Demon Marked

a demon would do,” Ash said softly.
    “Only one of us so far. But I survived.” Lilith pointed to the chair. “So sit back down. We’ll talk. And when we’re done, if I’m satisfied, I’ll let them patch that call through to you.”
    Ash’s heart pounded. “What about Madelyn?”
    “It occurred to me on the way to your room that Khavi didn’t mention one rather important thing happening in your future.”
    Oh, God. She’d missed that, too. “Being sacrificed to open a Gate,” Ash realized.
    “If that screwed up her plans to sacrifice you for Michael, she’d probably be doing something to stop it, don’t you think?”
    “I would if I were her,” Ash said.
    Lilith smiled thinly. “Me, too.”

    The waiting was endless. Ash tried to busy herself by looking through SI’s budget, by buying up more of Nicholas’s shares. Only a few hours had passed since Lilith had left her room, but the time already sat like a rock in her chest, weighing, weighing.
    She wanted to go now. Wanted to leave these Guardians and their crumbling city and their shattered king behind, and just go. Wanted to hear Nicholas’s voice, to find out where he was, whether he was all right. Wanted to find him, find and kill Madelyn, and do everything she’d planned—and now, save his life, too.
    God. What was going to happen to him?
    Her phone’s ring shot her heart up into her throat. Ash stared at the glowing screen in disbelief. Snatched it up.
    “Hello? Nicholas?”
    “Ash.” A novice’s voice. “Lilith said to put him through if he called, and he’s on the other line now. Do you want to take it?”
    A choice to be made, now.
    Fuck that. There was no choice at all.
    “Yes,” she said, and then—“Nicholas?”
    “Don’t hang up, love.”
    “I won’t. I—” Oh, God. He’d never called her “love.” And the accent was all wrong.
    Now she couldn’t hang up. But she could toss the phone away—
    “Keep listening. Ah, there’s my girl. I can almost hear your heart pounding. Been hiding from me, have you?”
    Ash didn’t answer. She didn’t have to answer. Not unless told to.
    What now?
    Get help.
    “Don’t move. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t alert anyone. Is anyone with you, within hearing distance? Answer me.”
    “Yes.”
    “Answer me truthfully .”
    Panic caught at her throat, almost prevented any answer at all. But no. No. She had to be quick. She had to be clever. She couldn’t lose her wits.
    “I’m alone,” she said. “How did you find me?”
    It didn’t matter. Not really. But Ash needed to stall, needed to think.
    “Well, love, it was the oddest thing. I saw you on TV, and so I flew to Duluth to see this Rachel, who was grieving her parents so deeply and putting their effects in order. And I thought: Oh, my poor little Ashmodei. Lucifer didn’t rip out as much as he should have. But while I was standing there, I happened to overhear a very nice sheriff talking to one of the city police about a visit he’d had from two federal agents, who thought Steve Johnson might have been someone else. So I wondered, ‘What kind of federal agents go looking into such a cut-anddried case?’ The answer seemed simple: Guardians posing as federal agents. So I started looking at Special Investigations. And since you’re here, not in London where Rachel supposedly is, that’s probably a good thing, too.”
    “I see,” Ash said.
    “Good. You do know what I did to your parents, don’t you, love? Answer me truthfully.”
    “Yes.”
    “And how did you feel about that?”
    Evade. “I didn’t remember them.”
    “Oh, that’s too bad. Well, my effort wasn’t for nothing. They screamed so well. Your father tried to protect your mother and failed. It was so very lovely.”
    The edge of the desk cracked under her hand. Beneath her, Ash’s seat trembled with the force of the rage shaking her body. And she’d thought she’d hated being a puppet? It was nothing to the hate she felt now.
    She hoped Madelyn told her to get up, to go to her. Ash’s boomstick was in her cache, and by God she would use it.
    “I don’t suppose you know where Nicky is? Answer me truthfully.”
    “He was in Montana a few months ago. I don’t know for certain now where he is,” she said, managing the truth. Might be heading toward New York wasn’t certain.
    “Oh, that’s too bad. A pity, but we can do this without him. Now, listen carefully to me. Shield your mind, so tight that no one can sense any emotion from