“So, your kindcandie,” Raptor reasoned. He crossed his arms and cocked his head. It would be strange not to see him every day. This would be his last week in Iowa before he left for Texas—this time for good. I’d been considering going with him. At least, I had until today’s little surprise.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that. I’m sure my original ‘people,’ for lack of a better word, are still in existence. The difference between us is that I’m lingering in an indefinite hell on earth. I’m not saying I don’t deserve it, though.” I dropped my head.
“Continue,” Venom prompted as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
“I was a eudaemon,” I finally explained.
“A what-a-what?” Chains asked in confusion, but I saw several brothers perk up, and it was obvious they knew the legends or something about it.
“Depending on your beliefs, a good spirit, a Watcher, a demigod, or to most people, it would be the equivalent of a guardian angel. I pledged to and answered directly to Ares—we were the Warrior Order of the Eudaemons,” I muttered. The shame I carried with me surged to the surface and I practically choked.
“Whoa,” Squirrel drawled out as he appeared shell-shocked.
“And my guess is, you failed your charge?” Ghost asked as he cocked his head in interest.
“You could say that,” I hedged.
“People have free will. They make mistakes. You can’t control their actions. If you were sentenced to eternity on earth without hope of death, my guess is, you fucked up,” Blade inserted with a smirk. Leave it to him to be brutally honest and cut to the chase.
“Yes.”
Venom was the next to pose a question. “This girl Santiago dropped off—how does she play into all of this?” he asked, though I was pretty sure he already had a general idea. His always calculating gaze raked over my features, watching for tells that I was lying or hiding something. What he didn’t realize was that I had become more than adept at concealing my emotions over the years. I had the ultimate poker face.
Deciding that if I was all in with my brothers, I owed them the full truth. I inhaled deeply and let it out in a shuddering exhale.
“My charge was Estiene—Soleil’s older brother. I’m sure you can guess most of it, but yeah, I fucked up. I left Estiene unattended to be with Soleil.” The story wasn’t as cut-and-dried as that, but I wasn’t going to go into the details of how I watched Soleil every time she was with her brother and fell in love with her. In fact, the first time I saw her, I knew we were destined for each other. I refused to accept that our souls wouldn’t be allowed to be together because of my position. That arrogance had been my downfall.
“Let me see if I have this right. You were getting it on with sis and big bro got the ax, so the big guy ripped off your wings and tossed you to earth. Kinda like a bully ripping the wings off butterflies.” Blade had the gist of the situation, though a bit of a simplified version.
“Pretty much,” I agreed not wanting to get into the intricacies of my previous existence and our hierarchy.
“‘The eudaemons in Greek mythology were deified heroes,’” Facet read from his laptop. “Sabre here was a legit hero. Holy shit,” he murmured, then continued reading. “‘They were the good daemons and were understood to be guardian spirits. They bestowed protection and guidance to the ones they watched over.’”
“Where the fuck are you finding that shit?” Blade asked Facet, looking over to see the screen. Facet cocked a brow and tilted his screen down to block it.
“That was a quick search on Wikipedia. But some of the places I have access to have more detailed information. I have my sources,” Facet explained matter-of-factly.
“Of course you do,” Blade retorted with a roll of his eyes. “You and your dark web shit.”
“Hey, that dark web shit pays our bills and lets us enjoy the lives we’ve become accustomed to living, all while ridding the world of scum,” Facet shot back with a shrug before pushing his dark hair out of his face. Looking at him, you’d never guess the guy was a computer geek.
“Some would say we’re scum.” Blade smirked.
Facet narrowed his gaze and flipped Blade off.
“This is all fine and dandy, but why do you think she’s here after all this time? That is, if she’s truly the same person. And then there’s the fact that she has zero memory of anything prior to being abducted. Doesn’t that seem a little odd?” Raptor mused.
“Are you saying you don’t trust her?” Venom met Raptor’s contemplative frown with one of his own.
“I’m not necessarily saying that. I’m only saying it seems a little too convenient,” Raptor added when I started to bristle.
Chains thrummed on the table as he stared at the surface. Then his dark gaze lifted and locked on mine. “I could try to read her.”
I was stunned. That wasn’t something he liked doing. Imagine getting slammed with a person’s entire history each time you touched them. Then having to sift through that to look for something that might be helpful.
“I’ve been working on controlling what I see and keeping it compartmentalized. It’s hit or miss, but I’m getting better,” he clarified, but the hard swallow that followed told me he was doing this as a favor, not because he really wanted to. That did something to me—the warmth in my chest spread.
“You sure?” Venom asked Chains with a knitted brow.