But now a bubbling of emotion trickles with that song in my blood.
Because whythefuckdoes his voice – which I couldn’t place before, couldn’t figure out where I’ve heard it before, couldn’t remember – soundexactlylike Varian Asier’s.
I twist and wrap my whips around us and pull. It drags us closer together, but I’m never able to properly slice him because of glowing runes that appear on his cloak every time my blood touches him.
Runic magic.
And the movement surprises him which gives me the second I need to land a punch that brings him to his knees and tug the back of his hood.
Red tinged hair is shorter than the professor’s but still curled and landing just above his ears. The same red tinged hair that could look black in lower lighting.
Pain obliterates my middle as I’m flown backward and land hard on my back. A second later another hit comes for my face but I block at the last second. His fist lands against my blood covered forearms and sends me several feet into the ground creating the largest crater he has so far.
Disbelief wafts through my system but another emotions drowns it.
I finally twist that third lock and before I even open the door power splinters the air. The devil pummeling me freezesand I draw more of my blood before me to expel. Striking out, I send Kolasi flying and simply lay for a moment to process.
First it was the sun devil and his twin. But now this. . . Professor Asier’s – what? Father? Brother? Son? The man is over two hundred years old. He could have a child.
I take a deep breath and let that third door crack open as the other three already are. My heart beats and it feels like the space glitches with it. Getting up, I survey the scene. The rebels are still going against the celestials. Kolasi is just now getting up from where my blast landed him. The golden shield from Asher is still holding even as explosions of fire hit against it.
The devil slashes his arms through the air and roars.
“WHAT ARE YOU?”
He wouldn’t have asked why I can still burn if I wasn’t a vampire if he didn’t know. I will not be delusional enough in thinking I can dissuade him from that.
He comes for me again and I repeat his question.
What are you?
I let that first door swing wide. And that other emotion, that one that drowns the disbelief and everything else, it’s like gasoline on a flame.
What are you?
Well, the answer is simple.
Burning.
I am burning.
I am always burning.
His shadow blades extend past the points and become shadow whips now that he slashes through the air. So I consume them.
God, I am so fucking tired.
I am so exhausted. The golden devil had been right when he said I was not fully recovered. In truth, I never even recovered from thirteen years ago. Or would it be sixteen years. . . ? When that devil and mage took me in. Maybe it was even before them. When I was born and my parents left me on the side discarded. Cast aside like trash.
A current of ash begins to fall from where those shadow whips had been ready to strike me. The devil is left struck frozen as I finally stand.
Blazing. . . burning.
Blue flame covers the blood that is covering my hand. And when I look into what I know are gold ringed red eyes, all I feel is rage.
I slowly turn towards the rebels still fighting. Hundreds. Possibly thousands. The hum in my blood becomes a low tenor as I watch them all cast their magics.
For a moment I contemplate unlocking that fifth door within. A key I’ve never even touched before because even locked I can feel true uncontainability.
