Chapter 190: Chapter Eight

Timber

~Egypt 336 BC~

“Pharaoh.” I eyed him up and down while he stared up at my golden throne. “Have you come to petition again?” I smiled darkly and popped a grape into my mouth. Its juices gave me life like all living things. “I guess it has been…” I looked up. “…ten days since your first request.”

“Master.” He fell to his knees in a swirl of smoke. His body was elsewhere, but his soul was kneeling before me, begging a favor… of me. I almost laughed, but it amused me more to see him on his knees. The fact that he, an evil man, would come and ask me for a favor in exchange for something so precious was wasted. Then again, I didn’t have to tell him that, not when I enjoyed finally watching him show a sense of humility—I only hoped He was watching—maybe it meant there was hope, maybe not.

“Darius…” I yawned. “Tell me what it is you request, and we will see if the sacrifice is worth the outcome you desire.”

“Power.” He stood to his full height. “I want my descendants to know what I have done! I want a tomb in my name, with jewels for the afterlife, enough to secure me safe passage into the Creator’s arms.”

“Ah…” I tossed another grape into the air. “And this is where our beliefs differ, great king. You cannot live a life of depravity then buy your way into the Creator’s arms. You say you want to be remembered yet I hear your people’s screams in the darkest depths of this universe. You say you want jewels for the Creator when he has enough jewels to last him for several eternities. What you want is power over mankind, and that is something only given to the immortals. I cannot beseech your request when you do not ask the right favor.”

“A riddle?” He snorted.

“A truth,” I stated plainly, leaning forward, my long white hair fell to my belt in braids of black jewels. “You beg for life after life and you curse your people to their deaths beneath the rocks of their labor. Perhaps you’ll grow a heart and come back and sacrifice the only thing worth having.”

“Power?”

“Love.” I sighed. “If you want all of these things, I will grant you your favor, but your days will be numbered and the days of your family, your wife, your children. If you do not give your people the love they deserve, your contract will be canceled and your soul extinguished immediately while your enemies take over your kingdom—now do we have a bargain?”

I could see it in his eyes. He would sacrifice all and he would sacrifice nothing to do it.

He was damned already.

“Yes, immortal, take it all. I will change, they will love me.”

I nodded and waved him away as the mist started to disappear, he turned his back just as I reached across the distance, pulled his soul from the darkness, and placed it in the iridescent bowl next to my throne.

After all, favors are never truly free are they?

“No, Darius,” I whispered. “You will not change, because you are a fool who thinks he can rule without his heart, and now that I hold your soul for promise of payment you will fail.” I shook my head. Humans. Would they ever learn? I reached down and scratched the tattoo on my arm and frowned.

The itching intensified.

And then I shot out of bed in a cold sweat.

“Who the hell is Darius?” Mason was literally hovering over my sweat-soaked body with nothing but my favorite red grapes in his right hand and an upside-down book in the other.

“Could you not stand over me when I sleep?” I scowled. “How long have I been out? And why the hell are you here?” A headache pierced my temples. I rarely slept, I was a demon, after all; what need did I have for sleep? But lately it had been getting worse and worse. Was the tattoo the cause? The effect?

And the dreams.

So vivid, lifelike, so very familiar and yet wrong at the same time.

“Darius.” Mason repeated. “Who is he?”

Was he my old soul? Was that the borrowed soul I’d been given? Was he trying to tell me something? That he needed to return to the physical body long ago in the grave?

My head pounded worse.

“Me? Maybe. I don’t know,” I confessed, too tired to explain as I peeled off my clothes and stepped into the walk-in shower.

Mason just bit into his grapes. “You been working out?”

“Are all Watchers this annoying? Why couldn’t you have just been full wolf? Still eating berries and pinecones?”

I could almost feel his shudder.

I quickly rinsed off and put a towel around my waist then stepped back out. “Also, could you stop eating all my food?”

“So, Tarek said he kissed a girl last night.” Mason eyed me with amusement. “And then he said that he licked her… and then ~boom~!” He clapped a hand against his denim-clad thigh. “You appear like a bad nightmare come to life.”

“Boo.” I pretended to be afraid then went to my huge walk-in closet. “Is there a reason you’re here telling me this story? Or are you just out of people to annoy? Where the hell is Alex when I need him?”

“I have an answer for that, gardening.” Mason cackled out a laugh.

“You’re shitting me.” I poked my head out of the closet. “Has he lost his mind?”

“No, get this, he thinks he can garden with nothing but his good looks, you know by forcing the tomato plants to grow. He and Ethan have a bet, then Cassius wanted in on it. And honestly I’m just enjoying not being at war right now, which I said to Cassius only to have him glare at me like I’d just challenged the universe in the wrong way. Then Tarek said something about the girl and a kiss and you, and I figured I’d come investigate.”

“Lucky. Me.” I growled, quickly finding clothes and tossing them on, then facing him again head on. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Right, well the guys want to call a council meeting, seems that Cassius may have found something in one of the books about your little fruit tree tattoo.”

I rolled my eyes. “For the last time, it’s just… never mind.” It was a damn fruit tree. And I officially hated everyone.

Mason grinned. “So tense these days. You know what fixes that? When you settle down and—”

“Demons don’t mate.”

“But you have a soul.”

~Two, actually.~ I just shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, since it doesn’t seem to be helping whatever this is,” I waved my hand into the air and scowled.

“Just wait until we talk to Cassius. Want me to drive?”

At that I did laugh. “No. I’m never getting in a car with you ever again. I don’t care that we don’t die, it’s petrifying.”

He gave me a disappointed look, stupid dog. “I’m not that bad.”

“You’re right, you’re worse.” I felt him follow me into the living room as I grabbed my keys and then remembered that I needed to drive a different car because of… ahem, reasons.

“Where’s the—”

“Don’t ask,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’ll take the Tesla today.”

“Hmmmm,” Mason grinned. “Tarek said you had a busy day yesterday. Now I’m even more curious. Oh also…” He sniffed the air. “You smell like ash and sunshine.”

I shook my head. “You need to work on your compliments; I always smell like ash. Demon, duh. And the sunshine is probably because it’s coming out of your ass twenty-four seven hitting anything in its path.”

“Aw,” Mason touched his hand to his chest. “I knew one day we’d be best friends.”

“Yes, here boy!” I slapped my thighs. “That’s a good boy, sit boy, roll over.”

Thunder literally erupted over the house as Mason’s eyes went a creepy white.

“Stop with the tricks,” I shoved him out of the way and went into the garage, and called over my shoulder. “Wanna race?”

I was out of the garage in seconds while he ran to his waiting motorcycle. And actually smiled as he tried to throw me from the road several times on our way to Ethan’s.

He was right about one thing: at least I had a friend, even if I would die before admitting it to him.

An arctic coldness seeped through me when I realized that if I couldn’t stop this, whatever it was, I would need to leave, because there was no way I would expose them—my friends, my family—to the darkness growing within.

By the time we made it to the house, Ethan was already waiting for us outside like he knew we would be there, stupid vampire.

Cassius and Stephanie were casually flirting with one another which just made me wonder what sort of alternate reality was permeating the human race when angels and half angels were smiling like that at each other.

Disgusting.

Alarming.

~Ignore the pain in my hand and on my chest.~

Right.

And just like that, I saw the black inky dark mist in my car. I was bringing destruction to everyone, wasn’t I?

I got out of my car and gave them a withering look. “Could you do that elsewhere?”

“No.” Cassius just shrugged. Ah, so easy to work with. I just loved my coworkers. Ignoring him, I stomped into the mansion and went in search of something.

The information they had?

Silence?

Just something that would shake me out of my dream, out of the memories that kept attacking me from within.

The council all followed me back inside, Alex was in the library shocking the hell out of me by actually reading.

“What’s that?” I snapped.

He yawned, didn’t even look up. Oh goody, his hair was purple today—did that mean he was extra horny or just a little bit?

“Botany, you… dumb… ass.” He said it slowly for my benefit, fantastic. I let out a growl and nearly chucked a chair in his direction, but I restrained myself since I could sense his very intense need for a fight.

“Trouble in paradise?” I grinned menacingly.

“She’s tired because I have strong sperm, and that’s all you need to know,” he finally looked up and winked. “So I need a hobby.”

“And you chose botany?” I laughed.

“No,” Alex stood and towered over his book. “I chose a challenge. You should see my garden compared to Mason’s.”

“Heard that.” Mason was eating, again, as he walked into the library and then spread his arms wide, apple in his right hand, another cluster of grapes in his left, reminding me yet again of my dream. What the hell was going on? “Come on, Timber, I’ll show you.”

“Yes. Can’t wait. I was hoping this would turn into garden hour…” I said under my breath as I followed them outside into the blinding Seattle light.

It never felt warm against my skin, the light; it just felt invasive in a way that wasn’t welcome—it made me want to crawl into a cave and sulk about all the ways the world had wronged me.

Beyond that, light always reminded me of something I had lost, which just made it even that much more painful to experience.

Strange, since Kyra smelled exactly like the sunshine surrounding me, and that never bothered me the way the actual sun did.

Huh.

I let out a rough exhale and put on a pair of Ray Bans, truly channeling my inner demon, and stepped out into the light.

I didn’t realize the sort of mistake I had made until the smile fell from Alex’s face, which was rare; he always found something to be amused about or with.

“Timber.” Alex’s voice boomed as I physically witnessed his power—he went from purple hair to fire orange with energy radiating around him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Standing,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Shit,” Mason said under his breath, reaching out to me, “Just, step away from the garden.”

I followed his gaze.

My black shoes had barely touched the edge of the grass that led down to the garden, and already a small trickle of dead moved like a shadow toward the tomato plants, slowly and surely causing the leaves to crinkle up and fall to ash.

“So,” Cassius walked outside. “It’s come to this?”

“Come to what?” Ethan looked down at my feet and then up into my eyes, and then he did the strangest thing—he put his arm out and blocked both fallen angels as if I was the bad guy when they could kick my ass—except for last time, I guess.

I frowned. I wasn’t the enemy here, I was part of a fallen race, yes, but I had a restored soul now. I was good, I wouldn’t kill them, at least not in their own home, and I sure as hell—

“…can he hear us?” Ethan asked right in front of me.

I opened my mouth to speak but realized within seconds that my body wouldn’t let me.

I gave my head a shake and held out my hands in front of me as a pulsing awareness wrapped itself around my arm growing all the way up toward my shoulder.

I quickly jerked out of my button-down black shirt and threw it to the ground.

“Weeellll…” Mason gulped, his skin growing pale. “At least we know it’s growing at a more rapid rate now.”

I opened my mouth again and gave Cassius a helpless stare. He moved Ethan out of the way and approached while I put my hands up to stop him.

I didn’t want to hurt him, and I had no control over my body, I could just stand there and exist.

“Speak!” Cassius’s voice thundered so loud that my ears rang. “Now!”

I shook my head no, because I truly couldn’t.

And then he touched my face. Ice pressed against my cheeks as his eyes went completely white and then shockingly red. My red.

“Keeper of souls… guide them,” a voice rasped. “Trapped.”

Was that me or inside me?

Cassius swayed and then all of his feathers erupted in a frenzy from his back pointing like razors in my direction. It was his version of a kill shot and he wouldn’t let me go.

I was a threat.

Somehow.

I was bad.

I’d always known that, though, hadn’t I?

This was on me.

I was worthless; it’s why I wanted a soul in the first place.

His feathers slowly descended and pressed against my chest. They drew no blood. They didn’t even scratch me.

“You protect this body… why?” Cassius demanded another answer.

The voice erupted from within. “Because it has always been mine… loved, I risked…”

Cassius released me in disgust. I’d never realized a demon could feel shame until that moment.

“Greedy fool,” Cassius muttered. “You are split in half!”

I looked down.

He muttered a curse. “Not literally!”

I felt a swirl of power behind me. Alex. They were surrounding me because I was the bad guy—again. Hell, and things had been going so well, hadn’t they?

I would walk away from them. From this.

This was beyond them. This was bad if it was beyond Cassius.

“Release!” Cassius yelled, shaking the foundation of the earth beneath my feet.

Suddenly I could talk again, even though it felt like I’d been choked from within. “I’ll leave.”

“Not so fast.” Cassius held his massive hand out. “There’s an ancient text… older than—well as old as Sariel. You need to read it.”

Oh good, we were taking orders from his dead archangel father now. Perfect.

“So reading it is going to magically cure me from this?” I pointed at my winking tattoo, at the way it pulsed on my arm. And then I just lost it as frustration raged through me. I let out a roar and fell to my knees.

The sun disappeared, immediately followed by the appearance of clouds of darkness and then a shadowy mist wrapped itself around me.

“Stop calling the shadows!” Cassius gripped me by the arm, then cursed and yanked his hand back. A wicked burn had formed across his palm.

“What the hell did you do, demon?” Alex roared. “Sell your soul to the devil himself?”

“No.” Everything felt heavy as I stayed on my knees. “I never had one to begin with.”

Cassius’s eyes turned silver white as he tasted the air and whispered, “Lie. Try again.”

“I don’t remember!” I yelled. “Is that what you want to hear? I remember nothing past that day!”

“What day?” This time Mason stepped forward, and repeated himself, “What day?”

My eyes searched Cassius’s for help. “I don’t know. I just remember begging for it to stop, and she said it would. She said she would make me whole, I was the last of the first, the last of the first,” I couldn’t stop saying it, “The last of the first.”

“Good,” Ethan said calmly. “Gibberish from a demon, I don’t think any of us signed up for this. Cassius, can’t you just mind-read him?”

“I… could,” Cassius said slowly. “But what if I can’t get out, what if it’s beyond my power? What if this is something deeper, older, stronger?”

“Can’t you find out?” Alex.

Cassius stared us down and then reached for Mason’s hand. The apple dropped and rolled toward me and then turned brown and shriveled up to its core.

Power surged between them and hit me square in the chest as I fell backward, my last thought.

Sunshine.