Page 131 of Tortured Soul
Carter made another noncommittal throaty sound and Arc’s lips pinched in a thin line.
“What about I tell you something about my past you don’t know?” Arc’s hands were crossed under his chin as he looked at me. “Carter and you could do the same.”
My past was a damn mess; there were so many things I could but didn’t want to tell, I struggled thinking of something specific.
I could tell them about that Archdemon who fought tooth and nail to have me in his tie group but then decided not to bother with me after all when he noticed I wasn’t an asset but rather a thorn in his side. About how he sent my contract back to Hell for Lucifer to deal with rather than wait for another Archdemon to request me.
I could tell them about that priest in England who took a liking to me and locked me up in a dungeon with other girls and boys he already abducted and abused on a daily basis, and the bloody events that followed when Dimitri found out.
Or, the story of how I almost became a Queen when I caught the eye of a King and, after taking me as his mistress for two years, got so obsessed he killed his wife for me to take her place. Dimitri had helped me escape before it could happen as my Archdemon of that time was way too happy to have a foothold into court.
“I guess I’ll start, then,” Arc said, after a too-long silence. “I was born in 523, in Nicopolis, Greece.”
That made me pause. Hewasold. Not as old as me, but ancient nonetheless, born only a few years after I sold my soul.
“The city's in ruins now,” he continued. “I was never even held by my parents. From the moment I was born, it was the warlock who oversaw my mother’s childbirth that took me in and looked after me, and since I grew really fast, I never saw him as a father figure but more like a brother. When he—died, about two hundred years after I was born, it took me a long time to get over it.”
Carter’s eyes drifted between Arc and the table in front of him. He obviously knew that story, but the tight set of his jaw and the crease in his brow showed that it still affected him.
“I spent most of my first five centuries running away from Divines and Hellrisers alike.” Arc’s eyes were dull and lost on his plate. “Bothsides saw me as an abomination, something that shouldn’t exist and never have been born. But, for some reason, they never managed to catch me.”
He shrugged, lifting his head to meet my gaze. I’d had a rough life, but hearing even this small information about his past made me realize that it could have been way worse. At least I hadn’t been relentlessly hunted.
Well, if we forget about Amyntas, who did search for me like a mad man for a couple of years.
These details about Arc’s life might have been only snippets of information, but I understood why he struggled to give his trust.
Still not a reason to plant a tracking chip on someone without their consent, but still. I can be reasonable.
“Carter?” Arc said, turning toward his grunting friend. “Care to share something with Lola?”
He mumbled something that sounded like “Not really,” but sighed and rolled his eyes at Arc’s piercing stare. “Fine.”
The angel finally decided that he was done playing around with his food and dropped his fork in his plate with a loud clatter as he leaned back in his chair.
“I fell in the 1960’s in Italy. I spent about a decade confused and on my own before I met Arc during the lovely summer of 1975. I was unlucky enough to have met him during a time where his demon was wholly in control and he was fucking and fighting his way to every yacht party in Sicily. When we first saw each other, it took about two minutes for us to realize that we had some sort of mind link connecting us, and maybe three more minutes for me to decide that I didnotwant to have those types of images in my mind twenty-four seven.
“But, no matter how much I pestered him to stop and get control over himself, he did inflict me another two years of that madness before he finally begged me to stop him and help him get on track.”
Arc chuckled. “I never forced you to follow me around during those two years. You could have just fucked off and lived your life far away, without having to see anything that happened in my mind and through my eyes.”
“I liked Sicily,” Carter countered. “I made my home there, and I didn’t want to be the one to move.”
“Yeah, right.” Arc rolled his eyes, casting me a cheeky grin. “He’ll never admit it, but he just enjoys my company.”
“I mightnow, I didn’t then,” Carter grumbled. “It was like having porn in my head all the time, only interrupted by the occasional brutal fist fight.”
Arc leaned forward, inching me closer with a motion of his finger.
“He’s conveniently omitting to mention the circumstances ofhowwe met,” Arc said as Carter muttered a series of colorful curses and threw his head back in exaggerated despair. “Hewas being attacked by a group of demons on the beach. Our Divine friend here being all mighty and powerful managed to stand his ground, but higher demons being Immortal and all…they kept attacking, and attacking, until somehow, they successfully restrained him. When I showed up, he was being dragged away by his feet, eating the fucking sand.”
I couldn’t hold a chuckle from breaching free as I looked over at Carter. He, on the other hand, looked like he’d rather be anywhere else than hearing the story again, probably since it was being told to me. It was good to know that I wasn’t the only demon to have handed his ass to him.
“Anyway, at that time, I was a bit of a trigger happy hot head,” Arc continued. “I made them all burst into nothingness and made sure Carter was fine. When our eyes met, something happened, and I could see myself in his eyes. I ran off to avoid the issue after making sure he wouldn’t blab about my powers.”
“Arc was scared.” Carter was too happy about that bit of information. “He realized that I had an open channel straight to his mind, and didnotwant to deal with that.”
“Can you blame me?” Arc asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back to mimic Carter’s position on his chair. “I spent two years dedicating my free time to research what the Hell was happening. Turns out, when a higher angel falls, he can connect his soul to another to become its fucking Guardian.”
