I laughed. “I highly doubt that.”
“Do you ever think about the battle Cassius fought? The wars raged between the immortals? Why would Darkness call to him when he is half Angel? Why would it tempt him so? Is it because humans are so dark? But no,” Timber tapped his chin. “That would not make sense would it? For a human’s blood to be stronger than the Angel blood within…” He paced in front of me. “So many puzzle pieces, spread around your feet, yet you keep picking up the wrong pieces. Darkness, is just a small clue as to what you are my dear, what Cassius is. It’s sad really, possibly pathetic, how he’s allowed himself to be used all these years without really understanding that he’s been in chains the entire time.”
“Chains?” Dread filled my entire body, making me heavy because even though the words made no sense, at the same time, they did. Why did we fight Darkness so much? Why was it an issue? Why were we cursed?
“Bingo.” Timber whispered into the crisp night air. “What are you?”
“A Dark One,” I said confidently.
“Oh no, my dear…” He threw his head back and laughed. “That’s a simple label for something far worse. Think more…” He flipped his hand over and waved it through the air. “Along the lines of a nightmare, a scary story perhaps, one you were told when you were little. Careful not to venture into the forest too late at night, or look under your bed, or how about this one, don’t play with magic beyond your understanding….”
My head started to pound. I pressed my fingertips against the sides in order to alleviate the ache.
Timber grinned wolfishly. “Cassius leads the immortals, he keeps the peace between the humans, because of Sariel joining with his human. The Darkness, the curse, the pull… toward Demon. Why is it, do you think, that darkness represents…” He leaned in and pressed a searing kiss to my cheek his lips scalding my skin. “…heat?” he finished in a whisper against my skin.
With a gasp, I touched my cheek just as he stuttered back and burst out in mocking laughter. “I see your mind working.” A sudden chill filled the air, his eyes dilated before he let out a low hiss. “Until next time, Angel.”
He disappeared into the shadows just as Sariel appeared to my right, his feathers sticking straight up as if offended by the scent of a Demon, the mere fact that he still lingered in the air.
“You’re late.” I sighed. “He’s already gone.”
“Not late,” Sariel answered. “I was here the whole time.”
“Well, you weren’t very helpful.”
“Did you need my help?” he countered, his white eyes growing wide with light.
I swallowed and looked down, crossing my arms. “No.”
“He knows too much.”
“And yet you let him live.” I tilted my head. “Riddle me this, Sariel. Why, all those years go, didn’t you destroy the Demon? We’re on the brink of war, we have Demon creating more Demon, using who knows what to do it, and this all could have been prevented.”
“Light and dark cannot exist without one another.” That was the same thing he’d said to Cassius, but this time, it was in the present, and I was standing there, not worn out from fighting, or being pulled toward the darkness, so I tasted it.
A faint bitterness floated by my mouth.
With a gasp I took a step backward. “You just lied!”
Sariel’s body stiffened. “I did not lie. I simply did not tell you the whole truth.”
“Omission is still lying.”
“Is it?”
“Stop asking questions to my questions! Why do you let them live?” I charged toward him, allowing the anger and confusion to spread out my arms and slamming my hands against his rock hard chest. Of course, he didn’t move, but that wasn’t the point, the point was I was angry, so angry that he was ignoring a simple solution.
With a haggard sigh, Sariel grabbed me by the wrists and thrust me back, I flew ten feet into the air and landed on my hands and knees.
My head jerked up as he held out his hand and pulled me back to my feet. “Never.” His voice was low, filled with anger. “Touch me. Again.”
“Sorry.” I shrank back while he dusted off his pristine black leather jacket and designer jeans.
“You want the truth.”
“Yes.”
Sariel looked up toward the night sky, then closed his eyes as a flicker of light shone down on him. “I refuse to watch more death than is necessary. I know Cassius showed you. My job was to stay awake, to watch. My job…” He turned his head to the side, his features twisted in utter agony. “…is still to roam this realm, to watch.” He swallowed and closed his eyes again, this time keeping them closed as he pressed his hands to his face then spoke. “Don’t you see? I cannot watch it again. I refuse to watch those I love suffer. I refuse to watch them die.”
“People die every day.”
“Yes.”
“Immortals don’t.”
Sariel nodded. “But they can.”