None of her kin had come after her, but they’d been all too ready to fuck with her memories when she’d finally been rescued by someone else.
He’d spent years wondering what crime he’d committed. His mind had gotten away from him and he’d imagined the terrible things he could have done until he felt sick.
But no.
His horrible, terrible crime was that he’d fallen in love.
“Wherever you are in your head, it’s not a good place.” Meph’s words finally filtered through the chaos. “Trust me, I know all about it. Focus on my voice.”
The familiar sound started pulling him back to the present.
“Take deep breaths,” Meph was saying. “In and out.”
Raum blinked several times until he was aware of his chest rising and falling in time with his brother’s words.
Concerned.Mephsounded concerned. It was such a bizarre occurrence that he would have laughed if he’d had any control over his body.
The sound of a soft whimper had him glancing down, and he finally remembered he was still sitting in the kennel with Luna. She was looking up at him with wide, startled eyes, like she was debating fleeing from the sight of him.
Raum noticed she looked further away than before and then glanced down at himself. In his anger, he’d shifted into half demon form. Right in the middle of the kennel.
“Fuck,” he breathed. His shirt had torn in ten places when his wings appeared—now folded awkwardly against the wall behind him—and he’d been digging his claws into his palms so hard, they were bleeding again. He’d just put on a new fucking shirt after the last one was ruined. “Fuck.”
“Tell me you didn’t half shift.”
Raum was too busy taking deep breaths to respond.
“Better shift back now. Haven’t seen your scaly form in a while, but as I recall, it’s pretty fucking ugly.”
Raum managed a snort. “You’re one to talk.”
“Iris says my demon’s cute.”
“Iris is fucked in the head. And so are you.”
Meph just laughed.
It was hard to get the idiot to take anything seriously. Most of the time it was annoying, but at moments like this, Raum appreciated it.
Shifting back to human form, he tore his shredded t-shirt over his head and chucked it across the kennel. The shirt smacked the opposite wall and slid to the floor.
Setting his phone beside him, he hunched forward and put his head in his hands, suddenly so exhausted he wanted to sleep for a hundred years. But he wasn’t doing that until he talked to Sunshine.
“Sorry, Luna,” he muttered, patting her head. “If you’re going to hang with me, you have to get used to some fucked-up shit.”
She lowered her head onto his lap again, her wariness dissipating now that he was back in human form. Honestly, he was surprised she hadn’t run away, but then, she would’ve recognized his scent. She was a tough cookie, he thought affectionately, giving her ears a scratch.
Meph’s voice filtered up from the phone on the floor. “While I’d love to ask for all the juicy details ofthat, I’m going to focus instead on the part where your girl said Heaven’s gonna find us and we should leave the city. Do you know why?”
“No.” Raum picked his phone up again and checked for notifications. Nothing.Where the hell is she?He ran a hand over his skull. “But if she thinks there’s trouble, I’d be inclined to listen.”
“You really trust her then.”
“Yeah.”
“Bel’s going to lose his shit.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
