Untouchable Darkness (The Dark Ones Saga, #2)(31)

Sulfur.

And the high-pitched screams of lives lost, as if the person on the other side of the door was replaying the scene from Pompeii.

“Come.” I motioned to the small boy. “We’ll protect you.”

“Will you be my papa?”

“No,” I barked gruffly, Eva elbowed me in the ribs. “But we’ll find you one.”

“They’re afraid,” she murmured as the children huddled in the corner of the boat. “They think we mean them harm.”

I sighed as the scent of sulfur filled the air and smoke crawled across the ocean toward us. Lifting my hand, I created a shield of water as the boat led us to safety. The little kids gasped in awe as droplets turned to ice crystals decorating the inside of the darkness with pure light, pure winter.

Giggling, one of them stood and started dancing in circles as the ice crystals formed under the dome, shimmering in the air, twinkling and then falling to the floor.

Soon, more children stood.

And Eva… began to sing. She’d always had the most beautiful clear voice, most Vampires did, unlike Sirens who could lull you into a slave-like state, but beautiful still, almost as much so.

“Thank you,” Eva whispered, her hand reaching out to touch mine just as Mason turned and growled in our direction.

“We should not give them hope,” he barked.

The Wolf was right. But I could not bring myself to tear the smiles from their faces. Nor to release Eva’s warm hand.

Though I should.

I should have done all those things.

I fell to my knees as a whoosh of air left me.

“Cassius?” Stephanie was at my side. “Are you okay?”

Marcus turned. “A problem? It’s just beyond this door.”

“Death is beyond that door,” I whispered, my voice shaking the foundation of the bar. I was expending energy fast. I needed more blood, I needed it immediately. Already Marcus looked suspicious, his hand pausing on the large metal black door, his fingernails elongating.

Ethan smoothly pushed Alex and Mason toward Marcus while he shielded me and Stephanie with his body, biting swiftly into Stephanie’s wrist and swiping the blood across my mouth.

It was over in seconds.

And as if someone had just pumped my body full of adrenaline, so much power surged through me that I nearly blacked out.

Because it was enough to see.

It was enough to see with immortal eyes.

Something, I never wanted to see again.

“My, God.” I shuddered pushing past the group and nearly impaling Marcus against the doorknob in an effort to break down the door. “What have you done?”

“Not me.” Marcus’s lips turned up in a smile. “This… is all on you, my King.”

“Arrogant bastard.” I shoved him aside and pulled open the door. .

“John?” I whispered.

John’s eyes widened and then narrowed as he whispered in a low voice. “You.”

“John.” I shook my head, unable to process how he was standing in front of me. Had he been given immortality? Was this Sariel’s doing? How was he alive? He should have died in Greece.

“You killed her!” John screamed. “And you will die for it. You will all die.”

Stephanie stood in front of me just as John charged, with a flick of her wrist she slammed him against the wall and then covered her mouth as if shocked that she was able to do it in the first place.

John was knocked unconscious.

“Someone gave him immortality…” Marcus folded his arms as if he didn’t have a care in the world for the angry Demon. “And someone… is helping him create more Demon… almost as if…” Marcus’s grin was slow, as his teeth protruded into long yellow fangs. “… as if history is repeating itself, hmm Cassius?”

Mason howled.

For it had been Mason who had checked in on the children when it was too painful for me.

And it had been Mason, who had lost track of them.

A Wolf lost track of their scent.

A year after we saved them.

A year after her death.

It was as if they no longer existed.

“We’ll take him back,” I said.

“We’ll what?” Ethan repeated. “You’re kidding right? No chance in hell am I putting a Demon in my guest room!”

“Don’t be silly.” Alex flicked his hand. “We’ll put him in the dungeon. Been years since we’ve had a plaything in chains. Think of the Instagram posts we could have!”

Mason went over to John and leaned over his body. “It is him, it is his scent. Do we know who did this to him?”

Marcus sighed. “Your guess is as good as mine, but he knows how to create. And has been creating for the past three weeks. We’ve killed off the ones that were… created wrong.”

“And when you say created… wrong?” Stephanie asked.

Marcus swallowed. “Immortality does not always take.”

Stephanie shared a look with me, but I shook my head, it was for another time. After all, it was no fairy tale, the deformities that attacked a human body when it rejected immortality.

“Thank you.” Offering thanks to the Demon was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do, but he had helped us. “What is it you hope to gain from helping the council?”