Angels of Darkness

anything?”
    She mentally reviewed her steps. “The jewelry, but that’s in my cache now.”
    â€œAll right.” He called in a cell phone, began typing out a message. “I’m going through Special Investigations, asking them to leave an anonymous tip for the sheriff. I’ll call the county coroner myself. He knew Bronner, knew what he was and was able to keep quiet about it, so I’ll let him know I’ve got the ash, that I need to know the result of the exam as quickly as possible. The sheriff will probably list Bronner and his partner as missing, though.”
    â€œYou think a human did it,” Radha realized. “Despite the bashed-in lock.”
    â€œI’m leaning that way. If he was awake, Bronner wouldn’t have still been in bed, naked, while someone broke into the basement. But we’ll have a better idea whether a vampire could have done it if the coroner can give us a time of death. That’ll take him a couple of hours tonight, so I’ll arrange to meet with him as soon as he’s done with the autopsy. The vampire community can wait until then.”
    â€œDo you know the coroner?”
    â€œNo. But Bronner trusted him.”
    â€œDo you?”
    â€œNo. I haven’t met him. And Bronner said he had the coroner in his pocket. That says‘payout’to me. How many demons with money have you known?”
    â€œAll of them,” Radha said. “You think they got together and did this?”
    â€œNo. But I do wonder about any man that can be bought, even if that money comes from a good man like Bronner.” He snapped the phone shut. “Ready? We can’t let anyone see us leave.”
    â€œI’ve got that covered. What are we doing until we meet with the coroner?”
    â€œWe’re going to let the sheriff do his job. My place is a fifteen-minute flight away. We’ll wait there. I want to step back for a few hours, do a little research and see if anything anyone told me today doesn’t fit. Then take another look at everything, see if there’s anything I haven’t been seeing.”
    His gaze fell on the woman’s body, her sightless eyes. Finally, shaking his head, he turned away.
    â€œGod damn it,” he said again.

CHAPTER 4
    A bout a hundred miles north, Marc’s modest, cottage-style house sat atop a wooded rise overlooking the river. Though small, the two-level home had more space than many of the apartments Radha had shared with Mariko over the past century, but Marc apparently used it in exactly the same way they used theirs: as a private location where they could be themselves, no illusions or lies needed.
    They all had private quarters in Caelum—or they had before the city crumbled—but to Radha, those rooms had never felt like a home, had never felt like her space in the way that even a rented apartment on Earth could. Nor did Guardians need the space. They didn’t need to sleep, eat, or bathe, and they could carry everything they owned in their cache. Yet Radha liked to shower. She liked to curl up on a comfortable chair that hadn’t already been used by half the people in the city. She liked to display little items that she’d collected, rather than hide them away in her cache.
    She looked forward to seeing everything that Marc displayed, too.
    He vanished his wings immediately after landing on his front porch, then removed his jacket and tie. He led her inside, rolling his white sleeves up his forearms.
    â€œI’ll be upstairs at the computer.” Though they could see perfectly well in the dark, he switched on a lamp, casting a warm glow over the hardwood floors and sparse furniture. “I’m putting in a few requests for info from Special Investigations. They can access and compile data faster than I can—and I want a transcript of those texts the girls are sending to each other. Is there anything you need?”
    For Marc to keep taking off his clothing. That was rushing it, though. She needed to get to know him again first. She needed to learn all the ways he’d changed before she could risk her heart again.
    Then he unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, exposing the tanned skin of his throat, and she decided to speed up that learning part a bit.
    â€œI don’t need anything,” she said. Just a little time to look around.
    â€œAll right.” He headed for the narrow staircase leading to the second level. “I’ll