Cassius
DEMONS DIDN’T HAVE THE decency to hide in the shadows of rundown buildings and dark alleyways.
They thrived around the constant buzz of mortals.
It was impossible to survive as a Demon without others. And the easiest way to kill them off was to get them alone. They were interconnected like a complicated mass of webs. Where there was one Demon, there were always several others. It was an odd pack-like mentality that spread throughout every race of immortals.
All but Dark Ones.
Destined to walk the earth alone, seeking the light, cursed to the shadows. I shivered as we turned onto the street that would take us to Blu, a bar in downtown Seattle that doubled as a Demon Den.
It was the biggest web of all. Humans loved the dark atmosphere and promise of cheap drinks, having no clue that the minute they crossed the threshold they were taking their lives into their own hands. As the leader of the immortals, I kept the peace, but that also meant that I at times had needed to rule in favor of the Demons. Human lives were precious to us because we needed them to continue to thrive, but that didn’t mean accidents never happened.
Stephanie stopped the SUV in front of the bar.
Marcus, a Demon I’d had the great displeasure of meeting upon a dozen occasions stood on the sidewalk, rain dripping down his blond head onto his chiseled jaw as he nodded discreetly toward our SUV and shoved his hands in his pockets.
At six-foot-four, people gave him a wide berth as they stepped around his bulky body. Men shied away, and women stared. Not like they could help it. Men were bred to fear the evil. And if Demons were spiders with webs—that made women the perfect fly.
“I’ll go.” I exhaled a loud breath, the air in front of my face crackled with the sound of ice breaking. I should feel like my old self. Instead, it felt foreign, and terrifying. Not something I wanted to admit to anyone, least of all Stephanie. That what used to feel so natural and right, now caused my human heart to skip a few beats and this ridiculously frail body to sweat as if I was over exerting myself by merely existing.
Stephanie turned to face me, her eyes already going white. “But… this is my job, right?”
“No,” I said in a rough voice. “Believe me, if Marcus has called, then Marcus will need to be… disposed of.”
“And you don’t want me getting my hands dirty?” The temperature dropped in the vehicle.
“Temper, temper.” I kept my voice teasing even though my body was screaming Danger! as loud as it could. Teaching Stephanie to control herself was going to take more patience than I possessed.
Never thought I’d see the day where I’d teach the person I loved, how to kill me, and how to kill me well, because that’s exactly what I would be doing.
“Just trust me,” I barked out. “And let me speak to him first. If he tries to take off my head you have my permission to decapitate him without asking questions first.”
“Permission?” Stephanie repeated, her eyes lit up like a flashlight. I quickly got out of the car and slammed the door.
“Stay,” I mouthed.
Frost exploded in the inside of the car lining the windows.
Smirking, I turned on my heel and made my way slowly toward Marcus. The human inside was already telling me to run, my body trembling with the awareness that what I was approaching was pure evil, that I needed to run in the other direction.
Save yourself! my mind screamed.
Damn it. I was a Dark One.
I would not run!
My heel turned, as if my body was physically making the choice that mentally I hadn’t the capacity to do.
“Marcus.” His name slid from my lips like a slow dark curse. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
“Cassius?” He frowned, his blue eyes narrowing into tiny yellow cat like slits before returning to their regular color. “You look… different.”
“I smell different too. Must be new soap.” I offered with a dark chuckle. “Now stop staring at me or I’m going to get the wrong idea.”
Marcus didn’t move, but his nails elongated into small spikes, ready to attack or slit my throat, whichever came first, I supposed. “Something is different.”
I could feel the power surging through my veins but knew if I expended too much the glamour would dissipate into thin air, and he truly would take off my head in front of a handful of people.
With as much strength as I could muster, I allowed the angelic blood to float to the surface of my body and blew a harsh amount of cold air across his face, freezing his lips shut.
“There.” I nodded. “Much better. Why don’t I do the talking? And if you keep staring I will gladly freeze your eyes as well, though a bit of warning, you’ll be blind once they melt.” I motioned for Stephanie to get out of the SUV just as Mason, Ethan, and Alex pulled up in the second car. “Now, we can do this here, on the street, you can calmly explain what you saw and why you’re willing to die for telling us, or we can all go into the bar. Your choice.”
Marcus eyed the rest of the council as they walked up behind me, his lips were already starting to melt, with a quick nod he crooked his finger and we followed him into the abandoned bar.
Human bodies were scattered around the floor.
Drained of blood.
The bartender, half Demon half human, snarled in our direction as he stacked bodies to the side of the stage and lit a match.
Like dry firewood they went up in flames, sadly the families would never know what happened to their loved ones.
All could have been prevented if I wasn’t a damn human. I would have seen this future.
Prevented it.
It was my own human fear that kept me from teaching Stephanie. She’d already seen one future, and the horror it would expose her to was damn near life ending.
“You froze his lips shut?” Ethan whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “Why have you never done that to Alex?”
“Because Alex has a nice voice,” Alex piped up. “Smooth, sexy, just enough husky to get the ladies excited, but not so deep that he sounds like a lumberjack in need of a shave.”
“Silence,” I barked, elbowing Alex and bruising myself in the process. Must remember how weak I was, before I suffered internal bleeding.
Mason frowned as we neared a back door. “No.” He shook his head. “No!”
“Mason?” I sniffed the air but even the Angel power couldn’t help me. I tried again, all I picked up was the scent of… sulfur.
Sulfur.
And the high-pitched screams of lives lost, as if the person on the other side of the door was replaying the scene from Pompeii.
“Come.” I motioned to the small boy. “We’ll protect you.”
“Will you be my papa?”
“No,” I barked gruffly, Eva elbowed me in the ribs. “But we’ll find you one.”
“They’re afraid,” she murmured as the children huddled in the corner of the boat. “They think we mean them harm.”
I sighed as the scent of sulfur filled the air and smoke crawled across the ocean toward us. Lifting my hand, I created a shield of water as the boat led us to safety. The little kids gasped in awe as droplets turned to ice crystals decorating the inside of the darkness with pure light, pure winter.
Giggling, one of them stood and started dancing in circles as the ice crystals formed under the dome, shimmering in the air, twinkling and then falling to the floor.
Soon, more children stood.
And Eva… began to sing. She’d always had the most beautiful clear voice, most Vampires did, unlike Sirens who could lull you into a slave-like state, but beautiful still, almost as much so.
“Thank you,” Eva whispered, her hand reaching out to touch mine just as Mason turned and growled in our direction.
“We should not give them hope,” he barked.
The Wolf was right. But I could not bring myself to tear the smiles from their faces. Nor to release Eva’s warm hand.
Though I should.
I should have done all those things.
I fell to my knees as a whoosh of air left me.
“Cassius?” Stephanie was at my side. “Are you okay?”
Marcus turned. “A problem? It’s just beyond this door.”
“Death is beyond that door,” I whispered, my voice shaking the foundation of the bar. I was expending energy fast. I needed more blood, I needed it immediately. Already Marcus looked suspicious, his hand pausing on the large metal black door, his fingernails elongating.
Ethan smoothly pushed Alex and Mason toward Marcus while he shielded me and Stephanie with his body, biting swiftly into Stephanie’s wrist and swiping the blood across my mouth.
It was over in seconds.
And as if someone had just pumped my body full of adrenaline, so much power surged through me that I nearly blacked out.
Because it was enough to see.
It was enough to see with immortal eyes.
Something, I never wanted to see again.
“My, God.” I shuddered pushing past the group and nearly impaling Marcus against the doorknob in an effort to break down the door. “What have you done?”
“Not me.” Marcus’s lips turned up in a smile. “This… is all on you, my King.”
“Arrogant bastard.” I shoved him aside and pulled open the door. .
“John?” I whispered.
John’s eyes widened and then narrowed as he whispered in a low voice. “You.”
“John.” I shook my head, unable to process how he was standing in front of me. Had he been given immortality? Was this Sariel’s doing? How was he alive? He should have died in Greece.
“You killed her!” John screamed. “And you will die for it. You will all die.”
Stephanie stood in front of me just as John charged, with a flick of her wrist she slammed him against the wall and then covered her mouth as if shocked that she was able to do it in the first place.
John was knocked unconscious.
“Someone gave him immortality…” Marcus folded his arms as if he didn’t have a care in the world for the angry Demon. “And someone… is helping him create more Demon… almost as if…” Marcus’s grin was slow, as his teeth protruded into long yellow fangs. “… as if history is repeating itself, hmm Cassius?”
Mason howled.
For it had been Mason who had checked in on the children when it was too painful for me.
And it had been Mason, who had lost track of them.
A Wolf lost track of their scent.
A year after we saved them.
A year after her death.
It was as if they no longer existed.
“We’ll take him back,” I said.
“We’ll what?” Ethan repeated. “You’re kidding right? No chance in hell am I putting a Demon in my guest room!”
“Don’t be silly.” Alex flicked his hand. “We’ll put him in the dungeon. Been years since we’ve had a plaything in chains. Think of the Instagram posts we could have!”
Mason went over to John and leaned over his body. “It is him, it is his scent. Do we know who did this to him?”
Marcus sighed. “Your guess is as good as mine, but he knows how to create. And has been creating for the past three weeks. We’ve killed off the ones that were… created wrong.”
“And when you say created… wrong?” Stephanie asked.
Marcus swallowed. “Immortality does not always take.”
Stephanie shared a look with me, but I shook my head, it was for another time. After all, it was no fairy tale, the deformities that attacked a human body when it rejected immortality.
“Thank you.” Offering thanks to the Demon was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do, but he had helped us. “What is it you hope to gain from helping the council?”
Marcus licked his lips. “There is a human girl. She was created, she’s… I feel for her. I do not wish to destroy her, nor do I wish for her death. If you could…” Marcus eyes were pleading. Oh hell, I knew what he was going to ask.
“Everyone leave but Stephanie,” I whispered.
Ethan growled, “Like hell, Cassius.”
“Am I not your king? Have I not spoken?” The air swirled around us in a shade of white hot icicles.
Hissing, Ethan took a step back. He could by all rights kick my ass and leave me for dead, but in front of Marcus he had to pretend that I held all the power. “Try not to die, King.”
Alex chuckled while Mason shot a worried glance in my direction. A bunch of women! I was fine!
I didn’t want to use Stephanie in that way, it would be grueling to try to protect my thoughts while she invaded me.
With both hands I clapped once and opened my palms together as moisture gathered between my fingers. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on sucking the moisture and then forced it around Marcus’s head, first blinding him, and then causing him to be in an essential bubble so he could not hear, see, taste, feel, smell, he simply ceased to exist.
For ten minutes.
It took every ounce of power I had.
Leaning against Stephanie, I could barely lift my head as I whispered in her ear. “He wants his soul back.”
Stephanie clung to my body, “Cassius, we don’t do that. We’re not the freaking Grim Reaper!”
“Who?” I repeated. “Is a Grim a type of Angel?”
“Never mind.” She rolled her eyes. “And why did you do that? You just used all of the Angel blood you had!”
“Had to,” I gasped. “You need to make him think we gave him his soul back… and you need to put a mark of protection over him.”
“A what and a what?” Stephanie said, teeth clenched. “Cassius, I can barely get angry without killing things! You want me to concentrate hard enough to mark him and make him believe something took place that didn’t actually take place?”
“To be fair…” Damn it, she smelled good, my hands just naturally went to her long dark hair, tangled in it, tugged. “I’ll be doing it, but we’ll be joined in body and soul, therefore you’ll be watching.”
“So…” Her breathing accelerated. “You’ll be possessing me?”
“No.” I chuckled. “You’ll be possessing me, more like joining.”
“How do we… um…” She shook her head. “Stop distracting me!” Taking a step back, so I stumbled toward her, she asked, “How do we join?”
“I need your hand, we need to be touching. We have around six minutes left. Better make it fast.” I was enjoying her hesitation more than I thought I would. “Open your palm.”
Stephanie chewed her bottom lip and stepped closer to me. Her right hand trembled violently as she held it out, palm up. “Now what?”
I pressed my palm flat against hers, my fingers gripping into her wrist as I pulled her flush against me, our mouths fused in a frenzied kiss as light exploded between us.
Already I could sense her awe at the brilliant light, of the drunken power that surrounded us. But her wonder would be short—lived because where light existed, darkness always followed. It was the gamble we made, why we were called Dark Ones. We could not use one half of ourselves without leaving ourselves exposed to the other.
The light was swallowed up by a swirl of icy black as it wrapped around both of our arms linking them together.
Stephanie gasped as our minds linked.
It was dangerous.
As a human, I was Pandora without a box. With everything I had, I focused our attention on Marcus. Away from me, away from my thoughts, my desires, away from her.
Watch. I whispered into her head.
Her eyes widened.
Marcus. You have been restored. I mouthed the words.
Marcus’s body relaxed as I lifted my free hand, the one not linked. Palm open the black from Marcus’s body slowly twirled away from him like I was spinning wool, it wrapped around my free hand, leaving him bathed in light. He convulsed as his body fought to take demonic form.
Light and dark would always fight for dominance.
But light. Light was better at winning.
Finally, a cry broke free from his lips as the water evaporated around him, his blue eyes opened.
“He is free?” Stephanie’s voice sounded in my head.
“He is has been given a second chance to get his soul back, since Marcus’s was taken from him by another greedy Demon… it seems that he has been given a trial. If he proves faithful, he will be restored. There are always second chances.”
“But what if he’s a horrible human? What if”—
“That is not our decision to make. As Dark Ones, we do not pass judgment. We simply create the opportunity for judgment to be passed. Sariel will watch him. It is out of our hands now.”
Marcus crumpled to the ground.
John was still out.
“I can’t handle your power much longer.”
Stephanie nodded.
“I will collapse from exhaustion after this. Have Ethan and Mason carry me to the car. Our link is still very active. Wait until the warmth is gone.”
“Warmth?” Stephanie repeated and then laughed. “You’re right. I feel… so warm! Why do I feel warm”?
“Linked. Dark Ones linked creates a firestorm of darkness.”
“Why don’t we do this all the time?”
“Because two Dark Ones cannot co-exist in this state very long without one killing the other. And because once we use the light—our darkness also links—it could easily overtake us both if we stay this way.”
She recoiled.
“Thought you’d feel that way. Thank you for allowing me use of your powers.”
I pulled my hand away and succumbed to the darkness that I knew my human body would not be able to process or handle.
And as my eyes closed, all I saw was black.