Demon Moon

she envied Colin the ability to take out his frustration on something almost as much as she worried for him. “Where did it come up?”
    “In the bay, just north of Alcatraz.”
    “Did it eat any tourists?” she said, and immediately felt sick. “Oh, god. Never mind. That’s not as funny as it should have been. Did you kill James Anderson?”
    His soft gaze was the same color as Caelum’s skies; his body was as rigid as the marble. “Aye.”
    Her stomach roiled. “You used your Gift—forced Truth on him? And he shot himself?”
    “Aye.”
    “You thought I’d hate you for that? So you let me think he was just crazy? Even after I knew you were a Guardian?”
    His brow furrowed. “No. I never thought you’d have turned from me.”
    “Did you think I couldn’t handle the moral dilemma?”
    “No. If I did, I’d never have allowed you into SI. You think I see you as a child, Savi; I haven’t since you returned from Caelum.”
    Her eyes widened. “But you did before that?”
    “Yes.” Lines appeared at the sides of his mouth, as if he was repressing his grin.
    Was the change hers or his? But she couldn’t think of that, not when—“Why did he do it?”
    His smile disappeared, and Hugh sighed. “Savi, don’t.”
    She heard the door latch click open but didn’t look away from him. The room wasn’t shielded; everyone in the warehouse would hear anyway. It didn’t matter where they stood when they heard it.
    “But Anderson told you, right? He had to tell you the truth.”
    “Yes.”
    “Then why? He’d already taken the money.” Her parents had known better than to argue when someone pointed a gun at them. “He never looked in the purse; he didn’t know there wasn’t much in there, so it wasn’t because he was pissed about the amount. And the jewelry was worth a couple of hundred dollars. Was it because they’d seen him?”
    “No. That was why he shot you , but not them.” He uncrossed his arms and clenched his fingers on the edge of the desk. “You always look for a reason, but there isn’t one, Savi. He just wanted to.”
    Her brows drew together, and she shook her head. “Just wanted to? He liked the power in it?”
    “No.”
    “He hated interracial couples? And their kids? He liked the sound of gunfire? He had a shitty childhood? A bad fucking day?”
    “Savi—” Hugh choked on a humorless laugh, passed his hand through his short hair. “No.”
    “It was completely random then? He just wanted to, for no reason, and pulled the trigger? Three times?” More than three. She could remember each loud— don’t think, Savi .
    “Aye.”
    She couldn’t breathe. “I don’t know what to do with that.”
    “I know,” he said softly.
    Slowly, she forced her legs to stop their trembling, pushed air into her lungs. “That’s why you didn’t tell me? Because there was no reason? And you thought I couldn’t handle it?”
    “Yes.”
    She swallowed hard. “I think…I think eight months ago—maybe even yesterday—I couldn’t have. As it was, I was making up all kinds of stuff in my head: justifications, rationalizations. That’s not any better, is it?”
    Hugh relaxed slightly. “Hardly.”
    Lilith said from the doorway, “Do you know why I adore him so much? Because he doesn’t say anything retarded like, ‘It’s so that I could come into your life, and you’d eventually translate my book, which in turn would lead to us kicking Lucifer’s ass’ or ‘So that eventually the most beautiful bloodsucker in the world would be your sexual plaything.’ As if it were a trade.”
    “It’d have been a poor exchange,” Colin said. He was leaning against the door frame, the hood of his Guardian-made jacket pushed back. His gaze locked with Savi’s. “I apologize, sweet. I ought not to have mentioned it. It cannot be pleasant to revisit those memories.”
    “I think we’re equal then.” He’d revisited his own hell for her.
    “That was not a trade, either. Only demons keep tally.”
    The rustle of paper and the shift of Lilith’s and Colin’s attention beyond where she and Hugh sat alerted Savi to Michael’s arrival.
    “That’s not precisely true,” the Doyen said as she turned. He held a rolled parchment. “I do, too.”
    His tone lacked threat; it was the others’ reactions that made it seem ominous. Lilith sucked in a sharp breath; though it was difficult to tell, Savi thought Hugh tensed with disapproval.
    But Colin’s demeanor became carelessly