Cassius
“SLOW DOWN,” ETHAN HISSED out of the corner of his mouth as I tore off another hunk of warm bread and shoved it into my mouth. “You look like a damn animal.”
“Mason.” Alex nodded thoughtfully. “I imagine he looks like Mason does when he feeds.”
Mason let out a low growl and clutched his beer tightly with his hand—though that same hand was shaking, his nails elongating. Alex better watch it lest he get his throat slit before dessert.
Ah, dessert.
I patted my stomach.
Why hadn’t the hunger subsided?
I reached for the bread basket. Empty. Damn. “Who ate all the bread?”
“You.” Genesis smothered a laugh. “What? You blacked out during the last of the loaf?”
“I uh…” My cheeks heated. “Sorry.”
“Gasp.” Alex said in a monotone voice. “I wasn’t aware that word was in your vocabulary.”
I ignored his jab. “Alex, make yourself useful, seduce the waitress and get more bread.”
“You know, that technically breaks council rules.” Alex grinned. “Seducing a human woman for a Dark One’s benefit.”
Ethan groaned and pinched his nose. “For the love of God, Alex, just do it, Genesis is starving, I can hear her hunger, which in turn makes me hungry, and nobody wants to see me bite.”
Mason shrugged. “I don’t know. It would be kinda nice, dinner and a show…”
Stephanie stifled a laugh. “Maybe Alex doesn’t think he can do it anymore… lost your touch, brother?”
His eyes narrowed just as the waitress came by again. I think his hesitation had more to do with the fact that she was in her late seventies, and looked like someone’s nice old grandma—the grandma who knits sweaters for Christmas and crafts homemade cards for every special occasion.
“Are you ready to order?” She tilted her head. The nametag flashed Fran. Threads of silver hair wove around dark hair, all pulled tightly into a bun. “I see you’ve finished your bread.”
“One of us has,” Genesis grumbled in my direction.
I gave her an apologetic smile and received a kick from Ethan that hurt like hell, did the man forget I was breakable? He’s lucky he didn’t break my leg in half!
“Fran,” Alex said in a smooth voice, his blue eyes brightened, his skin took on a flawless appearance, his words were spoken slowly in a lazy drawl that had Fran leaning forward, eyes heavy. “I know we’re only now ordering but is there any way we can get our food… say, in a few minutes? We’re positively…” he licked his lips. “Starved.”
“Too far.” Mason coughed under his breath.
Fran blinked. “Yes well, yes that… that would be nice.”
“Two orders of the filet mignon.” Alex grinned. “Six orders of the New York Strip, six Caesar salads, and I think we’ll also take some more bread.”
Fran wrote everything down and then glanced up. “I’ll be sure to get this to you as soon as possible.”
She didn’t move.
Alex yawned.
Stephanie smacked him across the chest.
His smile was anything but guilty. “Oh thanks Fran, you’re dismissed.”
“But…” Her eyebrows pinched together, like she was trying to solve a puzzle. This was the problem with Sirens. They flirted, they gave off such an intense emotional charge that if they didn’t follow through, usually, the spell was broken within minutes. He had to touch her to solidify it—kissing her would be better. I’d known Alex for a long time—I imagined he was too lazy to do either.
With a sigh he slowly rose from his seat and reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips with a quick kiss.
Fran flashed a toothy smile and walked off.
I gave one solitary clap. “Could you have gone any slower?”
“Could you be any more jealous?” he countered.
“Of your love affair with the elderly?” I tilted my head. “Jealousy wasn’t really the word I was thinking.”
“You’re welcome.” He leaned back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head. “At least now you won’t have to resort to eating the table cloth.”
“You can eat the table cloth?”
“Sarcasm!” Alex said in an exasperated tone. “Learn it!”
I smirked. “I was kidding.”
You’d think I’d just announced I was going to go on a killing spree. All eyes fell to me, movement ceased.
“What?” I reached for my water and took a tentative sip.
“Dark Ones don’t joke.” Mason said seriously. “Did this whole humanity thing also replace your personality?”
I glowered. “Really, it’s like you’re begging me to kill you once this is finished.”
“And what is this?” Ethan’s eye narrowed. “You haven’t really said. And I can’t imagine you taking this type of… test sitting down.”
“Standing.” I licked my lips. “I was standing actually.”
“Sariel said nothing else?” Stephanie asked, her voice dripping with doubt. “Nothing about his reasoning?”
My mind flashed back to a few days earlier, when I offered up everything for a chance at—everything. A chance to fix an error.
A lapse in judgment.
The council members, the individuals sitting at that very table, knew me the best.
They’d seen me raze cities. Save lives. And do my fair share of destroying.
Yet even they didn’t believe me capable of having a shred of humanity. Which in turn made me question everything I’d come to know about myself. Was I their leader because they respected me?
No.
I was their leader.
Because they feared me.
Because they had no choice.
They weren’t my friends, hardly even colleagues. It had never been so painfully apparent as it was in that moment.
I truly had nothing in this world.
And maybe that was Sariel’s plan all along, his last cruel trick. Make the Dark One—who has no feelings—feel.
Because I felt a hell of a lot while I sat there.
Shame, disappointment, rage, embarrassment.
I felt it all.
And I had nobody to blame but myself.