Page 50 of Guarded (Hopeless Blessed #3)

Noah

W hen Jem didn’t arrive within the next ten minutes, I didn’t panic. It was only a five-minute walk, so I just thought maybe he’d extended it. That perhaps he’d needed more time to clear his head after whatever had happened with Quill.

But when the twenty-minute mark rolled around, I started to worry. If it had just been about him being late, maybe I wouldn’t have been so stressed. He might not be close to my power levels, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a dangerous and powerful supe.

It wasn’t just that though. My instincts were shouting at me, getting louder with every minute that ticked by.

Something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

I had to find him. Now.

The Seraphim had scattered after our meeting, and I didn’t want to delay further by seeking one out. Instead, I texted the one I needed as I strode out of the front door.

Noah

I think something’s happened to Jeremiah. Can you search the CCTV along the route from his place to ours? He was walking.

Nate

On it.

You need the others to go with you?

No, it’ll slow me down. Have them on standby though please.

I launched myself into the air, letting my wings spread wide and catch the wind. The shouting of my instincts was a scream now. An insane pressure was pushing on my chest too, driving my wings faster.

It wasn’t a tug, but a crushing sensation. And it didn’t seem to be coming from the direction of Jem’s house.

No, it was coming from beneath my feet.

My stomach pitched. I couldn’t think of what that might mean. Not before I knew more.

If something had happened to Jem…if he’d been taken back to that place…

There’d be nothing to hold back my wrath.

I flew the route Jem would’ve taken, frantically searching the pavement for any sign of him. But there was nothing.

My mate was nowhere to be seen.

When I reached his house, I plummeted from the sky like a stone. I didn’t bother trying to soften my landing, cracking the tarmac as I landed. Jem wasn’t there, but Nox was. For some reason, one of the sons of Lucifer was there too. Mori. I thought that was his name.

Right then, I didn’t care .

Grabbing Nox’s arm, I barked in his face, “Where is he?”

Nox frowned. “Noah? What’s wrong?”

His brain wasn’t working fast enough. “Jeremiah. Where is he?”

Nox exchanged a confused look with Mori. “He said he was heading back to you. He hasn’t been gone long though. Maybe he got distracted.”

I tugged at my hair in frustration. “No. Something is wrong , Nox. I can feel it. Right here.”

I drilled a finger into my chest, right over my heart. The one Jem had owned long before today. “He’s in trouble, Nox. I don’t know where he is, and he’s in danger.”

“Fuck,” Nox swore. “Is he alive?”

I faltered. He had to be, right? I’d be able to tell…wouldn’t I? We weren’t bonded, but surely there’d be some sign?

Like a crushing weight on your chest making you feel like you can’t breathe?

I didn’t realise I’d dropped to my knees until I felt the tarmac beneath them. It couldn’t be possible. Jem had to be okay. He had to be.

Mori spoke above me. “He’s one of the demons who escaped Hell the day of the battle, yes?”

I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t breathe. Panic was choking me, my power rising and swirling like a sea in a storm.

Nox seemed to sense I wasn’t capable. “Yes, he was with us.”

Wings sounded above us. I didn’t bother to look up—I already knew it wasn’t Jem. There was a quiet murmuring, then strong hands grabbed my shoulders and squeezed, anchoring me. “It’s going to be okay, Noah.”

Micah.

“Then he’s alive,” Mori said, tapping at his phone and lifting it to his ear. “If he was in danger of being executed, my brothers and I would’ve been summoned as a result of the deal they made. As we haven’t been, we have to assume that’s not the plan.”

I exhaled, almost dizzy with relief. Okay, that was something. Jeremiah couldn’t be executed without inciting the wrath of Mori and his siblings.In my panic, I’d forgotten that.

Mori stepped away, speaking rapidly. Micah took the opportunity to bring his mouth close to my ear.

“Hold it together, Noah. We’re all here for you and none of us will rest until Jeremiah is safely back at your side.

You’re not in this alone, but I need you to hold on to your control. Can you do that?”

I took some calming breaths. Micah was warning me not to cross the same line Lyle had, andhe was right to.

I’d never been this close before, but the knowledge that my mate was in danger had me dangerously near the edge.

Especially knowing that we had no bond. If Jem was executed, I wouldn’t be taken with him.

I’d be left to mourn him and everything I’d lost. It was a fate so terrible I couldn’t even fathom it. You weren’t supposed to exist once the other half of your soul was gone.

I was going to do everything I could to ensure that didn’t happen, starting with pulling myself together. I mentally grabbed my power with both hands and wrestled it into submission. Losing control wouldn’t get Jem back.

Using it strategically just might.

When I was fully in control, I nodded at Micah. He removed his hands and I stood up. The panic was easing now, leaving behind a cool determination.

Jem was mine, and I wouldn’t rest until he was back where he belonged. At my side, bonded to me for the rest of eternity.

Mori returned to us, his face grim. “My brothers are flying up as fast as they can. The deal hasn’t kicked in for any of us, but if you’re convinced he’s in danger?—”

“He is,” I said firmly. “I know it.”

“Then the more of us the better,” Mori concluded. “They’re bringing my mate too, but leaving their mates behind with some of the other supes.”

“I’ll alert the rest of the Seraphim too,” Micah said. “We didn’t know what was going on but…”

I tuned the rest of his words out. I focused on the tug, letting it guide me. He was too far away, the bond guiding me a certain distance before ghosting me.

My phone buzzed and I rushed to answer it. I barely acknowledged Nate’s name on the screen before putting it to my ear. “Have you found him?”

“Yes and no.” The gravity of his tone had foreboding clawing up my spine. “He was visible on the CCTV until he reached 16 New Street. Then he just…vanished.”

“A compulsion net?”

“I’d assume so,” Nate said. “It didn’t catch any of his attackers, which suggests they were lying in wait to ambush him.”

“They?”

Micah, Nox and Mori fell silent, monitoring me closely.

“They,” Nate said. I could hear his fingers flying over the keyboard. “The cameras didn’t catch them there, but I ran a scan for the hour before he was spotted with a two-mile radius. It picks up all supes, but?—”

As much as I loved that he was thorough, I didn’t have time for this. “Get to the point, Nate.”

“Right, sorry. Eight shifters appeared two streets away from where the compulsion net was used, approximately thirty minutes before Jeremiah vanished.”

“Shifters,” I echoed. No. It couldn’t be. “Wolf shifters?”

“I’m not an expert, but I’d say so,” Nate said grimly. “Let me run their faces through my recognition software. I called you as soon as I spotted them, so I haven’t had a chance to do it yet.”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. Nate might piss me off ninety-five per cent of the time, but there was no denying that he had my back. “Thank you, Nate.”

As he fell silent, the only noise from his typing, Nox urgently grabbed my wrist. “Wolf shifters?”

From the fear in his eyes, I knew Nox had made the connection too. That he knew what Jeremiah had been forced to do.

“I don’t understand.” Mori folded his arms. “I know a wolf shifter. He’s an annoying fuck, but not generally murderous unless the situation warrants it.”

Nox began to explain the backstory to Mori, but that was when Nate spoke. “I got them. They removed the compulsion net on the outskirts of Slough. I’m tracking them west.”

West? Most wolf shifter clans were in the north. Why would they be taking him west?

“I can track him,” Mori was saying. “Do you have an item of his? It’ll be easier for me to pick up his imprint.”

That was right. Once upon a time, Mori had been Hell’s resident tracker.

“I’ve got them,” Nate said triumphantly. “God bless the UKs bizarre obsession with cameras on every corner. Okay, they’re…”

His voice faded away. “Nate? Where are they? ”

“Fuck, Noah.” He exhaled noisily, unable to hide his shock. “They’ve taken him through the portal to Hell.”

Numbness washed over me. Hell. They’d taken my Jem to the one place he was most terrified of.

His recurring nightmare, the one that chased him so often from sleep, was literally coming true.

I hung up on Nate without saying anything else. I had to get to him. Now.

I’d vowed I wouldn’t let him be imprisoned there ever again. That I’d destroy Hell one circle at a time until my mate was returned to me.

Jeremiah was about to discover that I was an arch of my word.

My rage condensed into an icy blade. One I’d wield with deadly accuracy.

The others were in the middle of a hurried conversation, but I spoke over them. “We don’t need you to track him. I know exactly where he is.”

Micah turned to me with a frown. “Where?”

I didn’t answer him, my gaze going to Nox. I don’t know what he read in my eyes, but he took a single step back, his hand going to his throat as he begged me. “No. Please. Don’t tell me he’s back there.”

His sorrow and fear echoed my own. We both knew what awaited Jeremiah in Hell.

He’d successfully escaped Lucifer and tasted the freedom he’d been forbidden from.

Lucifer couldn’t execute him, not with the deal they’d all made.

But he could punish him. From the stories Jem had told me, I knew Lucifer had no shortage of ways to make someone suffer.

Well, he wasn’t doing that to my mate. Not now, not ever again.

“I’m going to him.” I was already summoning the power I’d need to go to Hell. “I’m not wasting time going to the portal.”