Chapter 77: Chapter Twenty-Eight

Stephanie

Sleeping next to Cassius still felt forbidden, like someone was going to barge into our room and yell. Or like Alex was going to ground me, which was just ridiculous! I was a grown woman.

But still. I could see him trying it.

I only needed around six hours of sleep, and even then I could go days without rest, but Cassius, I’d learned, had turned into one of those over-protective boyfriend types.

When I told him I wanted to stay up and watch movies with Genesis, he picked me up, tossed me over his shoulder, and ran up the stairs with me.

And when I tried to pull his shirt off, he lightly slapped my hands and told me to rest.

I didn’t even realize I was tired until my eyes were too heavy to keep open. Why was I suddenly exhausted? I knew Dark Ones rarely slept. Maybe it was just the day.

“Sleep,” he’d kissed my forehead, and then lain down next to me.

I glanced at the clock.

Four in the morning.

Ethan would probably be up soon. Vampires liked to be up with the sun, and Mason had suddenly developed a horrible habit of baking first thing in the morning so that when Genesis woke up she was able to have a warm muffin to ease her morning sickness.

With a sigh, I tossed and turned, then finally got comfortable enough to close my eyes and nestle into Cassius’s strong arms.

Sleep again overwhelmed me as the blackness of the room swirled around me in… warmth.

I didn’t think I missed the warmth.

Until now.

“Cold?” a voice whispered.

I blinked open my eyes but all I saw was darkness. Was I dreaming? I felt the bed for Cassius. He was still next to me but I couldn’t see him.

“I can make you warm.” The voice chuckled. “Shall I start a fire? For both of us?”

“What?” I reached out in front of me, unable to even see my hand. “Who are you?”

“Darkness,” it hissed.

I would have laughed if my body hadn’t chilled in that very moment and then, nearly wept with the rightness of it. “Darkness, you say?”

“I am Darkness. Your other half. Hello.”

Did it just say hello?

Frowning, I reached out this time, my fingers came into contact with something, the Darkness rippled in front of me, and then like a mirage, the Darkness turned into a face. The beautiful face of a man. He grinned. “Come a little closer.”

I tried, but my feet felt like they were stuck to the ground.

“Mated.” He shook his head. “That is unfortunate for you. If you were free to choose me, I’d make you warm. Now, you must stay cold. Grounded.”

Black feathers surrounded his shoulders, attached in weird haphazard ways all around his muscled body. “Now, if he was gone… you would be mine.”

The idea thrilled me, but I had no idea why.

“I’m extremely powerful…” His eyes became pensive. “All you have to do is embrace the power…” He shrugged. “The power in every Dark One…”

“Cassius, he has this power too?” I asked.

“For a while.” The man shrugged. “He used it for a while, but his friends—” He spat the word. “—brought him back.”

Confused, I tried to search for something familiar, but the room was still blanketed in black and the man in front of me was growing by the minute. “One day… one day you will call upon me in your time of need. Then, I’ll prove my loyalty. And then, we’ll be together.”

The way he said it made it sound like a mating, but I already had Cassius. I didn’t understand. Was I just having a nightmare? A weird dream?

“The power is always at your fingertips… imagine, you could save all you love, all you care about, by simply allowing the darkness to overcome the light. A Dark One is born with both, but it is your choice. Always your choice.”

The idea that I had a choice was… life changing. Because my entire life, choices had been made for me. Even Cassius.

“Yes.” The Darkness continued speaking. “Even your love chose for you, he chooses for you even now… Do you have a mind of your own? Or are you a puppet?”

“I’m not!” I shouted. “I’m powerful.” Darkness swirled around my body.

“Yes.” He nodded approvingly. “You are.”

The Darkness suddenly warmed my body, singed me from the inside out, intoxicating in its warmth. I allowed it to spread, when suddenly I was punched, or it felt like I was getting punched in the stomach.

“Wake up!” Cassius shouted.

I fell onto the floor and looked up at him. “What was that for?”

White eyes glared back at me as the smell of smoke filled the air. I scrunched up my nose as Cassius put out the fire on the bedspread. When I stood to look at the damage, I gasped. “What happened?”

The entire bedspread was singed.

The pillows, ash.

Cassius let out a loud curse and stood. “You.” He swallowed, his eyes swirling with blues and whites. “It seems you’ve finally met Darkness.”

“He, uh—”

“He?” Cassius chuckled. “I guess it would be a he for you, hm? More tempting that way. Darkness takes many forms.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You wouldn’t.” Cassius pulled me into his arms. “Because Darkness… is you.”

I was still reeling from my weird dream, or was it an introduction? The singed smell of burning sheets filled the entire upstairs. Ethan was irritated.

Then again, ever since Genesis had become pregnant he’d turned into an overworried tyrant.

He’d already taken it upon himself to baby-gate the stairway.

Mason was on board with that idea with so much enthusiasm he offered to install six of them.

Things were going downhill fast, and as much as I wanted to join in on the excitement…

There was… the whole darkness thing.

On top of trying to find whoever was making more immortal Demon.

Oh, and if life wasn’t stressful enough.

In less than thirty days, I apparently was going to kill the man I loved.

Life sucked.

A plate slid in front of me, the pancake was fluffy, huge, and had been smothered in enough syrup and butter to kill a human.

Mason sat across from me, his plate filled with a spiky pinecone and a handful of raspberries. “You looked like you needed it.”

I picked up my fork. “You remembered my favorite meal.”

“How could I forget?” He grinned. “Every year on your birthday, once you joined the council, you wanted pancakes instead of actual cake. Apparently nobody taught you the difference as a child, so let’s blame Alex.”

“I heard my name.” Alex limped into the room.

“What the hell happened to you?” Mason burst out laughing as Alex found a chair and winced.

“Baby gates.” Alex cursed. “A hell of a lot of baby gates. Who knew that would be my downfall?”

“I did,” I said between bites. “You’re a Siren, it’s like your kryptonite. The fact that you could have sex and produce children… it’s enough to make you abstinent.”

Face blank, Alex outwardly trembled.

“Shhh…” Mason handed Alex a berry. “You’re scaring him.”

“It’s like a mean bedtime story.” Alex glared at me. “Also, a little bird told me you nearly burned down the house last night. Care to share any intimate details?”

“She met Darkness.” This from Mason as he used his incisors to take a huge bite out of the pinecone.

“Ah, crazy right? Like meeting the worst part of yourself, while at the same time being seduced…” He pressed his lips together in a seductive pout. “I bet Darkness is hot.”

“He is,” I corrected.

Alex looked nonplussed, his expression didn’t change. “You know I don’t discriminate between the sexes, if he’s good looking, good for him, good for all of us.”

The sound of Mason chomping on the pinecone scraped over my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. I gave him a pointed look.

Slumping, he dropped it back onto his plate and popped a berry into his mouth, his hand transforming into a claw so that he didn’t need to use a fork to poke each berry.

“Circus freak,” Alex muttered reaching for Mason’s coffee.

“Why—” Ethan stormed into the room. “—didn’t you warn her?”

Cassius followed, close on his heels. “What the hell did you expect me to say? Oh, by the way, in your dreams, you’re going to get a visit from Darkness, have fun, be careful not to get to set the house on fire. Oh, and if you’re hot and bothered, it’s not me?”

“For the record,” I interjected. “I wasn’t hot and bothered, just warm.”

They ignored me.

“If she can’t control herself, she can’t stay!” Ethan slammed his fist down onto the granite, cracking it down the middle.

“Genesis is pregnant! She needs protection from things like that.” Pieces of granite flew into the air as Ethan pointed in my direction. I slumped low in my seat.

Mason let out a low curse. “I hate ordering new kitchen appliances. Home Depot employees are always so judgmental.”

Alex winced as the crack in the granite extended farther. Then the counter slammed into the floor. “Just tell them you got carried away with your last stripper. I’d go with it. Then once we flash them nothing but cash, lean in and whisper ‘mafia’.”

Mason poked another berry with his claw. “Maybe I’ll just take you with me and tell them you’re my lover. Last time we did that, we got fifty percent off.”

Alex sighed heavily. “Because she was totally into me, not you.” He scrunched up his nose. “You smelled too funny for her tastes, which is why you hung out by appliances while I took her out back.”

Ethan turned. “You did what? To a human?”

“Taught her how to saw,” Mason interjected. “At the Depot of Homes.”

I barely managed to keep my smile in as Cassius shared a confused look with Ethan.

“Lots of sharp edges,” Alex nodded emphatically. “Very dangerous… but don’t worry, none of your precious blood was spilled.”

A low growl erupted from Mason. “One day you’re going to get caught for tasting forbidden fruit.” Another raspberry flew through the air and into his mouth. “And I’m going to laugh. What’s going to happen when your tricks stop working on human women?”

Alex didn’t look worried.

“They’ll attack in mob-like fashion,” Mason nodded. “Yes, what a fantastic day that will be.”

Cassius frowned. “Do they… attack at the Depot of Homes?”

“It’s Home Depot,” I corrected. “And don’t pay attention to them, they’ve been bickering all morning.”

“Here,” Alex tossed a pinecone into the air. “Have some tree.”

“Technically, it’s a seed,” Mason grumbled, biting into his berries while Ethan slowly made his way over to the group. The tension in the room was extremely uncomfortable as his eyes blazed Vampire green.

Oh, good. He was pissed.

With a snarl, his fangs elongated. “Two days.” He jammed a finger in my direction. “She gets her powers under control in two days and she can stay. If not, then you’re on the streets.”

“And when he says streets, he means you get to shack up with Cassius so you don’t burn down Ethan’s house with his precious human in it,” Alex said.

“I thought we were beyond that?” Genesis breezed into the kitchen, immediately causing Ethan’s eyes to go back to normal as he hissed and pulled away from us only long enough to tug Genesis into his arms and kiss her neck.

“No biting in public,” Cassius mumbled under his breath. “That’s against immortal rules, not that you listen to me anyway.”

“I’ve been bitten,” Alex announced as all heads turned in his direction. “I found it extremely erotic… then she tried to kill me.”

“Surprised only one of your stories ends that way… I imagine if women were in their right minds while you seduced them they’d all want to kill you.”

“An Elk followed me home once too. Thought itself in love with me.” Alex yawned.

Disgusted, since I still thought of him as my brother, I stood and held out my hand to Cassius. “Should we get started?”

His face was void of emotion.

I was almost afraid that we were going to go back to the way things were, him ignoring me, me ignoring the searing pain in my heart every time he refused to acknowledge that there was something between us.

“Outside.” Cassius gripped my hand in his then raised it to his lips. “Lesson number one… Dark Ones know no fear.”

I was about to respond when a cold blast of air slammed me against the wall. I tried to move but the air held me immobile. My breathing came in short gasps as air pushed against my mouth.

Cassius leaned in, his lips grazing my ear. “Afraid?”

“No,” I wheezed.

The pressure increased.

Why was nobody helping me?

Because you can help yourself. Cassius’s voice was a small whisper in my head.

I closed my eyes and then willed my hands to push out in front of me as I turned the wind on Cassius.

With a grunt, I had him slammed against the floor, the same wind pushing him down.

“Oh, no!” I covered my mouth with my hands and leaned over him. “Are you okay?”

His smile was bright.

Deadly.

A bit more erotic than I’d ever seen it.

“Oh, yes.” He chuckled darkly. “More than okay, I think.” He reached for my head, tugging it down to press a hungry kiss against my mouth.

“Is that porn?” Mason whispered.

Alex let out a groan. “No, Wolf…”

“But they are engaging in front of others? Is that not what porn is? Why Genesis said no to the other store we walked by with the bright lights and—”

“Where the hell are you taking him at night?” Alex yelled. “Geez, Genesis, he’s like an innocent. You can’t just prostitute the pinecones out of him!”

Genesis let out a loud laugh. “Don’t worry about it. What’s between me and Mason is between me and Mason.”

Another loud crunch of a pinecone.

Cassius pulled away from me. “Outside?”

“Yeah, let’s take this outside.”

~“Big boy.”~

Cassius’s warm laughter made my entire morning.