Cassius
HE WAS GOING TO be angry.
I knew it in the way the tense air pumped around me, fanned, as if Sariel’s feathers were flapping against the air—assaulting would be a more accurate word.
I clutched Stephanie’s hand as we entered the kitchen.
Had Sariel’s face not been void of any sort of happy emotion or amusement, it would have been funny, seeing an Angel seated at the kitchen table, tapping his rather large fingertips against the wood table only to get agitated and take a sip of coffee then shiver as if the taste not only repulsed him but offended every fiber of his being.
Purple and blue feathers shuddered, as if they, too, experienced the taste of the coffee and found it lacking.
Mason’s jaw ticked as he braced himself against the counter, his muscles bulging with the need to fight and protect his family.
The only family the Wolf had.
What a sad, mismatched bunch. What a weird world, to live in a world where the Wolf’s pack consisted of Sirens, Dark Ones, and Vamps.
Mason’s eyes flashed to mine before his fingernails dug into the granite counter tops, leaving little marks of agitation before the oven made a loud ding. Sariel’s eyes jerked to attention, locking with mine.
I smirked. “Staying for dinner?”
“It smells…” His nose curled up. “Like meat.”
Mason let out a loud, aggressive snort. “It’s ham.”
“I don’t care to eat animals.”
Alex plopped down next to Sariel in an entirely too careless manner. “Hear that Mason? He’s not going to eat you.”
Another growl erupted from the kitchen as Mason started tossing around pots and pans, purposely slamming them against the granite so they made a loud noise.
His thoughts were just as loud.
But I chose to ignore them, shutting off what I knew wasn’t my cross to bear. To listen in on Mason’s thoughts was to experience raw pain over and over again. There was never a pause in his emotions, in the bleeding of his soul, the only balm in his otherwise dark life.
Was Genesis.
Proven yet again, when she quietly joined him in the kitchen, pressing her hand against his.
Light burst, pushing its way through his dark morose thoughts, calming the beast inside as they continued working in silence.
“Interesting.” Sariel’s eyes narrowed in on them.
Clearly he noticed the same exchange.
“Why are you here?” I pulled out a chair and all but shoved Stephanie into it then managed to push it away so that I was between her and Sariel, exactly where I needed to be.
“I think you know why.” His voice held a raw destructive edge as his eyes flashed white. The blue and purple feathers shuddered red before returning back to the violet hues.
I made eye contact with Ethan as he moved himself between Genesis and Sariel and stood directly behind the Angel, ready to make a move if I needed him to, ready to commit an unfathomable crime in order to not only protect his mate, but mine.
I’d underestimated his friendship. Greatly.
To kill an Angel is inviting a soulless existence, death, nothingness.
But he’d do it.
For his family.
“I’m restored,” I finally announced.
“Not that.” he snapped. “Do I look like an idiot?”
Alex opened his mouth to speak but I sent him a seething glare of shut the hell up before he pouted and waited for more information.
“No,” I answered for everyone. “But you’re making Genesis nervous. You know it’s impossible for a human to be in your presence too long without… heart problems.”
“Genesis,” Sariel said her name with reverence. “How are the twins?”
All talking and thinking ceased in that damn room.
“Healthy.” She answered in a bold voice. “Thank you for asking.”
Sariel’s eyes went white. “It will be a hard birth.”
“If it were easy men would do it.”
Alex burst out laughing.
While Sariel’s mouth curved into an amused smile. “I think you’ve made your point.”
Genesis bowed behind him while Mason started slamming plates again.
“We can talk about your mating at a later date. Right now, I have more pressing matters…. say, matters that deal with life and death, the death of a certain Demon, and the secrets he may or may not have spilled before his blood stained your hands.” Sariel said the words with such indifference, my body trembled.
Did lives matter to him?
And why did they suddenly matter to me?
Why did I suddenly care about the Demon’s blood downstairs? Or the lives that could be lost because of the secret he held?
Why did I care?
The answer?
Came to me as Stephanie lightly brushed the back of my neck with her fingertips.
Her.
It was because of her.
I cared because I loved her.
Her love made me feel.
All the things I’d pushed away.
The Darkness told me it was dangerous to feel.
The Darkness was right.
Because in feeling—I cared—I wanted fairness. I wanted equality. I wanted peace.
Hell, I wanted the impossible.
“So.” Sariel stood, his feathers brushing from one edge of the room to the other, nearly pushing Mason to the floor as they spread wide in their vibrancy. “I simply came to ask what you’ve done. What all of you—” He turned only slightly since his wings blocked his ability to twist completely around. “—have done.”
“We–” I stood to my full height, which matched Sariel’s, though I had no wings; being a victim of the curse I was semi grounded. “—can ask the same question of you… can we not?”
Sariel’s face twisted into a knowing smile. “I always wondered when this day would come. There were times I doubted it. Especially when Eva came along, throwing you off your purpose, your destiny.” He shook his head. “And now look… still weakened by emotion. Will you never learn, my son? Emotions are frivolous, a curse upon the human race, one you bear because of your parentage. Give into that emotion, and you will only feel pain.”
“I’d rather feel… something,” I answered.
“Oh you will…” He glanced behind me at Stephanie. “Believe me, it will be the greatest pain of your existence. Now.” He rubbed his hands together. “Direct me to the blood. If you would.”
Mumbling out a curse, I clapped open my hands. “No need.” The blood from downstairs spread between my fingertips, the different flecks of colored dust spread around the table. A possibility only because the blood was mixed with Angel blood.
Sariel stumbled backward.
“I think that means he didn’t know,” Alex whispered loudly.
“Don’t Angels know everything?” Genesis mused out loud.
“Do I look all knowing?” Sariel fired back. “Believe me, life would be so much easier if I saw every angle. I see three and a half.”
“Three and a half?” Genesis asked. “Three and a half what?”
“Sides.” Sariel picked up the dust between his forefinger and thumb, rubbing it together as the red parts of the blood stuck to his fingertip, clearly wanting to bond again with its true purpose. “I see every side, but half of a side is missing. It keeps me loyal.”
Alex coughed wildly, and I shared an amused look with him while he shrugged his shoulders.
“The Demon…” Sariel sighed. “Are more trouble than they are worth.”
“And we keep them around because… why?” Alex yawned. “Just say the word and I’ll go all Siren on their asses.”
“I think they’d enjoy that way too much,” Ethan teased.
“No.” Sariel dusted his hands together. “We do this the right way. There’s no need to start a war, and there certainly isn’t any need to exterminate an entire race just because they’ve been bad. Think of what would have happened with Dracula.” All eyes turned to Ethan.
“Horrible example,” Ethan grumbled.
“Cassius, since you’ve discovered the answer to your little riddle, your thirty days are now over.” He snapped his fingers. “You are fully restored and are ordered to immediately investigate, with your mate’s help, the sudden influx of Demon.”
“And the Angel blood?” Mason asked. “Where the hell are they getting it?”
“Cease from cursing in my presence,” Sariel snapped. “And if I knew I’d tell you.”
A wry grin widened Alex’s mouth. “That damned missing half side of things…”
Sariel shot him a withering glance, and the grin faded.
“So, it’s only us then?” I braved the question. “Just me and Stephanie?”
Silence answered us, and then, “You have your orders. Keep me updated.”
He moved away from the kitchen, as his wings disappeared, replaced by a leather jacket and dark-wash jeans.
“So he uses the front door now?” Alex asked.
My skin prickled with awareness. It was too easy.
The entire thing was too easy.
And if there was anything I’d learned in my time on earth, it was that things were never as easy as they seemed.
“Wait here,” I whispered to Stephanie, following Sariel out the door.
His footsteps crunched against the gravel and then he stopped, lifting his eyes heavenward as stars shone down on both of us. Only I was still blanketed in darkness—the light couldn’t shine on a Dark One.
We weren’t given the honor.
Only Angels.
Pure bloods.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” I asked.
Sariel pointed up to the sky. “How many do you think… look down on us… wish for more than their existence? None. I would venture none. Do you know why Cassius?”
More riddles. Just my luck. “No. No, I do not.”
“Because their purpose is to shine, not to have an opinion or feelings. They rest in the occupation they have been given, and they excel at it.”
“Yes.” A few more stars twinkled down, casting a light glow across Sariel’s face.
He turned to me, his eyes white. “Ask your question, son.”
“A vision…” I nearly choked with the horribleness of it. “Stephanie saw the future, a future, she was killing me. You stood behind her.”
Sariel didn’t look surprised, if anything, his shoulders seemed to slump, his glow, defeated. “Yes.”
“I die by her hand?”
“Futures… can change,” he said in a chilling voice. “Though I’ve only seen it change once with an immortal.”
“Once?”
His eyes went white again. “With you… your future changed the minute you saved the girl from death. Your future was certain, set in stone, until you chose.”
“I’ve always had free will.”
He posed a question. “But how often have you acted on it?” He held out his hand in front of him, closed it tightly then opened it as a small flower began to grow. “This flower does not choose to be planted, it simply is. What would happen, do you think, if the flower decided it wanted to be planted elsewhere, if it demanded of its creator to be given an entirely new occupation, a new existence, and this creator, in his divine love for this flower… allowed it.”
“The flower…” I swallowed even though my mouth had gone dry. “Not knowing the dangers of life, could ask to be planted in the water, on a hill without sunshine, the flower could die, the chances are, the flower will die—if left to its own devices.”
“Yet.” Sariel held up his hand. “It’s allowed… because one cannot truly love something yet keep it in a safe little box. That is not love. Love does not hold back, it allows us to fall, to break, and yes Cassius, sometimes, it even allows us to die.”
“You’re not making me feel better.”
“I never was good at these sorts of talks.” A foreign chuckle escaped between his lips and closed his hands. “I see many futures for you. I also am purposefully blinded from several outcomes. But I will tell you this. If she does not learn to control the Darkness, if you do not help her, she will kill you. And I will have no choice but to help her, or she will destroy herself in the process.”
I sucked in a breath. “You’d help her kill me?”
“To save the girl you love? To save your mate? What would you have me do, let you both die?”
“No.”
“Then you have your answer.” He nodded curtly. “You’ve had centuries of practice. She’s had a week, and if she’s not careful, she’ll get drunk on the power, she’ll allow it to consume her, you realize how the Darkness calls… it never screams your name.” He leaned in close his eyes turning black. “It whispers.”