Demon Angel

it worked? Why had he never taken a wife, found companionship in another way?
    "What was the cause?" Two questions now, without offering information of her own.
    He flicked a glance at the clock above the door. "Our time has almost passed."
    "We are uneven in our trade," she immediately protested.
    His voice was low, entreating. "Spend the afternoon with me, Lilith. I'll give anything you ask for free."
    Temptation ripped through her, but she shook her head. "I have to get back to work." The surveillance team had returned—she could hear them in the hall. She could pass off a brief visit as official, but not an extended meeting.
    "Then spend the night with me."
    It would leave her absolutely defenseless, when she needed to strengthen her resistance to him. "What was the cause? In the book, you only say that you saved a girl from a demon. I know that is not all of it; you told me that night you forced your Gift on a man." Her breath came hard and fast. "Tell me, and I will spend the night with you."
    His eyes darkened, his jaw clenched. "I won't hide it from you—even if you try to use it against me in your bargain—but I don't want it to be the reason you come to me."
    Her laugh held an edge of desperation. "Then tell me, and I will not."
    "Lilith—" He broke off, laughing and shaking his head. "Nothing is owed in this. Come to me tonight, or do not—but it is not a condition of the telling." He waited until she nodded. "A demon was working on Savi's father, an innocent. Murray and his family were inside a restaurant. The demon had followed them, and I found him outside, killed him. I had to wait with the body, make certain it wasn't found until I could get it to a Gate without being seen." He paused, rubbed his forehead. "Savi was nine. She had a brother, a year older. It was late, but their home wasn't far from the restaurant, and they walked. Mother and father, both successful surgeons, and two children. Easy targets."
    "Targeted by a human?" And nothing to do but watch. A Guardian couldn't prevent a human from exercising free will, even if that will meant death for others.
    He nodded stiffly. "And even I'm not faster than a bullet. Was not. I ran as soon as I heard the first, but—"
    "Faster than… you tried to stop him? You interfered with his will?"
    "Yes. I arrived, too late for all but Savi. And she'd seen him, had seen his face when he'd shot them—he was going to kill her for that. I put myself in between, but the bullets went through, hit her anyway. I took her to the hospital, but it didn't look like she would…" He trailed off, and his face hardened. "So I went after him."
    Lilith's gaze dropped to his waist, imagined the bullets tearing through him. She'd done worse to him, but the thought of anyone else… "Good," she said.
    A tiny smile on his lips. "But it was not that, Lilith. Not only that. It was Vlad, and the boy in New Orleans, and a thousand others I hadn't been able to help because I had to deny my will for the Guardian code. I had to serve… but I could no longer. And I broke." His smile faded, and his tortured gaze held hers. "But I also knew there would be no one to free you after I Fell. So I found you. I made certain you did not believe in your role, that it was because you were bound to service as well, then…" Again he faltered, his throat working. "Though it must have been for naught, for you are bound again."
    Her heart thundered beneath her breast. "You would have let me live if I had believed it?"
    "Yes." His voice was hoarse. "I knew you feared the Punishment failing your bargain would bring. For centuries you told me what would free you without actually asking me to do it— and I knew that if you asked it would be tantamount to a betrayal of your service. But if you truly served him… if the only thing that held you to Lucifer was the fear of Punishment, I could not leave you in that."
    "If you knew, why not earlier?"
    "I was too greedy. Too weak. And for centuries, I had searched for another way to save you, yet never found one." He gave a half-laugh and scrubbed his hand over his face. "Allow me some defense, Lilith."
    No. "Would you have slain me if you had known I was a halfling?"
    He stilled. "I don't know. Could you have Fallen?"
    "You mean Ascend?" Her mouth curved, but there was no humor in it. "No. Lucifer has never reversed the transformation." And if she had asked for it, he would have called it a betrayal of their bargain, a renunciation of her service to