The slave caravan pulled up to a portcullis built into the rock leading to a tunnel around noon. The keep rose far above them on a granite rise. Taking the whole thing down would be more difficult than she had first believed. The daughter of the woman she’d replaced was leaning against her. She hadn’t slept for the remainder of the journey and kept pestering Enid. She felt bad for the kid but she had no idea who the woman was, or who the daughter was and didn’t know what to say to her. So she had pretended to be asleep. The slavers were coming around their cage-cart and were counting the slaves one last time. The girl said something she’d not expected to come out of a teenage Muslim girls mouth at the slavers and was about to spit on them. Enid grabbed her arm and pulled her back and covered her mouth. She held her arm behind her and whispered into her ear in Arabic.

“Be silent these are not men to be trifled with.”

The slaver who had been nearest laughed.

“Good work. I’d hate to have to cut her tongue out and cost us money. Though with a mouth like that maybe she’d be worth more.”

He walked on after leering at the girl whose focus was now entirely on Enid’s right hand. Enid followed her gaze and realized the holo-web was projecting a twisted smashed lump of flesh that was covered in scar tissue from what looked like a hammer and then severe burns. Enid released her. The girl had been struggling in vain against the strength the Atlantean magically powered armor was providing her. The girl feel against the bars with the sudden lack of tension against her. She started rubbing her forehead and stared at Enid’s hand still. Enid whispered again, her voice harsh with condemnation.

“Stop it or you will get hurt child.”

The girl rubbed her wrist now where Enid had grabbed her, she whispered as well.

“Who are you? Where is my mother?”

“Your mother is safe. I took her place to sneak into the castle. Now I’m sure she would like you back in one piece and not beaten, tongueless or dead.”

Both of them suddenly snapped their gazes to six pregnant women who came out to greet the slavers and complete the exchange. Everything about them felt wrong. Even the unborn inside their wombs. Enid’s guts were twisting in knots. The women, the fetuses they were all demonic. Worse the unborn were half wolf-born. Abominations of the worst kind. No matter what else she would end them and their monstrous young. The girl looked at her.

“What is wrong?”

Enid shook her head.

“Child you do not want to know. Now silence. We do not want to stand out. Follow the crowd. Keep your head down. I will protect you as if you were my own child. It is the least I can do after taking your mother’s place and leaving you alone in this… horror show.”

The girl went to speak again but Enid put her finger on the girl’s lips.

“Silence.”

The girl blinked at her but seemed to understand the weight of the predicament they were in. The slaves were herded out of the carts and into a tunnel. Enid fought the urge to shudder as she passed each of the disguised demons. The most beautiful of them grabbed the wrist of her mangled hand and let it drop. She was the strongest of the demons they had encountered. No fallen one but definitely dangerous to her in her mortal form, even with the Atlantean armor. The demonic lieutenant looked at her closest compatriot and frowned. They were speaking in the language of angels.

“What a pathetic lot, this one only has one working hand.”

“The bloodsuckers won’t care. And she can still be bred.”

Enid was shoved into a cell with other women. She narrowed her eyes as the demon held up the girl and looked her face over.

“At least this one is young and healthy. Lots of children from her.”

She shoved the girl into the cell. Enid caught her before she hit the stone bench. The cell smelled like human excrement. The conditions were disgusting and several of the women were pregnant. The vampires should be more cautious about the spread of disease. It would infest them, and they would spread it. Apparently, the girl had enough and broke down in tears and started whispering about Allah. Enid pulled her close.

“Don’t despair. I will get you out of here. What is your name?”

The girl blinked at Enid. The calmness in Enid’s voice seemed to spread to the girl she answered softly.

“Safa.”

“You may call me Seraph.”

“One of the messengers?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

Enid hugged the girl close. Safa slowly stopped shaking.

“You will be safe, and you will be reunited with your mother. But for now, know that this place is full of monsters of all kinds. Some will imperial your soul, some will drink your blood. I cannot stop them from drinking your blood, but you will be alright if a bit weak. They will not kill you. Do as I say, and you will survive.”

Safa looked at her, her eyes wide in fear once again.

“I know you are frightened but even here, Allah is with you. There must be a reason I picked your mother instead of any of the other women. There were many women to choose from, but I picked the one with a daughter. It must have been his hand guiding me.”

Safa nodded. She grabbed on to Enid’s good hand tightly. Enid motioned to the door with her apparently twisted hand.

“Soon, I will unlock this door. I will need to leave you here, but I will get you out of here. I cannot hide us both.”

Enid reached into her pack and pulled out a single platinum feather that had come with the one she pulled for Robert. It still hummed with the divine energy of her true form. When it appeared Safa’s eyes went wide. Enid placed it in the girl’s palm. She touched the feather gently.

“This feather was plucked from a messenger’s wing and given freely. It has no power save to bring you peace and to light your way through this dark time.”

Safa’s fingers wrapped around the shaft of the feather. Her eyes lit up and she looked at Enid.

“You plucked this from your own wing when you gave one to your son.”

Enid quirked her head to the side.

“It told you that?”

“I feel it. The love you have for him. The love you have for all children. You are a messenger.”

Enid smiled at her.

“No Safa, I am no messenger. If I am anything I am his wrath. I have come to wipe out all of these monsters and then I will bring this terrible place down so that the horrors here will be forgotten. I have also come to deliver you and the rest of these people from bondage.”

“You seem so normal.”

“Because I am just as mortal as you are right now. My true form is very dangerous. I must do this with caution, or you would be in more danger from me then the demons and vampires. There are people waiting for me to open the way for them. They are guardians of humanity. Once you are safe along with the rest of these people, I will show my true self so that these monsters will know the ire of an angry angel.”

“Is that what Allah has commanded of you?”

Enid smiled.

“Allah is rarely what you would call direct. I have a task and how I complete the task is up to me. Right now my task is to deal with one of my fallen brothers who has gathered many vampires and demons here for some reason that I do not know. I also fear one of my daughter’s is imprisoned here. In other words Allah has expectations but he does not make them clear, much like mortals. He passes information through a prophet and it is up to you to determine what he wishes of you.”

“Will I see your true form?”

“You will likely see the mortal mask I wear but if you were to look on my divine form then things did not go to plan. I am hoping I will not need it. If I’m being honest my true power scares me. It is tempting to use it… in ways that were never intended. Also, I have more fallen brothers to hunt and the less they know about their hunter the better. Do you understand?”

Safa shook her head.

“You hide your true glory.”

“Oh, I don’t do this for glory or recognition. I do it because it needs to be done. All I want to do is go home and retire my wings. I have a very young daughter who needs a mother. Not the wrath of Allah. There is no glory in this task Safa.”

Safa nodded her fingers stroking the feather. Enid nodded.

“Good, now you may hear many loud noises. One will be close by. If I do not return to bring you out of here myself… You will see wolves and things that look like half-woman, half-wolves. The biggest among them will have majestic silver fur. In her human form she has silver hair and she wears beads in her two braids. She is my daughter. Show her the feather she will know that you are protected by me. Her name is Hazel. You can trust her.”

Enid started to move and Safa grabbed her good hand again.

“How many children do you have?”

Enid chuckled softly.

“Far more than any woman should give birth to, now keep quiet, stay out of the way and avoid looking into any of the monster’s eyes.”

Safa released Enid’s wrist. Enid tapped her wrist and switched the holo-web to a cloaking field. Safa gasped quietly as Enid vanished. Enid whispered.

“Shh.”

Safa held the feather to her chest and nodded. Enid crept to the cell door and easily picked the lock. It was child’s play compared to some of the more advanced twentieth century locks she’d dealt with. She slipped out of the cell and held the door closed while she locked it. A few of the women had noticed the door opened. She rushed off after relocking the door. One of the pregnant demons had come to investigate the disturbance. She looked half asleep and swore under her breath before moving to a nearby room. Enid glanced inside and she saw a dozen demons sleeping female demons. Each looked like a parasitic thing. With fly like faces and misshapen bodies. They had clear fly-like wings extending from their backs. In each writhed an abomination. She felt ill just seeing it. She quickly crouched down and started building four IEDs with Semtex, pipe and blessed bullets. She could not allow this heresy to continue. Half-demon, half wolf-born would be unstoppable. She quietly wired the IEDs to the door. Anyone opening it would set off enough explosives and blessed rounds the demons would be cast back to hell sans their disgusting unborn. It would be unfortunate if the explosion went off early and gave away her presence but even the lives of the slaves were worth whatever this was ceasing to continue.

She’d wasted two hours on the IEDs and time was growing short. The sun would set, and the vampires would rise. She decided the best use of her time was to set up more IEDs at the entrance. Silver bullets in a pipe bomb along with silver nitrate gas grenades on a timer to catch any vampiric first responders to the apparent attack. She had four left and it was going to be ugly for any Pugmentia caught in them. Tactics she had learned while she helped hunt down insurgents in several warzones. Tactics they would use for maximum terror and casualties. The humans had looked into the abyss and surpassed the monsters they found there in their ability terrorize humans.

She was planting the last shaped charge that would open the way for the wolf-born invaders when the alert she had set for nightfall started flashing on the HUD her 29th century contact lenses provided her. She was late getting back to the cells, but the vampires hadn’t noticed one missing slave. They were ushering the slaves through the narrow dungeon corridors. Poor Safa looked terrified. Enid slipped into the crowd beside her and shifted the cloaking field to the holo-gram once again. She wrapped her hand into Safa’s the girl jumped slightly but then looked up. Enid nodded to her. Enid pulled an injector full of silver nitrate out of her pack slipped into Safa’s pocket. She whispered to the girl.

“Press the hollow circle at the end against the skin of one of the vampires. It will only work once child so choose your time wisely.”

“Is something wrong?”

“I did not have enough time to do everything I needed to do. And I still do not know how many we face. Whatever happens if one grabs you when I cause the distraction. Hit them with the thing I put in your pocket. Use the time it buys you to hide out of the way. Things are going to get bloody before they get better.”

“What if I’m not strong enough?”

Enid smiled at Safa.

“Allah will help you find the strength you have inside. You have a warrior inside you. You just don’t know where she is hiding. Let him light the way.”

Safa tightened her grip on Enid’s hand.

“I’m scared.”

They were getting backed up by a large set of double doors. They looked to be sealed on the inside. The room they led too would be at the core of the keep, far from the sun. Enid squeezed Safa’s hand.

“My sister would say that she fears nothing because Allah walks with her. Does he walk with you?”

Safa nodded.

“Then what do you have to be scared of?”

Safa nodded. The men guarding the doors seemed confused. Enid hushed Safa so she could hear the conversation going on between the men in Italian.

“Where are the rest?”

“They want more?”

“All of them. There’s a new fang old high and mighty is trying to impress.”

Enid smiled and put her arm around Safa.

“Good news, my daughter got inside. We’re in better shape than I thought. Remember what I said and don’t be scared. No matter what happens to me.”

The wide doors swung open revealing a grand ball room that had been converted into a makeshift court. Tables and chairs were arrayed with at least a hundred vampires sitting around them. At the head of the room was a dais-throne with a shirtless man in black leather pants sat with a leg dangling over the arm of the chair he occupied. He was ridiculously sexy, but Enid’s sixth sense was already turning her stomach in knots. This was the fallen angel she hunted. Eyre was scantly clad and chained to his iron throne. She did not look too worse for the wear. Martina was chained to the other arm with a silver collar. Enid winced the poor girl. Helen stood to his right dressed in a regal gown the likes of which Enid had never seen her in. It was blood red and beautiful. If circumstances were different Enid would be quite pleased with how beautiful her adoptive daughter looked. Eyre was glaring at Helen as Enid would expect. She likely considered her a traitor to Imperials everywhere. The fallen angel stood.

“Tonight, we celebrate the joining of this pure-blooded vampire to our family. Tomorrow eve we will crush the attack of her elders would launch against us. Drink! Gain strength! After tomorrow we will fear no reprisals for taking what we deserve from this world.”

Enid felt Safa ripped from her hands by an over eager vampire who obviously had a taste for children. Enid despised vampires would feed from children. She felt herself grabbed and fangs press against her armor. The vampire screeched as his nigh-indestructible incisors shattered against the Atlantean plate collar. He released Enid. She used the sudden distraction to pulled one of her high caliber pistols that was full of silver hollow point bullets out and shot over her shoulder. The vampire screeched once again only this time it was cut short as his head dissolved in a puff of blue fire. The room suddenly stopped as all eyes looked toward the loud crack of the bullet being fired. Enid looked for Safa and the woman who had grabbed her was now scratching and clawing at her chest just below her throat. Blue flames were starting to tear through her body as the silver ran through her veins. Safa scuttled out of Enid’s site. Enid killed two more vampires with headshots. The other mortals were forgotten as the vampires started hissing at her fangs out and slowly edged closer to her. She shot another in the heart. The woman clawed at her chest trying to get the bullet out, but it was too late she fell down dead.

“Anyone else want to die their second death this night?”

She reached under the hologram and hit the detonator for the breeching charge and the front gate. As the keep shook with explosions the vampires twitched. She shot another one that tried to get closer to her. Several vampires near the exit rushed out of the room. She heard a secondary explosion. Shortly afterwards several vampires came in but their flesh was starting to melt off their bones consumed by blue fire. The fallen angel screeched when the four IEDs Enid had left as a booby trap in the demonic nursery went off. Enid pointed at the vampires who were slowly being consumed by the silver nitrate gas.

“If you want to look like them by all means leave the room. That pathetic lump of flesh who brought you here cannot save you now.”

The vampires pushed further into the room but refused to get any closer to Enid so they had formed a ring that was slowly getting thinner as they fought to avoid their fellows fates. The fallen angel lept from his throne and shoved through the Pugmentia. Enid gave a small half smile when she saw Helen start to unlock the collars around Martina and Eyre’s necks with the key she’d apparently pick pocketed from the Fallen Angel.

“You are going to let some mortal hunter with a few tricks frighten you? You are the ultimate predators!”

Several vampires started grabbing random humans to use as human shields including Safa. Enid looked around and knew she needed to buy the wolf-born and her daughters more time to escape. She shot the vampire holding Safa in the head. Safa scurried around again. The angel roared with fury and stormed towards her. His white feathery wings extending from his back. Enid drew her second pistol and shot him in the head. The blessed bullet did the trick and the fallen angel stumbled backwards letting loose another inhuman howl. He clutched his face. The vampires collectively took another step back from her. They had no concept that this divine being could be hurt and yet here he was laid low by someone who smelled like a mortal. Enid looked at Helen.

“Get them out of here and seal the doors!”

Her daughters almost got past the fallen angel but he managed to grab Eyre’s leg even half-blinded as he was. Enid tapped her holo-web dropping the illusion. The face she wore since birth was well-known to many vampires. The Pugmentia were now truly fearful of who they saw before them. The most dangerous of the Reapers. The most ruthless. The most heartless. Eyre stared at her.

“You don’t need her any longer. Your real prize is here. That’s why you got all these morons here isn’t it? To lure me here? I am Enid Aurelius. Daughter of Lilith. The first Seer. Too bad you believed my Seer, that we wouldn’t be arriving until tomorrow night.”

Eyre was completely forgotten as the fallen angel’s one remaining good eye focused on Enid. Helen got three of them out of the room. Enid smiled. That was all she wanted. The fallen one’s face started to repair itself as he walked in a circle around Enid.

“You were arrogant to come here with only four of you two newborn vampires and a werewolf cub. You might kill some of these but there are far too many for you to deal with even with your reputation.”

“You can have me. I’ll drop my weapons. Just release the mortals and let my children go.”

“Your pathetic spawn can leave so they can spread the word of your demise. But the mortals stay, I’ll not have my people starve.”

Enid nodded and dropped her weapons. She followed the trio too the doors and winked at Eyre who was about to say something to her, then she turned to Helen.

“Make sure you get everyone else out of here and kill any pregnant demons that survived would you dear? Also please bar the doors.”

Enid closed the doors and heard the wood fall into place on the other side. Then put the wooden bar on her side of the door. The fallen angel laughed.

“How very touching.”

Enid approached him and he grabbed her chin looking at her face.

“You are definitely her. Impressive making yourself a mortal somehow but you are powerless and unarmed now. I think I shall see if you live up to your mother’s legendary prowess in the ways of copulation before I take you to see your new lord.”

He released her chin and back handed her. She felt to the ground. She probably could have stood through it with the armor but why give her advantage away. He was super strong so the hit had stung greatly. She shifted trying to get up. She finally stood up and spit blood on his face.

“If you’re try to impress me, you’ll have to do better, to my father that was light foreplay.”

“You really have your mother’s arrogance, don’t you? Walking here as a mortal? I will toss you to your new Lord and you will grovel at his feet.”

He looked to the assembled vampires.

“I give you the first child of Lilith. How pathetic she is, a mortal.”

He forced Enid to her knees again she didn’t resist.

“Look how she kneels before all of us. Powerless to resist.”

He grabbed her chin again.

“I’m going to show you what foreplay really is. He forced her to kiss him and threw her down on the ground. She pulled herself up. She saw Safa hiding under a table holding the feather and her mouth was moving. She was praying. Enid winked at her and pulled herself up, it was almost as difficult as she pretended it was. Her fallen brother wasn’t pulling his punches. She spoke again but this time it was in Angelic.

“I don’t think you have the balls. Literally. I thought Lucifer clipped them when you joined his Alliance. I heard he keeps them in a little box by his throne.”

He punched her in the face. Then hit her in the gut much harder. She went flying across the room and into one of the marble pillars which cracked with the force of the impact. She spit out more blood and pulled herself up the pillar clutching her side. Yep, several broken rips. This would take a long time to heal even with her regeneration. She saw the red flash of light threw the cracks in the wood that covered the windows of the dome in the ceiling and smiled. The flare. He snarled and stormed across the floor lifting her up by her neck and slammed her against the pillar. The spider web cracks spread further and some marble hit he floor.

“When I’m finished with you, you’ll never smile again.”

Enid laughed she must have seemed mad to those assembled. Safa looked up at the sound her eyes wide with hope.

“It’s time you met the real me, brother.”

Enid’s eyes started to glow white.

*****

Eyre tried to push Helen out of the way to get back into the ballroom. Helen who was flush with blood had no issues resisting her attempts. Eyre had apparently not fed in sometime and thus was weakened substantially. Martina shifted to half-wolf and assisted Helen sealing the deal. Eyre was livid.

“We can’t just leave her there. I mean my mother is a terrible person but we’re killing her! That thing is a fallen angel! You just locked her in there with them!”

Helen and Martina continued to drag Eyre towards the breach Enid had made with her explosives. Helen shook her head.

“No, they’re locked in there with her. Stop resisting we need to get out of here before she can deal with them. Every second you waste she’s probably getting beaten and she’s as mortal as the slaves are right now.”

The trio rushed through the castle. Helen was heading steadily downwards towards the slave pens that Abaddon, the fallen angel’s true name, had shown off to her. She figured that was were Enid would have made a hole as it led to level ground. They were approaching the last flight of stairs that would lead to the dungeons when a bat-winged demon with long clawed hands lunged in front of them. Helen shoved Eyre and Martina behind her and drew her Atlantean blade. Her fangs extended. She blinked as the demons seemed to speak to herself.

“Look the masters new pet tries to escape with his favored prisoners.”

“We can’t allow that.”

“No, we can’t”

Helen prepared herself for the demon’s attack but both her and the demon were shocked to see a dark silhouette burst through the door frame. Helen recognized Hazel’s half-wolf form immediately. Hazel roared causing the stones to vibrate. Her voice was rough and in no way human sounding.

“Xara! We have unfinished business!”

She motioned with her right claw for the trio to go through the doorway she’d just ripped apart by storming through it. Xara stumbled backwards from the massive silver half-wolf. She’d never seen Hazel in this form so none of her current personalities that all existed simultaneously in her broken mind knew who this was. But her intent was clear. Helen hurried Eyre and Martina down the stairs and turned back. Hazel tried to shove her away.

“Mine! Go!”

Helen shook her head and motioned Martina on.

“No, I will always have your back sis.”

Hazel growled at Helen. Then she started approaching Xara deliberately. Helen matched her pace. Xara looked between the two and screeched in rage fling her hands down. Silver coated her talons.