Chapter 120: Chapter Twenty-Six

Hope

“Tell me about the elves,” I asked after the third Disney movie. Mason was relentless. All he wanted to do was watch Lion King.

I finally convinced him to watch something that wasn’t a cartoon and ended up regretting it immediately when he started howling at the screen.

I covered my ears. “What are you doing?”

“It’s a car chase.” Ethan slipped into the room, his tone bored.

“He wants to chase the car.”

“Go to—”~Howl~. “Hell, Ethan!”

I quickly fast forwarded through that specific scene of Furious Seven and winced as Mason jumped up onto the couch with his feet and started panting.

“Okay, so no action films for you. Check.”

Ethan was back in the room laughing before disappearing again.

“What’s he doing?” I elbowed Mason.

“Research.” Mason didn’t take his eyes off the screen. “Cassius and Ethan have been pouring over ancient texts for weeks now. Nothing seems to be helpful, and Cassius is only allowed to see so much of the future, and when the future is tied to us, it is quite often blocked.”

I frowned as a chill spread over my body. “So, he’s not all-knowing?”

Mason tilted his head thoughtfully. “He knows what he needs to know. Beyond that, he can’t use any of his powers to force a human’s hand. At least not anymore.”

My thoughts drifted back to the day Cassius passed me in the compound and told me about my promotion.

Promotion my ass!

Had I known I was going to become a mate to a sex-crazed maniac and end up getting wolf spit on me, I think I would have said “pass.”

I chewed my lip. Maybe.

Images of Alex surged to the forefront of my mind.

I wanted him.

Again.

Seconds after Alex left me with Mason, Mason had gotten a text and then with jerky movements, had re-set the clock on the nightstand.

It was like getting punched in the face.

I wanted more than that.

More than his touch, more than the feel of him. Being with him physically was one thing— but that was as far as it extended.

It was like every time I pushed him, he backed off when really all I wanted him to do was fight me.

Or maybe just fight for me.

“I feel your sadness,” Mason said in a thick voice as he plopped down next to me. “It’s choking.”

“Oh.” I tucked my feet under my body and grabbed the nearest blanket. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you could feel emotions like that.”

“All immortals can. My abilities are a bit sensitive when it comes to you.” He flushed. “After…” With a cough and a flick of his wrist, he waved me off. “You know.” He frowned and then shook his shaggy head.

“The sex?” I helped out with a laugh.

He barked his own laugh and smiled. “Yeah. That. Though it always feels… like more with you, ever since we first met.”

“Familiar, right?”

“Very.” He nodded.

“So, the elves.” I tried again. “Tell me about them.”

He stared down at his hands, licking his lips before whistling out of the side of his mouth.

Cold air hit me in the face as Cassius suddenly towered over both of us.

“Yes?”

“History lesson. Elves 101.” Mason jabbed a finger in my direction. “It’s time, and you’re a better storyteller.”

Cassius’s eyes went solid white as he leaned over me and briefly touched my forehead.

It felt like I was falling into a pit of emptiness, and then my feet hit solid ground.

Cassius and Mason flanked either side of me and I had to briefly wonder if that was my future, the immortal sandwich.

I shivered as snow began to fall across my face, and then I realized it wasn’t because I was cold, but because it looked cold, so my body responded in the only way it knew how.

“You’ll get used to it.” Cassius shrugged. “Come.”

I followed him up a snowy trail through a forest that shimmered with each step I took. It felt like the stars were closer somehow, like we were reaching the sky but on earth still.

We stopped at the top of the hill.

Cassius’s black and red hair chilled until pieces of ice formed around some of the wet pieces kissing the edges of his jaw, causing a layer of frost to cover his lips.

When I looked back at Mason, he had his shirt off. “What?” He shrugged. “It’s hot.”

Immortals.

“Elves are a very old, purely female race, born before the immortals needed humans to mate. Many of them were killed off in the First Great War. One hundred escaped—five survived.” A large fire rolled down the hill consuming every tiny house, every piece of forest, lighting it up into an explosive flame.

And the man.

The same man from the compound, the one who had marked me, Timber, walked amongst the flames completely untouched.

He lifted his hand into the air and the flames stopped. His gaze snapped to mine, a cruel smile crossed his features before he was stabbed in the back by one of his men.

The steel went completely through his armor.

I gasped.

And tried to run to him but Cassius grabbed my arm before I could get one foot in front of the other.

He collapsed across one of the elves he had just killed.

Rather than find joy in his apparent death, the woman cupped his bloodied body with her hands and slowly began sucking away the black blood; it stained her teeth while she sucked.

“What’s she doing?”

“Making him whole,” Mason said, dumbfounded.

He was nearly sucked dry; his skin had even turned to normal color, his eyes flashed a bright blue before she pressed her cuts to his, the blood mixing, fusing together.

And like watching a light get shut off, hers faded completely into his body.

He stood and touched his chest.

No wound.

A trail of blood ran down his cheek, scarring the right side.

“There is only one reason a demon cries red, and this is why. Timber was the first demon to weep over a lost life.”

Timber fell to his knees and yelled out a gut-wrenching scream. “WHY!”

And suddenly a man I didn’t recognize was at his side. He looked a lot like Cassius. His jet-black hair was tied at the nape of his neck, his eyes white; he knelt next to Timber and whispered, “You have been raised for a time such as this.”

“Did you know?” Mason interrupted the scene by asking Cassius a question.

“I have not seen this past. My vision of the elves has always ended when Timber is revived.”

“What is this?” Mason asked in a humbled whisper.

Cassius exhaled slowly. “It seems, the past has finally invaded our future.”

The man next to Timber spoke again. “Protect her when no one else will… I command you. You will forget all of this until she awakens.”

“And if I fail?” Timber asked.

“Do. Not. Fail.” Each word was said so loudly, with such finality, that I had to cover my ears. The man disappeared into thin air.

And when Timber turned toward the rest of his followers, the ones still alive, the demons still crawling all over the mass of dead bodies, he did something incredible.

“Find the ones who still live. Save them all. Burn the rest. Tell no one of what you’ve seen here. We have a new master.”

They fell to their knees.

“Not me,” he whispered in a choked up voice.

“But soon… she will smell like life and death. She will reek of resurrection. She will be life itself. She is our… Hope.”

The vision ended.

I collapsed on the couch, covered head to toe in a cold, wet frost.

“Well, that didn’t go as planned.” Mason shook his hair wildly like a dog as pieces of icicles impaled themselves on the coffee table.

Cassius had a faraway look on his face.

Ethan ran into the room. “Did I just hear you right?”

Cassius nodded and turned to him. “We’ve been looking in the wrong place this entire time.”

All eyes fell to me.

I had a bad feeling.

“Bannik is not their true leader.” Cassius whispered. “She is.”