Chapter 13: Raven
No one, neither vampire nor human, said much as they escorted Lillith back to her private home, an old Southern plantation secluded by the long arms of willow trees in marshy country outside of the city.
Constantine kept Abigail company as Raven saw the distraught vampire mistress to her private quarters. Her grounds were protected by dedicated servants, all strong men who hovered somewhere between mortal and immortal.
Not that it mattered. The Creature seemed not to care what type of life it took to get what it wanted, and though nobody spoke the words everyone already knew the next person on its agenda to exterminate.
That was why, though she begged him through tears she'd long forgotten how to cry, Raven told Lillith that it would be best if he go.
He'd seriously begun to think that was the solution for everything – to leave them all and draw the Creature away from them.
As Raven caressed Lillith's soft ivory features as she drifted off to sleep, that idea had more and more merit.
He nodded to the strong, muscular man with long blond hair who stood watch by her chamber door and then made his way to the parlor where Constantine and Abi waited.
"She's asleep," he told them. "Let's go."
They followed him without question, something neither of them thought they would do. But the game had decidedly changed. None present could erase the visual of a young man torn asunder on a blood soaked mattress.
It was as if the Creature was letting them know they were no more human than it was.
Abi still felt its claws upon her skin, its hot breath against her face. Had she been barely spared the same fate as Henri?
She shuddered in spite of herself, something both vampires took notice. Constantine and Raven shared a knowing look. Though certainly not their first natural instinct, both felt the sudden need to protect her.
But as she looked into Raven's eyes, he knew that a simple goodbye would not suffice any more than well reasoned logic why she should stay far away from him and from the covens to which she'd become familiar. Her draw to him and to his very lifestyle – such that it was – was entirely too strong. He had not turned her, but she was as much a night walker as any of them. It was in her spirit, if not yet in her blood.
This was his one last chance to set her free, to appeal to that side of her that was human. He couldn't afford to blow it.
As they reached her block he hung back, wanting to make their split as public as possible.
If the Creature was watching him and scoping out his companions for prey – something he had begun to suspect from the eerie sensations he felt within the limits of the city, Raven was ready to put on the act of his life.
As expected, Abi realized he no longer followed and turned to face him. "Raven?"
Constantine also turned, and recognized the look on Raven's face immediately. This was not going to be pretty, and he suddenly didn't want to be a party to any of it.
Yet somehow he knew he had to – if Raven was going to crush Abi's heart he suddenly felt the need to pick up the pieces.
It was the least he could do after introducing her to this life in the first place.
Such compassion was a foreign thing to him – and part of him immediately wanted to run far, far away.
Yet he stayed rooted to the spot anyway.
Raven still hadn't answered her or closed the distance between them, so Abi took it upon herself to do so. She was quite shaken up, and all she wanted to do was go back to her marigold room and have Raven hold her once more. As crazy as it sounded, it was the only time she felt safe. "What's wrong?" she finally asked.
He walked casually toward her, the hard look on his face unwavering. "It occurs to me that all of this unpleasantness began around the time you started coming to the coven," he announced. "And now I think I know why."
He advanced on her until he was merely a breath away. "It's because of you."
Her eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"
He laughed. "You with your human desire and your petty little sexual games. You are a disease that is turning us all into monsters. A poison, that ultimately ends in our death. You think your coming to the coven was a coincidence? That you simply wanted 'research'?" He sneered down his nose at her. "You are inferior in every way. Therefore you must destroy us for your own pathetic survival."
She fought the tears. Why was he being so cruel after he had held her so tenderly? "Raven..."
"Don't waste your tears on me," he warned. "I'm not human. I do not care."
She squared her chin. "I don't believe that."
"No?" he asked as he pulled her to him roughly. His eyes darkened to near black as his mouth crushed down on hers in an angry, possessive kiss. Just as she started to succumb to his raw passion, she felt the skin of is lips erode away to paper, and his teeth elongated to a skeletal state while his bony fingers dug into her soft, supple skin. Abi gasped as she attempted to pull away, but he held her in a vice grip.
"You see what you make me?" he growled through hundreds of years old skin stretched across long dead bones of his face. "I'm a monster! Do you really want to fuck a monster?"
The remains of his mouth descended towards hers again but she wrenched away. Constantine watched helplessly from the sidelines. As much as he glorified in the god-like power of turning humans into immortals, he never felt the need to show the uglier, scarier side of his nature to a helpless human. He wanted their adoration, not their fear.... even when he fed.
And Raven was horrifying, even to him.
"How close do you want to come to death, Abigail?" Raven demanded as he advanced on her, fangs bared, and she dropped to her knees with a cry, covering her neck with both hands.
