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He’s never told anyone about what happened, his deepest wound. To his surprise, he’s not as horrified at the prospect of telling Paimon as he thought he’d be. For so long, he worried about being seen as silly and weak. He doubted that his own father would’ve sulked and been consumed by bitterness.
“My darling vampire, we have an eternity. Surely, it’s not too long for that.”
Darling. What a word.
Chapter 4
Lauren?iu
Lauren?iu stares into the purple fire, which splits apart white, bleeding bark with mouths contorted in screams. The wood oozes with blood. Before, his king has assured him that this wood from the Seventh Circle no longer has souls inside it. “I never thought I’d be here.”
“Hell?” asks Paimon.
“The Ninth Circle. I’m not a traitor.”
Paimon rubs his chin thoughtfully. “The Circle of Wrath. Fun place. The Minotaur is a sore loser when it comes to checkers, but. You may have noticed that there aren’t many vampires in Hell. Many avoid peril, and there are more vampires than hunters.”
“I was betrayed.”
“By whom?”
“A friend.”
Paimon presses, “The way your voice fell on that word. A boyfriend?”
The King of Hell always sees too much.
“It was complicated.”
Paimon preens. “I knew it.”
Oh, he doesn’t have to be so smug about it.
Lauren?iu huffs. “We tried to keep it casual. We were friends. Roommates. We knew each other since elementary school, and he was always smiling, always the bright, positive one. We were exploring. I was still unsure about myself, who I was.”
“A situationship where romantic feelings developed. A tale as old as time.”
“Have you ever had this happen?”
Paimon drapes himself on one armrest, pressing a finger into his own cheek. Who is he thinking about, Lucifer? “We angels, well, when we were in Heaven, we loved, but we never exactly put titles or had all these rules and labels. We don’t really think about whether we’re friends with benefits, or lovers, or something entirely different. Something that transcends. It’s...”
“‘Complicated’?” Wry.
“It is.”
Lauren?iu arches a brow. “Is that a yes to my previous question?”
The demon king taps his lips before resting his arms again. “Hm. Not quite sure.” He starts eating again.
“He turned me into this. Almost killed me. I didn’t understand what was happening. He left...” Lauren?iu stops and composes himself when he realizes his hands are shaking.
He wills his voice not to tremble.
Paimon pauses, setting down the plump grape he was going to eat.
“He—Anthony, he left me there, but he called the hospital. I stayed institutionalized for years. They didn’t know what to do with me. I suspect now that some of the people who came to check on me, the ‘outside specialists,’ knew what I was, and they kept me there in a straitjacket, surrounded by silver trays and IV racks—everything was silver. Even the inside of the doorknobs. If it hadn’t been at the start, they replaced it. And even garlic—like Saint Andrei said to do, they hung braids of garlic everywhere.”
Paimon cocks his head. “That’s a Romanian thing, isn’t it? To keep Dracula away.”
