I was in love once, and have never loved another since. I only told Anita little bits about him, and I always told her that my brothers were not to know. The reason? I had fallen in love with one of the devils we hunted.

This man, he was…different. He was unlike any of the vampires we’d hunted in the past, or ever will. In fact, he wasn’t one at all. He was a devil – a messenger of hell – and he was amazing.

As Bryce, Alain, and I walk through the crypt where I first met him, I’m finding that the lack of his presence here leaves a hole in my heart. It’s true I miss him – I would give my life just to see him again, but something tells me I never will. You see, Bryce vanquished the man I loved when I was only in my teenaged years.

“Oh, for the love of the gods, Raine,” Alain’s voice cut through my thoughts as he hit me over the head with his crossbow.

“Ow, hey! What was that for?” I whined, pouting at my twin.

“Well if you’d listen more often,” Alain muttered, walking ahead to walk along with Bryce in the front. I scowled, but followed none-the-less as we explored the abandoned crypt. There was a short silence, only interrupted by the soft steps of our feet on the dusty stone floors.

“Raine, remind me again why we’re here,” Bryce voiced from the front. I looked up – it actually hadn’t registered to me that I had been looking down in the first place – and saw the Alain had lagged behind him a bit, a slight limp in his leg.

“The old lady said she saw her son down here,” I responded in a slightly shaky voice, suddenly feeling very cold.

“But didn’t she say her son is dead?” Alain pitched in, not bothering to look back at me as he spoke.

“Well, that explains why she saw him,” Bryce mumbled sarcastically, “My question is why she was down here in the first place.” Ever since I can remember, Bryce has hated crypts and graveyards, without good cause. He once told me, when I was ten, that he thought they were ‘spooky.’

“She was probably here to visit her son’s grave, Bryce. It’s not unheard of, you know. A lot of people like to come visit their dead relatives, pay their respects, leave flowers…that sort of thing. It’s called respecting the dead, maybe you’ve heard of it?” It was my turn to be sarcastic now, and I heard Alain chuckle slightly as Bryce’s incoherent mumbling continued.

There was yet another short silence before Bryce stopped walking completely, and had turned to face Alain and myself. He had an unreadable expression on his face, as he seemed to be glaring a spot just over my left shoulder…

I began to turn to see what it was he was looking at, but a quiet call from Alain stopped me. He had also turned to look at this interesting little spot over my shoulder, but unlike Bryce, his expression read of fear and shock.

I had grown beyond agitated at this point, and wanting to see what they were so intently staring at, turned. I immediately wished that I hadn’t, as I saw what was once the body of a young man, pinned to the side of one of the coffins. His eyes had been torn from his head, leaving twin trails of crimson streaming down his face in blood tears, and other parts of his body were cut up terribly, blood covering each one. The wound that drew my attention was the twin holes on the left side of his neck, right over the main artery.

“So,” Alain started, and I could hear the disgust in his voice, “Who’s that…?”

“Good question,” Bryce answered, equally disgusted. I simply rolled my eyes, pulling up the sleeves of my jacket and crouched down next to the corpse, examining it.

“Well, chicken-shits, how about you help me out here by naming all of the left-biting blood-suckers we know.” I answered casually, carefully tipping the head of the corpse up to get a better view of the mark on his neck.

“Well, there’s…Trices,” Alain offered, thoughtfulness replacing disgust.

“He’s dead,” Bryce answered before I could.

“What about Regina?”

“She’s dead.”

“Moira?”

“Dead.”

I sighed, irritated.

“Are there any left-biters we know that are still alive?” I asked in irritation, turning slightly to look at my brothers.

“I know one.” The moment I heard his voice I was on my feet, searching wildly. I knew that voice. I knew that voice. As soon as I found it’s owner, I was frozen to the spot.

“Damen,” I whispered, barely more than a breath, and I felt Bryce’s cold glare hit the back of my head.

“What are you doing here?” Bryce was obviously pissed. Probably more for the fact that Damen was back than the fact that I was talking to him.

The devil chuckled, his wispy ebony hair falling into his eyes as he lowered his head, a grin spreading on his face. When he looked up, he met my eyes with his ruby ones, and I felt my blood run cold. The only thought running through my head at that very second was, ‘He’s alive!’

“It’s nice to see you again, Raine.” He spoke solely to me, and I let out a breath I hadn’t been aware that I was holding.

“Don’t ignore me, Damen,” Bryce hissed, stepping to stand in front of me, blocking our view of each other. “Why aren’t you dead?”

“You can’t kill something that lives in hell, Bryce,” I could only hear him now, as I was still to shocked to move, but it was clear he was smiling as he said it. “Besides, I thought you would have been happy that I was offering my services to you.”

What did that mean? I mentally smacked myself as I remembered the body, and glanced over to it again. Finally finding my feet, I stepped to stand next to Bryce, putting a hand on the arm that was holding a crossbow to Damen’s throat.

“Do you know who that man was?” I inquired, not meeting his eyes again, for fear that I might lose the ability to move again.

“No, but I can point you in the direction of the one responsible for this massacre,” His smile faded a bit as he examined the body from where he stood, his ruby eyes dragging over the blood-tears staining the man’s cheeks. I felt the muscles in Bryce’s arm flex then relax as he lowered his crossbow, a scowl on his face.

“How do we know we can trust you?”

“You don’t,” Damen’s eyes flashed with something unreadable for a moment, “But I shall continue to offer my services to you under one condition.”

My eyes narrowed as I thought, because apparently my thought process had slowed and it was taking an awfully long time for this to all sink in.

“And what would that be?” Alain finally found himself and stepped up to the other side of Bryce.

“I want to travel with you.” My eyes widened and I nearly thought I’d faint, but apparently Alain did that for me as a loud thud resounded around the crypt.