Page 2

Chapter 2

Storm

Stray droplets of rain landed on Storm’s shoulders as he strode across the craggy parking lot toward the Rink. It didn’t look like much from the outside, with its rusted metal walls, but the humans had really turned the inside around. It still looked like a skating rink, but it was a useable space, at least. Padded training mats covered the old skating floor, with wooden dummies and target boards for practicing. The disco ball, colored lights, and mirrored wall were kind of a hilarious juxtaposition, but somehow it worked.

The others’ cars were already there, and his enhanced hearing made it possible to hear the raised voices from within. He blew out a gusty sigh. What the fuck were they arguing about? The meeting hadn’t even started yet.

He’d woken up at sunset to a text message from Wolf.

Meeting at Rink. Something’s come up.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Things had been quiet since Ira’s escape from the guild. They didn’t know about the Rink—yet, at least—which meant it was something of a safe haven from both the paladins and the demons alike. Lilith, the halfling owner of In Extremis, had been pissed at them ever since the paladins attacked the club in search of Ira. Storm used to be the bouncer there, but he hadn’t worked there since they’d set the place on fire. And while Lilith hadn’t been happy about his retirement, she’d let him go with surprisingly little fuss. He’d always known his position was easily replaceable, and it probably didn’t come as a big surprise that he wanted to leave after he’d been stabbed by a paladin’s holy blade. It was mostly healed now, but it still ached sometimes in a way that made him feel very mortal . He liked being a bouncer well enough, but he didn’t want to die for it. So he threw his lot in with these misfits.

Ira had been with them for about eight weeks. It wasn’t long in the grand scheme of things. He supposed it was just a matter of time until something happened. Trouble followed this group like flies on shit.

The gang was all there, standing around the old air hockey table they used for a conference table now. Angela and Zachary, teens who’d basically come with the purchase of the Rink, were sitting on the half-wall that separated the old arcade area from the training floor and watching the argument like the peanut gallery at a tennis match, their eyes bouncing back and forth. They spent a lot of time there, because their dad was a drunk who never had time for them.

Shadrach and Xyra were leaning against the glass snack bar with beers in hand. They, like Storm, were more removed from this group than the others. Xyra had left In Extremis after the fire at the same time as Storm. Shadrach, a leviathan, was mostly there for entertainment, as far as Storm could tell. By the table, the humans, Alex, Luke, and Ira, were on one side of the table and arguing with their demonic lovers. Talon, Malachi, and Wolf were on the other side of the table, although Wolf was edging around it like he was ready to surrender.

“What’s happening?” Storm asked Xyra.

She flicked a lock of long, midnight blue hair over her shoulder. “Ira got a phone call. Somebody from the guild wants to call a truce. The demons think it’s a trap. The humans think it’s worth a shot. Nobody is seeing eye to eye.”

“It’s too dangerous ,” Talon said in a way that suggested he’d said it many times already.

“We can handle dangerous,” Alex said—in the same way.

“ You are absolutely not running point on this,” Talon said. Storm had never seen him so protective of anyone the way he was protective of Alex. It was like meeting Alex, back when Alex was still a paladin, had completely rewired Talon’s leviathan brain.

“Neither are you,” Malachi said to Luke, gentler but no less stubborn.

Luke sighed, rubbing a hand over his scarred jaw. “It’s Nathan, Mal. He’s not like the others. He wouldn’t be leading us into a trap.”

“Wouldn’t I have said something if I thought this was a trap?” Ira added, meeting Wolf at the edge of the table and letting the beefy halfling fold him into his arms.

“You don’t always see everything ,” Talon pointed out.

“That’s a good point,” Wolf said, half-muffled by Ira’s hair. He’d once been the bartender of In Extremis. Now he spent his days with a prophet of the Lord. Life was weird as fuck.

“Hey!” Ira protested, slapping Wolf’s forearm around his middle. “Whose side are you on?”

“Whatever side keeps you safe,” Wolf replied matter-of-factly.

On Xyra’s other side, Shadrach rolled his eyes so hard his head moved.

“Why are you here?” Storm asked him. “I didn’t think you cared about any of this.”

Shadrach shrugged one shoulder. “Boredom, curiosity. The most lethal of combinations.”

“Mm,” Storm agreed. “Tell me about it.” If there was one thing he’d learned about eternity, it’s that it was boring .

“We can’t just turn him down,” Luke said. “If he’s reaching out, this could be good for us. With Lilith still pissed at us, this might be our chance to finally take some of the heat off ourselves.”

“Treasure, you can’t ask me to let you walk into a potential trap,” Malachi said. His long black hair was shaved over one ear, and with black skinny jeans and a black band T-shirt, he looked more like a rockstar than a demon. Only his red irises gave away the truth. Silver rings decorated the fingers that lifted imploringly at Luke. Storm couldn’t believe he’d gone from partying at In Extremis to calling someone ‘treasure.’

“Then come with me,” Luke replied.

“No,” Talon said sternly. “None of the humans are doing this.”

“It’s not any safer for you guys!” Alex exploded. “They all have holy weapons. You can’t heal quickly from a holy injury, remember? We actually have a better chance of surviving being stabbed by one of those swords than you do. With your blood in us, we’ll still heal fast.”

“You don’t really think telling me you might be stabbed is how to talk me into this, do you?” Talon asked. “Besides, in order to stab one of us, they’d have to actually beat us in a fight. We can take care of ourselves.”

“Are you implying that we can’t ?” Alex rejoined.

Storm tuned them out. It was interesting that the guild was reaching out now to call a truce. Their little group was still tiny. The guild had them far outnumbered and outgunned. What changed? Why did their bloodthirsty commander suddenly change his mind about how to deal with them? Either it was a trap, like Talon suspected, or… the paladins had a change of heart? Storm had to admit, a trap was the more likely answer. If it wasn’t a trap, they were at least hiding something. Weren’t any of them curious about what that could be?

They weren’t going to come to an agreement any time soon, it seemed, so he stepped forward to throw a wrench in all their plans and said, “I’ll do it.”

Both sides of the table stopped and turned toward him.

“What?” Talon asked.

“You don’t want any of the humans to do it, because it’s probably a trap. But the humans won’t leave it alone, because it might not be a trap. So I’ll do it. Give me the human’s phone number, and I’ll run point. We’ll find out what kind of man he is when he’s stuck working with a demon rather than one of the humans like he expects.” And he knew they’d all go for it. The demons would just be glad their humans weren’t in the guild’s sights. The humans would allow it because they wanted to know what this Nathan had to say. Storm was the most obvious one for the job. He didn’t have a human to fret over him, and he wasn’t stupid enough to fall for a trap by trusting too easily.

Talon smirked.

Ira nodded slowly, studying him in a way that left him feeling exposed. “Yes. I think that’s the right course of action.”

And that pretty much decided it. If the prophet decided it was the right thing to do, the others were easily convinced. Ira gave him the paladin’s contact information—Nathan Accardi. Apparently he was Alex’s old squad captain.

“Anything I should know about this guy before I introduce myself?” he asked as he plugged the paladin’s name and number into his phone.

Alex and Luke both opened their mouths, but Talon cut them off. “Yeah. These guys like him and will tell you he’s different, but he obviously doesn’t disagree enough to actually walk away from what they’re doing. So watch your back.”

“And my front,” Storm promised.

Alex shot Talon a halfhearted glare. “Nate’s really not a bad guy. Yeah, he’s a paladin. Yeah, he’s still standing with the guild in spite of the things they’ve done. But he’s not the type to attack without cause.”

“If he says the meeting is legit, it’s legit,” Luke added. “He was always one of the good ones.”

Storm studied their earnest faces and Talon’s exasperated one for a moment. “Didn’t you used to think Sloan was one of the good ones, too?”

Alex and Luke looked at each other and grimaced.

Storm nodded. “Thought so. I’ll reserve judgment about this guy, but he’s looking unfavorable right now. I’m gonna grab a drink, and then I’ll shoot him a text.”

“Try to be nice?” Alex asked. “It’s okay to be wary, but don’t be unnecessarily aggressive. We don’t want to spoil this if it could turn out to be something good.”

“I’m never unnecessarily aggressive,” Storm deadpanned.

Talon’s mouth twitched. “Didn’t I once see you throw a guy to the dance floor and shove a bottleneck down his throat?”

Alex looked aggrieved.

Storm bit back a smile. “Yep. That was necessary.”

Talon cackled.

* * *

While the others branched off to start training, Storm wandered over to the secondhand sofa they bought for the meeting area and sat down, his phone in one hand and a beer in the other. While the humans swung their swords and their demon lovers ogled them, Storm sat in the back of the room, making first contact with the new potential trouble in their lives.

Ira gave me your phone number. I will be your point of contact. You can call me Storm.

There. Nice and forthright. It got his point across. He wasn’t doing this to make friends, so he didn’t really care if he seemed abrasive.

Storm. Hi. I’m Nathan. I’m familiar with the others, but not you. Are you a halfling?

The moment of truth. Would Nathan accept him or balk?

I am. They’re all understandably wary of dealing with a paladin, so I volunteered.

That was kind of you. I mean you no harm. All of you.

Well, damn. He’d expected at least a little resistance. Maybe this guy wasn’t as bad as Talon wanted to believe. Of course, maybe Nathan was lying. It would be easy to seem accepting over text. That didn’t make him trustworthy.

As much as they’d like to believe that, I’ll be a little harder to convince.

Then it’s good they chose you. There are still plenty of paladins who would like to target you guys. I’m trying to show them there’s a better way.

It was easy to say pretty words when they weren’t face-to-face. Storm felt he could get a better read on him in-person. He knew a liar when he saw one. Even the best ones had tells.

Why don’t we meet?

The three little dots bounced for a moment, and then stopped. They appeared again—and disappeared.

“Geez, just spit it out.”

Yes, that would be fine. Tomorrow at noon? I’m on patrol rn.

Ah, Storm was surprised he was texting him back at all, then. Weren’t patrols supposed to be dangerous?

Yeah, just let me know where, and I’ll meet you.

Noon wasn’t his favorite time of day, and he suspected the human had chosen it on purpose to have him wrong-footed during the meeting. That was fine. Two could play that game.