“She got summoned and had to go somewhere. Dunno where. But she told me some crazy shit.”
“What?”
There was another painfully long pause. “Man, you really have terrible taste in women. I mean, she’s a knockout, don’t get me wrong. But Bel’s going to need some serious convincing to stop wanting to kill her. You couldn’t have found a cute little witch? Or a vampire chick? Blood drinking can be fun in the bedroom—”
“Meph.”
“What?”
“Shut up.”
“You’re set on her then? I guess you could do worse. She’s definitely into you. Loyal too. Some of the shit she told me…”
“What did she say? For fuck’s sake—”
“I’m gonna let her share that herself. But she gave me a message for you.”
Raum spoke through clenched teeth. “Which was…?” How he’d survived four hundred plus years of knowing Meph without murdering him was suddenly beyond him. Forget being a demon, he had the patience of a goddamn saint.
“She said to tell you that everything you guessed was right, and she was wrong.”
His blood turned to ice in his veins.
“She said the dreams were real. She said she’d find you as soon as she could. Oh, and she said Heaven’s close to finding us, we’re all in danger, and we should leave the city ASAP.”
The dreams were real.He was right.
He’d had his memories of Sunshine stolen.
He sat frozen stiff as the shock set in.
I was fucking right. About all of it.
He and Sunshine had known each other in the past. They’d been lovers. No,in love. There was no mistaking the shit he’d said to her in the dream. That he would live for her, kill for her, die for her.
Fuck, he still felt that way now. Did that mean he was in love?
Had he ever fallen out of love? Had he been in love for the last four and a half centuries and just not known it? Was that what heartbreak felt like? Was that why he’d gone numb? Because it was the only way to go on after what he’d lost?
“Raum?” Meph’s voice echoed from somewhere far away. “You okay?”
He still remembered that haunting grief back when he’d met Meph. It felt like he had a gaping hole in his chest. It hurt so badly, he’d barely been able to breathe. The crushing emptiness, loss… The memory was so visceral, he could still feel it to this day.
And now he knew why. He finally fucking knew.
Fucking angels had stolen his mind and his love. They’d torn the heart from his chest and left him an empty shell.
No wonder he’d been fucked up. No wonder he’d shut down. No wonder he hadn’t given a shit about anything. It was pure chance he’d found Meph and ended up doing something halfway decent with his life. In his grief, he’d have been liable to go on a murder spree.
Then again, he was still liable to do that now.
I will kill the angels that did this.
He’d crush their skulls and tear out their hearts, and he’d do it again every time they regenerated, forcing them to experience a fraction of the violation he felt knowing what they’d done to him.
“Dude, I canhearyou losing your shit. Don’t pull a Bel and go to rage town, yeah?”
And that wasn’t even starting on what Sunshine had suffered in Hell. Raum could have been there to rescue her if he’d fuckingrememberedher. But his memories had been stolen, and he’d had no clue she’d been alone, in agony.
