“If she regains her memories, do you think she would do the smart thing and lie low?” he asked Lauren, looking up.
She perched on the edge of his empty desk with a wry expression. “You know it’s impossible for her to gain her memories back.”
“It might not be,” he argued. “As myAeternum, she isSeraphimblessed.”
His head rested in his hands as he mulled over every plausible scenario. Eventually, he came to a decision and prayed it was the right one. “I’ll try to jog her memory in the soulscapes, and in the meantime, I will ask Kit to add memory recovery to her research list.”
If looks could call you an idiot, Caius would be thoroughly offended by Lauren’s. “First, you demand I tell her nothing,” she recounted acrimoniously. “Now, you want to tell her in the soulscape to bring her memories back? You’re giving me whiplash.”
He was mentally exhausted. “Have you never battled internally? Thought you did the right thing, stuck to your decision, then realized you might be wrong?”
“I’m always right,” she quipped and jumped off the desk. “I need to show Lenora and Rory’s friends something, and when I return, you can tell me your thought process. We’ll work it out.”
“Can you bring Lenora here when you’re done?” he asked before adding, “Why do you need to see her?”
Lauren pulled her phone from her pocket, laughing. “I scared Rory and recorded it.”
“There’s no service here,” he reminded her. He’d never owned a cell phone because there was no service in Vincula. What would be the point?
“It doesn’t need service to play a recorded video.” She pointed at the small device and pushed a button. “It only needs to power on.”
There was enough of his essence in his office to power up the small phone, and once the display was illuminated, he held his hand out. “You weren’t going to show me?” he asked, masking his hurt.
Lauren placed the phone in his hand but shook her head. “You see her every night.”
He pushed a button, and the screen went off. Pressing it again did nothing, and he frowned, flipping it over in search of another button. There were different ones on the sides and one on the front.
No matter what button he pushed, nothing happened. “I think it’s broken.”
Lauren was quiet, and when he looked up, her face was split with the biggest shit-eating grin he’d ever seen. “You shut it down. Hold down the button on the bottom for three seconds to power it back on.”
He followed her instructions, and once the screen lit up, he looked at her expectantly.
“Tap the icon that looks like a painting.”
While searching the screen, he kept tapping on different things by accident. “Why do you have so many files on here?”
She snickered, and he ignored her as he continued to look for the painting. He pushed another button, and his face filled the screen, startling him. Lauren roared with laughter.
“Forget it,” he muttered and dropped the phone on his desk.
TheAngelgrabbed it, tapped on the screen a few times, and handed it back. It was a movie showing the front of a log cabin, a blur, and then Rory jumping back with a silent scream. The video stopped, and his heart pounded against his ribs as he played it again, smiling at the glare she shot the camera.
She transfixed him with every replay, and he wanted to watch her forever.
“Can Lenora record Rory a message to let her know she’s okay?” Lauren asked, taking her phone back. “Rory will want to send her one, too. I know it’s against the rules, but she needs this.”
Any form of exchange between an inmate and the outside world was expressly forbidden by theSeraphim.
Caius couldn’t care less about theSeraphimand their rules if he tried. If they wanted his loyalty, they should have sent Gedeon to hell when he killed his own sister. “Can you get me one?”
Lauren quirked a brow. “You two talk regularly. Why would you need one?”
It took him a minute to register her meaning. “Not a personalized video. A phone.”
She rubbed her hand across her mouth to hide a smile. “Why do you want a phone when you can’t use it here?”
“I want to look at her whenever I please,” he answered honestly. “Take as many pictures of her as those things will hold and as many videos as you can record.” One day, it might be all he had of her.
