Page 17 of Conflicted

I stumbled backwards, unable to stop the flush working up my face. “That’llneverhappen, demon. I don’t care what fate thinks—you’re nothing to me, and you never will be.”

Something flickered through the demon’s eyes. “Nox.”

“What?”

“Not demon.Nox.” He stepped closer. I clenched my hands into fists at my sides as I willed myself to stand my ground. “Thought you might like to know what name to scream later when you’re jerking off over me.”

He strolled away through the casino, hands shoved in his pockets, not a care in the world.

I stood there for fuck knows how long, gaping in the direction he’d left in. I was furious. Flustered. Confused.

And worst of all, a little turned on.

Now there was another word joining my heartbeat, echoing through me despite how much I wanted to run from it.

Nox. Nox. Nox.

Imanaged to make it a whole seven days without seeing Nox again.

Face to face, at least. Fucker wasn’t making it easy to escape him otherwise though. He kept cropping up in my life in ways that were getting harder and harder to ignore. The pull that I was also trying to deny was becoming more insistent.

But I was going to continue ignoring both. I’d be damned before I’d let a demon or fate dictate my behaviour.

Needless to say, my frustration levels were high. Normally I would have worked it off by patrolling the local area or visiting a clan that lived so far away that it required a nice long flight, but with Nox fucking around nearby I wasreluctant to leave the compound. It was easier to bury my instincts here with all the reminders of my nature and role. I was surrounded by my unit and the paperwork that went with it. We were also deep into training Noah, making sure he understood the minutiae that went into our fighting and communication. Fortunately, my job didn’t require me to engage in the simulations, just to oversee and critique them.

Which was a blessing, considering the state my back was in. The ointment Emilio had used was fucking effective. I could barely move without pain rippling through me.

I was healing…just slowly.

The paperwork alone was enough to keep me occupied. If you thought modern day government was tied up in red tape, it had nothing on the bureaucracy of Heaven. Every blessing had to be documented. Every good deed categorised.

Every run-in with a demon reported.

I was heading into my third hour of mind-numbing form filling when there was a rap on my office door. Benji, who was sat at the desk beside mine, didn’t bother to look up. He rarely did, preferring to leave others to interact on his behalf.

It had only been during the last century that Benji had discovered why his brain operated differently from the rest of us. With medicine not really being a thing with angels, it wasn’t until humans began discussing neurodivergent conditions, specifically autism, that we’d realised it applied to Benji.

Well, I say ‘we,’ it’d actually been Benji himself. He’d researched it half to death and met with several professionals in the field. It hadn’t changed anythingabout his behaviour or how we acted around him, but he’d told me once that it gave him comfort to understand. There wasn’t anythingwrong with him at all, his brain just worked differently from other people’s.

It made sense, really. Humans were made in our image, so there had to be neurodivergent angels too.

Benji’s fingers continued tapping at his keyboard. He was the only one who volunteered to help with the admin side of the unit. Sure, any of the others would jump in if I asked, but their assistance would come with a side of bitching and whining.

Benji however, seemed to enjoy it. He said there was something about the methodical, repetitive nature of the tasks that calmed him.

“Come in,” I called.

Ez’s red mane appeared poking around the door frame, his face grim and a tablet in his hands. As always at times like this, I did a double take at seeing him instead of Dimitri, which was stupid really. Even before he’d mated with Dagon, Dimitri hadn’t felt like a true part of the unit for over a century. It was hard to do that when you were disappearing for days or weeks at a time to sit on the banks of Hell, pining for your beloved. “Boss, you’re going to want to see this.”

I groaned internally before summoning a smile for my second. “I assume it’s our usual suspect?”

“Looks like it.” Ez handed me the tablet, his lips in a thin line. “A riot’s happening three streets away. There was a sale at a clothing store thatsomehowdescended into chaos.”

I scrolled through the breaking news article quickly, cursing in my head. Smashed windows, looting, even asmall fire had broken out. By some miracle, no one had been hurt.

Yet.

I clicked into the CCTV feeds. Thanks to Nate’s technological skills, we had access to every camera across London.

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