Our tongues twisted in a fight for dominance as I lifted her into my arms. The last thing we needed was to be seen in a forbidden embrace, not only was she a council member, but she was a Vampire, not mine.
She would end up with a snotty-nosed human.
One who would get her pregnant.
One who would love her like I never could.
Slowly, I pulled away from her, my hands pressing against her wrists as I lowered her arms to her sides.
“One day…” Her voice was filled with sadness. “…I’ll be mated to someone and you’ll forget all about me.”
“I highly doubt I’ll ever forget your taste, Eva.”
The air charged with a thick flowery scent. Eva’s eyes widened just as a voice said from behind me. “What have you done?”
Slowly, I turned.
Sariel’s eyes were white, his hair a blazing rainbow of blue and black streaks. His feathers protruded then shuddered as if they tasted the wrongness in the air. “Survivors?”
He shoved past me and Eva and pressed his fingertips against the door of the house.
“Two survivors. How many more? And why aren’t they destroyed?”
I couldn’t lie.
It wasn’t in my makeup as a Dark One to want to lie to my creator—to my father.
“I saved them,” I admitted while I grabbed Eva and shoved her behind me. “I saved twelve.”
“Twelve!” Sariel roared as the ground shook beneath our feet. “You were to destroy them all! Every. Last. One.”
“I did not.”
Sariel’s wings turned purple, the color of angelic royalty. He was about to pass judgment. “Then, you will die. Blood must always be spilled, you know this.”
I nodded, unable to conjure up any guilt over doing something that gave Eva happiness no matter how temporary.
I took a step forward.
“No!” Eva shouted. “It was me!”
“Eva!” I hissed out her name and shoved her body into the nearest wall, she stumbled back and glared. “Stay out of this.”
“You will not DIE because of me!” Her eyes glowed green as her fangs elongated past her bottom lip. Her gaze snapped to Sariel. “If you want a life. Take mine. I asked Cassius to save them. It is I who is at fault.”
“Very well.” Sariel nodded.
“You cannot be serious!” I charged Sariel fists clenched. “She’s a council member! She’s been around for centuries! You cannot simply eliminate her for one bad choice!”
“Oh?” Sariel’s head tilted to the side as he pulled a purple feather from his wings and held it out in front of him, the edge was black. The color of the Angel of Death. He meant to truly kill her, to make her no more. “We live by the rules, we die by the rules, Cassius. She broke the rules. She dies.”
“But—”
Head held high, Eva pushed past me and got down on her knees, her head bowed toward Sariel.
“Sariel, think about this.” I knew reasoning with him would do nothing, but I couldn’t stop myself, this was Eva, my Eva. I’d had her by my side since I was created. She was the reason the darkness wasn’t so dark—the reason I was always pulled back into the light. Without her, what was I?
“And there it is…” Sariel nodded. “She makes you weak. She makes you second guess your decisions. Not that it matters, one of you must die for this serious lapse in judgment, and Eva is right. The fault lies with her, and I need you to lead the immortals. Therefore…” He held out the feather to me. “Life is taken.”