“Do you guys only feed from each other? I mean … I don’t see how else you can hide what you do.”
“It’s not difficult, because descendants can heal minor injuries. Then we remove the memory afterward.”
“Wait, all descendants can go patrolling around people’s heads the way you do?”
“No. They can only remove a very recent memory— nothing more.”
She trailed a finger down his chest. “But you can do more than remove a recent memory. Much more.”
“My psychic abilities are stronger than that of the other descendants. Probably due to my archangelic blood.” It was strange speaking of all these things he usually held inside, but it didn’t feel uncomfortable. He knew he could trust her. No one had ever been solely his before, but Raini was.
“So archangels are super strong in a psychic sense?”
“That is what I’ve heard. I’ve only ever met one. He recently fell, and he isn’t very forthcoming about what he is. I do know he has to drink blood, so it’s not just fallen angels that are cursed with it.”
Sighing, she shook her head. “I had no idea that happened to the Fallen.”
“Most don’t.” Maddox brushed his thumb over the small, glistening mark his demon had left beneath the hollow of her ear. The line at the center of the infinity symbol had very small wings. He’d gotten a good look at his own mark, so he knew an R sat within the first loop of the symbol.
“The masters of the upper realm don’t like it when angels fall,” he went on. “This is their punishment. Personally, I think it’s mostly supposed to serve as a deterrent to those who might consider falling. It probably works in most cases—who wants to survive on blood? Others, for whatever reason, are prepared to live that way.”
“How often do they have to feed?”
“Weekly. My kind doesn’t. We don’t have the same appetite. It’s in us, but it doesn’t rule us. It’s more like a … side-effect of whatever angelic genes are locked into descendant DNA.”
She shook her head as she said, “I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me that the reason your kind is so insular is that you have things to hide. I, like others, just assumed you didn’t hold other breeds in high esteem.”
“We don’t, because the majority of them treat us as less. We’re not all so inclusive, though. There are even some descendants who choose other breeds as mates. In those instances, they either stick to the common practice of hiding their curse from their partners, or they make the decision to trust said partners with their secret. But they know their lair will kill their mate should that person betray their confidence, so they don’t trust lightly.”
“And since no one really wants to take a mate who they’ll need to either lie to or be prepared to one day let their lair kill, they commonly choose to mate with another descendant.” Raini understood, hiding the compassion she couldn’t help but feel— no alpha male reacted well to someone feeling bad for them, which she thought was plain dumb, but whatever. “I guess it helps that your anchors, until now, were only ever descendants. Why do you think that is?”
“We’ve always assumed it’s because the other breeds of demon don’t possess angelic blood like we do.”
“Makes sense. Do you wonder if more of your kind will soon have other breeds of demon as their anchors?”
“We’ve all wondered that ever since I found you. In most cases, having a psi-mate stabilizes us enough to stop a haze from taking us.”
Raini blinked. “Really?”
“Yes. It’s why each of us long to find our anchor. It’s our one hope of being spared that nightmare. But as fate gave me you, my demons are now fearing that if their anchor turns out to be another breed, they may have to forsake them.”
Her heart squeezed. “God, no wonder they’re having such trouble accepting me. It’s not just about an outsider knowing their secrets. Accepting me means accepting that their futures regarding their psi-mates are in flux, and many of them may actually never have the one thing that could spare them the hazes.” Hell.
“Some, like me, have never had to endure one, but that doesn’t mean they never will.” Maddox ghosted his fingertips along her collarbone. “How many of your lair know of your ability to wield psychic hellfire?”
Rolling with the abrupt change of subject, she replied, “Not many. My parents, my sister, my girls, my dad’s brothers, Jolene, and Khloë’s brother.”
“Why do you feel you can’t trust more of them with your secret? They’re your lair members. Surely it wouldn’t make them hesitate to accept you.”
“It’s because of what happened with one of our old lair members, Doyle.” Raini gave Maddox the entire story, finding it surprisingly easy to confide in him. The bond was much more intense than she’d thought it would be, but not invasive to the point where they could feel each other’s emotions; she liked that. “Maybe people wouldn’t react badly to hearing what I can do. But if they did, they’d want me gone.” Her family would leave with her, but not before her father and uncle leveled a few blocks with their idea of “household chemical warfare.”