Page 125 of How to Entice a Fiend

Even when I kill one and drop them to the ground, more fill their place. I turn as I see Marcus rush in and I try to use this as an opportunity to reach Abel, but a woman slams into me before I can. I realize she’s a true vampire well before she pushes me back. She has the strength behind her and is an extremely skilled fighter, so I can’t let my attention stray off her.

Another vampire smashes into me, throwing my focus off the woman who uses the opportunity to shove me back, where I crash into a chair that shatters beneath my weight. I roll up and as she presses in, my fingers wrap around the broken chair leg which I drive straight into her heart. She might be able to heal from it, but not anytime soon.

I turn and see that Abel has acquired a blade that he’s using to press against Marcus’s throat where Abel has him cornered. Blood is running down Marcus’s neck, and the only thing stopping it from cutting through the soft tissue is Marcus’s hand on the blade. It’s slicing right into his hand, blood dripping off and onto the ground, as Marcus tries to push it back, but Abel is overpowering him.

I rush forward and just as I see the blade slip on Marcus’s bloody hand, I slam into Abel, driving him back. Abel has so much momentum going with the blade that it cuts right into me, tearing open my chest and side before I can stop it.

Abel is pissed. He wants to kill Marcus and he wants to control me, and currently, he’s not accomplishing either of those things.

My wounds heal, but I know it’s only so long before the blood loss will get to me. There are too many people on his side who keep pushing us back anytime I could doanythingto hurt him.

“You are not going to win this. I have hundreds of people, and look around you. You have a couple of council members and a few VRC? The rest are dead. You’re surrounded by death.”

I can’t look away from him to see, but I’m aware he’s not lying. I can feel the slick blood beneath my feet. I can hear someone crying for mercy. I can smell the stench of death. And I want to say that there would’ve been less bloodshed if I’d done this alone, but how the fuck would I have done any of this alone? The monster from my dreams is very much still a monster. Maybe if it was just the two of us or just Marcus and me against Abel, we’d have already won, but not like this. Not when there are so many.

Abel’s vampires close in, wrapping around the spot Marcus and I stand.

“You have a place by my side and that is the only fucking place you belong. Do you understand?” Abel screams. “I’ll let them live if you come to my side.”

I see Claude hit the ground, knocking someone down as another swings a weapon straight for his head. Alexei cuts the man’s head clean off, but a woman quickly fills his place.

“Come to my side and this will end. I’ll let them live.”

How can he still spout such bullshit and expect me to believe any of it? Not that I believed it back then. But he showed me what happened when I didn’t believe him. “You have killed everyone I’ve cared about. You destroyed me. And you really think I’d choose going back to you over death?”

I hear someone coming behind me and I turn, but it only gives Abel an opportunity to tear into me. I fall back, skidding on blood and barely managing to keep from tripping over a body as Abel raises something to cave in my skull. I twist, narrowly avoiding it as I see Alexei try to move in, but he’s not fast enough. The sliver of tension in Abel’s body tells me he notices, but Alexei doesn’t. Abel pivots fast as I shove Alexei to the side,taking a hit to my side that is lessened by the way I’d turned my body. Alexei hits the floor, and I trip over him before scrambling to my feet, but Abel is right on Alexei again. Thankfully, Claude manages to draw Alexei back, aware that fighting isn’t going to end well and he needs to pull him away.

And that is the very moment I see Mads, of all people, sneaking into the fight and bloodshed.

What the fuckis he doing here? He was supposed to stay out of this. He was supposed to be safe. He’s not safe here. The second Abel sees him, he’s going to take him.

An explosion sounds right outside of the building. The noise is deafening and Mads takes that opportunity to rush Abel and stab him with something. Abel doesn’t hear him, but he sure feels it and it causes him to swing back, knocking Mads away from him, not realizing who it is.

“You… fucking…”

“Outside!” Mads yells. “GET OUTSIDE.”

Does he seriously think I’m just going to leave him in here?

I watch as Mads runs and Abel rushes for him, but Mads is almost immediately lost in the crowd. “I’m not going to let you have him.”

“Oh? Then I will simply use your fucking body to get him to come to me, eh? He’s really too nice for his own good.”

Mads’s words strike me again as I realize that this likely means there is some kind of plan outside. Maybe one of the bombs or something, and if I get Abel outside…

But his eyes are on Mads, who is struggling to get through the vampires who’ve realized that this is the very man their maker wants, and if they were to deliver him to Abel, they’d likely get to keep their heads.

I hurry into the crowd and grab Mads, sliding my arms around his body and holding him tightly before jerking him out the door and into the sunlight.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuck,” Mads cries as I see Finn and shove Mads toward him. Quickly, I turn around, prepared to be the barrier between Mads and Abel.

“I will teach you how to fucking listen, Ender,” Abel snarls as he rushes after me. When he sees that we’re not running, he slows down.

“You will not take him.”

Abel merely laughs. “You can say it however much you want, but at the end of the day, words are meaningless. I heard how many times you told yourself that you wouldn’t hurt your brother, and still… you were the one who killed him.”

I’m tired, coated in my own blood, but rage is eating through me… even so, I know I can’t lose control. Maybe that’s what he’s wanting. Maybe he wants to watch me kill those I care for. It sure would make him happy. But I’m in control. I have to be in control. Though if I wasn’t… could I win this? I’m always stronger when I reach that state, but I can’t control who I kill or what I do.

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