Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES)

by Meljean Brook

  Her brows rose. “Why do you ask? Are you waiting for a sign? There are billboards all over the highway.”

  “Well, yeah. But you’re a demon. Aren’t you supposed to be all cynical and trying to make me doubt?”

  “I’d say that if anyone has reason to believe, it’s a demon,” Hugh said from behind Taylor. She glanced back, saw him leaning against the wall—of course—with his arms folded over his broad chest. “Maybe the sentinels do, too. But they take their direction from Lucifer. He tells them exactly what to do.”

  Lilith nodded. “And on Saturday, that meant carrying out Brandt’s murder. On Sunday night, they began sending copies of the manifesto and the video of the murder to news outlets worldwide. We think that this was timed to provide the distraction they needed to keep us occupied, and for Colin to keep the shields around his house down. We think they left by air, because Sir Pup couldn’t get a scent on the ground. But they avoided the psychic sweeps, so within five minutes of taking Colin and Savi, they must have been behind the shielding spell—in a vehicle, in a building. That gives us an area with about a fifty-mile radius to search for the touchdown point, and Sir Pup has already been over all of it. That leaves the bay and the ocean.”

  Drifter frowned. “You figure they used the water to hide the scent trail? Maybe a boat?”

  “I do. So I’ve got Radha and Icarus searching for it from the air. And Sir Pup is making his way up and down the shoreline, hoping to pick up where they might have docked if they came back to land. But if the demons fly back to land, they could touch down anywhere they fucking pleased.”

  Lilith suddenly stopped, jaw clenched. Taylor knew that look; she’d felt it herself. Lilith’s closest friend was gone, and she was getting to the point where she needed some goddamn air.

  Smoothly, Hugh filled in the next bit. “In London, they also abducted Katherine Blake—who might have helped us find Savi and Colin. We’ve since discovered that London’s new community leader is missing as well.”

  “And we don’t know if he’s related to Katherine’s disappearance—since they’d need to use a vampire again—or if he just bailed at the same time because his address was listed,” Jake said.

  “I’ve known him for years,” Deacon said. “Carter isn’t the type to bail, or to leave his bloodsharing partner behind.”

  Beside him, Rosalia nodded. “I agree. I’ve also told him many times to come to us if a demon ever threatened him. After what happened in Prague and to Deacon, most vampires in Europe know to heed that warning. But I have no doubt his disappearance is connected in some way.” She looked to Lilith. “Come sunset, Deacon and I intend to return to England to help Colin’s nephew in the search. We have been trying to find Katherine. Perhaps we should start over and also search for Carter.”

  “Any angle that you can find,” Lilith said. “Because they knew enough to cover the ones we usually look at. And that brings us to the next problem. I have no trouble believing that the sentinels quietly watched us and gathered information for the past six years. But they didn’t think this up, and since they only follow Lucifer, it isn’t a stretch to assume that he’s been the one giving the orders. How he’s doing it is the question.”

  “Not from me,” Jake said.

  “Not from Selah, either,” Hugh confirmed. “Michael?”

  “Aside from my encounter today, I have not seen Lucifer since I was in the frozen field. And I have not given information to him since the Gates closed.”

  “Lie.”

  Taylor’s brain seized up. “What?”

  Hearts pounding, everyone in the room stared at him. No one breathed. Michael frowned.

  “Lucifer did pull information from my mind today,” he said. “But I have not told him anything about Savi, Colin, or Katherine, and I have not been relaying instructions or any other communications between Lucifer and his sentinels, or between any other demons.”

  “Truth.”

  Hugh’s relief was obvious. So was everyone else’s.

  Taylor shook her head, blew out a breath. “So that leaves Khavi?”

  Michael’s eyes darkened. “Yes.”

  “If that’s how they’re communicating,” Lilith said. “So we’ll ask her, but if the answer is no, let’s not be blindsided. Everyone needs to rub a few more brain cells together and start thinking of a few other options, even if they seem impossible. Especially if it was Lucifer or any other demon who originally said it was impossible.”

  “Because you’re all liars?” Jake said, earning a poke in the ribs from Alice’s elbow. “I’m just saying.”

  “And how kind you are to point out the obvious to all of us imbeciles,” Alice said, then looked to Michael. “For communication, a web can stretch between Hell and Earth. It is how Khavi concealed Anaria’s hiding places from you.”

  More than twenty-five hundred years ago, Taylor knew. Khavi had helped her brother—Anaria’s husband—hide Anaria, hoping that Michael might eventually forgive her and stay the order of execution. Khavi and Anaria had disappeared instead, and Anaria’s husband had been killed by a demon.

  “A web?” Ash said. “Like the Internet?”

  Alice shook her head. “The silk from the giant spiders in Hell.”

  “And she does mean giant,” Jake added, looking faintly ill. “Like, their-legs-are-a-mile-long giant.”

  “Yes, they are quite large. And I have no idea if demons could communicate in that way, but the webs can link the realms.”

  Michael nodded. “I will ask Khavi that as well.”

  “If we’re just throwing shit out there, what about something like the nephilim acting as messengers?” Drifter said. “Human souls are always crossing between the realms, and that’s how the nephilim got out—they grabbed on to souls crossing over into Hell, forced their way back into the bodies, and took over.”

  “But a nephil could only do that because it could make its psychic melody match the resonance of the human’s body,” Charlie pointed out. “Otherwise, the body would have kicked it out and begun dying anyway. The resonance has to be the same.”

  “The resonance does have to match.” As if warding off a headache, Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose. “But the demons could use symbols to bind the body and soul together so that the messenger could stay longer. I’ve seen something like that before.”

  “So have I.” Michael’s reply was quiet.

  “I don’t reckon that whatever crossed over would have to hang out long, anyway,” Drifter said. “Just long enough to pass on a message—and maybe when the body kicks the messenger out, it crosses back over with a response for Lucifer.”

  “That’s good.” Lilith nodded. “We could look for people who died, got up and went wandering around for a few hours, then died again.”

  They’d probably find several. Joe had been reading similar bizarre stories to Taylor for years. “Have there been any leads on the other vampire whose ashes were in the bed?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” Jake said. “But chances are it was the vampire’s partner. Otherwise, we’ll probably know soon.”

  Because vampires shared blood to survive. If one partner went missing, the other would become hungry and need help within a day or two.

  So that still meant more waiting. “What about the housekeepers?”

  Beside her, Michael’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the display and disappeared.

  “I spoke to the housekeepers,” Hugh said. “They didn’t see anything.”

  Michael returned, Irena and Alejandro at his sides—and Alejandro looking like himself again, all in black and wearing a devilish pointed goatee that either looked “sexy hero” or “sexy villain.” Taylor could never decide.

  Despite teleporting, Irena didn’t waver. With a huge grin, she announced, “The politicians have decided that we are too much trouble to support any longer—and I believe that a congressman will soon have a horrible accident and die.”

  They’d pissed her off that much? But Irena didn’t mean
the members of the committee, Taylor realized—she meant the congressman that Alejandro had been impersonating.

  Amusement made a thin curl of Alejandro’s mouth. “My death pleases you so much?”

  “Do not pretend you are not pleased as well, you donkey. You prefer a quiet life, not an existence where your every word is followed by deliberate misinterpretations and your every step dogged by rumors that you are frequently visited by a barbarian whore.”

  Alejandro’s gaze swept from her leather longstockings up to her fur mantle. “That was the most enjoyable part,” he said, then neatly caught the dagger Irena threw at his head.

  Something inside Taylor’s brain sharpened. Why? Something that Irena had just said.

  What did she say?

  “Well, fuck Washington, then,” Lilith said. “Thanks to Ash and Nicholas, we are capable of supporting our operations—though not at the same level. The budget will be pared down. No health insurance unless you’re human, and we’re going to start charging every time you go to Michael or Pim for healing. If you’re out of cash and a demon chops your legs off, tough luck. Grow them back.”

  “That is what I always say.” Irena gave a short nod. “Because the next time, they will know to be faster.”

  Michael’s sigh was barely audible over the snorts and laughter.

  “Rumors,” Taylor murmured. “Mark Brandt had rumors around him because of that book about his father.”

  “Everybody shut up.” Lilith’s gaze zeroed in on her. “Follow that thought.”

  “It’s been niggling at me all day. There was something I missed. But it wasn’t something I heard after we saw the first video, when we first realized that Brandt was in trouble. It was before. Joe said that he’s been teasing out a case of related murders. And the vampire kills were all vigilante kills, because there’d been rumors that these humans were getting away with murder or molestations or something.” She looked to Drifter, who was nodding. “Right?”

  “That’s right. The pattern fits. Even the broken neck.”

  “What about the throat ripped out?” Taylor couldn’t remember Joe mentioning anything like that.

  “Now, that’s something different,” Drifter conceded.

  “Perhaps because it served a purpose for the video,” Michael said.

  “Maybe. And maybe it’s nothing. But if it’s another angle, we might be able to follow it. If the vampire who killed Brandt is the same vampire who killed the others—or if there were two vampires playing vigilante, since there were two MOs, with the strangling and broken necks—then were those murders how the sentinels found him and knew to use him? Or has their association been going back further? And if it has been going back further, how does that play? What purpose did the other murders have?” She looked to Drifter again. “Do you mind pulling out those files, going over them again? I’m supposed to have dinner with Joe pretty soon anyway, so I’ll head over there.”

  And she’d been thinking about canceling, not sure how she was supposed to have a celebratory dinner with Colin and Savi missing. But working? She could do that.

  “I’ll get started on it here, too,” Drifter said. “Then Charlie and I will come over after the sun sets. Are we going to set up an array to sweep for Savi when she wakes up?”

  “Yes,” Michael said. “I will take the city. Jacob will teleport you all to your locations before sunset. Cover as much area as possible, but make certain that we overlap.”

  “An array?” Taylor asked.

  “We all spread out and psychically sweep as wide a range as possible all at once,” Jake said. “We should be able to cover most of California and Nevada, plus a bit more.”

  “We’ll likely find demons who aren’t shielded,” Michael said. “If we don’t find Savi, track them down. They won’t be the sentinels, but perhaps they’ll have information.”

  “Are we to trade for that information?” Alice looked from Michael to Irena.

  “If you must bargain, do it,” Irena said. “Promise not to slay them, if that’s what it takes. Another Guardian can do it afterward. But don’t enter any bargain you will have to break.”

  “Or bring in Michael,” Taylor said. “He’ll get the info from them.”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  Irena narrowed her eyes at Taylor. “You are still here. Does that mean you are staying with the Guardians?”

  “For now. I’m connected to Caelum, so I’ll try to put the city back together before I go.”

  “Connected to Caelum?” Irena’s raised eyebrows were mirrored on other faces around the room. “Is this your Gift?”

  “No. That’s something else. It made a demon look like it glowed.”

  Irena frowned. “That cannot be all that your Gift does. Use it again now.”

  “You really think that’s a good idea?”

  “I think that being an ignorant cow is a worse idea, but you are free to remain one.”

  She had a point. Taylor concentrated, feeling for her Gift again. It would be easier with time, she knew. Right now, it was like sitting quietly and focusing on moving a single muscle that she didn’t normally use.

  Then it was there, like lenses over her eyes—or maybe her normal lenses had peeled away. A soft glow surrounded everyone except for Michael. But it wasn’t the same.

  “There’s another color in there now. Kind of orange and red, like fire. Yours is mostly the same bright white glow, but the red is there. Lilith’s is about half and half. So is Drifter’s.” She glanced down at herself. “Oh, I’m glowing, too. Bright, with a little red. Charlie’s about the same, and Ash is . . . really bright.”

  But Taylor didn’t have to squint. The powerful glow should have been hurting her eyes, but they didn’t sting at all.

  “Bright like the other demon?” Irena asked. “That could be useful, if you could identify demons in this way.”

  “I guess.” A redundant ability, if she ever learned to identify demons as Hugh or Michael did.

  “And you do not sense anything else?”

  “No, but it’s almost like . . .” She peered closer at Irena. Except for Michael, whose dark glow seemed tightly constricted around his body, everyone’s seemed loose. Almost floating around them. And it wasn’t just a soft glow, she saw. The light was coming from thousands and thousands of individual strands. The strands extended from Irena’s skin and clothing, waving gently around her—and seemed to be woven through her, too. Like fiber optics . . . or threads. “It’s made up of a bunch of tiny threads.”

  “Threads? Just as Khavi said.”

  And she’d said not to pull them. Taylor didn’t trust Khavi, but she would heed that warning. What would happen if she did? Would it jerk Irena around? Was it like pulling strings? That could be useful against a demon, sure. She could yank on its strings when it was about to chop her head off and make it dance around like a—

  Like a puppet.

  “Jesus,” Taylor whispered. Her stomach roiled with sudden sickness. This was what she got? This was the Gift that reflected her human life, and she was supposed to carry it around for eternity? What the hell had she done to deserve that? “Is it like a joke? A really fucking cruel joke? I get to yank people around like puppets?”

  “You don’t know that,” Michael said softly.

  “But it fits, doesn’t it? Irena has strings, and Khavi told me not to yank them.”

  “It does not fit.” Irena stalked forward, crouched in front of her. “I allow novices to cut off my fingers so that they can practice their healing Gifts. I would not care if you yanked me around as you discovered yours. Khavi would not warn against that. She would only warn if it killed me.”

  “Yes,” Michael agreed. “That fits.”

  Okay. Even Taylor could see that. She took a breath, got the anger under control. Leaning forward in her chair, she studied Irena’s threads again.

  Uncertain, she lifted a hand. “Is it okay if I touch?”

  “Just don’t pull.”

  “I
got that.”

  One of Irena’s bright threads waved near Taylor’s leg. With just her forefinger, she gingerly reached out.

  Joy burst through her mind. Unadulterated joy, surrounded by warmth and comfort and love. Taylor gasped, tears springing to her eyes. She heard the indrawn breaths around her, saw Irena’s tears.

  She made herself draw her hand away. Michael stared down at her, eyes shining with warm amber light.

  “Did you feel that? Did you feel that through my shields?”

  His body was completely rigid, she saw. Except for his hands. They shook.

  That stunned her more than anything else she’d seen that day.

  He drew a long breath, finally nodded. “I heard it.”

  “What was it? Do you know? Have you heard it before?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Gabriel sang the same song once.”

  An angel had? “Can you sing it?”

  “No. It is the only song that I cannot. I haven’t the voice.”

  “It was beautiful,” Charlie whispered hoarsely. She was crying into her hands. Drifter had his arms around her—and he was looking a little gobsmacked, too.

  Everyone was. Except for two.

  Lilith looked to Hugh. “I think we missed something.”

  No psychic senses. Taylor didn’t know if she’d projected what she’d felt or if her touch had just released it. She glanced at Irena again. Her threads were mostly bright, but the other color was there, too. “Can I try the red?”

  “I will kill you if you do not.”

  That was a yes. Grinning, Taylor reached for the thread.

  Agony. Horror. Despair.

  She yanked her hand back, throat locked against a scream.

  “I know that,” Ash said. Her face had paled. “That was Hell.”

  Oh, no. The implications of that battered against Taylor skull, but she wouldn’t let them in. Didn’t want to let them in.

  But she knew why Michael’s threads were dark. If she touched them, it would be hunger, destruction. It would be Chaos.

  She didn’t want this. Taylor pushed off the Gift, let her vision return to normal. She didn’t want to be able to see this. Not in the people she knew. Not in the people she didn’t know.