Demon Marked

walked away from Nicholas, and she’d been crying when she’d been teleported away from the cabin. There might have been a bucket of tears. It might have been ugly. But when had Ash given them the impression that she was fragile? Screw that.
    “I’d rather you didn’t conceal anything about him from me. I’d much rather know, no matter what it is.” A thought occurred to her, seized her chest. Why had he needed Rosalia? Had they concealed the truth of that from her, too? “Is he hurt?”
    “No. He’s been busy.” Amusement sharpened Lilith’s features. “Looking for Madelyn, of course, but where he doesn’t find her, he’s doing a bit of cleaning along the way.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means that he’s been searching for Madelyn for a while,” Jake said, “and while he did that, he must have come across other demons. Taking them out would have been pretty damn risky—the wrong bit of evidence, he doesn’t hide a body well enough—so he likely chose to keep on looking for Madelyn rather than heading for jail. Now, he’s going back and essentially tagging them and bagging them.”
    Oh, God. “Isn’t that still risky?”
    “Not so much when he’s got Rosalia on speed dial. He shoots them full of hellhound venom, calls her up, she comes and takes care of it. Three that way so far, but this last one, he couldn’t get ahold of her. So he finished slaying the demon himself.”
    “Beheading,” Lilith said. “Effective. Then he finally got in touch with Rosalia, and she came to take care of it.”
    A first kill. Demon or not, that couldn’t be easy. “How was he? All right?”
    Taylor turned her back to the table, sat lightly against the edge. “Do you really think he’d let Rosalia know if he wasn’t?”
    “No.” Ash would bet that he’d been all Stone Cold St. Croix. Maybe his therapist would hear what his response had been. She doubted anyone else would. “Why is he doing it, do you think? Why not just Madelyn?”
    Had it become more important to him, seeing all demons destroyed for what they’d done—to prevent it from happening again? Or was there another reason?
    “Why has he become a demon-bagging Batman?” Jake asked. “Speaking as a guy, I can give you three reasons right now. One: your hair. Two: your lips. Three: your tit—”
    Too fast even for Ash to track, Sir Pup’s right head shot out and his jaws snapped an inch from Jake’s face. The Guardian’s eyes widened. Smashing his lips together, he glanced at Lilith. A five-dollar bill appeared in his hand.
    Lilith took the money with a smile. “I think what Jake means to say is that St. Croix’s obviously crazy about you. Hugh told me all that stuff St. Croix said at the cabin about protecting you was true.”
    Ash didn’t need Hugh to tell her that. “I know.”
    “So, this is probably part of it. Maybe’s he’s practicing to take out Madelyn. Maybe he’s making certain that none of these demons come after you, like others have been going after Radha. Maybe he’s just making certain the other demons don’t kill Madelyn first—because if one did and we never found out about it, we’d never know whether we can let you go.”
    “He’s a cold bastard—no offense, Ash.” Taylor threw her a quick look before focusing on Lilith again. “But like Joe, he’d be one hell of a useful human here at SI. You should think about recruiting him after we settle this thing with Madelyn.”
    “I already plan to. Especially if we can get more out of him than his muscle—and in particular, his money. Which reminds me . . .” Lilith turned to Ash. “Jake tells me that you set up some kind of college investment fund for his granddaughter.”
    “ Great- granddaughter,” Jake corrected, grinning. “Because she’s pretty flippin’ great.”
    “I did,” Ash said. “He brought in her piggy bank. I’ll make sure she can go to Harvard, if that’s what she wants—and her children, too.”
    “So you’re good with money? I know Rachel was, but are you ?”
    “Yes. Probably better. Looking at her personal portfolio, it’s obvious that she had a few pet causes, and that she often invested for nostalgic reasons. I think she really liked Barbies and Disney, especially the fairy tale movies. And she invested in an abnormally high number of companies that had unicorns in their name or logo. I won’t have any of that baggage.”
    Taylor pressed her fingers to her lips, shoulders shaking. After a moment, she