31 PAINT THE TOWN RED
PAINT THE TOWN RED
R AUM REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE SOUND OF muttering, ominous thudding, and … squelching? Eyes closed, he frowned, trying to make sense of his surroundings.
“Make sure the pieces are tiny … Can’t risk regeneration …”
He was lying on his back, and his body felt … pretty damn good, all things considered. He’d broken through an Empyrean sigil, liquified his insides, and then melted his hands off with a consecrated weapon.
But he was fine besides a faint headache and a bone-deep weariness that made him want to sink into a dreamless sleep for a good twelve hours.
Sunshine. He needed to make sure she was okay. He forced his eyes open.
Above, he saw a rotted ceiling with water stains and exposed pipes. He turned his head, and … his eyes shot wide.
Sunshine was there, moving quickly and muttering to herself. She appeared to have healed—her wings were straight again, and she moved without the sluggishness of pain. But that wasn’t what made him stare in shock.
She wielded Raphael’s sword … and was in the process of cutting him into pieces.
Tiny little pieces.
It was like something out of a slasher movie.
Sunshine’s white angel robes were spattered with blood and gore, and Raphael looked like a slab of meat at a butcher, his head, arms, legs, and torso all severed.
As Raum watched, Sunshine lifted the sword above her head and brought it down hard, cleaving another chunk of mutilated flesh.
Raum jerked upright, ignoring his pounding head. He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing, and it took another moment of staring for it to sink in.
“Sunshine?”
She stopped and turned around. Her eyes were wide, a little too wide, and she offered him a slightly crazed smile. “Oh good, you’re awake. Just rest while I finish up here.”
Like hell. Raum climbed to his feet, waited until he was steady, and then placed himself between her and Raphael’s … parts. “What are you doing?” He wanted to shout, but he kept his tone carefully level.
“I have to kill him.” She leaned around him as though impatient to get back to her slaughter. “It’s not safe otherwise. There’s no choice.”
“But … why are you cutting him up?”
“He’ll regenerate. He’s already regenerating. He’s too powerful. I need time to draw the heavenfire sigil. It can take hours to properly incinerate a body, and it’s been a long time since I’ve drawn one, and I—”
“Sunshine.”
“—can’t quite remember how to do it. I need more time. There isn’t enough—”
“Sunshine.” Stepping closer, he gently grasped her wrist. “Drop the sword.”
“I need it! There’s no time—”
Gripping her shoulders, he turned her to face him. “Sunshine, look at me.”
Her gaze was fixed on the blade she still hadn’t dropped, so he grasped her chin and lifted her head until their eyes met. She seemed to freeze in place, and finally, he caught a glimpse of the fear in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’re okay.”
“I have to hurry … He’s going to regenerate—”
“You chopped him into a thousand pieces. It’ll take him days to come back from that. He’s not going anywhere.”
“He almost—He would have—” She swallowed. “He was going to kill you.”
“He didn’t. I’m fine, thanks to you. You even healed my hands.”
“He was going to kill you and Eva, and I would have had to watch, and—”
“He didn’t. Look at me. I’m here, and he’s … not. It’s okay.” He didn’t mention Eva’s absence but could only assume she’d left to get backup after he’d busted her out of the trap.
He pulled Sunshine against him and wrapped his arms and wings around her. Finally, finally, she let the sword drop from her grip, the metal clanging as it hit the ground by their feet. Only when he held her close could he feel the subtle trembling in her body.
“He took everything from me,” she whispered. “From us.”
“I know.”
“It’s my fault. You told me he was cruel, and I didn’t believe you. I thought I could reason with him. I thought—”
“It’s not your fault. He’s fucked in the head.”
“He deserves to die. I want to make him pay. I …” She swallowed. “I want to kill him.”
Raum did too. As far as he was concerned, the world would be a better place without Raphael in it. The guy was deranged, and deranged people in positions of power did fucked-up things.
But … he didn’t want to kill him like this.
It was stupid, and he could imagine the ass kicking his brothers would give him if they found out, but he didn’t want Sunshine to go down that path. Raphael used to be her friend and someone she looked up to. Even if he’d shattered that illusion, it would still affect her to kill him in cold blood.
When they’d argued before, Raum had thought her naive, but he realized now that wasn’t true. Humankind would be better off if they saw the world through Sunshine’s compassionate eyes.
And if she didn’t look for the best in others, she never would’ve ended up with him in the first place. He didn’t need memories to know he’d been a piece of shit back when they first got together. But she’d stuck it out because she believed in people, and she had changed him.
Yeah, he’d always be a cynical bastard, but he would also always protect her. And protecting her meant protecting that empathetic part of her. He might never understand it, but he didn’t want her to lose it.
“He’s not worth it,” Raum found himself saying. “He’s not worth wasting any more energy and emotion over.”
“He’ll come back. He won’t stop hunting us. He’ll never stop.”
“I didn’t say we’re going to let him go. I just said you shouldn’t kill him.”
Sunshine pulled back, and he relaxed his hold, sensing she was more in control of herself. The blood spatter on her face said otherwise, but he didn’t care about that. He was nearly just as blood-soaked—his freshly healed hands were the only clean part of him.
“What are you suggesting?” she asked.
But he suddenly wasn’t paying attention to the conversation anymore. He took in the sparkle in her eyes, the fullness of her lips, the arch of her proud nose, and a surge of possessiveness struck him square in the chest.
He’d burn the world down for her, and he wouldn’t give a single fuck.
He pulled her close again and stroked his claws over her messy braid. Flaring out his wings, he wrapped them around her as much as he could, his black feathers covering her white ones.
“Raum,” she whispered, blinking those big gorgeous eyes up at him.
He looked into them and finally just said it.
“I love you.”
Her eyes flared. Her mouth opened but no words came out.
“I’ve probably been in love with you for the last four hundred years,” he said, “even if I couldn’t remember.”
She stared mutely at him, and he started to get a little uncomfortable.
“Sorry if that’s too much,” he mumbled, his gaze sliding away. “Just wanted to be honest.”
But when he chanced a glance back at her, she was giving him a look of wonder that simultaneously made him feel like the most powerful man alive and an idiot.
Powerful, because who wouldn’t feel that way with a woman like her looking at them like that?
Stupid, because he didn’t get why she was so impressed with him.
And then she said, “I love you too.” And it was his turn to stare.
She reached up and placed her palm on his scaled cheek. “I think I fell in love the first moment I saw you in that club with Daniel. I couldn’t stop staring at you, glaring at everyone with your beautiful eyes.”
“So you stalked me for weeks.” The hint of a smile curved his lips.
“Yes.” She looked sad again. “And then lied and forced you into the middle of this horrible mess. All of this happened because of me.”
“Most fun I’ve had in years.”
“You could have been killed—”
“It was worth it to get close to you.”
“Raum—”
“I’d do it again. I’d do worse. I’d have another three hundred years of memory wiped.”
“How can you—Don’t even say that!”
“It’s true.”
She was staring at him in amazement again, but this time, he decided he liked it.
Sunshine reached up and wound her arms around Raum’s neck, pulling him down to meet her lips. As she kissed him, it struck her how close she’d come to losing him. Again.
Suddenly, she didn’t care about the half-dead angel in pieces behind them.
She didn’t care that her robes were covered in the blood of someone she’d once considered a friend.
She didn’t care that her actions today meant she would now be on the run the same way Raum and his brothers were.
She didn’t care that her entire future was uncertain.
She only cared about him—her demon, the only one who’d ever truly been on her side. Even when they’d been enemies, he’d been more honest and upfront with her than anyone else. She wasn’t sure she could ever express her gratitude to him just for being himself.
“I need you,” she whispered against his lips as she wrapped her arms as far around his broad shoulders as she could, stroking the silky feathers of his wings.
“You have me.” He gripped her hips suddenly and pulled her tighter against him. As their bodies pressed together, she felt the unmistakable ridge of his arousal against her stomach.
Every nerve lit up. The blood, the aftermath, the knowing that they’d been kept apart for so long, that they’d nearly lost each other again … It only inflamed her more.
She rose onto her toes, eager to reach more of him. She wanted to meld them so closely together, they fused as one.
He slid his grip to her ass and his fingers clenched, claws digging into her flesh. And then he lifted her like she was weightless. She wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck. They were both filthy, but she didn’t care and neither did he.
He groaned as she rolled her hips against him, craving friction through the clothing that separated their bodies. She could feel the hard strength of his abdomen through the fabric of her robe.
“Sunshine—”
“I need you now.” Her voice was a breathless pant. “Don’t make me wait.”