Chapter 13: The Wings of Sin

Chapter 13 The Wings of Sin

Valenfort’s sky was aflame.

A gigantic circle spun slowly among the black clouds, radiating a white light that scorched the air itself. Ash fell like snow; each flake was residue of blood, of soul.

From afar, alarms shrieked across the city. Automated defenses had been neutralized. Holy radiation spread, forcing both vampires and humans with mixed bloodlines to collapse.

On the roof of a ruined building, Evelyn Cross stood motionless, wind whipping blood and ash around her. In her arms, Lucien Draven lay motionless, his breath a thin thread, the gold in his eyes nearly extinguished.

“Lucien… open your eyes…” she whispered, voice trembling.

No answer came. Only the sky thundered, as if God Himself had descended.

A strange voice rang inside her head, not Lucien’s, but Genesis.

“You think you can defy the will of blood, Evelyn?”

“You cannot stop Seraphim. Nor can I stop you from becoming me.”

Evelyn gritted her teeth, black blood began to seep from the veins at her neck and along her arms.

“Shut up… I am not you.”

“Are you sure? When you used blood to save him… you accepted the sins of your ancestors.”

Genesis laughed, the sound echoing from the depths of the abyss.

“Primal blood does not choose the weak. It chooses those willing to sacrifice everything.”

---

Crimson Pact temporary base in the southern bunker.

Adrian burst into the control room, shouting over the alarms: “Seraphim is out of control! Power levels are increasing exponentially!”

Kael slammed his hand on the table. “Impossible! Even if he’s gone mad, Alaric wouldn’t dare push Seraphim into Phase Two!”

Selene, pale, stared at the screen.

“He isn’t mad. He meant to do this. Seraphim isn’t just a pureblood eradication weapon… it’s a gate.”

“A gate?” Adrian froze.

“A gate to the Origin Blood Source, the thing both Genesis and the Blood King feared.”

No one spoke. The room sank into an icy silence.

---

At Seraphim’s control chamber, deep beneath Valenfort.

Alaric stood amid the storm of light, his body radiating a holy aura. Dark red veins marked his neck signs of blood corruption.

A weak female voice called from behind the machine: “Sir Alaric… your skin… it’s changing.”

He turned, eyes cold as steel.

“You don’t understand. Long before humans knew of blood, God fashioned the Gatekeeper one who would bear sin for mankind. And I…” he raised his hand, blood and light merging, “…am its vessel.”

His skin cracked; silver‑laced bone spines sprouted, forming blazing white wings.

“I am Seraphim.”

Above, the holy circle widened, and from its center a pair of colossal wings of light unfurled, covering half the city.

---

Back with Evelyn.

The ground shook. A beam of energy pierced the clouds and struck where she stood. Evelyn was hurled back, clutching Lucien to her chest.

“Evelyn Cross.”

Alaric’s voice boomed across the skypart angel, part demon.

“You are humanity’s final mistake. The black blood in you is your ancestors’ curse. Die with it.”

Light from Seraphim lashed down. But this time, Evelyn’s black blood did not recede. She screamed, eyes flaring red, hair whipping in wind and blood.

“If blood is sin…” she declared, voice ringing, “…then I will use this sin to save them.”

Her body burned not with fire, but with blood and memories.

Images flooded in: her mother, once a hunter; Lucien, the man she had sworn to kill; the fallen vampire souls.

A burst of black-red light erupted. Two pairs of bloodied wings unfurled on her back, neither pure like an angel nor dark like a demon.

“The primal blood has awakened,” Genesis whispered in her head; the voice no longer mocking but almost afraid.

Evelyn opened her eyes. Within them two colors intertwined the red of vampire blood, the black of Genesis, and the pale silver of humanity.

“Alaric Graves… you forgot one thing,” she said, voice cold as ice. “Blood does not need cleansing. It needs acceptance.”

---

In the sky the confrontation of winged beings.

Evelyn rose into the blood‑red heavens. Below, Valenfort burned. Above, Alaric Seraphim spread wings of flame and rained destructive beams.

Light and blood collided, exploding into thousands of shards. Evelyn struck Alaric’s plasma blade aside and counterattacked; her blood rose into black whips that coiled and lashed at his wings.

“You don’t understand,” Alaric roared, voice thunderous. “Your blood is a disgrace to both worlds!”

“Perhaps.” Evelyn replied, a chilling smile on her lips, “But it is that disgrace that keeps me alive.”

She swung hard; her blood‑wings became hundreds of blades that cut through the holy light. Alaric screamed as white blood poured from his wounds like scorched milk.

Then he laughed.

“You think you can kill me? I am no longer human. I am Seraphim’s will.”

Alaric’s body detonated into a vast halo of light, swallowing the sky. Evelyn was thrown back, her blood‑wings shredded, and she plummeted.

---

As she fell, she saw Lucienstill therehis blood intermingled with hers, dimly glowing.

Genesis whispered again: “If you wish to save him… let me merge with you. My blood will make you strong enough to face Seraphim.”

“And then what? Will I become you?”

“No. You will become… yourself.”

Evelyn closed her eyes. In the darkness she heard Lucien’s heart beat once more and then stop. She bit her lip, let her blood flow into his mouth, and murmured:

“If destiny makes me a demon… then I will be a demon with a human heart.”

Light exploded. Black blood and pureblood united, rising into a red storm.

---

When the dust cleared…

A new silhouette hung in the sky. Evelyn now bearing wings woven of blood and light stood there, eyes no longer entirely human.

Alaric faltered. “You… cannot.”

Evelyn opened her mouth; her voice rang like a chorus of a thousand souls: “You wanted to be God’s hand? I… will be Hell’s claw.”

She raised her hand; blood and light braided together into a sacred spear of red and black, and hurled it into Alaric’s heart.

The sky tore with the impact.

Seraphim’s light shattered; the holy circle cracked to dust.

Valenfort was freed, but the sky remained stained red.

---

Lucien opened his eyes, pupils pale gold. Evelyn collapsed into his arms, giving a faint, exhausted smile.

“You’re awake…”

"Lucien looked at her, his voice hoarse.

“You just saved the city… with the very blood they wanted to destroy.”

“Saved?” she laughed weakly. “Or merely delayed hell a little longer?”

In the distance, sirens wailed. Surviving Hunter soldiers were advancing. Lucien squeezed her hand.

“Valenfort has changed, Evelyn. The question is… do you still want to protect it?”

Evelyn lifted her head to the blood‑filled sky.

“No. Now I will redefine it.”