The Fallen

Tenshi nodded, "Yeah, I remember that from class."

"They will tell you also that the king was a werewolf and the knight was a vampire. The vampires changed the history to make themselves the heroes. The "ruthless" king wasn't a king but an alpha to his people, the animal species. He had established peace with all the nations. But he was too kind for his own good. He offered land to a nomadic people, the demons. They never had a permanent home, so he pity them and gave them homes."

Seiji looked at his pup to see if he was following along. "So the werewolf was kind enough to allow demons to stay in the city, along with the animal species "

Seiji nodded and continued his story. "It was a mistake, the demons would often steal and kill the citizens. Meanwhile the demons had already attacked neighboring towns belonging to the other nations. Their leader was a vampire named Alexander. He made sure that everyone fought each other. But he missed one thing, the angels. They were allies with the animals and they had seen everything the demons had done. They fought side by side but there were far more demons and eventually they surrendered. It didn't stop there though."

"If the wolves and angels didn't pledge loyalty to Alexander, they would be killed. The vampire killed nearly all the wolves just to make his point clear. The angels barely escaped the demons grasp, but their leader stayed behind. He was friends with the wolf leader. Alexander killed him first and drank his blood dry, thus gaining more power. Then he killed the wolf king. Alexander told the other kingdoms that it was the wolf that started the war, whether they believed him or not they stopped fighting."

"And that's why the city is called Hell's Keep, too? Because of the demons?"

"Yes, pup. After that, Alexander ruled for centuries. You met him the other day." He heard Tenshi's heart beat faster.

"Wow..." Tenshi fell silent. "So if their rules are absolute and you broke the rules, what happens to us and Saki?"

Seiji sighed heavily. "We have to leave. Leave Hell's Keep and never come back." His wolf ears twitched. "Sounds like Saki's back. She went out to get supplies we needed." He stood and left the room.

Tenshi pushed out of bed, his legs felt a little shaky as he made his way out to the bathroom. He rested against the sink counter. In the mirror he was surprised at his reflection, his hair was all over the place and light circles around his eyes. Tenshi climbed into the shower and scrubbed himself clean. He noticed his wings did feel stiff, maybe since he hasn't used them in so long. Slowly, white wings grew from the lines on his back. He kept his back to the shower, the warm spray of water washed over his snowy feathers.

Satisfied, he dried off with a fluffy towel and begun to dress. He heard the bathroom door open and Seiji stepped in. He was grinning, he saw Tenshi was only in a pair of green under ware. He wrapped his arms around Tenshi, a soft growl rumbled in his chest, he kissed his neck and sucked the base of his throat. Tenshi's pulse quickened, he exposed his neck to Seiji, and part of him wanted Seiji to mark him then and there. But Seiji pulled back and kissed Tenshi's lips.

Tenshi felt frustrated. He frowned at Seiji. "Why won't you mark me?"

Seiji looked surprised. "Where's this coming from?"

"You didn't mark me before the festival. You said that it would be risky to take me while I was not marked, and look what happened."

Seiji's face hardened and softened again, in a soft voice he replied, "Angel, don't think that way. I didn't know Dominic would do that. I thought I could have protected you." He drew a deep breath. "I didn't mark you because I wanted you to enjoy the festival, and not be withering in pain for perhaps weeks."

Tenshi looked confused, so Seiji continued. "When wolves mark their mates it leaves a mark, showing that you belong to them. Our bites, in that state, carry some of our DNA into our mates. Which could do nothing to another wolf, but could alter your DNA. Either way the process is painful it could last from a few hours to weeks, depending on how your body reacts."

Tenshi nodded, "I understand now." His looked watery. "I'm sorry for accusing you like that." He wrapped his arms around Seiji's neck and kissed his jaw. He noticed something on Seiji's neck. It was an angry red, looking scar. "Where did this come from?" He lightly touched the scar.

"Oh, that. It happened last night, Isaac held a knife to me. I kind of was beating Dominic to death, and he puts a silver knife to my neck, threatening to kill me." He shrugged his shoulders. "Werewolves are allergic to silver, it's a weakness of ours."

Tenshi kissed Seiji, "I'll remember that." He finished getting dresses and retracted his wings.

That evening, Seiji and Tenshi joined Saki for dinner. Saki prepared a lovely spread of delicious food and all of their favorites and a bottle of wine. Tenshi was a bit confused by all this, it was just an ordinary day. "Aren't we too young for wine?"

Seiji raised an eyebrow, "There's no law like that here. The alcohol burns out of our bodies before we can absorb it, I don't know about angels though. C'est la vie." He raised his glass and tapped it against Saki's and Tenshi's glasses.

"We'll be leaving at dawn tomorrow." Saki announced. "Everything is ready to go, and two others are joining us."

Tenshi only stared at his plate. He felt awful that they had to move because of him. How would things be different if Seiji never found him?