Chapter 5
C assia
The man with the green eyes loomed over me, standing much too close and familiar for the stranger from the coffee shop. Warmth coursed through my body as I swayed. His grip increased, steadying me. White, blonde hair that appeared almost pearlescent fell over his shoulder as he leaned in.
“Tell me,” He ordered, his voice deep and warm.
A short breath escaped me, before I could answer. “Nothing that concerns you.” My words were sharp but my tone light. “But thank you.”
I moved to leave, but he stopped me again, his leg blocking any forward movement. “Your gaze keeps falling on the group at the end of the bar.”
He swung himself behind me, both palms on my shoulders now, the fabric of his clothes brushing my bare back. I felt a button trip over my spine, the intimacy of the sensation sending a tremor down my leg.
It felt forbidden, my bare flesh rubbing against the fine fabric of his outfit. Illicit. Without warning, a vision of myself climbing over him like a cat ran through my head.
“My companions,” I stated, trying to shut out my imagination. “I need to get back to them.”
“But you don’t want to. Why?” His voice was firmer than before while his thumb caressed the base of my neck. He shouldn’t have been touching me, and I shouldn’t have wanted him to continue doing so.
A severe case of word vomit threatened to pour from my lips, the urge to tell him all my frustrations near impossible to resist. Instead, “Bad day at the office,” was what I told him.
I gasped as he spun me around. He stared straight down at my face. He was so tall that I had to crane my neck to meet him. When he spoke, his voice held an authority that didn’t let me do anything but listen to him.
“You don’t understand, Cassia.” He nodded towards Bryan and his friends. “Either they all die, or you tell me who to kill.”
My head jerked to the side. Not only did he somehow know my name, but he’d just threatened to kill a bunch of people. The seductively beautiful stranger waited for a reply, his green gaze burning a hole right through me.
“Nobody... uh, nobody, please. Did you just...” My voice trailed off, and I licked my lips, the motion sending his eyes straight to my mouth. “Why would you kill anyone? You look like an angel.”
He did, with his shining hair and immense stature. He almost didn’t look human, the perfection of his image seeming to have been carved straight out of the pages of a glossy magazine.
His chuckle was deep and dark, and the air around him turned heavy. “I am anything but holy.”
“Who are you?”
“Lukas,” he replied, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles with a gentle brush of his lips. All the blood in my veins rushed to my stomach before it headed farther south, making my knees weak once again.
Bryan and his group hadn’t looked my way once, not that I’d been aware of. Lucy and Miriam had their heads together, drinks in hand, laughing over something. Me? Were they giggling over my stupidity? I’d been made a fool of—and who knew for how long.
The relationship could have been going on for months. Years, even. Maybe it was just this past weekend... but it didn’t matter. It was wrong and I deserved better.
Lukas released my shoulder and dropped my hand when the man I’d noticed earlier walked up. He was quite tall as well, but not as tall as Lukas.
“This is her,” my would-be avenger announced.
“Kiam,” he introduced himself. He eyed me up and down but didn’t offer his hand.
“Cassia,” I replied, staring at him. His eyes changed color, though I’d never heard of contact lenses with this type of capability. They went from blue to brown while I stared. I cleared my throat. “Nice to meet you.”
Kiam nodded, and his gaze shuttered, exposing metallic burgundy eyeshadow expertly blended in with the black.
The very idea of men wearing heavy cosmetics never sounded appealing to me and previously, I’d only associated it with club kids.
These two clearly weren’t a part of that, not if you went by their refined manners and high-end clothing at least.
Lukas wore makeup around his eyes as well, though not nearly as much. The effect was stunning, bringing out the intensity of his features.
I turned to Kiam. “I like your makeup. Do you do it yourself?”
“It's partially magick.”
“Oh. Um, yeah, I think that’s the point.”
He ignored me. “I’m full. Are you ready to go?” He asked Lukas while scanning the room. Bryan finally glanced at the three of us before returning his attention to his friends.
Lukas pressed a finger to his lips as he peered down at me. Then, he turned to Kiam. “I have business to take care of first.”
“A bit crowded in here,” he said.
Lukas chuckled. “Not for long.”
Kiam tilted his head slightly, an unspoken message clearly passing between the two men. I snagged Lukas’s sleeve just as he was about to turn away. “You weren’t serious, were you?”
“I’m always serious.”
My hand began to tremble, and I glanced at his friend, as if he would offer help. The man leveled me with a gaze and when I met Lukas's eyes, my arm fell back to my side. He meant every word. There was nothing I could do but watch and wait for disaster to fall around me.
My brain scrambled for a solution, a way to stop these two strangers from interfering, but nothing came to me. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop them. If I called the police, help would never get here in time.
At the last minute I leaped forward, snatching his arm again. His head whipped around.
“Please,” I begged him. “Don’t do this. He’s not worth it. Trust me, I know.”
Lukas’s eyes went from a blazing fire to smoldering with soft heat. I was surprised he even heard me; my voice had been so low. He turned around and his chest sank when he took my hand in his.
“As you wish,” he whispered and his eyes glittered. “For now.”
I could’ve sworn Kiam rolled his eyes. “Thank you,” I said to Lukas.
The man snared my waist and pulled me against the hard mass of his torso.
I felt his chin graze the top of my head before his palm tilted my chin.
His irises appeared liquid; the jade color seeming to flow and pulse like a heartbeat.
It was arresting and impossible, an aberration that shouldn’t have existed. I couldn’t look away.
His glimmering hair spilled against my cheek, and I felt the warmth of his breath against my ear as he said, “Don’t thank me yet, the clock is ticking.”
Suddenly, the heat of his body was gone, and the silk of his suit jacket brushed my shoulder. Him and the other man were walking away, without a backward glance.
Time seemed to slow down while I tracked their progress, the tall figures easy to make out among the other patrons. They disappeared, having entered the hallway, and I glanced back at Bryan.
A sense of unreality settled in my chest, leaving me feeling disconnected from my surroundings. I may as well have been floating in outer space. The noise was muted, and the figures around me blurred. Several minutes passed before it all returned with a rush of heightened noise.
Bryan, Lucy, and the rest of them remained where they were, as if I hadn’t just been boxed in by two towering, imposing, beautiful strangers.
My ex-boyfriend’s tie was loosened, and it almost looked like he had a telltale smear of red lipstick on his collar. The shade gracing Miriam’s lips matched the mark that blinked in and out of focus as the light shifted. Bryan swayed on his stool, overcome with laughter.
Would any of them notice if I left? I didn’t think so, so that’s exactly what I did.
A quick call to the car service, and I was deposited back home with a semi-plan of action.
If anyone had asked me why I was still with my boyfriend, I wouldn’t have an answer to give them.
For far too long, I’d been ignoring the glaring issues and acting like everything was fine.
Trapped in a life of comfort and routine, it was easy to pretend like everything was okay.
I had my hobbies, my job, and my sketching.
I had friends I hung out with once in a while, and this apartment felt like home. All my stuff was here.
My parents had died almost a decade ago.
A thirteen-year-old without a license stole a car and t-boned them at an intersection, cutting their lives short instantly.
Ever since then, I’d been kind of floating through life, losing myself in work.
Their loss was a big, gaping hole that nothing could fill, no matter what I tried.
Clubbing, one-night stands, prolific amounts of alcohol—none of them made a difference. The one thing that’d made me feel home again was Bryan, with his steady, dependable friendship and quiet, calm demeanor.
I met him one night at a club, while I was out with my friends Katie and Sybil, when he walked by my table.
The girls were chatting with a couple men they’d just met, and I was doodling on a napkin with a tiny pencil.
Bryan asked what I was drawing, and one thing led to another.
We were inseparable for a few years, the very best of friends.
There wasn’t a defining moment to split the time between when we were close, and when we’d grown apart.
It happened slowly. A few extra nights out with the guys, a few major work projects I had tight deadlines for.
A couple of instances of brushing each other off when one wanted to talk.
Months and months of zero intimacy in the bedroom because someone was too tired or the other had a headache.
It was a long, drawn out path to complacency.
My clutch landed on the table with a quiet thud, and I flicked on the light, carefully stepping around some dirty laundry I’d missed.
My instinct was to pick it up, but I refrained.
Instead, I headed to the storage closet and tugged out my duffel bag, dislodging a pile of hockey sticks, remnants of Bryan’s high school glory days.
They remained on the floor. He could pick them up when he took care of his socks and t-shirts.