"What?"
"Just…" Ethan cursed and looked away. "…stay as still as possible, human."
"She has a name," Alex grumbled, earning a fiery look from both Ethan and Mason.
My breath hitched when Mason leaned down, gripping my shoulders, and softly nibbled on my neck. It felt good — until a slicing pain followed the nibbling.
I shrieked.
He didn't let go.
When I was about ready to pass out, he pulled back, his eyes completely black. "It didn't work."
"Shit." Ethan ran his hands through his hair.
"You have to do something." Stephanie looked toward Ethan. "He'll find her if you don't."
"What the hell do you expect me to do?" Ethan roared. "Bite her?"
The room fell silent. Didn't vampires bite?
Isn't that what the text had said?
Alex exhaled loudly. "I'll try, just don't get all pissed off when she melts into a puddle on the floor."
"Oh please." Stephanie rolled her eyes.
"Focus." Alex snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Let me try to at least smother his scent with mine."
His lips descended.
And I was being kissed — by a siren. Something the texts described as indescribable ecstasy.
I was too afraid to feel anything except for heat and desire.
My heartbeat picked up again. My body went damp and hot as his mouth moved against mine.
When he pulled back, it wasn't with a satisfied smirk but one of hopelessness. "I'm so sorry, little human."
"He'll come for her," Stephanie whispered, her eyes flickering to Ethan. "If he takes her—"
"I know," Ethan barked. "Don't you think I'm well aware of our own prophesy?"
"Yet we play right into it… every century," Alex muttered. "I thought… for a second, I thought this one would be different. It felt different, right?"
The room fell silent again.
"What…" My voice was hoarse. "…what am I really doing with you? Why was my number called?"
"Oh dear…" Stephanie plopped down into a seat. "Ethan didn't explain that?"
"Again, fifteen minutes," Ethan muttered under his breath. "And she's human. It's not like her capacity for learning new information has evolved."
I glared at him.
Mason chuckled.
"Honey…" Stephanie reached her hand across the table and placed it on mine. "Whatever your family has taught you is a lie. You aren't here to teach us or do anything of the sort. You're… you're a breeder."
"A breeder," I repeated. "Like a horse?"
Mason laughed harder. Well, at least I knew werewolves weren't out to kill me.
Ethan swore and sat down on the other side of me.
"We call numbers every fifty years to breed. Immortals cannot procreate with other immortals," he explained. "Humans are chosen based on their scent, strength…" He coughed and looked away. "Physical appeal."
"But I'm ugly," I blurted. "To you I'm ugly. We're ugly, we're nothing, we're—"
Ethan shook his head slowly. "And that's the greatest deception of all." His hands moved to my chin. "To us you're not ugly. You are absolute perfection."
"To a Dark One," Mason continued, "you're life itself."
CHAPTER FOUR
Genesis
MY BREATH HITCHED IN MY CHEST as I stared at the strangers around me. What did that even mean? Life itself? I was nothing. Why would I be taught humility and self-hate my whole life only to be told by the very ones I was supposed to fear that I was life itself?
"Jealousy," Ethan said softly, "quickly turns to envy. Envy is a dangerous thing because you end up wanting so desperately what you'd never been given in the first place. The greatest sin an immortal can commit is to laugh in the face of what we are… and want." His eyes were sad. "He wants you."
"To kill me?" I whispered hoarsely.
"No." Ethan cupped my chin with his smooth fingers. "He wants to possess you, and believe me when I say you'll like every part of that possession — until he leaves you. Dark Ones always leave, and you'll die."
"Maybe she's different," Stephanie said in a quiet voice.
"You'd be willing to sacrifice another?" Mason roared, slamming his fists onto the table. It split down the middle right in front of me.
Gasping, I slid my chair back and nearly fell out of it.
"How many times have we said we'd stop testing the prophecy?"
Stephanie looked down at her hands. "It's the only hope we have."
"Hope," Alex muttered. "What a sad, pathetic little word."
"We aren't letting Cassius have her." Ethan's green eyes flashed as he released my chin. "We won't repeat what happened last time."
"What happened last time?" I asked, knowing I'd probably regret the answer.
Mason's entire face crumpled with pain as he let out a howl and ran out of the room.
"Shit." Alex stared after him. "It's going to take hours to get him to come out of his state now."
"I'm so sorry." I held up my hands. "I had no idea—"
"Of course you don't," Ethan snapped. "You know nothing."