Chapter 122: Chapter Twenty-Eight

Hope

“He doesn’t look good.” I gripped his hand like a lifeline. His gorgeous face was pale, even his lips lacked color; and the thing about Alex? His lips were always plump, colorful, juicy, just tempting anyone who had two working eyes to take a bite.

I shivered.

Mason shifted his weight on the other side of Alex then reached for his shirt and tore it off.

The smell of ash filled the room.

“It’s festering.” Mason sighed just as Ethan walked back in with Genesis. It had been hours since Cassius had left us. “It shouldn’t fester, demon bites never linger like this unless the host has untapped power.” He frowned harder. “This is not good.”

Hours and still no Timber.

Just seeing that man or demon again gave me the chills.

And not the good kind.

His eyes had been empty.

And his touch had felt… wrong. Foreign. Being around the rest of the immortals was uncomfortable enough but being around the demon had been… I couldn’t explain it, but it had felt, different.

And try as much as I wanted, I couldn’t get that stupid vision out of my head, the one where the demons bowed.

Queen.

It was impossible.

I watered plants for a living.

And was orphaned.

Cassius had tried to enter the past again, this time with all of us linked, and all we saw was the same vision again.

It always stopped when Timber commanded the rest of the demons to save the ones still on the brink of death.

Only, just before the dream ended, his eyes locked on mine, and I could have sworn he saw me.

Not in the past.

But as if, in the past, I had existed and he had seen me or seen what was to come.

It was the freakiest thing I’d ever experienced.

And nobody knew what it meant. If Cassius did, he had said nothing. Then again, I knew he wasn’t allowed to reveal possible futures.

If I were Cassius, I wouldn’t sleep at night.

Then again, ~did~ archangels with a bit of Dark One in their blood sleep?

A roaring filled the room.

Mason jolted from his spot on the bed and held his hand out to me in a cautious way as if to say don’t move.

His fingers elongated into massive claws.

It was like watching Wolverine transform right in front of me.

I told myself not to jump head first out the window. Normal. That was normal for Mason.

Normal, normal, normal.

The door to the room burst open.

I scurried against the headboard. Trapped. I was trapped. If Timber made it past Mason and Ethan I was going to die and—

Mason put his claws away. “Nice entrance.”

Timber’s clear blue eyes locked on mine before turning black. “Eh, I like to make a scene.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Ethan mumbled. “I take it Cassius handed you your own ass and told you to either get here or die?”

“It was hardly a fair fight,” Timber grumbled. “But I’m here. Besides, it is time.”

“Time?” I found my voice. “Time for what?”

“Please move away from the siren,” Timber commanded as he took slow predatory steps toward me, his fangs elongated over his bottom lip. No wonder Alex’s wound looked like a wild animal had torn into him.

“No.” Who was this girl willing to die for a man who set a freaking timer for sex? Not me. A protectiveness surged through me as I tried to instantly cover Alex’s body only to forget that touching him brought me pain.

Except this time it didn’t.

Which meant.

His face had gone ashen.

“What did you do to him?” I yelled.

“He’ll be fine…” Timber shrugged. “If.”

“If?”

“Come with me,” Timber was a foot away from me now, his hand outstretched toward me. “It is time.”

“Time for what!” I roared. “I don’t understand.”

The room froze.

It froze.

At least that was the only way I could explain it. Mason was reaching for Ethan, while Ethan took a protective stance in front of Genesis. Even Alex seemed to stop breathing.

“What did you do?” Panicked, I struggled to breathe. Tears welling in my eyes.

Timber’s eyes flashed black. “Party trick?”

“What?”

He reached out in a blur of movement and grabbed my chin between his thumb and forefinger. His touch felt warm, not cold or dead like I expected.

He grinned as if he could hear my thoughts.

“Right hand.” He moved swiftly, grabbing my right hand and pressing it against his chest. His heart thudded in a slow rhythm. Entranced, I pressed my palm against him, like my fingers wanted to feel the heartbeat, to know it was really happening. I kept my hand there. Demons had hearts? I had no clue, and yet, I did. Something wasn’t right.

Something felt… very wrong.

Because Timber— he hadn’t just been in the past visions.

“You,” I whispered. “I… know you.”

“I imagine,” Timber said in a hoarse voice, “that you know all of us, you simply don’t remember it, for reasons I’m sure will be revealed soon.”

Slowly, he knelt on his left knee and then his right, my hand slid up to his shoulder, as he bowed his head, and as if I was part of some weird ritual that had been inherent in me since birth I placed my hand on the back of his head.

That was crazy though, right? Something told me that logic wasn’t playing a role in any part of what was taking place.

Blue fire emerged from my palm and washed over him.

“Timber.” I barely got his name out before the fire enveloped his entire body. “Xypinos.”

I didn’t know the word.

I’d never spoken it in my life.

A jolt of power surged through my palm.

His head fell backward and then he stood, towering over me. “I am yours.”

“I don’t understand.”

He grabbed my arm, the one with the creepy black tattoo and kissed the inside of my wrist and then bit and sucked.

Black drained in a smoky haze from my arm into his lips as though he was drinking the power back into him.

When he was done, my arm was healed.

Completely.

“Come with me. Now,” he commanded, holding out his hand.

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what just happened, but Alex is dying and he’s my mate—”

“He will be your death. And I swore to protect you. Either you come with me and he lives, or I let him die.”

I looked between the two of them, my heart twisting, shattering into tiny pieces. “But I care about him. I can’t—”

“Make your choice.” Timber’s eyes glowed red. “Now.”

~Alex. I’m so sorry.

I’m so sorry. ~

He needed to live.

He had to live.

Slowly, I put my hand in Timber’s. He squeezed my fingers tightly and exhaled a puff of smoke in the air.

We walked by the frozen immortals and down the stairs.

Cassius was standing near the door; his feathers were purple, shedding a wet mist as he eyed us cautiously. “Keep her safe.”

“It is not me you have to worry about,” Timber said hoarsely. “I have seen his mind. He is not stable.”

“With her, he could be,” Cassius fired back. “But you have taken that from him, in more ways than one.”

“He killed an entire race,” Timber snarled. “A race I am honor bound to protect. So forgive me for not feeling more gracious right now. I saved his life. For her. Because she is our leader, our Hope. If he comes after her, there will be war.”

“There is always war,” Cassius said, his eyes flashing white.

“At least now we are not on opposing sides,” Timber finally broke eye contact and turned to me. “At least now we have her.”

“Bannik will stop at nothing to destroy her.”

“And I will stop at nothing to protect her.”

“You must know I have seen the futures, Timber. Her leaving does not end well, not for any of us.”

Timber hesitated, his eyes closing briefly before he shook his head slowly. “I cannot allow her to be where she isn’t safe.”

Cassius tilted his head as his eyes flashed white. “Perhaps, I can.”

An icy feeling ran through my body, lingering in my temples before disappearing altogether.

“We are at an impasse.” Cassius’s steely gaze never left Timber’s. I was terrified and had no idea what was going on other than I was leaving with a dangerous stranger who thought he had some sort of psychotic claim to me.

I shook my cloudy head.

What was happening?

Apparently, I knew some sort of foreign language and my head still felt mildly cold, like someone or something was inside it.

“Watch.” The voice whispered.

I gulped as Cassius stepped away from me.

What had just happened?

My movements felt fuzzy, unsure.

“We’ll be in touch,” Cassius opened the door wider. “But do not fault me, if Alex comes after her. They are mated — they will die without one another.”

“Tsk, tsk,” Timber scowled. “Telling the little human elf lies. Death only occurs if he loves her and she him… And the siren upstairs, the only thing he’s in love with… is himself.”

I jerked at the truth of his words. Waiting for Cassius to deny it. Waiting for him to tell me to run back into Alex’s arms.

Waiting for that love, I’d so desperately craved from anyone or anything all of my life.

But he said nothing.

“Good evening.”

That was it.

Timber opened the door to a black Mercedes and helped me inside. When he closed it softly behind me, I flinched.

Minutes later, we were pulling away from the only real home I’d ever known.

And seconds after that, I began to softly cry.

My tears, however, were red.