And when that had failed, and Snow hadn't sinned, he had changed his plans.

"You waited until I gave in to the temptation to visit Snow again, knowing that when I did you could punish me, turning my final feather black. You could make me judge him." Aurora readied her sword. "You son of a bitch!"

She broke free of Snow's grasp and attacked her master, catching him unawares with a direct strike across his upper arm, slicing deep into his white armour. Her sword came away bloodied and her master's purple eyes flashed with fury.

He attacked but Snow was there, blocking his blade, driving it away from her. Antoine joined forces with the other vampires, keeping the other angels at bay, out of their fight with her master.

If she could kill her master, then it would send a message to her superiors, a warning that she would come good on her threat to destroy every angel they sent to Vampirerotique if they didn't withdraw the troops. She was sure they would choose the sensible course of action and recall them, and she would have spared Snow and his friends.

If only.

Her master was ancient, almost as old as their superiors were and almost as powerful. No one had defeated him or even come close, and he had battled the strongest demons in the realms of Hell, surviving each battle without a single wound.

She had wounded him though, and he couldn't kill her directly without committing the sin of killing a fellow angel. He needed to kill Snow and have her die because of her link to him, leaving him untainted because he had only killed a demon. She could take advantage of that if Snow would only let her. The trouble was, she knew he wouldn't want her to fight her master alone. He would fight to protect her, placing himself between her and her master, even when it made sense for her to be the one to fight him.

Aurora timed her attacks with Snow's, slashing at her master whenever he blocked Snow's blade, leaving himself open.

The angel was too fast.

He easily countered her, quickly switching between blocking Snow and blocking her. She tried to come around behind him but he shifted, nimbly moving so he continued to face them both.

An angel broke through the ranks to help him, forcing her to break away to attack him instead. Her master lured Snow further away and, although Snow fought viciously, he landed blows, slicing Snow's arms and his chest. Each cut on his body appeared on hers and she grew weaker, the pain stealing her strength and her focus.

It was her master's sword that could give them simultaneous injuries, and possibly that weapon alone. If she could get it away from him, she could perhaps give them a chance to defeat him.

Antoine came up behind the angel attacking her, savagely slicing down his back, scoring his white armour and bloodying his wings. She used it as a chance to attack the angel.

Her sword cut through his middle, spilling his entrails across his front. Antoine was gone in a flash, moving so swiftly she could barely keep up, and someone cried out behind her.

She wheeled around to face them and found Antoine there, his sword buried deep in the gut of a female angel who stood with her sword still raised above her head, ready to strike Aurora down.

Aurora's heart skipped a beat at the thought she might not have sensed the attack before it was too late. Even though she was sure Antoine had only saved her because the blow may have killed his brother too, she still thanked him with a brief smile before launching herself back into the fight.

Snow and her master had moved further away, a swath of angels blocking her path to them now. Snow had landed several blows but the cuts on her body said that he had taken more.

Crimson soaked her dress, turning it almost completely red, but she wouldn't stop fighting.

She struggled to battle her way through the angels with Antoine's assistance and her head spun when her master slammed his fist and the hilt of his sword into Snow's temple. She staggered backwards at the same time as Snow and then screamed in agony when a sharp pain pierced her shoulder, echoing Snow's bellow as the sword stabbed into his flesh.

Her master grinned and kicked Snow in the stomach, sending him falling backwards. The sword fell from Snow's bloodstained fingers and clattered across the stage, and a look she didn't like crossed his face when his gaze sought hers.

A dreadful sense of finality pressed down on her and she shook her head.

She redoubled her effort to get through the angels to him, clawing and shrieking like a wild thing, desperate to reach Snow before he did something crazy. He wanted to protect her and end her master, and she had seen him fight enough times to know he was going to go all out and lay everything on the line in order to defeat the angel.

Antoine must have sensed her desperation to reach Snow and seen the look on his brother's face, because he hacked at the angels, using all of his strength to cleave through their armour, killing them with a single blow.

Snow found his feet, stared at her a moment, and smiled. "Forgive me."

He launched himself at her master. Barehanded. Her master grinned and thrust forwards with his blade, a direct hit that skewered Snow's broad chest close to his heart, and speared hers too, chasing her breath away.

It didn't stop her vampire.

He ploughed into her master, wrapped his right arm around the front of his throat, locked his other hand around his wrist behind her master's head, and dropped to one knee, bringing her master down backwards over his outstretched thigh.

The crunch of the bones in his neck snapping was loud in the theatre, silencing the battle as all heads turned towards the two males.

Snow followed through, landing on his front on the stage floor next to her master's body.

Aurora pushed through the stricken angels, rushing to him in spite of the fierce debilitating pain emanating from her chest, throbbing in every inch of her. She couldn't breathe. Blood drenched the front of her dress and pooled beneath Snow too. He wasn't moving but he couldn't be dead. He couldn't be. She was still alive. Barely.

She crashed to her knees beside him and tried to pull him over onto his back. He cried out when the sword's blade dug into the stage floor and tears filled her eyes. She had to pull it out. She grasped the hilt and tugged. The wet sucking noise and the feel of his bones scraping along the blade turned her stomach.

Antoine was at her side in a heartbeat, helping her pull the sword free of his brother's chest, his gaze locked on Snow's face. "Don't you dare give up."

She wanted to say those words to him too but couldn't speak through the blood steadily choking her. She coughed, trying to clear her throat and lungs, desperate to tell Snow not to leave her. She wanted him to live.

She glanced up at Antoine as they finally pulled the blade out and Snow slumped onto his back, his head on her knees. Tears streaked Antoine's face and Sera looked as though her whole world was falling apart as she came to a halt behind him and saw Snow.

The angels around them disappeared, revealing Snow to everyone in the theatre.

Aurora couldn't take the oppressive wave of sorrow that flowed through them and crashed over her, or the grief that shone in their eyes and beat in their hearts.

She stroked Snow's cheeks, her own tears blurring her vision, willing him to come around.

He couldn't be dead.

She had fought so hard for him.

He had fought so hard to live and to protect those he loved, her included.

Her pain faded as she stared down at him, her touch leaving sombre streaks of dark colours on his skin. Her only comfort was that if he was to die from this terrible wound he had taken to save everyone he loved, that she would soon follow him.

Her pain would be short lived. She wouldn't suffer as his brother would, or anyone else here who cared about her beautiful warrior.

She hoped that wherever their journey led them, they would see each other again.

What if they didn't though? That thought gripped her heart with icy sharp claws, spilling fear into her veins.

She was heavenly and he was classed as demonic.

What if she was taken to Heaven and he was taken to where the dead resided in Hell?

There was only one way to make sure that didn't happen. She wanted to be with him in the afterlife. She wanted to live with him, just as he had desired, even if their home was the dark bowels of the underworld.

Aurora clung to Snow and didn't hesitate, her love for him giving her the strength to do what she had to do in order to be with him no matter what happened.

She tipped her head back and stared up at the lights rigged above the stage.

"I renounce my duty," she said, her voice firm and level, showing none of the pain crushing her heart to pieces.

She dropped her head, bent over Snow and cried for him, shedding heavenly tears for the last time as her wings began to fall apart feather by feather.

The pain of falling was nothing compared with the pain of losing Snow.

She couldn't lose him. Blood bubbled up her throat, choking her, and she tried to swallow it back down, hating the acrid taste of death in her mouth. Her eyes widened.

Blood.

Snow had saved Antoine from the grip of death by giving him blood. If she did the same for Snow, would it work? His injuries were severe and he was losing blood at an alarming rate. Antoine had been in death's embrace when Snow had brought him back though.

There was only one way to find out if she could do the same for Snow and, right now, she was willing to give anything a shot.

Aurora shifted forwards, tipped Snow's head back in her lap, and brought her lips to his. She opened his mouth and kissed him, allowing her life force to flow into him, desperate that it would kick-start his healing process and save her beautiful noble vampire, and grant them a second chance to have the life they both desired.

Together.

Tears slipped down her cheeks and she kept kissing Snow, stroking his cheeks at the same time, silently begging the higher power to give them the chance at happiness that they deserved after enduring so much darkness and pain for two thousand years.

Aurora tried to reassure herself that no matter what happened, they would be together, whether it was in the realm of the dead or in this world of the living.

They would be together now.

The prince and the angel.

CHAPTER 21.

Warm hands drew Snow up from the darkness. His head was foggy. His body burned. His chest was damn near killing him.

He couldn't remember what had happened but he felt as though someone had put him through several rounds of torture for fun, cutting him to ribbons.

The pain buzzing in his skull and chest faded enough for him to regain control of his body, and he weakly opened his eyes. Aurora shimmered into view above him, colourful tears streaking her flushed cheeks, slipping in a steady stream from her closed eyes and cutting through the dirt and blood on her face.

It was her hands on his cheeks, stroking them softly.

It was her blood on his lips and tongue.

Her sweet intoxicating blood flowed in his veins, warming him from his very core and soothing his pain, stealing it away piece by piece and gradually restoring his strength.

His Aurora was the reason he was alive.

She had saved him from the brink of death.

A black feather floated over her shoulder and brushed his arm before landing on the floor beside him. It wasn't alone. Her wings were falling apart. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw hundreds of feathers scattered across the stage, the blood of battle soaking into them.

"Are you crying because of your wings?" he whispered, feeling sorry for her and filled with the need to comfort her and take her pain away. He was in so much pain that he probably wouldn't notice if hers was added on top of it. He would gladly bear it for her.

She started and her eyes opened wide, her caresses ceasing. She stared down at him and the shock in her beautiful colourful eyes became relief.

"I wasn't crying for them... I was crying for you." More tears came, slipping down her bloodstained and bruised cheeks to land on his forehead, and then she moved so fast that she startled him and kissed his brow, her hands clutching his cheeks.

"For me?" he whispered, incredulous. She nodded, her lips shifting against his skin. He had never felt so blessed, so loved. So needed.

"I thought you were dead." When she drew back, she glanced around her. His senses were functional enough to tell him that they weren't alone, and she wasn't the only one feeling relieved but sorrowful. Or the only one who had thought he was dead.

They also told him that the angels were gone.

His pain subsided until the buzzing in his skull ceased and he could recall what he had done.

Snow tried to smile but it came out as a grimace when his chest blazed anew, the pain in it threatening to steal his senses and render him unconscious again.

"I'm not that easy to kill. Have a little faith in me." He looked up at his upside down Aurora and she smiled shakily at him. "Were you worried your number was up?"

She shook her head. "I took measures to make sure we would be together."

"Your wings?" he said and she nodded. "You didn't have to do that."

Pain lashed at his chest again and he gritted his teeth. Aurora grimaced too, reminding him that he had a lot of apologising to do and needed to find a way to make things up to her. He could smell her blood, knew she had the same injuries as he bore, and was suffering again because of him.

Aurora drew in an unsteady breath and swallowed hard, and then tried to smile at him again. He had to admire her courage and was grateful she had a leash on her temper and wasn't beating the hell out of him for getting her skewered through the chest too. Yet.

"I did. I wanted to do it because I would like to be with you... if your offer to live with you still stands?" She looked beautifully hopeful and fearful at the same time, as if he would turn away the most wonderful thing that had ever happened in all his dark existence.

He managed to smile properly. "It might have been made two thousand years ago, but it still stands."

Snow slid his gaze away from Aurora's and bravely met Antoine's. His younger brother stared at him, his ice-blue eyes red from the tears that cut pale lines through the bloodstains on his face.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Antoine snapped and Snow let him off for his outburst, knowing that it was relief making him raise his voice and not anger. It was just the depth of his brother's love for him.

"It was the only way of killing him." A crazy way, but at the time, he had seen Aurora growing weaker, bleeding badly from wounds her master was inflicting upon him, and he had lost his head.

"Killing yourself more like," Antoine grumbled and looked as though he was considering throttling him.

Snow suspected he might limit his punishment to long term verbal aggravation and constant reminders that he had almost got himself and Aurora killed.

"But I did kill him... I presume I did." Snow could still smell the bastard angel. He tried to sit up to check the male was dead but it hurt too much. He seized up halfway and collapsed back onto Aurora's knees.

She nodded and stroked his cheeks. "He is dead."

Snow hoped that didn't mean they would be receiving a visit from other angels looking to carry out vengeance killings. If they were wise, they would see tonight as a sign not to mess with him. He had taken down one of their strongest, proving himself stronger.