As his eyes began to flutter shut and his body fell limp in Lilith’s arms, he felt a soft caress brush against his hand. The touch was simultaneously cold and warm as fingers wove through his, firm in its grip of his hand yet feather-light at the same time. He longed to turn his head, to discover the presence settling beside him, but his vision began to fade to nothingness as death came for him, only able to make out a blurry figure cloaked in black. A hallucination, he guessed, or perhaps an angel—a true angel of death that had come to guide him to somewhere else as the false angel drained his body of every last drop of blood.
But Xander did not find an afterlife, his angel of death did not guide him to oblivion, and when he awoke, he found himself kneeling in front of Lilith, head bowed in submission. She told him to get the rest of his squad, and once again, he had obliged her order. He ran to the edge of the trees and called to them, convincing them to follow him as he used his newfound ability to access their minds and bend their will, just as she had done to him.
Xander stood by and watched as she put all seven of his squad under her alluring spell. It wasn’t the slow, seductive dance she’d performed for him; it wasn't anywhere near as long andpainful. Instead she moved through them like a whirlwind of crimson and shadow, instructing Xander to hold their mouths open as she pierced her finger with one of her fangs and left a single drop of blood in each of their mouths before wrapping her hands around their heads and twisting. Their short cries of pain were silenced by the snap of their necks, a quick death that only granted them a few moments of peace, before Lilith summoned them back to join Xander.
Once all eight of them were lined up before her, she spoke to them one by one in a low voice, and placed her palm on their backs as she granted them each a further gift to their new bloodbound immortality. To Deion, she gave the power to heal others; Nicolai, the ability to travel across the world by opening a portal gate; Edward, the gift of putting his victims to sleep. The remaining four she gifted the power of controlling the world’s elements: Kadeem could control the flow of water; Ieuwan, the very earth they walked; Norman, the heat and fury of fire; and William, the air they breathed.
Xander watched his friends whimper as Lilith’s hand seemed to burn through their clothes and brand their skin. As Nicolai bent down to the ground in pain from her touch, his torn shirt slipped down, revealing the mark of an eclipse between his shoulder blades, just like the one they had all stared up at as they’d died. Xander’s skin itched in the same spot, and he knew he bore the same mark too; the mark of a Lamia. And now, as she bestowed their individual gifts, they carried their own markings across their bodies, each distinct to the powers they were granted.
“You will use your gifts to fulfil your purpose,” she instructed. “You will destroy the living. You will slay and kill every mortal creature. You will not stop until there is nothing left of this world.”
With her final command, the squad dispersed, each of them running into different directions, towards the shouts and cries of soldiers. But Xander remained standing before Lilith. She watched him with her red eyes, tilting her head to the side as if his presence made her curious.
She approached him and said in a low, authoritative voice, “Kneel.”
He sank to his knees, body crouched over as if in prayer, submitting to her once again. She placed her hand on his back where he knew his brands were, his Lamia marking and whatever power over the mind she had already given him.
“You have served me well, Alexander, bringing your brothers to me. Now, become my child of night to continue to be my faithful servant. I bestow upon you my gift of darkness.”
He felt the power surge through his veins, his back burning as another brand etched itself into his skin, spreading across his body to his chest and down his arms. Xander watched as black markings swirled down from under his uniform cuffs to his hands, knowing that they continued further under his clothes.
As the burning ceased, he noticed the shadows within the woods had all stopped moving, as if waiting for his instruction. He tilted his hand towards one, and it came rushing over to wrap itself around his arm. It was cold, but not unpleasant, like a cooling caress against his fingertips.
He turned back and found Lilith had disappeared. He searched for her, hoping to see her one last time before he left, but she was nowhere to be found. Only the echoes of her whispers lingered in the back of his mind. And so he followed the instructions she gave them and headed straight for the centre of the field, where the fighting was at its thickest and the screams sounded most delicious.
Xander opened his eyes, refusing to continue the memory and watch the obscenity of his actions against the hundreds of men that now belonged to the Land of the Dead. So many lives, gone… because of him. It was only when he had killed every last living soul on the field, that he had been released from her hold and Deion had found him, but there was no telling how long that freedom would last.
Deion was speaking to him but Xander could not listen and refused to look him in the eye. How could he? He was the reason he had suffered the same death and evil rebirth as him.
"Xander, look at me. Alexander, fucking look at me!"
He raised his eyes to meet his friend's glare, bracing himself for an attack. Deion was much larger than him, taller and broader, and even though Xander knew his rebirth had given him immense physical strength, he would not hurt his brother. He would not stop Deion from doing what needed to be done.
But Deion held his shoulders and calmly said, "This was not your fault. None of it. What we are, what we have done, it is her. You did not do this, you are not the monster here.”
Xander pushed him away. "Are you so sure?" he laughed without any trace of humour, trying to shut out his feelings of humanity. He tried desperately to outrun the guilt and shame that surrounded him. But it was as if his emotions had tripled in his rebirth, he could sense every single thought and feeling that passed through his mind. "I helped bring you to her, all of you. My brothers that I swore to protect. Look around you, Deion! Look what I have done!"
Xander gestured to the piles of bodies he had left in his frenzied state. His eyes began to fill with tears and he sank to his knees in despair, staring back again at the wide eyes of the lifeless young man on the ground. "I enjoyed it. I enjoyed hurting them and tasting their fear. Tasting their blood".
Deion nodded understandingly. Xander felt the same shameful satisfaction emanating from him. He had enjoyed it too, he had savoured the taste of his victims, he just wasn't ready to say it out loud.
Finally allowing his tears to fall, Xander sensed Deion’s thoughts shift as he watched him fall apart. He saw himself through Deion’s eyes: a far cry from the man he once knew. Once a young man, too skinny and kind to be a soldier, but who possessed the wiseness and fierce protectiveness of an exceptional leader. A man Deion saw as braver than any he had ever met, and now, in his rebirth, that strength was reflected in the build of his new body. The body of a monster.
But Xander felt it, that unwavering belief Deion held. Deion knew Xander had never let them down, not once. He was not responsible for this cursed life they had been thrown into, only Lilith could answer for those sinful crimes, but he was the reason all eight of them made it through the battle. And for that, Deion could not let him wallow in his pity and darkness—he could not stand by and let Xander destroy himself.
"Then we find the others. We stop them if we can. And if we can't, if we are too late to stop them and they have done what we have, if they have woken up like us, then we make sure this never happens again.” Deion hauled Xander to his feet and grabbed his face, looking him in the eye. “You are our leader, Xander. So lead.”
Xander paused and thought about what to do. He could feel Lilith in the back of his mind, trying to convince him to ignore Deion's suggestions and continue to wreak chaos and painacross the world like she had instructed. It would taste so sweet, the blood and fear and carnage he could create, the lives he could destroy under his hands. He could feel his gums aching as his teeth began to extend into fangs, his fingertips sore as his nails started to grow into talons. She was strong, and her claws were sharp against his consciousness.
But he also felt his own power. Not just his newfound power in his body, with the speed and strength and muscles that his uniform now stretched against, nor his fangs or talons, but the power in his mind. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. His distaste for battle and conflict was the driving force behind his decision to abandon the battle with his brothers. Lilith had thought she had found the perfect killer, the perfect leader of her new bloodbound thralls, but Xander had never been a true soldier. He was a protector and he would do all he could to protect the ones he loved.
Delving within his mind, using Deion’s confidence in him to build his own, Xander felt Lilith beginning to wrap around his neck like a dark serpent. She was strong, but so was he, thanks to her. He would not be her pet or her child and certainly not her servant.
He pushed her out, breaking free of the grip she had on him, shutting the doors to his mind, and was finally able to only hear his own thoughts. It wasn’t quiet, by all means, it was still painfully loud with the guilt and anger of what had occurred. But his mind was his own again, and he would not allow her to control him.
He brought himself back to reality and felt his nails and teeth return to his natural form. He nodded to Deion. "I will lead, brother, and I will find a way to help us. I swear to you, we will not be the monsters she made us.”
Deion smiled at him. Xander could see the sorrow in his eyes, but they were also glistening with hope; hope of a better lifecompared to the miserable ones they had before… and hope that they could live with the burdens they all would carry.
