His eyelashes collected pieces of dust as they blinked in rapid succession, as if he was confused.
I licked my lips, still able to taste him. “What was that?”
He swallowed and then slowly set me down, our bodies slid roughly against one another. “That,” he answered, voice hoarse as he jerked away, hands shaking. “Was a kiss.”
“Did you call?” A voice interrupted.
I turned on my heel and hid behind Alex, no idea why I was hiding behind the crazy immortal that could strip a woman without even touching her, or bring her to an orgasm with a mere thought, but the thing that yelled at us had a really rough voice.
It almost sounded like he was trying not to bark out the question.
I peered around Alex and saw the werewolf, in full wolf form. Something my human eyes couldn’t process, because it wasn’t normal. It looked… wrong.
He stood on his hind haunches at least twelve feet tall, brown fur lined his body with stripes of white across his chest in the shape of a cross. And his eyes, they weren’t the eyes of an animal.
They were silver.
And they were focused in on me.
He sniffed the air and then let out a howl before falling prostrate to the ground.
“Wh-what’s he doing?” I asked Alex once I could find my voice.
Alex let out a gruff curse and marched over to the wolf, kicking him in the ribs. “Get up.”
The wolf growled and kept his face against the marble floor.
Alex ran a hand through his hair, and it was then I noticed that he looked more normal, human, approachable, but still too beautiful for words. His blond and silver hair wasn’t as shiny, his eyes not as flashy, his smile not as deadly. But it would be impossible to look at him and not shake a bit with the intense need to touch him.
“Mason.” Alex tried again through clenched teeth. “This isn’t the time or the place—”
Mason snapped his teeth at Alex’s feet.
Alex stumbled backward and wiped his face with his hand, staring down at the wolf then back up at me. “He’s….”
“He’s what?” I whispered, slowly taking a step toward the massive animal.
“I hate my life.” Alex whispered.
“What?”
“He’s—” Alex glared at the wolf, his yellow eyes flashing. “Bowing.”
Alex
MASON EYED ME through creepy silver orbs of excitement. She is an elf. Royalty! She is the one, she is the one!
“Stop!” I pressed a hand to my forehead. “Yelling.”
“Um…” Hope nudged me with her elbow. “He didn’t even speak.”
“Oh, he spoke all right.” I growled, and then because I was dehydrated, without sex, and possibly losing my mind, I took the protective stance in front of her and leaned down in challenge. “Look at her that way again, and I’ll rip your haunches from your body and feed them to the demons.”
He grinned.
And then.
She. Is. The. One. The words were repeated in my head with such resounding loudness that I stopped breathing for a few seconds.
“Hi.” Hope peeked around my body and waved at the wolf, like she was Little Red Riding Hood and he wasn’t going to steal all her cookies, eat her grandmother, and then try to kill her too.
“You don’t wave at a wolf,” I grumbled. “That’s just begging the bull to charge, and the last thing I need is to get gutted by one of his claws because he ‘slipped.’” I made air quotes and glared in Mason’s direction.
“One time, Siren.” Mason shrugged. “And I did slip.”
“Slip my ass,” I said through clenched teeth. “My insides nearly spilled onto the floor!”
Hope made a gagging noise.
And then she was walking toward Mason, like he was the freaking welcoming committee and she had absolutely no reason to be terrified of his fur, or height, or freaking canine teeth!
She reached out and then jerked her hand back. “I’m sorry, I just… can I feel your fur? There’s something about it that just….”
Arrogance floated off Mason and slammed into me in fitful waves. My stomach clenched as he knelt down and held still.
Hope touched his arm and then moved her hand higher as Mason let out a low rumble and started to pant.
“Any lower and he’s going to have a problem.” I said casually, even though it was a lie.
I could feel Hope’s embarrassment just like I could feel Mason’s irritation at making her stop. It felt good to him, and I knew more than anyone that the last person who had touched him in wolf form had their hand cut off, the time before that was his mate.
He didn’t have friends except Genesis and us.
Meaning. Mason never let anyone touch him.
Ever.
But he allowed Hope.
I refused to acknowledge what that meant just like I conveniently forgot that she had elf blood running through her puny weak little body.
Timber
HATRED FILLED ME.
Black tendrils of heat wrapped themselves around my body, squeezing it tight like a smoke-filled prison. And I breathed. In and out I breathed. It pissed me off.
The only time I could feel was when I allowed the darkness to take hold. Every other minute of the day, I was numb. Filled with a heat that could never be dampened. Filled with needs that were never met. Lust that would never be sated.
I was in a constant state of ruthless agony and a never-ending thirst that couldn’t be quenched.
With a snarl I tossed the cup of human blood back. The liquid spilled against my parched throat and slowly, the cells knit across my flesh, from the inside out, and peace settled over me.
This one.
I stared down at the cup.
She had been good.
So good.
And that was why I’d killed her.
Not because I loved death and destruction — but because a part of me would always be jealous that she could smile, that she felt a temperature other than heat, that the smell of sulfur mixed with a deep burning wood wasn’t her constant companion. That when she closed her eyes she didn’t even realize the air called to her, the mountains trembled with her human presence.
Idiots.
All of them.
And too soon, the cells died in my throat.
I felt their death as if it was my own.
And I was back to square one.
An empty demon.
A heartless monster.
Darkness laughed.
Engulfed.
I wasn’t sure what I hated more. Myself for what I was — or the being who refused to hear my cry long after my voice went hoarse and my lungs burned with injustice.
I was helping to lead a war I wasn’t sure we could fight — let alone win, if Bannik didn’t pull his head out of his ass or at least leave his dungeon of doom.
That was what the boys and I had started calling it. The dungeon of doom. Nothing good ever happened there. And nobody ever left breathing.
I found a sick satisfaction in the fact that Bannik, with all of his powers, was still having trouble keeping his brothers from ripping his throat out.
The last one that got loose ended up nearly tearing out the being’s intestines with his teeth. I laughed while Bannik limped back to his office and screamed at the top of his lungs.
It made me downright cheerful that the man could still feel pain, though at times that cheerfulness turned to jealousy. The only time I felt anything was when another being’s blood ran through my body.
Demons were by nature, feeders. Without another human’s essence, we lost control of our human appearance, which was bad enough, but without their blood, we also lost our damn minds.
With a chuckle I tossed the last drop of human blood down my throat, my tongue rejoicing with the moment of sanity and peace it brought me.
“Timber.” Bannik’s voice rumbled and shook through my office.
“Well.” I sighed and stood. “Speak of the devil hi
mself.”
“I’m much better looking,” Bannik said in such an arrogant tone that I had half a mind to call upon whatever forces of evil still were willing to fight on my side just to prove him wrong.
Then again.
That was the trouble with darkness; it rarely took sides. It mindlessly fought for whoever had the most power, and right now, in this moment.
That person.
That being.
Was standing before me, all ten feet of him. With dark brown hair and shots of red.
He looked like he’d been formed from the side of the mountain, and his glaring white teeth gnashed into a snarl as he drove his hand through the front of my desk, splintering it in two.
Sighing, I stared down at the ruined piece of furniture. “That’s three, Bannik. You know I can’t simply walk into an Ikea and ask for another. Last time I nearly killed the woman. Hell, she smelled like sunshine.” I licked my lips, still remembering her taste.
It was nothing compared to Stephanie. The little angel I’d been tempted to devour, then again, I wasn’t sure what would happen if I actually drank from a Dark One. I’d probably go crazier. And as much as I wanted to taste her…
I actually liked her.
Unfortunate, since she was my enemy. It would be a pity to spill that much angelic blood — but it couldn’t be helped. Not while Bannik still held my balls in the palm of his hand, one small squeeze, and I’d be damned.
And the last thing a demon wanted, was for his eternal flame to get snuffed before being promised another chance at redemption.
Though every six hundred and sixty-six years, when my judgment came.
I was met with silence.
So maybe I was already damned.
Bannik rolled his eyes while I pushed thoughts of my miserable existence away. “Maybe if you learned to control your urges I’d let you off your leash.”
I had never, in all of my existence, wanted to kill someone as bad as I did Bannik. And that included Sariel or any other archangel that dared step in my way.
I would kiss Cassius on the mouth before I would ever admit to Bannik that he had power over me.
Power I gave him.
Blood I gave him.
Loyalty — no matter how misguided — I gave him.
“We have a problem,” Bannik barked, finally relaxing into a chair and propping his enormous booted feet up on the shards left of my desk.
“We?” I arched my eyebrows and crossed my arms. “What is this we business? If I remember correctly, last time I tried to help you drain your brothers you told me to go kill myself.”
Bannik grinned.
Sadistic bastard.
“Well, it seems now, I need your help. They aren’t cooperating.”
“Gee maybe if you didn’t torture them.” I said in an innocent albeit mocking voice. “They may be more amiable to your terms?”
“As long as Cassius still lives.” Bannik clutched his fists so hard, I felt faint, like he was sucking the air from the room, from my very lungs. I learned long ago that each of the Watchers had control of the elements. And lucky for me, Bannik, had oxygen under his thumb just like the winds.
I sucked in a healthy gulp of air and waited.
“Has he been located?” Bannik finally released his hand and glared at me, his once blue eyes going completely black like his soul.
The only bonus of being under his thumb.
I was given a firsthand seat to his destruction.
He was drunk on power.
And darkness chuckled darkly within him.
He thought he was in control, but even now, a dangerous war raged inside him. He wasn’t meant to be dark.
Therefore, the light still fought.
It was the only reason his brothers lived and still fought him.
Pathetic, even now they cried out to him, tried to save him.
He’d taken the ten remaining watchers and chained them to his wall like pets. Their blood drained, but once he touched it — it turned black.
I smiled. “Cassius has been located, but there is also the issue of his mate, there hasn’t been a mated Dark One in over—“
“Spare me a history lesson.” Bannik barked.
I couldn’t help but grin again.
And then a laugh followed.
“What the hell is so funny?” Bannik roared as the door to the office burst open and Damon stumbled in.
I could hear the demon’s thoughts from a mile.
“Interesting.” I rubbed my chin and chuckled again. That sneaky bastard!
“What?” Bannik looked between us. “What is it?”
“Cassius,” I whispered, feeling my eyes burn red. “It seems has been transformed.”
“Transformed,” Bannik repeated. “What does that mean?”
“Sariel has transferred his power,” I said in an awestricken voice. “To a Dark One.”
“No.” Bannik shook his head. “No, that is impossible, that would take—”
“The ultimate sacrifice.” I whispered reverently. “Yes. It would.”
“But—”
“It gets worse.” Damon’s eyes went completely black before burning bright red, and suddenly a solitary tear of red slid down his cheek, creating a burning trail down his face, one that would scar him for eternity. There was only one reason a demon would cry red.
Why a demon would be so moved by emotion, that he wasn’t capable of feeling.
Why he would risk spilling whatever blood he still had remaining in his body.
“They’ve returned.” Damon fell to his knees.
Bannik gave me a confused look.
Then again, while Bannik had been guarding the deserts.
I’d been fighting wars.
He stared at sunsets.
And I’d saved an entire demon race.
While destroying the most precious thing ever given us.
“Who?” I needed to hear him say it. Needed it more than my next breath.
“A time such as this, Timber,” he whispered in a voice that was not his own, and then, his heart exploded leaving nothing in its wake but ash.
And just like that — warmth filled me from the inside out.
For the first time since them.
Hope
I WAS PETTING a wolf.
A wolf!
And oddly enough, something about it felt familiar, like I’d done it before, numerous times actually. But that was crazy, right? Maybe a side effect of working for the immortals too long?
Embarrassment at Alex’s words quickly faded as warmth engulfed my fingers, causing a pleasant burn to spread across my body. It felt a lot like when me and Alex touched, only, this time, I wasn’t tempted to rip off every piece of clothing and throw myself at his feet.
Mason rumbled and then he started to purr.
I laughed. “I’ve always wanted a pet,” I whispered.
“This pet eats people twice your size and tried to impale a beaver last week over a pinecone. Believe me when I say, he’s not tame,” Alex said, suddenly behind me, I could feel each even breath he took. And it was aggravating. So aggravating that I felt him suck in air and exhale it.
Mason glared at me through his animalistic eyes and then shook his head playfully as if to say he’s full of shit.
Alex
MAYBE I WAS full of shit.
It was more the beaver was trying to kill him.
The pinecone had been a bonus.
But still.
He was touching mine.
I jerked away from both of them.
Hellfire.
Mine?
Possessive of something I hadn’t even physically claimed, that was new. Damn it.
With a shake, Mason started slowly transforming back to his scruffy human body, standing as the change took place.
Hope let out a small gasp and covered her face with her hands. “He’s naked.”
“Wolves don’t wear pants,” I commented with a smirk while Mason shrugged in my
direction and held out his hand. “Oh, hell no.”
“My pants ripped.” His response.
“What? So you want me to give you mine? You know I don’t wear anything under these!”
He sniffed the air, as pieces of his scruffy hair fell across his face. “Interesting.”
“Don’t say it.”
“You haven’t mated yet!”
“And you said it.” I cursed under my breath. “Does it matter?”
“The doors have opened,” Mason pointed out. “Ergo, a mating has taken place.”
“Don’t you think, I would be a hell of a lot more satisfied, powerful, and sated, if it had?” With each word, I felt my control snap more, until I was face to face with Mason and inches from ripping his head from his body.
“Um…” Hope’s voice interrupted the blinding rage, but it did nothing but inflame it. She was the problem. From her elfish smell all the way down her puny little body. “Since the doors are open, does that mean I can go?”
“Why is she raising her hand?” Mason completely ignored my murderous look, choosing to examine my female like he had a damn right to!
“It’s what human children do in school when they have a question,” I snapped. “And truly, it fits, since she’s nothing but a child.”
“Oh?” Hope put her hand down, and I had a sickening feeling that I’d just pushed her too far — that she was seconds from snapping or having some sort of emotional breakdown that females were prone to have when put in a situation where they lost complete control.
Mason backed up.
I should have followed.
Instead, I flashed her a mocking grin and lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug. “All I see is a girl.”
Her eyes narrowed and then she turned that brilliant gaze toward Mason and bestowed an alluring smile as she approached him slowly. “And you? What do you see?”
Her hips swayed.
Her once pale lips went completely red, like the ripest of fruit.
And before my very eyes, the little vixen did exactly what elves had done for hundreds of years.
She enchanted.
Sunlight danced across her face, and sweet music filled the air, the type of music that stuns you into silence.
“I think…” Mason grinned at me then put a hand on my back. “That Alex is completely screwed.” He eyed her appreciatively. “And you’re absolutely breathtaking. If you were my female, I would bring you the largest cow I could find and cover you with fur.”