The room was dark, just the way she liked it, and as she sat on the makeshift throne she’d had her minions construct as soon as she’d entered the premises, she began to tap her fingernails impatiently on the chair railing. The time was almost nigh, of that she was certain, but it would be a few moments more, and she almost couldn’t contain the excitement she felt pulsating inside. Thoughts of what would happen the moment she sat anticipating came to fruition had her mouth watering and her teeth sharp, though not for the usual reasons.
The demons that had greeted Asteria when she’d stepped through the portal had been eager to please their new goddess, and once she’d made her way out of the desert they had been most accommodating. She’d made her way here in a matter of days, and stepping over a dilapidated sign that read, “Larundel Hospital,” she’d ordered her followers to begin to restore the building to its former glory, making necessary changes to that the plans she had for her new dwelling could be easily realized. It seems they were quite resourceful, and soon the broken down structure began to resemble a mansion worthy of such a powerful goddess, one even the strongest of Hunters would find quite difficult to penetrate. She knew that, eventually, as word spread of Asteria’s conquests and forages into the local inhabitants, they would come. When they did, they would be faced with an evil far beyond anything they could ever even imagine.
But their arrival was not what she anticipated this night, and as she ran her hands through her flowing blood red locks, the yearning within her chest reached a precipice. The time had arrived; he was there.
Holding back the anticipation, she pulled herself from her seat and slowly began to make her way out to the stairwell and down the several flights of stairs, each step bringing her closer to the one she had longed for all this time. In hell, each hour had felt like a year, each day like a decade. Though the passage of time marked in this dimension said they’d only been apart a little over a year, it seemed like eternity.
When she reached the front door, she leaned against the frame, unable to trust her eyes. He looked slightly different as he made his way across the front lawn, the moonlight gleaming off of his pale skin, his hair darker than it had been when last they met. But it was most certainly him, her one true love, the god to her goddess.
He stopped before her, his blood red lips curling into a smile, “Oh, how I’ve missed you my love.”
“I have missed you, too, darling,” Asteria replied, and no longer able to control herself, she plunged her mouth against his, pulling him close to her, the feel of his familiar hands on her sending shivers through her body.
Noticing the others’ eyes on them, she finally pulled away, glaring in the direction of those who dared to stand, gaped-mouthed, and watch. “My darling,” she said, the smile returning. “How has your journey been?”
“Long and tumultuous, but the shadows whispered of your power, and even though the name they used was foreign to my ears, I knew that it was you, my love,” he replied, gazing into her eyes.
“I knew you had escaped as well, the second I arrived on this plane. I felt it in my bones. Now, together, we will reign. There is nothing the others can do about it now. We are far too powerful to be stopped.”
“Yes, my love,” he agreed. “And just as you have cast off your former name, what shall I be called now that Carter has risen again from the ashes?”
Asteria smiled at the sound of his old name. “From now on, darling, you shall be called Perses, God of Destruction. Together, we shall stake our claim and shift the Ternion in the favor of those we lead. May the Vampires reign now and for a thousand years!”
The night air filled with the sound of her maniacal laughter, and in all four corners of the earth, the Vampires and other creatures of the night awoke, whispers of, “The time is now,” seeping from their crimson lips.
* * *
Cadence watched as her sister dozed in a chair across the room while she and Aaron talked about flowers, colors, and invitations. Cassidy hadn’t been sleeping well these past few days, and when she’d finally gotten an explanation, Cassidy had only said that the images she’d seen while invading Gibbon’s brain were too disturbing to sleep. Cadence had considered having Elliott put her into a deeper slumber, as he’d done for her once upon a time, but for now, Cassidy seemed to be soundly sleeping at last, even if her little sister didn’t look particularly comfortable curled up in the recliner.
Cadence had finally found a color palate she thought they could both agree upon when Cassidy let out a loud moan. Cadence looked at Aaron, whose face showed he was just as concerned as she was. The younger sister seemed to relax for a moment, and Cadence figured it had just been a bad dream. But then, Cassidy bolted upright in the chair, her eyes open but glazed over, and said in a monotone voice Cadence couldn’t even recognize, “The time is now!” before collapsing back into the chair in a dead sleep.
Startled, and unsure what to think about what had just transpired, Cadence slowly turned her head and looked at Aaron. Whatever this was, it was not good. “What do you think that means?”
He was already shaking his head before he answered. “I don’t know, and I’m not sure I want to know,” Aaron admitted.
Cadence took a deep breath and set her wedding planning aside as Cassidy began to toss and turn. It appeared as if a new nightmare was just beginning.
