He disappeared into the shadows just as Sariel appeared to my right, his feathers sticking straight up as if offended by the scent of a Demon, the mere fact that he still lingered in the air.
“You’re late.” I sighed. “He’s already gone.”
“Not late,” Sariel answered. “I was here the whole time.”
“Well, you weren’t very helpful.”
“Did you need my help?” he countered, his white eyes growing wide with light.
I swallowed and looked down, crossing my arms. “No.”
“He knows too much.”
“And yet you let him live.” I tilted my head. “Riddle me this, Sariel. Why, all those years go, didn’t you destroy the Demon? We’re on the brink of war, we have Demon creating more Demon, using who knows what to do it, and this all could have been prevented.”
“Light and dark cannot exist without one another.” That was the same thing he’d said to Cassius, but this time, it was in the present, and I was standing there, not worn out from fighting, or being pulled toward the darkness, so I tasted it.
A faint bitterness floated by my mouth.
With a gasp I took a step backward. “You just lied!”
Sariel’s body stiffened. “I did not lie. I simply did not tell you the whole truth.”
“Omission is still lying.”
“Is it?”
“Stop asking questions to my questions! Why do you let them live?” I charged toward him, allowing the anger and confusion to spread out my arms and slamming my hands against his rock hard chest. Of course, he didn’t move, but that wasn’t the point, the point was I was angry, so angry that he was ignoring a simple solution.
With a haggard sigh, Sariel grabbed me by the wrists and thrust me back, I flew ten feet into the air and landed on my hands and knees.
My head jerked up as he held out his hand and pulled me back to my feet. “Never.” His voice was low, filled with anger. “Touch me. Again.”
“Sorry.” I shrank back while he dusted off his pristine black leather jacket and designer jeans.
“You want the truth.”
“Yes.”
Sariel looked up toward the night sky, then closed his eyes as a flicker of light shone down on him. “I refuse to watch more death than is necessary. I know Cassius showed you. My job was to stay awake, to watch. My job…” He turned his head to the side, his features twisted in utter agony. “…is still to roam this realm, to watch.” He swallowed and closed his eyes again, this time keeping them closed as he pressed his hands to his face then spoke. “Don’t you see? I cannot watch it again. I refuse to watch those I love suffer. I refuse to watch them die.”
“People die every day.”
“Yes.”
“Immortals don’t.”
Sariel nodded. “But they can.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Then let me speak plainly.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “If I kill the Demon. You and Cassius will both die. I wipe out their race, and you will cease to exist, dust to dust. Is that plain enough for you?”
My eyes widened, “But, the war—”
“To keep their numbers down, for they’re a gossiping sort. They horde together, make plans, but up until now they have been silent. They’ve been silent for a thousand years. And now, they are at it again, and it will be your job to squelch the uprising before it is too late.”
My mind finally caught up with what he was saying.
“Why would we die… if the Demon race was annihilated?”
Sariel’s eyes were sad, but he said nothing.
Instead, he reached out and touched my face with his fingertips.
And disappeared.
Was it seconds? Minutes? Or hours? I had no idea how much time I spent staring off into space, wondering what my next course of action should be. All I knew was that I had a suspicion Cassius was in the dark just as much as I was, and that maybe, maybe it was time for someone to do something.
Cassius’s self-deprecating thoughts had always affected me, made me afraid of what I had inside, afraid of the darkness, afraid of what would happen if I lost control. It was a juxtaposition, being told not to be afraid yet seeing what we were capable of if we did fall off that cliff.
How was I supposed to stay strong when every fiber of my being told me I should be leery? When I saw thousands of years of war, when I witnessed firsthand the way he was conceived into this world.
Air brushed past my cheek.
Had my relationship to Cassius come to this? Me keeping secrets while he watched and waited for me to snap?
Waited for me to kill him?
The vision of the knife in his chest while he fell to the ground seared through my memory.
Why would I do that?
Why would I hurt him purposely?
The answer came swifter than I thought.
Because as strong as I was—Cassius would always be stronger. He would eventually hunt me, track me, find me. I couldn’t keep my walls up forever.
But injured?
I shivered.
And knew, as the wind picked up and swirled like madness around me, what I had to do.
Oddly, as I took those first steps toward the house it wasn’t Darkness rejoicing, it wasn’t warmth I felt, but a deep sense of cold, and that was the most comforting thought at all, as I grabbed the knife I knew Ethan kept in the hall closet right along with a few guns—not that he’d ever used them.
I thumbed the blade.
Not the twist I thought our fairy tale would take.
Not at all.
Cassius
THE THOUGHT THAT I didn’t still have my immortality never crossed my mind, and frankly, I didn’t want to take any chances. I would call upon Sariel once Stephanie returned.
If she returned.
She would return.
The last few hours had been a painful reminder of the way she’d blocked me from her consciousness, her thoughts, her feelings, everything. All I saw was a shield every time I tried to communicate with her.
The front door opened and closed.
Her scent hit me first.
Another door opened.
Curious, I waited, it was closed faster, more abrupt, as if she had thought about slamming it but decided against it.
Footsteps followed.
And then Stephanie was standing in front of me. Slowly, I lifted my head, unsure of what I’d find. Would her eyes be black? Was Darkness finally having the last laugh? Or was it truly a simple walk?
Genesis had gone to bed hours ago.
Leaving me by the fire.
Though it did nothing to aid the cold seeping throughout my body.
“I saw Timber,” Stephanie whispered. Her eyes were a clear blue. “He said some… things.”
“Timber likes to talk.” My eyes narrowed. “What the hell would he want with you?”
Stephanie crossed her arms in front of her chest, taking a protective stance against me, not only was I dealing with mental walls but physical too. “He hinted at something… and then Sariel…”
“Sariel.” I said his name. “Was he helpful?”
“He said—” She bit down on her lower lip, opened her mouth, then shut it. “You know what? I’m tired… why don’t we go to bed?”
The air filled with bitterness.
A chasm opened up between us, separating me from her, her heart from mine. My soul screamed in outrage.
Lies were like little walls shoved between someone you loved, eventually, you’d have so much separation, so much mistrust, that you’d become strangers.
Why push me away?
When all I wanted was to hold her close?
Was her connection to me different? I could hardly go five seconds without wanting to kiss her, make love to her, simply hold her in my arms and calm her racing heart.
“I love you.” Stephanie’s eyes filled with tears. “You know that right?”
I stood and pulled her into my arms. “I love you
too.”
“So you also know that…” She sniffled. “Sometimes, when you love someone, you make sacrifices.”
I didn’t like the direction she was going.
I pulled back from her, just in time for a knife to slide between my ribs and stick.
With a gasp, I stumbled backward as a mixture of red and silver blood leaked out of the gaping wound. “Why?”
“I needed time.” She quickly pushed past me. “To figure things out before you followed me, and I figured, you can’t chase me if you’re bleeding. It will at least give me a few minutes.”
A few minutes where I couldn’t trace her.
“Stephanie.” I jerked the knife out of my ribs and held my hand to the wound as blood continued to seep between my fingers in a runny-sticky mess. “Don’t do this. Let me help you.”
“Ever think that maybe, what I’m doing, is helping you?” she countered. Then she ran out of the house while I fell to my knees and screamed her name.
Stephanie
“TIMBER.” I WHISPERED HIS name into the air. I’d never summoned a Demon before. And wasn’t sure how exactly it worked, yet I had no choice but to try.
I continued running down the street, my feet taking me faster now that I was part Angel.
A half mile in, and a black Mercedes pulled up on the road, the back door opened.
Timber’s voice barked from the darkness. “Get in.”
His eyes slit vertically as they went from their normal clear blue color to a yellow. I wanted to shrink back. I was alone. With a very old Demon, one who hated my mate, hated me for some reason.
Hated his existence?
“Not too far off, Angel.” He smiled then tipped back a thick red liquid, the smell of earth filled the air. “Human blood, my pet.”
“I thought only Vampires drank blood.”
“It’s an acquired taste, also a necessity if we want to keep human form. Do they teach you nothing these days?” He laughed. “But of course they don’t, the council is perfectly happy keeping their innocent little female in the dark, just like Cassius.”
“That’s why I’m here.” I cleared my throat. “What are—”
“No,” Timber rasped. “Not in the car, and definitely—” He shivered and glanced outside as the trees filled with watchful eyes of the Werewolves, the ones who protected Ethan’s house. “—not around those who have perfect hearing.”
We drove in silence to downtown Seattle.
Once we were in front of yet another one of the bars Timber owned, the car door opened and another Demon helped me out.
The club was dark, humans danced in mindless abandon. They laughed, took shots of whiskey and tequila, danced around poles.
While Demon sat in the darkest corners.
And watched.
One crooked his finger at a human female. She giggled and walked over to him, straddled his lap and started kissing his neck.
I shivered. “Your kind disgusts me.”
“Hah.” Timber slid his hand down my back. “It shouldn’t.”
Being in their little den of sin was so not where I wanted to be spending the evening, but I needed answers, and I was tired of Cassius being the pawn.
It was time for someone else to take the brunt.
And although I sensed the darkness, I was too focused on my mission to pay attention it.
Maybe that’s what Cassius meant? Why Eva had helped him so much? As long as you had something else anchoring you—you could ignore the darkness.
We stepped through a large hallway. A red door was positioned at the end. When we reached it, Timber knocked twice, and then opened the door, shutting it quietly behind us.
The office had no windows.
The walls were black.
Facing the door was a desk finished in rich mahogany red. Nice black leather couches lined the perimeter of the room. Each couch had purple velvet pillows. The entire room was gaudy, as if it belonged in another time period.
Not to the present.
The chair behind the desk was turned.
Someone was sitting in it, I could see the top of his or her head, but the color of the hair was unusual. Red and dark brown?
“So, she comes on her own.” The voice sounded so familiar, masculine, warm. The chair spun slowly.
With a gasp, I covered my mouth with my hands.
He smiled. “How nice… to meet you in person.”
“But…” I shook my head. “You’re Darkness…”
“I prefer the name Bannik.”
My world crumbled around my feet. Because Bannik had been Sariel’s brother, Bannik was there in the beginning.
He was also in my mind, though a dark black haze had always been in front of him, transforming his features.
But they were the same.
I felt it.
I knew it.
Terrified, I took a step back.
But Timber shoved me forward. I turned to punch him but he was already exiting the room, leaving me alone with—
I whipped my head around. “What are you?”
His black and red hair shimmered within the heat of the room as my body felt heavy.
“I believe the question that’s been plaguing your mind is… what… my dear…. are you?”
“I’m a Dark—“
“If you say Dark One I’ll simply laugh.” Bannik’s smile was cruel. “Did you know, I was never meant to be in the US? It wasn’t my territory. Twelve of us were sent to the ends of the earth to watch. Only this time, we knew human emotion. Imagine the difficulty in watching, helping humans keep the peace…. and knowing nothing but fighting and war? My brother was never good at following the rules, and I learned soon after, when he refused to see me because of his shame, that I was tired of following them as well.” He shrugged. “It seems that warmth… agrees with me.”
“You’re like Sariel,” I said dumbly.
“I’m exactly like Sariel.” He shifted in his seat. “If Sariel hadn’t repented.” He paused. “And so are you.”
“What?”
“Ever wonder why the darkness calls?” His smug laughter was grating on my nerves, along with the way he spoke down to me like I was stupid. “It calls because it is in your nature. But by all means, sugarcoat your true identity and call yourself a Dark One… yet you are still the same as I.”
I licked my dry lips. “An Angel?”
“Hah!” He clapped his hands. “You amuse me.” He spun his large body around in the chair before slamming his hands down on the desk. “You. Are. Evil.” His teeth snapped and popped as his jaw clenched together. “Humans and Angels do create half breeds, beings so powerful that they are condemned to the earth. But the half breeds must even make a choice, serve their angelic fathers… or follow after the ones that are fallen. You call yourself a Dark One, but really? You’re half of a Fallen Angel… just waiting to turn into a Demon.”
I let out a little gasp of disbelief. “But, Demon are a race. They’re in the immortal book as a race that was created—”
“Goody,” he said dryly while blocking a yawn with his large hand. “Please continue, don’t let me interrupt.”
My head was spinning out of control.
I opened my mouth, but he silenced me by holding his hand in the air. “Keeping you in the dark has always been the plan. After all, what do you think would happen if the rest of the immortals discovered that most Demon had angelic powers?”
I shook my head. “Most Demon I’ve met are weak creatures who prey on humans.”
Bannik stood, towering over his desk as claws seeped out of fingernails. “Oh?”
Swallowing, I took a healthy step back.
“You sense it even now.” His eyes closed for a few seconds, and when they opened, they were black, soulless. “When Angels give up, break the rules, or decide not to say sorry…” His laughter was deep, empty. “They are suddenly unwanted, sent to the earth for the rest of their miserable existence, most of them were under the impression that
they were like humans, without any sort of abilities. Until Sariel.”
“Sariel’s good,” I whispered.
“Sariel said sorry, but he was still punished, like the rest of us. Because of his mistake I will never again taste the air of heaven, or feel the warmth of the sun as it rises over the horizon. The earth no longer speaks to me. The mountains no longer sing in my presence, and when the moon makes its appearance it turns its face away in shame.” He lifted his hand into the air. “The tides pull away when I walk near the ocean, but I think,” His black eyes glistened, “The worst has to be the songs.”
I kept moving backward as he spoke, trying desperately to find the door knob.
“The melody of the earth as it tilts on its axis, the planets as they sing in their specific languages all joining together in the chorus of the universe.” He glared at me his black eyes locking in on mine, like a tractor beam pulling my feet toward him. “I can no longer hear the song of creation.”
“If it makes you feel better, I can’t hear it either.”
“Silly immortal, you hear it every day. Your human side is simply too busy ignoring it to pay attention, so busy with inconsistent emotional thoughts that, in the end, truly don’t matter. The worst part—” He laughed again. “—is walking by a human who by all means should hear the music, who hears it on a daily basis, and doesn’t appreciate its beauty. I’ve killed humans for less. I’ll continue to kill them in their ignorance.”
“And me?” I asked, “What about me?”
He grinned. “I no longer have any use for you.”
“So you’re going to kill me?”
“No.” He shrugged. “It seems I won’t need to, since you’ve cheerfully done the deed yourself. Killing your own mate, why, it seems the darkness truly has taken hold.”
“No!” I screamed, lunging for him. “I just slowed him down.”
“Oh, you slowed him down all right.” He cackled. “Even now his heart slows to the rhythm of death. What did you think? Immortality is a fickle thing, my dear. He’s your mate, your lives are interconnected in a very special way that I’m sure Sariel… omitted.”