“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’llstill heal fast.”
“You don’t really think telling me you might be stabbed is how to talk meintothis, 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 wecan’t?” Alex rejoined.
Storm tuned them out. It was interesting that the guild was reaching outnowto 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 mightnotbe 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 thisNathanhad 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.
* * *
