Demon Bound

will be permanent; dissent and self-examination can make the corps stronger.”
    “Eventually,” Jake said. “Now’s a bad time for it.”
    “I wonder if there is a good time.” Lilith set her plate on the floor. Sir Pup hopped over, cleaned it with single swipe of his tongue, and headed back to Jake’s pants. “But I agree that our balance has been more precarious of late. Tell me, puppy, what do you make of the nephilim in Turkey?”
    “I think I have no clue.”
    “Well, shit. That’s because my head’s been filled with bargains and spiders since I saw you and Alice.”
    Drifter held up a folder, and Jake vanished it. Immediately, he pulled the file out of his hammerspace and flipped it open to a map. On either side of a strait of water—the Dardanelles—seven points had been circled in red.
    “Those are seven small vampire communities,” Drifter said.
    A rock seemed to settle in his gut. “Wiped out?”
    Drifter didn’t need to answer that. “We got word three days ago. Michael’s got a team patrolling, but those last two took place pretty much under their noses.”
    “Actually, behind their backs,” Lilith said. “The nephilim broke pattern. They had been moving southwest along the strait. The next two were northeast, above the first community.”
    Doubling back might have thrown Michael’s team off the scent for a short time. But if the nephilim were avoiding the Guardians, it would have made more sense to leave the region entirely.
    Which meant they had a particular interest in the area.
    He looked at the movements. They’d started over, but in another direction. Backtracking wasted time and energy. That wasn’t what he’d have expected of beings who were so efficient they could kill—in a single night—every vampire in a large city.
    “What are they searching for?”
    Lilith’s eyes narrowed. “More vampires to kill?”
    “Nuh-uh. If they were just moving through the region, they wouldn’t start in the middle.” He’d bet anything that wasting the vampires was just something they did on the side. Out of frustration, for fun—or just because it was convenient. Like picking up a piece of litter not because you were cleaning, but because the trash can was right there.
    Yeah. Searching, and although they didn’t know exactly where to look they had a general idea of where to find it, because—
    “Oh, fucking hell. The Scroll.” The nephilim had taken it from the burial chamber—a message, left for them. “Telling them where to find her. Or her sarcophagus.”
    Hugh and Lilith exchanged a look.
    “Anaria?” Hugh asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “You reckon she’s in that last temple Zakril built?”
    “I dunno.” Jake vanished the file again, linked his hands behind his head, and paced the room. Sir Pup followed him, sniffing. “Because that concealment spell doesn’t work if someone’s alive in it—and even locked in a coffin, she’s still alive. And that’s twenty-four hundred years of no one stumbling across the temple . . . or the ruins.” He stopped. “Unless it’s underground. Another hypogeum.”
    “ ‘She waits below’?” Lilith quoted.
    “Yeah. Once Alice heals up, I’ll jump over there with her, and we’ll start looking.”
    “And what do you do if you find her?” Lilith mused. “Is more than two thousand years in a box enough of a punishment? Should you free her? Or should you just carry out the execution?”
    Just the thought of working through those questions made him uneasy. “I dunno. Chances are, I wouldn’t know how to open the sarcophagus. And Michael . . . shit, he doesn’t even know yet that Zakril lied to him.”
    “I’d wager he does by now,” Drifter said. “He wouldn’t be leaving Alice alone, not until he was sure everything was healing like it should.”
    “Yeah.” Jake would rather have been with her, too. But instead of jumping to Caelum, he called in Khavi’s scroll. “I need a favor, Lilith.”
    “Are you certain you want to phrase it like that?”
    Considering it was for Alice, he didn’t mind being indebted. But Lilith had a point—and the anticipation gleaming in her dark eyes told him which way to go.
    “I’ll let you translate this prophecy . . . if you call your puppy off my leg.”
    “Done.” She held out her hand for the scroll as Hugh laughed and gathered their dishes. Sir Pup flopped onto the floor with an unhappy whine. “And tell me about this bargain.”
    Jake only hesitated for a second. Alice