Untouchable Darkness

by Rachel Van Dyken

  Good answer.

  He moved me toward the fire, grabbing a blanket in the process. Though I wasn’t cold, I knew it was about chivalry, nothing else, he was covering me, though he stayed beautifully shirtless as he sat on the floor opposite me.

  “Jealous,” Cassius answered. “I won’t go into details, but the issue now stands. Dark Ones have duty first, the curse of being both human and Angel second, and then lastly, they have… one of the worst of human emotions I should think.”

  “Sadness?”

  “Loss. As if placed in a giant maze but never told the way out. We serve, we do our duty, we serve some more, and are never promised mates, never promised a life outside of the duty we are given. While our human counterparts live and are able to die, and the immortals we watch over, have mates, children. We watch. Always.” Cassius cursed. “We watch.”

  “A Dark One has never mated? Never had a family?”

  “No,” he snapped. “To mate with a Dark One is choosing to take upon yourself thousands of years worth of pain… to know a Dark One is to know darkness. Why would I—or anyone else—want to wish that upon someone I care about? Besides, two Dark Ones could very well destroy one another and then where would we be?”

  “War?” I guessed.

  “Most likely with each other, yes.” He stood, his body moving with a fluidity that I didn’t realize I’d missed. “That’s enough for this evening. I…” His cheeks flushed red. “I apologize for taking liberties. At first it was to get you to control the fire.”

  “So what happened?” I hid my smile behind my hand.

  Cassius looked heavenward. “My humanity took complete control and decided it would be in both of our best interests to get naked.”

  I burst out laughing while Cassius smiled blindingly in my direction.

  “You know…” I held out my hand as he helped me to my feet. “You aren’t so bad at this human thing.”

  “Oh really?” His eyebrows shot up. “I’m cranky, constantly starving, nearly tried to kill your pet bird, and can hardly think of anything except your breasts when you bend over. And I’m doing good? I’d hate to see what I was like if I was doing horrible.”

  He thought about my breasts? Little tingles of excitement darted over me, creating an exquisite ache in those breasts.

  I cupped his chin. “I like you like this.”

  “Like how?” He covered my hand with his, his mouth was so close again, just a few more inches and we’d be touching.

  “This,” I said again. “Just like this.”

  “I’m holding you.”

  “I know.”

  The flames near the fireplace went higher as I kissed him softly on the mouth. “If I told you I loved you, would you believe me?”

  His eyes closed. “If I told you it was forbidden, would you stop?”

  A frigid cold spread throughout my body slamming me into my chest as darkness descended between us like a thick blanket.

  “To love a Dark One, is to invite certain death,” a voice whispered just as I jolted awake in my bedroom.

  Cassius

  HER BODY WAS SPREAD across mine, chilling me to the bone, though I would never admit it out loud lest she move. And the last thing I wanted was for her to move her leg even a fraction to the left or right.

  There.

  Nearly on top of me, that’s where I needed her, where I wanted her. Dark Ones didn’t typically sleep, so I knew she must be simply relaxing while she let me sleep.

  Though it didn’t explain the way she was laying across me.

  “Safe,” she muttered. “It’s ridiculous right? That I feel safer in your arms than any other, yet you wouldn’t stand a chance against a man with a gun, let alone a Demon.” Stephanie raised her head, her eyes swirling with specks of white as she reached for my hand.

  I held it, my warmth and her ice meeting against our palms.

  “How long did I sleep?” I changed the subject.

  “Twelve hours,” she whispered. “I got tired of waiting for you so I went downstairs to watch movies with Genesis since she hasn’t been feeling very well…” She frowned. “If… if I see a future of someone, do I tell them?”

  “Whose future are we talking about?”

  Stephanie swallowed, her eyes darting away from mine. “Genesis. Her labor won’t be easy, Cassius.”

  “For centuries, women have survived it all the same. Have a little faith.”

  Her head whipped back. “Faith?”

  “Yes.” I licked my lips. “Belief in something that has not yet come to pass, belief that regardless of the circumstances, we can still expect the best possible outcome in life.”

  “Is that the human side speaking? The one who never loses hope?”

  I smiled as a comforting warmth spread through my chest. “Yes, I think it is.”

  “I like it.”

  “Sometimes… hope is all we have.” I frowned as I said it. “And even if we had knowledge of the future, would we truly do anything differently? I should like to think so, but knowing humanity as I do, they would still squander each and every moment, unable to fully grasp the realization that each second that ticks by is another gift that they have been given, a gift given only because of great sacrifice by not only their ancestors, but ours.”

  “Twelve hours of sleep turned you into a philosopher, I think,” Stephanie mused, brushing my dark hair away with the back of her hand. Her ice cold fingertips cooled my forehead. I kept them there and closed my eyes as her hand shook.

  “Your dream…” she started, while I tried to keep my breathing even. “Did you mean it?”

  “Which part?”

  Her eyes searched mine. “If you were allowed to love me—would you?”

  I opened my mouth just as the door burst open. Ethan made his way inside took in our comfortable state and shook his head.

  “I don’t have time to address whatever the hell this is.” He pointed to us, “Because it seems like our little pet in the dungeon won’t stop screeching until he sees you.” Ethan sighed, his eyes flashing with irritation. “He’s chained, he can’t hurt you in your current state, it’s probably best to see what you can get out of him.”

  “Come with me.” I stood as dizziness took over and a growing hunger made its presence known. “Damn it, I need food first.”

  Ethan smirked. “I don’t envy your human appetite.”

  “You eat blood,” I fired back. “I don’t envy yours!”

  “Blood tastes like…” His eyes flashed green.

  “Easy.” Stephanie raised her hand. “No need to orgasm in the middle of the room.”

  Ethan scoffed. “Hardly.”

  Stephanie quickly put on a pair of boots and a sweatshirt and turned toward me. “Should you, er, put on clothes?”

  “Clothes?” I frowned then looked down.

  Completely naked. I’d stripped the human body bare of any stitch of clothing.

  “Why the hell didn’t anyone say anything?” I roared grabbing at my clothes with numb as hell hands and jerking them on.

  Ethan held up his hands. “I thought you knew.”

  Stephanie burst out laughing. “I assumed you knew since you’re the one who stripped yourself.”

  “I did?”

  She nodded. “The minute you woke up from your dream you were burning up…”

  Frowning, I felt my own forehead, not that it would do any good. In fact, I still felt hot. So damn hot.

  Maybe the dizziness was coming from the heat?

  Ethan was at my side in a flash, gripping my arm, still as a statue, within seconds he pulled back. “Your blood.” He frowned. “It’s hot.”

  “Are you saying…” I couldn’t even utter it. “That I have a fever?”

  “I’m saying you’re sick.” Ethan nodded. “Yes.”

  “Damn it!” I kicked my foot against the floor. “One body! What the hell do humans do all the day? Walk around in bubble wrap?”

  “Hey he knows what bubble wrap is
.” Alex stepped into the room. “Progress?”

  Zapping Alex with a sheet of ice had just jumped up to the first thing I’d do if my power was ever restored.

  “Mason’s waiting in the kitchen with Genesis, better hurry if you want any food big guy.” I think I was the big guy he was referencing. “Genesis is eating for three.”

  Breakfast hadn’t helped the dizziness, and by the time I made it down into the cold wet dungeon I felt like I’d been transported back to a dark time, a time I’d rather forget. A time where I used to help torture the worst sort of immortals and humans alike, the ones who’d tried to overthrow us through a deadly alliance that should have never been.

  “How!” I roared slamming Timber into the castle wall, it crumbled around his lithe body as horns protruded from his head.

  He stood on shaky legs. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “You cannot simply give an immortal’s essence, his blood to a human! You know what happens!”

  “Oh, I know.” His smile was arrogant as fangs pressed onto his bottom lip drawing black oil like blood. “And soon, you will too.”

  I barked out a laugh. “Do not test me, Demon. I will destroy everything you hold dear with my pinky finger. Push me and I’ll make you wish for death.”

  As if I amused him, he smiled wider, harder. “Oh?”

  To prove my point I slammed an icicle through the air impaling him against the castle wall.

  He laughed.

  I shot another.

  And another.

  “I’m sorry, does that tickle?”

  “You don’t even know, do you?” he spat. “You think you’re the last. You think you’re all powerful. I wonder what you will do,” he whispered, “when you discover the truth.”

  “Enough!” Sariel appeared, slamming his feet against the ground. “Release him, Cassius.”

  “But—”

  “He will be punished,” Sariel finished. “Most of his followers were killed in the destruction of the city. And as you know, we cannot simply kill him for doing something he claims he didn’t know was illegal.”

  “Every immortal knows the rules!” I yelled, raising my voice an octave.

  Sariel lifted his large hand as a single black feather fell to the ground creating a hole at his feet. “And for his punishment, he will serve time underground without food, water, or light. A thousand years, should suffice.”

  Timbers eyes widened. “You cannot do this to me! Do you know who I am! I am the son of the—”

  “Silence!” Sariel screamed, sending Timber into the hole. Then he closed it up with a flick of his wrist and turned. “Don’t you have work to do, Cassius?”

  The dungeon walls looked eerily like the ones I’d chained Timber to so long ago.

  “You gonna make it?” Ethan asked under his breath. “If this is too difficult—”

  “Ethan.” I barked his name. “I mean this exactly how it sounds, shut the hell up before I find a stake and garlic.”

  “Hah!” He slapped me on the back. “I love your jokes.”

  “I’ll impale you with wood, don’t think I won’t try.”

  “It would tickle.”

  “It would amuse me greatly, yes.”

  Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, the chains came into view, two attached to John’s feet and two more attached to his arms.

  “So,” John said without lifting his head. “You’ve brought the immortal king. Finally.”

  Swallowing back my fear, I stood to my full height and nodded my head to Ethan. “Drain him.”

  John’s head snapped as his hands jerked against the chains, already black putrid blood was crusting around his wrists. “You’ll kill me before knowing the truth?”

  “The truth?” I shrugged. “It’s been thousands of years. Why should I care about the truth? You survived, someone made you a Demon, your body took the immortality—” I winced as his skin took on a green hue. “—semi-well, it appears. And you’ve used what I can only assume is more immortal Demon blood mixed with…”

  Ethan sniffed the air and shrugged.

  “Something else, to create.” I paused and raised one eyebrow. “Am I missing anything?”

  “Holy shit, are you truly that dense?” John cackled. “All of you! This has been going on for centuries. Do you truly think….” His eyes turned black. “…this is about you? There is a darkness coming.” His fangs elongated. “A darkness that’s been building… one you will not stop.”

  “Drain him,” I ordered Ethan again as my body trembled with the truth of his words.

  Eva had always warned me of the same thing.

  Thousands of years ago.

  Impossible that it was now coming to pass.

  “We were the first experiment,” John kept talking. “And look how well it went. Powerful beyond most of the Demon we serve! Able to create on our own.”

  Ethan took two steps toward John and pressed his arm against the wall slicing open his wrist with his teeth and moving to the next. John let out a animalistic scream as black blood dripped from the marks Ethan had made.

  Vampires had the ability to make the bite burn like hell.

  I had a suspicion Ethan hadn’t held back.

  John writhed in agony.

  “There are more of us. You have no idea how many more.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes. “Hate to break it to you John, but even thousands of Demons against us wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

  John laughed, his fangs digging into the bottom of his chin. I frowned and looked closer. Good Lord the immortality had made his fangs double the size. “Who said anything about Demon?”

  I held up my hand to Ethan to keep him from taking more of John’s blood. Already my strength was weakening. My head pounded from the exertion.

  “What do you mean?”

  Suddenly John’s head whipped to the side and a blast of cool air hit me square in the chest as his eyes went completely white.

  “Oh, hell.” Ethan took a step back as the chains turned to ice then fell to the floor, John collapsed in a heap then stood as his body grew another six inches. “Impossible!”

  My teeth chattered from the cold as I took a cautious step backward. “You aren’t a Dark One.”

  “No.” John smiled. “But I can call on his power.”

  “I’m the last one.” He didn’t need to know it was a lie.

  “No,” John said in a soft voice. “I think not.”

  Before he could utter another word, Ethan was on John’s back slicing across his neck decapitating him.

  The head landed on the dungeon floor with a thud and a sick splat as the body crumpled next to it. With swift movements, Ethan pulled the feather from his pocket and slid it into the vertebrae. Seconds later, John was nothing but dust.

  As a Demon it should be black.

  Vampires and Sirens crystallized into small diamond like dust.

  But Dark Ones… always went red, a signal of the human blood flowing through their veins.

  The dust was both red and black.

  Ethan cursed. “Cassius, I think we have a problem.”

  “The hell?” I leaned down and touched the dust. “It’s… mixed.” Angry, I shook my head. “Did Stephanie…” I hated to accuse her but it was the only explanation. “Did she give any of her blood to the Demons?”

  “Maybe you should ask her yourself,” Stephanie said from the stairway. “Would I betray those I love… twice?”

  Stephanie

  I WAS WORRIED. Worried because Cassius had none of my blood left, and I didn’t want him to face a crazed Demon.

  Instead, the tables were turned back on me once I made my way down the stairs.

  “Well?” Ethan crossed his arms.

  “Great to know you guys really trust me,” I said sarcastically while my chest tightened.

  Cassius’s face softened. “You’re the only other Dark One we know of in existence.”

  “And what? You think I’d just give over my blood t
o a sick dirty little Demon? So he could use it?”

  They both fell silent.

  “Well.” I crossed my arms. “You’re more than welcome to let Alex invade my thoughts… but I’m telling the truth.”

  “Damn it,” Cassius muttered. “It would be so much easier if you weren’t.”

  “Pardon?” Now I was really confused. I glanced down at the dust at Cassius’s feet and gasped. “Is that John?”

  “John can’t talk right now,” Ethan said in a chipper voice. “He was annoying the hell out of me, but his dust shouldn’t be—”

  “—red.” I finished. “It should be black, mixed with flecks of gray depending on how old he was but… red means he was given the blood of a Dark One.”

  “Right.” Cassius stood and then fell back to his knees. “Damn this weak human vessel!”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing, he sounded so medieval, looked it too with his long black hair hanging nearly to his shoulders, his aristocratic face was too pretty to exist in this modern era.

  “Come on,” I lifted him into my arms. “Bed.”

  “And my shame is complete,” he muttered as I carried him upstairs. “A woman is carrying my weak body up the stairs as if I weigh nothing but a feather.”

  “Less than that, actually.”

  “Because that’s ever so helpful to my pride.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Then why are you smiling?”

  “You’re cute when you pout.”

  “Cute is the word humans use to describe things with fluffy tails… hamsters… pet birds. Hell, I’ve turned into your pet! Release me immediately!”

  Laughing, I carried him back into my room and set him on his feet. “You’re not my pet, but you are weak.”

  “I tire of your compliments.” He smirked. “My pride cannot handle any more—” He fell toward me.

  Gripping his broad shoulders I slowly lowered him back to the bed. “You know, you only get one body, you better take care of it.”

  “I—” Cassius yawned. “Despise humanity.”

  “No, you don’t,” I answered quietly, bringing a blanket over his shoulders as tremors wracked his body. “You just need to rest.”