Untouchable Darkness (The Dark Ones Saga, #2)(25)

And even then, I wouldn’t be able to follow through with it.

Besides, love or not, he was my King.

“I’ll try harder.” I bit down on my lip, nearly drawing blood. “I’ll have him teach me, and I’ll try to be less argumentative.”

Alex snorted.

I glared in his direction, and he held up his hands.

“I can do it.” I took another deep breath. “This is my job, right? All of us have jobs on the council, mine’s just shifted a bit.”

“Right.” Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll send a few of my men with you, just in case.”

“And by men he means starving Vampire soldiers who would love—and I do mean love—to get a good meal in.” Mason gave Ethan a fist bump and walked out of the room. Alex and Genesis followed.

Ethan didn’t budge. His green eyes flared to life. Oh great, I’d somehow pissed him off. How, I wasn’t sure.

He stalked toward me, picked me up off the floor and slammed my body against the wall as his fangs slowly slid out from his lips. “Tell me I can trust you.”

In all the years I’d known Ethan, he’d never been violent toward me.

Ever.

I knew it was his love for Genesis that made him paranoid, but it stung that he thought so little of me.

“I swear.” My voice trembled. “I would never betray any of you.”

“Or Cassius.” Ethan’s grip tightened on my neck as he squeezed. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I could fight back—potentially kill him or hurt him, but I had no control over what I could and couldn’t do. They were right, I needed Cassius. We all did.

“Never.” I gasped.

Ethan released my body abruptly. I crumpled to the ground and rubbed my neck, I was going to have marks from his fingers.

“Betray us again—” Ethan shrugged, his fangs digging into his lower lip. “And I’ll be forced to take you to Sariel.”

My body chilled at the thought. “Ethan, you can trust me.”

He nodded, his incisors retracted, and a friendly smile flashed across his face. “Good talk. Sleep tight.”

I rolled my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall. “Damn Vamps.”

“Heard that,” he yelled from the other room.

I glanced down the hall and at the stairway. I could do this. I just needed Cassius’s help.

The last thing we needed was the Demons gaining a foothold. The peace between immortals was only kept if each of the groups stayed within their boundaries, and if they kept to the council rules.

If you wanted to procreate, you needed an approved human from the list, just like Genesis had been brought to us. She’d brought balance back to a world full of chaos, meaning we were already going to be opening up the calling again.

Where we’d call numbers of humans who were, in our opinion, superior to others, and allowing them into our world.

An immortal needed a human in order to create more immortals, possibly the reason that we kept our numbers low was because for so long the humans had died at our hands. But now… now, things were working again.

Thanks to Genesis and Ethan’s love fest.

I rubbed my neck again. If the Demons were already picking off humans we had a much bigger problem than Cassius trying to teach me millennia of self-control.

We’d be faced with war.

And possible annihilation.

The Archangels only let us exist if Cassius ruled with an iron fist, and Cassius was at this moment throwing a temper tantrum upstairs and his fists were anything but iron.

The last time Cassius had shown mercy—immortals had died.

I exhaled and rose to my feet. At least he only had twenty-eight more days—and we’d have good ol’ grumpy Cassius back.

I’d miss the human one—he at least smiled—and in rare times, blushed.





Cassius



Greece 79 AD



“EVA!” I HISSED OUT her name, she reeked of human. “Where have you been?”

“Out.”

“Do not lie to me.” I’d never been so angry before in my existence. “I trust you will tell the truth so I’ll give you another chance. Where have you been?”

Her shoulders slumped. “I can’t stay away!” She shook her head. “I know I’m supposed to wait for a mate, and I will, Cassius, you know I’m patient. I just, the children are so innocent, so different from us. The way their minds work…” Her smile was contagious. “Just this morning, John said an entire sentence and was able to spell his name and—”

“John?” I repeated. “You named them?”

“They had names!” she argued.

“If you want a pet. I’ll buy you one.” I stalked toward her as the air between us filled with an icy haze. “But you are NOT to visit the children anymore. If Sariel discovers my treachery, it will be my head!”

“He won’t!” Eva argued. “I promise, just—at least let me say goodbye.”

“No.” Her entire face fell. “You’ve spent enough time there. Write a letter, but you are not to visit them again.” Cursing, I pressed a fingertip against the inside of her wrist. “Already you smell of human, when was the last time you fed?”