“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.
Stephanie
“TEACHING YOU,” HE EXPLAINED once we were outside. “Isn’t the same as showing you… therefore… we’re just going to get into it.”
“Into it?” I asked.
Cassius grabbed my arm, the cold stung like icy needles running up and down my arm.
When my eyes were able to focus again, I wished I was stuck with temporary blindness, everywhere I looked, Demon were sleeping. Somehow we’d gone from standing outside Ethan’s house to somewhere else completely, all within the span of seconds.
“This,” Cassius whispered, “is the fun part.”
A loud whooshing sound crashed in the middle of the warehouse and then it started to pour rain.
Demon scattered to the farthest edges of darkness. That was, until Cassius held up his hand, and like a light was being turned on, every single shred of darkness was removed from the room.
They shrieked and bellowed, and then finally, one stepped forward. I didn’t know his name, didn’t recognize him at all.
“You know why we’re here.” Cassius’s voice boomed, like it often did when he was exuding an enormous amount of power. He reminded me of the Disney cartoon Hercules. When he’d turned into a god, his voice had developed an echo to it while his body was light itself.
That’s what Cassius looked like.
Only better looking.
Real flesh and blood.
A man.
Not a cartoon.
“Y-yes.” The Demon covered his eyes. “Could you at least dim the lights, Cassius?”
With a slow nod the lights lowered to a mere glow while the Demon paced in front of Cassius.
“Well?” Cassius asked. “We don’t have all day.”
“It’s Angel blood.” The Demon tilted his head in my direction his eyes moving to the back of his head. “It smells like her. Like you.”
“Dark Ones possess elements of Angelic blood, you know this.” Cassius said in a bored tone.
“The spice…” The Demon took a cautious step toward me and sniffed. “It isn’t as sweet as her scent or yours… almost like the Dark One was born out of…” He shuddered. “Fear.”
Confused, I figured I could just ask later, but Cassius must have thought I needed to know right away.
“Most Dark Ones are born out of one of the seven sins, lust, greed, envy…” He sniffed the air in front of him. “But from what you’re saying… this mating… that took place was—“
“—rape,” the Demon finished. “Which is impossible, a human raping an Angel? Or Vice versa? They’d be killed on the spot for even thinking it.”
“Unless it was no human.”
“Unless the human wasn’t fully human… immortal, maybe?” Cassius wondered aloud. “Can you track it?”
“Whatever you wish. You know my friends and family are innocent, you’ve tasted the truth in the air the minute you arrived.”
The air was clear with honestly with nothing but truth, and yes, a bit of fear. Funny, I’d never recognized fear before, always thought of it to be this weird fleeting emotion that paralyzed humans.
But fear was small.
If I closed my eyes tight enough I could see it in my mind’s eye, it was like a child or toddler, and then, all of a sudden, it was given food, growing before my very eyes until it was a giant, until it eclipsed everything in its presence.
“Fear is born small,” the Demon whispered. “We are the ones who make it big.”
Pity rushed through me; the Demon were cursed just like the Dark Ones, cursed to live out the rest of their existence knowing that in the end, they would be judged just like the humans, just like everyone else.
It was also why they weren’t allowed to create.
Creating more Demon was creating more curses.
While creating a Vampire or a Siren, wasn’t as frowned upon, they actually possessed their souls.
Demon. Did not.
Though they did still have feelings.
And that was the saddest part of all. They could feel, they could hope all they wanted… it was always in vain.
“But we still try.” The Demon locked eyes with me. “We will try every day until our penance is over. We will try to stay in the good graces of Angels and Dark Ones alike.”
“Thank you,” Cassius mumbled. The rain stopped, and the darkness returned. “Track the blood.”
“The Darkness…” The Demon whispered as Cassius grabbed my arm. “It has her, Cassius. I can feel it.”
Cassius