“Is she?” Sariel shook his head slowly. “Do realize you could have simply called for a miracle? Do you realize that you could have called upon the One who holds the key to life? Instead, you have damned her to hell.”
“No!” The king shook his hands in front of his face, tears streamed down his cheeks. “She is alive! Just this morning I—”
“Bring the girl,” Sariel stormed in an icy whisper. “Show her in.”
The door opened. Eva, held the tiny six-year-old in her strong embrace. Already the girl’s eyes were turning black, her body trembling as Darkness took hold.
“She was meant to die.” Sariel pointed at the girl. “In two days she would have been taken to paradise. On this day. She will lose her soul, along with every person who consumed the blood.”
The King sobbed, falling to his hands and knees. “Take me! Don’t take my little girl. Take me!”
“I take no one. These lives are no longer mine to take, that choice was pulled out of my hands the minute you decided to play at Creator.” Sariel glanced out the window. “If a hundred have the blood—within twenty-four hours the city will fall to sickness, they will need blood, they will have no choice but to feed from one another.”
Humanity had no place in this decision. I looked at the immortals I’d sworn to protect and then glanced out amongst the thousands of humans that would die for one man’s stupidity.
Sariel tilted his head in my direction. “This is your realm. What will you do?”
The human screamed at the unfairness of the situation, it begged, it pleaded, it bled.
It had no place in this decision.
“I will destroy them all.” I ignored every shred of human emotion. One day, I feared, I wouldn’t feel them at all, they’d simply disappear. “I will destroy the city, and every Demon in it.”
Cassius
“SLOW DOWN,” ETHAN HISSED out of the corner of his mouth as I tore off another hunk of warm bread and shoved it into my mouth. “You look like a damn animal.”
“Mason.” Alex nodded thoughtfully. “I imagine he looks like Mason does when he feeds.”
Mason let out a low growl and clutched his beer tightly with his hand—though that same hand was shaking, his nails elongating. Alex better watch it lest he get his throat slit before dessert.
Ah, dessert.
I patted my stomach.
Why hadn’t the hunger subsided?
I reached for the bread basket. Empty. Damn. “Who ate all the bread?”
“You.” Genesis smothered a laugh. “What? You blacked out during the last of the loaf?”
“I uh…” My cheeks heated. “Sorry.”
“Gasp.” Alex said in a monotone voice. “I wasn’t aware that word was in your vocabulary.”
I ignored his jab. “Alex, make yourself useful, seduce the waitress and get more bread.”
“You know, that technically breaks council rules.” Alex grinned. “Seducing a human woman for a Dark One’s benefit.”
Ethan groaned and pinched his nose. “For the love of God, Alex, just do it, Genesis is starving, I can hear her hunger, which in turn makes me hungry, and nobody wants to see me bite.”
Mason shrugged. “I don’t know. It would be kinda nice, dinner and a show…”
Stephanie stifled a laugh. “Maybe Alex doesn’t think he can do it anymore… lost your touch, brother?”
His eyes narrowed just as the waitress came by again. I think his hesitation had more to do with the fact that she was in her late seventies, and looked like someone’s nice old grandma—the grandma who knits sweaters for Christmas and crafts homemade cards for every special occasion.
“Are you ready to order?” She tilted her head. The nametag flashed Fran. Threads of silver hair wove around dark hair, all pulled tightly into a bun. “I see you’ve finished your bread.”
“One of us has,” Genesis grumbled in my direction.
I gave her an apologetic smile and received a kick from Ethan that hurt like hell, did the man forget I was breakable? He’s lucky he didn’t break my leg in half!
“Fran,” Alex said in a smooth voice, his blue eyes brightened, his skin took on a flawless appearance, his words were spoken slowly in a lazy drawl that had Fran leaning forward, eyes heavy. “I know we’re only now ordering but is there any way we can get our food… say, in a few minutes? We’re positively…” he licked his lips. “Starved.”
“Too far.” Mason coughed under his breath.
Fran blinked. “Yes well, yes that… that would be nice.”
“Two orders of the filet mignon.” Alex grinned. “Six orders of the New York Strip, six Caesar salads, and I think we’ll also take some more bread.”
Fran wrote everything down and then glanced up. “I’ll be sure to get this to you as soon as possible.”
She didn’t move.
Alex yawned.
Stephanie smacked him across the chest.
His smile was anything but guilty. “Oh thanks Fran, you’re dismissed.”
“But…” Her eyebrows pinched together, like she was trying to solve a puzzle. This was the problem with Sirens. They flirted, they gave off such an intense emotional charge that if they didn’t follow through, usually, the spell was broken within minutes. He had to touch her to solidify it—kissing her would be better. I’d known Alex for a long time—I imagined he was too lazy to do either.