Immortality Part IV - Reclaiming Sunlight

Aurmerle as promised had been keeping to his diet of animal blood. Yes it left him weaker than when he drank human blood, yes it slowed him down, but it kept him sane and stopped him killing innocents.

He agreed to meet up with his brother and so stood in the middle of the chosen village. It was around dawn and Aethon needed to hurry if they were going to make it before the sun rose. Around him the world began to stare. Men rising to go to work, women rising to kiss them goodbye before going back inside to complete the days chores. It reminded Aurmerle of his own family, that was until a voice interrupted him.

"DEVIL!!" Aurmerle turned on the spot to see a man pointing at him in panic. His surprise at the action had him glued to the stop. Did he know? How did he know? No one know but him and his brother and the demon. It was impossible. Before he knew it he was surrounded by people all looking at him and the screaming man.

"Charles, what ever is the matter?" Asked a woman who was first on the scene. She gave Aurmerle one uneasy look and then moved to comfort her distressed husband.

"It's him! The demon that bit me! HE IS NOT HUMAN! HE DRINK THE BLOOD OF HUMANS AND LEAVES THEM FOR DEAD! HE IS AN ABOMINATION!" He shouted to spear on the crowd. To Aurmerles surprise the crowd shouted back in agreement.

"Hold on! Are you going to take this mans word against my own? Im just passing through, im just as human as you are." He said holding his hands up in surrender. To anyones eyes he did just look like a normal human. That was until his back began to smoke. The sun was earlier than expected.

"SEE HE BURNS IN THE SUN! I SAY WE LET HIM BURN AT THE STAKE, SEND HIM BACK TO HIS MASTER!" A chorus of cheers spread through the crowd as the piled onto Aurmerle before he had a change to react.

Aethon hissed as the sun rose sooner than he had expected, causing his ear and the side of his neck to burn. He remembered a time when it took more than a few minutes to get a sunburn. This inability to be outside during the day had really become problematic - about eight and a half years ago, to be precise.

Ducking into the cover of an overturned cart abandoned at the side of road, Ethon sighed heavily. He hoped that Aurmerle had found cover in time. Silently, he curse Djinn for making him late. The creature had no regard for Aethon's plans, however, and so he was stranded at the side of the road after daybreak when he ought to have met with his brother and moved on to the vacant shed outside of the village.

Restless, Aethon began to drum his fingers against his knee. Something felt off. He couldn't quite place it. It was as though he could almost sense that something was... wrong, and it made him feel more and more uneasy by the moment.

"Are you alright, brother?" he murmured aloud. Somehow, Aethon feared that he wasn't.

Aurmerles screams filled the air as the sun now filled the skies above. He couldn't stand it. Seconds in the sun had been the worse pain imaginable and now he couldn't escape. It had taken minutes for the villagers to overpower him and chain him to the post in the middle of the village. Not only did he have to put up with the unbearable pain but he had to put up with the god awful stench of burning flesh and the catcalls from the spitting villagers.

He realised it didn't seem to take as long now for his skin to burn. But it was long enough to draw out the pain. "There are more of me you know!" He cried though gritted teeth. His skin was almost all gone now, all burnt through to raw flesh.

"Free me and ill protect your village from evil, kill me and we'll slaughter you all." As soon as the last words left his lips another round of screams filled the air. He could almost hear Aethon asking where he was, that was some comfort as he stood there dying. Where ever his brother was, he just hoped he figured out what had happened and avenged his death.

Almost as though summoned, a storm cloud broke over the horizon. Aethon peered at it from his shelter in the overturned cart, then drew in a breath through his nose. Rain. He was certain of it, even though he couldn't smell it yet.

Already, the cloud had tripled in size. It was a rather opportune time for a storm to blow in, but Aethon wasn't about to question it. When he was certain the storm would, in fact, be upon him, he left his shelter, flesh immediately starting to burn in the sunlight. Aethon didn't care. His burns would heal and the storm would soon be nigh. In order to ensure his brother's safety, he would take his chances.

He stalked along, the road oddly empty of all other travelers. The wind picked up as he walked along, causing areas of flesh to ignite into flame. It made for quite a sight, had anyone actually witnessed it.

By the time Aethon reached his destination, the sun was half concealed by storm clouds and rain poured down only to be greedily lapped up by the parched earth. So, it was, half-soaked and half-illuminated by the disappearing sun, that Aethon shoved his way through the crowd of spectators surrounding the heart of the village. He got several strange looks, but by that point, the sun had been swallowed by storm clouds.

"Aurmerle!" The man made a beeline towards the center of everyone's focus, crouching down and reaching out a trembling hand. "Aurmerle..."

Aurmerle burst into flames and he couldn't help but wish for it all to be over. His eyes now glued themselves shut and he was powerless. No matter what he wanted to do his body was beginning to shut down, preventing him from doing it. He was just able to make out Aethons voice and managed to croak out three words himself. "Avenge me brother!"

And with that he died, his body slowly turning to northing more than a pile of dust where his feet once stood.

Aethon stared in shock and horror, breath hitching in his throat as he watched the rain mix with the putrid ash that was all that remained of Aurmerle. He fingers curled away from the remnants as the sun was finally swallowed by the rain clouds. There was a pregnant pause as he continued to crouch there, apparently stunned.

Then, suddenly, he had raised his head, only to be standing and fully facing the crowd the next second. The villagers all stepped back in uncertainty and building fear.

"He was my brother," Aethon informed them. The rain was pouring down in earnest, now. Though, being drenched ought to have made the man seem somehow small and less intimidating, the effect of the storm was just the opposite. Perhaps, it was simply that the villagers instinctively knew that the absence of the sun meant the absence of their only salvation.

A smile spread across the man's features, made macabre as his eyes became solid black orbs in his face. Someone screamed - many did, in fact. It did them no good. Nothing could save them from the wrath of the being in their midst.

****************** Three of Four Hours Later ***********************

Slowly under the make shift tent pitch up by his brother Aurmerle began to reform. The once ashes began to grow, slowly taking shape of bones and organs. Piecing themselves together bit by bit. Once enough of him was intact nothing could stop the screams that formed. The undeniable pain that pierced through what was left of his body as it began to repair itself went above that of the sun destorying it. Hours before he'd thought that were impossible.

Hours upon hours of pain later and finally he began to feel like himself. He sighed rolling onto his side to stretch his new muscles. They felt still inder his new skin but he'd get used to them, eventually. He was just pleased he was alive. It was good to see the demon had kept his word.

The village had fallen in no more than ten violent, bloody minutes. Men, women, children - Aethon had exorcised his grief upon them all. It had been a small village, but the lives lost were still many. Too many.

Aethon wouldn't be forgiving himself anytime soon.

It was when he had sat for seeming hours beside his brother's rain soaked ashes that he noticed something strange: they were pulling themselves together. More than that, they were, quite impossibly, beginning to change, forming bits of what looked like bone. The devil Djinn had promised they would never die. Aethon immediately erected a shelter over the site to keep out both rain and sun, when it emerged again.

Thinking it might help the process, Aethon spread blood over his brother's reconstituting remains. By that point he was certain Aurmerle was coming back together. Slowly, but surely.

At some point, Aethon started pacing, never wandering far from his brother's side. Sometime later, he began to explore some of the houses and shops in the village. In one, he discovered a necklace made of beads of an unfamiliar blue stone.

That was when Aurmerle began to scream.

Pocketing the necklace, Aethon was at his brother's side in an instant. The younger man looked as though the flesh had been stripped from his body; in fact, his internal organs were still not wholly concealed. Helpless, Aethon crouched beside him, not daring to touch the man as he murmured reassurances that probably went unheard.

After a while, Aethon sat quietly by and waited, ears attuned to their surroundings, lest anyone come and find the bloodshed that had been wrought on the village. He would not let Aurmerle be subjected to such a fate, again. Not if he could help it.

Finally, Aurmerle quieted, and then his breathing fell into a restful pattern. The younger man was no longer suffering.

"I thought you were lost to me," Aethon rasped, eyes shut as he leaned against the post to which Aurmerle had once been tied. "I thought... that Djinn had deceived us, yet again."

Aurmerle lay there in silence for a few minutes, just concetrating on his breathing. He couldn't get over the pain he'd just been through. Slowly he turned his head to look at his brother. "Aethon." He rasped, his voice slightly rough from never been used before.

"I thought i was gone for good brother." He said pushing himself up into a sitting position. "I'm like a phoenix, rising from the ashes!" He smirked. He still couldn't believe what had happened and now he thought about it his eyes blacked over and his fangs grazed his gums threateningly as he smelled the blood. "Im hungry, did you leave some humans for me?" He asked, knowing full well his brother would never allow him to drink their blood. "But it's nice to see the demon was true to his word."

Aethon chuckled lightly. "A phoenix?" he asked. "Very well. You may be a phoenix, then." He reached out a hand and patted Aurmerle soundly on the cheek, a fond, brotherly gesture, rather than a demeaning one.

"I got you something a little less harmful to your health," Ethon replied, tilting his head back towards a horse tied nearby. The animal was on edge, no doubt because the smell of blood that permeated the air. "Not your usual fare, but I didn't wish to leave you in order to find something less domesticated."

Aurmerle smiled and flinched at the contact his brother gave, he was expecting at least a little pain after everything he'd just been through but it felt normal.

He followed his brothers gaze and groaned. "Right animal blood." He moaned pulling himself to him feet. Now he thought about it, he couldn't care less whether it was human or animal. He was just that hungry his fangs were already out and ready to sing into the main vein. With one hand he pulled down the only thing that had kept his healing body shelter and wrapped it around his lower half as he walked over to the horse.

Within seconds he had his arms wrapped around it's neck and his fangs sunk into it's neck draining the animal dry.

Aethon gave an understanding smile. "I know, brother," he said. "I know." He waited for his brother to finish before speaking again, tone thoughtful.

"There must be a way to overcome our... sensitivity to sunlight," he said. "Perhaps, a ring, or something that can be worn. There must be a spell that could... alter the sun's effect on us. I've grown weary of us having to live in shadows. I did not sell my soul to hide myself from the world."

Once he'd drained the horse dry, he gave up on holding it up right and let it drop to the ground in a pile. With a wipe of his mouth he turned back around to look at his brother. "A way to walk in the sunlight?" He asked considering the aspect of it. He would love to be able to walk during the day again.

"You think that's possible?"

Aethon gave his brother a wry look. "You literally just rose from ashes," he pointed out dryly. He rubbed his face with both hands.

"There has to be a way," Aethon insisted. "Magic can do so much. Failing that, someone has to know something that might work. We can't be the only people in history who were burned by sunlight."

"Yeah, not going to forget that anytime soon." He said rubbing his forehead. "I don't know what was most painful. Dying or being reborn... no i definitely have to say being reborn."

"Well what else can burn in the sunlight Aethon? I can't imagine the demon has made the same deal twice. Unless there is some kind of disease out there that prevents people from walking out in the sun? But i doubt it causes them to combust into flames." He frowned sitting on the horse carcass.

"And it's not like we can tell people. They'll think we're insane or some satan incarnate! You saw what just happened. Im not facing that again, i don't care how long i live."

"Yeah. I certainly wouldn't trade you places," Aethon said quietly. That was a lie. He'd have suffered in his brother's place in a heartbeat, without hesitation.

"I know." He heaved a sigh, hands moving to rake through his hair in synchronized motion. "Magic, then. Maybe I can make a charm or something. It'd be worth a try, at least." Aethon knocked his head back against the post in frustration.

"We should look through these houses and find you some attire, and anything else that may prove useful. ... since the previous owners no longer have use for any of it." A pained look flickered across Aethon's features; guilt, unease. He said nothing on the matter, simply levering himself to his feet.

Merle wanted to shudder at the thought of it but he didn't let it show. They had more important things to think about. If there was one thing he was good at it was putting on a act.

"Magic could work. That's something the demon doesn't have right?" He asked. He didn't know much about the demons of hell but he was sure they didn't have magic like they did.

"Why is my nakedness bothering you brother?" He smirked but headed towards one of the houses anyway. "Don't feel bad for them Aethon." He said catching the look in his brothers eyes. "They felt no remorse when they watch me burn at a stake. My only regret is i didn't get to tear them apart myself." He missed going on the hunt, just the thought had his eyes turning black.

Once in the house he tore ahead and headed straight for what he guessed was the bedroom and looked for some clothes. "Do you think this places holds any books?" He called to his brother as he threw aside clothes looking for something he'd find suitable to wear. Finally he settled on a pair of dark trousers and a grey shirt. "How do i look?" He asked.

Aethon gazed thoughtfully at his hand, remembering the times Djinn had taken over his body... possessed him. His eyes fell shut.

"Not as we have, no," Aethon answered. "Djinn's powers are different. Nothing like a wizard's."

He chuckled. "I have seen your nakedness since you were a babe. It would be odd if it had begun to bother me, now." Levering himself to his feet, he slowly followed the younger man, intent on seeing what could be salvaged from the carnage.

"I know, brother. I only wish that it hadn't been necessary... and sometimes, that I were not capable of such violence. Possessing such power - enjoying it - makes me feel more like a beast than a man.

Aethon went to the living area of the house as Aurmerle sought clothes in the bedroom. His gaze went to a shelf laden with books. "A few," he called back. He turned as his brother emerged, clothed once more. "You look good. That attire suits you."

He'd not heard much of his brothers demon possession but he knew it couldn't possible result in anything good. Being a meat suit was bad enough for anyone but even worse for Aethon knowing he had to spend eternity waiting for the demons next visit. "How does it feel?" He asked hoping he'd know what he was talking about. It was still kinda weird to imagine another man inside your brother.

Merle smirked and dashed off into the nearest building. "Forget the past brother. It serves no purpose in our futures, once we figure out how to live in the sun again we can live like kings." He smiled at the thought. He was always destined for a small farming or blacksmith job but he'd always known he was above all that. "Enjoying power does not make you a beast Aethon, it just makes you powerful. There's no shame in being stronger than those that wish us dead." His sudden hatred towards humans was suddenly shoved to the front of his mind.

"Thank you." He smiled heading over to the books. "Im thinking of changing my look. Maybe something more me now i can get the resources." He said scanning through the limited amount of books on the shelf when a thought struck him. "Do you recall last summer when i spent all my days on the neighbours farms?" He asked. "Well i wasn't interested in farming. I met this girl who has a weird fascination with stones." He admitted avoiding his brothers eyes out of embarrassment.

"What if we seek a stone with a certain capability?" He asked.

Aethon looked up sharply at the question, almost as though he had momentarily forgotten his brother was even there. He rubbed a hand over his face.

"It feels..." he cast about for the right words to describe the experience, "almost like a dream. Like the ones where you are watching everything that's happening, but you're unable to affect anything. You... see and hear and smell what is going on around you, feel your body moving, but you have no control. You can do nothing - nothing but watch."

Aethon quirked a brow at his brother, smirking in amusement. "I knew you weren't interested in farming," he confessed. "Stones, you say? Well, many do believe that certain kinds of rocks have special properties. It'd be worth looking into."

"Exactly like you're not in control? I figured as much. Is there no way out of that part of the deal?" He asked, he didn't like the thought of his brother going around without control of his own body. Who knew what that demon would make him do or allow him to see. Aethon cared far too much to be off doing that kind of thing.

"You never said! I had to creep around you all for weeks so you wouldn't find out." He frowned, he couldn't believe he knew and he'd thought he'd put on such a good show as well. "Great." He smiled, he'd missed Elizabeth she would probably be mad at him for leaving her almost 6 years ago. Now he couldn't help but wonder what she was doing now. Was she married?

"If anyone should know if a stone should help it's her. She's great." He said almost bouncing out the door.

"Exactly so," Aethon agreed, unconsciously rubbing the brand on his left deltoid. He frowned unhappily. "None that I know. The devil isn't exactly forthcoming. I suppose, I shall plenty of time to figure something out.

Rising to his feet, he moved over to his brother. By now, it was late afternoon, but it was still cloudy and it would soon be dark. "Let's find this old love of yours," he said with a teasing smile. "Perhaps, she can help us."

"Can't you pick his brain whilst he's, inside you?" He asked, it still felt weird to think of the demon taking over his brother. Just the though made him want to kill him.

Merle smiled and headed for the door. "Wait! What if she hates me? I did leave without saying goodbye 6 years ago." He frowned, he hate to find her with a husband and kids but he'd hate himself even more if he found her all alone because of him.

Aethon nodded. "I can, and I do. To an extent. It's part of our deal," he said. "He can use me as a vessel and I can learn from him. I have every intention of taking full advantage of it. Some good might as well come of it."

Sighing, Aethon put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"There is but one way to find out," he said. "Let us go. We should be able to get there by late tomorrow morning if the clouds don't clear over night."

"Good then use him to find out everything you can. Perhaps he knows something about this sun problem of ours." He suggested. If this trip of theirs to Elizabeth's didn't work out then perhaps he could figure something out from the demon.

"We'd be able to get there a lot faster if i were on human blood." He frowned, being on a diet of animal blood meant he was a lot weaker than he could be. That thought alone drove Merle crazy. He loved power and limiting himself so he could keep himself in control was not his idea of fun. "Just promise me one thing? If things turn ugly, just leave... please."

---

***Late next morning***

Merle arrived back at his old village with unease. There were still many around here that would remember their faces should they be seen, though many would have aged many years since he'd last seen them unlike he and his brother. Elizabeth would receive quite the shock when she saw him, it was this that bothered him the most. There was a time when he considered marrying this girl, she had been the first girl he'd ever loved and if things had all gone to plan he would have had his own family with her by now.

Coming up to a stop outside her door he took a deep breath and knocked. Now there was no going back, his feet were frozen in place as he waited for her to answer.