He’d taken the ten remaining watchers and chained them to his wall like pets. Their blood drained, but once he touched it — it turned black.
I smiled. “Cassius has been located, but there is also the issue of his mate, there hasn’t been a mated Dark One in over—“
“Spare me a history lesson.” Bannik barked.
I couldn’t help but grin again.
And then a laugh followed.
“What the hell is so funny?” Bannik roared as the door to the office burst open and Damon stumbled in.
I could hear the demon’s thoughts from a mile.
“Interesting.” I rubbed my chin and chuckled again. That sneaky bastard!
“What?” Bannik looked between us. “What is it?”
“Cassius,” I whispered, feeling my eyes burn red. “It seems has been transformed.”
“Transformed,” Bannik repeated. “What does that mean?”
“Sariel has transferred his power,” I said in an awestricken voice. “To a Dark One.”
“No.” Bannik shook his head. “No, that is impossible, that would take—”
“The ultimate sacrifice.” I whispered reverently. “Yes. It would.”
“But—”
“It gets worse.” Damon’s eyes went completely black before burning bright red, and suddenly a solitary tear of red slid down his cheek, creating a burning trail down his face, one that would scar him for eternity. There was only one reason a demon would cry red.
Why a demon would be so moved by emotion, that he wasn’t capable of feeling.
Why he would risk spilling whatever blood he still had remaining in his body.
“They’ve returned.” Damon fell to his knees.
Bannik gave me a confused look.
Then again, while Bannik had been guarding the deserts.
I’d been fighting wars.
He stared at sunsets.
And I’d saved an entire demon race.
While destroying the most precious thing ever given us.
“Who?” I needed to hear him say it. Needed it more than my next breath.
“A time such as this, Timber,” he whispered in a voice that was not his own, and then, his heart exploded leaving nothing in its wake but ash.
And just like that — warmth filled me from the inside out.
For the first time since them.
Hope