The breath was driven from his lungs for what had to have been the third or fourth time in the past hour. He coughed hard, and blood splattered his lips, a clear sign that there had been internal damage done. His lips were cut in multiple places from being hit in the mouth, and it wouldn't have been surprising if teeth had been knocked loose. His otherwise handsome face was covered in bruises, his left eye swollen so much that he could no longer open it, and the bruises remarkably resembling knuckles. His head was spinning, any attempt at thought made him want to vomit.

He could hear her screaming, begging him to stop, to let them go. He was no fool, though. No matter how much she begged and pleaded, her husband was not the kind of man to take double-crossing lightly. Adraejen had worked long enough for Duke Greer and had participated in enough of his deals and exchanges to know that his former employer would not be letting them leave alive.

That's why they had tried to leave. They had kept their relationship a secret, and a very guarded secret at that. Adraejen could only think of one or two individuals who may have known about it at all. But somehow Greer had gotten wind of their affair. Drae had gotten wind that he knew, but far too late. Now, he found himself in the very position that he had seen others who had betrayed the Duke in.

The chains that held him up bit deep into his wrists, and his shoulders ached something fierce. Constantly being hit by Greer’s hired muscle didn’t help either. Through his blurred vision, he could see that Greer was focusing his attention on his wife now, belittling her, telling her all about how good he had been to her all through the years, demanding to know why she would betray him. All the while, he was drawing a knife across the Duchess’s once lovely face, and she was whimpering and crying out for her husband to stop.

He did indeed stop for a moment, only to toss his blade onto a nearby fire to get white hot. She begged him to stop the torture, begging him to spare the life of the child they had so desperately tried to have for so long.

“Shut up, you traitorous bitch,” the duke snarled. “Do you think I will allow the bastard child of the man who betrayed my confidence to live?” he demanded of her as he backhanded her. He snapped his fingers and a searing pain shot through Adraejen’s stomach as the hired muscle pushed a knife into his belly, once then twice more, each time in places that would cause pain but not kill him. Screams ripped from Drae’s throat before the blade was removed and he whimpered in both pain and relief.

“Get him down from there now…” Greer growled. The bodyguard did as he was told and unchained Drae before dropping him unceremoniously on the floor.

“You betrayed me, Adraejen. I trusted you. You were promising, and smart, and you got me a lot of money. Why did you have to betray me?” Greer asked, trying to pretend to be disappointed. “So, to return the favor, I am going to take something of yours…” he said as he picked up the knife he had left in the fire. As he turned to his wife, Drae dragged himself slowly to his feet, in his hand a rusty iron bar that had been left carelessly on the floor. He swung hard, with what little strength he had left and clocked the bodyguard across the head, and he crumpled to the floor. Drae roared as he rushed at Greer, iron bar raised high.

There was a flash in the firelight and Drae staggered, the bar falling from his grasp as he hands clutched at his throat, trying to stop the bleeding from the gash that had just been cut across his esophagus. He fell to the floor, gasping as blood spilled from his wound.

“With all your intelligence, Drae, I’d have thought you a bit smarter than that,” Greer gloated as the world faded from Drae’s eyes. The last things the half-elf were the dying screams of the Duchess as the Duke cut into her belly.


Thunder crashed and lightning split the sky as the wagon rolled along the coastal cliff road outside of Wyllmochvar. For a brief moment, the wagon came to a halt, and the two figures driving the wagon jumped out to drop the two large bundles in the back down into the ocean below before they rolled off again.

Drae didn’t feel the chill of the rain. In fact, he didn’t feel much of anything. Everything was dark, and cold, and he felt that he was floating.

Is this… is this death? he wondered as he hung suspended in the abyss. Anger flashed through him, unbearable enough to tear his soul apart. He didn’t want to die, not like this. He wanted revenge. He wanted to destroy the man who had taken everything from him. But he couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything.

I don't want to die like this… I will not die like this!

-Before Angela kills her-

Cyprus had loved the web she weaved. She was planning more and more to use the children her sister had. Maybe that Ash would be next, he was rather stupid. A smile twitched to her lips as she pulled the sheet over the body of Raven, Angela’s son. It would be a gift for the goddess getting in her way. Did she even notice her sweet beloved boy was dead? Was she panicking yet? 

“Mama?” It was Colden, just a toddler. He was holding some disfigured toy that Cyprus had made. Turning around the woman smacked her child down with the back of her hand.

“I told you not to come in here. Do you have a death wish? I’ll kill you and string you up for your aunt.” Cyprus hissed at the boy. His father had broken a deal and he was worthless now anyways. Cold hate stared down at him as the boy began to cry. “Get him the hell out of my sight before I cut his tongue out.” Lotus came into the room and picked up her little brother.

“Cruelty will get you no where in life. You know this and yet you push her buttons.” Lotus’s bi-colored eyes stared her mother down.

“She doesn’t have the balls to kill me.”

“She might now. You crossed a line you can’t uncross.” Lotus’s eyes went to her cousin before hauling her brother out of the room. “I told you Colden, don’t go in there.” She whispered into her brother’s ear.

Picking the body up in the blanket she began to carry it off to the red court. People stepped out of her way like she was the plague. “ANGELA!” She threw the body down on the ground. Raven’s dark locks were the first thing to come out. “Give me Kirika!”

And the earth shook like hell was there. It was the last thing she remembered before the darkness took her and she woke up in the torture room that Angela had prepared. Lotus had been right but still she was alive for now.

–

Angela hadn’t killed her per se. No, the Rosenite had been much crueler. She felt her real body being  burned while she suffered in the realm of darkness that the goddess had stuck her in. She felt her heart explode from the heat of the fire when Angela had thrown it in separate. She felt each flame tear her apart to ash and even then when Angela stomped on it she felt the pain from that as well.

“THAT BITCH.” Cyprus seethed as the demons around her laughed. The very thing she had clung to for power now thought of her as pitiful. She wandered for days in the darkness until she thought she heard whimpering of the worst sort. 

Through a pool like mirror she watched a man struggle for his life. It was pitiful and if she were in a mood to be entertained she would have placed bets on how long he would live… but a thought crossed her mind. A devious most precious sort of thought. He would do well to find her a vessel. Into his mind she climbed and she blackened his thoughts with her life force like blood.

“I can save you.. I can give you what you want… All you have to do is make a deal.”

As he floated there, suspended in limbo while whatever denizens of the afterlife tried to decide where he needed to go, Adraejen felt a presence, a dark, evil, but an inviting presence seep into his mind and he felt himself being pulled elsewhere. He landed in a half heap on the floor of a small room, everything in shades of red and black, and he looked around. Had something heard him?

He felt her there, in his consciousness, coating his thoughts like honey or tree sap. 

I can save you…I can give you what you want… all you have to do is make a deal.

Adraejen got to his feet and whirled around, looking for the voice. "Is that so?" he demanded. "You can drag me from death's door, and give me the means to tear my enemies down?" he asked, his voice grating, filled with hatred and rage. "Show yourself to me… and we'll see if I believe you!" he insisted, his long black hair plastered to his disfigured face with blood and sweat, or what he thought was blood and sweat. He was growing steadily colder, and his clothes felt damp, and his throat hurt him something terrible. 

"Who are you?"

She slithered in and out of his thoughts like a snake. She ate them all up until finally, he found her in his mental state. He called to her and it made her smile, that sick twisted way. He was snagged on her deal. Knowing that her sister was no fool, Cyprus crept out into the room. Large dark wings sat on her backside, while a dress of black and red warped around her body. It was damaged flesh still, where the burns had gotten her but Cyprus was beautiful.

Her long raven hair swooped to the floor and those red eyes were hungry for his acceptance. “I will give you all of my power… All of my life force that I have left.” Which was a joke, he wasn’t really even that dead yet. He just needed a bit of magic.

“My pretty little mortal,” She swooped in by him and hugged him with her wings of dark. “I can save you. If you are quick enough to accept me you might be able to save her too. I will give you the powers you desire… I will give you just enough to kill those who have wronged you… but in exchange, I need a vessel. I need to sleep within you. When the time is right and I’ll let you know. I’ll come out and complete our bargain. I need a vessel. I am Eveline.”

She was an otherwordly creature for sure, a demoness or succubus of some sort. Beautiful, every inch of her desirable despite the clearly burnt flesh on parts of her body. The red and black of the room clung to her like a gown, and her wings enveloped him as she drew him near, offering him all her power, what life force she had left. 

She teased him with the idea that if she accepted her, he might be able to save the woman he loved, and that the powers she could give him would be all that he needed to destroy those who had wronged him. All she wanted was a vessel, to sleep inside him until she found a suitable host, at which point she would complete their bargain and leave him. 

"All your powers… the powers to destroy my enemies… make them suffer?" he asked. "And all I have to do is help you find a vessel…"

It didn't take him long to consider her offer. 
"You have a deal. I'll help you find what you want, and you'll give me the power to make my enemies rue the day they turned their backs on me," he said firmly. "Now, give me what you promise."

It took her no time at all to smile at him. “Adraejen, you should know not to make pacts you might one day regret.” It was a whisper in his ear before the darkness of the room assaulted all of his senses. She gifted him the little bit of magic he would need to survive. She wasn’t strong, no Angela made sure of that, but she could make Adraejen strong. Together they could find her a host and maybe if he was grateful to her, they could strike the goddess down.

“Awake from your sack boy, you have work to do.” The woman laid down in the segment of his mind. Her murderous eyes closing as she worked to repair what her sister had done. “Grow into it. Hate them. Destroy those that would get in your way… but do not forget our deal Adraejen for I am not so patient and forgiving as some might say.” 

She bonded them with her blood and soul, and then she went asleep for the years it would take him to fulfill what she wanted.

"I tell you one thing, if you can do everything you say you do, I don't think I'll EVER regret it," Adraejen answered before the wave of darkness overtook him and he felt her seeping into every inch of him. He felt her powers spark in him, and of that tiny inch of magic his own will and blood took a mile. Her words echoed in his ears as she laid down in his deep subconscious, always at the back of his mind, like his shadow. 

He was wrenched back into consciousness so fast it was painful. The water around him boiled as purple-green flames erupted around him, disintegrating the bag that he had been stuffed in. He felt the flames searing the gash in his neck, the stab wounds closing. He inhaled, but all he got was water. Salt water that burned every cut, that made every scrape throb. He panicked for just a moment, his limbs not wanting to cooperate until he got his head straightened out. His arms began to work and he propelled himself to the surface. 

He broke the water and sucked in lungfuls of air. It hurt, but it felt so good. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. He could see the lights of Wyllmochvar, and he recognized the cliffs. It was inky dark, but he dived again, hoping to find the second bag he knew had been dumped. 

He found it, and he grabbed hold of the bag and dragged it to the surface. He swam with it, with great difficulty, to the shore where he tore the bag open as the waves beat down upon him. 

It was too late. She was gone. There was nothing, he knew, he could do. He wailed, in anguish as though his soul had been torn apart. He was about to curse the woman he had made his pact with, but remembered that she had not promised that he could save her. She had said that maybe there was time left, if he was quick enough. He hadn't been fast enough. This was all his fault. This was his fault…

No… no it wasn't. It was not his fault. Greer had found out, it was Greer that had killed her. They had been so damn careful, no one knew about their relationship. And yet, Greer had found out. Rage built up inside of him again, the red threatening to consume him and the green and purple flames exploded from him as he screamed into the sky. 

He was much stronger than she had anticipated. She had only given him enough to wake up and that was all. He had taken the ball and ran with it as far as she was concerned and that was mildly problematic. Pawns were easier to control when they weren’t stronger than you but Angela had made that hard all around. 

She listened to his crying and his whining and rolled her eyes from her bed. “Maybe it is time I tell you of why I want this deal.” She seeped from his mind and made it so only he could see her. That was the only way it was possible. Even in the sun she looked gorgeous but also there was a hideous side of her through those red eyes she had. “A woman took everything from me. Constantly getting in my way. Deciding what I was doing was wrong. So I took something from her and she ripped me apart and cast my soul into brimstone.” 

There was poison leaking from her mouth. “You say you won’t regret it but you will come time. When I show you the grand finale of this all. My dear Adraejen, you are my tool of revenge… and no one is innocent in my play.” She looked up at the sky. “Rest if you want to kill him. We move when you are through with your revenge. I will find a way for my own. I will tell you more of her someday. I will make you see why I hate her so… in turn you will hate her as I have come to.”

Drae dragged himself to his feet, tears streaming down his face as he looked skyward as her voice echoed in his head. He looked down at the woman he had had feelings for and gritted his teeth, burying his grief inside him and let it be replaced with anger. He pointed at her corpse and immediately she was engulfed in his new green and purple flames, giving her a funeral pyre essentially, there and then, though it was not as formal as it could have been. He turned his gazed back towards Wyllmochvar and began to trudge back towards the city limits, Cyprus just floating beside him only to be seen by him. The darkness wasn't even dark compared to the darkness that surrounded her. 

"Sounds like you and I have something in common. Only, at the moment I am the only one who can do anything about it," Drae muttered as he trudged over the pebbly ground. "I don't think you know me enough to be able to claim that I will regret anything," he growled. "But you seem pretty confident that we are going to be on the same side in all this, so I will play along for the time being," he said flatly. "But let's get something straight. I am not your errand boy, or your crony," he said flatly. "I am done playing second fiddle to anyone," he said, his steely gray eyes glaring at the beautiful phantom that hovered in his eyesight alone. 

But he did take her advice about resting. When he pushed his way into his personal hidey hole, he flopped onto his bed and slept for several days. 
***********

Duke Greer strode into his manor, looking smug and confident. So much had played out splendidly. With Adraejen out of the way, there was so much that was much to be happy about. He rubbed his hands together as he strode into his study with a satisfied sigh. 

"Well well, Duke Greer… come back from a profitable business venture, I hope?" a voice sounded. Duke Greer froze and looked at his chair as it slowly turned around. Adraejen sat in the chair, his hair pulled back and oiled to perfection, and his deep crimson vest pressed, shimmering silk. His boots were polished and caught the lamplight as he sat there with one ankle braced on his knee and fingers steepeled. 

"That's funny, Adraejen. Didn't I leave you sinking into the black abyss?" 
"Funny how bad luck seems to turn up when you think you've got it all planned out just right, isn't it?" Drae asked, his eyes hardening. 

Greer chuckled and nodded slightly and moved to begin pacing in front of the desk as Drae had known him to do when he was in deep thought. The steely eyes never left the duke as he moved across the rug. 

"So where does this leave us, Adraejen? Clearly you are a man worth your salt if you can cheat death. I think I could find a way to cutting you back into the business again. Partners like we were?" Greer offered, putting his hands out in front of him like he was offering Drae a gift. 

It was Adraejen's turn to laugh now, and he laughed darkly. "Oh, my dear Duke. That sounds quite the bargain," Drae said as he stood up. "But I had something better in mind…" he said smugly. "I was thinking, you turn over all your business assets to me, here and now, and sign over your estate in my name, and I'll make your death a much shorter and quicker one than mine," he said, his tone completely serious. Greer's face became contorted and angry. 

"I should have severed your spinal cord…"

"Yes, you should have," Drae replied. 


The manor was in flames as Adraejen walked away, a folio of business papers tucked under his arms. He had left Greer in the flames, tied to his chair, and the maid who had betrayed her mistress, all because she wanted her Master's attention and love. 

Drae couldn't help but feel a surge of glee overtake him, at the havoc he had just wreaked, and how he was about to turn everything on its head. 

"I sure will enjoy this…"