"No." She hugged her arms to herself. "I'm so sorry. I thought we were safe. We should have been safe."
"Can you track her?" Mason growled next to me, his body trembling with the need to change and tear something limb from limb.
"Yes," I said in a voice I didn't recognize. "But it may be too late. I'm strong enough to fight him, to distract him, not strong enough to defeat him alone."
The room fell silent.
Pride kept me from saying his name.
But my love for her trumped everything.
So in that moment at my kitchen table, I closed my eyes and uttered a plea — to my greatest enemy.
"Cassius," I whispered, "help."
Genesis
My tongue felt like sandpaper in the roof of my mouth. When I tried to lick my lips, it was like someone had dehydrated me then handed me peanut butter.
I tried moving my lips. They were heavy, pressed together.
"You won't speak."
I blinked my eyes open. Having already thought they were open, I was surprised when I saw a blinding light appear in front of me then fade into the darkness surrounding my body.
"I allow you to speak after you've earned it." It was the same man or angel as before. His feathers were now fully visible; pieces of every color of the rainbow shimmered from the large wings, though his seemed to favor purples and blues. It seemed like that should be significant, the colors, but I couldn't talk, so instead I stared, knowing I probably wouldn't ever see anything like it in my entire life.
I wanted to be afraid.
And I was.
But I was also fascinated by the sheer beauty of the archangel in front of me. Long white hair, which should have looked stupid and old, created an ethereal effect around his sculpted face. His eyes were a bluish-white, more aqua than anything, and his mere presence filled up the entire room.
"Are you afraid?" He tilted his head to the side, his eyes studying me for a reaction.
I didn't nod.
I simply stared back.
"I'll take that as a no." His full lips curled into a smile. "I am Sariel. I've been watching you."
Creepy statement. I shivered. The last thing I wanted was a being like him watching me.
"It intrigues me…" His smile grew as the light faded around his body, making him look more human than immortal. "How they fight over something so insignificant."
I flinched.
"I don't mean you, little human." He moved around the room. Lights followed each footstep until I realized I was sitting in a large open room — a lot like a typical living room with couches and tables — facing the Puget Sound.
It would be normal…
If an archangel wasn't walking around in front of me, glowing all over the place.
"The situation — it's insignificant. Tell me, why should my brothers — why should I bother myself with the prophecy? It does not directly affect me."
He waved at my mouth.
My lips pulled apart. I inhaled then spoke. "It may not affect you, but it affects others. People are dying — what if I'm the answer?"
He turned his back to me. "Do you think that we would put the balance of immortal lives in the hands of a mere human?"
"Yes," I whispered, "because it's the only thing that makes sense."
"You speak to me as if you have the right to breathe in my presence without falling to your feet in terror."
"And you speak to me like you deserve to be worshipped, when you've done nothing but kidnap me and mock me."
His body stilled.
I blamed Ethan's blood. I'd spoken out of turn. And I was going to pay for it.
"Keep that heartbeat under control. Wouldn't want that vampire blood to boil you from the inside out… quite painful I've heard, the process of a human turning immortal."
"What?" My heart raced. "But I'm human."
"Yes." He turned back to face me. "For now you are human. Until the choice will be made by the immortals. You will stay that way, in my care."
"Why?" I gulped. "Why take me?"
His shoulders hunched; it was the only chink I'd seen in his armor the entire time we'd been talking. "Because once, a very long time ago, one of my sons made a great lapse in judgment, and the immortals have been paying for it ever since."
Sariel folded his hands in front of his large body, his wings going once again transparent. "Because of his sins, a darkness — a sickness — descended upon both races. I mean to rectify that in the only way I know how."
I was afraid to ask.
"Well?" he smirked. "Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"No."
"Lie." His eyes flashed white. "Blood will be spilled. They will come for you."
"And if they don't?" I whispered.
"Blood will spill either way."
Was it my imagination, or did his eyes hold a hint of sadness?
"Balance always needs to be restored, and you, Genesis, will be tested. I wonder, are you strong enough to do what needs to be done?"