Page 12 of Guarded
I snapped my head up to see Micah looking at his demon mate quizzically. “We aren’t what?”
“Trapped.” Nox raised a hand, silencing the protests. “You are to a certain extent. Gloria certainly likes to remind us all of that on a regular basis. But you have far more freedom than Jeremiah or I ever did. You pretty much come and go as you please. You live topside, for fuck’s sake. Yes, you have an overseer, but it’s nothing compared to what we went through.”
“What did you go through?” That was Benji, the smallest of the angels. From the silent power rolling off of him, I knew better than to underestimate him based on his size though. “Maybe if you explain it to us, we’ll understand better.”
Several pairs of eyes met mine, questioning. But there was only one pair I met. Only one who knew the truth of what we’d been through.
It was a truth we were never supposed to share. Lucifer might have been locked miles below the surface, controlled by his sons, but who knew how long that would last? If he found out that I’d told others…
“It’s okay,” Nox said quietly, interrupting my spiral. “You can tell them. None of them will speak of it outside this room. They won’t judge you either.”
“Speak for yourself,” Theo muttered before scowling at Rami. “Did you just fucking kick me?”
The massive angel shrugged nonchalantly. “Noah isn’t here to make you behave, so I figured I’d do it for him.”
I swear, my heart started racing at the mere mention of his name. At the tiny crumb of information I’d been given about him. I added it to the meagre list of facts I already had.
Noah is beautiful.
Noah fights to protect others.
Noah knows his self-worth.
Noah is sassy.
Noah is a force to be reckoned with.
Noah is selfless.
Noah is a peacekeeper.
It wasn’t much. The crumbs barely made up a mouthful. But to a starving man like me, they’d keep me going. They’d give me the sustenance I needed until I found more.
“Do you need to take a lap?” Sam sat forward, glaring at Theo. “Because I’ll make you do it.”
To my shock, the massive angel slunk down in his seat, his cheeks flushing. “Sorry. I’ll behave.”
What the fuck? I’d seen the twins in action during a battle in Hell. The fuckers had slaughtered their way through demons and ghasts alike, while giggling. Yet here was Theo, reduced to a puddle of shame by a human. A human who wasn’t even his mate.
Rami must’ve noticed my confusion. “Sam makes us take laps when we’re…misbehaving.”
“When they’re using violence instead of words,” Sam said with a sigh, giving me a kind smile. “Which is often. It’s something none of them enjoy.”
My eyes swept over the assembled angels. The most powerful beings on any plane, who, apparently, were at the mercy of a human. “All of you?”
“Not me,” Micah said, his lips twisting in amusement. “Nor Breann or Grace. We’ve all…matured somewhat more than the others.”
Benji frowned in confusion. “I’m mature.”
Sam sighed, reaching across to pat his hand. “You are. Your laps are more a chance to talk out where your brain is at.”
He nodded understandingly. “I like our walks.”
Sam smiled. “Me too.”
I fidgeted in my seat, knowing I had no right to ask the question. It didn’t matter anyway. It shouldn’t matter if Noah took laps with this gentle human…even if it was killing me not to ask. I needed to know. I had no right to, but fuck, how I wanted it.
It wasn’t that I was jealous—Sam was very clearly in love with Ezekiel. But I needed to know. I needed to knoweverythingabout Noah. I wanted to add to the list until it was pages long. Enough to fill a book. No, a volume. A whole damned library. That was what I wanted. A library of knowledge about the man who was meant to be mine. Who’d rightfully put me in my place.
