Untouchable Darkness (The Dark Ones Saga, #2)(49)

Alex coughed wildly, and I shared an amused look with him while he shrugged his shoulders.

“The Demon…” Sariel sighed. “Are more trouble than they are worth.”

“And we keep them around because… why?” Alex yawned. “Just say the word and I’ll go all Siren on their asses.”

“I think they’d enjoy that way too much,” Ethan teased.

“No.” Sariel dusted his hands together. “We do this the right way. There’s no need to start a war, and there certainly isn’t any need to exterminate an entire race just because they’ve been bad. Think of what would have happened with Dracula.” All eyes turned to Ethan.

“Horrible example,” Ethan grumbled.

“Cassius, since you’ve discovered the answer to your little riddle, your thirty days are now over.” He snapped his fingers. “You are fully restored and are ordered to immediately investigate, with your mate’s help, the sudden influx of Demon.”

“And the Angel blood?” Mason asked. “Where the hell are they getting it?”

“Cease from cursing in my presence,” Sariel snapped. “And if I knew I’d tell you.”

A wry grin widened Alex’s mouth. “That damned missing half side of things…”

Sariel shot him a withering glance, and the grin faded.

“So, it’s only us then?” I braved the question. “Just me and Stephanie?”

Silence answered us, and then, “You have your orders. Keep me updated.”

He moved away from the kitchen, as his wings disappeared, replaced by a leather jacket and dark-wash jeans.

“So he uses the front door now?” Alex asked.

My skin prickled with awareness. It was too easy.

The entire thing was too easy.

And if there was anything I’d learned in my time on earth, it was that things were never as easy as they seemed.

“Wait here,” I whispered to Stephanie, following Sariel out the door.

His footsteps crunched against the gravel and then he stopped, lifting his eyes heavenward as stars shone down on both of us. Only I was still blanketed in darkness—the light couldn’t shine on a Dark One.

We weren’t given the honor.

Only Angels.

Pure bloods.

“There’s something else, isn’t there?” I asked.

Sariel pointed up to the sky. “How many do you think… look down on us… wish for more than their existence? None. I would venture none. Do you know why Cassius?”

More riddles. Just my luck. “No. No, I do not.”

“Because their purpose is to shine, not to have an opinion or feelings. They rest in the occupation they have been given, and they excel at it.”

“Yes.” A few more stars twinkled down, casting a light glow across Sariel’s face.

He turned to me, his eyes white. “Ask your question, son.”

“A vision…” I nearly choked with the horribleness of it. “Stephanie saw the future, a future, she was killing me. You stood behind her.”

Sariel didn’t look surprised, if anything, his shoulders seemed to slump, his glow, defeated. “Yes.”

“I die by her hand?”

“Futures… can change,” he said in a chilling voice. “Though I’ve only seen it change once with an immortal.”

“Once?”

His eyes went white again. “With you… your future changed the minute you saved the girl from death. Your future was certain, set in stone, until you chose.”

“I’ve always had free will.”

He posed a question. “But how often have you acted on it?” He held out his hand in front of him, closed it tightly then opened it as a small flower began to grow. “This flower does not choose to be planted, it simply is. What would happen, do you think, if the flower decided it wanted to be planted elsewhere, if it demanded of its creator to be given an entirely new occupation, a new existence, and this creator, in his divine love for this flower… allowed it.”

“The flower…” I swallowed even though my mouth had gone dry. “Not knowing the dangers of life, could ask to be planted in the water, on a hill without sunshine, the flower could die, the chances are, the flower will die—if left to its own devices.”

“Yet.” Sariel held up his hand. “It’s allowed… because one cannot truly love something yet keep it in a safe little box. That is not love. Love does not hold back, it allows us to fall, to break, and yes Cassius, sometimes, it even allows us to die.”

“You’re not making me feel better.”

“I never was good at these sorts of talks.” A foreign chuckle escaped between his lips and closed his hands. “I see many futures for you. I also am purposefully blinded from several outcomes. But I will tell you this. If she does not learn to control the Darkness, if you do not help her, she will kill you. And I will have no choice but to help her, or she will destroy herself in the process.”

I sucked in a breath. “You’d help her kill me?”

“To save the girl you love? To save your mate? What would you have me do, let you both die?”

“No.”

“Then you have your answer.” He nodded curtly. “You’ve had centuries of practice. She’s had a week, and if she’s not careful, she’ll get drunk on the power, she’ll allow it to consume her, you realize how the Darkness calls… it never screams your name.” He leaned in close his eyes turning black. “It whispers.”