I briefly wondered if I’d get struck by lightning if I called him a bastard and had my answer when the sound of feathers ruffling together in protest floated through the air.
Ten hours after he’d condemned me, I’d gained several bruises, a cut across my hand, and sore joints—reminding me yet again that I was old and I was breakable.
I hated it.
Every damn second.
Until it rained.
And then I felt—everything.
I lifted my eyes to the sky and gasped as the rain drops splattered across my face rolling down my lips. It tasted pure. It tasted real, like life was getting poured on my body over and over again.
When you spend your existence focusing on the immortal parts of yourself—you lose that shred of humanity. It’s a slow drain until you forget all the different components that made you human and simply embrace the supernatural.
And when you embrace the supernatural, or rather embrace your immortality, you forget the simple things.
Like rain.
And the way it feels.
I never had time to stop and let rain pour over my head. If the rain irritated me I simply waved it away. If the sun was too hot, I closed my white eyes and allowed the ice to spread through my veins—compliments of being part Angel, part human.
For the last thousand years I’d simply ignored one part of myself—one part that made me whole—and existed without it.
I roamed the streets for a day. Watching people, not because I was lost or bored, but because everything was so new to me, so exciting. So raw.
I felt everything all at once.
It was overwhelming, and for the first time in my existence—life was exciting again.
And then I saw her.
At Starbucks.
By herself.
And my world simply stopped, my breathing never returned to normal, and I was reminded yet again that I had thirty days.
And I was on day twenty-nine.
I’d lost one day.
Irritated that I’d let myself get so distracted, I followed her to the house, and followed her again when she left.
Each time a stupid human hit on her I laughed—until a little voice inside my head reminded me that I was just as bad, just as low on the totem pole.
I wasn’t sure who the hell had sent Steph out to speak to the Demons, but they were going to have to answer to me. She was as defenseless as a weak little lamb out in a thunderstorm.
She had no idea what she was capable of and was oblivious to the scent she gave off to every male and female she walked by.
I still smelled it.
Maybe that was Sariel’s cruelty coming to the forefront. He would turn me to a human, allow me to win the woman I loved, only to remind me yet again that I wasn’t on an even playing field.
I was not her equal.
Maybe I’d never been.
“Cassius?” Stephanie reached up and cupped my face. It felt nice. It felt… warm. “What happened to you?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” At least that was the truth.
Her eyes narrowed. “Were you punished? For what happened?”
“No.”
“Then…” She shook her head. “Care to explain why your eyes aren’t white but blue, why you smell like… rain—weird, you smell like rain? And, and—”
I gripped her hands in mine. “Later… for now we should return to the house before the Demons bring back friends to take you down.”
“Well, I have you…” She shrugged. “They couldn’t touch me.”
As if realizing what she’d just said her face fell.
“I’m human.” I said it again; it felt funny on my lips. As if my eyes had ideas of their own, I focused in on her mouth. Damn, it was pretty. I wondered if I’d ever really taken the time to appreciate her beauty.
Or maybe I knew that the minute I did—I’d be lost.
“Cassius?” She gripped my arm. I stared at that hand far longer than was necessary. “You’re right… we should go.”
I followed her out of the bar, pulling my hands into tight fists to keep from reaching for her body.
It was hard to focus on anything except for the outline of her hips. Damn, being human was sending me into madness fast. I was hypnotized by her every movement, following her like she was my reason for existing.
We weaved in and out of the crowd and finally made it outside. The silence wasn’t awkward, but her stares were.
I’d never been insecure about anything.
But I came to realize that being human meant I was feeling emotions I wasn’t used to feeling. Like insecurity.
Why the hell was she staring at me so hard?
And why did my body respond in such a heated way that I was consciously looking for a place to push her against so I could trap that soft body and capture those lips? Was it this hard for all humans? My thoughts went into dangerous territory as she nervously licked her lips over and over again. Body dizzy with want, it was getting hard to walk in a straight line.
“My car’s over here.” Stephanie pointed to Ethan’s newest Lexus.
“Don’t you mean Ethan’s car?” I smirked, quite cheered at the fact that she’d most likely scratch the piece of machinery before the week’s end. Ethan and I had always been at odds, now even more so.