Page 28 of Priest

“Slum it?”

Azriel looked angry and offended. “The people who came up with that term were trying to make it sound like we thought humans were dirty. We don’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Oliver whispered. All these years away from his family, and sometimes shit like that popped out of his mouth. “I didn’t mean it.”

Azriel relaxed and took Oliver’s hand, holding it gently. “I know you didn’t. And I know this is a lot. Take time to process, okay?”

Oliver nodded, then sucked in a breath and looked frantically into Azriel’s eyes. “Don’t tell Priest. I… I can’t deal with this right now, okay? Poe’s missing, and he’s being a weird, overprotective dick who’s also avoiding me, which—make that make sense.”

“It’s because he’s a Demon, and he’s afraid to hurt you. He’s always been afraid to hurt you,” Azriel said.

“You can feel that?”

Azriel snorted and rolled his eyes. “No. That little shit gets drunk and dumps his unrequited love all over me every time he sets foot in my club.”

Oliver’s ears burned. “Oh.”

With a soft smile, Azriel tilted Oliver’s chin up. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Is it? Because I don’t know what this means for me. Do I have powers? Will I get wings? What do people with Angel blood like mine even do?”

Azriel studied him for a long moment, then sighed. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know. And I’m not sure you’d want me as your teacher even if I did. But I can put you in touch with someone if you want to learn more.”

“If? Is that a serious question? Why wouldn’t I?”

Azriel’s smile was soft and a little sad. “Because accepting what you are will change things. The more you know, the more your Angel side will emerge, and once it does, there’s no going back.”

Oliver swallowed heavily. “And if I stop here, I stay human.”

“You’re definitely not human, Oliver. Not fully. You never have been. But you can pretend it’s not there and go about in society as you were. Mostly undetected.”

Oliver understood what he was saying. “That feels like denying a big part of who I am.”

“I can’t help you there. I’ve never been in that position,” Azriel told him. He squeezed his hand tighter, then slowly let go. “Take your time. Like you said, there’s a million things going on right now, and this is the least important one of them.”

The Angel was right. Poe had to come first and then whatever strange dance he was doing with Priest. The world was also on fire, and the gods only knew when things would go back to normal again. If they ever could.

Whoever he was—whatever he was—could probably wait. “I think I?—”

“Priest is here,” Azriel interrupted.

A second later, the Demon himself appeared in the doorway. He looked just as awkward as before, but maybe a little more tired, and definitely apologetic. “I’m sure you two aren’t done, but I wanted to let you know that Jeremiah and Knight are here. And they have news.”

“About Poe?” Oliver asked, jumping to his feet.

Priest bowed his head and took a breath before looking up. His irises had thick black rings around them. “Yes, Oliver. About Poe.”

8

PRIEST

Priest hadn’t given in to his urge to listen to Azriel and Oliver when they were speaking, as much as it killed him to not know what was so important. But he knew whatever Azriel had to say, it was for Oliver. He couldn’t be selfish. Not after everything.

So he paced, and he drank a little, and he paced some more. He did his best not to relive the moment when he finally got to taste Oliver. And of course, he failed at that because shutting that out only led him to the moment of tension between them before the Angel showed up.

The bastard.

He’d been beating himself up over being so weak, but he had been on the verge of giving in when the winged dickhead showed up. Priest could only hope that one day, karma would come and bite him on the ass. He’d like to see Azriel knocked down a peg or two from love. Actual love. The kind that made Demons weep.

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