Demon Forged

Rael’s cell phone number—although he might have a phone they didn’t know about. Alejandro placed the last transmitter beneath the lip of a visitor’s chair to pick up any conversations within the room.
    Something SI should have done at the beginning, Alejandro thought grimly. Though Rael wasn’t foolish enough to communicate with his demons here, he might be arrogant enough to.
    Alejandro took a few more moments to search. No loose papers were spread around the room. Color-coded files had been neatly stacked on a low table in front of the sofa. A glance through them revealed pending legislation, drafts of bills. Alejandro was familiar with most of them. He found an additional folder full of correspondence.
    He vanished them all into his cache. Copies could be made and the originals returned. If the shooter had been politically motivated, the answer might be in this pending legislation.
    At least, that was what Alejandro would claim if he was asked. But another question had begun to form in his mind. A question . . . and a possible solution. One the detective, as far as he was willing to go, might not agree with.
    Alejandro looked around the office. He could do this. He could slay Rael. He could take the demon’s place.
    No, he decided. He would do this. Whether the demon was involved with Julia Stafford’s murder or not, he hadn’t long to live.
    Alejandro left the office, determination and dread filling him in equal parts. Irena would applaud his slaying Rael. But taking over the demon’s position meant that Alejandro would become everything she hated.
    And if he dreaded her reaction, that must mean that his heart had foolishly begun to hope for a future with her.
    He was going to let it.

CHAPTER 12
    Irena and Taylor had learned nothing from Julia Stafford’s friend except that Julia had suspected Rael was cheating on her about two years ago. He’d still been as attentive, her friend had said, but he hadn’t shown any interest in bed. But then, the sex got better, and Julia had stopped worrying.
    Irena left the woman’s house in a dark mood.
    Taylor didn’t speak until she’d started the car. “You don’t eat, so I’m choosing where we’re having lunch. And SI is paying.”
    “I have the credit cards,” Irena said. “And I want meat.”
    “Don’t we all?” Taylor glanced at her. “Rael having sex bothers you. Why? He can’t do it to her if she doesn’t want it.”
    Irena struggled with her answer. She didn’t often pick apart her emotional reactions like she’d been required to today. “It would not be for his pleasure.” Demons could physically simulate arousal, but they didn’t feel sexual desire. “And not for hers, either—it’s only to keep her with him. To secure their marriage.”
    “And if he’s making that effort, it sits on the side of ‘he wasn’t looking to kill her.’ ”
    “Yes.” Irena heard the anger in her own voice. She’d hoped Rael was responsible for Julia’s murder, just so that she could slay him—but the guilt she felt for hoping that frustrated her. There was no reason for guilt. She had not hoped Julia Stafford dead.
    Perhaps the guilt came from not killing Rael before he’d arranged Julia’s death— if he’d arranged it.
    “So you don’t have a problem with a demon having sex with a human.”
    Irena had a problem with demons existing, not just fucking. “I do.”
    “What about humans and Guardians?” Taylor laughed at Irena’s expression. “I’m not coming on to you. Just in general.”
    “In general, I have no issue with it. I’ve done so myself.”
    “Okay, this place looks like it has potential,” Taylor said as she pulled into the parking lot of a small restaurant with green and white striped awnings over the windows. “So you like humans?”
    “Yes. I am always surprised by what you have accomplished. And what you continue to accomplish,” Irena said, then frowned, bothered by her own answer.
    If she was always surprised, did that mean her expectations were low? Did she expect so little of humans? She hadn’t thought so.
    And pulling apart her responses wasn’t good for her. She hadn’t doubted or questioned herself this much in centuries.
    “You see the bad, don’t you?” Taylor broke into her thoughts.
    “Like this job. If they aren’t scum, then they’re self-centered or just . . . out of control.”
    “I see the worst of humanity, yes. But I also see the best.” And everything in between. Most of it