It is said by some who claim to know that there are two types of Malakim. Oh! Pardon me. You might know the Malakim by a different name. They are sometimes called Angels. To continue: The first type of Malakim are the "known" Angels, the Greater Malakim. The ones that serve the Holy One of Blessing in the Celestial Palaces and in unimagined worlds without end... These are called by different names such as the Chayot (the Pure Ones), Ophanim (The Wheels of Ezekial), Kerubim (not to be confused with the fat little babies with wings from the Italian Renaissance-- the Kerubs are the skilled Killer-Warriors of the the Holy One) and the Seraphim (the Angels of the Purest Smokeless Fire). These are immortal at the will of the Holy One. Baruch HaShem! The second class of Angels are ephemeral like humankind. They are true to their title Malak - Messenger. They are created to fulfill but one command, complete one task, accomplish one deed assigned to them by the Holy One. Sometimes completing that one task may take a long, long time, maybe life times on the human scale of things. Sometimes the task takes no more than a moment. Upon completing their assigned task the lesser ones expire and return to the Source that gave them life. It is also said that when an Angel comes into the human world, the World of Assiah, they must take human form. Today was not really a good day for Malak Yovela. Or at least that is what Yovela thought as she felt her life slipping away. Yovela is one of those ephemeral Angels that had been assigned one task. She (yes She!) thought her duty was to "lift the sparks" of a withered vine near a forgotten cemetary somewhere in eastern Europe. It matters not where really, just that she was doing that which she believed to be her given task. She did not understand that the withered vine which was her task was in fact none other than the accursed vampir, Lilit Drakul, Domnitori of the Casa de Fantome Lilit whose life these last hundred years had been very hard, thought that today her luck had turned. After all she had trapped a sweet little morsel, hadn't she? Indeed her luck had changed direction, just not in the direction she ever thought her luck would be taken. For while a Malak in the human world must take human form, that form, that bodily substance, is perfect and holy. It is Divine Love and Blessing made tangible. One might immediately assume then, that were a Vampir to taste the blood of a Malak that the Vampir would die from the perfect poison of Holy Blood. What if instead it did something totally unexpected? What if it caused the heart of the Vampir to beat once more? What if it cured the vampir of their cursed need for blood and replaced it with a need to give and receive love? What if the vampir discovered to their heart-breaking dismay that the one that saved them from the curse was, having fulfilled their assigned task, now dying in their arms? --------- Character Credits: Lady Marianne by Menka as Lilit Drakul Lady Jane by Surreality as Yovela