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If Solomon’s power had been river, then Sadie’s was a tidal wave. Those vampires excluding Melissa and Solomon were forced to their knees before it’s onslaught as it freed itself from Sadie’s barriers. It was so deep and so rich, and it filled Melissa up from her toes to the ends of her hair. It was so glorious to her that she actually had an orgasm right there on the spot. It was like bathing it the purest, cleanest, warmest sunlight. While all others trembled, Melissa simply drank in her creator until her cup overflowed.
“I . . . am . . . Eve,” Sadie said, her voice coming out like the roll of thunder.
Melissa gulped, but discovered the show wasn’t over. The peasant dress was cut low in back, and she watched as Eve’s smooth and beautiful back seemed to split open in two places. Eve was screaming as two great and leathery wings emerged from nowhere, leaving Eve’s back bleeding but otherwise apparently unharmed. And Eve sighed in great pleasure as she spread her wings for the first time in thousands upon thousands of years.
For a moment, Eve looked into Melissa’s eyes, and Melissa saw regret. But there was no room for softness or weakness now.
“This,” the ancient vampire said, “is me.”
“Begone!” Frost shouted, his voice squeaking around the edges like a mouse yelling at a lion. “You have no place here! Do not suffer the wrath of Solomon again!” Frost almost immediately realized that he had made a horrible mistake.
“The wrath of Solomon?!” Eve cackled. “Should I fear your wrath?” she said stepping forward, her wings shooting outward and making her seem even bigger and more terrifying. “I’m facing you this time Solomon! I won’t offer you my back again!” She took a step forward and the entire Blood Brood moved to intercept her.
“NO!” Solomon shouted. There were tears in the Blood Saints eyes and dribbling down his cheek. There were drops of blood on his previously white robe because his human followers were too terrified to clean him up. “Eve, we don’t have to do this,” he said, his voice becoming low and soothing, like warm chocolate on a winter’s night. “Please?”
Eve’s face softened. “There was a time . . . a time when I would have given you the world if I could,” she whispered, her wings pulling in as if to cocoon her . . . to protect her. “Just to listen to the sound of your voice. Just to feel you.”
“We can be that way again,” he whispered.
Everyone in the area could feel the power in his voice, and the promise that it carried across the winds and earth to reach Eve. Women swooned, and even the most manly of males felt a stirring in their loins. That was the kind of power that Solomon possessed. You wanted him, even if you feared him.
“We can go back to the way things were,” he continued, stepping forward. He seemed emboldened by Eve’s silence. “Just you and me.”
Melissa’s brain was going a mile a minute as he watched these two creature’s who had walked the earth when the pyramids were a distant dream. ‘You and me?’ she thought. ‘That’s a little too “all in the family” for me.’ Because there was no doubt in her or anyone else’s mind what Solomon meant.
The Blood Saint was standing straight now and took another step. “You are still the most beautiful woman to grace the darkworld since time’s beginning. It pains me to think of what happened between us. I have felt it dragging on my spirit for all these years, and now I have a chance to make it right.” He glanced as his throng who was standing there in rapt attention. For a moment, the arrogance returned when he said, “I can forgive you.”
Sadie’s face hardened again. “And there it is again,” she said, stepping forward while Solomon retreated. Her wings flared out again. “Forgive me? I gave you everything,” she growled. “Everything I had, and you took it from me! You and Adam . . . what you did –” Her voice gave out for a second. “You may have convinced the rest of our race of your Lie, but you and I know the truth. Have you told them all of what you really plan to do?” she asked waving at the ceremonial area. “Do they know what ‘Paradise’ means to you Solomon? Because I do. Your Paradise is to make the world Hell for the mortal races, and I won’t let you. I stopped you once,” she continued, her tone dipping into freezing temperatures, “and now I will finish you.” With that, she pulled something out of the sack she was carrying.
In her hand, Eve wielded a long dagger which seemed to be made of bone. It was a foot long and with a slight curve to it, and it reminded Melissa more of a tooth . . . the fang of some great serpent. The only thing she knew for sure that if Eve had scared Solomon before, he might very well be wetting himself now.
“The Thorn?! Blood Rampart, take us from this accursed place! Build your shields and hurry!”
Two of Solomon’s Blood Brood strode forward to intercept Eve.
“No you fools!” Solomon shouted, hiding behind his witches. “You can’t stop her!”
Melissa looked at the hulking and ancient vampires and wondered why Solomon was so worried about them. She soon found out.
Eve took a step forward and plunged the strange dagger into the chest of one assailant before anyone could even blink. Without so much as a thought, she had pushed a dagger of bone through the most high-tech body armor available on the market. She used her free hand to maneuver her victim between her and the other guard. Using the vampire in her hands, she batterd the other one to the ground, then ripped her captive’s throat open with her teeth.
Melissa wanted to vomit so badly it almost hurt. ‘I didn’t just see that,’ she thought. ‘Sadie . . . . Eve . . . she couldn’t –‘
Eve threw a vampire twice her size twenty feet through the air to crash into the pavilion. Solomon’s remaining guards surrounded him while his witches prepared his escape. Frost stood with them, but his eyes were transfixed on the woman he once thought he could break. He had once thought that nothing could touch Solomon, but he had realized his error. If Eve reached the Blood Saint, then she would kill him. And that terrified him.
Eve dove on top of the other guard, who had probably never been on the defensive in his life. And the entire crowd got to watch as Eve tore him to pieces, his last blood decorating her simple peasant dress. The face that then turned towards Frost and Solomon was more animal than vampire. It was more animal than anything Frost had ever seen.
Melissa saw a regular security guard pull a gun and take aim at Eve’s back. Without thinking, she moved towards him, and at that point her own powers kicked in. It was like she was moving faster . . . no, that everyone else was moving slower. She was next to the guard before he could turn his head, and she ripped the gun from his hand as easily as if he were a child. Then she back-handed him, sending him flying into a row of folding chairs. She hoped she didn’t kill him, despite what he’d been trying to do. If Eve had seen him first, he would be dead indeed.
The Betrayer charged forward, but Solomon’s Blood Rampart had erected a set shield of enormous power. Sadie wailed on it anyway, causing little cracks to appear almost as fast as the Rampart could fix them.
“You won’t escape me!” she shrieked at the trembling Blood Saint. “My Father waits for you! He will know what you did, and he will torture you for eternity! There are no words ever spoken that can describe the hell your life will become!”
A blue light appeared next to her, and Mary stepped through, slipping out of the midrealm. And she looked . . . drunk.
“Mary?” Melissa said.
The wraith shook her head, swaying gently in a non-existant breeze. “No . . . no, tonight is not for you my love,” the wraith said. She sounded on the verge of orgasm. “I feel it. I feel her calling to me.”
Another blue glow appeared nearby, and then another. More wraiths had arrived, and each seemed just as stricken as Mary did.
‘Three wraiths?’ Melissa wondered worriedly. ‘No, there’s another, and there’s another!’
More and more wraiths were arriving by the second. It was like a sea of jellyfish in the ocean of night, each one adding to the ethereal glow. They all gathered around Sadie, who was still pounding on the magical wall. They were staring at her, waiting.
“Call for it,” Mary whispered heatedly. “Why do you try and bottle it up again? We felt it! All around the world, my kind felt the call of vengeance! Never has it felt so sweet and so rich! It consumes us,” she said, almost begging now. “Please, free it! Call your vengeance –”
“No! I want him!” Sadie screamed, almost unaware that she was surround by a gathering that was the stuff of nightmares. Never before had so many wraiths been drawn to one place. “I want his blood! I want to rip his heart out like he did mine!”
For a moment, Melissa saw genuine pain on Solomon’s face. ‘What did you do?’ she wondered as she stood back from the gathering of glowing vengeance. ‘What did you do that could call this?’
A flash of light appeared, and the Blood Saint and his enterouge vanished in a flash of light, transported to a secure location. Eve screamed as stumbled through where the wall had just been. She destroyed the podium and anything else within reach. Even the wraiths stood back, though they stll looked at her with sadistic eagerness. All the other vampires were still on their knees, crushed by the wait of the Betrayer’s power.
Eve looked at the wraiths. She wasn’t going to let him get away. “Find him!” she shouted. “Bring me him, his blood or his heart, but bring him!”
“Vengeance,” Mary shouted, her voice rising he a devilish cackle. “Vengeance is called!”
All the wraiths began chanting that same word, over and over again. “Vengeance.” Then they disappeared back into the midrealm, the order for the hunt having been given.
Eve turned back to the crowd, most of whom were frozen in place. They couldn’t really be blamed, seeing as they had come face to face with the vampiric answer to the Lucifer. The funny thing was that despite their fear, they felt inclined to worship. Vampire culture was based to an enormous amount on age, for age equated to wisdom and power. Eve may have been each of their nightmares, but she was as old as Solomon, so she could command their respect. Her years on this earth made them stop, but it was her power that made them tremble. They should tremble, because she wanted blood. She had killed the two members of the Blood Brood out of wrath, but now she was hungry. Her eyes fell on the neck of Senator Trefauld, who had been left behind by those he would have betrayed humanity for.NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.