Page 11 of Priest

Priest shoved Azriel away from him and marched for the door. “He’s upstairs, right?”

The Angel lived on the third floor, above the rooms where people usually went for the more…indiscreetservices the club offered. It wasn’t often anyone was invited all the way to the top floor, but Priest knew that Azriel wasn’t going to stop him.

He didn’t wait for an answer, and he took the stairs three at a time before pressing his hand to the lock and willing it open. What should have been little more than a parlor trick left him staggering against the door for a moment. The drain on his power was worse than it had ever been before. His legs felt heavy, and he knew Azriel was probably right. He should feed. But the very idea of taking anything from anyone in that club who wasn’t Oliver felt…

There weren’t really words, but betrayal was the only thing that came close.

He took a breath, scenting his human behind Azriel’s apartment door, and he was relieved when the knob turned, worried his surge of power hadn’t actually been enough to get the job done. Just as he pushed inside, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and then Azriel and Knight were at his side.

“You need to calm down. You’re going to cause an orgy downstairs,” Azriel murmured. “And I don’t have the staff on hand to deal with that—no matter how good of a time it would be.”

Priest looked down and caught the outline of Azriel’s rather impressively large cock pressing against his jeans, and he flushed with embarrassment. He hadn’t lost control of himself like that since he was young and untethered to his best friends. He took a breath as Azriel brushed a hand against the small of his back and ushered him inside.

“Are you sure you don’t want to feed?”

Priest shook his head. “I’d love a drink though. And to see Oliver.”

“Let him rest,” Knight rumbled as he breezed past them both, his phone in his hand. “Sunshine’s calling. He’s probably got an update.”

Priest was struggling to give a shit about the rest of the world. Knight stepped out onto the balcony, closing the glass door behind him but keeping his attention on Priest.

He ignored his friend, gaze tracking Az where he was rummaging around his small kitchen. The Angel let out a quiet “aha” when he pulled a bottle of vodka out of the freezer.

The bottle was frosty by design, which meant it was something Angel made. And that meant it was going to be very good and very strong. Exactly what he needed. Azriel, being as extra as he was, pulled out two massive spheres of ice and settled them in short glasses, letting the vodka rain over them.

He took out a little dish of lime slices from his nearly empty fridge, and he squeezed one over the top, then ran it over the rim before finally handing it over. Priest took down half the glass without even tasting it, ignoring the pointed look Azriel was giving him.

“Tell me everything,” he finally said as his throat ached in the best way, a wonderful numbness settling over his extremities.

Azriel picked up his own glass, then hopped up on his kitchen counter and crossed his legs. He tapped his bare foot against the edge of the sink as he let his head fall back to rest against the fridge. “I should have felt it. Things were weird, but shit was getting weird everywhere. The bar was really dead.”

That was bizarre. The Pearly Gates was the house of scandal in more ways than one. Royal families and politicians alike bought VIP rooms and engaged in all manner of speakable and unspeakable things. And, so long as they paid and all parties consented, Azriel and his entire crew kept their mouths shut. Because of that, no matter what the economy was like, the place was always booming.

“Oliver pointed it out. He came by to vent. Poe was giving him shit about you.”

Priest felt a strange, unfamiliar emotion in his chest. Was it grief? Or humiliation because he was the one leading Oliver on only to pull back.

“What next?” he demanded. He needed to focus. He wouldn’t let what had almost happened between them happen again. He couldn’t. But he needed to know everything, and he needed to make sure Oliver was safe. That he could fully heal, even if he’d never get over the loss of his best friend.

Azriel scrunched up his face. “He just kind of… lost it. He ran out of the club like a Dragon hatchling out of the nest. That’s when I felt something was wrong. I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve never experienced anything so intense. It was this feeling that went deeper in my gut. Like I just knew something was about to happen, you know?”

Priest did know. He didn’t get the feeling often—andnothinglike what had awoken him earlier—but when he was close to danger, there was a sort of buzzing under his skin. It was mostlikely different for Angels, but Demons were the other side of the same coin, so it was probably at least similar, if not from the same source.

“I was too far behind him,” Azriel said, his voice a little choked. “The blast caught him before I could. I was able to shield him from the worst of it, but…” He closed his eyes and drained half his glass. “Some fucking Guardian Angel I turned out to be, hm?”

“That wasn’t your job.”It was mine. “You did what you could. You saved his life.”

“I should have been faster, but I was distracted,” Azriel spat, setting aside his glass and scrubbing at his face. “He’s such a stubborn little shit though. He wouldn’t listen. He started running before I’d even picked up on the danger, and he was so far ahead of me when the blast went off.”

Priest couldn’t help his smile, even though it hurt. He tipped back the rest of his drink, then set it on the table. “And then you brought him here, yeah?”

Azriel nodded. “Seemed the safest place for him. No one can break in if I don’t want them to.”

“And you didn’t see anything suspicious in the street?”

“Not really, no.” He could tell Azriel was holding something back, but there would be time to grill him later. “I didn’t really have time to investigate. I brought him up here as quickly as I could. He was going to die if I didn’t act fast, and I wasn’t sure how much I could heal. Like I said, I gave him everything I had. He’s probably going to be in a world of pain if he wakes up.”

His heart constricted.If. He’d finally said the quiet part out loud.

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