Page 72 of We All Have A Heaven
“What are you doing?” I sipped my spiked apple cider.
Her spine straightened, and she blinked a few times. “What am I doing?”
“You’re supposed to be with your mother.”
Emma relaxed, rested her cheek against my shoulder, and looped her arm around mine. “I’ve been hanging out with her for a while. Besides, she told me to hang out with you while she cooks. She said you looked a little lonely, sitting in here all by yourself.”
I appreciated Lillian’s kindness. Emma took after her mother, and I couldn’t have been more grateful. I couldn’t imagine my mate being any other way.
“Do you miss them?” Emma asked.
I frowned. “Miss who?”
She pulled away so she could look at me. “Your family.”
I stayed silent and averted my gaze. It’d been so long since I’d given my family any thought. After meeting my mate, I’d been reflecting and thinking about my mother, father, and grandmother much more. I wanted to tell her everything but didn’t know where to begin.
“Sorry,” Emma whispered. She looked away from me, her shoulders slumped, and I could see the guilt written all over her face.
“Look at me, Emma.” I waited until she turned back to me, her cheeks flushing into a bright pink. I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Never apologize for asking me about my past. We’ll just need to be somewhere more private when I tell you.”
She perked up, jumped off the seat, and grabbed my free hand. Like the lovesick demon I was, I allowed her to lead me through the house, up the stairs, and into a yellow room. I immediately knew it was Emma’s old bedroom. It was as bright as she was. Fluffed pillows rested atop the pastel-yellow comforter on the twin-size bed. A desk was tucked against the corner, with paper and books stacked on its otherwise empty surface. I breathed in the stale scent of blood oranges and flowers.
“We can sit on the bed,” Emma said. I looked at her, followed her to the mattress, and sat beside her. “You really don’t have to tell me anything.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That’s the thing, sunshine. Iwantto tell you. I want you to know who I am.”
I’d briefly told her about my family but hadn’t delved into all the details. All she knew—before she lost her memories—was that my mother died giving birth, and my father had passed on years later.
Emma peeled her gaze from me and stared down at her lap as she picked at her cuticles.
“My mother died after she gave birth to me,” I said. “My father showed up and plucked me from my grandmother’s arms. He told me long ago that he would have killed her after all the terrible things she said to him and about me, but something told him to let her live. He raised me until I was ten. During that time, he was firm with me. He taught me many things, like multiple languages and how to control my inner demon. He even taught me how to spar and wield a sword. Then he found his mate.”
Emma sucked in a breath and turned her gaze to me, her green eyes bright like jewels and full of eagerness to know every little detail. “Your mom wasn’t his mate?”
“No,” I said. “She was nothing but a whore to him. Don’t look at me like that, sunshine.” I traced my fingers between her pinched-together eyebrows. “I know very little about my mother and hold no love or fondness for her.”Because all humans are trash,I wanted to add, but I decided to keep that little tidbit to myself.“My father met his human mate and bonded to her. I knew something was wrong with her, though. I saw it in her cold eyes whenever she looked at him. The wretched human woman proclaimed that she loved him, but I knew better. He was madly in love with her, but his affections weren’t returned. I tried warning him about her, but he wouldn’t listen.
“When I turned ten, he sent me to live with my grandmother. I knew it hadn’t been his idea. For years, she treated me worse than an animal. After I had enough, I left her village. Years passed, and when I went to check on my father, I found out demon hunters had slaughtered him. His mate had lured him into a village where they waited and killed him. They somehow figured out how to break the bond between them, because a bonded pair can’t die while their bond is intact. They strung him up on a tree after he died. I saw his carcass with my own eyes.”
I refused to give Emma more details. They’d ripped out his eyes, slit the corners of his mouth to his ears, and carved despicable things into his skin. I looked at Emma. Tears slipped from her eyes and cheeks.
“I killed them all, sunshine. Every. Single. One. I unleashed all of my powers as I hunted down every single human in that village. I even killed my father’s traitorous mate and her offspring from another man. Only a few demon hunters escaped me, and through the years, I hunted them down and refused to stop until my claws were around their necks.”
After I’d killed them all, I still hunted other demon hunters. They killed innocent demons who were living their lives, not bothering anyone. If I hadn’t killed Tyler and his brother, they would have murdered me and Emma because she was my mate.
I swiped away a tear from Emma’s cheek. “That’s so sad,” she whispered. Her voice cracked as she held back from sobbing.
“It is what it is,” I murmured.
I left out the details about my wicked grandmother. Living with her was a hell of its own. I despised humans because of that woman, the people in her village, and my father’s murderers. They’d whipped, shunned, and beaten me up when I was most vulnerable. I could still see my grandmother standing over me with a glare, hatred twisting her aging face. “Filthy creature,” she would say every chance she got, though she only spoke Russian.
The mattress shifted, and I tensed as arms wrapped around me. I blinked out of my thoughts and saw Emma had gotten up from the bed and stood before me so she could hug me. The scent of blood oranges and flowers filled my senses, automatically relaxing me in her hold. I returned the hug with one arm around her since I still held my drink in the other.
Emma turned her head and kissed my neck, her fingers playing in my hair like I was a child she was trying to soothe. “I’m so sorry, Dimitri,” she whispered, leaning back to look at me. Her green eyes shone with tears, and she had a sad smile.
“I didn’t tell you this to make you feel sorry for me.” I clenched my jaw when she winced. Brushing a tendril of hair away from her face, I said, “I don’t want you to feel like you have to apologize for something you didn’t do, sunshine.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip and lowered her gaze. The wheels were spinning in her mind, and she was thinking of something to say. Finally, she raised her head and looked me in the eye. “I know. But I, but I don’t think you’ve ever had someone empathize with you. Maybe it’s why you’ve been cold toward everyone, and when someone shows you they care about you, it scares you.” She gently smiled and stole the air from my lungs. “I care about you. So much that it hurts me when I hear about the things you’ve gone through.”
