Demon Bound

all looked to him.
    “His name was Zakril,” he said softly. “He was a Guardian, one of the first. And he was a friend.”
    Damn. Jake saw Alice’s sudden discomfort in the way her spine stiffened, thought it was the same as his. Until that second, they’d just been bones on the floor.
    Michael glanced up at Alice and shook his head. “I am grateful that you brought him here. I did not know what had become of him after he took leave from the corps.”
    “He’d left the Guardian corps without having to Fall and become human again?” Lilith arched her brows. “You’re such a pushover, Michael.”
    Beside Jake, Irena had tensed. “We are allowed time away from our duties if we need it, demon.”
    Her hostility was almost palpable—and wasted on Lilith, who didn’t have psychic senses anymore, and who probably didn’t give two shits.
    “I’ll remember that when I schedule in vacations,” Lilith said, and looked at Hugh, who nodded toward Jake. She turned to him. “Your doubts, puppy. I want to hear them.”
    No use questioning how Hugh had known. The man could read body language so well, he could determine when even a demon was lying.
    Jake met Alice’s eyes, and saw the curiosity there. “These sites were probably built by Guardians. The chamber—with Zakril in it—was sealed by Guardians. That dais covering it wasn’t cut with a tool, but a Gift,” he explained. “And Zakril was a message. I don’t know who the message was for—but even if you’re at war, you don’t use the body of your own man to send it.”
    “Yes,” Michael said. His eyes were obsidian now, making it almost impossible to determine where he was looking, but Jake felt the weight of that dark gaze.
    Not an oppressive weight, though, so he continued. “Was Zakril a traitor, then—or was he betrayed?”
    “Betrayed,” Michael answered. “But it was done before he left Caelum.”
    Well, here we go then, Jake thought. His gut was roiling, he was going to piss everyone off, but it needed to be asked. “By you?”
    He felt the muffled surprise and anger around him, yet every Guardian still turned to Hugh as Michael responded.
    “No.”
    A wry smile touched Hugh’s mouth. “That was truth. It has all been.”
    The relief in the room wasn’t just Jake’s. The tension left his stomach.
    “What happened, Michael?” Irena asked, and as she spoke, she bumped Jake with her hip.
    It was—he prayed—a friendly bump. He looked across the skeleton at Alice, but couldn’t read her expression. Thoughtful, maybe. Or concerned.
    He’d have preferred ice and disapproval to knowing that she worried.
    Michael lowered himself to his heels, lightly touched Zakril’s fingers. “We were divided. There were those who wanted to depose Lucifer, and take over rule of Hell.”
    “Hardly objectionable,” Alejandro said. When Jake trained with him, Alejandro usually spoke Spanish; now, Andalusia rolled lightly through his English. “I would rather see a Guardian on the throne than a demon.”
    “Yes,” Michael agreed. “If it would not have meant denying humans their free will, and freeing the nephilim from Lucifer’s control.” He looked up. “It is too long a story now, when there are nephilim to hunt. We will call everyone to a gathering in Caelum a week hence, and I will tell you all you need to know.”
    All you need to know. Not, Jake noted, everything they wanted to know. But Michael was already asking, “Alice, do you have the symbols? I will not be able to enter the site and see for myself.”
    Lilith narrowed her eyes when Alice pulled in her sketchbook. “ ‘She waits below,’ ” she read, then glanced at Michael. “She, who?”
    “The one who betrayed him. But she does not wait. She is dead, by Zakril’s hand.” He stood slowly, shaking his head. “This was the scribbling of someone who believed in the prophecy, but hoped they could prevent it from coming to pass.”
    At the mention of the prophecy, Alice became absolutely still.
    Jake watched her, considering the implications of it. What little they knew of the prophecy said that Belial’s rise to power depended upon the destruction of the nephilim—who would be equally invested in seeing that the prophecy wasn’t fulfilled. And although their goals were different, what interested the nephilim might also interest Teqon. “So this particular message—‘She waits below’—was for the nephilim?”
    And if so, hopefully Michael would reveal at the