Demon Bound

heart removed in a surgical manner, so long as it was not cut in two?”
    She heard Jake’s step falter slightly, and Pim’s indrawn breath. If the answer hadn’t been so important, Alice would have cackled merrily.
    Drusilla bounced back around. “I don’t know. I’ve never encountered an injury like that. When a demon or a nosferatu gets to a heart, that’s usually all she wrote.” A crease formed between her brows as she considered it. “Removed whole, and then healed?”
    “Yes.”
    “I doubt it,” Drusilla said. “But I’m not sure.”
    “I am.” Jake stopped a few feet in front of Alice, his wary gaze on her mouth. He seemed relieved not to see any spiders there until Romulus crawled up to her shoulder for a better look, raising his two front legs.
    To his credit, Jake did not blink or vanish. Nor did he do anything else, until Drusilla prompted, “Jake?”
    “Yeah. All right.” He grinned and shook his head, as if silently laughing at an inner joke. His fingers tapped against the white box, and he was answered by curious squeak. He grimaced and stilled his hands. “I’ve been specializing with Alejandro—for my blade work—most nights when Drifter’s with Charlie. So two months ago, Alejandro and I went back to Philadelphia, because we’d heard one of Lucifer’s demons moved in after the nephil was gone.”
    Alice nodded. Earlier in the year, the nephilim had massacred the vampire communities in Rome, Berlin, and Washington, D.C. Alejandro and Jake had slain one in Philadelphia, but not before hundreds of vampires had died.
    Though the nephilim usually lived in the bodies of the humans they possessed, not much stronger than vampires, they were almost unstoppable in their own form. And although they both originated from Hell, the nephilim wouldn’t hesitate to kill a demon.
    Any intelligent demon would flee a city a nephil inhabited.
    “I caught it with a bullet,” Jake said, rapping his knuckle against his temple to show where he’d shot the demon, “and Alejandro got him through the chest.”
    Jake jabbed the air in front of him, miming a sword and drawing a protest from the mice as they were jostled. “But he missed the heart.”
    “Alejandro had a sword and he missed?” Alice said, and held out her hand for the box. When Jake ignored her outstretched palm, she lowered it again.
    “Unheard of, right? I was like this.” Jake’s eyes widened, and Alice had to firm her lips against a laugh. He’d had the same expression after kissing her. “But the assho—Er, the demon dodged at the last second. So Alejandro got him right here instead.” He tapped his sternum. “And the demon had ahold of him, so Alejandro couldn’t back up for another strike. So he just . . .”
    Jake twisted his wrist, as if carving a tight circle with his blade, then yanked his arm back. “And the heart popped right out. Along with some ribs and lungs and sh— stuff .”
    “And Alejandro calls Irena barbaric,” Alice murmured. An upward slice would have sufficed.
    “Does he?” Jake shrugged, and his arm dropped to his side. “So the heart was whole, but the demon was dead. Instantly.”
    A Guardian and a demon had similar powers—and similar weaknesses. What had killed a demon would likely kill a Guardian, too.
    Disappointment swept through her, stronger than she’d expected. She hadn’t truly believed removing the heart whole might be a solution, but however tiny the spark of hope had been, it was still a hope extinguished.
    And she needed to go, or soon there would be some histrionic scene, after all. Alice signed a thank-you to Drusilla and set off for her apartment at a brisk walk.
    “Hey!” Jake jogged up beside her, kept pace. Blades rang behind them as Drusilla and Pim began their fencing practice. “Hey. Uh, Alice—”
    Blast and bother! She’d forgotten the box. “You’re terrifying the mice,” she observed tightly.
    “And being eaten by a giant spider won’t?” But he steadied the carton. “Does he use your shoulder as a table?”
    “Romulus is an adult, and doesn’t feed,” she said, and paused to return him to his web. “Nefertari eats the mice.”
    “Nef—” He gave his head a shake. “And the vampire blood?”
    “Is for the young and the females.” She faced the novice. “Did Selah ask you to bring that as well?”
    “No, I’d just heard that you used it.” He glanced over her shoulder, into her quarters. Searching for Nefertari? He was looking too