Chapter 6

Flashback

Devlyn’s mind travelled back to another horrendous night, so long ago.

They were in Milan, had been in various parts of Italy for almost a century now, because Ana was too emotionally attached to leave. Devlyn allowed it, but only because she wanted to keep close enough tabs on that family to ensure their survival. To be honest, she didn’t trust Ana enough to be certain the young vampire wouldn’t find a way to kill her sister, Isabella’s progeny. The bitterness and rivalry in Ana went deep, and she wouldn’t put it passed her not to kill Isabella’s family, despite the fact that the woman had been deceased for the last fifty-two years.

It had been ninety years since the fateful night that one of Devlyn’s vampire guards had turned Ana. She had known having Arrykos’s demons would be bad. She couldn’t dictate and control them the way she did her father’s breeds. Arrykos’s had souls, corrupt though they were. They were literally evil to their cores. She personally found the lot of them repugnant.

Except for Kris. He was her real exception. She had never told neither he nor Ana, but Kris wasn’t the same breed of demon as she. Ana had not known how to really transform a human. There was a lot more to the ceremony than just an exchange of blood, though that was all she had remembered of her own transformation. The exchange merely poisoned Kris. Ana had left him, assuming her job complete, when Devlyn had found him alone in those woods.

She had remembered part of what Eros had done to Katia in Greece to turn her into a muse. She’d combined parts of that ceremony with rituals of her father’s UnSouled demons. To this day, Kris’s soul was her most prized possession, though no one else knew about it. She’d turned him into a demon, yes, one with a craving for human blood, with many similar characteristics of Lilith’s traditional breed of demons. But there were variances, which fortunately, Lilith was too blind and Ana too ignorant to notice. Unlike Ana, his soul was free from corruption. Ana’s turned a shade darker every day. Kris’s still glowed as brilliant as ever in Devlyn’s secret chamber.

Devlyn winced as a high-pitched scream rumbled through her home. What the devil was going on now? She didn’t like yelling. Their home didn’t have to remain quiet by any means, but loud noises were supposed to be happy ones. Yes, because they lived in an ideal world where the only sounds were full of joy. And a frog didn’t bump its arse with every hop.

She quickly made her way to the front parlor, only to see Ana lunging towards Katerina, knife in her right hand, and screaming like a banshee. Oh gods, Devlyn swore. The banshee better close her mouth and listen to reason before the berserker in front of her was unleashed. Katerina, bless her, still had her volatile temper under control, and was merely restraining Ana with one hand on Ana’s head, holding her tiny form away from her, allowing Katerina to be out of Ana’s small reach. It was an amusing site, or would be, if it wasn’t also lethal. Dear gods, just what was going on here?

“You’re nothing but a w***e! Eros’s muses inspired music, poetry, and art. You’re just his harlot! All you inspire is arousal, you witch!”

“You’re just petty and jealous,” Katerina snarled. “Obviously I inspire something more than just lust in your beau since he has painted more in the last four months than he has in the last fifty years!”

With a sudden gasp, Ana stepped back from Katerina, only to swiftly bolt head-first towards her midsection. Devlyn knew it was her place to step in and put a halt to this pandemonium, and yet, Katerina had spoken nothing but the truth. Kristoff had unexpectedly found new inspiration, and he would disappear for hours at a time, only to be found in a most random corner of the house, drawing whatever scene had managed to catch his eye. It was his art that had originally drawn her to him, as well as his charismatic and charming personality. She had been so worried that his artistic passion had died when his humanity did.

Yet, if Devlyn was honest with herself, she had wondered about this spontaneous new desire. She had just attributed it to living with a muse full-time, since Katerina had only been travelling again with them a short time. She had been in Prague for the last few decades, and before that Vienna. Katerina liked to move around, hadn’t wanted to stay in Italy, so they’d gone their separate ways, as they did frequently. Women could only stay in the same close quarters so long, after all. She’d been gone when Ana had been transformed, come back shortly after she’d found out about the new events, but left them again thirteen years later, after she was assured of Devlyn’s safety with a baby vampire.

But Katerina was back now, rejoining their entourage six months ago, relieving Devlyn’s previous guards of their duties. She’d returned again when Devlyn informed her of Ana’s growing unpredictability and uncontrollability, since Katerina, as Lilith’s former pet, held a power over the vampire demons that Devlyn didn’t. She couldn’t blame Ana for her sudden inquiry. However, suspicions, no matter how founded, did not excuse or condone this kind of irrational behavior, which aptly described the wild spectacle before her.

Ana and Katerina were both rolling around on the floor, their wrathful yelling continuing, petticoats flying. “My goodness, would you two look at your own ridiculousness? This is utter mayhem!” she told them levelly, hands on her hips, hoping that once they realized there was an audience, they would cease the atrocious behavior.

No such luck. “I’m going to rip your hair out, you giant behemoth!” Ana squawked.

“And I’m going to rip your throat out, you deceitful, bug-eyed trout!” Katerina returned. Devlyn could see Katia’s fingers curl into a fist and wave through the air. She knew the blonde woman was really holding back, most likely acknowledging Ana’s youth in her new form. Devlyn had seen Katerina fight many times before, and she knew the profound thrashing she could dole out. Humans didn’t usually survive blows with Katerina, and if they did it was because she allowed it. Devlyn expected no less when she fought anything else. Really, she was proud of Katerina for all of her control.

“Enough!” Devlyn yelled, sending out small vibrations towards the center of the room. The rolling slowed, a few less punches served, but they did not still. When Devlyn heard the distinctive sound of bone breaking, she upped the sensation to sharp prickles of energy into them instead.

“Ouch. You b***h!” Ana drew back from Katerina and hissed at Devlyn, fangs barred.

“Blasphemy!” Katerina roared. “How dare you insult your goddess?!”

Ana scoffed. “She’s not my goddess. Lilith is my only mistress. I stayed with Devlyn in the beginning because she was the only one who knew me before and knew about my new life. She was familiar. I only continued to stay because of Kris’s little affection for her. She matters not to me,” she answered with an indifferent shrug.

Devlyn had never been so insult before in her entire life. No one had ever dared speak to a deity like that, at least not unless they were another deity of greater or equal stature. And while they had all voiced their opinions about her refusal of Nykosas, none of them had ever been deliberately cruel or indifferent like this. No demon had ever looked her in the eyes, much less dared to speak to her like that. Her father would have ripped their throats out.

With that sudden thought and the image that accompanied it, Devlyn watched the snarl on Katerina’s face turn from anger to downright fury. With lightning-fast speed, Katerina reached over, grasped Ana’s neck between her fingers, and yanked back quicker than Devlyn could blink, much less protest.

Devlyn’s eyes rounded, her mouth formed a little “oh!” Heavens, how was she going to explain this to Kris? He would be heartbroken. For that matter, how was she going to remove the blood and human gunk from the Aubusson carpet? The maid was going to cry her eyes out when she got a look at the mess. Well, she supposed she’d just have to use her magic to remove things, despite that she tried to live with using as few powers as possible.

She looked away from the mess to Katerina. “You get to tell Kris.”

Katerina arched a brow. She looked at her hand, blood dripping down to land at her feet and stain the carpet, as well as her beautiful powder blue satin slippers. Even she was moderately shocked at her own behavior. Sure, she hated Ana with a barely contained passion that bordered on obsessive hate that couldn’t be explained, but she was still surprised to see Ana’s throat in hand. Or at least what was left of it. She looked down at her feet, with the splotched of red already drying on them. Even after death the damn little b***h was still a pain in the a*s.

“Fine. I’ll tell Kris. But you have to help me burn the body.”

Devlyn refrained from rolling her eyes. Yes, they would need to burn the body. One, she really didn’t want to have to explain a dead body in the middle of her parlor to any authorities; and two, she didn’t want even the slightest chance of Ana returning. While she had been a sweet, though mischievous girl in her human life, the demon Ana had become quite intolerable. Even though she didn’t think of herself as a dictator, such obvious defiance to her stature was unforgiveable. Devlyn had never killed anyone or anything personally, had never even demanded an execution, but she knew she would have been forced to demand Ana’s, if for no other reason than to establish precedence. Thank the gods, Katia had done it for her.

“I’ll grab the head if you take the rest of the blasted body,” Devlyn agreed.

“Done.” Katerina leaned over and stood Ana’s body up, minus head and the top of her spinal column. She looked down at the corpse, which only came up to her waist. “Not a very big thing, was she?”

Devlyn shook her head. “These are definitely not a large people. How Kris got his height, I don’t understand.”

Katerina gave Devlyn a truly wicked smirk. “Most likely from the wrong side of the blanket, I imagine.”

She walked with Katia quietly and carefully to the back kitchen, being mindful to keep any bodily fluid or leftovers off of the floor. With a simple thought, she had all remaining telltale signs cleaned up from the room, carpet stain-free, blood-free, and smell-free.

She smiled to herself. There were times when being a goddess had its rewards.

“Well that certainly makes clean up easier,” Katerina said caustically.

“Yeah, well, I don’t want one of the maids coming in here to conveniently dust just to be nosy while we go to the kitchen. On second thought, go to the library. No one should be in there, and it certainly has a suitable fireplace.”

“What? You don’t trust the servants’ discretion?”

Devlyn let out an unladylike snort. “Hardly. I don’t trust anyone’s discretion, especially not humans’. The butler and our housekeeper, perhaps, because we pay them nicely for their loyalty. The rest of them already find us strange. This would keep their tongues wagging for years.”

They shuffled into the library. Their Italian country home was just as lavish as the rest of their properties throughout the world. None of them preferred to live in squalor or even mediocrity, though they all knew middleclass was much more inconspicuous. However, they all liked the finer things in life, and large estates were easier to retain.

The library, as was customary, was darkly paneled with floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with books. They all enjoyed reading, and keeping current was an easy way to flow seamlessly through the years and the countries. Knowledge was key to any successful assimilation. It was a very masculine room, and Devlyn had kept the three brothers in mind when she had furnished it. Just as in most of her homes, there was a room designed to exemplify Nykosas’ tastes for when that fateful time came and she was forced to accept him.

“Should we chop her up in little pieces or roast her like a hog?” Katerina asked, snapping Devlyn out of her thoughts.

Devlyn shook her head. “I think pieces will take too much time. Let us try for whole, and then quarter the body if we must.”

Katerina eyed her carefully. She fully expected Devlyn to be hysterical or even in a numbed shock. And while she was detached, she was quite efficient in the task. Katerina was proud of her. Her goddess qualities came out at the damnedest of moments, but at least they were making their appearance, and right now was definitely a good time for it.

Fifteen minutes and a large fire later, Katerina’s mouth was set in a grim line. While the fire was roaring brightly and the library was filling up with the ghastly smell of burning flesh and hair, Ana’s corpse was far from fading into ashes. “I don’t understand it,” she said, putting one arm over her nose in hopes of covering the smell.

“Heaven knows this smells awful, but why isn’t she burning?”

“I don’t know, but I have an idea. Give me a moment.” Devlyn suddenly popped out of the room. Katerina blanched. It was an unspoken rule that they didn’t sift in the house, just in case they were noticed by one of the staff. Devlyn was very particular on her rules of normality. Then again, this whole situation was far from normal, so she supposed that allowances could be made.

Three seconds later, Devlyn sifted back, arms full with a heavy ornamental trunk. She carefully placed it on the floor, mumbled something softly, and Katerina saw the large lock click open.

Devlyn rummaged around in it for a few moments. Obviously it was stocked, though Katerina had never noticed the trunk in Devlyn's luggage before. 

“It’s charmed to automatically follow me,” Devlyn told her without looking up. “Just in case someone thinks it’s a secret treasure chest and decides to steal it, it is tied to me. Not that stealing it would do anyone any good, considering the lock will only open for me.”

“Dear gods, Dev,” she said. “What the hell do you have in that thing?”

Devlyn looked up at her best friend and grinned mischievously. “I didn’t leave home completely empty-handed. I managed to snag a few goodies before I was thrown out. Also, I’ve been a little klepto when my sisters come to town. If they had something interesting, I took it.”

“How kind of you,” Katerina said drolly, trying very hard not to satisfy her curiosity and look in the trunk, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew that chest was akin to Pandora’s box, and she wanted the ability to claim absolute ignorance when it came back to bite Devlyn in the a*s. She protected Devlyn from others, but there was no protecting Devlyn from herself.

“Hey, if they expected hospitality from me and stayed in my home, I merely took payment. Aha!” she yelled triumphantly as she waved a small grey, silky pouch in the air.

“What the hell is that?”

Devlyn made a moue as she thought best how to answer. “It was a gift from Arrykos before I left. As I recall, he found my refusal of his son to be vastly amusing and wanted to ‘assure my success.’ I never quite trusted the jumble of favors he gave me, so I’ve kept them well hidden. But this is supposed to be a highly flammable powder. I figure if it’s from him, it should work on his breeds of demons.”

Katerina looked back at the still-non-burning body. “It’s as good a try as any,” she said with a shrug. Leave it to her to create a mess they couldn’t clean up, she thought wryly. She still didn’t regret it though. She knew Ana was more trouble than she was worth the minute Devlyn had written her what happened. The young woman had blamed both her sister and the vampire who turned her. She immediately killed the vamp, and Devlyn had devoutly protected Isabella and her family. Ana’s rage had never receded. The only time she was anything approaching pleasant was around Kris, and that was all an act. Nope, she didn’t regret killing her in the least.

Devlyn quickly scattered the metallic powder over the body liberally. Almost instantly, Ana’s form began to disintegrate, along with the awful smell. Within five minutes nothing remained in the hearth but ashes, the fire immediately dying down.

She dusted off her hands and sat back on her haunches with a smug smile. “Well, that settles that. Think we should gather the ashes and drop them down the well just to be safe?”

Katerina shook her head. “Nah. If the b***h returns after that, I will be more than happy to kill her again. Besides, it rained this morning. I don’t want to ruin my new slippers.”

 Devlyn stared pointedly down at Katerina’s feet. They were now covered in blood and ashes.    

 D****t, she really liked those shoes!

 

Author's Note

Let me know how you think this progresses as a flashback.