The Divine and the Damned

He had said he was always going to protect me, so where was he now? Where was my white knight? My saviour? My protector?

I had awoken alone that morning.

"I see how you look at him," Azrael said, staring at me with disdain.

I remained silent, watching him speak. His mouth was set in a straight line.

"It did not end well for Rose"

Azrael took another step forward "Loving him won't end well for you, either"

I did not know what I did or what I had done to make him harbor such hatred for me.

"Lord Azrael, please if I have offended you in any way, forgive me"

"Dragos loved Rose" he continued, ignoring me like I hadn't spoken. "He loved her with every fiber of his being. How could he not? She was beautiful. Strong. And he had most of his firsts with her"

His blue eyes focused on mine, burning like flames "But you... who are you? Nothing but a mere servant"

I fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the other, uncomfortably. I knew what Azrael was doing. He was deliberately saying those things to make me jealous and feel undeserving of Dragos' love.

Azrael continued, "She was the first person he turned and though she might be dead, she forever lives on in his memories. So don't you think, not even for a split second that you mean something to him, cause you don't"

The smile on his face caused me to stumble a step back, kicking over the basket of apples.

Maybe there were a few mental issues he battled secretly.

I considered asking about what he earlier meant by "turned," but common sense advised against it.

Suddenly, Azrael was in front of me, his arms trapping me in an unyielding, iron-tight grip.

I fought against him in an attempt to free myself, wondering what his intentions were, but my struggles were useless. His arms felt like bars of steel.

This was it. The moment I had been dreading. The moment he would finally hurt me.

"Sir?!" I cried out in fear "Sir, what are you doing?"

His mouth opened, producing a hiss-like sound that left me frozen in shock. Silently, I watched as his canines grew into long, menacing fangs, something unlike anything I had ever seen before.

"He can be a real... beast" Rafael had once said to me. This was what he meant.

His eyes, once a parody of brilliant blue, had darkened to a deep red, with veins around them standing out prominently.

I stopped struggling, caught in shock, and unable to react. But, when the fangs sank into my neck, I snapped back to reality and unleashed a blood-curdling scream, pounding on his back repeatedly, desperate for him to release me.

Suddenly, Azrael flung me to the ground and staggered backward, choking on my blood and frantically wiping his mouth. He grunted in apparent pain, furiously spitting out the remnants of my blood, and I watched in utter befuddlement while clutching my bleeding neck.

What sort of monster was he? What in the heavens...?

When Azrael seemed to have gained some manner of composure, he turned sharply and glared at me, the sides of his mouth covered in burns.

"BITCH!" He growled. "Guess I'll have to finish you off some other way"

Terrified beyond comparison, I screamed again.

"Please don't hurt me!" I pleaded fearfully.

Azrael began to storm towards me when, in an unreadable blur of motion, Dragos appeared and forcefully pushed him back.

The violent force of the tackle sent him crashing into a tree, the collision felling the tree itself.

Startled by the crash, I screamed for the third time, covering my ears with my hands. Dragos was with me within a moment, helping me to my feet. I noticed his T-shirt wasn't only torn on both sides but was stained with blood.

My eyes widened in shock.

What the heck was going on?

He was checking my body for any signs of bruises, but when he saw the bite marks on my neck he stiffened.

"Are you alright?!" He asked desperately, anger and worry visible in his eyes "Dawn, can you hear me? Are you alright?" He repeated.

I was still dazed, trying to process what had just unfolded right before my very eyes.

These were no ordinary people.

"She's in shock" Rafael's voice sounded behind me, and I turned sharply to find him there as well.

How had they both arrived so quickly? Rafael hadn't even been in the villa.

Azrael's groan drew their attention, and I shuddered in fear, squirming further into Dragos' protective hold.

"It needs to be done, Dragos!" he barked before vanishing in a blur of motion.

My neck stung, and my head spun, but my focus was on Dragos' t-shirt.

It appeared like he'd been to war.

As if reading my thoughts, he said with a smile "Story for another day."

Dragos moved to go after Azrael but my grip on his arm tightened.

"Wh-what is... what is going on, Dragos?' I asked. "Why did- why did he bite me a-and how did you move so fast, how is-" I let out a frustrated sound. "How is any of this even possible? What is going on???!"

I was terrified.

He held my face tenderly, his eyes softening. "I'll explain everything to you, I promise, but for now, I'm going to deal with Azrael"

He turned to Rafael "Take her inside and stay there with her"

Rafael nodded and left for the house with me, while Dragos went in search of his brother.

†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††

DRAGOS.

Just as I pulled into the mansion's gate, Rafael coincidentally arrived too, his sleek Mercedes gliding in behind me when we heard Dawn's scream pierce the air.

We both froze, exchanging an alarmed glance before getting out of our cars and rushing towards the orchard where the scream had come from.

We burst into the scene just in time to see Azrael attempting to harm Dawn again. But I was able to intervene just in time, preventing the attack.

She looked so scared and helpless, cowering on the ground and I felt rage unlike anything I'd ever experienced possess me, the need to protect her coursing through my veins like wildfire.

After Azrael escaped, I knew there was no plausible lie I could tell her. She had witnessed everything, and she couldn't be compelled to forget.

I spotted my brother five orchards away, taking out wooden splinters from his arm. He had discarded his jacket, now in bad shape from the encounter, and wore only his shirt, loosely tucked into the waistband of his trousers.

I walked towards him silently, grabbing the wooden handle of a long sickle resting against an oak tree.

I blew a strand of hair that had fallen across my face and stopped to break off the blunt edge of the sickle with my knee.

Azrael stood up straight and stretched, his bone cracking and shifting into place.

"I warned you," I said through my teeth, growing out my claws. "I warned you not to touch Dawn, but you just had to"

I started to carve the edge of the broken stick with my claws, my anger escalating with each sharpening strike "But being the insufferable paranoiac you are, you just had to try!"

Azrael took a step forward "She needs to be put down. It's either her or us"

Frustrated, I yelled, "I told you about my dream! Yes, we have established that she is the Divine Purge, but there is a way around things. A loophole"

Anger coursed through my veins. "Dragavei said we just have to discover it"

"And how long is that going to take before she starts hunting us down?" Azrael retorted.

"It's a gradual process, she doesn't even know what she is yet. If you can stop being such a bitch about it and start by joining Mother and I, then don't you think we'll be able to work things out quicker?"

"I don't join forces to save monsters when they should be put down" Azrael snapped, and I sighed in exasperation.

I caressed the stake in my hands, slowly inching my way towards my brother.

"Since you have refused to listen to reason, you've left me no choice but to resort to the ruthless brutality you once forced upon me"

My eyes lingered on Azrael's face as I spoke. "The only language you understand. The very savagery you've been waiting so long to see me unleash after all this time…"

"Her blood... it burns" Azrael interrupted, dusting his pants.

I stopped in my tracks. "What do you mean it burns?"

"It's like the sun. It burns" He pointed to the edges of his mouth which hadn't healed up yet.

"I barely took a bite out of her and her blood burnt right through my flesh. Fire runs through her veins, brother. It burns in her blood" The scowl on his face widened. "That is the woman you want to be with?"

I frowned "I do not care"

"We must act now..." he stopped talking and took in my appearance for the first time. All the while we spoke, he had failed to notice the state of my appearance, distracted by other matters.

The once immaculate t-shirt I'd left the house in now had slash marks, ripped by claws and covered in bits of flesh, torn at both sides.

Azrael's head tilted, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What have you done, Dragos?"

"They would not listen" I muttered.

An expression of horror spread slowly across his face. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??!!!"