Untouchable Darkness (The Dark Ones Saga, #2)(44)

Every moment of darkness too.

I wanted to scream as I held Eva in my arms, as I watched her age, the sheer agony of that moment nearly destroyed my will to exist.

The scenes of people dying.

Screaming for justice.

The stench of death was all around.

The darkness was impossible to escape.

I wanted to run, but something wrapped around my feet, thick large black tentacles tightened around my ankles as a raspy voice whispered. “Watch.”

Thousands of stars in the sky suddenly went dark.

And then the earth followed as an ominous darkness crept across the planet slowly inching its way into every single available space.

“No!” I cried. “No!”

And then, as if someone heard my call. A piercing light broke through the dark cloud, feathers followed, so many purple feathers.

More blood was spilled as I tried to move, to join the fight.

Cassius led the armies against humans, against Darkness itself. Against the Demon who refused to be ruled by an immortal king.

Ethan was at his side, slicing his way through Demon after Demon.

Timber led the Demon forces.

I shouldn’t have been surprised.

He was an ancient type of evil.

“Eva!” Cassius yelled. “Take cover!”

She sped out of the way then sliced the back of the Demon’s knees, he fell to the ground as black blood spewed out of his mouth.

And just like that, I watched Cassius and Eva lead an army of five, including them.

Against ten thousand.

The darkness of the Demon constantly called to Cassius, and as the war raged on, clearly it was wearing on him, as light left his face. But every time it did, Eva pulled him back telling him how good he was, what he was capable of, and the shadows on his face would recede.

The Demon, all destroyed but a few hundred.

Sariel fell from the sky, landing on his feet so hard that an earthquake took out another hundred Demon. “Do you concede victory?”

They put down their swords, while Cassius clenched his. He wanted to kill the remaining.

“What good are they?” he spat, arguing with Sariel. “They are the very evil you wish us to exterminate. Yet, you let them live?”

“I do not allow anything.” Sariel said softly. “It is not my call to make. In order for light to exist, we must also have dark, there will always be a need for balance.”

With that he left.

And the darkness continued to assault Cassius.

With a roar he raised his hands and screamed. “Silence!”

The Demon cowered behind Timber.

“Cross me again,” Cassius spat, “and I will tear you limb by limb, then remove every last drop of life from your pathetic body.”

Timber laughed. “I’d like to see you try.”

The Demon had lost that day.

Or had they?

Suddenly someone was grabbing my hand. I refused to look away as Timber made his way toward me. “Well, well, well, interesting… I did not think he would share such memories.”

“You can see me?”

He nodded.

“But this is a memory.”

“Of an event you are reliving through your dear Cassius, yes, I know.” Timber sheathed his black jeweled sword. “In all the times he’s relived this memory, he has never brought… you.”

Timber clapped his hands while I felt like clobbering him in the face or turning him to ice.

“He’s made it too easy. Exposing his cards so soon.” Timber leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “Until next time… Angel.”





Cassius



WATCHING MY LIFE THROUGH her eyes was painful… almost as painful as her palm against my neck.

The woman had marked me!

And I was still alive.

No longer fully human.

But returned to my Dark One state. Was it truly that easy? That all she’d needed to do was love me back? And with that love, mark me? Would Sariel make it a riddle that had been in my power the entire time?

Stephanie’s eyes returned to blue, she huddled against me, still naked as tremors wracked her body. “That was…”

“Completely irresponsible,” I teased, feeling lighter than I had… in my entire existence. Because for the first time in my miserable life… I was sharing the weight of the darkness.

With someone who had never experienced it before.

Stephanie shuddered and pulled me closer. “A little warning next time.”

I kissed her, I couldn’t help it.

Our kiss shook the air in the room, as tiny little pieces of ice formed around my fingertips, encircling our fingers, linking our hands together. Her body moved beneath mine as her lips danced across my mouth.

I’d never taken my pleasure with another immortal.

Only with humans, who later died in agony at the loss of being near me. Several of them simply gave up.

The last one, a hundred years ago, had jumped off a bridge.

It was the last time I’d allowed my own carnal pleasures to destroy an innocent life.

Until Genesis, until I figured it was my duty to try to mate with a human to bring about the end of the curse.

Only to realize within days of knowing her—that she was never mine to have. Never would be.

And that, even a woman as beautiful as Genesis—could never fill the gaping hole Stephanie’s absence had made in my life.