Page 33 of Conflicted

But…he wasn’t wrong.

“Hang on, I’m so confused.” Rami rubbed at his temples. “How did we get from questioning Micah about his disappearance, to the climate change summit, to demons and angels being more similar than we think?”

Benji’s fingers were moving in a blur again. “It’s all linked, when you think about it. But don’t worry, none of this discussion was for you.”

Benji didn’t so much as glance my way, but he didn’t need to. He was right, it was all linked. That much I understood. He was making the point that Nox wasn’t necessarily evil, in the same way that I wasn’t completely good.

What I didn’t understand waswhyBenji was saying it. With anyone else, I’d pull them aside and demand they explain exactly what they were on about, but there was no point doing that with Benji. He’d only say as much as he wanted to—no more, no less.

“Back to the demon,” Ez said. “Forget about everything else for a minute. Do you want us to deal with Nox?”

There was a pregnant pause as everyone waited for me to speak. Benji’s eyes were fixed on the table, but the corner of his mouth lifted in amusement.

“No,” I said finally. “Nox is for me to deal with, and me alone. Are we clear on that?”

Ez sighed. “Can’t say we’re clear, but you’re the boss.”

The final points on the agenda didn’t take long to get through. We arranged for Rami to take Noah to Italy in the next few weeks, to introduce him to the dragon shifter clans we had links with there. There’d been some rumblings of unusual supe activity in Thailand, which the twins volunteered to investigate. As I didn’t trust them not to get distracted by a full moon party and forget the assignment, I swapped Theo with Breann. Both sulked, the former because he wanted to party, and the latter because she didn’t like to leave her mate.

Which I understood. Well, in theory I did. It wasn’t like I’d ever had someone missing me while I was off completing missions.

I might’ve missed Dimitri, but that feeling had never been returned.

Nox flitted unwillingly into my mind. He wouldn’t miss me either. He’d probably delight in the fact that no one was showing up to spoil his fun.

Once everything was settled with only minor griping, we moved into the final portion of the meeting. It was something I’d instigated centuries ago as a way to remind us that we were more than an elite unit of soldiers.

That we were also friends. A family.

Even if some of us were able to walk away without so much as a backwards glance.

I shoved that thought away, smiling at Noah as I explained what was about to happen. “This is the partwhere we share something that’s made us happy and what our plans are for the rest of the evening.”

He eyed me quizzically. Although we’d had several smaller meetings before, this was his first full-scale one. “Umm…okay.”

“I know it sounds trivial, but it reminds us that we have lives outside of our work. Things that bring us joy in what can sometimes be a depressing job.” Especially if there’d been a natural disaster we’d been forbidden from intervening in. Those were always dark days for us all. “It’s important, given the responsibility we bear. We deserve to find pockets of happiness that aren’t dependant on the roles we occupy.”

Rami coughed into his hand, not at all managing to hide this derision. I knew why, too—he’d not shied away from pointing out the hypocrisy of all of this.

Because, unlike the others, I didn’t occupy any of those pockets. I lived and breathed the Seraphim. It was all I’d ever had.

And it fucking depressed me. I didn’t want the rest of them ending up like me…hence this little tradition.

It was simple. We went around the table, saying one good thing that had happened that week, and what our plans were for the rest of the evening.

Grace went first. Her happy moment was finishing a portrait of Breann that she’d been working on for the past month.

Breann’s was posing for it. From the flush on Grace’s cheeks, I deduced it was likely a portrait to be displayed in theirprivatecollection.

“We’re going out to dinner to celebrate.” Breann was twisting the end of her plait between her fingers,smiling adoringly at her mate. “A new Japanese place over in SoHo that we’ve both been dying to try.”

Theo’s thing that had brought him joy was beating his twin’s personal best on the bench weight. Nate’s was that he now had the opportunity to drive himself harder so he could lord it over his brother once more. Unsurprisingly, they were planning on going straight to the gym after this, to go about doing just that.

Rami had finished bingeing the new series of Bridgerton, about which he hadmanythoughts, mostly concerning how the Featheringtons had carried this season. Meanwhile, Ez’s highlight was that he’d managed to avoid getting dragged into watching said season.

I wasn’t sure that strictly counted, but we didn’t question these things.

The two of them were heading out to a club to, hopefully, get laid. Between Ez’s scowl and Rami’s knack of hitting on people who were unavailable, the likelihood of them being successful was low.

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