Page 124 of Guarded
At least, not until it was far too late.
My phone went flying as one of them tackled me to the ground. My brain processed what was happening faster than a human’s would have, but not fast enough.
My heartwasin my mouth as I landed a kick to the stomach of the one pinning me. Encasing myself in flame, I reached for the dagger at my waist.
But I was too slow. They were too close. Too strong.
There were too many of them.
That didn’t stop me fighting. I lashed out with my powers, fists, and feet, hitting whatever I could reach. But every time I took one of them down, another popped up in their place.
One got his arm around my neck. I clawed at the back of his hand, unleashing wave after wave of deadly flames.
The shifter holding me began to roar, but his grip didn’t loosen. “Fucker is burning me alive!”
Too fucking right I was. If I got out of this hold, I’d burn the twat dead too.
Instinctively, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
My flames sputtered out as black dots filled my vision. I continued thrashing in the shifter’s grip, but then two more grabbed me, one on each arm.
A sneering face appeared at the end of the tunnel. “This is for the Gracy clan, you murdering cunt.”
Like I hadn’t worked that out already. Talk about my past catching up to me. Hopefully they’d let me die before biting me. One shifter alone didn’t have enough venom in their bite to execute a higher demon.
But the several surrounding me? Together, they’d make it work.
The last of my vision went, and Noah appeared. Notliterally, but in my mind. He was smiling at me sadly, touching my face as he wished me farewell.
I’m sorry,I wanted to tell him. Sorry that my past had caught up with me. Sorry for not paying better attention to my surroundings. Sorry I hadn’t fought harder.
Most of all, I was sorry for taking our time for granted. For believing we’d have eternity together. For not spending every fucking second at his side, starting the moment I’d realised my mate was in the compound.
I’m sorry I didn’t give us more time.
The final sense to go before death is hearing. Having died many times before, I knew to expect it.
What I wasn’t expecting was hearing the barked instruction: “Quickly, we need to get him downstairs before he wakes up.”
The dread I felt at that was far greater than when I thought I was about to be executed. They were taking me to Hell. To Lucifer.
Which meant Noah would come after me.
His vow to save me had once given me comfort.
Now it caused sheer terror.
Noah couldn’t enter Hell without falling. He couldn’t save me. None of the Seraphim could.
And if he died, he might pay with his immortality.
I’d had a lot of realisations in the past few minutes, but that was the most horrifying of all.
Chapter 32
Noah
When Jem didn’t arrive within the next ten minutes, I didn’t panic. It was only a five-minute walk, so I just thought maybe he’d extended it. That perhaps he’d needed more time to clear his head after whatever had happened with Quill.
