Demon Moon

but kept the earpiece on.
    “What?”
    Oh, crap. “Hey, Lilith,” she said cheerfully. “Can I talk to Hugh?”
    Arwen’s purple eyes grew large in her thin face; she must recognize both names from Hugh’s book. Hadn’t the vampires known who was in charge of SI? Or perhaps just hadn’t expected to have direct contact with them.
    There was a pause, in which Savi had the small hope the phone was being transferred.
    “No,” Lilith said. “You sound like you’re smiling. What’s wrong?”
    She was smiling. She’d overcompensated. Dropping the pretense, Savi said, “Not wrong, yet. Dalkiel had a vampire killed, and put her head on Colin’s car. We’re pretty certain he’s holding Paul and Varney. Colin, Fia, and two others from the community have gone after him.”
    “Do they have a location?”
    “Yes. They’re set to go in now.”
    “Tell him to stand down. I’ve got ten Guardians at SI; Hugh’s on the other line with them. What’s the location?”
    Savi swallowed past the tightness in her throat. “I’ll give it to you when Colin asks them to help. We just need them ready to come in, when… if he wants it.”
    The brief silence might have as well been filled with Lilith’s angry cursing. “Savi, this isn’t your fucking game. Colin isn’t as strong or as fast—”
    “I know that.” Her fingers clenched on her lap, and she stared at the demon’s dark form on the screen. “It’s not a game. That’s why he has to go in. He has backup. They’ve got venom-laced bullets; those will slow Dalkiel down.”
    “Untrained backup. They’ll be completely unprepared. Goddammit! Did he turn off his phone?”
    “Darkwolf was Special Forces,” Arwen said softly. “And Gina was LAPD.”
    Savi shot her a grateful glance before returning her attention to the monitor. “Send a couple of Guardians downtown, Lilith, or here to Polidori’s. But let him go in first. Let them go in first. If they can make a statement now, it’ll make all the difference.”
    “Colin doesn’t have to defeat a demon to cement his leadership,” Lilith growled.
    “It’s not about his leadership. It doesn’t even matter that it’s him . If we call the Guardians at the first sign of demon-trouble every single time, the community here will look weak. And the next demon will take advantage of it. And the next. Caelum isn’t strong enough to stop them every time.”
    “And this is what he told you to tell me? That he intends to martyr himself for the cause? Fucking coward.”
    “You know Colin doesn’t risk his life like that,” Savi said. “Dalkiel only threatened us yesterday; he’s not done playing with us. If Colin thought he’d be in real danger, he’d have called you in. And he didn’t tell me this. He didn’t have to.”
    “You’ve known about vampires for eight months and you think you’re qualified to make that decision? That you know anything about demons and how they think? What’s…his…location ?”
    Savi closed her eyes. Each sharply bitten word made her feel like a recalcitrant—and stupid—child.
    Lilith could make a rock doubt itself, but her words weren’t necessarily true. She’d simply say anything to get her way, particularly when someone she loved was in danger.
    But Savi knew her argument had gotten through—Lilith had struck at a personal level.
    Luckily, Savi knew Lilith’s soft spot: Hugh. “Not eight months, Lilith. I grew up with Hugh. Even when he isn’t aware of it, he’s teaching and lecturing, about fighting and manipulation and making things permanent. Not just winning a short-term battle, but making certain the effects last. I learned very well; I just didn’t listen until now. And I’ve known for a long time—I saw Hugh with his wings when he saved me. I remember him flying with me to the hospital. I just thought I was crazy.”
    Stop, Savi . She shouldn’t have given Lilith that last bit. Weakness against weakness only dragged it out. But it was too late.
    “Crazy? I suppose it didn’t help when the fugues began. Those were because you’d seen Hugh?” Lilith’s voice changed; the anger underlying it dropped to amused disdain. This was her strength, bolstered by two thousand years of practice: finding the deepest hurt and fear within a person and digging into it. Savi wouldn’t stand a chance. “And I thought they’d started because you saw your family murdered in front of you. Are you so eager to see Colin—”
    Savi cut off the speaker and