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Because it was trying to lead me right to her.
The woman holding a pair of scissors, ready to cut her end of it, to sever her ties to me.
Hell, I couldn’t even fucking blame her.
See, the other women, save for Ace’s woman Josephine, had known about us, about what we were. So the shock hadn’t been two-fold.
Charlotte, from what I could gather, didn’t even believe in demons. Didn’t believe in Heaven or Hell or Lucifer or God either.
So this whole thing had to be fucking life-shaking for her. Mind-breaking.
Even the thought of that, of her in any sort of pain, sent another wave of pain through me.
“He didn’t realize what was going on,” Minos added. “She was his first human woman.”
“We should have a sit-down and explain the details or some shit, before Aram, Seven, and Daemon end up scaring the shit out of some random human woman.”
That, at least, was a topic that might momentarily distract me from the world of pain coursing through my body.
“Have you had any luck tracking my brother down?” I asked.
I didn’t like the dark look that crossed Ace’s face right then.
“Aram went to Sanctuary and asked around. They said he was there a week or so ago, but no one has seen him since.”
Things were sounding worse and worse for him.
“Has Dale heard anything?” I asked, knowing she and her demonslayer friends had a lot of connections.
“No. Nothing. I was considering sending someone over to talk to Arick’s to see if he can help out at all. He’s probably fucking swamped with all of his rich clients wanting to know what is going on with the world, but he can usually squeeze some time in for us when we need it.”
“I’ll do it,” I offered.
My reasons for volunteering were two-fold.
One, I genuinely did want to find out where Daemon was, what was going on with him, if he was alright.
But, two, I figured Arick would be the one to ask if there was anything I could do about this Claiming. Or, at least, dull the pain of it.
Even as I thought that, I noticed my hand was rubbing across my chest, like there was any way to ease the ache deep inside.
“You just got back from one job,” Ace said. “When did you become such a go-getter?”
“I could use the distraction. And he’s my brother,” I reasoned.
“I sense ulterior motivations,” Ace said. “But I can’t bring myself to give a fuck. After you’re done drowning in that bottle, it would be good for all of us to know what you learned from the professor. Assuming you actually did any research between the fucking,” he said as he made his way out of the room.
“That was actually very easy going for him,” Minos said, nodding at our leader’s retreating form. “He lost his shit on some of us about the Claiming. I guess since you’re the fourth one of us to have it happen, he’s gotten a little jaded.”
“What did you do to cope with this?” I asked, wishing that the liquor could make me forget like it did for the humans. Or, if not forget, dull the pain for just a little while.
“I don’t know,” Minos admitted, eyes going dark. “Especially those first few days, I don’t fucking know. I don’t think I got out of bed. I swear I spent all that time trying to figure out if there was a way for us to off ourselves after all, because I’d have done it in a heartbeat if it meant that the pain would stop.”
It was hardly a pep talk, but I appreciated his honesty.
“I figure keeping busy might be a good method, though,” he said, shrugging. “It just wasn’t my path,” he added.
With that, he was gone, leaving me to my misery as I realized I was the only one of us who was doomed to this agony forever.
