Page 127 of Bent Out of Shade
Then I vowed to never let Emmett or Laurent hear it.
“I’m woven from your memories because my true brilliance would knock you flat on your ass,” she said. “Worse than the time you mixed all the booze in my cabinet together into a shit mix after Darren what’s-his-face dumped you.”
“Oh, good,” I said faintly. “You have access to all my memories.”
Dumah-Goldie sniffed the air. “You should get some scented candles in here. They really freshen up a place.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, massaging my temples. The angel looked and sounded like Goldie, but I couldn’t get past the sense of something primal and ancient peeking out at me, even while chatting candles.
“I have a fabulouso collection of them,” she said.
“Does Gehenna have direct shipping or do you use a post office box?” Were these words actually coming out of my mouth? Yes, yes they were.
Dumah-Goldie wagged a finger at me, still not entering my living room. “Don’t be ridiculous. Dybbuk-possessed hosts like to give me offerings so I don’t blow my trumpet and drive them out of their new body.”
I jumped to my feet. “You could do that?”
She shrugged. “No clue. Never tried.”
My headache worsened. That right there was why I didn’t want to meet with any angel. I missed what the angel said next. “Sorry, what?”
“I said that next to candles, my favorite offerings are hard lemon candies.” She looked around hopefully. “You wouldn’t happen to have any?”
“No.” I rocked back on my heels.
“Too bad. Oh well, we have a lot to talk about.”
“Do I have a choice in this chat or will you compel me into becoming another hyped-up puppet?”
Dumah-Goldie placed her hands on her hips. “It takes a lot of effort to catch a human’s attention from my home base. Sometimes, I may go overboard in my hold and the humans get…excitable.”
“Excitable? You practically break their brains.”
“Is that really important in light of everything else?” She held out a hand. “Come on.”
“Where to?”
She shot me a look like my low intelligence was exactly what she expected, but she’d do her best to work with it. “Gehenna.”
* * *
