So, I changed the order of the chapters... Will be posting the new chappie soon.

Chapter 1

Present day, Yazix, Xeetha

For a precious second, Cade stood frozen in the doorway of their sires’ office, not managing to grasp what was going on. It was enough for Seyran to throw Gabriel into the dimensional portal held open by Lyan.

Crazed, Lucien lunged forward to go after his mate, but Seyran pushed him back with a strategically placed fire ball. Before Lucien could recover – or any of them could attempt a similar lunge – the portal closed and with it, any chance to recover Gabriel.

Cade couldn’t believe what was going on. Gabriel was gone and he knew exactly what would happen now. His guess was confirmed, as he saw disbelief, anger and pain flash through his fallen brother’s eyes. And then there was nothing there, nothing but raw pain. The golden blonde felt his own heart break as Lucien’s consciousness vanished before his eyes and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. It wasn’t unexpected, of course. A demon that lost his mate was more often than not a demon that lost his mind. They went over the edge, insane with the pain. What were his sires thinking?

Cade managed a glance at Seyran, before everything went blurry in front of him. Then he knew what the cause of this was. Seyran and Lyan weren’t thinking! Not logically at least… They were on the edge as well. Not insane to the extent Lucien was, but enough for them to be pushed into impulsive and terrible decisions. When? When had this happened to his family?

Some of the demons that had come with them pushed to come in the room. Cade pushed them back, shaking his head. “No, you have to stay out of it for now. You don’t have a chance to stop it.”

Zeli gave him a pained look and took a deep breath as Lucien’s insane roar echoed through the room and reverberated through the corridors. The platinum blonde was beyond all reason, his flame had gone entirely out of control and was spreading fire all over the office. Seyran wasn’t in a much better state and managed to actually hit his son back and stave him a little – which would have been impossible if Seyran had been in his full mental capacities.

Lyan was staring wide eyed at the scene developing before his eyes, as if in disbelief. It occurred to Cade that Lyan hadn’t actually realized what he was doing, following his own hatred to the point that reason had become blurred. Lyan’s own edge was receding, but it was too late, too late to make amends, because his own son was lost to madness.

Cade saw his sire look at his hands and even over the fighting he heard Lyan’s choked voice, “Fires of Kaldor… What have I done?”

Well, too late now for regrets, Cade thought. But then he realized that the battle was escalating to terrible proportions and Seyran was losing. The king collapsed on the floor, panting hard after having received a fire ball in his chest. He directed a hateful glare to his son.

Out of thin air, Lucien created a spear of fire. Cade cursed and moved as swiftly as possible. He managed to push his sire away, but unfortunately had no time to move away himself and the spear passed through his wing, scorching and unforgiving.

Having been pushed away by his son, Seyran seemed to recover a little composure, mostly because of Lyan’s slapping him across the face. But Cade couldn’t worry about his sires now. He had more important worries: to be more specific, the fact that his little brother was directing his murderous rage at him. This was NOT good…

Lucien scented the air, like a beast indulging in the scent of blood. Cade jumped to his feet and took a step back, but Lucien only laughed. “You think you can escape me! No body can escape me!”

Perhaps for the first time in his life, Cade felt genuine fear pool inside his stomach. It wasn’t Lucien’s voice speaking. It sounded evil, animalistic, more like a growl than actual speech. Cade wondered if it was actually Lucien who was talking or something else entirely.

As they grew up, nobody had told them in detail what the Edge was. Just that it was very dangerous to lose control. Over and over: never lose control! Always keep your power in check! The only thing that they all knew was that if demons lost control of their passions, they could go insane, lost to their inner fire forever.

Watching his brother advance towards him, murder in his eyes, Cade wondered if it wasn’t a little more to it than that. Lucien would never have tried to kill Seyran. True, they’d had disputes and some had even escalated to violence, but never to a critical point. What was even worse was that Lucien was hunting him now. And technically speaking, there was no particular reason for Lucien to try to kill him.

Cade cursed and dodged as Lucien threw his fire spear at him. It landed in a blast somewhere behind him. Cade had the presence of thought to look around a bit just as Lucien was stalking him. He shouted at Zeli,

“Zeli, the crystals, get the crystals. And the books, the runes…”

His friend looked at him helplessly, knowing that there was no way to stop Lucien. Then he stealthily moved to save the prized material from the fire. Cade spoke to his brother – or what he hoped was his brother, “Lucien, listen to me… This isn’t you! You don’t want to do this!”

Another fireball was thrown in his direction and Cade dodged it easily. He noticed the smirk playing on the lips of the creature that looked like his brother. This Lucien was only playing with him!

Lucien chuckled, “Oh, but I must certainly do. Slowly, you’ll die slowly… First a wing, then an arm… Then, who knows?”

In his mind, Cade started praying for a miracle. If a miracle didn’t happen, Lucien would kill him this day.

Kalin ran as fast as he could on the stairs from Zeli’s quarters. He’d been caring for Orin when he’d heard the explosions. Then the soldiers guarding their door had burst in, blabbering something about how they should probably go downstairs, because something really bad was going on. Something about Lucien and Cade?

Kalin didn’t want to think about what could have happened to have the soldiers so nervous. But most definitely, it could not be a good thing.

Behind him, Orin was being carried by one of the demon soldiers. He wasn’t enjoying being carried by the unpleasant individual at all, but Kalin hadn’t completely recovered from the healing process and they needed to move as quickly as possible. Acknowledging that, Orin had reluctantly agreed to being assigned to the soldier, since leaving him behind in the room was out of the question.

When they finally arrived at their destination, Kalin was astounded at the sight. Lyan and Seyran were collapsed in the corridor; Lyan was crying softly, nursing a wound on Seyran’s shoulder, and the king seemed to be staring at nothing in particular. In front of the door, there was a real crowd gathered, but they all seemed to be reluctant to go in. Kalin recognized some familiar faces: the Alarian soldier who had come with him to Xeetha.

“Captain! Thank the light you’re here! You have to do something about this!”

“These people are just standing around, doing nothing… For the light…”

“The light has nothing to do with it.” A demon Kalin didn’t know said. What the hell was going on?

“Out of my way, now!” He shouted.

The crowd parted and Kalin saw Zeli reclined against the door, whipping blood from his face.

The redhead scowled, “What the hell are you doing here?” He took a disapproving look at Orin who had abandoned the arms of his carrier, “You’re supposed to be resting.”

Kalin ignored the now fighting couple and stepped inside. The view he was met with seemed like a scene from his worse nightmare. Lucien – or someone that looked like him – was stalking Cade, blasting him with fire bolts. Savage laughter escaped the demon as he played with his prey. Cade tried to fight back, only to be hurled back by a larger fire ball.

It was horrific! Cade’s fire seemed a meager spark in front of what Lucien was radiating. His blonde hair had gone completely blood-red, and it seemed to flutter around his shoulders, like a flickering flame. His white wings were also crimson, but seemed larger and much, much scarier. Were those spines on his wings? Kalin couldn’t see Lucien’s eyes, but he guessed that they were crimson too. Lights above… and were those horns? Lucien had horns!! And a tail!! What on Kaldor had happened?

Cade saw him in the doorway and yelled at him, “Love, don’t come any closer! He’s gone mad!”

Unfortunately, this made the creature Lucien turn towards Kalin. An evil smile ghosted on his face. It was an expression so unlike Lucien Kalin was momentarily startled. Then, before he could do anything, the creature attacked.

Kalin felt the pain of fire burn his sides for a second, then the weight of his attacker was removed from him. The creature hissed in pain, even as Kalin scuttled back instinctively. The purple-haired Alarian stared in horror as he realized Cade had morphed into the same type of creature as Lucien.

Zeli pulled him upright and out of the room, “Come on, Kalin! That bought time, but on the long run, Cade will still lose.”

Orin asked, “What is it? What’s going on?”

Zeli glared at the fallen kings, “Ask them. It’s all their fucking fault.”

Lyan lifted his gaze, but said nothing. Zeli glared at the king and spoke again, “They sent Gabriel through a dimensional portal. Lucien witnessed his father throw his mate into the void like a piece of trash and was helpless to stop it. He went over the Edge because of that, tried to kill Seyran. Cade got in the way. So that’s pretty much why they’re killing each other now.”

Kalin inwardly arched a brow, ready to let Zeli know that he hadn’t taken the news of Gabriel’s humanity too well, either. But Zeli’s words seemed to get to the kings, because Seyran snapped out his trance. “The only thing that could stop Lucien is bringing Gabriel back – which, on short notice, is impossible.”

The purple haired Alarian wanted to shake the king. His hands tightened into fists, “Where did you send him?”

Lyan answered, “Earth.”

Orin gaped, “Earth? You sent a pregnant 19-year old Alarian to Earth. Alone? Not knowing the language? Have you lost your freaking minds?”

To Kalin’s surprise, Seyran nodded, “For a minute there, we kind of did.”

Ignoring Seyran’s almost apology, Kalin thought. They couldn’t bring Gabriel back right now. The most urgent issue was to get through to Lucien. He was fairly certain he could get through to Cade… probably…

“Would something of his work?” Orin asked.

Kalin looked at his lavender-haired brother, then at the kings. Seyran made a face, but said, “There’s a chance. If it’s a special object that he can connect with, or that can trigger a memory.”

Orin’s smile brightened his face. He took off on the corridors, forgetting his own weakness and nearly tripping. Kalin caught his brother just in time, “Whoa, there! What do you think you’re doing?”

Orin panted a little, “Gabriel’s room, Kalin. We have to get to Gabriel’s room.”

Kalin sighed and met Zeli’s eyes. The redhead demon took his mate in his arms and Orin glared at Zeli, but didn’t protest. They got to Gabriel’s room in record time.

Orin started rummaging through the drawers and finally let out a sound of victory. He extracted one of Lucien’s garments. Kalin arched a brow but Orin just shrugged. “It’s Gabriel’s.” the lavender haired prince said.

Kalin opened his mouth to argue, but then he realized that Orin was correct. He’d seen Gabriel wearing Lucien’s clothes before, mostly in between bouts of love making. Probably Gabriel had taken to wearing some of Lucien’s larger clothes when they were inside their own quarters. Orin was definitely indiscrete enough to have squeezed it out of their little brother.

Orin grinned, confirming his guess, “Gabriel told me once about it. He also said that Lucien liked the way he smells, like ripe cynathole fruit.” The lavender-haired prince looked at Zeli, “Will this do?”

Zeli analyzed the shirt, then nodded thoughtfully. “If something other than Gabriel can bring Lucien back from wherever he is, that would be it. You’re a genious, sweet.”

Zeli moved to press a kiss on Orin’s lips, but the lavender haired prince turned away. Kalin inwardly sighed at the hurt look on Zeli’s face. They’d have to deal with it later. He’d have a talk with Zeli about hurting Orin’s feelings. Right now, he didn’t have the time.

“Come on. Let’s go.” He said curtly.

Zeli took Orin in his arms again and they retraced their steps back to the office.

They were greeted by a very impatient looking royal couple and supremely nervous crowd. Kalin asked one of the Alarians, “Status?”

The soldier could barely contain his grimace. “As bad as can be. I just hope they don’t burn each other alive in there.”

Suddenly Kalin felt very guilty for dragging these people along. The Alarian soldiers were obviously uncomfortable and frightened, not knowing what they were up against, not knowing why two brothers that moments ago had been best of friends were now at each other’s throats.

Kalin couldn’t say he understood it entirely either. Cade had always told him how dangerous it was for demons to lose control, but he hadn’t exactly grasped the full meaning of it until today. Lucien was entirely a different being and Cade… Would Cade even recognize him? Will Gabriel’s garment work on Lucien? Kalin didn’t know. But he had to try.

He remembered his little brother, when Gabriel had come accompanied by Seyran to check in on Orin. Gabriel hadn’t told him anything about whatever was happening, obviously he’d been forbidden to do so by the king. But Kalin had known instinctively that there had been something very wrong with his baby brother.

The purple-haired Alarian cursed out loud. He was such a failure! He’d failed protecting Gabriel as a child, he’d failed him even more now. He hadn’t been able to overcome the energy drain from the healing process and now Gabriel was lost. But the least he could do was help Lucien. Surely, his baby brother was counting on him for that.

The Alarian stepped inside the room, who was now a pale imitation of its former self. Most of the furniture was wrecked and the walls bore signs of scorching where dodged fire balls had hit. In the center, the two brothers were still in a frenzied battle.

Kalin thought for a minute, then asked Zeli, “Can you distract Lucien for a minute?”

Zeli arched a brow, “A minute, yeah. But not more. He’ll tear me apart.”

Orin’s eyes widened as he apparently forgot his upset on Zeli. The lavender-haired Alarian took Zeli’s arm, “No, no, don’t! He’ll hurt you…” Orin begged.

Zeli kissed Orin briefly, then winked. “Don’t worry, sweet. I’ll be fine.”

Kalin thought a little, “Maybe we should ask others as well?”

Zeli nodded, “You guys up for it?”

Silently, the Alarians assembled behind Kalin, ready to obey the orders of their commander.

Kalin’s eyes narrowed as he took in the scene again. He could see why Zeli had said that Cade had a chance, but was going to lose anyway. Cade was by no means as horrific as Lucien.

Zeli whispered in Kalin’s ear, “Cade’s anger at a threat directed at you is helping him, but not for long. You’re safe and Cade loves his brother too much. Lucien doesn’t have the same problem. His strenght is his pain and his pain is his madness.”

Lights above… Everything had been going so well. It was all Leyra’s fault. Once again, she’d destroyed their lives. “Sweet, it’s best if you get out of here.”

Orin started to protest, but Kalin knew he was right. Orin wasn’t safe. He called his former second in command to him, “Take Orin somewhere safe, Galer.”

The older Alarian nodded, “Come on, prince Orin.”

Orin struggled in the Galer’s grip, giving Zeli a longing look. “No! I want to stay here, with Zeli!”

Kalin cursed under his breath. He didn’t like where this was going. The Alarian knew his brother’s nervousness usually had a good reason. He wasn’t visionary like Gabriel, but he was close enough. He kissed his younger brother on the forehead, “Go, Orin! You’d only distract him here! And we have a job to do… We’ll come get you afterwards, ok?”

Orin took a deep breath, cast another look at his mate then closing his eyes, he turned his back on them. It was hard, sending his brother away like that, but Kalin had no choice. They had to save Lucien and Cade.

With a gaze in the direction his mate had disappeared in, Zeli extended his wings and focused. “Ready?” He asked everybody.

It was more or less a rhetorical question, since he doubted any of them was ready to face the creature Lucien. However, there was strenght in numbers; Seyran and Lyan had also joined – which was most definitely a plus. While Kalin didn’t even want to see the faces of the demons that had hurt his little brother, at this point, he was certain that the royal couple had maybe the best chance to stave an attack from this new Lucien, since they were probably the oldest and most powerful demons around. Kalin knew they didn’t have much time and if they didn’t manage to get through to Lucien, Cade would die and his brother in law would be lost to them forever.

“OK, go!”

On Zeli’s mark, the room was flooded by demons and Alarians alike. Everybody crowded on top of Lucien. The creature howled at being attacked so suddenly and a fire wave emerged from its finger tips. Several demons were slammed back into the wall with a dull thud, and a sickening hiss Kalin jumped Cade, kissing the fanged mouth of his lover. It was weird, holding Cade like this; the same, but not quite. The previously soft skin now had scales and Cade’s fangs were sharper and larger, biting into his lip. Much to his dismay, Kalin found himself aroused by the sensation. Even as Cade pinned him against the wall, growling and kissed him back with such a strenght that it was almost painful, the Alarian surrendered everything he was, opening his heart, giving up control. It was like that every time with them.

Kalin didn’t know how long the kiss lasted, but when Cade finally separated their mouths he was short of breath and back to normal… well, at least, he was scale-less, hornless and from what he could tell also tail-less..

The demon smirked, “Well, isn’t that a nice way to get me to snap out of my little fit?”

Kalin blushed and was about to say something, but a fierce growl sounded behind them. “Oh, shit…” Cade cursed as they hasted in the direction of the sound.

They were met with the terrible sight of Lucien fighting his best friends and family. To Kalin’s horror, they were just in time to see Zeli’s body fly somewhere to Lucien’s left. He landed with a nauseating crack and Kalin turned, afraid to look. Zeli’s arm and left wing were in an awkward position and his head was lolled to the side. He looked like a broken doll. Oh, lights above… If Zeli was dead…

It was the red head who’d had the piece of cloth they’d put so much hope into. If he was in such a state, it meant that Lucien was beyond help. I’m sorry, Gabriel! He mentally apologized to his lost brother for failing him. There was no way out: this creature among them was not Lucien!

Cade stopped him with a strong hand on his shoulder. After a second, Kalin realized why. The creature had stopped glaring hatefully at them and instead he was looking at his hands. He was holding… the black shirt!

The creature buried his disfigured in the shirt and inhaled. The roar that followed was pure anguish, raw pain, so loud that Kalin was sure all the windows in the royal palace broke – if there had been any left, of course. But when the roar ended, the creature collapsed on the floor, sobbing, the horns receding, the tail disappearing as if by magic, the spikes in his wings retracting. Zeli had done it!

Cade rushed to the side of his sobbing brother, while Kalin ran to Zeli. Oh, thank the light… He wasn’t dead. But the hit he’d taken to his chest hissed, as if acid was burning him and the Kalin guessed it was very likely his backbone was broken. Shit… He wasn’t a healer like Gabriel, and he was still tired from earlier in the day, but he had to try something. Luckily, he saw another Alarian nearby, Galer’s mate, Vanon. The purple-haired prince gestured desperately in his direction, calling out to the Alarian, “Vanon, here, quickly!”

The Alarian registered the situation in a swift and efficient manner. “Damn, he’s a mess…”

Kalin nodded, “I nearly exhausted myself earlier with my brother and I never was a truly adept healer. Can you help?”

The soldier sighed. “We can try… Although… light above…”

Kalin united his energies with those of the soldier. He gave everything he had left, the little bit of strenght that had recovered in the time from Orin’s near spontaneous abortion. Yes, Zeli was a mess… Whatever he’d done, he’d made the creature angry, because he had terrible internal wounds. The worse of it was the cerebral bleeding – Kalin hoped they weren’t too late to heal that.

Together they focused first on the worst of the injuries, healing the cerebral damage as quickly as possible. As they passed to the other organs damaged, Kalin felt himself being slowly drained. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself further, working on the broken spine of his brother in law.

The purple-haired Alarian registered Zeli’s body starting to cooperate with them before his own stopped and he blacked out.

Holding his sobbing brother to his chest, Cade looked around to see where Kalin had gone. He guessed his purple haired beauty had run to help Zeli. A chill passed through him as he noticed Kalin’s body, fallen at Zeli’s side. Another Alarian was there and Zeli was bathed in healing light, flowing from the soldier like water.

Cade covered Lucien’s face, not wanting his brother to see what he’d done in his madness. He looked around desperately for someone, anyone that could look out for his brother while he checked on his love.

The golden blonde decided that there was no one else that could take care of Lucien right now. Their sires were excluded from the start and any one else would be unable to help. He took Lucien in his arms and hasted in Zeli’s direction.

Xander was at Kalin’s side, checking his pulse. “He’s fine, Cade. I think he’s just exhausted.” The demon soldier said.

Cade nodded, thankful for the other demon’s presence. Xander had proven himself an invaluable aid. The demon couldn’t help but wonder if the soldier didn’t have deeper feelings for Lucien than he’d let on. If that was the case… But no, he’d think about that later. They’d find Gabriel. They just had to.

The evidence of this necessity was right in his arms. His little brother, crying… Demons didn’t cry… The only time he remembered crying was when Cain had died. He’d been so terribly furious, in such agony… He couldn’t imagine what Lucien felt now: his son and his mate, both lost, in a second, at the hand of his own parent.

Cade knew that there was a high chance that, even if they did find Gabriel, baby Cain would probably be gone. He wasn’t certain exactly where his sires had sent Gabriel, but he did know that dimensional traveling had detrimental effects on pregnancies in general. And demon pregnancies were so fragile…

The golden blonde shook himself. He needed to concentrate. With Kalin and Zeli out, he was the only one that could plan a course of action. Gently, he passed Lucien to Xander, leaning down to check on his mate. Kalin seemed unhurt, but Cade couldn’t help a feeling of intranquility and fear at his stillness. The golden-blonde decided on consulting Orin on this, or perhaps some of the other Alarians. He took Kalin in his arms and directed his attention towards Zeli and the Alarian at his side.

“How is he?” He asked the soldier.

The soldier – Cade couldn’t remember his name right now – rubbed his eyes, obviously tired as well, “Well, better than he originally was, anyway. We took care of most of the damage. He’ll probably heal just fine.”

The blonde demon arched a brow, “Probably?”

The Alarian swallowed, “Yes… well, there was an issue of cerebral damage…”

This snapped Lucien out of his sobbing fit, “Cerebral damage? What? Who?”

Looking down, the platinum blonde noticed Zeli’s still body. “Oh… fires of Kaldor, what have I done?” He whispered, eyes wide in horror.

Cade rushed to Lucien’s side. Sustaining Kalin with one arm and his wings, he cupped Lucien’s face. “Hey, now! Little brother… It wasn’t you, doing all those things… And Zeli will be fine!”

“But he said…”

The Alarian interjected, “There’s a very slim possibility, but most likely his demon genes have already taken care of what we didn’t get to heal.”

Cade hoped that would be enough for Lucien. It scared him, to see his brother so vulnerable, looking so lost, so empty. “Cade…” Lucien whispered. “They’re gone… My baby… my son, they’re gone…”

Cade took a deep breath, “We’ll find them, little brother! Have faith, we’ll find them!”

And Cade knew even as he said this, that if he didn’t find Gabriel, Lucien would go over the edge again and there would be no going back. He’d be forced to kill his own brother.