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“Two hundred Para prospects left base. Only eleven returned, Captain Ansen included,” he continued. “And that was only thefirst yearof their five year training. They’re all Captains in their own respect now, but they don’t talk about their experiences. They had the worst recorded passing rate ever recorded since the establishment of Paras as law enforcers for the Council.”
All I could do was gape.
“And the Council just…didn’t care?”
Neo made a so-so gesture with his hand. “Mostly no. But the Alpha on the Upper Council is the nicest of them. Elias Olskin is his name. He’s one of the youngest, but he’s still been on the Council a while now. He doesn’t agree with half the decisions they’re making, especially because there was once a suspiciously-started rumor that he was screwing the last High Priestess, Jack Loris—yes, he was also a man, and yes, they are different species.”
I was stunned. Neo gave me no time to continue.
“He’s the one I would’ve gone to if I knew what I know now.”
“What? What do you know now?” I asked.
“That the current High Priestess is an immoral whore. She wanted me to pay her in sex.” He smiled, a feral kind. “Unfortunately for her, I’m taken. That’s how I ended up here; she turned me in after I turned her down.”
I was further flabbergasted. The Council wasn’t even keen on keeping itself to its own rules. “Dear God,” I breathed.
“She’s not the only one, either. Several of the vampire elders have been caught fucking humans on multiple occassions. There were even historically-recorded instances where they held orgies that lasted weeks, all open to their high society friends from different species. I know a few Presidents who were in some.”
My facial expression must have conveyed my distress, because he shook his head. “It doesn’t actually get better. They don’t hold themselves to their own standards and lazily cover up only half of their crimes. Sometimes, I wonder if the Grigori are even paying attention.”
I blinked. “They can’t— wecan’tbe worse than demons.”
Neo’s expression shifted so quickly, I barely caught the flicker of something sinister in his expression, similar to what I’d seen from him before.
I seriously needed to get my neck healed. I was losing my mind from the bloodloss.
“Maybe not?” he said. “But demons rarely get caught. And if they do, the Upper Council has no say in their discipline.”
“What? What the hell do you mean—”
“Lucifer is the one sitting on the Upper Council, Aria. How many times do you think the Devil himself has visited Earth? Do you think he cares what happens to humans? Be honest.”
Honestly, no. I didn’t think he cared at all. Maybe I had too much faith in the supernatural; I was clearly judging the Council by human moral standards, even though I myself wasn’t human.
In fact, now that I thought about it, I’d always been judging myself by human standards, too… Even at this very moment, as I sat here bleeding out.
“I see what you mean,” I said. “Why would he care about a corruptible, gullible race?”
Neo nodded. “Exactly. He’s created his own squadron of followers. Humans are expendable to him, Aria. And the Upper Council feels the same way about us. Don’t forget that.”
I wouldn’t. Not after the conversation we’d just had.
3
UNLIKELY FRIENDS
Sariel
“Why chain him up like he’s an animal…Azazel—”
“...doesn’t care about that…on drugs anyway—”
Awareness trickled back to me slowly, random words filtering in and out of my consciousness.
I was stuck in limbo for a couple of seconds before my angel—frantic and viscerally angry—shook me awake by the mate bond. My eyes snapped open, and my muscles tensed for the change, because that was the only way he could expend the anger simmering within me.
Nothing happened.
