Demon Bound

she thought. “You may not have the opportunity. Very likely, a queue of Guardians will be waiting to take my head.”
    “Then I will push to the front.” Irena stood and looked to the east. Her wings sprouted from her naked back, the feathers a deeper, purer white than the snow around them. “I must deliver the meat to the village before dawn. Will you come to Seattle tonight? Charlie completed her training in Ashland, and Drifter wants to make an evening of it. I was to invite you if we met.”
    “I’ll come,” Alice said without hesitation, amazing herself. How simple that decision had been. Several months ago, only Irena’s nagging and her own curiosity had propelled her to meet the woman Ethan had chosen for a partner. But to Alice’s surprise, she’d been comfortable in Charlie’s company. The woman had a gift of putting anyone she spoke with at ease—a gift that Ethan shared.
    A gift Alice had never possessed.
    In any case, she needed to talk with Ethan. Not only would he know how to find Teqon, Ethan was also the Guardian most familiar with the prophecy—and he would ask few questions in return.
    Not that there were answers she could give. Or that she would give. Only Irena and Michael knew of her bargain. Her debt to Teqon made her a traitor at worst and a coward at best—and she’d never had the spine to tell Ethan or any of the other Guardians with whom she’d become close.
    Irena turned, her wings arching, and for a moment Alice was reminded of the statue in the temple. Then the Guardian lifted into the sky, signing a farewell.
    No, Alice thought. She had no answers. But if she were lucky, perhaps the photographs in her cache would finally offer a clue.

    Blast!
    Alice firmed her lips before the curse escaped. It was shameful to lose her temper—even more so to lose it over a piece of godforsaken technology.
    She’d known trying to maintain a computer in Caelum would be more of a hassle than it was worth, but she’d been seduced by the cleverness of the machine.
    The photographs of the temple interior had transferred from camera to hard drive with amazing speed. No film to develop, no negatives to store. And the resolution on her screen was incredible. Much more detailed than her best drawings could be, and it was easier to enlarge sections of each picture for printing.
    But she’d almost drained her tenth—her last —battery. Caelum lacked electricity; she’d have no opportunity to recharge them until she visited Earth.
    The warning light blinked again.
    Worthless, wretched machine. But there was no reasoning with it. She selected photos to print and wrote them to a flash drive. For now, she would have to rely on her memory and her sketches.
    Her senses hummed, and she glanced up, reaching out with her Gift. Beyond the entrance to her apartment, Remus and Romulus buzzed with excitement over some disturbance.
    Alice heard laughter a moment later. Her mouth slackened in what must have been an idiotic expression of incomprehension.
    Silly, softheaded cow. What was there not to comprehend? With a few exceptions, only Guardians had stepped foot in Caelum since the angels had transferred the realm over to Michael.
    Therefore, Guardians must be in her courtyard.
    Straightening, she moved to the marble doors that led from her quarters. On her portico, a web stretching between two columns trembled as Remus scurried upward to hide in the scrollwork. Romulus remained behind, repairing a limp thread like a nervous old woman tidying a room for unexpected guests.
    Alice resisted the urge to smooth her hand over her hair. An ache took up residence in her chest, but she repressed that as well.
    Though many Guardians had once lived in this part of Caelum, it had been empty since the Ascension. Since, more than a decade earlier, silence had abruptly fallen over the city as thousands of heartbeats and voices were extinguished. Alice hadn’t comprehended then, either—until she’d walked into the courtyard, and none of her students had been there to greet her.
    They’d spoken of Ascending before. Unconvinced that Guardians were needed in a modern world, they’d all chosen to move on to their afterlife.
    So had thousands of other Guardians; less than forty remained after the Ascension. Since then, only a few bored novices had wandered in this direction.
    And two years ago, when the novices had begun training in San Francisco instead of Caelum, “few” had dwindled to “none.”
    Now there was