Angels of Darkness

aren’t an idiot.”
    Sometimes. She sighed, lifted her hands. “I just don’t understand it.”
    â€œAnd I don’t understand who you think I’d be running around with. A human? There’s a town up the road where I’ll go have a drink sometimes, talk with some of the locals. I’ll play a game of pool now and then. But if I plan to stay in this area, and not go around shape-shifted most of the time, I can’t show my face too often or people begin to wonder why I’m not aging.”
    Okay, there was that. She’d had to move several times, too. No one truly minded a blue woman living in their neighborhood, because it wasn’t worth getting out the pitchforks and torches for an eccentric who dyed her skin with indigo. But an eternally young one? That would cause more concern. So moving to a new apartment every few decades was preferable to shape-shifting every time she went home.
    â€œAnd if you mean a woman. . . Hell, I’ll just show you why.” He crossed the room, pushed open the door separating the living area from the kitchen. At the refrigerator, he pulled a pint of ice cream from the freezer. “I bought this at the grocery a few months ago. There was a long checkout line, and a pretty woman in front of me who let me know she was interested in the dessert. Probably more.”
    Radha couldn’t blame the woman. “Were you?”
    â€œI was tempted. I’d just slain Basriel after chasing him for years, and I didn’t have a single person to share that with.” He set the ice cream on the table, met her eyes. “But I couldn’t share it with that woman. I couldn’t tell her anything unless I wanted to lie. So I wasn’t all that tempted anymore.”
    And that was why she didn’t want a list, Radha realized. Marc wouldn’t be tempted just by sex. There had to be more, and so every woman on that list had meant something more to him.
    Starting with her. “So what did you do, instead?”
    â€œI flew east and spent a day walking along the Great Wall.”
    â€œThat was better than sex?”
    â€œIt was better than feeling like shit afterward.”
    She’d had a few of those. “I suppose I’d rather have spent it walking along the Great Wall, too.”
    â€œThen you can go with me next time.”
    It wasn’t really an offer, she recognized. He was just trying to settle this issue, to give a solution to his solo travel that would satisfy her. She knew he didn’t expect her to take him up on it.
    â€œThat’s a good idea.” She circled the table, stopped directly in front of him. “Next time, give me a call. I’ll join you wherever you decide to go.”
    Except for a slight clenching of his jaw that betrayed his doubt, he didn’t respond—but he didn’t back away or laugh in her face, either. In the silence, she reached for the ice-cream pint, pulled in a spoon from her cache, and scraped away the ice crystals that had formed at the top. Vanilla. She wasn’t surprised. Simple, not too sweet, with the rich vanilla bean adding such wonderful depth. The perfect flavor for him.
    She settled against the table’s edge and scooped out a bite. “Why not a Guardian, then?”
    He gave a tired laugh, rubbed the back of his neck. Done with this conversation—but she wasn’t.
    â€œWell?” she pushed.
    Frustration flattened his mouth. “Who? Who’s left after the Ascension?”
    After thousands of Guardians had gone all at once, choosing to move on to their afterlife? Not many.
    So he had a point there, too. “What about before?”
    â€œNo. That was about the time I pulled my head out of my ass.”
    What? She swallowed the ice cream she’d been melting on her tongue. “With the ‘God’s celibate warrior’ thing? Only ten years ago?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWas it because of the Ascension?”
    â€œRadha—” Now his frustration had an edge to it. “I don’t know what you want from me. Are you trying to set me up with another Guardian, couple me off? Because I’m sure as hell not interested in that.”
    Neither was she. That was the last thing that interested her.
    â€œI’m trying not to rush,” she said. “I don’t want to be hurt again, and I need to know what kind of man you are now. The problem is, I’m not good at going slow or at