Untouchable Darkness

by Rachel Van Dyken

  “You have lovely hands.” Mason nodded.

  “Could it be because someone told them they tasted like ambrosia?” Alex kicked Mason’s chair almost sending him toppling toward the ground.

  “Easy mistake.” Mason yawned.

  “I’ll check in with them,” I found myself offering, and all eyes turned in my direction. I shrugged. “What? How hard can it be? Make sure they don’t kill any humans… get a head count…” I shrugged again. Wow, I was doing that a lot. “No big.”

  “No big?” Alex grumbled. “Until they eat you.”

  “I’m a Dark One,” I half whispered. “They could only try.”

  The room fell silent.

  Because I’d just brought in the giant elephant and asked everyone if they wanted to go for a ride.

  Well done.

  “Great.” Ethan broke the silence. “So, Steph will check on the Demon… tonight?”

  “Yup.” I nodded, feeling less enthusiastic than I looked. “They’ll be on the prowl so it should be easy.”

  “It’s not… dangerous is it?” Genesis asked.

  Hell yes, it was dangerous. But maybe that’s what I needed. A bit of danger. I shrugged, a third time, great, and made eye contact with Ethan. “We’re immortal, what’s the worst that can happen?”

  Stephanie

  GOING OUT AND HUNTING for Demon ended up being a bigger pain in my ass than I realized. First of all, the leader—if you could even call him that—wasn’t at his normal hang out meaning I had to basically bar hop all the way through Belltown asking Demon if they’d seen him.

  Most of the Demons shied away from me.

  Most of them were too smart to do anything like piss me off.

  But there was always that outlier, the one individual who didn’t play by the rules and thought his own crap didn’t stink.

  Meet, Jefferson.

  “Go away.” I shooed him with my hand and turned my back to him, ordering another glass of white wine.

  “You smell like….” His voice was raspy and suggestive as he leaned close, inhaling from my airspace. “…sin.”

  “Wow.” I took two large unlady like gulps of the wine and turned to face him for the third time.

  He wasn’t awful looking, if you favored blond curly hair and chocolate eyes. But I knew deep down what he was, a social climbing idiot who’d most likely try to kill me in my sleep just so he could steal some of the angel blood for himself and hope to gain more power.

  “Ah, you’re warming to me.” He winked.

  I nodded then placed both hands on his shoulders raising my knee to his balls in an effortless strike that had him collapsing to the floor in agony.

  “If that’s what you want to call it, sure.”

  “You bitch!” He wailed from the ground. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “You were pissing me off.” I kneeled down next to him and tugged his black shirt so it almost ripped in my hands. “Now, where’s your boss?”

  “Busy.” He spat in my face.

  I punched him in the jaw.

  “Damn it.” Black blood oozed from his nose. “Would it kill you to give a guy a shot?”

  “Yes. Yes it would.” I released him, “Now stop wasting my time. My feet hurt. I’ve been out all night tracking…” I waved my hand into the air. “…smelly little street rats.”

  He let out a low hiss.

  “Just tell me where he is.”

  Jeffrey paled and gulped all at once while a voice said near my ear in a harsh whisper.

  “Behind you.”

  Every hair on my body stood on edge. Yes. Their leader was about an inch from my neck. Demon bites hurt like hell, and if I moved any more his teeth would graze my soft skin. Though, in the back of my head I remembered I was a Dark One right? So maybe I had more power in this situation than I thought.

  Quickly, I turned.

  “Timber.” I put my hands on my hips. “About time you showed up.”

  “Well…” He rocked back on his heels and lifted his hand in the air. A beer made its way across the bar. He picked it up and took a long swig, the muscles in his neck constricting as he swallowed. Most humans would find him gorgeous. I just found him irritating and an abomination, but who was I to talk? “When a beautiful woman seeks me out…” He set the beer down and winked one of his baby blues.

  I rolled my eyes. “Numbers, what are they?”

  “Straight to business? No pleasure?” He eyed me up and down his blue eyes flashing red before going back to normal.

  “No.”

  “You…” His eyebrows knit together as he leaned forward. “You smell… strange.”

  I backed up. “New perfume.”

  His eyes flashed even redder than before. “No, no, I don’t think that’s it.”

  It was like his body grew before my very eyes. He was transitioning into what a Demon really looked like—which was something out of a first grader’s nightmare. Horns would pop up on his head, his teeth would elongate to fangs, and his face would hollow out revealing nothing but skull.

  “Jeffrey,” he barked. “Tell me, what do you smell?”

  Not good. Definitely not good and as a council member it wasn’t like I had backup or some sort of immortal mojo that would keep me from getting myself into trouble. I was a peacekeeper, I didn’t fight. Not that I didn’t know how, but now that the glamour of being a Siren was all but worn off, all I could do was feed off of others emotions. And since Cassius had abandoned me I wasn’t sure what else I could do.

  A syrupy sweet scent started filling the air.

  Arousal.

  I clenched my fists as I felt my body temperature drop. It wasn’t on purpose—or controllable. It was like my body was getting ready to defend its angel blood if that was the last thing I did.

  “Angel,” Jeffrey whispered in a gleeful voice, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he licked his lips and adjusted himself.

  Gross.

  “A baby one…” Timber tilted his head taking a predatory stance in front of me, his body continuing to grow. “Maybe we should continue this in one of the back rooms.”

  “Actually…” I stepped to the side. “If you just give me your numbers, I’ll get going. It’s late and you know how the council is…”

  “Our numbers are growing… to epic proportions. That is all you need to know.” Timber reached out to grab me. I jerked away so fast I lost my footing.

  And fell directly against a muscled chest.

  Strong hands wrapped around my shoulders. “Is this… thing, bothering you?”

  The voice sounded familiar yet vaguely different. As if someone had… added warmth to it. My body responded to the warmth with an uncontrollable shiver.

  “Yes.” I leaned back into the warm body like it was my lifeline. Whoever the human was—he was ridiculously built. The warmth of his body gave new life to mine—making the cold not feel so cold, so… lonely.

  “Pitiful human,” Timber hissed under his breath.

  But he knew he was stuck. Immortal rule number one was never to reveal yourself to humans.

  And Timber knew if he did, Cassius would rain hell on the entire Demon population, wiping out every last one.

  “Jeffrey,” Timber snapped his fingers. “We should be going.”

  “Sure thing…” Jeffrey sniffed again in my direction and grinned.

  I flipped him off.

  He tried to charge toward me but Timber held him back. “Till we meet again… Angel.”

  “Not your Angel.”

  “Tell that to your blood.” He licked his lips and pushed Jeffrey through the crowds. The scent of cinder stayed with me for a few minutes. I’d almost forgotten I was still in my rescuer’s arms—until he gave them a squeeze.

  “Oh.” I stumbled forward then turned around, embarrassed that I’d been hanging all over him like a lovesick human. “I’m so sorry, thanks for the save though you really—”

  My voice left me.

  “I
really… what?” He asked folding his arms across his broad chest. I followed the motion with greedy eyes. He was huge, built, tall, and gorgeous. Slowly I raised my eyes to meet his and nearly passed out.

  “Cassius?”

  “Sort of.”

  “But you’re—”

  “Human.”

  Cassius

  TEN HOURS. IT HAD taken me ten hours since my damning meeting with Sariel to get used to my body.

  A human.

  My Archangel father had made me a human.

  I briefly wondered if I’d get struck by lightning if I called him a bastard and had my answer when the sound of feathers ruffling together in protest floated through the air.

  Ten hours after he’d condemned me, I’d gained several bruises, a cut across my hand, and sore joints—reminding me yet again that I was old and I was breakable.

  I hated it.

  Every damn second.

  Until it rained.

  And then I felt—everything.

  I lifted my eyes to the sky and gasped as the rain drops splattered across my face rolling down my lips. It tasted pure. It tasted real, like life was getting poured on my body over and over again.

  When you spend your existence focusing on the immortal parts of yourself—you lose that shred of humanity. It’s a slow drain until you forget all the different components that made you human and simply embrace the supernatural.

  And when you embrace the supernatural, or rather embrace your immortality, you forget the simple things.

  Like rain.

  And the way it feels.

  I never had time to stop and let rain pour over my head. If the rain irritated me I simply waved it away. If the sun was too hot, I closed my white eyes and allowed the ice to spread through my veins—compliments of being part Angel, part human.

  For the last thousand years I’d simply ignored one part of myself—one part that made me whole—and existed without it.

  I roamed the streets for a day. Watching people, not because I was lost or bored, but because everything was so new to me, so exciting. So raw.

  I felt everything all at once.

  It was overwhelming, and for the first time in my existence—life was exciting again.

  And then I saw her.

  At Starbucks.

  By herself.

  And my world simply stopped, my breathing never returned to normal, and I was reminded yet again that I had thirty days.

  And I was on day twenty-nine.

  I’d lost one day.

  Irritated that I’d let myself get so distracted, I followed her to the house, and followed her again when she left.

  Each time a stupid human hit on her I laughed—until a little voice inside my head reminded me that I was just as bad, just as low on the totem pole.

  I wasn’t sure who the hell had sent Steph out to speak to the Demons, but they were going to have to answer to me. She was as defenseless as a weak little lamb out in a thunderstorm.

  She had no idea what she was capable of and was oblivious to the scent she gave off to every male and female she walked by.

  I still smelled it.

  Maybe that was Sariel’s cruelty coming to the forefront. He would turn me to a human, allow me to win the woman I loved, only to remind me yet again that I wasn’t on an even playing field.

  I was not her equal.

  Maybe I’d never been.

  “Cassius?” Stephanie reached up and cupped my face. It felt nice. It felt… warm. “What happened to you?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” At least that was the truth.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Were you punished? For what happened?”

  “No.”

  “Then…” She shook her head. “Care to explain why your eyes aren’t white but blue, why you smell like… rain—weird, you smell like rain? And, and—”

  I gripped her hands in mine. “Later… for now we should return to the house before the Demons bring back friends to take you down.”

  “Well, I have you…” She shrugged. “They couldn’t touch me.”

  As if realizing what she’d just said her face fell.

  “I’m human.” I said it again; it felt funny on my lips. As if my eyes had ideas of their own, I focused in on her mouth. Damn, it was pretty. I wondered if I’d ever really taken the time to appreciate her beauty.

  Or maybe I knew that the minute I did—I’d be lost.

  “Cassius?” She gripped my arm. I stared at that hand far longer than was necessary. “You’re right… we should go.”

  I followed her out of the bar, pulling my hands into tight fists to keep from reaching for her body.

  It was hard to focus on anything except for the outline of her hips. Damn, being human was sending me into madness fast. I was hypnotized by her every movement, following her like she was my reason for existing.

  We weaved in and out of the crowd and finally made it outside. The silence wasn’t awkward, but her stares were.

  I’d never been insecure about anything.

  But I came to realize that being human meant I was feeling emotions I wasn’t used to feeling. Like insecurity.

  Why the hell was she staring at me so hard?

  And why did my body respond in such a heated way that I was consciously looking for a place to push her against so I could trap that soft body and capture those lips? Was it this hard for all humans? My thoughts went into dangerous territory as she nervously licked her lips over and over again. Body dizzy with want, it was getting hard to walk in a straight line.

  “My car’s over here.” Stephanie pointed to Ethan’s newest Lexus.

  “Don’t you mean Ethan’s car?” I smirked, quite cheered at the fact that she’d most likely scratch the piece of machinery before the week’s end. Ethan and I had always been at odds, now even more so.

  He was arrogant.

  And ever since our falling out over his first mate’s death—it had been easy to let him hate me, to blame me for her death and everything since, when none of it was really my fault. Rules were not meant to be broken.

  Yet as I thought those very words, I had to wonder, what part of me being fully human fit into the strict set of rules and guidelines given to the immortals since the beginning of time.

  “We’re sharing.” She shrugged.

  “I bet.” I chuckled.

  It sounded funny.

  Stephanie let out a little gasp.

  I shrugged because, really, what else could I do? Laugh more?

  Once we were on the freeway heading back toward Ethan’s, Stephanie finally started talking. Maybe she needed those minutes to process. Hell, I’d taken a whole day, and I still wasn’t sure what my plan was.

  Touching her would do nothing—I was without any of my angelic power. She wouldn’t be seduced by it, and even if I was still a Dark One, so was she, which meant… what? Would our powers equalize? Or destroy us both? Was I playing at heartache even now?

  “You even sound different,” Stephanie muttered under her breath. “Your voice is gruffer.”

  “Yes.” The word caught at the back of my throat making me sound like an idiot.

  “Do you bruise?” She pulled to a stop at the next light and stared at me.

  I licked my lips and ran my fingers through my dark hair. “I guess so—”

  The punch was so hard I was pretty confident one of my ribs simply broke in half.

  “What the HELL?” I roared rubbing my left side while trying to suck in enough air so I didn’t pass out. It hurt to breathe.

  “How dare you leave me!” She hit the accelerator causing me to slam back against the seat.

  “Stephanie.” I held out my shaking hands. “Damn it, calm down.”

  The car picked up speed. Shit.

  Fear wasn’t something I was accustomed to but there it was slamming against my chest as she weaved in and out of traffic gaining speed.

  I gripped my seatbelt. “Steph, just calm down for a minute. If you liste
n I think you’ll understand and—”

  “Understand?” She laughed. “You left me! Alone! I don’t even know what I am! And you left me!”

  “I had no choice!” I roared as the car damn near collided with a semi.

  The atmosphere in the car turned to ice. I knew the look in her eyes well. It was the same as I’d seen reflected on my face a few thousand times.

  Her eyes turned a stormy white.

  Icicles formed around the steering wheel.

  If she didn’t calm down the entire car was going to freeze and explode into pieces of icy dust.

  “Stephanie, listen to me.” I touched her icy arm. “Can you at least do that? I’m here now, does that tell you nothing?”

  Her breath froze in front of her face.

  My teeth clattered together. This wasn’t going to end well for me if she didn’t relax. She’d be just fine.

  I’d be worse off than the car.

  “Pull over,” I barked.

  She shook her head.

  “Pull the car over. NOW!” I jerked the steering wheel.

  She didn’t fight me.

  Instead the car rocked to the side and screeched to a halt right at our exit.

  Out of control. She was out of control. She needed to get warm before the cold took over, before the darkness consumed her. She had no idea what powers she was playing with, how losing control of your emotions could destroy you, put you in a catatonic state for weeks.

  She still wasn’t responding to my voice.

  So I did what any human would do.

  I kissed her.

  Stephanie

  HIS LIPS FELT HOT—not cold like before. They were warm, inviting, but the touch of his mouth just reminded me—he didn’t want me.

  Reluctantly, I pushed against his chest.

  He slammed back against the seat—hard, like I’d just punched him with every ounce of strength I had.

  With a gasp I covered my mouth with my hands and whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  Cassius winced, bringing his hand to rub the back of his head. “I may not be able to taste your lies anymore—but I’m not stupid, the last thing you are is sorry.”

  “But I am!”

  “Lie.” Cassius’s face broke out into a mocking grin. “Though I’ll go as far as to believe you didn’t mean to kill me.” He alternated between rubbing his stomach and checking the back of his head for blood.