“It is wrong to lie, Mason.” Cassius scolded in that fatherly voice that had me choking out a laugh and then gritting my teeth as a fresh swell of pain shook me from head to toe. Damn it, I hated demon bites.
Mason stiffened and narrowed his eyes at me. “Remember.” He matched my voice. “You need me in order to live.”
Ethan whistled. “Checkmate.”
“Like you even KNOW what it feels like to win at chess,” Genesis pointed out before grasping his hand in hers.
“Why is everyone fighting?” Hope’s blurry-eyed look was like a punch to the gut. She was absolutely beautiful, every last curve of her. And she was mine. Mine to mate. Mine to protect. Mine to save. A surge of lust hit me before pain exploded in my chest. “And what’s that on your neck.”
“Demon hickey,” I said in a deadpan voice. My body felt like it weighed five thousand tons. I tried to lean against the couch and missed, sailing to the floor with a thump.
“Alex!” Hope was at my side immediately but I jerked away from her. With her expression full of hurt, she tried touching me again.
“Don’t.” I shook my head, but it just made the pain worse. “It will hurt you, and I don’t want to hurt you right now.”
“You are hurting her.” Cassius said in that scary as hell angelic voice. “When you reject the one who cares for you.”
“Can we talk about this when I’m not dying?” I wobbled to my feet. “I need sex.”
Mason bit out a curse while I gave him a hopeful look.
“Count me out.” Ethan held up his hands while Genesis rolled her eyes and shoved Mason toward me.
“I’m a prostitute.” Mason mumbled. “That’s what this has come to.”
“Don’t be silly.” I used him to stand. “Women are prostitutes, men are—”
“Gigolos.” Cassius said, shocking the hell out of everyone in the room, Stephanie included.
“The hell have you been letting him read, Steph?” I grumbled as Mason half carried me up the stairs. “And can someone please do something about this bite? It’s spreading.”
“It spreads because you let it.” Cassius said following us closely, his thoughts blocked completely from my nosey access.
“Bullshit. It spreads because it’s poison!”
Hope was close on my heels, and soon the entire gang was in my bedroom. The timer on my clock had been reset, just another reminder that what I needed wasn’t gonna happen.
Ethan let out a curse as I was tossed across the soft bed.
I saw two of Mason, and Cassius’s face was blurring in and out of my line of vision like someone was messing with a TV screen and kept adjusting the brightness. “Wow, my wildest dreams are coming true, an immortal orgy. Be honest, am I shaking a bit right now? I feel like I’m shaking. And to think all I had to be was at death’s door!” Yeah, I was delirious alright.
“You’re not dying,” Cassius said, yet again.
“I’m going to have to disagree, I feel cells dying, but sure, angel, I’m not dying, I’m simply… ceasing to exist. Is that a better way to explain things?”
Cassius rolled his eyes or at least he looked like he was rolling his eyes, it was impossible to tell.
“I’ll find Timber,” I thought I heard him say.
“Tell me you didn’t just say something about finding Timber. Another demon. I have one bite, don’t need two!”
“Good idea.” Ethan would agree with him. “He needs to reverse the protective tattoo on Hope, otherwise he really will die.”
“Would his death be so horrible?” Mason just had to say.
“I’m right here. Like an inch away from you.”
Mason growled.
I smirked in his general direction. “You’re just pissed because I’ve seen all of your little wolf fantasies.” And, because I was delirious, I added, “Tell me, is this whole Little Red Riding Hood thing new? Or have you always been obsessed with girls who carry baskets through the woods?”
“Let me kill him,” Mason begged the room.
And nobody answered!
“Thanks, guys!” A piercing pain shook my right shoulder. Great, it was spreading.
Hope was suddenly at my side.
Touching me.
I inhaled her scent, leaned toward her.
I knew she was probably touching Mason, and I didn’t want to see it. I couldn’t see it; it made me too angry, and any sort of intense emotional response would just drain me more.
I’d joked about sex, but that wouldn’t save me either.
I needed the bite to be gone.
It was parasitic by nature. And lucky me, sirens were the only race of immortals who didn’t just magically heal after a few days.
We had too much emotional essence, meaning the demon bite, once given, was in freaking heaven.
When demons bit vampires, it was like biting into acid, and I’d seen scars to prove it.
When they bit angels, they simply turned to dust.
And when they bit a Dark One, well, nothing really happened to either party other than severe pain since dark can’t really harm dark in that way.
I let out a yell of frustration as the stinging spread down my arm.
“I’ll return.” In a loud, annoying flutter of wings, Cassius was gone.
A soft hand pushed back my hair. “What can I do?” Why did she have to smell so good? The temptation to devour her was so strong I had to clench my teeth. See? Even at death’s door, all I really wanted was sex.
“That,” I whispered hoarsely. “As much as possible.”
Her scent wrapped around my body. “All I’m doing is caressing your face.”
Dare I admit that nobody had ever done that?
That my entire existence had revolved around sex? That the simple gesture of caressing my face or holding my hand held me captive in a way that brought me to my knees?
Dare I tell her, in my weakness, that love was something that eluded me, that my own parents didn’t love me?
That my life had started as one big pawn.
That I never truly knew who sired me.
Only that I was the most powerful siren in existence.
Being brought down by a lame-ass bite.
Why?
And how?
I groaned again when her hand moved to my right cheek, her fingers dancing across my skin. “You’re burning up.”
“Always hot.” I tried to smile. It hurt. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Mason grunted.
“Ah, Wolf, you know it’s true.”
“I know that you’re a self-absorbed pain in my ass who thinks I have a Little Red Riding Hood fantasy.”
“And cookies.” I added just to piss him off. “She brings you cookies in bed.”
Hope snorted.
“It’s not funny,” Mason grumbled.
“Oh, right. There,” I teased. “Shove that cookie in right—”
“One day I shall kill you,” Mason said in a cheerful voice.
“This bite may beat you to it.” I tried to get more comfortable, tried and failed. Already I was burning up with a fever.
“Alex?” Hope said my name, or at least I think she did. “Alex?”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
A painful black mist overtook me, and all I saw was darkness.
Hope
“HE DOESN’T LOOK good.” I gripped his hand like a lifeline. His gorgeous face was pale, even his lips lacked color; and the thing about Alex? His lips were always plump, colorful, juicy, just tempting anyone who had two working eyes to take a bite.
I shivered.
Mason shifted his weight on the other side of Alex then reached for his shirt and tore it off.
The smell of ash filled the room.
“It’s festering.” Mason sighed just as Ethan walked back in with Genesis. It had been hours since Cassius had left us. “It shouldn’t fester, demon bites never linger like this unless the host has untapped power.” He
frowned harder. “This is not good.”
Hours and still no Timber.
Just seeing that man or demon again gave me the chills.
And not the good kind.
His eyes had been empty.
And his touch had felt… wrong. Foreign. Being around the rest of the immortals was uncomfortable enough but being around the demon had been… I couldn’t explain it, but it had felt, different.
And try as much as I wanted, I couldn’t get that stupid vision out of my head, the one where the demons bowed.
Queen.
It was impossible.
I watered plants for a living.
And was orphaned.
Cassius had tried to enter the past again, this time with all of us linked, and all we saw was the same vision again.
It always stopped when Timber commanded the rest of the demons to save the ones still on the brink of death.
Only, just before the dream ended, his eyes locked on mine, and I could have sworn he saw me.
Not in the past.
But as if, in the past, I had existed and he had seen me or seen what was to come.
It was the freakiest thing I’d ever experienced.
And nobody knew what it meant. If Cassius did, he had said nothing. Then again, I knew he wasn’t allowed to reveal possible futures.
If I were Cassius, I wouldn’t sleep at night.
Then again, did archangels with a bit of Dark One in their blood sleep?
A roaring filled the room.
Mason jolted from his spot on the bed and held his hand out to me in a cautious way as if to say don’t move.
His fingers elongated into massive claws.
It was like watching Wolverine transform right in front of me.
I told myself not to jump head first out the window. Normal. That was normal for Mason.
Normal, normal, normal.
The door to the room burst open.
I scurried against the headboard. Trapped. I was trapped. If Timber made it past Mason and Ethan I was going to die and—
Mason put his claws away. “Nice entrance.”
Timber’s clear blue eyes locked on mine before turning black. “Eh, I like to make a scene.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Ethan mumbled. “I take it Cassius handed you your own ass and told you to either get here or die?”
“It was hardly a fair fight,” Timber grumbled. “But I’m here. Besides, it is time.”
“Time?” I found my voice. “Time for what?”
“Please move away from the siren.” Timber commanded as he took slow predatory steps toward me, his fangs elongated over his bottom lip. No wonder Alex’s wound looked like a wild animal had torn into him.
“No.” Who was this girl willing to die for a man who set a freaking timer for sex? Not me. A protectiveness surged through me as I tried to instantly cover Alex’s body only to forget that touching him brought me pain.
Except this time it didn’t.
Which meant.
His face had gone ashen.
“What did you do to him?” I yelled.
“He’ll be fine…” Timber shrugged. “If.”
“If?”
“Come with me.” Timber was a foot away from me now, his hand outstretched toward me. “It is time.”
“Time for what!” I roared. “I don’t understand.”
The room froze.
It froze.
At least that was the only way I could explain it. Mason was reaching for Ethan, while Ethan took a protective stance in front of Genesis. Even Alex seemed to stop breathing.
“What did you do?” Panicked, I struggled to breathe. Tears welling in my eyes.
Timber’s eyes flashed black. “Party trick?”
“What?”
He reached out in a blur of movement and grabbed my chin between his thumb and forefinger. His touch felt warm, not cold or dead like I expected.
He grinned as if he could hear my thoughts.
“Right hand.” He moved swiftly, grabbing my right hand and pressing it against his chest. His heart thudded in a slow rhythm. Entranced, I pressed my palm against him, like my fingers wanted to feel the heartbeat, to know it was really happening. I kept my hand there. Demons had hearts? I had no clue, and yet, I did. Something wasn’t right.
Something felt… very wrong.
Because Timber — he hadn’t just been in the past visions.
“You,” I whispered. “I… know you.”
“I imagine,” Timber said in a hoarse voice, “that you know all of us, you simply don’t remember it, for reasons I’m sure will be revealed soon.”
Slowly, he knelt on his left knee and then his right, my hand slid up to his shoulder, as he bowed his head, and as if I was part of some weird ritual that had been inherent in me since birth I placed my hand on the back of his head. That was crazy though, right? Something told me that logic wasn’t playing a role in any part of what was taking place.
Blue fire emerged from my palm and washed over him.
“Timber.” I barely got his name out before the fire enveloped his entire body. “Xypinos.”
I didn’t know the word.
I’d never spoken it in my life.
A jolt of power surged through my palm.
His head fell backward and then he stood, towering over me. “I am yours.”
“I don’t understand.”
He grabbed my arm, the one with the creepy black tattoo and kissed the inside of my wrist and then bit and sucked.
Black drained in a smoky haze from my arm into his lips as though he was drinking the power back into him.
When he was done, my arm was healed.
Completely.
“Come with me. Now,” he commanded, holding out his hand.
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what just happened, but Alex is dying and he’s my mate—”
“He will be your death. And I swore to protect you. Either you come with me and he lives, or I let him die.”
I looked between the two of them, my heart twisting, shattering into tiny pieces. “But I care about him. I can’t—”
“Make your choice.” Timber’s eyes glowed red. “Now.”
Alex. I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry.
He needed to live.
He had to live.
Slowly, I put my hand in Timber’s. He squeezed my fingers tightly and exhaled a puff of smoke in the air.
We walked by the frozen immortals and down the stairs.
Cassius was standing near the door; his feathers were purple, shedding a wet mist as he eyed us cautiously. “Keep her safe.”
“It is not me you have to worry about.” Timber said hoarsely. “I have seen his mind. He is not stable.”
“With her, he could be.” Cassius fired back. “But you have taken that from him, in more ways than one.”
“He killed an entire race,” Timber snarled. “A race I am honor bound to protect. So forgive me for not feeling more gracious right now. I saved his life. For her. Because she is our leader, our Hope. If he comes after her, there will be war.”
“There is always war,” Cassius said his eyes flashing white.
“At least now we are not on opposing sides.” Timber finally broke eye contact and turned to me. “At least now we have her.”
“Bannik will stop at nothing to destroy her.”
“And I will stop at nothing to protect her.”
“You must know I have seen the futures, Timber. Her leaving does not end well, not for any of us.”
Timber hesitated, his eyes closing briefly before he shook his head slowly. “I cannot allow her to be where she isn’t safe.”
Cassius tilted his head as his eyes flashed white. “Perhaps, I can.”
An icy feeling ran through my body, lingering in my temples before disappearing altogether.
“We are at an impasse.” Cassius’s steely gaze never left Timber’s. I was terrified and had no idea w
hat was going on other than I was leaving with a dangerous stranger who thought he had some sort of psychotic claim to me.
I shook my cloudy head.
What was happening?
Apparently, I knew some sort of foreign language and my head still felt mildly cold, like someone or something was inside it.
“Watch.” The voice whispered.
I gulped as Cassius stepped away from me.
What had just happened?
My movements felt fuzzy, unsure.
“We’ll be in touch.” Cassius opened the door wider. “But do not fault me, if Alex comes after her. They are mated — they will die without one another.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Timber scowled. “Telling the little human elf lies. Death only occurs if he loves her and she him… And the siren upstairs, the only thing he’s in love with… is himself.”
I jerked at the truth of his words. Waiting for Cassius to deny it. Waiting for him to tell me to run back into Alex’s arms.
Waiting for that love, I’d so desperately craved from anyone or anything all of my life.
But he said nothing.
“Good evening.”
That was it.
Timber opened the door to a black Mercedes and helped me inside. When he closed it softly behind me, I flinched.
Minutes later, we were pulling away from the only real home I’d ever known.
And seconds after that, I began to softly cry.
My tears, however, were red.
Timber
“HERE.” I SHOVED a white handkerchief in her direction. Naturally, she didn’t take it, she was too busy staring at the blood on her fingertips and from the sound of it, in the beginning stages of hyperventilating.
With a curse, I wiped both her hands and then her cheeks. My hands were quick, my movements precise, though my heart could hardly understand what I was looking at — what I was seeing before my very eyes.
I had seen her.
In my dreams.
I always saw her.
I yearned for her in ways that should be impossible for someone of my kind. I’d confessed to Sariel before his death that I was having visions.
And the angel had laughed at me.
It was the first time I’d ever seen an archangel laugh — especially one as morose and loathsome as Sariel.
“Such a time as this.” He’d repeated the words that long ago had awoken my heart, causing it to beat again in a slow, warm rhythm.