more of a statement than a question.

I shook my head.

Abaddon nodded slowly as he drew up the hood of his cloak. "I wish you well against that fool waiting for you outside. And I hope, for your sake and my son's, that you are right, my dear."

Then he was gone.

The window was open, and my curtains fluttered after his sudden retreat. I hurried to the window and looked out, but there was no sign of him. I wondered if this was the last time I would see Abaddon Ambrosia. The thought didn't sadden me at all.

Comment, vote, fan! (: