Page 15 of Mystique of the Fallen
“I’m afraid you’ll have to take that up with Fate.”
“Huh?”
“Fate,” Roman repeated with a heavy sigh. “She’s the goddess tasked with pairing people like me who are resurrected by magickind. Due to that sorcery, as soon as a couple meets, a human is no longer able to be romantically or sexually linked with anyone else but their mate.”
Grant laughed. It was a discordant, hollow sound that grated on Roman’s nerves. After waiting for so long to find his other half, Roman had never expected to find himself paired with someone so uninterested in exploring that relationship. Roman had often imagined himself with a fallen knight. Although he would’ve easily adored a sentinel or reaper too.
His job was a difficult one, and Roman had always believed it’d be easiest to be paired with someone also tasked with defending and protecting the Council. Instead, he was with a man whose race worked their hardest to defy and piss off fallen knights daily.
“Why is that funny?” Roman asked.
“You actually believe there is some goddess running around matching people? That’s not how life works, dude. We meet people. Sometimes we want to fuck them. If we want to do that more than once, bam, you get a relationship.”
“You have a boyfriend, right?” Roman inquired. He was proud that he managed the question without gritting his teeth. The last thing he wanted to do was picture the other half of his soul with another man.
“Yeah.”
“You’re only with him because of the sex, then? You have no feelings for him? Your relationship is solely based on getting off?”
Grant was silent for so long Roman pulled the phone away from his face to ensure he hadn’t disconnected. Talking about Grant with another person was distasteful, and Roman was trying to ignore the images his way-too-helpful brain was supplying, but he wasn’t one to hide from reality. They needed to find some common ground, and Roman wanted Grant to understand Fate and their connection.
“I used to love him,” Grant mumbled. “Maybe I still do. I don’t know anymore. Hang on, I gotta get another beer.”
The misery in Grant’s voice twisted Roman in two different directions. On the one hand, he felt for Grant—it didn’t sound as if his relationship was a happy one, and that couldn’t be easy. But Roman was also hurt and furious to know that the man Fate had given him might love another.
Where did that leave Roman?
A loud belch filtered through the line, and Roman shook his head. His life was suddenly so weird. Here he was in the middle of the night, having a peculiar conversation with a stranger. A human. Someone he was supposed to cherish forever. The same man who freely admitted another man held his heart.
Oh, and he thought Roman was a zombie who’d cursed him.
“What was I saying?” Grant asked suddenly.
“You were talking about your boyfriend,” Roman answered dryly.
“Oh. Yeah, Reg can be a real prick sometimes. Tell me how I can stop puking on him.”
“Don’t touch him or let him touch you.”
Grant snorted. “Clearly, you don’t know Reginald.”
The last thing Roman wanted was to know Reginald. “No, I don’t.”
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t know him either.”
“I can’t help you with your problem,” Roman said. It was his duty to care for his mate, but he wasn’t willing to be his therapist and get into all the issues Grant clearly had with Reginald. “If you want to learn more about me, Fate, and my world, I have some information I can send you. Books, pamphlets…that kind of thing. Vampires routinely get human mates, and the adjustment can be problematic. The Vampyr Clutch does everything it can to educate humans, but it’s difficult. Your world doesn’t look kindly upon us.”
“Man, I feel sorry for anyone who gets in bed with a bloodsucker.”
Roman rubbed his forehead and swore that if he could get a headache, he’d have a raging migraine from this conversation. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call them that. They are vampires.”
“I guess all you soulless people have to stick together.”
“If my soul wasn’t tied to a human’s, I’d swear humans lacked them,” Roman muttered.
“You have a soul?”
“Yes.”
