Needs that had to be fulfilled. Otherwise, I’d be the one dying.
Wouldn’t Cassius just love that?
I was being hard on him.
But I was pissed.
The last thing I imagined myself doing was marching toward the proverbial immortal alter in my favorite Versace leather pants.
“In the car. Now,” Cassius commanded again. This time, his eyes beamed completely white. Chill, no need to get all archangel on my ass.
Stephanie gave me a hopeful grin while Mason nodded in my direction. It was as much of a thank you as I was going to get from the guy.
“Wish me luck.” I pushed past a stone-faced Cassius and started the long awkward trek to the compound.
Hope
A BEAD OF sweat trickled down my spine — the room was freezing, but I was sweating. Leave it to me to be doing the opposite of what was normal.
Could I die from fear? Would my body actually shake hard enough to spontaneously combust into tiny little Hope particles?
Because there was no logical explanation for the way my body burned.
It actually burned.
Like I was on fire.
Maybe it was some sort of test?
The girl to my right shivered and wrapped her arms tighter around her small frame. She looked like I felt.
A scared little girl who’d just been abandoned by her own parents.
At least she got kissed on the forehead.
Tears were shed.
Promises made.
I had none of that. But when you grow up without parents, you learn not to wish for things that weren’t. Besides, what was the point? It only left me sad.
And I hated being sad.
Just like I hated being scared.
And hot.
Seriously, why weren’t they sweating? I was just about to tug my sweater off when I heard footsteps.
I wasn’t sure what was worse, someone just bursting into the room or hearing the pounding of heavy steps as they got closer and closer.
And closer.
Scuffle, tap, scuffle, tap. Stomp, Stomp. What was stomping, stomp?!
With each step, my heart leapt.
And not in a good way.
It wasn’t like there was much hope for us. Our current predicament was bleak. Literally. We were in a windowless room, with a roaring fireplace on one side and a giant four-post bed on the other.
Right. A bed.
Pretty sure I knew what that was going to be for.
After all, that was why we were here.
Actually, that was why the girls on my left and right were here. I showed up to do what I always did on a Friday.
Water the plants.
Immortals and their plants.
Ever since Ethan had gotten married, his wife, a beautiful human who I’d met on a few occasions, had decided that the bridge between immortals and humans needed to be mended.
And apparently in her mind, that meant plants.
Or I guess, just decorating the immortal compound so that when humans visited it looked more jungle than dungeon.
It was still terrifying.
And honestly, in my mind, stupid. They could put a freaking Ferris wheel inside this place, and I’d still shiver a bit when I walked through.
Because I knew what went on.
On Fridays I watered plants.
On Saturdays, I cleaned the floors.
And on Thursdays.
I shivered again as the footsteps paused.
On Thursdays, I heard the screams of human women, the ones who were privileged to know about the immortals. They screamed for immortality, for bites, for attention.
And sometimes, the immortals took them up on it.
It was never pretty.
Mainly because females, or at least the ones of this variety, were stupid, not realizing that vampire bites only felt good if they wanted it to, or that werewolves couldn’t control their claws.
But really, the sirens were the most terrifying.
One in particular.
The most powerful one of his kind.
I prayed the immortal who needed to be mated was the nice wolf. The one with the shaggy hair and soulless eyes.
I’d take him any day over sex in boots.
Like Puss in Boots, only way more intimidating.
The large wood door creaked open.
The girl to my left started sighing as if she was about two seconds short of the best orgasm of her life, while the pixie on the right, the one who not a few minutes ago appeared like she was going to pass out — started moaning.
Um.
I winced.
This was what happened when you went to work early.
You got sucked into weird immortal mating rituals.
It wasn’t like I could say no this morning when The Dark One swept by me. He paused. The angel paused and then slowly turned, locking eyes with me and whispered. “What are you?”
Confused, mainly because it was rumored that if you spoke to him without being given permission, he’d snap your neck like a twig. I stared at him like a mute.
“Never mind.” He waved his giant hand in front of my face then crooked his fingers. “Come. I have a new job for you.”
I frowned then blurted. “Like a promotion?”
Dead. He could have killed me right there. Snapped his fingers and incinerated me. Instead, his steps faltered as he opened a large wooden door and motioned me inside.
“Sure. Let’s call it a promotion.”
I didn’t realize until after the fact that he’d put me in the stupid mating room.
The two gorgeous girls gave me perfectly bland smiles while they hugged their parent’s goodbye.
As for me, I got to stand there like I was actually worthy of being considered by an immortal.
My fingers were dirty from one of the plants I’d just recently moved to another room.