Page 68 of Alastair

As he tried to walk past me, I placed a hand on his chest. “Not so fast.” Gods, his hard muscle beneath my palm was almost enough to distract me from my mission—that mission being uncovering more of the truth. An obvious truth. But I wanted to hear it directly from him.

Needed to hear it.

“Tell me. Please.”

“Yes,” he said, more as an annoyed hiss. “I am untouched in all ways. Does this please you, Pride?”

“It does.” I smiled.

“You’re trying my last nerve.”

“If that’s true, why are you blushing?”

“It’s from anger,” Lazarus responded, straight-faced and voice emotionless. His cheeks though? Still pink.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “I’ve seen your angry face. This isn’t it. This is a face I’ve never seen before.”

“Well, take a good look at it. You won’t see it again.” Lazarus gripped my wrist but didn’t try to move my hand from his chest. Instead, he yanked me closer, using his other arm to catch me around the waist.

“We’ll see about that.”

“Must everything be a challenge to you?” he asked, keeping a stern expression even while the corner of his mouth twitched. “Perhaps I need to take you up on your earlier suggestion and bend you over my knee to spank you.”

“You’d have to catch me first.”

“Oh?” His blue eyes came alight with a determination that thrilled me. My cock stirred as he grazed his teeth down my neck. “It seems as though I’ve already caught you.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat caused us both to flip around to the path leading from the villa.

“Pardon the intrusion,” Penemuel said, his awkward expression a sign that he’d rather be anywhere than there with us. “Daman sent off the instructions. He said all went well.”

Michael, Lazarus, and I had approved of them earlier.

“How long will it take for the brainwashing to take effect?” Lazarus asked in a cold voice that was the complete opposite of the one he’d used on me moments earlier. He released my waist and faced the fallen angel.

“We should start seeing results by dawn,” Penemuel answered. “By tomorrow evening, if my estimation is correct, it should spread to roughly sixty percent of the human population. Especially to those on any form of social media. Daman helped make videos too that he uploaded to some sort of clock app.”

“Clock app?” Lazarus asked.

“One all the mortals are obsessed with,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “I saw a video of a cat in a pirate costume earlier that was quite adorable. Supposedly, the app is the current hot trend in this realm, used for both marketing and socializing. Daman assured me many people would see it.”

“Excellent,” I said. “Your contribution is appreciated.”

Penemuel nodded to me. “It’s the least I could do. I only hope everything goes according to plan.”

“Thank you for helping Pen,”I projected into Daman’s mind.

“You’re welcome, I guess.”Typical Daman response. He always had to have a bit of snark.“So you finally kissed the angel douchebag?”

“Were you spying on me?”

“No.”A short pause.“Bell told me. He saw you two eating each other’s faces.”

I surveyed the courtyard, seeing no annoying brother in sight. He was gone now, at least. I had been too focused on Lazarus to notice anyone else. Not a good thing considering we were at war. Although the island was surrounded by a protective barrier, it wasn’t impenetrable. Letting my guard down was careless.

Nowhere was truly a safe haven. The loss of our mansion taught me that.

“So I take it all of you now know?”I asked.