“No, she won’t kill you Cassidy, but she could harm you enough to put you in a coma,” Jake said. “You won’t be able to fight her off.”
“Oh.” I sighed. That wasn’t something I’d considered. “Now this marriage, is it real or fake?” As much as I had the hots for Cash, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to get into a loveless marriage again.
“It will be real in every sense of the word and yes it does have to be... consummated.” Mickle answered. “Whether you want to remain in it after all is said and done, that’s entirely up to you.”
Well, that was a bonus. Cash and I had already been close to having sex, which would not be a tragedy as far as I was concerned. I darted a quick look in his direction to see his reaction. There wasn’t one.
I frowned. “Tell me again why we have to get married?”
“Your powers combined is the only way to defeat her,” Peter said.
Not entirely convinced Cash was on board with the whole marriage idea, I asked, “What does getting married have to do with it? Can’t we just work together?”
“It’s more than just working together. Lilith made sure that in order to defeat her, yours and his powers had to become one. You two must become one.”
I burst out laughing as an image of me sitting on Cash’s dick while we waved wands in the air flitted through my mind.
“You’re a dirty girl you know that?” Cash laughed.
Completely forgetting he could read my mind; I turned five shades of red, I shit you not.
“Do tell.” Ivan chirped out.
“It doesn’t concern you,” Cash replied, gruffly.
Ivan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, I’ll find out soon enough during the consummation.” He wiggled his fingers in the air, and said, “Ta ta!” Then disappeared the same way he came, in a lightning bolt and rumble of thunder.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I turned my gaze onto Mickle. “He won’t be there will he?”
He had the decency to rub his forehead in what I took for as a guilty look.
“Lilith was a bit of a... sex fiend if you will.” He sighed. “The prophecy states that the wedding has to be consummated between you two and...”
He paused so long that I thought my hearing was gone. Getting frustrated by the minute, I walked right up to him and stood toe to toe. Which in hindsight was stupid, he is after all, a vampire. “And?!” I yelled.
“And two vampires...”
“Oh, HELL no!”
“You deal with her now Cashel. Show her what the future looks like if she doesn’t do this,” Mickle said. “We’re out of here.”
“Chicken shit! I’m standing right here you know!” I yell as Mickle snaps his fingers. The same rumble of thunder and lightning strikes down, and the three remaining vampires are gone.
I pinched my lower lip between my thumb and index finger, standing there staring at the ground. My head started shaking in denial and I looked at Cash. “I can’t do this.” I started to pace back and forth along the path in the forest. “You. I could do you, hell I’m already low key in love with you. Don’t ask me why because I don’t understand it,” I spat out. “But I can’t do them.”
Cash grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. His face was a picture of agony. Why?
“Do you honestly think I want that to happen, Cassi?”
I bit my lip, watching him as every emotion I was feeling crossed his face.
“I’ve watched you for 10 years, slept in the same bed as you even while you were fucking your husband, or rather while he fucked you, and there was nothing I could do.”
My eyes bugged out of my head at this little nugget of info. “What?! You were stalking me?”
He shook his head. “No. Protecting you. You just couldn’t know.”
Cash took my hand in his. “Close your eyes.”