Page 35 of Guarded (Hopeless Blessed #3)

“Other supes don’t know about it because it happens so rarely,” Micah said. “We’re taught about the dangers of losing control from a very early age. Those who do are rarely left alive long enough for anyone to learn what happens next.”

I knew enough about that day to know that hadn’t happened with Lyle. “Yet you two let him live.”

“Not by choice.” Nox scowled murderously. “Trust me, if it wouldn’t have put the Seraphim in danger, Lyle would’ve been wiped from existence a long time ago.”

Micah grunted in agreement. “And now Juniper are paying the price for our choice. They’re being ruled by an unstable leader who is determined to take them all down with him.

It’s complicated to explain, but the reality is this—if Lyle’s condition gets out before Juniper or ourselves can take Gloria down, they could all be punished as a result. ”

Nox rubbed at his chin. “Lyle is a cunt, but an intelligent one. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s put safeguards in place to protect himself in favour of his unit.”

“He sounds like a real piece of shit.” Flames licked at my fingers as my demon poised, waiting. “What does this have to do with Noah?”

“Juniper asked Noah to assist them with Lyle for the duration of the conference.”

I went deadly still. Assist? What the fuck did that mean?

“I won’t lie to you, Jeremiah,” Micah continued, “I’m concerned as fuck. While I can empathise with the unit’s concerns, I don’t like what they’ve asked of Noah. Not one bit. The things I heard Lyle saying to Noah…”

He trailed off and my eyes narrowed. “Wait, walk back a bit. What exactly has Noah been asked to do?”

The heat was rising in the room again, but for a different reason this time. From how Nox was glowering, it wasn’t just from me either .

Micah sighed. “Atlas, the second, asked Noah to contain Lyle. As Juniper were hosting, they couldn’t spare enough members to hold him.”

Nox’s brows drew together. “But Noah can? Hold him alone, I mean?”

Micah shot him a significant look. “I think Noah has been holding back on us as to how powerful he is.”

The knowledge stunned Nox, but not me. I already knew my mate was one of a kind. “What does ‘holding him’ entail?”

“Lyle’s been confined to his room. Noah is guarding him.”

My heart picked up pace. I didn’t like the sound of this. “Alone?”

“For the most part.” Guilt flashed over Micah’s face. “I swear, I didn’t know. I didn’t realise what exactly he was going through until last night. Every time I asked after him, Juniper said he was fine.”

Micah’s words were creating tiny fault lines in my skin. Cracks that expanded with each new thing he told me.

“After seeing Lyle and experiencing some of what Noah’s been going through…” Micah’s voice thickened and he paused, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry, Jeremiah. I failed Noah this week.”

“You didn’t know,” Nox said, tucking Micah under his arm. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is.”

Two pairs of eyes cut to me. One pair full of shame, the other, murder.

Nox gave a low growl. “Careful, Jeremiah.”

“He’s right,” Micah said heavily, putting a hand on Nox’s knee to keep him seated. “Noah is part of the Seraphim. He’s my responsibility. It was on me to check up on Noah myself, rather than relying on what others told me.”

My gaze was unforgiving. “Did you know he was anxious about going?”

To his credit, Micah didn’t look away. “He didn’t say anything, but…yes. I knew it’d be hard for him. I tried to dissuade him from attending, Jeremiah, I really did.”

“Why would Noah go out of his way to help someone if he knew he’d be treated like shit?”

“If I had to hazard a guess, Noah’s intervention is more likely due to guilt than anything else.”

I frowned. “Guilt?”

“For leaving the unit.” Micah shook his head sadly. “It’s no small thing to walk away from the angels you’ve trained and fought alongside for centuries.”

My gut twisted. While I was loyal to my demonic friends, it was a relationship born of necessity. None of us had chosen to be there. There were no noble notions or sense of duty, just a base need to survive.

Despite all of that, I couldn’t imagine walking away from any of them. Not permanently. They were my family. The only one I’d ever truly known.

For Noah to have willingly chosen to do so…

“It must’ve been awful,” I said eventually, studying my hands. “Whatever it was that happened to lead him to that decision.”

“And that’s a story for Noah, and Noah alone to tell you,” Micah said.

I agreed. Noah was the one I wanted to hear it from.

“You should’ve tried harder to get him to stay behind.” I glared down at my knuckles as I cracked them repeatedly. “You should never have allowed him to be put in this position in the first place.”

I added another item to my list. One he’d probably protest about, but I didn’t give a fuck. He was my mate, and I was going to make it happen.

Noah deserves to be protected.

“Jeremiah.” Micah’s voice was quiet but firm.

I looked up to find his gaze softer than expected.

“I get it, I do. If I found out Nox had been trapped in a room with someone he hated, that he’d been subjected to the abuse Noah undoubtedly has, I’d be furious.

I’d want vengeance, especially against the person who was supposed to safeguard him. ”

My demon was roaring, the cracks deepening. Nox tensed, ready to jump between us if needed.

I wouldn’t lie, I was considering it. Micah was right—I was furious. More so than I’d ever been in my life.

“I let him go because he wants to repair his relationship with Juniper,” Micah said steadily. “Because I know losing them hurt him.”

My hands were shaking. “And why did you let Noah guard Lyle?”

“Because I respect him too much to stop him,” Micah said calmly. “Noah is grown and capable of making his own decisions.”

Fuck. Fuck. I couldn’t be mad at him for that. Micah was right—Noah was more than capable of deciding what he should do.

Choice was a foreign concept for most demons, myself included. It hadn’t existed for me until I left Hell. I’d only tasted it for a short time, and I already knew I wouldn’t want it taken away from me again.

I didn’t want it taken away from Noah either.

“From what I gather, members of Juniper were spending what free time they had with them so Noah had a chance to rest,” Micah said. “But he refused to leave the room.”

There was so much pressure on my chest that I felt like I was suffocating. “Why would he do that?”

Micah thought about it briefly. “Aside from the fact that he’s more powerful than the rest of them? Honestly, I think Noah knew that if he stayed, all of Lyle’s ire would be directed at him. If I had to guess, he did it to give Juniper a reprieve from his cruelty.”

“Fool,” Nox said softly, shaking his head. “Noah had to know Lyle would be crueller to him than anyone else.”

“Why?” I rasped. “Why would you think that?”

“Because they were lovers,” Nox said bluntly. Micah turned to glare at him, but Nox just shrugged. “What? It’s not like Jeremiah isn’t going to find out.”

I cracked my knuckles again, trying to keep my demon down as I asked the next question. “Are they still together?”

“No,” Micah said, just as Nox said, “Fuck no.”

I nodded slowly. “Got it. So, Lyle is Noah’s shitty ex?—”

“Shitty is a huge understatement,” Micah said. “I don’t know much about their past, but I know enough about Lyle. He’s toxic to his core. I’ll never understand how someone as sweet as Noah got tangled up with the likes of him.”

I ran through everything I’d learned. Noah had been anxious about the conference but went because he cared about the unit. He’d ended up guarding his horrendous ex and putting up with his bullshit. It was bad enough that Micah was concerned about him.

Cruel. That was the word they’d used.

Maybe it was time Lyle was introduced to someone who knew the true meaning of the word.

Someone like me .

I had just two questions left. Number one: Why hadn’t Noah told me any of this or contacted me about it?

And number two: Why was Noah still there if the conference was done?

That was the one I asked.

“There are two supe doctors coming to evaluate Lyle,” Micah explained. “Noah decided to stay until they arrived.”

Once again, I found myself snarling at the angel. “And you left him there?”

Micah flinched but answered me all the same. “I didn’t want to, believe me. We argued and I tried to put my foot down, but Noah can be very…persuasive. And stubborn.”

“I’m well aware,” I muttered.

“He insisted he’d be back this morning.” Micah smiled sadly. “I don’t think he meant to stand you up, Jeremiah.”

No. I didn’t think that either. After what I’d just heard though, I didn’t care that he had. I just wanted to know that Noah was safe and happy.

Ideally, with a few hundred miles between him and his ex.

“I told him if he wasn’t back by seven o’clock tonight that Nox and I would be fetching him.” Micah glanced at his watch. “We’ve got a few hours yet, but I suspect you don’t want to wait that long.”

“You’re right.” I got to my feet. “I don’t want to wait.”

“I understand,” Micah said. “I’d do the same in your shoes.”

Someone in a different room called Micah’s name, and he stood up with a sigh. “You two okay wrapping this up?”

“So long as Nox can tell me how to find Noah, we’re fine.”

Nox nodded to confirm he could before watching his mate leave with a genial smile on his face. The second Micah closed the door behind him, it dropped away. The murderously cold mask he now wore was one I was very familiar with. He’d worn it every day downstairs.

We all had. It was the only way we’d survived.

“Don’t underestimate Lyle,” he said abruptly.

“I don’t give a shit how he’s been compromised.

He’s in this situation because of his own mistakes.

Mistakes made through his greed for power and control.

If it weren’t for the pain it’d rain down on the Seraphim, I would’ve executed the cunt way before now. ”

My blood ran cold. “Tell me everything you know about him.”

Fire melted the ice in my veins as Nox spoke. As he told me how Lyle had attacked him and Micah. How he’d tried to drag them up to Heaven to be punished.

How he’d almost lost control and ended them all.

I’d heard this story before, a few days after it happened, but I needed to hear it again. I wanted every damned detail.

“Tell me again, why didn’t you execute him?”

Nox exhaled roughly. “We couldn’t. Heaven’s politics are even more convoluted than Hell’s, if you can believe it. The Seraphim are in a tenuous position thanks to that bitch Gloria. Right now, they’re just trying to fly under the radar and not attract attention.”

My mind flashed back to the day I’d met Noah. To the arch who’d been threatening the human mate of Ezekiel. Bitch seemed like an apt term. “They can’t do that forever.”

“They don’t need to. Just long enough to gather the evidence they need to take her down.”

Enough. I’d heard enough. The big picture was too much to comprehend while there was a much smaller, much more important one I needed to focus on .

One that involved me being back at Noah’s side as soon as possible. “Where can I find him?”

Nox gave me the coordinates to a location in southern Italy. “I’ll get someone here to notify Juniper. I’ll have them meet you at the edge of the compound to lift the wards and take you straight to Noah.”

“Thanks, Nox.” We both got to our feet and I held my hand out to him. “I owe you one.”

He shook my hand and gave me a grim smile. “You can pay me back by getting your mate as far away from that fucker as possible.”