Cassius
MY BODY ACHED—what the hell had I done? I flexed my muscles and tried stretching my arms above my head, but nothing alleviated the pain. I slammed two doors trying to gain control of my anger at my crippled state. Did humans have to deal with this on a daily basis? Not only was my body failing me, but my emotions were swirling out of control.
I could taste fear on my tongue, it had a hollow, bitter flavor. And my brain wouldn’t stop conjuring up images of Stephanie killing me.
Or my own father helping her do it.
I wiped my face with my hands and shuddered out a breath. Something wasn’t right. Then again, how would I know? My IQ had dropped since the Angel blood was no longer coursing through my veins.
The only thing I could do was ask Stephanie for some of hers.
But I figured that was the stupidest idea I’d ever conjured up considering I had to win her affection by being human.
I groaned in frustration and lay back against the fluffy mattress, head pounding, I had twenty-eight days left and I was pretty sure I was actually getting worse as time progressed.
“Hey, there.” Stephanie walked into the room. I didn’t get up. Didn’t look at her, just stared at the ceiling above and wondered for the tenth time that evening what the hell I’d been thinking, trying to save us both, trying to love her when I clearly didn’t even understand how.
“Hi,” I grumbled.
“Wow, someone’s happy.”
“It hurts.” I rose up on my elbows and glared. “This ridiculous body hurts.”
“You’re human, aches and pains are part of it, I’m afraid.” She offered a tentative smile. “You could always take a pain killer.”
“Pills.” I spat the word out. “I’ve never needed help!”
“Maybe that’s why.”
“Huh?”
Stephanie moved toward the bed and sat on the edge. “Maybe that’s part of this test. Maybe Sariel did this so you’d learn to rely on others.”
The idea had merit even if it was totally off base. “Maybe.”
“So,” Stephanie tapped her fingers against her thigh. “There’s a slight problem with something.”
My eyes narrowed. “You look nervous.”
“How soon do you think you can get this training thing down with me? I mean, how much can we push the limits before you think I’ll be ready to face things on my own?”
Face things? She wanted to do it without me? “I don’t understand. What would you possibly have to face?”
“Demons.” She swallowed. “Say an extra sixty shiny new ones with pointy horns and uncontrollable appetites.”
Every muscle in my achy body tensed. “What the hell? Please tell me that’s your idea of a joke.”
“Afraid not.” Stephanie pushed away from the bed and walked toward the window hugging her body. “According to Ethan, the numbers reported to us don’t match. They’ve been creating.”
“That’s forbidden!” I yelled, jumping off the bed, ready to march down to their headquarters and light them all on fire. “They know this, they wouldn’t dare. Ever since Pompeii the rules have been—”
“I know the rules.” Stephanie arched an eyebrow. “They dared all right, they dared at least sixty times without calling a human number, meaning they’re picking off randoms wherever they can find them.”
My headache flared to life. “I can’t do anything—not as a human.”
“I can.” Stephanie turned to face me. “Teach me what I need to know, and I can do it.”
“But—”
“Please.” Her blue eyes flashed a brilliant white then dimmed and saddened as she glanced away from me and back out the window. “I have to help. I mean you said you’d help me learn what I am, right? You said you were here to help train me. So, what’s the problem?”
The problem? I forced my irritation inward. The damn problem was that if I spent all my days training her—and believe me it would take all day and all night—I wouldn’t have time to romance her. To win her over, to prove my love. After tonight I’d already decided to switch tactics. I needed to do better. Dedicate my every waking moment to winning her the way she deserved.
How the hell was I supposed to do that while training her? I’d be helping her access the darkest parts of her soul. I’d be hurting her, she’d be hurting me. It was a nightmare.
“Sure.” My humanity won out, blurting the answer before my brain could catch up. “Sure I can do that. But I refuse to let you go into any of their compounds by yourself. You take either Ethan or Mason with you.”
“Not Alex?” she teased.
I rolled my eyes. “Sirens are all about love, not war. You know this.”
She nodded. “I know it firsthand.”
I had a hard time focusing on the words coming out of her mouth, especially when her eyes were so bright, so inviting. I looked away. “You’ll always have that part of you, Stephanie.”
“The Siren part?”
I smirked. “Don’t all women?”
“Funny.”
“I mean it.” I frowned as a piece of her hair fell across her face, shielding those gorgeous eyes I was so obsessed with. Without thinking, I brushed her hair back with my fingertips, her mouth opened with a little gasp. “It was easy, casting a Siren’s glamour, because you were so beautiful it wouldn’t take much convincing for other immortals to buy into it.”
Was it so wrong? To hide her away for hundreds of years? To keep the truth of her heritage hidden from her, until now? At the time I was protecting her. Thinking Sariel would kill her. Dark Ones were still an abomination, regardless of our parentage.
She gulped and looked down, her chest rose and fell, though she didn’t need oxygen, she was sucking it in like she was about to pass out.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “For suppressing your powers. I did it—” The words hung up in my throat. Out of love. Out of devotion. Out of fear. “I did it to protect you.”
She glanced up. “I know, Cassius. I’m not upset, not anymore. I just wish…”
“What?” I stepped closer, our bodies nearly touched. “What do you wish?”
“Why did you always walk away from me?”
I licked my lips and leaned in until our mouths almost touched. “Walking away—when all I wanted to do was walk toward you—had to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But everything I did—every decision made—was in order for you to flourish, to survive, to become something great.”
She let out a little laugh. “Wow, I must be such a disappointment then. I can’t control any of my emotions, and I’m one hissy fit away from freezing your ass or killing people I love by simply willing it.”
“You won’t,” I vowed. “I mean you won’t kill your family. And you are the furthest thing from a disappointment.”
She shrugged.
“Look at me.”
Slowly, Stephanie lifted her head, her eyes filled with shame.
“You’re perfect,” I whispered reverently. “And I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
“So you want me now?” she asked with an intriguing lilt in her voice. A smile gently curved her lips. I could tell she said it in a lighthearted way, but it didn’t matter. I knew that. My heart skipped a beat anyway.
“More than you’ll ever know.”
My answer surprised her. She took a step back, her eyebrows knit together like she was trying to figure out my answer.
Twenty-eight days. My mind reminded me. With a flourish I jerked her body against mine and kissed her.
She melted against my body.
And my body—loved it. Drank her in like she was my salvation. My only reason for existing. I moaned, unable to control the sounds coming from my mouth, the physical reaction from my body as she deepened the kiss, as I tasted every inch of her mouth.
“Ahem,” someone said from the door.
Stephanie jerked away from me.
Was she ashamed? Or embarrassed?
Irritated, I barked out, “What?”
“Attack.” Ethan moved into the room, followed by Mason. “At Belltown. We need to go investigate. It looks like a few Demons got into it with a few Vampires, though nobody’s talking.”
Stephanie placed her hand on my chest. “We go, he goes.”
“Agreed,” Ethan snapped. “We’ll need his expertise, though if I tell you both to run, you run, got it?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t.” Ethan hissed in my direction his eyes going green with fury. “You’re both important, the last thing we need is one of you dying. A dead council member? A dead king? It would start an all-out war.”
“We may already be there.” My skin tingled with awareness, something wasn’t right. I just didn’t know what, and I wasn’t sure how I could help other than appear to look in control.
Ethan cleared his throat and pointed at my body. “You’ll need a glamour spell to hide your pasty human skin.”
“My skin isn’t pasty!” I said defensively while Stephanie placed a hand against my chest.
“I can do it.” Mason stepped forward an excited grin on his face.
“Like hell you will!” I yelled. “The last time you performed a glamour, you turned Alex into a woman!”
“On purpose.” Mason sniffled.
I rolled my eyes. “You were supposed to make him appear feminine, big difference.”
“I’ll do it.” Ethan crossed the room at lightning speed then slammed me into the wall, his incisors nicked the inside of my right wrist. Eyes green, he murmured. “What I see others see. What I know. Others know.” He reached behind him. “Stephanie, come here.”
I doubted Stephanie had ever seen a glamour performed as it was usually male immortals who did it—and the only ones capable were Mason, myself, and Ethan—compliments of our age and the hierarchy of the council.
Eva had been the only woman capable of it.
But she was gone. Long gone.
Once Stephanie reached my side, Ethan leaned over and bit her finger then squeezed it over my wrist. Three drops of blue blood splashed into my cut and healed it immediately. The veins in my wrists turned an Angel blue as cold spread throughout my body.
It was a familiar feeling. One I missed.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall as ice over took my entire body. I convulsed, once, twice, and then opened my eyes.
The room was brighter, the air sweeter. I was still human, but the Angel blood fused with my cells enough to make me see better, my sense of smell more acute. It also took away the aches and pains in my body.
“Well done, Ethan.” Mason clapped twice. “He looks possessed again.”
I glanced at my reflection in the mirror across the room. My eyes were white, my skin glowing, even my hair was shinier. Everything about me looked the same.
But I was different.
And I wondered in that moment, if this was the beginning of the end. If I would ever be a Dark One again, or if I’d die trying to give Stephanie back the precious gift she should have never given me in the first place.
Maybe she would be my downfall after all.
The words echoed in my head.
“Let her live and she will hurt you,” Sariel warned.
“She’s innocent!” I screamed. “She’s done nothing wrong.”
Sariel smiled sadly. “But she will. Believe me. She will. Remember what your love did to you last time.”
“Time’s wasting.” Mason’s eyes turned black. “We need to hunt.”
Stephanie reached for my hand. I squeezed it once, intent on letting it go, but decided to hold it a bit longer, because she felt good and because I knew I needed to start appreciating every minute I had with her.
Because something told me—they would add up—and my time wouldn’t just be over—but nonexistent.