Angels of Darkness

anger and rot, spreading from person to person. “I checked in with Bronner, but they haven’t had any more trouble, so they hadn’t called me in.”
    â€œThey didn’t sense this?”
    â€œThey did.” Marc shrugged. “From inside, though, it’s not as easy to see. There’s a plant in the next town that just shut down, people lost their jobs. A big blaze brought down an apartment building—killed half the county fire department—about a month ago. Open up the paper, and all you see is talk of budgets being cut, schools shutting down, unemployment rising, prices going up.”
    â€œSo with all of those things adding up, there’s no reason to assume there’s a demon involved. People are understandably stressed and angry.”
    â€œYes. And there might not be a demon,” Marc said. “I haven’t seen evidence of one yet.”
    â€œBut . . .?”
    â€œMy instincts are telling me otherwise.”
    â€œSo are mine.” Radha glanced toward the parking lot again, where the four girls had packed themselves into Jessica’s old Cherokee. “So how are they connected?”
    â€œThe little blonde, the one who looked at you—her brother, Jason, was the first vampire killed. Unlike the others, he wasn’t ashed. According to Bronner, his parents—who still don’t know he was a vampire—found him with a stake through his heart in their home, even though he wasn’t living there at the time.”
    â€œGod,” Radha said. “That sounds like something a demon would do. Did you have to come in and cover that up?”
    â€œNo. Bronner’s got the county coroner in his pocket. I didn’t hear about it until later.”
    â€œDid the family truly not know he was a vampire?”
    â€œI’ve spoken to the parents.” Using the same line he always did in unsolved cases like these—that the murder resembled a similar one somewhere else, and could he have a moment of their time? “The parents didn’t shield their minds and were speaking the truth. But Miklia, she won’t talk to me.”
    â€œWill the other girls?”
    â€œNot at all.”
    â€œAnd their minds are shielded. So they know something, and they know to hide away what they’re feeling.”
    â€œYes. Whether they just know the truth about Jason or saw more than they let on, I’m not sure. But there’s something they know, and if it helps me get a bead on the demon, I need to find it.”
    Radha’s crafty, conspiratorial smile appeared. “So, which one do you want to pretend to be? I’ll distract the real one while you talk to Miklia.”
    He had to laugh. “I’m not shape-shifting to look like a girl.” Not yet. He would eventually, though, if it became necessary. “Because if there’s one thing true about small towns, it’s that someone always knows something—even if they don’t realize they do.”
    â€œWhat? Riddles aren’t any fun, Marc.”
    â€œBut seeing me as a girl would be?”
    She blinked innocently.
    Shaking his head, he looked to the school doors again. “One thing that everyone in this town knows is that Miklia didn’t always hang out with those girls—and that there’d been a rivalry between them up until Jason was killed.”
    â€œSo something apparently happened to bring them together.”
    â€œI think so, yes.”
    â€œThen why aren’t we following them? Who are we waiting for?”
    We? He didn’t question it.
    â€œThe former best friend,” he said. “The one Miklia left behind.”
    â€œOh.” Radha suddenly grinned. “Teen drama. I can’t wait.”

CHAPTER 2
    R adha should have been gone already. Or better yet, she shouldn’t have come in the first place. And she definitely shouldn’t have cared how he was doing—not Marc Revoire, the bastard who’d once asked God to forgive him for fornicating with her. For a hundred and forty years, she’d determinedly pushed Marc from her heart and thoughts, except for when she wondered how she could have ever fallen for a man who thought of her as something that should be washed off. And she’d done a good job of pushing him from her mind.
    Until the week before, when she’d been stupid enough to look his way during the gathering. When she’d been stupid enough to care that he’d