“Well, apparently, Paimon’s summoning him, and he has to go back.”
“What? When? How long does he have?”
“Few days at most. The summoning started last week, but I only just found out today.”
“How?”
“Overheard Bel talking to him about it. They’re planning to meet with Dan and see if they can figure out how to get rid of them.”
“Fucking fuck the motherfucker.”
The whole fist-clenching thing wasn’t working, so he planted his elbows on the table and dragged his fingers through his hair a few times. Then, he sat up abruptly and stared at Raum. “We have to do something. He’s a fucking slave!”
“Keep your voice down, idiot. Bel’s looking into it with Dan, like I said. There’s nothing else we can do, so chill.”
“I can’t be chill about this!”
“Which is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
Because this shit hit a little too close to home for anyone’s liking.
Meph sought out the broad figure of Mist in the club. He was still sniffing random women and appearing repulsed by them. He didn’t look remotely human. His head was cocking this way and that, his hair wild, his eyes too bright, and though he was missing the sharp teeth and gray skin, he still managed to just lookcreepy.
“We should help him get a woman.” If Meph couldn’t help with the brands, he could at least make sure Mist enjoyed whatever time he had left on Earth. “That’s what he’s on a mission to find right now, right? A humanpet?”
They both snickered.
“It’ll be a challenge if he keeps acting like that,” Raum said.
“Eva told me about that chick he met last week. He must have some game. And there are plenty more women around.”
“I don’t think he likes anyone here.”
They watched Mist recoil from another female and then growl at a human who accidentally bumped into him. The guy backed away with palms up.
Meph flicked his tongue piercing against his teeth. “I have an idea.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Shut up.” He slid around the table and stood up. “I’m gonna see if he wants to leave.”
He wound his way through the crowd of bodies, ignoring the cautious glances of the dudes and covetous looks of the chicks.
Yep, he ignored the chicks.
He had never ignored chicks. He loved female attention. He loved sex. He loved lots of it with lots of different women, separately or together, consecutively or simultaneously, he wasn’t fussed.
Except… ever since Eva’s dad had tossed that consecrated blade into his chest, he hadn’t felt like himself. He wondered if the Empyrean magic had crossed some wires in his brain because lately, he wasn’t in the mood.
It wasn’t that he’d lost his sex drive; he just didn’t want anyone touching him. He felt nauseated by physical contact, like every touch was dragging something ugly to the surface where he would have no choice but to—
A pair of amber eyes blinked, snapping him out of it.
Oh, look, he’d crossed the bar and was standing right in front of Mist. He’d gone to that dark place in his head Raum had told him to avoid again.
“You wanna get out of here?”
“Yes. Humans keep touching me, and I want to bite them. And I scented all the females, and none are appealing.”
