Blood of the Gods (The Vampire from Hell Part 5) (7 page)

Demetri’s Discovery

***

“
There's so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we're going to get through it. Just be strong.
”
~ Mary J. Blige

***

This is what it’s like when worlds collide.
  It was the first thought that shot through my head when we arrived in Valeria.  The next thought was, “Oh fuck!  Is that Ray?”

The little bit of information I had found out on Valeria was sketchy.  Valeria seemed to be a way station, or stopping point on one’s journey to the next place.  If Beelzebub’s declaration was true, Mehen had put this place into operation after the collapse of the House of G.  Without his son at his side, G had little motivation to restore order.  Sad, but true.

Through the sea of cheering dead people, Blick managed to find his way over to us.  It surprised me that he had not shifted into his werewolf form.  But I think he was too startled to concentrate.  The sight before us was beyond shocking.  All of us, Grace, Blick, and me simply looked on in confusion.  For a moment, I wondered what we could do, but the scene was spectacular.  I did not move and decided very quickly that there was anything we could do, except stay out of the dragon’s way and watch.  And yes, the dragon was Ray!

“The way to my soul is not through my legs, you demon fuck!  No prince of Hell or otherwise touches me like that!”

Rayea’s words roared up to the ceiling as she blasted a stream of fire at Beelzebub.  Each time he managed to reanimate himself or lessen the effect of the blaze with his powers, she hit him again.  Lots of supernatural creatures have extra lives, kind of like cats do.  Demons have sixteen to be exact and Beelzebub was rapidly depleting his existence.

“I got here right as Beelzebub was forcing himself on her.  I was about to shift and save her and this happened.”

I heard Blick’s voice and he raised his hand at the scene.  He couldn’t believe it either.

“Do you think we should help her?” Grace asked.  “I’m ready to kick some demon’s ass!”

“How?” Blick and I asked the same thing at the same time.

Glancing over at Grace as she shadowboxed the thin air, I shook my head.  Grace was certainly Rayea’s vampire child.  I also decided now was the time to drop the nickname I had given Rayea when we had dated.  Ray would no longer be appropriate.  Fire-breathing dragon would be the obvious choice. 
What were we going to do
?  I sighed.

“Did you know this was going to happen,” I asked Blick.

“Oh yeah, I got the memo from the council just the other day.  Your girlfriend won’t be judged because she’ll be burning the place down.  Dragons do that, you know.”

Grace laughed.

I glared at her.

She smirked at me, batting her eyes at me when she pulled that sassy Rayea look.  “I don’t think Blick knew, honey,” she offered.  “Besides you are the Angel of Death.  What information do you have for us?”

“Don’t honey me, woman!” I growled.

She jumped around me pretending she had punched me in the stomach once or twice.

“Wait until I get you home,” I whispered, hoping Blick had not heard me.

A huge smile spread across Grace’s lovely face.  Her meadow-green eyes gleamed.  Before I knew it, she pulled me to her and squeezed my face in that silly way she did when she was playful.  “Calm down, Demetri.  We’ll figure this out.  Right, Blick?”

“I thought you were afraid to do this!”

“Screw that,” Grace giggled, wrapping her arms around my elbow and cuddling up to me.  “Maybe I can become a dragon too.  I didn’t know vampires could shift!”

Again Blick’s words overlapped mine.  “They’re not supposed to.”

“Can she really kill him like that?” Grace asked.

“It would appear so,” Blick added.  “If she can’t shift back to her vampire self, we are in trouble.

When the screaming thrill of excitement rose up from the crowd of skeletons, we realized that Beelzebub was finally no more.  His existence now would be worst than any death he could imagine.  I elected not to think about it.  Being the Angel of Death wasn’t my concern anymore.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Blick shift into his huge werewolf form and take off running towards Rayea who was still a red dragon, breathing fire into the crowd now, and enormous.  She stood probably 300 feet high, the length of a football field going up to the heavens, a
skyscraper of red, gold, and orange flames.  It was hard to tell where her body started or ended because she never stopped moving.  She looked like a magical dance of rapidly raging destruction down on anyone in her path. 
Several wolfhounds rose up on all fours and left the crowd to stand near Rayea in her dragon form.  They were not skeletons like the other creatures.  I glanced back at the scene.  White and blue lights enveloped everyone as Rayea breathed flames upon them.

“What is she doing?” I yelled.

Grace grabbed my arm and almost jerked it out of the shoulder socket.  “We’re not missing this!” she yelled.  “Come on!”

I raced after them hearing Grace’s laughter mingle with the others.  If this did not prove that Rayea had passed her Judgment Day with flying colors, I did not know what did.

Marry Me (Rayea)

***

“
Never leave that till tomorrow what you can do today.
” ~ Benjamin Franklin

***

The moment after I had vanquished Beelzebub, I engulfed the group of skeleton creatures with my flames, hoping we could ‘purify’ their bodies quickly.  The intensity of the fire must have done the trick.  I was thankful that we did not need Beelzebub to break them free of their incased prisons.  Amid a bellowing cloud of smoke, dying out flames, and striking zigzags of white and blue light, each skeleton resumed their former human selves, so did each animal.  I saw wolves, cats, dogs, dragons, lions and the like all emerging from the chaotic flaming light show and standing up on their legs, two-legged or four-legged lifelike forms.  They were no longer the walking dead. 
Had I really just done that?

My body relaxed and I felt my shift into a dragon fall inward upon itself and retreat from the forefront of my thoughts into the depths of my soul as if it fled the scene to hide away in a dark corner of my mind.  Just as I had calmed down, I had felt the shift begin.  The flames diminished and I knelt to the ground.  I expected the shift, from dragon to human, to hurt, but it did not.  I wondered how that could be and thought to ask Blick about that the next time I saw him. 
Blick, that’s his name!

“Watch out!” I heard Jax yell as the howls of another wolf drifted towards us.

The other wolfhounds pushed me aside and I rolled over several times, headfirst like I was a ball being swatted out of the way.  Once I gained my balance, I jumped up.  The shift back into my human self had been effortless.  I stood up; slowly at first, hoping I could manage it.

Oddly enough, I was clothed in a dark red suit that felt like it was made entirely from lightweight armor.  Trying to forget the flexible body armor I wore from head to toe, I held my arms out before the crowd.  “Wait!” I commanded. 
Thank goodness, those are my hands,
I thought.

The rush of memories, flooding my mind, made my body whirl and I nearly lost my footing.  For safety, I knelt down.  The moment I had shifted, I knew who I was.  I recalled everything from the second my father, Satan, had given me his blood and turned me into a vampire to the moment my sister, Stephanie, had ripped my heart from my chest in Max’s bar.  The knowledge roared towards me, a small wave at first, and then more and more memories pounded before my eyes until I felt like I had been slammed into a cliff, and then washed out to sea during a great hurricane.  I thought I might collapse under the weight of knowledge now raging through my brain.  Searching for my vampire fangs, I ran the tip of my tongue over the roof of my mouth.  They twitched under the touch. 
Still a vampire,
I thought.  I stood up again as a cold sensation tickled my ear.  After I touched my ear lobe and looked at my finger, I realized my ear was bleeding.  “J,” I heard myself say.  Quickly, I checked my other ear and found nothing. 
Oh, wow.
  For a few seconds, I felt fine.  But suddenly, my knees buckled underneath me.  The memory of what I had done to J, G’s son lashed out at me.  I had killed him that night in the bar.  I had bitten him over and over, and he had been heard of no more.  As I fell, I reached out for someone, anyone to latch onto.  That’s when I saw the man from my dark dreams and pushed my guilt to the back of my mind.

The man shifted out of his werewolf form, took my hand in his, and held me securely by the elbow.  “Miss me?” I heard him ask.

I erupted into laughter and forgot about everyone and everything around me, except him.  “Blick!” I screamed and leapt into his arms.  He fell backwards and I tumbled on top of him.  I marveled at how fast he had shifted.  He grabbed me by the waist and settling me on his hips, he asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fabulous,” I sang out.

Blick smiled up at me.  “You want to let me up?”

“Not just yet,” I purred as I gazed down at him.  I recalled my promise to myself.  If I ever saw this man from my dreams, the man I had before me, I would jump into action.  I would not let the opportunity pass me by.  I had decided this moment would be the one I would complete exactly the way that I had imagined it night after night in my dark pit of despair and deadness.  I would not take no for an answer.  I heard people and animals gathering around us.  I nodded in acknowledgment when I heard Grace and Demetri say hello, but I only concentrated on looking at Blick.

“What are you doing this Halloween?”

“What?” Blick looked at me, trying to figure out why I was asking such a silly question in front of everyone who stood around us.  “What are you talking about?”

“October 31
st
, whenever it is.  What are you doing?”

He stared at me for a few moments.  His deep voice held a steadfast confidence, yet his golden eyes radiated a quiet concern.

I heard Grace comment.  “That’s a few weeks away.  You mean next Halloween?  You’ll have time to plan a wedding.  I’ll help!”

When I heard my fledgling’s advice, I smiled to myself.  “You’re right, next year then,” I replied to Grace, not taking my eyes off Blick.

He gazed up at me, searching my mind.  “Maybe it is too much time to think it over?”

I grinned down at him as I rested on his lap.  “I don’t need more time.”  I admired his rising muscular chest as it rose and fell underneath a slinky grey fitted t-shirt.  I wanted to run my hands under the cloth.  The second I felt his mind reach out for mine.  Then my brain locked itself down and I realized I had blocked his telepathic inquiry.  He could not read my thoughts unless I allowed it. 
Cool.

He smiled back at me, his golden eyes now glistening with savage passion.  A slight grin remained on his face.  “Do you have something in mind?”

“Marry me.  I want to spend my life with you.”

From the crowd, I heard a few gasps escape into the air.

I realized after I blurted out my proposal in front of everyone that Blick probably wouldn’t take me seriously.  For a moment, I felt like an idiot.  Popping my hands on my hips out of awkwardness, I glanced over at Grace and Demetri who stood holding hands, frozen in shock, looking at us.  I smiled up at them.  They both smiled back.

Blick did not take long with his answer.  He did not say a word.  Instead, he gathered me into his arms, pulled us both off the floor, whirled me around a few times, and buried his head in my neck.  Finally, he whispered in my ear, “You never cease to amaze me.  Are you absolutely sure?”

“I know it took me an eternity to get here, to this one moment in my life.  I know it took my dying to figure a lot of stuff out, but you’ve always cared for me Blick and I treated that like it wasn’t a big deal.  Well it is!  I promise you, I’ll never leave your side.  You’re stuck with me.  Okay?”

“I don’t need a marriage contract to know you’re mine and I’m yours.  I have been - and always will be - here.”

Clutching my body close to his, he placed his hand over my heart.

Again, I heard the crowd rejoice.  Jax nudged my leg in approval.

My heart too responded, quietly fluttering awake for the first time since I had died, and then slamming itself hard against the bones of my rib cage as if it was reaching out for Blick’s touch.

“What’s that?” I yelled.

“My heart beats for you, and yours shall beat again, for me, forever, if you’ll have me?” Blick asked me.

As my heart restarted itself, I heard his thoughts invade my mind.

Rebirth for any celestial being begins with the honesty in their heart and soul.  Only through death can you truly have life.  I’d be honored to marry you.

He caressed the curve of my face and tapped me a time or two on the chin.  Feeling his touch again after so long halted my breath.

“I’m going to kiss you now in front of all these people…” Blick began.

“Not just yet,” Demetri called out, instantly appearing at my right side.  “Let us do this properly.  Shall we?” Demetri motioned to Blick.  “Stand here please.”

Blick took my hands in his and did as Demetri asked.  Out of the corner of my eye, I wondered if I had seen Demetri wink at Blick. 
A secret between the two?

As the crowd grew excited, Grace pulled up to my left side and whispered in my ear.  “Rayea, if I didn’t know better I would say this looks like a makeshift wedding.”

I forced a laugh out of my clenched teeth.  “They can’t be serious,” I muttered, feeling my fangs want to declare an objection as well. 
What about a gown, guests, the usual wedding celebration on Earth things?
I thought.

“It’s Demetri’s plan to flush em out.  Trust me, it will be okay.  We have to get you judged and out of here,” Blick assured me.  “Then we can start our life together.”

The realization hit me square in the face.  I was about to be married in the same place I had awaken from only moments before. 
Flush who out?  I was to be judged too?  I had hoped that by killing Beelzebub, my judgment had been forgotten.  And yet here I was.  Only in death could I achieve stability, I thought.
“Wait!”

Go along.
  Blick’s words bounced into my head.

“Rayea, what’s wrong?”  Blick whirled me around to face him, becoming angry.  “You don’t want to do this?”  He threw up his hands in disgust, adding more drama to the situation than I thought it deserved. 
This wasn’t like Blick.

“Of course, I do.  I asked you!  Remember?  But we can’t get married alone.  I want my mother here and Ra, your loved ones, J and G, Grace and Demetri here, and Lynn.  Everyone I love.  I want them to witness our union.  Is that too much to ask? All these friends of ours.” 
I used the word ’friends’ loosely because I didn’t want to call them former walking skeletons.
 
Was this a resurrection of the dead I had participated in?
“All these friends of ours here,” I continued.  “We should invite them to a proper place on Earth or somewhere and make it a banquet, a real celebration.  Don’t you think?”  I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen.  I had always joked with Demetri about my being confident enough one day to propose to my man.  If that had anything to do with whatever he and Blick had cooked up, I dealt my hand and waited for the consequences.

Blick gathered me up in his arms again, holding me against his chest. 
Bravo
, his mind whispered to mine.

Demetri clapped his hands and spoke to Jax, the white fluffy wolfhound I had saved who bounced over to him.  “I think we can come clean now.  Don’t you?” Demetri asked the dog.

Blick wrapped in his arms around me again, this time protectively.  “It’s all about theatrics with these people.  Don’t worry.  I’ve got you.”

Sensing danger from his actions and certainly from hearing his words, I let my fangs fall forward, and backing my body into Blick’s tall frame, reached out for Grace.  “Drop your fangs, and get over here,” I ordered Grace as I pulled her by the wrist toward me.

Demetri announced to Jax.  “You have the floor.  I shall return.”  With a sudden whirl of his body, Demetri slid next to us and gave Grace his leather jacket.  “You may need this,” he said.  To me, he added, “This is the weirdest judgment day I’ve been to yet.  I need more to defend you with.”  Then, in a flash, Demetri vanished and only a cloud of black smoke remained as it drifted over us.  My heart sank. 
My Judgment Day was already underway.