“I am no human!” Cassius spat. “I’m an Angel!” He stood to his full height, his body shimmering with iridescent whites and purples as he called upon his Angel blood, pushing the humanity so far away that my eyes hurt to look at him. Snow fell in the spot over his head. “I am to be worshipped!”
“Brother…” Ethan’s voice was still calm. “You are fallen.”
As if a reminder of what he would never be, wings appeared at Cassius sides, but they were completely black.
Dripping with blood.
As the storm increased what was once bright turned so dark I stumbled backward.
His eyes went black, his teeth elongated into fangs, and his body grew another foot.
“Evil and good always did have a problem co-existing,” Ethan said in a bored tone. “Come back, brother…. killing yourself is not the answer, for you will lose your soul and turn into your greatest nightmare, meaning one of us will eventually have to kill you, and I’ve hunted enough friends, don’t make me hunt my family.”
Cassius fell to his knees as the diamonds of dust burst into the air. He lifted his hand and caught a few particles and pressed them to his heart. “So I never forget the pain of remembering.”
“Pain…” Ethan answered just as Mason appeared, sword raised. “…isn’t reserved for mere humans, but for everything in creation. It would not be fair that we never experience it.”
“I don’t want to feel.” Cassius stood, sheathing his sword and facing both men. “I refuse it.”
Mason looked uncertain at what to say, but Ethan nodded. “One day, you will regret that choice. And I do hope I’m still alive to see it.”
The vision shattered in front of me into a million shards of glass. I gasped as I was transported to last year.
Genesis had just been brought to one of the immortal parties.
I hung on Cassius like a whore.
Ashamed, I looked away.
Minutes passed, maybe an hour.
And I was across the room, talking to a few friends. Cassius stared, his mouth ajar and then flexed like he was both in awe and irritated.
“Happened faster than you would have liked, I’m sure, even though it’s been what? A few thousand years?”
“Go to hell,” Cassius muttered.
“Interesting choice, however.” Mason crossed his burly arms and chuckled. “I wonder what the council would think.”
“The council needs to mind their own damn business.”
“She is beautiful.”
“She’s mine!” Cassius roared slamming Mason into the nearest wall.
Mason brushed him off, smirking like he’d just won the lottery. “Is she? I haven’t seen your mark.”
Cassius recoiled. “I would only mark my true love and even then, we cannot be.”
“But if you could?” Mason asked.
Cassius didn’t answer. He simply watched me, and when my friends disappeared he held out his hand and whispered, “May I have this dance?”
I shivered remembering the way he’d touched me that night, so different than other nights, like he wanted me as a woman.
Saw me as his equal.
We danced for hours, and when it was time to leave, he tugged me against him and whispered against my mouth, “Come with me.”
“Is that allowed?” I teased back.
“I make the rules.” He tugged my body against his, he was so big… everywhere, that it was overwhelming to all my senses. Even then I’d been powerless, so powerless.
“Good.” He chuckled wickedly. “You can try to fight me… but you’ll give in… in the end, they always do.”
The thought that he’d been with others pissed me off. I pushed him off and spat. “Don’t you have a human to chase?”
“Why chase a human? When I’ve tasted you?”
“Why taste me when you can have her?” I countered.
His mouth snapped shut.
Fresh pain washed over me as the vision shattered again.
And I was back in my room.
And Cassius—was awake.
“What did I tell you?” He tried to get up, but was still too weak. After three tries he lay back down and cursed. “You cannot simply invade my thoughts while I sleep. It isn’t fair.” I invaded his sleep? “And before you try again, remember you can only do it once within a REM cycle, and I’m very much awake thanks to your erotic musings.”
“Erotic musings?” I repeated, crossing my arms. “I wasn’t the one going all Viking or caveman!”
Cassius frowned. “I am neither of those things and I don’t appreciate being called a Neanderthal.”
“It’s a figure of speech! You know, cavemen, who pulled woman by the hair and had sex with them.”
Cassius face blanched, and he looked absolutely appalled. “I’ll have you know my favorite human was a man who lived in a cave!”
“Of course! Because you’re older than dirt!”
“Another untruth!” Cassius fired back. “Dirt has been around for at least a millennium longer than I!”
I groaned. “You’re giving me a headache.”
“It’s the Angel blood, not me.” He sniffed the air. “Damn it, I cannot smell anymore, at least not how I could before. You’re too new to dream walk. I’d suggest against it, but you’re like a child with a new toy.”
“Am not.”
“Are too!” he argued.
I burst out laughing. “Now who’s acting immature?”