Page 49 of Guarded (Hopeless Blessed #3)

Jeremiah

S ix 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.

“The sin barely bought him three minutes,” Nox whispered in horror. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

I rubbed a hand over his forehead. “For a start, we aren’t letting him go through this alone. He might want to give up, but that’s just because he’s not strong enough to fight right now. So, until he is, we fight for him. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded, not that I’d expected anything else. Darius was right—we’d survived before, and we were all going to survive again. Together. It was what we should’ve been doing since the first time he’d collapsed. We’d na?vely believed he’d been taking the help we’d found for him.

We wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

“Good.” I exhaled slowly. “Let’s come up with a rota so we can make sure someone is always here with him. I know he wants to isolate himself, but I suspect that’s the worst thing for him right now.”

“What about sin?” Dahlia asked. “Are any of us prepared to bring one-night stands back?”

The silence was deafening. Well, I guessed this was a good a time as any. “Um, no. But I can ask Noah if we can hook up here. Maybe work some kind of schedule out with Nox.”

Was it weird to plan your sex life to help a friend? It probably should have been, but if it gave Quill the strength he needed, I didn’t give a fuck. I suspected Noah wouldn’t either.

The smile Dahlia gave was a rare one. There was no snark. No poison. Just genuine happiness. “Are you finally together?”

They all knew what had been happening over the past few months. I mean, they’d literally been there for the initial fuck-up. I’d kept them up to date on how I wanted to stop travelling and that I was ready to commit, but something seemed to be holding Noah back.

“We are.” Now I was the one smiling. Grinning goofily would be more accurate. “And it’s just…fucking perfect. Ho nestly.”

Dahlia’s smile dipped a little at the edges. “I’m glad it’s worked out for you. And you, Nox. Satan knows you both deserve to be happy.”

Darius had sunk back against the wall like he was hoping it would swallow him. If that weren’t enough of a clue, the scowl on his face left little to the imagination about how he was feeling.

Instinctively, I knew it wasn’t because he wasn’t happy for me and Nox. No, Darius was hiding something from us. If I had to guess, life with his own fated mate wasn’t going smoothly.

“As do both of you,” I said. I thought they’d both met their mates, but maybe I was wrong. “You’ll find your happiness and your mates, I’m sure.”

Darius laughed bitterly. “Oh, I know exactly where mine is. Doesn’t mean happiness is on the horizon for me.” His phone buzzed before any of us could respond, and whatever was on the screen had him shoving off the wall and striding for the door.

“Fuck.” Nox raked a hand through his hair. “Do you think we’ll get him to open up?”

“Likely as much as Dahlia will,” I said. “Unless she’s going to blow us all away by telling us what’s going on with her.”

She laughed, a bit of the spark returning to her eyes. “Things change, my friend, but not that much.”

Quite. Of all of us, Dahlia and Darius were the ones who held their cards and emotions close to their chests. It had taken a couple of centuries before I was even aware they liked me.

Well, tolerated me enough to not want to execute me for their own gain. But for demons, that was practically a declaration of platonic love .

I felt someone cross the wards and stiffened. Two people. “Is that…?”

My question was answered almost instantly as Darius strode back into the room with two others on his heels. One was Tyler, who instantly beelined for Quill, and the other was a demon.

“Mori,” I said in surprise, striding over to shake his hand. “What are you doing here?”

The second-born son of Lucifer wasn’t someone I was overly familiar with. Everyone in Hell knew him, but that didn’t mean he knew who we all were.

Given his brothers’ mates had made a deal with us to secure their freedom, he definitely knew who we were now.

“Tyler said it was urgent,” the son of Lucifer said, shaking my hand before turning to do the same with Dahlia and Nox. “He asked me to bring him.”

That was decent of them both. Flying was faster than any car or train, especially the way we did it. “Thank you.”

Mori’s gaze flitted to Quill, his brows tugging together. “What’s wrong with him? Are you sure it’s Tyler you need and not Toby?”

Toby was the other vampire who’d attended to Lyle. If I remembered correctly, his specialism was physical medicine. “No. Tyler is definitely who he needs.”

Along with the rest of us. We’d failed Quill so many times already.

We weren’t going to do it again.

S everal hours later, Quill was conscious and in an emergency session with Tyler. Tyler, who he hadn’t seen since his very first appointment.

Now we knew the full extent of what Quill was facing, we’d be making sure he attended all future sessions and did whatever homework he was given by his doctor.

Before Quill had woken up, we’d filled Tyler in on the situation as far as we knew it. He’d held nothing back in his frank appraisal of how serious this was. As antidepressants and other medication didn’t work on supes, therapy and support were all we could offer Quill.

We were going to make sure he got as much of both of those as possible.

Fortunately, Mori knew that vamps generated enough sin for it to have an impact on other demons. Several slit throats later, Quill was awake and ready to talk.

Okay, ready was an exaggeration, but a few death glares from the rest of us had him falling in line.

Thanks to our superior hearing, Tyler had turfed us all out of the house to allow Quill confidentiality.

Dahlia and Darius took off in opposite directions, but not before promising to return the next day.

Mori was going to wait to fly Tyler home, so Nox suggested the two of them go to a nearby pub.

They’d invited me along, but I’d declined.

With Nox on Quill duty until tomorrow, I was free to go and see Noah.

It had only been a few hours, but the pull back to him was aching something fierce.

Nox hadn’t teased me for refusing. He’d simply clapped me on the shoulder and promised that the pull would ease the more time we spent with each other.

I wasn’t sure I wanted that. I kind of liked that it was encouraging us to be together as much as possible.

Even so, I needed a few minutes to clear my head. Thoughts of what Quill was going through battled with enormous guilt for not helping him earlier.

I sent Noah a message as I strolled along the road.

Jeremiah

I’m heading back, but I think I’m going to walk if you don’t mind?

Noah

Why would I mind?

I don’t know, but I wanted to check lol.

Of course it’s fine, Jem. You do whatever you need.

Are you okay?

Lying to him didn’t even cross my mind. Noah deserved to know how I was feeling during the good times and the bad,

Jeremiah

No, not really, but I’m hoping the walk will help.

Quill was in a worse state than I was expecting.

Fuck, Jem. I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?

That had me snickering. Yeah, there was, but it probably wasn’t any of the things he was thinking right now. But hey, at least we’d both get an orgasm out of it.

I was so focused on responding that I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me.

Or the ones in front of me .

I didn’t sense any of the shifters surrounding me.

At least, not until it was far too late.

My phone went flying as one of them tackled me to the ground. My brain processed what was happening faster than a human’s would have, but not fast enough.

My heart was in my mouth as I landed a kick to the stomach of the one pinning me. Encasing myself in flame, I reached for the dagger at my waist.

But I was too slow. They were too close. Too strong.

There were too many of them.

That didn’t stop me fighting. I lashed out with my powers, fists, and feet, hitting whatever I could reach. But every time I took one of them down, another popped up in their place.

One got his arm around my neck. I clawed at the back of his hand, unleashing wave after wave of deadly flames.

The shifter holding me began to roar, but his grip didn’t loosen. “Fucker is burning me alive!”

Too fucking right I was. If I got out of this hold, I’d burn the twat dead too.

Instinctively, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

My flames sputtered out as black dots filled my vision. I continued thrashing in the shifter’s grip, but then two more grabbed me, one on each arm.

A sneering face appeared at the end of the tunnel. “This is for the Gracy clan, you murdering cunt.”

Like I hadn’t worked that out already. Talk about my past catching up to me. Hopefully they’d let me die before biting me. One shifter alone didn’t have enough venom in their bite to execute a higher demon.

But the several surrounding me? Together, they’d make it work.

The last of my vision went, and Noah appeared. Not literally, but in my mind. He was smiling at me sadly, touching my face as he wished me farewell.

I’m sorry, I wanted to tell him. Sorry that my past had caught up with me. Sorry for not paying better attention to my surroundings. Sorry I hadn’t fought harder.

Most of all, I was sorry for taking our time for granted. For believing we’d have eternity together. For not spending every fucking second at his side, starting the moment I’d realised my mate was in the compound.

I’m sorry I didn’t give us more time.

The final sense to go before death is hearing. Having died many times before, I knew to expect it.

What I wasn’t expecting was hearing the barked instruction: “Quickly, we need to get him downstairs before he wakes up.”

The dread I felt at that was far greater than when I thought I was about to be executed. They were taking me to Hell. To Lucifer.

Which meant Noah would come after me.

His vow to save me had once given me comfort.

Now it caused sheer terror.

Noah couldn’t enter Hell without falling. He couldn’t save me. None of the Seraphim could.

And if he died, he might pay with his immortality.

I’d had a lot of realisations in the past few minutes, but that was the most horrifying of all.