“Fine.” Alex grinned.
My temper surged as I thought of freezing one of his fingers off.
“Ouch!” Alex stumbled back against the wall then held up his hand. “What the hell was that? It felt like someone was sawing off my finger!”
I shrugged.
His eyes narrowed. “He’s been teaching you tricks, damn him.”
“Maybe.” I pushed past him. “Maybe not.”
“Stephanie,” Ethan called out. “Wait.”
I paused in the doorway. “What?”
There they went again with the shifty eyes and uncertain posture.
I growled. “Just tell me.”
“The numbers don’t match.”
“What numbers?”
“Demon.” Ethan shoved his hands in his pockets. “According to our reports from last month they’ve added another sixty to their ranks.”
“Sixty!” I blurted. “But that’s insane! They have to keep their numbers under three hundred! If they added sixty—”
Ethan held up his hand. “It makes no sense. I know. They’re claiming that they’ve been the victims of a Vampire attack leaving them with no choice but to… create.”
My blood chilled. “That’s illegal not to mention stupid, they can’t just create more of themselves. Not without the help of Angel blood.”
I hadn’t been alive back when Pompeii was destroyed but I knew the toll it took on all of them to this day. Ethan had said Cassius refused to talk to anyone for weeks. I knew there was more to the story. One of Cassius’s closest friends had been killed soon after the city was destroyed, but nobody talked about it.
Immortal blood should never be in the hands of the Demons. Because to create a Demon—you had to give up your soul. And most souls didn’t go willingly.
&nb
sp; “Right.” Ethan sighed. “But with this whole Cassius scenario we can’t really send him in there to settle things down.”
Guilt crept over Ethan’s face. Cassius truly was the only one who could control the Demons, and if they went against him, he simply destroyed them with a snap of his fingers.
“Crap,” I mumbled searching Ethan’s eyes. “You want to send me.”
“But you aren’t ready.” Genesis said softly.
At least she was on my side.
“We discussed this.” Mason crossed his arms. “I can take care of it.”
“Like hell,” Alex spat. “If any of us go we’re just putting ourselves in a situation that we may not be able to get out of without Cassius’s help.”
I licked my lips. “Maybe I can talk to him…”
“Oh?” Alex’s eyebrows shot up. “And how’s that been going for you?”
Another door slammed upstairs. What the heck was he doing? Just opening and slamming doors because he could?
“Stephanie,” Ethan reached for my hands. “We need you… and for some reason he still won’t explain, Cassius needs you too.”