When We Were Still Human Vaughn Foster (the kiss of deception read online .txt) 📖

Tired of running. Whatever the demon wanted to say, there was no point in fighting now. She leaned over the railing and flexed her hand, the effort alone straining sore muscle.

“Let’s go inside.” Raven curtly turned from the banister and stepped back into the study. Val followed him to the hearth, cringing when her eyes fell back upon the crystal balls. If he noticed her darting gaze and taut posture, he didn’t show it. Instead, he opened a glass cabinet and removed a bottle of white wine.

“The 1811 Chateau d'Yquem,” he said with pride. He poured her a glass and refilled his own. “Worth over a hundred thousand U.S. dollars.”

For a brief second, she hesitated, but the bottle was visibly new, and he drank first. Her better judgment still warned that he could have spelled the glass. Then again, it didn’t seem efficacious to kidnap someone, only to drug her once she woke up. Taking the glass, Val watched his movement. The careful slick of black hair fell back like a plume of feathers. Violet irises almost mirrored her own.

Val sipped as she sat down. The wine tasted no different from the thirty-dollar bottles she’d buy at a grocery store, but she didn’t let the disappointment show. The macabre orb sat hauntingly in her peripheral. Each minute she became more aware that she was drinking with a monster. One that goaded madness and destroyed souls.

“You wanna tell me why I’m here?” she finally asked. He’d been staring in his glass, lost somewhere else entirely.

He blinked and seemed to return to the room. “Because you’re like me. There are people you want to protect.”

At this, Val started. Maybe it was the wafting scent of magic paired with the mantle of some legendary fallen angel. Power radiated from him in sheets, but he didn’t have the sense of other. Whatever he was, he was still human.

Raven suddenly turned away, interrupting her dissection.

“Excuse me,” he spoke curtly. “I’m… getting a call.”

Before she could respond, he held a hand to his left temple and began pacing before the hearth. He nodded a few times, then rolled his eyes.

“Well, that sounds like your problem, Bael.” Val went rigid at the name. She strained to listen, as if she could read his mind, but was limited to a one-sided dialogue.

“No, you can’t kill them!” More annoyed hand gestures. He turned to her and mouthed a groan. “I know you worked really hard on the show, but you know what, shit happens. That’s life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m with a— Well, no, don’t just let them go. You’re a greater demon. I’m sure you can find something villainy to do.”

The “call” ended, and Raven slumped into the armchair across from Val. He offered a sheepish grin and ran a hand through his hair.

“Sorry,” he said, pouring a second glass. “Our king has been… indisposed this season, so I’m left shouldering many of his responsibilities.”

Val gestured in agreement then set her wine on the end table. In the course of the call and conversation, the older visage of the man dissolved. His features seemed to soften. It was suddenly clear that despite his power, the suit, and whatever else was going on, he was still a kid.

“Let’s get to the point, shall we?” He made a beckoning gesture and the large double doors swung open.

Vladimir was dragged in, gagged and chained. The scene was only perfected by the sparkling onyx shackles clasped around his wrists and ankles. Completely deserved, Val thought, before her eyes flickered to his guard.

It was him. Same dark skin, same red jacket. He was clean-shaven this time, and his eyes were calm, but it was him. The man who had stood beside Vladimir the night she was turned. The man whose screams of nosferatu echoed through hospital walls. The man who required six guards to retrain him.

Vladimir followed Val’s gaze to his former thrall, then fought harder against his chains. The energy left him in a second and the guard steadied him from falling

“Easy there, buddy,” the man soothed before unceremoniously tossing him onto the couch beside Val.

It was then that Val realized her mouth was agape. She turned back to Raven.

“Thank you, Lorne,” Raven said with a wave. The guard nodded towards the young man, then excused himself from the study.

Vladimir made a noise through his gag and Val turned to face him. “You want me to take that thing off?” He nodded vigorously.

She moved as if to undo the knot, then pulled back, instead claiming her glass and bringing it to her lips. She watched ruefully as confusion shifted to anger in his eyes.

“I forgot you and Lorne had a history,” Raven finally said, cocking his head towards the doors. “Help is really hard to find, so when the Prince of Darkness threw him out, well...” A grin too wicked to properly fit his youth flickered across his face. “You can’t beat a deal like that.”

He adjusted in his seat and stared pointedly at Vladimir. “So you’re aware, Dracule, you’re only here to relay this conversation to Michael. That is, if Valerie should decide to leave. The jewelry pieces that Lorne fitted you with are ohun. They cancel out the aether as if you were in the abyss itself.

“You’re here,” he added to Val, “because you don’t want to be a monster, and because you want the angel’s brand off your chest. Michael’s curse binds bloodlines, not souls. Change the bloodline and the curse is void.”

“Like… when I was turned?” Val scolded herself, unsure why she was entertaining the thought. She wasn’t going to let a demon help her. But still… Just hearing someone else say it, that there was a chance to be human again, sent a jolt through her body.

“Nope.” Raven drained his third glass then set it down.