“I love it when the refined sounding ones cuss.” This from Mason, which earned a laugh from Ethan.
I groaned into my hands. “Is she at least okay?”
Cassius’s eyes flashed white. “She’s fine, she’s just stunned.”
“I mean let’s be honest.” Alex snorted. “You went full Demon King on her, ohhh, I’m the worst of them all, growl, bite, flash my red eyes, look I have claws. For the love of God tell me you didn’t flash a bit of horn, you dirty bastard.”
I prayed for patience. “Can someone muzzle him? Huh? Ice him? Cassius, we know you can…”
Ethan chuckled while Alex flipped us all off from his spot on the couch.
“And no.” I kept pacing a hole in my carpet. “I didn’t go full demon and show her horns,” I conveniently left out the part where I hadn’t shifted ever since the tattoo started growing, yes my eyes flashed red but I never went into full demon mode at least not anymore and it had been rare once I received my restored soul.
I frowned.
If Hope restored my soul—quite literally my old soul, the one that had been taken from me somehow eons ago—then what sort of used soul had been given to me?
I remembered nothing.
And that was the problem.
“He’s thinking too hard,” Alex whispered.
I shot him a glare while Cassius locked eyes with me, like he was waiting for me to say something. “What?”
“We can’t help you if you don’t tell us everything, Timber. You know this and yet you hide the details—one part of you is still living in fear, while the other is attempting to break free, both cannot coexist.”
“Thank you, Yoda.” I saluted him and ignored the pang in my chest and the pulsing on my tattoo.
Kyra moaned from her spot on the couch.
I rushed to her side, only to have Hope, Serenity, and Genesis sprint in my direction and huddle over her like moms looking after baby chicks.
“She’s stirring!”
“A little less strong.” I patted Genesis on the back, “You know, with your mothering.”
She gave me a sour look and continued to hover, basically shoving me out of the way while Kyra came to.
“Oh you poor thing!” Hope sat her up. “Do you need food?”
“Water?” Genesis offered.
“Wine, get her wine!” Serenity intervened.
I snorted. “Nobody gave me wine last time I passed out.”
“Riiiight,” Alex piped up. “Because you destroyed both gardens with your massive body falling onto the grass, so no wine for you, no wine for you ever. If there is ever a family dinner with wine, you get water.”
I scowled.
“Still won.” Mason chomped on granola bar.
I threw up my hands in exasperation. “Why are you eating all my food?”
He just shrugged.
Werewolves, Watchers, immortals, when would it end?
“Oh!” Kyra jolted up, her eyes taking in the beautiful women surrounding her and the pulsing awareness of the siren sitting a few feet away not to mention a vampire, angels, me, yeah she was in for a rude awakening.
I just had to lose my temper, didn’t I?
She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Where am I? There were eyes, red eyes, and so many of them, and then Timber—”
I cleared my throat, so she’d know I hadn’t quite disappeared like the nightmare she wanted me to be.
She jerked back like I’d attacked her when I’d saved her, and I’d like to think I was used to that reaction except I wasn’t, not from her, not from the girl who made me taste the sunshine in the air for the first time in centuries.
I frowned.
“Your kiss is like life,” I whispered against her neck. “I want you…”
“We can’t.” She shuddered against me. “You would have me and lose me.”
“It would be worth it.”
“The oracle said I would find my soul mate and we would be apart for centuries, always searching, always repeating, until one day, we would make choices and reunite.”
I smiled sadly. “What’s a few years of searching? When we could have each other now? Enjoy our love now? I would do anything for you?”
And a dark voice whispered in my mind. “Anything, Prince A—”
“Oh you poor thing!” Genesis was in full mom mode, ready to make a pot roast and then lecture me for simply existing. A pulsing headache erupted behind my eyes as I tried to conjure up words that would explain or at least put her at ease.
I looked to Cassius.
I had nothing.
Couldn’t he at least try to help?
“Kyra, daughter of the sun.” Cassius beamed. “You’ve been touched by both sunlight and by darkness, have you not?”
“Good,” I said through clenched teeth. “By all means scare her more!”
“Calm the hell down.” Alex stood and went full siren. Well shit. I braced for impact as he turned his attention toward her, but all she did was frown.
Alex tried harder.
Hope burst out laughing. “My favorite day is now this day.”
“I’m not working!” Alex looked ready to stomp his foot because he wasn’t making her fall into a puddle at his feet.
“Uh, you’re working.” Tarek started to pant, “Just not on her.”
Cassius grinned and watched her closely. “Her soul belongs to another, is owned, by another who searches for her, who has searched for eternities.”
My head shot up catching Cassius’s gaze.
“I think—” Ethan pushed away from the shadows. “—this is where we tell her a story that doesn’t scare her, or at least shouldn’t. After all, we’re the good guys.” He just had to flash a bit of fang.
Kyra let out a scream and clapped a hand over her own mouth.
“Trust me, his bark is worse than his bite,” Genesis said helpfully as she pulled down her hair to cover exactly that—his friggin’ bite. Only Kyra turned at the wrong moment and caught fang marks.
So far? We weren’t really handling the situation well.
How long had it been since we brought a human in? Not long, but all of them had parts of them that were tethered to the immortal world.
Hmmm.
Colors.
Tasting colors.
Sunshine.
“Cassius, try freezing her and see if it works,” I offered in a bored tone while I examined my impeccable fingernails.
“The hell is wrong with him?” Alex muttered.
“Aw, does the siren miss sex?” I teased.
He lunged.
Cassius stood between us and moved toward Kyra. “We would never hurt you, though this is a lot to take in, I just want to… touch you. May I do that?”
I almost rolled my eyes. So damn polite.
I could be polite. Right?
Maybe.
I searched my brain for moments when I’d been polite to her and only came up with the time I walked her home and didn’t suck her soul from her body. So far? I was losing.
Kyra gulped and looked to me. I nodded slowly and by some miracle it worked.
“Yes,” she whispered. “You can touch me.” She held out her shaking hand. Cassius took it, and an immediate wall of ice hit all of us at the same time. All except Kyra; her hand seemed to glow—no, it seemed to heat up against his.
Cassius jerked away and then laughed to himself. “I think I might enjoy this.”
“Come again?” I hissed.
He just looked back at me and shrugged. “Remember you have choices to make, demon, don’t make the wrong one or you may miss out on a grand adventure.”
“D-demon?!” Kyra shrieked.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Thanks, Cassius, really, thank you for just shoving my corpse under the bus and camping an elephant right on top of it for good measure.”
“Huh, I was thinking more dinosaur, but sure, yeah what he said.” Alex shrugged. “Let’s go, Hope. Things to do… in the bedroom.”
One by one,
they shuffled out leaving me alone with Kyra and Tarek, both of whom looked at me like I was the problem when all I wanted was to be the solution.
“Tarek!” I barked. “Get her some dinner.”
“Yes master, right away master,” Tarek said in an amused voice. “Should I cook it or just make it raw the way demons feed.”
I was going to kill him later.
Kyra yelled again.
“He’s joking,” I said lamely, earning a petrified stare from her. “And…” My throat all but closed up. “You’re safe from me, from all of them, you’re… safe.” It needed repeating.
“You’re a demon. An actual evil demon?” She spat the word.
I hated how much it made me defensive, but hadn’t it always? I was more than that, I was more… what the hell was I?
Frustration hit me on all sides as I paced again in front of her.
My memories were not my own. Or were they?
I fought with the very real vision of darkness crawling its way across the hardwood floor like smoke swirling toward us.
If I wasn’t actively conjuring up the darkness, it begged the question, who or what the hell was?
I stared down as Kyra’s eyes widened. She pulled her legs to her chest and trembled. “Please tell me I’m hallucinating.”
How was I supposed to tell her I was on the good side of things when shadows were at that very moment revealing themselves to her?
“Not hallucinating,” I said in a gravelly voice, and then because I was pissed that she was looking at me in fear, I did, in fact, go full demon and shriek in a booming voice. “Be GONE!”
A flicker of gold snapped from my fingertips like lightning, so brief and swift that I thought I’d imagined it. Only when I looked at my fingertips, they were touched with black like I’d burned from the inside out.
There wasn’t pain, but I knew in that moment, using whatever power was inside this body, inside the soul fighting to get free, came at a cost.
Because I felt the tattoo slither across my chest and winced when I looked at my left arm and saw another branch wrap around my wrist like I was going to be buried in a tattooed prison.
Kyra whimpered. “I’m scared.”
I let out a sigh and locked eyes with her. “That makes two of us.”
KYRA
His blond hair looked soft, his blue eyes so penetrating that I couldn’t look away even though I was petrified. It was all too much, not because I didn’t believe it.
Quite the opposite actually.
My parents were obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with mythology to the point that they made me visit both Greece and Egypt every year. The odd part was that we only ever went to the same places.
And when I asked why we kept repeating the trip the look on their faces was always the same.
Helpless and fearful.
I exhaled softly, not sure how much to say or what to do. Obviously I couldn’t go back to my apartment, not with demons lurking. Then again, wasn’t that was Timber was?
Part of me wanted to call my mom to say something had happened, but what would that even accomplish other than telling her that all the mythological stories they read me growing up were partially right?
“I think—” My voice didn’t sound as shaky as I thought it would. “You should start talking.”
Timber’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not screaming.”
“Would it make you feel better?”
He smirked, just slight enough to catch it before sobering. “If it was my name, absolutely, but if it was shrieking and then beating me with a pillow, probably not so much.”
“I’d probably use something sharper.”
“Noted.” He sat down on the couch while Tarek sounded like he was beating pots and pans in the kitchen. What made that much noise to cook? Wrangling a live cow?
“So…” I was afraid to touch him, to sit too close. “You’re a demon.”
“We’re just gonna rip that band-aid right off.” He hung his head, and for the first time since knowing him, he seemed, not just uncertain, but ashamed.
I reached out and slid my hand onto his thigh, I don’t know why I did it, but I had this compelling need to touch him, to comfort him.
He tensed and then instantly relaxed as he placed his hand over mine and squeezed.
As if things couldn’t get any weirder, something flashed in my line of vision, Timber smiling, wearing some sort of Egyptian-looking hat, and gold so much gold, it was everywhere.
“Find me,” he whispered.
“Find us,” I’d whispered right back.
And then pain, so much pain, like my heart was being ripped in two.
“Are you okay?” Timber asked softly, “You just paled.”
“No.” I frowned. “Yes. I don’t know. I’ve always had very insane dreams like I’ve lived another life or maybe just watch way too much TV.”
“It’s probably the first.” He wasn’t helping. “Some of the greatest minds can’t even conjure up the shit I’ve seen.”
I scooted closer. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Ahhhh, she wants me to scare her more?”
“No she’s just curious.” I rolled my eyes. “Plus I think I’m kind of stuck with you now, aren’t I?”
He winced. “Until we can get demons to stop hunting you, figure out why you smell like sunshine, and why I can literally taste colors when I’m around you, yes. Stuck.”
“You taste colors?”
“Not… usually,” he said slowly, his blue eyes blinking up at me. “But with you, it’s like I can taste and feel everything, which you should know, for a demon is basically like being given the best gift.” He shuddered. “Demons aren’t born, they’re made, a race that was once the Creator’s greatest army, cursed to roam the earth they tried to take over, tried to destroy.”
“Wait!” My mind was reeling. “I thought demons were fallen angels.”
He shrugged. “Some are, but that wasn’t always how it was. The angels see what the price is for insubordination, and all they have to do is take a peek at our lives, what it’s like to be without a soul, without ever feeling satiated or full, and they shudder to think of the day where they want forever and are never free.”
My throat clogged up as I watched pain flicker across his face. “You mean you’re never full? Ever?”
“Just like liquor doesn’t do the trick, nothing works, and after centuries of being this way you just get used to being in constant pain. It becomes your companion right along with bitterness.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be,” he said quickly. “Because I asked for this. I just don’t remember what caused me to seek it.” He stopped himself. “To ask for this curse, some nights I wonder if I was tricked, other times I remember myself begging for a soul so I could just feel something—anything, and then when I was given one, I felt it all, including the person’s last terrified vision of me as I devoured her whole, so don’t be sorry. I am the monster you fear. Don’t romanticize what isn’t there, Kyra.”
My stomach clenched. “Devoured?”
“Eat,” he clarified. “I consumed her blood, sucked her soul from her cold lifeless corpse, and I killed her so I could live.”
I was shaking, I couldn’t help it. Timber scooted away like he knew I needed space and then sighed. “I know you want to ask if it was worth it, to borrow someone’s soul, to finally feel full, to feel whole. It wasn’t. I didn’t know at the time but you can’t just steal a soul that doesn’t fit. That’s not how creation works, so it was a cruel trick of the goddess I sought out. I would have a worthless soul in my body with memories of torture and terror, and I would still be a monster. It wasn’t until Hope, the last remaining Elf princess—” I sucked in a sharp breath. “—started restoring my race that I’ve felt even an ounce of peace.” He looked down at the tattoo wrapping around both of his hands now.
“I feel like you’re leaving part of the story out,” I whispered.
&nbs
p; He didn’t look up. “Why’s that?”
I gulped. “Everyone is walking on eggshells here. They look at you like you’re dying and they can’t fix it, and minutes ago that tattoo was only on one hand.”
He choked out a humorless laugh. “Caught that, did you?”
“I know we barely know each other…” I whispered. “Maybe talking will help?”
“Talking makes it true,” he snapped and then stood and paced in front of me. “The tattoo started growing a few days ago, after one of my nightmares, a memory actually, and when I met you, it…” He stopped talking.
“It what?”
He crossed his arms and faced me. “It grew.”
“Grew?”
“I didn’t stutter.”
“How?”
He gave me an annoyed look. “The brightest immortals in the realm are in this house, and even they don’t know. Angelic power doesn’t even know—or maybe Cassius does and he just refuses to interfere, damn angels and their inability to do anything except watch.”
I gaped. “A real angel?”
He gave me another sigh of annoyance. “In this very house, we met the Vamp, you saw the fangs, an angel, a dark one—both human and angel, a goddess, an elf, a werewolf turned angelic Watcher, long story don’t ask, and…” His lips turned into a thin line. “A fluffy puppy.”
“Heard that.” Tarek growled as he came back into the room with a turkey panini and the largest glass of wine I’d ever seen. “Eat up!”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re a dog?”
“Real cool, Timber, make me look like the sad puppy one more time and I’m biting you in the ass—literally.”
Timber rolled his eyes. “You’d like it too much. I have a fabulous ass.”
“The fact that you stare at your own ass depresses me.” And then he eyed me. “You’ll have to forgive him. It’s been at least a thousand years since he’s been laid.”
I didn’t miss Timber’s wince.
Or the sexual tension that erupted around us.
“Okay…” I cleared my throat. “So for the record, you’re not an actual dog.”
“Werewolf.” Tarek grinned and then shrugged. “But if you want to get technical, Mason, my brother, is the King of the pack and of the earth, watches over all the shitty little humans, no offense.”
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