Chapter 25

Nikola was finally let out of the bedroom and back into the cave. He suddenly felt very afraid for some reason. He looked to Satan, who was now a long haired albino with red eyes, a scar across the face and loose clothes, and the demon pointed behind him. He turned around and found Haqim sitting there on the ground.

 Lightning fast the Arab was on his feet and a Damascus steel sword was in his hands. Nikola tried to send him back with telekinesis but the Arab was moving and unsheathing the sword. As soon as he did so he was behind Nikola and sheeting it back as Satan gave a string of loud cursing behind them.

Now why had he stopped attacking? Nikola felt something wet on his neck and he reached out a hand to feel what it was. His fingers came out bloody and Nikola gave an “Oh” before falling to the ground.

Nikola expected to see himself on the side like before but instead he was back before his own apartment. He took out his phone from his pocket and snapped a picture of himself. His hair was the same dark shade it was before he was reborn. And his nose wasn’t as aristocratic either.

A pain shot through his head and he fell down on the ground. A volcano was erupting as he laughed and Dimitri was crawling towards Satan, the Satan he had first seen in his mind. Nikola was slowed by the volcanic ash but it didn’t hurt at all.

Ghosts were screaming at him and they had Hell and Heaven written on their foreheads. He spread his wings and began to sort them until Dimitri, more powerful than he had ever been, came up to him and put Archangel Uriel’s sword through his chest. Where had he known it was Archangel Uriel’s from?

Because he is dead. You killed him.

A storm was brewing. A tornado picked up the flames from the burning forests and the few survivors that were left stood no chance. Kine and kindred alike burned as he kept hacking Caine to pieces. It wasn’t enough. He heard a giant explosion and looked to see that magma was bubbling from the ground and ash was covering the heavens. Where was he?

Yellowstone. Life was extinguished after that.

Lightning was roaring in the heavens as he tried to battle Caine and Dimitri at the same time. The ocean was rising beneath his feet and he tried to fly higher on Uriel’s stolen wings but lightning struck him and he fell down into the salty waters bellow. He cursed God as his head was being held underwater by a furious Dimitri.

Bad habit of yours. It’s why we keep repeating this darn timeline.

A tsunami crashed into him as he was throwing spears made out of light at the coastal town bellow. No one survived.  He was struck by lightning as he was trying to kill Yima, Dimitri was saying something about irony as Nikola was laid next to Samyaza and drained from his blood.

 Next he was in a cage surrounded by hellfire. He kept lashing out until the demons stopped coming to gawk at his wings. He tore them out himself after the first century. He wanted to be human again. Why had he done what he did?

That is partly my fault. But how could I have known you were such a picture perfect Christian the first time around that fucking Uriel became your guard dog?

Nikola kept seeing destruction that he had wrought and his punishments. Time and time again he tried to hunt Dimitri down without caring for who he hurt. Why had he hated Dimitri so much?

I killed your parents. Hunted down anyone you would befriend and made sure you always came too late to save them but not late enough to miss hearing their final words. I was so obsessed that you were the one that got away that I drove you insane. Sorry not sorry, Niki.

Nikola clutched his head as pictures kept flooding his brain. For how long had this been going on?

Billions of years! And I can’t stand it anymore, morsel! Open the fucking door so we can talk already. I can’t do it for you but I am waiting inside. Just like each and every fucking time.

Nikola growled as emotions flooded him next. Hatred, anger, fear, despair…And it was all Dimitri’s fault! He had been hunted so badly by the vampire that an Archangel had taken pity on him. Let himself be killed by him so that Nikola can defend himself.

 He was going to repaint his old apartment’s walls with Dimitri’s brains. And then he would go to the nearest church and burn it to the ground because God hadn’t lifted a finger to defend Uriel. And then this shithole of a town will…

Oi, psychopath! When will you finally get it that you can’t keep pissing against the wind? Your boy toy feathered fuck is gone and not even a part of the rebirth cycle. Your anger won’t achieve anything but just put you back before this door. Now open it or I will get mad, you feathered fuck.

Nikola tore the door off it’s hinges and entered the apartment. He threw it to the side and walked in. Dimitri was on the couch reading about pastries just like he had done before. Nikola tried to run up to him to pummel him into Oblivion but chains shot from the floor and wrapped themselves around him. The door flew back into place, righted itself, and with a gentle click it was locked. Dimitri got up and tugged at his chains until he managed to drag Nikola to the couch. He sat by him and gave a sigh.

“Now where do I start? You have the bare minimum of your memories and powers back, but they will all come back to you in time. I planned for you to only get your memories back during your last run since God granted you mercy and let you have a rebirth but then Haqim just had to lop your head off. Now everything you accumulated will be restored to you. Darn it but this is such a mess. ”

Nikola struggled against the chains and a link snapped loudly. Dimitri gave a sigh and fixed it. Nikola gave him an angry growl. The memories of his past life weren’t enough to wash away eons of hatred. Dimitri had ruined his first and very calm life and he had ruined his death afterwards with his stupid time manipulations. He was going to shove the stupid chains down the vampire/demon’s gullet.

“Behaving like a beast now, are we? I have forgotten how much you needed angry management classes because of our last life. I was sick and tired of repeating the same shit every few years and getting my ass kicked when you eventually remembered so I did something different. Instead of letting you run off to the police I had you open the door from the start. Then I played with you and you were a great toy, morsel. I didn’t get tired of you at all. But even in the last life you started shit. Preventing Gehenna! Gehenna is supposed to happen in order for the natural order of things to be restored, you proud owner of a single brain cell. Not everyone deserves to live. But you remembered that now, right?”

Nikola stopped struggling in his chains. His last life where Dimitri had loved him and he had loved him back flashed before his eyes. His last life where he was domesticated and kept weak. His last life where he had been granted mercy for a change. He calmed down and began to think.

He didn’t like the past hims bar the last of his…reincarnations. He was insane in them and everyone was fighting against him. He didn’t want to go through this again. He didn’t want to be the reason for all the death and destruction.

 Dimitri won’t leave him. But Nikola knew he was powerful now. Powerful enough to stand his own ground and achieve his goals. And of all the goals he had from all of these billions of years his last one was the only one to his liking. Dimitri was wrong. Everyone deserved to live. Even vampires. He stared at Dimitri and began.

“Gehenna is…”

“Ah, no! You are going to Hell with me so you won’t screw things up. Who else do you have bar me, morsel? Malkav and Vasilisa don’t know you and are doing fine. Ivan is probably preparing to jump off a plane with a parachute which I will make sure won’t malfunction. And Matthew is never going to go to that darn rock festival if I can help it. Your second mother is going to be happy with her real son and your second father while Sadik keeps doing what he does best, namely killing. Everything ties into a bow and the two of us live happily ever after. And if you die and we find ourselves here again I will drag your ass back to Hell with me again. And again and again until whatever is that I did after my diablerie on the Devil was successful wears off.”

Nikola suddenly felt very tired. He didn’t have it in him to be angry. But he still needed a purpose in life. He wasn’t like Dimitri to just bow his head and wait out their punishment. And Dimitri would hate him for it. He just knew it. With sad eyes he tried to plead with Dimitri again.

“Dimitri, love, be realistic. You couldn’t have done this by yourself. And if you haven’t done it then God did. In recent years a message for the apocalypse pops up every day with a new date. It’s Gehenna, I just know it. It is nearing and if we don’t stop it we will run out of time and then nothing will be left. Not even us. You gave me back my memories and stole my soul for a reason. You must feel it too.”

Dimitri got angry and stood up. He went to the kitchen area and brought a scarlet sorbet back with him. He scooped some of it and brought the spoon to Nikola’s mouth. Nikola ate it and found it was a blood sorbet. He wondered why he wasn’t gagging but continued to allow to be fed.

“This is not what you had for me the first time we met, Dimitri. You are changing things too much. What if you…”

Dimitri exhaled and his voice changed back to it’s normal self.

“You said it yourself, we are doomed. So why not live it up? You and the Devil walking hand in hand and pranking the world before it’s end. Because that is what I am now. Not that I wasn’t an evil lying bastard during your first life. But now…I lied to you about your immortality. If you spend enough time here before Gehenna you can grow old unless you are embraced. And I don’t want to see you with fangs, Niki. You will grow even more powerful now since you will ask Malkav to embrace you because God forbid you are lower than fourth generation. And then I will become jealous of your power and what you have with a fellow angel and will muck it up for you. When I gouged out your eye I promised myself it would be the last time I hurt you. But I…”

Nikola put himself in Dimitri’s lap and just let himself be held. He had hated Dimitri so much for so long. But he had loved him for a little while too. But he also loved Malkav and Vasilisa and he wanted to have his foursome back. And it simply wouldn’t be complete without Dimitri.

“It’s ok, Dimitri. I understand. Just take us back to Hell.”

Dimitri snapped his fingers and they were back in the bedroom. Lucifer was sprawled on the bed sleeping. The angel woke up and blinked groggily at them. Then he pointed an accusing finger at Nikola.

“Satan, dear, who is he? And why can I feel my brother Uriel’s power in him?”

Dimitri led Nikola to the bed and put him next to the angel. Lucifer sprang out of it as if burned.

“Lucy, sweetheart, I haven’t been honest with you. You see the old horny that you were with is long dead. I am a vampire by the name of Dimitri and this is my enemy turned wife Nikola. You can feel Uriel on him since Niki here ate your brother’s heart and soul. And no, Uriel is not just sleeping. So you might want to stop talking to his corpse. It’s disturbing.”

Lucifer tried to punch Nikola but Dimitri stopped him. The angel had tears in his eyes and Nikola felt like the dead beat that he was at the sight of them. He just knew that he would feel even worse when he remembered why he had killed Uriel. Lucifer walked on shaky legs towards the door and opened it. Then he waited by it.

“Well? Aren’t you going to take him to see my brother? To see what he did to the one among us that had always compassion for his kind?”

Dimitri nodded his head and pulled Nikola out of the bed. He wrapped a hand around his wife’s waist and led him after a sobbing Lucifer. Hell was strange, to say the least. It was dark and desolate but wasn’t filled with flames as Nikola was thought at church. They kept walking until they reached a forest with a clearing filled with flowers. At the center lay a man with long black hair and a pale complexion. He looked a little like Malkav. Nikola wondered if all angels bar Lucifer looked the same.

Lucifer went and knelled next to his brother and took his hand in his own. Nikola did the same from the other side. As he was staring at the lifeless body pictured began to flood his mind again.

After he had ran off to the police the first time he had went to church because he thought that it was the safest place for him. Dimitri had found him there and sat next to him grinning to himself as Nikola stared at the stained glass behind the alter.

A man, Uriel, wearing a suit, had walked into the church and sat on his other side. He looked pained but Nikola hadn’t noticed. Dimitri had taken one look at the angel and walked away as fast as he could without alerting Nikola. Uriel had placed a hand on Nikola and he remembered feeling the chronic pain in his knees disappearing at that. He was so lanky in the first life. Probably haven’t exercised at all. Uriel smiled at him and spoke to him.

“It is safe to go home now. Would you like me to walk you back?”

Nikola hadn’t known why at the time but he agreed. He didn’t ask questions when Uriel led the way back.  Uriel stayed to guard him that night. And he stayed with him for months afterwards. It had been just like with Dimitri except Uriel had been kind and gentle and understanding.

But Dimitri had found Nikola one day after work and had drank him dry. Nikola had barely made it home. He had known on some level that his salvation won’t be at the hospital but given to him by Uriel. And when he returned the angel saw the word Heaven on his forehead and wept. Nikola hadn’t made it out of the parking lot where Dimitri had left him, in truth. He was a ghost. But he had begged to be brought back to life, for Uriel had long since told him what he was.

“It will bring forth the end of times, my love. Heaven is a good place for you. I will be there with you too. Don’t you want to be at peace?”

Nikola had raged then. Called Uriel names and used his powers as a ghost to throw things at him. Then Uriel had bowed his head and tore out his own heart for him.

“Eat my flesh, so your flesh will be reborn. Take my soul with it. I will not stand seeing you this way. I will know peace in your stead and you will know suffering in mine.”

There had been an earthquake as Uriel fell down and his body disappeared. Nikola woke up in the parking lot with only one thought in mind. Revenge against all vampires. He felt ashamed for his selfishness now. He made to punch a whole through his own chest and take out his heart to give back to Uriel but Dimitri stopped him.

“There is no use. You will just die and be reborn again. Why do you think you always went off the deep end? It wasn’t because of me, well not entirely. Besides you already tried this trick. The Uriel that came back after your death was…evil and twisted. He searched for you and when he couldn’t find your soul he rounded up at me and send mine back to find you. There used to be more than one me running around but he killed all of them bar me, the original one. I think that Uriel will be the real reason behind Gehenna, Niki. And there is nothing you can do to stop him.”

Nikola put a hand on top of Uriel’s chest and found a beating heart. So that’s why Lucifer thought that Uriel was still alive. As if called Uriel’s lips began to move and his eyes opened. They were dead and unseeing.

“I can feel you through the darkness, my love. I heard your sweet voice. I want my powers back, Nikola. All of them and yours with them. You don’t need them as you have made peace with yourself. I can see where you are supposed to be sorted and it is still Heaven, all of your mistakes aside. Won’t you let me into this world? You need only go to church and repent since you haven’t committed any sins yet you will be allowed to forget. Go back to being a simple candy maker and let me back into the world of the living.”

Nikola nodded and uttered a single word.

“Ok.”

Then he turned to Dimitri and looked him straight into the eyes.

“Take me to church, Dimitri. This is our way out. All of this must have happened because of Uriel’s death. If he is back from the dead then there won’t be a Gehenna and Caine would continue to sleep. I didn’t need power when I worked back at the factory. And I don’t need it now either.”

Lucifer gripped his brother’s hand gently and smiled through tears at Nikola. Dimitri looked torn but he nodded and snapped his fingers. They were in the same church as the one he had hidden himself from Dimitri in. Nikola made a couple steps towards the confessional then he shook his head. He wasn’t here for forgiveness, he was here to make things right.

He kneeled down at the alter and put his hands in a prayer.

“Dear God, it’s me again. I know I have no right to speak to you but I am not here to beg for myself this time. I am here because of Uriel. Please erase all of my wrongs and bring him back. Don’t let Gehenna happen. Even vampires deserve to live. You must have seen how Malkav protected his clan. How Vasilisa learned to heal. How even Sadik found love. If you can keep giving me chances after I selfishly killed your son then why not give them a chance too? Please take my power away and bring back Uriel. I’ll be good just like I was before Dimitri found me. Just don’t take my understanding of what I learned away. I don’t want to become a monster again.”

The church was bathed in light and the priest fell down on his knees as the statue of the Virgin Mary began to cry bloody tears. A clap of wings was heard as Nikola felt himself become weaker and weaker. There was a man standing behind him that looked very sad. He had long dark hair and blue eyes. Who was he and why was he sad? The stranger looked at him.

“You don’t remember me, my love?”

Nikola stared back and blushed at the name. He hadn’t even had his first kiss yet since he was saving it for his wedding and this beautiful man was calling him love. Had something happened?

“I’ve never seen you in my life, sir.”

The man smiled at him and extended his hand towards him.

“My name is Uriel and I will see you again when your time comes. For now I must leave you. Stay good and kind.”

The man walked out into the dark night and Nikola ran out after him but he couldn’t find him. There was a big bird’s feather on the ground and he picked it up to inspect it. A hand wrapped around his shoulder and he saw a handsome blonde smiling down on him.

“Hi there, morsel. I’m moving in with you. I tried to tell you this but you ran off to the police. You see I am the Devil and a vampire and it’s very complicated and if you scream I will test a theory and you won’t like it. Be a dear and take us home because there is a lot of catching up for us to do.”

Nikola gulped when he felt a warmth emitting from the man’s arm. The two walked home in silence and then the man, Dimitri, sat him on the couch as soon as they arrived.

“Listen up here, Niki. Yes, I know your name. Don’t be so shocked. I know this was supposed to be your second chance but the old Devil isn’t coming back so I am stuck with my memories and his job. How come you are the only one to get special treatment? Now I am going to turn on the TV and we are going to watch choice picks from your lives. Now be a dear and bring us popcorn from the kitchen.”

Nikola did as asked and wondered how vampires could eat food if they were dead when he turned around while the popcorn was in the microwave to see Dimitri showing the middle finger to the ceiling. Nikola made the sign of the cross and said a quick prayer for forgiveness for the act done in his home.

He put the popcorn in a bow and walked to the…Devil. Who wrapped an arm around him and turned on the TV. Nikola saw himself having sex with a red head and he blushed. He hadn’t done such a thing! Dimitri cursed and change the channel with the remote.

“Sorry about that, Niki. I always have this on porn with you by default. Even when I hated your guts I still wanted to have a go at you, you know? And when you hated me too it would have been super kinky. Anyway let us start with what would have happened tonight. See yourself running towards the church like a good choir boy? Looks familiar, no? Now keep your pretty mouth shut because God tricked us both with his bloody time loop and now it is gone but Caine woke up and there is still going to be a Gehenna. So screw him! I am showing you almost everything and then we are going to go to Malkav and Vasilisa for help and I will remain the big bad! And you will stay by side forever. Questions?”

Nikola wanted to scold the Devil for how he spoke about God but the demon was too strong for him. Instead he gave him his best confused look and asked.

“Who is Caine, Dimitri? And what is Gehenna?”

Dimitri poked Nikola’s nose and cuddled him closer to himself.

“Just watch and everything will be explained. Now pass me the popcorns.”