Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES)

by Meljean Brook

  Okay. So the demon coming alive had scared the shit out of her. It was funny. But it was so much more than that.

  “I can fix it.” The realization careened around inside her. “If I fuck it up, if I yank by accident, I can fix it.”

  “It seems so,” Khavi said. “And it makes sense. The body wasn’t damaged, and it hadn’t been dead long. There is no reason the soul couldn’t return to it.”

  So maybe she could save people, too. Chase after ambulances, hang out in emergency rooms, and hold on to their souls until their bodies were strong enough to take them again. Which was probably stupid. But all kinds of possibilities were crowding her head now. Maybe this Gift wasn’t just about judging or slaying. Maybe she could really help people with it.

  “Taylor.”

  Rosalia’s soft voice sounded behind her. When she looked, the Guardian’s gaze appeared unfocused, as if Rosalia was concentrating on something that couldn’t be seen.

  Or that lay beyond her shadows.

  “When you touched those threads, it made a difference,” Rosalia said, and Taylor’s gaze shot to the dark corner. She couldn’t see Colin and Savi, but Taylor could feel the change in them, too. The devastation and horror were still there, but not as strong. “I think you should use your Gift again.”

  Taylor was already heading toward the next demon. She grabbed a handful of threads and yanked, then held on, her shields wide open with her own hope accompanying the joy. If necessary, she’d hold on to these threads until doomsday.

  Which might come soon, and apparently Michael wasn’t taking any chances. She saw the glance that passed between him and Khavi. In the next moment, the other two demons were dead. Not waiting for Taylor to yank—because Lucifer might install his demons in the other chamber and get a look at what was happening here. Irena began cutting through the spider silk.

  Still holding the threads, Taylor returned to Michael’s side and waited. Immortal, she could wait forever. But it didn’t take that long.

  Only twenty minutes passed before Michael said, “Release them now, and we will see.”

  She opened her hand. The joy coursing through her vanished. Taylor staggered. Losing that joy was a pain all its own, but Michael’s arm around her waist and her own hope quickly steadied her.

  The shadows weren’t as deep now. Colin and Savi still held each other, but warmth filled the embrace rather than desperation. Savi’s eyes no longer glowed. Michael nodded to Lilith, giving her the go-ahead. Immediately, a smirk twisted the other woman’s lips. A lie, of sorts. Buried in Sir Pup’s scruff, the stiffness of Lilith’s fingers revealed the worry that still gripped her.

  “Colin!” she called into the dark. “Have you finished brooding in a corner like some Byronic vampire? Because you need to get your beautiful ass out here and help us find your niece.”

  Manipulation in every word. Brilliant, too. Taylor didn’t know which Colin despised more: Lord Byron or brooding. Add on a stroke to his vanity and the news about Katherine, and even if he wasn’t quite ready, he’d make himself ready.

  So it was no surprise when his reply came. “You injure me, Agent Milton. Byron couldn’t tremble in a corner half as handsomely as I do.”

  “While you are there, then, perhaps you should woo Savi with some of his verses. ‘She walks in beauty, like the night—’”

  Lilith broke off. From any other being, the hurking noise in the shadows would have suggested someone puking. From Colin, it was utter aristocratic disdain.

  Followed by Savi’s giggle, and movement as Colin rose with her in his arms.

  Under her breath, Taylor asked, “How does Lilith do that? She always aims straight for the heart.”

  “Two thousand years of practice,” came Michael’s quiet reply.

  “So you can do that, too?”

  Silence for a moment. Then a rueful, “No. When I know the target, my aim is true. But I don’t always see as well as Lilith does.”

  Brows raised, she glanced up at him. From this angle, he was all height and wide shoulders and strong jaw. Gorgeous. He probably didn’t have a bad angle. “You’re a lot older, though.”

  “And we both spent most of our time studying those we would destroy.”

  So he’d studied demons. And as a demon, Lilith had studied humans. Knowing the enemy made sense. Except— “You’ve been studying me lately.”

  His amber gaze dropped to Taylor’s mouth before meeting hers again. He didn’t respond, but the way his eyes darkened was response enough. Suddenly breathless, Taylor looked away. If he meant to destroy her good sense and self-control, he was well on his way toward reaching that goal.

  Still nude, Colin stepped out of the shadows. In his arms, Savi was already dressed in a long skirt and sweater; she must have pulled the clothes from her hammerspace. Taylor scanned her friend’s face. She looked . . . okay. Her eyes were bright as she greeted Hugh, and, though not exactly smiling, a trace of amusement remained around her lips.

  Taylor didn’t know how she did that. In Savi’s place, she would have still been bawling—and she wasn’t even sure what exactly had happened. It had probably been worse than she imagined.

  When Colin set Savi on her feet and took the trousers she gave him, Taylor knew for sure that it had been. No longer tanned, his skin appeared as pale and soft as a baby’s, as if brand new. And when he stepped into his pants, she saw that not all of his pieces were there.

  God. Stricken, she spun toward Michael and buried her face against his chest. Throat full and hurting, Taylor didn’t know if she was going to throw up or cry, but she didn’t want Savi to see her do either.

  “Go. Quick.”

  When the dizziness stopped, Caelum’s sun shone overhead. Michael’s fingers slid into her hair, and he held her close. With his lips against her temple, he said, “It will all regenerate.”

  She knew. But that really didn’t help.

  His voice roughened. “It was as you hoped. Savi woke up.”

  “And ripped the demons apart?”

  “She destroyed the one that held her.”

  Good. And that helped.

  Michael had helped.

  He hadn’t even questioned why. She’d just told him to go, and he’d taken her—and then he’d known exactly what to say.

  His big palm cupped the back of her head when she tipped her face up. He watched her, his gaze caressing her features. Memorizing her reactions.

  She wished he’d tell her why they mattered so much.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, and her voice softly echoed from the shattered marble around them. “I didn’t want to lose it in front of Savi.”

  “I know. I’m glad you turned to me rather than holding it in.”

  “I couldn’t have held it in.”

  “Yes, you would have. If you had no other choice.”

  Maybe she would have. But he’d been there, so she hadn’t even considered trying to stay. She’d just leapt into his arms and let him take her away.

  And Michael knew it. What could she say to him now? Taylor couldn’t think of a single thing. So she only shook her head.

  Thankfully, he let her retreat. “Are you ready to return, then?”

  On a deep breath, she nodded.

  The chamber spun around her. Colin must have asked about Maggie, because when Taylor could focus again, she heard Hugh telling him that the butler had reached the safe room before the house blew. After her feet steadied, Taylor joined them.

  Without relinquishing her hold on Colin’s hand, Savi gave her a one-armed hug. Hardly daring to breathe, afraid of squeezing too tight, Taylor managed an awkward, “Hey. I’m glad we found you.”

  “We’re glad to be found,” Savi returned, stepping back and looking from Taylor’s face to Michael’s. “Thanks for saving us. I told Colin that we just had to hold on until you guys got here, but it got kind of hairy a few times.” Her fangs flashed in a quick grin. “Literally, in my case.”

  “Your shape-shifting was well done,
” Michael said, before his gaze moved to Colin. “You didn’t feed. I have nosferatu blood, if you want it.”

  Though he grimaced, Colin nodded. “I suppose it will taste better than pig.”

  Taylor had something better than that—he’d given it to her. A glass of orange juice popped into her hand. She pushed it toward him. “This can wash it down.”

  Taking the juice, Colin gave the glass a narrowed glance. “Apparently, becoming a Guardian has led you to a life of common thievery.”

  Taylor grinned. “Apparently.”

  “At least it wasn’t the cutlery. Such a cliché.”

  She wouldn’t have wanted his silver, anyway. Maybe his car—

  Oh, God. His car. She’d parked the Bentley in the warehouse lot about an hour before Special Investigations had abandoned the location. Hopefully one of the novices who’d been assigned to strip the warehouse had checked the parking lot and vanished the car into her hammerspace before they’d left.

  “Um,” Taylor said, then quickly looked to Savi. “Do you need juice, too? Blood?”

  She’d run and get some . . . and maybe swing by the parking lot on the way.

  “The demon had blood in him, so I’m still full.” Savi’s dark brows drew together. “Which is really weird, because I didn’t have a stomach when I ate him.”

  “Try not to ponder too hard on that one, sweet. I cannot bear it.” All amusement left Colin’s expression. “So what news of Katherine?”

  “No news,” Lilith said. “She was taken the night before you. That’s all we know.”

  “And Geoff?”

  “He’s with Maggie, searching for her in London. Selah, Lucas, and Mariko have been helping them.”

  “I was, as well, until an hour ago,” Rosalia told him. “Deacon’s still there. Liam Carter is also missing. Considering the timing, we think their disappearances might be related. So we’re attempting to track them both.”

  Eyes softening, Colin met Savi’s gaze. “Are you well enough for London?”

  “Yes.” Savi hesitated for an instant. “But we’d better tell them what the demons wanted, first.”

  “To open the portal,” Lilith said.

  “No. They knew we could, but they never asked us to.”

  “Then they wanted to use your blood to open it.” Lilith glanced at Colin. “Or the blood of your sister’s descendants.”

  His jaw clamped. “No,” he bit out.

  “They do want dragon blood,” Savi said. “But they want the pure stuff. And they knew we had some.”

  Michael stiffened. “You have dragon blood?”

  “Had. Kind of.” She glanced at Colin. “Katherine found some before.”

  “Where is it now?”

  “We don’t know. The demons thought Katherine had given it to us. But Geoff and Maggie hid the blood, instead, so that no one could get their hands on it—though we didn’t tell the demons that, either. But Katherine could find it again.”

  “Is pure dragon blood worse, though?” Taylor asked. “Doesn’t it do the same thing—open a portal?”

  And the demons didn’t have to drain anyone to get it.

  “Essentially,” Khavi said from behind her. “Except that it would make the portal more difficult to close. Instead of one or two dragons coming through with Lucifer, we might see fifty.”

  Okay. That could be a lot worse.

  * * *

  The sun had already set in London. Situated on the ground floor of an old house, Katherine Blake’s flat wasn’t much bigger than the apartment Taylor shared with her mom and brother, but that was all the two places had in common. Nothing here screamed money; it didn’t need to. In Taylor’s experience, the sort of comfortable elegance in Katherine’s flat meant one of two things: either someone had a lot of time on her hands or someone had a lot of cash.

  Born to Colin’s family, Katherine had the money. But as a detective inspector on the London police force, Katherine wouldn’t have had the time. Taylor had laughed when Michael had called himself an independently wealthy federal agent—someone who didn’t need the shit pay and shittier hours but who did the job anyway. But in truth, she knew someone like that.

  That was Katherine Blake. Every time they’d met, Taylor had always walked away with the unsettling sense of having looked into a mirror and seen a dark-haired, fancy-accented vision of herself—except Katherine was the version with her head together.

  With any luck, her head still was together, and she wasn’t going through the same horrors that Colin and Savi had. But until they found Katherine, they wouldn’t know.

  She abandoned her post at the window. The flat was mostly empty. Khavi had returned to Hell. Michael had brought Taylor here with Colin and Savi, before leaving again to find Selah. Rosalia would show up soon. She’d taken Hugh and Lilith to San Francisco, then planned to join the search.

  Taylor looked forward to getting out there, too. She didn’t know this city well, but it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be leading the charge here. Instead, Savi would be command central: chasing down electronic traces of Katherine and the missing vampire, Carter, and sending the Guardians out to look for them in locations they hadn’t yet searched.

  They weren’t quite ready to go yet, though. Wires snaked across the dining room table. Savi had only just finished setting up her computers. The machines were Savi’s weapon of choice—and, like Taylor with her guns, Savi always carried a few in her hammerspace.

  A good thing, too, since the rest of her computers had blown up.

  In the living room, Colin had begun calling his relatives, assuring them that he and Savi were all right and that they were searching for Katherine—and that, as one of theirs, every cop in London had been searching, too. He stood with a phone against his ear and his gaze on Savi. He’d barely looked away from her since they’d teleported here. Every few minutes, he’d be at her side again, brushing his fingers against her cheek or touching her arm, as if looking wasn’t enough.

  Maybe it wasn’t.

  Savi glanced over when Taylor pulled out the chair beside hers. “Did you see the house?”

  “I did.”

  “Was it as bad as Hugh said?”

  Taylor hadn’t heard what Hugh had told her, but it couldn’t have been much worse than the reality. “It’s not that bad. It just looks like a porno waiting to happen.”

  “The house does?”

  “Don’t look at me like that. It’s true. Some insurance inspector is going to show up at the door and ask what happened. And your house will be all ‘I just got so hot that my top came off. And now I’ve got this great big hole to fill.’ Then the construction men will arrive and start pounding away.”

  “Ohmygod. You’re right.” Savi stared at her, eyes wide and bright. “I never realized how slutty our house was.”

  “Now you know. Wait until you see the pictures. She’s just lying there, wide open. And the firemen were all over her.”

  “Did they have big hoses?”

  “Mmm-hmm. Really long ones. And they were squirting everywhere.”

  “So kinky.” Savi glanced up as Colin swung by, phone still in hand. “Are you hearing this? Our house is into bukkake.”

  “Of course she is, love.” Colin bent and pressed a smiling kiss to the top of her head. “After more than a hundred years, she finally exploded through the walls of Victorian repression.”

  Taylor had to laugh. “Good for her, then. She’s earned those firemen.”

  Savi met Taylor’s eyes as Colin swung back to the living room. “Now I’ll be sad when we rebuild her. She’ll be repressed again.”

  “Aw. At least you’ll always have pictures.”

  “My only consolation: house porn.” She slid a keyboard in front of her, then glanced down, frowning. “I won’t be typing as quickly as usual.”

  Her missing pinky and ring finger. Already growing back, but the sight of them weighed heavily on Taylor’s chest, knowing so much worse had been done. The deeper scars just weren�
�t visible.

  “Hey.” Savi’s cold hand slipped over hers. “It’s okay, Andy. Really.”

  God. “How can you be okay?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just . . . it could have been worse.” She met Taylor’s disbelieving look with a faint smile and a shrug. “Really. We’re alive. And maybe it’s stupid, but Colin and I have been close to dying before. Just being together meant risking our lives. So as long as he’s still here, as long as I’m still here, I’m all right. I’ll always be all right.”

  And if Colin wasn’t there? But Taylor wouldn’t ask that. Simply voicing the question would hurt her friend.

  Just like the thought of losing Michael started a terrible ache in her throat—and that wasn’t even the same. There was no commitment between them. Not yet, anyway. They were just heading in that direction.

  Or at least Taylor was. She still didn’t know what Michael was doing.

  And it wasn’t an issue now, anyway. Colin was here. And of all the Guardians, Michael would probably be the last one standing. Nobody was losing anyone.

  “So we’re all right, Andy. Okay?” When Taylor nodded, Savi drew her hand back. “That thing you did helped, too. What was that? It was . . . I don’t even know. But pretty amazing.”

  “It’s my Gift. Apparently, I can touch someone’s soul, and see whether they’re going to Heaven or Hell.”

  “Seriously?” Her eyes widened. “Where am I going?”

  “I don’t want to look.”

  “Why?”

  “What if it’s not where we think?”

  “Then I’d rather know, so I can start being a better person.” Savi’s wide grin exposed the points of her fangs. “I’m not worried about it. Are you? Afraid you might find out I’m a serial killer?”

  “No. Kind of, maybe. Not everyone is going to be who I think they are.”

  “So just begin checking out everyone’s soul when you’re introduced. Then you won’t be surprised. Unless, of course, they become a serial killer after you meet them.”

  “Because meeting me drives people to murder?”

  “Now that you mention it—I’ve imagined strangling you a time or two.”

  Only once or twice? That was sweet. Taylor started to say so, but in the living room, the appearance of Michael, Maggie, and Geoffrey Blake snagged her attention. Selah jumped in behind them, joined by her partner, Lucas.