Page 319 of Caelum

If you got my meaning.

Aware he was stressed about our current mission, I blew him a kiss then turned my attention to Samuel who was watching his parents on his laptop, a huge piece of baklava in his hands as he munched on Eren’s gift to me. Though it saddened me, I understood his need to remain connected to his family, so I switched my focus to Frazer and Stefan who were arguing over the remaining piece of cake that Eren calledhalva,and then a pudding that was calledgüllaç. Nestor had face-planted in thehalvathe second Eren had brought it back with him to our digs, and that was why they were arguing over it—Nestor had eaten most of it.

This morning, when I’d woken up, I’d decided that today was going to be the birthday I used for the rest of my life. And as a present, I wanted a table of desserts.

Appetizer, entrée, and dessert. An all-in-one sweet lover’s smorgasbord.

Eren had huffed and puffed, but he’d gone out and bought me my present, leaving us in the safe house we were using at the moment.

Unlike most of the digs we stayed in, this one was quite nice, even had a private pool in its high-fenced yard. I was enjoying the privilege as it meant all my men were in various stages of undress. Because of that, it meant I could see the marks that had developed on Dre and Nestor’s pecs—we weren’t sure why their marks were different, just as we didn’t know why I’d been gifted their marks on my hands last year.

I wasn’t about to question it, though. I loved seeing my mark on them, just as the others enjoyed seeing their marks on me because, when I’d awoken in Eren’s arms as he carried me into Caelum territory, the power surging inside me as the Tree of Knowledge was absorbed back into the portal that was the gateway to Heaven on Earth, all my other mates’ marks had been left behind.

It was better now though, because they didn’t glow, just looked like regular ink unless I had to feed, then they’d turn bloodred. It had been strange at first, but we were used to it now. Just as we were used to the fact that I could and would slip between the seven souls inside my being as easily as flipping a switch. The eighth soul had gone, but in one day, I could feed from Nestor while butting heads with Reed’s Hell Hound.

There was no war inside me—only peace.

Well, until it came down to sowing the seeds of our very own brand of vengeance.

The world hadn’t exactly improved in the days since Drekavac, Raum, and Erlik’s deaths. Humans were capable of evil as cruel as any Ghoul, after all. And in the aftermath of what the world believed to be Armageddon, it was taking a while to get things back on track.

Caelum’s army, now without a purpose, had taken to helping governments across the globe reinstall peace among the population.

That day in Mexico City, when I’d called on Nicholas and asked him for his help, I had set some things into motion that unsettled me to this day.

The least of them was his first ‘fee’ for helping us.

When I’d told him I wasJannah, he’d instantly known that I’d been in touch with his parents. He’d asked for their cell phone number and had made a wish.

That wish?

For him and his Chosen to find peace together.

Pretty sweet, right?

I hadn’t had a say in whether the latter was granted, had no idea if the wish would come to pass, but considering Janvier and Nicholas were both living at Caelum now, I figured it had. The cell phone number? I hadn’t given him it. But when I’d awoken, I’d called Avalina and had told her that Nicholas wanted to speak with her.

Whether parents and child had contacted one another was something I didn’t know.

Brendan, the guy who worked in the kitchens and had a serious attitude problem? He was the one who’d worked with the McAllister nest to infiltrate Caelum. Why? Because they’d kidnapped his human family and were blackmailing him—the loss they’d sustained at Aboh had prompted them to go full throttle on Caelum’s behind, and only my abilities as well as my mates’ had saved God’s Chosen territory on Earth.

Brendan had died for his sins, but people still looked at us askance. It made it awkward for us to be back at the Academy, so while we were still underage, Nicholas had decided that it would be foolish to leave us there where we were definitely not wanted, and he sent us on the less dangerous missions.

Of course, that didn’t mean we always listened.

This time, he’d sent us to Turkey to help the new leader. Mohamed Aksoy had declared martial law in the country and was using it to instill hisown order. Nicholas wasn’t choosy enough about who he helped, and we weren’t about to complain, not when he’d deployed us right where we’d needed to be.

Last year, when we’d helped a local council in the Coahuila region of Mexico, we’d taken some ‘personal time’ to go and kill thecoyotebehind Dre’s parents’ untimely deaths.

This time, our intention was to rid the world of Eren’s brother-in-law. The bastard who’d beaten him bloody, had made him self-harm and almost commit suicide.

Twice.

News that I had only learned recently. News that made me want to slice the bastard’s throat myself. And hell, maybe I would if Eren couldn’t do it. If his past came back to haunt him, I’d be there in an instant to help my Chosen out.

Eren’s politician brother-in-law had taken advantage of the chaos his country had fallen into, had even helped that chaos along. That terrorist attack in Ankara on the day we’d dealt with Erlik? Samuel had uncovered the fact that Aksoy was behind it, and he was the despot currently in charge of Turkey. So, while Nicholas had sent us here to help Mohamed, we were going to help him… just not how Nicholas intended.

Was it wrong?

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