Page 122 of Guarded
“The sin barely bought him three minutes,” Nox whispered in horror. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
I rubbed a hand over his forehead. “For a start, we aren’t letting him go through this alone. He might want togive up, but that’s just because he’s not strong enough to fight right now. So, until he is, we fight for him. Agreed?”
Everyone nodded, not that I’d expected anything else. Darius was right—we’d survived before, and we were all going to survive again. Together. It was what we should’ve been doing since the first time he’d collapsed. We’d naïvely believed he’d been taking the help we’d found for him.
We wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“Good.” I exhaled slowly. “Let’s come up with a rota so we can make sure someone is always here with him. I know he wants to isolate himself, but I suspect that’s the worst thing for him right now.”
“What about sin?” Dahlia asked. “Are any of us prepared to bring one-night stands back?”
The silence was deafening. Well, I guessed this was a good a time as any. “Um, no. But I can ask Noah if we can hook up here. Maybe work some kind of schedule out with Nox.”
Was it weird to plan your sex life to help a friend? It probably should have been, but if it gave Quill the strength he needed, I didn’t give a fuck. I suspected Noah wouldn’t either.
The smile Dahlia gave was a rare one. There was no snark. No poison. Just genuine happiness. “Are youfinallytogether?”
They all knew what had been happening over the past few months. I mean, they’d literally been there for the initial fuck-up. I’d kept them up to date on how I wanted to stop travelling and that I was ready to commit, but something seemed to be holding Noah back.
“We are.” Now I was the one smiling. Grinning goofily would be more accurate. “And it’s just…fucking perfect. Honestly.”
Dahlia’s smile dipped a little at the edges. “I’m glad it’s worked out for you. And you, Nox. Satan knows you both deserve to be happy.”
Darius had sunk back against the wall like he was hoping it would swallow him. If that weren’t enough of a clue, the scowl on his face left little to the imagination about how he was feeling.
Instinctively, I knew it wasn’t because he wasn’t happy for me and Nox. No, Darius was hiding something from us. If I had to guess, life with his own fated mate wasn’t going smoothly.
“As do both of you,” I said. I thought they’d both met their mates, but maybe I was wrong. “You’ll find your happiness and your mates, I’m sure.”
Darius laughed bitterly. “Oh, I know exactly where mine is. Doesn’t mean happiness is on the horizon for me.” His phone buzzed before any of us could respond, and whatever was on the screen had him shoving off the wall and striding for the door.
“Fuck.” Nox raked a hand through his hair. “Do you think we’ll get him to open up?”
“Likely as much as Dahlia will,” I said. “Unless she’s going to blow us all away by telling us what’s going on with her.”
She laughed, a bit of the spark returning to her eyes. “Things change, my friend, but not that much.”
Quite. Of all of us, Dahlia and Darius were the ones who held their cards and emotions close to their chests. It had taken a couple of centuries before I was even aware they liked me.
Well, tolerated me enough to not want to execute me for their own gain. But for demons, that was practically a declaration of platonic love.
I felt someone cross the wards and stiffened. Two people. “Is that…?”
My question was answered almost instantly as Darius strode back into the room with two others on his heels. One was Tyler, who instantly beelined for Quill, and the other was a demon.
“Mori,” I said in surprise, striding over to shake his hand. “What are you doing here?”
The second-born son of Lucifer wasn’t someone I was overly familiar with. Everyone in Hell knew him, but that didn’t mean he knew who we all were.
Given his brothers’ mates had made a deal with us to secure their freedom, he definitely knew who we were now.
“Tyler said it was urgent,” the son of Lucifer said, shaking my hand before turning to do the same with Dahlia and Nox. “He asked me to bring him.”
That was decent of them both. Flying was faster than any car or train, especially the way we did it. “Thank you.”
Mori’s gaze flitted to Quill, his brows tugging together. “What’s wrong with him? Are you sure it’s Tyler you need and not Toby?”
Toby was the other vampire who’d attended to Lyle. If I remembered correctly, his specialism was physical medicine. “No. Tyler is definitely who he needs.”
