Then again, nothing could really settle Shan down at any point.
“Not information I’m able to disclose, for many reasons.”
Altair snorted. “I appreciate your discretion, Nolan, but your pack is going to hate us forever unless we tell them what happened.”
“They’re not my pack.” Nolan was quick to correct him.
We were, especially now Oswald and I were bonded. If he insisted on continuing to deny it, he could do that. Eventually we’d convince him he belonged with us.
“Whatever they are, then,” Altair said. He had a knowing gleam in his eye, as aware as everyone else that Nolan’s hesitance wouldn’t last forever. “If we’re going to be working together, I’ll have to tell the angry one before he tries to kill me.”
“I doubt anything you say will make me want to kill you any less,” Shan grunted. My hand was still resting on his cock, ready to force him down if he surged up again. “How can we trust the fallen angel to be on board with killing a Zemterran? He sold his fucking soul to one.”
Sky clenched his fists. I didn’t see many emotional reactions from the man, so it was concerning Shan had managed to rile him up. Altair stepped closer to his companion, their shoulders brushing. “You know what makes it easier to kill Zemterrans without being caught, angel?” Altair asked, reaching up to put his hand over a dagger strapped to his chest. “Being one of them.”
Shan crossed his arms over his chest, glaring. Dear gods, this man was getting on my fucking nerves. He had no concept of how to put aside your differences and work together for the greater good. Maybe because he sawhimselfas the gods damned greater good.
“You can’t kill the Duke you swore yourself to,” Shan countered.
“He’s long dead.”
“And you can’t have known he was going to die. It’s just as likely he was still alive, pulling your strings.”
Altair grinned, fingers fiddling with the hilt of his dagger. “That’s where you’re wrong. Well, one of many times you’ve been wrong. Who do you think killed him?”
Tilting his head toward Sky, the witch went invisible under the weight of all our stares.
“So you plotted to kill a man you’d pledged your loyalty to? That’s comforting for us,” Shan said.
He was softening toward them, I could tell from the lack of tension in his body.
“The Duke was a means to an end. I wanted to control shadow instead of light for reasons I’m not keen to get into at the moment, and I did what I had to do. No one in Zemterra knew I had a hand in his death, so I was welcomed with open arms and have been killing demons ever since.”
It was kind of amusing watching all of Shan’s objections be turned around and shoved in his face. I held back from laughing only because I didn’t want to rile him up again. “So why is it you work for Nolan, if you hate Zemterrans so much?” I asked
Altair stepped over to place a hand on Nolan’s shoulder, which was quickly batted off by Oswald. “He pays me good money to kill people I would have killed anyway.”
“I hate to say it, but that doesn’t sound like loyalty to me,” I said with a raised eyebrow.
He laughed. “That’s not all, don’t worry little Omega. He’s also the only reason I’m alive after this.”
Gesturing to the scars on the left side of his face, he moved back to where Sky was theoretically standing. He hadn’t materialized again. “Sky owes him his life, too. One of the men we wanted to kill had heard we were coming and hired a powerful witch with archaic knowledge of how to harm an angel without killing. We were being tortured for information on why we’d decided to put him on our hit list. Luckily, he was on Nolan’s hit list too and he had no idea another assassin was coming for him. Nolan killed him while he basked in his perceived safety, and the witch fled with no promises of further pay. He brought us here and nursed us back to health, which was an arduous process considering our wounds didn’t heal easily. Ama pushed so much magic at us, I’m surprised she didn’t fall ill herself.”
“I did,” she cut in. “But at a certain point, I’d helped you so much it would have felt like a failure for you to die. Thus why you’re still very much alive.”
“I’m glad we weren’t your first failure,” he said, grinning. “We’ve been working for Nolan ever since. Much safer than being on our own, as we discovered the hard way. If we have someone we want to kill, Nolan is fantastic at finding someone to pay for their demise so we can put them on our list. He’ll pay us to help with killing Kylan too, but honestly I would do this for free. The man is a fucking cunt.”
“Have you met him?” I asked.
“In passing. We attended some of the same galas in Zemterra, years ago. I doubt he’s become less of a cunt with old age.”
“He hasn’t,” Nolan confirmed. “Is that a satisfactory explanation of why they’re going to be coming? I had really hoped just saying we needed them in order to help us stay the fuck alive would have been enough. Then again, we can always count on Shan being difficult.”
Shan muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, “This man deserves such a fucking spanking,” and then spoke louder to respond. “It’ll do. If they double cross us, I’ll kill them myself.”
“I doubt you could if you wanted to, but the sentiment is received loud and clear,” Altair said.
“Let’s not antagonize him,” I said with a sigh. “Can we watch this security footage already? This could be time sensitive.”
