Demon Angel

with their combined skills against one nosferatu, they'd rarely emerged unscathed.
    She'd been lucky not to have been torn apart.
    Lilith. He bent his head, ran his hands through his hair. Hard not to smile, knowing she was alive, but it was a pleasure dulled by dread: Lucifer did not give second chances. He did not give anything, but made his subjects pay for them with his favorite currency: pain.
    What had Lilith's price been?
    A shout from the team sweeping the outlying vegetation drew his attention. Preston ducked his round bulk under the tape and jogged heavily toward them; he'd taken off his jacket, and the dull glow of his white shirt allowed Hugh to track his progress outside the reach of the floodlights.
    "The nosferatu placed his clothing and possessions beside a fallen log. The searchers just found them," Michael said from behind him.
    Though the voice was familiar, Hugh froze and had to stifle his impulse to leap into a defensive posture. The day's exciting moments were becoming less and less welcome.
    Michael walked around the side of the table and sat down, the wood creaking under his weight. He wore a crisp EMT uniform, but the short black hair and bronze skin were his own.
    "You're cold," Michael observed.
    Hugh glanced down at his bare arms, and fought the rage that began rising in his gut. Cold, hungry, tired—and alive. "Are there any nosferatu here?"
    "No. Only their scent on the body and the surroundings." Michael watched him for a long moment. "The symbols allow the nosferatu to call for power, for a transformation."
    Hugh nodded, but couldn't speak. A terrible pattern began to fall into place.
    Why had he never seen it before?
    Though Michael didn't appear to move, a woolen blanket settled on Hugh's shoulders.
    Hugh pulled it securely around his chest, gathering the edges together in his fisted hand as if containing himself within the coarse fabric.
    Michael's corroboration of the nosferatu's involvement should have relieved him. He'd been wondering for the past two hours if she'd been lying to him, and he hadn't been able to read the truth. He had been wondering if she'd tempted someone into performing that ritual. Had been wondering if he'd let his memories of her cloud his judgment.
    Instead of relief, a new concern rose: if Lilith had been telling the truth about the nosferatu, then this probably wouldn't be the only death to result from their presence.
    "If you aren't protecting them, then these men don't need your assistance." They needed Michael to slay the nosferatu left in the city, needed him to prevent further rituals.
    "You do."
    With a hollow laugh, Hugh drew the blanket tighter and nodded toward the clearing. "So did he."
    "You are not in danger from the nosferatu."
    "But I am from Lilith?" Hugh guessed and shook his head. Lilith was many things, but unlike the nosferatu she wasn't a murderer.
    And he knew her tricks too well to fall prey to them.
    "From Lucifer," Michael said, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his thighs. "Using this death and the humans' laws against you. He has more influence than ever. His demons have infiltrated the government and social systems in this and many other nations."
    It was a different kind of power than Lucifer had previously wielded then. He'd always had indirect influence, using his demons to tempt humans to act in certain ways; putting his demons in positions of authority was a bold move and a cunning one.
    "And Lilith?"
    "FBI. Lucifer has her under Beelzebub's supervision."
    Hugh gave a brief laugh. Trying to control Lilith would be a monumental task. "Why would Lucifer go to such lengths?"
    "For you? I don't know. I can't see his entire plan yet." Michael raised his face to the heavens, and smiled grimly. "There was an Ascension."
    Ascension—the opposite of a Fall for a Guardian. Instead of reversing the transformation and returning to Earth to live out the remainder of his life, a Guardian could choose to meet whatever fate the afterlife had to offer him. "How many?"
    "All but seventy. And I lost half of them against the nosferatu."
    Hugh stared at the ground, at the scatter of leaves and dirt. When he'd Fallen, there'd been thousands. That an Ascension had occurred didn't surprise him; immortality did not sit easily. Though an individual could make the choice at any time, occasionally a fervor would sweep through the corps, and many would go together. He'd witnessed two Ascensions during his time in Caelum, but each had only been