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I’ll be the gods-damned last one though, I promise him silently.
Cassandra may be hurting right now, but I know my mate and I know my vampire brothers. I can survive whatever this archangel tries.
The male sighs, as if disappointed in my refusal to cooperate. He moves towards the club chair, sinking into it and crossing an ankle over his knee. Looking at him, he could be back in the main house, enjoying the day with his guests.
“It doesn’t have to go this way, you know.” He gestures between us. “My last guard dog resisted for so long he’d almost been completely useless by the time he relented.”
Guilt turns my blood to bile, poisoning and scalding me. Ambrose had exiled Ezra during a time in the Barrows where war between us and a demonic faction was a very real threat. Ezra had taken a human soul, something Ambrose and the rest of us vampires fought against. Ezra had never done such a thing before and we could never figure out -why- he had and then immediately came to confess to Ambrose.
Eris had been furious, nearly attacking Ambrose when the male had announced what’d happened. We had all wanted answers, Rhys especially. But Ambrose hadn’t had any, or if he did, he kept them to himself.
I could have looked for Ezra. My duties would have allowed me to inquire discreetly. Ezra had been one of Cassandra’s best friends. Knowing what became of him, I wonder if I’ll ever conquer the shame of never looking. Of blindly accepting my king’s orders.
“Working for me can be enjoyable, you know.” Aeternaphiel’s voice pulls me back to the moment. “Not immediately, of course. You still need to be housebroken after-all.” His voice turns steely. “Make no doubt, for I will break you.”
Breathing through my nose, blood still sluggishly dripping from my wounds, I know the male is right. Everyone breaks eventually. There’s no avoiding it. There comes a point where someone will say whatever it is the person wants, just to stop the pain. The goal is to give them half-truths in the beginning. That way, when the pain gets too much, they never know what is true and what isn’t.
I spit another glob of blood to the side before giving him a considering look. He knows he has my attention now. I ignore every ache, every slow healing wound, every cracked bone.
“Whatever you did to Eris before I stabbed you took her out of Cassandra,” I offer. “After spending the last century and a half with the demon possessing my wife, I didn’t give a fuck how it happened. I got my wife back.”
He hums in consideration. “And why did you and your wife seek me out today?”
I give as much of a half-assed shrug as I can, hanging like this. “She has some misguided guilt and connection to the demon. I wanted my mate safe. Nothing personal. I’m sure you understand.”
Aeternaphiel studies me. I don’t look away, refusing to back down. I might be the one tied up here, but he wants something from me other than my subservience. I think back on what Cassandra and Eris have mentioned over the years, scouring history for any clue. I’ve never let myself think too long on that night when Cassandra summoned Eris. Now I strain to recall every word Eris and my mate exchanged. Finally, I had it.
“You were lovers,” I say. He clearly wasn’t expecting me to speak again but recovers quickly, raising a brow in expectation. “She said you mentored her, helped her rise through the ranks of the army or whatever. She believed in you. Sounded almost like she thought you were mates. Or she hoped you were. Then you betrayed her.”
Aeternaphiel doesn’t scoff as I expect. Instead, he freezes so completely I wonder if he’s breathing.
Wait.
“Are you mates?” I ask, incredulous; shock has my pain completely disappearing from my mind.
“Enough of this,” Aeternaphiel tries to deflect, and I let out a dry laugh, one completely inappropriate for the moment.
I give him a sardonic look. “If you two are mates, you’d know if she’s alive or not. Even when my mate was possessed, our bond was there.” I shake my head again. “If you and Eris are mates, how could you betray her? How could you try to fucking kill her?”
“She betrayed me!” Aeternaphiel roars, throwing himself up out of the chair, and charges towards me. Bright power slams into me, radiating out in waves from the archangel. Light bursts from his shoulders and it’s gone in the same instant. All that’s left is the floating after-image of wings.
He slices his hand through the air and begins to pace. I’m still reeling from this information.
“All she’d had to do was stay quiet. We both knew that our world was rotting from within, that something needed to change. But the Resplendents did not care that the princes of the underworld moved against us. She didn’t agree with my plan, but had she kept her damn mouth shut, we could have ruled the celestial realm together.”
Aeternaphiel is practically frothing at the mouth. The hatred coming from him is more than just...anger or hurt. It’s deeper, bigger, more a part of him than the power he has control over.
He stops and rubs his face with both palms, gathering himself before facing me again.
“I had to tell them it was her. If they believed her to be the traitor, my plans could still work. I could have let the Resplendents execute her. Instead, I argued for her to be sent to the underworld. At least there, she had a chance to live.”
“Bullshit.”
I don’t realize I’ve said it until the word is ringing between us. I barrel on. “If she was really your mate, you would have done whatever it took to protect her. You’d have offered yourself up before ever casting the blame on her.”
I see the moment stony shields come down in Aeternaphiel’s mind. He’s wrapped himself back up with the cold control of power he’s so familiar with. There will be no more pushing him to the edge. I breathe deeply and let my eyes close. I find the bond between Cassandra and me, the one that has only been reopened for a few days after so long apart.
I focus everything I have on rebuilding that wall between us, using every year of experience I kept that wall up to build it even stronger. I hope I build it strong enough that when I break, it won’t. It’ll keep Cassandra safe from my agony. Even when all I will want is her.
