Cass isn’t a nice guy, but he has his moments. There is backstory to his and Verity’s friendship, none of which fit into the progression of the novels, but perhaps something to revisit someday. His attachment to Verity’s children is sweet and sets him apart from the reckless and destructive Demon we all know and love.
He turned over the forged sigil in his palm, ensuring it was perfectly smooth. Wouldn’t do to have anything that could snag…
“You can’t ignore your deal with Mephistopheles. He laid out the terms.” Levistus kept pace with him, even though Cass was eating up ground with his long strides.
“I’m not ignoring it. I didn’t give him a timeline.” Cass pocketed the amulet, keeping his hand closed around it.
“Think, son. He stated that he would give you his armies in exchange for the meeting,” Levistus was getting snarly. “He means exactly as he says.”
Cass stopped walking. “I said I’ll do it.” He didn’t want to. His guts churned up every time he thought about seeing her.
“What is more important than seeing your main gate guarded?” Levistus dragged his hands through his hair, his face red with the exertion of chasing Cass from one end of the fortress to the other.
Cass had tried his damnedest to lose him.
“I have another promise to keep.” Cass’s hands clenched around the amulet.
Levistus sighed, his head dropping back.
“All the hells, Cassius. You’re like a child at times, you know.”
“It’s Silas’s birthday.” Cass said turning his head. He really didn’t want anyone to know just how attached he was to that little boy. “Verity and I have a standing arrangement. Every year, same beach on the mortal realm.”
Levistus swallowed hard, his eyes taking in every nuance of Cass’s expression.
“I’ll make the arrangements though Dravite, then. But we will be bringing Lucifer to meet with Amara, and you need to come to terms with that.” Levistus nodded as he fell back into step with Cass.
“Do you want to come meet him?” Cass glanced over, quickly turning back before the other demon could see how much his answer mattered.
“I don’t know what I’d have to say to a four year old.” Levistus smirked. “No, Cass, you go and enjoy your time with the boy.”
“He's five now.” Cass smiled. It had been too long since he’d seen the little guy.
“I would like to go,” a soft voice intruded on his musings.
Levistus’s hand tightened around his arm.
Leira stood at his door, wringing her hands, looking sweet and contrite. Cass wasn’t sure if he was angry at her, or just disgusted with himself. He kept showing too much of his inner workings to her. He didn’t like appearing weak.
“Please,” her eyes were wide, pleading, “I’ve never been to the mortal realm.”
“Alright.” Cass nodded and walked past her, “I’m leaving now. I’m already running late. Tuck away the wings, love.”
He grabbed his jacket off his bed and walked back through the fortress to the only accessible portal to the mortal realm. He couldn’t travel through his hellgates, not without pulling the Hells through with him.
He led Leira through, into the beating sun and briny scent of a South American beach. Close to Verity’s portal into this realm, the out of the way beach in Ecuador was unpopulated and rarely visited by mortals. The ley-lines were strong, magic ripe in the air.
“Cassius!” Verity called, “you made it”
He was enfolded in her arms before he could speak, and for a moment he gave into the feeling. Belonging. Nurturing. Love?
“Like I would miss it,” he pulled back, smiling, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Is this your… girlfriend?” she stumbled over the word, as though searching for the right term. Rightly, because Cass had never introduced her to a female before.
“This is Leira,” Cass said, pulling the Erinyes forward. He leaned over to whisper in Verity’s ear, “concubine.”
Verity slapped his shoulder. “Naughty demon.”
“I’m going to find Silas. I brought a gift,” Cass said, walking off toward the water, Leira’s hand in his.
“Is he yours?” Leira asked softly, her eyes glued to the boy.
Cass snorted. “Uh, no. his father is…”
“Cassius.” Andrus came out of nowhere. “No more summoning tools for my son.”
Cass laughed, and Leira swayed on her feet.
“I’ve got something better.” Cass pulled out the amulet from his pocket. “He can summon me directly with this.”
Andrus shook his head. “I have to greet my wife. If you’ll keep my son occupied for a while?” The suggestive grin on the god’s face spoke volumes. “I can’t stay here long unnoticed.”
“Go. Silas and I have stuff to do.” Cass grinned back.
“Uncle Cass!” Silas squealed and Cass caught him up as the boy lunged for his arms.
“Hey little buddy,” Cass hugged him tight. “Been a while.”
“I tried calling you like you said and I got in trouble cause it wasn’t you that came.” Silas was already squirming out of his arms. “Can we build a castle like last time but bigger? And I want a dragon!”
Cass growled lightly. Bloody dragons.
“Course. Look what I brought you for your birthday,” Cass said holding up the amulet before fastening it around the boy’s neck. “Now you can summon just me whenever you need.”
“And you can read me a bedtime story?” Silas held up the sigil, tracing it with his sandy fingers.
“I’d rather you used it for emergencies. But sometimes, I will try.” Cass ruffled his hair and took his hand, letting the boy lead him back to the pile of sand he’d already been digging up.
Leira sat beside them, her hand rubbing across Cass’s back every once in a while as he and the boy shaped the mound of sand into something resembling a castle.
“You’re very good with him,” Leira said, her smile wistful.
A female sort of wistfulness that put him on edge. He should probably put her off any ideas of that sort.
“This dragon isn’t very good.” Silas stood, looking down at his masterpiece. Cass couldn’t hold back the snicker. The ‘dragon’ resembled more a male appendage more than a fire breathing creature.
“I say it looks rather accurate,” he laughed again and moved closer to help Silas fix it before his mother saw.
“You don’t have any children?” Leira asked, her hand resting on his back again.
Cass’s entire body stiffened. Hells no. He was nipping this in the bud, before she got any more of those thoughts.
“No. Nor will I ever.” He glared at her in warning. Yeah, wouldn’t do for her to get any hopes up.
She flinched back from whatever she saw in his eyes and looked back to the water.
“You can go in it, if you’d like.” He said, trying to put her back at ease.
She smiled, her eyes lighting up. “I can?”
“Go ahead. I’ll keep an eye out. Just stay close to shore, the undertow is strong.” Cass nodded toward the crystal blue cove and went back to sculpting Silas’s dragon.
He eventually gave in and brought Silas into the water, stripping down to his boxers, and holding the boy’s hand tightly. He hadn’t planned on swimming, but the sun was hot, the water inviting, the Erinyes a playful siren as she laughed and splashed water all around.
They jumped over waves until Silas’s energy finally waned. Leira lifted him into her arms, smiling beatifically at the boy. Cass’s annoyance with the furie waned completely at the sight of Silas’s bony arms clinging to her neck as they walked back to shore.
She was young. He had to keep reminding himself. She didn’t know any better. Thought she’d been pleasing him…
“I’ve had cake made, “ Verity said, scooping her son back into her arms.
She didn’t need to say that Andrus had already left them, the poignant sadness in her eyes mirroring something inside of Cass. He didn’t need to know the emotion to recognise it.
Leira tucked her hand into his, startling him for a moment, and as he looked down at their joined hands, he felt the yawning void of his memories opening, taunting him with flashes of a picture that his mind couldn’t hold on to.
Sand through a sieve.
But the feeling remained. The ache. The sharp sense of loss. The desperate sense of urgency…
Verity sat Silas on Cass’s lap once they settled around a table in the screened-in porch of the beach house, and went off to gather his birthday cake.
“Did you have a good birthday, little man?” Cass smiled down at the boy.
Silas nodded, squirming until he could turn around to face Cass. “I’m going to have a big party at the fortress and mama says all the courts will be there, are you going to come too Uncle Cass?”
Cass met Verity’s eyes over the elaborate cake she sat down, her head shaking minutely.
“Sorry, little buddy. It’s not a very good idea for me to go to your realm.” He rested his hand on the back of the boy’s head, grabbing a plate of cake from Verity to set down in front of him. “Eat your cake. We got to have a nice visit today, yes?”
Silas looked up at him, a scowl on his face. “But you brought her and it was just supposed to be our day.”
Cass leaned closer, speaking just to Silas, grinning at Leira, “I think she’s rather pretty.”
Silas’s eyes slid to her, then back to Cass. “She is pretty and dark,” he said with a nod.
Cass said nothing. There was no way to respond. He accepted his piece of cake and took a bite, and laughed when he saw Leira licking off her spoon and nodding when Verity asked if she wanted more.
Leira seemed different here. Lighter, smiling. At ease. She kept touching him though. His arm, his shoulder–and his head kept insisting it was wrong.
Something inside of him had decided what it wanted, and whether he consciously remembered, every part of him sung with the urgency of attaining it.
By the time he hugged Silas goodbye the boy was nearly asleep in his arms. Verity gave Cass a kiss on the cheek, smiling sadly at him.
“You look more of a wreck than usual Cass.” She stepped back holding his hands. “get some sleep would you.”
He smiled, giving a half-hearted sniff. “You seem just as tense.” He ran his thumb across her cheek. “Go spend some time with your husband and children.”
She smiled brightly. “You go spend some time… torturing damned souls or whatever you do.” She hefted Silas up onto her shoulder and waved them off.
He shook off Leira’s hand when they got back through the portal, her insistence on holding it setting his teeth on edge. She was seeing far too much into what they had.
He backed up a step. “We’re done here. I have stuff to do.”
She was wringing her hands, looking nervous and skittish, but her eyes, when they met his were cold. Shrewd.
“You’re going to run off and go moon over the Fae queen?” She sneered, “You’re forever chasing the unattainable, not seeing what’s right in front of you!”
He lunged forward, grasping her face gently, turning it up to his. “Little girl, you need to remember your place.” He growled and dropped his hand.
“As your whore?” she yelled leaning forward, hands balled at her sides.
He nodded. “Exactly.”
He spun and walked away without looking back.
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