“You should have seen it—theslaughter.The Romanslovedfeeding Christians to lions, among other things. I just… helped things along.”
“Oh yeah? How so?”
“Well, Rome was under constant threat of invasion. I made several deals with emperors to keep them in power over the centuries. In return, they needed to promise to kill as many of Yahweh’s people as possible to keep me satisfied.”
I nodded, and Shemhazai continued.
“To keep up my end of the bargain, I made a deal with Ares. He would bless the Roman armies with the edge they needed to keep the barbarians and any other external threats at bay. Honestly, he was pretty generous with the mojo. Rome kind of exploded and took over for a while, thanks to my deal with him.”
“So far, everything sounds like it was going pretty well,” I observed dryly as Shem finally seemed to find what he had been looking for. He held up a large ornate glass bottle. It was tinted blue and was covered in thin gold veining. The liquid inside looked thick and viscous. Shem’s eyes caughtfireas he admired the bottle, the grin on his face spreading so wide the corners of his mouth nearly touched his ears.
“Yeah, until Diocletian,” Shem said, turning to lean against the counter, his fancy blue bottle dangling from his long, elegant fingers.
“Who’s that?” I sighed, pinching my nose. “I wasn’t created until after the fall of Rome, Shemhazai, I’m not exactly up to date on my Roman Emperors.”
Shemhazai chuckled and nodded. “Well, up until Diocletian, I definitely had a good time in Rome. The gladiator games were always a great time, and as I said, most of the emperors were not super down with Christianity, so my need for revenge was more or lessmet. But Diocletian…man,he was something special. Hehatedthe Christians, maybe even more than I did.” Shem was smiling to himself, looking almost teary-eyed at the memory.
“So what happened?”
Shem’s gaze slammed into mine, and suddenly, he wasn’t smiling anymore.
“Hecate happened. She’d heard about the games and came to watch on a day that Ares was also visiting,” Shem growled, and his fingers tightened on his fancy bottle.
“So… what?”
“Ares immediately became obsessed with Hecate, and when she turned him down, he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
I cocked my head to the side, my mouth twitching at the hypocrisy. Shemhazai was known for his inability to accept the wordno.But, as usual, the irony was lost on him.
Shemhazai often gave himself permission to do things but condemned others for behaving the same way. It was both infuriating and fascinating to me.
“So you interfered? Are you in love with her, then?” I dared to ask, and Shemhazai immediately met my gaze, a smug smile curling on his lips.
“Would it bother you if I was, little bird?” he purred.
I didn’t allow my face to show any emotion. That was what he wanted. Instead, I shrugged.
“I will love whoever you love, Shemhazai.”
He watched me for a long moment, and I couldn’t read the expression on his face. It was complex, whatever he was feeling. Finally, the tension bled out of him, and he shook his head.
“I have a great deal of love for Hecate, and I’ve always wanted to fuck her. But no. I’m notinlove with her. I don’t think I’ve ever beeninlove with anyone.”
I frowned. “Not even Lilith?”
Shem shook his head. “I thought I was in love with her when I first met her, but… If beingin lovewith someone is what she and Ramel share, then I’ve never truly been in love. Don’t get me wrong, I adore every hair on that little Hell Queen’s head, but… I don’t feel the need topossessher and own her the way Ram does. She could fuck anyone she wants, and itwouldn’t bother me. I don’t look at her like Ram does, and she doesn’t look at me like that either.”
He shrugged, shooting me a cavalier grin that I was starting to recognize as his way of deflecting feelings that hurt him.
“So, what happened with Ares and Hecate?” I asked softly, giving him the out he clearly needed.
“Well, after she refused him, I knew he was going to hunt her down and try to force her to be his bride... Maybe it’s because she’s the mother of witches and I’m a cat demon, or maybe it’s because she and I are oddly similar, but I immediately felt the need to protect her. I followed her out of the Colosseum that night, and sure enough, Ares was waiting for her.
“I interfered, essentially telling Ares to get fucked, and… it obviously didn’t go over well.” Shem chuckled, and I smiled.
Remembering the large bulldozer of a man from earlier, I could see how easy it would be for Shemhazai to piss someone like that off.
Shem examined the fingernails on the hand that wasn’t holding the fancy bottle.
