She closed her eyes as she felt his icy touch on her soft white throat. She knew that if she didn’t do something soon, he’d take a bite out of her tender flesh. She thought for a second and did the only thing that came to her. She tilted her head down and kissed him. She just hoped her boyfriend wouldn’t walk in.

Angel woke up to the sound of her brother banging on the door to her room. She had slept through her alarm again. That was the third time this week. Seth was going to be pissed.

“Get your ass up and go to school,” he yelled through the door. Angel rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust to the sunlight that peaked through her open window. It had been especially hot that night, just like it would be for the rest of the summer. School was almost out. She couldn’t wait for it to be over so she could sleep in until noon.

Seth pounded on the door again, and Angel yelled at him to leave her alone so she could get dressed. Seth wasn’t cut out for the parenting stuff, but ever since their parents died in that car crash two years ago, he’d been forced into taking care of Angel. He wasn’t to thrilled about that, but Angel wasn’t jumping for joy either.

Angel shut the heavy red curtains and moved over to her dresser. She pulled out a pair of black jeans and a red tank top. She threw on her big army styled black boots, not bothering to lace them up. She grabbed her necklace, a bulky silver pendant of an evil angel. She’d loved to have slept with it on, but knew from experience how many bruises she’d wake up with. She tossed and turned all night.

Grabbing her black Jansport backpack and makeup bag, she headed down stairs. Seth was there, sitting in the frighteningly white living room. He was glancing at the grandfather clock their great grandfather had bought in England, waiting for her to come down.

“You’re not wearing that are you,” he asked impatiently. Seth was a very handsome guy with his totally California good looks. His dirty blonde hair was slightly darker than her own, and definitely not as soft. He had warm green eyes that girls could just stare into for hours. He was muscular; due to the weight training he took in high school, and maintained it by surfing in the summer and snowboarding in the winter. Angel sometimes wished she was more like him, instead of the freaky gothic girl.

She rolled her eyes at him and muttered, “Let’s go.”

Chapter 2

Seth dropped Angel off at the front of La Mirada High just as the bell rang. She didn’t feel much like running, her boots were still untied, so walked casually into homeroom five minutes late. Her teacher, Mrs. Kremlin, didn’t seem to care. She was this timid woman who rarely had control of the class. Her long brown hair was always pulled up in a bun. She always wore concervative clothes that never flattered the nice figure Angel knew she must have under her long gray skirt and white button up blouse.

Angel took out her makeup bag and put on her norm; translucent face powder, some black mascara (she found that eye shadow just didn’t do justice to her icy blue eyes), and her trademark blood red lipstick. She was the only Goth at the school, and was glad. Angel loved to be unique. She always did.

With her makeup done, she went to tie her shoes. As she did so, she heard all the girls in the room gasp. She didn’t think anything of it, figuring the girls just saw someone with a bad nose job. That’s how it was in California. Mobs of bimbos who only look at the superficial side of life. It wasn’t until she noticed a pair of brand new skate shoes coming right towards her that she found out it was a guy, and a hot guy at that.

Angel slowly straightened up, taking him in. He had a unique style, half skater, half prep. His light blue jeans matched his watery blue eyes perfectly. His light brown hair looked like it would be soft; if it wasn’t for the gel holding his hair into the spiky style he had it in. You could tell he worked out, you could see his pecks through his white undershirt. His outfit was completed with a blue button up shirt left open.

He looked directly at her as he passed. Staring directly into her soul, sending shivers down her spine.

Chapter 3

Nathaniel saw her as soon as he entered the room. She was tying her shoe as he walked by, but he immediately grabbed her attention. He decided his best bet was to sit directly behind her. He wasn’t sure how this whole thing would happen, but he did know he had to get her on his side. No matter what it took.

He tapped her on the shoulder and asked her name, although he already knew the answer. She was Angel. The incarnation of Angelenia, the “Angel of the Night.” She had almost caused the complete destruction of the earth. It was prophesized to happen again. She would be given the choice between two lovers, one who really loved her and one who wanted to use her. She would be turned into a vampire by the one she chose. Then, depending on what side she chose, she would either save or destroy the world. Nathaniel was sent to make sure she chose the right side.

“I’m Nate,” he said with a gleam in his eye. He could feel himself falling in love with her already. They chatted for a while about this and that. She had a strange habit of fingering a pendant of an evil looking angel. He thought she might have been nervous, but she seemed to enjoy talking. Not like Anglenia who was a recluse in the middle of nowhere when he found her. He had her for a while, until he arrived. He stole her away from him. He would never forgive him.

The bell rang, and Angel got up to leave. She looked so beautiful in her tight black jeans and blood red shirt, but the color of the shirt made him hungry. Angel left and Nathaniel looked at the teacher, Mrs. Kremlin. She was a mousy woman, Nathaniel was sure she wouldn’t put up much of a fight. He started to walk over to her with a warm smile on his face. He was about to put her under hypnosis when another girl stepped in front of him.

This girl was named Abby, and she was the most annoying human he had ever met. She kept talking and talking about nothing in particular. She ended up giving him a headache so bad that he didn’t want to feed anymore. What he did want to do was take her puny neck in his bare hand and break it into a million pieces.

He could see himself taking the bitch by the throat. He’d tear her He would have, if it wasn’t for the fact that that would get him kicked out of the school, leading to his not being able to get Angel before he got to her first. That would make her choose him instead. Nathaniel couldn’t let that happen. Not after two hundred years.

Chapter 4

Angel was half way to her house when she realized she was being followed. She could tell by the heavy footsteps that it was a male, anywhere from the age of fourteen and nineteen. Teenagers have a distinct walk. They tend to drag their feet, creating a distinct sound. This person was a stupid stalker. He didn’t even try to keep quiet.

She turned into an alley between a Seven-Eleven and a Pizza Hut. She immediately put her back to the wall and waited for the man to come to her. She was standing there, waiting for her stalker to appear. She was planning on kicking him in the balls and running. In case that didn’t work, there were many different items she could hit him with. The alley was full of stuff, metal trash cans, aluminum cans, pizza boxes, an old rocking horse. The rocking horse looked out of place. It was so beautiful, and looked hand carved. Angel decided that if she made it through this alive, that she’d have Seth drive her here and pick it up. All it needed was a little sandpaper and paint and it’d be as good as new.

She was interrupted from this thought as her stalker rounded the corner. He was her age, dressed in black with black hair and brown eyes; he struck her as someone she knew. She knew for sure that she’d never met him before, but knew him nonetheless. Angel got in her fighting stance, right leg back, left arm up, weight on back leg and mind racing for all possible escapes. He saw her and turned white.

Angel took this chance to throw a punch at him. She didn’t stop to see if it hurt him or not, and ran all the way home. She didn’t want anything to do with the man dressed in black.

She slammed the door shut and locked it. She went into the living room and turned on the TV. Then, she ran upstairs to her room and closed and locked the door. She leaned her back on the door, her chest heaving. She tried to listen for the sound of someone breaking into the house, but could hear nothing over the pounding of her heart.

After she calmed herself, Angel went to her bed and lied there for a while on the black sheets. She looked around and noticed for the first time that her entire room was black, with the exception of her curtains and one small pillow on her bed. Those were both blood red.

She got up and turned on some White Zombie as loud as she could stand it. She sat down at her computer, a black laptop, and started to write a poem. She loved to write poems and songs and stuff. She tried to write stories, but either she never finished them or something in the story comes true, scaring her into discontinuing her writing.

The White Zombie CD finished and Angel turned off her stereo. She looked at the clock which showed five thirty. Seth was home from working at the restaurant. He was a manager there, so he dealt with complaints all day. She knew he’d be in a bad mood, so decided she’d offer to make dinner. Opened her door and heard Seth talking to some guy. He didn’t sound that old, so she just figured he was a waiter that Seth really liked. Angel walked down the stairs and to the living room.

She entered the room and saw Seth, but couldn’t really see the other guy. He was sitting on this big armchair facing away from her. They looked like they were deep into conversation.

“I was thinking about cooking dinner,” Angel said when Seth turned to her. He looked to be in a better mood than he had been that morning.

Seth turned to his guest. “Angel is a wonderful cook,” he explained. “Yeah, make whatever you want, but Aden here will be joining us.”

Aden stood up and turned to her. They both gasped. Aden was dressed in black with black hair and brown eyes. He was the same guy who had followed her that afternoon, and now he was in her living room.

Chapter 5

“It’s you,” Angel screamed. She was enraged that her unsuspecting brother allowed the man who stalked her into her house. For all she knew, he could kill them both in an instant. Her face turned red as he smiled amused at her. She was being mocked, and she didn’t like it.

“Why are you so angry,” he asked “when I was the one who got hit.”

Angel snarled at him, “If you hadn’t have been following me, then maybe I wouldn’t have hit you.”

Aden stepped over to her and extended his hand. “I believe we got off on the wrong foot,” he said.

Angel stared at his hand for a few seconds. She had to admit she was attracted to him dramatically. He was everything she ever wanted in a man. But the fact that he was trying to flirt with her when she was demanding answers from him frustrated her. She turned and walked indignantly into the kitchen.

She was thinking about how much she hated him as she got out the ingredients for a salad. She also got out some chicken breasts from the freezer and put them on the counter. She was hoping they would thaw out by the time she was finished with the salad.

She was washing the lettuce and pulling it apart when Aden walked in. Arrogance seeped into his whole body. He was hot and he knew it. He sat on the counter near the sink.

“Look, I’m sorry you thought I was following you,” he began. Angel had to fight to stay mad at him. “I was going to the restaurant. The quickest way for me to go would have been through that alley.”

Angel had to admit it made sense. She had gone through that alley about a dozen times when she needed to talk to Seth. Why didn’t she think of that before?

“I’m sorry I hit you,” Angel murmured.

Aden moved closer to her. He looked as if he was about to kiss her, and she would have welcomed it. But instead, he whispered in her ear.

“I’m sorry I scared you.”

That was the last straw. Angel stiffened. She was not about to admit to anyone that she was afraid for even a moment.

“I’m not scared of you.”

“Well, you were this afternoon,” he shot back. They were both challenging each other. There was fire in both their eyes as they waited to see who would make the first move.

Chapter 6

Aden was giving Angel the test. He was challenging her. If she was really Angelina, then she would kiss him. That’s what happened two hundred years ago. He was expecting her to back down. She may have looked like Angelina, but he was hesitant to believe in the prophecies. He wanted to believe that there was only one Angelina. He fell for her hard, and didn’t want to fall in love again.

He changed the look in his eyes from hate to total admiration. They both leaned into each other. They were about an inch away from kissing when Seth popped into the room. Behind him was Nathaniel.

“Hey, Angel,” he said, not suspecting that his sister was about to kiss a vampire. “This guy says he knows you.”

“Hi, Nate,” Angel said, enthusiastically. Aden was pissed off that Nathaniel had broken up their little party. Aden glared at Nathaniel who did the same. “Do you two know each other?”

“Oh yeah,” Nathaniel said behind clenched teeth. “We go way back, don’t we Aden?”

Aden grunted in agreement. He really didn’t want to have anything to do with the guy who stole his girl.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur of trying to please Angel. Seth didn’t notice that two guys were fighting for the attention of his sister right under his nose. After dinner, Aden and Nathaniel didn’t stay long. They wanted to get as far away from each other as possible. As the door closed to Angel’s house, Nathaniel and Aden shared some nasty words then left to figure out the rest of their plans. Nether wanted to lose Angel to the other.

In his small hotel room in Mesa, a town right next to La Mirada, Aden was lying on the bed, thinking about prophecies and Angel and Angelenia. He knew that the prophecies were true, that Angel was Angelenia reincarnated. He also knew that Nathaniel already knew her. He just hoped that he could make sure she did what she needed to do. He knew her true power, had seen it once before. If only she’d choose him to be the one to turn her. Then all could be as it should be. Only one thing will change. Nathaniel will not get in the way again.

Chapter 7

Nathaniel paced in his house in Mesa. He knew that Aden had seen his Angel, had corrupted his beautiful girl. She was his; he had his claim. Why couldn’t he leave them alone? Every time he gets in the way, someone ends up dying. Nathaniel was determined not to let history to be repeated. He will not let her go. He will not lose another to the evils of Aden.

Nathaniel was still pacing when Lillian walked into the room. She was the most graceful vampire to ever live, or not live. She had long red hair that looked like fire in the wind. Her eyes were a curious shade of amber. She was tall and slender with long fingers that could expertly play the harp. She had the aura of a queen, and would have been one; if it wasn’t for Nathaniel’s turning her. She was upset at first to become like him, but got over it within a year. Now, she was the most deadly; and unseen threat.

“Did you see her,” Lillian asked. Her voice was like soothing classical music floating through the air. She was well liked as a human, and respected as a vampire.

“Yes,” Nathaniel replied. “But he has seen her too. I cannot let him win. I must have her to save our kind.”

Lillian took his hand and pulled him to the bed. As they sat, Lillian began to message his tight shoulders. “We will win, it is so prophesized.” She was trying in any way possible to get him to calm down. In reality, she didn’t want Angelenia to return. She knew that Angelenia would take her status. She couldn’t let that happen. Not again.

“I don’t know,” Nathaniel muttered. He was becoming more and more relaxed. A few more seconds and…

Nathaniel fell asleep. Lillian had the magical touch. She could do anything with her hands. It was a very useful gift. Once she was sure that Nathaniel would not wake up, she went downstairs to the others. She had called a private meeting, without their leader. They would discuss what to do about Angelenia.

“Okay,” Lillian began. The room got quiet. They were her subjects; they would follow her over Nathaniel any day.

“It is time to discuss the disposal of the ‘angel of death.’”

Chapter 8

Angel was in her room, sitting at her desk, thinking of Aden. She had been shocked when he challenged her. She really wanted to kiss him then, but they were interrupted. She found it odd that she wanted to kiss someone so much, never feeling like that before. In fact, she found him odd. In fact, she found this whole day odd.

First, there was the new boy, Nathaniel. He had come in at the end of the year. What kind of person changes schools the week before summer vacation? Creepy. The fact that Seth had let another Goth into the house was disturbing, since he was trying so hard to make her turn into a normal person. Then there was Aden. He was just plain weird. Everything he did, everything he represented was just weird.

She was still thinking this as she brushed her teeth and got ready for bed. It was only midnight, but Angel decided to get a jump on sleep. She was hoping she wouldn’t have any strange dreams this time.

All she could think about was how sweet he tasted as she kissed him. He might have been a looking for blood, but she gave him something else, something better. Before she knew it, they were on the floor, taking each other’s clothes off. She needed him, and he needed her.

After it was all said and done, they laid together for a few minutes. A lock of jet black hair had fallen into his eye. She gently stroked it away, exposing his beautiful brown eyes. He looked deep into her soul, searching for something. Then he said the words she’d never thought she’d hear.

“I love you Angelenia.”

Angel woke up sweating. She remembered the dream vividly. She realized that it was a continuation of her previous dream. She now knew who was who in the dream. She was making love to Aden, but it wasn’t really her. He had called her Angelenia. She thought that maybe she had heard wrong, but quickly dismissed the idea.

Angel looked at the clock. She had only slept for an hour. She thought of going back to sleep, but realized in an instant that she was no longer tired. She decided to go for a walk.

Changing into her most baggy pants and a black tank top, she grabbed her Vans shoes and tip-toed down the stairs, skipping the creaky step. She slipped silently out the door, pausing only long enough to put on her shoes.

In complete darkness was where Angel felt the most at home. When she was about nine, she was out playing hide-and-go-seek with a couple of kids in the neighborhood. She was running around, looking for someplace to hide when she saw a cemetery. She knew that the cemetery was a good hiding place, so went in. There, she saw what she thought to be a mummy’s tomb. She went inside, and felt like she was home. There were spirits in there; she talked to them. She befriended them and they trusted her with their darkest secrets. They whispered to her that vampires existed, and to beware the one called the “angel of the night.” They told her that she would kill Angel in a heartbeat. She wasn’t to let the bad angel get near her. When she told her mommy and daddy about this, they took her to a psychiatrist the next day. Angel never returned to that place. She decided that after eight years, she should go and see if they were still there.

Turning left at her house, Angel headed to the cemetery. She just hoped the bad angel hadn’t already gotten to her.

Chapter 9

The cemetery seemed cold compared to the street before. Angel knew that as soon as she entered the cemetery, there was no turning back. She took a deep breath and opened the wrought iron gate. Tombstones lined the path and stretched on as far as the eye could see. Many looked weathered and chipped; this cemetery had been full a long time ago. She looked up the path and could see the tomb in the distance.

A twig cracked beneath her feet as she trudged along the path. She was starting to have second thoughts about what she was about to do. It seemed so silly. A coyote howling at the moon sent chills down her spine. She turned around and ran right into Aden. He had been following her for a couple of blocks now. Angel was hoping he would.

“What the hell are you doing, stalking me?” She was furious at herself for not knowing that he was there.

He bent down and gave her a kiss. They were in each other’s arms, kissing more passionately than she had in a long time. She felt as if she had done this before, what’s the word?

“Déjà vu,” he answered.

Angel pulled away. She asked him how he knew what she was thinking, and he said he’d explain it when they got to the tomb. Aden was acting very strange. He was nervous about something, Angel was afraid he was going to ask her to marry him. Not that she wouldn’t have said yes.

They walked in silence to the tomb. As they neared it, Angel saw that it was literally falling apart. It looked even worse with the spray painted gang signs and penciled in “Fuck you's.” Something caught her eye as they began to enter the tomb. There was an angel on the top of the building. There was nothing unusual about this, except for the fact that the angel had and evil look to her. It reminded her of the spirit’s warnings. Angel hesitated at the door.

“What’s wrong,” Aden asked. He looked so loveable, so trustworthy. She couldn’t bring herself to say that she wasn’t comfortable going into the tomb with him. She shook her head and followed him inside.

The inside of the tomb was even worse than the outside. There were snuffed out cigarette butts all over the place and it smelled like a few too many rats died there. Angel could tell that this place had been corrupted from when she was a child.

“So,” Angel began. “Speak.”

Aden took a deep breath. He prepared himself and then began.

“You may not believe everything I am about t say,” he looked at her. “But it is true. I am a vampire.”

Chapter 10

Angel stared in disbelief. She didn’t know what was up with this place and vampires. She closed her eyes and thought about how the one she loved has gone completely insane. She was about to explain that vampires were not real when he continued.

“I have been around for about three hundred years. One hundred years into it, I saw a beautiful girl whom I fell in love with. She had a boyfriend who was also a vampire, Nathaniel. She had the softest white throat you could ever imagine. I was so hungry then, I wanted to bite her, even if I did love her. I was just about to bite her when she kissed me. I had never been kissed like that before. I was sure then that I loved her.

“Her name was Angelenia, and she was the one prophesized to either destroy the world or help save it. She was supposed to choose between two lovers, one good, and one evil. That would decide whether she would help or hinder mass destruction of the earth.

“She decided that she loved both men equally, so told them the winner of a battle would be the one to change her. So I fought Nathaniel. He was much older than me and definitely more experienced. He won, and I was forced to watch as Nathaniel bite into her flesh and turned her into a vampiric slave. I had lost her forever.

“I wrote Angelenia a letter, telling her how much I loved her. By this time, she was reeking havoc on the world and only one more ritual away from killing off the world. She read the letter, and left Nathaniel for me. She was mine once again, but not for long.

“You see, in vampire tradition, once one disobeys their clan, they are executed. I tried to stop them, but there were too many of them, I was forced to watch her die.” Aden’s eyes were watery from fighting the urge to cry.

Angel looked at him. She wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. Vampires don’t exist, she knew for a fact that they didn’t. But that would have explained a lot, now wouldn’t it?

After what seemed like hours, Angel spoke.

“There’s no such thing as vampires. You are insane to actually believe in them. Especially to think you are one of them. I don’t know what kind of stunt you’re trying to pull, but I’m not buying it.”

With that said, Angel turned to leave. She wanted to get as far away from this psycho as possible. There was no telling what he might do next.

As soon as she got to the door to the tomb, something stopped her. It was like there was a force field blocking her from leaving. She cried out for it to let her out.

“What are you doing,” she screamed at Aden. She knew it was him who was blocking her from leaving, although she didn’t know how.

Just as she asked that, she got flashes of her two hundred years ago. She was there, kissing Nate, then somewhere else, kissing Aden. Then she was seeing Nate and Aden fighting for her. She was secretly hoping Aden would win, but knew he wouldn’t. Then, she was seeing Nate standing over Aden, with a wooden stake. She cried out to Nate, telling him that he won, there was no need to kill Aden. Then Nate biting her, turning her into a vampire. Then she saw herself killing people for the fun of it. She didn’t even drink their blood. She was completely evil. She switched back to a vision of Aden, kissing him, making love to him again. She knew she had made the wrong choice. She told him she wanted him. Nate entered. He saw them naked and killed her. He didn’t even hesitate to stick that wooden stake into her cold, motionless heart. She knew who she was now. She knew she had to make everything right again.

Angel was back in the tomb. She was on the floor, Aden right beside her. She kissed him, hard and passionately. She looked up and saw something really strange. It was Aden. But Aden was here with her. She figured it out, but it was all too late. She did the only thing she could do. She pulled Nathaniel’s lips to her neck and whispered the words he’d been hoping to hear.

“Bite me.”

Chapter 11

Nathaniel woke up a few minutes after Lillian finished with her little plan on killing Angelenia. He decided to go find Angel and get her on his side. He closed his eyes and thought of her house. In a few seconds, he was there. Teleportation was one of his favorite vampire tricks.

He saw her standing outside, tying her shoes. She looked so beautiful, as usual. Her short blonde hair was swaying gently in the warm summer breeze. He wanted to call to her. He wanted to turn her into what he was. He knew she was the key to destroying the earth, and he needed her help. He was just about to slip out of the shadows when he noticed someone appear from behind a big oak tree in Angel’s front yard. It was him. Aden was standing there, looking at his girl with “love” in his eyes. It made Nathaniel sick to see someone else pinning over his girl.

Angel got up and headed left, with both boys on her trail. She went into a cemetery only a couple of blocks away. She was walking directly towards Angelenia’s tomb. Whatever doubt may have been in his mind about her not being Angelenia had vanished.

Angel was only a few yards away from the tomb when she turned around. She was scared, and Nathaniel knew it. He teleported down to her, taking the form of Aden. Another of Nathaniel’s favorite powers was changing shapes. He was a master of shape shifting. He could do it better than anyone else. And no one could tell the difference between him and the thing he took the shape of.

Nathaniel convinced Angel to go to the tomb with him. There, he told her the truth. He told her about how Nathaniel was the evil one and that he wanted to kill the world. He told her about being a vampire and the fight between Angelenia’s lovers to win the privilege of having her as a minion. Of course, Aden wanted her as a lover, but all Nathaniel wanted her for was to be a slave. She would do anything he said, and he knew that would happen. But then Aden showed up again, and destroyed all his wonderful work. He killed her for betraying him.

Nathaniel told Angel all this, but from Aden’s perspective. He was going to win, even if he had to cheat. Angel told him he was crazy and tried to leave. Nathaniel could feel the real Aden watching to see if Angel could notice it wasn’t him. He couldn’t get in because Nathaniel was much more powerful than he. He held an invisible force field around the tomb. No one could get in or out until he took it down. To prevent her from finding out the truth, Nathaniel clouded Angel’s mind; like he did to all the other poor, pathetic humans he wished to feed from.

Angel found she couldn’t leave and screamed at him. He gave her visions of Angelenia’s life, then chose for her. He implanted in her brain that the only way out was to humor him. Angel loved Aden, so would let him bite her no matter what. She fell to the ground, and Nathaniel was there to pick her up. He held her, and she kissed him. She pulled his head to her neck and asked him to bite her. Nathaniel turned back into himself. He opened his mouth and felt his K9 teeth grow long.

Chapter 12

Aden was up on the roof of Angelenia’s tomb, watching himself seduce Angel into letting him bite her. He knew it was Nathaniel who was pretending to be him. Aden had never been so pissed off in his life. He was hoping that Angel would know that it wasn’t really him, but doubted that. She may have been a powerful vampire in another life, but now she was just a human.

Aden could do nothing as he saw Angel fall to the floor. Nathaniel had a powerful force field around the whole tomb, preventing him from going in there to save Angel from the evil one. He hoped somehow that she’d figure it all out and do something to save herself. She saw Nathaniel beside her and kissed him. Aden could feel his heart break.

Angel opened her eyes and saw Aden up on the roof. She was shocked, and Aden couldn’t blame her. She gave him a look that said she was sorry, and asked Nathaniel to bite her.

As she did so, the force field that he had been leaning on suddenly gave way. He fell to the ground beside the two. Nathaniel looked up, startled. When he realized who it was, he changed back into himself. He pushed Angel away and stood up. It was just like it was two hundred years ago. Aden and Nathaniel both in their fighting stances, ready to kill the other, and Angel in the middle.

Chapter 13

Angel was shocked when the real Aden came through the hole in the ceiling. The other Aden on top of her saw who it was and turned into Nathaniel. Now, they were ready to fight and Angel already knew who would win. It would always be the same, no matter what happened.

Nathaniel took the first shot, a mental blow that sent Aden crashing to the ground. Aden grabbed his head and screamed in pain. Nathaniel walked over to him, laughing. He leaned down to pull Aden up by the hair, but Aden gave him a punch that sent him straight into the cement wall, causing some of it to chip away. They stood again, Nathaniel bleeding from the mouth, and Aden dizzy with the echo of the psychic blast.

“Stop it,” Angel cried. She didn’t want to see anymore, but Nathaniel didn’t care. He pulled out a silver knife with intricate carvings on the handle. As soon as he pulled it out, Aden’s eyes got wide. Angel knew by his reaction that it was a knife that could cause him his life.

Nathaniel grabbed Aden’s arm and pulled it behind his back. He slashed Aden in the stomach. He elbowed Nathaniel in the side and pulled away. He changed into the form of a Black Panther, and growled. Nathaniel laughed as the clumsy animal jumped at him. He slashed its arm and stuck the blade deep into the panther’s chest. The panther slumped to the floor and turned back to Aden.

Angel was frozen with fear as Nathaniel went to retrieve his knife. Angel knew that although the knife could cause damage, there was still only one way to kill a vampire. A wooden stake.

Nathaniel broke a piece of a tree branch that had been peeking through the hole in the roof. He took it and leered over the broken Aden. Aden groaned; a pool of blood was wrapped around his entire body. Angel knew that even if she could save him, he’d still die due to blood loss.

Angel drew up every last ounce of courage she had and picked up a fallen tree branch from the floor beside her feet and stood up. She could hear her blood rushing through her veins as she inched closer to Nathaniel. She only had one chance to kill him.

She gripped the branch tightly in her right hand, making sure that the pointy end would be the one to enter Nathaniel’s flesh. Nathaniel was kneeling on the ground, arm raised. He was ready to kill Angel’s love.

Holding her breath, Angel stabbed Nathaniel with the makeshift stake. He turned to see who was the one to have killed him. He whispered her name as he slowly began to turn into the corpse he should have been long ago. His skin got all tight until it shrank into nothing, revealing a woven mass of bloody muscles that shrank until they too were gone. With nothing but his bones revealed, they began to slowly deteriorate until he was nothing but dust.

Angel had tears in her eyes as she slowly turned Aden over. He had lost too much blood, and he knew it. All he could say was:

“I love you, Angel.”

Chapter 14

“No,” Angel cried. She would not let Aden die. They had been through way too much in the past day. She loved him more than she had ever loved anyone before. She would not lose him, at least not like this.

Angel took the knife out of the pile of ashes that was now Nathaniel. She flipped her arm over, exposing her wrist. She lightly traced a line six inches long. A light trace was enough to make her arm start to bleed like crazy.

She cradled Aden’s head in her lap and opened his mouth. His big brown eyes looked like a dog who’d just been shot. She put her wrist to his mouth.

Aden refused at first to take a drink, but after a while lost his willpower. He drank from her wrist until he was able to stand. Then, he pulled her neck to his mouth and drank deeply. He was so thirsty that he didn’t even realize he was about to kill her. He pulled away.

“I drank too much,” He began. “You have two options. Either you die right now as a human, or you live with me forever as a vampire. The choice is yours.”

Angel had tears in her eyes. She knew what she had to do. She had to end the curse. She shook her head. Aden held Angel as she slowly died of blood loss.

“I love you,” Angel whispered as she took her last breath. Aden sat there for a while, holding her, before he got up to leave.