“Stephanie.” I reached for her hand but she jerked back. “You don’t need to hide from me.”
“I know,” she said quickly.
The lie hung in the air between us like a giant visible rift of separation. She might as well be on another planet. “Then take all the time you need.”
She didn’t just walk out of the room.
She fled.
“Sariel…”
Weakness consumed me. “Help where I cannot.”
I waited in anticipation for his answer.
But instead of words, it was the sound of feathers blowing in the wind, ruffling up all at once and taking flight.
And finally. “I will try.”
“It is all I ask.”
“No.” Sariel’s voice carried inside my head. “You ask a great deal more, son, more than I am allowed to give.”
I hung my head then slowly, robotically, put my clothes back on and made my way downstairs.
The kitchen was empty.
Mason wasn’t hidden behind some pot cooking and ordering people around, and Alex wasn’t sitting back on the table, smug look in place as he looked down on everything that dared not be enraptured by his presence.
And Ethan.
His scent was near, but that was all.
“Cassius?”
Genesis’s voice was so unexpected that I startled, nearly running into the door frame in an effort to turn around. Her scent was different now that she was mated with the Vampire, I had forgotten its lingering sweetness, the way the mixture of human and Vampire blood hummed through the air like an electrical current, pulling and tugging.
Her bright green eyes glistened. “Did I? A mere human? Frighten you, oh, great one?”
I held back my laugh—just barely—as a smile spread across my face. “I believe you did.”
“And to think, Dark Ones…” She made a face. “So terrifying.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Did you just roll your eyes?”
I paused and then released the pent-up laugh. “First time for everything. I blame Alex.”
“It’s just easier that way,” she agreed holding out her hand.
I hesitated at first, old habits died hard. There had once been a time when I would have done anything to touch her, to mate with her, to break the curse that Ethan and I had started when his mate betrayed him.
Touching humans wasn’t a normal occurrence. With a sigh, I pressed my palm against hers and then linked my fingers, enjoying the softness of her hand, the warmth that was so foreign to my own skin as it simmered.
“You’re eyes are white again,” she whispered.
“I like your warmth,” I said honestly. Not in a way that meant I wanted her. “You comfort me. Imagine that?”