Page 3

Chapter 3

Nathan

Perhaps it was mean to choose noon for a meeting, Nathan considered as he strode into the coffee shop and ordered a black coffee. But nobody said he had to be particularly accommodating. He didn’t know this halfling. This wasn’t even one of the halflings that the defectors were involved with, as far as he knew. He’d hoped his point of contact would be Ira. They’d parted on good terms when Ira left the guild. He’d even contacted Nathan to tell him that he’d left, and he was the one Nathan had called about the proposal for the truce. So it was a surprise to get a text from a halfling who said Nathan would have to go through him from now on. Maybe he should be as wary of the halfling as the halfling was of him.

Actually, he wasn’t sure that was fair. He had the whole Paladin Guild at his back. What did the defectors and their demons have? A club full of deviants and each other, he supposed. At least they hadn’t actively tried to kill anyone. Nathan couldn’t say the same for the guild. Strange that he was the less trustworthy one in this scenario, and the demon had the moral high ground.

With his coffee in hand, he claimed a sun-warmed booth by the window, facing the door. He took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. Too bitter, but he didn’t want to spend money on frivolous things when he should be focusing on the meeting he was about to take part in.

At exactly ten minutes after twelve, the door swung open and admitted the tallest, broadest, most muscled man Nathan had ever seen. Wearing a leather jacket and gleaming silver aviators, his hair was pale as snow. He strode to the counter and gruffly ordered a drink in a quiet, deep tone. The barista eyed him none too subtly, and Nathan couldn’t help doing the same. His jeans hugged his thick thighs and ass.

Nathan had never considered himself gay—or even bisexual. He’d only ever dated women, and what few relationships he’d tried to have had been like a firework, hot and exciting at first but always ending in disappointment. But he couldn’t deny that he was attracted. He was very, very attracted. So attracted, in fact, that he turned away, rubbing the back of his neck and staring out the window at nothing so he wouldn’t be caught staring at the pale-haired statue of perfection standing by the counter.

He was here for business. That man would probably punch him in the face if he caught him staring, anyway.

A figure swooped into the booth across from him. He turned his head—and his words died in his throat. It was him, the pale-haired man. He tugged his aviators down his nose just slightly, allowing Nathan to see crimson irises.

Oh, God, he’s a demon.

Embarrassment crawled up his neck, and he ducked his head. He could not be attracted to this demon. Absolutely not.

“Storm, I take it?”

“Mm-hm. And you’re Nathan Accardi.” He lifted something with whipped cream and caramel to his mouth and sucked on a green straw. Nathan tried very hard not to stare at the way his lips wrapped around it.

“H-How did you know?” he asked, taking a sip of his bitter brew and biting back a grimace.

Storm leaned in, his eyes obscured by his sunglasses. His hand slid across the formica table and tapped Nathan’s guild ring. Nathan’s mouth went dry when that warm finger brushed his scarred knuckle. He was thirty-three years old. He couldn’t swoon like this.

Storm’s heather gray shirt pulled tight across his chest as he sat back and draped one arm across the back of the booth. A shoe knocked against Nathan’s, and he tried not to outwardly react.

“So,” Storm said, “is this legit?”

“What?” Nathan asked, not following.

“This.” Storm gestured between the two of them. “The truce. Is it legit? Are your people really ready to play nice with us?”

“Ye—” He stopped, recalling Sloan’s guarded expression, Mark’s shaking head. It took him a moment to find the right words, finally settling on what he felt was most honest. “I want it to be. It was my idea. Sloan approved it for his own agenda, I’m sure, but I hope it’s the beginning of something different. I don’t want there to be sides.”

Storm leaned in. “What’s Sloan’s agenda?”

Nathan blew out a breath. “If he has one, he hasn’t told me about it. I think he wants to use this as an opportunity to get information about you guys, or maybe he just wants the truce to fail so he can say we tried and shut me up once and for all. But I’m hoping I can use it as an opportunity to show him and everyone else that we can all work together.”

One corner of Storm’s mouth quirked. “That’s very optimistic of you.”

Nathan hid behind his cup. “I don’t feel very optimistic these days, but thank you. I think.”

Storm’s easy, lopsided smile didn’t waver, and Nathan felt like a bug under a magnifying glass.

There was another reason Sloan had approved this meeting, so Nathan focused his attention on the next piece of business rather than the way that smile made him feel. He swallowed hard, remembering blood and viscera on pavement. He wouldn’t be forgetting that awful footage any time soon. “There’s something else.”

Storm’s head tilted, bathing his pale hair in golden sunlight.

“There’s been a murder. I floated the idea of the defectors having connections to the demonic world that we don’t have, and that’s another reason Sloan gave me the green light to contact you all for a truce, hoping you might know something about it.”

“What kind of murder?” Storm asked.

Nathan couldn’t hide his discomfiture. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. A young man was killed. We don’t know how exactly. Sloan was given the CCTV footage by a police friend who recognized it as an unusual death.”

“And you watched this footage?”

Nathan nodded, staring into the middle distance. “His chest exploded. An eyewitness claims she saw what looked like a hand emerging from his chest cavity just before he died.”

“A hand ?” Storm repeated, looking scandalized.

Nathan nodded again, pushing his coffee away. The acidic taste would do nothing for his nausea.

Storm stroked his sharply cut jaw. “Hm. I’ll talk to the others. Any chance you could get us access to that footage? It might help if we could see it for ourselves. Some of the demons are older than others. Talon or Shadrach would probably be your best option for a lead. They’ve been around for a long time.”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to Sloan. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind sending me a copy of it, if it would help.”

Storm tipped his head back and to one side. Nathan got the impression he was being studied. “Good. Now, tell me why you cared enough to suggest a truce between us to Sloan. Why do you care if there are sides?”

Nathan blinked. “Alex was a member of my squad. Luke Morgan sacrificed so much for the cause. Ira Faer was always kind and friendly, if a little quiet. They’re all good men. Whatever circumstances led them to leaving the guild, they don’t deserve to be killed for it. It’s enough that Alex and Luke were banished. But targeting them when they’ve done nothing wrong? It’s not like they’re plotting to attack the guild. There’s no law that says we can’t quit or retire, even if it’s never really been done before. They should be left alone. Whatever choices they make once they’re gone are their business. They’re not hindering the guild’s activity, so it shouldn’t matter.”

“What do you think about the choices they’ve made?” Storm asked.

Nathan faltered. “What I think doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. I want to hear what you think.”

It took him a moment to find his voice. “Why?”

Storm shrugged one large shoulder. “I’m sizing you up. That’s why Talon sent me.”

Nathan flushed. Right. He was only here because he had to be. He didn’t really care what Nathan thought—not on a personal level, anyway. “Okay. Well, I…” He paused, taking another sip of his cooling coffee to gather his thoughts. “I can’t say I understand why they made the choices they did, but like I said, there’s no law against leaving the guild. As long as they don’t try to harm us, I see no reason to cast any judgment on what they’ve done. If they’ve sinned in some way, that’s between them and God, not them and me.”

Storm leaned forward, putting his chin in his hands and his elbows on the table, looking gleeful. “Do you think it’s a sin to be with a demon, holy man?”

Nathan opened his mouth, but nothing came out. “Um.”

Eloquent. He’d never been so caught off-guard by anyone before.

Did he think it was a sin to be with a demon? He’d never really thought about it before. He didn’t think sitting here talking to one was a sin. Was it really so bad to find happiness with one? As long as they weren’t hurting anyone, he hoped it didn’t matter. The important thing, always, was that no one was being hurt. He’d always thought true sin was that which maliciously hurt another living thing.

His face flushed at the thought of admitting that, though. It felt a little too much like setting himself apart from the guild, and that wasn’t what he was meant to do here. He was meant to be an ambassador for the guild.

“I really couldn’t say,” he finally said, deciding it was a safe non-answer. “And it’s not up to me.”

Storm hummed, as though he found that curious.

Before he could decide what to say next, Storm spoke again. “Talon had a good point last night.”

“Oh?” Talon was the demon Alex had faced banishment for. Against his better judgment, Nathan was curious to hear more about the demon who’d gained the young man’s trust.

“Yeah. If you really disagree with some of the things your guild has been doing, why do you stay? Does the good really outweigh the bad at this point? They tried to murder Luke. Hell, if you count the attack on In Extremis, they’ve tried to kill Luke twice and Alex once. They kidnapped Ira and held him captive in a goddamn dungeon.”

He spoke with such protective anger. It just further proved what Nathan already suspected. Halflings were much more similar to humans than the guild wanted to believe. It sounded like Storm genuinely cared about Alex, Luke, and Ira. His gut twisted with some indescribable emotion. Definitely not jealousy. That would be madness.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Storm asked, pulling Nathan from his thoughts.

He smiled, shaking his head. “I’m just really glad they have people like you in their corner. I’m glad they aren’t alone.”

Storm hesitantly accepted that answer. “So?”

“Right, your question. I suppose I stay because I believe we’re doing more good than bad. There are no other groups like the guild who fight demons in such an organized fashion. And if I want to make a lasting change, I think it’s better to do that from within. Sure, I could leave and become a rogue hunter like Alex and Luke have, but the guild needs people like me who disagree with their more radical actions. They need a voice of reason to keep things from going to extremes. If everyone who disagrees just leaves, only the extremists remain.”

“There have been many cases in history where the extremists turned on the naysayers within their own organization,” Storm said, looking thoughtful. “How do you know that won’t happen with your guild?”

Nathan shook his head. “I don’t. But I have to believe. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Faith?”

Storm snorted. “You’d know better than me, holy man.”

Nathan leaned forward. “Alex and Luke, are they doing okay? I know they were there for the fight at the club. Did they make it out all right?”

Something in Storm’s expression shuttered. “They made it out fine.”

Nathan got the impression he was missing something. He sat back, frowning. “Good. That’s good.” He wanted to say more, but he wasn’t sure what he’d said wrong.

Storm relaxed, and it looked like it took conscious effort. “And yeah, they’re doing good. They’re working as private investigators during the day, and they’ve had a pretty steady stream of clients lately. Most of them are people who have no idea about the supernatural, but they seem fine with that. It pays the bills. And their base is… something.” He snorted, and Nathan found himself far more endeared by the dimple beside his mouth than he should be.

“Their base?”

“Yeah. It’s an old skating rink.”

Nathan blinked in surprise. “Really? How does that work?”

“Better than you’d think. They use the skating floor for training and sparring. The old arcade section is their meeting area. They’ve got snacks and drinks at the concession stand.” His white teeth gleamed in the sunshine as he smiled gleefully. “They even remodeled the bathroom so there are showers in there, and they’ve put cots in one of the back rooms if people need to rest or use first-aid.”

Nathan laughed brightly, sitting back and stretching. He curled a leg under him, and his other foot bumped Storm’s again, sending heat blooming under his skin. “That would be interesting to see. What made them decide to go with a skating rink?”

“A lack of funds, as I understand it,” Storm said bluntly. “They’ve refused to let Talon and the other demons help them pay for anything, so they had to take something cheap.”

“Ah. Well, good for them. I understand wanting a little independence.”

Storm cast him an arch look. “Do you?”

Nathan narrowed his eyes. “Just because I work for the guild doesn’t mean we all have some sort of hive mind.”

“That might be true for you, but I’m not so sure about the rest of your people.”

Nathan grimaced. It was hard to make a good case for himself after everything the guild had done lately. “That’s probably fair. But anyway, yes , I understand the value of independence. Now more than ever, perhaps.”

Storm smiled, inclining his head in approval. “Good to know.”