Chapter Two



As Stanton watched them run away, he knew that they would be afraid, but strangely drawn to him. He knew that he had just utterly destroyed three human lives. And he didn't care.

As he walked down the alleyway he was delerious with happiness. He was filled with their hope, it was pounding through his veins. Right then he was sure that everything would be all right. He would go to the Atrox and say that Serena was all he wanted in life. And since he was the Prince of Darkness, and therefore favored, the Atrox would simply let him go. He would run back to Serena, take her in his arms and never let her go. They would live happily like normal people and then when she turned seventeen...

Their hope picked that moment to just leave his body. It was such a completely horrible feeling. It was like he was nauseous and had a headache and a severe case of depression all at the same time. No, it was worse than that. It was like he had just departed from his soul. God, he hated this feeling. If the Atrox had never touched his mind and left it untainted he would never, ever do that again. But it hadn't, and he knew that he would do it again and again, because a person with no hope is a person with no joy in life, and that one moment of hope was what kept him going, it was what kept him alive.

And he also knew he would never have that with Serena. They would never lead normal and happy lives. And even if the Atrox would let him go to her it wouldn't matter, because when she turned seventeen it wouldn't matter anymore. He would only have her for a year, and to an immortal, that's like just a fraction of a second. He would only have her for that long because Serena was a Daughter of the Moon.

You see, when the Atrox came to devour all hope from Earth Selene, the moon goddess, took pity on humans and sent her daughters to protect them, four at a time. They each had a special gift (Serena's was reading minds) they were sworn to use it to fight against the Atrox. But when they were seventeen they had to make a choice: to leave Earth and go on to a higher state which no one really knew what it was, or to have her power taken from her, and the memory of all that had happened to her. Either way he would lose her.

Last year he and Serena had fallen in...fallen for each other. She and the other daughters, Catty, Vanessa, and Jimena, had found a way to make him normal again, to make him not a follower. But when Serena had been in danger of her life, he swore his back to the Atrox to save her, making him the Prince of Darkness.

Now he yearned for her every day. He never felt whole. He wouldn't have even felt whole if he'd had his hope back because he needed her like he needed air. And he couldn't go near her. There was no point. As a Follower (a servant of the Atrox) and especially as a member of the inner circle and the Prince of Darkness he was sworn to kill her. And being close to her filled him with a thirst for blood. He needed her to die when he was near her. This frightened him so much that he didn't think he would be able to control himself while he was close to her, so he didn't get close to her. It hurt Stanton too much to think about her so he went to the only place he could go where he didn't have to think about her. The only place where he didn't have to think of her long ebony hair billowing in the wind. Those exquisite lips that smiled just for him showing her dazzlingly pearly teeth in the moonlight. The look of determination and stubbornness in those huge beautiful brown eyes. He went to the only place he didn't have to think about that and the fact that he could never have it. He went to his master.

Before he had been walking only because he was filled to the brim with hope and had been looking up at the wonderful almost-dark-moon (the full moon was where the daughters got their power) and rejoicing. Now, all he could see were the oil stained streets and the stinking garbage bins and the backs of houses of people who would always be richer than him. So he went to the shadows.

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"Master, I have recruited three more to our number," said Stanton. The voice of the huge mass of swirling shadow spoke to him as clear as if it shouted.

STANTON YOUR POWERS OF PERSUASION ARE SLIPPING, it said. ONE OF OUR NEWEST INITIATES TO THE INNER CIRCLE BROUGHT IN FIVE TODAY.

"Master, it has been a long day," he said, knowing that if he displeased the Atrox itself he would be dead within the hour. "I initialized a team to spy on daughters; to find out their weaknesses. To find some worthy of that task takes time and a great amount of persuasion."

VERY WELL. BUT IF I DON'T SEE ANY IMPROVEMENT YOU WILL WISH I HAD.

"Yes, indeed, Master. But, as to the matter of the Daughter Serena." Even here he couldn't totally keep his mind off of her. "She is the key. We shouldn't kill her, should we? I mean, she IS the one person who could turn the tide in our favor." And I don't want her to die, he thought.

The key was one Daughter every century who could make either side win if she chose and found how. Serena was the key. They had converted her once, but Stanton and Serena's friends had saved her. Stanton had done it in such a way as to make the Atrox think he was trying to claim her for his own prize to turn to the dark when he was saving her.

STANTON, YOU KNOW VERY WELL THAT WE HAVE TRIED TO USE HER ONCE, AND FAILED. I AM SORRY THAT THIS ONE MISSION OF YOURS WENT WRONG. BUT YOU ALSO KNOW THAT AS THE KEY SHE CAN ALSO HAND THE WINNING SIDE TO SELENE AND WE CAN'T HAVE THAT.

"No, Master. I understand. I only wished to serve you more greatly." Stanton said this knowing that the Atrox would feel complimented. The Atrox had a huge amount of ego.

GOOD. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND. WHO KNEW WHEN WE STOLE TO STOP YOUR FATHER YOU WOULD BECOME SUCH AN ASSET?