Page 30 of Priest

Jeremiah scoffed, shaking his head. “One day, he’ll have to get off the damn sidelines.”

“Having an Angel on the team wouldn’t be the worst idea,” Knight murmured. He turned his back to the window but kept far from the group. He’d been tense lately—like he was in the early days when his trauma was overwhelming him. “Their tracking abilities put all our technology to shame. It would make things easier.”

Priest swallowed heavily and stared at Oliver. He was tense—more than he had been a moment ago. There was something different about him. Like his body was operating at a higher vibration. The longer they sat there, the more pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.

Oliver was different than most humans. He was more clever and quicker on his feet. He was still a fumbling, anxious mess,but when he stood in front of danger, he didn’t crumble. And then there was the incident in Priest’s workroom.

No human could do what he did.

There was not a chance in hell Oliver didn’t possess some kind of supernatural blood, and there was only one logical conclusion. After all, what would Azriel need to speak to him privately about? Why would he call him little brother?

Gods.

An Angel?

Priest couldn’t deal with this right now.

“… around the shop, and we picked up on a scent.” Jeremiah was staring at him—his face a mask of irritation, which apparently meant getting good dick on the regular wasn’t going to change who he was at his core. The thought was oddly comforting. “Are you with us, Claude?”

Priest’s eyes narrowed, and he felt them go hot and black. His vision changed, all the heat in the room more visible. “If you think I won’t tear your throat out?—”

“Claude?”

Priest’s Demon immediately fell back, and he turned his face to Oliver. “Please don’t ask.”

Oliver’s lip twitched. “I won’t. Clau?—”

“Don’t.”

Oliver held up his hands in surrender. “Okay. I’m sorry.”

This was no time to be biting Oliver’s head off. Priest took a breath and turned his attention to Jeremiah. “I’m here. I’m listening. But multiple piles of shit are hitting multiple fans, okay? I’m trying to process.”

Jeremiah stared, then gave a stiff nod. His gaze flickered to Oliver, his brow raised, but when Priest gave a single, sharp shake of his head, he backed off. “We picked up a scent,” he repeated, and it took a second, but eventually, Oliver sucked in a breath.

“Poe’s?”

Knight walked closer to them, resting his hands on the back of a tall chair. “Yes. It was faint, but it was there. The police finally let us inside the shop, and there was no sign of his body. I was able to pick up a little blood, but not enough to indicate a human had died.”

Oliver swallowed roughly. “I knew it.”

“We followed the scent down the alley, and there was a shoe—a black-and-white sneaker. The smell of blood was strong enough for me to tell it belonged to the same human in the shop. But again, no indication the human had died there. The scent simply… vanished.” There was a tightness in his voice that Priest recognized.

This was killing Knight inside. They couldn’t let this go on for much longer.

“Okay, so where do we start?” Oliver asked, jumping to his feet. “There’s probably no point in me going back to the bookstore. But we can start with the scent, right? I mean, we need to contact Poe’s family first—see if they’ve gotten some kind of ransom call? And you have other teams, don’t you? Bravo Team, Charlie Team…”

“Pump the brakes,” Jeremiah said, putting up a hand. Oliver backed away from him, but he didn’t stop pacing. “You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

“How?” Oliver’s eyes blazed. “Poe’s been out there alive, just like I said, for how long now? While we’re just sitting on our asses! The gods only know what they’re doing to him. It could be torture. It could be?—”

“Control your human,” Knight said, his voice a low rumble, fangs dropping.

Priest was on his feet, pulling Oliver close. “Oliver, I need you to stop.”

He had no idea if Oliver’s not-quite-human side made him aware that the situation was on the verge of getting dangerous or if he just had good natural instincts, but his jaw snapped shut. His gaze flickered from Priest to Knight to Jeremiah before he stepped out of Priest’s hold.

“I’m not going to sit here while my friend is in danger.”

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