Women And the Demons Who Love Them

Rapscallion-4

Hozier- Arsonist's Lullabye

    The Sterlings are kind of a big deal in the hunting society. I guess if they were a coven, the head of the Sterling family would be the king of all hunters. They were established back in the early sixteen hundreds before mortals knew about us. They started hunting wolves and when the wolves ran behind the safety of the vampire covens they started hunting vampires. 

    Justin Sterling is their new twenty-three-year-old messiah after his father, Jacob Sterling died last year from a long time battle with cancer. Well, that was the reason but the old man went out with a bang. Literally. Strapped a silver nitrate cocktail bomb on his back and infiltrated a small pack in France. Killed two alphas and twenty-eight others. They're hardcore. 

    At least, the old man was. Justin is the prodigal son who wanted the hunters to accept the new world order. He and I sat across from each other and compromised with the laws we wanted to follow as citizens of the new world. 

    There was a problem then. One we should have taken care of a long time ago. Jacqueline Sterling. The eager to please daddy b***h is crazier than the old man himself. She doesn't have a vendetta for the wolves like he did. She just has a tick for killing things. Whatever drive kept the old man going, she's completely inherited it and has made adjustments to fit her motivation.

    The rumors behind this family-run deeper than just a tragic werewolf attack that made them who they are. Some say these hunters deal with something far worse than silver and stakes. Magic and not the kind that mortals use to heal and change the color of their eyes and hair. They use dark magic. The kind that can do some really f****d up things. Like, make an eight-year-old girl go up against an omega ranked adult werewolf and survive. That's who Jacqueline Sterling is. 

    The thing about having a kid who wants to follow in their parent's footsteps is that it can go two ways. They follow the parent that is most successful. Her father was a legend among her kind.  My sire was a goddess among mine. She had brought peace to a lot of us who were going down a road not many come back from. 

    The old man became the monster he did because the alpha who ran the pack he bombed killed his pregnant wife. It took something from him. Something that she still has. She was far too young to use that as an excuse. She's just a b***h. 

    Vampires aren't too different from humans. We love those who made us what we are. Diana was my mother for all the right reasons but she wasn't my actual mother. The mother that birthed me abandoned me. She forged a path of solitude and pain as I went from foster home to foster home enduring things no child should. She made me a monster a hateful unforgivable being who hated a lot more than she ever loved. 

    It was Diana who showed me there was more than just the pain. She taught me to love, she taught me compassion and gave me freedom from the pain. I was reborn into something beautiful even when there were moments that felt like this was a curse, it all made sense. There is meaning behind these hardships.

    That girl who was broken and filled with rage is still there. She never goes away because the memories don't fade when you're immortal. You can add and add to them making a whole new life but those memories are still there. You can teach the monster new tricks, you can put a leash on it, tame it but it never stops being a monster. 

    Diana knew that. It was why she didn't push the coven life on me. She knew if I walked down the path Beck wanted me to walk I would stop being her little girl. She introduced me to a new world a better one and she knew I would do good so as long as I stayed away from what the coven really is. 

    I pulled up in front of the Sterling winery and family restaurant. I parked right upfront. Old Town is always crawling with hunters. It's their home base. Not very many vampires just stroll in here. The king wouldn't allow it. I'm not just any vampire and they all know it. They don't know why I'm such a big deal in all the vampire covens. They just know I'm on a list of vampires they shouldn't f**k with. 

    I pushed the door open, walking in, taking all of the attention of everyone present. I sat down in the middle of the restaurant. I pulled out both my pistols and placed them on the table letting them know I'm just here to talk. That's all I'm going to settle for right now. I promised. Kind of.

    "You have a lot of nerve coming in here like that," Justin called out from the booth in the back of the restaurant. 

    "We have unsettled business, Justin. You should call your sister out here as well. I have something that belongs to her," 

    "Really?" her voice almost made me lose it. 

    I pulled the bloodied stake-out from the inside of my jacket and threw it. She cried out when it went right through the center of her thigh shattering the bone and all. I stayed seated not making another move. 

    "f*****g leech. I am going to f*****g end you," she cried out. 

    "What the f**k is wrong with you?" Justin shouted standing up. He hadn't finished his outburst when his little disciples had their weapons pointed at me. 

    "That's exactly what I want to know, Justin. What the f**k is wrong with you?" I asked.

    "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Sage. Diana will hear about this," he said holding his sister. 

    "Will she now?" I asked. "Are you going to tell him or am I?" 

    "f**k you, leech," Jacqueline choked out. 

    "What the f**k is this?" Justin demanded again angrily pointing at me.

    "Diana is dead," I announced. It caught everyone's attention. Justin looked down at his sister with disbelief. 

    "Jack, what did you do?" he asked standing up. 

    "I couldn't let you do it, Justin. Father would have rolled over in his grave," she bit out.

    "You stupid b***h," he sighed shaking his head. He turned to face me. "What do you want me to do?" 

    "Nothing," I laughed. "There is nothing you can do now. See, I'm not here to tell you to give her to me. As a matter of fact, Jackie isn't going to be the one dying at the end of this. She's going to live a long life. The rest of you, on the other hand, won't. I am going to wipe the earth of the Sterling bloodline and when she sees everything she loves has been reduced to nothing and begs for her death I will make sure that she lives so that she can feel what it feels like to lose everything she loves," 

    "Sage, you're threatening an entire bloodline over one death," he shook his head.

    "One death? Do you know why we survived for so long, Justin? It's because we don't have a p***y ass leader running s**t on our end. You're not a king little prince. You're way in over your head here. There were thirty-six casualties last night. Where the f**k were you? Huh?" he looked around the room to see a few of his men look away from him.  

    "This won't go unpunished," he said. 

    "No, it won't," I agreed. 

    "You are nothing but a glorified leech," Jacqueline spat trying to get up. "You aren't s**t but the Vamp King's b***h," 

    "You think so?" I laughed. "You're sure?" 

    "f**k you," she said raising her gun. 

    Goosebumps raised on my skin. The air around me swirled pulling in the energy around me. It starts with an ache that tingles its way up my arms and over my body like a swarm of ants chewing away at my very soul. The energy turns violent and it sparks a savage heliotrope of power. 

    "Move," Justin shouts as he tackles his sister to the floor. 

    I push the energy out of me towards the spot where she stood. The magnetic pull of the power combined with the energy crackled along the floorboards breaking them away reducing all it touched to ashes. They began to fire at me as I walked towards their prince. The barrier around me opened up as I reached for the two of them. 

    "You have no f*****g idea do you?" I asked placing my hand on the stake. She cried out sliding down the wall. Justin is just standing in front of her as if he could protect her from me. 

    "What the hell are you?" he asked. I leaned into him making him shudder. 

    "I'm what my kind call an Arch Reaper. Look that up, study it. Inform yourselves of the deep grave your little sister just dug for all of you," 

    "Get the hell out of here," he whispered back. 

    "I will be seeing you all soon, Justin. I am not happy at all and the King has it in his best interest to keep me happy," 

    "I'm sorry about your sire," he said meeting my eyes. 

    There's sincerity in his eyes a little sadness even. The trembling in his body is something I'm very familiar with when it comes to humans. It unsettled me for an instant. I understand why she did what she did to my sire. What Diana paid for with her life. I looked between the two of them and wanted to scream. This isn't all what I thought it would be. It goes much deeper than that. Jacquline isn't as smart as she's made out to be. 

    "You got her killed," I said feeling the rage strip away in pain again. I gripped him by his throat wanting nothing more than to squeeze as tightly as possible. Not just choke the life out of him but rip it out. He saw it lowering his gaze. "You did this to her. There is irony in all of this. I always thought I was the only thing she really ever loved," 

    "Sage," he choked out when I pulled away.  I picked up my two pistols from the table I had been sitting in and put them back into their holsters.

    "I should kill all of you right now but he asked me not to," I called out itching to turn around and do what every instinct in my body is crying out for me to do.

    "Sage, I'm sorry," he called out stepping towards me.

    I walked out of there going to my car. The streets were no longer crowded. Just like us, the hunters are going into defensive strategies. We had made the first move and now they know what they're dealing with. I was pulling into the garage of my apartment building when my phone finally rang. 

    "Are you hurt?" was the first thing he asked. 

    "No," I said climbing out of the car. 

    "Where are you?" 

    "I'm not going to make it home tonight. I'm in my apartment. I'm going to pack somethings up and head over first shade," I promised. He sighed knowing he wasn't going to change my mind. 

    "Be careful," he said and hung up. 

    I was greeted by the silence of my loft. I walked over to the bed pressing the lockdown sequence as dawn began to make its appearance. Dear God, she had been stupid to fall in love with a hunter. Not just any hunter, Justin f*****g Sterling. She broke the one rule she herself had followed for so long. 

    "Don't let them in if you aren't prepared to spend eternity with them," I whispered. 

    There was no other way this would have ended. He would have to eventually have to produce an heir to the throne. She would have been cast aside. If she turned him they would have hunted the both of them down. Not just the hunters but the coven as well. 

    The sound of someone knocking on my door pulled me out of my thoughts. I took a pistol out of my vest and made my way to the door. A heartbeat met me from the other side. I looked through the peephole to see someone I haven't seen in a while. 

    "What the f**k do you want, dog?" I asked. He laughed placing his hands on the door leaning into it before pressing his forehead against it so that all I can see is his nose. 

    "Come on, fangs. I know you missed me as much as I missed you," 

    In no mood to argue, I opened the door. He looked up at me his playfulness shying away to worry. I motioned him before looking out into the hallway to make sure it was empty. He looked down at my pistol and nodded before going to my bed making himself at home.