Cassius
Pompeii 79AD
“You can’t do this!” Eva screamed at me as I moved farther up the mountain. “Cassius, STOP!”
The ice in my veins rose to the surface as a flash of lightning lit up the sky. “And what would you have me do? Save them all? Only to have them turn on us? Destroy us? They are an abomination, Eva! They. Must. Die.” White filled my vision as the screams of people in the city started to multiply.
“Earthquake.” I spoke the word in ancient Aramaic, the tongue of Angels.
The ground shook beneath my feet.
I kept walking.
Eva followed.
Finally, I turned on my heel. “Do not make me destroy you, Vampire!”
Her eyes closed, and then she held out her hands, palms facing toward me. “Cassius, most of them are innocent. Will you destroy them? The children? The mothers? The grandmothers?”
“If I let one go free, one who is infected…”
“Then choose, Cassius,” Eva said in a challenging voice. “Choose who goes free, save a few. All I ask is that you save some.”
“You misjudge our relationship, Vampire.” I hissed out the lie as the air took on a bitter taste from my own inability to admit the truth. “Only you would ask this of me. Notice how the rest of the council members have already fled the city, and yet here you stand.”
She lifted her head. “Here I stand.”
“Damn it, woman.” I closed my eyes for a few brief seconds, allowing a sliver of humanity to slip through. God, it burned, nearly slicing me in half as my Angel blood roared with anger at the weakness. Strength and weakness, could not co-exist, not for long. Eventually my angelic blood would destroy what humanity I had left.
I’d felt it since the beginning of time.
I knew.
One day.
It would no longer be possible.
This was not that day.
“Twelve.” I sighed. “I will save twelve.”
Eva bowed her dark head. “Thank you, Cassius.”
“Do not thank me.”
“I will always—” She took a step forward and held out her hand. “—thank you, when you show the weak mercy.”
I took Eva’s hand without thinking and was nearly brought to my knees as the emotional connection she offered burned through our palms. She had no idea what her touch did to me—what it made me crave.
“Earthquake,” I whispered again, this time the ground beneath us split down the middle. I pulled Eva into my arms and envisioned the docks. We landed with a thud against the wood.
People scrambled about mindlessly as the ground shook and then the volcano erupted into the sky.
It would be the ash and the gas that would destroy the people… the heat alone… I refused to think about it.
“You promised,” Eva reminded me as she stepped into the boat and waited.
I glanced at the pier.
“You.” I pointed to a young boy. “Where is your family?”
“I—” The boy’s face was spattered with dirt and blood. “They got trampled, sir.”
“Then come,” I instructed. He stepped into the boat. Eva embraced him and offered a warm smile.
“Eleven more to go, Cassius.” Eva said.
“Irritating Vampire,” I grumbled, as, with each life I saved, the darkness receded, restoring my humanity.
Within five minutes I had another eleven.
All children.
“Let’s go.” I waved my hand in the air as the water carried the ship to safety.
When I turned back to glance at the once Great City, it was to see Sariel hovering over the volcano, his eyes sad.
Clouds spread around his wings, and then a large being descended next to him.
“The Angel of Death,” Eva whispered linking her hand with mine. We watched as his black feathers descended slowly covering the city until all was blackness.
And then…
It rained red.