Hey readers! In case the notifications haven't been working lately, as of this point, Blood Lust is 100% complete! I'm so excited to see what you think, it's been an emotional ride this whole time.

Because we're so close to the end, I'm going to start posting three times a week until it's completely published. So, starting today, expect chapters Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The very last chapter as well as the epilogue and acknowledgements will be posted at the same time on Friday May 13, 2022!

Thank you so much for sticking with me through this journey, it's been insane!!

~

The water was freezing. The magic that leaked from the door dropped the temperature to sub-zero while somehow breaking the laws of physics and keeping the water in a liquid state. The cold extended from the bridge five meters up the river to the edge of the series of low waterfalls five meters down.

Demons had a different theory. This was the cold of the veil itself. Every living fae, and many generations before them, had been born in this world and knew nothing of their homeland. But many demons, young and old, were overly familiar with the veil.

Cyrille's humanoid form could not handle the cold of the water. The wing-like appendages emerged from his shoulders and back, and he felt the familiar weight of the chitinous armor on his flesh. Hands curled into claws, and his feet grew into bird-like talons, adding an extra foot to his already considerable height.

He was at his strongest in this form. Where magic and brute physical strength blended together in perfect harmony. Neither male nor female in this body, he could choose to present those features, as he had done with Katalin while binding their contract. She went wild for him, and he'd been planning on doing it again when she was stronger and could handle the brutality of demonic lovemaking. Although that would probably have to wait a while, given the pregnancy and all.

However, with all the protection and strength in this world and the next, the water was still fucking freezing. It came up to the bottom of his ribcage, and he carefully kept as much of himself out of the cold as he could. But the portal was beneath the icy water, and his hands were shaking from the effort and the cold. "Come on, Wrath," he called. "Talk to me."

His red-eyed sister had followed him along the pool's shore, flanked by her archangels. She found a spot on the forest floor and sat, leaning back against a tree and staring blankly at the supplement bottle. "I don't remember it all," she mumbled. "I was... they kept me... for so long... How much has Katalin told you? You must think we're crazy."

"Chandra," Cyrille lowered his voice as much as he could over the hum of the door. "I know about Envy. I know they are responsible for this. You don't have to remember everything. Just tell me what you do remember, and start from the beginning as best you can."

She swallowed hard and nodded. After a tentative sip from the supplement and a shudder from the taste, she took a deep breath. "As I said, I was in Prussia, visiting a friend. I was on my way to meet him for dinner, but... my carriage driver had been killed. His soul had been ripped from his body. I knew it was Envy. He was never subtle. But how... the last we saw of him was in that glacier. I tracked him down, as any of us would have. He was counting on that. The dark elves were waiting for me."

"Dark elves?" Cyrille snapped. "Not the Templars?"

"No... The dark elves suited their needs better. The Shadowblade king was a genuine master with their binding magic. They only hired the Templars after he fled. His twisted bastard of a son is nothing compared to him, a great source of shame and plenty of fun to torment him about if you can stand the lashings."

"By any chance, is that twisted son called Zenith."

"Yes... how did you know?"

"He's at the top of the Counsel's most wanted list right now."

"I don't suppose it is because of his crimes against our people?"

"No, of course not. Young prince Zenith was involved in hunting down and capturing the tenth dragon. Twice, actually." He partially threw out mention of the tenth dragon as a test, and Chandra didn't look surprised. "When the tenth and her father escaped, they told the Counsel all they knew about the Organization."

Chandra's lip curled in a derisive laugh. "Those dragons don't know anything. They were kept isolated as a precaution exactly for that reason. They really thought they were the only ones put through the program."

"You're getting ahead of yourself, Chandra. Go back a bit. The dark elves captured you, and then what?"

"It's... fuzzy from then on. They took me to some... place. I was bound in iron and kept in constant light. Envy must have told them I control the archangels from the shadows. The light was so strange. It was sharp and constant... like lightning in a bottle. It hurt to listen to... like something screaming in my ears."

Yes, that was what Cyrille had felt when he first experienced electricity. It took a long time for them to figure out how to use it efficiently and make it quieter. That sound alone would have been enough to drive her mad.

"That's when Envy came," she continued. "He asked me to join him. To help him. Never mind the plans of the Organization, he wanted my help in making a world safe for demons. He wanted me to build an army of archangels. In other words, he wanted to pick up where he left off and kill every living being again. He knew... he must have known I would have said no. But he was so surprised by my answer. He didn't really believe that I would want to kill everyone, did he?"

"He was surprised when I refused him, too," Cyrille assured her. "Like he couldn't believe that I wouldn't hand Katalin or my legion over to him to do what he pleased."

"Yes, exactly. But I refused. I always refused. He said then... that if I wouldn't do it, my spawn would have to do. I didn't know what he meant at the time, but..." she started shaking the fluctuations of her aura started to destabilize again. "I don't... I don't remember much after that... They gave me something. Drugs that inhibited my magic and vampire venom to keep me sedated... the line between reality and nightmare blurs. Envy would invade my mind. He made me..."

Cyrille felt his heart breaking for her. He didn't need the details. He could guess what had happened. There was no in vitro fertilization for demons. The only way for them to reproduce was the old-fashioned way. He never thought forced pregnancy was possible for them until Envy revealed that he'd done it to Katalin. How many times was Chandra forced to lie with males she did not know? How many times was she forced to carry children that would not survive?

She sucked in another shaky breath and sighed. Finally, her hunter response was kicking in and shutting her emotions down. "I assume either Katalin or Envy told you that she wasn't the first. Between the drugs and the iron... I couldn't keep count. They wouldn't let me see them anyway, so I didn't know their fates until it was time to try again. I remember trying to tell them what Envy really wanted. They didn't care. They had their own needs for the archangels that had nothing to do with Envy. Even if I had agreed to help him, they would not have let me leave. They needed the child. The right child.

"I was desperate for some relief. A clear head and a break. I told them I would cooperate as best I could. It took a long time for them to trust that I would not attempt to escape. I'd done that enough when they first captured me. It took them even longer to trust that I wouldn't try to kill them when they approached. They honored my submission and pulled back on the frequencies of the... attempts.

"They were getting closer. The children were getting stronger. They were always learning from the last failure and adjusting. The child before Katalin was close. It was also the first they allowed me to keep. They wanted to see if maintaining a maternal connection would somehow influence the results. It did. He was so strong. I... I don't know what happened. They wouldn't tell me what happened. I told them I would not cooperate until they told me what had happened. They just said he failed the tests and told me to expect a new paternal candidate. I never expected it would be Lust.

"I think they let me talk to him because he was another Sin. Or maybe they wanted to see if it made a difference. I... I was just happy to see him. To talk to him. He was furious, of course, but you know Lust. He agreed not to fight back. But only because of what they had done to me when I refused. And only... only if he would be allowed to maintain a connection with the child. They agreed and... I think a year after that... Katalin was born."

A tight smile spread across her face. "She was different, right from the start. I went into labor two weeks before they planned to induce. Even as an infant, she wasn't about to let them tell her what to do. She was always so damn stubborn, but she would make you think she was complying with your every demand."

Cyrille threw his head back in a laugh. That was his mate to a fucking tee. She was stubborn as a mountain, and he was ready to bet his entire essence that their child would be as well. "She is definitely something special, that Katalin," he continued chuckling. "She's a flighty little thing, though. It feels like it took me ages to get her to open up to me. I think she would have taken even longer if Envy hadn't tried to take her."

"And exactly what did she open up with, Cyrille?" Wrath's voice was suddenly harsh, sounding a lot like her regular self.

A chill that had nothing to do with the water crept into his body, and he glanced nervously over at her. An archangel, the one Kate had given him that now had black eyes, was kneeling in front of Wrath. He could hear it whispering but couldn't quite make out the words. Chandra's eyes, now glowing with rage, were focused on him. "Now, don't give me that look," he growled. "She did not tell me she was your daughter until well after we started sharing a bed."

The forest rippled as the rattling hiss suddenly became clear enough for one word to come through. "Pregnant."

Oh, he was so thankful that she could hardly stand right now. That did not stop the hot wave of rage-filled magic from pulsing off her and washing through the forest. "Cyrille," she hissed. "I want you to know that the moment I'm able, I am going to kill you. I am going to kill you slowly and painfully! I am going to rip the flesh from your bones and feed it to you! I am going to-"

"Ooh, sounds like fun," came a cool female voice back on the bridge. "Can I help?"

Cyrille turned as best he could while still feeding power into the door to see another tall demon. She was wearing a tight business dress cut low to show off her ample breasts. Her hair was pulled up in a tight bun, and her makeup perfectly accentuated the intense, royal blue of her eyes. That ever-so-confident smile played on ruby-red lips and gave off the 'destroying you is going to be fun' kind of vibe. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing her. He always loved ruining that smile. "How's it going, Nicole?" he called, using Pride's current name. "I see you got dragged here too."

"I did, and I very much do not appreciate it. I was about to make a lawyer cry when your archangel showed up and ruined the fun. So, let's get to the flaying so I can go back to the anarchy of capitalism." She caught sight of Chandra sitting on the ground and asked with a complete lack of compassion. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Envy happened," Chandra snarled, still glowering at Cyrille.

"Well, shit," Nicole's eyebrows flew up. "Never thought I'd be hearing that name again. Let me guess, they wanted you to make them a new vessel? Give them command of the archangels again?"

"Envy doesn't need a new vessel. He has a permanent body now."

That was news to Cyrille, and he almost lost track of how much power he was feeding into the door. "He what?!" he barked. "Since when?!"

"You didn't know?" Chandra's eyes widened. "You said Katalin told you about him!"

"She told me he was involved. I saw some of her memories while at the facilities. But she didn't say he had a permanent form! How? When?"

"I don't... a... a while now. He's had the same body since I was captured. He had been going by the name Ashton Price."

"Oh, great," Nicole rolled her eyes. "That asshole."

"You know him?" Cyrille snapped.

"Of him. I know of him. Do you read anything other than the front pages of the tabloids? He was the doctor that patented the Heritage Tests. He then lost his medical license for performing those tests on children and is now wanted for his connections to that Organization thing that attacked the dragons last year. It certainly sounds like Envy. He has been damn busy if it is."

"That's him, I promise you," Wrath insisted.

Cyrille's mind raced with the overload of information. Ashton Price was the name and face he'd been using in Kate's memories. Envy typically couldn't hold onto a vessel longer than two or three years. Let alone the fifteen since that memory took place, or however long it had really been. But how?

"So," Nicole continued to chatter as if nothing was happening. "Who are we pulling out? Lust or Gluttony. If it's Gluttony, I'd say it's probably best to leave them there. The public is not too happy about their changelings right now."

"Lust," came Sloth's voice.

Nicole shrieked, having not noticed the other Sin lying on the ground next to her the whole time. "Where the hell did you come from?" she gasped, clutching her chest.

"Veil."

"I hate you so much!" she shouted, stomped around to between his legs, and slammed her foot into his crotch. Then she tilted her head in curiosity. "Did you forget to give yourself genitals?"

"Physical displays of gender expression are so much effort."

"That is probably the smartest thing that has ever come out of your mouth. So, keep talking. How do you know it's Lust, not Gluttony?"

"Ugh," Sloth groaned. "Who else would be controlling the changelings?"

"Oh, I don't know," Nicole spat sarcastically. "Maybe the dark elves?"

"It's Gluttony."

Cyrille looked over at Chandra, who was starting to shake again. She was getting overwhelmed. There was too much happening at once. He needed to hurry up, open the door, and get her the hell out of here. Once they were back in Paris, he could focus on getting the rest of her story and figure out the details. Envy had access to the city, but at least there, they would be fighting on his terms. The catacombs were his domain.

The forest suddenly went still, every archangel freezing in place. Chandra's eyes went wide, and the demons that surrounded her closed ranks, creating a protective wall around her. "He's here," she gasped.

The fear in her voice was contagious. Wrath, who wasn't afraid of anything. Wrath, who was the very personification of violence, was desperately afraid of what Envy had become.

Cyrille turned his full attention back to the door, needing to put in the last push of power and-

His eyes landed on a pair of feet standing on the edge of the waterfalls. Looking up, he took in the massive, almost comically huge form that could only be Gluttony in front of him. The milky orange color of his eyes gave his face an ominous glow. His mouth stretched up into a smile and then kept growing until his head split open into several rows of needle-shaped fangs. "Hello, brother," he hissed.

Oh, fu-

The very thought was interrupted as Gluttony moved so fast that even the demons couldn't see. Faster than any of the other Sins were capable of doing, his skin turned black, chitin covered his body, and his hands turned into pincers similar to those of a crab.

Gluttony caught Cyrille in his pincers around the middle, and they rocketed back so fast they exploded through the bridge and several trees before he was slammed into a boulder. The black-eyed archangel appeared from the shadows and shot forward, its spear aimed for Gluttony's heart. The larger Sin barked out a laugh. A third set of pincers erupted from its body towards the archangel, which melted before getting caught and reappeared behind them. "No!" Cyrille barked at it. "Help Wrath!"

"Mistress Caedes commands-"

"I don't give a damn what Katalin ordered you to do," he roared and drove the talons of his appendages into Gluttony's arm. "Help Wrath and get that fucking door open!"

Using his newfound grip on Gluttony's arm, Cyrille twisted out of his crushing claws and slipped down and between the Sin's legs. The third arm came around, aiming for his throat, and the archangel appeared again. The spear turned into a sword and sliced the arm so deep it was only holding on by a few strands of sinew. They both backed off as Gluttony howled in pain, and Cyrille snarled. "Gods damnit, I told you-"

"Katalin would flay me alive if I didn't take care of you," he heard the words in his own voice, but it clearly came from the archangel. It turned its pitch-black eyes on him, and he wondered if the terror he now felt was what everyone else felt when his eyes went like that. "Self-preservation," it rattled.

Cyrille almost laughed. Good to know the archangels were just as scared of Kate's rage as he was. "Alright, alright. We deal with Gluttony quickly, then we'll-"

Gluttony suddenly whirled around in a spray of sulfurous blood and shrieked. Magic pulsed off him in erratic waves, and the chitin around his body grew faster as individual plates until he was covered in near-impenetrable, scale-like armor. Two more pincer arms exploded from his shoulders, not unlike how Cyrille's grew. Except Gluttony wasn't supposed to have those.

With another shriek, the new arms of the giant clamped down on two chunks of chitin, ripped them off his own body, and threw them with incredible power and speed at Cyrille and the archangel. Both managed to dodge out of the way, and the trees behind them exploded.

Gluttony was still faster and intercepted Cyrille's path. He barely raised his hands in time to catch the first set of pincers before they caught and ripped him apart. Then, hooking the claws of his wings into the cracks of Gluttony's armor, he focussed all of his defensive energy on reallocating his own chitin into the wings to withstand the blow from the shoulder set of pincers.

The archangel leaped onto Gluttony's back, its weapon retaking the shape of a spear, and it tried to pierce through chinks of the armor. Nothing. Again and again, it tried while Gluttony slammed the full weight of his pincers into Cyrille. "What the hell did they do to you, Gluttony," Cyrille hissed under the strain.

Gluttony went still for a moment. Then he closed his grip on Cyrille's wrists, crushing them and holding him still. The weight lifted off his wings, and the chitin around Gluttony's stomach rippled. Before he could react, yet another claw burst outwards, closed around Cyrille's throat, and lifted him high over the other Sin. The archangel's weapon turned from spear to sword, then to cleaver when it couldn't cut through the armor of the arm.

Gluttony cackled, teeth gnashing as Cyrille and archangel struggled against his grip. "Ashton always said you were a short-sighted fool," he laughed before swiping at the archangel, sending it flying through the trees like it was nothing. "So mistrusting of anyone who tried to help you."

"Damn it, brother," Cyrille yowled, raising his legs now to scratch uselessly at Gluttony's armor. "Any help offered to the demons comes with a thousand caveats, you know that!"

"Weak little Greed. Who cares about the demons? Good for nothing slaves meant to serve us!"

Several light-haired figures appeared at the edges of Cyrille's vision, darting around him and Gluttony with impressive speed. Gluttony lashed out with his remaining arms, trying to swat at the fae soldiers while keeping his grip on Cyrille's throat. The fae dodged his wild attacks, not attempting to make individual strikes but wrapping around thin magical garrote wires around his limps between the cracks of armor.

Cyrille realized what they were doing, slammed his eyes shut, and pulled his wings around himself for protection. A second later, there was a series of explosions, a searing light that burned through his closed eyes, and then he was thrown back and away from Gluttony. At the same time, he heard and felt flesh sheering away from his shoulder, and a sudden imbalance of weight threw off his landing, and he rolled into a pile of destroyed trees.

He didn't need to see the damage to know that one of his wings had been torn off. Hot blood drenched his back and side, and a single morbid laugh bubbled up from his throat. This had to be karma for ripping off Kate's arm.

Getting shakily to his feet again, Cyrille looked for confirmation of what had happened. A dozen fae warriors were standing around Gluttony. Every single one of his limbs had been torn or blown off, so he now resembled a ball covered in thick, patchy flesh with a fat head on top. That fat head was thrown back, laughing maniacally.

"You always know how to keep things interesting, Cyrille," came a calm voice. Cyrille glanced back to see the tall form of the fae king Oberon the... some number. He couldn't remember. Every king took the name Oberon when they were crowned, and he personally thought that made things incredibly confusing. "This is not exactly how I expected the first demonic request for asylum to go."

"Don't blame me for your lack of imagination, majesty," Cyrille snapped, turning back to the laughing Gluttony. "But do remind me to thank you when this is over."

"I'm pretty sure it is over, demon," Oberon yawned and waved carelessly towards Gluttony. "We will bind him in iron to keep him controlled for the duration of the negotiations."

Gluttony suddenly stopped laughing, which sent chills through Cyrille's spine. Then his eyes started to burn a brighter orange, and a seam appeared around his middle. Their eyes met. "You really should have taken the deal, brother."

Gluttony's stomach ripped open before Cyrille could shout a warning, and a horde of screaming, snarling changelings came pouring out from the chasm.

~