With a sigh he slowly rose from his seat and reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips with a quick kiss.
Fran flashed a toothy smile and walked off.
I gave one solitary clap. “Could you have gone any slower?”
“Could you be any more jealous?” he countered.
“Of your love affair with the elderly?” I tilted my head. “Jealousy wasn’t really the word I was thinking.”
“You’re welcome.” He leaned back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head. “At least now you won’t have to resort to eating the table cloth.”
“You can eat the table cloth?”
“Sarcasm!” Alex said in an exasperated tone. “Learn it!”
I smirked. “I was kidding.”
You’d think I’d just announced I was going to go on a killing spree. All eyes fell to me, movement ceased.
“What?” I reached for my water and took a tentative sip.
“Dark Ones don’t joke.” Mason said seriously. “Did this whole humanity thing also replace your personality?”
I glowered. “Really, it’s like you’re begging me to kill you once this is finished.”
“And what is this?” Ethan’s eye narrowed. “You haven’t really said. And I can’t imagine you taking this type of… test sitting down.”
“Standing.” I licked my lips. “I was standing actually.”
“Sariel said nothing else?” Stephanie asked, her voice dripping with doubt. “Nothing about his reasoning?”
My mind flashed back to a few days earlier, when I offered up everything for a chance at—everything. A chance to fix an error.
A lapse in judgment.
The council members, the individuals sitting at that very table, knew me the best.
They’d seen me raze cities. Save lives. And do my fair share of destroying.
Yet even they didn’t believe me capable of having a shred of humanity. Which in turn made me question everything I’d come to know about myself. Was I their leader because they respected me?
No.
I was their leader.
Because they feared me.
Because they had no choice.
They weren’t my friends, hardly even colleagues. It had never been so painfully apparent as it was in that moment.
I truly had nothing in this world.
And maybe that was Sariel’s plan all along, his last cruel trick. Make the Dark One—who has no feelings—feel.
Because I felt a hell of a lot while I sat there.
Shame, disappointment, rage, embarrassment.
I felt it all.
And I had nobody to blame but myself.
Stephanie
“I WANT TO SHOW you something.” Cassius’s deep voice caused my body to shiver in anticipation, delight, lust—take your pick.
I lifted a shoulder. “Oh?”
“I doubt Ethan would mind if we borrowed his car for the evening.”
“Evening?” My entire mouth went dry. Hadn’t we just spent the evening together? At least dinner? I watched helplessly as the rest of the crew piled into Ethan’s car and drove off, leaving me alone with Cassius, so very much alone. “The whole evening?”
Cassius grinned. “You look scared.”
“Tired,” I blurted. “This is the look of exhaustion.”
“Pity.” He pulled the keys from my hand and opened the passenger door, ushering me in. “I guess I’ll have to do my best to keep you from over exerting yourself, then.”
I gulped. “Guess so.”
Cassius didn’t respond, but he did seem amused at my expense as he started the car and weaved through traffic, nearly clipping two cars in the process.
“Thought you didn’t know how to drive.” I said through clenched teeth.
“Fast learner.” He flashed another smile and kept driving at breakneck speed until we took the next exit.
I frowned as he went toward Lake Stevens.
The sun was setting, the sky was growing dark. Demons would soon be out and about, seducing humans, biting them, drinking their blood just because they could. Vampires would be sleeping because as much as people liked to believe they only came out at night, they could do whatever the hell they wanted—within reason.
“What will you do?” I cleared my throat at an attempt to rid my mind of what dangers prowled at night. “If you haven’t finished this little test before the next council meeting?”
Cassius stared blankly at the road ahead, giving nothing away. But the dim light from the dash revealed that he was gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were turning white. “That won’t happen.”
“But it could.” I frowned. “And if the Vampires, Demons, heck if anyone sees you like this—”
“They won’t!” He yelled.
I held up my hands. “Okay, sensitive subject, but I’m glad you’re that confident in this whole testing thing.”
He scowled. “Confidence has nothing to do with it.”
“Oh?”
As the car rolled to a stop at the light, he turned toward me, his face void of emotion. “If I fail, I die, case closed.”
What? Panic rose in my chest. “If you fail as a human you die? If you fail with me?”
Color tinged his cheeks as he slammed down on the accelerator. “Right, something like that.”
“How many days did he give you?”
“Thirty.”