“Reign, do you have it?” Barbatos asked without bothering to announce himself or Noah, stalking across the room.
“Yeah.” Reign turned around, lifting the laptop he was holding in one hand. Cables were connected from it to the interface and a small hard-drive device.
“Toss it here.” Trevor set himself up at a standing desk near another processing unit and waved Noah over. “I heard you were curious to know the how?”
“Yep!” Noah chirped and skidded over, excitement budding in him at the prospect of seeing the demon’s supposedly legendary hacking skills.
Barbatos walked him through it as he did the tweaks to the data points and connection servers, making it so that the real ones were using a back channel, whereas fake data was being fed to the current ones. He was more thanhappy to answer Noah’s various questions around architecture and code, as well as elaborate how the AI he was implementing was set up to control the information flow.
“That’s pretty cool,” Noah decided, answering Barbatos’ grin with one of his own.
“It is, isn’t it? Wanna give it a go? I’ll tell you what to do.”
“You bet!” Noah almost jumped from excitement, replacing Barbatos in front of the console. He spared Reign a single glance, a small smile that didn’t go unanswered, and then focused his entire attention on not screwing up whatever Barbatos was about to have him do.
26
Reign leaned a shoulder against the processor rack and just observed Noah and Barbatos work, his mind elsewhere entirely despite how nice the human’s ass looked in those burgundy slacks that he himself had picked. He’d had Noah over every night since his arrival in Seoul and neither of them was letting off. Sex was getting better where, contract or not, normally Reign would’ve long lost interest. The intensity of it, the frequency, was mounting up and often they simply couldn’t last more than a few hours without fucking.
The need within Reign, it was maddening. Alive, like some haunting presence he couldn’t fight off, making him want more and yearn for things he couldn’t have. He’d known Noah for ten log years, always watching, always listening, always lurking in the shadows. Waiting, hoping,cravingeven back then.
He had all he needed to move on now, to find some other soul to latch onto until it was time to collect Noah’s. Yet, he wasn’t doing that. He was drowning in stagnant water of his own accord, stepping with both feet into the deep, because he had no power over himself anymore, maybe even from the start.
“Woah! That’s awesome!” Noah squealed in excitement, the high pitch of his voice ripping Reign out of his spiraling thoughts.
“Right? I told you, didn’t I?” Barbatos preened, craning his head so he could meet Reign’s gaze. “Reign, have you reported this to the Head of Intelligence yet?”
“She wants to meet with both you and Noah. I will arrange something for next week.”
“You told someone about me?” Noah asked, knitting his eyebrows together. “Who is this Head of Intelligence?”
Reign allowed a smile to manifest. “A very powerful someone who is happy to discuss asylum or even citizenship, depending on how much help you’re willing to offer.”
Hope and determination made Noah’s eyes gleam, the reflections of electronics’ indicators and flashing lights in them dancing in a shimmering blur of colors. Noah’s existence glowed in that moment, bright like a burning sun about to swallow the world whole. He had both fight and ambition in him, yet the card he’d drawn in life had him trapped, his wings clipped before they’d even had the chance to manifest.
“Do you have everything in place?” Reign shifted his attention back to Barbatos, who was watching him carefully.
“We do,” the other demon said, not challenging Reign about what they both knew he’d noticed. Smart, not only because Reign was stronger and faster, but also because Lucifer had a soft spot for him. “The Empire should start getting feeds in a couple of hours.” He closed the lid of the laptop he’d used to make the tweaks and tossed the device back to Reign. “Shall we hit a bar? I need to find someone new to play with.”
A bar sounded fun. It would do them both good, maybe help Reign find a distraction too. Rid himself of his inner turmoil. All kinds of interested parties would swarm the three of them the moment they walked in, so he was sure there would be plenty of opportunities to have a good time.
“Go ahead without us.” He trained his eyes back on Noah, who looked about as confused as Barbatos. “I’m taking Noah out for dinner,” he stated in a way he could tell betrayed finality and left no room for arguments.
“You are?” Noah and Barbatos said in unison, a thrill clutching Noah’s insides.
Reign shoved off the rack and walked over to where they were standing, coming to a stop right in front of Noah. He hooked two fingers under Noah’s chin, the touch electric.
“Or would you rather we go straight back to my place?” he asked, desire twinkling in his captivating eyes, though not the only thing lurking there as they drank Noah’s face in, lingering on his lips. “I was thinking I should feed you first.”
Noah trembled, not even caring that Reign could feel it. “N-no. Dinner is… sounds fine. First,” he strung together, his body vibrating with need he was sure Barbatos too was able to detect.
What was this?This sensation, the way… Reign was touching him, the tenderness in the circling motions of his fingers. The way the simple contact unleashed an electric hum through him, teasing every nerve ending with its prickly caress.
This was different.Dangerous. Something Noah should ignore for his own sanity. But he couldn’t, not when the intense feeling in his stomach reached his heart and squeezed it and made him feel alive in a way he hadn’t before.
“Oh?” Barbatos hovered on the side, a smirk, though one not entirely born from amusement, stretching his lips too wide. “Be careful, Reign,” he said, the red in his eyes glowing. “If you lose it,he willcall you down.”
Lose it? Lose what? What was Barbatos on about?
