Genesis (Cain and Abel #1)

Chapter Sixteen

When Abel woke up, he did not know if he had been asleep for hours or days. He was stripped bare and lying on his back beneath a blanket made of bear pelt. He was shivering, and as he reached out, he realized his skin had turned a pale blue. His head was pounding. He could not hear anything. All his senses seemed to be dimmed, in fact.

He gently pushed himself up off the ground until he was sitting up. Every limb in his body felt like it had turned to jelly, as if all the bones were gone. He glanced around the hut he was sleeping in, but he did not see anyone. He smacked the side of her face lightly to see if he could feel the sensation, and he felt instead a dull ache.

Abel got up and nearly fell over again until he reached his feet and held his hands out from his sides to regain balance. There were no windows, and the only door was locked.

Abel blinked slowly and tried to figure out where he was and how he had gotten there. Rubbing his temples gently and finding them so cold his fingers nearly stuck to them, Abel remembered dimly what had happened after the vial had struck him. Was it a memory, though, or just a dream? He had seen a face, seen someone whose eyes were blank with no irises or pupils, someone whose hair was blacker than the darkest ebony and yet immaculately brushed. This man smiled and when he did Abel saw that his teeth were black as well, his tongue forked and shivering as its twin prongs peeked out beneath two razor-sharp canine teeth. A dream, brought on by whatever had been in that vial.

Abel shuddered.

He also remembered drifting in and out of consciousness. At one point, he felt a sickening cold invade his body and knock his breath away. This whole time, he had not heard a word. Now, when he looked around the room the edges of his vision pulsated and blurred. He felt thoroughly confused, bewildered, and terrified, but he had no energy to do anything about it.

A little while later, he heard the door unlock and saw Belial. The fallen angel crouched in front of Abel and spoke.

"So I suppose by now you've realized that we can easily kill you," Belial said.

"I . . . why? Why are you doing this?"

"You forget," Belial said, "I am a fallen angel. I am an ice vampire that some call a demon. And I always get what I want."

"Let me go," Abel said. "We have done you no harm."

In response Belial flipped his shiny blond hair behind him and leaned forward until he was right in front of him. "You're dead, child of Eve. Help us, and we'll let you go."

With that, he smacked Abel hard across the face and pushed up off the ground. As Belial turned to go, Abel spoke once more. "We are not monsters," he whispered.

Belial turned back briefly. "Then you won't forget that your life isn't the only one at stake," he said coldly. "We have your brother and your lover. We will keep Ruth as hostage once you go, to ensure your good behavior. Think on that."

***

Cain lay in another room, as weak and cold as his brother. Belial had visited him as well, but had gotten even less out of him. He had never felt this betrayed, this alone. He had loved living here, in this village, among his own kind-among those he had believed thought and lived as he did. He had thought that, after a thousand years of wandering, he had finally found a home.

How wrong he had been. How wrong, how wrong. He wrapped his arms around his head and wept with self-pity, too weak and drained to do anything else. Then he stopped weeping and stared up at the ceiling, trying to think. It had always been Abel who had come up with the plans, who had decided where they were to go next. But Abel was separated from him and might be counting on Cain to rescue himself.