The introduction to the Gods Council would have been too much clutter in an already full storyline, but they are the governing body that keeps all the overpowered gods in line, the council of their peers. Originally there was one Mortal moderator to be the balance fulcrum of light and dark, this is a brief mention of him dealing with the fallout of Cass and Jareth’s irritation with one another.
Az cleared his throat and turned back to Cass. “You ready then?”
It was the first time Az had left Levistus’s side since he’d been recovered, today Cass needed him more. There was safety in numbers, and if he were to be imprisoned today–or threatened with it, he trusted Az at his side to see him cleared.
He nodded, patted Jez on the shoulder and strolled down to the portal to the mortal plane. They came through at the arched doorway of the main Council building, knocking to be polite.
The old man opened the door, looking far more aged than Cass last remembered, and he felt a pang at seeing the old man looking so fragile. He’d been a routine fixture in Cass’s life–for as long as he could remember. His father had been overly fond of calling council meetings.
“Amon, how are you faring?” Cass said with a smile, patting the old man on his bony shoulder.
“Very well, Cassius.” He wiggled his brows, “I suppose it’s ‘your highness’ now, eh?”
“No need, we’ve known each other too long now.” Cass stepped back to Az’s side, waiting for Amon to move out of the way so he could enter.
“There’ll be no trouble here today, young king.” Amon said, his stern tone telling how little Cass intimidated him. “Bad blood or no, yourself and the Blood Lord are to mind yourself in my halls.”
Shame fueled his anger. Hells only knew what Jareth had uncovered in his memories, every single one was degrading to some extent. The memory of the Blood lord slamming his fist into Amara’s face stoking the simmering rage. He never wanted to experience that form of impotent fury ever again.
After some internal deliberation, Cass offered a solemn nod, and Amon finally stepped out of the way, allowing Cass and Az to sweep past him. He took in a deep breath, the smell of the old leather-bound books comforting, the underlying scent of wood polish bringing back a flood of memories.
His father had kept them all in line, and now there was no one filling that void. He would always be merely the son of Asmodeus. Never near as frightening or as cold as his sire, no matter the damage he’d wrought when he had helped Mara claim her throne, or the inroads he’d been making with his own.
“And there he is. Young Cassius,” Jareth wandered into the room with a young acolyte in tow. One Cass recognized well. “You remember David?”
Of course he did. Mara had removed his eye… he wore an eye patch still, growing back the organ must be slow-going.
“yep. ‘I’,” Cass said, tapping the side of his eye, earning a death glare from the young vamp, “remember.”
David moved forward, stopped only by Jareth’s arm barring his chest.
“Azadiel.” Jareth nodded to Az, “odd place to run into you. I thought you bound to the hells.”
“Mind yourself.” Az growled, and Cass shot him a look. Bound?
“You know what this celebration needs?” Cass said, his voice louder than the snarling going on. “Drinks! Amon, your finest, if you please.” He called out.
Yeah, he was fucking annoyed. Irritated he was going to have to sit through a meeting full of snide undertones and back and forth digs, on top of the chaos and turmoil of his current state of mind.
A younger man came out wheeling a tray as they all took their seats, setting up glasses for the four of them and placing an unmarked bottle in the center.
“My thanks, Eli.” Jareth gave the young man a gracious incline of his head.
So he was on a first name basis with the heir to the human council seat? Cass was so far out of touch with these politics it was laughable. If his father had been in a grave, he’d be turning in it.
“Care to join us for a drink?” Cass asked. “I know how my tolerance is for poison, but I can’t speak for the rest of us here.”
“Ah,” the young man stammered. “It’s blood wine, highness.”
Cass gave him a wicked grin. “Might want to pour us a round then, if you leave it to David there, he’ll have it in our laps. How is that depth perception coming along?” Cass shot a smirk over to the vamp in question and was met with another death glare.
“Did you… are you winking at me?” Cass said, his tone brash as he feigned offense and turned to Az. “Did you see that Az, he’s flirting with me. Sorry my taste doesn’t run that way.”
“Enough.” Jareth snapped. “Azadiel keep your protégé in line before I see to it myself.”
The air in the room shifted as Cass went deadly still. Of course Jareth knew what Az was to him, he’d stolen those memories.
“Word is your taste runs to whatever is available.” David finally spoke. “Whomever cares for a taste.”
With a snarl Cass jumped to his feet, his momentum slowed only by Az’s hand coming to grab his arm.
“Mind your own pet Jareth, or we walk.” Az’s tone was laced with menace.
Cass slumped in his seat, accepting the glass of wine Az shoved into his hand and took a large swallow, the blood tingling on his tongue.
“After you and the Warlock busted into my house…” Jareth started and Cass pulled the glass from his mouth.
“Joined your party,” he nodded and Jareth narrowed his eyes.
“The pair of you. A couple of drunk, bisexual, kleptomaniac disaster clowns with crowns, breaking into my vaults,” his voice was raising, “stealing my personal belongings…”
“Not normally a drinker,” Cass said with a shrug, and every person at the table looked from the bottle in his left hand to the glass in his right.
Az cleared his throat and Cass looked away from the vampire, seething.
“After much sifting through the mush of your memories, I’ve finally seen the pattern.” Jareth spoke between sips of his own. “Your father is not entirely sane, it seems.”
Cass snorted, “could have told you that years ago.”
“Ah yes but you didn’t,” Jareth said coldly. “You didn’t tell a soul what went on did you? No one would know how much Asmodeus’s power had corrupted him.”
“It was no one’s business what went on.” Cass spoke low, trying to keep the shame from being heard in his voice. “My father is what he’s always been. I wouldn’t have known to look for something that seemed normal to me.” He drank down the rest of his wine and reached for the bottle to refill his glass.
“He was slipping into madness for centuries, since Benzosia. Why is it important now?” Az spoke, the only calm voice in the room.
“Cassius needs to stay away from the Warlock Queen.” Jareth stated, blunt and cold. “I have seen–”
“You’ve seen nothing,” Cass shouted, slamming his glass to the table. “You have no right to discuss my memories as though they’re yours. No right to discuss how things were with my father and sure as fuck have no right to tell me who is allowed to be a part of my life.”
He picked up the glass and drained it again, Az sliding the bottle away when he reached for it again.
“Are we calm again?” Jareth chided. “This is my people we are discussing. My realm that is at risk and so help me, you will listen to what I have to say.”
“Explain instead of dictating Jareth.” Az said, again the voice of reason. “He doesn’t remember… beyond that night.”
Cass growled out, finally managing to secure the bottle of wine. “All my memories come to an abrupt halt up to my father telling me he was going to kill her.”
Jareth flinched at that. He must have got the full impact of that one, then.
“Your father designed a weapon according to a prophecy that was written eons ago. He’d thought he’d ended it with the demise of his consort, the prophecy, that is.” Jareth nodded and refilled his own glass, waving Eli over with another bottle. “Instead he saw the opportunity to wield the prophecy and mold it to his own ends. He saw that in you and the Priestess.”
Az had gone white as a sheet. Obviously, he’d had no idea.
“So we just don’t trigger whatever it is,” Cass said with a shrug.
“The mere joining of the two of you could be all that it takes.” Jareth met his eyes again, his calm and dark. Cass was sure his were shining with barely subdued flames. “And now whispers of the Sword of Justice being in play…”
“Are you trying to tell me not to have sex with her? Cause that horse has already flown the coop.”
Az snickered. “Lay off the wine Cass. Mixing metaphors?”
“Chickens and stables then.” Cass muttered.
Cass looked down at the thick liquid in his glass, his mind going back to his cock sliding through her slick heat, so fucking close…
“I didn’t ask you here to discuss your sex life.” Jareth barked out. “The shift has already begun. Possibly when the Sword came back into play.”
Cass nodded, “Andrus said something to the effect of it being a harbinger.” his heart pounded. This had nothing to do with he and Amara.
“It’s already begun,” Jareth raised his voice, continuing as though Cass hadn’t interrupted, “and you two are possibly the only beings who can stop it from unraveling completely.”
Cass swirled the wine around in his glass, emptying it once more before looking back to Jareth. “Since you stole all my memories and rifled through them like a pillaging fucking barbarian, tell me,” he kept his eyes locked to the vampire’s, “tell me what she was to me. Explain why, if we were fashioned by my father to be his weapons, why would he actively keep us apart?” He was feeling more melancholic than angry at this point.
“Tell me,” he clenched his jaw, his voice lowering to a snarl, “why I can’t remember my own fucking past?”
“Because, you stubborn little shit, you ruined his plans! He wanted you to use at a time of his own choosing.” Jareth said, carefully averting his eyes, exasperation strong in every word.
He missed her. He needed her. He could freely admit that to himself now. Hard to breathe without her. Assat-shi. His wife. Mara. Were they one and the same? The Blood lord knew- they all knew. They were all keeping it from him.
His power pulled tight to his center. He could feel it wrapping around his lungs, suffocating him. Needed her.
He needed to fucking know.
“Do you really think that Asmodeus would want the realms to fold?” Az said, leaning forward in his seat, once again sliding the bottle away from Cass. Little did he know, the new one was directly in reach.
“I am saying that he must have. At some point, he was planning to unleash this upon us.” Jareth leaned forward too, he and Az effectively cutting Cass and David out of the conversation.
He wanted to get up and pace. To bellow out his frustration. His teeth ground as his jaw clenched harder, his mood plummeting to dangerous.
“Here, let me fill that for you, so you don’t get it all over the table.” Cass said to David, ignoring the two of them as he filled the vampire’s glass to the rim.
“Even me,” Jareth was saying, “his oldest companion. He would have seen my own people undone. I am responsible for their safety, Aza. I won’t have my people suffer again, we’ve finally found peace in a realm of our own.”
“Hells, no one wants to see the end of times.” Az spoke with as much familiarity to the Blood Lord as Jareth did with him. “But if it were that dire, I’m certain there would have been celestial interference.”
Cass cleared his throat, drawing their attention. “There might have been.” He said with a shrug and Azadiel’s jaw dropped. “Not saying for sure, Jez’s sister mentioned something to him.”
“Cass, you know I’ve always fought for the two of you, but even I can’t ignore blatant warning signs,” Azadiel said, turning to fully face Cass.
Sweat beaded on his brow, he felt it trickling down the back of his neck, his stomach flipped. The hand holding his glass started trembling, he set the glass on the table, so no one would notice.
“The Dark King has felt the shift in the Wild Magic as well.” Jareth said, adding another nail to Cass’s coffin.
Damn the room was getting hot. He drank down more cool liquid, fighting to find enough air to breathe.
“Perhaps staying away from her for the time being would be a wise idea,” Az said. Had he moved closer? “Until we figure out how to prevent whatever is happening, or at least know what will trigger it so as to avoid it.”
That was it, the air was gone entirely. The room was full of thick sludge that he couldn’t drag into his lungs. His ears rang, his heart thudding painfully as it tried to find enough oxygen to pump through his arteries. His vision dimmed, and his head went silent.
“Here now.” The young man, Eli, was leaning over him, pressing a cool cloth to his forehead. “Didn’t know demons could have panic attacks.”
Cass sucked in a sharp breath, looking around the room. they were in one of the archive rooms, it was dark, the smell of leather-bound books soothingly familiar.
“What now?” Cass said, his voice hoarse.
“Yeah my sister has them bad. Luckily I knew just what to do.” His accent was smooth and pleasant. Eastern American, if Cass called it right.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cass said, sitting up and grabbing the cloth from the boy and holding it over his face.
Eli just nodded. “They’re still drinking in there. Another three bottles down.”
“I was asleep?” Cass looked around, confused, noting the moon shining bright through the windows. It was well after midnight then, they’d been here for hours.
“You passed right out. The one you came with, I got him to carry you in here, so you weren’t overstimulated when you came to,” he said nodding as though Cass knew what he was talking about.
“I have to go. Get home and stuff.” He got to his feet, a little unsteady, took a deep breath, then another and walked back out into the main room.
Az and Jareth sat in front of the fire, both with their feet kicked up and a glass in hand, the somber David sitting in an adjacent chair.
“Az,” Cass said as he walked up. “I need to go home.”
Az looked back to him, set his glass down and got to his feet.
“Are we in agreement then, Cassius,” Jareth said, his voice louder than before, his cheeks flushed- an unusual look for a vampire. “You will stay away from Amara?”
Cass’s head was still swimmy, but he knew his own mind. And heart.
“I won’t. Not ever.” He bared his teeth, his own pointy canines nothing compared to the vampire’s fangs, but it was the sentiment that counted. “She is mine.”
“If anything happens to my people because of the two of you, I won’t hesitate to hunt you both down like animals,” Jareth said with a breezy nod before turning back to the flames.
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