Free Death Knows My Name (Memory Keepers) by Casse Narome

off.
    “So you can read my mind. What a neat trick.” Fuck you, you cocky prick , I thought at him.
    Laughter rang out as a tall and slender figure emerged from the nearest shadow. He was just an arm’s length from me. I took in his hard face and froze. My mind screamed run. Fear kept me planted. His eyes were nothing like Eric’s warm honey ones. They were sharp, blue, unfeeling, and ruthless. His eyes trained on my face, and I gulped. He was the guy from the bar with the ice eyes.
    “I can’t really read your mind, just when there is extreme emotion involved. Fear?” He nodded as he added, “Along with feistiness. I can see why Eric might be tempted to risk it all for someone such as yourself.”
    “What? Risk? What risk?” I forgot about my fear and it was replaced with a deeper fear—for Eric. I balled up my fist stepping toward the stranger.
    “Are you threatening him?”
    He held up his hands in front of him in mock surrender. “Woah.” He laughed. “Your fight is not with me. He is my kin. I do not intend him harm. I can see, obviously, neither do you. But, alas, regardless of intent, one of us will cause him harm. He will fall from his grace.”
    “H-how? Who?”
    “The lust you two share. You will be the cause of his fall.” He said it with a sneer.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Of course not, you are human, the worst of the mortals. He is a Servant of God, highest of the celestials. It is forbidden.”
    “But last night-”
    “Were the two of you intimate?” The shout, sharp in the dark.
    I flinched and took an involuntary step backward.
    “No. We just, no,” I answered, ignoring his invasion of Eric’s privacy.
    “I will not see another of my own destroy himself for something so fleeting as a human.” He wasn’t looking at me as he spoke.
    “What if I said it’s none of your business?”
    His eyes fell on me like the entire weight of the sky was pushing down.
    “I have made it my business. You do not want me as an enemy, woman,” he said, his tone as nasty as a curse.
    I matched him sneer for sneer. “You actually think I’m afraid of you, don’t you?”
    “If you were smart, you would not only be afraid, you would heed my warning.”
    “Oh, is that what this is?” I looked up to the starless sky, feigning thought. “Nope.” I interrupted the silence I’d created. “I can’t remember ever being thought of as smart. Wait. No, that was a smart ass .”
    I smirked as his frustration showed on his face. He looked as though he wanted to strangle me. I did not falter or let him gain any more ground against me. I held my stance. My hands were still balled tight as I braced for an attack. I thought I knew what imminent death felt like if this was any indication.
    I held his gaze too long and I saw the eyes of a murderer looking back at me. The visions I saw within them made me wobble and almost lose balance. I saw men come out of an alleyway to surround a tall, handsome man. My man. My Dante.
    The scene was of the past. My past! The night Dante didn’t come home to me. I stumbled back, trying to retreat, but the vision held me. I tried squeezing my eyes shut against the evil attack on my mind and the slicing headache but it was in vain. Nothing kept out the intruding memories. I brimmed with hatred, but more than that, extreme pain and sorrow filled me. Weighing me down, threatening to flatten me.
    “You evil son of a bitch,” came out as a whimper even as I tried to shout it. I watched my love lying on the ground, choking on his own blood. Booted feet were coming toward me. Only then did I realize I was on the ground. I skittered backward until I found my back literally up against a wall.
    “Remember, when the time comes, make sure Eric does his job, or I will. And you obviously don’t like the way I do things. Death always gets its soul.” The boots faded as the wind hissed what sounded like a name.

Chapter 7
    Valience
    I realized then that the nightmare that I called my