Demon Moon

He’d never have gone into that Room for anyone other than the few people there: Michael and Selah, Lilith and Hugh.
    And her.
    “Precisely.” Colin slid forward another inch, then two.
    “So Savi must be a charity case,” Hugh said.
    “I’d have thought you were Savi’s. The homeless Fallen angel.”
    Savi frowned; a sneer had worked itself into Colin’s voice. Not himself when he comes out , Jake had told her. Was this part of it?
    Hugh only looked amused, as if the banter had not taken on an ugly cast. “Aye. Desperate for a family, I took advantage of the girl who’d just lost hers.”
    “Ah, yes. Desperate. Little wonder you did not tell her—”
    Savi jumped in surprise as a sharp slap against the glass cut him off.
    “Colin,” Lilith ground out. “Don’t.”
    Tell me what? Her mind screamed for answers, but she forced herself not to ask. Hugh’s hands were fisted in his pockets, his legs braced apart as if readying for a blow.
    Colin’s eyes narrowed at the glass for an instant, his gaze almost silver in his anger. Then his chin dipped and he said quietly, “My apologies, Castleford. I could not bear to lose her, either.” He blinked and stared downward. “I’ve found the wyrmwolves.”
    Savi’s hands shook, and she willed them to stop. What the hell had just happened? What did they think was so terrible that she couldn’t forgive Hugh for it? She forgave fucking everything .
    She looked to Hugh, but he only said, “We’re lowering the spell around the Room, Colin. Block as much as you’re able.”
    Not now . Savi drew in a deep breath. Selah’s wings rustled as she erased the symbols from the door; Michael stepped forward, spoke for the first time.
    “Are they in the same formation? One large group?”
    “Yes.” It came out as a hiss, and Savi stifled her cry as Colin flinched and dropped to his knees. Sweat beaded on his forehead; his mouth drew back in a grimace of pain, his fangs slicing into his lips. His eyes lost their focus.
    “Colin! Goddammit.”
    “Come back, Colin,” Michael commanded, and his voice took on a melodic resonance. “Come back now .”
    Savi flattened her palms against the glass. Colin kneeled there, unmoving, unresponsive. “What’s happening?” The vagueness of his gaze tickled a memory. “A hallucination?”
    “Yes,” Hugh said quietly.
    “Can we go in there? Help him?” She was already moving toward the door when Hugh caught her arm.
    “No, Savi.” The understanding in his voice did not soften his implacable grip. “We’ve each tried; even Selah, who was in Chaos with him. He has attacked—and attempted to feed—from us all. Lilith barely survived, and only because Michael was here to heal her.” He let go her arm. “He’ll come out of it.”
    She started to protest—he’d hallucinated before and hadn’t hurt her, but this wasn’t Caelum.
    “Okay. Okay.” This time, she gave in to her frustration; the glass rattled under her kick. Still no reaction. “What happened to him?”
    Silence greeted her, and that frightened her more than anything they could have said. When he’d fed from her at the fountain, she’d felt the horror he’d gone through, but only the emotion; she didn’t have a memory to go along with whatever had caused it. Was he reliving it now?
    “Savitri, your shields are failing,” Michael said. “If you do not hold them until he is ready, his pain now will be for nothing.”
    How many times had they asked him to go in? Had it ever been good for anything ?
    “Sorry,” she bit out, but carefully rebuilt them.
    Thirty endless seconds passed before he dropped forward onto his hands, a harsh sound tearing from him, a scream muffled only by clenched teeth and will.
    “Colin.” She was shaking as hard as he was. “Let’s do this and get you out.”
    Panting, he wiped the blood from his chin with the back of his hand and nodded. “Do it slowly.”
    She’d have preferred to lower her psychic blocks all at once, get this over with, but it was best to be thorough now. At her natural state—high for normal humans but unconsciously shielded for her—she paused. “Anything?”
    “No.” Colin absently licked the blood from his skin. “Though it is a pleasant distraction for me.”
    Breathing a sigh of relief, she continued. Colin climbed to his feet, his brow furrowed as he watched the wyrmwolves in the flat, empty mirror. The tension had eased from his expression; though he still shied to the side now