"So we meet again." Cassius grinned, holding out his hand.
I frowned. "Is this a dream?"
"I love dreams." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "So vivid, colorful — tell me, do you like the rainbow?" He pointed to the sky where the band of colors arched over us. We were on a boat on some sort of lake. "I created it just for you."
"Is this real?"
"As real as you allow it." His massive shoulders seemed to broaden as he inhaled deeply and motioned around him "Wonderful, isn't it? You share his bed, yet I can share your dreams."
"That seems incredibly invasive."
"Don't forget unfair." He winked.
"You're bad."
"Am I?" His deep laugh echoed through my body. "Or do you just wish I was bad in order to make yourself feel better about the choice that was forced upon you?"
"It was the only way."
He threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, believe me, it wasn't."
"You?" I bit down on my lip until it hurt. "Forgive me for not wanting to be taken by a Dark One… I've heard stories."
"Books lie." He shrugged. "Perhaps you would have survived me."
"Perhaps?" I repeated. "You're kidding, right?"
His eyes flashed. "Better."
I looked down. I was in a white bikini. I quickly tried to cover myself up; his laughter made me want to drown him. "May I have more clothing… please?"
His eyes flashed again, leaving me in a sarong. "Better?"
"No."
"Too bad." He leaned back on his elbows. "Ethan can't give you what I can."
"I'm not with Ethan because of what he can give me."
Cassius went still. "So they told you?"
"About the prophecy?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
"Did they tell you all of it?"
"Yes," I lied.
"I can smell the lie on your tongue." His eyes blazed white. "Never lie to me or any of my kind. It's infuriating and insulting to think you could get away with it in the first place."
Great, that meant he knew I'd been lying at the Gathering.
"Yes," his voice was smug, his smile matching it.
"Please… don't," I whispered.
"Don't?"
"Read me like that… I don't like it."
He studied me for a minute then gave a firm nod. "Fine. I won't pull the strings of your mind in an effort to give you exactly what you want before you even know you want it."
I clenched my teeth together. "What's the rest of the prophecy?"
"Why don't you ask your mate?"
"Because my mate is sleeping."
"Believe me…" Cassius laughed, the sound of it washed over me like he'd just stripped me naked. "The minute I invaded your dreams, he's been trying to wake you up. Sleep? He won't sleep until he knows you haven't touched me."
"If I touch you?"
Cassius's grin turned deadly. "Then I own you. Even in your dreams… you'd be mine regardless of the mating. Though, because you're bonded with Ethan, the desire to touch me lessens considerably, and there is that whole ridiculous issue with stealing you away from him since I can no longer smell you."
"Yet you can invade my thoughts? My dreams when I'm sleeping?"
"Only because I marked you first…" His eyes went white. A soft wind picked up, causing his black-as-night hair to blow across his face. "You think you've already made your choice — but you haven't, not yet."
"You or him." I nodded. "In the end, does it really matter?"
"Of course it does." Cassius said quickly. "Because there was once a human just like you… a human we thought was the one to fix everything and she failed. Care to know why?"
I didn't know how to answer. I wasn't sure if I could trust anything he said.
"She pretended… you see, Genesis. The prophecy specifically says a human will be called — she'll be the beginning of the end, she'll have golden hair…"
I touched my hair self-consciously.
"…eyes so beautiful an immortal could get lost in them."
I hung my head; I wasn't beautiful.
"You are breathtaking, more so than she could have ever hoped to be."
I looked up. "What happened?"
"She wanted too much," Cassius said in a sad voice. "And my hand was forced."
"I don't understand."
A soft rain started to fall. I held out my hands; the raindrops were blazing hot and turned to blood the minute they touched my fingertips.
"His blood calls to you." Cassius nodded in understanding. "Better return to him before he takes a bite."
"But you didn't tell me—"
I jolted awake to see Ethan hovering over me, his eyes completely black. "Tell me you didn't touch him. Tell me!" he roared.
I shook my head, my heart slamming against my chest. "I didn't touch him."
Ethan closed his eyes and swore. "I can't protect you in your dreams."
I reached for his face, shocked that he let me touch him now that the transition was over. "Then you'll have to trust me."
"Trust is earned."
"So let me try to earn it." I fought back angry tears.
He turned his head in my hand and kissed my palm. "I feel like I've already failed you. And that's the truth."