Demon Blood

know where we are,” Taylor blabbered, then stared at the woman. Jesus. She hadn’t meant to answer. But something in Anaria’s voice, in her face . . . compelled her.
    But Taylor couldn’t get angry. She tried. She just couldn’t work it up.
    And that scared the shit out of her. Human or Guardian, one thing she’d always been able to count on was getting good and pissed when she wanted to. And whatever Michael did, at least he didn’t fuck with her emotions.
    Anaria sighed. “Don’t be afraid.”
    Taylor almost laughed. Apparently, Anaria couldn’t compel that , because her heart still pounded and fear raced through her veins.
    “Come with me, then,” she said.
    Taylor followed.

CHAPTER 8
    Anaria lived on a private island in the Aegean, complete with a sun-warmed mansion overlooking the sea. Taylor didn’t know how Anaria managed to pull that off, until she realized that the almost sixty humans sharing the grigori’s home weren’t humans at all, but the nephilim. One of the humans that the nephilim possessed must have owned the island before he’d kicked over and gone to Hell.
    It was almost like walking through a retirement home—one that drew its residents from every part of the world. Which made a hell of a lot of sense, though Taylor hadn’t considered it before. When the Gates to Hell had closed, Lucifer had freed the nephilim from prison so that they could enforce the Rules on Earth, but the nephilim couldn’t just fly between the realms. They possessed the souls of the damned as the humans died. And except for a few—the youngest in her early twenties, Taylor guessed—they had a lot of white and gray hairs between them, and quite a few men without any hair at all.
    For the most part, they acted like humans, too—eating, talking in little groups, some off by themselves and reading. A bunch of zombies having a big family reunion.
    But they bothered her. She thought they bothered the hell out of Michael, too, though he was staying quiet. And it wasn’t until Anaria invited her out onto a big, sprawling patio to sit and talk that Taylor realized why: Every one of these bastards had done evil enough that they’d been destined for Hell. Though the nephilim possessed the human and took control, the human’s personality still remained.
    And one of these fuckers had raped and murdered the vampires in London.
    Anaria sank gracefully onto the foot of a lounge chair, studying Taylor’s face. She wondered how deep the scrutiny went, but Anaria must not have picked up on the determination hardening Taylor’s every thought and reaction. Anaria smiled, and it was beautiful—and Taylor didn’t feel the same compulsion to smile back.
    “Michael has always been stubborn. I imagine he circled the world trying to find me.”
    Find Anaria, or the nephilim? “Probably to ask you to spare London.”
    Anaria’s voice gentled, as if she spoke to a child. “We are sparing the vampires. People were never meant to suffer the nosferatu’s curse, the bloodlust. People were meant to walk in the sun. They are abominations.”
    One of Taylor’s few friends was a vampire. Only years of practice dealing with bigoted assholes kept her temper in check. “Abominations? Have you ever actually spoken to one?”
    “I have spoken with many. And I know that next you will say that they are like humans—they love; they laugh. That is all true. But their very existence is a cancer, one that can spread without check, and destroy the protection of free will in every human.”
    Oh, God. She couldn’t be serious. “They destroy free will? They choose to become vampires.”
    “Yes.” Anaria’s face brightened, as if Taylor had just made a point for her. “You see? It is a disease, one that behaves in the same way as a demon. A demon doesn’t force a human to do anything, but preys upon a human’s greed, fear, anger until an irrevocable choice is made, and his soul is lost. Vampirism is the same. It preys upon a human’s fears: weakness, death—and the human chooses to throw away the protection of his free will. What human could reject the lure of immortality and strength, especially as they grow older and death comes closer? Very few. And once they’ve given up their free will, the demons would easily destroy them all when Lucifer opens the Gates to Hell again. Is not the Guardians’ purpose to prevent the destruction of humanity at the hands of the demons? Yet you protect the vampires, those selfsame