Chapter 72: Chapter Twenty-Three

Cassius

Her body was spread across mine, chilling me to the bone, though I would never admit it out loud lest she move.

And the last thing I wanted was for her to move her leg even a fraction to the left or right.

There.

Nearly on top of me, that’s where I needed her, where I wanted her. Dark Ones didn’t typically sleep, so I knew she must be simply relaxing while she let me sleep.

Though it didn’t explain the way she was laying across me.

“Safe,” she muttered. “It’s ridiculous, right? That I feel safer in your arms than any other, yet you wouldn’t stand a chance against a man with a gun, let alone a Demon.”

Stephanie raised her head, her eyes swirling with specks of white as she reached for my hand.

I held it, my warmth and her ice meeting against our palms.

“How long did I sleep?” I changed the subject.

“Twelve hours,” she whispered. “I got tired of waiting for you so I went downstairs to watch movies with Genesis since she hasn’t been feeling very well…” She frowned. “If… if I see a future of someone, do I tell them?”

“Whose future are we talking about?”

Stephanie swallowed, her eyes darting away from mine. “Genesis. Her labor won’t be easy, Cassius.”

“For centuries, women have survived it all the same. Have a little faith.”

Her head whipped back. “Faith?”

“Yes.” I licked my lips. “Belief in something that has not yet come to pass, belief that regardless of the circumstances, we can still expect the best possible outcome in life.”

“Is that the human side speaking? The one who never loses hope?”

I smiled as a comforting warmth spread through my chest. “Yes, I think it is.”

“I like it.”

“Sometimes… hope is all we have.” I frowned as I said it.

“And even if we had knowledge of the future, would we truly do anything differently?”

“I should like to think so, but knowing humanity as I do, they would still squander each and every moment, unable to fully grasp the realization that each second that ticks by is another gift that they have been given, a gift given only because of great sacrifice by not only their ancestors, but ours.”

“Twelve hours of sleep turned you into a philosopher, I think,” Stephanie mused, brushing my dark hair away with the back of her hand. Her ice-cold fingertips cooled my forehead. I kept them there and closed my eyes as her hand shook.

“Your dream…” she started, while I tried to keep my breathing even. “Did you mean it?”

“Which part?”

Her eyes searched mine. “If you were allowed to love me—would you?”

I opened my mouth just as the door burst open. Ethan made his way inside, took in our comfortable state, and shook his head.

“I don’t have time to address whatever the hell this is.” He pointed to us. “Because it seems like our little pet in the dungeon won’t stop screeching until he sees you.”

Ethan sighed, his eyes flashing with irritation. “He’s chained, he can’t hurt you in your current state. It’s probably best to see what you can get out of him.”

“Come with me.” I stood as dizziness took over and a growing hunger made its presence known. “Damn it, I need food first.”

Ethan smirked. “I don’t envy your human appetite.”

“You eat blood,” I fired back. “I don’t envy yours!”

“Blood tastes like…” His eyes flashed green.

“Easy.” Stephanie raised her hand. “No need to orgasm in the middle of the room.”

Ethan scoffed. “Hardly.”

Stephanie quickly put on a pair of boots and a sweatshirt and turned toward me. “Should you, er, put on clothes?”

“Clothes?” I frowned then looked down.

Completely naked. I’d stripped the human body bare of any stitch of clothing.

“Why the hell didn’t anyone say anything?” I roared grabbing at my clothes with numb as hell hands and jerking them on.

Ethan held up his hands. “I thought you knew.”

Stephanie burst out laughing. “I assumed you knew since you’re the one who stripped yourself.”

“I did?”

She nodded. “The minute you woke up from your dream you were burning up…”

Frowning, I felt my own forehead, not that it would do any good. In fact, I still felt hot. So damn hot.

Maybe the dizziness was coming from the heat?

Ethan was at my side in a flash, gripping my arm, still as a statue, within seconds he pulled back. “Your blood.” He frowned. “It’s hot.”

“Are you saying…” I couldn’t even utter it. “That I have a fever?”

“I’m saying you’re sick.” Ethan nodded. “Yes.”

“Damn it!” I kicked my foot against the floor. “One body! What the hell do humans do all day? Walk around in bubble wrap?”

“Hey he knows what bubble wrap is.” Alex stepped into the room. “Progress?”

Zapping Alex with a sheet of ice had just jumped up to the first thing I’d do if my power was ever restored.

“Mason’s waiting in the kitchen with Genesis, better hurry if you want any food big guy.” I think I was the big guy he was referencing. “Genesis is eating for three.”

Breakfast hadn’t helped the dizziness, and by the time I made it down into the cold wet dungeon I felt like I’d been transported back to a dark time, a time I’d rather forget.

A time where I used to help torture the worst sort of immortals and humans alike, the ones who’d tried to overthrow us through a deadly alliance that should have never been.

~“How!” I roared, slamming Timber into the castle wall; it crumbled around his lithe body as horns protruded from his head.~

~He stood on shaky legs. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”~

~“You cannot simply give an immortal’s essence, his blood to a human! You know what happens!”~

~“Oh, I know.” His smile was arrogant as fangs pressed onto his bottom lip, drawing black oil-like blood. “And soon, you will too.”~

~I barked out a laugh. “Do not test me, Demon. I will destroy everything you hold dear with my pinky finger. Push me and I’ll make you wish for death.”~

~As if I amused him, he smiled wider, harder. “Oh?”~

~To prove my point, I slammed an icicle through the air, impaling him against the castle wall.~

~He laughed.~

~I shot another.~

~And another.~

~“I’m sorry, does that tickle?”~

~“You don’t even know, do you?” he spat. “You think you’re the last. You think you’re all powerful. I wonder what you will do,” he whispered, “when you discover the truth.”~

~“Enough!” Sariel appeared, slamming his feet against the ground. “Release him, Cassius.”~

~“But—”~

~“He will be punished,” Sariel finished.~

~“Most of his followers were killed in the destruction of the city. And as you know, we cannot simply kill him for doing something he claims he didn’t know was illegal.”~

~“Every immortal knows the rules!” I yelled, raising my voice an octave.~

~Sariel lifted his large hand as a single black feather fell to the ground creating a hole at his feet.~

~“And for his punishment, he will serve time underground without food, water, or light. A thousand years, should suffice.”~

~Timber’s eyes widened. “You cannot do this to me! Do you know who I am! I am the son of the—”~

~“Silence!” Sariel screamed, sending Timber into the hole. Then he closed it up with a flick of his wrist and turned. “Don’t you have work to do, Cassius?”~

The dungeon walls looked eerily like the ones I’d chained Timber to so long ago.

“You gonna make it?” Ethan asked under his breath. “If this is too difficult—”

“Ethan.” I barked his name. “I mean this exactly how it sounds, shut the hell up before I find a stake and garlic.”

“Hah!” He slapped me on the back. “I love your jokes.”

“I’ll impale you with wood, don’t think I won’t try.”

“It would tickle.”

“It would amuse me greatly, yes.”

Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, the chains came into view, two attached to John’s feet and two more attached to his arms.

“So,” John said without lifting his head. “You’ve brought the immortal king. Finally.”

Swallowing back my fear, I stood to my full height and nodded my head to Ethan. “Drain him.”

John’s head snapped as his hands jerked against the chains, already black putrid blood was crusting around his wrists. “You’ll kill me before knowing the truth?”

“The truth?” I shrugged. “It’s been thousands of years. Why should I care about the truth? You survived, someone made you a Demon, your body took the immortality—”

I winced as his skin took on a green hue. “—semi-well, it appears. And you’ve used what I can only assume is more immortal Demon blood mixed with…”

Ethan sniffed the air and shrugged.

“Something else, to create.” I paused and raised one eyebrow. “Am I missing anything?”

“Holy shit, are you truly that dense?” John cackled. “All of you! This has been going on for centuries. Do you truly think…”

His eyes turned black. “…this is about you? There is a darkness coming.” His fangs elongated. “A darkness that’s been building… one you will not stop.”

“Drain him,” I ordered Ethan again as my body trembled with the truth of his words.

Eva had always warned me of the same thing.

Thousands of years ago.

Impossible that it was now coming to pass.

“We were the first experiment,” John kept talking. “And look how well it went. Powerful beyond most of the Demon we serve! Able to create on our own.”

Ethan took two steps toward John and pressed his arm against the wall, slicing open his wrist with his teeth and moving to the next.

John let out an animalistic scream as black blood dripped from the marks Ethan had made.

Vampires had the ability to make the bite burn like hell.

I had a suspicion Ethan hadn’t held back.

John writhed in agony.

“There are more of us. You have no idea how many more.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Hate to break it to you, John, but even thousands of Demons against us wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

John laughed, his fangs digging into the bottom of his chin. I frowned and looked closer. Good Lord, the immortality had made his fangs double the size. “Who said anything about Demon?”

I held up my hand to Ethan to keep him from taking more of John’s blood. Already my strength was weakening. My head pounded from the exertion.

“What do you mean?”

Suddenly John’s head whipped to the side and a blast of cool air hit me square in the chest as his eyes went completely white.

“Oh, hell.” Ethan took a step back as the chains turned to ice then fell to the floor, John collapsed in a heap then stood as his body grew another six inches. “Impossible!”

My teeth chattered from the cold as I took a cautious step backward. “You aren’t a Dark One.”

“No.” John smiled. “But I can call on his power.”

“I’m the last one.” He didn’t need to know it was a lie.

“No,” John said in a soft voice. “I think not.”

Before he could utter another word, Ethan was on John’s back, slicing across his neck, decapitating him.

The head landed on the dungeon floor with a thud and a sick splat as the body crumpled next to it. With swift movements, Ethan pulled the feather from his pocket and slid it into the vertebrae.

Seconds later, John was nothing but dust.

As a Demon, it should be black.

Vampires and Sirens crystallized into small diamond-like dust.

But Dark Ones… always went red, a signal of the human blood flowing through their veins.

The dust was both red and black.

Ethan cursed. “Cassius, I think we have a problem.”

“The hell?” I leaned down and touched the dust. “It’s… mixed.” Angry, I shook my head. “Did Stephanie…” I hated to accuse her, but it was the only explanation. “Did she give any of her blood to the Demons?”

“Maybe you should ask her yourself,” Stephanie said from the stairway. “Would I betray those I love… twice?”