The Dark Ones, Tome 2 : Untouchable Darkness

chapter one

Thirty Days Previous

Stephanie

THE AIR CRACKLED WITH excitement. I watched as the couple sitting a few tables away from me grabbed each other’s hands and leaned in for a kiss. I tried to turn away, but it was impossible. I was always drawn to affection, drawn to emotion like it was a homing beacon. Sometimes it really sucked being immortal.

I couldn’t help but feel what others felt.

And I couldn’t help but want that feeling for myself.

It would be too ridiculously easy to steal the emotional charge in the air or change it with a snap of my fingers. Heck, I could have that guy salivating over me in seconds. But it would be wrong.

And for the past week I’d been trying to do things right.

Ever since I’d unknowingly betrayed my only human friend, I had turned over a new leaf. I was a council member for crying out loud! An immortal Siren or a Dark One; whatever, I was too many things.

A few days ago I’d given the only Dark One I knew, our King, my essence thinking I’d die, willing to make that sacrifice. Instead, I’d woken up the next day completely the same as before, as if my immortality had been restored.

Only, I was different.

Before I even opened my eyes, I felt the power of death surge through me, the deepest sort of cold took root from my fingertips all the way down to my toes. And an eerie sort of darkness became a part of me, like a shadow I couldn’t get rid of. Dread trickled down my spine.

To make matters worse.

I woke up to my entire room frozen like the arctic.

Which, for an immortal who’d spent the last few hundred years assuming she was nothing more than a Siren? Terrifying.

Besides, Sirens hated the cold; it was the exact opposite of what we represented, warmth, human emotions, heat, lust, fire.

Blah!

I shivered.

Would I ever be warm again? It wasn’t the type of cold you could escape, it was a part of me, just like my heart, the very heart I’d given to Cassius, the only man I’d ever loved.

If you could truly call him that.

Half human, half Angel, he was the king of the immortals and not just completely off limits, but dangerous. A Dark One’s touch was powerful enough to force humans into a cheerful slavery for a millennia.

To me, he’d simply always felt… good.