Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2
the fallen one

“Are you sure the fallen one is coming?” Delilah and Kaiyou stood on the roof of the Eye of the Goddess Temple next to the reflecting pool. Eliazar paced back and forth.

“Are you sure the fallen one is coming?” Delilah asked again. “I have petitioners waiting.”

There was no sound of wings like she expected, just a haunting laugh. “You’re very dedicated, Delphi.”

Del made herself turn slowly. She was the Delphi of Moon; she would not be afraid of this creature that her grandfather feared could not be killed. “I am Delphi Delilah Ayala, a Servant of the Moon, Bibre Cruor. Welcome to the Eye of the Goddess…”

A pale woman stood barefoot by the pool as fabric wrapped her. There was something terrifying and seductive about her. Waist length platinum hair blew in the wind. “Thank you for the audience. I am Lady Anjael Anutari Wase. I have not visited your temples on this continent.” The tip of her tail ran across the surface of the water, making her reflection waver. “I cannot aid you in your war against the demi-deity who wishes to reclaim what the lycan, vampyr, and wicce rescued from him in any way that will draw attention to my kind. We are too few to risk ourselves.”

Del felt a nudge from the Moon, she needed to talk to the fallen one alone. “I understand… Thank you for protecting the Lost Mine Pack. The Servants are grateful to the Bibre Cruor for their rescue and refuge, Lady Anjael. The stories about your kind are…” Del hesitated letting her visitor raise an eyebrow. “Interesting.”

Anjael laughed again. Her voice was deep and sultry. “Interesting? I don’t think my uncle’s stories have ever been called that before, Delphi Delilah.” She looked at Eliazar and Kaiyou, her tone vibrated with power. “Leave us, males, we must discuss female matters.”

“I will not abandon my duty.” Kaiyou refused and stood firmly staring at Anjael.

She walked over to where Kaiyou watched her; pale hands cupped his face and his wolf growled. The tip of her tail prodded and caressed his leg. Her lips puckered in amusement.

“Don’t worry, noble warrior, I give you my word, I won’t hurt your charge.” Then Anjael whispered, “But I might stop by and play with you later. My demoness has a thing for dark wolves.”

Kaiyou grasped her wrists and removed her hands from his face. “I am not a plaything, succubus.”

Her lips pulled back in a wide smile to reveal pointed teeth and fangs that looked like they were made of pearl. Her eyes slit sideways and a deep purring voice came out. “Such an alpha to think you could resist me... Oh yes, you’ll do nicely.”

His wolf rumbled in answer to the challenge.

“It’s okay, Kaiyou, grandfather. The Moon is with me.” Delilah nodded to Eliazar who shook his head but then left under her stern glare.

When they were alone, Anjael sat down and put her feet in the reflecting pool. Del sat down beside her, but a respectful distance away.

“Now, that we have said the official crap, I want you to know I will offer sanctuary to any Lycani or Vampyri who needs it. I cannot in any discernible way assist you in your war against this evil, but if those in need of aid happen to wander to my door,” Anjael offered.

“Thank you. I would not ask anything of you, Lady Anjael, but can I offer you anything in return?” Delilah volunteered. Somehow it did not feel like she was about to make a deal with a devil. If anything, Anjael felt far from being evil, she felt like her name implied, like an angel.

Anjael looked at the crescent moon, thoughtfully. “Yes, perhaps a vision for my Alpha. He and his beast are at odds since they were rescued. His ego is bruised by the debt of honor he pledged in the days after his rescue. While he convalesced, my fosterling told him of how he paid his debt to me by providing me with clean blood, but that my other needs were unmet since my former Lycan companion passed away. Lazarus only longs to be with his mate and hates me because his honor keeps him bound to service my demoness’ needs. His Beast and my Demoness hold great affection each other and his beast refuses to leave her.”

“What happened to his mate?” Del asked, her voice full of compassion.

“The rogues who took over the pack, raped most of the females to death, including his mate. They sent the pups away and the pack survivors felt them die soon after. His daughter was barely three. My uncle and I had gotten a distress call from Luna Eden, but we did not arrive in time to save them. My poor Alpha has a pack of twenty-six very traumatized wolves. Two years ago, when we rescued them it was double that number… Lycani who lose their mates and pups in such terrible ways…”

“Tend to grieve themselves to death,” Del finished when Anjael paused.

“Yes, they do. But then you know that better than most… your sister lost her mate.”

Del sighed at the lie they had let the wolf world believe to keep the confidence level of those they served. “Actually, I am the one who lost my mate. We let everyone think it was Essie’s mate.”

“I understand… As a female leader, every choice and every event is scrutinized for weakness by those males who would rule with their egos.” Anjael clenched her jaw, and hissed. “The last time the males ruled like the human courts of old, my kind almost became extinct.”

Delilah’s curiosity asked, “What happened? The archives simply say your kind went to France and Germany, and there you all died. Sittings and rumors are all we have and you look far different than I expected. I thought the Drinkers and Fallen Ones were different species.”

“May I sample your blood to see if you can be trusted with the secrets of my people?” Anjael.

“If you need to drink my blood then you may,” Delilah held out her arm. She watched the Bibre Cruor’s features shift in disgust.

“We don’t really drink blood, actually we are practically vegan.” Anjael revealed. She tapped one of the fangs that had flipped forward almost like a switchblade from her bottom jaw. “Our canines are hollow like hypodermics. It will draw your blood directly into my system for processing. But I must tell you that I will be able to read all your memories like the royal vampyri do.”

“It’s fine,” Delilah agreed, “It isn’t like I have anything to hide from you.”

Anjael licked her arm, and Delilah gasped at how cool and numb her skin turned.

“Sorry, Cruor saliva has natural numbing agents. The taking of blood only hurts if we want it to hurt.”

A single fang pieced the veil and darkened as the blood filled it. Del noticed that Anjael did not suck the blood just flowed out naturally under its own pressure. As the fallen form leaned back, Del pressed her thumb and the hem of her gown over the hole. Anjael stared at the pool, her strange eyes darted back and forth like she was watching a movie.

“You have been through much, Delphi of the Moon. Ask what you will.”

“We know very little about your kind. We thought the Bibre Cruor were the ancestors of the vampyr. Zane reported that a member of the Lone Mine pack said you have three forms like us wolves, but that you consume the blood and souls of the living, even feeding on the children of those beholding to you.”

Anjael tapped her talons on the marble as she laughed, it was a musical sad sound. “Arrogance, treachery, and emerald happened… No, we don’t eat souls or offspring. Yes, we have three forms. This is my ‘mortal’, It allows ‘me’ to be on top. The one who taunted your protector was, as he correctly proclaimed, my fallen form or succubus. It is a blending of me and my demoness. The last, what you would call a warform, is my gargoyle, when my demoness is fully emerged.” Shaking her head, she added, “And no, we and the Vampyr are not the same, not even close. We are unlike anything living on this planet. Honestly, looking at our quad-helix DNA, it is my guess that we are made beings, like Lycani, Wicce, and Vampyri, from the strongest of humans and animals, into something that is neither. Twice, we have faced extinction level attacks; once in Brittani and once in the land taken from the Gauls.”

“But how could they kill so many?” Del’s genuine worry and curiosity was so childlike and sweet to Anjael that she told the truth of the mass murders of her kind.

“In Brittani, we were gathered together and poisoned with emerald powder mixed with water. In such a weakened state, we suffer easily from sun-petrification. Trapped in that form, defenseless, our bodies can be crushed, or we can be killed by having a spike driven through our brains. However, during eclipses, as happened with the second mass casualty attack, the shadowed light draws our demons out and permanently petrifies them. That is why there are so many stone gargoyles in Europe. The corrupt of the human church summoned the clans in 1406 and the males insisted on going to Notre Dame or Cologne. Believing the lies that the gargoyles would be removed from cursed status by the church and returned to their status of protectors of humans. Many unmated females went in the hope of finding a mate and becoming ascended ones. They didn’t know the eclipse was coming.”

“I’m so sorry,” Delilah murmured in sympathy. “Did any escape?”

“Only those who made it into the deepest catacombs survived, some were actually dragged out into the light to be killed. Then over the centuries the demon hunters have just picked off the surviving clans one by one.”

“Were you alive then?”

“I was barely 400, but my uncle refused to go or let me go with the clan we had found refuge with after our clan was destroyed in the dark ages. Many who were not humans were killed during those centuries. Wicce were burned, Vampyri butchered or dragged into the noon sun, and Lycani were hunted like animals. All those created to protect humans were eliminated so those who wished to subjugate them could take over.” Anjael had folded her hands together; her talon-like nails pierced the back of them and Del could smell her own blood mixed with a human’s, leaking from the pinpoint wounds.

“You can’t make your own blood.” Del gasped in shocked realization.

“No, our feeders are more transfusers. Two pints of blood is all I need for a few weeks, unless I am wounded or bruised. While nothing can cut our skin, bruises are our biggest risk because we do not have the ability to clot beyond that of the blood we consume. Every race has its weaknesses.” She sighed sadly. “The few survivors created stories that we were demons, so the others will fear to attack us. My alpha and his pack believe it is true. I have only told him part of what I told you. Males do not need to know the weaknesses of females.”

“You do not fully trust him?” Delilah asked but she already knew.

“No, one cannot trust someone who hates them, but my Demoness trusts his Beast. She will not let him go. However, Lazarus and I fight a constant war of words. My Uncle says I should punish him for his disrespect, but I understand how disempowered he feels,” Anjael revealed. “It is not easy for an Alpha wolf to admit he had to be rescued by a female. Especially a female who looks like my mortal.”

“I will ask the Moon to send a vision to guide him,” Del promised.

“Thank you. I just want him to stop hating me,” Anjael admitted. “He is a very good lycan.” The ancient female suddenly looked very young and very sad.

“Our Wanderers reported that.” Del was quiet for a moment then asked, “How is it none have discovered you before now?”

“They would not have discovered me this time if they did not have the future monarch with them and were hunting those who were hunting the Vampyr,” Anjael admitted. “The last few cruor have withdrawn completely from the world, willing to let it fall to its own destruction for its betrayal of our kind, but I cannot. I have four other cruor who will come if I call, we are all very young, we still have hope. They call us the last hatched.”

An almost silent gasped had them both turning. Ainsley stared at the strange and beautiful creature talking with Delilah as she walked forward slowly. She handed the pale woman a picture of a statue on a boulder in a park with a dark wolf lying at the base. Anjael looked at it carefully and handed it back before responding, “Thank you, little oracle. I will prepare myself, being sun-petrified is unpleasant.”

Ainsley signed something and Del looked confused, but she translated, “Ainsley says to beware of emerald hornets swarming you.”

Nodding, Anjael stood up and the fabric draping her body uncurled from around her body and extended into wings. “I will, thank you, Ainsley, I do hate bugs.”

Ainsley giggled and made a gesture of holding a bowl and eating from it.

Anjael raised an eyebrow, “Mealworms are different, they taste like toasted almonds when sautéed.”

Ainsley signed and Del translated, “Ainsley says you are very pretty, and she hopes to see you again.” Delilah was shocked when Anjael reached into her mouth and pulled out one of her fangs. It looked like a pearl tube bead with a sharp end.

“In trade for your blood, Delphi. If you or your ward ever need me and can’t call or text my pack, blow through my tooth four times. Any Bibre Cruor within a few hundred miles will come to help you immediately. It might take me time to get to you, but I will come, no matter how far away I am.”

“Thank you, Lady Anjael.”

“Delphi Delilah, remember I can’t interfere in your war directly, but if any Lycan happened to request “sanctuary” I am not allowed to refuse, kind of like the catholic church.”

There was a shift and she suddenly became more terrifying. She stood over eight feet tall with immense pale, bat-like wings over 20 feet across, and bulging muscles. Strangely slitted eyes winked at Ainsley who clapped happily at the transformation. Anjael leaped into the air and vanished in the night sky.

Ainsley turned, looking at the full sky with wide eyes, and Del giggled before pulling her acolyte into her arms, “You won’t see her, little fox, they say the fallen ones are like chameleons, they become invisible in the sky. Come, we have petitioners waiting.”

So, what do you think of Anjael and the tragic tale of the Bibre Cruor? Has anyone been to Notre Dame or Cologne Cathedral? Wouldn’t it be sad if they had all been living at one point? If the gargoyles had been our friends and allies but were turned upon because of their fearsome reputation and countenance, kind of like Pitbulls? Just a thought... M.M.

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