I looked away. Not wanting her to see my pain.
"And how does Cassius fit into all of this?" she asked.
"The Dark Ones don't mate. They don't bond in the way we do. When they infuse a human mate, it's too strong for the humans to handle it, but he was… or we were… for a while, experimenting with the idea. Thinking we were possibly losing our powers. He's been taking humans… to see if he can reverse it, but along the way h
e became…" I sighed. "…addicted."
"What?" Genesis shook her head. "To what exactly?"
"He's part angel… part human," Mason said in a low voice. "His human counterpart wants desperately to join with humanity again — but his angelic essence won't let him. He's stuck in hell. But when a Dark One infuses a human, for those blissful weeks they last, life is perfect. Cassius is convinced if he only found the right human, he could bond eternally."
"And that was me?" Genesis croaked. "Or he thought it was me?"
Because of her marking.
Because of her name.
The beginning. Her name meant the beginning. And our prophecies specifically stated that a woman's number would be called who represented a fresh start.
A new beginning.
Cassius wanted her for his own selfish reasons.
The rest of the immortals wanted her so mates would stop dying, children would no longer be motherless or fatherless.
I kept my groan inside. It was even harder for the men. The minute they bonded with an immortal woman their original chemical makeup ceased to exist, relying solely on their immortal wives for nutrients, their organs simply started shutting down only days after the bond was complete.
I wanted to believe my own reasons weren't selfish.
But with each breath she took, each beat of her heart, I realized I was more selfish than Cassius, because, as of right now, I wouldn't give her up — even if it meant war. Even if it meant the end of my own people — my existence.
For being as old as I was, retraining myself wasn't going to be easy. Keeping emotional barriers between us would be necessary because my body screamed for her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Genesis
WORDS DIDN'T HAVE POWER, RIGHT? THEY were just words, strung together in sentences, big scary sentences that had me shaking. I wondered when or if the fear would ever leave.
I stared at the fruit on the table, not in the least bit hungry.
"I can't just…" I found my voice and glanced up at Ethan. "I can't just sit around trapped in this house away from the world. It would be like prison."
"A beautiful prison." Ethan smiled.
I chose not to smile back. I didn't want to encourage him or encourage my body to lean any closer to his. His body was like a magnet, even if I fought against the pull — I still couldn't help it. I found myself inching my chair closer. When it scraped against the floor, everyone smirked but Ethan.
He seemed angry.
Angry, yet he'd been the one to do that to me.
"I don't care," I said, ignoring the thumping of my heart in my chest and the fact that the closer I got to him the more it raced. "I can't just sit around here being worthless."
"You won't," Stephanie piped up. "Your life will be relatively normal. Ethan can even get you a job if you want… close by… so he can keep an eye on you, of course."
"A job?"
"Work," Ethan said slowly. "Isn't that what humans live for? A divine purpose? Though, if you'd rather stay here and cook and clean, you won't get any complaints."