“I’m finding it kinda hard to like this chick, not gonna lie.”
“I didn’t like her at first either.”
“But…?”
Raum looked at him.
Meph cocked the eyebrow with the tatts above it. “We all know there’s a but there.”
“But…I found out she was lying. She never planned to sell us out. She needed my help, so she said what she had to to get it.” He shrugged. “It was smart, honestly.”
Belial made a noise halfway between a grunt and a growl. “If by smart you mean the stupidest thing she could’ve done, then sure.”
Raum’s jaw shifted.
“Did she really think I wouldn’t find out? What was her clever plan for that? I would have been sweeping up angel ashes by now if you hadn’t tried to play the hero.” His tone turned biting. “Why are you cozying up with angels anyway? Sure, she’s hot, but is it really worth selling out your entire family for a piece of ass?”
Raum gritted his teeth and breathed through flared nostrils. The only thing that kept him from launching at Belial was the frightened pit bull in his arms. He could feel Luna trembling as the tension amped up.
“Whoa, you made Raummad,” Meph said like he was studying a frog dissection in science class. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him proper mad before.”
“Everybody calm down.” Ash sounded tired. “Bel, chill. Raum, you owe us an explanation at the very least. If Bel canrelaxlong enough to hear it, I think we would all benefit.”
Ash was right, but that didn’t make this any easier. But if Raum was going to say anything besides threatening or cursing Belial, he needed some space.
He headed over to the couch, dropping into the cushions and setting Luna down beside him. She proceeded to climb right back onto him, curling up like a lap dog when she was so heavy he could already feel his legs going numb. But she’d stopped shaking, so he wasn’t moving her.
Mist stalked across the room to lurk over by the windows like he also needed space from Bel. Meph and Ash turned on the barstools to face the couch, putting Bel at their backs.
The distance made everyone calmer, and after a minute, Raum forced himself to start talking. He started with Sunshine kidnapping him from the nightclub—which Meph found hilarious. Then he explained their contract and what happened in Hell, including Naiamah and the amulets, Murmur busting him, and Sunshine saving his ass. Which Meph also found hilarious.
“Naiamah knew who I was,” Raum said. “She left me this weird message for Bel.”
Bel gave no physical reaction, but the energy around him churned like a brewing storm.
“What’d she say?” Meph asked, oblivious.
“She said he was playing hard to get, and some other creepy shit.”
“What creepy shit?” Meph looked way too excited.
“She called him ‘precious.’ And she said, ‘repression never works.’”
Everyone went silent and tried to look at Bel without making it obvious they were looking at him. Except Meph. Meph burst into laughter. “Precious? Fuckingprecious? Beautiful. That’s absolutely beautiful, I can’t even—”
Ash elbowed him, and he managed to limit his laughter to silent wheezes.
Meanwhile, Belial was now vibrating with tension. It was clear that if he allowed himself to move an inch or speak a word, he was going to lose it, so it was probably wise not to push him. But Raum was dying to ask about Naiamah.
“She knew about your bargain with Murmur,” he said, watching Bel carefully. “She knows you set up a meeting and negotiated a truce.”
“What?” Ash spun around to look at Bel. “How?”
Silence. And a fuckload of tension.
Ash figured it out first. “Holy shit. It’s her, isn’t it? Naiamah is the mysterious contact you’re always reaching out to for favors that you won’t talk about. That’s why she knows. Because you used her to set up the meeting.”
“Oh damn,” Meph said.
