Page 6 of Guarded
“Why are you apologising?” I tried to stop my voice from shaking as I pulled out of Rami’s arms and faced them. I failed. “You’re not the one who looked at me and thoughtnah.”
“It’s not like that,” Nox said quickly. “It’s not personal,anyway. Jeremiah…he’s fucked up. Just like the rest of us. If you give him a chance?—”
The crack in my heart iced over. Give him a chance? With the greatest respect, Nox could jog on.
“No.” I cut him off coldly. “I spent far too long chasing after one man who didn’t want me. There’s no fucking way I’m doing it again.”
With that, I stalked back towards the house.
Hell would freeze over before I gave Jeremiah a chance. Never again would I chase after someone who was running from me. Never again would I debase myself to win someone over. Never again would I open my heart to someone who didn’t deserve it.
Jeremiah had made his choice.
I was dead to him, so he was dead to me.
And that was how it was going to stay.
Chapter 1
Jeremiah
I’d made a lot of stupid decisions in my life. So many, in fact, that if I could die and leave a body behind, it’d surely be inscribed on my tombstone.
Here lies Jeremiah. A nice enough bloke, for a demon. But an absolute fucking moron when it came to making healthy life decisions.
In my defence, when I’d initially decided to run from my mate, it was a result of panic. A split-second decision made due to the crippling fear of what it meant for me. For the future I’d so desperately yearned for.
Like the other demons in my circle, I’d spent millennia dreaming of the day I’d be free of Hell. When I’d have no one else to answer to. No one else who’d have a claim over my time or soul.
It was all I’d ever wanted. Freedom. To be myself. To do whatever I pleased.
After spending my entire life in Hell, hadn’t I earned that? My days used to be filled with ordinary people’s worst nightmares. To me, it had just been my life. All I’d ever known.
Didn’t I deserve some happiness now I was free? I was sure there were many who’d argue that I didn’t. That what I’d done to the souls down there was enough to condemn me as much as they had been. Even the few times I’d been sent to earth had been marked with bloodshed.
None of it had been my choice. Every day in Hell had been about survival. It was torture or be tortured. Kill or be killed.
For so long, I’d known nothing else.
Thanks to a deal with some plucky humans, I was no longer imprisoned. I was free. Free to live my life the way I wanted to. Me. Just me.
And it had been going swimmingly, right up until the moment I’d seen the grand mansion sat at the end of a winding driveway. A house I knew I shouldn’t have been able to see.
Unless my fated mate was inside.
I hadn’t been able to breathe. I asked them to confirm that they hadn’t lifted the wards, but it wasn’t a necessary question. My mate had been inside those walls. I knew that as well as I knew my own name. There was a tug in my chest, urging me forwards. A hole revealing itself in my heart—a cavern I knew wouldn’t be filled until I was bonded.
I’d felt nothing aside from sheer panic. I’d thought I’d have more time to be free. To enjoy my life before having to worry about someone else.
Yes, it was selfish. But I was a demon—it was practically written into our DNA.
Even worse, my mate was an angel. Not just any angel, but a member of the Seraphim. The most powerful cabal of arch soldiers.
Whose actions were overseen by Heaven.
I doubted they had any more control over their lives than I’d had in Hell. Like I once had, they answered to a higher being. Their whole purpose was to do as they were commanded.
If I accepted a mating bond with one of them, I’d be right back where I was. My life wouldn’t be mine any longer. It wouldn’t even be my mate’s.
