Demon Blood

woman who wore wings of white feathers. They watched, and as the years passed, the children understood what their father had become.
    The girl shielded her brother from their father when she could, and was relieved when the boy’s schooling took him from their home. Though the girl prayed for a similar escape through a good marriage, no happy fate awaited her; eager to form an alliance with a noble family, the demon arranged her wedding to an aged man known for his perversity. The girl fled and found sanctuary in an abbey whose prioress had once been a friend of her mother’s, and who pitied her. The girl’s father did not pursue her, and she realized that although he had power enough to kill an angel, he dared not cross the Church.
    Five years passed. Protected and cloistered, the girl grew into a woman and took her solemn vows. Her brother rarely visited, but they corresponded often, and his missives brought her great joy. Over time, however, his infrequent journeys to the abbey stopped altogether. Dark and melancholy sentiments filled his letters, until they, too, stopped. She still wrote to him daily, begging him to visit her again. Five more years passed before he did, and he was in the company of her father.
    They came at night. Despite the hour, she spoke with them in the convent parlor, through the grating that separated the cloister from the outside world. Even obscured by the grating, however, she could see the changes in her brother: his pale appearance, the hunger in his gaze, the teeth that would rival a wolf’s—but the greatest alteration was his manner, which had become cold and cruel. He looked upon her with disdain, and she could see no love in him. Alarmed, she began to retreat, but with a few words, her father halted her escape. He told her the abbey offered no protection from her brother and offered her a terrible choice: Either she would die by her brother’s hand, or all of her sisters would.
    Believing that her brother would stay his hand at the ultimate moment, she chose her own death. Though no longer a girl, she could not help but remember the love she and her brother shared when they had been young, and how they had protected each other. He’d been corrupted by her father, his soul twisted, but she could not believe her brother would truly kill her.
    She was wrong. He used his fangs to tear open her throat. As her lifeblood poured onto the floor, she watched her brother walk away from the abbey, leaving her for dead. She heard her father laughing.
    He did not laugh long. Just as he had once slain an angel, another appeared in a flare of white light and struck the demon’s head from his shoulders. The angel lifted her from where she lay dying, told her he was named Michael, and he, too, offered her a choice: to become as he was, a protector who guarded humans against demons; or to die, and face what awaited her in the afterlife. She chose to live, was transformed and taken to Caelum, a shining realm of light and beauty. There, she learned they were not angels, but Guardians. She heard their story, and years later, she would tell it to children whom she called her own:
    The Story of the Guardians
    Many years ago, when the universe was old but the world was still new, Lucifer the Morningstar led his angels in a rebellion against Heaven. The rebels battled the seraphim, a small order of warrior angels loyal to Heaven, and they rent the skies with their war. But even as the rebels fought the seraphim, they struggled against one another for their place beneath Lucifer, and it was not long before duplicity and betrayal weakened the rebels’ ranks. Though vastly outnumbered, the seraphim had but one purpose—to protect Heaven—and with their combined might, they crushed the rebels.
    As their punishment, the rebel angels were transformed into demons. Angels were created of energy and light, and although they could assume the appearance of flesh, it was only an illusion; demons were stripped of their light and bound to flesh. They were turned away from Heaven and tossed into Hell, where they dwelled in darkness.
    Some angels, uncertain which side to take in the war, hid in the dark corners of the universe until the victor became apparent. They emerged, swearing fealty to Heaven, but they were too late: The weakness of their faith and their hearts had been revealed. These angels were bound more closely to their flesh than demons, cursed with a deep hunger for blood and a need for sleep.