The blood.
The sight of the blood transported me back to a time when I was late — to a time when all I wanted to do was love an elf — to a time when my love and selfishness destroyed an entire race.
“No!” I roared, and my voice sounded foreign to my own ears as power surged from my chest out toward my fingertips, a bright white orange fire shot out from my body as my vision went completely red.
“Finally.” Bannik exhaled in relief. All I saw was pain — all I felt was anger. And then Hope’s eyes lifted to mine.
And I felt it.
Her love.
But it was too late.
It always was, wasn’t it?
Timber
“BANNIK, YOU KNOW not what you do,” I said through clenched teeth as blue fire danced around Hope’s wound. “You will destroy yourself in the process, you understand this, right?”
A part of me recognized Cassius’s last minute appearance and then sudden disappearance, but I had no idea if we were all dream walking through one of his sick games, or if this was reality.
If Alex had turned.
If he was the siren we had all always feared he would become.
Bannik ignored me, as he always did, and approached Alex. “I have a job for you.”
Alex fell to his knees. “I’m yours.”
“Hell.”
“I know.” A cruel smile spread across Bannik’s features. “Let this be a lesson to the rest of the immortals. If you do not fill the empty spaces with something, eventually, you will default toward darkness — it is the way of the world. And now… I don’t just have Alexander — I have a way to take the essence of the rest of those who watch.”
It was hard to look anywhere near Alex’s direction. Light burst from him; the man looked like he was on fire, just ready to explode into a supernova if he got too pissed. Never in my life had I seen such awesome beauty — never in my life had I been so certain that beauty masqueraded as the very evil I felt pulsating off Alex.
Bannik had gotten to him.
Had forced him to forget.
And now, Bannik had control of him.
Like a weapon.
I didn’t know how to kill the siren. The demon bite was all but gone. Alex’s white eyes gazed over me, bright orange flames licked and hissed through his red hair.
He looked like the Greeks’ version of Hades come to life — only prettier.
Because a siren was never handsome, he was always pretty, his face masculine and yet feminine all at once — which was probably why both men and women were constantly attracted to him. He chose which face he showed, depending on what or whom he was seducing — it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him suddenly turn into whatever he wanted — in order to seduce his counterpart.
Alex’s smile was sad as he very slowly transformed into a mirror image of my face, of my body, down to the small scar near my chin that had been put there by Sariel himself.
“Impossible.” I let out a shaky breath.
“Full potential.” Bannik smirked. “Let’s go, my son.”
Alex turned on his heel and followed Bannik out of my house and toward what I knew would be our death.
And the demons — they would let him because they followed me, because they were attracted to power — because they would sense it in Alex.