“Give it a stab,” He tore off his dark coat, revealing his exposed ribs.

My back fell into the wall, causing my hand to nearly drop the dagger it desperately held.

“Just try it,” he slowly approached me. “Am I sensing fear within your heart?” He clenched my wrists tightly between his icy fingers. “Do you even know where to do it?” His blackened eyes glistened in the moonlight. The beast leaned into me; he was reeking of the blood which dribbled down his chin. With my hand he thrust the blade upwards underneath his ribcage. “There,” he grunted before his lips curled into a smile, enjoying the pain, “right behind the bones so your target can’t flee.” With a sharp inhale, he lifted himself from the weapon. “Now you’ll know what to do when we run our little ‘errands’.”

I looked down to the hand which had committed the sin, and saw it was drenched in a thick, black sludge. I dropped the knife to the floor in disgust.

He swept his chest of the sticky substance which had begun to ooze from his wound with his hand.

“I will never follow your will,” I gritted my teeth.

“Oh, you will fulfill my bidding, Elyse. We have a deal,” he paused to lick the tip of his index finger, “or have you already forgotten?”

“You won’t permit me forget the debt I owe you.” His eyes followed me as I walked from him and stepped to the glass terrace doors of the unfamiliar room. “Why must you prey upon souls at their most vulnerable moment of death?”

“The weak must be plucked from society lest they initiate the destruction of the living world. If they were left to run amuck—well, you would not be able to comprehend the implications of that neglect, yet.” I could hear his boots turn on the rough hardwood floor to face my turned back, “Even still, proposing a contract with you would have been a risk considering your opinion of my work, but in your final moments you were so determined to save your life giver before yourself that I knew you could not refuse my offer. Tell me, my prize; was it worth it, to save her life though she never loved you?”

My eyes were brimming with hatred as they gazed out over the moonlit village beneath the manor, ignoring his question.

“You may see freedom out there, Elyse,” he stepped closer to me, “but there is a false hope for those outside of our covenant, for those in the land of the living. They tread this dense earth carrying a heavy rucksack of emotion and feeling atop their flimsy, penetrable bodies. Those humans are nothing but sticky rubbish which has missed the wastebasket altogether, only capable of remaining wedged between your fingertips. They mistakenly believe they are free willed to make their own decisions, but have no indication of it.”

Hesitant, I glanced back at Lucifer through the corner of my eyes and asked what he was implying.

He rose up beside me and placed his arm around my shoulder, “Don’t you see? We are the ones who control their lives, Elyse. We of the covenant pull the strings controlling their minds, their actions, and their knowledge. Then, when it is time, we end their existence.”

I looked down to the citizens, so unaware, so oblivious to the fallen angel and I, to exchange we were sharing.

“Think of the power, Elyse,” his words seeped into my ear, “the ability to harm those who hurt you.”

My head fell into a whirlwind of notion: the village, those naive people, the power.

I looked behind my shoulder at Lucifer, whose eyes were gleaming in anticipation, and wiped the drying blood from his chin.

“Where do we begin?” I asked, licking the blood from my fingertips.