Page 22 of Galen

I glared over at Castor. He wiggled his pierced eyebrows up and down, and that stupid grin returned. I wanted to punch him.

When we entered the entertainment room, Raiden looked up from where he was leaning over the pool table. He shot the stripe into the upper-left pocket before coming over to us. His bare chest had claw marks from where a shade had attacked him. The wound had been deep and gushing blood an hour ago but appeared as faint scratches now thanks to our quick healing abilities.

“Where is he?” Raiden asked.

“Sleeping,” I answered.

Gray sat up on the couch, his hair messy from sleep. “I want to meet the human.”

“Me too,” Bellamy said, entering the room. His golden hair hung in waves to the middle of his ears, and his eyes flashed to brown, then to hazel. “He smells divine. Like a spring morning before it rains.”

I squeezed my hand into a fist. “Lay a finger on him and I’ll chop off the part of your body you love the most.”

“Now that’s just cruel.” Bellamy tipped back his glass of wine infused with ambrosia. “What did my cock ever do to you?”

“I know you, Lust,” I growled, taking a step forward. “Keep. Your. Hands. Off. Him.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll keep my hands off him.” Bellamy smiled. “But what about other parts of me?”

I left the room before I could rip his head off.

I had too much on my mind, which didn’t help my sour mood. Being around my brothers at the moment would only fuel my anger. They had a way of making it worse with their smart-ass comments and pestering personalities.

“Galen.”

I stopped in the hall and turned toward the open door to Alastair’s study. Stepping through the doorway, I saw him sitting in a high-back red chair, a book on his lap and a cup of hot tea beside him.

“Come in,” he said, his expression neutral.

“You want to bitch at me some more?”

He pressed his lips together. “Not exactly.”

Bracing myself for a lecture, I walked inside and sat in the chair beside him. Wood crackled in the fireplace in front of us, the warmth of it soothing.

Shelves lined the walls, filled with his favorite novels, a majority of them first editions. He’d known many of the authors. Slept with several of them too. The floor-to-ceiling windows showed trees and a rock garden, along with a bench for him to sit outside on nice days and read. His study was his sanctuary, the place he went when he needed to think or to get away from us for a while.

“Lazarus still hasn’t answered me,” Alastair said, staring at the crackling fire. “He must be dealing with problems elsewhere. Last we spoke, he said Phoenix and Belphegor were in Paris meeting with a powerful witch. The angels are keeping tabs on them in hopes of learning their plan. There’ve been demon attacks all over the world, more so than usual.”

Belphegor was a general of the underworld, and Phoenix was his newly appointed lieutenant. They were two of the most powerful beings in the underworld. They passed down orders and sent shades to do their dirty work. Belphegor was also Gray’s father. The rest of our fathers had been killed when Lucifer was defeated and locked away.

“They must be after the box,” I said, glancing over at the safe in which Alastair had placed it. Warding against demons marked the outside of the safe. Just as an extra precaution. “Why else would the shades be searching for it?”

“I’ve come to the same conclusion. Which brings me to my next point. The human.”

Here we go.

“We have these rules in place for a reason,” he continued. “Humans are not allowed here. Period. I never even brought Joseph here.”

“I know.”

“So tell me again why you felt it necessary to bring this human into our home.” Unlike earlier, he didn’t sound angry. He was truly perplexed by my actions.

Well, that made two of us. I told myself it had nothing to do with the way I felt when around Simon and everything to do with our duty as warriors.

“We’ve never dealt with anything like this before,” I responded. “The demons want whatever’s in that box. And Simon is caught in the middle. It’s our duty to protect humans from dark forces, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. The box left some kind of trace on him, I believe. It’s why the shades still think he has it, or at least, why they think he knows where it is. He’ll be safe here, at least until we can figure everything out.”

“What about after?” Alastair sipped his tea, then set it back on the table. “You told him about us. He won’t ever be able to go back to the real world now. Not with his memory intact anyway. He knows too much. It’s too dangerous.”