Page 121 of Guarded
“Oh.” Sam blinked. “Like saying that I really love clowns?”
I felt a tiny pulse of sin filter through the air. “Perfect. Can you think of anything else?”
“Um…” Sam scuffed the toes of his shoes on the carpet. “The twins are so well behaved.”
Another pulse. Quill’s eyes fluttered.
Sam spotted it too, the lies now falling from his tongue with ease. “I hate playing video games. I love exercise. I never make angels take laps. Chicken makes me gassy. I can’t swim. Climbing is my favourite hobby.”
Pulse after pulse washed through the air. Quill stirred and then groaned.
“He’s coming around,” I said.
Nox quickly thanked Sam and ushered him from the room. That was smart. None of us knew how disorientated Quill would be. It was safer to take Sam out of the firing line.
When Nox returned, Quill still hadn’t fully come to. “Anything?”
“Nearly,” I muttered, leaning closer to my friend. “Come on, Quill. Come back to us.”
His eyes were glazed as he blinked slowly. When they finally focused, he frowned. “What are you all doing here?”
“Saving your arse is what,” I said darkly. “To be fair though, Sam and Darius did most of the work.”
“Hey,” Dahlia protested, hands on hips, “I’m the one who murdered Darius, thank you very much.”
Quill lifted his head to peer at Darius’s inert form. “Did he do something to piss you off?”
“Nope,” Dahlia said, lips thin as Quill dropped his head back to the bed. It was like that tiny action had cost him all his energy. “It seems someone has been neglecting his needs so much that his body can’t cope.”
Quill hummed, eyes flicking between us. “Oh yeah? Who’s that then?”
Dahlia snarled, and I grabbed her arm to stop her from stabbing him. Usually I didn’t bother—the two generally fought like cats and dogs. But unlike Darius, I wasn’t sure Quill was capable of recovering from a stab wound right now. “Calm your demon, Dahlia.”
She bared her teeth at me but stepped away to gather herself. Darius, meanwhile, was sitting up with a groan, glaring at Dahlia as he muttered about his ruined clothes.
“You’re the one who’s been neglecting himself,” Nox said. He was standing at the foot of Quill’s bed, glaring at him with arms folded over his chest. “You can’t get enough sin from us alone. Shit, we had to get Sam to come over and tell some bullshit lies just to get you to wake up.”
I wasn’t sure Quill even heard, but that didn’t stop Nox from continuing his rant. “This can’t go on, man. I know you’re struggling, but you’re going to end up permanently dead if you carry on this way.”
Quill blinked at the ceiling. “Maybe that’s not a bad thing.”
Chapter 31
Jeremiah
Six words. That was all. Whispered so quietly that even our supe ears had to strain to hear them.
But the force they slammed into us with was equivalent to a blast from an entire battalion of archangels.
Darius’s shoulder brushed against mine as he came to stand beside me. When he spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically gentle. “We did not survive for all those years just to give up now.”
“Is it giving up?” The hollowness in Quill’s voice echoed in my chest. “Doesn’t feel that way.”
Fuck. This was bad. So very bad. “How does it feel?”
“Like nothing.” Quill’s eyelids drifted closed, the simple act of holding them open too much for him now. “Numb. It’s wonderful.”
With those words, he slipped into unconsciousness once more.
